REFLECTION ABOUT MY PRACTICUM

1. REFLECTION ABOUT MY
PRACTICUM
by Micaela Lujan Much
Which class did you enjoy most? Why? (Back up with theory)
What was the greatest challenge for you during the Practicum? What did you
do to face/overcome it? (Back up with theory)
I have already finished my practicum and I feel I have learnt a lot. It was the
most beautiful experience I had during my course of studies. I am very grateful
for this possibility of learning from reality. I adored my children. It was
wonderful to arrive each Thursday and be received with kisses and hugs. It
required a lot of work, but I completely enjoyed it. I am sure I established a
very good rapport with my students and that they recognized me as their
”Seño”.
I have said that this experience required a lot of work because, as Harmer said,
there were a lot of things I had to take into account when planning, such as
organizing activities in a balanced level, i.e. not too easy but not too difficult so
that all the kids had the possibility of achieving the activity’s goal. Harmer also
suggested the use of routines in a lesson in order to make children feel secure
and with the ability of predicting what would happen on each class. Every time
I planned, I also had to focus on how I would keep my students motivated so
that the kids would be eager to work and enjoy the lessons.
Actually, I enjoyed each of my classes, but the one I enjoyed most was the last
one, closing the practicum with a project. I felt proud of my kids showing how
much they knew, and I was so happy to see them making the posters and
enjoying the activity as I did. The poster they had to make a Spring poster,
since the whole unit we taught was named SPRING. It involved making a
collage of flowers, leaves and grass in combination with some characteristics
insects of spring, such as butterflies or a bee. The starting point of this project
was a dictation activity. I had classified the different parts of the image into
colours and numbers, so then I said a determined colour, for example green,
and all the kids showed the parts that were green. After that, I said a number,

2. so the children had to look for the green part with the number I have said. In
that way, they were building the poster.
This activity was different to all the previous ones, because they had to work in
groups. The activities they solved during the whole unit were planned to be
solved individually. But this one was different and an important change, since
very young learners prefer working alone and can be reluctant to share. As it
was an activity where they had to make a poster -something easier that the
activities they were solving-, it was not necessary to form mixed-ability groups.
Although we did not train children to work in groups, they did it very well.
Regarding instructions, the children understood them, so it shows me that they
were clear enough. I stood the whole class between the two groups that were
organized, so I could hold their attention properly. I am conscious that I played
many different roles not only during that class but also during the whole
practicum. Some of the teacher’s roles I adopted are the following: observer,
assessor, controller, facilitator, organizer, prompter, resourceful, editor and
tutor.
I liked my students working in groups because they were able to provide
different opinions and varied contribution. Moreover, it encouraged broader
skills of cooperation and negotiation. Although working in groups can be very
noisy, this time the kids worked peacefully, mainly because they were engaged
in the activity. It was very important that there was not domination from any
individuals; all of them worked cooperatively.
As regards challenges, the greatest of them was meeting children with some
serious problems, such as behaviour problems, lack of attention or autism
spectrum disorder. At first, it was kind of difficult for me to adapt to those
situations because since I come from a very little town, I have never seen
things like that, especially the problem that Joaquin has or the one who
Gonzalo suffers -violence at home-. As Zelmanovich stated, violence is
developed when there is exclusion, i.e. when the Other is not allowed to be part
of an Us. There is a boundary that although sometimes it blurs, it marks the
difference and distance from adults. This asymmetrical relation with adults is
important for children to develop. We as teachers, have the responsibility of
preserving the kid, acting as a mediator between them and reality, so as to

3. protect them. Despite of that being a great challenge, I believe that it is good to
encounter situations very different to those we are not used to, because I learnt
even more, and learnt how to manage those new situations.
I remember one class in which some students were writing on the tables, so I
stopped the lesson and talked to them about the importance of caring about the
furniture we use everyday at school. Then the kids erased it. In another class two
kids were using harmful nicknames (calling people names), so I told them that
they should not do it because they need to learn to be respectful and accept others
what they are like. These situations have to do with problem behavior, in this case
damaging school property and insulting or bullying other students. Problem
behaviour is caused by many factors, such as students’ experiences in their
families, previous learning experiences, or maybe boredom. So as to prevent them,
it is necessary to work with the students and create a code of conduct. If pupils
know ‘where they stand’, classroom management will be more effective. This code
of conduct should be created by teacher in conjunction with the kids, so as to
include their opinions. When we encounter situations like those in our
classrooms, it is important that we act immediately, because the longer a type of
behavior is left unchecked, the more difficult it is to deal with. We also should
keep in mind that we have to focus on the action, not the pupil so as not to
humiliate him/her. Since we are part of a society as they are our students, we
should never forget about teaching citizenship at any moment of our classes.
Finally and so as to conclude, I felt very surprised when I saw how fast and well
the children learnt the new language, since I had never seen a kid learning
English. As Cameron (2001:8) stated, “the new language is first used
meaningfully by teacher and pupils, and later it is transformed and internalized to
become part of the individual child’s language skills or knowledge. After having
experienced these situations, I strongly confirm what theories like Cameron’s
said. Children learnvery fast and they enjoy it, something which is very important
to keep them motivated.
I am sure that not only the kids learnt new vocabulary and a lot of other things
but also I learnt a lot from them. It was a wonderful experience.
References:

4.  CHILDREN LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. Chapter 1: Lynne
Cameron,” Teaching languages to YLE” (2001), Cambridge university
press.
 CONTRA EL DESAMPARO. Zelmanovich, Perla.
 THE PRACTICE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING. Harmer,
Jeremy (2010). 4th Edition. Longman.