THE LAST EXPERIENCE

Hello!! Dear classmates...

I want to share with you my last class and my last experience with this group.

 I had my last class on Friday. It was a very nice class in which I developed 3 activities in order to practice “the passive causative”.

I arrived on time to the classroom in order to prepare and organize the room for the class, I arranged the sits in a semi- circle shape because it was one of the good shapes for many the activities.

Then I did the warm up I developed the game called pass the ball (you already knew the procedure), but this time I did it in a different way because I divided the class in two groups, each group stent up over a desk and formed circles and in the middle of the circle there was a box with the pieces of paper that contained the penalties, and I used it as reviewed of the previous topic. For the rest it was the same I played the music students passed the ball and the person who got the ball had a penalty. The penalties were questions about the topic (passive causative) and different tasks they had to develop.

After that I developed to controlled practice in which they have to use the passive causative.

Activity #1:  filling the blanks activity in which they had to choose and complete a conversation using the verbs from a box.

Activity #2: scramble sentences activity, students had to look, find out and report (write) sentences about things the Santana’s family had done or things they are going to have done following the days of the Santana’s calendar.

To finish with the class I develop the last activity that was called “who’s the boss?” a speaking activity to practice the passive causative.

It consists in:

The teacher:

·         STEP 1 – Ask students for job titles that reflect authority. Who gives orders and gets things done? Give “department head” as one example. Other possibilities: supervisor, office manager, project manager, vice-president, director, owner, company president, program coordinator, executive chef, chief of staff, head designer. Create a list on one side of the board.

·         STEP 2 – Ask students to call out types of companies or places of work where a number of employees must be supervised each day and where many decisions get made on a daily basis. Suggestions: restaurant, clothing store, car factory, language school, advertising agency. Create a second list next to the list of job titles.

·         STEP 3 – Have students work in pairs. Assign them a place of work and ask them to choose a job title for themselves. They must write down a list of at 4-5 things they got done today. Each statement must use the passive causative.

·         STEP 4 – Have the same pairs use their statements to create a dialog in which one person is reporting to the other.

·         STEP 5 – Have students role play their dialogs for the class. The boss can be demanding or understanding.

I liked this activity because I involved all the students in the practice and it was very nice to see the pairs working together and also the class is more dynamic and meaningful. 

And that was all...

At the end, I said thanks for everything and goodbye.

These two semesters, we had many good and bad teaching experiences that let us many lessons that will help us to improve our teaching skills and at same time be better teachers every day. 

Thanks god we are almost the end of the career and that’s really nice… congratulations to everyone!!!

we did it…

SECOND CLASS THIRD PERIOD

 Second entry of the last period

Teacher: Walter Alvarenga

Level: advanced I 

Hello! everyone, I hope you are doing ok... this my second entry for this period and let me tell you that my second class was great even though we always have some problems, but you know problems  teach us some lessons and give us experience.

 First let me tell you that I arrived to the classroom on time, and this is what I did, I organized the sittings in a semi-circle shape, after that I started to prepare the material that I would use for the class.  And it is very good since you have time to prepare everything before the students come to classroom.

At the beginning of the class:

As a warm up I developed the game called: “the neighborhood gossip” that consists in:

·         PROMPTS: ·         Mr. Jones – his dog ·         Mrs. Greenwood – her son ·         The Smiths – their grandchildren ·         Doctor Woodson – his wife ·         Mrs. Woodson – her husband, the doctor ·         Mr. McCormick – the delivery men ·         The Hancocks – their sixteen-year-old daughter ·         Professor Ray – his ex-wife ·         Gwen Ray – her ex-husband, the professor

The teacher: Write the list of prompts on the board. Tell students to imagine living in the same neighborhood with all the people listed on the board. Each student must repeat all the gossip s/he has heard and share a new piece of gossip. Each piece of gossip must use a causative verb. In short, this is a memory game.

