My Personal Logbook

FACULTAD DE EDUCACION PEDAGOGIA MEDIA EN INGLES

“My Logbook”

​ ​ Name:​ Daniela Cardenas Godoy ​

​ Date:​ May 20th, 2015 ​ ​ Teacher​ :​ Heather Bruyere.

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PIP VI: Theoretical classes.

March 11th

8:00­9:20.This class was mainly based on content. It was about theoretical content, related to the inductive and deductive method including description, interpretation and evaluation. It was a class focused on the teacher because she was explaining the contents and the concepts of the presentation. Although the teacher talked the main part of the class, she was concern about our questions and doubts. She has always helped us and made things easy to understand. All in all, the class was good; the teacher explained all the things that we were worried about, she showed respect and always accepted new ideas and opinions.

9:30­10:50.We continue talking about the method, we add opinions and the teacher solve our doubts. We worked with a sheet, which was focused on the same contents. After that, the teacher started talking about our logbook. She told us to talk about what aspects should be evaluated in our logbooks. I think that exercise was an excellent option to motivate the students to participate in their evaluations, we as students have to be aware of what we had to do in order to get a better mark. Next, we share our opinions about the activity; we related the aspects and ideas and then the teacher made a rubric with our ideas. In my opinion, this task was great to incorporate the students’ opinions and thoughts.

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th March 18​

8:00­9:20. in that class, the teacher showed us a presentation and then we worked with some book pages. The teacher explained what the presentation was about and then she gave the instructions of the activity. We are used to work in that way.

The teacher has her methodology and we are accustomed to it. She encouraged us to talk more about what we are learning, but we did not give so many opinions. I think that always talked the same people in classes. It is not a problem with the teacher, is just that it is too early or we do not want to give our ideas.

9:30­10:50. in this lesson we learnt about methodologies. We had to choose a methodology from the whiteboard, and then work in pairs. In my case, I worked with Karla and looked for the information about suggestopedia. It is a method about learning with music, appropriately for every skill and activity. There were lots of presentations, but not all of them were done in the same class. There were some classmates that didn’t show confidence or speak too low. Despite being future teachers, we demonstrated ourselves nervous, some students more than others.

But it’s an aspect that will be improved.

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th March 25​

8:15­9:20 and 9:30­ 10:50. In these lessons we were taught about task based method. The teacher showed and explained us a presentation about this topic. She talked the entire class about task based methodology and if we had doubts, we asked her about them. Although it’s the teacher’s methodology, it should have shown us not just a presentation but also a video or some different aspect to vary her methodology of teaching. I’m not saying that the teacher is boring but those characteristics might make the students distracted. The students may get distracted, however this reason is not a justification of the use of cellphones (I include myself in the use of technology) but is just a usage.

In the following lesson we did an activity related to the task based method. It was about a kind of ship sinking and the things we could save in order to live at the time we get into an island. I personally liked the activity, I participated more than the usual participation and I think it’s a good method to get the students’ attention and to keep them motivated.

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st April 1​

9:30 to 10:50: The microteachings started that week. All of them focused on the task based method. The first one was from Patricia and Yennifer. They made a task related to strategy, we had to be seated on circles and read the instructions of the activity. I liked their activity, it was witty and interesting. Although their task was interesting, not all of my classmates participated in a good way. It was supposed that the students speak mostly in English, but some of them didn’t cooperate.

The same happened with Marlene and Fernanda’s microteaching. The no collaboration of the students and maybe not manage the time made their task a little bit complicated to finish. Although it was correctly explained, they didn’t get the objective. Despite having a few problems, it was a good class regarding both microteachings.

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th April 8​

9:30 to 10:50: In this class, we continued watching the microteachings. This time, Maria Ignacia and Rocio’s microteaching and Gabriela and Constanza’s.

Both of them, as I said in the previous reflection, were about task based method.

Both pairs had a very good quality of language, pronunciation and students management. Even though they manage these characteristics, I think they do not have the closeness with students. The feeling of congeniality or just being nice to students is a thing that is missing in my classmates. In conclusion, they are excellent students in terms of contents, but maybe some of them do not have the vocation of being a teacher.

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th April 15​

9:30 to 10:50: We worked in Assessing and teaching. The teacher explained us what it was and then we worked in an activity. We learnt how to monitor different kinds of learning and the multiple intelligences. It was a useful and interesting lesson because we could understand how to deal with students that have diverse intelligences. To complement that, we did an activity that made a clear example of what we were recently taught so it was really beneficial for our future classes and our learning as future teachers. One of the good things of the classes is that the teacher was and always is really organized because she made all things very and completely easy to understand.

