PORTFOLIO'S COVER

Cover

View more documents from Marianela Camacho.

INDEX

Index

A. Portfolio introduction
A.1 My students
B. Reading articles
C. Pedagogical artifact
D. Reflective writing
E. School information
F. School map
G. PROGRAMA DEL CURSO (SYLLABUS) Observation, team-teaching, consejo de curso, reunion de apoderados, reunión de profesores reports

H. Unit plans
I. Lesson plans
J. Learning material
K. Evaluation instruments
L. Self evaluation
M. Peer evaluation

A. Portfolio Introduction

Introduction

Being involved in the teaching practice process is a challenging task; you have to be able to develop all the things that you planned one day as a student. Now, that I am about to graduate I can see how difficult the entire process have been, however when I look back I feel happy to be part, in the near future, in the educational system.

I believe that portfolios are a great tool for students and teachers, because it is possible to see the complete teaching practice process through the writings and other meaningful pieces of work that we have done during this semester.

It is positive point that portfolios now-a-days are develop in blogs, due to it can be a little help for our environment.

In this portfolio I will introduce all the information related to my final practicum. First of all, the reading articles that made easier all my practicum stages (observation, team teaching, and teaching practice stage) will be presented. Secondly, the pedagogical artifacts will be introduced in relation to the difficult situations that are valuable to describe. Thirdly, the reflective writings developed in class will be presented in order to have an evidence of my work during this period. Then, the school information will be given, so as to contextualize my work. And finally, all my unit and lesson plans will be introduced with their learning materials and the evaluation instruments used during my final practicum.

A.1 My Students

My Students!

View more presentations from Marianela Camacho.

B. Reading Articles

1- Observation Stage


In my first day of observation at school, I discovered that it was not an easy task. Therefore, in order to improve my observation stage I found a guide for observing classes.
Here is the text in Spanish:

1. Uso del tiempo y del espacio.
A. Tiempo: A los momentos de Apertura, Desarrollo y Cierre, analizarlos teniendo en cuenta, entre otros, los siguientes interrogantes:
¿Cómo se realiza la entrada al contenido que se está tratando o que se comienza a desarrollar? ¿Se lo problematiza? A partir de qué tipo de recursos? o ¿se trata de entradas formales?. ¿Se observan pistas acerca de "rutinas'' que permiten inferir ciertos rituales en relación al uso del tiempo? ¿Cómo se trabajan las consignas de actividades en relación a los momentos o segmentos? ¿Qué tipo de relaciones establece el docente entre procesos de análisis de contenidos y de integraciones progresivas? ¿Cuál es el tiempo "real" de clase en relación al previsto curricularmente? ¿Se producen interrupciones a la secuencia, extrañas a la tarea? ¿Qué ocurre con las estrategias de los estudiantes en relación a las diferencias del sentido escolar del tiempo? (Tiempo de evaluar, tiempo de trabajo grupal, tiempo de exposición, etc.) ¿Qué tipo de respuesta se observa en el docente? ¿Se observan complicidades? ¿No sabe qué hacer?
B. Espacio: Observación y reconocimiento de algunas pistas acerca del uso del espacio en función de la relación educativa y la organización de las interacciones.
¿El docente se ubica en un único lugar durante la clase ¿Representa eso algo en función del vínculo que se establece con los alumnos? ¿Cómo interviene en relación al uso del espacio para coordinar las interacciones?
2. El conocimiento del aula.
- Los contenidos de la enseñanza: conceptuales, procedimentales, actitudinales.
¿Muestra relaciones entre conceptos, principios, enfoques propios de la disciplina ¿Plantea preguntas potentes para generar la construcción de conocimientos? Explicita enfoque y eje de unidades o clases?
- Las formas de presentación de los contenidos.
¿Cómo realiza la transposición didáctica ¿Se producen conocimientos erróneos, a partir de las formas didácticas de presentación? ¿Se producen pérdidas relevantes o simplificaciones de contenidos? ¿Cómo trabaja los contenidos incluidos en recursos textuales (guías o bibliografía seleccionada) audiovisuales? ¿Son recursos que posibilitan disparar buenas comprensiones?
- La relación entre conocimiento cotidiano (ideas y representaciones) y conocimiento científico.
¿Qué hace el docente frente a las participaciones espontáneas de los alumnos, sea a través de la. formulación ce preguntas o el desarrollo de ideas? ¿Rechaza el conocimiento cotidiano? No interviene, lo deja pasar, lo trabaja para promover aprendizajes significativos! ¿Qué tipo de apoyos presta para esa tarea?
- la relación entre el contenido y el método de enseñanza
Se relacionan de alguna manera las formas de producción de conocimientos en la disciplina (indagación) con la forma de enseñanza? (Uso de método de resolución de problema en matemática, por ejemplo.)

