INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my e-portfolio!!

This e-portfolio is a collection of the most important assignments I did during the course Teaching Practice III. It also includes the report of the activities I did at Thomas Alva Edison (TAES) junior high school as well as the lesson plan of my interventions in such school along with evidence of the activities I carried out.

I also present the teaching project I created to establish the activities and objectives of doing the practices at TAES. Additionally, it contains my teaching philosohpy.

REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS

Having experienced what it feels like to help students learn a language is a rewarding experience. You build a relationship of trust with your students. Day by day you become more involved with them as a person and as a teacher. You cannot ask them to leave their personal lives out of the classroom to enter and just be students, so besides being concerned with their learning, you also become interested in their well-being as persons.
In addition to growing personally, you also grow professionally. As teachers we need to be constantly thinking of how to do the things so that students can get the most of what you teach them. We learn to be prepared for the problems we might encounter everyday with our students. Furthermore, we learn to find the way to help our students to keep motivated to learn the language. In every new experience we always learn something new and those experiences that we face make us better professionals since we add to our repertoire of techniques different ways of doing things or handling situations.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

One of the reasons why I decided to enter the teaching profession is due to the fact that it is one of the worthiest professions. However, there are several reasons more that made me take this decision. Another reason and probably the most important one is that it is really rewarding to help a great deal of people of different ages to gain and construct knowledge that will help them throughout their lives. In addition, I have always enjoyed assisting people in their learning process, especially if they have difficulties learning. Finally, since teachers meet lots of students from which they might also learn not only academic or language knowledge, but values and humanitarian aspects as well, teachers grow as persons too.
In my point of view, teaching is a challenging and lifelong process as well as learning a language is. One of the reasons is because instructors have different students of different ages along their teaching careers, and it is really demanding to know how to fulfill the students’ needs and demands. Moreover, educators never stop learning how to teach. Every single day teachers experience something new and/or different in the classroom, and this makes them learn since they have to figure out how to solve the issue. Even if the teacher has tons of experience, they do not know what will happen in the classroom the following day.
Since I do not have much experience teaching, I do not feel like that I have a specific teaching style, rather I combine different styles in order to realize which one works best for me and my students. However, I think that I am more like a facilitator of knowledge to my students. I feel that it is effective because it encourages my students to take responsibility on their own learning and not just to be dependent on what I say or do. Furthermore, since they have to search for information they rely more on their classmates and this promotes collaboration. I feel that collaboration is a good way of learning due to the fact that you receive knowledge from different people and share yours as well; then, it is more likely that you learn because you have received the knowledge form different perspectives.
When we have kids as students it is more probable that they remember us because at that age they do not forget things easily and they tend to love their teachers. However, I would like to be remembered by all my students mainly as a friend, as a friend that helped them to acquire knowledge taking into account their feelings and concerns and that was always. Besides, I would like them to remember me as an active and creative teacher that always looked how to keep them motivated while learning and that was willing to provide them extra time. Finally, I wish they could say that I made them love English because I presented it in a different and non-traditional way.
The teaching profession is one of the most valuable careers because, generally speaking and regardless of the teaching subject, it prepares people to what they will be in life. Since we are in kindergarten our teachers shape us to be well educated persons. Throughout our lives and the first years of our lives, besides our parents, we spend most of our time with our teachers. Teachers’ job is not only to teach but also to be concerned with what happens to the students, whether they learn or not, and to prepare them for the future. To summarize, without teachers we would not be what we are because they provide us with the tools to succeed in what comes next in our education and lives too.
When I entered the B.A. in ELT obviously I already knew what teaching was about. However, as I read literature about theories of second language acquisition, I realized that teaching a language implies much more than just knowing a language; therefore, theorists such as Chomsky, Vygotsky, and Krashen affected the way I work as teacher. What I learned from their theories is that motivation in second/foreign language learners is crucial for students to succeed; as a result, I always keep in mind, when I plan a lesson, that I have to do activities that are appealing to my students.
Based on my personal experience and from what I have observed from my students, learning occurs when students feel motivated and work in groups. If what is being presented is interesting for them, and the way it is presented is attractive, it is more likely that they learn. Also, I have realized that when all the students are involved in the activities they learn easily; or thus, for me collaborative work promotes learning.
Students are not always at their best when they enter the classroom, and it is also our job to avoid that those problems prevent them from learning. One of the most common problems faced by language learners is not feeling motivated. Teachers need to prepare activities that increase students’ motivation, in addition to encouraging all students to actively participate in the class. Another problem is that they have difficulties learning. In order to help this kind of students, besides preparing remedial work, instructors also need to provide them extra time.
I feel that my personality is reflected in the way I teach. For instance, I enjoy being taught with a variety of activities; I love working in groups, especially playing against other classmates, I like to be explained carefully what I have to do; I love activities that require me to move from my desk and have fun, among other things, and I do the same with my students. Probably this might not work with all my students, but with most of them it has worked, even though they were of different age.
I mentioned previously that teachers, besides growing professionally, also grow personally. Students do so too. Language instructors can also teach the students values and help them develop as individuals. I think that teaching the target culture to the students is a way of helping them grow personally too. In addition, making them become aware of the differences between the target language and their native language is helpful for this purpose. On the other hand, in order to help my students develop learning I use a variety of activities that cover their needs and their learning styles. Moreover, I provide more time for clarification and explanation when needed.
To conclude, I believe that the teaching profession is not as other professions, it is much more important and demanding. Individuals that want to be teachers need to have some qualities or characteristics such as patience and tolerance in order to succeed and help their students to succeed as well. Additionally, language instructors need to be willing to update themselves about new methods and strategies in order to give their students the most of them.