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nd April 22​

9:30 to 10:50: In this class we continued observing microteachings. Three pairs of classmates presented their activities, all of them related to task based method. The one which I liked the most was Diego and Andrea’s microteaching. It was a fun activity and they were very involved with the process of learning of the students.

They also encouraged us to make it better. For me, it is essential to be involved with the students learning because is the only way that students have to know how much worried you are. This is applicable not just regarding contents but also emotional aspects.

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th April 29​

9:30 to 10:50: This class we started learning about the assessment. We learn first, the different options we have to assess our students. The formal and informal aspects of both, summative and formative tests. Firstly, she taught the contents.

All the concepts and ideas that will help us to learn properly and thoroughly. After that, she introduced an activity for us that support our previous learning. It was very beneficial because I hadn’t learnt properly the terms of summative and formative, but with that class all my doubts were solved. The activity, which was about classification of tasks depending on the criteria we have recently seen, was clear and easy to understand. Most of us understood completely what she talked about the assessing.

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th May 6​

9:30 to 10:50: This lesson was also about assessment, but with a different orientation. We started to study the aspects that made a test a good instrument of evaluation. We learnt about the validity, the practicality, the reliability, among others. Those appreciations helped us to think deeply about what we were using to evaluate our students and also a useful method for our future students. After we saw the presentation, we did an activity that helped us to understand more the aspects. We add the score to a test and analyze if the test was practical, had reliability, had validity and all the characteristics we learnt. Despite being an easy activity, it made us think deeper about the test and its contents. So, it facilitated us a critical thinking of our future work.

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th May 13​

In the first class, we did and then solve a task from a book page related to the last contents seen in class, assessment. After that, we talked about the portfolio, the logbook and the other project regarding our teaching practice. We made questions about it and the teacher could solve almost all our doubts and requirements.

In the second class, we did and observe microteachings. I worked with Karla and we were the second pair that did the little class. The first one was from Cristobal and Pablo. They did a funny class but they run out of time. We were the following pair and I think our classmates enjoyed our task. They use very good vocabulary and participated actively. The last one, which I didn’t like so much, was form Danilo and Ana. They showed too many videos to introduce their topic and that took them too much time. It was a little disrespectful because we had to go out of the class and they didn’t finish their microteaching. There we noticed that managing time in classes is a very useful tool.

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th May 20​

We were just a few people in this class. We first corrected our teaching assessment handout. I really like when all participate and share their ideas out loud, because make us leave the fear of share our opinions. I have to improve that.

Although I share my opinions, I often do not do it. There are classmates that always have a good answer and that makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable.

Anyways I have to improve that aspect. Then, we had a meeting with Miss Monica because she wanted to explain us the accreditation process of our major. We just listen and ask questions regarding the process.

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th May 27​

This week, my classmates presented their microteachings. I enjoyed Constanza’s microteaching. She is a very smart girl and she knows a lot not just language but also the treatment with students. What I also like was Mauricio’s topic “Music”. I can apply this with teenager students because they are more concern about music and its styles.

After that we had a look at holistic rubrics. It a good tool to assess our students and the most interesting is that you can apply it (assess with it) with any student of any level as they are holistic they involve many aspects and they can be very practical for you.

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rd June 3​

This class started with Marlene’s microteaching. I loved it. It was perfect to hear about such a different aspect as alternative methods to enjoy our classes as environmental music, meditative aspects and tasks, etc. We can use those characteristics in any class. For example, environmental music helps students to get relaxed and encouraged they finish their activities in a happy way.

After that, we did an activity with Miss Paulina Torres. She did like a workshop about responsibility, rules and values in order to have a good relationship with our students. She mentioned some good tips to apply in our future practices. For example, setting rules since the first class will help us to have respect from our students and they will be accustomed to our discipline.

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th June 10​

In that day Jaqueline and Gabriela did their microteaching which was really nice.

We had to perform a specific scene from the movie Titanic. We had to change the end and it was a complete success. I would really like to apply that task with my future students. I am sure that they will have fun as much as we had.

