Reflection on my practicum experience pérez
- 1. PRACTICE II, DIDACTICS OF ELT. Prof. Estela N. Braun. PRACTICALS First term- 2017. Assistant Teachers: Vanesa Cabral, Luján Ramos, John Brakke. Reflection on my Practicum experience What was the greatest obstacle/challenge you had to overcome during your practicum? I believe that the greatest challenge I had to overcome was my stance as a teacher. As there are many kids in my family, I usually have an excellent rapport with children. Nevertheless, this time it was going to be different; I was not going to stand as an aunt, but as a teacher. I do not want and I think I cannot have a distant relationship with my students. Still, I consider a complex challenge to find a balance and to be flexible but strict at the same time. Was there any critical incident? Can you describe it? How did you deal with it? Fortunately, I worked with a wonderful group. Sometimes the classroom was very noisy but I think I could manage it very well. However, one of the first classes did not go as fluent as I expected. When I enter the classroom, I was about to clean the board but everyone stopped me. I usually gave them no more than five minutes to copy the tasks of the previous subject, but this time, all of my students were starting to copy when we all enter the classroom after the break. Apparently, the teacher that taught them the hour before had been copying on the board during the break, so they could copy as soon as the break finishes, that is, in the English class. I felt very uncomfortable in that situation. I think the other teacher was disrespectful while doing that. There was not just a sentence; the whole board was full of questions for them to do as homework. So after a few minutes, I cleaned the board in order to start the English class. Nevertheless, I felt terrible because they wanted to copy everything and the fact that they could not do it before was not their fault.
- 2. The fact that I could not begin the lesson immediately made me feel quite upset. Although I did my best I could not teach the lesson with the same energy as always. What areas did you have to improve? As it was my first teaching experience, I think that I still have to improve many areas. The one that I had to improve the most was my stance as a teacher. Actually, I did not know what it feels to be teaching in front of twenty students. I cannot forget the moment when I was teaching my first class that after giving my students instructions to do an activity I told my pedagogical partner: -‘It feels good to be here (at the front)’. In fact, I really enjoyed it but I think that experience is the one that will help me to feel completely confident when teaching. I think the practicum took a very short time and I am eager to start teaching children again. Which was the class you enjoyed most? Why? I really enjoyed most of the classes. Time went by so fast and I think it was because I was so engaged with my class. If I have to choose, one of the classes I enjoyed the most was the one observed by John. It was my lesson N°7 and I taught different abilities. I think that I really enjoyed it because I could perceive that my students were enjoying it too. I introduced the class with the usual routine, and then, I started teaching the topic having some oral interaction about abilities. They were all paying attention, listening and wanting to participate and answer. Then, the activities we planned were very motivating. They had to form sentences with the help of some images and then they had to answer about themselves. After that, the extra activity we prepared was a word puzzle. They were fascinated, trying to find the words, coluring them and hurrying up to hand them in on time. I believe it was an amazing class, full of fun and learning. I felt my rapport with the pupils grew and got closer. What instances of students’ learning/motivation could you observe? I could observe many instances of students’ learning/motivation. Every time we showed them a video or a new activity they demonstrated how motivated they were through the realization of activities, through participation and also, through
- 3. their good behavior. I could also observe many instances of learning. For instance, when they asked me different questions about the topic I was teaching in class, when I corrected homework at home, when I corrected the tests, when they were curious about vocabulary and specific events, such as the last class I taught about Usain Bolt, and so on. How do you assess team work with your partner? What was positive/ difficult about working with a partner? Would you recommend work with a pedagogical partner? Why/not? I consider that the team work with my partner was excellent. It was positive to share opinions, ideas and fellings regarding activities, classroom situations and students. It was also positive to work together as a team, to divide tasks and to complement each other. As we are pretty busy with all the subjects, maybe it was difficult to arrange meetings in order to plan the lessons, but we could manage it very well. Yes, I firmly recommend to work with a pedagogical partner. For being the first time on the area of teaching, I think it is necessary to have a pedagogical partner in order to create amazing lessons and also to share responsabilities. As there is a lot of work to do, helping one another is important. Moreover, Aime and I could help each other, giving constructive comments and feedback on the lessons we taught. What were your feelings when you started the practicum/ when you finished it? When I started my practicum, my feelings were quite mixed. Mainly, anxiety, nervousness and excitement were present. I was eager to start teaching but at the same time I was afraid of students’ behavior and personality. I did not know what to expect. When I finished my practicum, I felt mainly happy because I created such an amazing rapport with my students that they did not want me to leave. In addition, the practicum took so much time and hard work that I was glad that everything went fine and that my students learnt. How did you feel about being observed? Could you understand comments in the feedback provided by teacher educators? What did you think about the conference with teachers after the class? When you told us Vanesa was going to observe us on the second class, I felt really nervous. However, as the class went on I almost forgot she was there at the back.
- 4. Yes, I could understand all the comments made in the feedback. I considered the conference with teachers after class very useful. They told us many positive things that motivate us to go on. Moreover, they suggested us many constructive ideas in order to improve as a teacher. Were office hours any useful? Did you feel accompanied by teacher trainers/ mentor teachers/ the school institution? Yes, in our case, we had just one office hour that helped us to start planning our classes. Yes, I felt accompanied by Jorgelina, who offered us help all the time. I also felt accompanied by the school institution, whose authorities were always available for us, and I felt particularly accompanied by all of my teacher trainers. Although Estela had to travel, she was present all the time through email. What is more, the rest of the team were always available to help us all. Do you feel prepared to teach at primary school now? I feel that I have many tools at hand in order to start teaching at primary school again. I think preparation takes much more time and especially, experience. However, my teachers transmitted me all sort of experiences and thoughts that helped me to prepare myself. Besides, I had such an amazing experience at school N° 25 that I would like to keep on teaching children. Children have such an energy and willingness to participate and particularly to learn that they motivate me to prepare wonderful lessons and to teach them with the same energy.