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.

Week 3. It's time to take part in the lesson!

Today I've participated in class... at last! My group of students have started a new unit called "changes", so it was a great chance for me to start teaching them!

Last Friday Isabel told me to have a look at the activity that I had to prepare from the workbook ("Spotlight"), so that on Monday (today) I could take part in her English lesson. Therefore, during the first half an hour of the lesson, I tried to do my best so that the students enjoy the activities that they were doing.

First of all, there was an activity about some vocabulary words related to the urban landscape, so I asked them about the things that they see when they are walking down the streets, and they all started saying words like flats, traffic lights, railway, car park and so on. After having a look at the pictures from the workbook, they asked the words they didn't know and I tried to answer them in English (well.. sometimes they want the exact translation in Spanish). Then, they did the activity 2, which was about completing the sentences using the words that we have already talked about. Afterwards, we corrected the sentences, one each student, so they could read it loudly and have the chance to have their pronunciation corrected. Then Isabel told me to repeat each sentence so that everybody could get the right answer... (because, as you already may know, there are always some absent-minded students). Finally, exercice 3 was about writing some sentences about their town or village using the vocabulary of the activity 1. I had to ask Isabel how much time I have to leave them to do it, she told me about 5-7 minutes. Besides, she told me to write the sentences they were saying on the blackboard so that everybody could write them... and well, that's what I did!

Then, Isabel prepared a listening for them about a girl who moved to London, how she felt when she started at a new school and how she meet her friends. Unfortunately, there were a few minutes left. Anyway, at least the students could do the listening and ask the words they didn't understand.

To tell you the truth, I didn't expect to have such a good sensation after having taken part in today's English lesson. I really had a good time!

Well, as a conclusion I'd like to write some important points that I have learned today (it's a mix between what Isabel, Oriol -during our CAP lessons- and the students themselves showed me):

As teachers we need -> to speak loudly (our voice has to reach every single student of the classroom) -> to know the names of the students
-> to repeat words, expressions or sentences as much times as necessary
-> to let everybody take part when doing an activity
->to use English when explaining the words the students do not understand. In fact, to use English as much as possible, of course!
->to involve them in doing the activity (from the very beginning till the end/correction)

I also think that it was important for me to do the last observations in front of the classroom, next to the teacher, because on the one hand I got used and got to know the students better, and on the other hand they also got used to my presence.

Well, that's it for now! Next time I'll try to get the camera, so you can see my group (at 8 o'clock in the morning : D)

Week 2. Observing 1ESO and 2ESO

Last Friday my colleague Mireia and me were invited to observe 1ESO and 2ESO students. It was a great chance to see two groups with both different ways to teaching and learning.

The first group was 2ESO, which was composed of 14 students ( it was a splitted group) leaded by M. Carmen, their English teacher. As Friday was Halloween, all the students had to prepare a presentation about it. To tell you the truth, I was really impressed by their motivation! They had worked hard on that presentation and it was the time to perform it in front of all the students. They prepared power points and created spooky stories. They did a very good job as they were all really involved and they were taking part of each presentation by asking questions and giving their opinion about it.

The second group was 1ESO, and there were like 7 students leaded by Montserrat, their English and Catalan teacher. This group was different from all the other ones, the students had more difficulties in remembering language structures and vocabulary, and even some lack of habits, so the teacher worked this skill together with English. They were studing the colours, and in order to remember them easily, she made them listen to a song which was all about the name of the colours. Then there was an activity which consisted of relating the colour of the song (when the singer said it) with the different colours that they aldready had in a box. Later, they had to colour different draws while we were asking them if they could name the colour they were using. The majority of them could guess the colour and they were actually signing the song. However, maybe some of them had more difficulties in being concentraged or in naming the real colour, but they tried hard, and that's the most important thing!

From my viewpoint, I think that it's really important to get to know different ways of learning and teaching. It's useful because then you can take a little bit of everything that you've observed in these classrooms and start creating your own way of teaching.

Week 2. English department meeting

Today I've attended my first meeting with the English department. We were six people: three English teachers (one of them is the Head of the department), a French teacher, my colleague Mireia and me.

They use to meet once a week to hold ideas in common and to talk about their English lessons, the activities that they are doing in their own groups - whether they need to work more on an specific area such as speaking or listening-, if they have to arrange some extra activities - like going to the theather to see an English play or organize student exchanges. All the decisions must be approved by the head of the English department.





