Reflection about using ECRIF

I am in my forth year of Languages at Universidad Don Bosco. I have studied many different subjects that have helped me to build my "personality" as professional. For example: Didactic I and II, Curriculum Development, Practicum I, Practicum II etc. I consider the last two as the most remarkable in my profession. I have had different kinds of teaching experiences: I have taught to children nine to ten years old at a college I worked for. I have taught at church to children from four to six, teenagers from twelve to seventeen and adults from eighteen to about seventy years old. Furthermore, I taught to children from eight to eleven years when I was studying Practicum I. But, the most recent experience I had was when studying Practicum II in which I had to teach to teenagers. I was an amazing experience and I really expected to learn and improve as much as possible.

It was difficult when I was introduced a new framework named ECRIF (Encounter, Clarify, Remember, Internalize, Fluently use.) because I considered it really complex. the first lesson plan I did using this framework took me (you won´t believe it) about two days. Let me explain you why: I did the lesson plan the first time but changed it, I did it again and change it again. The second lesson plan took me less time and the third even less. But, planning a lesson was not the only difficulty I had. The real challenge for me was to teach what I had planned. I got nervous during the first class, but I would say it was good because I felt comfortable and  confident with what I was doing. During the second one I felt really nervous and I could not control my nervousness. What make me feel nervous is that I know that I am being evaluated, it is not the students but the other teachers that I know they would notice if I do something wrong. For the third class, I was nervous but, I thought: "This is my class. I have the control of it. It does not matter if I change something from my lesson plan if it is needed to help students to acquire the language." Thinking this way help me face my nervousness. I truly enjoyed the class, my class.


As it was challenging for me it was to my classmates too. I am going to write about Eduardo, about the improvement he showed from the first to the last lesson. I could observed that he was nervous during the first class. He used little space in the classroom. During the second one he showed more confidence. But, during the last class he really made the class his class. I could not notice if he was nervous or felt unsure about something. I liked every activity he used in all the lessons, the materials and color of the materials. I liked the way he recycled materials, assessed students and lead them to freer use.


Finally, it was real challenge for me to plan and teach using ECRIF. Nevertheless, I improved a lot, I considered I achieved the objective of this course. I learned to plan using ECRIF, to teach using this framework, to be more confident when teaching. I learned to assess if students had understood or if  I needed to go back and explain again or change the activity, etc.I learned to have more control of my nervousness, feel confident and the most important enjoy the class and the way students improve. Although I am not an expert I am ready to teach using ECRIF. Now I prefer to use ECRIF because is more student center and more flexible.

Physical and psychosocial development of adolescent students

Memories of my adolescence: what I remember about that age of my life is that I new I was going to have changes in my body, and when it started to happen (I was about eleven) I felt that every body stared at me in a strange way. But when years passed I realized it was just me who felt that. I used to like to be alone, and some times I wanted to be surrounded by peers (people my age). I always tried to obey mom, but sometimes I forgot to do the things I was asked to do in the house. So, for mom I was irresponsable and lazy. I liked to be different from the rest, I used to wear black t-shirts, to use converse, my hair, etc. I did not talk to much with people even if they were my age. I always been quiet.

Now I understand why adolecents act how they do, or do things the way they do, or why I used to be like that.It is because of the changes that are happening in our body, and the necessity to find our own identity. Remember, teens are not only changing physically but also psychosocially. Some times we, adults, tend to forget the second part because it is not visible. At this age, teens preffer to relate more with peers than with adults. They also need to find their sexuality, who they are, and have guidance from parents. Of course, they do not want to be treat like kids, they like to be taken into account when making family decisions, to feel that parents trust them. If parents do these things, and try to understand them, they will have a better relation with teens in this wonderfull stage of life.

As a teacher I would like to help my adulescent students to be themselves, help them recognize that they are unique with different qualities, abilities, gifts, likes, etc. So that, they do not have to be like the others, but respect others. Teach them that we all can learn from each other and so they can. That they all are children of God, and have a priceless value. Help them to find who they are by exploring themselves, finding their hidden gifts, abilities etc. You do not have to be some els, but you.

Meeting and dealing with the changes in the brain of a teen.

Most people think adolescents are rebel. I have worked with teens for more than three years. I am working with them in a four year program named Seminary in which I teach about the Gospel. It is a one hour class given from Monday to Friday at 5:00 am. Why did I mention all these? Well, all of these teens are different, behave different, act and react different from each other. But, they all have things in common; need for attention, need for love, need for guidance, need for help and need for confidence. However, sometimes they tend to call attention in ways I do not like. Before I investigated little about the changes in teen´s brain, I used to think that they do not care much about what is going on around them  but what occur to themselves.

Teenagers´ brain is developing and changing so that in near future they become adults. I searched about it, and I found out that adolescence is from twelve to eighteen or nineteen. At this age, there are so many things happening in their brains. For example: the gray matter is at the high point, due to this increase "the teen brain  becomes more interconnected and gains processing power"(National Institute of Mental Health). Furthermore, I found out that teens use the amigdala to make decisions because the frontal lobe is still in development. I am going to share some of the websites in which I found interesting information so that, you can look by yourself: www.nimh.nih.gov, raisingchildren.net.au.

As a teacher my expectations for working with teen are to be enough patient to work with them. I also expect to have a good relation with them, learn to know what they need to improve in the academic, talking about English. I expect to learn how to deal with problems that are going to happened in a real classroom and finally help them feel the desire of learning by themselves.

REFLECTION

This course is over. I can say that I learned so many useful things that i really want to put into practice when teaching again. It was chanllenging for me because I am not that expressive. But, i tried to show more emotions, to enjoy when I was teaching, and I can tell you that i did enjoyed teaching children. I am greatful of having seen how these kids improve, some of them were so shy and did not participate but in some lessons they were even raising hands to participate.
It was not easy to prepare lessons, materials, to think on the correct activities for the kids and for the topics, to think on their necessities, etc. Being a teacher in a big responsability, so we have to do our best.