REPORT► Teaching Practice #1

Tuesday, August 20th, I started my very first teaching practice after consulting my teaching plans on the previous day. It turned out that my supervisor, Dr. Rachod, decided to observe me on my first day of teaching. I was a bit confused, because I thought observation would only be done on the final demonstration (last teaching practice). However, I agreed. My first teaching plan required a lot of teaching media such as envelopes and words that were printed on paper. I prepared for everything since the previous week, so everything was ready on the day when my teaching practice started. I did my teaching practices on the 3rd week as scheduled, and I taught 3 classes for 4 periods (M3/1, M3/2 and M3/3). I taught M3/1 twice.

 1.1 Procedures of Teaching 

The procedures of teaching, according to Thailand teaching plan, are mainly divided into 3 steps, they are: Presentation, Practice and Production. Below are the details of my first teaching plan.

Presentation

1. Teacher greets the students.

2. Teacher briefly mentions the topic of the lesson.

3. Teacher states the objectives gained by the lesson.

4. Teacher shows the pictures along with their meaning.

5. Teacher guides the students to pronounce the words.

Power Point Slides for Teaching Practice #1

Practice

6. Teacher divides the class into 8 groups.

7. Teacher distributes worksheet to each group.

8. Teacher gives instruction to students to categorize the words given into their appropriate category.

9. Teacher checks the results of each group.

Production

10. Teacher introduces “Guess the Picture” game to train students’ comprehension and creativity about vocabulary.

11. Teacher divides the class into 4 groups.

12. Teacher gives the instructions and rules.

13. Teacher guides the activity.

14. Teacher checks and decides the winner.

15. Teacher reviews and draws conclusion of the lesson.

 1.2 Time Management and Organizing Activities 

One period is equal to 50 minutes of teaching. However, due to the transition time between courses that usually takes around 5 minutes, and another 5 minutes to set up everything, it is save to say that the actual learning and teaching process only last for 40 minutes. I calculated the time management using the 40 minutes estimation time. I managed the time and divided my 40 minutes for 3 activities. The activities were as follows:

►20 minutes for Presentation.

During this time, I was showing and explaining the vocabularies to the students. I asked them to read the words and repeat what I was saying.

Presentation: providing information

►5 minutes for Practice.During this time, the students were working in groups to arrange and categorize the words that I had distributed to them. The words should be attached on the provided worksheet.

Media for "Words Categorizing" activity

 ►15 minutes for Production.
During this time, the students were working in groups, one of them became the representative of the group. The representative drew a picture based on the word that I gave to the representatives only. The rest of the members should guess the words that were drawn by their representative.

Media for "Guess the Picture" activity

 1.3 Problem-Solving 

The problems that I faced during the teaching practice were various, for instance, the students were: not paying attention, feeling sleepy, and having irrelevant conversation with others. Dealing with these problems was easy but a bit tricky. Wrong reaction given toward the students might worsen the condition of the class and make the classroom less effective. Considering the fact that these students need extra care, I tried to deal with these problems by asking the students to repeat the words that I said. My aims in asking them to do so were: 1. Directing their attention to me and to the learning process, 2. Making them aware that I noticed the problems that they created (sleeping, talking, etc),  3. Making them practice the vocabulary so they could catch up with their classmates.

 1.4 Classroom Management 

The Basic Education Core Curriculum mentions that the learning process in school should be learner-centered. It aims the students to be active and able to work collaboratively with other students. Therefore, I managed the classroom in a way so that the students were able to work with their peers. I designed two group activities that required the students to work together in groups. The first activity was categorizing vocabulary, and it allowed me, as teacher, to measure and evaluate the learning process, and draw conclusion whether the students were able to comprehend the new vocabulary or not. The second activity was guessing pictures that were drawn by a representative of the group. This activity let me know whether the students are able to pronounce the vocabulary correctly or not, and in addition, this activity also encourage the students to be creative because they have to let their friends to guess the word by a picture that they drew.

 1.5 Others 

Teaching a foreign language to students who do not speak the same language as I do was difficult. Our language differences had become my greatest obstacle in teaching and communicating with my students. They do not speak English well, and I myself do not speak Thai at all. However, I was obliged to be more creative and thought of the solution for the problem. Therefore, I would say that language difference was challenging and exciting, and it gave me a lot of lessons and experiences.