CONCLUSIONS

FINAL REFLECTION

(Based on Gibbs´s Reflective Cycle Model (1988))

Reaching the final destination at the Teacher Training implies undertaking the most challenging task in a trainee´s course: the Practicum.

 The Practicum introduces teacher-trainees to the professional world. This stage gives shape and significance to the knowledge acquired during years of training and study; it leads future teachers to mould and reassure beliefs, and apply and adopt theories and philosophies learnt accordingly.

Practicum experience

My practicum experience was developed during the months of May and December 2018 at three public educational institutions in my hometown, Río Turbio.

As required, I delivered lessons of English in Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary educational levels.

A mixture of feelings, ranging from extreme nervousness to complete satisfaction, passing through eventual states of anxiety, uncertainty, frustration, and accomplishment, characterized the whole period.

Each level had its peculiarities and implied quite different challenges for the trainee even though the main objective was the same:

¨that the students could achieve learning of a second language communicatively which might result enjoyable and significant to their general development¨.

Personally, the level which proved most rewarding was Kindergarten, it demanded an exhausting year trying to be located at one kinder to finally being accepted at the University´s nursery and teach a multi-age group of 2 to 5 years old! They do not have English in their curricula and it was also my first experience with little children in all aspects. I was scared to death, but in the move I succeeded! It was a truly demanding and profitable experience: looking for resources and preparing myself for something completely new, but it was all worth it!

 Primary level was not new for me instead, I loved and enjoyed the experience, as my practice was a bit of fresh air and growth for everybody, including the host teacher; the pupils were completely involved and committed and they showed immensely grateful with the learning obtained.

Secondary level, on the contrary, was tiresome and worrying, but in the end it proved satisfying. Nothing is ever perfect! Dealing with adolescents, especially their behaviour and lack of interest by the end of the academic year, was a difficult trade, though not impossible when objectives are not missed!

As regards people, I received invaluable collaboration from all the teachers, who guided and advised me all through the process; we became cooperative colleagues and even gave rise to friendship. Students, the main actors in this story, not only put their best effort and will, but were also positively favoured with new learning opportunities to acquire a foreign language.

Analysing the process 

Having delivered my practice at each of the levels, I am now able to evaluate it. The whole experience was in all aspects a great opportunity of personal and professional growth and learning. It was an enriching experience for everybody: students, host teachers, institutions and the trainee.

The Practicum was my chance to discover by myself what most of the authors read during the course of studies state about what becoming a good educator and teaching means: being involved, taking roles, making decisions and changing them on the spot, undertaking responsibility, being committed and sensible, setting clear and achievable aims, being creative, becoming a material´s developer and, most importantly, guide learners into meaningful educational experiences by promoting their autonomy, confidence, creativity and motivation through practices which are inclusive and relevant to them.

Undergoing this process allowed me to consciously define myself as the Teacher of English I really want to be, and, to find a balance between my beliefs, the approach/es I favour and the decisions and actions I make.

During the practicum I tried, as long as possible, to teach from a Communicative perspective combined with an Eclectic philosophy, having learners always in mind as active participants during planning and providing them with confidence and trust. Therefore, I attempted to contextualize lessons with topics that might interest them and used multiple resources and activities that would call for their using the language for real purposes.  I also applied varied teaching techniques to cater for all learning styles which would enhance autonomy by propitiating individual and collaborative skills and learning.

I worked really hard to offer students and teachers a twist from their habitual lessons, which I observed, tend to get into mechanic routine (course book activities, photocopies and grammar exercises). I wanted to propose them simple but catching and innovative ideas to make them realize how much they can do and express through the English they already know.

As for my own development, I tried all the time to become a ¨reflective practitioner¨ by analysing rights and wrongs after each session, following the tutor´s and teachers’ observations and suggestions and learning from mistakes.  

Judging from the students’ and teachers´ enthusiastic response, I feel that the results were very positive. Pupils had a different and more appealing chance from which to view the learning of a second language; they acquired knowledge and strategies which might be tools for their future academic development. Teachers also expressed their contentment with my presence in the classrooms; they even took the period as an instance of learning for themselves. The fact that University´s Kindergarten trainees were invited to observe my lessons for their own development filled my heart with hope and trust for my prospect. In consequence, I would think that the objectives I had set for the period were successfully achieved.

Thinking about the future

Of course, there are skills that still need to be improved, such as timing, classroom management, and teaching strategies, especially with large groups of adolescents. Besides, there is a great deal of knowledge which remains to be acquired from ICT: our present urges teachers to include this outstanding tools in the classrooms!

 The experience undoubtedly opened my eyes to the future, I now have a clearer idea of what route I need and want to take: I would like to keep on developing through workshops and seminars about educational matters and, if possible, also take international exams to improve not only my teaching skills, but also the language itself. I am also interested in taking the Technical Teaching Training at UTN and/or becoming a Translator.  This interest came, on the one hand, from the practice at a technical school, where I could observe how necessary it is to teach from a specialized profile. On the other hand, my job at the Mining and Energy Industry, being an Electromechanical Technician, led me to get more involved and view the contribution I could make in and/or from my context.

Finally, all the years of dedication and study are now becoming rewarded. Time might have been reduced and sacrificed, but distance learning gave me the possibility of accomplishing my dreams and be about to graduate as a TEACHER OF ENGLISH, despite distance and occupational situations. I am very proud of the person and professional I have become after taking this course of studies. My Practicum, in my view, evidences my commitment and progress.