clopeztpd primary journal checked

7/25/2019 CLopezTPD Primary Journal Checked

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/clopeztpd-primary-journal-checked 1/6

Here we go again…

Day 1: Observation

I was assigned 6th form, advanced level, at Instituto Primo Capraro. Of course, I still felt some anxiety to start this new stage of the practicum,

but at the same time I was more confident, since my previous experience with 1st

form was extremely satisfying. s I entered the school, some students from that anterior practicum

recogni!ed me and approached to greet me while they say "#a miss$ #a miss$% I mustconfess that was heart melting, and they were definitely more confident with theirlanguage, since they dare to as& me "'ow are you(% and answered my )uestions, allin the *#. +hese children made me feel welcomed, as if I was returning to a placethat I was familiar with, not an outsider, not exactly a trainee.

I met the teacher in charge of this 6th form while she was on duty during thebrea& she seemed nice and very experienced on the teaching tas&. s she started toexplain to me many characteristics of the course and the wor& they have been doing,there was a notable change of scenery of what I thought I was about to face theclass was not advanced as I-ve been told, but intermediate well, more li&e lower

intermediate. "Oh, well, that-s o& doesn-t matter%, I thought Oh, and thecourseboo& they were using, well +hen she showed me the courseboo& they wereusing "/ational 0eographic$ +hat seems rather cool$%, but as I was thin&ing that, heexplained that form the whole /at0eo-s boo& collection, this was the blac& sheepand she was right$ +he boo& was very repetitive, and sometimes even inconsistent. lso, she informed me that I was supposed to start a new topic with the class, andthat she had some previous intentions on which direction that topic should ta&e.

ll these things made me thin& about a lot of things. +he level wasn-t aproblem 2I mean, I am supposedly )ualified to teach all levels3. +he courseboo&wasn-t bad either I assumed I would had to develop my own materials, but ofcourse, children who already read and write usually wor& with boo&s 2I couldn-tbelieve I had over seen saw it$3. nd the new topic issue, wasn-t completely an issue,as well I mean, I could face the topic more a less as I wanted to, but my concernwas with what would I be leaving to the teacher to continue wor&ing on.

+he teacher provided me with the courseboo& and showed me the "4ondersof the ocean% chapter, which she wanted to lead towards recycling and even ma&e apro5ect from it. I immediately though three classes was too short for me to ma&e thatpro5ect, but I would see& a way to establish the bases for that. s I explained to herthat my teaching experience was reduced, and that I would consult with her the mainpoints of each class, the bell rang.

+wo floors up, the children were switching classrooms. ixth graders havedifferent language levels, so they switch classrooms according to it, and ta&e some

time rearranging. +he class seemed small I counted 1 students in two parallelrows facing the whiteboard 2one behind the other3. +he teacher introduced me to the



class and they started saying their names, but after the first row, children startedchanging their names and laughed as I repeated them. +he teacher immediatelyscolded them and corrected their names for me, but then I started failing matchingtheir faces with the names s it was probably a moment to show some humor, Itold them I would call them whatever they wanted to, or I would 5ust ma&e7up theirnames, but that I was a terrible at choosing names, which were li&e "nacleta orP8nfilo.

s the class developed I too& note of the estimated time students too& tocomplete tas&s, and some behaviors they presented. +here were some shy ones,some rebel ones, the smart but unfocused ones a whole sample of students in onetiny class. +here was one student in particular I noticed to have a very disruptivebehavior, but I will tal& about it later.

I was sitting at the teacher-s des&, with the intention of observing their facesfor later recognition, and identifying behaviors. 9ut some students at the front &eptas&ing me )uestions, and as one as&ed me where did I live before 9ariloche, I may

have made a mista&e by naming my experience in :apan. +he teacher had to stopthe class because everyone ;now including her7 were curious about this. fter somebasic re)uests of "how do you say this in :apanese(% she promised students thatthey would will have the last five minutes of the class to as& me anything. I swore toremain silent the rest of the class, and tried to avoid eye contact with the mostcurious ones.

I noticed the teacher had to call for silence and attention )uite often. Childrenare nice, but very disperse. t some uncontrollable moments she dr eaw a star on thewhiteboard, which later on I learnt that if three were drawn, misbehaving studentshad extra homewor&. +he teacher told me she scarcely reaches three stars. hementioned that there is a same system, which bears three smileys for a game at the

end of the wee&, but I didn-t have the chance to see any smiley during myobservations.

+he contents of the class were related to the solar system, wor&ing oncomparatives and superlatives. I noticed that students produced bro&en sentences,even if read directly from a source, but they &ept a good pace. +he teacher made anextensive use of the whiteboard and photocopies, but it seemed to help students&eep focused.

