Pedagogical Events and Reflections

Lesson Plans and Activities used during my Practicum Process

Here you can find all my lesson plans and some of the material and activities used during my practicums. My students did a lot of speakins but I didn't know how to upload them to my blog. I hope you enjoy the material.

Some Evaluations

PPT June 9th

PPT June 8th

Activities and handouts of my practicum

Practicum's Log

David Trumbull Weekly Activities.

8th Grade

Date of the lesson: June 22nd, 2010.

The activity for this week was about a dialog the students had to perform about n interview they must create and do to a pop star. They present their dialogs in pairs and they were recorded.

1st Grade of High School

Date of the lessons: June 22nd – 23th, 2010.

During the first lesson the students performed the dialog they created a few classes ago in pairs about planning something to do for the weekend. The students were recorder using an Mp4.
For the next lesson the students did a reading and listening activity about International English in which they must predict some information and also get some from the listening. They also had to answer some questions about the reading and listening.

Weekly Reflection

This week my reflection is based on comment a student from the 8th grade made. Her name is Xaviera . at a moment during the lesson I was explaining an activity to her since she is a student that needs to be busy otherwise she does not pay attention to the class and do anything else but the exercises ( she is very talkative and annoying); and she told me: Miss usted es super buena onda a la otra practicante le dijimos que le hariamos la vida imposible jajajaja pero a usted no porque nos cae bien. I asked her why did you say that to the other prospective teacher? She only wants to learn and do her job like me. To what she answered: pero es que la otra Miss es pesada, no nos pesca y no le entendemos nada. I told her that wasn’t okay and that they must treat her better now from no won since she is a human being and needs and deserved to be respected. She told me she will try.
This situation made think that we as teachers must be aware of our students’ attitudes, comments and actions if we want to get on well with them and if we want to be able to do good classes. Sometimes, little actions or gestures from our students say a lot of what they are thinking or want to say, and we must be capable to understand that messages in order to have a better relationship with them.

Reflective writing Nº1

Unit and Lesson Plans 8th Grade

Unit and Lesson Plans

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33522772/Unit-and-Lesson-Plans

Reuniones de Padres y Apoderados

1. Nombre del Establecimiento Educacional: Colegio David Trumbull.
2. Curso: 3 año Medio.
3. Profesor jefe: Mrs. Roberto Arrué.
4. Profesor en Práctica: Deisy Pérez Valderas.
5. Fecha: 23-06-2010.
6. Hora (inicio y término): 18:30 – 20:40.
7. Tabla de la reunión:
- Charla empresa Turismo Bravo.
- Bajo Rendimiento del curso en general (tema principal)
- Gira de estudios.

Para esta reunión “Extraordinaria” como la llamo el profesor, asistieron 22 apoderados de un total de 31mas 25 alumnos de 31.
La reunión de dividió en tres partes:
· la primera en una charla de la empresa Turismo Bravo dirigida a los estudiantes como una opción de gira de estudios. En esta reunión estaban presentes los alumnos y los apoderados que quisieran asistir que eran 10. Aquí solo se mostró como seria la gira de estudios de los niños, y al final los padres y los alumnos podían hacer preguntas sobre el programa ofrecido. Varios alumnos y también varios apoderados alzaron sus manos para preguntar sobre el precio que era lo que más les interesaba y sobre los beneficios que esta empresa en comparación a las otras ofrecía.
· Durante la segunda parte de esta reunión se encontraban los 22 apoderados mas los alumnos y el profesor y aquí se trato el tema principal que convoco esta reunión “el mal rendimiento que estaba teniendo el curso en general”. Asunto preocupante, ya que el curso después de haber empezado con buenas calificaciones a principios de semestre había decaído mucho a la fecha, este tema preocupaba mucho al profesor y quiso comentarlo con los apoderados junto con los alumnos para que estuvieran todos conscientes de lo que estaba pasando y para buscar alguna solución al problema todos juntos.
· La tercera y última parte de la reunión fue dirigida solo a los apoderados. Se les solicito a los alumnos que dejaran la sala para que se pudiera realizar la siguiente parte y ultima de esta. Durante esta fase los encargados de llevar la reunión fueron los integrantes de la directiva de padres y apoderados, en realidad solo el presidente y la tesorera hablaron y condujeron la reunión. El tema a tratar durante este periodo fue netamente enfocado a las platas que hay y que faltan por juntar y que se deben. Se nombro a los apoderados que deben las cuotas del curso y a los que tienen todo cancelado. Se informo la cantidad de plata que falta por juntar para que puedan realizar la gira de estudios los alumnos a fin de año. Se propusieron también las actividades que se realizarán para juntar dicha plata. Se llego a un acuerdo de realizar rifas ya que era lo que más ganancias les dejaba.
Luego se corto la luz y la reunión se termino repentinamente.

