My Teaching Practicum II Experience

Introduction

My name is Konny Martínez. I am 22 years old, and I am majoring in English teaching at Universidad Don Bosco, El Salvador. This is my last year, and I am really excited to see that all my effort has been worthy. I am glad to say that I am at the end of this long and difficult road.  It took me three years to learn English, at Centro Cultural Salvadoreño Americano. I cannot deny that it was really difficult to me, but I got to say “Thanks” to all the good teachers I had, and their enormous patience. Also, I want to give “thanks” to all my teachers at Universidad Don Bosco, specially to Yanira Peña who is  still “molding me” with a lot of patience,  to become a good English teacher.

Why did I decide to study “English teaching”? Well, I cannot deny the fact that the “quality” of  English teachers is not the same in all institutions or academys, and I wanted to make the difference. I wanted to be one of the best ones, and one day while listening to the pronunciation of one of my English teachers, I said “I want to be like him, and I want to be a teacher that inspires students just the way he has inspired me today”. I Know how difficult it is to start learning English from zero, and I understand how students feel whenever they encounter a new language because I was one of those.

 My  desire is to teach my students the things I learned during the three years I spent learning English. I want to be more than a simple teacher for them. I want to inspire them, and make them realize the importance of English. I also want to feel proud of them whenever I see their improvements. I am not trying to be an English teacher because of money, but because it is rewarding.  Well, this was a little bit of how I got the inspiration to teach. Now, I want to share some of my experiences in the teaching field, and how they have helped me to grow as a professional. I hope you can learn something from this novice teacher who is willing to get more experience.

The first time I had to teach an English class, was for a subject at university called “Practicum 1”. That subject was devoted to teach English to children ages 4-7. I love children, but  at the beginning I did not know what to expect. I was afraid that children would not obey or learn something from me, but I would not like to keep talking about my experience with children because I already did it. I  dedicated a whole blog to my experience in the teaching practicum 1 (with children). If you have not read it, in advance, I tell you that my experience was phenomenal. I really enjoyed it, and children taught me a lot. They are very sincere, and do whatever you want them to do, that is why they need to have a very good teacher because they are the reflection of a good/bad teacher. 

After the Teaching Practicum I, I got surprised to see that I was given the opportunity to be part of the “Plaza Mundo-Universidad Don Bosco Scholarship Program”. This program is in charge of teaching English to students (from different institutions) who are about to finish high-school, and want to learn English. Since it was my first formal teaching experience, I was very nervous. I was willing to teach English because that is what I like, but at the same time I was afraid that students would not pay attention to me, and things like those, but let me tell you that I am still being part of that program. It is one of my best experience ever. I love to work with my students because they really have the will to learn. Those guys have encouraged me to keep working hard because they are always trying to do their best, and of course they expect the same from me. Something I am learning from this experience is that “knowledge gives you confidence”. You need to be really sure of what you are teaching, so that you can transmit that security to your students. I know that I need to keep working on some things that I might improve, but I am glad to see that every time I go to teach, I learn something new. 

These are my students from  “Plaza Mundo-Universidad Don Bosco Scholarship Program”. This was their oral presentation 1. Their task was to talk about the different concepts of beauty around the world. The costumes they are wearing represent different concepts of beauty such as, Geishas, Muslims, Hindus, and tattooing (Americans).

This group was in charge of talking about “Geishas”. They worked really hard on their costumes.

Now that I have talked a little bit about my English teaching/learning experience, I want to devote the rest of my blog to my teaching experience in a class called “Teaching Practicum II”.  This subject is devoted to teach English to teenagers that come from different institutions, and want to learn, or reinforce their English skills. I was assigned some students from Don Bosco School. They already have some English knowledge, but they want to reinforce the things they do not know. I will spend ten weeks teaching to those students, and my goal for this “Teaching Practicum II”  is:

“By the end of this semester, I will be able to deal with adolescents’ learning needs inside the classroom by getting involved with them in my TP, and by reading about the theory of this stage of life.”

