Im done...uju so happy no more teaching practice...

It seems like I am happy because I wont teach in these days anymore but I am not completely happy because I will miss to be worried before every class and I will also miss all those great experiences that make my life during one year by practicing to be a teacher.
Before I started with my teaching practice, I never realized what good it is when someone is calling you around: hi, teacher;  and how goo I felt for doing something that I loved to do over these months.
The teacher gave me my last grade which was very nice, and I am expecting my class was the same.

I was not that prepared as in the last classes but I was working with enthusiasm , so probably that helped me. The attitude is what  matters when you are teaching because even when you can prepare many activities for a class if you dont enjoy what you are doing nobody else will do it.

As the end, I just want to have some other experiences at teaching that can help me to improve and learn more every single day.

second time teaching in this period

uffff almost done just missing one class and I am still being very happy in the technical English...It was hard to start teaching after many days off but everything was fine.
My class was great because It was just a  review of the last class we had with the group; it was about simple present short answers,  and was purely practice about that.
I did not get a very very very nice grade because probably since the class was just a review there was not too much effort or planification for my part, and I am in agreement with the grade because it was an easy class jijijji
The teacher as always let me know about some mistakes in the practice but she is very nice when giving feedback.
I am more than excited for the last class and I am planning to do my best on it. 
Good Luck for everyone I hope you have really enjoyed your teaching practice as me...

Great week for teaching

This week was a great one; I started to teach after two beautiful weeks of vacation on that and the best thing is that I am teaching once again in the technical English which is a class that I really like. My tutor teacher is very nice and the girls in the class are always helping me in the class by participating a lot in every activity.
I started my first class using all my experience in that level because in the first period I was teaching there, so I asked the teacher on time about the topic that I shoul present and everything was fine when teaching. I did not even feel the time because I was enjoying my practice and that´s nice because I am almost at the end of this work.
And........tan tan tan tan tann I got a very good grade, yessss and I am very happy because I know that when I worked hard on something I can have a reward.
I already got the topics that I will use for the next classes and that is giving me a lot time to prepare my practice, so I am expecting I can do it every time better.

The last class yesss yes yes yes yes yes yes tes but in the Intermediate group.

I already finished with my very last class in the Intermediate group; I dont know why but all the first classes and the last ones in a group are the most difficult ones. Right now I dont even know how bad or god I worked on my practice because this is my last class, and I have not been able to get any of the 4 grades that I got for this period.
I started the class with the new lesson plan which is about comparatives and superlatives; I started the class with the warm up activity that has  nothing to do with the topic but it helps me to have my  students less stress by getting fun at least for a while.
The second activity was based on the lesson´s plan presentation in which students were told to go to the book and answer a kind of survey about healthy habits. As I was afraid, just two students have the book, so what I did is that I read every of the questions and the studenst were told to choose any of the answers either option A, B OR C.

The third activity was a speaking activity by always using some of the questions that we have in the book. The classmated were sharing their answers to their classmates one by one.
This is the activity that works better for me in the class because I felt it was more enjoyable for them.
I hope to get my grades because I dont even have an idea about them so I let you know later (=

After these four classes lets take a break yes yes yes no classes for next week jijijij yupi

My third opportunity with the Intermediate group.

I already finished with my third class at the Intermediate English I and as always in every class, I learned many new things. 

I started my class with a warm up activity that was very helpful for the students to review and remember the previous class with me; I gave to them in the last class a list of verbs that can be followed by gerunds, infinitives or both. We used a ball for the activity and every time a student throw the ball they were saying any of the verbs they remember about the list I gave to them. To start the class the activity was very fun and that help them to start the practice about the same topic with a little bit more of motivation.

In the second activity, I worked in a listening practice that it was assigned and created in the lesson plan but I faced the problem that not all the students have the book, so I made them to work in groups and in that way everyone has access to the listening practice. I had some problems because I did not have the book and also I did not hear the track first so the practice was a little improvised. The teacher let me know about this situation in the feedback, so I am sure it would never happened to me again  jiji.

