Second Period
My first
class of the period
On Tuesday
12th I had my first class with the basic course.
I was
kind of nervous because there are many students in that section. But then I started
the class with a warm up activity, as time passed I felt more confident because
I started to interact with my students. Students also were able to participate.
The warm up activity that I did was the famous ´´HOT POTATOE´´, so as penalty I
asked them to tell a daily routine that they have; for example, I woke up at
half past six. With this activity they were able to practice what the teacher taught
in the previous class which were key words related to time. After that they
were doing some practice about the topic. There are some situations that we as
teachers may know how to deal with them, for example as I was monitoring the
students I could see most of them speaking in Spanish. As they are in basic,
they take advantage of every opportunity they have to speak in Spanish so I tried
to encourage them to speak in English, even when they asked me something they
tried to do it Spanish. As they don’t manage too much vocabulary is kind of
difficult to explain some things for example the meaning of some words. Another
situation is that some students don’t follow the rules that are established in
the classroom.
This day some students were using their cell phones. They were
texting or chatting on their cell phones, so in a kind manner I had to ask them
to keep their cell phones away. In the other activity that I did, I asked some
of the students to pass to the front and the other classmates told them (to the ones who were at the front) an hour using the key words (o´clock , half past, e.t.c.) and put the hour on a clock
that I brought to the class. Some students
did it very well, but for others were kind of difficult. Then they had to read
a short paragraph and answer some questions. Some of them didn’t have problems
to understand it, but some others had some difficulties to understand some
words, so I explained them those words and I also had to use body language and
gestures to do it. Then they had a
listening activity and they had to answer some questions regarding to it. I really
liked to teach this group because they are always able to participate.
Hello Connie!!I understand that it is hard to avoid that students speak Spanish in basic level, because of the lack of vocab they have, but if the teacher asks them to speak in English, because they will practice and learn in that way, they try to speak the target language. If they do not understand the meaning of some words in English, you can draw or try to explain them with known words. You said that they like to participate, take advantage of it and make speaking activities. Good job girl!!
ResponderEliminarI have been reading through many blogs about the games, and I like the hot potato because it is an ice breaker, so you can establish a good relationship with your students. Anyways, keep up doing your best because you have a very good and participative group.
ResponderEliminarHi Connie!! I read that your students did not speak English and also they used their cellphones thats something common in basic levels, but as you said we can manage those problems with differents methodologist. Well im so happy for you that you did it well. Congratulatios my friend.
ResponderEliminarHello Miss Diaz!!!
ResponderEliminarCongratulations teacher Connie!! I can see you are doing a really nice job not only because of the nice activities you developed, but also because you used your authority as a teacher to make ss respect your class as the same time that you encourage them to speak in English. It’s nice to know that your ss like to participate and that you feel good with them despite of fact that they require you to explain more vocabulary for each activity, which is time-consuming and laborious for any teacher.
Keep it up my friend!!
Hi Connie, I can see you manage the warm ups very well, maybe you can show me some of them ;). One advice, if they are not speaking in the target language, in this case English obviously, you might personally speak to those that give you this kind of problems, just in a kind way tell them to speak English even though hey have errors, through the major (if they wish to keep on taking it) they will master their English, remembering this phrase "Nobody is perfect here, we're all learnig, teacher from students, and students from teachers"
ResponderEliminarBlessings
Jajajaja Connie, I know what you mean when you have troublemakers in the group, definitely they are a hard task to take. But I really like the solution you took, the most polite way to let them know who`s the boss. Don´t give up, it doesn´t matter how many ss you have in the group, once you are prepared sky is the limit!!! nice Connie!!!!
ResponderEliminarHello Connie...
ResponderEliminarI can see that you have been using different strategies to make yourself understood. Mimic is like pretty much the base of everything, you have to use it everytime you have the chance, having the knowledge that the group you are teaching is basic.
Having the control of the group is a challenge, but we just need to face students politely as you did, and be clear of what we want them to do.