9y the end of the lesson, they chec&ed homewor&. +hey had to interview arelative regarding the "best restaurant% "the meal they li&ed the most% and so on. It

was noticeable how most children remain silent and 5ust a few shared their results.tudents were more interested in having me write some things in :apanese on theboard, so as their teacher promised, I wrote some names and other re)uests on thespot. I used that as a change to chec& on some names I hadn-t goet before. +he bellrang and students flew out the classroom almost with no farewell.

I accompanied the teacher while she moved towards other classroom. heprovided personal details about some students, as for example, there is one thatwa&es up at am for swimming practice 2so she told me not to expect much fromhim3, another three who are supposed to sit away from each other since theymisbehave, some students which have some leading attitude, but tend to be negativeand boycott the class, and finally, the student that I mentioned a few paragraphs

above the teacher told me he had some emotional meltdowns, which despite are notfre)uent, are very difficult to manage. 'e mostly seems unengaged and for example,



he had spent today-s class loo&ing for the cap of a pen. I started toworry since I thought it could be an extremely difficult situation tomanage, and ;if ta&en place7 I didn-t &now if I could respond to itappropriately. +he teacher calmed me down saying she will be thereand that those episodes were not regular.

Day 2: Observation

+his class was after noon, and students seemed definitelymore awa&en 2and irascible3 not only didn-t they didn-t answer fortheir teacher-s greeting, but they started to complain about having aclass as well$ +he teacher and I agreed that today, I should sit aloneat the bac& of the classroom to avoid unnecessary interruptions.

fter five minutes of struggle to help them organi!e, the class began.

+here was no much difference between today-s class and yesterday-s. omestudents that finished their tas&s )uic&ly were allowed to draw on the whiteboard, and

another student &ept as&ing )uestions about <nglish, although unrelated to the topicbeing treated.

+here was one activity in particular where students were supposed to tal&with a partner in order to compare some roc&ets they have designed, and then switchclassmates at the teacher-s command. I noticed that pairs spo&e in panish, andmostly about random topics$ +hey didn-t switch partners, as well. +he teacher wal&edaround chec&ing on their wor&. omething similar happened when she tried to ma&egroups of three to continue with the tas&. One particular group next to me didn-t evenbring brought their roc&ets together to compare, so the teacher approached them,demanded to see the roc&ets and wor&ed with them alone.

4hen the class was finished, I tal&ed a little bit with the teacher about myplans for the following wee&. he lent me the courseboo& to revise it, and offered herhelp for anything I might need.

Day 3: Lesson 1

Of course, anxiety was up in the air. I had wor&ed hard toproduce the materials I were to use, so I hoped students would li&ethem and be enthusiastic to use them. I was also a little worriedabout timing, on one side because last time I did a practicum in thisschool the bell wasn-t well scheduled and on the other side,

because of my own need to experience with timing to &eep on schedule. s the class started, everything seemed to be running on wheels. I explained

to students we were about to start a new unit, presented the title "4onders of theOcean% and as&ed them to tell me names of sea animals I was gladly surprised they&new more than I had thought$$ 4e started to build a poster, which was a copy ta&enfrom their courseboo&.



I didn-t )uite noticed until things were too obvious the activity wasn-t asengaging and interactive as I had thought, and students were getting bored and hadstarted to tal& among them. =espite I as&ed for silence a few times, they would shutup for a few seconds and then continue the tal&ing. 2#ater on, my tutor would remar&this and ma&e me reflect on the "three stars% method the course teacher uses forthese situations3. +hey focused a little more when it came to stic&ing the animals onthe poster, since everyone wanted to participate.

/ext exercise was a fill in the gaps with superlatives and comparatives, and

students were supposed to chec& their answers with a partner. +his part was morefamiliar to the students, as it was the &ind of wor& they had been doing with theirteacher. +hey didn-t have any trouble and completed the photocopy in no time. s aself7critic, I would li&e to say that despite I had planned how to present the activity, Iwasn-t very clear if it wasn-t that they were used to this &ind of wor&, I have mydoubts they would have understood.

/ow, the messiest part. 4e had this three7staged activity with a video, acrossword and a realia observation, where students were supposed form threegroups, do an activity, then rotate to the next stages. /ot only did I ta&e oo& too longtrying to explain to the children what they were supposed to do, but also when Ichec&ed on the cloc& it was li&e its arms had rushed without me noticing$ I wasvery delayed. I told students to focus on their current stages, as we wouldn-t have

time to have them all do the three of them. I had arranged certain things to do ateach station, but students needed more assistance and support than I had thought,and I found myself wal&ing around being unable to have them focus on tas&s withoutme behind them.

+he bell found me without a proper closure, with an unfinished activity andwith another one 2a Pictionary3 that wasn-t even mentioned. I as&ed students to &eeptheir copies, as we would complete them next class.

