Dearest
people of PUCV
At this
point in time you have done all sorts of teachery things, such as plan
activities and teach a university level English level class. Give yourself a pat
on the shoulder for getting this far on the program.
We’d like
to hear all about your adventures!
Tell us how
you felt before you started the teaching assistant project. Did you have any
preconceptions or apprehensions?
How did
thins actually go? Any particular epic moments you’d like to share?
And how do
you feel now when you look back? Would you do anything different? Did you learn
something new about yourself as a teacher?
We hope to
hear from you soon.
Love, Merry
and Pippin
Regarding some preconceptions that I had before the teaching assistan project I can mnetion one: teacher's personality. We were told that our teacher was very strict and kind of bad humored, but once we started to talk with her it was a completely different situation. Her willingness to contribute to our lesson and extra materials was absolutely useful. Of course at first we were scared but I think that it helped us to prepare better materials.
ResponderBorrarPerhaps, an epic moment I would like to share is when the teacher didn't answer any of our emails for about one week. We were extremely nervous because we didn't know what to do, we needed the content to create our lesson, and also we were running out of time cause we had to receive feedback from Miss Fonseca. Then, our teacher apologized to us becase she hadn't had time to see her emails. After that email our perception changed because we thought that the teacher didn't care about us at all and that our class was going to be awful! but noooope.
I have noticed that planning has become easier to deal with. Nonetheless, we have to consider that it was just one class and plenty of time to do it, so in my personal opinion, I have to bear in mind that then I would have to plan one lesson per class and that is going to be TOTALLY different.
All in all, it was a great experience, where one more time we had to work in groups and deal with lot of constraints such as the schedule of each of us, ideas, opinions, etc. But quite overcame.
Well, I did not have preconceptions because I did not know both the teacher and the students. So, I just met them during our observations.
ResponderBorrarWe were extremely worried because our professor did not answer our mails; therefore, we did not know the content and the topic we had to teach. Finally, one day before the class started we asked her about the content and we finally got an answer.
Then, the day we had to teach things did not go as expected. First, the speakers did not work at all. Then, we changed classroom. The speakers worked, but the projector did not at first. We were quite anxious because of these problems, but we managed to remain calm in front of the students. We had a lot of technical problems, but despite all we were able to do every activity we planned and students were willing to participate.
As a final thought, I learned the importance of a back up plan. I think that thanks to this project I will never forget to have a plan A,B,C,D, etc. just in case things do not go as expected.
I had no expectations. Truth is that you never know what you are going to face within a classroom. Anyway, I was gladly surprised to have such a good welcome from the teacher. Mr. Pescara gave us freedom to plan and to put into practice whatever we wanted (without leaving the coursebook completely behind). We met on monday mornings to agree on the contents and the particular lessons that we were supposed to teach.
ResponderBorrarEpic moments? Well, I think that my classmates did a great job when they had to change a lesson at the last minute given that what it was supposed to be covered on Thursday 12 was not yet finished. We all worked as a team to support each other and brainstorm ideas.
In spite of the fact that we had little time to plan the lessons and create the material, I believe that we did a good job. Truth is that we are not going to have much time to plan our lessons either when we work as teachers.
As my classmates, I did not have any preconceptions whatsoever, but I knew that it was going to be a lot of work and time. Thankfully, with my group, we are so used to work together that everything went smoothly, besides the teacher was very welcoming and was always giving us feedback.
ResponderBorrarI am not going to lie and say that I was not a little bit nervous at first, but once the class started and we got used to be in front of the class and act as the teacher everything was fine. Of course, there are still lots of things to work on but I am very pleased with our performance and materials.
I think everyone can agree that, with or without any preconceptions, we knew the whole project (observation, materials design, carrying out a class, and so on) would involve a lot of time and effort. During the process it can get pretty stressful, having so much to do and wanting to do everything great, so there were points where I just wanted the assistantship to end. But being acknowledged for your work, managing to effectively use the materials in a class, receiving positive and insightful feedback, and knowing that the teacher would actually use the materials you prepared makes it all worth it.
ResponderBorrarThe group work went off without a hitch, mostly due to the fact that we know each very well and have worked as a group before on multiple occasions .I think a great help was also our teacher's disposition. He really liked the idea of the project and had no qualms over being in constant contact, going over the materials we prepared, giving some useful tips and suggestions, etc.
Finally, looking back at the class we gave, there are definitely some things I would do differently. I don't mean that what we did was wrong in any way, our class actually went rather smoothly. However, there are some small simple things that could be changed or added that would improve the class. Things such as better time management, more explicit instructions, avoiding the use of vague terms, and whatnot. Everything can always be improved. But overall, I'm fairly happy with the work we have done and how things turned out.
Before doing the class, I was worried about the activities we planned because we did not know the group and we had not taught to people who have the same age than us, so it was completely new, at least for me. However, everything resulted perfectly and apparently students enjoyed the activities, since they mentioned at the end of the class that what they liked was most of the activities were dynamic, engaging and motivated them to participate.
ResponderBorrarIn relation to how I felt, to be honest I was so nervous because of the aforementioned reason, but then, with the support of my classmates, everything changed and I felt free to participate and teach the way I usually do.
To end up, despite of the fact that it was hard to do the lesson plans, to meet with our mentor teacher or with my classmates, I consider it was a good experience and I really enjoyed working with my classmates( Astrid and Valentina).