My last lesson at IES Lluís Vives

Yesterday was my last day at the high school and therefore, their last chance to give me the final project “the script project”. I must say that I was disappointed because just 3 groups (2 of 4 people and 1 of 2- the classroom has 30 students) gave me the CD with the project…

Well, after telling them my feelings about this, I started the lesson explaining them that it was the last day of my unit plan and therefore, they were going to be assessed (even though I have already assessed them through other activities). I was interested in what they have been learning during these 6 hours, that’s why I came up with a “mass media” crossword, with 10 questions related to what we have worked throughout these lessons.

The thing is that right before starting this activity, I asked them to complete a “can-do” list (14 can-do statements + 1 question (most preferred activity)). Each of the 14 statements described an activity done throughout these 6 hours in one of the five communicative domains: reading, writing, speaking, listening and interactive skills. These can-do statements were arranged in four categories: not at all, a little, quite a lot and a lot.

Afterwards, they did the crossword and we all corrected it, I must day that they did a pretty good job. Then, I gave them a photocopy related to “movies”. We first talked about them for a while, and then they started doing the exercises which were about using the following structures “Where/When is the film set?/ It’s set in L.A or 1950/ Who is in it? It stars George Clooney”. The thing is that it was funny, because one of the activity was about thinking of a film they like (using these expressions) and then the rest of the class had to guess the movie title.

The clock kept ticking… and when I realise that I had just 5 minutes left, I told them to pay me attention. I basically wanted to ask them if they’ve had fun, if they’ve liked the lessons and if they had learned, and of course, if I had given good explanations and helped them. I wanted to know their opinion about me as a teacher. I was quite happy because they all said that they had fun, and that they have learned… but I don’t know, I’m not sure about this last one statement, I hope so, though!

I would like to add that as the days were passing by, I got more confident when teaching in the classroom and I also got to know the students better. Therefore, it's a bit of a pitty that we finish the practicum now that we are totally familiar with the students, both individually and as a whole, but well, I guess we'll have the chance to do that when we get a job as a teacher in a high school.

Well… this is it! I have experienced a lot of feelings during these nearly 2 months, good and bad ones, and I have also learned a lot of strategies, tools and activities in order to face secondary students, now I definitely feel more prepared to teach. The CAP practicum has given me the chance to get familiar with the education world, and now that I know it quite well, I must say that there is still a lot of work to do. All that leaves me to say is that this experience was certainly worth it!

Week 9. The last lessons

Well, I'm about to finish my practicum.

During these days I've been doing a wide range of activities with my students, and I think they had fun, especially with the treasure hunt because it was something new for them. I really can't wait to see their "Script Project" the last assessed activity I told them to do which is about writing a script and then recording their voices while performing it, with the "Audacity programme". I think thay they are going to do a great job!

Week 9. The result was certainly worth it

They did a really good job!
(Mass Media communicative activity)

Week 8. Unit plan

The first day of my unit plan: The Mass Media.

The first thing I did was to talk to them about what we were going to do during these 6 days. Afterwards, I made them watch 2 videos in order to introduce the topic. I first put the video about a famous actress who appeared in different media (magazines, TV shows and commercials) and then I asked them what they had seen. The video’s aim was to show them some of the different ways in which we get information. They began naming some of the media; they almost forgot the most used: Internet! Then, I put them the other one which was about a “Dove” commercial which showed them how we get manipulated by the media. So after watching it, I also asked them about what they had seen and what have they understood and if we do get manipulated by media, most of them gave their opinion.

Afterwards, I made them put into groups of 3 or 4 people and handed out one coloured card for each group. Then, I put them a power point about the activity they had to do, that’s to say, about what they had to do with the card. They had to choose one media, draw it and then answer some questions like why they had chosen it or to give examples of manipulation with this media, among others. It was great because I saw them working and having fun, and they were all participating in the group and they wrote a lot of information in the cards. The thing is that maybe there was some noise, but I mean that’s normal if people work in groups. Time passed by really quickly and without noticing it I only had 1 quarter of an hour to do another activity I had prepared. So, I made them stop and then they had to choose a speaker and share the information with the entire classroom, it should have been more orally, but some of them read it, but anyway it was ok.

Then I had prepared them an explanation about the present perfect and a short exercise, but the thing is that I didn’t have time to explain them all the present perfect, so I told them to have at look at the grammar little box of the photocopy and do exercise number 1 for homework. I don’t know if they are going to do it because, as I’ve said I barely could explain them the first 2 points of the box. So, I’ll have to explain them the grammar this Friday.