TEACHING PROJECT

Introduction

The purpose of this Teaching Project is to describe the characteristics of the teaching practices I carry out in the school assigned (TAES). Additionally, its purpose is also to develop a tentative plan of the activities I will present to the students during the semester, activities which will help me to reach the objectives of the Teaching Practice III course. Finally, at the end of the semester, this project will help me to reflect on the teaching/learning process I went through while practicing in a real context and to analyze whether my objectives were successfully reached or not.
The structure of the Teaching Project is as follows:
* Information about the school and the groups I was assigned.
* General and specific objectives to be accomplished during the teaching practices as well as objectives that I personally want to achieve.
* Description and chronogram of the activities I will do for the following 2/3 weeks approximately.
* Resources, materials, and bibliography I will use to carry out the activities.


Information of the School

The school Thomas Alva Edison (TAES) is located in Paseo de la Paz y Paseo Valle Grande, Colonia Valle Grande, Hermosillo, Sonora. This school is only junior high-school. It has four groups (A, B, C, D) for each of the levels (first, second, and third grade).
TAES philosophy is constructivist with a focus on collaborative learning. The school has a bilingual program and teaches under the Content-Based Instruction approach. However, students also take one hour of English as a Foreign Language from Monday through Friday in which they practice grammar and writing.
I was assigned to the EFL class with three groups of first grade to do my teaching practices. I will work on Monday with 1 “B”; on Tuesday and Thursday with 1“D”; and on Wednesday with 1“C”. The English teacher I will be working with is Miss Elda Preciado. First grade uses the textbook Armstrong, J. & Wilson, E. (2001). Writing and Grammar: Communication in Action (Bronze Level) for the EFL class.
The teacher does not have a specific methodology, she teaches according to the textbook. Miss Preciado always starts the class with a warm-up activity that usually is not related to the topic she will cover during the class and gives a sticker to the team that performs correctly. The students are expected to get as many stickers as possible in order to get extra points at the end of the school year. The teacher does not leave a great deal of homework since class work is more important for her. In order to present the content she almost always uses visual aids such as power point presentations.


General Objectives

The objectives of going out of the classroom context to teach in a school where English is taught in an EFL context are:
*To develop teaching skills and strategies that will enable me to widen my teaching repertoire.
* To put into practice theoretical background knowledge learned at school
* To gain teaching experience in a real context as well as to learn more about the issues around the students
* To fulfill the requirements for the Teaching Practice III course and the Professional Practices which are a complement of my training as English teacher.


Specific Objectives

One of the objectives I want to accomplish with the groups I will be working with is to encourage them to take responsibility of their own learning. I wish that my teaching methodology serves as a tool to increase their motivation towards the learning of this language beyond the classroom setting.
The improvement of students’ speaking skill is another objective I would like to achieve. Students have already a good proficiency level of English; however, I am interested in providing them with more opportunities to practice speaking in order to improve their communicative competence.
One last but not least objective I want to reach with the three groups is to increase their vocabulary in the target language. I would like to provide the students with activities that involve acquiring and using more vocabulary.
The teacher and I decided that I will begin presenting the warm-up activities for 2/3 weeks approximately. After those weeks, I will present activities for the presentation and practice of content. Moreover, I will decide when and what exercises I will do with the students. Another task I will perform at TAES is helping the teacher with the preparation of material for the English class.


