NINTH TASK: MY TEACHING METAPHOR

Since I am working as a teacher, I have to say the first role I have played and which I´m playing until today, is that of been a learner. I think every day I learn something in this enormous and valuable sea of teaching. Students´personalities, their attitudes and aptitudes, their families, both their and my own weaknesses and strengths, experienced colleagues, the different backgrounds and contexts, our daily routines, among others are valuable sources of knowledge to learn how to become a better human being and therefore to be a better teacher as well.

In this process I consider I'm playing the role of a leader too. That´s what I tried to represent on the drawing, that as teacher I´m like navigating through this complex way of learning, teaching and now reflecting; leading my students and myself to overcome different situation we find along it. Also, questions, doubts and hesitations are always making part of these processes, however, students' smiles are the reward to all this effort.

EIGHT TASK: Reflection on video-taped teaching performance

Usually people say you learn something new every day. Today and thanks to my own classroom observation I confirmed it. Although most of the time teachers’ lives become a routine, every day teaching gives us the opportunity to learn something new that we did not know from our students and even from ourselves. Sometimes, we just limit our labor to wake up very early in the morning, plan classes, teach different topics, check and revise notebooks, worksheets and fill many school forms. This routine does not let us to see beyond and realize that in each moment of teaching there is something or   someone from we can learn to improve our labor. Hopefully, this class observation gave me the chance to learn new things that I am sure will help me to improve my teaching practice. In this paper I briefly describe what the class was about, then I present some comments made from a colleague as well as my own points of view of the class. While doing so, I reflect on those comments by making an analysis and telling you what I learnt from them. Finally, I present a conclusion of this experience. 

To begin with, the students who were in this class are a group of 33 rural students from ninth grade. They are very nice, friendly and respectful people as you can see on the video. I have been working with them since the beginning of this year. In the video I see myself as a friendly and approachable teacher. I use my body language to help my students understand what I say and I think that I try to create a good atmosphere into the classroom and to make my students feel confident and willing to participate in the class.

 Talking about the class itself, its purpose was to make my students learn how to express in past tense. This is the topic we were studying in the last classes but this time using irregular verbs. The first activity I carried out to introduce the topic was to show them some pictures stuck on the board. I decided to do this activity to show my students some real situations that have occurred in the last days. The idea was students talked about what they knew about those situations. They did it in English and Spanish and little by little I help them to build complete sentences. I was writing those expressions on the board to make them identify how to use the verbs in past. Then, they chose a number at random in a small piece of paper to make groups. I passed each group some papers with different color words which contained ten irregular verbs with their past forms and the meaning in Spanish. So, they had to match them in the correct way. Although they did not know all of those verbs the idea was to find some patterns that let them to identify the past form. After checking these verbs, the third activity was to say and write three short sentences using some of those verbs following the samples given before on the board. Finally, based on a different picture of a situation they had to guess what had happened and write a short paragraph using the verbs that they had matched in the second activity. This last activity was not possible to do it because of the time.

After watching the video one of my colleague’s comments was about the way I made the groups. According to her it was a different and funny way that rise students’ emotion and expectancy about who they were to work with. This short time made the classroom atmosphere get better. From this part of the class and my colleagues’ comment I learnt that if we start making very little changes like the way you organize the students, it will help you to create a better classroom atmosphere allowing students feel motivated and willing to participate.

Another aspect that I realized and my colleague’s comment agreed was about the importance of group work. I implemented or try to implement this type of cooperative learning because when students work together, learning takes place in an easier way, as students help each other and learn from each other. Besides, when students work with someone else they feel more confident and relax with the activities.

