FIVE SENSES READY

The first period in the Practicum has consisted in active observation and helping students. Maria Rosa has a teaching style really different from any I had received before, so any activity and exercise proposed is approached in an active way for the student. They have to create, invent, speak and participate, leaving grammar content as a second priority. That is really a chance for them to learn useful things and that systems seems to be working for both brilliant and problematic students.

Very few exercises are done from the book. A very useful tool that our tutor uses with 2nd ESO is a workguide. It is a paper in which students have the activities that will be performed in the lesson (book page, dossier...), which must be ticked once finished (they love it!) as well as an autoevaluation space for each activity (Needs improving, OK, Good, Very Good). They discuss this autoevaluation questionnaire with the teacher and usually agree. She enforces their good performances and you can feel that this work guide is helping class rithm. Almost all lessons are carried out in computer room. That helps the teacher implementing ICT and students feel more comfortable in class. However, in some cases this classroom configuration might not be the best one. For the Practicum it makes things easier as you don't feel like steping in front of a whole class but walking around and individualising your attention to each student.

Active observation requires keeping your attention for 55 minutes of the lesson. You must be ready to understand teacher approaches, students reception, interaction and why and how they behave. The observation form has helped me to organise my ideas and analyse many facts before, during and after each lesson.