My last class in Intermediate I

It is my last journal about My Teaching Practicum Experiences at UNICAES in 2010. I will never forget this time of my life not only because it means a huge step in my learning process, but also because it represents an infinitive amount of new methodologies that I am challenged to implement in my practice as a teacher. I have learned from every tutor as well as from every single student to see my weaknesses and work to improve them to teach English. My classmates have taught me to be a better professional,too.

This class was developed through the activities suggested by my tutor who is a great professional and that has a great responsability. The topic was about " Traveling" and the target structure was Present perfect. I guided a practice of the verbs through the warm up in which the students got involved easily. Then they identified some tenses of different verbs on the wall and they remembered through a review of the principal tenses ,the changes in structures of the irregular verbs. I showed them a poster with different forms of the structures in Present Perfect ; they analized the sentences and check the forms changes in the auxiliaries.

At the end of my class, they gathered in groups to create their own sentences in a chart placed on the wall to fill in the blanks with the parts of the sentences that were missed... They took a tour around the classroom to check their classmates´job. I think it was a nice activity because the students finished very fast and they didn´t have many error corrections. Time managment was better than any other class .The sitting arrangement was acceptable because there were only 9 students in the class, they could work in a semi circle. If I had to teach this topic again I would probably provide more flashcards instead of the words of the verbs.

My third class in intermediate English

Language is the dress of thought.Samuel Johnson

Today it was the third class of this period and almost the last. There are many important things that I want to remember about this friday´s class, and one is the oral practice that I guided today. I began with a feedback about the previous class and the students their answers about a quiz about how green they are. It helped me to introduce the class with a quote " BE GREEN, YOU WON´T PROBABLY CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT YOU´LL DEFINITELY CHANGE YOUR LIFE". They expressed some ideas about what they thought in relation to the changes in the world and the actions that human should take to protect their enviroment. We started by brainstorming and they gave very interesting answers about the topic.

The class was very interesting because they talked about their personal opinions reflecting about their actions toward the climate changes and how to improve their responsability with the planet. They formed groups and prepared a short presentation with a poster that they created.



It was about the changes and the results in the planet giving some suggestions to protect it. They were a little nervous and I could see that some of then had problems to order their ideas, I think it was normal even when they know and get along each other. The objective was achieved and they talked in front of the class. Little by little they lost fear to be in front of the group.It is very nice to see them working hard. I had to monitor them and help them with the pronunciation taking into account the ways to correct error in pronunciation. I felt happy at the end of this class and if I had to teach this lesson again I would bring extra pictures and color markers for them because they should create a better material.

This week was very busy to me and it is not unusual.In fact, it was normal. The topic that I had to teach was about modals and adverbs that express possibilities in the future... It was an interesting topic. The part of grammar explanation, was my part in the practicum class. At the beginning of the class there were only 5 students in the classroom. It took me by surprise because I had prepared a song with slips of papers to complete the whole lyrics of the song. It was difficult to do it with only 5 students. Well, I had to begin with them , but little by little the rest of the guys were getting in to the classroom. It was nice because I could see that they are very responsible and they like to work. It was satisfactory at the end when I saw 14 of them trying to sing and complete the activity. Then, they wrote ideas in their graphic organizers. They shared what they had with the class. Then, they practice some exercises about adverbs of possibilities.. The class arragement was accurate because they were confortable. Even though I had some mistakes in my explanation. I noticed I repeated too much the word "also" and instead of saying Possibilities I said probabilities , that are math expressions. These are just some of the words I could see. At the end I made a wrap out with some questions about the topic and the students shared about what they´ve learned. If I had to teach this lesson again , I would use more technological material.. it should probably do the class more interesting and the students would learn more,too.

Teaching Intermediate ! class one

I´ve begun my first class teaching Intermediate students.with a right foot even when I am left handed. It´s a great experience and I feel very enthusiastic because I know it will be my last period in this practicum subject I hope so. I´ll try to do my best in every single activity. I planned my first class thinking about the different students that I have. They are only 14 or less. I am really pleased to have such a nice group. Today, the topic I developed was about the verbs followed by gerunds and infinitives.

I was afraid about their practice because I know there are many things to remember. They did it very good during their activities in class, they wrote and talked about their preferences. I consider very helpful the suggestion of my tutor because we as practicioners have to see the development of the previous class in order to know where to follow the next class. It is a good idea ;in my case it helped me a lot to understand and plan the activities of my practice.
The students were participating even when the class has 3 listeners they could follow directions and practice the exercises. Something that I will remember is that I should use more activities related with movements because I could see the professor guiding an activity to make them move.. Perhaps it was because that was the last class of the week.