Javier Ceballos

Teaching Pronunciation: I think that one of the most difficult skills to acquire is speaking because spanish speakers have a lot of problems with those English sounds that does not exist in Spanish. It is really real specially with the vowels sounds and phonemes. I have been worried about the fact that I am supposed to be the role model in the classroom and my pronunciation there should be as authentic as possible. If I miss pronoun a word in English my students will copy my error and I am not going to be able to correct them. It is necessary to be aware of this situation and try to keep studying all the time. I live in a country where the official language is Spanish and it is difficult to have the same environment as in the USA. I like phonetics and after this experience in the USA I am more motivated to improve my pronunciation. During this class we learned some useful activities to make the pronunciation class more interesting for our students with the use of games and songs....

Attention Getters: The classroom management is one of the most challenging aspects in the  daily teaching  and learning process. That is why, the attention getters have a very important role to maintain a group of students focused on and organize to work. I have been using some attention getters with my students; however, I learnt many others through these two weeks. According to my experience, the attention getters work with any level or age and help in the transition from one activity to another in a very creative way which is better than give just instructions all the time. I work with students from pre-k to sixth grade and it is very demanded to use the voice in front of thirty or thirty five students. I am going to include instruments, timers, phrases, silent rules, etc. As soon as students are involved in these strategies, the class will have fluency, organization,and easy transitions.     

Technology in Education: The classroom where I have my observation has a lot of access to technology devices such as:computers, projectors, ipods, etc. which are very useful to catch the students' attention and develop the learning activities in different ways. Thinking of Panama, it is going to be a little bit challenging to use technology in my classroom because our elementary school does not have electricity. However; it will never be an excuse to find out the way to help students in the learning process of communicating in the English language. There are many good options without the use of  technology that are very useful as well. In fact; the English teacher of this classroom where I have the opportunity to observe did not use the technology all the time. I can use a lot of gestures, flash cards, sounds, the whiteboard, copies, etc. I know that this particular situation is not going to be forever and that I will use many of these electronic tools in the future. I have to be...

Teaching Speaking: One of the main goals in the learning process is to be able to communicate our ideas in a appropriate way. That is why we tend to spend most of our time with activities related to this skill. To be honest, this is  the skill I like the most; however, I am conscious about the fact that students need to work with all the skills in order to develop their proficiency in the English language. Concepts like the types of speaking performance and the principles of teaching speaking are new for me. I probably knew about them but with a different name or emphasis. However, there is not doubt about the importance of paying attention to the different ways students can practice their target language such as dialogues, monologues, short replies,etc. I need to include more shemara in order to prepare students for the main speaking activity and help them to feel confident and willing to use the language. I also need to add more activities in small groups or pair works b...

Teaching Vocabulary: This week I had the opportunity to reflect about the importance of vocabulary to built a language and some interesting activities that will help me during my classes at home. One of the aspects that called my attention was the fact that there are many things I can do in the classroom without using any kind of technology. It is very useful because the elementary school where I work does not have electricity. It makes me think that I probably need not only the desire to improve  my teaching strategies but also more creativity. In addition to that, I reviewed concepts related to the different intelligences and how they affect the learning process. During my lessons' plannings, I need to remember that students have their own particular way to learn. If I take in consideration those intelligences, it means that I am going to use visuals, videos, music, examples, mimics,etc. to cover the students' needs. It is not an easy task especially when there are 35 or 40...

Transitions and Time Management: In every single activity that I could observed, there was a good transition from one to another; there was a good time between them and students moved fast and easily. The teacher used her voice to count, plays a song, and plays an musical instrument. time Most of the activities had a appropriate amount of time, the teacher used about 10 minutes to explain and practice a new topic. In one single day, there are many non-academic activities and the teacher spent 2 or 3 minutes in each one and every activity had an useful purpose.  Most of the students were working;however, some of them were lazy. There was not a waste of time at all, those students who finished their task had the chance to play with their ipods.  I learned that I must not spent too much time in one activity because the students' concentration does not last too much.I need to use more songs, music or even an instrument  to call students' attention; that will help st...