EXAMPLE:

·         Student A asks Student B (on the left): Have you heard about Mr. Jones?

·         Student B replies: No, what? / No, tell me.

·         Student A then shares the gossip: Mr. Jones let his dog eat all the flowers in Mrs. Greenwood’s garden.

·         Student B reacts: Oh my! Really? Etc.

·         The game continues until all students have had a turn to spread some Gossip. Allow previous speakers to help the current one to recall information if necessary.

I really liked this activity, but the problem with the game was that some students didn’t get the idea about the game because they didn’t know very well the structure that they had to use in the game  so that  they didn’t do it well, and I had to developed slowly in order to tried to involve all of them, another problem was that some students came late to the class and I couldn’t involve them in the game because they didn’t want to participate, for those inconveniences I spent a lot of time to develop it, and I didn’t have enough time to finish the explanations of the grammar notes about the causative verbs.

As I said before I didn’t have enough time so that I did the presentation of the topic a little bit quickly, I developed a listening exercise in the book (inside out book) of the topic “attraction” about the causative verbs and vocabulary.  It was good, but the problem was next, I had to explain all the grammar and there was not enough time to do it, and when I was explaining some students (girls) were talking and they didn't pay attention to the topic, so that I tried calling their attention, but they ignored me and they continued talking, they made me angry because they didn’t pay attention and then they asked me questions about the things that I had already explained before.  

One of advice that I can tell you is that we need be prepared for these kind of unexpected situation that we faced in the classroom; for example, the problem with the girls was that I got nervous and I didn't know what to do, but later I tried to calm down and I continued explaining to the other ones that were paying attention to me.  With the game, now I know that I had had to change the game immediately or I had had a plan B. (When an activity doesn’t work well as you planned)

I couldn’t finish explaining all the grammar because of the time, but for the rest everything was good...

FIRST CLASS OF THE LAST PERIOD

LEVEL: ADVANCED I

TEACHER: WALTER ALVARENGA

Hello dear classmates, welcome to my blog.

In the first entry of this period, I want to start with positive mind and good attitude so let's talk about my first experience with the advanced I group.

Today, I had my first experience with this group, and it was very nice since I arrived to the classroom at 6:45 a.m. it was so good because I had enough time to arrange the seating and the material that I would use; thanks God, the students came on time to the class and I could star early.

Then I developed the warm up, I divided the class in two groups then I shouted out a sentence in the normal form (simple present) and they had to rewrite the sentence using the past participle; after that I checked the answers and the group who got more points was the winner.

The second activity was a controlled practice and it was a filling the blank activity with a paragraph about the mystery places in which they had to use the modals of speculation about the past and they had to work individually.

After that I developed the last activity of the class it was a speaking activity about “mystery places in the world”.

What I did was:

·         I divided the class in groups of 5 persons

·          Then I presented some pictures about these places and asked some questions to the students about them.

·         After that I gave to each group a picture with some information about the mystery place that they had to talk about.

·         And I gave them some general questions that they had to follow in order to talk about the place, questions:  do you know the place? Have you ever heard something about the place? What is the mystery in that place?

·         To finish the activity I made them to write 5 sentences speculating about what could have happened in the place using the structure of the modals of speculation about the past, and then some groups had to share some ideas about what could have happened in the place of the picture they had.

While I was developing this activity many students asked me about new vocabulary, obviously I was ready to these kind of questions, but there was a meaning of a word that I didn’t know, so I had to say the students that I would investigate about the word, I felt embarrassed, but then I remembered that I had my dictionary in the purse, and I looked for the meaning of the word.  So that I have to say that we as teachers, it is really important to be ready and always bring a dictionary or something that can help you to deal with these situations.

I finished my class on time and I felt very good because I knew that I did a good job…

Thanks for reading my blog…  

SECOND CLASS

TEACHER: LUPITA TOBAR (TEACHER OVIDIO'S GROUP)
CLASS:  16 STUDENTS 
LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH I 
SECTION: "C" 

Hello! Dear classmates, I hope you are ok. 

