Teaching Reflection

and Systematization
of the Teaching
Practice
TEACHING PRACTICE 1

Teachers entering the profession may find their initial teaching
efforts stressful, but with experience they acquire a repertoire of
teaching strategies that they draw on throughout their teaching

2014
Rhina Arely Bentez
Elmer Jorge Guardado MAT.
6/15/2014
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INTRODUCTION

The important on reflecting and systematizing the teaching process has become the
clue for making improvements in our practice and everything we did during our process
of performing teaching practice. It is necessary to take into account that teaching is a very
complex area, and I dare to say that it is the hardest one, and that is why that teachers play
a very important role not only because we are the protagonist but also because we are
treating with humans, and molding them, changing their behaviors and their the way of
understanding the world. In this paper I show my reflection and systematization of my
teaching practice which I consider very important after having an experience, taking in
consideration everything that I used in my practice, and the whole thing that I included
during the process. Most teachers develop their classroom skills fairly early in their
teaching careers.
Teachers entering the profession may find their initial teaching efforts stressful, but
with experience they acquire a repertoire of teaching strategies that they draw on
throughout their teaching. The particular configuration of strategies a teacher uses
constitutes his or her teaching style. While a teachers style of teaching provides a means
of coping with many of the routine demands of teaching, there is also a danger that it can
hinder a teachers professional growth. Here I will be explaining the following aspects:
- Teaching Reflection.
- Systematization of the Teaching Practice Process.
- Applying the e-portfolio approach including the new learning environment in
the ELT.
- The use of technology in the classroom.

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-TEACHING REFLECTION
Reflection is currently a key concept in teacher education. The reflection process is
often described in terms of a cyclical model. In the present article, we explain how such a
model can be used for supporting student teachers reflection on practical situations they
are confronted with, and on their behavior, skills and beliefs in such situations. In some
cases, however, more fundamental issues appear to influence teachers practical
functioning. For example, their self-concept can have a decisive influence on the way they
function, or they may do what is expected of them, and yet not feel truly involved. In such
cases, a more fundamental form of reflection is needed, which in this article we refer to as
core reflection. The focus on core reflection concurs with the recent emphasis in
psychology on attending to peoples strengths rather than their deficiencies. (Fred
Korthagen & Angelo Vasalos, 2005)

How can teachers move beyond the level of automatic or routinized responses to
classroom situations and achieve a higher level of awareness of how they teach, of the
kinds of decisions they make as they teach, and of the value and consequences of
particular instructional decisions? One way of doing this is through observing and
reflecting on ones own teaching, and using observation and reflection as a way of
bringing about change. This approach to teaching can be described as Reflective
Teaching, and in this paper I want to explore how a reflective view of teaching can be
developed. (Jack C. Richards, 1990)
Teaching a second language is even harder than other areas because here teachers are
getting into a new world and submitting students to get into this world as well; that is the
reason of the need to reflect on our own teaching practice and the way we are using
methodologies and creating strategies to teach. Reflecting on teaching practice let teachers
know what things they need to improve and what things they need to change and the
systematization arises for the reason to know themselves, let others to know them, and
qualify their practice.
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I have been through a lot of negative and positive situations during my teaching
practice, since the beginning of it; it was not the same when I was performing my social
service than now that I am performing my Teaching Practice due the preparation that I
have been developing during this course, and the experience that I have been taking, it has
helped me a lot because I have a better and clearer understanding of what teaching really
is. Since the beginning of my teaching practice I have already set my goals, philosophy,
and methodology, even though some things did not happen as I have planned, but during
the past of the time I have seen changes because if I make a contrast between the last
experience that I had, and the one that I am currently performing at Instituto Nacional de
Usulutan, this experience has brought me a lot of benefits and it makes me think that
teaching is what I always wanted to do, I am inspired, my students have inspired me for
what I could make in their lives, and also for all the things that they express, and the
changes that they are having; it makes me feel proud of my effort because I have given my
best during this process.
Through the experiences that I am getting, I am realizing that teaching is not just a
job just for getting money, it means something bigger that only real teachers can
understand; I have realize through this process that I have a lot of things to learn, from my
own teachers, from myself, from my students, and everything that has to do with
education. The process that we have to pass is not easy, but preparation is the clue to
succeed
- SYSTEMATIZATION OF THE TEACHING PRACTICE PROCESS

