15/6/2014

Elmer Jorge Guardado. Master | Teaching Practice

TEACHING ESSAY
MORENA LOURDES LEMUS
POSADA



Introduction

This essay is going to include some aspects of my teaching practice,
which I developed in this course of Teaching Practice and it has been a
good experience as teacher, because in that way I can know what is my
teaching philosophy, and what is the type of teacher I want to be, also
what is my methodology and I could realize if it works with my
students or not and how I can improve it in order to provide a good
learning toward the students. Completing this course I am going to
show are some aspects in which I am going to focus on:
Explain and include a Teaching Critical Reflection in what you have been
through in your TP and in the course.
Explain step by step how you are going to do systematization of your
Teaching Practice process.
Explain and describe how you are going to apply the E-portfolio approach
including the new learning environment in the ELT.
How are you going to deal if you want to use technology in a school or
place of work but there is not tech in the classroom? What are you going
to do? How are you going to solve the problem? Provide resources that
you will use and the procedures.

Those are the aspects that I am going to develop and I am going to
solve and give my point of view about the followings aspects.





Explain and include a Teaching Critical Reflection in what you
have been through in your TP and in the course.
The first author who brought reflection into an understanding of what
professionals do was Schn (1983). Schn defined reflection as thinking about
what we are thinking, acting upon rather than reaction to a stimulus. This is
viewed as being interrelated with social constructivist practices and openness
to change and it enables reflective practices (Schn, 1983, 1987).
Kolb (1984) also stated, in his influential argument on experiential learning, that
reflection plays an important major role in the transformation of experience
into knowledge. Under this fundamental principle of this scholar reflection has
been placed at the core of the learning process, especially in relation to learning
as a development and not merely the acquisition of information (Reynolds,
1998). Reflection is a way of helping practitioners to better understand what
they know and do as they develop their knowledge of practice through
reconsidering what they learn in practice (Loughran, 2002:p.). It is within the
context of management education that the concept of critical reflection now
forms a core part of trainer teachers qualification. It is believed that by thinking
more critically about their assumptions and actions, practitioners can develop
more collaborative, responsive and ethical ways of performing their duties
within the context of their work. (Ajani-makan, 2012)

Well a critical reflection involves analysis about your own teaching practice
that may contribute an effective learning and which the students can enjoy their
learning process.



Reflecting teaching means to look at what I have been doing inside my
classroom with my students and we have to ask some questions in order to
reflect for example:
What did I do?
Why did I do?
Is it working?
well in my teaching practice I did some activities that students like to participate
during the class and in which they feel motivated to learn a second language, and I
did it because through is they could get more knowledge about the topic that I was
teaching, there were sometimes that it worked but no in the way that I want, I
other words it doesnt cover the expectative for my class, and when I saw that I
started reflection and I implement another activities and I after I reflect again
Are the activities working right?
How the students are responding?
And after this I realize that everything was working as it had been dreamed by me
and because the activities were appropriated for the level that the students have
and the they were responding better through the different activities that I
implement, because I was suing activities that were too high for the students, but
even they responded to this, and with the new changes that I did everything was
going better in my teaching practice.
Since I was in the classroom there were some things that got me things and one of
the most important is the students dont like learn English, and it is because the
teacher doesnt look a good way to motivate them to learn using different type of
material in which them can feel motivate to learn a second language, also the
teacher is showing the different types of learning toward the students and they can
learn from different ways.



There are some teachers who think that they have lazy students in the classroom
because they dont like to do anything in class, but now that I have knowledge
about the process I can tell that there are not bad students or lazy, but that there
bad teacher because they dont use the right methodology, strategies and
techniques in the teaching, they dont have the passion nor even the compromise
to teach, and that is why the students dont show interest to learn and there are
some teacher that they had stay in ancients year and they teach as they taught as
people did it long time ago, and I realized about and that is why I want to be an
innovator teacher in my classroom.














Explain step by step how you are going to do systematization of your
Teaching Practice process.

first of all the Teacher in charge of the course started explain how the course
would be, and he put me to create my own lesson plan in order to find the best
one among all those format and that everyone can start working with that format
and e said that we need to create our teaching portfolio.
Second I did the first part of my teaching portfolio
Third I fixed my format and I filled, it was an example of lesson plan, to have a
guide for the whole course.
Fourth after I presented my lesson plan to the teacher, he said that we have to look
for the MINED program, and start working in the syllabus which consists in to
plan how to develop the four macro skill of the students.
Fifth then I finish the syllabus; I worked in the outline of activities that I have to
develop in every class.
Sixth I did my planning which consisted in plan when I would start and finish my
course, how many days at week, the name of the units and hour assigned by unit.
Seventh well when I finished everything that I would use for my course, I went to
the administration office to paid a letter and give information about the institution
that I would do my Teaching Practice.
Eighth I took the letter to the Instituto Nacional Santa Maria it is the place where I
would do my practice and the principal of the institution accept me, also I choose
to work with the students of twelve, because It was the only group that I could
work and it was the better schedule for me.



