The first day of my Practicum

Wednesday, 31 October 2007. I finally started my practicum, after having visited the centre for an hour together with my tutor, who gave me specific details so that I could get familiar with its organisation and its distribution as soon as possible. Honestly, I should have begun on Monday, 29 October but, unfortunately, the whole group was on a day excursion. On Wednesday –like all Wednesdays- there were only 14 students in the classroom so as to be able to improve their speaking abilities and their listening skills.

First impression: When I got into the class, everybody stopped talking at once and started whispering and giggling. I suppose they were wondering who I was and what I was doing there. They got relieved when their teacher introduced me as a CAP student whose aim was becoming a state secondary school teacher. I must confess that even though I was used to teaching teens, I felt really nervous and excited. I felt myself as an intruder, a stranger invading their privacy by observing their attitude, their behaviour and their English knowledges attentively. The lesson itself was truly amusing but brief since we stopped fifteen minutes earlier in order to celebrate “La Castanyada”. Anyway, it became intense and they managed to finish all te activities prepared for that day. After a short reference to the unit they were dealing with, my tutor gave them some instructions to do a new task, which consisted of identifying characters by asking a wide range of different questions regarding their physical appearance, personality, job and origin. My tutor gave me the chance of taking part in this activity by correcting their mistakes and checking if they were doing it properly. So I went around the classroom and I got in touch with the students for the first time. It was a nice experience which let me assess their knowledge about the language and their attitude as well. I could notice that it was tough work for most of them to speak English. Some pupils were a bit shy while others had difficulties in learning a language. Nevertheless, I must recognise that a small group was persistent and they tried to speak English in class. And they actually did it successfully!!