Conclusion.

To conclude, this was my experience in teaching practicum one. I really enjoyed working with those little kids and also I could learn a lot when teaching to them. I feel really proud because of the patience and creativity that I had when planning the lessons and making the materials to teach a class. Besides, I was able to overcome some mistakes each time that I worked with children. I really admire what my classmates and I did during these practicums; we learned from each other, we helped each other to develop the lessons and to decorate the classroom, no matter who teach we try to get a nice relation among colleges. To finish with, I really appreciate that you read and comment all the entries from my blog. I hope you like it and that you could learn something from it, too! 

Workshop 2

Thursday, November 10^th, 2016.

Teacher: Claudia.

Topic: Classroom Activities.

This was the second and last workshop that we had in teaching practicum 1. Teacher Claudia was in charge of developing the presentation in which she shares some ideas about activities that we can do when teaching English, no matter what level or age the students are. At the beginning she introduced herself and asked us to say our names, too.

In the first activity, she gave us a piece of paper. She guided us to do a future teller by modeling the steps of how to do it. Everybody had a piece of paper and she asked us to fold it in different ways. After we did all the steps we get a future teller. She explained that this activity can be used as a warm-up to review previous class. But the most important is that it can be modified according to topics and level of students. She asked everybody to write different words in some spaces of the future teller, so we write words from different categories, and also we wrote some letters at the top that were used when asking another person.

Later, she divided the class into three groups. We had to discuss and remembered some activities that we developed when teaching young learners. Then, she selected three people to share their activities with the whole class. 

Moreover, she provided each group two pages. Each page had a different activity, so we discuss two questions about it. 1. Who will you use it with (kids/ teens/ adults)? 2. Would you change something (topic)? Then, she asked one member of each group to share the opinions. She chose Roxana, one member of my group, to explain one of the activities that we discuss and answer the two questions. Roxana explained the wish race game in which students are going to choose a letter from the game. They will use the grammar structure ‘I wish’ to say something they wish if some situation might happen to him/her. The situation was in the game and as Ss answer they will be able to move and reach the letter that they chose. She said that this activity can be modified according to the topic and level of Ss. For example, having pictures of animals or professions in each space and use it with children, or having verbs or questions to use it with intermedium or advance learners. Then, there were two more classmates that explained the verb trap game and the tic tac toe game.

After that presentations, teacher Claudia provide some materials to each group. She was explaining each group what activity we were going to do. My classmates and I had to do a little book with one story in it. She explained and modeled how to do the little book. We did it and we started to write one short story in the pages. That activity is perfect to challenge students to make up a story in which they can use vocabulary that was previously taught. So, they can practice it and show their new knowledge. To continue, members of the groups were moved to another in order to explain the other groups the activity they learned to do. The other groups were also explaining their activity as well. one activity that I really like was the triangle game used to review vocabulary.

In the last activity, she asked each group to take a book. She gave us one of the topics from the book, and asked us to use one of the activities that we learn in order to present the topic. The topic that she provided to my group was the tag questions. So, we decided to use the triangle game. We wrote sentences in one side and the tags questions that correspond to them in the other side, so Ss had to match and join the pieces of paper in order to form a triangle. Later, some members of the group were moved to another and they explained how they did the materials, and how they would develop the activity.

To finish the class, teacher Claudia told us that she was happy to share some ideas about activities that can be used in the classroom and that she hope it can be helpful for us. We thanked the teacher to develop a nice workshop, and also to teach us some activities that we did not know, but that we really enjoy learning how to do each one. 

workshop 1

Tuesday, November 8^th, 2016.

Teacher: Gabriela Nicole Hernández.

Topic: Kindergarten?

This was an unusual class in which T Orlando invited one kindergarten teacher to give us a presentation about how is it work with kindergarten students. She started greeting us and asking everybody to stand up. We made a circle and introduced ourselves. Then, she asked us to choose a fruit and wrote it in ta piece of paper that was going to be paste in our desks. She was going to call us as the fruit we selected.