Description and Chronogram of the Activities

The school divides the school year into periods. Each of them lasts 6 to 7 weeks approximately. When I start participating with activities in the class the first period will have about 2 weeks left. The following tentative chronogram includes the activities for those 2 weeks. After those weeks the teacher will assign me activities for the presentation and practice of content.

1st Chronogram

2nd Chronogram

Final Reflection

I am glad that I had the opportunity to put into practice the theory that I have learned during the B.A. I am also happy because I could experience teaching teenagers. I was successful in this experience because I gained more knowledge on all what is involved in planning a lesson and teaching it such as taking into account students’ needs, interests and level, thinking of possible problems, preparation of materials, and many other things. In addition, I developed teaching strategies that allowed me to be more prepared to face issues concerning teaching. For instance, I learned that I should always time students when they are doing activities, I should always provide the students with an example of what they are expected to do, among other things.
However, I was not successful in achieving the specific objectives I had established for the groups I was going to work with. Unfortunately, I was not given the freedom to do enough activities. Furthermore, I was not given the opportunity to teach whole lessons to the students. My participation with the students was merely doing short activities such as warm-ups and introductory activities. Even though I had a good time with the students and I learned more about the teaching world, I feel sad because this opportunity was not what I expected.

Resources and Materials

The resources and materials I will use so far for the following two weeks are:
*Flashcards
* Ball



Bibliography

Armstrong, J. & Wilson, E. (2001). Writing and Grammar: Communication in Action (Bronze Level). NY: USA. Prentice Hall.

http://www.icebreakers.ws/

REPORTS

This section includes the report of the acitivies I did during the semester at TAES as well as the lesson plans and evidence of the activities I presented to the students.

Report #12

Lesson plan

The second participation of the week was on Thursday, November 27. In this participation I applied my assessment tool (included below). For the creation of this assessment I took into account what I had taught the students during this semester. The assessment I used was a review exercise. The evaluation criteria I used was one point for each of the items in the exercise, being a total of twenty five points.

Evidence

Report #11

Week from November 17 to 20

As I had mentioned in the chronogram, this week was the cultural week at TAES. The only day that the school was going to have classes was on Tuesday. I was expected to participate in this day; however, I did not have any participation because the teacher did not give me any information to present or practice. She apologized for that, and gave me instructions for the participation I will have next week.
Since I did not participate this week, I had time to reflect on my participations. First of all, I did not have the opportunity to participate as I would have liked; therefore, I did not improve as much as I would have liked. In addition, when you are not the head teacher you feel that your involvement is not always valued by the students.
For the improvement of this teaching practice program, I suggest that the course teachers keep in touch with the school English program coordinators so that students have enough participation and be able to improve and develop as teachers.

Report #10

Self Monitoring and Professionalism

Teacher´s Name: Dorys A. De Los Reyes School/Class: TAES # of Students: 2 5
Time: 8:20 to 9:10am Date: November 12, 2008
Unit Theme/Topic: Topic sentences & supporting details

Observation focus: Teacher in training performance

INSTRUCTIONS: check () the statement that you consider appropriate according to your criteria. Use the following scale.

1. Needs improvement on this criterion.
2. Has awareness of the basic elements of the criterion.
3. Has mastered the basic elements of the criterion.
4. Shows proficiency in the skills of this criterion and has become highly effective.

Lesson plan

Evidence

Report #9

Self Monitoring and Professionalism

Teacher´s Name: Dorys A. De Los Reyes School/Class: TAES # of students: 26

Time: 8:20 to 9:10am Date: November 6, 2008
Unit Topic: Adverbs Observation focus: Teacher in training performance

INSTRUCTIONS: check () the statement that you consider appropriate according to your criteria. Use the following scale.

1. Needs improvement on this criterion.
2. Has awareness of the basic elements of the criterion.
3. Has mastered the basic elements of the criterion.
4. Shows proficiency in the skills of this criterion and has become highly effective.

Lesson plan

Evidence

Report #8

What do I teach? How do I teach? Why do I teach what I teach?

Planning
1. What are my objectives in this lesson?
My objectives in this activity are students to practice the adjectives they have learned so far.
2. What have I taken into consideration?
Before planning this activity I thought about the content already covered by the teacher. I also took into consideration the students’ level and learning styles.

