Date: November 4th, 2019
The English day was amazing, the youngest kids sing and dance perfectly, everything was beautiful. And the guys who were afraid to participate were the ones who did it very well.
Last week I had a conversation with the principal about the use of technology with the students. She asked me why I don't use the laboratory of English with them and told me that maybe that's the main reason why the guys of preschool and first grade (they are all in one classroom) are most of the time annoying and outside the classroom.
Regarding the use of technology, I don't take them to the lab since most of the computers don't work, there are some that the screen, the mouse or CPU don't work. When I started there, I had to make an inventory of my locker and the lab. After finishing, I told to the academic coordinator what was happening with the computers. The time happened and she didn't do anything.
Talking about the students, I have made many things to catch the attention of the students who bother all the time, I took to the classroom different activities for them, but they are still doing the same things. They are only three students who are always outside or annoying, I have reported them with the academic coordinator, and I have sent memorandums, but nothing happens. I think that in this school most of the time what the teacher say doesn't matter at all.
domingo, 2 de febrero de 2020
Journal #5
Date: October 21st, 2019
During this month I was very busy preparing everything for the English day. It is going to be on October 25th. I have to prepare the scenario, so I and the English teacher of secondary have to look for materials to decorate it. This activity is based on a spelling bee contest, so the decoration was related to it. With my students, I have to prepare a song, tongue twisters, and the main activity; the spelling bee contest in the category for children.
Regarding the song, I make that preschool and first graders sing and dance a song for that day. We have been practicing that song one day per week, we use the whole class for doing that. Talking about the practice for the spelling bee contest for them, I have to use pictures and they only have to tell me what they see in the picture. Most of the pictures are related to things they studied with the teacher that was there before me, so there wasn't a lot of problems for them to learn the name of the pictures.
With the guys of second, third, fourth and fifth grade, every class we have been practicing the spelling of five different words. There were some students who didn't know very the alphabet, so I put them to work with a partner who knew it very well and in that way they practiced the words and the alphabet. The students of fifth grade are the ones who don't know very well the alphabet, and I am a little bit surprised because the guys of third and fourth grade know more than them that topic. There were other students who are scared to participate in the spelling bee contest. The students will be chosen randomly, so all of them have to practice all the words.
During this month I was very busy preparing everything for the English day. It is going to be on October 25th. I have to prepare the scenario, so I and the English teacher of secondary have to look for materials to decorate it. This activity is based on a spelling bee contest, so the decoration was related to it. With my students, I have to prepare a song, tongue twisters, and the main activity; the spelling bee contest in the category for children.
Regarding the song, I make that preschool and first graders sing and dance a song for that day. We have been practicing that song one day per week, we use the whole class for doing that. Talking about the practice for the spelling bee contest for them, I have to use pictures and they only have to tell me what they see in the picture. Most of the pictures are related to things they studied with the teacher that was there before me, so there wasn't a lot of problems for them to learn the name of the pictures.
With the guys of second, third, fourth and fifth grade, every class we have been practicing the spelling of five different words. There were some students who didn't know very the alphabet, so I put them to work with a partner who knew it very well and in that way they practiced the words and the alphabet. The students of fifth grade are the ones who don't know very well the alphabet, and I am a little bit surprised because the guys of third and fourth grade know more than them that topic. There were other students who are scared to participate in the spelling bee contest. The students will be chosen randomly, so all of them have to practice all the words.
Journal #4
Date: August 30th, 2019
This is my second month working at Santa Clara de Hungria and gaining more experience in this field. During this last week, children were in the week of exams and the English exam was on Wednesday. Before the students had to answer the evaluation, I had to design them according to the topics that were on the coursebook. For the kids of preschool and first grade, I had to use a lot of pictures, items where I had to read them the questions and they answered coloring the picture or circling it. For the rest of the students, I had to use questions with multiple choice. When it was time for the students to answer the evaluation, I was a little nervous because I thought that maybe they wouldn't understand the questions since they were all in English, but most of the students understood without any problem. There were some students who were asking all the time, but everything was good.
