Logbook by Daniela Cardenas

FACULTAD DE EDUCACION PEDAGOGIA MEDIA EN INGLES

“Logbook” Name: Daniela Cardenas Godoy Date: May 20th, 2015 Teacher: Heather Bruyere.

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. 2

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. 3

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. 4

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.

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. 6

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

Teaching Practice reflections. 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. 12

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.

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.

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.

English Club th May 12 I took the English club with Diego Burgos. This day was our first day with the students. We have teenagers from different schools and high schools. At first they were shy and maybe afraid of the language, but little by little they were showing their abilities to speak English. We did funny and easy activities in order to lose the fear and to get to know each other. The engage activity wasn’t so good because we had a problem with the classroom and we had to change it. The second part of the engage, where they had to ask and answer some questions in pairs was more interesting. They didn’t have problems about interacting with other teenagers and was perfect. Next, we showed them a video to introduce the main topic of the class that was free time activities, and then we asked them some general questions about it and some vocabulary. Finally they had to do an announcement of a hobby or a free time activity that they like the most. In general it was a good class, we noticed that we can or can’t use some activities with them, but they are nice students. The most important aspect is that they love English as we do. 16