Intervention plan

My intervention point:

During this experience as an observer in the pedagogical intervention we are applying in our school, there are different aspects that should be taken into account in order to help the participants, in this case teachers, and also the instructor to improve the development of the sessions. After analyzing the journal entries, a common situation is presented in the four classes. From the first class it is seen that even this project benefits the school and the participants in their professional development, the different duties of the school are an obstacle for the correct development of the class. This is an extract from the first class in which some sight of the problem start appearing: “Some of them were absolutely concentrated on the activity, however due to the fact that during the session computers are required to enter to a virtual platform, some others were sending mails or completing duties from the school. This is an understandable situation because this project is not mandatory in the school; they decided to take this course because they have the desire to reinforce their abilities in the foreign language. The bell rang, some teachers were needed by the coordinator and they had to leave the classroom for a while. The instructor started to feel frustrated because that type of constraints” (journal entry 1). 

More evidence of this problem was found in the journals in which those school responsibilities affect the students’ progress since the beginning of the classes, “The rest of the participants arrived late due to the different duties they had in the school. (Journal entry 1). This situation is not only affecting the students’ performance in the course. Additionally the instructor started to feel demotivated due to the intermittence in the students’ participation in the class, to start with, we were very concerned about the amount of teachers presented on the class, and there were only two participants, on time. The rest were having breakfast and doing thing from the school (journal entry 3)

Besides that constrain, students and teachers are trying to overcome that difficulty by supporting each other and with the desire of ending that course with the most wonderful results, “I think that even the teachers felt frustrated because of the different interruptions that we have during the class, he decided to continue and to reinforce the content when all the participants were completed”. (journal entry 1 )

Taking into account this problematic situation that is been perceived during the professional development course, I would come up with the following course of action in order to overcome this difficulty. First of all, it is important to listen the participants’ voices in order to identify their perceptions about this situation. From my experience as a teacher from the school like them, it is easy to know that there are lots of responsibilities and also the amount of hours that avoid a full concentration in the course. Also due to the fact that this course is taking place at break time, the only hour most of them have to relax, it tends to be an extra time investment. From the dialogue or interview, with the participants causes and possible solutions can be extracted.

Secondly, an idea taken from one of the journals could be a possible option to overcome the difficulty, “We are planning for next sessions to give a more personalized feedback in order to help those teachers who have not assisted to all the classes to overcome difficulties and to clarify doubts”. (Journal entry 4). After identifying the teachers difficulties or obstacles to assist to the class, the solution of a personalized class in one of their free hours in order to help them to catch up with the topics of the class. This could be an interesting solution for them because the fact of being in a specific place, with the teacher without the interruption of students or any other distractor, they could clarify different aspects form the class. During this time students can ask questions, about vocabulary, grammar structures, and also the instructor can help them to finish the in class activities without any pressure.

Finally, in the development of this course, Edmodo has been used as a virtual portfolio, in order to have evidence from the students in class performance. Another important use for this technological tool can be as a mediator for communication. Through different post, instructor informs in advance about the topics, vocabulary, and also date of the class, to help them to be punctual in the classroom. Informal talks will be a also a good strategy to remind the participants about the class. Even the coordinators and principal are aware of the development of the project in the school; it can be useful to remind them the importance of this plan in order to reach the school goals for the future. In that sense, we can rely on the relevance of the concentration of the teachers during those hours. For that reason we require them not to interrupt teachers during this time with school matters.

This is an amazing project that helps teachers to get away from school affairs, and to give time for them to develop their own professional strengths. I hope the idea of a more personalized feedback during their free hours; can help them and the teacher not to lose their motivation in this beautiful project.

Exploring my teaching beliefs

Language learning

Language learning for me is the acquisition, retention, adaptation of new structures into our cognitive system. As a result, that acquired knowledge, should help the individual to be part of a society. However to talk about language learning is important to bear in mind the learner context. For example in our country, in relation to the English language learning, it is not common to find many resources that can help us with the development of this language and also the lack of contact with this language can produce different feeling on the learners “The first participant arrived and he expressed that he was feeling afraid because it was a long time since he, an arts teacher had had contact with the English language”(journal  entry 1)

However, the motivation to learn, help people to rapidly be involved in the learning process. “Even the participants had not had contact with the English language; they were able to recall previous knowledge and they reported in Spanish what they had understood from the explanation” (Journal entry 1). In this sense, their native language will help also as a tool to demonstrate their knowledge and the abilities they can develop during the learning process.