3. Organización y coordinación de las interacciones.
¿Qué significa para el docente "promover la participación del alumno", el "alumno activo", el alumno que "construye conocimientos"? ¿Qué tipo de intervenciones de los alumnos son valoradas y cuáles no? ¿Qué hace frente a interpretaciones distintas de las ideas que trabaja? ¿Negocia significados? ¿Qué hace frente a respuestas incorrectas? ¿Analiza con el alumno el origen de los errores? ¿Los deja pasar? ¿Contrapone a ellos la respuesta correcta, sin análisis? ¿Promueve la intervención de otros alumnos frente a ese tipo de situaciones? ¿Son homogéneas las tareas para todo el grupo? ¿Reconoce diferentes maneras de abordar las ideas? ¿Promueve reflexiones acerca de las formas de razonamiento de los alumnos? ¿Promueve la elaboración de buenas analogías?
¿Organiza grupos en función de algún criterio? ¿Cuál? ¿Lo explicita? ¿Permite la formación de grupos en forma espontánea? ¿Reconoce a toda la clase? ¿Trabaja sólo con algunos alumnos? ¿Cómo regula la convivencia en el aula? ¿Realiza contrato explícito, o implícito ¿Castiga problemas de comportamiento con sanciones académicas? ¿Puede escuchar a los alumnos, en el sentido de interpretar necesidades, demandas? ¿Qué hace con ellas? Responde abandonando la tarea? ¿Plantea algún contrato específico? ¿Maneja el silencio cuando es necesario?

Reflections:
After reading this text I felt more confident at the moment of being part of the class, I did not want to be a piece of furniture in the classroom just watching what was going on, I wanted to be part of it. Keeping in mind the ideas presented in the text I realized how I could do my observation more properly and following some parameters.
http://members.tripod.com/~Osvaldo_Carnero/observation.html



2- Team Teaching

During this stage I tried to do my best in order to accomplish the objective of this process, I tried to look for an article which could help me to improve this stage. That is why I read the following:

Team Teaching

Also known as co-teaching or collaborative teaching, team teaching is an instructional strategy used across subject areas primarily in middle grades in a variety of methods. Teams are typically composed of between two and four teachers working collaboratively to plan thematic units and lesson plans in order to provide a more supportive environment for students.
History of team teaching
In a 1963, William M. Alexander — known as the “father of the American middle school” — was scheduled to discuss the structure of the junior high school at a conference at Cornell University. However, after re-thinking the needs of adolescents at this age, he proposed the middle school concept where a team of three to five teachers would be assigned to 75 to 150 pupils organized either on a single-grade or multi-grade basis.1 This recommendation of junior high school reform is where the idea of team teaching developed. Team teaching is now used in all grade levels and across disciplines. When done correctly, this approach has been shown to create bonding opportunities for students and to engage teachers in collaborative, interdisciplinary planning.
Team teaching requires that the faculty is organized so that teachers share a group of students, a common planning time to develop curriculum and instruction in multiple content areas, the same schedule, and that the teachers are in the same physical area of the school.2
Benefits of team teaching
The need for team teaching is based on the premise that middle school is a transitional period between the traditional elementary structure, where students have one teacher all day, and the high school setting, where students have multiple classes and teachers on a daily basis. Because students coming from a traditional elementary structure are accustomed to having a small group of peers and one teacher, they sometimes become overwhelmed when they have to change classes and have more than one teacher. Research suggests that students who do not feel connected to peers and their teachers often have a higher rate of academic failure.3 “The formation of interdisciplinary teams has been proposed as one way of reducing student alienation and increasing students’ sense of membership… Teams provide students with a greater sense of identity, belonging, and support.”
Ideally, teams should consist of 120 or fewer students with a student to teacher ratio of 25:1.5 The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development suggests that the size of teams should be as small as possible depending on the content knowledge and strengths of the teachers.6
Middle grades team teaching models
According to John Wallace (2007), the two-teacher team model is usually done with sixth graders, “as a sound transition from a single teacher, self-contained classroom in the elementary school to the four- or five-teacher team commonly found in seventh and eighth grade.”7 In this model of team teaching, the teachers are usually certified in two content areas or are certified in elementary education and teach two subjects. Because there are fewer children in this model, there are more opportunities for flexibility and combining subject areas into one lesson.
The four-teacher team is “the most commonly used and most logical composition, with one teacher specialist in each of the four core areas.”8 In this model, educators teach in the content area in which they are certified, and they plan interdisciplinary units. This model of team teaching is generally used in the middle school after sixth grade.
Importance of planning time in team teaching
Thomas Erb and Chris Stevenson (1999) contend that teams need collaborative planning times in their schedules. Research conducted through The Project on High Performance Learning Communities suggests that team teachers should have the opportunity to meet four to five times per week for at least 45 minutes. Furthermore, the results of this research study show a correlation between frequent common planning time and interaction with school support staff like counselors, specialists and administrators. Common planning time among team teachers also improved teachers’ rates of coordination of student assignments, assessments, and feedback, and teachers engaged in this type of planning had more contact with parents. Additionally, research suggests that teachers who actively participated in this frequent collaborative planning time exhibited positive attitudes towards the profession of teaching.9
Ideal student/teacher ratio in team teaching
The Project on High Performance Learning Communities recommends that the maximum number of students should be limited to 120 or fewer per team. Furthermore, the results of the study suggest a negative correlation between parent contact and involvement, contact with other resource staff, coordination of student assignments, assessments, and feedback, coordination of curriculum, and the quality of teaming when the number of students on a team is increased. Thus, researchers use this data when recommending that the optimal number of students to be included on one interdisciplinary team is fewer than 120.10
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4754

