...My last Reflection...

...My last Reflection...

Hello everyone, this Teacher Nery Mendoza, once more (and I think that it is the last one!). 

I’ll try to be as concise as possible. When I was around 13 years old, I had my first contact with a person who knew something about English. I was impressed when I listened to that person. I said to myself: I want to learn how to speak English. Then, when I got to 9^th grade, my English teacher by that time was so good that I decided to study English as a major. Since that day, studying Eglish as major, became my first goal!

Well, today I can say thatmy goal is near to be real. All the experiences teaching have been amzing.

Second Semester, Class 3

Second Semester, Class number three...

Hello there. This is Teacher Nery! (I think for the last time in this first period)

Well, the third class was pretty simple. Of course, it does not mean that it was eassy! 

I had them working in pair or in trios; then, they started reading some information about the grammar part. For doing so, I prepared a handout so that Ss could follow me in the reading. The information was easy to understand and each concept or definition had its own example (in some cases it had more than one example).

Later, in together he same groups, I had them working together in the development of some exercises. Ss were allowed to ask the teacher to ask any doubt they might have. I was constantly monitoring and, at the same time, they were asking me questions. 

Finally, some of the team work were sharing the answer the got, and we all together were checking if the answers were correct or if they weren't.

Second Semester, Class 2

Second Semester, Class number two...

Hello everyone, this is teacher Nery one more time! Today I want to talk about the second class I tought in the second semester, 2017. That was a pretty nice class because I prepared many material (It means visual aids). The class was about movie genres and the grmmar was about 'd rather. I started the class with a warm up called "Poker Face" in which Ss were divided into two groups. Then, they were taking turns to pass an seat down in front of the oposite groups. The challenge was DO NOT LAUGH FOR 10 SECONDS! Only boys could get it.

Then, I had them working on a gallery walk that I had prepared for them in which I presented them eight of the different genres that there are. I could observe that they enjoy that activity since they did not want to stop. Just after that, I explained them the grammar part and they developed some exercises to practice it. After that, I had them working on a reading about some of the most famous movies, lately. 

And, finally, I had them working in trios. They had to presetn what was their favorite movie explaining what the genre was about and some other aspects...using the grammar structure that we were studying in the class.

Second Semester, Class 1

Second Semester, Class number one...

 

Hello everyone! I am glad to be talking to you one more time! Today, I am going to talk about my first teaching practicum in this semester. I’m going to tell you some details for you to have a better idea of the whole picture: I had the pleasure to be teaching in the room F-21, which is the room for Intermediate English I, group “D”. I started my class at 8:35 a.m. My mentor is Teacher Henry Cartagena, an amazing person. There were around 17 guys, boys and girls, in the classroom by that time and the rest were arriving later.

I started my class presenting myself and giving a piece of paper to all my Ss for them to write their names so that they could be called by their names. Then, I continued with a warm up very easy in which Ss had to count from 1 to 10 (go and back). After that activity, I asked my Ss if they had brought their passports so that they could travel to around the world with me. Since they were not holding their passports, I told them that they could use the pieces of paper with their names as IDs.

Right after, I had them going out to the main hallway where there were some pics of different places and/or activities that we can do around the world. Finally, I had them working on page 6 of the book in the grammar part.

My Third Teaching Practice Second Period

My Third Teaching Practice

Hello everyone! This is me just to tell you how my last teaching practice went like.

At the very beginning of my class there were only few Ss (around 10 or 13 Ss and the total is more than 25). Anyways, I had to start my class and I did by having them making them four groups and choosing a name of an animal per each team. Then, I took them to field and developed an activity called "animal farm" so that they had to mimic some animals' sounds.

Then, I had them reviewing both Simple Present and Present Progressive by making them awere of the differences between these two topics studied befrore by palying hot potato in order to select the person who was going to answer the questions that I had in a little questioner. 

Finally, I had them working in groups and making a poster in which they had to show the rest of the class what they knew about those two topics. I asked them to talk about the positive, negative and interrogative form of each topic. 

At the end, I said good bye and thanks to my mentor and also to my Ss. All of then were very nice people and now I know some more about this amazing teaching process. 

My second Teaching Practice, Second Period

Present Progressive

 Hello everyone, this is T Nery Mendoza, again! Now, I will tell you about my second class in this second period. "It was very short, but still good", my mentor said, when he was giving me feedback. Let me explain you why. I started it around fifteen minutes late because my mentor did not arrive on time arguing that his grandpa was in the hospital. What I want to say is that I was just wasting time while waiting for the mentor, but we, this my Ss and I, were discussing about other factors that we share, for example that they we have an scholarship. in few words, I used that time to create a better rapport between them and I.

Well, once the mentor arrived, I started my second class by playing "Red Elbow" and they enjoyed it at all. Even the mentor and my peer Manuel were laughing a lot. We were doing it over soccer field because of the space. Then, I reviewed the topic by developíng a repetition drill activity. I used many flashcards and all my Ss were repeating and passing them around. That activity was also developed outside.








The last activity that I could develop was the practice of a dialogue that I create for them i which the speaker A explained how to use the verbs in the present progressive form. It was a good way that I found to teach them inductively.

