micro-teaching

This semester we had a subject called Micro teaching and it was very useful for us, because we learned how to create different kind and effective lesson plans. 

Our last classes were very interesting in terms of contents, because we learned how to give a class using our own lesson plans and the uses of technology in a classroom, I have to say that all my classmates did a very good job presenting their lessons as they were in a real class always believing that they are already working as  teachers.

this activity was a very good way to learn how it`s going to be in future our job as teachers of English 

congrats to my class for their effort!!!!

see you around!!

My Last Reflection

I have learned many new things including
teaching methods, learning styles, multiple intelligences, etc.
but I have to say that this course helped
me to improve many aspects in my present
as a student of a second language, because
I could understand what are the students`needs and how to identify the majority of the learning styles.
Honestly, I have to say that I never liked the idea of being a teacher, and I just like the language, that`s why I entered at this career, but as the time was proggressing I could see beyond the language itself and  I could realize  what is the real purpose of being a good teacher of English, I can compare in a way my reality with a movie that  we watched in classes called To Sir With Love, that showd us that we dont have to give up when we face the obstacles of life, in this case a classroom full of students.
I  conclude that this course gave me lot of things; not only academically, but also it made me think about what I really want for me and my future.  
that all folks!!!!!!

I hope you are all ok and see you around 

Fourth Reflection: learning styles

I believe that my learning style is based in visualizing and memorizing all the contents that I have to learn. since I was a child my parents taught me with pictures new words and symbols. nowadays, my ways to study are based in memorizing all that i need, writing and reading depending on the subject, that is the case of English, every time that i need to learn new words I apply them in different context writing statements and also essays. however, in classes its different, because i just pay attention and write down the words that I consider important for the content. 

I´ts also important for my study habits imagine what i have to do in a possible test, because in that way I can immprovise an eventual mistake or anything that could occur while Im taking it. I don´t know if is relevant, but in my daily life every time that I have to go anywhere or do anything, the first time I see the name of the streets or the way to do something and i could memorize how to do it or how to arrive in the case of an address.

In my personal opinion it´s very important to know about student´s learning styles, because as a future teachers of English we can apply the rights activities for them and develop some strategies to improve student´s motivation.

Third Reflection: Teaching Methods

I think that the different teaching methods have different purposes and all are important in the way of teaching, but to say that only one is appropriate to give classes or prepare them I think that is wrong. not only for the main characteristics and objectives that each one has, but also for students, because in some cases students are not interested in learning another language or consider the class boring that`s why these methods are used to motivate  students in the class making participate them actively.

 

 According to my previous experience I have to say that the methods that teachers used in their classes were almost the same (translating, repeating) every activity even if they were written or spoken, in the case of production also they used the same techniques.

In my personal opinion, the best method is the physical response, because in this method the response of students are according the instructions from the teacher and they can see how this responses are; Besides, one of the typical way to develop this method is applying games using different resources or just their body in a kinesthetic way, this method is well suited to teach the different verbs with their respective actions.
I think that this method is appropriate for kids from elementary school that may have better results with this kind of activities.

Second Reflection: English as a Second Language

Since 2007 the year that I entered at the university I have been into many practices at schools from different realities about English and I realized that our teachers are far to be effective in terms of using English as a second language, because schools just use 2 hours per week for English and the level of it is low, I believe that is wrong, because the majority of the teachers teach English as a foreign language not as a second one.

 

Nowadays, our educational system has made many changes in terms of the language, but there are few schools that apply these changes in their curriculum, that is the case of Escuela Industrial from Valparaiso that changed the old system that they had for a new one with more hours per week and teachers use English all the time during the class, in simple words teachers explain and express all the time using English.

In my personal opinion I think that English must be taught since students are kids from 1st or 2nd year of elementary, because the younger the students are the more they learn. Besides, teachers must use English all the time during the class and motivate kids to improve or investigate how to improve their English.

According to teacher`s role, I have to say that a second language teacher must be an active and motivator one, because students nowadays don`t want to learn or are no interested in learning a second language that`s why we as future teachers need to learn how to motivate students using different techniques in classes. in our system a second language is taught as a said before just as a any subject because teachers in some cases are not interested in going beyond that teach a pair hours a week and correct tests

English SIMCE… is it going to help?

To start talking about SIMCE of English, we have to know that this is  the first time that a president  accepts the implementation of an English test for SIMCE in our country , but what is SIMCE?
SIMCE is the acronym for Quality Measurement System of the Education. Its main purpose is to contribute to the improvement of the quality and equity of the education, reporting on the performance of the students in different subsectors of the national curriculum, and relating to the social and school context in which they learn.

Few weeks ago the minister of education published the results of the english test, and they were lower than they expected, that`s why I think, can we be a bilingual country?. is english SIMCE going to help to get it?

 those are question that I ask to myself, the answers of these questions are many, but the only one that its suitable for our purpose  is in our future teachers of English, maybe they dont know how to make chile a bilingual country, but they are going to do the best that they can.

Teaching English in Chile is difficult; not only for the sources that government gives to schools, but also for the enviorement of many of them specially in public ones because the big part of the students dont like the subject creating a difficulty for teachers.

 I have to say that Chile is a very rich country in terms of resources, economy etc. but what about education? do you believe that our country could be a potency in terms of education? those are question for you collegues. 

see you next time