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Teaching Practicum... Journal III (August 12, 2010)

To learn how to teach is something that takes time. Honestly we say that we teach, but have we learned how to teach indeed?
We need to learn to teach in order to be able to teach others because we never know how we influence the people we teach to.
This was my Third class with Technical English I and until this point I can say that I am happy to know that being in that group has been a nice experience for me and I have nothing to complain about.


To teach English for future Kindergarden teachers was a nice challenge for me. At first I thought that it was going to be hard because I was going to work with a Whole group of girls. There was not a single boy in this group and this made think that these girls were going to be pickier or something similar, but what I didn't know was that in certain aspects it is better to work with girls only.
I really enjoyed every class since the first class and I felt very confident and comfortable since the very beginning of this period. Things went well during my third class thank God. 


*The warm up activity went well, but I have to remember that we have to use the appropriate vocabulary according to the level we are in. We were playing the category game and I asked the students to say the name of any fruit, but some of them didn't know any name, so next time I will consider the vocabulary I have to use.


*The activities went well too. The students worked individually, in pairs, in trios and in groups of 5. I consider that this helps the students to interact each others and to practice the language in a better way. Something related to all the activities we developed is that as a teacher I have to check the pronunciation of certain complicated words in order to avoid making mistakes when teaching the words to the students.


*Finally I want to highlight the importance of making the students to repeat the words, or expressions as much as they can because this will help them to remember the correct pronunciation. Something very important that I want to comment too is the fact of asking the students to pay attention to the teacher or their peers while they are speaking when necessary. Sometimes we do not ask the students to keep silence and this affect our activities because when someone interrupts the class it is harder for others to concentrate on the tasks.


I am gratreful with my tutor teacher for making me observations to improve my classes. Thank to my tutor teacher I have learned important things during my Teaching Practicum.

"A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. " 

Teaching Practicum... Journal II (August 3rd)

Here we are sharing our experiences once again!

This was my second week at Technical English I. And thank God, this week was better than the first one. I consider that things went better because I tried to follow my tutor’s directions and observations. I know that teaching English at any level is a challenge and sometimes we face serious problems, but the rewards of this are better than we imagine because we grow in knowledge and in experience.

I want to share some of the things that went well this week.

• 
  
  Conversation practice was an activity that went well during the class. The girls practiced the conversation at the same time that they were performing it. Something very important when performing conversations is the fact of having the objects the conversations mention for example because this makes the conversation much more real and interesting.
  
• 
  
  Another activity that went well too was an activity in which the students had to write the plural of some nouns using the demonstrative pronouns. I could prove how important is the fact of correcting errors at the moment the students are working because in this way we help our students to do things in the correct way. Otherwise our students are going to think that things are correct in the way they do it.
  
  
• Finally I want to point out the importance of checking out our material before using it. I made some mistakes when I prepared my material and I didn’t check it before printing it. I didn’t notice that I had written the word ADRESS with 3 letters S (ADRESSS) until a student noticed it. So next time I will remember to check things twice or thrice before printing them.
  
  I want to continue doing the things that went well and to change those ones that didn’t work. : )
  

“In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.” ~Jacques Barzun

Teaching Practicum... Journal 1

Teaching is such a challenge for teachers every day. However, these experiences help us to enrich our knowledge and in this way improve our language, techniques, methods, etc. During my first week of teaching practicum I lived new experiences that I never imagined. One of these experiences for example was the fact of teaching Technical English. I had no idea about who my new tutor teacher was going to be neither my group of students, but the truth is that I was surprised to know that I was going to teach only girls!! This was new for me because I had never taught to girls only, but my first experience with them was great. The tutor teacher is a great person, too. I know that the class was not perfect, but there were many things that went well during my first week at Technical English. Some things that went well on my first week were for example:

 The warm up activity. The students enjoyed the warm up activity at the same time that they were practicing what they had learned the previous class.

 The activities went well too because all the students involved in every single activity. This is kind of difficult, but thank God the girls participated in the activities.

 Time was smething that went well during the first class. This is something that I have tried to improve during my previous clases because it is important to keep track of time in the class.

As a human I made mistakes too. Because of a confusion, I only mentioned the objective. Next time I will have to show the objective to the teacher. Something that I have to consider next time is to keep eye contact with all my students eventhough the classroom be narrow. I can mention some other mistakes I made, but I will share them next time. Being an excellent teacher is a challenge. Isn’t it?

