My third teaching experience was today, and a couple of unexpected things happened. Surprisingly, but purposedfully, I was able to use the popular flashcards again, and that worked even better than last time. I also played a song related to "wh" questions.
This class was the one in which I added more vocabulary than any other time. Either because students asked for meaning of new words or for flascard/topic content, there were many new words. In order not to give students the Spanish translation, I would give them synonyms, examples or explanations. In some cases, I would mention a synonym that was more similar to a Spanish equivalent (meaning an English word that was adopted from Latin, or romance languages). Example: Advertisement - Publicity (from French - publicité) Ad. So, it's important to take advantage of the influence English has received from lexicon we are familiar with.
I tried out a new way of making students participate, going line by line. I would ask only one line of students to come up with "wh" questions related to the picture they were seeing, giving them cues like "place", "object", "subject", etc.
The grammar explanation was not so simple, as I had to explain when to use the list of questions I wrote on the board, but fortunately there were no inconveniences, and they got the idea. There was improvement on my grade, and that motivates me to keep it up, although I know it won't be easy. In fact, I know it's very likely that it decreases from time to time. However, maybe you should consider my life philosophy of "It will pass", it works like a charm for me, it never fails (just kidding). I have taken some of your advice into account, so thank you all! I'm eager to hear everybody's anecdotes next wednesday.
My second practice with the Basic English group went without any surprises. I added more things to my class, and developed more activities, time was barely enough. The grade was almost the same. It was nice that students already knew why I was there. I used a lot of listening practice and they participated. I finally got the chance to use the famous flashcards I made last semester. It was clear that some students had a wider vocabulary, as they participated more often, but adding a vocabulary section on the board worked out nicely.
The grammar explanation was about the "simple present tense", which is a topic that is usually developed over several classes. However, students seemed to get it, as they were able to work properly on the written exercises. Once again, enthusiasm was singled out as the aspect to be improved. I guess it's hard to exhibit it when playing an audio or writing grammatical structures on the board.
Hopefully I'll get the chance to have more free practice on the upcoming practices. Eye contact was also mentioned, and I agree with my tutor teacher, although it's not so easy to look at all students in the eye when writing on the board or playing a cd track (for I had to be near the cd player). Despite not making eye contact during the entire class, I did observe everybody when making sure they were working on the written practice and while having choral repetition and asking for participation with "routine/actions" flashcards, for simple present examples. I personally don't even like when teachers look at me in the eye, it feels like they are trying to test you in a tense way, so that's probably the reason I unconciously don't do it myself, but in order to get a better grade, I'll have to pretend apparently, so it's just one of those things about teaching I must keep in mind.
Today, I had my first teaching practice at the University, in Basic English. It was a very rich experience in terms of getting feedback on my teaching skills, which was new at this level. In general, it went better than expected. I am satisfied with the results, as it was my starting point. Students participated, but not as much as it would be ideal. However, I think it's normal because I hadn't been their teacher before. In addition, some basic students tend to participate less, for they're insecure.
As I predicted from before I started my universitary studies, the teacher said I was kind of serious, but that's a personality trait that I hope won't stop me from teaching properly and graduating (fingers crossed). I had a similar experience to Alex, in the sense that the first 5 minutes were the hardest. I think it's because you feel everyone's eyes heavily looking at you. Fortunately, the group collaborated and carried out all of the activities. Not all of the students had the book & handout, but I was able to rely on the board, and oral practice. They seemed to like the examples I used, so that was nice.
I was able to control nervousness, which was great for me. As time went by, everything felt better and time was almost not enough, it felt like 20 minutes. I am also grateful that they actually worked on the written exercise, since last year I wasn't so lucky on a class. Nevertheless, this time, I checked everybody's work, and most people had done it right. I'm looking forward to improve in the next practices, and I hope you do well on your classes, so we can share our experiences.
