- The document summarizes observations from a teacher trainee's 6 practice teaching sessions with a beginner level group of 5-year-olds. - It describes the daily routines, activities done like songs and games, and the children's engagement and behavior. - The trainee reflected on improving time management, attention to students, and ending classes calmly based on feedback.

1. TALLER DE PRACTICA DOCENTE 2016.
 Trainee’s name: Mayra Belen Ginter.
 Practicum level: Beginners.
 Group: Sala Roja. 5 years old kids.
 Date: May 2nd and 3rd, 2016
Observation day 1:
Daily routine.
Students line up in their regular classroom and go in order with the teacher to the English class.
While doing so, they all sing a song:
T: Hello children!
S: Hello Magui!
T: How are you?
S: we are good!
They sit down in a circle on the floor. After organizing the children, the teacher puts the ‘Good
Morning Song’. While they are singing, they represent what the song says: to make circles with
their hands, to walk one way and then the other way and finally, to clap their hands. Then, the
children sing a song about the days of the week and they use body language to represent them.
After doing so, the teacher asks them ‘What day is today?’ and ‘What is the weather like today’.
After they answer ‘Today is Monday, it is a sunny day’, the teacher asks two students to go to the
front and change the day and the weather in two charts they have on their board.
Picture taken the 2nd
day.
The class goes on organized and in a relaxing environment. The teacher puts a picture on the
board with people wearing winter clothes in a snowy day. She asks them to come one by one
and find different things on the picture: ‘Find a blue hat, find a green scarf, find pink boots’ and
so forth.

2. Later, the children listen to the story ‘The snowman’. During the listening, the teacher stops
the CD to asks some questions like: ‘What is the weather like in the story?’ The children answer
the questions, most of them without having any problems.
After working with the story, the children listen to and sing a weather song called ‘I’m cold’.
The children dance while singing. The teacher stops the song in some specific parts in order to
ask students what clothes the singer is putting on. Most of them answer without having any
problems.
The teacher takes some flashcards with clothes vocabulary. The children answer her questions:
T: What is it?
S: It is a red scarf.
T: What is it?
S: It is a pink coat.
The children say a goodbye poem they are still learning, line up and go to their regular class
with the teacher singing:
T: Goodbye children!
S: Goodbye Magui!
T: See you tomorrow!
S: See you tomorrow!
Observation day 2:
Daily routine: they sing the regular ‘Hello song’ but then they start learning a new one the
teacher says they are going to practice from now on. They also add a ‘Weather song’ at the
end of the routine.
The children play a game using flash cards with clothes. The flashcards have a clip on their back
and the children have to fish them with a magnet that is tied to a thread. Once they fish the
card they have to say what it is and what colour it is.

3. The children listen to and sing the song ‘I’m cold’. The children dance while singing. The
teacher stops the song in some specific parts in order to ask students what clothes the singer is
putting on. Most of them answer without having any problems.

