My last experience

Hello guys!! I want to share with you my last class of this nice experience.

I started my class by greeting the students and having a chat with them;  then I asked them if they liked old music and they said yes!!! So I gave them a page with thy lyrics of “If you leave me now “’ by Chicago, they had to fill in the blanks with what they listened to, then they sang the song. They enjoyed it a lot because they liked it. After that, I explained the grammar about the first conditional, and they understood fast because I used common examples for them to get the information easier, then they completed some fill in the blanks and created some sentences using the target structure.

 As next activity I asked them to make two groups (A and B) to make a competition, so I pasted a clause in the board and one of the team run and wrote the other clause, in this activity they had to use their imagination, and believe me that they did a great job. Unfortunately I could not perform the last activity in which 3 of them were going to pretend to be candidates for being president, so they were going to use the first conditional making promises and the others were going to choose who was going to be the winner.

At the end I said thank you for their participation, because they were very nice.

I really enjoyed this experience, I learned a lot from my teacher, tutors, students, co worker and all of you. Thank you for every comment and pieces of advice you gave me.  Now we are ready for the next step.

May God bless you all!!!

Second class

Hello guys!! I hope you are happy because we are almost done with this nice experience!

Let me tell you that I had my second class the last Monday; as always I started by greeting them and then I asked them to stand up to play "pass the ball" as warm up, they person who kept the ball had to say something like "I like doing this... but i don not like... or I enjoy, I can,I would like, etc" this to practice gerunds and infinitives. This clas was a review of the same topic "verb patterns" ; after the warmp up they worked in pairs to complete a reading in which they have to write in infinitive o gerund the verb  they had in parenthesis, everything was nice, the only thing was that I did not give them enough time, so some of them did not finish the work and my tutor told me that I should have given more time, because the reading was a little bit long; then I asked them to form two teams and I gave them some situations, in which they had to help people by giving pieces of advice, I told them the verbs they should use; I did this to know if they could use the target structure and I felt happy beacause they did it very well!!!

To finish the class we used a dice, I asked 3 volunteers and they throw it, in two of the faces the word "candy" , the other two "say a sentences using to or ing" and the other one" magic bag" so they had to take a paper from it and had to answer the question using the target structure.

I enjoy this class as well and now I am waiting for my last one!! Thank you very much, have a good day!!

My first class

I had my class with intermediate I the last Thursday. The topic was "Verb patterns" I found it a little hard because there are a lot of rules and verbs for them to learn.

I started my class with a warm up called "the ping pong words" all of you already know it; it did not work as it did with us, anyways they had fun at the end.

After that, I introduced the topic by asking them about gerunds and infinitives to know how much they knew about the topic, then I explained them 4 patterns; when they should use infinitives, gerunds, modals and both (infinitives and gerunds); then I asked them to make pairs to work in a written activity and when they finished I checked their work with the whole group.

For the last activity I asked for 3 volunteers and 3 of them run; we played "about me" in which you as teacher ask them about what they like or dislike, enjoy etc, they have to use the patterns in this game; so I did some questions like "what do you enjoy doing in your free time? So they started to use the target language and it was great!!

This is a nice group, they like to participate because they are eager to learn, and if they do not understand something they ask.

Thank you for your comments and pieces of advice guys!!!

Intermediate I

I had my class the last Monday and I enjoyed it a lot, because the students were very active and participative. I began the class with a warm up activity that was also the presentation of the topic; I made a chart with the name of the topic (Phrasal verbs) and prepared some numbers made with foamy to cover the topic. I wrote some questions using the common phrasal verbs like “When do you usually get up?” so they chose one number and I asked them the question with that number, at the end they saw the topic and I started with the grammar explanation. I gave a list of 12 phrasal verbs and I worked just with those ones; after the explanation I gave them two sheets of paper with the controlled practice and they did a good job. After that, I pasted some phrasal verbs around the classroom and I asked them to make two groups to make a competition; I said the meaning of the pv and they had to run and get the correct pv, they had fun with this activity and I could see how much they had understood the topic. At the end, I asked them to make one sentence using a pv, then they were going to pass in front to the class and read his/ her sentence, but saying “jigglypuff” instead of the pv, so that the others could guess the pv, this activity was to see if they could use the target structure, and they did a great job and had fun.