“Was interesting to see, how the participants felt confident after some minutes talking with Garvin (native English speaker) and the teacher”. (Journal entry 2) It is fundamental to enhance learners’ confidence to interact with others. This is a way of improving their communicational skills and in this sense, learners will me more aware of their learning process.

One amazing fact form the language learning process, is the ability most of the learners have to develop strategies in order to enrich their acquisition process, “It was interesting to see how the learning strategies of the participants increased from one class to another, some of them started associating pictures with words, others prefer the use of dictionaries, and also peer correction is one of the most used by them”. (Journal entry 3)

To sum up, the definition nowadays I have of the language learning process is a compilation of different experiences that I have had in the interaction with hundreds of students that have enrich my point of view of this amazing process. First I was able to understand that this process do not involve just the role of the teacher in the exchange of knowledge, instead there are many factors such as the context, the exposure to the language, the importance of building confidence in the learners, the use of learning strategies and many more that can enrich the learning process. Teachers’ role in this process is important but not fundamental; learners’ potential and initiative is the engine that moves the language learning.

Teaching language

The idea of teaching a language for me involves different aspects. First of all it is usual to think about teaching as the process of transmitting knowledge into the students’ minds. However “I have realized that teaching is an art. It is a process that involves experience, passion, love, and also patience” (personal metaphor). T

The objective of the language teacher is to guide the learner, to provide settings for language learning, “In this sense a teacher for me is not the one who takes "knowledge" from a book. As an artist, I have to take into account what I have to face every day, what my students expect and what I feel can help my  students to improve”(personal metaphor). Taking into account students need, desires, wants and expectations give the teacher the possibility to enrich the process of teaching a language “Then after taking into account some suggestions that the same participants asked us after the first session, we decided to involve the students in the development of the class”.  (Journal entry 3). In other word, enrolling the learners in the process is enriching for both, the teacher and the learners, and beautiful result can be extracted from there.

This thought resembles the most suitable panorama for a teacher, however, in the teaching process not all is as easy as it seems to be. “The same happens in a classroom, when we show the learners all that we have prepared for them, they can learn more, and they are able to question the world. Some others, simply do not enjoy the lesson, or misunderstand the meaning of the class”.(personal metaphor). The solution to face those kinds of difficulties is to reflect upon what I am doing, and to start asking questions such as what is right or wrong in my teaching role. “The reflection upon my teaching practice, has helped me a lot, in order to change or redirect my role, my activities and also it has helped me to shape my strengths and overcome my weaknesses” (autobiography)

At the end of the process of reflecting, you can solve many doubts and clarify aspects of your teaching role. The reward of this beautiful profession is to listen words such “if my English teacher had used strategies like this I would have learned English easily”.  (Journal entry 3)

In this sense, and to sum up my beliefs upon language teaching I can say that “Now I understand that being a teacher goes beyond merely theory, being a teacher involvers students likes, dislikes, desires, strengths and weaknesses. It also implies time, patience, effort, and passion”. (Autobiography)

Thanks to my father’s advice “Why do not you try to become a teacher that is a wonderful profession” (autobiography), now I realize the importance of being a language teacher. Also, my four years of experience have shaped my role in the language classroom. Even all the difficulties or constrains that we can face in our daily life; a teacher is always willing to help and guide learners through this wonderful experience of learning a language. Teachers should reflect upon their practices, in this sense new ways of teaching, new approaches, new strategies will arise to magnify the amazing role of being a teacher.

Natalia's Beliefs

For the last years,  English is considered as one of the most recognized languages in the world. In this sense, this is used as a tool for developing trades, business; and even for any professional program is required, in order to help people to be ready to face the world. In our country, in which English is recognized as a foreign language, due to the lack of possibilities to interact in this language in common life situations, most of the people do not see the necessity to learn this wonderful language. It is sad to see how the public schools do not give the relevance that this language deserves. From my point of view, English should not be seen as a benefit only for those who have the opportunity to travel around the world. English is a plus for our live, is an option to see the world in a different way, to know people, to learn about culture, and also to understand what is happening surrounding us.

