Microteaching – Strenghts

My group and myself have organized the “must” list on a Microteaching session the following way:

• Material
• Class management
• Non-verbal language
• Teacher's oral skills
• Strategies to ensure students’ knowledge
• Methodologies
• Resources to motivate students

On the other hand, we can talk about teacher's oral skills. It is something to always take into account but I believe it can become more important when it comes to teach in a foreign language. We are in front of children that don't understand everything we are telling them, so it is so important to carry a good tone of voice as well as sweet. The intonation is important, as it is the pronunciation and the speed, when teaching English or another language, we are trying children to understand us and they are like sponges so it's basic to remember that basis so it will be easier for them to follow and understand us.

This is something that we clear have seen during the microteaching sessions. Everybody was slow speaking and tried to be so clear, as so and said before helping the speaking with gesturing, which is basic.

To begin with, we classify the "must" according to the material we have seen during the sessions and can use in a Microteaching session. We have seen the Magic Box to start the sequence of activities as the most used way. It is a useful resource as it keeps children’s attention on during all the time and they can participate.

The chants or songs are another well used resource, it is so easy and motivating for the children and it keeps them active. Even though, you have to be conscious and maintain the control on the class.

Now focusing on teachers, it is so important to have a good visual support, using images, etc. When doing a presentation, you always have to find the way to use as less text as possible and loads of images to make it more attractive to the eye of the audience.

Our second point was class management. That’s, for us, believed to be the most important aspect to have into account. Let’s start from various ways to form groups, one possible way we discovered was giving each person of the class a flag from a different country and then we had to join up with the rest of the classmates who had the same flag as us to form a group. Another way was giving us numbers to remember and join the rest of the people who had the same number as us. I truly believe that’s something really important to have into account, because otherwise children will always join up with same people if you give them the freedom to create them the groups. As well you make sure that nobody is left alone.

Following that matter, we get to the point that talks about encouraging students to participate. We have seen several activities that consist on going in front of the class to say a little sentence, dance, put some images on the board, etc. If they feel secure and confident they won’t have problems to participate and talk in class. That’s important, to give them the opportunity to do that and make them feel they are all right, it doesn’t matter if they make a mistake.

This brings us to talk about the many spontaneity situations that appear and how can we face them. We are adults, but to make fun we made mistakes while doing some activities and it was really good to see how the teachers on the time solved it. I remember someone put an image in the board while we were ordering them in groups in a wrong place, and then they decided to explain why that wasn’t its place with the help of the students. It’s a good way to make students participate as well as you are solving a spontaneous situation that you didn’t plan to happen, but with children you never know what can happen!

Over all, it is so important to have many strategies to control de class, otherwise whatever you try to do can become a disaster. As so it is to give clear instructions, clear examples, to model and give many and really clear examples on whatever you are explaining. We have seen that when teachers were explaining something they were using loads of mimic and gesticulating a lot, even doing them what the students had to do during the activity to make it more clear. I truly believe that is a really important point, because if children don’t know what they have to do, they won’t be able to do it and will even feel frustrated at some point. As well teachers were asking loads of questions to us, the students, to make clear we understood everything. That also helps to keep everybody connected.

After that, we talked about non-verbal language, which is, on that matter, maybe one of the most important parts as a teacher when teaching a class in a foreign language, especially if it’s addressed to children that don’t know and/or understand much about that language. We really need, as I said before, to use loads of mimic, gesture and be so expressive with the body as well as maintain eye contact with them all the time. In some groups, we missed that, but in general everybody respected it and did it. I believe our group, as we were addressing our microteaching session to Early Childhood Education, we did it maybe more than the others, but because of the age we were supposed to work with.

All of this brings us to another point which is strategies to ensure student's knowledge, where we can point to matters like the importance of giving clear instructions. Especially when teaching someone in a foreign language, it is basic to be clear and give examples of what they have to do so they can understand it better. It can help the drilling, the repetition of words, sometimes even changing how we said it the first time to make it clearer. The key is go step by step.

