II. Class Management and Atmosphere

By Silvia Castillo

In my teaching practicum, I worked with kindergarten children. They were very energetic and enthusiastic though sometimes quiet. Some others were either very shy or very talkative sometimes. They loved singing songs and watching videos. They were very happy playing, but some of them preferred to play alone. They always talked about their daily routines and vivid imaginations. However, sometimes they did not want to do any activity. They had very changing moods!  They did not know anything about the activities, but curiously, they liked to do them.

Sometimes they argued with their classmates, but not all of them, because some students were very peaceful.

They understood situations more quickly than they understood the language used. We noticed it is easier for the children to learn with pictures because for instance, if a teacher wants to teach them the names of the fruits, and if the teacher only says their names, the children will not understand exactly what the teacher is saying.

For me, that was a very interesting experience because I learn how to recognize the personality of each children. Work with little kid is very funny and wonderful because the kids gives a love sincere and that motivate me to continue working with them until the end. I was very happy teaching to the pupils because at the same time that I was sharing my knowledge I was getting funny with my students.

By Carlos Santamaria

All my students could participate in my classes and learned many things. For example, my students loved dancing and singing, so we did that in every class. Also, I made five groups of four students because I thought that kids work better when they work in groups. However, at the beginning, my students were not in agreement with my decision because they were not accustomed to work with some classmates, but some classes later, they really enjoyed working in groups. My pupils told me that they could work better in groups because they could talk, play, and help each other. Finally, I decided to give my pupils some gifts when they finished the worksheets; I gave candies, cookies or some snacks to them. Also, I gave gifts to students who had the best behavior during the class, and it was excellent because all students tried to be quiet for having an opportunity to win a gift.              

 MY SHORT-GOALS

My short-goals for teaching English were that my students could understand the topic and could show that they really understood my classes. Also, I wanted to create a good relationship between the teacher and students because an excellent teacher is someone who can be a friend, a model, and a facilitator for their students to have the best learning process.

MY LONG-GOALS

One of my long-goals was that my pupils could applicate the knowledge which I taught them to their reality; it means that they can begin to learn English by my classes. Other long goal is that I want to be a model for my students; It means someone who my students can remember in the future and say that I made a good impact in their lives, but it will be difficult. For that reason, I need to improve some characteristics that the best teacher has.  

By Rafael Sintigo

The needs of young learners are different depending on how they have been taught since they were little children.  To adapt my style of teaching to the motivations of students can be a difficult work because at that age, the young learners are asked for studying, so they are motivated to learn something. Therefore, the use of different methods can make this situation easier for teachers. Some of these methods are the use of language games, songs, role-play, storytelling and so on. In this way, the teacher can create a   good environment in the classroom taking advantage of physical energy that older learners do not have. These activities are helpful to keep the students motivated to work and learn correctly.

On the other hand, when I taught kids I realized some of the abilities and attitudes I have and the aspects in which I have to work on. I already know that I am not an excellent expositor of a topic, but I can teach kids through acting or singing, something that they like. Also, I know that I can make students feel comfortable when teaching and make them secure. Something that I have to improve is be prepared for the classes and whatever inconvenience that may arise.

I will read books about teaching and getting a good learning from students, put into practice different techniques to teach, and of course continue teaching in order to improve every day. I would recommend whoever elt practitioner teaching TVYL to read as much as possible information about teaching and to practice all that he or she learns.   

By Franklin Aldair

In my teaching practicum, I realized about different attitudes and abilities that I had at the time when I taught. If I talk about my attitudes, I could say that I had a positive attitude all the time. Even though I had different problems in my family, in my job, or in the university, I always showed a smile in front of my pupils; I am sure about that because my students told me how much they enjoyed spending time with me. Maybe it was because of my abilities. I remember that I was an entertainer and an enabler teacher with them. When I was explaining something, they were always paying attention to me, and it did not matter the way they were sitting; they were always concentrated in my class.

When I taught my classes, I knew that I am a person who speaks loud, so I took advantage of that; for example, if my students started to talk when I was explaining something, I started to talk slowly. When the students could not hear what I was saying, they felt curious, and they started to pay attention again.

Paying attention to the teacher is really important, so one of my short goals was to make my students be interested in my classes. If they put attention, they could be able to understand the topics, and learn vocabulary, rules, and pronunciation as well. When the students could understand vocabulary and pronunciation of English words, they were achieving the main goal that was to introduce English language to children. I decided that it had to be my main goal because in this way, they would be interested in continuing learning this language in the future.

                                                                                  By Marcos Hernandez 

In order to make students understand the topics, I was open mind to new changes in my kindergarten practicum. I had to adapt my own teaching style according to their needs and to their level. A couple of times, I had to ask them for suggestions to improve the learning environment. I used to ask them if they liked the activities that I did, or if they didn´t like them at all. Also, I asked them which topics were more interesting for them, and which other topics they would like to learn or know about.

Because of the good rapport that we had, students did not have any problem telling me when they did not want to do an activity that I was asking them to do, and every time that that happened, they used to tell me the activities that they wanted to do in that class. In those cases, I had to adapt the goals that I wanted to reach and the activities that had already planned to create a good learning environment with my pupils.

My short and long goals

Some of the goals that I set since the beginning of my practicum were, for example, to make the kids understand some things in English, to make them know some easy vocabulary and structures, and to make them be able to express at list short ideas with their classmates. I planned to reach these goals by involving my students in some oral activities which helped them be more familiar with some structures and the pronunciation of the words. Also, I tried to accomplish the goals by asking them to repeat and memorize all the new vocabulary that I brought to the classroom.