PERSONAL EVALUATION of the PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE in SECONDARY

Paula SchulzeOctober, 2015

Introduction:In this third and last stage of my practicum period, once again I

have the feeling that I have put into practice more than a few of the topics we have covered in the last 5 years, not with little effort! To achieve this, I have also tried to use all my previous experience and in this way accomplish the goals of this phase. Truly speaking and knowing that each period has its challenges and characteristics, teaching in this secondary level at a private school has been a real pleasure; I felt really comfortable with this group-level as well as the target language required to deal with it.

Development:At this point and thinking back, I can say that my pedagogical

plan was in accordance to the learners’ needs, reality, and abilities. Therefore, I truly felt at ease with the theory and the practice most of the time. I could experience a great satisfaction of merging what I had academically learned the previous years with the students’ response but also, and at the same time, being myself. My expectations were high, as they had been in the previous stages, but as I was pleased with the whole process I underwent while learning, planning and teaching mainly, now I feel they have been fulfilled or met. At times, while teaching I sensed as if the theoretical aspects of my professional development were already incorporated in the practice and that feeling was fantastic!

The process of planning was tough, not because of the topics themselves but because I had to closely follow the schedule of the teaching and revising topics that I had prepared with the teacher of the group. This is so because the students were being trained to sit for the First Certificate Exam. Then, when the practicum classes started, I became little by little more secure with the topics to be taught and the management of the group itself and I knew I could fulfill the topics we had planned to cover. Besides, finding different teaching strategies was

also another challenge. To cope with it, I tried to use interactive, emotional and engaging tactics as resources for the learners to process the new and several grammar structures, for example, they had to learn during my six classes.

Like what I had done in primary, in these secondary plans I included the stage in which students had to explain again what they had to do so as to check they had understood, so this strategy to check understanding of the instructions was used like in the previous stages with great results. I also included the metacognitive aspect of asking the students what they consider they had learnt. In both cases they were of great importance to have the expected outcome. I mention these aspects because before given the classes, I thought probably they would not be necessary as the learners were in 4th year of secondary but giving it a second thought I considered them really relevant to their language learning process and so I kept them in my plans with positive results.

Talking specifically about the group, I can say that one of its characteristics is that most of the learners have the same level at the time of considering their knowledge of the target language so, practically all the learners, participated actively in most of the classes. Of course, some of them, and due to their personality, did it spontaneously while others had to be invited to do so. This infrequent situation of not having a mixed ability group really helped me to concentrate my efforts and attention on the learners as a whole at the time of assigning tasks or demanding answers, for example.

Thinking forward, I think I would like to improve the time management so as to promote this perfect cycle there should be in each class, broadly speaking: the revision, teaching, practice and self-evaluation steps. As regards the rapport with the learners I think I have absolutely achieved it since before starting the class, I always like to chat with most of them about their weekends, family matters, extracurricular activities, etc or include those topics when working in class. Nevertheless, I seriously believe that I have to keep on working to know my students deeply on their handle of the target language not only to help them on their weaknesses but also and mainly to foster and promote their strengths. Consequently, this will create good conditions in the classroom.

Reflecting about my emotions, I can say that I was worried I would feel sort of lost or insecure as regards my teaching style, the

students´ needs and level and also with the classroom environment! This is so because the classroom teacher has many years of experience in this level and at this school so she has known most of the students’ development for a long time. So I was cautious and tried to pave the way to designing classes tailor made, I mean, in accordance to my style and the students’ one form my point of view. How did I do it? Mainly observing the students while working and asking them how they felt/liked the classes and finally through their response to the activities proposed. Fortunately, everything went well or as I expected.

When taking into account the others’ viewpoints, I can say that both, the tutor and the teacher who observed my classes were of great relevance. The observer was watching my classes really closely and at times that made me feel very tense because she was considering aspects that sometimes you cannot control during the first classes when you are nervous, trying to cope with the new situation and to grasp the students’ attention among many other things plus all at the same time! I have to confess that reading her comments after each class at times was a bit discouraging: the negative aspects were always much more than the positive ones. However, I knew I had the tutor´s support and besides there is always time and room for improvement!

Personal Conclusions:It is clear that becoming a good teacher is a life-long process, a

process with a beginning but no end since now, more than ever, I feel we can invite the students to “do” many things with the target language in but also outside the classroom. In this teaching /learning route, efforts and obstacles will undoubtedly help me to enhance my teaching practice in many areas making it really meaningful as well. This last period has been intensive emotionally speaking because it was the last one and the most difficult one as regards the level of the structures I had to teach. But on the other hand, I was really enthusiastic since I feel I have grown academically but also as regards experience. This gives me a new perspective at the time of standing in front of a class. I have tools to support my decisions at the time of choosing this activity or not the other one, for example, since I know why they could be better or not according to the students´ needs or interests. Lastly, I am much more motivated and convinced that I am on the right track to getting the most of my professional knowledge and development.