Intervention point

My intervention point: The use of first language to give basic instructions.

Entry one: “Likewise, I noticed that teacher used Spanish to give instructions, commands and give examples to her students”. 

Entry three: “Of course, there are things to improve, such as speaking English to the students rather than in Spanish, but… this is what makes us good teachers”.

 

Entry four: “Nonetheless, there are some things that could be improved, such as the language itself. Despite having organized activities, the teacher spoke to them most of the time in Spanish; even to give commands such as “sit down or silence”.

 Intervention:

To solve this problem I would come up with the following course of action. In that sense, I have exposed three different stages:

a). Functional use of L2:

-Readings about: the importance of teaching good English.

-Lesson planning focuses on giving instructions  

b). Strategic:

-Use the English expressions they already now.

-Have at hand some useful expressions.

-Rehearsing: How to give instructions for different purposes:

1. What to say when students are performing an activity.

2. What to say if teacher needs their attention.

3. What to say if students are not behaving well.

c). Awareness rising:

-Negotiating with them, some steps to follow when teaching a lesson.
-Readings about: the importance of teaching good English.

Instruments:

The instruments that I will use to make the interventions are:

         - Interviews

         - Surveys
   -Class observation

   -Questionnaires

An example to guide the main purpose of my intervention, the interview may include the following questions:

   1.    What are the expressions that you usually use in your English class?

   2.    How do you feel when using second language expressions?

   3.    Do your students comprehend the instructions you give to them?

Exploring my own beliefs!

a). My assumptions

1. In English teaching being a resourceful person is mandatory.

“According to the activities, these were varied and gave a fresh notion of the vocabulary that was related to personal information” (Journal entry 1).

“To engage students in the recognition and pronunciation of family members, the teacher used a puppet called “miquín”. She made a dialogue with him, asking and giving information for the family members”. (Journal entry 2)

“When she was trying to project some slides on the board, lights went out. Immediately, the teacher continued with the next activity, she had previously prepared. Everything seemed to be connected and students were very attentive”. (Journal entry 2)

2. In English teaching practice, monitoring is required to guide our students’ tasks.

“When students were working on some pieces of cardboard the teacher was carefully monitoring her students work”. (Journal entry 1)

“Besides, the teacher emphasized pronunciation and he was monitoring each group work. Moreover, Instructions for performing the activities were very clear”. (Journal entry 4)

“I observed that the teacher was at her students’ side, helping them with the pronunciation of words and phrases”. (Journal 3)

3. Teachers should provide students’ feedback when necessary.

“When students were working on some pieces of cardboard the teacher was carefully monitoring her students work”. (Journal entry 1)

“…teacher is constantly giving feedback to her students. I think that constant accompaniment helps students to redirect their tasks”. (Journal entry 3)

“What is more, this teacher is open-minded because when we give her feedback she is always attentive and she looks for solutions and strategies to improve her teaching practice”. (Journal entry 3)

4. The practice of teaching enables teachers to carry out a well-organized lesson plan.

“In my view, this class was organized because all the activities were previously planned”. (Journal entry 1)

“…teacher had a plan B when electricity went out. She controlled the situation and continued her class normally”. (Journal entry 2)

“Class preparation had a significant impact on the class development. The teacher prepared a variety of activities. Besides, the length of these activities was to five or ten minutes maximum”. (Journal entry 2)

“Through this observation we can reflect on the importance of planning and connecting our students in every activity we do in our lessons”. (Mauro’s comment, journal entry 2) 

5.  English learning involves students’ and teachers’ motivation.

“Our purpose as teachers is to guide them when necessary and also provide them with motivation and inspiration”. (Teaching beliefs)

“A teacher who is not motivated to learn every day is an obsolete person”. (Conceptualizing teaching acts)

“Students were highly motivated to participate”. (Journal entry 3)

“Bearing in mind Solis’ ideas, teachers should strive to draw the students’ attention in a motivating and interesting way”. (Journal entry 4)

“Nonetheless, I had great influence in learning English because my teacher was good at it and she motivated me to be better every day”. (Autobiography)

“On the whole, learners can learn through experiences because they are motivated to reach their personal projects (goals)”. (My teaching metaphor).

b). Sources from my beliefs!

