TEACHING PRACTICUM

“Practice makes us right, repetitions make us perfect” ~ Ernis 2019

            This sentence always comes from my mind during do my teaching practicum in HCMUTE. I never expect that I will teach the students in university that have the same age with me. That becomes the big challenge for me who still a student in my university. This is also become my great pride to be here because I can pass the TOEFL and interview test and got a good score to make my parents proud of me. Joining this program is a bridge for me to become a good English teacher in the future.

            By this program I have known that being a teacher is not easy. Being a teacher not only share knowledge to the students and finish the materials on the books. There are a lot of things that teacher have prepare before doing a teaching practice. Teacher should prepare many strategies in order to make the learning activity is fun and meaningful. Teacher supposed to be a friend for the students in order to make students not afraid when they are studying and can understand the materials easily. Therefore I have to prepare a lot to become a good teacher for my students because everyone knows that teacher is a model for the students.

            When the first time I have to go to the campus to meet the lecturer, I was very enthusiastic and prepared myself as best as I could. After arriving in a room, one of the lecturers Ms. Hang said that my supervisor cannot come at that time because she was sick. Therefore, Ms. Hang gave me the number of my supervisor Ms. Phuong Anh, after that I chatted her by Zalo. She told me to meet her next day. Shortly, the next day I met with my supervisor in the main building. At that time she gave me schedule and things that I should prepare for my teaching practicum. I had to teach three times. Two times for teaching in High Quality Training  and once for General English. Then, I also needed to do observation 20 periods teachers, peers, and also student-teacher in a month.

           There are my stories of my teaching practicum and my reflections:

            My first teaching practicum was held on Tuesday September 17^th 2019. Before conducting teaching practicum I have to prepare my lesson plan, power point and media that I used to teach my students. In that day, I got unit 9 about relationship and I should teach vocabulary (inseparable phrasal verbs) and conversation (he must be really busy) and I have 75 minutes to finish it. When making a lesson plan I was very afraid that my students cannot follow the activities that I have arranged and they don’t understand my instruction. I was afraid because I cannot speak Vietnamese and how can I delivered the materials. But I tried my best and make a lesson plan, power point and media for my teaching practicum. A day before conducting the teaching practicum I have to meet my supervisor and showed my lesson plan, power point and media that I wanted to use. After reading the lesson plan and power point, my supervisor really like it because I used many games, good warm-up and used pictures when teaching. I was very happy to hear that and make me more confident to do my teaching practicum. My supervisor also checked the grammar in my lesson plan and there are some grammatical errors that I have to revise in order to make it perfect. Thus I could finish my lesson plan through revision. The day was coming. I entered the class and said ‘good morning students’ and no one answer, I was afraid that all of them don’t like me. I try my best as best as I can to make them happy and enjoy during my lesson. I give a sticker for students who are active in my class. The students really like it and they want to get the sticker. They also like the games that I applied at that time and very enthusiast with the pictures that I showed on the slide. Even though all of them are men, I felt enjoyed when teaching in that class and wanted to teach them again.

            After finishing my first teaching practicum, I got some comments and feedback from my supervisor. She said that my teaching was good because I could be confident, speak aloud, friendly, creative, and engage students to speak. I was using creative ways in warm-up and lead-in. It was because I needed my students to be focused on and felt interested to follow the lesson. Besides, I also needed to improve my pronunciations because I did some mispronunciations when I spoke. Beside that I have to be careful about the grammar when I write something in my power point because there are some grammatical errors on my power point. Thus, I learned new thing on my first day of teaching. I would improve it in the next teaching.

            My second teaching practicum held on Thursday, 19^th September 2019. In the second teaching practicum I have to work hard because I only have one day to finish my lesson plan, power point and the media that that I used when I teach my students. I got unit 6 stages in life (world party) and got reading and vocabulary. I have to teach my students around 50 minutes. On Wednesday morning I have to meet with my supervisor to discuss about my lesson plan, power point and media. There is no significant problem for my lesson plan except I have to revise my grammar again. The day was coming. I enter high quality training faculty and walked to the room E2-112. I was surprised because the captain of the class have prepared a glass of water and put it on my table. I was so touched. I was very happy when I did my teaching practicum in this class. All of the students were very active and responded the teacher very well. It made me more confident when I did my teaching practicum in this class. After conducting my second teaching practicum I also have some feedback about my teaching section. The first is about the pronunciations. My supervisor said that I did some mispronunciations when I spoke in front of the class.   

            September, 20^th 2019 was the last time I did my teaching practicum in HCMUTE. I have to work hard and prepare myself as best as I can because I don’t have much time to practice. My supervisor said that I have to send my lesson plan through email and she would revise it through email. In the evening I got message from my supervisor about my lesson plan. She has finished for checking my lesson plan and sending back to me about something that I have to fix. The day was coming. That was the last time and I had to do my best to pay of my previous teaching practicum. At that time I got unit 6 about work (the cost of new jobs) and got reading and also grammar. I tried my best to teach grammar because honestly I was not really good in grammar (present perfect tense). I used many games for teaching grammar in order to make my students interest to study. In reading section, I told my students to work in groups, answer some questions that they have to find the answer in the article. Before discussing the right answer, I asked some students to read the articles. The purposed of this activity is to know about their reading skill and also their pronunciations. In my last teaching section the students were more active than before. There were easy to understand the materials that I thought to them. I felt very confident when I did my teaching practicum in this class.

            After finishing my last teaching practicum I got some comments and feedback from my supervisor as usual. My supervisor said that I did not need to ask my students reading aloud the article because it takes time. My supervisor said that I just need to read the article by themselves and asking them what they got from the article. Another thing that I need to improve is the way when I explained them about the grammar. I have to make sure that all of the students understand about present perfect tense because grammar is really important.

From those kind of unforgettable moments and the feedback I promised that I will be a good English teacher in the future. Lastly, I really thank for these unforgettable and meaningful experiences and knowledge. I learned so many things for overseas teaching practicum program although only in a month. It is not only about teaching practicum but also soft skill that useful for me in the future. Now, being a teacher seems good for me to be. Teacher is an important person in the world which teaches people and is humanizing human.