Reflection

This course ends, and I am happy, not because it ends, but because it taught me valuable things. I  may say that one of my favorites things I learn and study was the theories that we read from the first period, game me hints in order to know what and how to do things. One of the theory that help me a lot in this course was, the cognitive theory by Jean Piaget, it gave me clues to know  were my students were at and what they were able to do and perform.

During the first class we taught, I was nervous and shy, but since the students were very friendly and some of them talkative, they made me feel comfortable and I enjoyed the experience. From that first class, I learn how important is to connect and to establish a relationship with our students, because if we make them feel comfortable, they will transmit us the same energy.

The second class, I was more confident on what I was going to do, specially because I knew that students were  trusting in me, and they were enjoying what we were teaching them. And it was a good lesson for me, it taught me something really important, I have fought about it, but been there in the place living that experience made it more meaningful and remarkable. At the moment that we have our students and they are eager to participate, we need to let them feel free and continue, even if we ask them for a command and they want to say a complete statement, we need to let them express themselves, because that will make them feel they are doing great and they will feel proud, as I was that day, when I experience it.

The third lesson, it was the most challenging one, but I enjoyed it, it was very import an to have a challenge like this one, because if not, we might have thought that teaching children might have been easy, but since we had this experience, we know that there are going to be tough times, and there are going to be  peaceful times. This lesson in specific made me realize that when things are difficult and it seem theres no solution for it, make it simple will help us to know what to do, specially if we want the lesson be relevant and have great result for our students.

To end up with this reflection, I might say that one of the things I enjoyed the most was, being able to choose the activities and prepare the materials very catching. I feel very satisfied because even if we had hard times, they were paid at the end. Having our students remember and answering what we taught, when they were asked, was something really rewarding. Someone told me once that when a teacher love teaching, they teach children to love learning, and now I do believe it.

       "When words are both, true and kind, they change the world." -Buddha

Lesson 11

This was our third and final lesson. We had high expectations for it. We worked really hard because we wanted to end up with great result.

To star with our lesson, after singing our opening hello song, we had our warm up by teacher Yenifer, this time she  did two activities.

The first one was a song, it purpose was to students get familiar with the topic the song was about the time and it include vocabulary like: what time is it? 1 o'clock, 2'oclock and so on, students and teacher were doing some  mimics while the song was on.

The second activity was about to form a clock. Teacher Yenifer gave some number to the students so they, students and teacher, can form a clock.

After having that, teacher Wanda started to present the vocabulary that was some daily routines like: get up, eat lunch, do the homework, and go to bed. She made emphasis on the pronunciation of the words. She also made use of a big clock that was pasted on the wall, to present exact hours such as  7 o'clock, 11 o'clock. She present the question "What time is it?" and the answer: " It is 7:00 o'clock, time to get up." In order to student get the vocabulary, the pronunciation, and the structure, they were asked to repeat, question and answer. Teacher and students were taking turns to ask and answer.

During the listening time, teacher Deyanira did two activities.

The first activity was a lottery game, where students were asked to work individually, there worked in a worksheet. The teacher was saying some commands, and when the students listen to the command , they will have to put up a bean in the corresponding space, until get all the images with beans.

The second activity, students were working in pairs, each pair received some pieces of paper, one that has the question: "What time is it?", and two more that were daily routines. Students were asked to ask and answer with their classmate. They had some time to work by themselves, father that teacher Deyanira, pass each pair to the front and they were doing the exact same thing, the y were taking turns to ask and to answer.

It is time for the post listening, and this time Teacher Luis  did two activities.

The first was a memory game. Students worked individually and they were asked to take turns and pass to the front to find two equal images, when they found it, they were asked to say what they found, for example, "Get up".

For the second activity, Students were passing a toy and when they hear the word "stop" the one that has it, had to pass to the front. When they get there a daily routine was given and they had to put the hour in the big clock and then, he or she, was asked by the teacher and the rest of the classmates: "What time is it?" then he or she had to answer the daily routine he was given and the hour he marked .

For the wrap up, I played with the students, Simon says. I say commands like: Touch go to bed, or, touch 7 o'clock. The purpose of this activity was just to reinforce and make them remember al the hours and the daily routines. 

For me, this was the most challenging lesson we had to teach. We made up 3 times the lesson plan, because we were not convinced in some activities, and in some specific vocabulary. But at the end, we decided to make it simple but relevant for the student, and that is why we just present some four basic daily routines with exact hours. 

This taught me that even if the topic we had to develop seems the most difficult, when we make it simple, think like students, and make it relevant, we can end up with great results.

Lesson 8

During this lesson, I had high expectations because this group is very creative and very enthusiastic, and I've been learning from this group many things, such as enthusiasm, this is is one of the key factors to carry on one class, and so does positivism, because if you start  the class with a positive attitude you will transmit this to your students.