La segunda parte y más importante de la reunión fue dirigida por el profesor jefe, a mi parecer fue dirigida de una estupenda manera, ya que se ve que el profesor es muy cercano a sus alumnos y también a los apoderados. El profesor planteo el tema que convoco la junta y luego de explicarlo cedió la palabra a alumnos para que explicaran ellos mismos que estaba pasando. Luego le cedió la palabra a los apoderados para que dieran su opinión de la situación y para que plantearan una posible solución. La reunión fue muy ordenada, en un clima muy agradable, todos parecían conocerse y salieron varias bromas durante la reunión para amenizar el asunto. Después de que todas las partes plantearon sus diferentes puntos de vista los alumnos acordaron que tratarían de ayudarse unos a otros y que se comprometían a estudiar en grupo para ayudar a los que tienen más bajo rendimiento. Los apoderados dijeron que estarían más al pendiente y que estaban dispuestos a prestar sus hogares para que los alumnos estudien.
Durante esta reunión un tema que se trato a lo largo de esta como OFT aunque no especificado, fue el respeto, el profesor hizo mucho hincapié en que los alumnos deben respetar a todos los profesores y no aprovecharse de algunos en que por que el ramo no tiene nota al libro deja de ser importante. Se les recalco también a los padres que sigan siempre recordándoles a sus pupilos que el respeto es importante así como intenta hacerlo él a diario con ellos.

Consejo de Curso y Orientación

I. Datos Generales:

1. Nombre del Establecimiento Educacional: Colegio David Trumbull
2. Curso: 1 medio.
3. Profesor jefe: Miss Gabriela Matta.
4. Profesor en Práctica: Deisy Pérez Valderas.
5. Fecha: 22 de Junio 2010
6. Hora (inicio y término): 10:15 – 11:45.

II.- Desarrollo del consejo de curso

1. Tema de Orientación y OFT:

Durante este periodo en donde se debiese haber realizado Orientación la profesora Gabriela tomó una prueba de Historia por lo que no hubo orientación. Razón por la cual tampoco se observo un OFT.

2. Tabla del Consejo de Curso:
Cuando comenzó el consejo de curso después de la prueba en el segundo periodo, la directiva del curso se paro en frente de la clase y comenzaron a decir que debían preparar la venta de completos para juntar dinero para el curso.
La presidenta comenzó recordando lo que habían acordado la semana pasada: que harían 100 completos para vender y que por lo tanto necesitaban comprar lo siguiente:
· 100 panes.
· 100 vienesas.
· 25 paltas.
· 30 tomates.
· 2 kilos de mayonesa.
· 2 kilos de kétchup.
El secretario del curso iba tomando nota de todo lo que la vicepresidenta escribía en la pizarra.
Acordaron que:
· 10 alumnos llevaran 1 paquete de vienesas de 5 unidades cada uno.
· 9 alumnos 1 kilo de palta cada uno.
· 2 alumnos 2 ½ kilos de tomates cada uno.
· 2 alumnos 1 kilo de kétchup cada uno.
· 2 alumnos 1 kilo de mayonesa cada uno.
Se acuerda hacer un sorteo para ver que producto le toca donar a cada alumno.
Las servilletas ya las tienen porque quedaron de una actividad anterior.
Se acuerda que ese mismo día pedirán autorización en dirección para realizar la actividad el día viernes de la próxima semana.
Se termina el consejo de curso.
Este consejo de curso fue bastante organizado, los alumnos se escucharon y levantaban la mano para opinar, se ve que el curso está entusiasmado por hacer actividades y juntar dinero. Son un curso organizado. La profesora jefe se sentó al final de la clase solo a observar, no opino ni interrumpió. Fue un consejo de curso totalmente guiado por la directiva.

