Reflection on my practicum experience pérez

1. PRACTICE II, DIDACTICS OF ELT. Prof. Estela N. Braun. PRACTICALS
First term- 2017. Assistant Teachers: Vanesa Cabral, Luján Ramos, John
Brakke.
Reflection on my Practicum experience
 What was the greatest obstacle/challenge you had to overcome during
your practicum?
I believe that the greatest challenge I had to overcome was my stance as a
teacher. As there are many kids in my family, I usually have an excellent rapport
with children. Nevertheless, this time it was going to be different; I was not
going to stand as an aunt, but as a teacher. I do not want and I think I cannot
have a distant relationship with my students. Still, I consider a complex
challenge to find a balance and to be flexible but strict at the same time.
 Was there any critical incident? Can you describe it? How did you deal
with it?
Fortunately, I worked with a wonderful group. Sometimes the classroom was
very noisy but I think I could manage it very well.
However, one of the first classes did not go as fluent as I expected. When I
enter the classroom, I was about to clean the board but everyone stopped me.
I usually gave them no more than five minutes to copy the tasks of the previous
subject, but this time, all of my students were starting to copy when we all enter
the classroom after the break. Apparently, the teacher that taught them the hour
before had been copying on the board during the break, so they could copy as
soon as the break finishes, that is, in the English class.
I felt very uncomfortable in that situation. I think the other teacher was
disrespectful while doing that. There was not just a sentence; the whole board
was full of questions for them to do as homework.
So after a few minutes, I cleaned the board in order to start the English class.
Nevertheless, I felt terrible because they wanted to copy everything and the fact
that they could not do it before was not their fault.

2. The fact that I could not begin the lesson immediately made me feel quite upset.
Although I did my best I could not teach the lesson with the same energy as
always.
 What areas did you have to improve?
As it was my first teaching experience, I think that I still have to improve many
areas. The one that I had to improve the most was my stance as a teacher.
Actually, I did not know what it feels to be teaching in front of twenty students.
I cannot forget the moment when I was teaching my first class that after giving
my students instructions to do an activity I told my pedagogical partner:
-‘It feels good to be here (at the front)’. In fact, I really enjoyed it but I think that
experience is the one that will help me to feel completely confident when
teaching.
I think the practicum took a very short time and I am eager to start teaching
children again.
 Which was the class you enjoyed most? Why?
I really enjoyed most of the classes. Time went by so fast and I think it was
because I was so engaged with my class.
If I have to choose, one of the classes I enjoyed the most was the one observed
by John. It was my lesson N°7 and I taught different abilities. I think that I really
enjoyed it because I could perceive that my students were enjoying it too. I
introduced the class with the usual routine, and then, I started teaching the topic
having some oral interaction about abilities. They were all paying attention,
listening and wanting to participate and answer. Then, the activities we planned
were very motivating. They had to form sentences with the help of some images
and then they had to answer about themselves. After that, the extra activity we
prepared was a word puzzle. They were fascinated, trying to find the words,
coluring them and hurrying up to hand them in on time.
I believe it was an amazing class, full of fun and learning. I felt my rapport with
the pupils grew and got closer.
 What instances of students’ learning/motivation could you observe?
I could observe many instances of students’ learning/motivation. Every time we
showed them a video or a new activity they demonstrated how motivated they
were through the realization of activities, through participation and also, through

3. their good behavior. I could also observe many instances of learning. For
instance, when they asked me different questions about the topic I was teaching
in class, when I corrected homework at home, when I corrected the tests, when
they were curious about vocabulary and specific events, such as the last class I
taught about Usain Bolt, and so on.
 How do you assess team work with your partner? What was positive/
difficult about working with a partner? Would you recommend work with a
pedagogical partner? Why/not?
I consider that the team work with my partner was excellent.
It was positive to share opinions, ideas and fellings regarding activities,
classroom situations and students. It was also positive to work together as a
team, to divide tasks and to complement each other. As we are pretty busy with
all the subjects, maybe it was difficult to arrange meetings in order to plan the
lessons, but we could manage it very well.
Yes, I firmly recommend to work with a pedagogical partner. For being the first
time on the area of teaching, I think it is necessary to have a pedagogical
partner in order to create amazing lessons and also to share responsabilities.
As there is a lot of work to do, helping one another is important. Moreover, Aime
and I could help each other, giving constructive comments and feedback on the
lessons we taught.
 What were your feelings when you started the practicum/ when you
finished it?
When I started my practicum, my feelings were quite mixed. Mainly, anxiety,
nervousness and excitement were present. I was eager to start teaching but at
the same time I was afraid of students’ behavior and personality. I did not know
what to expect.
When I finished my practicum, I felt mainly happy because I created such an
amazing rapport with my students that they did not want me to leave. In
addition, the practicum took so much time and hard work that I was glad that
everything went fine and that my students learnt.
 How did you feel about being observed? Could you understand
comments in the feedback provided by teacher educators? What did you
think about the conference with teachers after the class?
When you told us Vanesa was going to observe us on the second class, I felt
really nervous. However, as the class went on I almost forgot she was there at
the back.

4. Yes, I could understand all the comments made in the feedback.
I considered the conference with teachers after class very useful. They told us
many positive things that motivate us to go on. Moreover, they suggested us
many constructive ideas in order to improve as a teacher.
 Were office hours any useful? Did you feel accompanied by teacher
trainers/ mentor teachers/ the school institution?
Yes, in our case, we had just one office hour that helped us to start planning our
classes.
Yes, I felt accompanied by Jorgelina, who offered us help all the time. I also felt
accompanied by the school institution, whose authorities were always available
for us, and I felt particularly accompanied by all of my teacher trainers. Although
Estela had to travel, she was present all the time through email. What is more,
the rest of the team were always available to help us all.
 Do you feel prepared to teach at primary school now?
I feel that I have many tools at hand in order to start teaching at primary school
again. I think preparation takes much more time and especially, experience.
However, my teachers transmitted me all sort of experiences and thoughts that
helped me to prepare myself. Besides, I had such an amazing experience at
school N° 25 that I would like to keep on teaching children. Children have such
an energy and willingness to participate and particularly to learn that they
motivate me to prepare wonderful lessons and to teach them with the same
energy.