Today was my second class with this nice group of intermediate English class.  

It was supposed that I had to teach on Wednesday, but I had some problems with the public transportation…  You know that they are so fast (hahaha), and I arrived too late to the university so that I couldn't teach that day; for that reason I had to teach today. 

But today, I arrived early to the classroom and I prepared everything on time, that's nice for me. :)

This class was about practice of the topic: modals of obligation (permission, prohibition, obligation and no obligation) 

I had to reinforce this topic with some practice in which students had to apply the modal verbs in written and oral practices. 

Let's see what I did this morning!!!!

First, I developed the warm up that was related with modals, I did a group competition, and I divided the class in two groups then I told them a modal verb of obligation and they had to run and write on the board a sentence using this modal (example: I said "must' I must call my dad tonight) and so on. 

The group that had more correct sentences was the winner. 

With this activity I had some problems because students had made some writing mistakes, and at first, I didn't notice, but later someone told me about it and I could check them on time. 

After that, students worked in a filling the blanks activity (controlled practice) in which they had to analyze each sentence and use the correct modal verb. 

Then it was time for the semi-controlled practice which I develop a short reading about:   

                                                                                                   John's story 

    

One evening, Jon was sitting at home watching TV when the phone rang. It was his

girlfriend Kate. Kate asked Jon if he would like to go out tonight. Jon had had a hard

day at work and was feeling lazy and tired. So, he told Kate he was sleepy and was

going to bed soon. Kate wished him sweet dreams and hung up the phone.

Twenty minutes later his ex-girlfriend Anna called Jon. She was in town on business

and would be leaving town again tomorrow. She asked Jon if they could meet

tonight. They had not seen each other since they split up two years ago. They

agreed to meet at a local restaurant for dinner. Anna and Jon met at the local

restaurant, and they sat down for a meal together. They were half-way through their

meal when in walked Kate with her friends. Kate was shocked to see her boyfriend

having dinner with his ex-girlfriend! She walked over to Jon’s table…

First, I divided the class in 3 groups and give them the piece of paper with the short reading, after that I explained what they had to do. 

They have to read the story and then they have to write two sentences for each person of the story using the modal verbs of obligation.
Examples:  John must say Anna the true.
John doesn't have to go out with his ex -girlfriend... 

After all, they had to choose one person who had to read the sentences for the whole class and discuss their sentences with them at the same time, I started like a debate asking them the question below:  Do you agree with this group? or do you disagree with them? and why? It was a very funny and interesting activity because students enjoyed talking about the situation of the story. 

 I really enjoyed this class... it was very nice. 

FIRST ENTRY SECOND PERIOD

TEACHER: LUPITA TOBAR (TEACHER OVIDIO'S GROUP)
CLASS:  16 STUDENTS 
LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH I 
SECTION: "C" 

HELLO! EVERYONE, I HOPE YOU ARE DOING OK... THIS MY FIRST ENTRY FOR THIS PERIOD AND LET ME TELL YOU THAT MY FIRST CLASS WAS NOT PERFECT WE ALWAYS HAVE SOME PROBLEMS, BUT FOR THE REST IT WAS SO NICE... AND YOU WILL SEE WHY. 


 FIRST LET ME TELL YOU THAT I ARRIVED TO THE CLASSROOM ON TIME, THEN I STARTED TO PREPARE THE CLASSROOM, I ORGANIZED THE SITTINGS IN A SEMI-CIRCLE SHAPE AFTER I START TO PREPARE THE MATERIAL THAT I WOULD USE FOR THE CLASS. 
IT IS VERY GOOD TO ARRIVE ON TIME BECAUSE YOU CAN PREPARE EVERYTHING BEFORE THE STUDENTS COME TO CLASSROOM. 