There were some issues to be discussed in this session:

Firstly, they've talked about the next week's student exchange. The head of the English department, Isabel, our tutor, is in charge of welcoming and organizing activities for the new 2ESO Dutch students who are going to come next week at IES Lluís Vives. I think that we will be able to meet them as well, as there's gonna be a huge dinner with both the Spanish and the Dutch students, so it's going to be a great chance to get to know students from an other culture!

Secondly, they've discussed the way in which they'd organize the "B hours", that's to say, the hours in which the groups are splitted in two. They all agreed that, from now on, they are going to work more on the speaking skills because there's an oral exam in the "University Entrance Examination" also known as "Selectivitat", so they need to be really prepared in order to pass it. That's why students must improve their speaking skills through pronunciation, dialogues and individual or team presentations, amongst others.
Actually, one teacher told us that he has started an activity related to Halloween for their 2ESO students: he asked them to be storytellers. They are going to have to tell a Halloween story with the vocabulary, the verbs and the expressions learned in class. It seems a pretty funny speaking activity. He then has given us a website about useful Halloween stuff.

Then, we have had a look on the new book that they have bought in order to improve the listening and speaking skills (from 1ESO till 2Batxillerat). It's called "Real Listening and Speaking" and it's written by Sally Logan and Craig Thaine. It's definitely a useful book which deals with pronounciation (that's a really important point, and I think that it should be the first thing that children learn when studing a language), vocabulary, dialogues, presentations, lisetings and so on. Hopefully, we'll have the chance to have a closer look at it and work with it during the next few months.

Finally, the other English teachers have decided to invite Mireia and me to attend some of their lessons as observers this Friday. They've told us that the groups we are going to observe are 1ESO and 2ESO.

I think that it has been really useful to attend this meeting (and the following ones), because it's a good way to start getting familiar with the high school system and filosophy. Besides, it definitely helps you to understand how an English department works.

Week 2. More observation... with a little bit of unexpected participation

Every Wednesday my 4ESO group is divided into two smaller groups and they attend the lesson at the computers room. By doing that, the teacher is able to work better with the students' skills, especially the listening and the speaking.

Today it was all about a "DVD Movie Rentals" listening. The students had to go to Randall's Lab website and then find out the listening. Once they've listened to it, there were some activities to be done: a multiple-choice and short-answer questions, some mixed-up sentences, vocabulary matching and a text completion quiz. During this period of time, the teacher had to leave the class for some minutes because there weren't enough headphones for everybody, so she went to look for more. Well, I had no problems because they were doing the activities. I continued observing them as well as the way they worked, and I also tried to sort out any problems and questions that they had regarding the activities.



When the teacher came back, she asked the students what was the listening about, so they can talk a little bit and use the vocabulary they've been working on the activities they've just made. The thing is that most of them understood it perfecly but were a little ashamed of having to talk in English... that was why the teacher had to insist a lot on the questions she made to the students. Eventually, some of them made up their mind and explained the listening in their own words.

There were 10 minutes left, that meant that they still had to time to learn more... vocabulary for instance! It was time for doing some crosswords related to countries.

Week 2. Observation. Part II

This Monday I had my second observation class with my group. To tell you the truth, they were more agitated than the other time, probably because the lesson was from 12:30 to 13:30, one hour before they go home and switch off...

Well, first of all Isabel asked if there was anybody who still had to do the unit exam: 2 people raised their hands. They had to do it during the lesson... and they were not really happy about that... well at least they had a second chance! Meanwhile, the teacher made the students talk about the sentences they built with the photographs they had on Friday and afterwards, she wrote some of them on the blackboard.
After doing this speaking activity, she first explained them a little bit of grammar "Subject and object questions", and then the students had to prove their recently acquired knowledge through some "fill the blanks" activities. I asked her how much time does she normaly give to the students so that they do their exercices... and well, she told me that aprox. 3 minutes, but also that it always depends on the pace of the lesson and of the students.
Once they finished their activity, some of them were asked to write the whole sentences on the blackboard.. they did a pretty good job even though there were some mistakes, that means that they have to revise the grammar explanation once again, and do more exercices...

The thing is that they kept talking during the whole hour... I would like to know if there's any kind of activity which makes them stay more focused (like dynamic activities)... without turning the class into a madhouse, of course!