In addition to this, my colleague recommended me do not use too much Spanish in class. I totally agreed with her but I also explained her that as they are rural students their English level is very low, then I usually have to speak them in Spanish. I know I should talk them more in English but when I try to do it, students become more reluctant to the class and the communication turns very limited. Also, because I have realized that when I explain them in Spanish they comprehend and learnt better how English works. Since I work with rural students one of the most important things I have learnt is that they feel more comfortable and less anxious when the English teacher tries to put aside their domain of that language and show him/herself as someone in an equal level as students are. However, I am not saying rural students are not able to have a class in English but it would be little by little. This classroom observation also helped my colleague (who has worked only with urban students) understand that rural and urban students have many differences apart from the place they live and we cannot expect from them the same responses or attitudes in the English class.

Another comment was about the lack of time to finish the planned activities. Maybe I spent too much time making the groups and at the end when the bell rang we had not time to do the last activity. I recognize this is one of the aspects I have to work on since most of the time I do not reach the time to develop what I plan. Maybe, I have to think of planning less activities or maybe to develop them faster. 

On the other hand, I have to admit this was the first time I observed one of my classes and I to be honest I did it just for the master’s assignment because I had never thought of recording a class. Why? I do not know. However, from this unusual experience I can say I learnt two more relevant things for my teaching practice. First, that the idea of being a reflective teacher should be born by heart, it should not be imposed. If we decide to reflect upon our practice is because we think it is important and significant for us. Because it is an opportunity to see, evaluate, reflect on and modify the way we teach in order to make it not only more effective but enriching and pleasant for both students and teacher.

Second, that there are many things we should do by our own (and not just to complete a requirement) to be more reflective practitioners and the video recording is a very good way to do it. I have to admit that being observed and videotaped is an estrange experience. Even though it was an uncomfortable moment, after watching and analyze the video I realized that it is a very effective technique to reflect upon our teaching practice.                                                         

To conclude I would like to say that teaching is undoubtedly a very exhausting act but the most rewarding and satisfactory. It is a perfect place to explore and learn many things that we cannot find in other settings. Sometimes we may have difficulties; we may feel disappointed because we cannot achieve what we want, however, our commitment to students and ourselves has to be greater and stronger to overcome all those difficulties faced along the way and to do so, video recording is an excellent tool to help us reflect on those aspects in order to improve our teaching practice.

****** Excuse me professor I couldn't upload the video. It is too long and heavy and the system didn't allow me to upload it. 

SEVENTH TASK: mapping, informing, contesting, appraising and acting

Journal Entry 1

This class was carried out with 35 students from sixth grade. The class was after the break, so when I entered to the classroom they were very excited, talkative and a little bit dirty and sweaty because they were playing. However, as soon as I get the classroom most of them received me showing what they have taken. The class before I asked them to take a fruit or something related to food. So, despite they were very talkative and they were not sat on the correspondent places I was happy to see that they were expectant to the class. I started the class by asking them to present the food, I gave them an example like “this is rice. The rice is white. I like eating rice”. Then, they had to adapt the example according to their food and practice it with a partner. As the class before I had worked with them some vocabulary related to food, it was easy for most of them to follow the exercise. However, while I was checking the exercise with some pairs, some students broke an egg on a classmate’s desk doing disorder and distracting the whole class. They are four students who constantly misbehave and interrupt their classmates’ work. So, I had to stop the class while they cleaned themselves, the desk and the floor. This made me to lose about 10-15 minutes of the class which is much time taking into account the number of students in an oral exercise like this. At the end of the class, I just could check the development of the middle of them. Although most of them were worried about their pronunciation, they did their best.

From this class, I can say that compared to other classes after the break, this time it was easy to start it because students were playing attention to my instructions and how they were going to use the food they have taken. I highlight the fact that even those students who never participate in class, they dared to talk and say something in English. This made me feel it was a good activity form them. However, when I ask them to take food I never imagined that it could have any problem like with the eggs. My intention was to make them learn using real elements that called their attention.

Also, I could confirm that most of the time we do not prevent some situations than can occurred in the classroom and even more we are not prepared to face them up. Then, from this class I will bear in mind aspects like this when designing and planning my classes. Especially I have to be careful when designing an oral activity since it is important to see and revise what all students do.  

