Today I have attended a couple of classes. They have been so different one to the other, I have now a lot of things to think about. What kind of teacher would I like to be? Do I need to prepare the classes beforehand? Why is discipline so important? Thanks to today, now I know what really matters…
I was first with my tutor with half of Group D2 (the other half was doing a conversation class with a native speaking teacher). On our way to the classroom, my tutor has explained me the groups of more than 20 students must per law be divided into two groups one hour per week. I didn´t know about this, so this piece of information has been very useful to understand the timetable of teachers and students. Once in class, after the usual call for general silence, my tutor has started asking some questions about what they like and what they don´t like. It has been a very positive starting point as it has called the attention of the students and my tutor has taken the chance to continue with today’s activity: a listening. Being only 11 students in class, we have asked them to seat forming a semicircle. This sitting arrangement has provided a warmer atmosphere to carry out the class, so both the students and we have felt one another closer. It was a difficult listening, my tutor has informed the students accordingly. But what really matters, she has continued, is trying to catch as many words as possible. Then, working together we will be able to find out what the listening is about. So we have done. After listening the recording, the students have written in the blackboard different words and sentences they had understood, one by one. What a motivation! They put their hands up and stood up all the time, so many of them wanted to write on the blackboard the words they had understood! Once the listening was finished, we have discussed all together what the text was about: nice surprise to see they had understood more than we had expected!
After this class, we have decided I should go with the native teacher so that I could observe the dynamic of a conversation class. This native teacher is in fact an Erasmus student doing a practicum in IES Bernat el Ferrer. She is managing the conversation classes in all those hours the groups must be divided during the whole school year 2008-2009. The class has been in the library and it has started ten minutes late as the door of the library was locked. I have realized life is a Secondary School is sometimes unpredictable, things don’t always happen as you would expect. The students were a bit noise in the corridors while the concierge was coming up to the first floor to unlock the door. But once in, the students have continued with their noise and their loud conversations… The native teacher was trying to speak, but she never called for silence. I was waiting for her to do so, but strangely, she never did. I felt like doing it myself, but then I thought that, as she was not my tutor I didn´t have the right to do so. I have tried to help in a more discreet, with a serious face staring at the noisy students… until one of the students has noticed me and has called for general silence in Spanish. They have calmed down. She has made the students sit in a circle around two big tables and she was sitting in one of the sides. Short after she had started the class, some students have started complaining in Spanish they weren’t able to hear not to see her. So, while the teacher was speaking, a couple of students at the other end of the table have started speaking to me in a loud voice in Spanish to ask me if I could tell her to sit in a circle arrangement without the tables. Surprised because they were asking me instead of her, I have answered them to try to ask her direclty in English using the words they have already learnt. Quantity, not quality. I thought. And so he has done. With a simple “Can’t see” and the word “circle” the teacher has clearly understood his message and she has organized the class with a different sitting arrangement. But the boys have continued asking me questions in Spanish, now if they should take the books and the notebook or only the notebook or only the book... And once more, I have given them the same answer: “Ask her!”, trying not to become their conspiratorial translator. Once the class has calmed down again and has adopted the new sitting arrangement, the native teacher has started the class. To her surprise, the students have informed her they had already done that exercise with my tutor, so she has fallen silent, not knowing how to react. It seems she had not prepared any alternative lesson. I have felt I had to help in this situation and I have suggested her in a low voice to go over the lesson again: different teacher, less students, different sitting arrangement, so why not a conversational approach of this session. It could be a useful activity anyway. In the meantime, the students were speaking loud and noisy again, until another student has called for silence once more. All of a sudden, they have become quiet. They know how they are expected to behave in class. And this is from my point of view what the native teacher expected too. Then she has started asking them spontaneous questions about the lesson, to which the students have replied in order and correctly until the end of the class. When the bell rang, they have all collected their things, put the chairs and tables in their place and the students have gone out without saying goodbye.
After the day of today I have learned some important things: the importance of making aware your rules and discipline in class, of knowing when and how you have to ask for silence. Then, I have also learnt the importance of preparing the unit and an alternative lesson and the different pedagogic effects of using different sitting arrangement. And, finally, I have learnt how important it is the role of participation and cooperation in the teaching/learning process. It is the students who really matter. Cooperation has made them meet the goals of the listening activity in the first class. And now that I am back at home, I think I should have maybe participated more actively in the development of the second class... Well, next time!
After this class, we have decided I should go with the native teacher so that I could observe the dynamic of a conversation class. This native teacher is in fact an Erasmus student doing a practicum in IES Bernat el Ferrer. She is managing the conversation classes in all those hours the groups must be divided during the whole school year 2008-2009. The class has been in the library and it has started ten minutes late as the door of the library was locked. I have realized life is a Secondary School is sometimes unpredictable, things don’t always happen as you would expect. The students were a bit noise in the corridors while the concierge was coming up to the first floor to unlock the door. But once in, the students have continued with their noise and their loud conversations… The native teacher was trying to speak, but she never called for silence. I was waiting for her to do so, but strangely, she never did. I felt like doing it myself, but then I thought that, as she was not my tutor I didn´t have the right to do so. I have tried to help in a more discreet, with a serious face staring at the noisy students… until one of the students has noticed me and has called for general silence in Spanish. They have calmed down. She has made the students sit in a circle around two big tables and she was sitting in one of the sides. Short after she had started the class, some students have started complaining in Spanish they weren’t able to hear not to see her. So, while the teacher was speaking, a couple of students at the other end of the table have started speaking to me in a loud voice in Spanish to ask me if I could tell her to sit in a circle arrangement without the tables. Surprised because they were asking me instead of her, I have answered them to try to ask her direclty in English using the words they have already learnt. Quantity, not quality. I thought. And so he has done. With a simple “Can’t see” and the word “circle” the teacher has clearly understood his message and she has organized the class with a different sitting arrangement. But the boys have continued asking me questions in Spanish, now if they should take the books and the notebook or only the notebook or only the book... And once more, I have given them the same answer: “Ask her!”, trying not to become their conspiratorial translator. Once the class has calmed down again and has adopted the new sitting arrangement, the native teacher has started the class. To her surprise, the students have informed her they had already done that exercise with my tutor, so she has fallen silent, not knowing how to react. It seems she had not prepared any alternative lesson. I have felt I had to help in this situation and I have suggested her in a low voice to go over the lesson again: different teacher, less students, different sitting arrangement, so why not a conversational approach of this session. It could be a useful activity anyway. In the meantime, the students were speaking loud and noisy again, until another student has called for silence once more. All of a sudden, they have become quiet. They know how they are expected to behave in class. And this is from my point of view what the native teacher expected too. Then she has started asking them spontaneous questions about the lesson, to which the students have replied in order and correctly until the end of the class. When the bell rang, they have all collected their things, put the chairs and tables in their place and the students have gone out without saying goodbye.
After the day of today I have learned some important things: the importance of making aware your rules and discipline in class, of knowing when and how you have to ask for silence. Then, I have also learnt the importance of preparing the unit and an alternative lesson and the different pedagogic effects of using different sitting arrangement. And, finally, I have learnt how important it is the role of participation and cooperation in the teaching/learning process. It is the students who really matter. Cooperation has made them meet the goals of the listening activity in the first class. And now that I am back at home, I think I should have maybe participated more actively in the development of the second class... Well, next time!
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