Teaching my first class!!!!!

Hello here!!!

This Friday, 8th, 2013 will be one of those memorable dates in my life as a student because I had the chance to teach my first and official class at university level.

The group I was teaching is Basic English of our same major, Bachelor of Arts, option English.

Since I was going to observe classes, I realize it was a big group of students. They are 25 students to be exact. I guess most of us have really big groups, which make us to some point be nervous and wonder“how am I going to do if they are so many?” “Are they going to collaborate with me?” “Is my lesson plan good enough to make a good job?” those where some of my initials thoughts before teaching my class.

Believe me, I have never been so nervous to teach a class, knowing that I like to do things in the most organized way and only had few hours to do it make me even more nervous.

On Thursday morning, I was given the part of the lesson plan I was supposed to develop, “QUESTIONS USING THE VERB TO BE FORM”;in other words, YES/NO QUESTIONS.

It was to some extend a review for them because they were practicing the same topic some days before.

In my lesson planning, I wanted to include also the “PROFESSIONS” topic so those were the topics I taught.

In general, my lesson planning was based on one of the most efficient methods (to my point of view), and it is ECRIF. You not only have your activities, but also you can organized them and present them in a more and well executed way. You can include the materials, time, and even the multiple intelligences you will address, something I consider really important to us to take into consideration if we want to be secure of our performance.

GREETING

I started the class by making a general greeting, asking them some questions, and giving them some small sheets of colored paper for them to write their names. (The idea was to call them by their names, which is really important if we want to make a good relationship with your students and since it was colored paper, they were supposed to make groups matching the same color, something I couldn’t do because of the time).

WARM UP

For the warm up, I did the activity we used to play with teacher Aida, Earthquake. This activity consists of 3 actions. But the first instructions are to get in trios, two members hold hands up (making the house shape), while the other is between them (playing the human role). The actions are address with three words, fire, flood, and earthquake.

· When the teacher says fire, houses move and humans stay; meanwhile, the houses look for another human.

· When the teacher says flood, humans move and houses stay; meanwhile, the humans go for another house.

· When the teacher says earthquake, everybody moves and make another house with another human in it.

 

Indeed, it seems a really challenging activity to explain with a basic group, but it wasn’t difficult at all. The key I consider to be the solution for us to be understood is mimics. I showed them rather than tell, and it really worked because I could see they were enjoying the game.

This activity makes them feel more comfortable with me since I was playing next to them. My advice to you is to always do a warm up activity, whether it is a review or a game, use it because it releases tension, and make students awake.

VOCABULARY CHECK

Here I wanted to see the vocabulary acquired about professions, so this is what I did.

LETTER SOUP

• Pasted a chart of a letter soup which contains 10 names of some professions.

• I gave the general instructions of how the game was to be played (this is important to be done clearly, so they do what you want them to do)

• Asked the students to divide the class into two.

• Gave each group a marker and tell them they had to run and mark the profession.

• Later, they had to give the marker to another member of their groups, and so on

• The point is to make more points than the other group.

• At the end of the game, I had them repeating the names of the occupations so I could check their pronunciation.

Here, I could hear some boys talking in Spanish (about the lesson, but still in Spanish), so I asked them politely not to do it because this was our only time to practice it. After that attention called, the problem disappeared.

INTRODUCTION OF THE TOPIC

Here was where the grammar part appeared. This is what I did.

• Using the chart with the explanation, I explained the uses and the changes it occurs when making questions, using the verb to be.
• I used some flashcards of some professions to make some sentences with them; besides, I used them to check their pronunciation.
• At the end of the explanation, I asked students to give some examples (so the class turns more interactive). The same examples they gave to me where used to make like a repetition drill.

 READING

I consider this as an important part of the lesson, because they need to develop fluency in their speech. That’s why I picked a reading as a tool. Of course the reading had included the target vocabulary (sentences using the verb be, that later with the help of the students will be transformed in questions.)

· I pasted the chart with the reading named Ben’s life

• First I read it so they could see the pronunciation. Later, I asked them read it together with me, and at the end they did it by themselves.
• I took some parts of the reading, and make some simple questions like “where is he from?”” is he from Australia?” “Is his girlfriend’s name Ana?”, etc
• Later, I underlined some sentences like “I am a volunteer” “our families are happy for us”,etc so they transformed them into interrogative form.

 

DICTATION

This part was based on some sentences that were in the teacher’s lesson planning.

· What I basically did was to dictate those sentences, and asked the students to copy them and to transform them into questions.

· By this time, the end of the class was coming, so I gave a couple of minutes and we checked the sentences together.

HOMEWORK

· To finish my lesson, I asked them to write five more sentences in the affirmative form, and also those same sentences in the interrogative form.

Over all this experience, I could say it was refreshing to see myself not only calm but in charge of the group without having a serious problem. It made me feel confident and secure of everything I have learned.

It was my first try and I really enjoyed it….

Hope you had a great experience as well.
The most significant pieces of advice I can give to you are:


· Use mimics when talking. It is better to show them rather than tell.
· Make your explanations simple and clear.
· Have them interacting with the lesson, so they don’t fall asleep.
· Have a positive attitude.

Hope this helps you and I am open to any suggestion you have for me.