Maggie Gallagher
I do agree with this
quote since being a good teacher is not such an easy task, and I have truly
discovered this throughout this Englis project that we developed as students
of the course “Teaching Practicum II”.
As I have already
narrated in previous entries, we started this English program focused on
adolescents with the intention of putting into practice all the theory gotten
through the first part of this semester. Our English group started with 8
students and three teachers, my friends Monika Ponce, Cristela Rubio and me
(Gisselt Romero). However, since the flow of students started to go down, it
was decided to join our class with the group of our friends Ingrid Giron and
Abigail Marquez who had around 6 students. In the end, we ended up with 8
students in total.
But how about the practice?????
We used to teach one
week each since we had classes two days per week, in total 10 weeks. This was
how classes were shared out during the first 5 weeks of the project;
nevertheless, since during week 6, we were 5 teachers, we taught half class
each in order to participate more actively during the 5 weeks remaining. This
gave us more opportunities to be very careful with time-management since taking
more time of what it had been planned out, could affect the other teacher’s
lesson plan. Moreover, this idea of joining the groups also helped us to
observe the teaching of our classmates which helped us to learn from their
strengths, and weakness, to work as a group, and to provide peer-feedback;
thus, I can say that the main goal of the unification of the groups was
completely achieved.
About my personal experience and
practice!!!!!
When I started this
program, I was not that afraid as I was when I took teaching practicum 1 for
kids since I had never worked with kids; however, this time was different since
I had already worked with adolescents in a high school for one year what gave me
the confidence to avoid frustration; nevertheless, we never end learning, and
during this practice I could discover so many things I was doing wrong and that
it was impossible for me to notice them without the help of an observer. Thus,
some of the comments I got from my evaluators was the fact that I speak too
much what increases the teacher’s talk and reduces the student’s talk. This was
a really hard thing to do for me since I have always been a talkative person,
it is a matter of personality; nonetheless, I had to overcome this situation so
that I did not hinder my students’ learning process. Consequently, what I did
is that I reduced my talking time by letting students read instructions, asking
them follow-up questions, shortening my instructions and letting the ones who
understood the instructions clarify them to the other classmates. This helped
me so much, and I could see an improvement, my students started talking more
and I reduced my talking time which is great since this will stay with me
forever. This was the most controversial comment I got, however, the evaluators
always provided me with so many suggestions such as, always let students’
compare answers before I get to ask them in public, or monitor them all the
time, give them freedom to talk, develop a good environment for learning among
others that I will always remember and put into practice in order to be better
and better all the time because as I have already mentioned above, we never end
learning.
The three more important or significant moments during this project
There have been more
than just three significant moments for me during this process; however, some
of the more controversial, difficult but at the same time significant for me
have been, firstly, the first day of classes since I was the teacher who taught
the first week of classes, this was difficult because the students were very
shy at this moment, they were not familiar with English approaches and
activities; thus, every single activity developed was a big challenge not only for
me to teach it but for them to acquire it. Then, the second noteworthy thing
for me was the beginning of the second part of the group since we had to join
our group with another group. This moment was difficult because the other group
had more students and they were kind of older and faster-learners; thus, our
students felt diffident and invaded. During this week, we lost two of our
students who decided not to continue coming to classes. Nevertheless; with the
other teachers, we started including activities that could make all students
feel confident and also know one another since they had new classmates. The
activities worked, and we could see how they got to be more relaxed in classes.
Simple activities like, changing their positions where they used to sit down or
the person they used to compare answers with were very crucial and helped to
develop a better environment in the class, while students got to know one
another. Finally, another crucial moment for me was when I had to develop an oral
presentation. This was significant for me since oral evaluations are always
difficult and stressful. Nonetheless, I tried to develop a good environment for
the students so that they could not feel nervous or stressful at the time of
presenting. I also modeled what I was requesting from them, and the students
did well at the presentation. At the end I was so proud of them talking at
least some sentences by their own which I consider it is a big advancement.
To sum up, I am really glad
that I could have this amazing opportunity teaching adolescents in our teaching
practicum II. I can see how I have grown up in the field of teaching, I keep in
my mind all the comments and suggestions that I got from my evaluators and also
from my classmates who gently provided me with the best of tips and comments
for my personal growth, and I especially thank to Lic. Yannira de Canizales who
always had a kind word for me and taught me so many things that will be so
useful for me not only just right now, but in my life as a teacher. It is really rewarding to see how the students
who did not know any single English word now can make simple sentences using
the verb “be” and a series of words and vocabulary. Now, they are on the way to
become English speakers if they decide to continue studying English by their
own, and I will always be one of those teachers who inspired them to study
English and planted the seed. Now,
I have discovered my own style as a teacher and I will continue looking forward
to learn new things that can make of my teaching a great and meaningful
experience for my students.
