The Teaching Experience With Teenagers

My name is Heinar Francisco Pineda Mazariego, I am twenty years old. I was born on november the 3rd, 1992. Since I was a young boy, I have admired teachers; it does not matter if he or she is a science teacher or a language and literature teacher, I admire them because I think that teaching is something that has no price since when saw in good ground, the fruits last forever. I have always liked to work in groups or teams, and this is because we can rely on our mats whenever we need it.

 I have to mention that there have been many events that have changed my life; but one of the most importants ones is when with God's help I won a scholarship  for studying in a university in 2008. Now I am in my senior year at the Don Bosco University and this means almost everything to me because beyond getting a diploma and making a dream come true, I know that I am going to have the chance to give something away from the whole I have recieved from my teachers. 

I did my social service in the High School from where I come from: The Pablo Tesak High School in Isla de Mendez, Usulutan. It was such a great experience for me since I shared some of the things that I have learned at the university concerning the English language. 

Around seven months ago, I had the chance to have my very first teaching experience, this was teaching to children. This was a remarkable experience because there is nothing better than teaching to those who will be the future leaders of our nation. I did enjoy that unforgettable experience beacuse there are many thing that I learned: how to plan appelaing lesson plans for kids, how to use simple but effective language, and to design materials specificly for children. 

THE ADOLESCENTS' WORLD

My experience with adolescents so far has been better than waht I had imagined... As one of my professors said once: "In most of the times when teaching the students learn from the teacher, but I always learn alot from my students too." That is why I want to display throughout this blog not only my teen students' bevahing, but also my developmet as a beginner English teacher.

When  we get to think about teaching something to a young person, specially an adolescent, we realise that it is not such an easy thing! No matter what it is, or how easy it may seem. Also, when we come to think about adolescents, we tend to pay attention to the various changes that they face at this age. As noted in Santrock, John W. pp 90: "when we think about adolescence, we often focus on the biological changes of puberty or socioemotional changes, such as the motivation for independence, relations with parents and peers..." Moreover, since there are many changes in this stage, we realise that their development is still in process and it can be influenced or shaped by their surroundings; therefore, as a students looking forward to become a teacher, I realise that I can have some influence in adolescents too. "Adolescents' development is influenced by teachers, parents and peers." Santrock John W. pp 361. 

Class # 1 March 8th, 2013 Introducing Others.

Before Teaching:

Since all the students are new, and I have never ever dealt with teenagers, I felt very very nevous. I did not know what to expect from them because the theory is sometimes quite different from the real life. I did not know whether or not they would pay attention to me... Or I could be able to manage the classroom. I had seen some classes for adolescents and my fear was that they would do the same in my class: not to pay attention or follow the instructions. I arrived very early at the university... It was 9 A..M O'clock and the students had not arrived yet, so we kept waiting until it was 9:30. I did feel very anxious because of the number of students, and their behavious... Besides that, I try to be positive, and do my best!

During Teaching: 

I was very nervous at the begging because there were seven students only. I did my best to control myself, and something that I had in mind was to be calm because everthing would go well. I tried to be as clear as possible when pronuouncing each phrase because if there is something that I have clear, is that students learn even from the little details. As the class went on, I started to feel more comfortable. I do not know if it was because it was the very first day anf the students did not know each other completely, but they did cooperate with me and my team mates. I felt very confident because I was able to manage the classroom. 

After Teaching:

When I came to reflect about the lesson, I realised that besides the anxiety, our lesson went well. All the activities that we had planned worked successfully as we had expected. The activities used were very entertaining for the students and according to what we observed, they liked them alot. Our objective was reached and that is something that encourages us to continue. By the end, we recieved the feedback from our peers and we do take into account those comment because they will help us to become more experts in the teaching area. 

Class # 2 March the 15th 2013  The Alphabet 

Before Teaching:

Before my second class to adolescents I felt a little bit more nervous than the previous time; and this was because we got all new students. I really had thought that we were having the same students. (of course we were expecting more pupils than the last time, but not all new ones). Also, I felt kind of nervous because I had never thought listening; even thought I had observed to some of my teachers do that, I did not feel confident enough to do that.

