Weekly Account 6th Grade
The following corresponds to the major events in general that took place during the following weeks.
From 13th to 16th, September
On the 13th, I was really nervous about my first perform in fron of the class. But overall it was really great. I presented the new unit called "Famous People" using an image of Lady Gaga, which is known by teenagers and kids. I started to teld them that she was my favourite singer and I asked them to tell me things they knew about her. It was a fun activity to start the class because they were really excited about giving opinions in English. After that, we began the new unit using the American Adventures Students Book.
On the 15th, there were no classes because of the rehearsal for the "Gala Dieciochera".
Finally, on the 16th, I went to the school with a Northamerican friend called Erin to supervise the children during the " Gala Dieciochera". They were all excited about meeting someone from the States, specially some of my students, Javier Muñoz and Felipe Caviedes. They talk with Erin for about 45 minutes, in English! I felt so proud of them.
From 20th to 22rd, September
On the 20th, there were no classes because of the National Holiday.
On the 22nd, I made a review of the last lesson for the students, since it had been a while since our last class. During the class I asked about several subjects of the review and they were so eager to answer them. I really like that. Never before I had that kind of experience in my other teaching practices, that everyone wants to participate so anxiously... Maybe that means that I'm doing ok!
During that afternoon in the English Workshop, their enthusiasm didn't fade away. We continue the review from the last workshop with the printable material that I gave them last class and they really like learning English.
On the 23rd, I had to replace the teacher in a 3rd grade. Miss Andrea had everything planned before so I didn't have to worry about. The students behave very well even though I was a new teacher.
From 27th to 29th, September
During this week I started teaching the Past Simple Form and a the Occupations to the students. They had some problems learning there was and there were because of the relation between them and the singular & plural endings. But they just had to practice it with exercises. For that they used the American Adventures Book.
On the English Workshop, we continued the topic of the early lesson with a review and printable worksheets. I think they are on their way to getting the unit.
From 4th to 6th, October
On this week, I started to teach the students the Regular Verbs in Past Simple Form. On Monday, we used the Students Book for explanation and exercises on the subject. They seem to get the idea of the ED at the end of the verb.
On Wednesday, we went to the Enlaces room so that I could use the datashow to present them I review that I prepared in powerpoint format. The kids really liked it because during the presentation they had to participate and they loved the images I put on the powerpoint. After that I presented other powerpoint that deal with the "Famous People" presentations that they have to do in two more weeks. I explained that they had to get together in groups of 3 people and choose a famous person and present his or her biography. They also have to use obligatory content like all the forms of Past Simple that they know from the past lessons. Then I told them to use the computers on Enlaces room to look for information.
On the English Workshop, we went over the Past Simple Forms. This week went pretty good.
From 11th to 13th, October
There are no classes on Monday.
On Wednesday, we went over the Past Simple Forms again because several students had doubts and questions about the topic. After answering all doubts, they continued with their web search and preparation of powerpoint presentation of the chosen famous person.
On the afternoon, during the Workshop I answer questions about the presentations. Then I handed out the printable worksheets to the kids and started working on the past simple exercises and its affirmative & negative form. They were pretty exctited about making meaningful sentences about them using past simple and I really enjoy helping them.
From 18th to 20th, October
On Monday, at the beginning of the class I explained the last subject of the unit which was the use of Years which they have to use during their presentations. Then I handed out the Accumulative Tests that, at the end, will help me see if they are OK for the Sinthesis Test.
Then on 20th, we checked the answers of the Accumulative Test all together on the Enlaces room. After that, I show them the Past Simple Review powerpoint to clear out the doubts they could have so they would do well on the Sinthesis Test.
During the afternoon, I was felling pretty sick so I couldn't do the Workshop. I told the Inspector that I couldn't stay any longer and that if he could let the kids know that there was no workshop for that afternoon. I feel that the stress is getting my stomach.
From 25th to 27th, October
On Monday, I took the Sinthesis Test, but before the students started doing it we did a quick review of the unit. During the test, I tried to help them giving them hints when they ask me things about the test so it wouldn't be so obvious.
That same day I had to replace my guide teacher again on a 2nd grade. Again the teacher had prepared everything for that class. She is really nice to me.
On the 27th, the students continued their web search on the Enlaces room. I tried to help them in creating the powerpoint and the vocabulary for the presentations.
On the afternoon, we went to the Enlaces room to continue the search during the Workshop.
From 1st to 3rd, November
There were no classes on Monday.
On Wednesday, the students continued their web search on the Enlaces room.
On the afternoon Workshop, the kids continued their work on the computers.
