Covid-19-Final reflection

1. FINAL REFLECTION
PRACTICE III
Tutor: Aurelia Velázquez
Student: Paula Ezpeleta
INSTITUTO DE FORMACIÓN DOCENTE CONTINUA
LENGUAS VIVAS BARILOCHE (A-052)
Profesorado de Inglés – Opción pedagógica a distancia
YEAR: 2020

2. 1
BEING A TRAINEE IN TIMES OF COVID-19
Doing my primary practice training during the COVID-19 pandemic was something
extraordinary that challenged not only my beliefs and approach to teaching but also my
world view in general. At the beginning of the year, I realized that my teaching practice
was at risk. This time we did not know if we, trainees, would be able to do our practice in
schools.
CONCRETE EXPERIENCE: What did I do?
To beginwith, I decidedtostart experimentingwithonlinelessons teachingto my nieces
and some friends around May 2020. My idea was to be ahead of what I felt it would be
my practice in the months to come. However, my primary practice did not involve real
students since I was not working at schools or private institutes and I ‘had to deal with
imaginary students’. Of course, I was overwhelmed and frustrated at first, but somehow,
I couldalso see an opportunityto put in practicea differentapproachto teachingEnglish
that it could have sounded far-fetched just a few months before the lockdown.
Then, it was time to get hands at work and search for the best online tools to design my
lesson plans that consisted of two didactic units made of three sets of anachronic
activities plus a Zoom synchronic lesson. In order to create engaging activities and
lessons, I was very careful when choosing the materials i.e., stories, course books, videos,
and especially the interactive e-learning tools. This selection of resources was of
paramount importance to reach ‘my students’ and strengthen their learning when
schools were closed. Perhaps, more than ever designing appealing materials and tasks
was the most significantwayto catch and sustain students’ attentionin these unique and
uncertain times.
REFLECTIVE OBSERVATION: Howdid I do it?
Looking back at my work I am truly convinced that thinking outside of the box was the
key to my success in this endeavour. Exploring different online teaching ideas; getting in
touch with teachers’ that had already started working online, and above and beyond,
lettingmy creativityflowallowedmetoreachmy ultimategoal:engagingandinteresting
lessons. Besides, working on my own proved to be an excellent opportunity to develop
my autonomy and resourcefulness.
Thus, I can see now that the most outstanding of this peculiar practice is that I had to
learn to use and create lots of interactive games and activities that I was completely

3. 2
unaware of their existence, even though many of these e-tools were already well-known
in other countries (Kahoot, Flippity, LiveWorkSheets, quizzes, etc). Most teachers and
trainees would agree that this exceptional experience forced us to go beyond our
comfort zone and discover a new world of opportunities. This has been so true for me in
every respect as I decided to start teaching English online to students from all around
the country.
ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATION: What can I do differently?
The use of technology in my lesson plans is something I would like to further develop.
At the beginningof my practice,Iwas overwhelmedbythe huge number of apps, e-tools
and websites that there were available. I remember feeling lost as I did not know which
apps or websites were the best options for my activities. In fact, I made some mistakes
when designing an activity with the wrong app. For example, I created a quiz to answer
questions about a video because I did not know that there was a specific app called
EdPuzzle to make this kind of video-quiz.
Subsequently, observing my classmates’ online activities and my own online students’
response to customized games and interactive activities made merealize the central role
of using e-tools in my virtual classes and implement them in my lesson plans. As most
teachers around the world, I was well acquaintedwith the significance of play in teaching
YL and teenagersin face-to-faceclassrooms.Besides,numerouseducatorssuch as i
David
A. Kohlb, Lev Vygotsky, Gardener, John Dewey, Stephen Krashen, Merrill Swain and other
theorists have pointed out that games should be considered as central to instructional
planning as children acquire knowledge through play. But in this remotelearningcontext,
this notion of play and interaction has had an even more central role since students
needed to feel highly motivated to sustain their learning process.
According to a popular website that helps students improve their reading
comprehension skills in a fun way, Mandy Wade, high-school ESL teacher-consultant
points out: “try to stay away from sending home a packet of worksheets. Worksheets are
hardly ever considered fun. Giving students activities that require them to be creative or
interact with family or others online are much more likely to be completed.” ii
In line with
this, I can affirm that this is true for teaching in schools but especially when teaching
online. To test customised games and interactive tasks I started using them with my own
online students whose motivation and engagement was exceptional and made me gain
the confidence to design varied and coherent lesson plans for my practice.
ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION: What plan should I implement?

4. 3
Regarding this first online experience, I fancy exploring more in-depth and experiment
with different online educational platforms, apps and e-tools. It is hard to say, but the
truth is that we do not know what will happen in 2021 regarding our practice in schools.
For this reason, I want to delve deeply into the different resources availableto improve
my teachingpracticeandenhancemy students’ learningexperience.Todoso, I amgoing
to enrol in some webinars to find out new techniques and strategies, update my
knowledge in this ‘new field’, and learn from other colleagues’ experiences and insights.
Although it is not clear how it will be our practice next year, we know that mixed classes
are likely to go on, at least, during the first half of 2021.
To sum up, this unique practicehasbeen somethingunforgettable,somethingthatmade
me see teaching in a different light and challenged my own beliefs and deep-rooted
prejudices. For instance, I had never thought that I could teach English online, even
though I am enrolled in an online course of studies. This kind of situations has confirmed
to me how some beliefs were extremely fixed in my mindset. Now, I can see clearly that
e-learning and e-tools are here to stay beyond the pandemic and the importance of
implementing ICT in meaningful ways. Now and then, I wonder if the pandemic has
forced us to change our approach once and forever. It seems to me that there has been
in the last years a need for a different paradigm that most teachers were reluctant to
consider. Anyway, I am sure this could be the start of something great if we can take on
the challenge, be sensible to the world’s situation, and becomenew teachers for a better
society. It is up to us.
THE END
i
Smriti, S. (2016, June). Game Based Language Learning in ESL Classroom: A Theoretical Perspective. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307885568_Game_Based_Language_Learning_in_ESL_Classroom_A_Theoretical_Perspective

5. 4
ii
Wade, M. (2020). Remote ESL Learning. Retrieved from https://readtheory.org/remote-esl-learning/