The commitment to human development and social transformation in a globalization
context requires constant changes and adjustments to our practices. But these changes
have to be based on the reflection and critical consideration of the work carried out. In
other words, previous experience has to be the elements that provide us with the clues for
improving our practices. Understanding the processes of the organizations has always
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been a challenge facing the social sciences. It continues to be so today and to affect the
work and life of many people.
The systematization of the process incudes a set of steps of organizing the documents
that I use in my Teaching Practice since the preparation of a panning until the final
teaching goals and the aspects to improve teaching and the commitments that I have since
the beginning of the course. The whole documentation is systematized and well-organized
with the aim of performing a good teaching practice.
The first things that I prepared for the performance of my Teaching Practice were my
teaching responsibilities; I considered my capacity of being a good teacher and the
preparation that I thought of my responsibilities, this is one of the very important parts in
the teaching area, including my teaching philosophy, and goals that I pretended to achieve
during the whole of process of this course.
Methodology: Before planning and designing the outline of the activities I
designed the methodology to apply in my teaching practice; first of all the identification of
the approach was primordial in order to design the methodology, I am focused on the
communicative approach and the aim of this approach is to develop linguistic
competences and the students will start to think the value of learning a second language,
and the importance of developing those skills which are listening and speaking, the most
important in this course. After the identification of the approach, it was necessary to
choose the methods that would be used in every class, notice that in order to design the
methodology it is necessary to link the approach and methods, they have to match due to
the reason that there is a connection in order to create a good methodology. The methods
that I chose were the Direct Method which is one of the most successful when the teachers
want that their students learn English quickly; also the Total Physical Response method,
which includes a series of kinesthetic activities in which students not only learn the
language but also enjoy learning by making movements; the Audio-linguistic method is
the other one, so those methods are choose to be part of my teaching methodology, then
the techniques and strategies are chosen depending on the method which I am working
5

with, for example some techniques that I have used are conversations, listening activities,
role plays, round tables, questions and answers activities, etc. So in this way I have created
my teaching methodology which includes a lot of preparation and it has defined my
teaching style.
Preparing the program; Most of the teachers work according to the MINED program
in the normal courses or when they are teaching English as a subject. In my case I am
working according to the topics of the New American Framework book, it is divided in 12
Units, but for the course is cover just 6 Units due to the time, every Unit has been covered
by developing each topic applying the methodology mentioned above. This program is
the guide that I follow and it gives me the name of the topics that I have to develop in
every class, it seems kind of easy but it is not at all, one of the most difficult things here is
to follow the sequence of each topic according to this program, and try to not lose the line
of it.
Syllabus of the curse: was taken from the program designed in the book that I use to
teach, this syllabus includes the name of the Unit and its respective items as the language
focus, vocabulary, and activities for developing the four macro skills which are reading,
writing, listening, and speaking, this is aim to do the activities for producing the language,
it describes every section with different activities and grammar focus. This is very
important when planning because from here I have the clue of what to do in every class,
and I do not lose the sense when I prepare a Lesson plan. It does not require to much work
because everything is in the book, it is already designed, so the task become so much
easier.
Planning of the Course: is a very important part of the process because here we have
an schedule for every class and what topic goes in a certain date, and what activities
correspond to that topic in that day, it is necessary to take into account that when planning
we have to follow dates and respect each of them if not, we can lose the rhythm of the
process, that is why we have to be very careful and to be sure when we are designing a
planning chart of the course. After I have all the topics and all the activities to perform, I
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have to know when I am going to develop a topic, when to evaluate the students, and
when to make different activities with them, for example activities performed out of the
classroom, they have to be planned since the beginning, including days off in order to
have a system to follow.
Outline: the outline of the course is taken from the topics already established in the
book that I use; here I have all the activities corresponding to each topic, I chose the most
relevant activities to practice with my students; this can become a little difficult when we
do not know exactly what activities match better with what we want to achieve, want we
want our students learn, and what they need to learn. The outline of activities is designed
per Unit and topic, when we already have the planning of the course, so then we are ready
to choose the activities that we consider the most useful in the classroom; and as the
planning, these activities are also schedule, depending on the topic we are preparing for
every class.
After having all those important things, the systematization continues with the
elaboration of the lesson plans, it is also called the planning for every class, in which I have
to designed a set of activities to recall the development of the English language in the
students, this planning follow a structure which includes warm-up activities, objectives for
each class, the study of language focus, activities for the production of the language, and
wrap-up activities, this is elaborated with the purpose of having a guide which facilitates
the teaching process. For elaboration of a lesson plan is needed a clear idea of what to do
in the class, designing activities in which the students enjoy the class, and it is important to
achieve the objectives that we set because that is what good teachers do; besides the lesson
plans, I get to prepare the whole material to use, every necessary tool to facilitate teaching
and learning as well.