The class started with the hello song in a very unique way, they used some musical interments and make it more interesting to the students.

Teacher Kriscia  started the class with a hangman game activity.  The activity consist on having the students saying one letter of the alphabet at a time to form a sentence.
I could notice that students were struggling a little bit, but it was not because of the activity, I think that some visual aids to give them clues were missing, and those things would have made the activity work on perfectly.

After that, teacher Olmes started to review the vocabulary of last class, and presented some new vocabulary like:
-Library.
-Bank. 
-Park. 
-Hospital.
-School.

After he presented those new words of vocabulary, he teach at the interrogative question: “Is there a ______ in your town? with its answers.
 He did a great job pointing out the negative and affirmative answers,  it was an excellent explanation because the students really acquired it. 

Teacher Sussan  presented two activities, in order for students get to understand well the structures.

The first activity consisted on playing an audio while they worked i a worksheet. When they hears a place of the community they had to circle it. It was a good activity and they way she carry it out very professional. She repeated the audio twice so students had more opportunity to complete the worksheet. Then she repeated a third time, but this time she stop it and make students repeat. After they repeat, she asked 1 by 1 to check the answers they got.

­The second activity was very funny, it was a song, she sang a song acapella, so students were asked to walk around some circles that were pasted on the floor while she sang it, and when she stop singing, they had to stood in a circle. It was very dynamic, and every time she start singing again, she do it faster and faster.

I really like both activities, because students were really involved in what they were asked to do, and teacher Sussan was really aware of what they were doing, and she was enjoying it at the same time.

Teacher Josue started with a game, this game was really fun, it consist on  having two groups of students, each group had a dice, so they take turns to throw it, according to the number they got, there were spaces that has, some questions, or they had to mention places in the town, or they had to do anything at all. 

I really like this activity because it was very unique, fun and entertaining, and since it was somehow like a competition game, it was very catching for students.

To end up this lesson, teacher Xunaxi play “Sharks are coming.” She use this game to create some groups. After she created the groups. Students were asked team by team to pass, they created a town, so teacher Xunaxi make each couple interact with each other asking questions and walking to the place in the town they were asked to.

And as usual, they end up the class with the song.

I really like this lesson, it was a well developed class. I learn that having games its a way easier to make students learn and enjoy at the same time. Besides that I learn that we not always need a cd player to do an activity, but since we are learning how to be teachers, it took lot of courage to sing acapella like Teacher Sussan did, and actually I enjoyed that, and I think I could use that technique in the future.

Lesson 7

My expectation for this lesson were high, we create a lot of material so students can enjoy and can feel part of the class, eager to participate and to learn more. I can say that i fulfill my expectation, because I really enjoyed every stage of this class.

We started with the hello song, we sang it with the students, we were arrange making a circle as a whole group, we made the mimics and we played the song, since they already are  familiar with the rhythm. It worked perfectly and I felt that students enjoy it even more, because they already know the lyrics!

The class started with the game “ Snake follow”, and it consist on having students asked by the teacher to line up behind each other to form a line, simulating a snake. Then students were asked to say  “ Where do we want to go?” and them teacher Deyanira said sentences like : I want to go to the gas station. After that, teacher and students started to walk to a different part of the classroom until they get to the place in which the name of the place shouted before by the teacher is located at. When they get to that part, they repeated the name of the place 2 times.

I really think  that this was a great way to start the class since students were active and they were focusing and enjoying the game and the learning at the same time.

We were encharged to teach the structure “WANT TO + VERB”, but before teacher Luis start to present the key structure, he made a reinforcement the personal pronouns. ( I, She, He, They.) 
After that, the structure Want to + verb (go) was presented using flashcards. and students were asked to repeat the sentence.
I think this part was very insightful for us as teacher, because students get it really quickly and that made things a little bit easier for us.

Teacher Yeniffer came out with two activities. In the first activity, students were asked to work in pair to arrange in the correct order the structure of a sentence. When students finished  arranging the papers, teacher Yeniffer passed an object and when she said stop, the pair that has it was asked to read the sentence aloud.
 I really like this activity since cooperative learning is something really important, and we could notice that students really enjoy working in this way.

The second activity was with the spinning wheel, students were asked to spin the wheel, and  the space where it stops, it has an image of the places in the community and a pronoun. After that, when they already had it, they were asked to write it on the board and then read it aloud to check it with the classmates.
This was a really good practice because you could notice where students were having troubles.

But we wanted to see how much students were understating, and  teacher Wanda had two activities prepared as well.  A word search was carry on at first, and students were asked to work in pairs, they received a sheet of paper and they had to enclosed the words. When students finished, they had the same word search chart pasted in the wall and they were asked to pass in front and enclosed one word.
I saw how much students enjoy this activity, they were really engaged on it.