The next hour of classes, the teacher talked with us about our behaviour and responsibility in the university. She was right about telling us those things, but it’s not because we are bored it’s just that we are tired. In my case, I have 9 subjects plus the English club. I’m exhausted but I’m not disappointed with my career it’s just tiring.

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th June 17​

In this class we saw an interesting video as an engage. I came a little bit late but I noticed that was about assessing and other aspects. I really love the teacher’s videos or movies because they always have an interesting and meaningful background. After that, we did an excellent activity. It is very useful and attractive to work with your students. If I want them to understand a text I would use the form that our teacher used with us. Reading a text by parts, then sharing what you understood with other classmates that read the same part. Next, share your part with the continuity of the text and mix your knowledge and understanding with them to finally do a summary of the whole text, I think it was just amazing. For me it was very useful and a really understood the whole text. I’m sure I will use this activity in a near future.

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th June 24​

In this class our teacher gave us the time to read and plan our microteaching­presentation of the following week. The class was divided into 4 groups and each group had to choose an ability to work with. In our case, we chose how to assess speaking. It was a good method to let us work in class because the time was used properly, we plan our microteaching and our activities and the best thing about working in class that you don’t have to work in your home.

So, giving students the chance to work in class, being that time work part of your rubric and your final mark is very useful. It is an aspect that can use in my future classes.

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Teaching Practice reflections (Liceo Pedro Aguirre Cerda). th April 9​

In that day I knew a class which I will not be having classes with because the th school made a change. So I accompanied my guide teacher to take a test to a 11​

grade. Although they will not be my class, I observed them and noticed many aspects and characteristics. The level of the students was very low. I mean beginner. They do not know much of English, they couldn’t express themselves properly, they do not know commands to ask for something, etc. In some way, the fault is of the teacher, she should have started the year talking in English only in that way the students would know at least a command or imperative sentence. It was difficult to explain them the instructions in English because they looked at you wondering what you have said.

I left the classroom thinking positively that the classes that I will attend to will be better.

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th April 14​

th​ I finally knew one of my assigned classes. It was a 10​ grade. As the class was made I realized that they had the same problem as the other grade. The teacher started the class checking sport vocabulary that they had had as homework. Not all of them did it, for instance I suspect that they weren’t interested in the English classes. The teacher just gave them the translation of the words, she spoke the entire class in Spanish and the class was very difficult to manage. For about 40 minutes later, the teacher gave them a task. The students had to create a poster promoting a sport or a day with activities related to sports. Although they had the vocabulary, they were too lazy to study it or just watch it. I didn’t have a problem if they asked me something because I was there to help them, but when I started to explaining them in English, they just didn’t understand and because of that they were losing their time and nothing else. At last, the teacher gave the poster as homework and they didn’t do any productive thing during the class.

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th April 16​

th​ I knew the other grade that was assigned me. It is a 9​ grade, young teenagers.

We couldn’t do classes there because the school was doing a general test to see the level of the students in different areas as reading comprehension, history, mathematics, etc. the students were concentrated in their tests. However, I haven’t seen them in real context of English classes. After the test, they started to talk, to move and listen to music inside the classroom. I could see that they were acting the same as the other students. Maybe I’m just prejudging them but the younger students follow the example of the older ones.

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st Abril 21​

th​ I went to the 10​ grade again. They behaved badly again but they talked to me more than the previous class. The teacher delivered the tests that they had done days ago but the results were so bad that she started to do a review of the same contents that were evaluated because she will do an extra quiz to increase their marks. Maybe the students were happy to hear that piece of new but it’s not good that the teacher repeats a test to improve the students’ marks. You, as teacher, have to do your job well and motivate your students in a way they want to study your subject and get a good mark for it. If they do not do it for pleasure at least they can do it for the mark. But they aren’t motivated or just worried about English.

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English Club

May 12th th This was our first class with the “English Club” students. They were all from 9​

grade but from different schools. As they didn’t know each other we started the class by asking their names and then we played a game in order to “break the ice”.

The engage of the class was a little difficult to develop because the students were a little shy and also we had to change our classroom and that was a big waste of time. That really bothered our class and so that we couldn’t finish our activity. After that, we started our first topic “free activities and hobbies”. The students watched a video and then answer some questions. We encouraged them to share their opinions in English because we tried to speak English as much as we could. A very positive aspect of that class was setting rules, which were very useful because they knew how we are going to work with them, the language that we are going to use, the rules, the time, etc. I think Diego and I did a very good job that lesson. We gave them comfort and confidence in order they were interested in our classes. Instead of the technical problems we did a very good class and I, as a teacher, was and am now concern about having a B plan, just in case.