Reflections:
This article gave a clearer vision of what I should be doing at this point, not only being the guide teacher’s pet, I had to be a support, proving and suggesting ideas for the class and demonstrating her that I really wanted to be part of her class.








3- Teaching Practice
This is the last stage of the process, but it is the one that lasted the most. In this case, I was reading a book called “How to teach English” by Jeremy Harmer. It is a powerful text that gives you some ideas of how organize the classroom, how to plan your activities effectively among other critical issues that take part in the class.

C. Pedagogical Artifacts

Pedagogical Artifacts

1.- Observation Stage

During this observation stage I had the chance to observe a very unusual situation. It was my second day at school, on Friday. It was time for the teacher to delivered the instructions for the class, as I was sitting in the teacher’s table watching the way students behave, my guide teacher told me: can you explain today’s activity? I was very surprised after her request, because I had no idea what the content was. I accepted very enthusiastic. However, I was terrified because I believe that students can feel when you do not what you are doing. In my best mood, I started to explain to the kids the activity; it was about the numbers (an easy one thanks God!); my voice was like shivering. And, I decided to talk only in English. The kids did not seem to understand a word of what I was saying, and they asked me to explain in Spanish. I did not do it, because I wanted the kids to have some English listening. The previous class I noticed that the teacher only speaks in Spanish and the classes are only about the grammar. As I was delivering the instructions in English, I see the frustration faces of the kids. Therefore, I started to explain in Spanish otherwise they would not understand what they had to do. At that point I felt disappointed of myself. As a student, I always said that my classes will be in English all the time; however I was being just a copy of my guide teacher. Nevertheless, it was not my class yet! I did not planned to manage the class that day, my guide teacher asked me to do what she always did. So, I promised not making the same mistakes that most of students-teacher does, being a copy of your “mentor”, you have to be yourself, in order to achieve what you proposed at the beginning.

2.- Team-teaching

Team-teaching, for me it was similar to observation; the teacher planned the classes and I deliver the instructions without knowing the unit or lesson plan.

I remember one day that my guide teacher couldn’t attend to the class because she had a family problem or something like that. I showed up in the classrooms and most of the students were happy to see me there. They were asking: are you going to be our teacher? Or are you going to do the class today? I was so happy to hear those nice words from the students. I was getting ready to begin the class, when one of the kids, the most introverted child of the class told me: when the head teacher is coming back? And I told him, on Friday why? He answered: because I don’t like you, I prefer Miss Beatriz.

I felt so bad at that moment, he was so shy, and so suddenly he told me such a mean thing. I took a deep breath and told him: I know that you like Miss Beatriz, but she had a problem, she will be with you on Friday, ok? He looked at me with an angry face and said: I want her now! I told him the same again: Miss Beatriz has a problem, she will be here by Friday, don’t be mad. And then he left the classroom.

The person who was in charge of those problems told me that he would be in the teacher rooms during the class.

I could not do anything about that situation. I just waited for the next class to talk with him. The next class Miss Beatriz told everybody that I would be giving the class every day. Everybody felt happy except that kid. So, it became my personal challenge to get that student, and I did it. It was a hard task but I accomplished due to I really wanted to make him feel good in the class.

3.- Teaching practice

Here is when most of the unexpected and remarkable situations happened.

I remember that one day I could not do my class because the kids were requested to participate in a casting for a play. However, they were in the classroom 30 minutes before the class ends. So, I decided to explain them the evaluations for the next class, and some materials needed for the class.

