Teaching Report

Tell me,
I forget.

Show me,
I remember.

Involve me,
I understand.

"Education comes from living life, following passions, accessing information, observing, reflecting, and being inspired by wise and courageous elders in the community."

REPORT ON TEACHING 1. INTRODUCTION
Learner Engagement is extent to which all learners are motivated and committed to learning, have a sense of belonging and accomplishment, and have relationships with adults, peers, and parents that support learning. Indicators include attendance rate and participation rates in extracurricular activities. Students need to be engaged before the can apply higher order, creative thinking skills. They learn most effectively when the teacher makes sense and meaning of the curriculum being taught. This can only happen if the teacher has created a safe learning environment that encourages students to meet challenges and apply high rigor skills to real-world, unpredictable situations inside and outside of school.

The first thing I used to do when arriving to the classroom was to greet the students. Then I asked some students how they were and how they felt. After that, we prayed the Prayer Offering and I called the attendance list.
To engage the students with the lessons I used to write the tittle of the new lesson on the board and brainstorm ideas about it. Also, they answered questions like “What do you think about…? Do you like…? What do you prefer? Etc. In that way, students remembered topics from last year or last trimester to complete tasks. It was always easier form them when there was a previous activity to begin the lessons.

2. PLANNING AND PREPARATION A lesson plan is a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction for one class. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class instruction. Details will vary depending on the preference of the teacher, subject being covered, and the need and/or curiosity of the students. There may be requirements mandated by the school system regarding the plan. The lesson plan is a guide and map for organizing the materials and ourselves as teachers for the purpose of helping our students achieve our intended learning outcome. Resources are useful tools to facilitate student's learning. When we use resources when teaching, we facilitate students the process of acquiring the language. They can be flash cards, posters, CD player, computers, cards, projectors, etc. When I planned the lessons I was going to teach I took into account: what I wanted my students to learn, the grade level, the prior knowledge needed, the time I really had for developing the class, the materials to be used and how it would be acquired and distributed, meaningful vocabularies, the activities I thought would be best for achieving my goals. I also had to take into account those students who had difficulty in learning the material being taught. I made some adjustments for those students: for instance, I reduced the words in the vocabulary being taught, the total amount of points in tests. That means that I took time preparing extra activities for those students. 3. INTERACTION WITH STUDENTS
Classrooms are social settings; teaching and learning occur through social interaction between teachers and students. As teaching and learning take place, they are complicated processes and are affected by peer-group relationships. The interactions and relationships between teachers and students, and among students, as they work side by side, constitute the group processes of the classroom.
Teacher-student relationships provide an essential foundation for effective classroom management—and classroom management is a key to high student achievement. Teacher-student relationships should not be left to chance or dictated by the personalities of those involved. Instead, by using strategies supported by research, teachers can influence the dynamics of their classrooms and build strong teacher-student relationships that will support student learning. While teaching, I realized how important interacting with the students could be. It helped them to understand new concepts, and acquire the knowledge intended to be taught. I used to change my pitch, volume, quality and rate of my voice to enhance my expressiveness and overall style. It helped students to comprehend and remember ideas. Also, I always tried to keep eye contact with the students to display confidence and convey an interest in students in the topic that was being taught. I moved around the classroom to make sure I was being seen and heard by all students. Not only did it help me to be in contact with the students, but it also helped me to discover the student's difficulties and keep order in the classroom. 4. METHOD OF INSTRUCTION
As any good teacher knows, all students do not learn in the same way. In addition, it is common for a class of students to be at a variety of levels in any particular subject. Teachers need to use different teaching methods in order to reach all students effectively.
Determining which Method of Instruction to use in teaching can sometimes be difficult, because there are many different instructional methods that may be used in a learning environment. Each method has certain advantages and disadvantages; some are more suited for certain kinds of instruction than others. Each of the different methods requires greater or lesser participation by students. One method, or perhaps a combination of methods, is usually most appropriate for most subject matter and objectives. To teach my lessons I used lots of interactive activities and websites. My students liked to pray before starting and after finishing every lesson. We did lots of online and printed puzzles, crosswords, missing letters, repetition drills. It was fun for them. The most important thing of using games and websites was that students could learn at the same time they had fun. I also encouraged them to work in teams and pairs. They were able to share ideas with the rest of the class through class discussions, brainstorming, role-play. Also, I made them move around, pointing, touching, and naming things around the school or the classroom. They also were able to make and ask questions using what they had already learned. It was fun for me, so it was fun for my students too. 5. EVALUATION
The primary purpose of evaluating student learning is to assign grades. However, well-designed and well-executed evaluation can motivate students and support self-regulated learning strategies. Research shows that properly used evaluation strategies can encourage students to keep up with the material and enhance students' academic engagement and achievement in school. Therefore, evaluation of student learning is a very important component in the class design and requires a lot of careful thought in planning.
Summative and formative assessment methods are used for students’ performance and learning evaluation. Nevertheless, relying on one of the two methods of classroom assessment more may lead to student learning needs’ becoming unclear, since one form of assessment cannot provide a full picture of the situation. Evaluation can be done throughout the lesson, can be a part of the homework or a product produced during class or can be teacher observation. The student teachers need to look for the tools they will use to determine whether the students can do what the learning objectives says in the focus of the lesson.
Diagnostic and formative evaluations were applied through observations, discussions with the students and auto evaluation, brainstorming, questions/answers, in order to discover student's needs. Also, in order to grade students, there were some formal evaluations such as, oral presentations, dialogues, readings, short tests, quizzes, homework, crafts, and drawings and mapping. 6. WRAP – UP
It is a quick review, to remind students what it was that they have learned (or should have learned) and allows you to see where the students are to assist you in planning for the next lesson.
The intellectual work should be done by the students - not the instructor summarizing for the students and telling them what they learned. Closure allows students to summarize main ideas, evaluate class processes, answer questions posed at the beginning of the lesson, and link to both the past and the future.
Closure is an opportunity for formative assessment and helps the instructor decide: 1. If additional practice is needed 2. Whether you need to re-teach 3. Whether you can move on to the next part of the lesson