 Thank God I am learning a lot with the practices. When I received the feedback I realized that I have improved a lot, and it made feel proud of myself, because it is nice when you see the results of your effort.

Thank you for your comments my friends, blessings!!

Intermediate I

Hello guys! I hope you are doing well.  Let me tell you that I had my second class with this group the last Monday and this was a special class, because I had some problems with my attitude. As my tutor told me, this is good for us to happen in our practices for gaining experience.

I have always tried to be on time in my classes, but I could not arrive on time that day and it affected me a lot; to be sincere I do not know what happened to me that day.

The topic was comparative and superlatives; I started my class with a song (Fighter by Christina Aguilera) as warm up, and they had to underline the adjectives, but while the music was playing I noticed that no one was underlining, so I asked some of them and they told me that they did not remember what an adjective is. When the music stopped I explained to them what an adjective is; after underlying the adjectives I told them that we were going to sing the song and I played the song again, but I saw some of them talking, so I stopped the music and told them “as nobody is singing I am going to start with the grammar explanation!”, everybody got like surprised and I started. I just wanted to take advantage of the time and I did not realize what I was doing.

I used a power point presentation to explain the topic and it was nice, because they understood, I included some exercises in the ppt and they solved them on the board. After that, I gave them some sheets of paper with more exercise and I explained the doubts they had. Every time they were with their cell phones I said “please put your cell phones away!!!” or “speak in English!!!”

When I finished my class, I apologized for having arrived late and thanked them for their participation.  I like to analyze what I do in every class, and that day  I felt bad and ashamed because of my attitude, I am not in that way. In my feedback the teacher told exactly what I have told me myself before; the students asked the teacher was happed with me, they asked him “Was she angry? She is not like that” I was with them the last semester. A girl thought that I got angry because she was with her cell phone and they tried to guess why I got angry for some minutes he said. I was not angry; I do not know what happened with me that day. The teacher told me that he was surprised, and that I have to control myself in my classes. I appreciated every word he told me and I know that I was worried because of the time and other things, but I am sure this won´t happen again, I will be better in the next classes.

Your pieces of advice are welcome. Thank you very much!!

Intermediate I (second period, first class)

I had my first class with this group the last Monday, and I was eager to start, because I had this group the last semester and I remember that it was a little bit hard, for they were afraid of making mistakes; that is why, they did not like to participate. In the observation I could see that now they are totally different and love to participate.

I started the class by greeting them and saying what I want in my classes; then I began the warm up activity "Follow the leader", and they had fun; then I made a review of "the verbs with two objects"; after that, they practiced the topic with some exercises I gave to them and they did it very well. I could see that they had understood the topic.

 For the next activity, I divided them into 2 groups for making a competition activity, so I gave an envelope with some sentence strips to each group for them to form the sentences putting the indirect and direct object correctly. They showed me that they knew what they were doing; both groups did it very well.

I finished the class by saying thank you for their participation, they are a nice group, believe me that they are totally different and that is great!

Thank you for your time and comments my friends!

Intermediate I

Hello guys!! This is my last class with this group and I liked it. I started by greeting them as every class, and then we played “The hot seat” , I divided them into two groups and each group had to choose someone who had to be sitting in front of them to guess a word that the teacher had written on the board. The others had to mimic for the person to guess it. I used words like ghost, scary story, dark, monsters, etc. After that, they had a listening in which two persons were talking about scary stories, and they liked it, they worked in pairs; one of them answered the first part and the other one the other part, it was nice because they had a listening quiz after my class. Then, they worked in groups of 5 and I gave them a sheet of paper with a scary story, they had to read it and create a new one using the target structure (past simple and past continuous) and although we did not have enough time, they did their best and created the scary stories practicing the target structure.

Thank God I finished the practices of the first period and I know that we all have learned and improved a lot. Thank you, for your comments and suggestions guys, blessings!!!

