GOODBYE!!!

It's the moment to say goodbye. I hope with this diary I can show what we have done during the lessons, what I have learnt and my opinion of each lesson.

Mainly, I have learnt more about how to be a great English teacher, and I think these knowledges are going to be pretty useful to me as a teacher.

But now, I am very nervous about my training period...So, please, WISH ME LUCK!

LESSON 26 - 29/10/2015

LESSON 26

Brief description about the class

This exposition was mainly focused in "Halloween". 

This presentation has had a lot of activities like: show a picture and repeat vocabulary related with Halloween e.g: Witch, vampire, pumpkin...;give a mask of a skeleton, a witch... in a paper and we have to cut it; go to the gym with the masks and the teacher says e.g: GHOST! and people who has the mask of a ghost have to catch the other classmates... 

What I've learnt

In this class, I have learnt mainly how we can use other spaces like the gym, to develope English activities. 

My personal opinion

It has been a great presentation. I have enjoyed a lot with my partners playing with them like children. 

LESSON 25 - 28/10/2015

LESSON 25

Brief description about the class

In this class, two groups have explained their presentations.

The first one has been about "Writting". They have talked about this skill, its characteristics, that it is not always easy to teach, the process of writting, types of activities which contains this skill...Also, they have proposed lots of activities like: seeing a picture and write sentences about what we can think about it, and with all of these phrases "make" a book, dance and sing a song... They have made a funny class pet which is a Pumpkin. The main topic of this presentation has been Halloween. 

The second one has been such an interesting presentation about "Resources". This group has divided the class into corners where people went and did some activity. These corners were: Tales and drama corners, music corner (where we have sung a song), games corner (where we have played a computer game), authentic material corner (where we have been able to see some material related to London)....

What I've learnt

I have found both presentations very useful. I had no idea about the methodology used in Pre-primary education, so I have learnt about this presentation. 

They have given me some ideas to create new activities, and they have shown in a correctly and funny way how a pre-primary class is. I have never learnt anything about learning corners, and I have found this information very useful to me. 

My personal opinion

Both presentations have been great, but I want to highlight pre-primary presentation. They have used a lot of resources, a lot of creative ideas, lots of lovely material...

Definitely, I love this presentation and I have enjoyed like a pre-primary education child.

LESSON 24 - 27/10/2015

LESSON 24

Brief description about the class

Today, my group "London Eye" has explained our presentation "Topic-Based Work". We have explained the theory, the characteristics of this method, the reasons for use it in class, the steps to follow to apply it correctly...But we have focused mainly in the activities. 

Our activities were focused mainly to teach the verb can/can't and vocabulary related to habilities (ride a horse, play the guitar, speak english, play the piano...)

Our activities consisted in: introduce our class pet called Doggy, and use it to tell a story to the children; introduce new vocabulary through flashcards, and, by last we have done a parcheesi. 

In this parcheesi, children had to roll the dice and move their tab. Each parcheesi box included one activity, and each group of children had to do them. This parcheesi had too many activities like: say a sentence using can/can't, in pairs imitate what your partner is doing, listen a song and dance it, a game like the Spanish game "Teléfono escacharrado"...

After our presentation, we have listened the Pre-Primary presentation. Thay had introduce how we can teach routines to our pupils. They have done some interesting activities like a Bingo, a story about circles and a square...

What I've learnt

In this class I have learnt more about how to be a real teacher, because it has been a presentation where we have to played the role of a teacher.

This type of presentation gives me more security as a teacher, because I am teaching new vocabulary and grammar in front of "our pupils", in that case, our classmates. 

My personal opinion

With this experience, I reaffirm that the easiest way to teach children is using funny games or playing with it. In these cases, children are learning while they are enjoying.

I have enjoyed a lot with our presentation and Pre-primary presentation too. I hope we can give some interesting ideas to our classmates.

Now, I show you a picture taken during our presentation, and our presentation too.

LESSON 23 - 22/10/2015

LESSON 23

Brief description about the class

Our classmates groups explained two different themes. The Primary Education Group exposed "Reading". In this presentation, they talked about its characteristics, pros and cons, and they proposed some activities. 

One of their activities consisted in: some of us had to read and play a comic, each person played the role of one character. Another activity consisted in a true/false activity, related with the last story.

What I've learnt

In this class, I have learnt more about reading, how we can use with our children, its characteristics, its pros and cons...And, above all, how we can use reading in a motivating way.

For example, I find very interesting to use some tools like storytelling or comics (like the group has used in their activity) in order to children read. Reading can be boring to our children, and using this resources we can improve this skill in our pupils.

My personal opinion

In my opinion, this class has been very useful because they have given us pretty interesting ideas to introduce reading in our class. 

Instead of the classical class where children are reading a text which is written in the book, we can use storytelling or comics, with famous characters, and makes reading more interesting and funny.

We can use resources like:

COMIC

LESSON 22 - 21/10/2015

LESSON 22: GO ON A TOUR

We couldn't assist to this class because our class were on a tour.

This wednesday we have been visiting Cuenca, with the arts professor. We have visited some monuments like "The Contemporary Art Museum" (where two people have explained us some pictures and how they work with children in this museum), the "Antonio Pérez Foundation" and "The Enchanted City".

Despite of losing our classes at the university, I think it has been a pretty interesting tour, where we have seen lots of interesting things that the most of us have never seen. 

I have never been before in Cuenca, and I have enjoyed a lot visiting it.

Here, I put some pictures I have taken there.

LESSON 21 - 20/10/2015

LESSON 21

Brief description about the class

In this class, the presentations have begun. We have attended two different presentations. 

The first one has been about "The young language learners". Our partners have exposed many things related to this theme (characteristics, advises, attitudes, arrengement of the desks...), and they have done some activities, like listen a song and use flashcards to repeat the animals sounds, watch a video about what people do during the week and complete sentences related to it...

The second one has been about "How children learn a language in Pre-Primary education". They have talked about many things like factors that influence in the acquisition of a foreign language...

What I' ve learnt

With both expositions, I have learnt lots of things, mainly that it is pretty important to teach a foreign language since Pre-Primary education and young learners.

I have learnt more about children who are between 5 to 10 years. For example, with children who are between 5 to 7 can use logical reasoning, physical world is dominant at all times...Children who are between 8 to 10 can work with others and learn from others, ask questions all the time...

As teachers, we have to know that teaching in a funny way improves that children learn easier. So, it is useful to have a lot of resources like games, songs...to use in our classes. Probably, using those tools, children want, little by little, learn more about languages.

My personal opinion

I think that in these classes, we learn a lot, because our classmates explain us some interesting themes in order to know more things about English or foreign languages and how to teach them. We can take ideas related with the activities they do to apply them in our future as teachers.

Also, I think that our classmates presentations are more motivating than the professor explanations. 

I want to highlight that I have found very interesting what Pre-Primary group have used: A person who was dressed up of Sullivan (Monsters S.A). It is very interesting and motivating to children.