To start with, I have taken these assumptions mainly from my experience not only as a teacher but also as an observer. The former, because when I teach a lesson, I always try to do my best such us accompanied my students and motivate them to learn. Nonetheless, I have noticed that being resourceful is a key issue when teaching. If something does not work, you have to prepare plan A, B, C, and so on. The latter, as an outsider I realized that teachers that were observed, try to implement many activities and strategies. For sure, these beliefs come from practice. Moreover, this is the result of teachers’ creativity and commitment.

Another source that I think it has been really useful, is theory. Generally, theory supports teachers when applying knowledge into practice. In this vein, theory and practice become important to develop good learning environments. I could take as an example the reflective teaching module. Here, there are many things that we do not consider when teaching a lesson. That is why, many researchers have made important contributions helping us to improve our practice.

c). Facing challenges!

First of all, I think I should be more aware of my students’ needs. I will apply different strategies that can help my students’ education. In this sense, they will probably be motivated to learn. Furthermore, I will bring them some appealing material in which they can participate actively. Needless to say, lesson planning is really important when you are going to a classroom. For this reason, I will try to be prepared every class and plan anticipated problems or activities. Indeed, challenges appear every time, so we have to face them every day. We as teachers are artists! So… let’s make artistic works!

Journal entry # 4

Date: October 1^st, 2015

Elementary English class observation

Topic: Greetings and personal information

This time I had had the opportunity to observe another English class but with a different teacher. This is due to our research proposal. Our main emphasis is to observe how teachers apply a lesson plan and the skills they can develop during this process.

To begin with, I have to address that this teacher has to teach unitary school. That means that he is responsible to manage pre-school to fifth graders. With reference to this, what I observed in this session is that teacher started his class greeting his students in English. Also, there was variety in the activities presented. As a result, students were completely engaged in every task.  Besides, the teacher emphasized pronunciation and he was monitoring each group work. Moreover, Instructions for performing the activities were very clear.

Nonetheless, there are some things that could be improved, such as the language itself. Despite having organized activities, the teacher spoke to them most of the time in Spanish; even to give commands such as “sit down or silence”.  In my personal view, I think it is important to have at least a list of words or expressions that we are going to use in the classroom and use them with our students.

I think that we as teachers should provide our students the chance to hear phrases in English. Maybe, what is needed here is to plan a little bit more. According to Solis (2007), “to prepare an effective English lesson and to organize a surprise party, both the teacher and the host or hostess have to pay careful attention to the same variables if they want the activity to be a success”. Bearing in mind Solis’ ideas, teachers should strive to draw the students’ attention in a motivating and interesting way. For sure, we have some difficulties when teaching a lesson but there are some essential things that we have to take into consideration.

Likewise, as Zingir (2013) says, “anticipatory reflection is crucially important for teaching and it includes all sorts of preparation prior to teaching such as organizing the content, selecting materials and teaching strategies, and preparing instruction according to the needs of a particular group of learners”. In this sense, teachers should be prepared before teaching a class. All of these reflections help us to our class organization and provide an appropriate knowledge according to the needs that arise in the classroom.

References:Solis, M. (2007). Reliable and practical guidelines for planning an effective English lesson. Taken from: Revista de filología y lingüística de la Universidad de Costa Rica, ISSN 0377-628X, Vol. 33, Nº. 2, 2007 , págs. 227-241.

Zıngır, A. (2013). Am I planning well? Teacher trainees' voices on lesson planning. Taken from:  Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 ( 2013 ) 1409 – 1413. 3rd World Conference on Learning, Teaching and Educational Leadership (WCLTA-2012).

