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!