¨Student´s suggestions are important for a teacher.¨

Well, it was my last class of this semester. It was very nice. I really liked it. At the beginning, we started making a warm-up in which the students had to pick up some little balls from a bag. After, each of them had to say negative or positive things about the time that I shared with them. Also, they could give me suggestions for improving my way of teaching. I really liked that part; because all of them told me good things and also, the things that I had to improve. I would never forget that especial moment and the things that they told me. They were very sincere and I loved that and I felt very nice. Then, we made some exercises about gerunds. All of the students worked and participated in the class. We had a good rapport this time. They were involved in class. On the other hand, I had to take advantage of oral controlled practice to clarify grammar, vocabulary, intonation, etc. Also, I had to bring some visual aid for them that would help me for obtaining their attention easily.

Well, I really enjoyed my teaching practicum with this group. They are an especial group. At the beginning, I remember that they are a very talkative group in class. And that made me feel bad. But now, I can say that they have changed. And now, they show a different attitude and also, they demonstrate that they really want to learn. I liked the time that I shared with this group. Finally, I want to add that sometimes as teachers, we feel discouraged because of the student´s attitude in class. But, we have to continue doing our job. And at the end, we are going to obtain the reward. So, we never have to give up our teaching work.

A good rapport in class always helps!!!

This class was very nice. I really liked it. First, we did a warm-up in which the students had to make two groups. I gave to each group a bunch of pieces of paper in which there were five passive voice sentences. They had to unite the pieces of paper in order to form the sentences. After, I gave to each student a page with some reading-writing exercises. All of them worked during the whole class. They were very concentrated and quite. In this time, the group behaved different. They showed interest and a positive attitude and that helped me to feel confidence. I felt very nice. In the other hand, I faced a little problem in the part of the exercises; because in them there were some new words for the students. So, I had to explain the meaning to the ones that asked me but I didn´t explain to all of them. Also, I forgot to give them flashbacks about the structure that they already knew. I just gave them some examples.

Well, from this class I learned:

v Before I give exercises with new words, I always have to give or bring a list with the meaning of the new words.

v During the students are working on the exercises, I always have to give them flashbacks about the structure that they have to apply. This is going to help them to activate their brains.

Well, I want to add that I feel nice working with this group. They are very nice people. In each class, I can learn something new from them.

The student is one of the things that inspire the teacher…

I really liked this class. We began with a warm-up in which all the students participated. After, the students worked in some oral exercises; for that I brought some pieces of papers that contained patterns about passive voice; the students had to choose one of the papers and form a sentence with the giving patterns. Then, I gave to each one a page with ten active sentences that they had to rewrite into passive. After that, I wrote a short role play conversation on the board about an office employee and her boss then, I modeled it for them. Next, I asked them to make pairs and I gave to each work pair a name of a work place; with that, they had to perform a short role play using the passive voice. I really liked that activity because I could see that all of them were working on that. Also, in the presentation; they showed enough creativity. So, each of the students participated in class. This time, they demonstrated a different attitude that motivated me so much. For the contrary, I forgot to make a different setting arrangement; So, I had some difficulties for monitoring their work. Another thing was that I had to start from the easy exercises to the most difficult ones.

Well, from this class I learned very important things. One, I always have to make a setting arrangement that facilitate me to monitor the students´ work. Two, I must to begin from the easy to the difficult things. Three, I always have to do my best!!!

Teaching experiences always help us to learn new things.

Well, it was a good experience and also, the first time that I taught passive voice structures. We began the class with a warm-up about verb changed. It was nice because all of the students participated. After that, We played a game called “Calling around the world” (it was the presentation for the topic). For this game, the students and I had to choose the name of a country we liked. After, we had to memorized everybody´s country; I started calling a country. For example, I chose China; so, I had to say: China calls Nicaragua. Then, Nicaragua had to say: Nicaragua was called by China and Nicaragua had to call another country and so on. If one student did not answer when someone called him or her, I could assign a penalty or that person could be out of the game. It was so funny, but I thought that a game was not enough for presenting the topic. So, I included a little paragraph about the topic. After that, I began with the grammar explanation. I brought examples from the lesson plan and from my own. In this point, the students had a lot of questions about the topic. I explained and gave them examples of that. They were paying attention to the class. Something that I really liked from this class was that I did not have problems with talkative students. They showed a different attitude in class. That was really nice!! In the other hand, one of the observations that my tutor gave me was that I had to work more slowly with the students. I mean that I didn´t have to teach the form and the usage of a structure at the same time. First, I had to teach the form of the learning topic and then I had to teach the usage. So, one of my problems was that I mixed both and that´s not suitable. Another observation was that I had to check minutely the lesson plan because sometimes, it had mistakes.

So, from this class I learned that I don´t have to mix form and usage of a structure when I am teaching it. Also, I have to double or triple check the lesson plan. Another thing is that if I think that something in the lesson plan isn´t enough, I can change it or add something new. Well, this time I learn other new things and the next time I am going to learn more. Teaching is great to form experience…