Journal 2

Journal 2nd Week

Name: _______FRANCISCO MARTINEZ ROJAS _________________ Date: _____12/04/2019___

Write a reflection about the classes you oriented this week (bear in mind the following aspects: what you planned, what you did, and what you would do differently if you were to teach your lessons again). Give examples and descriptions of those situations that, in your view, are relevant to your learning experience.

During this week, from April the 8^th to the 12^th I had the opportunity of implementing the lesson plans I had already designed for Basic English ll and Pre-intermediate English courses.

On one hand, at the beginning, based on the observations, course syllabi, and professors’ suggestions I designed the lesson plans taking into account mostly writing activities since my innovation plan is focused on that. Firstly, I had some ideas for basic English ll in order to foster their imagination. Indeed, my lesson plan for the two courses there are for Basic English ll included an activity, which made them use their imagination in order to create a short story based on a comic without words.

At the beginning of the lesson, I must admit I was quite nervous since that was officially my first lesson at the university. I started my class at 11 o’clock in the morning, fresh, confident, and nervous (inside). My first activity was the presentation of some images in order for students to discuss details, or the story with the student next to them. Then, the main activity took place so I explained the steps and delivered the papers. They did the exercise well but I could notice that they feel a little lazy about writing. Immediately I said, “You must write instead of speaking”, they made a frowned. Nevertheless, I walked around the classroom trying to look at their ideas or questions they might had. I think that helped them because they did not feel alone during the process of creating a story. Something I was advised to and forgot was to emphasize on the use of past, which was the main concern for the class. I did not remember that, I just forgot it. Perhaps, I was so nervous that I forgot it. At the end of the class, they showed, discuss, and gave feedback to one partner’s story.

I consider that I would not do anything differently. However, I should have put emphasis on the fact that they should implement the past tense in their short stories. I did not say it because I simply forgot it.

On the other hand, regarding pre-intermediate English course, I designed a lesson plan with the topics they were working on in their normal classes. My main concern was to practice a little bit reading and writing. At the beginning of the lesson, I introduced some vocabulary related to the topic, money. They had to guess or remember the word that each image represent. Then, there was a reading exercise and they had to find the words previously presented. After they finished reading, I gave them some statements to discuss with the person next to them in order to have a little bit of speaking practice. The final exercise was to create a story based on one image I showed them.

I must say that it was a good class for me; students were organized and willing to participate. I would not change anything on the class because I think it was entertaining to be a teacher, the students were nice, and the pace was accurate, from my point of view.

In the last class with the second group of basic English ll, I implemented the same lesson plan because the topics and units they are studying are the same as the other group. This time I did emphasize in the use if the structures seen in class, which implicitly meant using the past simple and linking words.

Finally, the classes were interesting from my perspective since being a teacher is another whole world. As a student, you have the perspective of the good or bad teacher, but as a teacher, you have the task of taking into account students’ needs, learning processes, units from the book, and designs of classes. Therefore, it was a good opportunity for me to experience what being a teacher means.