AS A WARM UP I DEVELOPED THE GAME CALLED PASS THE BALL, I LIKE THIS GAME BECAUSE WE CAN USE IT IN DIFFERENT WAYS AND WITH DIFFERENT TOPICS. 
THAT DAY, I USED IT AS REVIEWED OF THE PREVIOUS TOPIC. I ASKED THEM SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TOPIC AND DIFFERENT TASKS THEY HAD TO DEVELOP. 
AFTER THAT, I EXPLAINED THE GRAMMAR, AND NOW I KNOW THAT WAS AN ERROR BECAUSE  I DIDN'T DO ANY PRESENTATION ABOUT THE TOPIC: "INFINITIVES AND GERUNDS". 
THE MOST IRONIC PART OF THIS IS THAT I HAD PREPARED A SONG FOR THE PRESENTATION, BUT I DIDN'T DO IT BECAUSE I THOUGHT THAT TIME IT WAS NOT ENOUGH TO EXPLAIN ALL THE GRAMMAR NOTES. 
ANYWAYS, I CONTINUED WITH THE CLASS AND I EXPLAINED THE GRAMMAR THEN I DEVELOPED A CONTROLLED PRACTICE.
AND THAT WAS ALL...

THIS SITUATION LEFT ME A GREAT LESSON THAT WAS "A PRESENTATION  IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE CLASS WHEN WE HAVE TO STARTED A NEW TOPIC BECAUSE IT IS LIKE AN INTRODUCTION OF THE TOPIC. 

LAST CLASS

Hello!! Dear classmates...
I want to share with you my last class in this period.

 I had my last class on Wednesday. It was a very nice class in which I developed 2 activities in order to practice " reported speech".

first, I checked a homework assignment  that the teacher gave them a day before then I developed a filling the blank activity.  
what I did is to present a chart with a conversation and other one with the paragraph in which the students had to write and complete the conversation with "reported speech". 

I like this activity because I involved all the students in the practice and it was very nice to see the group working together and also the class is more dynamic and meaningful. 

After that I did a speaking activity (reporting back about a famous interview). 
I divided the class into groups and I Told the group that they had to decide on a famous person (living or dead)who they would like to interview, then they had to nominate one person in that group to be a famous person, once the groups had nominated their famous people, I asked those people to come up to the front. 

After that I explained that the famous people are all in a T.V. show to be interview  by the class who are the audience of the show. 
Later I gave the audience some time to think about questions. During this time the famous people talked about what they would say. 
When the audience was ready, I  started to moderate the interview by asking for questions. Once all the famous people had answered all the questions, I  asked the students to write report with at least two things they remembered from the interview and they have to include reported speech in their report, after that in pairs, they had to compare their reports and that's all. 

At the end, I said thanks  for  everything and goodbye. 

SECOND CLASS

hello! dear classmates
I hope you are fine... I want to share with you my second teaching experience in this first period.
let me tell you that I had my second class with advanced I the last Week, and it was a very meaningful experience because I learned many things.

I started the class ten minutes later and for that reason I was a little bit nervous because I didn't have enough time to prepare the material that I would use.

I develop the warm up activity related to the topic it was a game called "the broken telephone" this is a very nice activity to present and start the topic that I had to explain later on.

that day, I had to explained the grammar part about "reported speech" and it was a difficult topic for me because I didn't manage very well this topic, but I tried to give my best and I explained the topic.  what I did is  to present a chart with the tenses and examples about the direct speech and reported speech, this chart helped me a lot to explain this part of the grammar, but the problem was that I didn't have enough time to explain all the grammar in the 30 minutes since it was a lot information.

 I think this is a problem that happen with all of us because the teachers ask us to explain all the grammar, but the time is not enough to explain all.
As we know the grammar part is one of the most important thing of learning English so that we need to be careful with every detail about it  and explain with enough time because if we explain grammar so fast; the student do not  understand or get confused mainly with this kind of topics.

But even though this problem, I can say that students understood   many of the things that I explained so that I feel good and I will continue improving my teaching skills.