When it was time for me to grade the evaluations, I was very surprised that only two students failed the exam. The kids of preschool and first grade did a good job, all of them answered the exam very well. In the rest of the grades, in fourth and fifth grade failed the exam only one student in each classroom, but with a score of 3.2 and 3.3. At Santa Clara de Hungria, the score to pass an exam is 3.5. I didn't know it and when I was going to give to the students the results I thought that those students have approved the exam, but the rest of the students told me that with that score they failed.
This is my second month working at Santa Clara de Hungria and gaining more experience in this field. During this last week, children were in the week of exams and the English exam was on Wednesday. Before the students had to answer the evaluation, I had to design them according to the topics that were on the coursebook. For the kids of preschool and first grade, I had to use a lot of pictures, items where I had to read them the questions and they answered coloring the picture or circling it. For the rest of the students, I had to use questions with multiple choice. When it was time for the students to answer the evaluation, I was a little nervous because I thought that maybe they wouldn't understand the questions since they were all in English, but most of the students understood without any problem. There were some students who were asking all the time, but everything was good.
When it was time for me to grade the evaluations, I was very surprised that only two students failed the exam. The kids of preschool and first grade did a good job, all of them answered the exam very well. In the rest of the grades, in fourth and fifth grade failed the exam only one student in each classroom, but with a score of 3.2 and 3.3. At Santa Clara de Hungria, the score to pass an exam is 3.5. I didn't know it and when I was going to give to the students the results I thought that those students have approved the exam, but the rest of the students told me that with that score they failed.
jueves, 23 de enero de 2020
Journal #3
Today, on August 15th, I am in the first month working in that school and I can say that it has been a wonderful experience working with these children. The children that most like my class are the ones from pre-school and first grade. When I don't have classes with them and I am in the corridors of the school, they ask me if we are going to have classes every day. I would like to have more classes with them because they are the ones who love learning English and they do it very quickly, but we only have three classes per week.
The younger kids love my class, but there are three boys that are very annoying. In most of the classes, they are outside the classroom or when they are inside the classroom they start bothering their classmates, playing with a ball or climbing on the shelves that are in the classroom. For those cases, the school has on the agenda some pages in which there are memorandums for reporting the students with the course director and their parents. Parents have to sign that, but they don't make a big deal about that problem, they only sign it and that's all. Even if I reported those problems with the academic coordinator, nothing happens with the kids. And I think that for that reason those boys never respect their teachers, even their course director.
I noticed that they don´t like to work on their coursebooks, so I take to the classroom different activities for them, but it is not enough. They only work for a while and then they keep bothering.
The younger kids love my class, but there are three boys that are very annoying. In most of the classes, they are outside the classroom or when they are inside the classroom they start bothering their classmates, playing with a ball or climbing on the shelves that are in the classroom. For those cases, the school has on the agenda some pages in which there are memorandums for reporting the students with the course director and their parents. Parents have to sign that, but they don't make a big deal about that problem, they only sign it and that's all. Even if I reported those problems with the academic coordinator, nothing happens with the kids. And I think that for that reason those boys never respect their teachers, even their course director.
I noticed that they don´t like to work on their coursebooks, so I take to the classroom different activities for them, but it is not enough. They only work for a while and then they keep bothering.
jueves, 5 de diciembre de 2019
Journal #2
Date: July 29th, 2019
Throughout these two weeks, I have known more of my students. I know that the kids of pre-school and first grade love to make drawings and art and craft. The kids of second, third and fourth grade love to sing the songs that they have on their books, which is called "our world". And the fifth grade loves to play games after each lesson as a way of reviewing the topics.
After knowing them, I plan the classes according to their likes and always taking into account the activities that are already set in the book. But, they don't like to work on the book a lot. For that reason, I take a lot of different activities to the classroom. Activities such as: drawing the new vocabulary, songs, art and craft, and games.
There was one time that I try to do a role play with fifth graders, but they couldn't and didn't like to do it because they had to create the dialogues based on a story. They like more to learn the dialogues instead of creating them.
One problem that I have is the management of the time. I sometimes spend time much with one topic and when it is time to pass to the other topic I have not finished the previous one.
Throughout these two weeks, I have known more of my students. I know that the kids of pre-school and first grade love to make drawings and art and craft. The kids of second, third and fourth grade love to sing the songs that they have on their books, which is called "our world". And the fifth grade loves to play games after each lesson as a way of reviewing the topics.
