C Lopez - IFDC Lenguas Vivas BRC - TPD - Kindergarten Journal Entries

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   And so it begun…    

Despite I've entered Instituto Primo Capraro many times before, this opportunity was definitely different. It was end of April and I was meeting Ms. Audrey Shaw, DoS of the English department at the school, and I had to introduce myself as a Lenguas Vivas trainee. I'm pretty sure that with her experience she might have seen many students like me, but the fact that this practicum was going to be my first experience in a classroom as a non-student made me feel that I was probably the most nervous trainee she had ever met.  

Audrey was very kind, and seemed very comprehensive while trying to calm me down with encouraging words. She explained to me that despite my first practicum was supposed to be at kindergarten, IPC only has an experimental workshop at that level, which was not suitable for the practicum. This was somehow disappointing but at the same time, quite logical... There is no way to place someone who tries to learn how to teach in an environment where teachers are still figuring out how to teach successfully. I was then appointed to first form, which at this moment of the year, are very close to kindergarten children. Fair enough. I was introduced to Julie Shaw, the teacher of the class. Although she is a very young lady, she seemed really nice and self-confident, so I felt very comfortable with her right away.  

We appointed to start the observation classes on the fifth, but due to some internal issues, it was delayed until today, may 12th.    

     First meeting: The 12th      

 That day I approached the school early to take a look at the PEI (will develop

this on the corresponding paper) and got introduced to other members of the school as Eve, the headmaster and Monica, the coordinator of first form, primary school. While I was taking my notes on the PEI, I must confess that every child's voice I could hear made my heart pump faster. Nervous doesn't even start to describe it.  

I didn't know the children... Will they like me? Would I like them? Would they behave? Would they be willing to participate in the class? IS THIS GOING TO WORK?! I should have made a fire evacuation plan or something of the sort, but there was no time and my mind was too busy getting worry.  

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 01:25Comment [1]: Caro you must try to calm down. Every teacher has gone through a first lesson in charge of a group, and most of us have survived. :) Remember that how you feel will be transmitted to the children. They are very perceptive.  

I was invited to the afternoon class starting 12:55. Julie met me a few minutes before the class started at the teacher's meeting room. Other teachers seemed exited with my presence and asked me a few questions. I guess it is always nice to see young blood getting the chills for something you are already used to. Getting back to the point, Julie was cutting some bear shapes in different sizes and told me they were working on “Goldilocks and the three bears”, so sizes and vocabulary related to the story was the topic.    

The bell rang.    

That was it. Julie asked me to wait outside until she set the classroom, since she thought students were too wide awake by then, and exited after break time. I was called in a few minutes later and found the whole class (about 15 students) sitting in a circle. We greeted each other. The children seemed indeed interested with this new stranger, and Julie had already told them about me wanting to become a teacher, so they were all going to have to help me. I sat with them on the floor and the class begun.    

The first thing I noticed (and that I was expecting to happen) was that Julie uses mostly English, but mother tongue also appears quite often, mostly as a last resort when children doesn't pay attention or when the concepts need to be reinforced.  

Also, she uses a lot of mimicking and sound queues that help the children remember things as for example, turning a book’s page: she performs the mimic and says ♬ "tchin!" ♬ And the children repeat while turning pages.  

Another strategy she uses is songs: Julie has a LOT of songs that children enjoy. As a lead-in, we sang two hello songs, one that included students participating and performing actions the rest had to copy (This is the way we say hello). After that, routine started. Every class they choose two "assistants" among the children, and they wear a label with the figure of David, a character from a story they read before. The teacher has a calendar where she can record who were the previous helpers as to avoid repetition, which is important not only to include everyone but also because it seemed to be a very desired role. One assistant was asked to count all the girls, the other all the boys, and while counting they all say aloud the numbers. When done, they would tell Julie the number and she would say it aloud with rhythm and clapping the hands "there are eight boys" or "there are eleven girls" for the children to repeat.  

Then, they sang the weather song and the class was asked to describe how the weather was at the moment. Fortunately, all children eagerly participated and the assistants write their names on the calendar using the space designated for the forecast of the day.  

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 01:27Comment [2]: Effective use of L2 promotes learning and acquisition. L1 should only be used when other teaching strategies have failed.  Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 01:28Comment [3]: miming - check meaning of mimic  

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 01:35Comment [4]: It is essential to learn this routine so that you can apply it during your lessons. Students will feel more confident with you as everything will be familar to them.  