Journal entry # 3

Date: September 30^th, 2015

Elementary English class observation

Topic: Personal information

Once again, life is responsible for teaching me that education is the result of effort and commitment. Thus, this time I had had the privilege of observing this English class. The evidence gathered here is the result of the process that teachers are taking in the professional development program. That is why, this class in particular shows the students’ interest towards English and the teacher’s determination to teach them better. Then, I will explain briefly the things I could perceive in today’s class.

Firstly, I found interesting the way in which teacher started her class. To begin with, she gave an overview of the topics they worked on the last session. Students were highly motivated to participate. Then, everybody sang the numbers’ song.  What I noticed here is that students do not feel embarrassed to participate and that is lovely! Secondly, teacher is constantly giving feedback to her students. I think that constant accompaniment helps students to redirect their tasks. Thirdly, strengthening the pronunciation is suitable for students. I observed that the teacher was at her students’ side, helping them with the pronunciation of words and phrases. Finally, the use of appealing material makes students to feel motivated and cheerful. In this class, the teacher used cartoons to engage students in asking and giving personal information.

The aspects mentioned above report how the class was. It is not only the result of a class but also of a process. Nowadays, the teacher shows to be more confident and secure of what she does. Besides, when she has to give instructions, these are totally clear and students can follow them easily. Of course, there are things to improve, such as speaking English to the students rather than in Spanish, but… this is what makes us good teachers.

Taking everything into consideration, this class was very inspirational because the atmosphere that permeates the classroom is unique. Consequently, the relationship that students and teacher has is really special.  They respect each other and teacher supports them every time. What is more, this teacher is open-minded because when we give her feedback she is always attentive and she looks for solutions and strategies to improve her teaching practice. So, reflective teaching works when teachers are aware of their process and they can evaluate themselves with a specific purpose: to teach better!

My beliefs! :)

My beliefs about English:

I think English is part of a series of languages that exist in the world. English for me encompasses a new way to communicate, to meet people, places and cultures. Besides, nowadays you can travel to some countries in which their native language is not English. In this sense, they are already prepared to communicate with other people in this language. Furthermore, I think it is extraordinary to use different words and pronouncing them in a specific way, not only English but also other languages. Moreover, I think English can provide many job opportunities because when you speak different languages you are able to do whatever you want. I mean, you can work in different fields as you decide.

My beliefs about Learning:

Learning as a process involves many factors when acquiring new knowledge. These factors are related to personality, emotions, feelings and goals or achievements. This process must be dynamic and spontaneous where learners can express themselves and create their own concepts. Besides, this undertaken activity can be given in a formal educational context or not. In this sense, interaction becomes an important issue when learning. As a result, apprentices can explore what they have at hand and use it to construct knowledge. Therefore, we learn by doing and living. Consequently, we conduct ourselves to a lifelong learning through our experiential knowledge.

My beliefs about Teaching:

Many people have defined teaching in different ways. Some of them have said that teaching is a profession, occupation; others claim that teaching is a vocation and so on. For me, teaching is something that is created with a purpose. For sure, we need vocation to teach our students. Also, this process remains on learners only if they experienced what they are learning. Our purpose as teachers is to guide them when necessary and also provide them with motivation and inspiration.

My beliefs about Language teaching:

In my view, language teaching encourages apprentices to get a deep understanding of certain field of knowledge. In this vein, learners can raise their cultural awareness. What is more, students can take a broad view of what the world is. Hence, our role as English teachers is to endeavor students and strive their attention to learn more and more. Through language teaching, students can have access to new opportunities and develop critical thinking. All of this process is built upon the learners’ needs, goals and interests. Subsequently, the idea is not to fulfill our learners’ minds with huge amount of things that maybe they are not going to use. But also, to bring them the opportunity to explore the place that surrounds them. It is a joint work, where teachers and students work together for the same goal. 