On the other hand, teaching, for me is one of the most beautiful professions in the world.Being a teacher involves developing other abilities such as mediator, modulator, advisor, and other roles such as, parents, doctor, psicologists, actor, chef and many more. the reason why I decide to become a teacher is still a mistery in my life. However i hav enejoyed each day in which I have had the opportunity to enter to a classroom to enlight my life and my students' too. teaching it not any more a process of transmiting knowledge. Nowadays teaching is seen as a complementary process that help learners to guide their thoughts and actions to become better citizens. in the hands of many teachers is the future of the world, is our job to transform the life of the people that enter to our classroom.

learning is a beautiful process wich involves different context and concepts. First of all, learnign is a need of the human being. Since the conception process and the development of the fetus in the pregnancy stage babies start learning form the environment surrounding them. in the childhood, learning is a result of the relationship with the context, From family, friends and school. From a certain stage we start focusing our learning according to our likes or needs. But the most amaizing part of learning is the final product, when we realize that we have learned and that we can use that kowledge in our daily life. Our role as teachers is to help the learners to keep surprising of the world that sourround them, in that way, learning will not be a boring process for the kids.

4th Journal Entry

September 9th

Rivera – Huila

Colombus American School

During this session, students were asked to join to the Skype account in order to have a dialogue in real time. The class started at 9 pm; however most of the participants were ready at 9:30 pm. The instructor welcomed the participants in the most enthusiastic way. They were really motivated to start the class.  Teacher Sergio shared screen with the participants in order to show them the menu that will help as a tool for the development of the activity.  The objective of the intervention was to reinforce the vocabulary about food and ordering food.  Teacher Sergio acted out as a waiter, the rest of the participants were in charge of ordering food. One difficulty that we face was the teachers’ participation, they did not take turns to speak, and was not easy to understand what they were saying.  However after a few minutes, the instructor decided to interrupt the activity in order to assign turns for each one.

The second part of the activity was to divide the group into pairs, one would take the role of the waiter and the other would be the client. It was interesting to see how fluent the activity was, in other words, participants were able to start a dialogue, to introduce new chunks of language, to ask for help when there was a misunderstanding or even to correct the peer when something went wrong.  There were some technological problems at the end of the session.  Some of the participants when the session finished started talking about their progress in just two weeks, an also the importance of this kind of programs at school.

From my point of view, we are in the right way, teachers are motivated, and the school is supporting us with the required material. However it have been difficult for some teachers to be constant in this progress due to the amount of duties they have at school. We are planning for next sessions to give a more personalized feedback in order to help those teachers who have not assisted to all the classes to overcome difficulties and to clarify doubts.

3rd Journal entry

September 8th

Rivera-Huila

Professional Development program

Colombus American School

This was the third session, the second face to face interaction, as usual, the setting was the Science lab. In our plan we have thought that the restaurant was a good place to develop the activity but due to institutional activities, it was not possible to do it in this place. To start with, we were very concerned about the amount of teachers presented on the class, there were only two participants, on time. The rest were having breakfast and doing thing from the school. We were very worried because it is not possible to have a class with only two participants. We decided to wait until 9:00 am. By that time we have four participants, and the teacher started the class.

He presented the topic and the objectives for the lesson. In this time the participants were participating more, it was an appealing topic for them. Teacher Sergio present a PPT presentation with the vocabulary about food and drinks. The participants were very concerned about the pronunciation of the words. Then after taking into account some suggestions that the same participants asked us after the first session, we decided to involve the teaches in the development of the class. First of all we have an activity with some flashcards in which they have to label the name of some food. It was interesting to see how the learning strategies of the participants increased from one class to another, some of them started associating pictures with words, others prefer the use of dictionaries, and also peer correction is one of the most used by them.

After reviewing the vocabulary with this activity, the second part of the activity was even more interesting. The instructor, had to cover the eyes of the participants with a piece of clothing. Then some food (realia) was in a desk, the participants had to touch and smell the food in order to guess the name of each object. The participants enjoyed the class, and it was easy for them to remember the name of most of the food. At the end of the class, the instructor present a video with a sample conversation for a restaurant situation. They took into account most of the expressions and they video tape their own videos to be uploaded to Edmodo.

From the participant’s perspectives, this was a remarkable experience because we head comments such as : “if my English teacher had used strategies like this I would had learned English easily”. Those words enrich our project and also motivate us to develop more interesting activities for them. For the next class it is necessary to bring more TPR activities in order to make them more active during the classes. In this opportunity teacher decided to organize the couples for the dialogue exercise in order to get familiar with the different voices of the classmates.