Weekly Reflection

This week I am going to based my reflection on the activity I did with the students of the 1st year of high school: the game “Find someone who…” . At the beginning I thought maybe it wouldn’t be possible to do this game with the students because they wouldn’t take it seriously, so I wasn’t sure, but once I explained the rules and what they had to do, I noticed they were very excited and that they wanted to participate. So in that moment I knew that it wasn’t so bad having planned that game as an activity for practicing and studying for their test that was programmed for the next class (the next day). In this game in which they worked in big groups because the class was divided into 3 groups, they worked very well. The instructions were that using the words that I gave them and the tenses I gave them they must create questions and then ask those questions to their classmates, after that they must write the answers. They worked as a team; the three groups were trying to create the questions correctly and also the answers. So, all of them participated on this activity that for me and for them was a success. This activity was very enriching for me since I felt the students really leant with it.

David Trumbull Weekly Activities.

8th Grade

Date of the lesson: June 15th, 2010.

This week the students did a listening and a writing activity. First they finished the listening activity they started last week. That consisted on answering some questions based on an interview. After that the students did a writing activity in which they must write an interview and look for the information for answering the questions of the interview on internet at their homes. Then the students completed a dialog which must be presented next class.

1st Year of High School

Dates of the lessons: June 15th – 16th, 2010.

On the first class the students did activities that were focused on the test they were going to have the next day. First they played a game called “Find someone who…”in which they were divided into three groups. The students must create some questions in different tenses and then ask them to their classmates and write the answers. The first group that finishes and has the majority of the questions and answers correct wins the game. They played this game and it was very funny. After that the pupils did an exercise of completing with the past, present and gerund of some verbs on the board. Finally they did a crossword, a puzzle and some exercises of completing for practicing the vocabulary of the units studied during the semester. For the next lesson the students had their synthesis test that was based on the Units 1 and 2 of their books.

Post- observation feedback "REFLECTION"

When I started the observation stage in this school I knew I would be able to do at least some activities with the students since they seemed to know enough English for their level. At the beginning when I started to teach I was afraid since I thought maybe they wouldn’t respect me since I am young. I also thought they wouldn’t cooperate with me in the activities. But as the time pasted by I realized they were good students. I started to do classes and they were pretty well, at least the students participated and paid attention to the lesson I was giving to them but once I started the lesson and gave them the instruction for it, and here it comes the critical aspect, I used to explained the activities once and that was all, so once the pupils started to do the activities they were a bit lost so they started to ask again and again: Miss… What do we have to do? And I had to repeat the instruction again and again. At the beginning I thought maybe they were not prepared to do these activities…. But then Miss Isabel and my guide teacher Miss Erika told me I had to explain the activities better, that I must give them more examples and also write them on the board in order to check the students understood the exercises. I started thinking about this piece of advice both teachers gave me and of course I took it into account for my future lessons, so now I explain the activities more times and clearly so the students don’t have much problems on doing them.

Another critical aspect toward my lessons is that I used to prepared material for the lessons and I was sure I was taking full advantage of it but the truth was that I wasn’t doing that. I just realized about this situation once Miss Isabel asked me: What would you change of your lesson? I didn’t know what to answer so she told me I should take full advantage of the material I was preparing for the students since it was a good material and it took me long time to prepare it. So now I am aware of the mistakes I was making at the moment of doing classes, and I am trying to not making them again and I have noticed my lessons have improved a lot and that makes me happy.

When the teachers referred to the mistakes I made and told me what should I do, I felt good, not ashamed or down since I know that this is my practicum and I am learning so I think it is good this things happen now during this process of my life because I am going to learn from these mistakes.