The second activity was a worksheet, this time was individual, the worksheet contains 5 pictures of the places in the community, and student were asked to choose 3 of them and write a sentence. When they were done with it, they were asked to pass in front and share one sentence.

Something i really like from this activity is that students were volunteering and they were eager to participate

When its almost time to go, it was my turn to conclude the lesson with a spider web game. In this game a ball of wool was passed to students, when the student had the wool they were asked to answer a question and then trow the wool to a different classmate to form an spider web.
This activity was fun, I had some inconvenience at first because of time issue, but then it was really fun and really excited to see how students were into the topic, because they wanted to form a sentence even if they were asked to say just a place of the community. And with this I learn that sometimes we need to let students participate and not stop them.

And now its time to say goodbye.

I enjoyed this experience, and having my colleagues make it more meaningful for me, of course at the end of the class we received some feedback, which will make us improve next class, and those things make us grow as teachers, and know that we receive that feedback, we know how we can improve for our next lessons. Personally, I learnt a lot in this lesson, specially what I just state before, its really important to let our students participate and not stop them when they are into it anad really eager ti participate.

Lesson 6

During this lesson, I had high expectations because this group is very creative and very enthusiastic, and I've been learning from this group many things, such as enthusiasm, this is maybe one of the key factors to carry on one class, and so does positivism, because if you start  the class with a positive attitude you will transmit this to your students.

The class started with the the  hello song, as all the classes will start, but the way that the teachers did it was really interesting and catching,this time they decided to sing the song along with the kids, but they include puppets and make it even more interesting, and they were arrange in a circle so all of them can see each other. And in fact, it was just amazing to see how the students and the teacher were enjoying to sing the song

Teacher Nancy  started the class with a unique and dynamic warm up activity activity.  The activity consist that students needed to insert the ball in a hoop, it was like a basketball game, it was pretty good to see how kids were engaged with this since the very beginning. Students enjoy the activity, and something that I really like was that, they were very enthusiastic at the moment of participating in class and how teacher Nancy give the explanation to them. And since teacher Nancy had a great energy, the students adopt the enthusiastic mood she transmitted, .

After that, teacher Yaneth started to review the prepositions and the possessives. She used some visual aids where she was demonstrating them where and how they needed to use the prepositions and possessives. The materials that teacher Yaneth  used were really incredible, she used a flip card to show them the prepositions and the possessives, she used simple object like a box and a ball to point out the differences of the prepositions.

 She did a great job pointing out the differences, it was an excellent explanation because the students really acquired where was under or in or next to. Even I was involved in  her explanation, I really enjoy it, and i could imagine how kids were engaged to it.

Teacher Gloria came out with a creative activity,  the material she used was creative as well, she gave some flashcards to the students, with objects in different positions. After that she played an audio with different commands, and when the students listen them, the one who has the flashcard corresponding to the command they listen, need to show it.

As well, I can say that it is really interesting the way how they keep engaged the students, because students were developing the activities in a very enthusiastic and positive way.

After that, they as a group decided that teacher Nancy made another activity, this time, she did a game, if I am not wrong it was called: the crazy dice. The game was really fun, it consisted on that each student will have their turn to threw the dice, according to the number they got, the were asked to form a sentence using prepositions and pronouns. 

I think this is one of the best strategies a teacher can use, including a game because we as teacher can notice if students have understood, and acquired what we are going to teach them.

Teacher Brenda create an scenario, to be more specific she created a bedroom, and some flashcards with the vocabulary. So she gave the students one flashcard. when they got the flashcard, she used a hand to play what we use to know as “ the spin bottle”, but in this case was an spin pointing hand. So she use this instrument in order to ask students randomly, wherever the hand stop and point a student, he or she was asked to locate the object with a preposition she gave, for example: The telephone is under my sofa. So students needed to represent that with the flashcards in the scenario she created.

I really enjoyed this activity, even if I was not part of it, I felt like if I was another student, and I could observe that students were really into the moment with her.

to  concludes the lesson, teacher Jackelyn play a salvadorian game, “Mica.” So, this game consist on one student that has the Mica, this specific student, need to run and touch any of the other students that are running around, when the Mica student touch another classmate, its time for he or she to have the mica.  The purpose of it was to review the whole class. She used realia in order to asked students. So, the students the student that get the mica, was asked to answer  question, and then to star playing again.

I really like this activity because its how you know students had acquired the knowledge of what they were taught, besides that it was more meaningful for them because it is game that all salvadorian had played in their childhood.

And now its time to say goodbye.

I really like this lesson, and even I was observing the class, I felt part of it. It starts with a good energy, and it ends with a great energy. The crazy dice and the mica was something really different, and something that I really enjoyed, and so does the students. I think that in the future this might be an activity that I will incorporate, it brings such a good energy to the class, and since its something different it reduce the stress and let the class carry out with an enthusiastic mood.