Finally, the Practicum has finished. It has been a great experience and I think I have learnt through reality. In my opinion that’s the best part: learning through experience. Indeed, theory is really important and necessary; however, the feeling that something has been acquired (or not), or that something is interesting (or not) must be learnt through real facts. And actually, I am really motivated and encouraged to teach English in my future in a Secondary School or in an ‘EOI’.
Well, to summarise my last experiences throughout the Practicum, I must start by saying that the ASSESSMENT part of my didactic unit was something new and doubtful for me. I had always thought that the assessment method I should apply was a typical exam; however, in this case I did something really different. I divided the students into different teams of at maximum four people (in this case I didn’t apply the teams that had been working throughout the didactic unit). Then, I stuck in a part of the blackboard all the characters that we had learnt during the didactic unit; next to them, some crosses and ticks; next to it names of shops; and finally, a map with shops and specific places drawn in it. I gave each student a number (1, 2, 3, 4) and we did a dictation race. The aim was to pick up a sticker of each place, go to the map and look at the information provided and finally write sentences with the team such as: ‘Hermione didn’t use to go to the chemist’s, which was next to the factory’. After this activity, I asked them to give me back the sheets of paper with the answers.
Then, we did an individual activity, in which I told them a story; however, I asked them questions in the middle of it and they had to invent and continue (slightly) the story itself. Finally, we did an oral quiz from the whole didactic unit and I asked them to write their personal impression of it, such as a personal revision on how it worked.
To sum up, I am happy with the results as I have seen some things I did well, and some things I must improve. It is a process of learning, and I’m really sure it’s been worthy.
Secondly, I’d like to tell you that I have been in a ‘Claustre’ session and in a ‘Avaluació final’ session.
According to the ‘Claustre’, I must say that it was impressing and I found it really interesting. All the teachers from the Secondary School were there and the Head teacher was placed in front of everybody with a secretary next to him writing down the most important things said in the session.
The first thing they did was an election for the representatives of the ‘Consell Escolar’. Then, they talked about different points that were necessary to be dealt with. For example, they talked about the organization of the new buildings that are nowadays being built for the Secondary School. Afterwards, they talked about the final assessments. Indeed, in this part I was somehow upset because a teacher claimed that she wasn’t happy with the fact that students had the right to do an exam another day in case they were ill or had any problem the actual day of the exam. They had a short argument/discussion dealing with it, and finally, they agreed (by a hands-up voting) that if students had an official document saying that there was something important; they had the right to do the exam another day.
Finally, they talked about some prizes that were won by some teachers from the institution, and which was really encouraging for them. And they provided an open-turn discussion in which teachers could expose their own thoughts or proposals. In fact, someone said that it would be great to have proper speakers in every classroom; or that there had to be improvements according to the computer labs. In the very end, there was a talk about new technological advancements that teachers could (or should) use.
In my opinion it was an important meeting. The fact of having so many teachers involved in the education of so many students requires a good organization and a proper politeness and competence in order to deal with anything that could fortunately or unfortunately happen.
Thirdly, we went to the ‘final evaluation’ which was related to ‘our’ students. There were all the teachers involved in 3rd B of ESO in the meeting and the main tutor of the group started by exposing a brief summary of the statistics of the ones who passed and the ones who failed. Thus, he asked for a quick checking of the marks of the students, in case there had been any computerised mistakes.
Afterwards, they started talking about each student (one by one); firstly checking the marks and then commenting on the important things that had to be agreed, disagreed or discussed as a team work.
The things that impressed me most were that some students had many ‘faltes d’assistència’, and unluckily, most of these had some familiar or integration problems. Furthermore, I thought that there were really huge differences according to the whole class-group. Some (the minimum part of the students) passed all the subjects with good marks; however, more than half of the students had failed different subjects. There were many problematic cases in which teachers had to talk for more than three minutes, and the final decision was somehow hard to take, because in spite of having to assess and put a mark in a piece of paper, I think I am aware that each student is an individual world. It might not be easy to judge and establish a FAIL or a PASS mark just with an exam or some marks from participation and so on…
To sum up, as a team work, cooperation and respect must be involved in it; and I thought that it is not always easy… In some cases there were different points of view, and in spite of trying to be properly objective, some teachers subjectively had a point or another. I do agree it is a hard work, but I am sure it is really satisfying too.
Finally, I must say that I attended a special lesson from an English assistant which works in the Secondary School for a period of time. It is really important and useful because due to an innovative project that the Secondary School is involved in, there is the opportunity to have an English native in the classroom in order to deal with some activities. The lesson which I attended was interesting because after correcting some exercises they did a communicative activity in which students had to write a biography, and they used the teacher as their objective. Indeed, as he is from another country and he can expose many different things from there, I do believe it is an interesting way to learn the identity and culture of the English speakers. In this way, students learn that a language is something real and alive.
To sum up, both me and my CAP mate have finished our Practicum. I think we have been really lucky due to our supportive and helpful tutor; due to our own cooperation and union; due to our Secondary School; and due to the fact that we have been faced up with reality. In my opinion it has been a really positive and encouraging experience. I must say that I am looking forward to teaching as a real teacher in a Secondary School and leave apart the private language schools or private lessons that nowadays I am dealing with. It has been an intense trip, with many things, many moments, and many thoughts. Just a great teaching experience.
