Practicum Day 3

Today I had the opportunity to teach a portion of the class. Our topic was on pronoun reductions. Kim had mentioned I would be doing this lesson, however, I did not realize it was going to be Wednesday. It was okay though, because it put me on the spot and tested what I have been learning in class. The first thing I did was start with the morning announcements, and then right after I dove straight into the topic at hand. I was nervous for sure, but I tried to stay collected. Although, during an example, I misspelled the word 'school' I was shocked when I realized I wrote ‘schoo’ instead. Besides the point, I tried providing the students with real-world applications when using the reductions, explaining that it makes speech not only easier to understand for the listener, but also easier to say for the speaker. I suggested that they should think of reductions as something positive because now they can say less and get away with more. I gave an example for the Spanish speakers in the room who typically have trouble pronouncing the /th/ sound in /them/, that they can now reduce it down to simply /em/ in many situations, thus making it easier. I also had the students do some mimicking of my pronunciation and then paired them off into groups to practice a dialogue that was provided in the worksheet that Kim gave me to use. As the students practiced I hovered around the room answering any questions or clarifying sounds for them. We did this activity for about 30 minutes, changing the dialogues and pronouns being used as the time went on. Kim complimented me with being concise and clear with the students. I told her I was pretty nervous during the lesson, but she had not noticed.

Things I feel I could improve on. First, would be my delivery of information. I kept feeling I wanted to explain things in detail but did not have the language to simplify it down enough for them to understand clearly. Additionally, I feel I could have improved on my timing and classroom management since I had trouble gauging how long I should do the activity for and how long I should assist individual students before moving on. Lastly, I feel I could improve my examples when trying to explain how or why these rules work, but I think this comes with experience. Overall, I felt very accomplished with my lesson and its general execution. My energy was high, I had confidence, and I was able to assist the students where it was needed. 

Today was a short day however, since the second half of class was spent in the computer lab doing individual listening practice for their upcoming test. Kim had the students watch TED talks and other videos to help improve their comprehension skills and ability to notice reductions. During this time I worked on some lesson plans, and chatted with Kim. Kim taught me a very important lesson today, she said I should not think so hard about teaching, "there is no need to reinvent the wheel," she said. Simply get up there and do your best, show your students that you are confident and willing to help them when they struggle – that is the most important thing.