TEACHER STUDENT EXPERIENCES
A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE
"What student teachers think about the teaching practice"
Lina Rodríguez
Future student teachers in general ask themselves many questions about the teaching practice: What is it like? What expectations can we have? How can we carry it out in the best possible way? Who will be our students? How can we control their behavior? These are the most common questions student teachers have. And they need some answers. But these can only be solved by means of experience. The teaching practice is a new experience for some student teachers since they have not worked with big groups or had the opportunity to teach children and/or teenagers. While doing their practice, they should face different kinds of new situations such as classroom management, students' motivation, lesson plans, students' learning, students' behavior and so on.
They know the theory of these situations because they have had Didactics classes which help them to enrich their knowledge about teaching and practice. But this is just an orientation. When student teachers start practicing they have a kind of uncertainty. They sometimes get frustrated due to children or teenager' behavior toward them. They try to get control over pupils but sometimes it could be an impossible task since children are not interested in learning a language; they just prefer doing other activities. In spite of the difficult situations experienced in the teaching practice, the most important thing is not to give it up because those inconveniences are going to enrich their experience and help them to improve as new teachers.
Fortunately, one of the advantages student teachers have is to count on mentors who control and help them in their teaching practice. Their role is to advice student teachers toward the best way to make a class since they have enough experience. Another important advantage they have is their learning process. Students from Universidad Nacional have the necessary tools and knowledge to do an excellent practice since they have worked hard enough in order to become new teachers.
Finally, it is important to highlight that student teachers can control whatever problem that appears in a classroom because they have the essential bases to face it and can learn from their mistakes and correct them when they work in other institutions. When they are close to pupils they can clarify their role as teachers and try to improve their methodologies and strategies for teaching a new language. The following are some student teachers feelings and thoughts about the practice :
-"You realize that one thing is what you predict and another one is what really happens in the class"
- "You get experience little by little"
- "I'm worried about how much my students are learning"
- "At the beginning of the class we should establish some rules to make students behave in a good way"
TEACHING PRACTICUM AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL
Jaime Aguilar
At present, the students of Philology and Languages from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia can do their teaching practice either at pre-school, primary or secondary levels (at the I.P.A.R.M. school) or in the Elective Courses. This semester two students have the chance to do their practice in the Elective Courses: Carlos … and myself.
The idea of allowing student teachers to do their teaching practice at Elective Courses started in 1995 under the supervision of professor Alberto Abouchar. Today the area in charge of this is called English For Academic Purposes (E.A.P.) and it is coordinated by professor María Elena Perdomo.
I am interested in sharing some thoughts about what this experience has meant to me. To begin with, I would like to address those people who told me this was going to be a piece of cake. Let me tell you that the practice at the Elective Courses is not as easy as you could have imagined. I have not had an idle moment since the day I started to prepare the course. On the contrary, all has been meeting after meeting, preparation after preparation, lesson planning after lesson planning, so on and so forth. Then, I started to feel the responsibility of not only preparing a good lesson for 30 people, but for confronting undergraduates (your equals) from different careers with the aim of helping them improve their reading proficiency.
It is true that I have no problems of discipline and that I do not have to worry if someone goes to the bathroom without my permission every now and then. It is also true that I do not have to send notes to their parents if they do not do the homework, and that I usually write a paragraph of feedback instead of giving happy faces indistinctly. My worries are founded on the degree of responsibility I hold in my hands every time I stand in front of the class trying to convince them that I am prepared to help them with their reading comprehension. Also, every time I prepare a lesson, I have to bear in mind that they do not have the same kind of motivation of a child nor the obligation of the adolescent to be there.
However, I would also like to tell you that the more demanding this work becomes the more I feel encouraged to give the best of myself because this opportunity is one in a million; it is a chance that every student teacher should appreciate. That is why there should be more opportunities for more students to do their teaching practice at this level in the forthcoming semesters.
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