Initial Reflection

April 10^th, 2012

Writing this kind of reflection is never easy for me, but I will try and do my best.

As for the first item, I must say my personal goals are related more specifically to learning about ESP. I have always heard about it, but never been a student in an ESP class, let alone a teacher. I get the impression that ESP teaching is an interesting job, with career prospects and job opportunities, and that, once I have had the proper training and gained enough experience, it would suit me very well. What is more, it seems likely that people who take up ESP lessons are old and personally motivated enough to make an effort to learn English, or at least more so than kids and teenagers for whom studying the language is not a personal choice.

On the other hand, material design is not something I am very fond of and not something I find easy to do, in all honesty. So another personal challenge (and goal) I take up is to learn how to go about it in the hope that it will become easier for me and, in being easier, it will also be something I enjoy more than I do at present.

Regarding TEYL, I am interested in acquiring and learning some strategies to teach children in a way that is appealing to them. Even though I have taught English to many kids, I still do not quite get the grasp of how to make them enjoy the process of learning, and that is something I need to become familiar and comfortable with.

Moving on to my perceived strengths as a teacher, there are a few. First, I am patient with students, and even when I am frustrated, angry, or disappointed at them, I never let up or give up on them, and keep trying to help them develop English skills and to grow as person. Second, I constantly try to improve as a teacher and as a person myself, and I try, too, not to be to complacent with my abilities as a teacher. I am always trying to learn from other teachers and my students, and I try to be humble enough to acknowledge my flaws and mistakes. Finally, I also make an effort to become involved (in a healthy way) with my students' lives, so that I can not only teach them, but also create bonds with them in a way that will help them grow from every aspect.

Weaknesses, I have many, as well. To begin with, I found that I sometimes seem to harsh to my students because I do not control the tone of my voice. I have been told a few times that, unknowingly to me, my voice seems to be a bit authoritarian and tough, when it is completely unnecessary. Not knowing how to include creative ideas in my teaching is also a difficulty I have. Very often I come up with ideas that I think would be nice to incorporate in the classroom, but then I never seem to find the time to give them a proper shape and make them fit in my teaching, and instead, I get stuck with doing the same thing every class. Finally - and I think this is my major weakness as a teacher – it very usually happens to me that if students are not being enthusiastic and are tired and unwilling to work, their emotions become contagious and it is almost impossible for to try to be active or enthusiastic myself!

To work on that problem, this year I will attempt to remind myself of this difficulty at the beginning of each class and learn how to deal with students' moods in a way that, without creating an unwanted response (such as them getting angry at me for being "phonyly" perky or chipper), I can manage to keep my good spirits and hopefully "infect" them with "good vibes." I think I could also make sure that I devote some time to preparing special activities for those days in which students are not at full speed, so that I am ready to deal with the situation in a way that is productive for both me and the students.

Materials Development for the ESP context: Post-presentation and feedback reflection

Materials Development for the ESP context: Post-presentation and feedback reflection

With respect to team-planning, I will once again say I liked working with Melisa. We make a good team in the sense that we both do as much as we both can “independently” of the other, given the responsibilities and duties we each have. What I mean is that we both took the liberty to move forward with the tasks by ourselves in a particular week, for example, and not do so and let the other work in another week and then, when we could, we got together and discussed what we had done so far. In this way, instead of waiting for that moment when our schedules finally allowed us to meet and thus waste time by not doing anything until we could get together, each of us simply built on the other person’s work and then we both commented on and made decisions about our work.

As regards the presentation itself, I believe the feedback is almost the same I might have given myself. I agree that some of the slides contained too much information, for example. 

Once again, I, too, noticed that during my presentation I got somewhat muddled when I talked about elaboration and I had to move forwards and backwards in the PowerPoint presentation. In our report, elaboration is dealt with after considering many other aspects of text selection, and the slides were designed according to the presentation. When I was rehearsing the oral delivery, nonetheless, I decided to move the explanation on elaboration forward but did not even think about the order in which the slides were organized (in my mind, the presentation – even when I had seen it many times – was just fine and coincided with the order in which I wanted to present things). I guess I simply assumed that I remembered how the slides where laid out, instead of rehearsing my oral presentations together with the slides. This is something I now realize I should not take for granted next time.