I always wanted to be sure that my students had understood the lesson but in a creative and interactive way. I used to ask them to write on a piece of paper 2 things they had learned, 2 things they were confused about, and 1 remaining question they had about the topic addressed in the lesson. Sometimes, they had to tell the person that was next to them 2 or 3 things they had learned and then the groups reported out. As I liked to involve my students in the learning process, end-of-the-class review was an effective way to emphasize important topics and provide my students with a focus for any homework assignments. I used to ask three or four student to sum up what they learned, so everybody could remember the main concepts. 7. SUMMARY
It was wonderful to see how the students enjoyed the lessons, participated in class. It was a wonderful experience, because I never saw myself teaching.
I consider myself a good teacher because I wanted my students not only to learn the lessons, but also to apply them in real life. I think that is what teaching is about.
As a good teacher, I know to recognize my strengths and weaknesses. My strength is to know how to work with high school students without any problem and how to get students involved in the learning process.

If there is any suggestion, it is for the Ministry of Education. I think they have to update the content we have to teach. Also, there has to be a congruency between what they want us to teach the students and the books used to achieve the objectives.
When the school prepares the schedules they have to consider putting two-hour English class everyday instead of one-hour everyday. In that way teachers will be able to perform better and have more time to develop the activities and attend students needs much better.

STUDENT TEACHER’S SIGNATURE:
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UNIVERSIDAD DEL ISTMO
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
ASSOCIATE TEACHER CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM
UDI Student Teacher: _______________________Subject: __________School: ___________
Observer: _____________________________Date: ____________Score: _____/ 125 = ______

Directions: This COF has been designed to assess classroom observations as follow-ups given to UDI Student Teacher in the practicum. The observer is the associate teacher (school owner of the subject). Place in the space before each statement the number that most nearly reflects your rating.

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Excellent Outstanding Good Fair Poor
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5 4 3 2 1 | Objectives for this presentation were made clear to students. | | Presentation was well planned and organized. | | Presented topics with a logical sequence. | | Summarized major points of lesson. | | Presentation style was appropriate and effective. | | Presentation began with Warm-Up/Icebreaker. | | Contextualization: the teacher put new language into a situation which shows what it means. | | Relevant examples, metaphors and analogies were used to establish connections with students' previous experiences and learning. | | Class time was well used. | | Critical thinking and analysis was modeled and encouraged. | | Instructional techniques required a majority of students to be actively involved. | | Respect for diverse opinions was communicated. | | Warm, accepting, open classroom atmosphere was evident. | | Instructor interest in information was communicated. | | Instructor interest in student learning was communicated. | | Instructor mastery of subject matter was clear and thorough. | | Appropriate and effective use was made of course book, audio-visuals, visual aids, board to support the class objectives. | | Was sensitive to feelings of students. | | Demonstrated enthusiasm for teaching and learning. | | Discovered student misunderstandings and misconceptions. | | Students attended to what was happening in class. | | Moved around the classroom with ease as interacted with students. | | Instructors’ class contents were aligned with the syllabus and planning. | | Instructors put in action communicative approach to improve language skills. | | Wrap-Up for assessment was carried out. | Observer Comments (Feedback):

______________________ ______________________
Signature of Student Teacher Signature of UDI Supervisor