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Today was my second class. I went with more confidence and ready to give my lesson.

In the morning kids had music and gym, so they were very active and disperse; hence from time to time it was difficult for me to make them pay attention (and sometimes it was frustrating). I tried and use some of the strategies the teacher told me to use if these kinds of situations emerge, some of them worked.

What aspects of the lesson do you consider successful?

One aspect that I consider successful was the Bingo activity. Kids were playing in groups and taking in turns the cards with the food items. I went around checking that they were using English, and they were! (Apart from some comments they made in Spanish, the target lexis was said in the L2). They even helped classmates that were getting some trouble with words or finding their food matches. And some of the groups were very happy when more than one child won. At that moment, you could see how much they care for each other.

Include a photo of a moment in the lesson, or a task students did, a picture from the board or any other lesson component you would like to share, and describe it.

One of the activities was to put, according to the face of the teeth (happy or sad –you cannot see it, because kids stick the pictures on top; it was funny for them–) the food items they had been learning and the new ones they had learn today.

I think they enjoyed this activity and it was easy for them to follow the instructions. After that, they played ‘Food Bingo!’

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Today was my first lesson (my first lesson ever!); so naturally I was extremely nervous. I wanted everything to go according to plan, something that naturally didn’t happen. But, it wasn’t so terrible either.

Here are two points I wanted to work on in this journal entry:

What aspects of the lesson require change / improvement?

I noticed three things of this lesson that need improvement (I talked about them with the teacher I’m working with).

1. Transition. I noticed that the kids were getting too excited from time to time, and they started getting distracted.

One thing that the teacher told me was, to play a short game or sing a song between activities (they don’t have to match the lesson topics), this helps them disconnect a little and then they can continue with the lesson.

I need to keep in mind that this group is in school from, around 8a.m. to 4p.m., so they have a lot of school hours and in the afternoon is probably they are tire.

2. Activities’ length/development. For example, today a made an activity with a ‘magic bag’, where kids needed to touch (without seeing) a fruit or vegetable that was inside it and wait until everyone had an opportunity to touch it, before saying what was inside. Of course, they didn’t wait.

After the class, the teacher gave me some suggestions to improve it. For example, putting several fruits inside and while listening to music they pass around the bag, and when the music stops, the child with the bag has to guess one fruit that is inside.

3. Time management. The activities took longer than expected, so I couldn’t do two short routine activities they do every day (checking the weather and ‘days of the week’). I’ll try to make them next time.

Choose a quotation that represents an event, knowledge, insight in this lesson.

I chose this quotation because I think that it perfectly describes my situation. Teaching is something that excites me, but scares me a lot. As I said before, this having been my first class ever, I was terrified. And although there a lot of things to improve and work on, I feel more relax now and eager to do my second lesson.

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During this lesson I felt more confident with the kids and them with me. I enter the class while they greet me; “Hello (Miss) Ailén”.

When I arrived, they were doing some games. They were separated in four tables and each group had a game (puzzles, bricks, etc.). A song was playing at the back and when it ended kids needed to clean up their playing area and change tables. Each group had to pass one time through each game.

What I observed during this activity was that kids played together and when it was time to clean, they did it as a team.

At this moment, two teenagers from the C.A.S. program from school enter the class (they help the children and the teacher).

Then, the children grabbed a pillow and sat on the floor (in a circle). They did again the activity of; ‘spin the wheel’ and ‘days of the week’.

Afterwards, the teacher put a cloth on the floor and took some pictures (faces showing feelings). First the teacher asked the kids how they were feeling, then the kids asked each other.

Then, they did a hand game to ask how old they were. The song said something like this; “Tell me, tell me... how old are you?” They played in pairs, and then two went to the front and did it in front of the whole class.

After this, they stood up and sang the skeleton song. They review ‘bones’ (skulls, neck bone, ribs, thigh bone, etc.). The teacher then gave each pair a part of a skeleton and asked, “Who has the skull?” and the pair that had the skull went to the board and stuck it, and so on.

She then explained that after the break they were going to make a ‘noodle skeleton’.

After the break, the teacher explained again what they had to do; “First you have to think (showing a flashcard with an image of someone thinking) how to create the skeleton, then you put the noodles together and once you’ve done this you stick it with glue”.

They spend the last part of the class during this activity.

Teacher walks around the classroom helping children when needed (she does this in every activity).

One of the girls made me some drawings, since she had finished her skeleton.

Once they were finished, they went to the hall and sang the goodbye song, while waiting for their parents to pick them up.

Here it is a picture of some of the ‘noodle skeletons’ kids made:

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I arrived to my former school and walked directly to kindergarten’s section. I got there a few minutes before the time I had arranged with the teacher (about 15 minutes).

The kindergarten’s director guided me and told I could enter the class if I wanted (she asked first, of course). The kids where finishing an activity from the day before.

I entered the class, they where sitting on the floor (in a circle). The teacher (Miss Nati) had already told them about me, so when I came in, they said: “Hello Ailén”. In that moment I felt calmer and some of my nerves disappeared.

They are 21 kids, although today they were only 17.

I sat down at the back of the room and started to observe the dynamic of the class.

As I mentioned before, they were sitting in a circle on the floor, and were finishing an activity from the previous day. This consisted in, sticking a poem about the face at the back of a face they had made yesterday. Then they had to write down their names and paste a stick in order to make a puppet. Some of the kids show their puppets.

Once this activity was over, they headed to the computer lab, where they spend about half an hour playing with some didactic games (from a website call: English for little Children). Before each kid sat in front of their computer, the lady in charge of the computers reviewed the use of the mouse and how to use the website with them.

Then, we went back to kindergarten’s section and kids play outside for about half an hour. Three of them invited me to play with them.

Afterwards, we headed back the classroom. Before entering, they sang a song ‘to clean’ themselves. The teacher told them to wash their hands and faces before continuing with the lesson.

Once everyone was sitting down (on the floor), the teacher called out for the two helpers of that day. They stood up and as one went to the window, the other one spin a wheel (while singing a song related to it); and asked (with the rest of class), “what’s the weather like today, is it sunny?” The kid by the window said, “No, it isn’t”. This continued until the answer was “yes”.

Then they move to the next activity, which consisted on singing a song about the days of the week. Then they had to say which day was today, which number and, in this case, draw a cloud on the calendar.

Then they review numbers, the teacher would point out numbers written on the board and kids said out load which number it was (9,11,26,etc.). After this, they count how many they were and mentioned which kids were missing.

Afterwards, they review colours. And asked; “What’s your favourite colour?” Then, they sang a song related to colours; something like this: “Red, red, red, touch your head, blue, blue, blue...” This is also related to the topic of these past few weeks, the body.

Then, they sat down again and review types of hair (straight, curly, blonde, red, long, short, and so on). The teacher then put some pictures on the floor and said: “I spy with my little eye someone with...” and kids needed to find the picture she was referring to. Then, children play by themselves, while the teacher helped them with the formulation of the question.

Next, they sang a song about the skeleton. Finally, they sang the goodbye song.

I think that is a good idea to have these sort of short activities at the end of the day, especially because they’ve been all day in school (during the morning with Spanish and during the afternoon with English), so most of them are tired.

What I observed was:

-The teacher barely uses Spanish (only when she has to call someone’s attention for misbehaving or when someone has not understood her). Even during break time she speaks in English.

-When kids talk to her in Spanish she repeats in English.

-The teacher uses a lot of mimic (this probably allows her to use a lot of English).

-Kids help the teacher, for example in bringing the utensils the class will have to use. And they are very tidy and clean (for example, trough papers on the trash can).

They are called, Las Orcas