Night I started to do my Teaching practice on March 31, I had 30 students in the
classroom, and they were the first students from high school that I had worked.
Tenth after my teacher in charge for the course said that I have do an Action
Research, which mean that I have to see in my classroom what were the most
common mistakes or problem and I took one and I work with a classmate we
investigate about it we implement a plan in order to solve that problem and ten we
performed.
Eleventh I had to create the second part of my teaching portfolio and append all
the lesson plans that I designed in every class, also the others materials that I did at
the beginning.
Twelfth after the teacher said that we have to do a reflection about our teaching
practice, and we did a teaching reflection.
Thirteenth I created my e-portfolio and I include all the things related with my
teaching practice.











Explain and describe how you are going to apply the E-portfolio
approach including the new learning environment in the ELT.

Portfolios are a fairly established approach to foreign language teaching,
learning and assessment. They allow student to record their learning progress;
collate writing tasks, document evidence of independent learning activities and
reflect on their learning experience. Since their introduction over ten years ago, the
Languages Programmer at York St John University (YSJU) has required students to
submit paper-based portfolios as one of two main assessment components the
other being an oral exam. Portfolios allow students to show evidence of their
progress throughout the semester in areas such as writing, reading and listening.
Although the written pieces in the foreign language (e.g. essays, dialogues, etc.)
still constitute the main part of the portfolio, increasingly students have been
encouraged to include evidence of online work, for instance in the form of screen
shots which are cut and pasted onto paper. It is apparent that ring-binder
portfolios are becoming outdated. Firstly, they do not allow students to include
multimedia materials such as audio and video recording and secondly they are
unsuitable for electronic submission of assessments, which is now the norm at
YSJU. Thirdly, the old method requires students to do a large amount of printing
which can be quite costly. Recent technological advances are bringing undeniable
benefits to language teaching and learning; Moreover, they are generally well-
received by the new generation of students. In a qualitative study exploring
English as Foreign Language (EFL) students views on portfolios, Hung and
Huang found that learners positively perceived portfolios, particularly for raising
Meta cognitive and affective awareness and providing multi-dimensional
perspectives on evaluation. However, in a recent evaluation of portfolios, warns
that the use of E-portfolios needs to be carefully planned, designed and tested to



become a truly effective teaching and assessment tool. With this in mind,
Languages Programmer initiated a pilot project which reviewed its existing paper
based portfolios with the view of replacing them with an open source E-Portfolio
system in the future. (Liviana Ferrari, 2012)
I consider that the E-portfolio is a very important tool that resumes the
development of my skills, while I have been through my process of becoming a
teacher, it shows all the experiences and achievements that I have gotten which is
very helpful for me because on this way I can apply all those skills while I have to
develop a class and this will help me to use many technological activities within
the classroom. Creating my own E-portfolio was a experience that made me reflect
that it is mistake to try to persuade student to avoid using technology while they
are in a classroom, because it like trying to get fish out of water which is its
natural habitat; after I did my E-portfolio I understood that what I have to do as a
teacher is to create an environment where students can use technology to improve
their skills on this way I will not to take away any of their habits on their everyday
routines.
What I will do is to create online activities to interact with my students on
this way I will be able to check out their process while they are performing the
activities, also the students will have the opportunity to have a record of the
activities they have done in order to develop their skills and this will be useful for
them once they graduate because they might present evidences of how they
developed their skills on their learning process.






How are you going to deal if you want to use technology in a school
or place of work but there is not tech in the classroom? What are you
going to do? How are you going to solve the problem? Provide
resources that you will use and the procedures.

