1rst observation day

As the title stated already, last Wednesday was my very first day as an observer at my practicum school. I haven't been able to write about it before because I've been sick since then! I went early in the morning for the second class of the day with 2n of ESO -the class where I'll be teaching-. My tutor introduced me to the kids and they stared at me for a while with a mixture of curiosity while checking me out. I assume this is due to my appearence, since I look pretty young and my clothing style isn't that far away from theirs!

The seat arrangement is based in couples, two tables are linked and two students sit together. I sat in front of a girl and a guy. The first the teacher did is to check if everyone had done the homework. This is a very interesting routine, because not only allows you to control the effort of the students, but you can also reward them positively or not if they had or hadn't done the hw. Also, if it's the very first hour you can use the check to see if everyone's in class.

While the students were correcting themselves with the photocopy sheet of answers delivered by the teacher, I was staring at the class. I started to see who had made the homework, who couldn't stop talking and so on. I also took the chance to start learning some names, only 4 or 5 at the moment.

One girl didnt' know the meaning of a sentence and she called me, because the tutor was busy. ALthough I'm not supposed to interfer in this very first hours I wasn't going to ignore the student. So I went over there and explained her the meaning. She was suprised because I did it in English. And then the students around her freaked out because i was talking in English!

I told them I'll talk in E as much as I could and they should do the same with me. The vast majority understand what you say -as long as you repeat them some words sometimes and you speak slowly- so I'm pretty glad i already started to settle the things I'm expecting from them in the class.

I really liked the class! I thought the students were good, although a bit lazy, and also liked the variety in the classroom, which is included into the diversity the center has, with Chinese students, Pakistanis, African, South-American...I think my school is an example of integration and variety. Of course this situation demands a higher level of implication and an extra preparation with things such as the Aula d'Acollida, however, I think it's worth.

After that class we went to another of 3rd of Eso where the students with more difficulties in English class from two different classes come together. We were working on superlatives and so. They are a bit of talkers, but also work pretty good among them, helping each other. Although they are really easy to distract!

To sum up, I had a good vibe on my first day and I'm looking forward to see them tomorrow!