Implementation
1. What is the relationship between the lesson I planned and what actually happened in the class?
Fortunately, the activity went as I had planned it.
2. What events in the class made me deviate from my plans?
As I mentioned before I did not need to change anything from my plan.
3. Am I responsible in any way for discipline problems students might have?
Yes, I think I am responsible somehow of indiscipline problems because I have to manage the class. If I see that students are deviating from the purpose of the activity it is my responsibility to put them back in the track. However, during this activity I did not have any problems regarding discipline.

Classroom Management
1. What aspects of learner behavior do I respond to?
When students are getting really noisy that they prevent the other learners from paying attention I do something to calm them down. Also, when they are not paying attention to the class or doing something else that is not related to the class.
2. How efficient/effective am I at setting up group work?
I do not think I am really efficient in grouping students. For practical issues, I usually group them in rows; however, I am thinking of grouping them by numbers in the following activities that I carry out.
3. How much talking do I do in class? (Too little, too much, or just enough?)
I usually do more talking that the students but not much more than them. I think it is just enough.
What happens when I vary the amount?
The class gets noisy and not because they are working around the activity, but because they are talking about something else.
4. How clear and/or useful are the explanations I give to students?
I think that they are sometimes not very clear but I repeat them again so that they really understand what I am saying and my explanation becomes useful for them.

Lesson plan

No Evidence

Report #7

GOALS AND CONTENT OF LESSON: Students to practice the simple past of the irregular verbs.

OPENINGS
The activity I used to open the lesson was a performing and guessing game in which a student had to perform an action according to a verb and the rest of the class had to guess the verb, mention the simple past form and say a sentence using that verb in the past.
The purpose of the activity was for students to practice the simple past of the irregular verbs as well as their pronunciation.
The effectiveness of this opening was moderately effective.

SEQUENCING
The lesson contained the following sequence of activities:
1.- Rewriting a passage that was in the simple present into the simple past.
2.- Completing a crossword puzzle with clues given in the simple present and they had to write the simple past.
The purpose of sequencing the lesson in this way was: so that the students could practice using the simple past in context and then isolated by closing the class with a short activity.
The effectiveness of this sequencing was: moderately effective.

PACING
Strategies I used to achieve pacing were: to practice the simple past of the verbs using integrated skills (pronunciation, writing, and spelling).
The effectiveness of this opening was moderately effective.

CLOSURE
The activity I used to end the lesson was: a crossword puzzle. Students had to complete it by writing the simple past of the verbs given.
The purpose of the activity was close the lesson with a short and fun activity.
The effectiveness of this closure was moderately effective.

Lesson plan

Evidence

Report #6

Week from October 13 to 16

This week was for the application of tests. The content of the tests was from the first period which lasted approximately six weeks. On Monday and Tuesday students had oral presentations about media. These presentations are a project that the teacher designed to close the first period. In these presentations, she graded content, students’ mastery of such content and to a lesser extent the students speaking proficiency. These two days of presentations were very important for me because I learned more about my students’ proficiency in speaking. Actually, they surprised me because they have a very good proficiency level in speaking. I had only had the opportunity to listen to them when they participated in class, but this time they were the ones that spoke most of the time. During the rest of the week (Wednesday and Thursday) tests were administered. In those days the teacher and I worked on the preparation of the class I will give next week. She provided me with advice about the students’ behavior and with tips about how I could give the class.

Report #5

ACTIVITY REFLECTION GUIDELINE
Once the activity or activities have been taught, choose TWO of the questions from A, B & C in order to reflect on the following topics and plan for next class:

A. Recalling the activity
Did you use the appropriate materials/resources to achieve your aim?
I think that I did. I used phrases that were more or less the same number of words and which contained words that were familiar to the students. I did not want to use phrase with words that were not familiar to them because besides not understanding the meaning of the word they might not be able to repeat it.

Note down any comments/feedback that a student gave you during the activity.
After I had told the phrases to the 5 team members, I realized that some of them did not remember their phrases very well, so I asked them if they wanted me to repeat them again and surprisingly all of them said NO! I think that it was exciting for them to make an effort to remember

B Reflecting on the activity
Note several things that you are proud of about the activity.
I am proud of the evolution of the activity; I liked the way it went.
Also I enjoyed seeing the students’ faces when they were listening to their teammates. They were paying close attention to what they were being told.
Was there a good environment to enhance learning?
I felt so happy because the environment of the activity was good. Students were so interested in the activity that they practiced the listening skills. They were paying close attention to the phrases and trying to remember them.