   Then, little by little four cards with the emotions "happy" "angry" "sad" and

"tired/sleepy" were displayed. Julie took out the “happy” one and asked "who is happy?" making a big, happy face. Students raised their hands. The same was repeated with the other cards, and then all students were asked to make each one of the expressions. Children had a lot of fun trying to make others laugh or blaming them for having made them cry, etc. At this point, I would like to note the vocal expressiveness needed for this class. Then, some students were invited to "read" each card and mimic it (we must mention that these children are still learning to read and write in their mother tongue). After that, each helper got a print with an empty face and was asked to draw how they were feeling that day to later hang it on the class’ board. Finally we all sang the song of "If you are happy and you know it clap your hands" with these feelings and mimicking.  

After that, we briefly switched to a "Simon says" game using basic body parts as nose, ear, shoulder, knee, and feet, and some actions as walk, stomp, stop, hop and jump. I hadn't played that game in ages, but the children reminded me of some basic rules after I lost the first round.  

     Oh, well.... I don't need to say that by this point, I was feeling quite all right.        Julie would call a "silence song" (I believe I heard about three different ones)

or ask them to open the circle and they would respond. It was way better than I had expected. Some children were more focused or engaged than others, but there was not even a tantrum or a defiant situation for the teacher. These children were awesome! Now I'm begging this situation repeat in an eternal loop.    

Now, we switched to the lesson itself. Still in the circle, Julie took out the three bears I saw at the office and asked students if they remembered those animals. Students were shown how these bears differed in size: one big, one medium and the other small (or little). They all mimicked the sizes with their arms, and then the Goldilocks book was taken out. Julie actually had four copies, so one was given every three or four students. They sang another song to illustrate which was the cover of the book and which was the title, pointing the items when mentioned.    

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 01:43Comment [5]: Was there any transition comment to link the activities?  

 Julie read the book aloud, using much expressiveness in her voice and

movements, and every time they flipped the page, she would say the “turn the page” along with the ♬ "tchin!" ♬ sound and students would perform the action while repeating the onomatopoeia.  

 After reading, the children wanted to sing “The balloon song” for me, so they

played it on the recorder and we all sang together (well, I tried to follow them at least!).  

 Julie told the children to go to their desks. Since they were very exited, she

dimmed the light and asked them to lay their heads over the desk while singing some sort of lullaby. Meanwhile, the helpers brought everyone’s notebooks and left each with its corresponding owner. It was quite impressive how despite the difficulty of having just started to learn how to read, they could identify the notebooks and match them correctly. As soon as everything was ready, Julie asked the class “What day is today?” and even though children didn’t answer, she said “yes! Today is Tuesday” and started writing on the blackboard: “Tuesday, 12th of May” and immediately asked “How is the weather today?”, and as students answered she draw the corresponding icon.  

 Here is something interesting: one of the students asked if they should “write

like that” the date. He meant that there were lower cases and capital letters in the date. Julie explained to me that despite they learn to write Spanish all in capitals, it was a pedagogical decision to write with both lower cases and capitals for the English department. This was due to the visual aid provided by the contours of the mixture of sizes in the word, while all capitals would make blocks all equal.  

Then, I learnt that the classroom uses passwords: it is used to introduce vocabulary and to use it to ask permission for certain things, although I couldn’t hear it being used. There was a short song about the password, and then Julie presented a little square of paper with a picture on it. “What is it?” she asked, and since they were learning the vocab “woods” with “Goldilocks…”, the password of the day “Tree” was easy to link with their previous knowledge. Students then paint the picture and glue it on their notebooks, and search for the password item on a very item-charged drawing they have at the back of their notebooks, and paint it as well. Julie told me

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 01:46Comment [6]: How effective are these strategies? :)  

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 01:54Comment [7]: Interesting indeed!  

that they would start writing the name of the item in the future, but that it was too early for them to do so now.  