Something we need to have also into account is that we don't have to translate what we are saying or asking children to do, we have to try to make them understand it while talking in English. I have seen everything of that during the sessions, I think everybody have accomplished that matter and been really clear all the time, and if we didn't understand they explain it over and over again and so they gave loads of examples.

Also, when teaching we have to contextualize whatever we are saying, we have to start from the very beginning and go on so everybody can follow what we are doing. If children don't understand and/or follow the class, they will get distracted and also won't be motivated, just the opposite, they can even become frustrated. So it's important to conteztualize and also find motivating ang engaging activities to help following the project we are working on. I truly believe everybody on our class tried to find and did find indeed amazing activities, motivating and brought with them a good climate and environment in the classroom.

A good way to keep the attention of the children is to ask for volunteers when presenting an activity and also make the rest of the class participate on this example. Ask them if the volunteer did it right, if not ask them what they would do, why he or she was wrong, etc. It also will be a good moment for them to reinforce their speaking skills. That is also something we have seen during the sessions, when someone made a mistake it was a good moment to explain why it was a mistake, how it happened, etc.

Something really important in here is also the positive feedback on everything children do, they will feel more confident on doing everything. If they commit a mistake, it's ok, don't make them feel bad, just explain it in a good way and make them try again, next time will be better for sure!

Another group of musts we have organized is about methodologies. First of all, when doing a project is so important to link the activities inside of it, if they don't have a context they will be useless after all, because the learning won't be as much successful as it would be if they were linked. As so it is so important to have clear aims and a progress: begin with an introduction, warming ups in every session is a good way to begin, middle activities and a final task to conclude and especially see if they have learned what you were expecting as a teacher and reached the aims.

Something we have seen and it is so useful is learning by doing. I believe this is one of the keys of learning. If children don’t experiment and do something by themselves, they won’t learn it autonomously and that should be one of our biggest aims as teachers. This is so linked to foster children’s creativity, letting them be free and create with their own ideas, we shouldn’t private them to do that because it won’t let them be themselves after all.

As a future teacher, I believe in all of this, what we should have more into account are multiple intelligences, with so many times we don’t mention or don’t directly work with. It’s everything, it’s what we are, what we can do and what children should use and work with in a major way. The microteaching directly linked to them for me was a masterpiece, as it was something we don’t usually see every day in schools.

And last but not least, we organized some musts inside another group we called resources to motivate students, which I believe it would go linked with everything said before. There are many ways to motivate children, some we have mentioned before, asking for volunteers when introducing and/or explaining an activity, encourage them to participate during the explanations and group activities, give them challenging and dynamic activities such as the gymkhana a group organized for us… there are infinity of possibilities. The important thing is to find engaging activities that catch the attention and motivation of everybody in the classroom.

Other more specific activities could be doing a role playing, so they can practice their oral skills, and also the use of chants or songs to move from one place to another. They are more specific and not always used, but I truly believe they can be a great help to claim children’s attention as well as for them to practice their oral skills and learn to pay attention, listen and be concentrated to understand and follow what is being said and has to be done.

A way to end up with an activity or a sequence of activities could be by asking students what activity they liked the most. We always have to try to encourage them to participate and talk, taking their fear of talking in public or making a mistake in front of the rest of the class away. They are here to learn, not to be criticized.

There are also resources that we can use to motivate and also claim the attention, one example would be the

“1, 2, 3 look at me

4 and 5 do the jive

6, 7, 8 concentrate”

That is a nice way to call their attention and also when they have heard it several times they learn it and love to repeat it with the teacher and it is really motivating for them somehow.

In conclusion, I truly believe it has been a great experience to see and participate in all the microteaching sessions. It has given me many ideas that I can maybe use in a future when I become a real teacher. I have learned loads of resources, games and seen many ways of teaching, it has been really a pleasure and I feel lucky to have been a part of it.