The student enjoyed a revision class the most where students practiced topics they would be tested on related to parts of the body and face. The student and pedagogical partner prepared exercises for students to solve individually and in pairs. Students showed how much they knew and were motivated to work without stopping. The class was a success and the student saw the results of previous instruction. The student also felt they had developed a good rapport with students through being strict but also respectful and authentic.

1. Final Reflection
The class I enjoyed the most was the one in which we did a revision. We had been
dealing with the topic of the parts of the body and the face for a while, and we had
to test students. So before that, my pedagogical partner and I decided to make the
students practice. We prepared some exercises similar to those we were about to
ask in the test and students had to solve them. I was amazed at how much they
knew about the topic, and how amazed and motivated they were. They did not stop
working for a minute, as the activities were challenging but at the same time
according to their level. Both Naomi and I did not stop working either. We would
walk all over the classroom, monitoring students and helping them; providing them
with some clues when they did not remember something, but not giving them full
answers, following Vygotski's idea of the ZPD.
We could also see the results of all the input we had provided our students with!
After all the classes devoted to the topic, they knew many of the pieces of
vocabulary we had taught, and they could also related to previous knowledge
(colours and numbers).
The class was a total success.
We worked with two of the four macro skills: reading and writing, and the students
did the exercises individually or in pairs. We also had some whole-class interaction
when we correct some of the activities.
I loved this class too because I could see as well how good my rapport with my
students had become. This was one of my biggest fears: how to deal with little
children. As I am the youngest child in my family, I have never had the opportunity
or the obligation to exercise authority over no one. Despite all of my doubts, and
probably struggling a bit, I came to see that the key toa good rapport lies between
being strict and being respectful and true to yourself in the classroom. You have to
be strict and let students know when you are tell them off or when you want them
to do an activity, but also, you have to let yourself be authentic in the classroom,
treating children with respect too, and saying things the best way possible.
Related to rapport too, I think one of the most difficult challenges, was that the
students stopped seeing Nadina as their teacher when we were in our Practicum.
For many classes the students only talked to her when they had a doubt or when
they wanted to ask permission to go to the bathroom. But eventually, they started
seeing us their teacher, and Nadina barely participated in the classes; we had
become their teachers in every single way, and that felt marvelous. I think that the
very first moment one starts believing in him/herself, students start believing too.
One has to do nothing but to be sure of the role and the importance that one has,
and the rest will hopefully come alone.

2. Something that amazed me, and that was also one of my doubts, was the fact that
we had to speak to our students in English all the time. Before I have ever placed a
foot on a school I used to think 'But that's impossible! Students will not understand
me. They will just stare at me with long faces and puzzled expressions!' But was
glad to discover then how wrong I was. My partner and I did our best to speak
every single class using English, and students understood us perfectly! Of course
we had to use lots of body language, lots of visual aids (flashcards) and we had to
repeat our commands lots of times, but students finally got it! And they enjoyed the
learning process as much as we did. This signals that provided the proper
scaffolding (building blocks, going from the easy tothe more difficult) students
end up understanding and then learning the language wonderfully.
All in all, I think my Practicum has been an enriching experience. Not only have I
learned about my students and children in general, but also about me, about who I
though I was as a teacher, who I am and who I want to be. I learned about my flaws
(and I will keep on that learning of course) and I learned about some of my strong
points, which I have to maintain and polish. I also learned that this profession is
time-consuming and sometimes tiring (and I was just going once a week!!) but that
it is rewarding as well, and that, I think, it is what makes it worth the effort.