Teaching

Teaching
Practice
Practice

Universidad Gerardo
Barrios
School of Arts and Science

Teaching Practice Two Students’ Names:

B.A. Elíseo Villanueva Karol Aylín Canizales Salgado
Víctor Antonio Vargas Gómez
Week 1

September 8th, 2020.

Canizales Salgado, Karol Aylín. SMLI076716

My experience:

Before the class started, I had mixed feelings, I was excited because of the new
experience, but on the other hand I was scared. When the class finally started, we
turned on our cameras and we introduced ourselves to the class. I had in mind some
things I wanted to share but I forgot everything, and I said other things. At that moment
I was really nervous, I do not know why but I feel more nervous in an online class than
in a presential class (probably it is because I know I’m been recorded), but at the end
of our presentations one student wrote in the chat “you look confident”, and I was glad,
I thought “we did it well”, so from that moment I felt more comfortable during the class.

The topic for this week was related to cooking, and the teacher had some activities in
Kahoot and breakout rooms in Zoom (the platform she uses during for the
videoconferences). Víctor, my partner, was in charged of one group, Professor Irma
had another room, and I had the third one. I have to confess that I felt a little
disappointed during the Kahoot’s activity because just seven students joined to the
game, and during the breakout rooms I had six students with me, but one abandoned
the call, and just two of them were participating and answering the questions of the
section. I want to think that they were shy and that they are going to be participating
more during the following weeks. On the other hand, I think that the two students that
were participating enjoyed the activities and they practiced the new vocabulary they
learnt during the class, so in the end it was worth it.
 September 8th, 2020.

Vargas Gómez, Víctor Antonio. SMLI009616

My experience:

I believe that the first step is the hardest in everything we want to do, and at least for
me, this was not the exception. I thought that my previous experience with the guitar
classes and the videoconferences were going to help me, but I was nervous. I cannot
deny that I had some expectations for this experience, and I am very satisfied with the
results we got at the end of the class. In the beginning of the class we had the
opportunity to introduce ourselves, and one student wrote that we looked confident,
when I read that, I felt happy and motivated to continue doing a good job.

Professor Irma had scheduled some activities for the class: an activity in Kahoot and
breakout rooms in Zoom. Fortunately, the students that Professor Irma assigned to me
were participating and almost all of them were answering the questions and sharing
their experiences. There were just one student that did not answer the questions I did
and that person just ignored me, I felt a little weird, and I did not know how to react to
that situation, but the rest of the students were doing an effort and they were sharing
their ideas, so I think that in the end there was a good result during the breakout room.
Also, this week there were few students in the videoconference, but hopefully next
week more students are going to join to it.

At this point, what I can say is that I feel so motivated and willing to give my best in all
the tasks the teacher assigns to us during the semester. I must also accept that the
student's behavior contributes to our determination to work hard.
Week 2

September 17th, 2020.

Canizales Salgado, Karol Aylín. SMLI076716

My experience:

For this week, the teacher had to reschedule the videoconference due to the
celebration of Independence Day and for this reason, I think there were few students
connected than normal. In this class, we had a little more participation than before
because we were assigned with the warm-up and wrap up activity. The students were
informed about this since the beginning of the call by the teacher.
The topic for this week was “eating out”, so my partner chose a warm-up activity
including some vocabulary related to main topic. The student’s were a little timid in the
beginning but they ended up participating and by the end of the class, they were ready
to put into practice what they’ve learned. For the wrap up activity we reviewed the
vocabulary studied this week but we focused on the correct pronunciation of it since
the majority students have problems with it.
Throughout this videoconference, I felt far more confident than the previous one which
I considered the first one of a series of developments I expect from the teaching
practice. Seeing that, I find Teaching Practice so important; it helps practitioners to get
used to this kind of fear of being exposed. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed when you
find yourself in front of a group of people that expect nothing less than expertise in the
subjects they're studying. Luckily, those apprehensive thoughts disappeared soon and
now I feel more relaxed and capable to handle my nerves. All these mixed feelings are
part of the process of becoming a good teacher.
 September 17th, 2020.

Vargas Gómez, Víctor Antonio. SMLI009616

My experience:

The call for this week was on a different day due to the celebration of Independence
Day and probably for this reason, some students weren’t able to be on the weekly
videoconference. However, we had a considerable presence of people and we could
work just fine.

This week, my partner and I were in charge of some activities such as the warm-up
and the wrap-up activity. For the warm-up activity I chose a sort of spelling-vocabulary
activity in which the students had to guess some spellings and write their answers in
the chat. I decided to do it in this way because most students don't feel comfortable
turning on their microphones or cameras in order to participate. Moreover, I offered
them a small reward in order to motivate them to participate; this reward was
previously discussed with the teacher to which she agreed. The reward consisted of an
extra point in their next homework; nevertheless, it was exclusively for those who
actively participated in the warm-up. In the end, everything in the warm-up activity gone
as expected and the students participated vigorously; the activity definitely helped to
spice the class up.

During this class I also discovered I’m getting used to be in a real teaching scenario. All
the fear and anxiety I felt for the first time are just fading away and I believe they won’t
represent any difficulty in the future. By the end of the course, I expect to had
sharpened all those skills and abilities a teacher needs in order to succeed in the
teaching field. It’s for this reason that I’m excited and motivated to learn as much as
possible from the teacher I’m working with.
Week 3

September 28th, 2020.

Canizales Salgado, Karol Aylín. SMLI076716

This week we had the videoconference in the “normal” day like the other weeks, and I
am glad because during this call we had more students connected than the last week.
For this week, my partner and I were in charged of the development of the class (as a
practice) because the teacher gave us the opportunity to have a real experience before
the evaluated class.

I was in charge of the second part of the class and the wrap up. My section was about
“how to make and respond to a suggestion”, so for this I decided to show them some
phrases and a video about a real situation and the use of those expressions we had
seen before. After that, we were talking about the importance of the use of these
expressions and how they can help us to sound more polite or friendly with our
suggestions. I thought they were not going to participate during this time, but they did! I
felt happy at that time because I was a little bit nervous and I thought that if they didn’t
participate was because I was not clear enough explaining the topic, but they did, so I
felt fine. Then, when it was the time for the wrap up, I asked for volunteers and they
were very participative, and they did an excellent job creating sentences with the
expressions we learned in class.

I am very satisfied with the results of this class, and I am really motivated to keep doing
my best and improving every class. I know that I have to learn a lot of things, and I am
happy to know that our guide teacher for this process is very supportive with us and
she is a great person and an excellent teacher, so I’m confident and I know I’m going
to learn from her.
 September 28th, 2020.

Vargas Gómez, Víctor Antonio. SMLI009616

During this class, the number of students connected increased substantially. This
made us really happy because we had the opportunity to reach more students, interact
with them. Nevertheless, I think there are some difficulties when there are too many
students connected; for example, most of them feel unease to participate due to the
sensation of being observed, and their fear to make mistakes increases.

In this class, we had the opportunity to test our teaching abilities before the evaluated
class, so we ( the practitioners) were in charge of the development and wrap up activity
while the teacher wanted to help us with the warm-up activity. The topic for this week
was called "Why don't you try the curry?" and the students had the opportunity to learn
about Indian cuisine as well as grammatical structures used to make suggestions.
Honestly, this is one of the things I love about this subject; it's so versatile you can
teach grammar and vocabulary through interesting topics for the students. There are
more opportunities to make the class more engaging so the students can learn and
have fun at the same time.

Throughout the class, I asked some times for participation, and to my fortune, students
participated. This is a signal that students somehow feel comfortable with the
practitioners because according to the teacher some of them didn't participate in the
past classes. We are trying to do our best in order to provide the students with that kind
of community environment where they can feel free to participate because, in the end,
mistakes are part of the learning process. Besides that, we also think everyone has
something to offer; we can always learn from each other.
Week 4

October 6th, 2020.

Canizales Salgado, Karol Aylín. SMLI076716