From 8th to 10th, November
During the week, the students started their "Famous People" Presentations. Even though I gave them a rubric so they would know what I would evaluate, some of the group didn't furfill my expectations. But overall the presentations were good. I could tell they put a lot of effort on them.
And one big event was that they remembered my birthday on wednesday so they sang me Happy Birthday. I was so joyfull about that!
On the afternoon workshop, the students continued their work on the computers.
From 15th to 17th, November
I wasn't felling too good this week. Because of personal problems my performance during classes wasn't as expected and everyone noticed it, even my supervisor. I tried to do my best to introduce the new unit, "Space", but I started with the wrong foot. How can a human being separate work from personal life? That's why I started my weekly sesions with my psychologist again because sometimes it's too much to handle yourself.
From 22 to 24, November
On Monday, I was back on my feet again so I started the class explaining the new subject, Irregular Verbs. This part of the Past Simple is very hard for any student, but I answered every question they had, even if they asked the same question twice. This class was mainly grammatical.
On Wednesday, I prepared a special class so they could understand the use of the irregular verbs in Past Simple. I made a powerpoint called "Dating & Breaking-up" because I realized that they are on the age of starting to date. I asked for their opinions on the subject during the presentation and they were pretty excited about it. Then I show them a video of Avril Lavigne called "Don't tell me" which deals with the problem of breaking-up with someone and it also has a lot of irregular verbs in the lyrics. They seemed to enjoy it. Then I handed out the printable worksheet were they had to fill in the blanks which were only irregular verbs. Then they had to answer some questions on the subject but time catch up with me and I could finish the last activity. Every body was happy at the end.
During the afternoon workshop, we went to the Enlaces room to work in the "Songs Activity" where they had to look for their favourite song with its lyrics in English and listen to it carefully to the pronunciation of words. They like working on the computers a lot.
From 29th, November to 1st, December
This was my last week with my kids so I planned the best activity for the end, Christmas Cards! As I predicted, almost everybody didn't bring the materials needed for that class so I brought a bag full of materials for them to work. I used the datashow to present them several Christmas Cards designs and I also showed them Christmas cards that I made. I helped them with the designs the entire class. After that, I showed them the Christmas Greetings that they could use for their message inside the card. Overall, the two lesson for that week were so good and the students made wonderful Christmas cards and I received some of them for me.
On the afternoon, during the last workshop we got together to watch the "2012". It was a fabulous last class.
Weekly Account 4th Grade
From 23rd to 30th, September
On the afternoon of 23th, I started the English Workshop with the 4th graders. As in the 6th grade, the kids were curious about me so I presented myself as their new teacher and that in order to enhance their English I created the English Workshop. I started the lesson with a review of "Daily Routines" and after that they had to create a paragraph about their daily routine. While they did it, I corrected their errors one by one.
On the 30th, I started teaching "Description of yourself" were they had to use certain grammatical & lexical structures to describe people. In order to use that, they had to create 2 paragraphs: one describing themselves and the other describing their partner. During the lesson I answer all kinds of questions about the subject. They seem really eager to learn English.
From 7th to 14th, October
We started the class with a review of the grammatical & lexical structures to describe people that they had to write in their notebooks. I also check the finished paragraphs of descriptions and they were actually good. I gave them a printable material that they had to bring as homework for the next class. The students had to choose their favourite artist, put a picture of him or her on the sheet and describe him or her. But on the next class, not everybody brought the homework and some of them I could understand because the couldn't use the computers in their house...Their brothers and sisters didn't lend them the computers! I went through that same situation until I bought my own computer.
From 21st to 28th, October
On this week, I brought them photocopiable material so that they would use the the grammatical & lexical structures to describe people. They had to watch some pictures of people and describe them. I guide them during the entire class.
From 4th to 10th, November
We went to the Enlaces room the enhance their learning through the use of Internet. They had to create an account in the website www.mingoville.com/cl and after doing that, I told them to log in and start playing in the part of Clothes and Colors, since they're describing people and what they're wearing. As the 6th graders, they love using computers even for learning English.
From 18th to 25th, November
We went to the Enlaces room again to continue the use of www.mingoville.com/cl. This time in order to learn Numbers from 1 to 5000. First I gave them several numbers for them to write correctly and after finish that they could log in on mingoville and play in the part of Numbers. Even though some of them didn't want to do the first part of the activity, they did it anyway because they really want to play in mingoville.
2nd, December
This was my last class with them so I took them to Enlaces room to watch the movie "Up". We had a wonderful last day together.
