Today was the first time in my life that a student called me “teacher.” She was a fourth grade student that wanted to ask me something. I did not realized she was talking to me the first time she said “teacher” because I had never been named that way before! When I did not answered her, she pulled my oxford shirt and almost shouted “teacher!” and then I finally realized she was talking to me. I laughed and apologized to her: you are the first person who calls me teacher.

Today I also received the permission to create my lesson plans in the school practicum time because I don’t have power in my house yet due hurricane Maria. That is a huge help for me, because I am very limited without electricity at home.

In the first of the morning the fourth grade had a test about adjectives. The theme of the test is rainforests. A student asked me what “warms” means, another student asked me what “feathers” means and the same student came back to me to asked me what “conspicuous” means. I knew the first two words by memory but I needed to check the third word in Google to know what it means. Besides asking the meanings of some words, they needed no more help. They completed the test by themselves without any problems. It was during that test I was called “teacher” by a student for the first time.

At the other periods of the morning and in the first period of the afternoon I helped my cooperator teacher, teacher Richard, to correct yesterday’s third grade test. It was also about adjectives.

At the second period after recess I knew for the first time the group that I am going to be teaching as student teacher: third grade. The two earlier days I needed to leave at 12:30 pm and that class begins at 1:20, that is why I did not meet them before. The teacher presented me as their student teacher and we discussed the test I corrected.

Now I am going to describe my teacher practicum classroom. It is a big classroom, with 26 student chairs and a student worktable with three chairs. It has two teacher desks, one per cooperator teacher (two cooperator teachers give class in the same classroom, at different hours), one computer desk with a computer used mostly for printing documents and two reading corners with many, many, many books. The classroom also has a Smart Board, a whiteboard and five bulletin boards.

I located myself in the student’s worktable, because there is a big power outlet for my computer right beside that table. The students use that outlet to charge their tablets.

Here are some pics of my teaching practicum classroom.

I like my teaching practicum classroom a lot, it has a lot of creative and thinking space. Technology is a plus!

Let’s keep growing!

This is me, sitting in my desk in the English classroom. When this photo was taken, I was pondering about the school’s learning principles. The school principal explained us five principles of the school’s learning community:

–Aperture to diversity: there are students of diverse talents and there are exceptional students with diverse capacities. We as student teachers must embrace them all.

–Aperture to participation: is everyone’s responsibility to participate in the school’s activities.

–Aperture to learning from mistakes: for learning to read and to write students must commit many mistakes. In order to learn we must embrace mistakes all times.

–Aperture to resolving conflicts positively: there are problems in all schools, but we must teach how to resolve conflicts positively and peacefully.

–Aperture to reflection: reflection is important because we must teach to reflect constantly how to do things better.

I have another “learning principle” of my own:

–Aperture to personal growth: in everything I do I must be open to my student’s personal growth. I must be focused on helping them to grow as persons the best way they can. This includes promoting the best academic achievement but also promoting school values as honesty, justice, democracy and peace.

Besides pondering these principles, today I helped fourth grade students making Power Point presentations about the Universe.

Let’s keep growing!

Today, March 12, 2018, is my first day as student teacher. I am going to be student teacher at the UPR Elementary School.

I arrived early enough to drink a coffee before 7:30 a.m., when we were scheduled to start our teaching practicum. The classes start at 8:00 a.m.

One of the first things I was informed by my cooperator teacher, teacher Richard, once I got into the classroom is that I am going to be giving ESL classes to the third grade, after noon. However, I still observed the 8:00 a.m. fourth grade class, it was about adjectives. I also attended a meeting to participate in a research about the perceptions of speaking English among the students at the school and attended a meeting with the school director for all the student teachers of the UPR Elementary School.

Here I am, in the entrance of the school with all my student practicum classmates.

Here I am with my teacher practicum supervisor, the professor Cristina Guerra, and my ESL student teacher classmates.

Today had been an amazing day! Let’s keep growing!