Weekly Reflection

This week my topic for reflection is based on a mistake I made with the studentsof the 1st year, of course it is not a big mistake but it is something I learnt from. The situation was that I prepared a test for the students last week on June 2th, 2010, so the next class (June 8th), I delivered the tests. What I didn’t realize at that moment was that on the day the pupils had their test some of them didn’t attend to classes, but I didn’t remember that in that moment. After the lesson finished some students came to ask me when they were going to have their test since they didn’t do it because they didn’t go to class. On that moment I told them that the test will be on the 22nd of June, they were agree and they left the classroom. After that and talking to my guide teacher I made the comment to her that I will do the test for the students that didn’t attend to it on the 22nd of June. She told me: Okay no problem that is up to yo, but I am gonna tell you only one thing: did you realize that you delivered the tests to the students before doing the test to the pupils that didn’t attend to that class? To what I answered: yes, mmmm…now I see… now I won’t be able to do the same test for the pupils that didn’t attend to class!!! So my guide teacher told me that that was one thing I must take into account at the moment of delivering papers or test to the students, if there are students that don´t go the lessons in which there are evaluations, I would just give them their grades but not their works so I would be able to use the same formats for the rest of the students. My guide teacher advised me that I must remember that for the next time, not because it must be that way but because it is better for me. She told me that now it is not a problem for me because I have enough time for preparing new tests but in the future maybe I won’t have enough time for doing it so it is something important. I was thinking about all this and of course I agree with her since that way I save time and I also can evaluate all the students in the same way. I think it was positive that this happen to me now, while I am doing my practicum, since I am still learning and improving my teaching style.

David Trumbull Weekly Activities

8th Grade

Date of the lesson: June 8th, 2010.

During this lesson the students did a listening activity that included a pre, while and post listening activities in which they learnt some new vocabulary related to music and pop stars. They had to predict information and also complete a chart with information from the listening; they also had to answer some question. They participated a lot so the lesson was good.

1st Year of High School.

Date of the lessons: June 8th – 9th, 2010.

On the first lesson on Tuesday, the students reviewed all the tenses they have learnt through the Units (present simple, present continuous, past simple and past continuous) through a PPT. They also did some exercises on the board using the same PPT in order to check their understanding. After the lesson finished I sent the PPT to the students for them to study for their test.
On the second lesson on Wednesday, the students practiced the four tenses doing some listening, writing and speaking activities. For the Listening activity the pupils must recognize participants in a communicative situation and identify the tenses of some sentences. For the speaking activity the students practiced a dialog and some new useful expressions that are used in daily activities. For the writing activities the students must create some sentences using some pictures from the PPT planning activities for the weekend. Finally the students must deliver a dialog they must create based on a dialog they practiced during the listening activity.

Weekly Reflection

This week I am going to make my reflection based on a fact that happened to me with 2 students from the 1st year. The situation was the following: all the pupils had to deliver a dialog created by them which will be evaluated as a written and oral task in couples. The students gave me their written dialogs, I corrected them and I gave them back to the students for them to present them orally next lesson (next week). I chose two students for delivering the dialogs, so they delivered them for me. One couple, told me (the day they had to perform their dialogs), they didn’t receive their dialog last class, so they wouldn’t be able to do their oral presentation that day because they couldn’t study. I told them that that was impossible because I corrected their dialog and one of their classmates gave it to them, that I was sure because I remembered that. They told me that I was wrong, but that they would give the dialog tomorrow after the lesson if I wanted. I told them that I was going to check at my home if their dialog was in my house, because maybe I was wrong, but that they must do anyway their oral presentation the next day. They told me that if I didn’t find their dialog they will do a new one. I accepted, but I had a strange felling. I commented this with my guide teacher and she told me I should be careful since those two students were very intelligent and tricky, so maybe the truth was that they just didn’t study for the oral presentation and they invented the whole story. Thinking about this situation later on, it was my mistake, because I should have delivered the dialogs by myself instead of choosing two students for doing it. That way I could have been completely sure I gave the dialog to them but I as I didn’t do that I had to give them the opportunity to do their presentation next class. So from now on I am going to be the one who deliver the students’ works in order to avoid this kind of situation. My guide teacher advised me the same thing. In spite of having these problems with my students I am happy because this is my practicum and I am learning a lot about the behavior of the students. So I am sure this will help me to be a better teacher.

David Trumbull Weekly Activities.

Class: 8th grade
Date: June 1st, 2010.

This week the students were evaluated with an accumulative grade. It was a written test that consisted on identify general and specific information from a text that was in the past simple tense and to use correctly the connectors “or” and “because”.

Class: 1st year of High School.
Dates: June 1st – 2nd, 2010.

For the first lesson, the students had to perform orally the dialog they created before in couples. This dialogs were about being a good citizen and consisted on 6 questions with their respective answers using the past simple and the past continuous tenses. For this activity the pupils were recorded using an Mp4.
During the next lesson the students had a written test evaluated only with one grade. This test consisted on identify and extract general and specific information from a text, identify and be able to use the conjunctions “so’ and “because” and to put into practice the simple past and past continuous tenses.

