FUNDACIÓN UNIVERSITARIA LUIS AMIGÓPRACTICUM 1

CLASSROOM JOURNALStudent’s name: Leonardo Caro DávilaInstitution’s name: Centro Educativo AutónomoCT name: Lina Maria Londoño Metaute

DESCRIPTION SELF REFLECTION TEACHER’S FEEDBACK

WEEK 1

Date: January 20th – January 27th

Group: 7th GradeDuring this week the classes were a little bit unusual due to the schedule which was not the official. This week the teacher and the students introduced themselves during the development of activities using English as the means of communication, some students were shy because the teacher was new and they were not very spontaneous. However, at the end of the week they were more opened and they let the teacher identify them. This group of 7 th

graders is small , there are only 20 people, the students behavior could be considered normal , they followed the authority and the rules.

Date: January 20th – January 24th

Group: 8th GradeDuring this week the students and the teacher got to know each other, the students were very curious to know the new teacher, so they asked questions all the time, some of them used English to communicate and some other didn’t but there was no pressure to speak in English, later in the same week the students were asked to introduce themselves in English in front of the class not all of them wanted to, the main purpose of this activity was to know their level and make a diagnostic.

WEEK 2

Date: January 27th – January 31st

Group: 7th gradeDuring this week, the students started the real and academic year, there was a topic for the classes and it was to review last year’s topics, they participated during the different activities which included games, workshops and homework. The students were surprised because there was a workshop they needed to do and it was quite long, so they thought all the classes were going to be the same. Later on, they realized it was just to check and review previous knowledge. In terms of English the group in general don’t stand a full class in English they get lost easily , sometimes Spanish is needed

Date: January 27th – January 31st

Group: 8th gradeAs the same in 7th grade, the teacher developed some

written workshops in order to review and check previous knowledge. This group is difficult due to the amount of people, there are 37 students in the classroom, so it is hard to keep all of them focused, in this grade a child has special needs and sometimes some of his classmates laugh at him while others try to help him. During this week there were only two classes because of parents meeting.

WEEK 3

Date: February 3rd – February 7th

Group: 7th gradeDuring this week the students were motivated towards the class and with a positive response. There were some activities that included group work and I could observe it as a very good idea to work with teenagers, it kept them focused on the task. Other activity developed this week was closely related to literature and it is also a very good tool to keep them motivated, in terms of discipline this group don’t have any difficult case and their behavior is good but on Friday the English class is the last one and in account of this they are very anxious. The role of the teacher during this week was active but the center of the class was the students.

Date: February 3rd – February 7th

Group: 8th grade This 3rd week the last students arrived to the class because some of them were not registered, at this point the group was complete and we met each other. Working with this group is positive , most of the students are motivated and those who are not engaged , the teacher tries to engage them in all the class activities based on what they like and on what they are interested in. this week some activities were fun because the class included some games involving the gross motor skills. The use of the language becomes difficult due to the amount of people hence the teacher tries to make them participate as much as possible through the development of different tasks such as role plays and presentations.

WEEK 4

Date: February 10th – February 14th

Group:7th gradeThis week the teacher started the class checking the homework , some students didn’t do it or, after checking the homework the students were arguing about the lamps , some of them wanted to keep them on and the rest of the group wanted them off , so the teacher made a proposal about keeping the lights off half of the class and turned on the other half, here one student was rude with the teacher , at this point it was necessary to write on the student’s discipline book he didn’t wanted to sign but after a short talk he signed. The topic for this week was present progressive, the students worked on a crossword puzzle and then they made sentences according to the verbs. However , they wanted to play and it was quite difficult to

How can I make my classes more fun for them?

How can I catch the students’ attention in a very big group?

It is very good when we face reality at schools; at this point you realize if it is what you want for life, problem solving and all the situations that a teacher has to cope with makes the practicum a space for reflection because sometimes it is difficult to

play due to the lack of understanding of the topic that is why it was necessary to explain some aspects in Spanish and use a lot grammar examples and practice.

Date: February 10th – February 14th

Group:8th gradeDuring this week the classes were about food , the teacher used a story in English in order to engage the students in the literacy process , they enjoyed the reading very much because it was related to our culture, so they were not lost with the language and the pictures were helping them to construct vocabulary , after watching the story they worked on a crossword puzzle and after finishing it they had to write a recipe and a short story using the vocabulary worked in class , in order to change the pace of the classes and make them more interesting the last class was about a song , they had to organize the song while they were listening to it, it was a contest and they were very motivated.

keep calm when a group is out of our control.

WEEK 5

Date: February 17th – February 21st

Group:7th gradeDuring this week the teacher delivered the exam and those who failed the exam had the chance to correct it, the teacher also explained the topic again and in order to check the understanding of the topic, the students were asked to act out the verbs (each student had a different verb to act) and then say and write the actions that their classmates were doing, the students enjoyed this activity because there was no pressure. However, there are discipline problems in the classroom that sometimes are quite difficult to handle and the strategies are difficult to find. The class on Friday is difficult due to the hour which is the last hour and the students are anxious about going home, so, it is necessary to create activities for them to relax, the whole classroom played with a ball and the ball was passed from one student to the other in order to practice the topic for the following week which is numbers and they were asked to say a number and then pass the ball and the other students needed to continue counting.Date: February 17th – February 21st

Group:8th gradeThis week the teacher delivered the workshop made at the beginning of the week which was about creating a picture dictionary with the topic of food, the evaluation included a rubric with a space for self-evaluation because some of the students did the activity just as something required for the class and not for learning, in the self-evaluation they were very honest and reflected about the activity. Then, the students worked on the module designed to reinforce the learning process and after that we worked on a song, they liked the song because it was funny. However, it is

How can I improve the strategies in classroom management?

