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1. Reflective narrative – by Rodrigo Díaz Alcázar
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Mariano Moreno school, N°143. IPESA (Instituto Provincial de Enseñanza y
Socialización de Adolescentes)
From the first day I was told that I had to do the practicals at schools, I had a mixture of
feelings of anxiety about wanting to go out into the world of praxis and, at the same time, a
fear of going out to the world where not everything is like what they show us in books. I
spent nights and nights staring at the ceiling asking myself questions, but the one that
stopped me the most was: Is this really going to be what I want?
All was ready and beyond that in practice 1 we went to make some observations, this had
nothing to do with having to teach. I arrived at school, this was school No. 143 Mariano
Moreno. It is located in an upper-middle social class area. The school has a very neat
building. When I entered, I could see that all the classrooms or at least the majority of them
had a television to be able to work with technology, a great tool for teachers and for
children, too. I went to the teachers' room where
they kindly welcomed me and made a comment that
I did not like it so much but I that they told me this
because in a way they thought they wanted to
“help” me. "You have no idea about what course
waits for you" That was the first feedback I received
from someone that is not my mentor teacher.
We went to the classroom, teacher Magui
welcomed me and introduced me to the students
(to the first bubble of 4 because they were two
different classrooms that I had to observe).
From the beginning we built a very good rapport
with the children from each bubble. At first, they
were interested in who I was and what I was doing
there, but together with Magui we explained to
each bubble that I was a "future teacher" who was
going to be teaching classes very soon. Little by little

2. we built trust between everyone until the point that they gave me several drawings about
myself and also about the games we played during lessons about learning different
vocabularies. We started working ESI with some television cartoons without the need to say
“today we will work ESI”, which many times for them may sound boring. They found it
attractive because one of the activities has as background a famous video game called
"Fornite". At that moment I realized that everyone liked video games. So, in the second class
I also used technology, but at that time, knowing that they liked video games, I placed on
my computer wallpaper an image of the game that all boys and girls play today: Minecraft.
At the moment that all students saw the wallpaper, they responded aloud "EL PROFE JUEGA
MINECRAFT !!!!!". The objective to be able to create a good rapport was being fulfilled. The
children came to me and asked me about
the different video games and, after an
ephemeral conversation about video
games, we started the lesson and played
bingo with vocabulary that we had learned
in the previous class and with teacher
Magui.
That was one of the best classes, not only
because of the fact that I felt more
confident, but also because the students
were enjoying playing a game and they
were unconsciously learning vocabulary of
school objects, colours, the vocabulary to
ask using “Have got” and even provide
short answers. Each one was focused on seeing what object each partner was catching. One
by one they took out a flashcard from the bag and when they took it out, they looked at it
and asked aloud to the whole classroom"Have you got a ruler?", for example. And the rest
of the group answered “yes, I have” or “no, I haven’t”. There was no winner, the game
ended when all the flashcards came out so they could learn all the vocabulary. We literally
all won, they played, they learned vocabulary, and I was able to teach by making the kids
have fun. It was a pity that the last day of school was a rainy day and that most of the
students were unable to attend. I could not say goodbye to the whole class but then they
gave me a “goodbye greeting” all together through some images that the mentor teacher
Magui shared to me.
I learned a lot from her, not only about how she delivers the lessons, but also because of the
kind of person she is outside of the classroom. All the time thinking positively, trying to
control my anxiety and my nerves. The whole time she was helping me with whatever crazy
ideas I had running through my head. She was essential to be able to carry out all the

3. lessons that I wanted to make. And what should always be highlighted is that she always
said "Let's go ahead with that" positively.
“Everything is going to work” she said.
And, as much as we have had ups and
downs, in the end it worked.
The materials we used for the classes
were fantastic, I have even used
pedagogical material to catch the
attention of the students. They were
flashcards that are shown to students in
pairs and they have to guess which color
is repeated or which number (from 10 to
20) is repeated on both flashcards. Magui
also found it great to design games like this for those times when classes passed very quickly
and we had plenty of time to go to recess or to finish the day. And, in addition to using the
game to stimulate attention, we also used another game
that consisted of finding the pairs between 20 flashcards.
The cards were 10 pairs of school objects and they were
turned around with a number on their back that ranged
from 1 to 20. One day, one of the courses was absent
because there was no teacher, so we had to stay two turns
with the same course. So that the course did not get out of
hand, we designed the game to find the pairs. With the
“go-ahead” from Magui, we stuck all the cards on the
blackboard and began to play until the time was due. Once
again we use a game to be able to teach children, to bring
them happiness when learning and also to provide them with knowledge about the
vocabulary they have to learn (Numbers and school objects).
I also had the help of the Art teacher who was
available to carry out an interdisciplinary work
that consisted of the identity of the children.
Since they love to draw in class, we decided to
work on their identity through art and English.
They had to carry out an activity called "this is
me" which consisted of drawing themselves and
making a collage with images that they liked and
objects that they owned, they also had to write
sentences about themselves such as age, where
they were born, what pets they have, what
subjects do they like most in school, what do
they like to do and how many are in their family.
The activity brought beautiful and striking
results from the children. They will be used them
to decorate the school classroom.

4. But, beyond that this sounds perfect, one of these groups was not as utopian as they show
us in the books. They had a lot of energy and some may think that they have misbehavior.
Let me tell you this: children have energy, this is logical, they are children... What do
children do when they are happy? They run, they play, they stand up, they sit, they talk,
they scream, they climb on a chair, they go to the bathroom and then they go back inside
again. But, believe it or not, for many people this may be frowned upon. And I could see it
from the very beginning in the teachers’ room when they welcomed me and told me at the
same time “you have no idea the group that waits for you”; "Because you don’t have any
idea about what Juan did yesterday..."; "Because you do not have any idea about what
Nehuen did last week". I understand that many of us are tired of the pandemic, of personal
problems, of low wages, I understand that our retirement does not come soon, I understand
the noisy classrooms, the screams and "bad" behaviors of the children, but ... I would never
say that children are guilt of behaving as they behave. Is it the best course the one that sits
upright looking at front and responds to the
demand of any teacher? Is it the best group the
one that does not make noise? Is it the best
group the one that makes us feel empowered
when we yell and say shut up to them? I do not
think so. I think that the best group is the one
that is happy doing what they like best and are
not doing what the teacher wants. As we have
learned, a good teacher is the one who plans the
lessons based on what the students want and
not based on what he or she wants. And we also
learn that if kids are hyperactive, teach through
Total Physical Response. If students scream,
teach through songs, if students don't want to sit
down, teach through play, if students don't want
to pay attention, ask yourself why aren't they
paying attention? And then modify your lesson
plans. It is very easy to say "They do not pay
attention", "They do not learn", "They do not
stay calm", "They scream" or "They walk". And it
is very difficult to ask ourselves what we are
doing wrong and wonder why they don't like out lessons. I believe that in those who make
questions about their own lesson plans in order to improve them is where the real teacher
who wants to teach may be found. The teacher they need is the one who investigates what
children like and dislike and then in the next class he or she teaches using the things they
love.
I recognize that I have many things to improve, I am still an apprentice. And surely when I
have my degree and think that I know everything, the experience will always end up
teaching me. Nobody is born knowing and nobody dies with 100% of knowing. There are

5. many things that I have forgotten to implement, for example, explain a topic well in detail
before starting the activity. This has happened to me because of a matter of anxiety. I was
so anxious for the students to do this exercise that I prepared in detail in order to make
them enjoy the lesson, that sometimes I forgot to explain in detail how the exercise should
be solved. Other things that I must improve is in repeating things. Repeat the exercises to be
done, repeat the answers from the first example, ask if someone did not understand, ask if
they have doubts, and go from seat to seat to be able to check one by one their progress
through the exercise performed. Other times it has happened to me that I had no notion of
time and the class used to end suddenly or we used to have minutes left to finish the class
(In those cases we played another game). I had to choose between being committed to the
class and being aware of what time it was while we were doing the exercises. In the end, I
used my wristwatch to keep track of the times.
This year I was also fortunate to
have to teach in another context
to know reality. Being an English
teacher in a prison is a great
challenge. The only problem is the
social construction that has been
built based on the concept of a
prison and the people that are
inside it. I had only one student,
Kevin, who is 17 years old. He had
to take various levels of English in
order to finish primary school and
then high school before he was released, which would be in November. The situation was
completely different from a school where all the children are happy to go out to the
backyard to run and are waiting for the day to end to go home. Here there is no “go home”
time, here there are no classmates that you can play with, here there is no interaction with
other people. The interaction is one to one and face to face between the teacher and the
student, with a security guard who is on the other side of the classroom, watching that he
does not make any strange movements. I remember one day Kevin told me “Professor,
excuse me, I talk a lot but I don't have anyone to talk to here. I only talk with you, with other
teachers and with my psychologist.” That day, I learned that sometimes we have to stop
playing the role of teacher and we have to put ourselves in the role of a “person”. I put aside
what we were learning and started talking about ourselves. From then on, we had two
stages of conversation. The first was the warm-up and the second was a “recess”. Since he
needed to talk to another person, we did a warm-up at the beginning of 10 minutes and a
mini “recess” in the middle of the class, also of 10 minutes, where we talked about all the
topics, we talked about personal matters, our families, friends, girlfriends, we even talk
about politics, about Che Guevara that he admires so much and many times we end up
talking about boxing, which is the sport in which he wants to be professional. We built a
very good relationship and we went from "I don't like to study an oppressive language" to "I
need to learn English to succeed in international boxing." Here, there were other kinds of
games. Many things we cannot enter the place due to a matter of security. So the "games"

6. were more about imagination. We had to learn the directions to guide a person. We learned
"turn right" and "turn left" and other words using TPR.
Kevin trained boxing every day after English
classes. So I talked to the security guide and
asked him if we could train a bit during
English lesson. We take advantage of that
training and we mix it with English. Every
time he threw a boxing punch he used to said
"Derecha", "Izquierda", "Cruzado",
"Ganacho", "uppercut", "Derecho", etc. All
those names, we changed them into English
and we took advantage of the fact that a
large part of the vocabulary was within his
training. So he just had to repeat every time
he threw a punch at the punching bag.
"Right", "left", "cross", "hook", "uppercut", "straight", etc. Then in the classroom we were
able to learn the rest of the vocabulary. When he had to solve the final exam, it was very
funny to see how he solved the exercises that consisted of giving people the directions to
get to certain places in Santa Rosa. He stood up and started boxing into the classroomto
remember how each punch was said. Kevin was able to finish elementary school and was
also able to take a first three of high school exam. He was released a few days ago and we
are still in contact with any questions he may have about the English subjects he still has to
do in high school. I was very fortunate to have two totally different scenarios in the same
year of internships in schools and community practices.
I can bet that I have learned more from them than they have learned from me. They have
shown me the reality, they showed me what is the practice of being a teacher in different
contexts, they have made me open my eyes to realize if this was what I really wanted and
they have put me on the path to, in the near future, not commit the mistakes I've made
with them. I have taught them colours and they have taught me to listen to them to modify
my lessons, I taught them the names of school objects, and they taught me to realize that I
have to improve my classroommanagement, I taught them the numbers from 10 to 20 and
they taught me that the whiteboard is a fundamental tool to help them, I taught them to
use the “have got” and they taught me to realize that the lesson does not have to be a
boring monologue of explanation about grammar and, the most important, they taught me
to realize that through games all can learn. I have taught Kevin to learn about directions
through boxing and he has taught me to take off the teacher's mask and to put on the
person’s mask in order to have funny conversations. The business was perfect. Learning
from both sides.
Now, I can say that I feel a little more prepared to be able to teach in primary schools.
Beyond all the theory that we have been taught throughout the course, practice is the
greatest teaching I could receive. I learned to plan, I learned to follow a structure within

7. each lesson, within each sequence, I learned that even though we are teachers, we are
persons first. I learned to buy or create my own materials to be able to play Bingo, to be
able to relate video games to the topics that the students have to learn, such as to teach ESI
in the classroom and even to be able to carry out interdisciplinary activities where students
talk about themselves. I learned to see opportunities of learning in everyday situations like
in training boxing. And my Achilles’ heel, classroommanagement, is one of the points that I
have to improve the most and that experience has told me that this should not happen
again. I learned to communicate with all the students from day one. I learned to
differentiate that boys of 10 or 11 years of age are not the same as a boy of 17 of age, I
learned to lower my vocabulary level to bring it to the point that it is understandable for
them and that the activity can be carried out without misunderstandings. This experience is
an engine that drives me to continue fighting at university to reach the degree and the
profession I want. Being a teacher of any subject, not just English, is something awesome
that we all must find the positive side to enjoy it.