Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Our monitor, Ellen Ferreira, tells us about her first experience teaching a Junior A group


          The main aim of this activity was to enable students to talk about their possessions. I started the activity by drawing a girl and her characteristics were written around the picture, on the board. There were bubbles that said “I have…/ I don’t have…”, and the students had to say which characteristics the girl had and didn’t have. Knowing what she had or didn’t have, students would be able to understand what Samira (name given by a student) was saying about herself.
              What really worked was using gestures to indicate affirmative and negative sentences. Therefore, students were able to associate the positive gesture with “I have…”, while negative sentences became “I don’t have…”. Having grasped that, the students could produce these sentences about themselves.
              As I was nervous, in the middle of the activity I decided to change the instructions. When I finished the explanation, some students seemed a little bit confused, not because they didn’t understand what I was saying, but because they were kind of ashamed to start a conversation. So, I started to talk to them. The reason why I wasn’t calm was the fact that I was being observed by someone much more experienced.  
              What I really learnt this week about teaching (even for a few minutes) was that it’s necessary to trust  myself and also the students. They are really able to learn, and it was noticed while the class was happening and the teacher explained all the activities, even in a brisk pace. The experience was awesome and I really enjoyed it.

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