What is the correct process to handle discipline problems?

It is difficult to handle a classroom with discipline problems due to the negative influence of some students; I am worried because I don’t know how to proceed in those situations.

Is it okay to include a self-evaluation part with high school students?

not easy to motivate all the students.

WEEK 6

Date: February 24th – February 28th

Group: 7th GradeDuring this week the teacher started the class explaining the hours and practicing the numbers (eliciting previous knowledge), the students paid attention most of the time, those who had questions were free to ask, most of the students had the topic clear and then they got in groups in order to develop an activity proposed by the teacher (a workshop) this activity took the rest of the classes. However, the last class of the week was quite difficult in terms of discipline, in consequence the teacher started to count the minutes the students took to listen to the teacher and when the bell rang they paid the minutes.

Date: February 24th – February 28th

Group: 8th GradeThis week the classes were basically writing (due to a teacher’s meeting and school requirements), the teacher started explaining the topics which were in the module designed by the school, and most of the students were responsible for the task assigned. Later, the teacher collected and checked the activities assigned. However, there are special cases related to lack of motivation. Afterwards, the students were required to bring a newspaper for the “prensa escuela’’ activity, this activity is a requirement; the activities proposed by the teacher were: working with vocabulary and then creating a mind map or concept map in order to organize information. In this group there are students with emotional problems, so the teacher had to face one situation that is why the closing part was just collecting the newspaper activity.

I don’t know if the idea of counting the minutes they took to be quiet and organize the classroom and then pay those minutes staying in the classroom is okay but I really didn’t know how to handle the discipline and it was one strategy I found appropriate for them.

When you get to know your students you start to identify their personalities. In terms of emotions, this week was hard due to one student depression , his attitudes and the way he talked to me really touched my feelings, he needed to be listened and it was the first time that I was emotionally involved with a learner feelings. I hope I helped a little bit, now he has an appointment with the social worker .I want him to be okay and solve all the problems he is facing.

WEEK 7

Date: March 3rd – March 7th

Group:7th gradeThis week there was no English class due to the school’s representative debate and the international women’s day preparation. However, the teacher had to be with the group at the same hours in order to keep the discipline controlled.

Date: March 3rd – March 7th

Group:8th gradeThis week the teacher started the class explaining the uses of likes and dislikes and its corresponding expressions, the students asked the questions they had and they related the expressions with their previous knowledge. After that, the teacher explained a speaking activity which was about a survey to the classmates using the expressions for likes and dislikes, at this point the group was very organized and enjoyed the activity , after interviewing each one of the classmates they had to choose one of them because the

I don’t know if it is possible to have all the students motivated, I have been trying different activities in order to know each one of my students’ personalities and learning styles. However, some students seem unmotivated towards language learning. I would really like to engage them all but it is quite

following activity was about designing a poster of this person likes and dislikes, the teacher gave the instructions for the next class and then they had to have all the material ready for the proper development of the activity , most of the students worked motivated though other students were not motivated at all. At the end of this activity the teacher collected all the posters and the students were required to present what they draw , painted and wrote the next week.

arduous.

WEEK 8

Date: March 10th – March 14th

Group: 7th gradeThis week the class started with a review of the topics studied during the last two week due to an exam that was designed for that class, then , the teacher gave the exam and explain what the students needed to do, when they finished they wanted the grade but the teacher decided to follow the lesson plan for the class. The topic for the class was about daily routines, the students watched two videos one of a man and a girl, then the teacher explained the routines and they related it with their real life. After the explanation, the students worked in groups writing their friends daily routines. As homework, the teacher asked them to bring materials to do some posters.

Date: March 10th – March 14th

Group: 7th gradeDuring the week there were different activities, first the students had to present the posters they designed, they were active and exited to present and most of the students did a very good job where the teacher can observe the motivation towards the subject. Then, the students had an exam ; it was a about likes and dislikes , the exam had a reading comprehension part and another part for writing, the teacher checked the exam right after they finished, in terms of evaluation they did it very good and it can be seen that they have a good level of reading comprehension.

It feels good when as teachers we can show the students that the foreign language is not isolated, showing them video was very useful because they could see that people from other countries do the same we do. They made comments and I explained them that there are some differences but we are just one world and the culture we study through English is not isolated. I could also observe that group work has many benefits for them. However, discipline has to be quite controlled.

I don’t know how good it is checking the exams after the students finished, they were very anxious, I consider it is better to deliver the exam the next class and then correct it together.Is it good to check and deliver the exams in the same class ?

WEEK 9

Date:Group:

WEEK 10

Date:Group:

WEEK 11

Date:Group:

WEEK 12

Date:Group:

WEEK 13

Date:Group:

WEEK 14

Date:Group:

WEEK 15

Date:Group: