Karla, Kevin and Mirasol's Second Class

Hello everyone, today I'm going to be talking about the second class of Karla, Kevin and Marisol. This is their decond and last class and in general they did it in a very professional and excelent way.

Karla

She was the first to develop the class and there's a lot of good things to talk about her. She taught a lot of new vocabulary and that's great because the kids understood every single word. And as the first time she looked very confident and sure about what she was doing. But I noticed a little bit of more angryness in her voice.

Kevin

I think he did a very good job, but I couldn't observe too much about his performance because I was with two boys outside when he developed literally all his part. So I'm really sorry. I heard from the feedback that there was a part in which he did something with the lesson plan that was not acurrate. In any way, he has always demonstrated to be very focused on what he does.

Marisol

I think her weak point is the giving of instructions, that may be the point where she has to work more. She got mixed up with an activity, that even us as the watchers couldn't understand what she meant. But as she saw that this was taking so long, she did a good job by telling them to finish the activity at home. At the beggining I thought this was bad, but perhaps it wasn't. Then she always left one of the kids to work alone, and I don't think this can be good, when he sees that everyone else is in group. But a point on favor may be that she did a great monitoring.

Things that I could have changed.

In general I don't have to much to say, that was a good class and I would change just the thing of getting stick to the perfect lesson plan they made and see that the instructions are well given. And to take care that nobody is left alone.

Things to improve.

I already mention all the things that they have to improve in the future. But I will add: more smiles to the kids and care for them. Also the instructions point is very important... So, that one is the most important.

That's it partners, see you next week.

Rebeca, Ariana and Federico's class

Hello everyone, today I’m going to provide my opinion on Federico, Rebeca and Ariana’s class, it was a grammar class about animals, and it was their second class delivered. Let’s talk a little bit about their general performance. Their work was such amazing, their activities were just well developed almost in every sense and also they were well structured. They were easy and kids also understood everything. A negative point on general was on the lesson plan, since I had not watched it, I don’t know if they followed their own structure but as the teacher noticed it, I guess that it was something that I was not able to perceive.

There’s not much to say about their general performance but we can talk about individual work for them.

Rebeca:

She was just great, it is pretty obvious that she has a special connection with kids. Personally I had the chance to work with her because of my social hours and we worked as teachers and I can tell that she has the vocation, her group was not just kids-centered but she demonstrated to be great with the infant part. Continuing, it was the first time that I watched her delivering classes properly to kids and the aspect that I enjoyed the most was that she made the kids do every activity, and also pay attention when she was explaining and even participate when they didn’t have to. I don’t know what did she do, but I want to have that activity. Honestly I don’t have any negative aspect to talk about her performance.

Ariana:

She also did a great job. At the beginning she was kind of serious and this made the kids get a little distracted, but as the activities went on, she had more chances to catch their attention and accomplished it. The part that I enjoyed the most was an activity that she developed in the board, which caused the kids to pay all their attention that was missing. I also had the opportunity to work with Ariana on my social hours and as Rebeca she also possesses this vocation. As I heard, they (including Ariana) did a better job than the last time.

Federico:

When I watched his performance I couldn’t stop laughing, in some aspects this can be such a great opportunity, since the kids enjoy as they learn. I was kind of blinded because of this, because I thought it was totally right. But as I meditated it, I started to notice that this may lead to some troubles. For example, kids can be easily distracted by this and also they can abuse of the teachers confidence. Also, I think that Federico was the most confused about the lesson plan issue. But otherwise, just as Rebeca and Ariana, he did a marvelous job.

If I were they I would have chance just the lesson plan situation, I would have tried to plan everything in a better way, but more than that, it would have been just a perfect class.

Keep it up guys, honestly it was the best class I have watched. There are less and less things to improve each time and I can tell you have noticed that. With no more to add, see you next time.

Astrid, Daniel and Xenia's class

Hello everyone, today it’s my turn to talk about the class that I myself and my two partners and Friends delivered. To begin a little, I have to admit that it was a scaring experience, I know that some of your groups have not received the best feedback ever, but now I understand you. Being in front of a real class is not easy at all, I already know that you did your best effort but we have to give some advices for us to get better, and now I know that it is not that easy at all to have the perfect class.

Our class (delivered with Astrid and Xenia) was about the family members directed to the skill reading. To be totally honest, our activities and exercises were pretty good in my opinion, and they were also well planned. The only thing that I can tell about them is perhaps the fact that they were too advanced for the level of the kids, they didn’t seem difficult, but, for kids that are starting and that don´t understand some topics, it seemed too difficult. Nevertheless we tried to do our best to explain them in the best way.

Astrid

She did such an amazing job. She was just so creative. She always found a way to correct some situations that were against what we planned and she did it in such a creative way. She cared a lot about the kids’ learning. She tried to make them pay attention, and accomplished it with her charisma and even though the lights went out and the kids’ were not able to see what was on the board, she got the great idea to write the words down again for them to copy. She managed it in a good way in general, the only inconvenient was the time that take to solve this situations, time that after that was going to be necessary. But it was an external situation.

Daniel

Being objective, I think that I did a mediocre job trying to express the instructions, and in a big way it was my own fault that some kids didn’t understand what they had to do. Our teacher, Karla, already told us to use some words in Spanish to make them understand, practice that I totally agree on but I totally forgot about. I really hope to do a better job the next time. Other thing was that I over repeated the vocabulary when Astrid already did it in a very good way, and I didn’t achieve to make the kids have all their attention on me. Of course, even though I didn’t catch their attention, I was very enthusiastic. But, being honest. My voice projection, monitoring and modeling were pretty good, also, it didn’t help that the lights went out again while I was delivering my class. I tried my best to hurry up since Xenia had little time to perform, even though it was not enough.

Xenia

She was the most affected by the time factor, BUT, despite this situation she did such a great job. She was direct in the instructions and made all the kids work, she used the right amount of Spanish words to make them understand and decided very well whish activities to do and which ones not to. It was the best example on how you can do more (the best possible) with less (time). Her voice projection was just so accurate to what was required and the things she asked them to do were more realistic that the things Astrid and I asked.

With no more to add, this was my opinion on what we experienced this last class. I hope you enjoyed it and have a wonderful week. Love, Daniel.

Paola, Lidia and Saraí's class

Hello everyone, good day. In this occassion I would like to give you my personal oppinion on Paola, Lidia and Sarai's class about grammar of "he is", "she is", "who is she", "who is he", "who are they", even though I was not present due to an activity I had outside the University and made me assist just to the class of 3:00 pm. Either way, I had help with notes that some friends lent me so that I can give my oppinion on the class. To begin, students seemed to rememver last topic, which was demonstrated on the Warm up that Paola developed. One of the things that seems pretty important to me is the usage of pictures and images, in this case about family members, because some of the kids may feel remembering last topic kind of difficult and this can help them in an explendidous way. Kids, as I could read, seemed kind of distracted and in the developed of the class the teachers didn't seem strong in making them pay attention. But this is very understandable, since I imagine myself walking a mile on their shoes, and for me it would be (and probaby will be) difficult to make the kids pay attention, since I consider myself as a soft person. To continue with the class. Some monitoring deficience was observed, perhaps being constantly watching the work of the kids is one of the things that the teacher may see hard to do, but we have to, since it is our main concern, making them work and not making sure of it may bring troubles to kids at the time of doing an exam, since we really didn't care if they learnt something or not.

Lidia made an activity that I really liked, even though I didn't see, the comparing activity is alway a good idea, is the ideal opportunity for the kids to correct something that they are not sure about. And also it increases the security of the kids if they are right.

Another good thing I was informed they did is asking in a correct way if they understood the topics, I guess we have to be sure if what we are teaching is being well percieved for the kids, and in this point at least on the side of Paola was accomplished, it is important to remark that this was seen in the presentation phase, and not in the activities which I explain previously on this blog.

In my oppinion it looked like a good class, kids still are being used to assist to this classes and that's why they present this behaving. It is a shame that I was not present to apport a better and more personal point of view. We'll see in the next occassion. Love, Danny.

Karla, Kevin and Marisol's class

Hello again, this is your friend Danny, now talking about the first class I had the chance to be present on. This class was developed by teacher Karla, teacher Kevin and teacher Marisol. In general this was a very well performed class. Since this was the first class, there were some things that were not perfect, but we have to give them the approved mark since they did their best in order to develop this class. Something I really liked in general was the exercises, they were well structured and correctly applied to what they were teaching, also the activities of warm up and wrap up were fantastic. Bur let’s talk about the teachers.

Karla: She was just amazing, she knew how to handle kids’ behavior and how to make them do the activities in a very happy way. She made the kids repeat and internalize what they were doing and she even took her time to add and explain some things her partners were missing, in order for the class to be well developed. Her voice at the beginning sounded too loud for me, but thinking about it, it was just good, because in that way she can call the children attention.

Kevin: a good teacher as well, he explained every activity just right and we can tell that he really enjoys having good time with the kids, just as an observation, he seemed more nervous than his partners, but this may change in the process. Also, he had some struggles with breaking the ice with the kids in the first activities and also on having the kids do the activity. But these actions were totally corrected on the way he really taught the class to the children.

Marisol: good teacher too. She just have to work on congratulating the kids, since she 

seemed kind of cold when she said “good job” to them. Also, she looked kind of serious. But we have to understand that every teacher has its own character, so in this way, we cannot judge too much. Apart from this she did a great job.

I really enjoyed this class, and even though there were not too many kids on it, they made their biggest effort to educate the ones that were present. Congratulation guys.

How to punish a kid.

Hello everybody, for me it is a pleasure to make this entrance in my blog to talk a little bit about “How to punish a kid”. As I already explained in class there is a lot to take into consideration when we talk about correcting a kid. One just cannot come and call the kid’s attention in a rude way. We have to remember that they are very sensible of mind, since they are absorbing everything around them this could be dangerous, they can accept your words and reply this to their classmates, family or in the future to their children. Also, this can affect their social skills, since screaming at them will make them feel way more afraid than if we correct them in a sweet way, and they can grow with severe auto esteem problems; believing that he or she is always making the things in a wrong way or that they are useless for everything. We as educators are not allowed to do this despicable action.

So, teachers, my recommendations are the following.

1.       Get close to the kids and tell them softly what they are doing wrong: this may seem very obvious, but is the clearest way to correct a bad behavior, tell them to take into consideration that his or her behavior is not fair for the other students who are doing the effort of behaving well, and that want to pay attention to the class or receiving it without any disturbing from his or her behalf (obviously in a way that they can understand).

2.       Positive conditioning: or also known as positive reinforcing. This can be done by prizing the good behaviors and not celebrating or even ignoring the bad behavior. In this way the kids will realize that they can be spotted by doing the things right and not behaving in an inappropriate way.

3.       Behaving chart: this consists in making in the board three spaces, one that has a happy face, another with a poker face, and the third one with a sad face. The names of all the students will start in the happy face, and if someone starts on behaving in a different way, his or her name will be downgraded to the poker or the sad face. In this way the kids will notice if they are doing right or bad.

So, these are my recommendations for you, I really hope you can apply this to your classes and have a wonderful experience teaching classes. Blessings.