On July 29th I taught my 7th hour of practicum in the conversation cafe. I only have two lessons left in the conversation cafe. My TESL certificate journey is starting to wind down. It is funny to think back to June when my peers started their practicum and I was waiting to start mine later. I’m incredibly glad I was able to have this later placement and this spot in the online L&C. I have enjoyed getting to know my students as I navigate this online teaching space.
Today I tried to teach students to identify and teach awkward sentences, which was awkward. It did give me some great insight into what I need to prepare for the next class. I had preselected the sentences we were going to work on, and I had gone through and identified the errors, but I didn’t write down the explanation why each of them was errors. I was so thankful that in the first sentence Karen jumped in and explained the reasoning. I’m grateful I experienced this lesson, now I am able to make sure I have the explanation readily available. We then moved into expressing opinions in discussions. This went excellent. I instructed on vocabulary for asking and giving opinions and I noticed the students adopting the language straight away as they created their interview questions.
I am struggling with having the students present more, and I think they would be more comfortable if they had a visual up while they were presenting. I’m going to try something new with my students on Friday to tackle this issue. It could work out really well, or bomb completely, we will see. I think it’s important to try to bring in more opportunities for engagement, so I am hoping this new idea will be integrated into our classroom smoothly.