After knowing them, I plan the classes according to their likes and always taking into account the activities that are already set in the book. But, they don't like to work on the book a lot. For that reason, I take a lot of different activities to the classroom. Activities such as: drawing the new vocabulary, songs, art and craft, and games.
There was one time that I try to do a role play with fifth graders, but they couldn't and didn't like to do it because they had to create the dialogues based on a story. They like more to learn the dialogues instead of creating them.
One problem that I have is the management of the time. I sometimes spend time much with one topic and when it is time to pass to the other topic I have not finished the previous one.
Journal #1
The main reason why I started working is that I don't want to start my first teaching practicum without any experience. I started to work at Santa Clara de Hungria school on July 15th. I work with the whole primary: from pre-school to fifth grade. Every Friday, I have to give to the academic coordinator a folder with the lesson plan for the next week.
On the first day of class, I was very excited and nervous because it was going to be my first time teaching children at a school. Planning the activities for that week was a difficult process since I have to plan the activities for three classes per grade in the week. It was difficult to plan different and didactic activities because children like to do different and new things, and they don't like to work on the same activity for a long time.
Doing the activities with the youngest children (pre-school and first grade) was another difficult process. They are all cute, but they have a big problem and it is that they are running all the time around the classroom and playing all the time. I felt that the activities that I planned for them weren't good enough to keep them focus in the class.
For that reason, I would take different activities to the classroom for the next class to keep children more interested and focused in the class.
On the first day of class, I was very excited and nervous because it was going to be my first time teaching children at a school. Planning the activities for that week was a difficult process since I have to plan the activities for three classes per grade in the week. It was difficult to plan different and didactic activities because children like to do different and new things, and they don't like to work on the same activity for a long time.
Doing the activities with the youngest children (pre-school and first grade) was another difficult process. They are all cute, but they have a big problem and it is that they are running all the time around the classroom and playing all the time. I felt that the activities that I planned for them weren't good enough to keep them focus in the class.
For that reason, I would take different activities to the classroom for the next class to keep children more interested and focused in the class.
jueves, 17 de octubre de 2019
Autobiography
Autobiography
Becoming a teacher is an amazing and challenging profession I am looking forward to experience. Currently, I am in my eighth semester of the language teaching program at Universidad Surcolombiana. When I look backward I look myself as the high school students who didn't want to become a teacher in the near future. But, I also look at my self like someone who loves children and teach them. I know it sounds a little bit contradictory.
The main reason for not becoming a teacher was simply due to the issue that many teachers are struggling nowadays; that society doesn't appraise them as they deserve it. Why I change my mind? Simply because at University I realize that as a future teacher I can change that since teachers need to be considered as the most essential in society.
As I already said, I love children and teach them. For that reason, I have always taught my cousins. The first experience teaching was when I was 12 years old with my cousin Jhon. I taught him to read and to do some math operations. But, my cousins were not the only one that I used to teach, there was also a high school friend. I used to teach him English since he always was asking me to give classes to him because he considered me the best student in the media Tecnica classroom. I think that I was the best English student thank to my father because when he listen to someone saying that English will open many doors for me in the future. When he listened that, he immediately enrolled me in an Institute when I was 12 years old.
At English Now Institute my love for English flourished since I had the best English teachers. They used to teach me English with didactic activities such as songs and role-plays. Also, they used some outdoor activities such as camping and there we only could speak in English. For that reason, I decided to enter the media Tecnica of the school in the tenth grade. Two years later, I was accepted at University in the language teaching program. There, I started my journey to becoming an English teacher and it has been the best choice I took in my life because I have enjoyed every single moment. One important issue that I have learned is that English should be taught from an early age in order to achieve better results. From my experience, learning English is better to learn it since we are children. If my father had enrolled me from an early age, I would have better results than I had at the ending of my high school.
Currently, my future plans are to keep growing in my profession and to teach different people all around the world, not only to teach children but also to young and old people because everybody deserves the opportunity to learn English no matter their social status. I want to keep working as an English teacher, but I don't want to be only a teacher in a school, I want to be a teacher that contribute to significant changes in society.
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