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.