Reflective Teaching

This week was the last class in fifth grade, so my plan was that students could socialize many countries in just one class. So, what I thought was that students worked in groups and each group would be in charge of a country and its culture. And then, each group would socialize their country with their classmates. In that way, all students would learn about the culture of six countries. The objective was that students made a presentation of a country. So, I organized the students in the group, I gave each group a sheet of paper where contained: the name of the country, the flag, some symbols, and representative thing about the country, also it had written cultural information. The student started to see the paper and read the information. It was easy to read because the correspondent picture was in front of the information. Then, I gave each group a paper bond sheet and they had to create a poster showing the culture of their country. This activity was great for them because they...

In fifth grade, this week I had planned that students make their own passport creatively because since we are talking about other countries, it is important teaching them that having an international passport is important to travel. I took to the class two different templates of passports, they could choose what they prefer, and make it a similar one. There was a big problem in this class because I just had two sheets of paper and I pasted them on the board but they are 32 students so it was really difficult for them to see the templates since the papers were small. The students were all the time standing up to see better the papers, they stand in front of other classmates, so it was really difficult for them to work in this way. However, at the end of the class most of the objectives were accomplished since they make their international passport, and write their personal information. The other objectives which were to present their passport to their classmates sharing the written ...

In fifth grade, this week the session focused on learning about Colombian culture. Students watched some videos and pictures to understand better the aspects of the country such as music, sports, etc. Also, they expressed what they think were the cultural aspects of the country. The objective of my lesson plan was that students make a presentation about the cultural aspects of our country (Colombia), and write short sentences about the aspects of our country. However, these objectives were partially accomplished because there were not time to teach the structure to create the sentences. What I would change from this lesson would be some attractive activities where students could show the Colombian culture through dancing, cooking, art, and craft. Because the time was not enough to do that. This week, the lessons in third grade focused on learning the different meats since they are part of the food the students usually eat. So the objective of this lesson was that students recogni...

In fifth grade, this week I planned my class around the topic of countries and their flags. At the end of the class, students would have to recognize the flag that represents each country, make a role play telling where they are from, and represent the cultural aspects of our country (Colombia). Thus, during the class, the students focused on a map where they found the different countries from the world, and through some pictures, they recognized the flag from each country. In this class, students could know where the countries were located on a world map. Besides, they worked in the creation of a flag according to the country I gave them. When they finished making the flags, we socialized them through a role-play, they just had to ask and answer the question “Where are you from?” We pasted all the flags on the board, and then I asked them what country each flag was.   Students showed great enthusiasm in these activities because they enjoyed a lot talk about other countries, and ...

In fifth grade, this week we worked on the third session of my innovation plan. This session was focused on developing students’ artistic skills through the story “The Gingerbread Man”. The objectives of this session were, first, students would make in a creative way the settings and characters of the story using recyclable materials. And second, make an oral presentation showing their creation. In this class, students had to work in groups, this represented a challenge for me because when they make cooperative work they talk too much all the time, so the atmosphere in the classroom was very heavy. Art and craft in the classroom is very engaging because students enjoy using different materials than the usual ones. However, make art and craft activities in groups is hard work since students do not agree in many aspects. Besides, another problem in this session was again the time. Students spent all the time (2 hours) making the settings and the characters, they ever had to take th...

In fifth grade, this week we worked on the second session of my innovation plan. It consisted on showing the students a story tale called The Gingerbread Man. First, I showed some images for students to organize them in the correct sequence. Also, they watched the video of the story, in that way, they recognized all the characters and settings. Something innovative for them was the way in which I show the story, while I was reading I was showing the images using a kamishibai theater. They were really engaged with the story because they know this tale in their mother tongue. Besides, it was good for them to create their own ending, so they could have the opportunity to work in groups and communicate their ideas to have an agreement and create the best ending.   I felt good in this class since all students were paying attention to the story and wanted to participate in the tasks so it was easy to have control of the class when they are interested in the activities.   In conclu...

In fifth grade, this week we worked on the first session of my innovation plan. It consisted on teaching the students the different recyclable materials that they could get in order to reuse them and make our final product. In the first activity, the students had to work in groups to play a game in which they had to put waste in a bin and recyclable materials in the other bin. This activity was really successful since they practice while learning the four materials they can reuse. Also, they were really engaged in the activity because there won points if they did it right.  In the end, they had to make their own recyclable bin in which they will collect all the materials that then will be used for our products. To do this task, in the previous class, six students were in charge of bringing a box, in that way we would have six boxes that students would paint; however, only three students brought the boxes. Thus, if students had brought the material for the class, what I would chang...

To start, it is necessary to say that I teach three different courses weekly, two courses of third grade, and one of fifth grade. I consider the classes I taught this week were pretty successful since all students were interested in the class and all of them wanted to participate in every activity. In fifth grade, I taught about the different kind of animals, my plan was teaching them the three types of animals (farm, wild, and aquatic animals). I wanted them to work in groups during all the class, and each group had to be in charge of a group of animals, this strategy was really successful because students improved their cooperative work and their communication skills. In order to make them write short sentences describing animals, I told them to put the adjectives in the correct category (speed, color, size, and shape). This task was done in the board, but before that, they had to do it in their notebook; I consider this the strategy was great since first, they tried to do it the...