During Teaching:

When I began my lesson I was so nervous because my teaching mate had not arrived to the classroom. And I was wondering whether or not he would make it. I was thinking the whole time what would I do if he would not arrive on time. I began the class by placing a chart with the English alphabet, and I began to ask the students to say the words for I could see their background. I felt very good when I got to know that almost all the students knew the alphabet, so it was not going to be a problem when doing the production activity. However, I noticed that most of them did not know the difference regarding the pronounciation between "b" and "v" and between "c" and "z". Therefore, I knew that it was the time to show the students the difference between these words. When I was playing the audio, I did not feel very comfortable because I did not know what to do: I did not know if it was a good idea to get closer to the teenagers and ask them if they had any question or wait until the audio was over and then have them repeat several times. At the end, I did the second one. Despite the fact that my mate was missing, I was nervous because our instructor had an eye on my performance and although I tried my best to skip the nerves, it was not enough. 

After Teaching:

After teaching when the production activity was over, I was very happy because the students wrote most of the words correctly, (6 out of 7). However, I began to think what went ok and what were some of the thing that I needed to enhance for my next class. I realised that my instructions were not adressed in the best way and that I really needed to work on them very hard. Also, I understood that I can have some interaction with the students before starting the class in order to create a good environment in the classroom.

Class # 3   People at school

Before Teaching:

Before my third class, I feel less nervous than the previous classes. Nonetheless, I felt kind of tires because I did not have a good sleep last night because I was preparing the materials for my lesson... And at night, I realised that I did not have some paper to print the readings. At that moment I realised that I had to go to bed and get up as early as possible to buy paper for my materials. 

During Teaching:

During the class I felt very comfortable since from what I have noticed, the students like very much the reading pat, and the activities that were held were very interesting. The students interacted with each other and they also shared and compared their answers. However, with the writing part, they did not feel quite motivated because they have to work a little bit more and then present their work. Once again, I was expecting around 15 students to come, but at the end only 7 showed up. This was not a problem for I took avantage of it and I paid special attention to those ones who needed extra explanations or instructions. 

After Teaching:

After teaching my lesson, I was as happy as frustrated. Happy because the reading part went very very well , and I knew that my intructions had gotten better and clearer, the main objective was reached and at the end the students did produce. Whereas, I was very frustated because my objective in the writing part was not reached, at the end the students were very eager to get out and they did not perform in the way expected. The time was not a problem since we have learned to manage it and to pay carefull attention of the activities. Therefore, whenever an activity lasts more than expected, there are others that take less time creating a balance.      

Class # 4 April 5th 2013  E-pals

Before Teaching:

Before my fourth class, I felt very confident and less nervous than the previous times. In fact, I felt kind of exited because of the vacations. I thought that the students were going to be very active in the class because the topic that is going to be taught is something that it is interesting for them. The media and internet friends, facebook friends in the students' cases.

During Teaching:

During teaching I felt kind of powerless because the students were talking about other things that had nothing to do with the class; and for much that I tried, there was a point that there was nothing I could do to get their attention or have them come back to the English class. I did my best to have them continue working in the activities and although it was such a difficult thing to get, they cooperated at the end. In the other hand, something that strucked me was that there were some words that were new for them, and at the time of repeating before the audio, they did not have any problem with the pronunciation! 

After Teaching:

After teaching, I began to think about the possible ways in order to get students' attention. We thought about transmiting our energy to them since they reflect alot from what they see in the teachers and to find the better activities to balance their energy. And at the end we concluded that we must include activities that make students interact more among them.     

Class # 5 April 12th 2013 "Cool Things" Reading

Before Teaching:

Before teaching I felt kind of confident because I had studied very much my lesson. I had thought how I was going to say the instruction to my students so they could get them easily. I was thinking about this very much because I was recalling what someone said once: "less is more". Also, I was saying to myself that no matter what my students's attitude would be, I would keep a good attitude myself.