 When everyone was finished, Julie stuck the three bears figures on the

blackboard and performed with the students the mimicked for the “big, medium and small” while pointing at the pictures. She repeated it with the phrases “papa bear” “mama bear” and “baby bear”. Then, she handed a copy of a very simple exercise with a grid with the faces of the three bears on top, and the drawings of porridge, chairs and beds of different sizes. On the grid, there was a guide on under each size and category so students could color the pictures, cut them and paste them under the corresponding cell. Julie gave the directions in English, and supported it with some Spanish, but to make sure they had all understood, she and I walked around the class assisting students. That was fun! At first, students would be surprised of me, but after a few minutes they started calling me “Seño” (something that melted my heart) and calling me to check their work. I tried to copy Julie by explaining first in English, and replying to students in English as well, despite they would talk to me in Spanish. Some of them would be very insecure, so I would then briefly repeat it in Spanish. I also noticed that some of them didn’t want to write the date because they are not confident with their handwriting, so I also tried to encourage them to finish and praise them when done. That was a nice opportunity to chat with students. I asked them their names when I approached them and introduced myself, too. Then, I could picture a little better the personality of some of them.  

   As the last activity, Julie handed the children a copy of the vocabulary used in

the story of “Goldilocks…” and Students would respond even in Spanish, and then Julie would tell them “Yes!, but in English?”, and eventually the answer would appear. The children painted the print and glued in on their notebooks. While that was happening, Julie instructed me to walk around and ask some of them to point at a certain item.  

 The bell rang and quickly, all students stood up to retrieve their notebooks to

the shelf they were originally at. Some remained absorbed in painting the pictures, and Julie had to approach them to tell them to go to the break, since staying inside the classroom was not allowed. I waved bye-bye to the students as they happily left for the recess.  

   Second meeting: The 13th        

  Definitely less nervous than the day before, this class started at 8am, so students (and I) were a little sleepy, therefore calmer. As I was early, I could observe how parents take their children into the classroom and greet them goodbye (as part of the adaptation process to primary school), then teachers would make them form outside the classroom and take them to the playground to pay respect to the national flag. There was some German-speaking involved (this is basically a German school) and then everybody returned to their daily routine.  

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 01:57Comment [8]: Excellent description of strategies!  

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 01:59Comment [9]: if you use miming and simple language, perhaps L1 will not be necessary at all. The problem comes when you want to explain in complex language.  

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 02:00Comment [10]: :)  

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 02:02Comment [11]: Great!  

The class started pretty much as the one from the day before: we sat in circle and sang two hello songs. Then, Julie said “My name is Julie” and children repeated the pattern with their own names along the circle.   There was again helpers naming, with the same characteristics as yesterday, including the weather song. But when Julie took out the mood cards, there was a new one: surprised. Children were quite curious about it, and grasped the idea immediately. Of course, helpers were also asked to draw their moods on an empty-faced print and then hanged on the board. Finally, we sang the “If you are happy and you know it…” song, adding this new feeling to the song.   For this lesson, Julie brought some action cards she made a few classes before with the help of the students: they had posed some actions for her. Children were eager to find themselves on the photos, and probably more interested than in the actions themselves (stand up, sit, listen, stop). Nevertheless they followed Julie’s commands on performing the actions (a nice variation for the “Simon says” game done yesterday). We went around the cards twice.   Then, we played two Chinese whispers which weren’t quite successful, but fun after all: “Goldilocks” became “go away” and “Three bears” became “porridge”.    

 I had never heard the name of this game in English! Definitely learning never ends…  

  Julie then came up with a cloth bag with something inside. She asked students to guess what was inside, and then invited one student to take one item of the bags with his eyes closed. We then discovered that there were figures of items of the “Goldilocks…” story inside: three sizes of chairs, three sizes of beds, and instead of bears five cute little rabbits (parents, children and baby). Julie would ask students what each item was, their size, and then they would count the items as “one bed, two beds…” and “a small bed, a medium bed…” while pointing out each object.   It was book time again, and of course Goldilocks was back! This time, the book was only one and was different than the one used yesterday –this had pull-tabs and lids-. Students were made notice that. The cover and title of the book song was sung again. Since this version had longer texts, the teacher “read” the book paraphrasing the story, and she opened the lids and pulled the tabs while showing students the pictures. I tried to make a list of the important words and actions on the book: walk, porridge, cottage, baby, papa, mama, bear, hot, Goldilocks, rain, hungry, kitchen, cold, right/perfect, eat, chair, broke, tired, bed, sleep, woods, one, two, three, angry, up the stairs, roar, surprise and run.   Students were then asked to sit at their desks and the routine of date, weather and password went on. While children wrote, painted and glued, Julie checked that all prints form yesterday were correctly placed in the notebooks as so they won’t get lost.  

