MY INTERVENTION POINT

MY INTERVENTION POINT IS ABOUT STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT

Metaphor: “even if you return to the same place events are not the same. Students are different, each one of them have their own story that could inspired our job”

Journal 1: “In fact, he is a student who helps their partners during a lesson because he is the first one who finishes the activities.  Those previous conditions make me think of a different activity for him”

Journal 3: “some students are just sitting down in the classroom because they have to, but they are not really involved in learning”

What I have noticed about my English classes is that some of my students are not really involved with their learning process. Some of them are not really engaged and do not do anything for improving. What is more, some of them want to get just a 3.0 and no more but they do not care about their learning.  In spite of all my efforts doing different activities, some students seem as if they do not want to learn English or maybe the problem is that they do not like the way the class is. 

To solve this problem I would come up with the following course action: One of the starting points could be observation. Observing my class from a reflective point and asking the participants their personal opinions about the classes. Maybe those opinions could give me important insights about the topics and how the strategies are being used in the classroom. During the course of Reflective Teaching we have used one useful tool in order to collect information, the five minutes paper. Using that tool with my students, I can get their opinions about the class and their personal perceptions about English learning.

EXPLORING TEACHER'S BELIEFS

1.      What beliefs or assumptions about language learning and language teaching have you held throughout your English language development and your teaching career?

·         LANGUAGE LEARNING  SHOULD BE MEANINGFUL FOR THE PARTICIPANTS

Metaphor:” it is necessary to provide real examples and make students use the language in real situations and relate what they learn with their real context”

Autobiography “she was very committed with teaching English and she enjoyed what she did”

Journal 1 “After talking to Alejandro, one of the ideas was that he could prepare an oral presentation about any topic.

Journal 2 “I always begin by asking myself what my students should know and how they can apply what they learn”

Journal 3 “to make students feel that they really need to attend classes and construct their own knowledge”

Journal 4 “When the teacher said the topic and said: “Tell me, please, the name of some sports” the majority of the students wanted to participate even answering in L1.”

·         ENGLISH TEACHING FROM A HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Journal 4 “What was interesting in this part was the students’ attitude, they were helping each other and solving the activity”

Metaphor “Students are different, each one of them have their own story that could inspired our job”

Journal 3 “ it is my responsibility to know who my students are…We as teachers should bear in mind that our work deals with human beings rather than subjects”

Autobiography “It was grateful to be in touch with other people, to know their needs, listen to and guide them.”

·         AN ENGLISH TEACHER NEEDS TO BE CREATIVE AND RESOURCEFUL

Journal 1 “Those previous conditions make me think of a different activity for him”

Journal 2 “During a class I like to engage students in different kind of activities:”

Metaphor “Each journey is unique and offers new knowledge, even if you return to the same place events are not the same”

·         ENGLISH TEACHING IS AN ONGOING PROCESS

Journal 1 “If you want to learn English, you have to do an extra effort and think that you can learn it”

Journal 2 “Learning is not an ending process and the teacher is a learner too. I strongly believe that teachers need to continue their professional growth, to do so, teachers can be part of educational associations, to attend conferences or doing advanced studies are excellent strategies to be updated in terms of new methodologies and strategies that emerge every day”

Autobiography “For me, the most important things are to do my best, to enrich my profession and to be updated and be prepared for my lessons”

·         TECHNOLOGY: A NEW TOOL FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

Journal 2 “the school has a bilingual computer room where we can work listening exercises, watching videos, worksheet solving using Word or Power Point”

Journal 1 “Those previous problems teachers have to handle when working with technology. Finally the day arrives and Alejandro could present his topic.”

Journal 4 “Each couple received a tablet with a video about a sport called BOSABALL. Students had to watch the video and complete the chart. The students were so enthusiastic using the tablet”

2.      What sources have you derived those beliefs or assumptions from?

Taking into account Richards and Lokhart (2004) my beliefs derived from the following sources:

a.       My own experience as language learner. I have had the chance to have excellent teachers during my studies and maybe those positive experiences and the way my teachers used to teach made me build the ideas I apply inside and outside the classroom.

b.      Experience of what works well. Fortunately, I have deal with different kinds of situations, contexts, students and policies and those previous experiences have given me the opportunity to notice what could works and what needs to be improved.

c.       Educationally based or research-based principles. I have tried to use the major part of a communicative research method but sometimes it is necessary to implement other methods. I did not have any idea about the theoretical support of this common situation but thanks to the master program I have found important assumptions in the post method era.

d.      My colleagues. They are a real support for my daily practices.  Sometimes, my colleagues express their ideas and conclusions about something they have done previously

3.      How would you challenge some of those beliefs?

I think that every single day is a new learning experience, in that way teacher must be open minded in order to reflect about each situation into the classroom and take advantage from it. Reflective teaching offers us a new path to see our profession from a critical extent.

MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY

My relatives and friends have always talked about my personal qualities for helping and listening to others. When I was a child I did not consider to be a teacher as one of my goals, I always wanted to have my own business. Time passes and expectations and desires change too.  In this moment, I do not remember when English caught my eyes but I still remember when I started to attend an English class. The first time I was in touch with English was when I started my high school. It was a very grateful experience because I had never listened to someone speaking in English and it was awesome! My teacher’s name was Astrid and in spite of she was not an English teacher, she was very committed with teaching English and she enjoyed what she did.  I think that it was the first time I consider English as something I had to learn. Unfortunately, in tenth level and eleventh level the principal of the school assigned us other teacher and in spite of that he had a better command of English he did not have that “inspiration” in his practice. The only thing we did in those classes was listening to music, some boring songs chosen by the teacher and we had to translate them. It was quite frustrating. Fortunately, during those years my parents started to travel to Bogota and I had the chance to meet new friends and one of those friends was very good at English, he wrote me messages in English and gave me compact discs with songs in English. I did not know what those songs means but I liked them.

When I finished my high school, I wanted to study business administration and I bought the pin at Surcolombiana University. I had the chance to present my name for two careers so I decided to select business administration and Modern Languages. My score was not enough for administration but I passed to Modern Languages. In the first semester, I realized that the final goal of the career was preparing people for being teachers so I started looking at that option as something suitable for me. I had the chance to be a teacher in the sixth semester and I really enjoyed it. It was grateful to be in touch with other people, to know their needs, listen to and guide them.  Fortunately, I received positive comments about my job and my bosses were pleased with my commitment.  For that reason, I continued working with different kinds of students and schools and every experience has been different and fruitful.

Every day, I thank God for showing me the way and for giving me the chance to guide children and young people.   For me, the most important things are to do my best, to enrich my profession and to be updated and be prepared for my lessons.  Now, I think that my dreams come true, I really have my own business.

JOURNAL 4

The class started introducing the topic “SPORTS”. This topic was chosen because of the students preferences. When the teacher said the topic and said: “Tell me, please, the name of some sports” the majority of the students wanted to participate even answering in L1. One aspect here is that when this situation appeared, the teacher repeated the word in English.  After that, the teacher selected some students randomly (those students were selected because they almost never participate in the class) and asked them: What is your favorite sport? Where do you play? Who with? Some questions were answered in Spanish but once again the teacher gave the word in English. In many cases the teacher said “very good” to the student’s responses.

Later, the teacher gave a photocopy with some pictures related to sports and the equipment that is used to practice them. The students matched the words with the corresponding picture and the teacher walked around the classroom to support them during the activity. Then, the students looked for a partner to share and check the previous classwork. At the end the teacher asked for the correct answers.

In the second part of the class, the teacher explained the words exercise 3: PLACE OF ORIGIN, YEAR, EQUIPMENT, PLACE, TEAMS, PLAYERS, RULES and COMMENTS. Each couple received a tablet with a video about a sport called BOSABALL. Students had to watch the video and complete the chart. The students were so enthusiastic using the tablet. What was interesting in this part was the students’ attitude, they were helping each other and solving the activity. When the students finished the exercise, they shared their answers with their partners. Some of the students’ comments were that they enjoyed the video because it was about an unusual and interesting sport. Finally, the students reported their answers.

In the next stage, the teacher showed an invitation for a sporting event. She explained the poster, talked about the game, the rules and some conditions to participate. The teacher tried to use all the vocabulary and the expressions to invite people to participate. After that, the teacher commented that there would be a sporting event at school and they had to prepare the activity. For that reason, the final task was to prepare an oral presentation about a sporting event. The students had to design the poster and invite their classmates to participate.  