• The theory  I have learned about teenagers                  

I know a little bit of Piaget’s and vygotsky’s theories. Piaget said that individuals develop through four different stages that have to do with distinct ways of thinking. Sensorimotor (physical, motoric actions), preoperational (children begin to represent the world with words and drawings), concrete operational (logical reasoning replaces intuitive thought), and formal operational (abstract, idealistic, and logical thought). He also argues that ” teenagers are motivated to understand their world because doing so is biologically adaptive.” It means that we learn not because of our environment or society, but because we have that innate skill or ability that lets us learn.

Regarding Vigotsky’s theory, he claims “ knowledge is situated and collaborative”. It means that knowledge is distributed among people and their environments. In other words, we learn through interaction with others in cooperative active. Also, Vigotsky is the one who talks about “the zone of Proximal Development” (ZDP). This refers to the tasks that are too difficult for an individual to master alone, but that can be mastered with guidance of more skilled peers.

Apart from Piaget’s and Vigotsky’s theories, I have also learned that the way teenagers behave has to do with  developmental changes in their brains. 

               

  Among the most important structural changes in the brain during adolescence are those that involve the corpus callosum, the prefrontal cortex, and the amygdale. The corpus callosum, are fibers that connect the brain‘s left and right hemispheres. It thickens in adolescence, and this thickening improves, adolescents’ ability to process information (Giedd,2008). Prefrontal cortex, is the highest level of the frontal lobes that is involved in reasoning, decision making, and self-control. The amygdale is a part of the brain’s limbic system and it is the seat of emotions such as anger. Once this information is known, teachers become more tolerant and understand why students behave in different ways.

• I also want to share some concepts that called my attention, and might help you in the classroom.

 1-top-dog phenomenon:  this phenomenon has to do with how teenagers feel when they move from being the oldest, biggest, and most powerful students in the elementary school to being the youngest, smallest and least powerful students in the middle or junior high school.  It means that adolescents deal with constant problems with self-esteem, and teachers should work on the construction of a friendly environment where adolescents can be comfortable.

  2- Constructivist approach: A learner-centered approach in which adolescents actively construct their knowledge and understading with some guidance from the teacher. I think that this is the approach that all teachers should adopt.

  3- Direct instruction approach:  A teacher- centered approach in which the teacher is the one who controls the class, and students are just the recipients of his/her knowledge.

Santrock, John W. ADOLESCENCE. Chapter 10. pp. 350-381. Mc Graw Hill. USA, 2010

Moreover, I have learned about some important concepts such as, short-term memory (information is retained for as long as 30 seconds), working memory (it is more active and powerful in modifying information), and long-term memory ( it is relatively permanent and store big amounts of information).

Santrock, John W. ADOLESCENCE. Chapter 3. pp. 90-129 Mc Graw Hill. USA, 2010

I have learned a lot of theory about teenagers, and I think that I would have to devote a whole blog just to share the things  I have learned, but I will try to summarize the most important things (in my opinion). For example,

1  .Gender similarities and differences. It is said that girls   outperform boys in reading skills and writing skills, and are less likely to drop out of school.

2  .Boys are said to be more physically aggressive and active, whereas girls show a stronger interest in relationships.

3  .Girls are better at self-regulation of behavior and emotion, and engage in more prosocial behavior.

All these differences have helped me by the time I want to form groups in the classroom.

Santrock, John W. ADOLESCENCE. Chapter 5. pp. 168-193. Mc Graw Hill. USA, 2010

Week 1 March 8^th

class 1

Before

This was the first class I taught for my “Teaching Practicum II” at Universidad Don Bosco. Thanks to the experience I had in the “Teaching Practicum I”, I did not feel that nervous. I had in mind all the theory I had learned in class, and some of the main “gender similarities and differences “ in this stage of life. Also, I had in mind that as I was going to be working with true beginners a lot of modeling was needed, and I have thought about all those details. In fact, I was ready and excited to teach to those teenagers.

 During

As this class was only for introducing each other, and for me to have an overview of students’ knowledge, I  prepared two activities, only. One activity for the body parts, and another one for teaching the numbers from 0 to 9.