Weekly Reflection

There was a specific situation that paid my attention this week. It doesn’t have to do with my English lessons but with the students as a group. When I went to the school on Tuesday I got there and I was informed that the 1st year of high school was under a punishment. They all has to stay 7.5 more minutes in the classroom during the 15 minutes break, only two students were allowed to go out (Javiera and Nicolas), I said OK, no problem. When I went to the classroom to meet the students I asked them why were they under a punishment? They told me that it was because “somebody” had did something nasty to a classmate (Javiera), I asked what was that nasty thing and two girls told me that someone had filled Javiera’s backpack with spitting and wet toilet paper. I was amazed and I asked who was or were that persons… they told me: nobody knows…so the whole class is under a punishment except for Javiera and Nicolas.

After I heard all this I started to think and I realized this class is a class that apparently gets on very well, but there are always some situations in which the students work as a group to harm some weak classmate. These students protect each other, so the guilty ones are never found. They always do this, but I thought that it wasn’t so serious. This class has a new head teacher and she doesn’t know them very well so it’s difficult for everyone to find out what is happening to them this year.

This case made me reflect on the fact that it is very important to know very well the students, their personalities and if they are good or bad leaders in the class since nowadays bulling is present almost everywhere and we as teachers must be aware of this problem.

David Trumbull Weekly Activities.

8th Grade

Date of the lesson: May 25th, 2010.

The activities done this week included a reading activity about a Chilean Celebration in which they must extract information from the text using different techniques like: predicting, deducing and extracting general and specific information from the reading. The connectors and, because and or were taught to the students and they had to do some exercises to practice the use of these connectors. In this lesson the students also practiced a dialog in order to improve their pronunciation.

1st Grade of High School

Date of the lessons: May 25th – 26th, 2010.

This week the students prepared a dialog about being a good citizen putting into practice the simple past and the past continuous tenses. This dialog was first delivered as a written task in order to check the grammar and eloquence of the dialog. I check their dialogs and I gave them back to the students the next day for them to correct the mistakes and present their dialogs orally next Tuesday. After having delivered their dialogs they did a listening activity which included some pre, while and post listening exercises. Then I introduced to them the use of the conjunctions so and because and they did some exercises I created for them in order to check their understanding. Finally they worked on their workbooks doing activities about the use of so and because.

Reunion de Profesores

Nombre del Establecimiento Educacional: Colegio Presbiteriano David Trumbull
Profesor en Práctica: Deisy Pérez Valderas.
Fecha: 13 – Mayo - 2010
Hora de inicio: 17:15
Hora de término: 19:03
Tabla de la reunión: Ninguna.


Para este consejo de profesores no se expuso ninguna tabla o tema principal para comenzar la reunión. El consejo se realizo en la sala del 5° año básico en donde las mesas estaban organizadas de manera que formaran un gran cuadrado, la cita a esta junta era a las 17:00 pero se comenzó a las 17:15 hrs. debido al retraso de algunos profesores. A medida que los docentes iban llegando sacaban una tasa y se servían té o café con un pan. Cuando hubieron suficientes profesores para comenzar la reunión la directora, que es la encargada de dirigir la junta, la comenzó leyendo un pasaje del evangelio y pidiendo al resto de los profesores que oraran por uno de los docentes que estaba teniendo problemas familiares, luego una de las profesoras hizo una oración y la reunión comenzó. Lo primero fue leer el acta de la reunión anterior, la directora leyó la fecha, hora de inicio y termino, profesores que asistieron, los temas que se trataron y los acuerdos a los que llegaron. Una vez terminada dicha lectura la directora prosiguió a pedirles a los profesores que voten para aprobar o desaprobar el acta anterior. A lo que los profesores, levantando la mano, decidieron aprobar dicha acta. Los inspectores, que se encontraban sentados al costado de la Directora, iban tomando nota de todo lo que se decía en el consejo.
Después de haber dado término a la lectura y aprobación del acta anterior la Directora dio comienzo al consejo de profesores diciendo: bien 5° básico Miss. Por favor, y la profesora jefe de dicho curso comenzó a exponer los casos respectivos a este mismo. Lo primero fue mencionar al alumno Puyol, al cual en el consejo anterior se determino enviar a tratamiento psiquiátrico y suspender la matricula para el año siguiente. Se les informo de esta situación a todos los profesores y se hizo hincapié en que no deben decirle al alumno que no estará en el colegio el próximo año, además se les dijo que el psicólogo había dejado instrucciones de cómo se debe tratar a este alumno, instrucciones que cada uno de los docentes debía seguir. Luego se continuó con el 6° básico en donde se planteo un caso especifico en donde se le había escrito una grosería a un alumno en un trozo de papel, los inspectores contaron lo sucedido y nombraron a los implicados, que son tres alumnas, de las cuales ninguna quiere aceptar la total culpabilidad del hecho. En esta situación los profesores votaron y se acordó que se debe citar a los apoderados antes de tomar cualquier medida en el asunto y que se debe estar atento a el comportamiento de esas tres alumnas ya que son líderes negativos dentro del curso.
Los docentes en su conjunto reflexionan en que en general hay un nivel de agresividad más alto en los últimos 15 días, y que van a tratar este tema con el psicólogo. Se menciona también que este tema de la agresividad del alumnado se viene tratando desde el año pasado.
Se da paso luego al 7° año básico en donde se habla también de una situación en particular que ocurrió a la hora de almuerzo con un grupo de alumnas que “jugaban” a empujar a otra: Victoria Palomeé, alumna con pre-condicionalidad y con problemas de conducta y poca aceptación dentro del curso, se menciona que esta es una alumna con mucho problema emocional, debido a que es una niña rechazada dentro de su curso y que ella, para llamar la atención, hace muchas cosas que le causan problemas como hacerse heridas en las muñecas con la regla, se dice también que la apoderada de esta alumna es también una mujer muy inestable emocionalmente y que no está bien, quiere llevarse a su hija del colegio y piensa que se quiere suicidar, la hija está muy preocupada por su madre y no sabe porque dice esas cosas de ella. Los profesores votan por mantener o bajar la pre- condicionalidad de la alumna. Votación que resulta en la mantención de dicha condición con 9 votos. Se mencionan dos casos más de este curso en donde se acuerda que ambos alumnos deben seguir con la carta de compromiso y sumar un registro diario.
Se continúa ahora con el 2° medio A en donde se tratan tres casos: uno de un alumno que esta condicional y que no está cumpliendo con las reglas del uso del uniforme del colegio a lo que se acuerda mantener la condicionalidad y sumar una carta de compromiso. El otro alumno mencionado posee una carta de compromiso, pero debido al buen comportamiento y avance que ha mostrado los profesores votan y acuerdan quitarle la medida disciplinaria. Y el tercero, un alumno con pre-condicionalidad que hace un mes tuvo una riña en el colegio, pero que antes y después de ese incidente ha tenido un comportamiento excelente, los profesores votan para rebajar o mantener la medida disciplinaria, a lo que después de una larga discusión, se acuerda mantener la pre-condicionalidad hasta el próximo consejo (15 días mas).
La directora menciona luego que ya es muy tarde y que no alcanzaran a terminar el consejo, y menciona que se realizará un consejo especial en la mañana durante la semana para el 2° medio B, y se les recuerda también a los profesores que las parejas que pololean en el establecimiento no deben besarse dentro de este mismo, que eso no esta permitido y que se les debe llamar la atención si los ven muy efusivos haciendo hincapié en el respeto que deben tenerse el uno al otro.
Se acuerda hacer una reunión con las parejas que oficialmente pololean en donde se incluirá al psicólogo.
Se da por terminado el consejo con una oración hecha por la directora.
Este consejo me dejó impresiones positivas, el ambiente de la reunión fue muy acogedor y además fue un consejo muy ordenado, ya que la directora daba paso a cada tema y concedía la palabra a quienes se lo pedían y cuando ella lo requería, en ningún momento se formo un ambiente incomodo o de discusión, por el contrario, ellos parecen llevarse todos muy bien, me hicieron sentir muy cómoda en el consejo. Creo que el único problema es que al parecer, nunca alcanzan a terminar los consejos, por lo que deben terminarlos en la próxima sesión y así sucesivamente.

