Natalie Giulianelli - TEFL course diary

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Teaching Practice Lesson 2

November 28th, 2007

Firstly let me apologise for my last entry…for some reason the whole lesson plan didnt attach to the blog?!?!?!  Not sure why?? 

 Anyway….last week i had my second teaching practice….i was teaching the meaning of ‘might’ and ‘will’.  I had planned my lesson and was confident with what iw as teaching but i was not prepared for the blank faces staring back at me when i introducted the above modal verbs!!!!! Disaster…. i felt completely lost, i had to keep looking at my lesson plan for inspiration as the students just didnt understand what i was trying to teach!!!  I felt completely exhausted but at least i managed to complete the lesson!!!!  I haven’t had my evaluation for this lesson yet so i will let you know if i passed or not?!?!?!  Good news though…..i passed my unknown language journal!!!! hurraaaahhhh!!!

Well thats all the news….i don’t teach agin until January so thats great!  Please subscribe to this blog if you like it and leave me any comments you wish!!

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Teaching Practice Lesson 1

November 21st, 2007

Sorry i haven’t written for a while but i have been extremely busy with all the paperwork for the course!!

The first teaching practice on ‘appearances’ went really well!! I really enjoyed myself and i certainly felt in control of the lesson and the class.  The students participated willingly and were great!!  Not as scary as i thought it was going to be.  I tried to use some visual aids that would en

Course member’s name Natalie Giulianelli	Entry 1  ¨   Entry 2   ¨    Entry 3 ¨Level 1  ¨   Level 2  ¨                    (please tick one)	Date    Wednesday 14th November
Observed by  Diane Austin	Length of lesson55 mins	Lesson No.1 ¨   2 ¨   3 ¨  4 ¨  5 ¨  6 ¨   (7 ¨, 8 ¨)

 

LANGUAGE  TEACHING FOCUS These are the specific language items or skills I want to teach    *  adjectives used to describe physical appearance  *  reading to obtain information  *  enable students to identify the stressed syllable in words			LEARNING  OUTCOMESThe results of my teaching should enable students to    *  describe a persons physical appearance using a range of         adjectives
TIMING	LESSON STAGES & TEACHER ACTIVITIES	STUDENT ACTIVITIES		RESOURCES

 

TIMING

LESSON STAGES & TEACHER ACTIVITIES

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

RESOURCES

courage conversation.  My timings of the lesson were pretty accurate and the tutor was pleased with this.  Overall i felt i had taught the lesson objectives and that the students were able to use this learning in the future.  I have attached my lesson plan for you to look at so you have an idea of what i was teaching.

Course member’s name Natalie Giulianelli	Entry 1  ¨   Entry 2   ¨    Entry 3 ¨Level 1  ¨   Level 2  ¨                    (please tick one)	Date    Wednesday 14th November
Observed by  Diane Austin	Length of lesson55 mins	Lesson No.1 ¨   2 ¨   3 ¨  4 ¨  5 ¨  6 ¨   (7 ¨, 8 ¨)

LANGUAGE  TEACHING FOCUS These are the specific language items or skills I want to teach *  adjectives used to describe physical appearance  *  reading to obtain information *  enable students to identify the stressed syllable in words			LEARNING  OUTCOMESThe results of my teaching should enable students to *  describe a persons physical appearance using a range of         adjectives
TIMING	LESSON STAGES & TEACHER ACTIVITIES	STUDENT ACTIVITIES		RESOURCES

TIMING

LESSON STAGES & TEACHER ACTIVITIES

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

RESOURCES

y feedback from my tutor was “Excellent lesson plan with accurate timings.  Well-prepared resources - good adaptations of standard material.  Good facial expressions and voice projection.  Students received positive reinforcement throughout and clearly felt relaxed and keen to participate.  Consider contingency and differentiated tasks.  Check size of materials/volume controls to ensure all students can see/hear.”

 I was extremely pleased with this feedback.

Next week the topic is ‘Learning For The Future’.  I might attempt to teach some grammar?!?!?  I will let you know.�

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Final Mandarin Lesson!!

November 12th, 2007

I have left this post a bit late as i have been so busy.  Last Monday was the final lesson of Mandarin, we had a little test at the beginning and i was quite surprised that i got 8/12!!! Not bad!!!

 We spent the second half of the lesson looking at phonology, we are continuing with this tonight.

 Last week was my first time teaching!!! I had to do a mini teaching task which was about ’special occasions’  I felt comfortable and i quite enjoyed the lesson but on reflection i can see that i didn’t explain clearly enough 1 of the tasks…never mind….at least i am aware of my faults!! 

Tonight we have to hand in our journal on Mandarin….i had written many of the notes in rough so it took me all day to type them up and complete the 500 word conclusion!!! I should have been more prepared and completed each section as i went along.

