University of Puerto Rico in Humacao English Department Shirlenne Peralta 842-07-6270 Practice Teaching Practice Supervisor- Dr. Nilsa Lugo
REFLECTION #5 September 15-19, 2014
My fifth week in practice teaching went by fast and slow at the same time. On Monday my students were absent because their homeroom teacher was also absent. On Tuesday, I administered my group a test of Unit 3. 1 What makes Puerto Rico Famous? Before the test, I did the normal morning routines, we sang their favorite song and I told them to relax and concentrate on their test and be very quietly so everybody could think. Since my group has low proficiency in reading, I told them that just for this time, I would read the instructions to them and items, and I did it in English too. After my group took the test, I still had some time so I gave my group work to copy from the board about the oral presentations they were going to do the next day about their P.R. magazines. I handed them tiny worksheets with helping sentences so they could read and say in their presentation. I explained it to them and the class time was over after I finished discussing. On Wednesday we had orientation in the UPRH about our blog construction. It was a very refreshing day for me. I enjoyed seeing my peers’ blogs and learning a couple of new things for my blog. The orientation started at 9a.m. and ended around 12:30.On Thursday I woke up sick. I thought about it so much to miss a day cause I didn’t want to, but I was vomiting
University of Puerto Rico in Humacao English Department Shirlenne Peralta 842-07-6270 Practice Teaching Practice Supervisor- Dr. Nilsa Lugo
a lot and had a terrible stomach ache so I had to miss school and went to the hospital. The Doctor ordered me to stay till Friday to recuperate. I was actually glad for weekly planning! Even though in practice teaching we had to plan 3 days ahead, in a normal school scenario, if I had just planned daily and a sudden emergency like this happened, a substitute teacher(if that ever happens in a public school) would have been completely lost. So even though I had to miss 2 days, I felt more at peace knowing that Gina could continue the class with no problems and she would know exactly what to do. I texted Jailene to check how everything was running in the school and with my class, and the Thursday I didn’t go, my students missed also! Their homeroom teacher was absent. Friday my students did come to school, but Jailene told me there were about 8 because it was a really rainy day and more than half the class was absent. For next week, a lot of my previous lesson plan’s components, and activities will be running exactly the same because they could not be covered by multiple reasons, such as the ones mentioned before. I also have to continue with oral presentations because of all the students absent on Friday. Unit 3.2 is the unit that has to be covered now and it’s a little tricky because the topic is immigrants. I was talking about this unit with my mom and reflecting on it and thought that this wasn’t an appropriate topic for third graders. At least for mine. It may sound a little odd, but I believe that if the public school system students are low proficient in English, the Department of education should be focusing more in conversational English and reading familiarized topics or themes. I know I have to make the topic relatable and friendly for my students, but if the students have not yet learned about immigrants in their Spanish class
University of Puerto Rico in Humacao English Department Shirlenne Peralta 842-07-6270 Practice Teaching Practice Supervisor- Dr. Nilsa Lugo
and internalize it, explaining an unknown and complicated topic in an unknown language just doesn’t make sense to me and I believe it will make things worse. Teaching about unfamiliar topics like this makes me think I’m doing Krashen’s input hypothesis i+ 4 instead of i+1. Maybe I am completely wrong and Unit 3.2 will be a breeze for my students, I’ll just have to see for myself and try my best to bring it in a way they are able to understand. I hope I am able to bring this them in a fun, interesting way and that my students are able to build their knowledge or create their prior knowledge even if it is in English language.