Valentina Monge felt fear and anxiety on her first day teaching 6th grade, but those feelings disappeared after she began teaching lessons. She found students' behavior and lack of attention to be her biggest challenge, which she attributes to the complex changes of adolescence. To engage students, she planned entertaining activities with her pedagogical partner. Students enjoyed activities involving videos, songs, and laptops the most and showed commitment to interactive and creative activities. Valentina received helpful feedback from observing teachers after lessons that helped her improve her teaching, and working with a pedagogical partner and mentor teacher made her feel supported throughout the practicum experience.

1. Valentina Monge
Final reflection about my practicum
Feelings of fear, anxiety, uncertainty and nervousness were constantly present in my
first day teaching 6th
grade at School Nº4. The fact that I had never stood in front of a
whole class was what scared me most. Fortunately, after some lessons teaching, such
feelings disappeared and I could start enjoying the experience. I think that the greatest
obstacle/challenge that I had to overcome during my practicum was students’ behavior and
lack of attention, which in my opinion is directly linked with the fact that they are about to
start the secondary school, experiencing complex changes as regards their feelings,
thoughts and behaviour that usually characterize adolescence. Taking that into account, my
pedagogical partner and I tried to plan entertaining activities so as to engage and motivate
them to learn English Language. Although not all lessons were as engaging as we wished, I
think that students really enjoyed our practicum, since they always told us how pleased they
felt with our presence in their classroom.
The activities that students enjoyed most, and so motivated them most, were those
related to videos, songs and the use of the laptops. They always showed a truly committed
attitude with activities involving their interaction as well as creativity.
The classes that I liked most where the one in which we work with videos related to
Children’s rights and also the last one, which was rather different since students seem very
interested playing a game in a rather relaxing atmosphere.
I would totally recommend the possibility to work with a pedagogical partner since
it is very helpful and it makes you feel supported all the time. Although the practicum
required a lot of extra time planning activities, I found working with Ana Morán
completely positive because we were able to help each other every time we needed it,
monitoring children as well as complementing our jobs outside the classrooms. Moreover,
our mentor teacher’s constant assistance (in and outside the classroom) helped me to
improve self-assurance and confidence as I felt totally supported and comfortable with
Romina’s guidance.
Furthermore, every time I knew I was going to be observed I felt nervous, but after
some minutes teaching the lesson I forgot about the teachers observing me, which made me

2. Valentina Monge
feel relaxed so as to enjoy the lesson. Also, the conferences with the teachers after each
class allowed me to improve my weakest points when teaching. For example, they
mentioned the fact that I sometimes did not listen to students standing at the back of the
classroom, which helped me to start paying attention to them. Every comment and
suggestion they gave us were totally useful to improve my stance as a future teacher. I felt
accompanied by them during the whole practicum and the feedback they send us after each
lesson helped me a lot to realize the things that I needed to improve as well as the positive
aspects of my practicum.
As regards the office hours, I can say that they were useful as well, since the
teachers could provide us with many ideas that help us to plan the activities, taking into
account the fact that the mentor teacher was not accustomed to using a textbook.
Finally, after finishing my practicum experience at School Nº4, feelings of
gratification, joy and relief made me realize how challenging as well as rewarding this
experience was.