Colombo Practicum Journal

Assessment 🤔 📊 How does the teacher collect evidence of students' performance? The team teacher doesn’t usually gather formal evidence of students’ performance. Instead, she checks their understanding through each exercise during class.  Two classes ago, however, she assigned a homework guide related to the topics covered, which she later collected. At the end of every lesson, she also asks students to complete a short writing activity ✍️ , which she sometimes collects. This task not only reviews the day’s content but also connects directly to their ongoing project. In this way, students are both reinforcing what they’ve learned and applying it to something meaningful.  Another strategy she uses is marking homework with simple visual cues . For example, if an activity is well done, she draws a 😊; if incomplete, she leaves a short note. This quick system keeps students motivated without overwhelming them. 💬 How is feedback given in class? Feedback is a constant ele...

Project: A letter to your thirty-year-older self.

💫On Saturday, I observed two professors in the classroom because my team teacher could not come. It was interesting to see how they had different approaches to interacting with students. 9:00 a.m. Class – Structured and Focused 👉In the 9 a.m. class, the first professor asked the students their names, including their last name. She spoke at a steady volume and pace, adding emphasis to the pronunciation of words that students had mispronounced. She tried to make eye contact with each student—although not at the same time, because that would be impossible. She gave each of them her attention to help them improve their performance. 👀She didn't use many facial expressions and stayed up the whole class monitoring the students. Except when they asked her a question, she sat down at a desk next to them to create proximity. She spoke Spanish to a boy who was grumbling because he had to stand up. She told him that she could not believe he was tired if he had been sitting the whole class. ...

Classroom Management ☝General The team teacher employed the following classroom management strategies: 👉Set the rules at the beginning of the lesson and remind students of them each time one breaks them. Try to make learning the rules memorable. 👉 Give clear and concise instructions that are written on the slides, which one of the students reads. 👉 Monitor students by asking them questions about the activities to check their understanding. 👉 Monitor students during individual and group activities. 👉Explain the corrections and verify understanding of them. 👉 Pair students with complementary personalities (e.g., active and calm, extroverted and introverted). 👉Use mimics to convey ideas and use an steady tone of voice. 👉 Create connections between the presented topics with examples, not introducing them as isolated concepts. 👉Use timers or do an activity until a song ends to keep track of time. 👉Praise participation and correct answers with expressions such as "Good job!...

👉What tools, apps, or websites has your team teacher used in class to create materials or activities, and how did students respond to them? The team teacher used several didactic activities to make the class memorable. Specifically, during this class, she used "Bamboozle" to encourage teamwork. The students had to structure grammatically correct sentences depending on what tense was used: present simple or progressive. The game began with the students forming groups, choosing a leader, and naming their teams. Then, they resolved the proposed exercises. For example, if "she (to be) sad today" appeared on the TV, the students had to identify the appropriate form to change the verb. The students really liked this game, which helped them socialize and appealed to their competitive instincts. Furthermore, the teacher used the online version of the textbook to provide feedback on a vocabulary exercise to the students. To check their understanding of the past simple, stud...