Zayas, Mariela

COLOQUIO PRCTICA DOCENTE III

Observation
To begin with, as regards the observations, the first lessons that we observed were with my
partner Florencia. We could exchange different opinions and connect our ideas creating a new one.
Sometimes there were certain aspects that I did not notice, for example a child with a disruptive
behavior or someone that was sleeping. Fortunately, we did the first observations and practices
together. It helps me to gain confidence.
A positive aspect that I can mention as regards the observation is that I learnt a lot of techniques
and procedures as regards the management of the class and the balance of activities thanks to
the teachers that I observed. E.g. I used the same methods that the teacher used to call their
attention: clapping my hands, whispering, using attention graders.
As regards a negative aspect, some teachers were so book-dependent and the students didnt
enjoy the lessons. They took English as a boring lesson. In addition, other teachers werent English
teachers and they explained everything in Spanish without any cognitive challenge and process
for the children.
Taking into account the previous ideas, we as future teachers learned to observe the students
feelings and reactions. Also, we talked with them in order to know their interests. Another
important aspect that we bear in mind was the space available in the classroom because it could
probably present a difficult when planning any activity. Observing everything that could contribute
to our lesson, we could design an interesting lesson for them.
Primary School High School
Short attention spam They listen to long
Disruptive behavior explanations. Their attention
Love fantasy and using spam is longer than the
imagination childrens one.
Take more time to read and Sometimes they are not
copy motivated.
They are all eager to As a disruptive behavior they
participate use their cellphones and talk
They are too ego-centric. among them.
Like challenges and solving
problems
They want to know real
information
They are more autonomous
They participate when they
are interested in the topic.
They help each other.

Planning
The process of planning a lesson with my partner Florencia was very productive. As I have
mentioned before we exchanged and shared different ideas and points of view and it contributes
to our own learning process. We took into account the students interest, the observation that we
did and the suggestions from the teacher.
Personally, when I did the planes by myself it was difficult for me to make a connection from
practice II to practice III. In the workshop, I listened to my partners ideas and to the pieces of
advice provided by the teacher. Moreover, I talked with my friends that are teachers now and with
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some teacher from the Institute. They help me a lot. Therefore, I could connect the checking with
the games in the lesson. I understood that it was important to keep the same line of activities
using a proper context.
I learnt that for children there always should be a balance between stir and settle activities. As
Jeremy Harmer explained in their theory about this kind of activities.

Teaching in the primary classroom is very different from teaching teens or adults because of the
amount of energy children have! Knowing how to channel this energy, or when to stir' and when
to settle' children will help you achieve balanced lessons without children becoming over-excited
on the one hand or bored on the other.

Teachers need to take many factors into consideration when planning a balanced primary lesson
and it is important to plan varied lessons.

Different kinds of activities to practise the different skills need to be balanced against each
other.

Teachers need to be aware that children have a much shorter concentration span than
adults and this will affect the number of different activities we plan for a single lesson.

Pace and timing are important considerations - at primary level it is better to use short,
sharp activities so that children can sustain their attention. If concentration flags, change the
activity. Teachers need to plan a balance of heads up' and heads down' activities, alternating the
interaction patterns between individuals/pairs/groups and whole-class activities.

Likewise, teachers will need to take into account the learning styles of the different children
in the class. Different types of activities will be more suited to visual/ auditory/ kinesthetic /tactile
learners.

Finally, there is often a need to build in some quiet time' into a lesson. This time helps
students as well as teacher sanity. Silent reading or an individual quiet activity can help prepare a
class for learning - for example if they arrive after a noisy lesson. The teacher can take the
opportunity during these kinds of activities to deal with classroom admin, check who knows what
and/or give individual help where necessary.

As regards adolescents they love solving problems and cognitive challenges. Florencia and I tried
to design plans with interesting topics and challenges such as : solving a problem , solving a
mystery, using the social networks : WhatsApp. Then, when I did two lessons by my own I used
the technology in the classroom , i.e looking for information on their cellphones, investigating
some issues, watching videos and talking about hypothetical situations.

I noticed that is really important to design every activity in detail. Sometimes I forgot to stablish
the rules for the games and it was a problem during the lesson with both children and
adolescents.

Reflection
First of all, the first problem that I noticed in both primary and secondary practices were that we
couldnt arrive to the production stage in many lessons. Because of this, I realize that one of my
main problems is related to time management.
Scrivener (2011) remarks that timing activities is a part of the class management. He states that
class management refers to the organisational skills and techniques used by the teacher to create
the conditions in which learning can take place.
For improving this aspect, Scrivener recommends planning the lesson backwards and calculating
the time back to the lesson start. Furthermore, some other aspects to consider include:
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Being realistic about the time the activity will actually take.
Communicate the time expected to be spent in each activity to students.
Give clear directions before the activity begins and be sure they have understood them.
Encourage healthy competitions between students. Tell them that the first one that finishes the
activity wins a prize. This has good results if done only a few times.
I took into account some ideas in order to apply them for the future practices. I could finally
arrived to the production stage when I establish a period of time for each activity with a previous
rehearsed by my own. In my case, when the plans were for children it was easier than for
adolescents because I have many nephews and nieces. Sometimes I rehearsed the activities with
them. As regards the timing in high school it was not difficult. I think that I improved this aspect
with the help of the feedbacks, my personal reflexiones, the advices of the teacher and the ideas
suggested by scrivener too.
The second problem was related to giving instructions. Because of the feedback and the reactions
of the students sometimes, I noticed that I was not clear many times. I tried to divide the activities
in chunks and rehearsed the performance. A key as regards instructions has to with miming. I
remembered to mime every action while I was explaining and it was the most suitable solution.
The students understand the meaning easily when they observe a model.
The third problem was as regard mix- abilities classes. Harmer states different possible solutions I
took into account two of them : working in pairs/ groups ( mainly for adolescents) and giving
students different roles ( mainly for children).
As regards children they are very selfish, that is why the activity that I planned for 1 grade in
School n 30 was not successful , they didnt know how to work in groups.
As regards the adolescents they are acostumed to work in groups and they know how to do it.
They feel more comfortable working in pairs or in groups. This way also helps the weak students
to learn working with the strong students.
Finally, I would like to mention some classes that I enjoyed very much :
The practice in pairs that we did at Sagrado Corazn School in 4 grade. We had fun and
enjoyed the class so much.
The practice in San Jos Kindergarten that I delivered by myself. I felt that I was playing with
them. The atmosphere was very good.
The practice that we did in pairs in Eloy Ortega School, in 1 year of high school surprised me,
I was nervous because of the behavior of the students in the observation. Surprisingly when we
delivered the class, most of them were eager to learn and participated actively.
The last practice that I did at Josefina Contte Institute. I love the way in which the students
worked and I had fun with them
Of course there are a lot of issues to improve, by the way it was a new, different, challenging and
productive experience.