Tonight i will meet with my tutor to discuss my 1 hour teaching activity this week.  This time the module is ‘Appearances’  i am going to try and make some visual aids and some games to go with the task as i fid it a bit boring just reading from handouts and writing on the whiteboard……1 hour seems such a long time but i am sure it will fly by.

 Anyway i had better go as i need so type up some information before tonights input lesson……i must be better prepared and organise my time more effectively.

I will let you know if and when i pass my Unknown Language Journal and how the teaching goes!!  Wish me luck!

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Back after half term

November 1st, 2007

So today was the 3rd Mandarin lesson and we ‘learnt’ alot more.  We returned to the fruit and vegetables and used these words in full sentences…..very difficult.  Whilst taking part in the lesson and trying to pick up the new words i had to think about what was being taught as the homeowrk for this lesson is to write the lesson plan!!!! i managed to write lots of notes but i have not written up the lesson plan yet!!

After the Mandarin lesson we didn’t even manage to have a 2 minute break and we went straight into a lesson on ESOL literature and the core curriculum and teaching materials.

 Next week i start my teaching practice with a 10 minute exercise!!!! very nervous about this. I will find out on Monday what i will be teaching and then i will have until Wednesday afternoon to think of something!  I will let you know how i get on next week.

 Any comments or questions please feel free to make them.

Zaijian

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Ni Hao - hello…i think!!!???

October 21st, 2007

Well,  i am quite enjoying the Mandarin lessons now.  I didn’t remember much at all from the first lesson but after this second lesson some words/sentences are still in my head!!

I managed to have a quick chat with some of the other people in the group as some have already started their teaching practice…they said it went ok and that their group of students were very nice!!  I am starting to panic about my teaching now!! I don’t understand how i will be able to plan a 1 hour lesson as i have no idea how long tasks will take or how long i will need to explain things for?!?!?

I am quite enjoying the online grammar course i am currently taking.  It is quite simple but i feel that there isn’t enough explanation for me, however, the short video clips of a teacher teaching are excellant!!!  I am about half way through this course so i will keep you posted on how i get along with it.

This week it is half term so no lesson!!!!  Don’t know if it is a good thing that i am really looking forward to spending Monday night at home!?!?  I still need to type up my homework, which is the diary of how the Mandarin lesson went and i will also be reading more and more grammar books and visiting the libary to get a few recommended books. 

I have just ordered a book called ‘A Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers’ i read somewhere that it was a good book, i haven’t received it yet so i will let you know.

Well i think that is all for now…please post any questions or comments.�

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Unknown Language is Mandarin!!

October 12th, 2007

Ok…so tonight was the third lesson and we spent the first hour learning Mandarin!!  How exhausting but very interesting to see how it would be for us as teachers!!  Not a bad evening, in fact it was quite fun but really can’t remember anything apart from three numbers!!

The second half of the lesson was looking at teaching practice.  We watched a short video and had to comment on the teaching practice, the objectives of the lesson and the stages of the lesson.  This was very intersting but made me feel a little scared as i start my teaching practise the first week in November!!! oh my god!!

Homework this week was to write in our Unknown Language Journal and to write up our observation of the video teaching.

I have enrolled on an online grammar course as i really feel my grammar is not up to scratch so i will let you know if this benefits me.

If anyone has any questions or comment feel free to add them.

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Hello!

October 4th, 2007

I started the Trintiy College CertTESOL course on 29 September.  It is a one year course running one evening a week for input session and teaching practice for me will be on a Wednesday afternoon.

I have been wanting to do this course for some time and a local College advertised the course in August so perfect timing!!!

I do not have a degree and my grammar is not great so i hope i wil be able to cope…so far so good though…i managed to get through the pre-interview task!

I have been to 2 evening input sessions and on the first evening we got to know each other and had a tour of the college facilities.  There are 14 students on the course, various ages and careers, everyone seems really nice and friendly which is very important as i will be working closely with one other person when we do our teaching together.

On the second evening we went through some ‘homework’ we were given.  We have to learn a new alphabet!!! Phoneme Alphabet….basically symbols which are used to represent the prinicpal sounds of English.  We were also given sentences and had to explain the difference between them e.g.

1a What do you do at the weekend?

1b What are you doing at the weekend?

 We were also given other sentences and had to find the adverbs or adjectives etc.

1 She’s a GOOD player

Is GOOD an adverb or adjective

I must say i did find this quite difficult as i had to use a book to check if i was correct in my answers….some people seemed to know them easily whereas for me i think i need to think more!!

Next week we will be starting to learn a new language and we need to keep a diary of how we feel whilst learning and how we think the teachers teaching techniques work.

Well this is all for now…..i will try and write a little each week.

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