Final reflection

Well, after a long long trip, I could finish my SS, the experience was harder than I thought it would be. I have to say that I will take these vacations as a resting and freedom time, being honest, during this period I didn't know what a social life was; I used to leave home at 6 am and arrived until 8 or 9 pm, you can see the exhausting it was. Fortunately, I had a big support from my boss in my new job, the institution where I did my SS, the parents involved, the kids and even my mother, because  she is a main piece in my life.
I would like to talk a bit of the parents and the institution itself, at the beginning, there was an incognite of why am I giving help for free for their kids, they were used to pay for everything and this was a release for them; during my last week there I received 3 gifts and 20 hugs from kids and their parents, they were really pleased and grateful for the help provided. It was just amazing for me to received this kind of affection , because sometimes we just do what we have to do, in order to get a grade, (which was my case at the beginning) but we finish with a big satisfaction about the work done.
In the case of the institution, the principal was really grateful with my work, she is planning to include the Tutorials as a every day class in the school, she could she the advance the students had in the subject and the pleased the parents were. I appreciate the way they treat me and the support, because even when I changed my job, they keep on going with the support I needed.
About the kids, they could increase their average, for third graders it was helpful because they are reaching a new level and they needed to increase their average for new purposes in another school.
I don't know what else to say, I feel free!..I'm going to take some vacations right now,

Take care everybody!

Joint Productive Activity

In order to create this activity, I thought of the three main aspects to do this, which are the kids, the parents and me.  I decided to take this week out of the plan, and make a project about electricity at school, which was the first idea that came to my mind, because right now the school is constructing a new building and the security is a little taken for granted and students are exposed to an accident. So, I talked to the students to do this and make a small presentation about the security rules at school, then I added something extra to the project, in order to involved parents and make them participate in the activity.

First, I divided the topic inside the topic, I mean a delimited the points we were going to touch in our presentation, these topics were: the electricity concepts and its importance in daily life, the campaign and the advices prevent accidents and the last one security rules and advices to save electricity.

I divided the 11 students in three teams; I chose a leader for each team. Then, I asked who of them has access to internet and video recorder at home, in order to know and make the teams. The first team had to make the research about the electricity, concepts and the importance in daily life. They had to summarize information, look for some images and main write in on in a poster to present it; they were needed to specific material and internet access, I checked the information and give some ideas to make the presentation which were taken in consideration in the presentation, I also monitored the way they work in the classroom. The second team had to make a campaign inside the school to prevent accidents, they made a small questionnaire to teachers and another one to the students, and we wanted to take some insights about school problems about electricity. After this, we went deeper to the classroom work and made a small pamphlet giving some advices with the information provided, I checked the information in the pamphlet and I also give them some ideas. These teams had to make another questionnaire guided to the student´s parents of the members of the group in order to involved parents and make them participate with their ideas, providing extra information to the pamphlet. They did the pamphlet and we showed in all the groups, so they could realize how to prevent accident at school and home, making emphasis in the construction they are seeing. The last team was the one who had to make a small commercial about the security rules that they had to follow to save electricity and prevent accidents at home, this is where they had to make a video recording; unfortunately we couldn´t make a video recording inside the school because it is forbidden but I asked the principal for permission to show the students the video made at home in each classroom, in here the students has to speak in English about electricity at home and give some rules to follow for all the members of the house don´t caring about age, they must follow it. I helped them in the classroom with the speech they were going to say, they wrote it and provide their own ideas, also, they asked their parents to participate in the videos, it only last 4 minutes. We showed the video as well with the pamphlet of the other team. We presented last on Wednesday, I asked for permission in my job to absent and help the kids in their performance at this school. We joint music to the presentation of the kids and the school helped us to give us copies to the groups, we only presented it in junior high groups and some elementary level groups because of the time I had to the performance.

It was good the participation of the kids, but in some cases, they forgot material, some of them absented some days, and one of them got sick, so we wasted more time. It was supposed to be presented on Monday because of the waste of time we had to move to Wednesday. But, the participation of the kids was the most important thing, besides they gave an overview of the importance of electricity. By the way, most of the parents attended to the presentation which was very important for the development of the activity.

Reflection

Despite of, I have a large communication with Prof. Evelyn Ponce, this dialogue left me many things. It helps me to extend my perspective about my labor. There are some situations that doesn´t let us to do the activities as good as we want to but we need to know how to deal with it. The most important thing is remember that the goal is being accomplished. =)

Partner Dialogue

I arranged to talk to Prof. Evelyn Ponce, she is in charge of the junior high groups in English subject, I prepared the dialogue on Saturday because we both are a little bit less busy.