I was relaxed and willing to teach, but when I met the students I was going to be working with I realized that not all of them were teenagers, but children. It was in that moment when I got nervous because I had prepared activities for teenagers, and I thought that children would be really bored in my class.

As the class started, I noticed that all the students were really excited to learn. They all had their notebooks and some pencils. I started to ask some things in English such as their names, or if any of them was studying English. Some students already knew a few words, or sentences in English, but most of the students did not know anything about English. However, I had some  good plans in mind to make teenagers understand the things I was going to teach, but  my question was “what am I going to do with these children?

First, I taught “the body parts”. We played “Simon says”, whenever I said a body part students had to touch the body part they heard.  I decided to include ALL students (including children) in this activity, and to my surprise, children were even more excited than teenagers. However, I think that I should have done this activity outside the classroom because the space was not enough, and children did not feel that comfortable because the older ones were pushing them.

Second, I taught the numbers, and I noticed that most of them (even children) knew how to count from 0 to 9 in English , so I decided to teach how to ask for a telephone number using the question, “what is your telephone number?” and the answer “My telephone number is…”. I wanted to listen to them asking for a telephone number in English, and they did it very well.

After

 I was very happy to see that children, and teenagers were willing to learn. This teaching experience was very rewarding, and exciting for me. I learned that it is hard, but possible to work with children and teenagers at the same time. I learned that students’ abilities should not be taken for granted, so I should not have felt that worried about having children and teenagers together. I wanted to keep working with this group because they were really excited to learn. Children were participating all the time, and their attitude made the other students to participate as well.

Week 2 March 15^th

^{Class 2: "What do you like to do after school?"}

Before

This was the second class I taught for my “Teaching Practicum II”. This day was really difficult to me because I was assigned another group of students. I was going to work with some students  from Don Bosco School. All of them were boys, there were not girls. I had heard a lot of comments about working with boys only. For example, I had heard that if the teacher is a woman, she needs to be very careful with the way she dresses because teenagers’ hormones are very active. Also, one of the good things I had heard about being a woman that works with boys only, is that they tend to respect women a little bit more because they want to impress them. I had all these comments in mind before starting to teach, and I was really nervous.

 During

When the class started, I noticed that all students were quiet, and looking at me like their “prey”, but I did not show that I was nervous. In fact, I was really serious that day because I wanted to leave a very good “first impression”. I wanted to show them who was the one that “ruled” there. I did an “ice breaker” called “CONSTANTINOPLE” in which they had two write an activity that starts with each letter of that word. Fortunately, the activity worked well, they might have felt my security and seriousness because they did not misbehave.

Then, I wanted to teach “hobbies and activities they like to do after school”, but at this point , I noticed that half of them were really paying attention, but the other half was not paying attention. In that moment, I asked them to stand up and stretch their bodies. Then, I asked them not to sit down again. After some minutes, they were participating in my class, but they said that they did not understand English. I asked them if they knew some words in English, but they told me  that they did not know any English.

I knew that they were lying. It was not possible that they did not know something in English as they were studying English at Don Bosco School. I cannot deny that I got a little bit frustrated, but I did not show my frustration to them. At some point during the class, one student told me “Teacher, do you know why are we here?” and I answered “No, I do not know” and this student told me “because, we are the worst in the classroom, we cannot speak English at all”.

In that moment, one theory about teenagers that talks about “egocentrism” came to my mind.  According to the theory, teenagers need to feel that they are an important part in the classroom. They need to feel that the teacher takes their efforts into account. Also, I remembered that at this stage of life, teenagers are struggling with self-esteem , and if they had been tagged as bad students, they would believe  that, so I decided to change that attitude.  I told them that they were really good, and I told them about the importance of English, and their attitude changed a lot. Then, I continued saying words such good!, excellent!, perfect! to  every  sentence or word they said correctly, and it made them participate more.

After

In this class, I learned that apart from teaching English you need to work on self-esteem as well. Before this practicum, I did not know that teenagers were that sensitive. Sometimes they behave like children, and sometimes they behave like adults, so it is difficult to work with them because they are in the middle of those two stages, but the theory I listed above, was really helpful for me. Also, I learned that if you tagged one student as a bad student , she or he would never participate in class, as in the case of Don Bosco School’s  students. They lied to me when they told me that they did not know any English, but actually they did know some words, phrases and sentences in English. The only thing that was missing to make them talk was a little bit of encouragement.

