JOURNAL 3, Period 3

As you all know, we're all excited about our last classes!!! This class went good. I began with my left foot because I had planned an activity in which I would use balloons. I took 2 balloons, but none of them worked!! One had holes, and the other one exploded while I was trying to inflate it!! I used a stuffed cow instead, but the activity did not develop as I expected :( After that, we began with the activities. The students seemed to like them because I brought a song and then we played a game; however, they were too messy since almost all the students were there... After all, it was nice, but I couldn't finish my last activity. Same old porblem: I can't seem to manage time even though I try!!...The students are really nice to me. They are kind of noisy and messy sometimes, but they respect me and do all the activities I ask them to

JOURNAL 2, Period 3

This week's class went really great despite some little details that went not to good. I began the new lesson plan, and it was really well done. I liked all the activities and I was looking forward teaching it.
In the warm-up, the students had some fun while trying to give clues to their classmates, who had the name of a famous person on their back. I chose exotic people like Michael Jackson, Ricky Marti, etc. They were laughing and having a good time.
After that, I moved to the presentation. It was an article that contained a lot of sentences in Present Perfect tense. However, I didn't do it well because I got some suggestions on how to do it well the next time. According to my tutor teacher, the presentation and grammar explanation phase were too fast. I told him that most of our tutors require us to explain grammar in 10 or 15 min max. . . .If we take longer, they assign low grade on Variety of activities because we take too long on those parts that we can't cover enough activities from the lesson plan. Now I know and will try not to hurry because my tutor said it's better to develop fewer activities if they will be better understood by the students. After that, they worked on very controlled practice. They did it really well. I used charts, photocopies and the board.
At the end of the class, the teacher had to stop me because I was ready with around three or more activities that I couldn't finish. Im also glad that I got some compliments from some girls when I was monitoring :$ :$ :$ hehe...It was a nice class, as you can tell :)

JOURNAL 1, Period 3

This week's class was a surprise for me...I had the chance to see familiar faces, which I was not expecting at all...It was nice to see some of those students. I could see that this is a nice group because they're easy to work with.

The class began with a warm up called "kill your classmate." The students had to make two teams, one person from each team had to complete a sentence. The first person to finish, had to "kill" his or her classmate. It was nice... :)







Then, I explained some grammar, but just a short review because it was something they had already studied. However, I took a long time to explain something that was so easy for them... :( hehe... To explain this, I used a little box and a monkey. The topic was "prepositions of place"...they had to put the monkey in the right position :) it was nice! I also showed a chart with the pictures of some prepositions (the little boxes and the ball...)

After that, the students were working on different tasks. I really like doing "Rotating Tasks" because each group of students kind of look forward to the next challenge and also they are less likely to get bored. I made four stations, in each of which was a different activity: scrambled sentences,








conversations,




a picture of a messy room in which they had to mention where things were,




and the last one, I showed some pictures but the students were able to see only a part, they had to guess where the person, animal, or thing was (using prepositions of place, of course...) here's one of the pictures for you to get an idea.
BEFORE and AFTER OPENING















At the end, the time wasn't enough for me, as usual... One thing that didn't go well was exactly what I just mentioned: timing. I never keep track of time, or maybe I do, but still I always want to finish all the activities I have hehe... One thing that I really liked was that, after the classes were over, the teacher gave me a nice feedback. I found everything he said very useful. He didn't tell me what I had done wrong; instead, he told me what he thought could have been better, and he told me HOW...That's really important. Most teachers tell us what was not so good, but not always how to do it better. He also said he was open to complaints. As he gives feedback, he asks why we did certain things so that he can change consider the grade he is going to assigned based on our reasons. I liked this group and also my new tutor teacher's way to work :) :) :)