We talked about the situation in the school and the development she has seen in the tutorials, I could see a significant interest on Evelyn , she is really happy with the actions my plan has had. This situation was necessary for the students, parents and even to the institution, because there had been a lack of interest on parents. We agreed that the community has some trouble about the perspective of a bilingual method; they think that the school must provide everything that the student need to success and their performance shouldn´t exist. Evelyn has seen the actions to put the parents inside the problematic about their kids, she also has seen the activities students has made and the improvement, by this time she recognized that the level on students has been increased but unfortunately the school still has trouble with the assistance they can provide to students. This program was my own program, but as Evelyn and I have seen  there is not enough support  in all the moments of the action plan, even when there is a commitment from them it hasn´t been followed as good as we wanted.

About the Joint Productive activities, we have also seen the interest on the kids about the workshop but many of them are not decided to attend, we need to remember that the workshop is not an obligation so, they take it for granted. We also talked about how some activities hasn´t been productive for some students especially in seventh grade because they can not put enough effort and this implies more effort by the teacher to explain a topic again, she agreed because she is dealing with the same guys everyday and it happens in daily classes.

Then, I showed the type of lesson I´, teaching and she found some of them very entertained and didactic, she gave me some advices about these lessons and ask me for permission to use some of them in her classes.

At the end, we agreed that we deal with many difficulties with students and parents, and the labor becomes harder. We deal to set another date at the end of the SS.

Progress

Well, everything seems to be in a good way, many of the students are improving but some others aren´t improving at all. They mentioned that now they feel more comfortable about learning English but their grades still under the average asked. I´m thinking about changing a bit on  my lesson plans because one of the students told me about the speed of the classes, and I´d rather to work slower in order to see the development of my students, I´m taking a record of the grades of the students in order to see the raise of grades. From the beginning to now they have increase their general average from 6.7 to 7.1....I know it is just a little considering how exhausted I´m but it seems to be good!

Monthly Results

Well, I think this is something I need to share in my blog. In the school where I´m doing my SS has a national test which is called MUNAC, this exam evaluates almost 60 schools from the same system; if I haven´t mentioned, this school COREM is one of the schools of this system. Well the news are that Junior High gets the 3rd place on first graders, 3rd place on second grade and FIRST PLACE on 3rd graders, these are great news for me, even when I´m not working there anymore ( because I changed my job) this is something that concerns to me. I have to mention that third graders were the best students I´ve ever had, they are just great!....Being honest, this situation is out of the Social Service issues, but about the kids from Social Service, I can see a huge improvement on them, they even have mentioned that they feel kind of different about being less worried about the subject. In my coming report I will be sending some information about results and I´m going to publish it, I feel just great! =)

Needs Analysis

Needs analysis

Purposes:

·         Create a sense of responsibility on students about the subject.

·         Reduce the average of failure in the subject.

·         Work in a different way from the daily classes.

·         Support parents in the educational development of the kids.

·         Reflect about the activities done in the classroom.

·         Create a static and a diary of the advance on students.

·         Make the parents aware of the academic situation of their kids, creating a support from them to the school and teachers.

My action plan is guided to make a program to support the students from junior high level, those one who are needed to advise. With this, there will be a less average of failure in English subject. I decided to take a deeper look to the student´s situation, the place and management issues to see the way the action plan is going to be taken. I could see that some of the kids are recurrent to be in “asesoría” as they know the program. I defined a day to do the advising, with every single group. The kids from this program are kids with behavior problems; the lack of interest to the classes provokes their recurrence to advising; besides I could realize that some of the parents are not aware of this situation, so, I decided to make a meeting taking the most recurrent kids in order to make them know their kids ´situation. Some of the parents agreed to support the plan as well some of them agreed to send them to the English workshop taught by me as well on Saturdays. These activities will provoke a better development on students. As well, students will raise their grades in the subject. The grades and the exams will be the collection of data and the handouts and activities in the classroom will be the evidence to my program.

 A problem I find is that some of the parents were asked to come to the meeting and some of them didn´t attend so this rings my bell but I send a letter with the kids and I will be waiting for an answer.

Reflection

Well, I did a deep reflection on which aspects I need to reinforce. I consider myself as a teacher who does a good job in the classroom, I have a good class management, I use many different materials adapting them to different situations in the classrooms and different types of students. Besides, I´m always reading about something new I use some strategies I have learnt from books and authors which I have put into practice and have worked in different cases. Unfortunately, there are some aspects that I consider that I´m lack of experience and knowledge, for example I have learnt some strategies and I have applied in the English language classroom but I haven´t fundament my work on theories, approaches and methods as I could. Maybe, this weakness can turn me into a good researcher. Another point I consider as a weakness is the use of terminologies for the different systems in English language for example, syntax, vocabulary and phonology. This is kind of different for me because I haven´t had a course related to this, but being honest I haven´t make an effort to search about this. Besides, because of this I can define or identify which is productive or which is receptive.

I think I have some issues to think about my academic goals. Now, I have seen some issues that I should develop and put into practice in nearly future.

See you around!