"IN FRONT OF THE CLASS"

What struck you about in front of the class?
What really impressed me were the eagerness Brad had to teach and the power to demonstrate he could work as a teacher no matter what other people could think about him.

What did you learn about the teacher?
Sincerely, I learned to break and to destroy all fears if I want to teach, and if I want to really be an ELT teacher. Besides, I learned that being a humble sincere passionate teacher is more important than being famous and uncaring teacher.

What makes him a good teacher?
Principally, his perseverance makes him a very good teacher; then, his self-esteem makes him believe he could do it even when his own family sometimes made him feel disappointed, sad and so forth, he went ahead and gave his best showing that people like him have the same rights and capabilities than any other.

How would you describe Brad?
I would describe him as a great guy who could succeed in life and who also gave a big teaching or lesson for us people who sometimes do not want to do thing better because of fears and own obstacles we ourselves create in our mines. Above all, I would describe him as a sample of what is called a potential teacher.

What was the most interesting seen in the movie?
To be clear, I liked him and I liked the beautiful classes he gave in the movie. The way he treated his students and family every time he was in troubles was acceptable. And his patience with his teachers at college, I think, was amazing, too.

How may the movie empower future teachers?
Well, we future teachers can be affected, or I should say encourage with these kinds of document or literature in many ways because it can change the way of our thinking and behavior; this can gives us better expectations of becoming teachers. Indeed, This movie can make us become more courageous and loss fears and laziness, too.

Hello friends! Kenny and I made a great team in the power point presentation! Or not?
I will never forget the amazing experience I had in the power pint presentation since I worked with Kenya, a friend of mine. We worked so hard during the whole week to do our best that we did not have enough time to study and learn the most important aspects of our topic. Anyway, we enjoyed that moment and tried to give our best there.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES TO TEACH KINDERGARTENERS

To tell the truth, I liked to teach English to kindergarteners, but to be sincere, it was somewhat hard since I had to prepare a great deal of materials to work with them. Some of the advantages to teach kindergarteners are, of course, that if I commit any mistake when writing or speaking English, they do not figure it out, so they can not correct me; if I ask them to do an activity, they do not complain about it; they just do it. Besides, if I am not knowledgeable enough, they do not care. Moreover, they easily acquire what I teach them. To teach them in a “very funny way” is easier because they can innocently laugh at me without making me feel embarrassed. They like to collaborate and cooperate with the teacher; their willingness to learn is amazing, all of which I like. To talk about the disadvantages is a difficult thing because I find only one as the most difficult, to prepare teaching material. When they can not read nor write, it is another disadvantage and it becomes a hard challenge for us teachers to make them learn. Finally, to deal with kindergarteners misbehavior is a big disadvantage, too.

Mi experience!

Wonderful!
Really great was my experience in the poster presentation. The way of how the teacher evaluated us impressed me a lot. Concise and precise were the criterion he used to evaluate us. I liked my classmates’ participation and willingness. My classmates, I think, seemed to be interested in our presentation. “Oh!” I said. I, however, unconsciously did something, loosing one of my best friends. Since I took more than eight minutes to present my topic, I lost a friend of mine. So bad was that part of my experience that I felt sad and guilty. Nevertheless, something I learned. At least, I learned that to take into account the “time” in whatever situation can save my life. Time that can help me gain something or loose something, suddenly, becomes unpredictable. Time that teaches me what is unforgettable. Time that I will never forget. Time that was great and full of treasures.

My experience at the kindergarten has been very nice and unforgettable. I have enjoyed every single teaching, and every single teaching has impressed me a lot. Not only have I taught children, but also children have taught me a lot. Since I began teaching children, I have become more realistic a bout teaching children. I have taught little kids before when I was in charge of a minister in my church, but this is something pretty different. Nevertheless, my experience with those kids at church has helped me improve many things; I have learned how to become more patient, and caring with children. I am always patient and respectful not only with my students but also with the teachers who are evaluating me during each English class in the kindergarten. Moreover, I have gotten happy and I want to continue giving my best effort for children to learn and enjoy the English class. But, the first time that I taught in the kindergarten was unpleasant for me because I saw a teacher smacking a kid. Maybe, I am not accustomed to doing that. That is why, I got surprised when I saw the teacher do that, but I also did not know that parents allow teachers do it. To summarize, I like teaching children and I hope every time I go to the kindergarten I will enjoy every class.

UNIVERSITY OF SALVADOR
WESTERN MULTIDISCIPLINARY CAMPUS
ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
Student’s name: Elizabeth del Carmen Calderón Hernández Subject: Didactics of the English
Language I
Teacher’s name: Lic. Edgar Perez
Content: Class Observation
1-The Spanish teacher Mercy , as she is known in the kindergarten “María Salazar Viuda de Magaña” where she has been teaching for a long time, (hereafter “T”), begins the 45- minute class hour on this Monday evening through giving a warm welcome to the students (hereafter “Ss”) and commenting about weekend’s activities.
2-While she is asking them, she organizes Ss in small groups.
3-She then asks Ss to take their textbooks of geography out, and motivates them to think about the Salvadoran’s volcanoes.
4-S volunteer names some of the most important and known volcanoes in El Salvador such as Illamatepec, Chaparrastique and the Izalco volcano.
5-Then the T asks them to go to the page 21 and tells them- “Over here we have all the volcanoes that exist in our country and below you have the different colors which represent each volcano, so I will give some color papers for you to cut and stick them on each volcano.”
6-Given them a complete and clear instruction about what Ss are going to do, the T designs two Ss to give the color papers out and two Ss more to give scissors out to the class.
8-Next, the T now says, “I want you to look at the whiteboard and observe this example. When you finish the activity, please bring it to me for I want to check it.”
9-After a good and enough time doing the activity, the Ss bring it to the T. After that, each S takes a seat and pays attention to the T. Meanwhile, a S rises her hand and asks -“teacher, why is that volcano higher?” Well, this volcano is higher than any other because it has the higher length above the level of the sea.”
10-Now,” I want you to save your textbooks and please take your notebooks out,” says the T. In this moment the T is preparing some illustrations in which she has drawing some syllables like La-Le-Li-Lo-Lu and Pa-Pe-Pi-Po-Pu.
11-Then the T makes a dictation by repeating and looking the syllables.
12-As time runs out and Ss prepare their things to leave, the T tells them to write the exercises of the next lesson as homework before the next class (on Friday evening).

Homework

Do you consider language as a miracle?
Yes, it is a miracle because the miracles do not have any explanations about how they happen. No one can understand how this happens and how a person learns to speak and we think the language is a gift from Gad.

How do you define it?
We can define it as a natural ability that children develop through their lives because we learn to speak our mother tongue in the first years of our lives and after that we use it almost all the time.

How did you learn how to speak?
That is another miracle because nobody teaches newborns how they have to use the organs of speech; moreover, as we are growing up, we internalize all the vocabulary that we have already known or that we have already heard from people who is around us.
How are you learning to speak English?
We are learning to speak English through many ways; for example, one way is that we repeat words that the teacher says, that is known as active listening. Other way is when we answer informative questions that the teacher asks; we give our opinions according to what we know.

Is your learning proper?
Yes it is proper but not at all because we do not have a good learning environment in our society; we just have it at the university. When we finish the classes and come back to our houses, we do not practice English language so we are not learning when we are at home.

If not what is wrong?
The wrong thing is that we just learn and practice English when we are at the university. We do not hear English at home, at church or wherever we go, so we learn anything about English and that is a big problem if we want to learn it.