Week 3 March 22^nd

Class 3: What does she/he look like?

Before

This was my third class, I knew Don Bosco’s students already, but I was a little worried about the fact that these guys sometimes seem to be excited to learn, but their attitudes change very quickly. I understood them because they spend the whole morning at school, and then they have to study again. I knew that they might be tired, hungry, stressed out etc. so I was thinking about activities that do not let them fall asleep in class. Also, one of my biggest concerns was how to make these students understand the new vocabulary. They knew some basic things in English, with some modeling they understand instruction, but it is always hard for them to understand new words in English. For this class, I was in charge of the writing part, so apart from guessing the new vocabulary they needed to write something. I was worried that they could not make it.

During

In this class, I was going to teach “physical traits” such as tall, short, long/short hair, black/brown/green eyes. I pasted some images portraying each of the “physical traits” I listed above, and whenever I want my students to understand the new vocabulary, I pointed at some of the images around the classroom or I used modeling. In that way, they understood the new words very well.

By the time they were asked to answer the question “what does she/he look like?”  I was worried that they would not write the answer correctly, but  I gave examples on how to do it. I also had students think about what the question “what does she/he look like?” could mean in Spanish, so that they had the idea clearer. I do not know if it is ok to use Spanish when students seem not to get the idea of something, but I used it and it helped my students a lot.

I had 30 minutes for my class, but I finished all the activities in 20 minutes. In  that moment, I decided to use the materials (images) I had pasted on the walls to start asking students some questions about them. For example, is he short or tall?. It was a good idea to bring colorful images!

At the end, they were able to answer the question “what does she/he look like?” with some mistakes in pronunciation, but I was happy to see that this day they were really active in my class.

After

I learned that sometimes you finish your lesson before time, or after the specific time, but  you do not have to panic. I think that all you need to do is, to think about  “second plans” in case the activities you have planned do not work.

Week four April 5^th

Class 4: Prepositions of places

Before

This was my fourth class. I was relaxed because I already knew my students. I think that once you get used to your students, the environment changes because you know who are the ones that work,  or who are the ones that distract others, and you make some arrangements in the classroom. This day, I was going to teach prepositions of places, and I thought that everything was going to be fine because this topic was very easy to explain.

  

During

This class was not like the previous ones. I noticed that for an unknown reason all students were misbehaving a lot, so instead of talking to them, I had to yell all the time. I was in charge of the listening part, and I was afraid that none of them would pay attention. In fact, when I played the CD nobody was paying attention, so I decided to tell them that if they did not work, I was going to bring some girls to the classroom as judges of their poor work. As they are boys, they reacted by saying “no teacher, they are going to make fun of us”, and they started working. I do not know if it was the strategy I used to have students quiet was okay, but that was the only idea that came to my mind. Can you help me with some other ways to have students quiet and focused in the class?

After

I should have envisaged that my students would not be active all the time, so instead of telling them that some girls would go to the class, I should have done a game, or an activity  that could have called their attention.

My overall learning from the four classes I have taught until now

When I was in high school, I never thought about becoming a teacher, but I always thought that being a teacher was the easiest job ever. Apart from me, there must be others that think the same way, but now that I am teaching I can say that this job is very demanding. It does not require too much physical effort, but it requires mental work. Teachers need to think about suitable activities for each group of students, they need to memorize hundreds of names, they need to grade exams etc. Now that I know all this about teaching, how do I feel like?

Well, let me tell you that I have taken the challenge. I love teaching because it is the most rewarding job ever. It feels really good when you see that your students have learned something from you. It feels good to hear things such as “you are a great teacher” “ah, now I understand teacher”. I am not going to work with machines or robots, I will not be rich, but I will  share the little knowledge I have with others. I will  leave  a part of me in every class, and the most important thing “I will work on something I really enjoy.”