C. Drawing conclusions
If you taught the activity again, what would you do differently?
If I do this activity again I would time it. This is, I would give certain time for each student to tell their classmate behind them the phrase. Some of them took more time because they were repeating the phrase lots of times.
What have you learned about planning this activity?
I learned that it is important to time the students in activities where they are competing because as I mentioned above, they try to win. In this particular activity, some of them took more time in order to say the phrase as correct as possible and the other students were eager to see who the winners were.

Lesson Plan

Evidence

Report #4

ACTIVITY REFLECTION GUIDELINE
Once the activity or activities have been taught, choose TWO of the questions from A, B & C in order to reflect on the following topics and plan for next class:

A. Recalling the activity
Note down any comments/feedback that a student gave you during the activity.
After I finished the activity, one student told me that her team had mentioned a fruit in Spanish and I took it as correct.
List some things that happened differently from your plan.
I was expecting that one team was going to “win”, but none of them knew a fruit for each of the letters they were given. I think it was a bit more difficult to them because they were not allowed to repeat fruits already said by their classmates.

B Reflecting on the activity
At what point did you feel awkward or uncomfortable.
I felt uncomfortable when deciding if there was a team that had won because they were expecting that at least one team would win but none of them achieved what I was asking for.
Do you think you gave clear instructions?
I think that I gave clear instructions and according to the development of the activity the students indeed understood; however, the teacher suggested me to repeat the instructions more than once because sometimes students do not understand.

C. Drawing conclusions
If you taught the activity again, what would you do differently?
I would allow students to repeat the fruits. In addition, I would also give them more letters of the alphabet so that they could learn more words.
What have you learned about your teaching procedures and techniques?
I feel that I have to think more about possible problems that might occur during the activity in advance and solutions to them.

Lesson plan

Evidence

READING ASSIGNMENTS

This is a collection of the most important readings of the course. I selected these readings because they were of much help to my development as teacher. Also, I choose them due to the reason that they are of topics of concern to me and because I learned a lot from the information provided in the readings.

RA #10

Wright, T. (2005). Concerns and Practices in Classroom Management in Classroom Management in Language Education. Palgrave McMillan. Research and Practice in applied Linguistics.

Reflection
We have discussed in class that classroom management is not only concerned with discipline problems but also with class routines and rules. We have also mentioned that teachers’ beliefs about what is order and what is discipline in a classroom are different; therefore, they take different solutions to solve classroom management issues.
I related the school of thought order philosophy to my personal experience at TAES. At TAES students are to the strong pressures side of the continuum because they are imposed the rules of being quite, for instance. They are not taught to behave; rather they are punished for not doing so. In my opinion and based on my personal experience if students are talking in the classroom or misbehaving, we should not call their attention every single moment if that is not interfering with the learning process. However, it is difficult to know when their misbehavior is interfering with the learning process.

RA #8

Crook, G. (2003). Classroom Management in ES/FL Contexts in Practicum in TESOL. CUP.

1. What was the writer´s main contentions/points/ideas?
The main points addressed by the author were related to classroom management in second or foreign language learning contexts. He mentioned the importance of culture in the management of language classrooms arguing that the culture of the country/city where the class takes place will define some of the classroom rules and acceptable behaviors. In addition, he touched upon the definition of order and that teachers need to understand it in order to be able to deal with classroom management problems. Moreover, he describes the four categories rules by Boostrom (in Crook 2003) which sometimes overlap: rules about nonacademic procedures, rules about doing classroom work, rules about relationships with others, and rules about the subject matter. Finally, he explains the types of problems on classroom management that teachers might face and that they need to overcome. Such problems are concerned with the difference in students’ proficiency, class size, and cross-cultural issues.

2. Make an outline of the writer´s central ideas

3. What do you think was the writer’s purpose (i.e., what effect was the writer trying to have on you)?
We think that the writer’s purpose was to make us aware of the importance that culture has in classroom management in ES/FL contexts, this is, how culture can influence in how a classroom managed. Moreover, he provides us with some examples of how to set out rules in the classroom. For this, he describes the different kinds of rules that can be set out (preventative, corrective, supportive, among others). Furthermore, he presents us with some experiences from other teachers so that we can see the differences of the impact that culture can have in classroom management. In addition, after every topic the author suggests some questions for discussion that are intended to make us reflect about the way we manage our classroom and what we can do to improve.