Next, Julie returned prints with the three bears and Goldilocks to the students. It seems they were painting them some classes before, so they finished doing so. They were instructed to cut them and write their names on the back of these pictures before handing them to the teacher.   Unfortunately, this was all the time we had left for this lesson, so as the bell rang, we said farewell until next week.      

     Rounding up       Now it will be my turn to plan something for these children…

Next week the class is mine! Julie already gave some directions and tools, as the passwords and the mood prints, along with a CD with the songs she sings. I, of course, will design my own lesson with the topics and routines I observed in these two days… Can’t wait! I’m actually very thankful for this experience and all the support.    Personal notes:  

● I can say that I saw a lot of routine, which is important for these children to relate to and build confidence in a language they don’t know.  

● Also, that there is almost no writing besides the date and maybe their names, and that mother tongue is still a need.  

● Songs and mimicking are basic teaching strategies used and strongly exploited in this classroom.    

See you next week!    

Cecilia Zemborain� 17/5/15 02:08Comment [12]: It has been a pleasure to read your journal entries, Caro!  One question: what approach does Julie implement to teach her lessons?  Have a great practicum period!  

Day one…

Rushing to get everything ready: materials, pacification, and self-control… I think that morning I brought my tutor Cecilia and all the “Centro de Copiado” crew into my own madness, and fortunately they were all patient and supportive.

I arrived at the school with many things in my mind, not exactly nerves, but more like anxiousness. Julie was there to give me the last materials I would need to use.

She sat the children and explained that that day, I was going to be the teacher. I was glad they remembered me, even my name! And when Cecilia Zemborain, my tutor, arrived, I introduced her as my teacher and the children seemed to find the fact that I also had a “Miss Julie” somehow funny.

The class ran quite smooth until I introduced the house rooms… seems there was a misunderstanding there, you’ll see: Julie had told me that no new items were to be taught that week, just reviewing lexis of family and house, but at the puzzled look on the student’s faces when presenting the rooms, Julie whispered they hadn’t learned that yet…

I froze a second…

Recalculating…

Oh, well… show must go on. I noticed it was becoming too long and

too challenging for the children, so I tried to wrap up and move to the desks. Unfortunately, the activity I had planned just added to the effort demand since it was based on rooms, and on some word recognition. I noticed some children could do it with no major problems, but most of them were either lazy to try or discouraged from the difficulty of the task.

The bell rang before we could finish and students had to go to the break. Feedback and self-reflection Cecilia waited for me to talk about the class. I had noticed some of the things she commented, but others were good observations I had failed seeing. Julie had basically kept the class organized for me. She was making students switch places when overexcited; she scolded if needed or called for

Cecilia A. Zemborain� 24/6/15 01:13Comment [13]:  Cecilia A. Zemborain� 13/6/15 00:17Deleted: to

Cecilia A. Zemborain� 24/6/15 01:13Comment [14]: Called  their  attention  Cecilia A. Zemborain� 13/6/15 00:19Deleted: them

silence. What would have happened if I were there alone? I am supposed to be the leader of the class, so I knew that despite it is difficult that students would see me as the referent of their class, I would have to make myself heard. Cecilia added comments as “stop the class if necessary” and “make sure everyone is listening to their classmates”. Timing was also a topic. The bell rang before I could finish a class, and on top of that, I didn’t have a formal closure planned. We agreed that I needed to keep track of the time, maybe using a watch, and respect the time granted to each activity as to complete the lesson. I could always tell students not to worry, that we would finish the activity in some other time, and also we spoke about the importance of giving a certain time to perform the tasks to “keep them busy”… otherwise they would take ages just to copy the date. Transitions were also weak, as well as the blend of the topics in the lesson. Cecilia suggested I could ask, for example if rainy weather makes them sad, as to mix weather and moods. Also, there was the issue of 1L and 2L use in the class. I used English most of the time, but students tend to speak in Spanish. We agreed that I should try to make them repeat in English, and encourage them to echo complete sentences instead of isolated words. The same would apply to songs. Cecilia also suggested I should make more use of the designated helpers of the day (a class routine to name two students to do certain duties) either to clarify activity instructions as for distributing the worksheets or other used material. Finally, I was made clear I should find a way to make sure everyone was able to see the material I was presenting. Children tend to move to the inner part of the circle, preventing others from seeing what we are presenting, which leads to distraction.