For the third activity, I brought to the class a reading practice in which they need to fill in the blanks the information missing and then all the class participated in the reading as well one by one.  

For the last activity, I encouraged my students to work as a group again and for this time they have to comment some of the differences between women and men at the time of doing some activities such us: buying, watching TV etc.

Second day of practice for this period... (=

Hello my dear and lovely chickens!!!!!!!

I already finished with my second practice in the Intermediate group.

Today in my class, I started with a great warm up which name was “backs to the board”.

That game was like the same we did in the presentation with Maritza but I made some changes and I adapted the activity with the class, so I was a nice to introduce the class.

I taught the topic of gerunds and infinitives with was not that difficult when I checked the lesson plan but in the real practice with the some students I realized that I need to be very careful to explain about some details because for some of the students the topic can be a little bit complicate.

In the feedback my tutor teacher told me that in this kind of topics the practice is one of the main points at the time of teaching.

In the second part of the class, I brought some examples about the verbs that can help the students to identify whether they can use gerunds or infinitives in a sentence, and they were taking notes about everything, so that told me how much interest they had for the class.

In the middle of the class, I played another game called the “basketball game” in order to check if my students were getting a clear idea on the topic, and it worked because their answers were very nice and appropriate.  They enjoyed the activity because I brought a basket and some balls for the groups and the activity was like a competition for them to answer.

Guys, I could not get my grade but the feedback time was very nice because I learned a lot from my tutor teacher and for my next class I am sure I will learn more.

The most significant learning for me in this day was related with monitoring the class. In my last feedback my tutor told me that I should be monitoring the class a little bit more and I did it today.

The results were amazing because every time I got close to the groups they asked to me many things and showed their work to me which I am sure they would not do it if I get far of them. The teacher said, the students have always questions but normally they don’t ask because they feel ashamed to ask in public.

My first class with the intermediate I (=

As any first time  knowing a group in the first class, I started a little bit nervous but as soon as the students arrived into the class  I was feeling better because I remember that those were the same students with  I was with the last semester in my practice.
I started my class by letting the students know about the purpose of the class and by telling them what I was expecting to achieve in that hour.
I love the way the students were trying to particpate in the class and also what comfortable they made me feel during the time that I was there.
I started my class reviewing about the topic that I was assigned; I got some problems to get information about the the topic which was Rejoinders because the lesson plan was not ready so I had to look for the material. I prepared for my class like around 4 activities which were nice.
After I got the feedback, I realized that I was not that prepare as I am supposed to be because the warm up activity was just a review of the topic and it was not really funny so I saw the students a little  bit sad, tired or bored. The teacher told me that I should always prepare a game for the first moment of the class because the students need to relax before starting the class. It perfectly knew about the importance of a warm up activity in every class but I got confused because the last time the same teacher told me that I should not be just playing in the class, and that the warm up activity should be completely depending on the topic to be teach.
I felt sad after knowing that because the last time I was teaching with him I played too much and today the class was not really dynamic jajajajjaja .... )= Too bad for me
I know that the next class can be better, I am really expecting to finally have a lesson plan for the level and have the information on what I have to teach in advance because it is really hard to prepare classes when you dont have the material........

What a first class...... ):

