REFLECTIVE WRITING ABOUT MY PRACTICE 2016-2

My practices this eighth semester 2016-2 took place in Caisa. Centro de

idiomas Caisa is an institute which offers English courses as foreign languages in
different levels. The first one is Kids; also they offer teenagers and adults. I had the
opportunity to work there with the level of Kids every Saturday in the schedule of 9
to 12. Work there was a great opportunity in my process as a teacher. In the
following reflection I showed my experiences from the first day to the last one.
Classroom Visit
In my first day of teaching, I had our classroom visit together with my
coordinator, he was my guide. We have visited the 4 classrooms, the office of the
head teacher, the animation room, and the garden. During our visit, there was an
excitement at the same time a nervousness felt. I am excited to where I will be
assigned and nervous because I will be doing the responsibilities of the teacher.
We have also visited the animation room in which the little students were watching
Tv and Videos in the computers during break. This scenario fasten my heartbeat
for I know, it is not easy to manage the students in the class especially when the
number of students in too large. Fortunately, the group of students I will work with
was only 10 students. It is because the classes there are semi-custom. These
experiences challenged me to work with determination to survive in the whole
period of my practice teaching.
My observations

In my first days of the assigned class, I have observed the students abilities and
behaviors. I observed how they deal with their fellow students and how they deal
with me. Those observations helped me to adjust myself on how to fulfill my
responsibilities in my assigned class. I learned some things that I may use
whenever I will in a different class.

Experiences
My assignment was KIDS class. Work with them is one of my good experiences in
my practicum period. Working with children was nice because they shared with me
all of his knowledge and behavior. They were children between 5 to 10 years old,
and it was really challenged for me, because before I worked with children but not
teaching English. They taught me everything I need in order to become a good
teacher.
The time comes that I had to prepare my classes for them, where we could
develop the four abilities. In some cases was difficult mix the activities with the four
skills, but I did my best work in order to prepare the best classes ever for them. On
the other hand something that I would like the most there, was the use of Tics to
teach English. This experience challenged me to do a research in order to know
the students need.
Evaluation of Experiences

Working with the students in my whole period of teaching became the culminating
of my practices this semester. I learned lots of knowledge working with them.
Because of this, I have used all the methods and strategies in teaching I have
studied and learned during my previous practices education in the school where I
worked before. Exposing the real world of teaching is the phase of my formation as
a teacher. Having experienced teaching in the institution where I spent my practice
teaching helped me a lot to be ready to face all the circumstances I may encounter
in the future field. I learned to be patient in dealing with different students daily. I
learned to be obedient in the task given to me by my cooperating teacher,
coordinator, principal, etc. and most important is I learned to love my students,
understand them and I knew them. Because of this, I may say that being a
teacher needs passion. Teaching indeed is not just a profession but it is a calling
or vocation.

Maria Alejandra Chaparro Blanco