UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AT HUMACAO ENGLISH DEPARTMENT EDPE 4006 Practice Teaching Eliezer Morales Ruiz.

. Reflection: LEADERSHIP Since the beginning of the semester, I was able to notice that I had a group of leaders. As soon as I started to teach the group, the students demonstrated initiative in the class discussion and disposition to help one each other. So, thats why in a variety of assessments I give t hem the opportunity to take the lead, because I knew I was going to get great results. Throughout the semester I brought them several quotes to reflect as motivational activities, in order to remind them that they were leaders and there is nothing that would stop them for pursuing the goals they have. Some of them were leaders as they decided to stand up in front of the classroom and sing their favorite songs (lyric poem) in the Poetry unit. On my group, I had a lot of talented musicians. So, at the activity in the school for Saint Valentines Day, they were the ones that took the lead on coordinating with other musicians in the school serenades all around the school. They were the lead singers in group and they were offering serenades to those that wanted to donate something for their graduation founds. Even some of them decided to dedicate the poems that we were writing in class to some of their friends in the classroom and stood in front of the classroom to recite the poems to their friends. I was very proud of my students, as they were showing their leadership skills all around the school. Also they read the epic poem from Beowulf and the mock epic poem Casey at the bat. Both poems were about different kinds of heroes that were examples of leaders in their contexts. Dr. Anbal Muoz

At the month of March, as we were reading the play The Diary of Anne Frank, I decided to take a suggestion from the classroom book Longman Keystone. This book is the one that the Department of Education of P.R. provides for the ninth grade. The unit that had the play was called The Human Spirit. The author of the book encourage in the reading comprehension questions to think and reflect about the humanitarian spirit the coworkers of Otto Frank (the father of Anne Frank) had, by letting them hide in the secret annex of the office and they were the ones that provided food and security for them. Also it suggested the activity of offering a Human Spirit Award to that student that demonstrated an outstanding humanitarian spirit within the school community and the society. So, since in my group I had good amount of leaders I decided to do this activity with them. I give them the opportunity to name at least ten characteristic a person with a good human spirit should have. Also, I let them nominate the candidates for the award and then have a secret vote. Since there were a lot of nominations the voting results got very tight and we ended with three students receiving the award. They were also leaders by offering oral reports of their essays in the front of the classroom. Those days I was in the back of the classroom and they were the ones in charge. Also, when we were discussing the types of essays, as part of the explanation of the persuasive essay I had them doing a commercial. The students were divided in two groups and they chose leaders to organize what they were going to present. The task was to convince me about drinking water vs. energy drink, and both groups brought great statements. Similarly we did for the final assessment of the folk tale Aunty Misery. The students were divided in two groups and were assigned to write their own folk tale. They chose a leader that began and ended the folk tale and also was the presenter of the end result. I believe my students got the potential to continue developing their leadership skills in order lead our country very soon.