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.