I should not be that sad at describing my first class because actually the class was not that bad, but I started the class a little bit sad with bad news. Those bad news really affected the mood in which I supposed to be starting the class and at the end the class was not what I though it will be.  I came into the classroom before 2 pm and most of the girls of the class were already there waiting for me; that surprising me a lot because normally I was the first one to be in the class getting ready with the material but this time I did it with my students already in the classroom. Since the teacher came into the classroom she told me that I will have some problems with a misunderstanding that I got from last week and that she needs to talk to me and she was so serious that I was afraid and I spent the whole class thinking about What can be that serious? All the girls knew also about the problem and that was even more bad.
Finally, I started the class by playing a game that will help me to know about some of the names of the students in the classroom; I could see that the girls were getting fun but they got tired of the game very quick,  probably for next time I need to take into consideration the types of students I am going to be gettting in a class because all my students are just girls and most of them are probably around 24 to 28 years old and that is why  I should not be selecting games that are sometimes for boys or teens.
After the warm,I introduced the class with some flashcards that help me to teach some of vocabulary that I will be using in the class. I tried to make my students to participate as much as I can,so they can learn by doing the things by themselves.  I did not have any problem with the girls in the participation because they were really helping me and supported me in every activity. That made me feel happy.
Also because I was teaching the grammar use of "that and this" I brought for the class a page if the main information plus some examples and pictures of it. At the end I am not sure if they really like the class but in a kind manner they gave me clasp (:
Now, after this first experience; I am trying to get the things as normal because this must not be something new for me anymore. Lets see what happen for next class. ufff nervous again.

Kind of late but I'm done yessssssssss

It is hard to believe how fast we go because these are the very last days of classes and I already finished my teaching practice, so I am feeling great and ready for next teaching practice. I can not compare all the experience I got this semester with all the theory and concepts we learned during these five years.
It is not that I learned how to teach at all because of my teaching practices; what it really happened is that I am not afraid to teach anymore as I was when I started teaching. The thing is that I never got this opportunity before, so you can not hate or dislike something that you have never tried. And my wish for next semester is learn a lot and make my students learn as well . In my last class the teacher told me that the classroom management was great just some grammar problems but that's it. When I left the classroom I said bye and thanks to my students but when I was almost out of the classroom someone I dont know who said aloud: BYE, YOU ARE A GREAT TEACHER............ in my last class I wont never forget how happy and satisfied I felt after I listened this. All worth it.

I am still missing one class but I am almost at the end jaja

My third class in the basic level and everthing seems to be ok as in  the last classes but always I am trying to bring different activities for the students so I can make sure they are working with interesting and different activities. On the last class I could noticed that they really like music also the teacher was singing and almost dancing; I played a song to work in a game and they looked really enjoying the music as a background. I chose the song taking into consideration that most of my students are girls and a beyonce song was the selected one. It is kind of different even to choose just one single song because it does not have to be a song that you like, It needs to be a song that matches according to your students.....
As a feedback the teacher told me that the classroom management was great an just I need to be more careful in my grammar.
Something important...even that class was not my last class I recorded a part of it, I could not have more space in my camera for the whole class but I will probably take another part for the other class so I have a complete video...thank you guys for your time and see you with my video I guess next class

I can not even believe this we are almost out...

 I can not believe how fast this semester has happend that I am missing just two more classes in my teaching practice and that will be it for this period uffffffffff WORRIED to imagine that I have to get a video of my class ]...jjaj it will be a shame.
But I was feeling so good in my class because the teacher really helps me a lot and his feedbacks are really helping me to improve my performance. The last time I dont think I got a better grade like in the first class because when the teacher knows you more he is taking care more on those mistakes that need to be checked inmediately after the class. The teacher told me that my classroom management in really good but i should be more careful about my grammar mistakes.
I am very excited next class will be the very last opportunity to fixed all those things that I did not do well during this semester because we are close to the end and a video for the last class is waiting for me. jijij

More experiences and in the last days teaching for this period.....

Ummm Since we started the semester I was expecting to be teaching in a basic level because we were so nervous just with the idea of teaching in the major that we though that being in a basic level will be better than being in an advanced level. In my case I started in the Intermediate group that was even hard than the advanced group in my second period. Now that I worked with the basic level there is no more nervousness, everything becomes normal over the time and classroom management seems to be natural in  the lasst classes; I know that there will never be enough experience that teach us how to be  good teachers because we are going to be learning forever, but the secutity you get over the time depends on those experiences.
I am very happy today because the basic group was really nice with me; they were working hard and  the better thing is that I got a good grade yeihhhhhhhhhhhhhh (=
The new group really motivated me to plan more funny activities for next class because I can see that they are hard workers, they enjoy dynamics and they really want to learn.... let seeeeeeeeeee what will happen next class???/

Technology of the future. How far will we get??????