EXERCISE: 1

LEVEL: Intermediate +

ACTIVITY: Cloze

SKILLS: Listening/Writing

INSTRUCTIONS

Divide the class into groups A & B
*

Hand out copies of Worksheet-A to each member of Group-A.
*

Hand out copies of Worksheet-B to each member of Group-B
*

Instruct students to fill in the missing words, as you play the song.
*

Do not allow students to compare the words they have written.

SHUT UP

Sung by The Black Eyed Peas Lyrics
(Worksheet A - Woman's words & those of others)

Chorus-1
S_ _ _ u_! J_ _ _ s_ _ _ u_! J_ _ _ u_ [x3]
S_ _ _ i _ u_ ! J_ _ _ s_ _ _ u_! S_ _ _ u_


Chorus-2
W_ t_ _ t_ t_ _ _ i_ s_ _ ,
B_ _ w_'_ _ s_ _ _ _ l_ _ _ _ _ c_ _ _ _ _
A _ _ w_ t_ _ t_ m_ _ _ i_ w_ _ ,
B _ _ i_ s_ _ _ _ e_ _ _ u_ t_ _ w_ _ _
A_ _ I'_ c_ _ _
F _ _ t_ _ _ _ _ t_ b_ y_ _ _ l_ _ .
I t _ _ _ _ I'_ g_ _ _ _ c_ _ _ _

Verse-1
Girl, me and you were just fine, you know.
We wine and dine;
(We) Did them things that couples do when in love, you know:
Walks on the beach and stuff, you know,
T_ _ _ _ _ t_ _ _ l_ _ _ _ _ s_ _ a_ _ d_,
I love you boo, I l_ _ _ y_ _ t_ _ .
I m_ _ _ y_ _ a l_ _ . I m_ _ _ y_ _ e_ _ _ m_ _ .
That's why I flew you out,
When we was on tour.
But then something got out of hand.
You start yelling when I'm with my friends,
Even though I had legitimate reasons.
B _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !
You know I have to make them dividends.
B _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !
How could you trust our private lives, girl?
That's why you don't believe my lies
And quit this lecture

Chorus-3
S_ _ _ u_! J_ _ _ s_ _ _ u_! J_ _ _ u_
S_ _ _ i _ u_ ! J_ _ _ s_ _ _ u_! S_ _ _ u_
[Repeat Chorus-2]

Verse-2
Why does she know she (‘s) got to move so fast;
Love is progress if you could make it last.
Why is it that you just lose control?
Every time you agree on taking it slow.
S_ w_ _ d_ _ _ i_ g_ _ t_ b_ s_ d_ _ _ t_ _ _ ?
’Coz fools in lust could never get enough of love.
Showing her the love that you be giving,
Changing up your living,
For a loving transition.
Girl, it's a mission trying to get you to listen.
Being mad at each other, has become our tradition.
You yell, I yell, everybody yells !
(I’ve) Got neighbours across the street, saying:
W _ _ t_ _ H_ _ _?
Who the Hell?
What the Hell's going down?
Too much of the bickering
Kill it with the sound and ....

[Repeat Chorus-3]
[Repeat Chorus-2]
[Repeat Chorus-1 (x2)]

Girl our love is dying.
Why can't you stop trying?
I (have) n _ _ _ _ b_ _ _ a q_ _ _ _ _ _,
B_ _ I d_ d_ _ _ _ _ _ b_ _ _ _ .
Believe me, I will do bad.
Let's forget the past
And let's start this new plan.
W _ ? ‘C _ _ i_'_ t_ _ s_ _ _ o_ _ r_ _ _ _ _ _
A_ _ t_ _ _ n_ _ _ w_ _ _ I h_ _ _ t_ _ _ s_ _ _ _ _ .
Girl I know you're tired of the things they say
Y_ _'_ _ d_ _ _ r_ _ _
’C _ _ I h_ _ _ _ t_ _ _ l_ _ _ d_ _ _ e_ _ _ _ _ _ j_ _ _ y_ _ _ _ _ _ _
That was a different thing
N_ , i_ i_ _’_
That was a different thing
N_ , i_ i_ _’_
That was a different thing
I_ w_ _ t_ _ s_ _ _ d_ _ _ t_ _ _
S_ _ _ a_ _ e_ _ _ _ _
B _ _ y_ _ '_ _ u_ _ _ _ _ _
Waaaaaaah!

[Repeat Chorus-1 (x2)]

"Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents." --Ludwig van Beethoven

She calls out to the man on the street
"Sir, can you help me?
It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?"

He walks on, doesn't look back
He pretends he can't hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, it's another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she's been crying
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet
Can't walk but she's trying

Oh think twice...

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that she's been there
Probably been moved on from every place
'Cos she didn't fit in there

Oh think twice...