THE FIFTH WEEK OF PRACTICING WITH CHILDREN

The last lessons that were performed by group 1 and group 2

November 10^th, 2014

 

In this day were performed the last lessons for the groups 1 and 2 of teaching practicum. In my opinion, the two groups of colleagues demonstrated that they were able to overcome many difficulties that they had to face in each lessons. I had the opportunity to observe their lessons, and I consider that throughout each lesson that they were developing, they were improving more and more.  Moreover, I consider that the two groups of colleagues took in to account all the suggestions that were given to them in order to help them to improve their lessons. It is because I noticed that most of them did not made the same mistake twice! And that was very significant.  Next, I will list the general things that I observed that they improved a lot!

- Classroom management

- Voice projection

- Self- confident

- Body language

- Creativity

- Attitude
- Clear and direct instructions 

-The use of commands 

-Monitoring students’ work 

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Lesson  17

Topic:  Everyday activities

November 11^th, 2014

We are almost about to finish the course of Teaching practicum with children and today my group and I performed our fourth lesson in which we were in charge of teach a very enjoyable topic. This time, I was in charge of the production stage.

Warm up

Brenda started the class with an activity in which students were able to review the vocabulary they learned from the lesson that was about toys.  There were three positive things I could observe in Brenda’s Participation:

1^st, she had an excellent teaching management.

2^nd, she projected her voice as much as to catch children’s attention.

3^rd, she demonstrated self- confidence.   

Presentation

This time, Gaby was in charge of the presentation part of the lesson. She introduced the topic by using flashcards and mimics. I noticed that all of the children were paying attention because most of them are visual learners and the flashcards were very catching for them, Moreover, they really enjoyed doing the mimics per each everyday activity. However, I consider that the successful of this activity was based on Gaby's attitude and the body language that she used.

Practice

During the practice stage of the lesson, Claudia developed a nice activity in order to help students to practice the target vocabulary by saying and recognizing the spelling of the words. The first part of the activity consisted on asked the students to complete puzzles about everyday activities. Then, when the puzzles were completed, children were invited to match the puzzles with the labels (in which were written the name of the everyday activities).  I consider that one more time the successful of Claudia’s activity was totally based on her high level of classroom management. Until this point, I have realized that the key of efficient teaching is based on teaching management.

Production

I was in charge of the production stage and it was the first time I developed an activity for this stage of the lesson. Before I started the activity I was deeply thinking about how to overcome any future difficulty with my activity. Thus, I had an extra plan just in case of any inconvenience. During the activity, I asked two children to give the materials that were going to be used during the activity. Then, I gave to the students the instructions and by providing then an example of what they had to do, they got it. In the development of the activity I did the mimics of the everyday activities, and they had to guess, and say which action was. Then, they had to write the name of the action. After performing this activity I was very happy to see that all the students completed the task efficiently.  I consider that all of them were able to complete it because they were paying attention since for them it was so meaningful to see a teacher doing funny mimics.

Wrap up

Brenda finished the class by asking students to make a circle and perform the all the actions that she was saying. For instance, if she said jump all of the students had to jump.

To conclude, I just want to say that for me this practice with children has been very significant because after the four lessons in which I had participated, I have discovered that I really like to work with children. Moreover, I have realized that the way in which you will catch children’s attention is by behaving as a child, but always keeping the authority of the class.  

   

My case of study

After this five week in which Astrid had been attended to our course of practicing, I have noticed that she look more confident when I asked her some questions in English. Moreover, she is able to answer questions like “How are you?”, “what’s your name?”, “how old are you?”  “How do you say… in English?” and “how do you spell this word?” 

Now, talking about her psychosocial development, I have observed that she is still behaving in the same way. She is not a problematic girl, and she is very respectful with her classmates because until this time, I have not seen her fighting with someone or saying nicknames to someone.   

Finally, in my opinion Astrid is a girl that has a good personality, and she has demonstrated it throughout all the  lessons. In addition, I have noticed that she has a good self-esteem which is something very important because if she grows up with that good self-esteem, she will be able to control and overcome the difficulties of the life.   

*Now  I will share a video  in which I elicited Astrid to produce some English words that she has learned from the lessons.