Overall, I had a great time. I had fun with the class, and as a first experience, it couldn’t have been better. Of course I expected to have mistakes… can’t be perfect at first try, but I am glad these didn’t affect students that much… I was confident I could make some changes for next class.

Day two… It is said that the early bird gets the worm… Well, after all the excitement from the day before, it didn’t matter how early it was, worms could wave and say “hello” that this bird was in other business. The start of the class was smoother than yesterday. Being the children still half sleep at 8am, and already used to me being there, we sat and sang with no problems. Soon I realized two things: I was off beat and I couldn’t remember the exact order of the routine. I might had slowed down a little to delay the rhythm of the lesson as I tried to keep things going. Despite I had talked to Julie about the children’s control issue we had yesterday, she saved my “show” this time starting a song again for me… Now that I think, I should have played

Cecilia A. Zemborain� 24/6/15 01:13Comment [15]: Or  second  or  third  or  furth…  

dumb and ask the children to correct me. It would have been an instance for laugh instead of confusion.

I hope this won’t get me unprepared again.

This time I tried to be more attentive with student’s behavior and to link activities at least in the routine. I think I made a little improvement, so I will keep that in mind for future lessons.

I was glad to find that the children remembered some room names from yesterday. I tried to make some emphasis on the / ɑː/ of bathroom and the /e/ of bedroom. We played a game where they had to raise the room cards they had whenever a character was placed in that room on the house board. I believe I could have been more demanding into making them say the room’s name as well as raising the card. I would eventually ask them to repeat, but still I find the other option would have been more productive. Helpers cooperated distributing the cards to the classmates.

We then moved to the desks. I gave indications, au contraire I did yesterday, and we copied the date, also with instructions. When the helpers distributed the worksheet of the day and I explained what they had to do, one of the students repeated the directions in Spanish, so I congratulated her and got the rest to listen to her. Of course not all of them were paying attention, but compared with yesterday, there was a huge difference with the demand of attention from the students. They were quite engaged with the activity –drawing their family and writing the roles- and many, even the lazy ones, dared to copy the vocabulary and write their names. That was a huge achievement! For fast finishers, I asked them to color the picture or draw their house. I had a lot of fun listening to them talking about brothers studying in other cities, dogs’ misbehavior and cute baby brothers that sometimes smelled bad.

Timing was going definitely better than yesterday, and good that I checked with Julie the lesson end’s time, because she said that yesterday the bell rang five minutes earlier. I still had a song and a goodbye present for them. I tried to close the activity as soon as possible, and helped slower children gluing the worksheets to their copybooks.

Unfortunately, when I was finishing teaching them the “Thank you” song the bell rang, so the distribution of the candy pops was rather quick.

I can say that my heart melted with some children saying “Thank you, Caro”. They put up with me, played with me and showed me how AMAZING they could be. Smart, lazy, funny, sweet, shy, daydreamer… I’m going to miss them. My practicum couldn’t had been better.

Cecilia A. Zemborain� 24/6/15 01:13Comment [16]: Great  idea!!!  

Feedback and self-reflection At the moment, I still hadn’t received the official feedback, but I believe I was able to improve a little some of the issues we talked to Cecilia the day before. I still have a lot to learn, and a lot to work on, but I’m willing to do it and I’m positive I will be able to incorporate that knowledge to my own teaching. So by now, all I can say is –as Uncle Grandpa says on top- THANK YOU!!! Dear Caro, Your journal entries are very telling! They prove lots of feelings are implied in this teaching and learning process. Both you and the group have enjoyed the lessons and learnt together. You have become aware of several classroom aspects and you have gained confidence. Remember that apart from focusing on how you lived the experience, you should also focus on the ‘technical’ aspects of your teaching. We provided a set of guiding questions for you to consider when writing your journal entries. Let yourself explore your creativity as you did this time, but also with a little bit of guidance in the next practicum periods. The activities you devised were meaningful and effective. I was a pleasure to read your plans and be in your lessons. Important: you may no longer say you have no teaching experience. Keep reflecting and developing. Cecilia