4. Do you think the writer communicated ideas fairly well, but left out some questions/points/ideas?
We believe that the author stated his ideas in a clear way. However, the way he expresses his ideas was quite dense, which make it a little heavy to read. Moreover, he just focused on how culture influence classroom management and the different types of rules that can be set out in a classroom. In addition, we think that he could have done the reading more practical by providing us with more tips about managing classrooms.
Furthermore, the author gives some examples which help us see how culture influences the classroom management. For this reason, we do not have any question regarding culture in classroom management. However, we believe that there are many other factors that affect classroom management that the author did not mention, and which we would like to know a little bit more.

Personal reflection
I had never thought deeply of the importance of culture in classroom management issues. Even though I know that culture and language cannot be separated, I have not reflected a lot about how much culture is reflected in teaching and learning. Another aspect of the reading that is worth reflecting on is Doyle’s (in Crook 2003) statement about the definition of classroom management: “the provisions and procedures necessary to establish an environment in which instruction and learning can occur”. I think that when we hear the phrase classroom management we immediately think of discipline and it is not just discipline. Classroom management refers also the phases and routines established in a classroom in order to provide a good atmosphere in which the teacher can teach and the students can learn.

RA #6

The Good Language Learner

1. Do you think that there is such a thing as a "good language learner"? To what extent do you think it is possible for people to become "better" language learners?

I do not think that good language learners are born; I think that they are developed. They are developed through autonomy, extensive practice, willingness to learn, and motivation of any type. Moreover, whether they are good or not is also determined by the goals they have established themselves for learning the language. In addition to these factors, their personal characteristics also influence their language learning process.
I believe that there is no extent; the learners decide how to become better and when to stop building their effort to become good language learners. However, there are some things that they can do in order to continue improving their learning. For instance, they may change their learning styles and learn more learning strategies, or they may also change their beliefs about learning.

RA #4

Richards, J. (1998). Through other eyes: Revisiting classroom observation in Beyond Training. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Summary
Observation has been used to train student teachers because through it they can learn strategies and techniques from the observed teachers and adapt them to their own teaching. The author mentions three types of observation: observation of other teachers, peer observation, and three-way observation used to educate teachers.
Observation of other teachers is the most common type. Usually, trainees sit in the experienced teachers’ classroom and observe the lesson. It is important to keep in mind that the purpose of observation is not to evaluate the experienced teacher. Sometimes the teachers observed do not feel comfortable with this situation; therefore, there are some guidelines for reducing negative consequences: observation should have a focus; observers should use specific procedures and the observer should stay as an observer. In addition to these guidelines, it is of help to give the observers tasks to complete during the observation in order to collect information.
Peer observation has several advantages; however, its purpose is not too clear for the teachers. This type of observation should be seen by the observed as an opportunity to create a critically reflective position towards their teaching. As in observation of other teachers, peer observation also has some guidelines: it would be voluntary; participants would select their partner; each participant would observe and be observed; there would be preobservation orientation session will be attended; the observation; and the postobservation after the lesson.
The last type is three-way observation in which students are also involved. Their opinions of the lesson are the third component of the observations. This type of observation was developed in response to a request done by inexperienced teachers asking a language department for assistance in their professional development. The strategy used was: pairs of teachers inexperienced and experienced worked together. Each pair managed to do several observations of each other’s classes. Finally, data from the students’, the teacher’s and the observer’s opinion were collected at the end of the lesson. At the end of a lesson, the teacher gave 5-7 minutes to answer some questions related to the students’ task, the observers’ task, and the teacher’s task. Then the teacher and the observer met to review the comments. The main insights were that there was a much closer correspondence between the three informants and the comments on the most successful part of lessons revealed differences between the visions of the experienced and inexperienced teachers.

Opinion
I am already familiar with observations. I like observing because I love to learn from other teachers; however, I feel a little bit reluctant about being observed. I know about the many benefits that it brings to teachers in training but I feel nervous about being observed. Even though I know that observation is not an evaluation of my performance I feel it that way.
I found the three-way observation pretty interesting. I think that having feedback on my performance from students’ perspective can be of much help since the observer does not what they were feeling during the lesson.

RA # 1

Richards, J. (1998). Teacher beliefs and decision making in Beyond Training. CUP. USA.

