TEAM TEACHING STAGE

Name of student: Valeria Romero Hernández

Name of School: Liceo Coeducacional La Igualdad

Date: Friday 23rd, April

Task Nº1: Collaboration activities

When I first started my teaching practice, I wondered how much they would let me help them
or get involved in the class, before taking over it. I had the opportunity some years ago of
being in classrooms where the teacher would like to do everything himself, from calling the
role to checking homework. There were other schools in which the teacher would give me
more “freedom”. So, as far as I knew, my future as a “helper” the first 3 weeks was uncertain.
However, I was really happy to realize that both teachers were willing to let me participate in
the development of the class.
The very first time I was asked for help was to call the roll. Then, the teacher from 7 th grade
asked me to help her with some homework revision. The same week, the teacher from 3 rd
grade asked me to help her with an activity. It was supposed to be a listening but she did not
have the CD, so I had to impersonate the voices. It was a lot of fun.
Before I started helping out, students were talking and making noise. But when I started
talking and participating in the class they became quiet.
Some of them were already wondering what I was doing in their classroom. All of them, from
both courses reacted the same way. They accepted me participating in the classroom and in
their classes. None of them was negative or angry because I was there. They were all very nice
and considerate to me.
From then on, I kept on calling the roll and checking homework. I would also take a turn
around the classroom so I could help them with their work whenever they needed it. However,
I was never asked to prepare any kind of additional material for the class.

Task 2: Lesson Planning

The information to plan the lessons for my students was taken, first of all, from what I
observed during the three first week of “observation”. Even though I wanted to use the text
book, because it was pretty good, I tried to think about their necessities and abilities. So I tried
to remember the way they learnt and how fast they were to get new ideas.
Both of my guide teachers helped me with some tips for planning. They also tried to guide me
because planning is a MUST in our school. We have to have a notebook, where we write
everything we do, from “What do I expect my students to learn”, to the different “stages” of
the class, together with proper timing for each activity. It is a lot of work, but it has loads of
benefits too.
It took me about 2 hours to prepare learning material for my first class. It is not taking me that
amount of time anymore! I have already learnt how to prepare my classes, and I must say I am
really happy with the results.