Journal Colombo

 On this 11th day of classes I had to do another language cycle and communicative moment, along with a section of parents meeting. I think I learned a lot from the previous week, I wanted to be more organised and to better manage my time. For this reason, I was able to plan my assigned sections with more peace of mind let's say. It is still difficult for me but I didn't rush as much as I did last week. As for the parent's meeting, I was really really nervous to speak in front of the kid's and teen's parents. I did the section of the student's report, where I informed them of how the course was going and of any recommendations. I tried my best delivering this information and trying to hide my nervousness, so I think I did well; Nidia also remarked that I did a good job so it was very reassuring. On the othe hand, I feel like the kids and preteens are starting to get me as a teacher. It is still not easy for me but I think the more classes go by the more I'm u...

This day was very challenging. I had a very tough week overall, and I couldn't organise myself how I would've liked to, so teacher Nidia helped me out a lot with these classes. I find the language cycle quite difficult to plan, I have a hard time thinking of activities for the different stages, so that got me really overwhelmed and stressed out. While in the class with the kids, I feel like I could've done a lot better in the delivery of the lesson, but it was fine. With the preteens I felt more confident so I think it went well. After the class ended, I had various discussions with my team teacher Nidia about how to improve in preparing, planning, delivering, etc, the classes so it is easier for me and I don't feel as saturated as I felt. In other news, I feel like the kids are very smart and they sucessfully do all exercises from, for example, the langauge cycle part. Of course there are some that need to further practice, but in general they understand and develop al...

 On this ninth day of classes I was still feeling pretty sick. I had yet to recover from the flu that hit me really hard that week, but despite my health issues I was able to make it on saturday. This saturday was the quiz, so I mostly observed the way my team teacher gave the review of both courses and then helped monitor while they did the quiz. She had similar strategies with both groups while doing the review, using mostly exercises from the book and fill in the blanks activities to practice their writing skills. Most of the students seemed prepared for the quiz, there were just a couple from each group that still seemed kind of lost in some topics. While they were doing the quiz, I went around along with my team teacher to monitor their work and to answer questions if necessary. The kids seem very comfortable in asking for my help, which made me feel at ease as I've always been more than happy to resolve their queries. It was a good assessment experience overall!

 On this day I was feeling kind of sick so I feel I could’ve donde better in both classes. I did my interventions on the global skill activity part of the class. I thought a lot about it because I wanted to do something fun and meaningful. With the kids I did an activity on being good citizens, and with the preteens I prepared something on the intercultural aspect. I did these as they were connected to the topics in class and because my team teacher hadn’t done those. I think the intercultural awareness is very important, i’d like students to reflect on culture and diversity more in the classroom, this so they can have it in my mind while learning the language.

 This day was a bit different than the others. Because of a change I had to do in schedules due to my thesis project at the university, I couldn't attend the class I usually have with the preteens. For this reason, I had to accompany teacher Nidia in a class she has prior to the kids. This class is online and also with kids, and so I had the chance to observe this one. These kids are on the same path as the class with my usual kids. By observing this class I realised how difficult it is to do an online class with little kids; even though my team teacher was doing a great job in my opinion, sometimes the kids were inevitably distracted or, in some cases, lost. Because it was my first and last time with this group, I didn't prepare the warm up nor the assessment, but I did monitor and help the kids in their mini groups when they had to practice conversations. It was a new and challenging experience. We then had class with my usual kids. I feel like I'm getting to know them be...