FINAL CONCLUSION

Final conclusion

My practicum experience

I carried out my teaching practicum in two different private institutions of my hometown in which the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language is considered of great importance, establishing frequent classes each week in order to develop the students receptive and productive skills.

I completed the kindergarten period in May 2018, the primary school period in August, and the secondary school period in September and October of the same year.

 I had already agreed I was going to do my practicum in those institutions the previous year, so I had no problems to begin each period. The headmistresses of each level were attentive, helpful and welcoming. I did have some health problems during the kindergarten period which delayed one of my classes, together with a celebration of a national holiday. During the secondary school period I also had some difficulties to organize my planning, since I had four classes a week and had to hand in the class plans in advance. Once I had one class plan behind, it was a domino effect.

I was quite anxious when I was about to start the kindergarten practice because I hadn’t taught young children for 10 years. It was probably the most difficult period of the three for me. Nevertheless, as the classes passed by, I began to enjoy the clases more and more. I was much more confident with primary and secondary school because they were my students and I already knew them well.

Evaluation and Analysis

I feel the overall experience has been interesting and very meaningful for me, because I could the way I was used to teaching in, verify some concepts and revise some others, trying to improve my teaching, especially as regards general organization to make the most out of every lesson. I was a bit unhappy with the difficulties with absences and late arrivals in high school. I made me nervous.

Although I have been teaching for 16 years now, the experience of having a teacher assess my class plans was a bit overwhelming and nerve-wracking at first, as I felt I had to prove myself what I had learnt from my experience in all those years.

Conclusion and action plan

During this practicum experience I have learnt that peer and external observation can be very helpful to improve our teaching. It is something I will probably try to repeat, maybe inviting a fellow teacher to my class from time to time so she can advise me on other ways of presenting a topic, carrying out an activity or deal with difficulties.