While I was giving details of what they will have to do, two kids were talking and talking all the time. I stopped explaining, and told them: can you pay attention to this, it is important for you, it’s about your grades, and assessments. I believe that they did not like the way I expressed those words. So, one of the kids told me very angry: you can’t talk to me like that! And I’m going to tell you on to with Mr. Johnson! I felt like really angry, but I took a deep breath and I remember all my knowledge learned in Marzano’s research (What works in school) where it said that teacher must have an appropriate mental set for hard situations, and do not take things personally. He was upset because I told all that stuff in front of the class. It would have been better if I had told him the same alone, at the end of the class. Therefore, I realized that it was my mistake and I moved on.

D. Reflective Writing

Reflective Writing

Reflective Writing 1


When I was in high school, I had a very enthusiastic teacher. He wasn’t an English teacher, he was a History teacher. His lessons were very interesting, and we used to have a lot of fun learning the subject. He had a very special personality, he was the kind of person that can make you feel comfortable, creating a friendly environment inside of the classroom.
I want to become an English teacher, because I think English is a great tool to teach about different kinds of topics besides from grammar. You can teach your students about different countries and cultures in order to introduce them the globalized education, and show them that they can be citizens of the world. That is why I want to be an English teacher; I want to help the students to be part of new experience of global education.
My strengths are based on the idea of being a persevering person. You need to be very consistent and work hard in order to achieve the goal that you want. In this particular case is related to learning English, and of course you need to be someone who practices a lot and tries over and over again so as to be successful.
In one more year I see myself working as a teacher in a school from the public system. I really want to do this, because I have a personal commitment with students who have to study under conditions which are not appropriate to acquire a foreign language. It is very hard for me to see me in 15 or 30 more years. I have several plans for my future career as a teacher; I hope that by that time I have reached all my professional goals.
I think that English teacher should have the ability of being effective teachers, on the grounds that if you are an effective teacher you will be able to achieve all the proposed goals. Effective teachers are people who know how to manage a classroom, no matter the working conditions, the number of students and no matter if the students like or dislike English. Besides, effective teachers are leaders. Leadership as a characteristic is a very helpful tool, since it can help you in many different ways. I also think that teachers should create a confident environment in the classroom, so has the students can feel comfortable when they want to show their point of view.
As a student teacher, I would like to accomplish my current goal, and my goal is to be able to make a change in students mind in relation to their own point of view about learning a foreign language. Because for me, learning a language is not only about grammar and structures, but also about the culture that surrounds that specific language.


Reflective writing Nº2: The Observation Stage
I. Introduction
• What do you think the cartoon provided below is illustrating? Why? Answer briefly.

About the image, I think that it is a clear example of what most of people do daily. We tend to believe, that what is on TV is the right thing. However, I think that what we watch, it does not necessarily represent the reality, and you have to look beyond so as to see the truth. Moreover, it was the same during the observation stage; you have to look very carefully in order to see the reality in a school, and not based your opinions in beliefs and misconceptions to make an actual impression of your school.

II. Reflective writing

• Taking into account the information you collected during the observation stage,

1. Reflect on the importance of the initial observation period in final practicum.

I believe that the initial observation is something crucial for your future task as a student-teacher. It is at this point, when you have the opportunity to get to know the students learning styles and other important issues. If you are able to make an effective observation period you will be able to plan your activities and create activities according to the students needs.

2. Refer to the observed issues in assigned school, and explain if these issues caused a change on the expectations you had about this particular period.

During my observation period I had the opportunity not only to observe inside of the classroom, but also at teacher’s room, in the playground, among others. I did not expect to be so involved in the school, with the teachers. The good thing about the school that really surprised me was the collegiate among teachers. In general terms, mi I experienced a very good and welcoming observation stage.

3. How did you feel? Provide one example you consider most relevant to support your answer.
I felt very good during the observation period, I had a great time, students welcomed me nicely, and the teacher provided me a lot of relevant information related to the school and students. I was really worried at the beginning, but at the end of the day turned out to be a good experienced. For example, one of the students asked me how long I will stay there. I told him “until the end of the semester”. All the students were very happy because I will stay so long. That experience showed me that the students liked my presence in the classroom and made me feel even more comfortable.

E. School Information

I.- Personal Information

Names: Marianela del Pilar

Surnames: Camacho Estay

E-mail: marianelace@gmail.com

Telephone: 09-85871636

Kind of studies: Morning

II.- School’s information.

School: Niños Cantores de Viña del Mar

Address: San Pablo de la Cruz 401

City: Viña del Mar

School’s Phone number: 032- 2661283

Grade: 5th grade

Schedule: Monday 6th period 12:00 to 13: 45 / Friday 4th Period O9:30 to 10:10

Guide Teacher’s Name: Beatriz Miranda Astudillo

Guide Teacher’s E-mail Address: beatrizmir@hotmail.com

Guide Teacher’s Phone Number: _____________________