During Teaching:

During teaching I felt very good for my SS were willing to participate in the competition activite that I held. In fact, since the previous lesson,s I had realised that most of my students do like competitions. Therefore, I took advantage of this activity. There was a point were I had to check the students' answers and I felt very relieved when I saw that all of the words were spelled correctly, but only one. When I gave my SS the handout they were to work on, I was thinking that they would not care about or do any messy thing. However, I was wrong, most of the students were working i the material, which made me feel happy and eager to help anyone of them if needed.

After teaching:

After I taught my lesson, I felt very happy because this time most of the students were not reluctlant to participate in the activities done along wit their classmates and by themselves too! Like some of the previous lesson, I concluded that it is important to keep students working or bussy because in this way they do not have the chance to wander.

Class # 6 April 19th 2013 "Cool Things" Listening

Before teaching:

Before teaching I felt very nervous I was trying to calm down myself; however, I could not do it. I think that this was because for me, listening is one of the most difficult skills to teach. I knew that it was going to be a little bit challenging because there were new vocabulary words plus the "at" preposition of place. As I entered to the classroom, I began thinking possitively and I arranged the classroom.

During teaching:

During teaching I began to feel comfortable with myself... This was because wghen introducing the new vocabulary I had no problem at it. The activity of arranging the students in fron of their seats did work properly. I felf very happy because of it. The students were following the instructions in all the parts and they followed the instructions too. I felt very good because today there was not too much mess or noise by the students. I reaaly liked very muc the activities that we designed because they were very appealing for the students as well as the materials used in this class. My only concern was if the students would be able to construct a whole dialogue by themselves. Nonetheless, it was quite exiting to see that they were working in that task.

After teaching

After teaching I felt very good because I felt that I had acomplished my goal. I think that having the students work with a different partner was very effective. I realised that having one older student working with a younger one was very useful for themselves.

Class # 7 May 17th 2013 "Family Reunion" Reading

Before teaching:

Before teaching my last lesosn I was feeling very exited because we were directing the class to the very first students that we taught at the mere beginning of our practice. I tried to do my best with the materials since I had seen how the girls worked with this team. Before my lesson I was very relieved because the fewr student, the better to manage them.

During teaching:

During teaching I felt kind of nervous, not because I had to teach, but because the of the presence of our instructor. I was telling myself all the time that I would just pretend that she was not ther and I just continue with the class. I felt very confident with the presentation activity because I had already done something similar in one of  previous classes; therefore, I had a previous idea how to arrange the class. All the students were participating in the activities and it made me feel happy because they showed interest in the class. There was an activity in which the students felf kind of confused or did not finf the correct answers and at that point, I knew that it was my time to help them.  I noticed that all the students enjoyed the activities performed since they intected eachother.

After teaching:

After teaching I felt very happy because I had reached my objective. I was not concerned about the students not doing the last task which was to create a dialogue because I had seen them work in the previous activities. It was very comfortable to know that their dialogues were well structured, as the one they had as example, and that they were very willing to participate in sharing or presenting their work in fron of the class.

In Conclusion, I believe that I reached like the 50% percent of my ultimate goal of the course. I think that the reason why I did not get it completely is because at the end, you realise that thare are some parts that need to be improved lesson by lesson in order to grow as a teacher. Moreover, another factor that interfered with my not reaching my whole objective was that I overgeneralize it. There are many aspecta that we have to take into account when teaching to adolescents and I forgot one of the most important things of the teenagers: THEY ARE DIFFERENT FROM ONE ANOTHER. 

Finally I want to thank God in the first place for giving me stregth in all this semester, second to our kind instructor: Miss Yannira Peña, whose experience and knowledge is wider than the sea, and to all my classmates who have given me support in this teaching practicum. 

Heynar Francisco Pineda Mazariego. May, 2013