UNIT 3On Tuesday, October 27th we started “The teaching game” in order to put into practice the teaching roles that we learned, we had to teach a 15 minute skill lesson. Each of us had to do something different like “make a good cup of coffee, fold clothes well, tie a necktie, plant flowers, take photographs, upload files, do origami, prepare a salad, a magic trick or our own presentation”

On a riffle, I got that I would teach how to prepare a salad.

My reflection on this activity: I made the decision that teaching how to make a fruit salad would be easier so that’s what I did. It was so much fun and everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I bought fruit like apple, banana, kiwi, blackberries, etc. This activity made us learn a lot of things, when I first saw the activity I thought they were like really simple things but once I lived it, it taught me a lot like I didn’t know how to do up a tie and it was so hard but I did it!

We finished “The teaching game” on Friday, November 13rd. And on November 16th, we watched the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus”, it was about a man named Mr. Holland who was at the start of his teaching career and he tries to make his students understand and appreciates music. Also, there came a time that his relationship with his wife became distant but he was able to fix it. Mr. Holland inspired many students and at the end his students made him an amazing tribute for his retirement.

On Friday 20th, 2015, we had to give a presentation where we

had to identify about at least 4 of the roles that Mr. Holland played

as a teacher, also we had to describe the scene where they

happened and the role and determine which role Mr.

Holland was the most successful at and identify 3 reasons why.

Reflections on this activity: My team and I decided that Mr. Holland participated in the movie as a participant in the part where he organizes a marching band, as a controller when he had to give his first class, prompter when he asked the students what kind of music did they like and then he played the song on the piano and as an assessor because he assessed the reddish hair girl who couldn’t play clarinet as her parents would like her to do it. According to edutopia, in the past, teacher were told what, when, and how to teach. They were required to educate every student in exactly the same way using the same methods, many teachers today, however, are encouraged to adapt new practices that acknowledge both the art and science of learning.

On Tuesday November 24th, 2015 we saw a very interesting topic which is called “factors influencing roles”, and we learned that teachers have duties, rights and obligations for example, we have the right to be listened, to be respected, to punish learners’ misbehavior and the right to impose discipline on learners. We, as teachers have the obligation to attend your classes and be on time, to teach your students and respect their opinion and to identify students’ needs and teach them how to treat others with respect. And last but no least we have the duty to have a good attitude towards your students, to encourage them to be better and achieve great things, to have a class prepared and to set work for learners.

Reflections on this activity: On November 24th, our teacher Amalia gave us some color papers and asked us to write for example “in the yellow paper, physical things that are important in your life, in the orange paper your goals, in the purple paper, places that are important, in the pink paper people that are important in your life and in the white paper things that have happened to you that made you change, and after writing them we had to eliminate some of them until we had 3, and those 3 things that we had at the end are things that influence your values. I really liked this activity because these kind of activities make you think and you realize that it’s all true.

• On November 28th, 2015 we learned about values, attitudes and beliefs we have as teachers, our values are the basis of our attitudes and our attitudes affect our behavior. We have some beliefs about teaching and others about learning. We had an activity where we had to write our beliefs as a teacher and as a student. The beliefs I have as a teacher are: I believe, teachers have to prepare something extra besides what they are supposed to. Teachers have to facilitate things to encourage students’ critical thinking and I don’t believe in written exams but in tasks and activities and the students’ effort. The beliefs I have as a student are I believe you have to work outside school if you want to learn, I believe you as a student have the responsibility to learn and I believe you have to be interested in learning.

• Reflections on this activity: I really liked writing my beliefs as a teacher and student because never thought of them before, and after writing them I realized how much I have to work as a teacher because I want to achieve the beliefs I have as a student.

• On Tuesday, November 1st, we discussed about values, attitudes and beliefs again and we made an activity where we had to write the value, if we value negatively or positively and the behavior. For example, if we write HONESTY and the action is the students cheating on exams, the behavior you’ll have as a teacher might be picking up the exam and grade it zero. We also learned about the stages on students’ learning, they are: black & white: in which authority tests on the teacher who is assumed to know everything. The second one is relative: in which the learner can see anothers’ points of view, learner can solve a problem and work independently and the third one is commitment in which the student commites him or herself to an idea or concept.

• There are some activities and techniques you can make with your students to arrange them in a variety of ways, it can be: line ups – where students change partners when the last person on the left moves to the right and faces a new person. Another thing is mingling – where students move around the room in a cocktail party styles getting new partners and chatting. Or stations: students move to different parts of the room to do activities, the teacher can also have students remain in place and rotate pieces of paper with activities written. Or fluency circles where students get a new partner each time the outer or inner circle moves one person to the right. This can be defined effective for short practice exercises.

Reflection on this activity:Having different techniques to arrange students is so effective because in that way students don’t get bored doing the same things over and over again. “Effective teachers have a classroom management plan with all the procedures necessary for a classroom to run consistently and smooth for learning to take place” – Harry & Rosemary Wong

• On December 4th, 2015 we saw the interaction patterns, the basic building block of a lesson is the task or activity. But we have to think how can we make the most of activities? Something that learners do that involves them using or working with language to achieve some specific outcome. The outcome may reflect a real-world outcome.

Reflection on this activity: Something that really caught my attention in this class was

something that our teacher told us “Our brain can’t complete simultaneous tasks at the

same time”. That’s why, we have to be clear to ourselves of what it is that the students are supposed to be doing and what outcome our

lesson is leading to. We have to think of a lesson as a coherent sequence of learner

tasks and what outcome our lesson is leading to.

• On December 8th, 2015 we learned what we have to do before, in-class and after the activity, before the lesson you have to familiarize yourself with the material, and you have to think how you are going to make your class MEANINGFUL to your students, you have to try the activity yourself and imagine how it will look in class. You also have to think how long will it probably take and if the learners know enough language to make a useful attempt at the activity, what errors are they likely to make, what will your role be at each stage and what will happen if you plan student work in pairs but there’s an uneven number of students.

• While setting up the activity you have to give clear instructions, allow some individual work and also organize students, you can make pairs or groups, moving the seating, etc. But how can you organize them in a meaningful and funny way? You can make the playing cards, the birthday line-up, colors and numbers (these are the most common), who’s your partner?, mix-freeze group, corners, “famous pairs”, mix n’ match, popsicle sticks or similarity groups in this you can use images from a topic, here students get up and move about the class, grouping with those who have a similar response.

• When closing the activity, you have to close it properly, but if you see your students so engaged with

the activity you can give them a time warning so they don’t get

frustrated.

• My reflections on this activity: In this class Miss Amalia gave us some books where we had to choose an activity and figure out how to make it meaningful for our students and we are going to present that activity on Friday for our classmates. I love trying to make my lessons meaningful because that way students won’t forget what teachers teach them.