Students' Day

The students' day was celebrated in the school on May 11th, 2010. I was invited and I had the opportunity to participate in the activities with the students, it was very funny.

The day started as following: in the morning the head of the school wished a happy studnts' day to all the puils, then they went to their classrooms and had a little cocktail, after that they all (teachers and pupils) went to the court since the activities for celebrating this day were about to start. The first activity consisted on a song sang by some teacher dedicated to the students, the song was a reggaeton but teachers changed the lyric, so it was very interesting and funny. When that activity finished, the David Trumbull's Awards began, there were a wide variety of categories separated by secondary and high school. Some of the categories were: Premio al mejor vocabulario, el/la mas poncio(a), el/la mas fashion and so on.
Then started the activities that were programmed by the students for the students, like dancing, yincana, el metro cuadrado, etc.
The award for the class that obtained the highest score was that they were allowed to go to school wearing "normal" clothe not uniform for one day.

The activities were very funny and we all had a great time. I felt very comfortable and happy to be there participating with the community of the school.

Here are some pictures of the event for you to have a look. Enjoy them!!!

Team Teaching Stage

Name of the student: Deisy Perez Valderas
Name of the School: Colegio Presbiteriano David Trumbull
Date: May 4th, 2010

Task 1: Collaboration Activities

In my first collaboration activity I was asked to guide the students on a writing task. The teacher told the students they must create sentences using the simple present and simple present continuous. The activity lasted around 20 minutes and I had to go around the students seats answering their questions and doubts regarding the sentences they were creating. There were a lot of questions and almost all of them started asking me for help. Miss Erika had previously explained the use of these two tenses before they start doing the task that was assigned by her. They were very motivated creating the sentences because they found the simple present continuous tense very easy and funny, since they could describe what they were doing at that moment. All the pupils finished the task successfully and they make some comments to me like “Miss usted es seca para explicar”, “Miss usted siempre nos va a ayudar?”… comments that made me feel good and confident because their reaction towards my help was positive.
During the last lesson I was helping my guide teacher I was asked to help the students to create a dialog they must present orally to Miss Erika. I was asked to help them to correct grammar and also pronunciation, so I went through the classroom helping the students and asking them to read their dialogs to me in order to help them with the pronunciation. They create their dialogs very quickly and then they started to practice and memorize them for their oral presentation programmed for the next class.
During this professional practicum all the activities I have been asked to do have been related to check exercises or clarify doubts, I have not been asked to prepare any special material of any kind since my guide teacher do her classes based only on the American Adventures book.

Task 2: Lesson Planning

For the 1st year of high school I got the necessary information for preparing the lesson planning from the American Adventures book the students use for the English classes, the Planes y Programas para Ingles 1° medio and from the planning my guide teacher must do for the whole semester. I combined these three sources and I did my own Unit plan and lesson planning. I also asked Miss Erika how should I do the planning and she showed me her own lesson planning for me to have an idea. For the 8th grade of secondary school I used the same resources but instead of using the American Adventures book I used the Travelers. The format the school uses for planning is almost the same we use at University so; I did not have much problems on this task. When Miss Erika knew the planning format for the lesson plan was almost the same she told me to do my own planning alone and then she will check and correct them if there were something to correct. After I did all my planning I sent them to her and she congratulated me for my job she said they were very good.
The first Unit Plan and lesson plan I had to do take me a long time, around two hours each, but after I finished those, it was easier to do the next ones. Now, preparing a lesson plan take me around 30 and 40 minutes each.

Observation Stage

Observation Stage

Task 1: The school and Learning environment

Name of the student: Deisy Perez Valderas
Name of the school: Colegio Presbiteriano David Trumbull.
Number of students: 34.
Class: 1st grade of high school.
Date: April 20th, 2010.

This report is an observation of the 1st grade of high school only, since I have 5 of the six hours of English classes required for this subject with them.