Summary
Based on their experience, practice, reading, among other situations, teachers have their own assumptions and beliefs about what is teaching and learning, beliefs that sometimes they bring or not into the classroom. Even though such beliefs involve the students, sometimes the students do not share them.
According to Johnson’s study (1991) teachers beliefs are reflected in three methodological approaches; skills-based (language consists of four skills), rules-based (language is a process ruled by creativity), and function-based (focuses on the use of authentic language). The teachers that participated in this study were observed and they seemed to consistently follow their orientation. On the other hand, according to Woods (1991), teachers’ beliefs are reflected in a curriculum-based (decisions are made based on the curriculum) or a student-based view (decisions are made around students’ needs).
Teachers’ beliefs have also been studied according to the influence they have on novice teachers. They take into account content, teacher development program, and the teachers’ experiences. A study of novice teachers done in Hong Kong found that teachers view their own teaching as a teacher-centered perspective, curriculum-centered perspective or learner-centered perspective.
The teaching profession requires teacher to be able to perform several roles, one of those roles is decision maker. Teachers need to make decisions while they are teaching, they have to improvise and modify their lessons according to students’ response. Shavelson and Stern (1981) use the word “routines” to refer to the way teachers direct the teaching process. It is claimed that these routines help expert teachers to be able to manage their time better. In contrast, novice teachers that do not have enough experience on routines spend a great deal of their time creating and mastering them. This is because expert teachers are familiar with typical students, tasks, and know possible problems and solutions in advance.
Case studies’ use is recommended to help teachers to become familiar with situations in which they need to make decisions. It provides them with possible situations as well as possible solutions; therefore, teachers are more prepared to make decisions in their own classroom.

Reflection
I agree with the author when he states that the teacher is a thinker. Undoubtedly, teachers are thinkers in all senses since they have to constantly think on how to incorporate their knowledge of the language, their students’ needs and the time available when they prepare a class. Moreover, they have to think on advance of problems they might face when they are teaching the class and consequently have a plan B or C to overcome such problems.
One of the things that surprised me from the reading is that sometimes teachers do not reflect their beliefs in the classroom. I find this quite important because sometimes those beliefs are not true or are not shared by the students and this avoids misunderstandings between the teacher and the students.
In my opinion Woods (1991) views define better the types of beliefs teachers have. Commonly, teachers either follow the textbook or the curriculum, or they focus on their students’ needs. Based on my personal experience teaching, I have either followed the textbook or curriculum or based my teaching on students’ needs.

OBSERVATIONS

The first three weeks that I attended the school, I did observations about the teacher's performance. By doing this I somehow achieved one of the my general objectives:

To develop teaching skills and strategies that will enable me to widen my teaching repertoire.

Even though I did not develop the strategies by practicing myself, I could analyze the teacher's strategies.

Observation Report # 3

Instructor: Elda Preciado Level: English I
School attended: TAES secondary school Number of students: 26
Observer: Dorys A. De Los Reyes Date: September 25, 2008

Purpose: To analyze how the teacher monitors the students.

Description of Classroom Environment:
Briefly describe the classroom including: seating arrangements, classroom decoration, size of room, classroom rules, atmosphere, etc. and any important elements that you consider important.

This classroom is similar to the ones I have described before. Students are seated in 6 regular with 5 to 6 desks each. The classroom is big enough for all the desks. It has a whiteboard in the front and a screen to project images from the projector. In addition, it only has a small bulletin board in the back wall. There are two trash cans: one for paper and the other one for the rest of the trash. The students are not allowed to stay in the classroom when the class finishes; they have to leave when the bell rings to get their materials for the next class. The classroom atmosphere is very good. There is an environment of friendship and respect. Students are happy when they enter the classroom, they do not feel anxious. Moreover, students are really participative.

Report:
Report the information collected from your observation format, being objective of the information collected. Be sure to attach the observation format to this report.

In order to check for students’ understanding the instructor asks other students to repeat the instructions, or she asks questions such as, “Any question? Do you understand what you have to do?” to check for understanding. In addition, the teacher walks through the rows when students are working to clarify their doubts. Moreover, to check homework she requests students to show her the assignment but she does not look at them closely.

Comments
Comment how you felt during the observation and write about any unexpected issue that affected your observation or any other topic you consider important to mention in this report.

I like that the teacher always has an eye on what her students are doing.
While the students were doing an exercise one of them called me: “Miss Dorys can you come here”. I was going to attend his call because the teacher asks me to help her sometimes, but the teacher was near him and she helped him.

Classroom Observation Worksheet 3

Analyze the teacher’s performance and answer the following questions

1. How does the instructor check for students’ understanding?
She asks a student to repeat instructors.
She asks if they understood or not. If they say no, she asks them what part they did not understand.

She asks if there are any questions or doubts.

2. What does the instructor do when a particular student does not work?
She approaches him/her and encourages him/her to work by explaining again the instructors or by helping him/her with the exercise/activity.

3. What does the instructor do when students are doing seatwork?
She walks around the rows and stops with some students to check how they are doing.