4. The teacher takes some flashcards with clothes vocabulary. The children answer her questions:
T: What is it?
S: It is a green hat.
T: What are they?
S: They are yellow gloves.
The children say a goodbye poem they are still learning, line up and go to their regular class
with the teacher singing:
T: Goodbye children!
S: Goodbye Magui!
T: See you tomorrow!
S: See you tomorrow!
First class: May 9th.
The first class was crazy! I was nervous because little kids are brutally honest with people.
What would it happen if they didn’t like me or my activities? And if they misbehaved? I just
breathed and went to look for them. They were very excited with the idea of working with me.
We explained it to them I was going to be with them a few classes so they don’t panic or
something like that. They really like their English teacher, they trust her so they needed to
know she was ok and that she was going to be there just watching us. To my surprise they
didn’t pay attention to her and they were always looking at me.
It was kind of weird for me the fact that they were all the time touching and hugging me. I
asked them to make a circle and as soon as I sat down, a little girl called Renata, sat down on
my legs! We were doing the warm up and she just looked at me and told me: ‘que bonita miss
sos’. There was another boy called Leandro, who is kind of the trouble kid and he just sat down
next to me and put his head on my legs. Once I stood up they hugged me and took me by my
clothes. Some of them asked me to tie up their shoes, always being really close to me. By the
end of the class I was as sweaty as if I had been doing some exercise at the gym. Disgusting, I
know, but working with little ones is harder than what I thought!
Second class: May 10th.
At the beginning of the second day I felt more self confident about my being and working with
them. Anyway, I was nervous because I forgot to do the last part of the routine where they say
the day and the weather. I was really excited about the activity I was going to do and I guess
that because of that I just forgot that part. Once I realized that, it was too late to do it. I had
some problems with the tape recorder because it’s very old and it changes the tracks
whenever it wants so I guess I need to ask one for next class.
Again they were always touching me and telling me nice things. I guess I need to get used to
this haha.
The activity went well even though some of the kids were doing everything except paying me
attention. It’s really hard to keep all of them interested in what you are doing and when I want
to tell them off like I would do with my regular class, you have to remember they are kids and
that there are other ways to talk to them. Definitely this is a challenge for me.
Third class: May 16th
Today was completely different. I had feedback last week from my local observer which was
really helpful. She gave me clear examples of some classroom situations that of course,
between the excitement and my nervousness I didn’t notice. For example, time management. I
was always in a rush by the end of the class because I didn’t remember that it just takes 30
minutes. So this time, even though my planning has the complete routine, I cut it. We did the
activity and we finished it. I just had 2 fast finishers from 19 students so I gave them some

5. books they like watching. They just had to wait for 2 minutes before we finished and closed
the activity all together.
On the other hand, last week we spoke about the attention I pay to the kids. My local observer
told me I was always listening and answering and that was great! but sometimes we have to go
on with the activity and tell them I will listen or answer once we finish so they don’t cut my
activity in the middle.
Moreover, in the closure time, she told me we should relax and calm down so when the kids
go back to their class, it is not so hard to start working with the other teacher.
I tried to take those things into account today and I guess it worked because we did the activity
successfully and we had time to listen to each other without interrupting what we were doing.
Fourth class: May 17th
I arrived earlier than normally today. I just wanted to be sure that the game I was going to
present was set up properly. Luckily, the floating teacher helped me. I went to the gym to look
for the rings and it was closed. the physical education teacher was ill so he didn’t go to school.
He told me the day before he was going to give me the rings that morning but he wasn’t there.
I didn’t waste my time and I soon as I saw the tables the kids have I had an idea. Instead of
using the rings I prepared everything with a table so the kids had to pass under it. Sometimes
you can’t do what you plan and I guess that being able to pull a rabbit out of the hat is part of
our job.

6. When the kids went inside the class they made a circle in another corner, not the one they
always use. They were looking around trying to guess what was going on. We sang the ‘Hello’
song and check the weather. We thought about the clothes we put on on days like today and
we started the game.
They liked it and they wanted to go on playing. They found the part where I showed them
what to do funny. I guess it was because they are not used to see teachers crawling under a
table. It was also funny the fact that they were wearing my clothes so they looked as if they
were wearing baggy clothing.
We had time for the ‘vuelta a la calma’ as the head teacher suggested me and I felt
comfortable with what I was doing.
Fifth class: May 19th
Today was great! The kids listened to me and they did the activity with energy. At the
beginning it was hard to make them understand the fact that we were going to play a game
which was different from the one we played the previous class. They really wanted to play the
game from the fourth class, but once they understood this game they were really excited
about it. I finally understood that once you bring an interesting and new thing, they really
listen to you. They were all looking at me and following with their eyes what I was showing. I
also took one of them and by taking his hand we showed the activity together. I feel that I have
lot of energy to work with kids. Something I hadn't realized till I started with my ‘práctica
docente’ because I’ve been working in that school for 4 years but always in 5th
grade. Maybe
next year I could try 1st
or 2nd
.

7. Sixth class: May 23rd
Last class! It was really nice today. They were playing Simon says quietly and they listened to
me all the time. It was so natural, everything flowed and they did what Simon said without any
problem. They were sad because it was my last class with them but as I work at that school in
primary I’m going to visit them. The kids were really excited about the fact that I was their
siblings´ teacher during other years. It looked like they were talking at home about me and
they realized that I had their siblings as students so they came today telling me that. It was a
good last class.