JOURNAL 3

JOURNAL No. 3

La Plata, Huila September 29th 2015

Teaching  young learners implies not only teaching them speaking, listening, reading or writing but looking at the students as someone who brings their beliefs, their culture and their personal experiences to the classroom. One essential point in my teaching practice is the personal contact with my students. It is necessary that teachers get familiar with the different concerns that affect students. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to know who my students are. Social conditions in public schools are different and very difficult and those conditions affect students learning.   Many of my students work for living, handle with social problems like violence or drugs and even many of them do not have parents that support their learning process. We as teachers should bear in mind that our work deals with human beings rather than subjects. Consequently, I try to talk to my students and listen to them. Obviously, you as a teacher needs to show students what responsibility is even when we have difficult times. Moreover, some students are just sitting down in the classroom because they have to, but they are not really involved in learning. The challenge is to have students invested in the learning process.
For those reasons, teachers need to provide students meaningful and interesting experiences at the school, to make students feel that they really need to attend classes and construct their own knowledge and what it is more important teachers need to make students look at education as the only way they have to change their reality. 

JOURNAL 2

During a class I like to engage students in different kind of activities: individual, pair and group work. In spite of I have a large class, I try to provide all the students the chance to participate actively.  In order to develop some skills in my students I apply different activities into the classroom: role plays, dialogues and written exercises. My students usually prefer to record their performances than to act in front of the class. When they record, I use to show their works and they really enjoy it. For that kind of activities, the school has a bilingual computer room where we can work listening exercises, watching videos, worksheet solving using Word or Power Point. Unfortunately, that computer room does not have internet access but I try to take advantage of the tool.

When I develop a lesson plan, I always begin by asking myself what my students should know and how they can apply what they learn, for example: talking about their daily routine, buying a soda at the cafeteria or describe a Colombian celebration.  To that end, it is necessary to provide real examples and make students use the language in real situations and relate what they learn with their real context. So, a teacher must provide structure and direction in the tasks that students have to carry out. It is necessary that students have a clear idea about what teacher expects them to do in the classroom and in their assignments.  In order to practice the language, I like to organize the English Day so that the students can participate actively showing their talents. As a result, students feel enthusiastic about showing their best performances.

Learning is not an ending process and the teacher is a learner too. I strongly believe that teachers need to continue their professional growth, to do so, teachers can be part of educational associations, to attend conferences or doing advanced studies are excellent strategies to be updated in terms of new methodologies and strategies that emerge every day. Nowadays, technology also provides you a lot of tools to apply with your students. One important aspect is that students are very different today than some years ago so teachers require to share their classroom experiences and gain knowledge from other colleagues too.  

JOURNAL 1

JOURNAL No. 1

La Plata, Huila September 23th 2015

            I would like to share my experience with the class in tenth level. In 1004, there is a student who likes English a lot, his name is Alejandro. Alejandro dedicates most of his free time listening to English songs, watching films and chatting with friends that he has met in the social networks. In fact, he is a student who helps their partners during a lesson because he is the first one that finishes the activities.  Those previous conditions make me think of a different activity for him. After talking to Alejandro, one of the ideas was that he could prepare an oral presentation about any topic. I agree with him, but I recommended that the topic was suitable for all their partners, because when working with teenagers, teachers notice that there are many topics that are quite “complicated” to work. For example: topics related to drugs, racism, sex, ect.    

            During some weeks, Alejandro was reading a short story called “Lost in the cave” and he prepared a power point presentation. Unfortunately, when he was going to present their final work something happened with the equipment. The video beam did not work, the computer did not recognize the file or there was not a classroom for the presentation. Those previous problems teachers have to handle when working with technology. Finally the day arrives and Alejandro could present his topic.

            What I like the most about this presentation was their partners’ attitude and behavior. They were listening to him, paying attention and quite astonished. Alejandro talked about the experience of three friends who had lost in a cave. He used pictures and tries to explain the details of the story. At the end, the students could ask questions but anybody participate. I did not understand the meaning of that silence, but when Alejandro finished, I asked the students if they had understood what he described and many of them talked about general and main ideas, in fact, they use their first language to retell the story. For me, it was perfect! My students have got the message, maybe they do not know in that moment the expressions in English to express their ideas. What is more, Alejandro’s partners wanted to know the strategy that he used to speak English in the way he did. The answer of Alejandro was this: “If you want to learn English, you have to do an extra effort and think that you can learn it….” (English version).