First Teaching Practice, Second Period

First Teaching Practice, Second Period

Once the second period started, we were assigned to different groups (I mean "we" as teacher to be). It is a great plesure for me to say that I was assigned to a group in which not only me but also my students can develope our potential while we are teaching-learning English. I was assigned to an English ACCESS group whose teacher is Mr. Pedro Sandoval. Anyways, this section is to explain you a little bit about how my first class was like.

I started it on time, just after the bell's ring. I introduced myself with all my Ss; then, I gave all my Ss a short piece of paper for them to write their names on it so that I could call them by their names in the next activities. When it was done, my following task was to review the topic (Simple Present positive and negative). I order to do so I developed a warm up called "Broken Telephone", which I think all teachers have played it before, so that you all know the drill. Unfortunately, this activity did not work at all because my Ss only could write 3 of 5 sentences  in the time that they had for doing so (It might be because of the lenght of the entences I used). Because of the time, I had to jump to the next activity.

I introduced the topic, orally (It was Simple Present Interrogative, Yes/No Questions and short answers); Then, I spreaded some photocopies to my Ss. These pages contained a Find Some Who. I explained them how the activity went like; then, they started asking questions to the their classmates. Finally, I used the data that they collected in order to create some questions and short answers in small pieces of paper.

The last activity that I developed with my Ss was Idea Puddle. So, the final task for Ss was to fold thise pieces of paper and throw them to an imaginary puddle. Unfortunately, when I was going to ask them to pick up one of those pieces of paper and read it aloud, the bell rang and they went out to enjoy their break.

My Third Teaching Practice

Hello there, this is Nery, once again! Now, I will explain you how my third and final teaching practice with my Basic English Ss was. This was a very meaningful class because I could developed all the activities on time. It is important to mention that I was teaching how to give instructions of places by using some prepositions of place (in, on, at).

            I used a common, but still effective, filling in the black activity in order to make my Ss reviewing about the topic. Since many of the Ss were still having problems to uderstand the usage of the prepositions, I provided them with a piece of paper that contained extra information about the usage of prepositions. After that activity, I had the Ss working in groups of four. Then, I provided them with a sheet of paper that contained information about a public event so that they will have to use wh-words to make some questions for them to investigate about any of the events. The following activity was a dictation practice, which was very short, but related with our context.

   

Finnaly, I ended my class with a very nice wrap up where they just had to count from one to ten, for and back, and then all together, but one at a time without repeting any number because in that case they will had to start the game, again.

My second Teaching Practice!

     Hi there! This is Nery, once again, to report how my second class was. I will start saying that I was kind of nervous, but ready to teach. Once I reached the classroom (A35) at 8:25 and started writing the objective on the board and, suddenly, one of the Ss approached me and asked if I could tell him about my beginning of my major. "Of cource," I said and started to tell him that it was not that easy but if you love English you will do it just better than I did. Why am I writing this? It is because rapport between T and Ss is really important in the classroom. Actually, one of the suggestions made by my mentor in the first teaching practice to be more enthusiastic.

     The activities for that were pretty simple, but still interesting for all the Ss. I developed a warm up called Awake, Alert, Alive, Enthusiastic. It goes like:

Lyrics:

I am awake, alert, alive, enthusiastic!

I am awake, alert, alive, enthusiastic!

I am awake, alert, alive,

alive.alert, awake...

I am awake, alert, alive, enthusiastic!

Mimics:

awake: hands on head

alert: hands on shoulders

alive: hands in front of the chest
enthusiastic: hands up!


     You might realice that the topic that I was teaching prepositions of time and place, so this warm up worked as teaching them inductively, as well.

     A second important fact from my teaching is that when I was developing one of the activities, one of the Ss did not understand how to use one of the prepositions and she asked me to explain it in Spanish. First of all, I said that Spanish was not allowed for me, so she said that she will ask to the T, this is my mentor, but, immediately, I said that it was necessary because I was going to explain it to her. At the end of the class, my mentor told me that what I did in that moment was just what teachers must do in those moments because then they show that they know what they are doing. I felt very nice when listening to my mentor saying that.

My First Teaching Practice    

 Hello everyone! This is Nery Mendoza and now you will see how my first teaching practice was.  It was on Monday, February 1st, 2017 in the room B34 at 8:30 a.m. Well, being in front of 28, or more, Ss might be not really easy for any new teacher. That is what actually happened in my very first class because I was nervous at the very beginning. I greeted all the Ss and started the class praying (one of them helped me). Right after that, I provided the Ss with a piece of paper for them to write their names. It took me around 4 minutes. 

    The following step on my agenda for that day was to develop a warm up. The one that I developed is called "One, two, clap!". It is pretty simple because what Ss have to do is only not to say every multiple of three because if someone do it, that person was going to have a penalty. The penalties were very simple as well, since they just have to answer some reviewing questions.

     Then, I continued with the introduction of new vocabulary about nationalities, birthplace, hometown, and professions or occupations . I consider that part as the best of my teaching of that day, becuase all Ss understood both spealling and pronunciation. Moreover, my mentor told me ( when she was giving me feedback) that vocabulary presentation was the best managed part of my teaching because I did step by step and little by little.

     Finally, I ended my first teaching practice with an activity in wich Ss had to collect personal information about their T or classmates by filling in a small chat on a sheet of paper and write a pargraph by using that personal information. Doing this last activity, I could reach the objective for that class.