Conceptualizing teaching acts

     1. What do you usually do as a teacher? With what kind of rationale?

I usually help my students to gain knowledge of different things. I encourage them to learn from the context and in the context.  My role as a teacher is to explore the world of hand with my students. Hence, I usually contextualize the topic, mimic some things, sing and play with them. I like my students think my classes are striking and interesting. I do all of this because I want them to be able to learn English in a creative way not in the traditional one. Besides, I want them to fall in love with what they do. I also want them to be the main characters of this learning process.

2. What is your mind engagement like in the professional exercise of teaching?

A teacher who is not motivated to learn every day is an obsolete person. In this sense, I try to participate in different events, take courses and also do my MA, because I think this is a good way to do not feel selfless. In the first place, I think I need to know many things because the world changes every single day and I need to be aware of these changes. It seems to me absolutely interesting that teachers can move on and teach their students using different strategies. In addition, teachers do not know everything but we have to be prepared in case of questions that could be arisen in the classroom. All in all, I believe that engage our minds in this teaching practice give us tools, strategies, new methodologies to explore and give our students the best education as possible.

3. How would you characterize your professional, personal and experiential knowledge of teaching?

I firmly believe that we as teachers learn from experiences. I have noticed that at college I received many strategies and tools to teach but when I graduated it was somehow different. At the beginning was difficult because students varied according to their age, their contexts, their personal situations and so on. Therefore, I had to implement new strategies, because I was really good at theory but I realized that theory was not enough to teach in a classroom. Then, I learned to deal with many situations at the same time. I am completely sure, I need to learn more things about it but I am going to learn them through experience.

4. How do you see the relationship between theory, research and practice?

In my opinion, theory, research and practice play important roles in education. To begin with, it appears that theory is written proposals that are made by professionals. According to Kumaravadivelu (2003, p.18) “theory is generally seen to constitute a set of insights and concepts derived from academic disciplines…” Secondly, research appears to give support to those theories. As a result, theorists can base their studies on foundations and principles. Thirdly, kumaravadivelu’s (2003, p. 18) argues that “practice is seen to constitute a set of teaching and learning strategies indicated by the theorist…” In this sense, it seems that theorist manage the practice.

Indeed, based on Alexander (1986) ideas, teachers need to take into consideration their own practice with these types of knowledge (theory, research and practice) and focus more on what they should think (Cited in Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 20).

It is my belief that all of these aspects are significant because are immersed in our teaching practice. It is not a secret that we need theory, clear statements written especially by the people who live those experiences. The problem here is that we can have excellent ideas but we do not write them down on a sheet of paper nor publish them.

5. To what extent is there a cause-effect relationship between teaching and learning?

In my way of thinking, someone can learn without receiving that formal instruction called “teaching”. Nonetheless, it depends on the purpose someone can have in learning. That is to say, if I want to learn Math but I think I am not good at it and I see I cannot learn by myself. I am pretty sure I am going to need someone specialized in the topic. So, if I receive that instruction maybe the results are going to be better. On the whole this cause-effect depends on someone's purposes or goals.

References:

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Beyond Methods: Macrostrategies for Language Teaching. Yale University Press.

Journal entry # 2

Date: September 24^th, 2015

Kindergarten English class

Topic: Family members

This class observation was an interesting one, because it shows many aspects that teachers and students live every day. To start with, the teacher began the class greeting her students. Then, they prayed giving thanks to God. After that, the teacher played a song related to numbers. Students started singing. This activity was a review from the last class. Besides, teacher remembered them some commands, greetings and farewells. She also emphasized on the pronunciation and students were participating actively. When she was trying to project some slides on the board, lights went out. Immediately, the teacher continued with the next activity, she had previously prepared. Everything seemed to be connected and students were very attentive.