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th May 19​

In this lesson we finish the topic about hobbies and free time activities. The students had to create a poster promoting a hobby they really like, present it and give reasons why is the best activity in the world. We gave them clear instructions for their creation and lots of materials to do it such as colorful sheets of paper and pens, glue, scissors, etc. in order to develop a good activity. We, as teachers, were very worried about them not just related to the contents but also related to their development and their meaningful learning. We gave them all the tools to have a successful activity. The class was very good. However, we had a little problem. A girl started to talk loudly and was very rude to us because she didn’t want more students in her group. We had to add one more classmate because they were new students and they had to know each other and integrate her to the class. We talked to her and at the end of the class we talked we the entire class. Despite that situation we could finish our class as professional and serious we could.

It was a difficult situation; I hadn’t been in a problem before so I was really complicated. At first I didn’t know how to face it but Diego talk to her immediately and it was a very good way to solve the problem. It was a good model to follow.

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th May 26​

This lesson was about food. The students really enjoyed this class. They watched videos, shared their opinions, they participated actively and enjoyed what they were doing. In that class we introduced Mauricio as a third teacher in the class.

I think three teachers in a classroom with 15 students are too much but those were the rules so we have to follow them. I’m not saying that Mauricio shouldn’t be there but it’s just an opinion. Regarding that, we did it well that class. We worked good but not excellent. Although I am very social and interpersonal person, I am very bossy and talkative. I have to learn to give the others the space to communicate and explain their parts or contents. I have to be aware of that aspect.

Finally, we got the aim with the students; they created really good recipes and was a successful lesson.

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nd June 2​

This lesson was about polite requests. I have to mention that is a little bit difficult to get the topic for each class. We know that are a lot of contents and topics to work with but having that freedom make it more complicated. We worked with “may, would you mind, can and could”, we planned our class with all our activities and the students work really good. Every lesson they feel more confident and secure about what they say or share with us and that is a very good rapport for us. The only aspect that made us feel uncomfortable was the time because we use less time than we expected but fortunately, we had a video that was useful and worked excellent. We worked with a listening/reading video, it was a conversation that had polite requests and they first hear the conversation and then they could listen and read the sentences of each person; it was an amazing plan b so we could close the class properly and meaningfully.

What regards my talkative aspect; I gave my teachers­classmates the space they need. I didn’t talk in their stages and that was good. I improve that characteristic.

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th June 9​

We started this lesson with a bingo game. That was to introduce the class and for the students to get the topic. They had fun with the game and the winners got a little prize. They were happy and had a good time. This lesson I worked alone with Mauricio because Diego had an operation. We taught sport verbs, do­play and go.

They worked well and every class they fill and get our objectives very good. Our students are very happy with our work and they participate as much as they can.

One of the things that I really enjoy of them is that they see us as models and examples. They are very respectful and nice to us, they say good bye as little kids.

They are a very good group to work with.

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th June 16​

In this class, Diego was supervised. As we know, everybody had to work with task­based or content­based methods. Diego’s performance was excellent, I really liked it. He worked with environmental problems and showed a video as an engaged, he showed a power presentation with vocabulary and lastly he did two activities with the students. What I liked the most was the last activity, where he draws a tree in the board and the students made a commitment to help the environment and the earth. The promises were written on a leaf and then put on the tree to finally form a real tree. It was a good idea and was very useful; it is innovative not using the technology sometimes and the students really like different things.

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rd June 23​

I was supervised this day. Although I know my students I was really nervous. I had lots of problems that day, to start with the English lab. I don’t like to do classes there because it is a little space and the students can’t move properly but there wasn’t any other room available so I had to my class there. After that, I had problems with the projector because my computer didn’t connect with it. Finally I could do my class which was related to food, healthy and unhealthy. I showed a short video because the message was clear on it and then the students answer some questions and opinions about the topic. Next, I passed the students some flashcards in order to classify them on the board; they could see the picture and the name of it. It was useful because they already know how pronounce the words in the second activity. In the last task, they work on a poster, promoting healthy food or preventing junk food, they communicate clearly and had a good time drawing and painting their posters. I encouraged and gave them all the materials to work and they felt really sure about what they were doing. They showed me respect and happiness. Despite all our beginning problems we had a good time and a good rapport.

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