4. How does the instructor check homework?
While the teacher calls roll she asks the students if they brought it and they have to show her the sheet of paper with the homework.

Observation Report # 2

Instructor: Elda Preciado Level: English I

School attended: TAES secondary school Number of students: 27
Observer: Dorys A. De Los Reyes Date: September 17, 2008

Purpose: To analyze how the teacher presents the information to the students.

1. Description of Classroom Environment:
Briefly describe the classroom including: seating arrangements, classroom decoration, size of room, classroom rules, atmosphere, etc. and any important elements that you consider important.

The students are seated in 6 regular rows. Each row has 6 desks but some of them are empty. The classroom is big enough for all the desks. The windows are really big, from half of the wall up to the roof and covered with blinds. It has a whiteboard in the front and a screen to project images from the projector. Additionally, there are two trash cans: one for paper and the other one for the rest of the trash. The students are not allowed to stay in the classroom when the class finishes; they have to leave when the bell rings to get their materials for the next class. The classroom atmosphere is very good. There is an environment of friendship and respect. Students are happy when they enter the classroom, they do not feel anxious. Moreover, they love to participate in the class.

2. Report:
Report the information collected from your observation format, being objective of the information collected. Be sure to attach the observation format to this report.

The teacher used a loud tone of voice to present the information and varied the intonation in order to emphasize important information. The ideas were clearly presented with examples that helped to clarify them. Additionally, the teacher maintained eye contact with the students when she was presenting the information and asked if there were any doubts along the presentation. She also related new ideas to the ones seen previously.

3. Comments
Comment how you felt during the observation and write about any unexpected issue that affected your observation or any other topic you consider important to mention in this report.

Sometimes when I am observing the class I want to participate in the activities because they are really challenging and fun. Even though the information is somehow difficult for the students the teacher finds the way to make it easier and interesting for them.

Classroom Observation Worksheet 2

Directions: Observe the instructor behavior and answer the following questions.

Adapted and retrieved from: http://www.utexas.edu/academic/cte/ClassWorksheet.pdf on September 1st, 2008.

Observation Report # 1

Instructor: Elda Preciado Level: English I
School attended: TAES secondary school Number of students: 27

Observer: Dorys A. De Los Reyes Date: September 10, 2008

Purpose: To analyze how is the teacher-student interaction and how the teacher approaches the students.

1. Description of Classroom Environment:
Briefly describe the classroom including: seating arrangements, classroom decoration, size of room, classroom rules, atmosphere, etc. and any important elements that you consider important.

The students are seated in regular rows. There are 6 rows with 5 or 6 desks each. The classroom is big enough for all the desks. It has a whiteboard in the front and a screen to project images from the projector. In addition, it only has a small bulletin board in the back wall. There are two trash cans: one for paper and the other one for the rest of the trash. The students are not allowed to stay in the classroom when the class finishes; they have to leave when the bell rings to get their materials for the next class. The classroom atmosphere is very good. There is an environment of friendship and respect. Students are happy when they enter the classroom, they do not feel anxious. Moreover, they love to participate in the class.

2. Report:
Report the information collected from your observation format, being objective of the information collected. Be sure to attach the observation format to this report.

The teacher to student interaction is very good. She always finds a way to get input from students. For instance, she asks questions about what was seen last class or if they understand the instructions. Additionally, she listens carefully to their questions and answers back as clear as possible. When they have doubts the teacher tries to give an explanation as clear as possible and dedicates time to individual students if they are having trouble understanding. The teacher is respectful with the students and they are respectful too. She approaches them with nice nicknames such as “sweethearts.”

3. Comments
Comment how you felt during the observation and write about any unexpected issue that affected your observation or any other topic you consider important to mention in this report.

I felt very comfortable doing the observation since I enjoy observing and learning from teachers. I think that it is a good way to widen our techniques and strategies repertoire. I felt as if I were just one student more because when I was in junior high school my teacher was not dynamic and creative as the one I observed. Furthermore, I wish I was the teacher because students were so motivated and participative.

Classroom Observation Worksheet 1

Directions: Observe the instructor behavior and write a checkmark in the answer that most nearly reflects the instructor performance.

Comments: The relationship between the teacher and the students is more like friends, but students are respectful at all times.

Adapted and retrieved from: http://www.unl.edu/gradstudies/gsapd/services/Class_Obs_Form.pdf and http://www.utexas.edu/academic/cte/ClassWorksheet.pdf on September 2nd, 2008.