I realized, as well, that our presentation seemed to drag on for ages, probably because we focused too much on presenting the details of the theoretical background. After seeing the first presentations (by other classmates), I remember thinking that a good idea was to make the rationale for the tasks interact with the reading comprehension tasks in themselves; i.e., to go back and forth between one and the other so that the theory could be appreciated in the actual tasks we designed. Nonetheless, I think we did not achieve this. My feeling, during and after Melisa’s and my presentation, was that we took eighty per cent of the time to speak about theory and then, in just a few minutes, we showed the tasks. I believe this is what made our presentation somewhat long and maybe a bit boring.

In response to another of the evaluator’s comments, I should say that I had not become aware that my use of discourse markers was ineffective. I think I unconsciously go to a more practical way of introducing things, rather than trying to focus on following a specific structure and signalling each stage every time. I think this is my way of dealing with topics in general, because I believe the new generations (the ones I will have to teach) work in this way – I actually once heard a remarkable anthropologist and sociologist, Josefina Dartelongue, saying this. Maybe these are the reasons why I forget to pay attention to the use of discourse markers, but I will keep the comments in mind for the future.

Finally, I had not thought about the fact that it might be better to exclude the conclusion from the outline. I think we just simply assumed that, because we were advised to outline our presentation – and because the concluding remarks were part of the presentation –, we had to name this last section in our outline.

On a different note, I am glad you liked our “ludic” idea of giving the presentation a congress-like atmosphere. We are actually happy that we are allowed to take those sorts of liberties in the teaching-training program, because it is the kind of thing that lets us “have fun” with academic work and brings joy to the rest of the class as well.

Final Reflection

November 26th, 2012

FINAL Reflection

Reading my initial reflection was quite funny, because I honestly had no idea what I had written! I had forgotten about the goals I set up for myself. In relation to these, one was learning about ESP. I must say I actually learned a lot about the field. Of course, I learned about “theory”, and not so much practice, but that is the way things are due to time constraints. I had never thought about such things as needs analysis, a reading-only focus, or the significant differences that actually exist between General English and English for Specific Purposes. At the same time, the wide range of approaches for course design and class teaching is something I was not so acquainted with, and in all honesty, my mind has been broadened as to the possibilities there exist for teaching English. Just to epitomize what I am saying, I love the rationale behind the task-based approach and the different possibilities that framework materials open up, and I had never heard of these things before.

Another goal I had set for myself was to get the hang of materials development, in the hope that that would make me better at the task and help me enjoy it. I cannot really say that I achieved this objective. I think the second term was really quite very hectic, and I had to carry out so the materials design tasks in quite a hurry. Probably because I could not really get my head all that much in the process, I do not feel that I have really learned what I hoped I would. Still, I was able to get an idea of how complicated the process is, what many aspects must be considered, and much time is needed.

A third aim I wanted to accomplish was to become aware of more tools or strategies that might make TEYL classes more appealing to students. This I definitely learned. In class, we were able to share myriad ideas that I would have never thought of or that I did not think worked. My mind opened up to new strategies, games, how to manage the kids and the like.

Now that I think about it, this has been a year of learning about different possibilities and enlarging my perspectives. Every new possibility that opened up in class or reading the class materials prompted an idea in my head that led me to coming up with more creative was of teaching. The challenge once I start to work will be to see whether they work and how to apply them.

As for the weakness I had acknowledged in the final reflection, the truth is I did not have the chance to teach any classes this year, so I did not have the opportunity to see how I could manage them.

Finally, I think I managed to broaden my mind this year and tap into my creativity. I became aware of the potential for creativity I have within myself. I must strive, from now on, to exploit it and be brave enough to always try new things.

Post-Storytelling Session Reflection

August 1st, 2012

Post-Storytelling Session Reflection

Information on the task

Courses: Children 1 and 2

School: Cultura Británica

Date: July 20th

Time: 10.00 – 10.30

Number of students: About 25

Ages: Between 8 and 10

The whole experience of storytelling was quite new. I had read stories to children before, but not really told any. In addition, I had not prepared a story, either.

Overall, I enjoyed the task, but not all throughout.