CLASS 3, Period 2

Do you remember that activity in whih we had to grab a paper containing a word that we had heard in a song? Yes, the one teacher Cristian introduced to us. . . Well, I began my class with that activity. I did it as a warm-up because I thought it wouldn't take so long. Actually, it didn't, and the students had a lot of fun. What took longer was the follow-up activity. I decided to hav students work on some questions based on that song. Those questions would make them use the structure, and that was the point. Actually, I didn't take the follow-up as part of the warm-up. I thought it would be kind of the first activity, but the teacher told me that the warm-up took really long hehe... Then, I brought some speaking activities since the teacher told me that the students were ready to free practice only. However, as the activities were being developed, I notice a lot of gaps in some of the students. Something that I liked was that, unlike the previous classes, this time students were asking a lot. . .probably because they were working in small group, they felt more comfortable calling me and asking. In this class, I think I got to laugh more with them, they were making jokes and having fun. Yannely lent me some small cards with pictures of places. Some of the pictures were kind of abstract, so students would wonder what those pictures were. I told them, you can imagine anything, whatever it looks to you, that's it. After that, they began to imagine lots of fun things and making sentences using the future tense. I liked this class :)

CLASS 2 , Period 2

Today, I had my second class. It was nice because, even though it didn't begin as good as I wanted it to begin, it became more and more fun as the time passed by. One thing I didn't like about this class was the Warm-up activity. It's not about the activity because we have tried it and it's kind of fun. However, the type of students in that classroom didn't like that activity. I noticed that because they were not doing it as they had to, even though they knew what it was about. They were doing it just to get out of that task. I think the day really affected this part of my lesson because all of them seemed like they were tired, and so was I.
After that, I explained some grammar, and asked them to work on very controlled activities. I liked this part of the lesson because I did a "Rotating Task." I divided the class in four groups. Each group had a task to do. After some minutes, they had to stand up and change task. That's how I got a variety of activities done. I also liked it because that's the part in which the students finally dare to ask all those things they didn't ask when they had the chance. I like that because it gives a sort of "privacy" which allows the students to feel more comfortable to ask.
As usual, I even lost the track of time...hehe...I never realize when the time is over hehe... :)

CLASS 1, Period 2

This first class was a little challenging for me because I had a terrible terrible terrible week, and I hadn't slept the night before. . . I was tired and felt nervous because of that. The class began with a nice activity in which students had to hit a balloon while they said a word related to a category that I gave. They had fun, I could see. After that, I brought a song which contained the structure being taught. The students were supposed to order the pieces of paper to form the lyrics of that song. It was nice, and almost all the teams could do it :) After that, we talked about the song and the story in it.
One thing that went wrong is that I brought a fill-in the gaps, and this activity took too long. I thought I was going to take less because the teacher had already explained that grammar, however, the students had soooooo many questions about it, so many doubts that it took a long time to finish it. All of that made my last activity go wrong as well. This activity required a little more time, but I couldnt finish it. . . ='(
I'll try to pay more attention to time next class. . .

Last class, Period 1

I was a little worried about this last class. I was not feeling well because I think I'm getting a cold or something like that so I was feeling bad, sick and worried in general. I got wet that day beacause it rained a lot at 2PM so I was all wet and cold. I began my class with that nice activity, "Simon Says." Students got excited, but not so much because they were too few and not all of them had all the things that I requested. I agree with teacher Cristian, I think there's something that should be done for the students to come on time. I don't think we, the practitioners can do something about it, though. I think that the tutor teachers should do something like setting strong rules, I mean, rules that the students feel like following. They can offer something like a percentage or maybe offer to take some points away from what they earn. I really don't know, but it's kind of becoming a problem for the people who are in our practicum.
About my class, I think that, even though there were just some students, they had some fun. Then, I explained something about "should." Now, I got some extra information so as to be prepared for any question the students could have. They were working on some exercises and I think most of them understood the structures, and the doubts they had were cleared up at the moment of working on the exercises. I liked the fact that the students felt like asking me instead of the teacher. Some classes ago, they would wait until my class was over to ask the teacher or would approach her to ask some things, but now, they were asking me and I felt like they were more comfortable with me. At the end, we said goodbye and I kind of felt I little sad. . . :( hehehe...Am I being too emotional?. . .I think so. . . =P I'm looking forward to the coming challenges. . .