Journal Entries

Journal Entry 1

Here, under this topic, I will talk about my overall teaching ability in practicum. First of all, I should admit that I love teaching a lot, because I love students, kids and that’s why I want to be with them. I observed almost eight different classes in practicum and too many different individuals. They were not kids but individuals. When I stepped into class, I opened up my ears, my eyes and woke up, said “Hi” and at that moment was ready to learn and teach. I worked with sixth graders and was supposed to teach endangered animals. I used pictures and power point to make them see animals clearly and understand the points easily. I generally focused on reading and making exercise because the topic was very new to them. It was an introduction to animals. I first started with a question: “What does endangered animal mean?” in order to focus their attention on the topic and that particular vocabulary because the whole lesson was about that. The class got excited and some of them were curious about it. Then I showed them pictures and we played a game with 5 different pictures of animals. They liked it and got ready to take initiative to start the lesson. I gave them a reading passage and read it together. The passage explains why some animals are endangered or become extinct. I tried to focus on these two words. The, I asked questions to test their understanding and what I saw was that they did not understand the passage at all and we had some problems. In this case, I tried to ask questions based on the explations in the passage to trigger them, but at the same time I provided scaffolding and we answered questions together; I made further explanations. Then we moved into exercises to get things right and to have more clear knowledge. Overall, anything unusual did not occur and I did nor depart from lesson plan. Time was enough and everything went smoothly except my feedback. I was, let’s say, to harsh while giving feedback to students. For example, when they said something incorrect, I immediately said : “No”. This type of teacher behavior makes students scare and unwilling to participate to class discussions another time. I should have been softer and understable. I was expecting too much and I thought that they would understand everything when I first told them, but no. This is impossible. However, more or less they learnt and I was happy to see it.  Apart from these, I was kind to them and gave enough time to answer my questions and think about them. I would maybe put more enjoyable things to lesson plan if I had had a chance to change it. They were a little bit sleepy, so I could do something to wake them up. Although worksheets were full of animal pictures and just had short answers, we could have kinesthetic activities. They are in middle: not young and not adult learners, so it is difficult to manage them. Lastly, I think it was an effective lesson for me; at least I’ve learnt how to give feedback!

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Journal Entry 2

In this entry, I will talk about my third official presentation.  It was with prep class. I was supposed to make an introduction to passive voice. They did not have any knowledge about that particular grammar structure. I departed from lesson plan, because things did not go as I thought. Firstly, I started the lesson with some questions to warm them up about the topic. Whether they know it or not, I tried to make them to motivate them to learn it, because we have it in our native tongue. Then starts the lesson and I gave them a worksheet which simply explains the structure. We went over it and ı saw that they did not understand it very much. Then I tried to explain it one more time and some of them seemed to got it while others were still in doubt. Then, I went over the exercises, which were very simple. There were some sentences on the board projected and it was very visual. Clues were given and they were supported with enough knowledge. However, somehow, it was not clear to some of them, and they started to be afraid of making mistake. I saw it and took everything from the beginning and explained things in a different way this time. Then, they got it and we continued. If I had a chance to do it again, I would definetely took more time for explanation part. I thought that it was too easy for them and went over it quickly, but no, that wasn’t the case.  We lost time on it, so I could not do my last activity, which is “information gap activity”. However, fourtunately, at the end, they learnt it and I did not realise how time went by. It was too fast and I thought I could not catch up with anything. I did. They learnt the structure and I was happy.  What I learnt was I should have known my learners more. I thought their profile was higher and they could understand it due to both their age and knowledge. So, maybe explanation part could be more effective.  I took each and every minute to teach them but all of them. It was very important for me. What I liked most in class that they were clear and told me when they did not understand something. I said at the very beginning : “you can ask me whenever you have a problem or are not clear”. I think this worked. Students feel comfortable when teachers help them and feel free to contact with them. They need you and your benignity, otherwise they can’t stand on their own. You will not be the authority but a guide standing next to them. That’s what I did with that class.