Intermediate I

I had my class on Monday 12^th and I started by greeting the students. Then,  I developed the warm up activity which consisted on a game known by them,  I called it “the hanged man” and the words I used was the verbs, but in the past tense, they had fun, but I realized that they do not know the past of some verbs. The topic was “Simple past and Past continuous”; after the warm up, I explained the grammar point and I felt very nice, because I was not nervous and the students understood the topic. The next activity was the controlled one and I gave them a sheet of paper that contained 3 exercises, in which they practiced the simple past, the past continuous and in the third one they practiced the use of both and thank God they did it very well. I could not continue because of the time, but I felt fine because I know they understood the topic.

I felt more comfortable in this class, because I knew the students a little bit and it helped me to prepare the class. I hope to read your comments; it will be a pleasure for me, believe me that your pieces of advice are important and I learn a lot from them. Thank you a lot, blessings!

Intermediate I (First class)

Hello there!! I hope you are fine.

I had the first class of this semester on Monday 29th, and it was a hard day for me, because  my great grand mother had problems with her health and I could not leave home early, so I came really late to the University, but I talked to the teacher and thank God she understood the situation and gave me the second hour.

I started the class by greeting the students and introducing myself, then  I developed a warm up activity called “truth or lie” in which they write 3 sentences (2 of them are true and the other one false) and at the end , they guess what the lie is; they had fun and and get relaxed, because I started my class after a quiz.  After that, I explained the grammar structure (so and such) I gave them  some examples describing some of them and they understood the topic; then they solved a multiple choice activity and I noticed that they did not make many mistakes, and that made me feel great. I could not develop the rest of the lesson plan, because as I told you before, I had som problems at home and I had to teach in the second hour, also they had a quiz, so I taught just 30 minutes. Even though I did not have enough time, I can say that I did my best, because I was worried about my grandma, but I left my problems when I began the class and that made me feel that I have improved a lot.

Thank you for reading and leave you comments, I wish you the best and I know that every of us is learning new things, blessings my friends!!

Basic level (Last class)

Today ( May, 20^th) I had my last class with this group. I started the class with a warm up in which the teacher starts by saying; for example, “I went to the market and I bought some fish”, then, the students have to continue this by saying something similar, but using another word related with food, this game was for them to practice the vocabulary about food and introduce the topic “countable and uncountable nouns”. Then, I explained the topic, besides explaining the countable and uncountable nouns, I explained the use of “some and any”, unfortunately I had to improvise, because I had some problems with technology. After that, I gave the students a sheet of paper that contained a list of vocabulary about food and they had to write if they were countable or uncountable, they had some problems with some words, but they did it very well, because as the teacher told me, they already knew about the topic. In the next activity they imagined that they were going to go to a picnic the next day, so they needed to prepare a shopping list for going to the market, I gave them some minutes for them to write the list, then 3 volunteers shared what they had written and believe me that they did a great job. The last activity was a race board, I asked them to make two groups (A and B) and then they made two lines in front of the whiteboard, group A had to write uncountable nouns and group B the countable ones, they started to write and had fun, after some minutes I said “stop!” and checked what they had wrote, I felt glad, because the only mistake that one of the group had was a repetition of a word.

I am happy for having finished this experience, It was very nice for me to learn in this way; I learned from every tutor I had, and also from my co worker.  I had good and bad moments and every time was a lesson for me. I hope you have enjoyed these practices my friends. Thank you for your comments!! May God bless you all!!!

Basic level

On Wednesday 8th, I had my second class with this group; I taught that day, because of mother's day. I started the class with a game called "people to people" as warm up, in which you have to say different parts of the body like knee to knee and the students have to look for another person and put together the parts of the body the teacher says, and when the teacher says "people to people" all the class get together. Then, they performed two written activities for them to practice the negative and interrogative form of the past tense; I saw again that they continue having problems with this tense, and tried to explain one more time. After that, we had an activity called "yesterday" in which one of them had to past in front of the classmates and tell a little bit about what he/she did yesterday, then the others had to make some questions to that person in order to get more information. They practiced the interrogative form with this activity and I could correct them if I heard any mistake. 

At the end, I performed an activity named "balloons", in which they had to pass a teddy bear while some music was playing, when the music stopped the person who kept the teddy bear had to stand up and burst one of the balloon that were pasted on the wall, inside the balloon there was a paper with a sentence is the past tense, they had to change it and write on the board the negative or interrogative form of those sentences. 

Thank God they did it well, and there was just a mistake.