Every time I teach I learn something new, and sometimes other people do not notice you improvements, but it is rewarding when “you” recognize that you have improved. In these four classes, I have learned that second plans are important, visual aids really help students to understand better, and my attitude as a teacher is crucial. If I do not have the will to teach, students will feel it, and my class might not be successful. I have also learned that you need to have some theory in mind before start teaching. 

The theory I wrote in this blog has been really helpful for me. I know that I will keep learning a lot of things. There are missing 6 classes more, so I know that by the end of this semester, I will have a lot of things to talk about in this blog. I hope I have a lot of space here! I will be really glad to see that you take a look at my blog, and give some suggestions, or comments because they are very welcome.

Week 5  April 12^th

Class 5: Superlatives

Before: The day before this class I felt really nervous because I consider “superlatives” as something difficult to teach. If you explain superlatives to students by comparing two thinks, they might understand very well, but if you include more than 2 things in your explanation they might feel confused. What happens is that some of them tend to think that “the most” is the same as “more”, and it is even harder to make students understand that the superlative form of some adjectives is not “the most” but the “-est” suffix. All those things made me feel worried and I tried to find “the easiest” way to explain superlatives.

During: by the time I presented the superlatives that were going to appear in the reading, all students already knew the use and meaning of them, so I was really happy to see that because I would not have to give any long explanation to them. Also, this day students surprised me because I was teaching some words like, wet, fresh and meeting, and most of them knew the meaning, so they did not have problems understanding the text.

After: At the end of the class, I asked them to write some sentences using the new vocabulary and the “superlatives”. Some of them wrote the sentences correctly, but some others just wrote sentences like “San Salvador the most beautiful city”. They omitted the verb “to be”, so I told them that something was missing between “San Salvador” and “the most…”, and gave them 2 minutes to correct the sentences. At the end, everybody got the sentences right, and I was happy to see that they understood the topic. 

Week 6  April 19^th

Class 6: Superlative adjectives

Before: The day before this class, I felt that the class was going to be based on a topic students already kwew, so  it was going to be easy. I Prepared all the materials for the “Listening part”. The only thing I was worried about was for the oral presentation students were going to have that day.

During: During the listening part, something really bad happened to me. My Usb did not work at all, and the track for the listening was on the Usb, so I decided to read the script for students. I had to read the script more than twice because students could not get some answers. I think it was because the audios from books are special for students who are learning English, and the language is dosified, they make long pauses etc, but I was reading too fast for them probably. After the third time, students could get all the answers, and they were checked as a whole class.

After: At the end , I asked them to write some sentences about famous people using superlatives and the vocabulary studied in the class. This part of the class was really funny because I gave them some pictures of funny or strange singers, so they were laughing a lot. This day, (as I said at the beginning) students also had their oral presentation, and most of them did well.  

Week 7  April 26^th

Class 7: Comparatives

Before: The day before this class, I was really excited to teach comparatives to students because it is an easy topic and because  we were going to be talking about dogs and cats which are two animals that students know very well. This day I was going to be in charge of the reading part, and I had prepared a lot of material.

During: As the class started, I realized that there were only two students in the classroom.However, I decided to start my class, but I was also waiting for more students to come. As the time passed,  the same two students were there, only. I got disappointed to see that the rest of the students were not taking advantage of this great opportunity they have to learn English, but fortunately the two students who were in the class, were the most intelligent ones, so we finished all the “during activities” successfully. Also, for the "post activities" I gave students some pictures of different dogs and I asked them to compare the dogs. They first wrote the sentencens , and then we discussed about them. I had to modify the activities a little bit because of the amount of students, but the two students did a very good job.

After: After the class, I told my classmates about what had happened in my class, and they could not believe it. They had more than 15 students in their classrooms, and all them were willing to learn. Fortunately, This day I was asked to join Marleny’s class, so I was not going to be teaching to the Don Bonco School’s guys anymore, but to Marleny’s group. I was really happy because I had heard very good comments about that group, and I wanted to teach to students that really wanted to learn.

