Fifth Week of Teaching

This week was kind of a mess. I think this happens because kids are coming back from vacations, so they are more hyperactive than usual, and I had some class management troubles because of that. For example, the mentor teacher left me alone with them for a few minutes while I was explaining some topics, but it seems that they don’t see me as an authority figure, so as soon as the teacher leaves the classroom, they stood up from their chairs and talked among them. I tried to call their attention with sounds, signs, and knocking the board, but nothing seemed to work; I even asked them in Spanish to go back to their sits and stay quiet, but they didn´t. Later on, there was an emergency outside our classroom, someone passed out, so the school’s guard called an ambulance. My mentor teacher went out and asked me to continue with the class. Kids immediately ran to watch the whole thing through the window, some opened the door, and it was a mess. I was running after them to make them come back to class. When finally got everyone inside, they continue watching through the window and making comments about the whole episode. I was in front of the class, sweating, and thinking what the hell I should do. I tried yelling a little bit and writing down their names on the board, it work for a couple of minutes, but as soon as I continue with the topics they came back to the window, so I finally came up with the idea of doing a game where they can move around. It worked, at least until the teacher came back inside; however, I wasn´t able to continue with the topic because of this class management issue.     

During this week, we continue working with topics related to food. We review healthy food vs. junk food with some groups that were left a little bit behind. We also reviewed kinds of food on breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and finally, we taught some flavors and how to identify food through the five senses. I brought some real food like lemons, apples, and candies just to have a more clear idea. I also tried new warm ups to gain experience on this. 

On the last day of the week, my mentor teacher brought an activity that I really loved. She used to review prepositions of place. What she did was to talk with a Carlos, a puppet that she designs by herself. I realized that kids already knew Carlos because the teacher has worked with him in other activities. I really enjoyed this activity because kids were very enthusiastic, and all of them interacted with Carlos, and asked him questions. The teacher is a great actress; she performed a very entertained show. Actually, she used to work with puppets in a very famous theater company. She traveled all around the world with this company, and she met her husband there as well. This activity was very meaningful to me because I was able to learn how to work with more dynamic and creative resources; which is something that I really would like to apply on my future lessons.