Therefore, she pasted a big cardboard on the board. It was a family tree. There were five spaces for five family members. These were: father, mother, sister, brother and me. To engage students in the recognition and pronunciation of family members, the teacher used a puppet called “miquín”. She made a dialogue with him, asking and giving information for the family members. After this activity, electricity returns, so, now the teacher showed them some slides associated with family members. Now, by giving examples teacher did the illustration of the exercise they had to do after the instructions she was given. The activity consisted on color, cut and paste some family members on a paper.

From this class observations there are some important insights that I have made. First, what I enjoyed the most is the relationship that teacher has with her students. In this vein, I could observed that students participate a lot because they are motivated. Second, learners seem to handle the relevant vocabulary related to greetings, farewells and command expressions. Also, they are aware of the pronunciation of these words and expressions. Third, theorists often claim that an English class should be taught in this language. Thus, I observed the teacher spoke to her students in English most of the time. I believe that this is a good practice, because it engages students to practice and learn more. Fourth, teacher had a plan B when electricity went out. She controlled the situation and continued her class normally. I liked this, because she was prepared and she did her best to continue teaching. Finally, class preparation had a significant impact on the class development. The teacher prepared a variety of activities. Besides, the length of these activities were to five or ten minutes maximum. In this sense, students did not get bored because they were totally involve in each activity. 

Journal entry # 1

Reflective Journal # 1

Date: September 23^rd, 2015

Elementary English class

Today, I observed an English class. The purpose of this class was to introduce others by giving personal information. To begin with, the teacher greeted her students in English, but when she was doing it, she was not sure about the pronunciation of “How are you doing?”, “I’m doing great”. In this sense, her students made the same mistakes as she did. Then, she started doing a review from the last class. Hence, she asked students for the pronunciation of numbers from one to ten. After this, she played the song and the students started singing. I could realize students’ active participation. Also, they were motivated to take part of the numbers’ pronunciation. Something important is that the use of technological devices drew students’ attention because they were watching the video and singing at the same time. 

There are some problems with the pronunciation of “How are you?” and “How old are you?” Teacher and students do not make the differences between them. Moreover, when students were saying the meaning of “how old are you” in Spanish, they said “¿Cuántos años viejos tiene?” this is kind of literal translation of words. Likewise, I noticed that teacher used Spanish to give instructions, commands and give examples to her students. Besides, there were some difficulties when asking for personal information in third person, as seen in the example: The teacher used “Where are you from?” instead of asking “what is he/she from?”

According to the activities, these were varied and gave a fresh notion of the vocabulary that was related to personal information. When students were working on some pieces of cardboard the teacher was carefully monitoring her students work. Also, it was required giving feedback, because students were confused about the pronunciation of some words. She was attentive and available to answer questions. Something remarkable during the class was the use of commands to avoid laziness and make students be more active. This teacher used this strategy and it really worked.

As a closure activity for this class, students worked on asking and answering questions using their personal information.  Finally, students interviewed other classmates. In my view, this class was organized because all the activities were previously planned. Nevertheless, there are some mismatches in pronunciation. Even though she is not majored in English teaching, she strove to have a good class.

MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

How can I describe my teaching practice? I should say that it is a trip full of many adventures! 

How time flies! I still remember when I was a little girl playing with my brothers and cousins in my grandma’s room. That was the place in which magic was given. My love for teaching has been present since I was in elementary school. I remember, I used to be the teacher and my brothers and cousins were my students. We usually met at my grandmother’s room and we used her closet’s door as a board and a chalk to write on it. We did this activity secretly because my grandma would be very angry if she realized that we were doing that and also, using her stuffs.

I spent four years in that school. However, I never knew what English was, because my teacher was an all-knower who taught me the main subjects such as Spanish, Maths, Biology, Geography, among others. Nevertheless, she did not teach me English. At that time, I had to move and live in Neiva. Hence, I started doing my fifth grade. That was the first time that I knew English existed. Therefore, English was something new for me and I was delighted to learn that language because the mere thought of communicating with others in a different way was amazing.