I felt that the first class was better than this one, maybe because of the activities, but what matters is that they practiced more the topic to be more prepared for the exam. I will do it better next time.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions people!! Blessings!! :)

Basic level

I had the class with this level today and I enjoyed it a lot. This group is very particular because there is just one boy, another thing is that the most of them have failed the subject 3 times, so probably they will not be able to continue with the major, because according to the teacher, they will fail one more time; so when I was preparing the lesson, I thought to do something meaningful for them.

I started by dividing the class in two groups, then I told them some verbs in present tense, and they had to run and write the verb in the past tense on the board, the group that wrote the verb correctly got a point, they had fun and I could diagnose how much they know about the topic. After that, I asked them to work in pairs and I gave them a crossword in which they had to write the verb in past, they did it very well, they just made a mistake in one verb. For the next activity, I gave them a sheet of paper with the lyrics of a song that had some mistakes in the verbs, so they had to underline the mistakes and correct them. After that, they played the tic tac toe and I noticed some mistakes there; they had to pick a piece of paper with a verb in present, then they had to write a sentence using that verb in past tense, and they had problems doing this, but was harder for them to write a question; so I tried to explain a little bit and then each group wrote a question and believe me that they did it very well, they did not forget the auxiliary this time.

I like this group, because I think it is a challenge and I love that, because you get experience. You do not know what future brings to your life, so we have to take advantage of each experience we have.

Last class with Intermediate II

I had my last class with this group the last Tuesday, and let me tell you that it was a little hard for me to get their attention, because it was the first day of class, and I noticed that they were shy, because they did not want to participate and they told me they were tired.

The topic was the future tense (going to, will and present continuous) and it was a review, so I did not have to explain it.

As warm up I performed a ring onion activity and I asked them to stand up and make two circles, the students who were in the inner circle were called students B and the other ones students A. They walked while some music was playing and when the music stopped they had to stop as well, and discuss some questions regarded to the topic. They had fun with this activity and the teacher told me that he liked it, but it would have been better if they would have created the questions. Then, we discussed some questions about the future, but they did not use the future tense in the most of the answers, so I had to tell them that they had to pay attention to the structure of the question. After that, I asked them to make groups of 4 and then I gave them a board game, some beans and a pair of dices, and they enjoyed the game. At the end, they passed a ball while some music was playing and when the music stopped the student who kept the ball had to stand up and choose a paper from the magic bag, the papers contained questions that students had to answer using the future tense. At the end, I thanked them for being so kind and participative.

I really enjoyed the practice with this group, because it was different; they are participative, but not too much! You have to be a very enthusiastic teacher for them to participate; I know I have to learn a lot of things, but this experience was very nice! It was like a challenge, they have some problems with some topics they have studied before, and this one was not the exception, they asked a lot of things and you have to be ready to answer! So I learned to read a lot before teaching with this group and that is great!!

Thank you for your time, thank you for reading my entry and for your comments! May God bless you all J

Intermediate II

Yesterday, I had my second class with this group. I started my class by greeting the students, and then we started with the warm up activity. To introduce the topic, I brought some pictures in which there was a person doing or making something, the topic was "Make and Do", so I asked the students to guess what the person in the picture was doing or making; for example, in an image, there was a person talking by phone and they said that the boy was making a telephone call. I showed them 10 pictures in that way and I realized that they already knew something about the topic. I did that activity to diagnose their knowledge.

After that, I explained the topic, 3 rules for make and 3 rules for do, I included also some exceptions and after their questions, I gave them a sheet of paper with some fill in the blanks exercises, in these exercises they had to be careful with the tenses, and was in this moment when the time started to run very fast! They had problems not with make and do, but with the tenses, they started to make mistakes like “Don´t forget to does your homework” and others, I spent a lot of time trying to correct them, because it was a hard work in every single sentence, and there were 10, so I could not finish my lesson one more time. Anyways, it is a nice experience and I like to learn in every practice I have.

I was going to use a dice in the next activity, 2 faces with make, 2 faces with do, and 2 faces with the word candy. In this game students are passing the dice while some music is playing, when the teacher stops the music, the person who keeps the dice, goes to the front and throws it, if he/ she gets make, the student has to tell a sentence using it, the same with do, and if the pupil gets the word candy, you know what happens.