2nd Journal Entry

September 2^nd

Rivera- Huila

Professional Development program

Colombus American School

This was the first Skype session for the teachers’ development program, most of the teachers were on time to start the class. In this occasion, a native speaker was helping us with the development of the class. The purpose or objective for the intervention was that the students practice the structures and vocabulary learned during the first session, and also that they could have a real interaction with a native person in order to let them know more pronunciation patterns.

The class started at 9:10 pm, all the student were joined to the video call, my role in this case was to record the session, and to clarify some vocabulary. The native person start the class by greeting the participants. At the beginning they were ashamed because it is not usual to interact with a native person unless you are in another country. The instructor helped as a moderator for the questions, and also he provides feedback in terms of vocabulary and sentences.

After a few minutes the participants started answering the questions that Garvin proposed, I was surprised because they started to ask questions that were not in the worksheet, they asked about his hobbies, his experiences in Neiva, and also about his parents.

It was interesting to see, how the participants felt confident after some minutes talking with Garvin and the teacher. Also it was important the role of the teacher as a guide for the conversation. The only thing that could be improved for the next session, is to assign turns in order to have a more organized dialogue, sometimes they were confused because they did not identify who was asking the question. Some technical problems were also perceived because it was not possible for one of the participants to interact fluently during the exercise.

For the next class, students are going to learn vocabulary about food. All the exercises were uploaded to Edmodo.

1st journal entry

Rivera – Huila

September 1st

Professional development program

Colombus American School

Class observation

As part of our research proposal, at school, we decided to implement a teacher development program for teachers from different subjects in order to identify what efl oral skills are promoted in the different sessions that we are going to have during the intervention.

Due to the fact that this research is focused on a blended learning approach, this is the first face to face session that we had. The class started at 8:45 am at the science lab. Six teachers from different subjects were selected to be part of the project. The teacher, in this case my research partner Sergio had already prepared for the class, the slide projector, the photocopies and the rest of the material needed for the class. The first participant arrived and he expressed that he was feeling afraid because it was a long time since he, an arts teacher had had contact with the English language. The rest of the participants arrived late due to the different duties they had in the school. The class started at 9:00 pm, teacher Sergio gave a short introduction to the participants in English, he explained the objectives and topics for the class, those were to ask and answer for personal information. After finishing the introduction, he decided to speak in Spanish in order to clarify some doubts; surprisingly, even the participants had not had contact with the English language, they were able to recall previous knowledge and they reported in Spanish what they had understood from the explanation. I think that the tone and the good pronunciation of the teacher helped a lot in the understanding of the participants.

A worksheet was given to the teachers in order to fulfill some personal information for an exercise. After that, the instructor started to present the vocabulary needed to give information. A video was presented and the participants had to identify vocabulary related to numbers, colors, cities and nationalities and they had to use the alphabet in order to spell their names. Some of them were absolutely concentrated on the activity, however due to the fact that during the session computers are required to enter to a virtual platform, some others were sending mails or completing duties from the school. This is an understandable situation because this project is not mandatory in the school, they decided to took this course because they have the desire to reinforce their abilities in the foreign language. The bell rang, some teachers were needed by the coordinator and they had to leave the classroom for a while. The instructor started to feel frustrated because that type of constraints. However he decided to continue the class with three teachers. The most beautiful part of this class was when the teachers started producing short sentences in order to be understood. From my point of view, the fact of being in the same level pf proficiency in the language, helped them to feel comfortable to express in English, and also the support of the teacher with pronunciation patterns was a good tool for them.

When the other participants came back, the class was even more wonderful, teachers were participating all the time. They asked many questions regarding to the topic or clarification. At the end of the class, students were asked to record a video in which they practiced the vocabulary presented in the class. All completed the task, and those videos were uploaded to the Virtual platform.

The role of the teacher in this session was absolutely important for the participants, his disposition to answer questions or to clarify information, helped them to feel comfortable in the English class. Even the participants are all adult, they understand their role as students and some of them have a specific notebook for the class. I think that even the teachers felt frustrated because of the different interruptions that we have during the class, he decided to continue and to reinforce the content when all the participants were completed. For the next class, due to the fact that this project involves a blended learning approach, there are some technological issues to take into account to develop the class. For the next face to face session it would be interesting to involve more the participants into individual task, or more challenging activities in order to help them to increase their English proficiency.

In general words, this first attempt was a success, and it can be perceived in the participants’ faces and comments during the class, some of them also asked for individual feedback after the classes.