Over the years, I continued learning, and English was becoming an important part in my life. Likewise, I wanted to know more about cultures, people and places. It was one of the subjects I enjoyed the most. Moreover, one of the activities we did a lot was translation but we also worked on different activities. Nonetheless, I had great influence in learning English because my teacher was good at it and she motivated me to be better every day.

One of the most important decisions I’ve made in my life has been choosing a career. I knew that decision would change my life. Also, I did not want to be a frustrated professional. In that sense, I spent my last year at school thinking about the best choices for me. At the beginning I wanted to be a doctor because I believed helping people was something incredible. Then, I realized through an experience that I was afraid of blood. Therefore, I was sure I will not be able to help someone who was hurt. Then, my English teacher gave me a piece of advice and she suggested me to study English and I thought “oh! that’s great, that would be a good choice”. So, I decided to study English at Universidad Surcolombiana.

When I started college, I had lot of expectations. I knew it was not going to be easy but I decided to face it. Classes at college were dynamic and well-organized. Besides, my professors were supportive in the whole process of being an English teacher. Needless to say, the approaches that were taught at that moment were meaningful for my teaching methodology. Moreover, the research that I carried out with other classmates gave me a notion of real contexts of teaching and learning. Taking into consideration all of these facts, my teaching was enriched with all of the pedagogical tools and strategies given by all my professors and experience itself.

Furthermore, when I got my first job, I was anxious and maybe nervous because I wanted everything in a perfect way. So, I started working in a private school. I had to face lot of challenges. First, I had never worked with pre-school before. Second, they were affectionate and I was the opposite. Third, they were all the time in movement and that was really demanding for me. Finally, I had to prepare many activities and play with them. Also, they did not speak even Spanish and my job was to teach them English. They only word I always understood from them was “pofe”. That was the way they called me at the beginning. After that, they started calling me “teache”. I worked a whole year in that school. I am inclined to believe that all of these kids contributed in my teaching practice because I changed some things of myself and I was more aware of my role as a teacher.

Hence, after worked in a private school I had the chance to get a new job in Gigante. The time I spent in this school has been the most pleasant reward so far. I am convinced that students’ contexts influence their learning process. In this place, I learned to support my students and be more than a professional. I chose to be a guide for them. Therefore, I presented a meaningful experience from my students in Bogotá. As a result of this, we published a book.

Nowadays, I am currently doing an MA in English at Universidad Surcolombiana and I am very happy to continue studying and learning. I firmly believe that being a teacher is an ongoing process that needs to be carrying out every day with innovations and lot of compromise. Nobody has said that being a teacher it is just to know little things and to teach every day the same lesson and in the same way. Consequently, I am trying to be a better teacher every single day, understand my students’ needs and take into account all of those variants that are immersed in my students’ learning process.

For the above mentioned reasons, I feel that being a reflective teacher benefits education in a positive way. As I said before, I had to change some things that were not appropriate for my teaching practice. How did I come to this conclusion? Well, I had to reflect on what I was doing and I realized that there were some pitfalls, so, I looked for alternative solutions. In my view, I am still learning and the idea is to improve my teaching practice every single day.

First reflection task: My metaphor

In this metaphor, I personally believe that in the teaching process there are some important things to take into consideration, such as the participants and the context itself. The gist of this process lies in the students' achievements. Nevertheless, the role that plays some scenaries are crucial for the students' development. Indeed, home and school are the educational settings in which students are involved. The former setting they have at hand is their home. Thus, parents are encharged of giving learners the enough education related to values, behavior and motivate them to learn. The later setting is the school. Here, learners can receive specialized knowledge concerning to different subjects. Furthermore, teachers tend to be the specialized people that can bring that knowledge to the students. All of these factors seem to be important in learners' success. On the whole, learners can learn through experiences because they are motivated to reach their personal projects (goals). This is possible if  the scenaries mentioned above work together and efficiently.