Week 8  May 03^rd

Class 8: The simple past

Before: This day I was really excited and nervous at the same time because I was going to be working with a new group of students. I knew that most of them were children, so I was thinking if they would engage in all the activities I have planned for the class. I was in charge of the listening part, so I did not have to worry about explaining to much.

During: I started the class by doing an activity for students to introduce themselves. The part I enjoyed the most in that activity was that in which I included a tag with my name in a box where students had also put their tags. They described all their classmates to me, so that I could guess who was the person, but by the time I took out my name from the box and asked them to describe that person so that I could guess (based on the descriptions) who he/she was, they started to look at each other with a big question mark on their faces, and told me “teacher she is not our classmate”. It was in that moment where I told them that it was my name. They started to laugh, and I noticed that the activity was meaningful because in the whole class they were calling me by my name “teacher Konny”. Apart from this activity, all the “during” activities worked really well, even the little ones were participating and understood the instructions.

After: At the end, I asked them to talk about a place they had visited and liked a lot or disliked, and all the teenagers did very well, but children did not do that well, but at least they were trying to do their best. I was really happy to be with those guys because they were willing to learn.

   Week 9 May 17^th

Class 9: There is / There are

Before: This day I was going to be in charge of the grammar part of the lesson. Grammar is very difficult because it requires to think how you will explain something so that it can be meaningful and understandable for students.

I started the class by doing a warm-up called “the supermarket”. The kind of vocabulary I used for that warm up was related to the things that can be found in a supermarket. For example, juice , soda , fruits etc. I thought this activity would help students to get used to kind of vocabulary that was going to be occupied for that class. This Ice-breaker worked very well. Here, I have attached the part of the warm up, so that you can take a look at it.

During: For the presentation and explanation of “there is/ there are” I had thought about having some sentences written on some color pages and paste the sentences on the board. My plan was to explain the structures “there is / there are” by having students looking at the sentences on the board and underline the structure “there is / there are”. Then, I would have explained that “there is” was for singular and “there are” was for plural things. But, I decided to change that activity. I decided to make it even more meaningful by having some sentences and questions with “there is/ there are” cut in pieces and by the time of explaining I was going to move the pieces only or take them out, so that students understood that making sentences, questions or answers with “there is /there are” was just a matter of “adding” or “taking out” things. The explanation went very well, they really understand the structures, and I could notice that because they worked on some exercises and they got all the answers correct.

After: For the last activity, I had planned to make groups of 3 and give an image of some places like the kitchen or the park to each group, but then I decided to change that activity too. I took the students outside the classroom and asked them to go to different parts of the university so that they could tell me what things they saw  using the structures “there is / there are”. Then, we got together again, as a whole group, and shared what students saw. They really loved this activity. They used the structures “there is/ there are” correctly, and some of them counted even ants and flowers. 

My overall learning from  class 5 and class 9

Being an English teacher is not an easy task. It requires a lot of patience, dedication and the “will” to teach. I was very conscious of that when I decided to study this. However, the first time I taught, I got scared because of all the materials and activities a teacher has to plan for every single class. I cannot deny that sometimes I feel that I cannot continue, but when I get to the classroom, and I see all those students waiting for me to teach them English, I get inspired, and they give me forces to continue.

One never stops learning, and from class 5 and 9 I have learned so many things. First, I have learned that you can plan the best class ever with the best activities, but if students do not want to  participate, or if you have only 2 students in the class, you have to continue with or without students. OF course the activities have to be modified, and that is why second plans are so important.

Second, I have learned to explain grammar structures without explaining literally. It means that, I do not give a page with rules and more rules to students. I prefer to explain by having students inferring, or during an explanation, I am not the only one who talks, but I ask my students to help me all the time. For example, if I teach how to make sentences using “there is/ there are” I also ask students to help me make those sentences negative, or I ask them to think how those sentences can be converted into questions and so on. In this way, students might internalize better because they have been an active part of the class.

 Finally, with all the experience I have gotten in this Practicum II, I Feel more prepared to keep teaching. I have also gotten more ideas for activities in the classroom, and I think that was the most important part of having taught the classes in pairs. I learned a lot from the persons I taught the classes with.