Technology is ubiquitous, touching almost every part of our lives, our
communities, our homes. Yet most schools lag far behind when it comes to
integrating technology into classroom learning. Many are just beginning to explore
the true potential tech offers for teaching and learning. Properly used, technology
will help students acquire the skills they need to survive in a complex, highly
technological knowledge-based economy. (edutopia.org, 2014)

Nowadays, teaching has become in a very complex process, not just because
the teachers responsibility is to form the future professionals for our society, but
by the fact of the different tools teachers have to use in the classroom in order to
develop their classes in the best way to increase students abilities according to
different problems they would have to face on quotidian life; once they finish their
carriers. One of the most important things to develop in the teaching process is the
usage of technology which is the most important tool in the teaching process
especially when teaching English as a second language, because the usage of
technology will help teachers to engage students to motive themselves to develop
the four English macro- skills that are the competence they have to work on in
order to reach their goals, but what would happen if a teacher has to teach in a
school where there is not tech?
Integrating technology into classroom instruction means more than teaching
basic computer skills and software programs in a separate computer class.
Effective tech integration must happen across the curriculum in ways that research



shows deepen and enhance the learning process. In particular, it must support four
key components of learning: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent
interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts. Effective
technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine and
transparent and when technology supports curricular goals. (edutopia.org, 2014)
Since nowadays technology is essential on the teaching process, every teacher
has to be up to date, but even if the teacher is up to date with the new technology
materials that can be used on education , I will not be able to work as it should be,
if the school does not have the necessary resources in order to teach using
technology, at this point the compromise and passion for the teaching will play a
very important role because it would will motive the teacher to look for options in
order to use technology to develop the class, and it might be as follow:
As a teacher the first step that I would take will be take my own computer
and projector to develop the class: on this way I will have the opportunity of
bringing slices, videos and documents to share with my students, this
process might help the students to understand a topic in a better and
dynamic way.
Second step that I would take my own tape recorded to present audios to
the students in order to improve their pronunciation.
If I do not have all the equipment that I need to develop the class I would
ask some other institution around the community to let me borrow what I
need, for example the city hall or any other person who have the resource
that I need for my class.
Another thing that I will do is talk with the principal in order to persuade
him/her of the needs of the school and show the interest of cooperating in
order to solve the problem and to help the development of a better
education within the school that I have.



Recent reports (from The Chronicle of Higher Education and Walden
University), point to teachers' continuing difficulties integrating technology into
classroom learning. Despite access to technology and despite the fact that novice
teachers are entering the classroom with far more advanced technology skills than
their counterparts of an earlier age, only 39 percent of teachers report "moderate"
or "frequent" use of technology as an instructional tool (Grunewald Associates,
2010).This limited use may have multiple causes: Teachers may be overwhelmed
by demands of testing; they may not see the value of instructional technologies in
their particular content area; they may work in environments where principals do
not understand or encourage technology use; and the types of software most
helpful in instruction are not always the types of applications students know
howor wantto use. But one cause of this difficulty seems to be the types of
technology-related professional development teachers receive. Though technology
training is one of the most common types of professional development for
teacherswith 60 percent of teachers reporting some sort of technology-related
professional development in the past year (NEA, 2008)only 43 percent rate it
"useful" or "very useful." Many teachers report that the instruction they receive in
technology integration, whether online or face-to-face, is still too focused on
learning how to use the software versus integrating it into the teaching and
learning process. (Burns, 2010)









Conclusion
Now that I have been involve with the teaching process , I can tell that it
was a good experience for me, because through that process I could grow as a
teacher, another thing is that this course has help me to think what king of teacher
I want to be once I finished my carrier. All the knowledge that I have acquired
about this course will be useful and I will never forget it, because it was on this
course where I looked inside my teaching philosophy, the right methodology to
engage the students in the process of learning, in which I was constantly aware of
my students learning, and the improving that they had in my teaching practice.
Another thing that I enjoyed was the time that I spend with some students
because it make them to reflect about why they didnt want to attend to the
Instituto, and at the end I guess that I chance their life , because I saw them in my
class and participating.. I never expect to have the knowledge that I have now but
it is thanks to the teacher in charge of the course, because he uses the right method
and strategies in order to show us what is the right way in order to become in a
successful teacher.











References

Ajani-makan, S. (9 de may de 2012). academia.edu. Recuperado el 13 de june de
2014, de academia.edu:
http://www.academia.edu/1620363/Critical_Reflection_on_Teaching_and_Learni
ng
Burns, M. (5 de septiembre de 2010). elearn magazine. Recuperado el 14 de june de
2014, de elearn magazine: http://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=1865476
edutopia.org. (14 de june de 2014). edutopia.org. Recuperado el 14 de june de 2014,
de edutopia.org: http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction
Liviana Ferrari, D. Z. (20 de february de 2012). ITC for language learning .
Recuperado el 13 de june de 2014, de ITC for language learning :
http://conference.pixel-
online.net/ICT4LL2012/common/download/Paper_pdf/241-QIL34-FP-Ferrari-
ICT2012.pdf