In the second week of program, I was given the opportunity to do peer teaching with the cooperating teacher before I had my 'real' teaching practice. During the teaching assistant ship, I was in charge of helping my cooperating teacher in managing the classroom and preparing for the motivation activities. For the topic was about Connotation and Denotation, the students were given a task to prepare a group performance that showed the summarize of the topic being discussed. I was in charge of assisting the students to prepare their performances. It was really interesting. The students were very enthusiastic and performed very well.
After having the experiences as the teacher's assistant for several meetings, finally, another phase of my teaching journey had come😆
I was given chances to handle 8 grade students, with the time allotment was 60 minutes in each meeting. Based on the syllabus, there will be six topics that need to be discussed in this first quarter. I was asked to discuss about the African literature. YAP! It was all about introduction to African literature as well as African writers and poets. Teaching literature in ESL classroom was a challenge for me as an English teacher. It was like teaching history course (in this case related to literature) using English. It was one of challenging experiences that I have ever had 😀
As an English teacher, I was not only demanded to master the topics, but also be able to provide activities that could help the students having deep understanding about the topic. Before conducting the teaching practice, my cooperating teacher and I were discussed about the lesson plan or activities that I was going to conduct in the classroom. He gave insights and suggestions related to the classroom activities. I needed to make sure that all of activities which were going to be conducted in the classroom aimed to help students to meet the objectives of the lesson.
The time allotment for one meeting was 60 minutes. So, I had to do all of activities such as delivering materials, providing fun activities as the motivation, and giving students the short item test (valuing of lesson discussed) in this 60 minutes. In order to know students' prior knowledge related to the topic as well as train their critical thinking, I was providing them some fun activities as motivation in learning the topic.
I faced some difficulties in managing the time in my first performance. Trying to conduct fun and effective learning in a short duration was not easy at all! The cooperating teacher gave some suggestions to me about how to manage the time well so all of activities as mentioned in my lesson plans could be done as it was planned. The point was, I had to aware and be strict with the time allotment for each activity! And....thanks God! I did it better at the next meeting when the monitoring (the initial visit) by the mentor was held 😆
Another difficulty that I got was in encouraging the students to actively participate during the lesson. There was a moment when the students were not enthusiastic with the topic being discussed. Some students were active while the others were not. To overcome this situation, I was providing the activities that made students had to move their bodies and think critically about the topic. I had discussed about these activities with the cooperating teacher, and he suggested me to implement Total Physical Response (TPR) method. Therefore, I conducted 'a walking gallery' in discussing one example of African short stories. The followings are the example of lesson plans that I made for my teaching practices. You can click the following link to preview it.
The Walking Gallery is an activity which required students to move around the room to find the information as instructed by the teacher. This can be done individually or groups. However, I asked the students to do it in groups, so they could discuss about some comprehension questions with their group members. It was also to minimize the time so students would have more times to continue with the evaluating activity. The students were so cooperative. They did it very well!😎
The cooperating teacher gave many tips related to the class management. I loved to share and discuss things related to this profession with him. He taught me a lot. Those suggestions and advises that he gave really helped us to be better.
Thank you for all of chances and knowledge that you have shared with Nita (the other prospective teacher under his guidance) and I, Sir. Those experiences were priceless that it was helping us in developing our teaching skills 😊
By the time the week of teaching practices finished, we (all of students teachers) had had a discussion with our mentor, Ma'am Lalaine, about the reflection of our performances in general. She gave us feedback and advises on our performances. I still remembered her saying,
I was given chances to handle 8 grade students, with the time allotment was 60 minutes in each meeting. Based on the syllabus, there will be six topics that need to be discussed in this first quarter. I was asked to discuss about the African literature. YAP! It was all about introduction to African literature as well as African writers and poets. Teaching literature in ESL classroom was a challenge for me as an English teacher. It was like teaching history course (in this case related to literature) using English. It was one of challenging experiences that I have ever had 😀
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| The syllabus of the topic being discussed by me |
As an English teacher, I was not only demanded to master the topics, but also be able to provide activities that could help the students having deep understanding about the topic. Before conducting the teaching practice, my cooperating teacher and I were discussed about the lesson plan or activities that I was going to conduct in the classroom. He gave insights and suggestions related to the classroom activities. I needed to make sure that all of activities which were going to be conducted in the classroom aimed to help students to meet the objectives of the lesson.
The time allotment for one meeting was 60 minutes. So, I had to do all of activities such as delivering materials, providing fun activities as the motivation, and giving students the short item test (valuing of lesson discussed) in this 60 minutes. In order to know students' prior knowledge related to the topic as well as train their critical thinking, I was providing them some fun activities as motivation in learning the topic.
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| The students were doing group discussion. |
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| The student was delivering his ideas about the topic being discussed. |
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| The Walking Gallery Activity with 8 Inventors |
The Walking Gallery is an activity which required students to move around the room to find the information as instructed by the teacher. This can be done individually or groups. However, I asked the students to do it in groups, so they could discuss about some comprehension questions with their group members. It was also to minimize the time so students would have more times to continue with the evaluating activity. The students were so cooperative. They did it very well!😎
The cooperating teacher gave many tips related to the class management. I loved to share and discuss things related to this profession with him. He taught me a lot. Those suggestions and advises that he gave really helped us to be better.
Thank you for all of chances and knowledge that you have shared with Nita (the other prospective teacher under his guidance) and I, Sir. Those experiences were priceless that it was helping us in developing our teaching skills 😊
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| Nita, Sir Joseph, and I 💕 |
"It's really tough for becoming a teacher, but it is a noble profession that not everyone can cope with its challenges."
Her words were really motivating me to improve myself, so I can be the professional one in the future. She was one of our lovely ones in this program! She has always encouraged us not to be tired in improving our quality as a teacher. We were really grateful to have you as our mentor, Ma'am. Thank you very much for guiding us all these times! 😊
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