Kind of late but here it is

Hi after many weeks but now this is the last one......

Hi guys, Its me again jaja. I hope you were doing great in your last classes because in my very last class today with the advanced group was great.  I am happy because I could finished but I am a little bit sad too because I will miss that group. That group is a really nice, I can not even explain how well they behaved and they helped me in every single class. It was not a day that they don't work or participate a lot. It is nice.
jaj and I am not telling you this because I was teaching in that group jaj but because they are really hard workers.
Since I start teaching this is one of my best experiences and I hope things can be great as it were this time.
I am very excited now to work with the basic group but I am not even worried because I already taught in the two more difficult levels..... ufff so let see what happened.

Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions

Second time teaching in the Advanced level and the students are really nice, well I have not been in all the groups but this second group is great. The students are dynamic and they have very good English skills, so that is why for me it is not difficult to be there teaching. I enjoy being in the class even when I dont have too many students; they are around ten but just eight students are always in class.
It is very curious because we have the concept that if there are many students in a classroom teaching will  be hard, but also if you dont have a large number of students it will be hard because when you bring group games or activities you dont have enough students so I have to take into consideration all of these aspects too.
I received some sugestions from my tutor teacher and one of those ones is write examples on the board or print them to give them to the students because I bring some examples about collocations regarding mind but they did not have time to copy these information in their notebooks.

"You teach better what you most need to learn''

Hey guys, I hope you miss me jiij. Well, yesterday was my first day at teaching in the advance level the last week I had some problems to go to the classroom because it seems that the schedule of the class  does not fit well with my classes, so I had to make some arrangements with the teacher and ask for some permissions because she wants me to visit the classroom two days a week; One day observing the class and the real day of teaching. The first time when the teacher told me about this requirement I was not happy with the idea but now I can tell you guys that the observation class help me to know  how was the environment of the class and I could also  know about  the students. After the observation the next day I feel great and I did not know anything about nervousness. I really like the new group because they participate a lot and they work enthusiastically in every activity. The teacher was helping a lot with the pratice, she received me kindly inside od the classroom and is always giving feedback and advices that I am sure will help me. I was a little bit scared about this teacher because I know she is strict and dedicate about her job, but and thaks God she made me feel secure instead of scared. Now I know that the relationship and  the communication level with the tutor is also an important part of this process.
I hope this period can goes better that the previous one because I am feealing better with this group and I know that the things that did not work well with the last group will help me to improve and learn even more.

Guys if you use the title of my post well this a quote I found before the class and I really like I bring this to my students and they like it too, so I hope to always find something like this message that encourage me to continue in this process of learning. Hope you like it. :)

Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom

As the Internet becomes an increasingly pervasive and persistent influence in people's lives, the phenomenon of the blog stands out as a fine example of the way in which the Web enables individual participation in the marketplace of ideas.

Teachers have picked up on the creative use of this Internet technology and put the blog to work in the classroom. The education blog can be a powerful and effective technology tool for students and teachers alike.

 What is a blog?
A blog (sometimes referred to as a weblog) is a Web publishing tool that allows authors to quickly and easily self-publish text, artwork, links to other blogs or Web sites, and a whole array of other content.
Blogs are set-up like conventional Web sites, with navigation links, and other standard Web site features. Blogs have one standard characteristic, however: the posting. Blog postings are text entries, similar to a diary or journal, which include a posting date and may include comments by people other than the author, photos, links, or other digital media.

User-Friendly Technology
Fortunately for teachers, blogs are surprisingly easy to use. They require minimum technical knowledge and are quickly and easily created and maintained. Unlike many traditional Web sites, they are flexible in design and can be changed relatively easily. Best of all, students will find them convenient and accessible via home or library computers.

Educational Benefits of Blogs
In addition to providing teachers with an excellent tool for communicating with students, there are numerous educational benefits of blogs. Blogs are:

• Highly motivating to students, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in classrooms.
• Excellent opportunities for students to read and write.
• Effective forums for collaboration and discussion.
• Powerful tools to enable scaffolded learning or mentoring to occur.