Important things to be taken into account: The truth is that time goes by really quickly when you are teaching and that’s a problem, because then you can’t control the timing, and that’s what happened to me the first day. I devoted a lot of time in the first activity because I saw that they were having fun while working, and that’s really important, but grammar is also important… so I hope that next time I'll be able to control it.

Week 4. Powerpoint lesson and dinner with the Dutch exchange students

Time to do an ICT activity. I spent the whole sunday thinking about what to do and preparing the activity. They had to do a reading about United States culture. I thought that apart from reading it, it would be funnier if they saw all this information represented in images, so I created a powerpoint taking out the most important details about each area of the American culture. Afterwards, I created a crossword related to what they were going to see (facts, cities, all kind of info related to the powerpoint and by extension to the USA culture).




Well, I thought that with those activities, they would stay calm and concentraded... I stepped into the class and I told them what we were going to do and they seemed quite happy to do something different. I took my laptop in front of the class and I start with my powerpoint presentation about American culture. I must admit that just some of them was following the lesson, the others were talking, but then I just asked them some questions or what they thought about some cultural subjects such as fastfood, music, shows and so on, and by doing that I could attract some of their attention.
Then I gave them the crossword, and well, I think that they enjoyed it. Finally, we corrected it and I wrote the answers on the blackboard. Its was really useful for them as they had some spelling problems in words like Hollywood or McDonalds.



At 8 pm my colleague Mireia and I went to the exchange students dinner which took place in our high school "Lluís Vives". There were aprox. 25 Dutch students, then the Spanish students and their families and they all brought something to eat so they could share it with everybody. Before eating, we gathered in a kind of hall and then the director of the school and a Dutch teacher gave a little speech about how positive had been all the exchange experience and then they thank each other for their efforts.

We had a great time as we had the chance to meet the Dutch students and to talk with some parents of our students about their own experience of having a Dutch kid in their homes, and I must say there were quite loads of funny anecdotes.

Week 3. Unexpected teaching time!

Yesterday I had to teach for some minutes my group of 4ESO students. So I went to the class with the CD player and tried to start the lesson. The thing is that the students were talking a lot... (and it was just 8 a.m!) right from the beginning of the lesson!. But then, after 5 minutes, I managed to calm them down and they started doing the listening and then the activities related to it, which were about correcting wrong sentences, answering some questions and vocabulary. After I've had corrected them with the students, I asked them some questions about statements related to the reading so they could give their opinion using "I agree/I disagree".

Next stop was the "extreme adjectives". First of all, I explained everything related to that, and then they did some exercices in order to prove their acquired knowledge. My tutor stepped into the class and observed my way of doing the lesson during 5 more minutes. Finally, she replaced me and explained them some grammar points ("past simple/past continuous"), but then the bell rang and unfortunately there was no time to finish the explanation.... so I guess we'll have to repeat it to them next class.

Here there are some pics of my 4ESO students:

Week 3. Participation in the cities activity

Time to continue the unit... in the computers room (like every wednesday)!

The teacher prepared them a really interesting activity related to the cities, which is what this part of this unit is about. First of all, she explained the whole activity to the group: the students (in pairs) had to go to a website (I've already add it to my links list), then choose between different American cities and read and complete a short paragraph which talked about its highlights and landmarks. Then, they had to extract and write some important information so that later they could tell it to their classmates. During this activity I helped them in any doubt they had and asked them questions regarding the comprenhension of the text.

(Some of my students)

I've said that it was a great activity because in just one hour, the students were able to practise several competences:
->they read the information
->they got to know more vocabulary related to cities
->they summed up a short text
->they spoke about the countries they had been reading about

(Students doing the activity of the cities)


After doing this activity, the students had to listen to a song related to past tenses ("Stars" from Simply Red). Well, they first had to go to a great website where they would find the video and the lyrics (have a look at it -it's in my links-, it's awesome ). Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to listen to it. Well... they'll have to wait until next wednesday lesson!

My tutor informed me about the one-week exchange. She told me that the Dutch students were coming today and that everything was ready for them: cultural visits, lessons, host families and so on. I think that we'll have the chance to meet them next week as they'll organize a dinner, but maybe we'll see them in the high school anytime this week.