Week 1. Observation. Part I

Well, this morning I eventually met group 1 of 4ESO or, in other words, my group. It is made up of 30 students, a lot of people I must say! At first glance, they seemed more attentive and focused than the other two groups of 4ESO. Well, I have to say that it was 8 a.m., so that was perfect as they were really calmed and surprisingly they were not spleepy! Besides, I had the feeling that they were a really nice group willing to work hard.

Today it was all about observation: "Observation for learning".

First of all Isabel, the teacher, introduced me to the students, and immediately she asked them if they remembered any expressions related to the topic they talked about the day before, which was "likes and dislikes". A lot of them participated and contributed by saying expressions like "I'm keen on.../I'm into.../I like.../I hate.../I'm crazy about" as well as "I enjoy doing...". I must say that there was a perfect interaction between Isabel and her pupils, you could easily see that she knew them very well. Once the students had all that in mind, she asked them to do an activity from the workbook about likes, dislkes and +ing forms, after giving them more examples of how to use them in sentences. She usually speaks English with the students, even though sometimes she switches into Spanish because some of the students don't understand all the points of the explanation she has just given.

Then, students corrected the activity by reading it loudly so that both the teacher and the other pupils could see if they were right or wrong. They did a really good job regarding both the grammar and the pronounciation.

Finally, Isabel asked them to work in pairs. They were given a picture from a magazine and their task was to talk about likes and dislikes using all the aforementioned expressions as well as -ing forms. As I wanted to observe and pay attention to all the groups, I tried to be with each group for a while and listen carefully to what they were saying and the expressions they were using. Sometimes I asked them questions about likes and dislikes so that they had the chance to interact with me. Besides, that was a really good way to get to know them better. They used really nice, worked and useful sentences. I think that Isabel did really well in doing the "speaking activity" in the last quarter of the hour, as the concentration of the students was starting to fall down after the grammar exercise.

I really enjoyed observing an English lesson, unfortunately I couldn't absorb all the information given both from the teacher and the students. Anyway, let's see what happens on Monday with the second observation lesson.

Week 1. First impressions

Last thursday our CAP teacher let us know which was the high school where we were going to do the practicum. I was assigned IES Lluís Vives, which is in the district of Sants-Montjuïc. That was definitely really good news!

After contacting my tutor, Isabel, via e-mail, and setting a date to organize the first meeting, me and my colleague Mireia (she's doing the practicum in the same high school as me) went to IES Lluís Vives in order to start this new adventure.

The first thing that Isabel did was to show us the whole high school so that we started to be familiar with the students classrooms and the different departments in which the school is divided. Then, we went to the English department office and talked about the CAP work plan as well as all the activities that we have to do both inside and outside the class and the hours that we have to spend in doing them. She also assigned us the group of students that we are going to teach until mid-december. Mine is 4ESO group 1, I'm quite happy about that.

In the afternoon we went back to the school because Isabel invited us to attend two of her English lessons, so that we could have a first impression of what it is like to be a teacher. Well, the thing is that in English lessons, students are divided into different level groups (1,2 and 3), and once a week they divide the class in half in order to go to the computers room.

The first lesson was with the students of the group 3, the ones who had the lowest level. Isabel used loads of webpages with really helpful activities and grammar explanations like "the present simple gang". They were studing some vocabulary about clothing and, as they have an exam this week, some of them took advantage to revise it. The thing is that not everybody was following the lesson... as you probably know, it's really difficult to get all the attention of the kids, especially if they are in front of a screen and they can surf the net and visit websites or online English translators... anyway, I hope that I had time to revise all the grammar and vocabulary about clothing and the present simple!

The second lesson was with group 2 students. As they were a little bit more attentive, Isabel tried to do a listening, but something didn't work properly and, as a resourceful teacher, she told them to do different activities from really useful websites, all related to clothing. One of this websites is http://www.oup.com/es, and it contains activities from well-known and interesting English books. Besides, she also used activities like crosswords or matching the picture with the correct vocabulary word in order to motivate the students and attract their attention.

I still have to meet my 4ESO group, and I hope to do so this Friday as I have my first observation class. That's all for now!

Thoughts before starting the practicum

I'm about to start the CAP practicum. How is it going to be like? I'm so curious about it. Well, I'm pretty sure I will have to deal with loads of different situations and that there's going to be thousands of daily challenges, but the thing is that I like that and I can't wait to start this educational journey. Let's go!