FINAL REFLECTION

Thanks to this last practicum, I have been able to learn new things and improve some aspects of my teaching. Some of them were related to classroom management and the use of English in class, since in previous internships I was able to observe that it was difficult for me to control the class in specific situations or not to use too much Catalan or Spanish. Apart from those element, I have also increased my confidence as a teacher and discovered new resources I can use in my class. It can be found a deep analysis of all the good remarkable learnings below.

• Classroom management. One of the most difficult aspects of being a teacher that I could experience during the different practicums is how to control the class. Doing dynamic and fun activities is the best option to make children learn while they have fun. However, it implies high voice volume and a lot of movement and excitement, which of course are not bad things but sometimes they are difficult to manage. During this practicum I have experienced a little improvement in my management skills, since for example I have found some techniques or resources to keep students’ attention. One day, I asked a student to start clapping his hands in front of the clas when everybody was shouting and working. At that moment, all of them started imitating him and when I told him to stop, everybody stopped. It was nice because afterwards they were paying attention and we used this resource along the unit. It was very helpful.
• Use of English. Using the L2 with students who are not very proficient is challenging and sometimes I realized I used their mother tongue too much. For this reason, in the implementation of this practicum I tried to use other resources such as asking classmates to tell the rest what I said or using other definitions.
• Confidence. This implementation of the teaching unit was quite demanding because it included some tough activities and technology use, which many times do not work as expected. Through this practicum I have gained some confidence to face up changes in the planning and to be in front of a class comfortably. For instance, one day the iPads did not work properly and I solved the situation by using the good ones in pairs and creating a draft together to create their final product. Moreover, some activities had to be ‘eliminated’ from the planning and I reorganized the activities a short time before the lesson.
• Resources. Thanks to the internship and the seminars, I have learnt many resources to use in class, since each of us had to present a different one. What is more, we had to look for some digital resources for our implementation and the teacher presented us many other. I must say this practicum was very useful to get ideas and tools for my future teaching.

THE SCHOOL

My experience in the school has been very gratifying, I believe it is a nice school to do an internship. Firstly, all the school staff was very nice and helpful along the internship. They were always ready to collaborate and provide whatever I needed. Regarding English in the school, it must be pointed out that this subject is very well planned and directed. The teacher does not use books, but hands-on and dynamic activities to develop all the contents students have to go through. Moreover, she has created a nice collaboration project with the English teacher from another school in which students develop different skills through the use of iPads and wide range of applications. What is more, once a week students have one hour and a half of ‘Science’, where they do all the staff in English at the same time they learn about this subject matter. As a student teacher, I have been able to create the activities I have needed, to implement any kind of lesson I proposed and I have been given the option to intervene and help the teacher and students at any time. What is more, I have been able to prepare any kind of materials to use in the classroom and I have been very lucky to be able to include iPads and smartboards to my teaching.

MY FUTURE AS A TEACHER

I believe all the things learnt during this practicum and the whole degree will be used in my teaching. After this time, I can say that I feel confident enough to be an English teacher, since I have very clear which are the aspects I would like to include in my teaching, to motivate students to learn and discover, such as technology, games, dynamics and a lot of speaking practice. Regarding classroom management, as I have previously mentioned, is one of the teaching aspects that I am most worried about. I think this is something that is learnt after time and experience, since I have observed and felt my attitude’s improvement in class. The resources discovered have been very useful and will become even more helpful in my future as a teacher, since I have observed how helpful and engaging for children they can be. Moreover, they are also very util to help the teacher with the lessons, preparing the activities or even as assessment tools, which save a lot of time. For me, the most important thing when thinking about my future as a teacher is to reach all characteristics I think a teacher must have. I would like to be a hard-working and dedicated teacher, creative, innovative, patient, empathetic, supportive, friendly, caring and the most important thing, I would like to make my kids feel they can rely on me and establish a comfortable environment of learning and sharing in my class.

Some things I believe I still need to improve are those:

• To learn how to give clearer explanations, using the blackboard and making use of all the elements of the class to reach as many students as possible.
• To improve my assessment strategies, since I believe sometimes are very traditional and do not include all the students’ learning styles.
• To learn how to deal with parents in meetings.
• To learn how to deal with difficult situations and how to transmit important values to my children.

Of course, there are many other things I should improve and even discover once I become a teacher. However, I believe everything can be learnt after working and dedicating hours. The best way to learn is by doing, so just experience will make me improve and become a great teacher, which I am sure I will be.

SEMINARS’ REFLECTION

I decided to create an infographic to ‘evaluate’ the seminars to make it visual and clearly see which are the good things I have gained and which aspects could be improved.