The School:

Colegio Presbiteriano David Trumbull is located in Guillermo Rivera 440 Cerro Yungay, Valparaiso. It was founded in 1869 by Dr. David Trumbull. This school has a strong link to the Protestantism’s origins in our country which arrived through Presbyterianism by Reverend David Trumbull. This School is oriented to educate students with intellectual and spiritual values imparting solid Christian values in the students’ minds and hearts.
David Trumbull is a scientific-humanistic school that possesses a great variety of workshops like music, art, science, computation. It is a full-time school that has comfortable facilities. It possesses a building for primary school and a different one located in front of this one for the high school pupils, it has classrooms; laboratories; a court and a canteen, plus all the basic facilities a school must have.
The organization of the school is the following: it is directed by a general administrator Mr. Ricardo Vasquez Ulloa together with the headmaster of the school Mrs. Cecilia Covarrubias Urbano and the rest of the school’s staff: General inspectors, the technical pedagogy department, teachers, psychologists, counselor, a chaplain, school council, parents’ general center and cleaning staff.
The behavioral polices are very clear in this school and are based on respecting each other. This school has a very particular way of controlling its students. The ones that are known for their non appropriate behavior have a weekly behavioral sheet in which the teachers write their behavior during the different classes, and at the end of the week it is decided (based on the writing notes the students got) which punishment they deserve.

The Classroom:

There are four rows in the classroom and students are seated in pairs, some are formed by two girls or two boys and others are mixed. The classroom space is enough for holding the class; it is not too big nor too small, it is well illuminated and it is fresh. It counts with a large blackboard and a whiteboard located above the black one, it also has a desk for the teacher, a bulletin board, a locker, a basket, a radio and a clothes hanger.
The atmosphere of the room is okay; the students are very good at making noise but it is possible for the teacher to give the lesson. They seem to get on very well and swear words are not used among them at least within the classroom, something for me it is not very common nowadays. The teacher tries to motivate the pupils in order to get them involved in the lesson, which is a bit difficult for the teacher to achieve at first. Once Mrs. Erika (English teacher) starts the lesson most of the students pay attention to her but they do not seem to be very motivated by it, anyway they carry the activities out as it should be.
The activities and Resources:
The school counts with radios, computer labs, library, dictionaries, data shows and all the necessary thing for giving a good lesson, but Mrs. Erika uses only the book the students must buy for this subject which is called American Adventures. This book contains activities that include all the skill the students are supposed to learn in order to learn English and a workbook at the end of the same book for practicing. During this lesson the teacher works with the workbook since they are revising all what they have seen till that moment because next class a test is programmed. The aim of the class is to practice the vocabulary and grammar learnt throughout the unit and the teacher together with the students check the exercises that appear in the workbook. Once the students are told the lesson will be a review for the test they start to participate more and seem to be more motivated. The activities on the workbook for this lesson consist on fill in the gap, matching, writing questions, complete sentences with the correct forms of verbs and complete dialogs. The teacher gives them the activity they must do and then they check the answers in the board or orally. Finally Mrs. Erika asks them if they still have any doubts to what some pupils answer “yes” so she explain the doubt again for the whole class and the lesson finishes.

Task 2: Students’ Learning
In general, the students of this class are motivated with the subject, most of them perform the activities the teacher gives them. Among the different classes my guide teacher has, she says this one is cool, since the command of English some students have is very good. The class is not given totally in English, but the teacher tries to talk as much as she can in this language, asking always the students if they understood or not. She is always worried of giving clear instructions, so she explains in Spanish if it is necessary.
It is difficult for her to keep them quiet during the lesson so sometimes she must repeat the topics for them to understand. But most of the students, once the lesson starts, begin to participate in it. Despite the fact that the majority of the class has a level of engagement in this subject and they do the activities given by the teacher, they know they must do the activities given; otherwise they will be punished with an observation in the class book. This is one of the ways Mrs. Erika uses for having her students involved with the lesson since it seems to be the only way to keep some of the pupils (specially the one who have behavioral problems) working. Mrs. Erika is a teacher that never does the work for her students and since they are not used to any teacher do it for them, so from my point of view they do contribute to their learning process maybe not as it is expected to be but at least they are not against to the process.
Mrs. Erika has a very “classic” style of giving lessons, she has everything already planned and she does not uses any technological resource for her lessons anyways, she tries to motivate the students following the instructions the students’ book “American Adventures” has that is to say, introducing the topic, asking them questions and telling them the aims of the unit or activity for the lesson. The students are used to her method and do not claim for a different one, since they say they do not think the classes are bored but difficult because the teacher makes them the listening, speaking writing and reading activities that appear on the book.
The command of English they have is better from the one other students from other schools I have been to have. At least they understand more than just the basic instructions and they are able to speak a little bit.