 To start with, she asked 4 students what they know about kindergarten. They said that it might be difficult because of the kids. They are usually very hyperactive and it’s difficult to catch their attention. After they answer, we sat down some minutes in the floor and she continued explaining about working with those kids, how they parents are and also what kind of policies do institutions could have when working with kids.onether activity she asked us to do was that she was going to say a message and we had to played the broken telephone. then, she explained that communication is really important with kids, parents and other people. 

Later we return to our desks and she explain that she was going to talk normally, but that we have to be concentrated because suddenly she was going to be saying mix up, and we have to change positions quickly, if we are the last one to sit we would have a penalty. When she started to talk she said that it is important when working with little kids is the organization and the planning. While explaining about how to catch the attention of kids, she mentioned that some ways to do it is singing a song at the beginning of the class or having an interactive activity that help teachers to keep students’ attention. 

Suddenly, she said “mixed up” and we change positions. She started to talk about the planning and how that help us to have control of the lesson. She said that it is an important point due to the fact that almost all the institutions supervise the work that teachers do in classes. They usually asked for the planning and teachers have to be ready to show their planning, and explained why they apply the different activities and methodologies in the classroom. 

Moreover, she asked Roxana how she would plan a lesson, what criteria she would apply, and what she would focused on when planning the lesson for children. Then, she asked Yansi to go to the front and share the opinion of how would she taught or present the colors to little kids. Yansi told us that she might use flashcards, do some activities and sing a chant to present that topic and have a meaningful lesson. 

Teacher gave a lot of examples and said that we need to praise Ss with expressions such as excellent, congratulations, very good, etc. to encourage Ss to participate in all those activities. Also, teachers need to asked children to repeat greetings or words that they use in their daily routines as many times as necessary for Ss to acquire more vocabulary.

Furthermore, she presented some situations that she experienced and that may happen with kids. She explained the reactions that kids usually have in different environments or situations. They could be manipulative when they know how the teacher is, if she is calm or strict with them.The expositor also mentioned that when teaching young learners we have to model the actions or things we want Ss to do because they are always imitating everything that teachers do. To illustrate that part, she asked me to stand up she whispered the word airplane and I had to mimic the airplane and my classmates had to guess what I was mimicking. Then, she asked everybody to do the actions she said. For example, jump, shake our shoulders, touch or nose, shoulders or moth, shake our legs, etc. and while doing that she explained that if we as teachers do not model what we want Ss to do they won’t do it because they need a guide, someone who show them how to do it.

Then, she asked Charlie, one of the students who lose when exchanging desks to perform a chant as a penalty, and also Adriana, Gabriela and Guillermo were asked to help him. They dance the hokey pokey and sing as well. It was really nice because that gave us one idea of what to do with kids.

Besides, she showed the way she planned lessons and plenty of exams she had created in order to evaluate her Ss. she told us that where she works she is required to evaluate Ss one by one to had a more detail perspective about each Ss. Also, She does not grade her Ss from 1 to 10, instead of that, she used criteria such as S= SI LO HACE, P= EN PROCESO, or T= TODAVIA NO LO HACE to grade her Ss evaluations. She mentioned some activities that are really helpful in order to evaluate Ss such as bingo games and storytelling activities in which Ss can order the scenes of a fairy tale.

Finally, she asked us to sit on the floor. She said that she was glad to be there giving us some ideas and advices of working with kindergarten students, and that she hoped we didn’t realize about time because that was one of the purposes, not to realize about the time as it happens when teaching kids. 

Then, she asked us to lay on the floor and try to relieve the stress that we might have from other 

classes or activities that we did. She told us that it is important to take time in order to enjoy our life and reduce the pressure from work or studies. 

I really enjoyed that presentation from T Gabriela. It was significant because I could get more ideas of materials or activities, and also to know more about this teaching field.