The planning stage was very fun. Adapting the story we had found and coming up with the details of how to tell it was not difficult, but at times I was not sure that our idea would pan out as planned. While wrapping the magic box, and preparing the chest and all the details, though, I was not very worried. I just relaxed and thought "We will do the best we can and hopefully it will be a success." Furthermore, I had fun working with my classmate, and the teacher's suggestions and comments we actually reassuring, so at this stage, the heebie-jeebies were not present.

The minutes before the actual task, though, made a whole different story. Contrary to what had happened before, my classmate was very much relaxed and I allowed myself to freak out a little. I started to think about what we would do if the children did not get engaged, whether what we had planned would work out, whether the kids would understand the story and respond to it, whether they would have fun or just give us bored faces! I remember, too, re-thinking what we had already decided: would the kids really understand that particular word? Should we have included a princess to make the story more appealing to girls? Was the story too short? Was the story too complex?        

Luckily, when the moment of truth arrived, I managed to keep my head on (generally speaking) and just played my role. The fact that I was working together with a classmate was a big help.

During the telling of the story, I must say I loved to see that quite a few kids were engaged, and participating! I actually had a lot of fun looking at their faces and reactions, and interacting with them. I was a bit worried about the girls, who did not seem so interested, but I managed to keep up the enthusiasm. The best part was when the kids all wanted to come up front and take a pick at the chest, and when they all helped to answer my classmate's questions ("Is there a dog there? Is there gold? Is there a cat?") and laughed at them. Finally, I must say I just love kids, and it is nice to be able to remember that I do with these type of activities.

A few final comments are in order. Firstly, it is really nice to find that "the magic of storytelling" still works with the new generations. I had not really considered storytelling as part of a children's class, probably because I did not think that kids today would enjoy that type of activity, but I realized that the task is actually very engaging. Secondly, storytelling really is as difficult as one hears it is. Preparing a story, pitching it at the right level, drawing on one's creativity and performance abilities, and managing to really exploit a story with children are not easy aspects to master. Hopefully, with a lot of practice, I will become a good storyteller someday (I hope I will, because I really enjoyed it!).

Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar's Paper: Post-presentation and feedback reflection

Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar's Paper: Post-presentation and feedback reflection

As regards team-planning, I must say I liked working with Melisa. It was easy and comfortable, because it was practical in the sense that we wasted no time on silly matters, but simply did our jobs, divided the tasks effectively and then decided how to organize the presentation itself. Of course, this was possible because we had worked together before, and because, after having been classmates for 5 years now, we are aware of the each other's skills and therefore trust each other.

                        As regards the presentation per sé, I will personally try to keep in mind the reasons for not reading aloud straight from the slide. I believe I assumed that everything was clear because my classmates said they understood, but the advice is worth taking notice of so as to fully exploit the potential of visual aids in the "appropriate" way as opposed to simply using them as summarized information for the audience. I am referring partly to the fact that reading aloud directly from the slides might hamper instead of help comprehension, and partly to the fact that, as mentioned in the feedback sheet, the presentation should aim not only at making comprehension easier but also at making retention of the information more easily achievable.

            I was somewhat (but humbly) surprised to hear that the use of discourse-markers was not effective, but I guess it is one of those things that at a certain point you assume you know and therefore stop thinking about. I will try and keep the issue in mind in the future.

            As for the experience of being a presenter, on the other hand, I must say I enjoy it! Presentations have always been proof to me that being in front of the classroom –that is, being a teacher- is something I like. I think that despite the many "flaws" I still have to work on, I generally manage to build good rapport  with the audience and to have fun together with them. I think I also usually succeed in entertaining the audience, thus making presentations light-going. For all this reasons, I like being in the shoes of a presenter. Of course, because I try to have fun during presentations, I might forget the context I am in, and probably that is why the use of informal expressions, such as "That's it" as a concluding remark, comes up. I will try to be careful next time.

            Finally, I would like to refer to the comments on the conclusion. I believe that even though my personal conclusion was not presented as such, it was present in the reflection I tried to carry out together with the audience, and during other parts of the presentation as well. I tried to convey my ideas in the form of questions that served as food for thought. However, again, I will try to make things different next time.