Journal Entry 2

Today’s class was carried out from 7:30 to 8:20 in the morning. There were 32 students from seventh grade. I started the class with a game, using a ball. This activity was done with the purpose of starting the class in a fun way and also to review the “WH questions” as I asked them different questions like “who is your best friend?”, “What is your favorite singer?” and so forth. I wrote some questions on the board and asked the students to answer them individually. After they had answered the questions, we played pass pass stop. The students who had the ball had to answer one question from the board and in that way we continued with the game until the questions from the board were answered by the students. During the time they were working individually I could notice that most of them were really concentrated on the activity, they were really engaged as every time they answered a question they asked me if it was right or not. After this individual activity, students gathered in groups and asked each other the same questions.

From this class I got the feeling that students enjoyed the activities, they seemed interested and happy to interact with each other. They loved working together. I could see they helped each other. Although they were laughing about some classmates’ pronunciation they were very respectful what made this class nice for all of them.

I can say these type of activities that involves games called student’s attention and make them feel comfortable in class. I have to say that in this case, students’ behavior helped me to have a good class too, but the point here is that all groups do not behave in the same way. So I have to think how to use this type of activities with a different group (misbehave) without losing control.

SIXTH TASK: How reflective am I?

How reflective am I? 

First of all, although all we know reflection is inherent to human beings it is also true that it is not easy to auto evaluate and recognize what we do wrong.  Especially in our case, where most of the time as teachers we tend to think students are responsible when a class is not what we expect.

To be honest, reflection hasn’t been part of my professional life. I recognize I don´t take enough time to reflect on what I’m or what I do as teacher. Many times I just think on how classes went on or what was not what I planned, or maybe I change some strategies or activities in class, but I consider it not reflection at all. Maybe this sounds like an excuse but my duties as teacher, mom and wife don’t let me too much time to reflect in the way I should do it.

Then, I consider myself in the middle of the process of being a good reflective practitioner. I mean, I know my strengths and my weaknesses, I prepare classes, I know my students, I’m aware there are some situations in class difficult to manage,I recognize there are some things to improve and I try to implement new strategies and activities in class. However, to make a conscious deeper analysis on all those aspects is not part of daily routine.

Today, thanks to a course like this, I know it is important to take time and reflect upon all those issues, making a deeper analysis, in order to find new ways that allow me improving my practice.

FIFTH TASK: BELIEVES

BELIEFS ABOUT ENGLISH:

First of all, it is impossible to talk about English without recognizing its importance. English has become one of the most important languages around the world. Business, literature, politics, economy, education, technology and even culture are link to this language which has crossed both national and international barriers. I think it is one of the reasons why nowadays many people is learning it.

In my case, when I started the undergraduate program I thought it was easy like in the school. However, later on I found myself struggling with certain grammatical rules and pronunciation. In fact, this last one has been the most difficult part of learning English because most of the words do not sound as they seem. And it is something many people/students complain about. Fortunately, I as time has passed my English has improved and I can say I’m able to communicate in English. Although I don’t have a native-like pronunciation I think the most important is to communicate.

 BELIEFS ABOUT LEARNING:

In my opinion, learning is a word that involves more than it seems. I used to think learning was just to learn something new but from my short experience as teacher I have realized it is more than that. It implies not only to learn a new concept but to understand what, how and why the process of learning take place. Every day students demonstrate that learning is a unique process that varies depending on each student. All of them have different personalities and therefore different learning styles that makes this process a unique one.

In regards to learning a language, in this case English, I consider that motivation is one of the factors that makes the learning process success. I have seen, for example many students that are very good students, they are intelligent, good readers, responsible and have many learning skills but they fail in learning English. They don’t see how English can help them in their daily lives; as they are rural students, they tend to think they will never use it. Although they recognize English is a global language, for them it is not important to learn a language that they don’t use in their real context. 

My objective, then, has been to use a different strategy, talking to them, trying to raise their interest through what they like and do in their daily lives: video games, smartphones, TV, social networks, etc.  

BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING:

To be honest, I never imagine teaching was a complex task like it is. In five years of being a teacher I have realized it demands a great effort, much time and too much patience. Although I have tried to be an effective teacher, every day I learn something from my students and colleagues, so, I have to say I’m in that process yet.

Regarding to classroom management I consider it is the hardest part of teaching. For me it has been too difficult to manage 35-40 students with different personalities and interest at the same time. Some of them talk, ask, play, work, other misbehave, some want to you pay attention, to check their homework or classwork, other want to participate… there are many things that I'm learning to manage.

Nevertheless, the most rewarding of being a teacher is to see how your students improve every day. I mean, it is not only what they learn in terms of academic development, but how they change their attitudes in a positive way. Teaching gives us the opportunity to be part of their lives, to help them to develop their skills and to be better human beings.

FOURTH TASK - JOURNAL ENTRIES

Journal Entry 1

This class was carried out with 35 students from sixth grade. The class was after the break, so when I entered to the classroom they were very excited, talkative and a little bit dirty and sweaty because they were playing. However, as soon as I get the classroom most of them received me showing what they have taken. The class before I asked them to take a fruit or something related to food. So, despite they were very talkative and they were not sat on the correspondent places I was happy to see that they were expectant to the class. I started the class by asking them to present the food, I gave them an example like “this is rice. The rice is white. I like eating rice”. Then, they had to adapt the example according to their food and practice it with a partner. As the class before I had worked with them some vocabulary related to food, it was easy for most of them to follow the exercise. However, while I was checking the exercise with some pairs, some students broke an egg on a classmate’s desk doing disorder and distracting the whole class. They are four students who constantly misbehave and interrupt their classmates’ work. So, I had to stop the class while they cleaned themselves, the desk and the floor. This made me to lose about 10-15 minutes of the class which is much time taking into account the number of students in an oral exercise like this. At the end of the class, I just could check the development of the middle of them. Although most of them were worried about their pronunciation, they did their best.

From this class, I can say that compared to other classes after the break, this time it was easy to start it because students were playing attention to my instructions and how they were going to use the food they have taken. I highlight the fact that even those students who never participate in class, they dared to talk and say something in English. This made me feel it was a good activity form them. However, when I ask them to take food I never imagined that it could have any problem like with the eggs. My intention was to make them learn using real elements that called their attention.

Also, I could confirm that most of the time we do not prevent some situations than can occurred in the classroom and even more we are not prepared to face them up. Then, from this class I will bear in mind aspects like this when designing and planning my classes. Especially I have to be careful when designing an oral activity since it is important to see and revise what all students do.  

Journal Entry 2

Today’s class was carried out from 7:30 to 8:20 in the morning. There were 32 students from seventh grade. I started the class with a game, using a ball. This activity was done with the purpose of starting the class in a fun way and also to review the “WH questions” as I asked them different questions like “who is your best friend?”, “What is your favorite singer?” and so forth. I wrote some questions on the board and asked the students to answer them individually. After they had answered the questions, we played pass pass stop. The students who had the ball had to answer one question from the board and in that way we continued with the game until the questions from the board were answered by the students. During the time they were working individually I could notice that most of them were really concentrated on the activity, they were really engaged as every time they answered a question they asked me if it was right or not. After this individual activity, students gathered in groups and asked each other the same questions.

From this class I got the feeling that students enjoyed the activities, they seemed interested and happy to interact with each other. They loved working together. I could see they helped each other. Although they were laughing about some classmates’ pronunciation they were very respectful what made this class nice for all of them.

I can say these type of activities that involves games called student’s attention and make them feel comfortable in class. I have to say that in this case, students’ behavior helped me to have a good class too, but the point here is that all groups do not behave in the same way. So I have to think how to use this type of activities with a different group (misbehave) without losing control.

SECOND TASK: Mind Map "Reflective Teaching and its Impact on Foreign Language Teaching,"