I shared the activities I cannot develop, because of the time, for you to use them if you like them.

I am eager to read your suggestions and comments, thank you a lot!

Intermediate II

I had my first class with Intermediate II today. I came early and started to prepare the things I was going to use for the class. When the teacher came I started the class by greeting the students and introducing myself. As warm up activity,  we listened to a song called "I never gonna leave this bed" by Maroon Five. This song introduced the topic "prhasal verbs", after that I explained the grammar part; to be sincere I felt a little bit nervious in that moment, because I was thinking that maybe the topic was too difficult, but thank God the Ss understood the topic very well. I focused on inseparable prhasal verbs and I taught just nine to avoid to give the Ss a lot of information. Then I gave them a sheet of paper with multiple choice exercises related with the prhasal verbs we had studied before; after that they worked in pairs and made sentences using some phrasal verbs. At the end they were going to work in groups and write a short story using the phrasal verbs, but unfortunately time was not enough. I took a lot of time in the grammar explanation; that is why, I could not finish my lesson, but I will be more careful next time.
I really like this group, they are kind and although they are shy, they try to participate. I like their attitud, they are eager to learn, and although I took a lot minutes when I explained the grammar, they were paying attention all the time.

English Access (last class)

I had my last class with English Access yesterday. I was nervous, because I had to explain the 

relative pronouns and I remember that it was a little hard for me when I studied it some time ago. I started with the warm up activity, I asked the students to stand up and make a circle, then they walked around me and I asked to make groups saying something like ¨people who are wearing the same color shoes make groups!!¨. This activity was to introduce the relative pronouns. After that, in the grammar part I explained to them the use of relative p. and I gave them some examples, as well. Then I gave them two writing practices to see if they had understood the topic, at the end in the wrap  up, we played “the hot potato” playing some music, the person who keep the potato had to describe him/herself using the relative pronoun; for example: I am a person who likes to help others.

A thing I love is the feedback, because you know your mistakes and learn from them, and also because the tutor gives you some pieces of advice. It is nice to know that they share with you part of their experience. I really liked the group I had; the teens are really kind and participative. Now I am eager to know what group will be the next one, and anxious to learn more.

English Access (second class)

Hello people! Today I had my second teaching practice. At the beginning I was very nervous

because I realized that not just my tutor was going to observe my class, but also an American man. Well, I started my class by asking them how they were and about the last day they were together, because I knew they had celebrated Valentine’s Day and they shared a little bit about that day. For the warm up activity I asked them to make two groups, then they named the groups, and made two lines, so I said a sentence to the last student, this one had to say it to the other, until the first one got it to write it on the board. The group that kept the original sentence was the winner and they get a candy. Then they had a writing activity, after that a speaking one. They practiced the daily routines using the simple present and adverbs of frequency in those activities. I could not finish the lesson plan because of the time, but I will share the activity for you to use it when you need it.  The students write the things they like to do on a piece of paper given by the teacher, then they put it in a bag; after that they have to pick up one and read it aloud for the others to guess who wrote it. The student who guesses gets a candy.

I liked the class, because I felt comfortable with the students, they like to participate and it is very nice!

I had some problems with CCQ, because I asked for a lot of information and also with some grammar structures, because I was nervous, but my tutor gave me some pieces of advice.

I would like to read yours suggestions, thank you very much!!

English Access (1st class)

I had my first class yesterday, and it was very nice, because I was not so nervous as I thought. 
I started the class by introducing myself and then I shared a beautiful relfection with them. I really liked their attitud, because they were so eager to participate!! In the warm - up activity I asked them to stand up, then we made a circle and passed a teddy bear to practice the simple present. They had fun and practiced the topic at the same time (the class I taught was just a review of the simple present) After that they had a written, a reading and a speaking activity. At the end I took 3 colored balls,and they passed them, when I said STOP they stopped passing it and 3 of them keep one ball, each color meant each form of the simple present, so the students who kept them had to create a sentence in the affirmative form, a question or a sentece in the negative form. 
I really liked this experience and it was nice to see that the students want to participate and learn as much as they can, because it motivates me to prepare the class even better.