Second class (Sept. 10th)

 Hello dear readers. Today I want to share with you the second excited Saturday with the Teaching Practicum II. You are right, I am talking about the Practicum with “teenagers” which I consider my “best school” to learn how to become a better teacher. I want to start by saying that I enjoy every moment whit this 16 students and their occurrences and of course with my tutor, who is a creative and funny young lady.

In this class, as it is usual, my tutor started with the community building. The teacher asked them to make a table and divide it into 9 squares on their notebooks, so they could write down the name of animals in each square, and if they had the animal mentioned by the teacher they had to cross it out until one student had no one to scream: “Animal Bingo”. Everyone was expecting what the teacher would say, even me, so I would like to do it with my own students.

After this, before reading the chapter, she asked them to answer some questions about the previous class, so they could activate squemata to get ready for the following reading section. I considered that the teacher wanted to check how much students learn what I think it is more than important. Then, students were asked to ask one each other some questions related with the new topic and give their opinions. The topic was related with the Trauma that people can have when they are foreigners in any country. I would just modify a little bit this activity. I think it is better that after one student gives his opinion ask to the rest what they think, so we can have more details and ideas.

Also, a video with interviews about students in foreign countries was shown, so
students could take notes about what they were able to listen. I liked it because I could see how students were paying attention to every detail, and how they would give their answers. I think that this was a good activity because they were using most of the skills like: listening, writing, and reading. Another activity was to match expressions with their meanings. I liked it mostly when I realized that I was participating by giving my matching, too. This was a good way to engage students with the topic, so when they had to read, they would understand better. Then, students read a second set of paragraphs (taking time) and then they answer some of the questions on their books.

But what I enjoyed the most was when I performed a role play with one of the students. It is supposed that I was a exchange student from the USA and the other girl was a citizen and she helped me with some information to had a good time in El Salvador. I was very excited and I could see how students were looking at me curiously. Then I helped reading some phrases, and students had to put the phrases (the ones they had in pieces of paper) with the corresponding verb. I liked that to make the pairs the teacher gave us litter pieces of paper with a number, so the one who had the same number should be a pair. I also learned that technology helps a lot because students used their phones to take time while they were reading.

As a conclusion, I think you will not read in my blogs anything negative or that I would not an activity, and I say this because my tutor is very creative and there are moments in which my notebook is not enough to write down every single detail. I will learn a lot in this stage of my Major. I am proud of everything because I am doing my best.