Using the Blog in the Classroom
As an educational tool, blogs may be integrated in a multi-faceted manner to accommodate all learners. Blogs can serve at least four basic functions.  

Classrrom management

Collaboration

Discussions

Students portfolios

 

Steps for Getting Started on Blogs
There are a number of free blogging tools available.

1. Go to one of the available free blogging sites (Blogger at www.blogger.com is a very popular one).
2. Provide the necessary information requested. (user name, password)
3. Create a title for your blog.
4. Accept terms and select a template.
5. Publish!

Good bye to the intermediate group )=

My last class with the intermediate group was great.  I did not spend too much time with them and I can feel I will miss them.
I really like the last class because I feel they participate and enjoy the games; I bring many activities to the class and they were playing with a big smile in their faces. yessss (=
Well because I was playing a lot, the teacher told me that in the part in whick I have to explain the language notes I took toooooooo much time just in one usage because of those activities, and I miss some other important points. So, what I learned is that the next time I should be more careful with the time that it will be assign to every activity.
And what I did not like is that the teacher arrived to the class late and in the second hour they will be working in a listening exam, so I felt the pressure that I have to leave the class soon jaj because some students were worried and nervous because of the exam.
I really enjoy my first period teaching and I want to be sincere because before this experience  I did not like too much the idea of teaching, but I am thinking carefully about this because it is not too bad, I was having a good time. Now I can say that it is not possible not to like something if you never taste al least. (=
I know, I dont have to much experience as a teacher because this was the very first time teaching in my life but I would like to learn more and more..................

This was a great day..... (=

Hi gallinas................... I am very happy today and let me tell you why. Well, today was my third time teaching, but it was the first time I felt happy and proud after one of my classes.
As I was telling you guys last week about the problem of making my students play and partcipate in some of the activities; well, today that was not a problem anymore.
After this good experience in which I could see my students playing, laughting and partipating a lot; the first words that came into my mind were when the teacher Cristian told us that "we should never think that our students know about an specific game or activity;" that it can be the most common game, but we never know if our students know about that game just because we have been playing that game for years.\
And guess what? I played the SWAP SEATS as a warm-up activity, and they enjoyed the activity a lot that I could see some students comment around that it was a great activity and they wanted to continue playing.(=
And the better part is that I did not bring candies or cookies as I was first thinking, and they participate today in my class succesfully jijiji. YES YES YES YES YES YES YES.
But guys that is only the beggining of a great day....because they also told me that they like my pronunciation jaja believe it or not.
Finally, all these good experiences today encourage me to continue working more, hard and even better because today I proved that I can do it........take care.

Second class and everything looks better.................

Today was my second experience I can say that even better than the last one, this time I was not nervous anymore because I felt that the students are starting to know about me, and I could even see some different faces with big SMILES and I really like it that makes me feel comfortable in the classroom. I felt that my first class was not so dynamic, but for this time I prepared more activities that I though my students can enjoy. I played some music to add something extra in the class and I want to hope they like it.
Yes I really want to hope they like it because the truth is that they dont like to stand up too much but I will still being trying to make them enjoy the class. Most likely I will need to bring some rewards like cookies or candies because it is hard for me to make them participate, I dont know if it is ok, but I will try too (:
And guys I hope you are doing great in your classes too. GOOD LUCK.
   

I am done with my first class gallinas yeihhhhhhhhh.......

Well, today in my first class I can say that was amazing and not because all was perfect; It was amazing because I learned from my mistakes. It is good to know from someone else the things you need to improve because all those teachers that are in charge of us the only thing they want is help me and help you.
jaja and something bad that happened to me during the classs was that one student ask me for something about grammar that I really dont know, so I had to tell him that I will look for it and give him the answer next week........Shame on me. (=
And something good ummmm I guess I like them because they were participating a lot , thanks God.