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.