Alejandro Cediel
Giraldo
Centro Colombo
Americano observation
Date: November 3, 2012
Timetable: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Grade: Intermediate
Keeping the idea of
one the of most expensive English institutions of the city, I found in this
class a small group of seven well-behaved teenagers, five women and two men,
all them well dressed and owning new technology cellphones that were used
sometimes in class when they had finished their workshops. In general, this
class was very dynamic, the students participated actively and all of them
demonstrated similar proficiency level of English, according with the teacher
they are in B1 level of English. The classroom was a typical square room with
old wooden chairs, religious images and objects on the walls, a big window, a
desk and a blackboard. The observed teacher is a translator of the University
of Antioquia who is doing a second degree course in the languages teaching
program of the same University. He is a good friend of mine because we are
studding the same degree at this moment. My first impression about this
experience was discovering that my friend was a skillful teacher; it was like
discovering another person possessing my friend. So, some questions came up: is
the teacher an actor? Has a teacher multiple personalities?
The students sat down
forming a semicircle around the teacher who was stood up most of the time class.
The first action of the teacher was to write on the blackboard the date and the
agenda for the class. The class was divided in two parts: the first one was
related with how to write and how to recite a speech and the second part was a
listening test. For the first activity, teacher prepared a speech that recited
aloud for the students in order to exemplify how a speech must be wrote and
recited using correct words and voice tone for convincing an audience. After
that, the teacher explained that as a game the students must prepare a speech
and present it to their partners who will be acting as the audience that will
decide about the quality of the speeches. This activity was developed
successfully because all the students did a great effort for standing out in
front of their classmates and it took place a nice time because it was an
opportunity for laughing and enjoying with all speeches and performances.
The second activity was
a listening test; the teacher distributed a handout for each student and for
me, it consisted in a complete guide of a listening test. The teacher brought a
tape recorder and played back twice the audio explaining the completed guide
and containing the dialogues for answering the questions. The students
developed the test carefully. After that, the teacher asked to the students for
changing their completed handouts with their friends in order to correct them.
At the end, the teacher collected all the handouts and gave the corresponding
grades. As a student was disappointed about her performance, she asked to the
teacher for repeating the activity and the teacher allowed her doing the
activity again at the end of the class.
All time the teacher spoke
in English and encouraged students to do it too, even when the students were
speaking each other about different subjects from the class topic. It was
notable that a small group allows doing a personalized work with the students,
often the teacher was focused on one student giving retroaction while the other
students worked in groups in their workshops. About indiscipline, I just
perceived little conversations between students and some of them that were
absentminded with their cellphones for a little moment. In order to control
those little actions, the teacher called the students attention by little
comments saying “If you are talking about other subjects, please speak in
English”. In general, I can say that
there was a positive interaction among all the participants of the class, the
students were really motivated to participate and they had a good level of
language. Sometimes, I felt that their good level of English was even really
close to my performance in English. For that reason, I set up the following
question: Are we really prepared for teaching to this kind of public?
To conclude this
report, I emphasize about the questions prompted by this experience and that I
set up before in this report: Is the institutional information provided in web
sites real? In both observation experiences public school and private
institution, I found that in some way the information provided in their Web
Sites was ambiguous. I highlight that for me was very impressive to find this
passage “The Centro Colombo Americano of Medellín is a cultural organization
with not profit motive in mind, where it is promoted human development…” I
question the veracity of this information, is it real that the Colombo Americano
is an organization with not profit motive in mind? Or is it real that they
promote human development? I let this question on the air.
Is the teacher an
actor? Has a teacher multiple personalities? In both observation experiences
public school and private institution, and in my entire life as student, I have
felt that teachers must have a personality change when they are in classroom;
it is very different to deal with a teacher as student, as a friend or after
finishing the course. For example, in the public institution, I didn’t have the
opportunity of knowing the teacher; I always was an observant and what I
realized about being a public school teacher is that you have to personalize an
authoritarian person. Different from the private institution, because I knew
the teacher previously and I had the opportunity of perceive his
transformation.
Finally, I am very
worried because after being in the private institution, I felt that my English proficiency
is not enough for teaching to this kind of public. So, I ask myself if this
situation is just happening with me or if it is happening to all my colleagues
too. As a final reflection, I learned I need to work hard to be the teacher
that I want be and that being a teacher is a constantly challenge but a
beautiful labor.
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