/ow I had many things to consider for next class the need to ma&e use ofclassroom management strategies to &eep students focused and organi!ed, to ma&esure they were understanding my directions, and to finish this last activity. goodthing was that students seemed to have had fun with the lesson, ma&ing it anacceptable introduction for the new structures that were to come.

Day 4: Lesson 2



+his lesson was in the morning, so I had thought of doing something thatdemands less moving around and doesn>t excite students too much. I then decidedto base my lesson on the courseboo& and use the Pictionary game at the end of mylesson that way I could manage my timing better and the game would provide

flexibility. +he idea of this lesson was to introduce obligation and prohibition, whileestablishing the idea that the ocean is in danger and we must protect it somehow. 9ut before, I had to finish what I couldn-t the day before. +o be true, it was

)uite difficult for me to get students to wor& here partly because I thin& I wasn-t tooclear with the instructions ;despite I wrote them down on the board7, and partlybecause they were demotivated ;and I wasn-t effective to revert that7. +he group thathad the toughest time was the "crossword% group, not only weren-t they weren-t sureabout what to do, but also because they &ept trying to finish the crosswords despite Itold them several times not to do so, and even provided the answers I have to bemore decisive and clear. I wonder if I should have resorted to panish in that case

4e then continued to the next activity, which was listening to a song in theircourseboo&s and doing some while7listening tas&s. It was o&, but there was

something missing there I can-t )uite figure out what, but I thought that theywouldn-t dare to sing along, and excluding one student that tried to sing and clappedall along, the rest remained indeed silent, reading their boo&s. It felt li&e a "deadtime%. ?rom that song we too& the vocabulary for obligation and prohibition, but Imust confess my board organi!ing s&ills were not at their best again.

I noticed time was running out. @nfortunately my lesson plan wasfar from being finished, but I had a chance to give them the homewor& for next class, thing that of course, wasn-t very welcomed they even tried toconvince me that their teacher never gives them homewor&$$$ lso, a newseating arrangement established by the teacher was announced.

Day 5: Lesson 3

Aes, it is a blushed noopy. #ast day of this practicum andmany things are going on in my head. I am worried about how will thisclass continue after I am gone are students ready( m I leaving asufficiently strong base for the teacher to wor& on( =id my lessonsreally teach something( 4ill I be able to correct my past mista&es for

this last delivery( noopy is ashamed some of these )uestions might bare somethingnegative

s I sensed most students wouldn-t have done their homewor&, I broughtsome ideas myself. Baybe they could help triggering new ideas in the classroom orat least, serve as trampolines to &eep students wor&ing. I was about D right

there were some applied learners and some excuses 2at this point, I didn-t care ifthey were truly 5ustified or not, something I can-t do over long periods with students3. Ihad problems with the board organi!ation yet again I-m having issues withwal&ing on student-s shoes once more.

good thing was that they did li&e the model posters I brought$



+his discussion part about what can we do to protect the sea, too& longerthan expected and longer than it should. Of course, it had conse)uences ;onceagain7 on the finali!ation of my lesson plan according to the scheme.

+he big call of the day 2which was later highlighted by my tutor3 happenedright after this, when we did a fill7in7the7gap activity on the courseboo&. tudents

completed the page and it seems the boo& comes with some stic&ers they use incertain situations. s I hadn-t planned to use the stic&ers because I didn-t &now howto use them, when learners started as&ing if they could use them I said no +hatwas a terribly missed opportunity It was the best chance I could have got to havethem explain to me something they would be eager to explain.

4e then shifted to a poster designed by the students, where they were oughtto transmit to others the urge to protect the oceans. Children did en5oy this activityvery much, and it proved helpful to observe their behaviors I could clearly notice thecontrollers, the meticulous, the team7wor&ers, the high7aimers, the la!y ones, and soon. +his &ind of exercise is something I would li&e to use at the beginning of a courseto be able to &now students better, besides of formalintroductions.

great issue I had all along my practicum wastiming, timing and timing +he same happened here. /otonly couldn-t I couldn-t finish the posters, but also I almosthad no time to distribute my practicum7end gift for them 2Ihad made them ocean7themed boo&mar&ers with their names in :apanese3. +hey were promised to finish theposters with their teacher, and seemed happy with thenovelty of the boo&mar&er although many of them had toreturn from the hall since they had left in a rush with the bell.

Summing up…

+his was indeed another great experience verydifferent from the first one, but at the same time mostthings occurred as predicted. I still need to wor& a loton timing and classroom management strategies, andoverall, I need to beat the anxiety left inside me. I also

must start trusting my instincts about what is to be done fter all, I have at least atheoretical bac&ground$ I should be exploiting it better.

9oard organi!ation proved to be a wea& s&ill it>s the first time I am ma&inguse of this basic tool, so I am confident I will be improving in this field soon.

clopeztpd primary journal checked

Documents