I have been teaching secondary school for many years, but this experience taught me a lot. The aims of this teaching period were quite challenging as I had limited time but was asked to cover a wide range of topics, finish a novel, and contextualize new topics. I had to find ways to introduce new elements like ICT and articulate my teaching with the course teacher. While students participated, some preferred doing activities without class involvement. Overall it was a constructive experience that confirmed teaching is my vocation, though there were challenges in managing student fatigue and motivation towards the end of the year.

1. I have been teaching in secondary school for many years now therefore this was not new for
me however I learned a lot of this group. As I said before teaching is a life time path.
 THINKINGBACK:I feel thisperiodgave me the opportunity to improve some teaching
strategies because I was very focused on my lesson plans and the subject content
trying to articulate theory (approaches) and practice.
The aim(s) of this stage was/were quite challenging because I disposed of a limited
amount of time and the class teacher demanded me a wide range of topics to
complete.Firstlearnersneededtofinishworkingwiththeircourse bookandthere was
missing a whole unit. Secondly they needed to finish a novel called “Four weddings
and a Funeral” and they also needed the contextualization of every new topic that
emergedinthe lastchapters.Thisperiodalsorequiredme tofindthe movie and bring
my own DVD and TV to the school for them to watch it because the school did not
dispose of those resources. Lastlythe teacher asked me to review the last three units
from the book through an assignment because she needed to take them the final
exam.WhatI learnedof this experience?Ilearned that every student is different and
requires a different teaching strategy. There were times in the class that I was so
focused in completing my lesson plan and the video that was recording me that I
forgotsome essential teaching techniques such as walking around the class checking
for comprehension. This is something that I always do but somehow I forgot to do it
and some students really needed my advice.
 THINKINGFORWARD:I believethere are some thingsthatIwouldhave done different.
For example, walking around the class checking for comprehension, after giving the
instructionaskindividually if theyhave understood, give more use to the “Classroom”
ICT site. This is a web site I created with my students to give them a questionnaire in
order to help them working with the novel. I also introduce the use of “Word Cloud”
an app for cellphones to create their own word clouds after a brainstorm of ideas or
videos or whatever they could use to learn new lexis. But the application and use of
these tools was very limited, I needed more time.
It was the end of the year and students were a bit tired and demotivated therefore I
could have used more games and interactive activities for them to increase their
participationinclass.Broadly speakingtheyparticipatedalot nonetheless there were
a few students that preferred doing the activities without involved in the class
dynamic.
 THINKING INWARDS: I feel this was a constructive experience for me. There were
challenges,therewasalot of workto do, I had to reada lot (the complete course book
and a novel),there wasthe needfor introducing new elements such as ICT and it was
new for me. I also have to find the way of articulate my way of working with the
course´steacherto give the students a sense of continuity. This period was very near
to the endof the yearso learnerswere tired whichdemandedme an enormous job to
bring them back to the class work and participate of the activities because some of
them have no chances to approve the subject and they already knew that they were
going to have to sit for an extra exam in December. In addition working with
adolescentsrequire andextradose of patience and love for our profession. They also
nurturedme withtheirenergy,theirideas(some of the crazy) and demands. I confirm
once again that thisismy vocation.Beingable toworkwithyounglearners,childrenin
primarylevel andadolescentswasanextraordinaryexperience andIfeel veryregretful
of have been able to do it.