Teaching Practicum II Reflection.

Teaching Practicum II has been an amazing experience for me, because I really like to teach English to teenagers. In this final reflection I am going to describe the most important moments for me during the whole semester. The group of students that I have attended was energetic, talkative and special, I consider that was a challenge for me when I planned the classes, I thought in their cognitive characteristics and their interests. It is important to figure out and imagine how an activity will work with your class, and I think in my students’ tastes, behavior, likes, and interests in order they feel interested in my class and motivated to participate on it. 

It was wonderful for me when I taught them and the other teacher said: “Now, the teacher Iliana is going to continue with the class” and my students started to clap and they said: “Yeah, teacher Iliana”, and I saw their faces that reflected happiness. My students’ attitude motivated me in order to prepare my classes and materials, and design my class with activities that help them to learn and make the learning process significant. All the classes were interesting for me and I enjoyed all the activities that I performed with them, but I am going to describe the three most important moments.

 The first one was in the lesson with the topic “My Stuff”, I prepared a warm-up called “The fastest Hands” in which students formed groups of 3, and they sat down together. Then, students put their hands in their necks. I started to count from 1 to 3, and my students put their hands in the center over the desks. At the end, the student that had his/her hand in the top was the volunteer and he/she mentioned in the group what I asked, for example: The alphabet, numbers from 1 to 20, 6 colors, numbers from 20 to 1, 5 countries, 5 nationalities, 5 feelings, etc. My students really enjoyed the activity because they were motivated and all of them participated in the warm-up. I consider that my students had the opportunity of review the previous vocabulary and knowledge that they learned in the previous classes.

The second one was in the lesson “My family”, in the post part; the activity was focused on writing and speaking skills. Students wrote a short paragraph about their family and occupations.  Students described their names, ages, occupation, etc. l wrote in the board an example in order to model the exercise. I explained that they had to use vocabulary, names, possessives, ages, occupations, etc. Then, students worked in couples and read the short paragraph to a partner.  At the end, some volunteers passed in front and read the short paragraph that they had written. I like this activity because my students were able to write about their members of their family and their occupations using vocabulary and some basic grammar structures. My students passed in front and talked about themselves.

The third most important moment was in the class “My bedroom”. It was in the post part and it was focused in speaking skill. My students formed couples by numbering them. Then, students took a thing that they had for example: a pen, an eraser, a cell phone, a bag, a backpack, etc. Students had to describe their things by saying adjectives, possessives adjectives and colors. After that, students had to describe someone’s possession. I modeled the activity by describing my cell phone, and I describe someone else’s possession. At the end, volunteers will pass in front and describe someone’s possession. I consider that my students practice their speech in a real life situation because they described an object in the moment in which they had the object in their hands. I like it because it propitiates the learning process. I have described the three most important moments that I consider as successful activities during my teaching practicum II.

On the other hand, I received some comments from the observers about the things that I have to improve in the next classes. I am going to describe some aspects, for example: The observer suggested that I had to give to my students the opportunity of compare answers when they worked in the handout. He told me that students feel more comfortable when they share their answers with their partners. Also, the format of the handout, the observer told me that I had to include the number of pages in order students know in which page the exercise is. During the post activities I used to correct students’ mistakes, but he suggested me that in the production part students should feel free to talk English, and if they made mistakes it is ok. He told me that I have to correct mistakes during the practice activities or in the reviewing part. I consider that the observers told me those comments in order to improve myself and I accept my mistakes.

 According to the feedback that I have received from my observers, I had improved the things that they considered that was wrong. For example: When my students work in the handout, they compared their answers with their partners before to share it with the whole class. I consider that it is positive because they reinforced their knowledge and learn more from other people. Also, I checked the handout and the details before to print it. I think that it is important that the handout includes the page number in order students are oriented during the exercises development. I added the page numbers in the handout. And about correcting mistakes, I noticed that when I correct my students’ mistakes in the production part, I did not correct them, on the contrary I interrupt the post part and they did not develop their ideas in a freely way. So, I did not correct their mistakes in the moment, I did at the end or one of my colleagues did it at the beginning of the next class. All the comments that I have received have been positives for me because I have improved a lot as teacher. I have not noticed about those mistakes, and now I have grown as professional.

At the end of this practicum II, I analyze that I have learned a lot from my students, colleagues and observers. In my real life I work as English teacher and my students are teenagers, but the group that I had in the teaching practicum were different. So, it was a new experience for me, I have improved a lot, and I learned what types of activities are appropriate for teenagers. Also, I have grown as teacher because I am not the same teacher as when I started this semester. I feel successful as teacher because my students learn a lot from the classes that I gave them, they participated and feel motivated when they were in my English class. Also, now I know how to develop the English skills by applying teaching techniques, the appropriate activities and how to apply it. It was amazing!