After two intensive weeks of learning, studying, and observing it was now our turn to have a trial run with teaching. Our practicum was to be 30 minutes, conducted in a language other than English or Spanish, and focused on having the students speak the new language or vocabulary words (at least six new words). For my practicum I ended up going with feelings/emotions and the language I chose was Italian. I chose Italian for several reasons, but primarily I chose it because I thought it would be easier for me to understand and speak. Also, this would prove to be easiest for my students to speak and understand because most of them are native Spanish speakers.
My friend Emily went first. She had lived in France for a year and is fluent. Needless to say, her practicum was conducted in French on weather. She began her practicum with the normals and most comprehensible "Hello, How are you?, What is your name?". She then introduced her new vocabulary words which included the sun, rain, wind, etc. She made a lucid transition with her newly learned vocabulary words into a map of the world and made the students identify the new vocabulary words with a corresponding place on the map. We reviewed the words together. She even helped some students who needed that extra assistance with pronunciation (As most of us know the French guttural sounds can be pretty hard to speak, particularly to a native English or Spanish speaker). She used her time wisely and in my opinion (and our teachers, too), she did a great job.
Then, it was my turn to take our classroom knowledge and put it into effect. Firstly, I showed a clip from the TV show, "Friends" from the 1990's. It shows Rachael being swooned by Paolo. Ross and Chancellor are in the back-ground and Ross is mocking the words Paolo is saying. I thought it was a funny 30 second clip to show. But, the volume wasn't loud enough. I made everyone stand up to see which I could tell didn't allow for some people to see (Lessons learned, strike 1). I began like we had been taught and just like my friend, Emily with "Hello, How are you?, What is your name?". I do not know Italian fluently though I used to think that one day I would. I guess I haven't had the exposure nor the stamina. In fact, including the new words I just learned from this I probably can count on my hands and toes how many words/phrases I know in Italian though sometimes I let this part of my nationality take most of the credit though all my nationalities are equal. I introduced my new vocabulary words regarding feelings and emotions with physical displays through flash cards and through acting it out myself. I tried to drill these words into my students because I wanted them to remember and gain something from my lesson. I weaved through the class at random and in a predictable order to make each student memorize the new words. Also, it wouldn't be too hard since some words were so closely related to Spanish, i.e. feliz and felice. I reviewed what we had just learned by going through the cards again and asking the students to identify which feeling/emotion this was displaying. I followed up with some tasks that included Charades where each student picked a card and had to act out the feeling and have the other students guess the feeling. In hindsight I should have conducted some of my back up activities because I had been a bit nervous and think I went quickly through my lesson. But, I had ended everything with a quiz that I drew with my greatest of artistic ability. It was a quiz of faces and vocabulary words that were to be identified by the students. Then I reviewed what everyone had done. It seemed that everyone did well in my beginner "trial-run" class. I felt more like an actress than a teacher, but I think it may have had to do something with my subject which could have been taught to any beginner class anywhere in the world.
Lastly, Diego conducted his practicum in Thai on the body parts. Let me fist explain that Diego has taken this course in January in Canada. He is already TESOL certified, but I suppose wanted this experience of taking it in Costa Rica. He said that in Canada it was easier because it was just done in front of your peers. He is also fluent in Spanish so at that time he did it in Spanish on breakfast. This time he was more challenged, especially picking a language like Thai. But, I also believe because he was challenged he was forced to get more creative. He began just like Emily and I. But, made everyone stand upon greeting. He gave each person a head-band as a prop to get us more into our Thai roles. He introduced the six body parts he wanted us to remember. But, to get us more involved we made body movements each time a certain part of the body was said. For example, when he said "Thao" we kicked our foot. The most creative aspect of his presentation was his "Scuba Steve", his wet-suit filled with pillows and blankets to simulate a real person. Each student identified a body part of "Scuba Steve" to review the new terminology. His presentation was definitely the most exciting.
From everything I learned this week through school, teaching, and observation is that you can never fully predict how things will go. It is really important to be excited and learn from your mistakes and others. I do know how things will go and that is something I will never be able to predict. I think its dire to have fun and to have your energy rub off on your students. In essence you are teaching them so that they can advance in careers, personal growth, etc. And if I can positively influence one person then I think I have done the best job that I can to help make this world a better place for everyone in it.
My friend Emily went first. She had lived in France for a year and is fluent. Needless to say, her practicum was conducted in French on weather. She began her practicum with the normals and most comprehensible "Hello, How are you?, What is your name?". She then introduced her new vocabulary words which included the sun, rain, wind, etc. She made a lucid transition with her newly learned vocabulary words into a map of the world and made the students identify the new vocabulary words with a corresponding place on the map. We reviewed the words together. She even helped some students who needed that extra assistance with pronunciation (As most of us know the French guttural sounds can be pretty hard to speak, particularly to a native English or Spanish speaker). She used her time wisely and in my opinion (and our teachers, too), she did a great job.
Then, it was my turn to take our classroom knowledge and put it into effect. Firstly, I showed a clip from the TV show, "Friends" from the 1990's. It shows Rachael being swooned by Paolo. Ross and Chancellor are in the back-ground and Ross is mocking the words Paolo is saying. I thought it was a funny 30 second clip to show. But, the volume wasn't loud enough. I made everyone stand up to see which I could tell didn't allow for some people to see (Lessons learned, strike 1). I began like we had been taught and just like my friend, Emily with "Hello, How are you?, What is your name?". I do not know Italian fluently though I used to think that one day I would. I guess I haven't had the exposure nor the stamina. In fact, including the new words I just learned from this I probably can count on my hands and toes how many words/phrases I know in Italian though sometimes I let this part of my nationality take most of the credit though all my nationalities are equal. I introduced my new vocabulary words regarding feelings and emotions with physical displays through flash cards and through acting it out myself. I tried to drill these words into my students because I wanted them to remember and gain something from my lesson. I weaved through the class at random and in a predictable order to make each student memorize the new words. Also, it wouldn't be too hard since some words were so closely related to Spanish, i.e. feliz and felice. I reviewed what we had just learned by going through the cards again and asking the students to identify which feeling/emotion this was displaying. I followed up with some tasks that included Charades where each student picked a card and had to act out the feeling and have the other students guess the feeling. In hindsight I should have conducted some of my back up activities because I had been a bit nervous and think I went quickly through my lesson. But, I had ended everything with a quiz that I drew with my greatest of artistic ability. It was a quiz of faces and vocabulary words that were to be identified by the students. Then I reviewed what everyone had done. It seemed that everyone did well in my beginner "trial-run" class. I felt more like an actress than a teacher, but I think it may have had to do something with my subject which could have been taught to any beginner class anywhere in the world. 
Lastly, Diego conducted his practicum in Thai on the body parts. Let me fist explain that Diego has taken this course in January in Canada. He is already TESOL certified, but I suppose wanted this experience of taking it in Costa Rica. He said that in Canada it was easier because it was just done in front of your peers. He is also fluent in Spanish so at that time he did it in Spanish on breakfast. This time he was more challenged, especially picking a language like Thai. But, I also believe because he was challenged he was forced to get more creative. He began just like Emily and I. But, made everyone stand upon greeting. He gave each person a head-band as a prop to get us more into our Thai roles. He introduced the six body parts he wanted us to remember. But, to get us more involved we made body movements each time a certain part of the body was said. For example, when he said "Thao" we kicked our foot. The most creative aspect of his presentation was his "Scuba Steve", his wet-suit filled with pillows and blankets to simulate a real person. Each student identified a body part of "Scuba Steve" to review the new terminology. His presentation was definitely the most exciting. 
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