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APPLYING THE E-PORTFOLIO APPROACH INCLUDING THE NEW
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN THE ETL
For a better understanding lets see what an E-portfolio is: An electronic
portfolio (also known as an e-portfolio, e-portfolio, digital portfolio, or online
portfolio) is a collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually
on the Web. Such electronic evidence may include inputted text, electronic files,
images, multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks. E-portfolios are both demonstrations of
the user's abilities and platforms for self-expression, and, if they are online, they can be
maintained dynamically over time. An e-portfolio can be seen as a type of learning record
that provides actual evidence of achievement. Learning records are closely related to
the Learning Plan, an emerging tool that is being used to manage learning by individuals,
teams, communities of interest, and organizations. To the extent that a Personal Learning
Environment captures and displays a learning record, it also might be understood to be an
electronic portfolio.
E-portfolios, like traditional portfolios, can facilitate students' reflection on their own
learning, leading to more awareness of learning strategies and needs. Results of a
comparative research, by M. van Wesel and Prop, between paper-based portfolios and
electronic portfolios in the same setting, suggest use of an electronic portfolio leads to
better learning outcomes. (Wikipedia, 2014)
E-Portfolios let teachers to give self-information and to show to others what they
have learned during the process of preparation in this area, having a well-designed E-
portfolio let the teachers to make a line time since the begging of the learning process, all
the courses taken before working, trainings, diplomas, among other things that a
professional have as evidence of his/ her work. Also in the e-portfolio are shown the most
relevant activities used in the classroom and the technological tools that are used there,
and also activities performed with technology, for example a video class, slides, logging
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web sites, and social networks for academicals proposes, this is also as an evidence of the
work during the practice.
Also it can let the students to make a portfolio and organize their self-information
about their learning process and all the things which they have to go through in order to
get meaningful learning; also in this way, teachers are submitting their students to the use
of technological resources for academicals purposes so they will get into the cyber world
and their learning process will become easier. It is important to not forget that we are
changing the way of teaching and breaking the barriers of an old fashion teaching style,
with technology we are facilitating the English Language Teaching, so students feel more
motivated to learn because of the new digital world in which they are immersed.
HOW AM I GOING TO DEAL IF I WANT TO USE TECHNOLOGY IN A
SCHOOL OR PLACE OF WORK BUT THERE IS NO TECHNOLOGY IN THE
CLASSROOM?

Technology can have a reciprocal relationship with teaching. The emergence of new
technologies pushes educators to understanding and leveraging these technologies for
classroom use; at the same time, the on-the-ground implementation of these technologies
in the classroom can (and does) directly impact how these technologies continue to take
shape. (Eric Klopfer, 2009)
The use of technology in the classroom is quite important for nowadays students,
due to the reason that they are called the Digital Natives so there is important that
teacher be aware to the use of these tools in the classroom. Unfortunately, in some
institutions the lack of technology is presented, and we as teachers are the responsible of
bringing for the students learning and for the teaching process as well.
I am performing my teaching practice at Instituto Nacional de Usulutan, and there
are no technological resources in the classroom, fortunately I have the facility to use the
technology due to the reason that it is a project from The UGB, so they bring me some
resources, but there are others that I have to take them in order to perform a class, for
9

example the speakers, computer, and internet. But if I have to work in a place where no
entity brings me the resources that I need, it is kind of difficult to try to solve this problem.
What would I do? I f in the place where I am working does not have technological
resources in the classroom I would look for a place in which I know that I would get some
of them, for example projectors, or CD players which are the most used in the classroom. I
think that bringing my own material I can cover the need of using technology in the
classroom; when giving s video class it would be necessary to have a projector, a computer
and maybe speakers; looking for a projector would be the hardest part but there is always
a solution, for example ask to a person for one, or as I said before, buy a one, the other
resources are easy to find like computer, CD player, or speakers. Fortunately, there is
always somewhere or someone who support teachers that are pretending to innovate all
the classes and try to make the learning process different, easier, funnier, and meaningful.


CONCLUSION

For concluding this paper, I summarize this saying that it is necessary that
teachers reflect on their practice every time we consider it is necessary, due to the reason
that through reflections we can realize of the things we are doing good and the ones we
have to change or improve, when we reflect on what we do, we make changes, so it turns
the things better; the systematization gives a better understanding of all the things that a
teacher has to do during his/her process; this is not an easy job but it is something
amazing, those experiences that no teacher would change, nothing better than changing
lives. In my own personal opinion I can say that being a teacher means more than instruct
and teach, it is to change, not only to change minds and behaviors but also to change ways
of teaching, look for new things that inspire the students to keep learning, and make them
feel motivated. Sometimes it comes harder and harder to get what we want, but through
the pass of the time and with the experience we are getting the things becomes easier, and
the objective that we want to achieve are clearer, but this take a long time of practicing,
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because as it is said practice make master. Technology is one of the most important tools
in nowadays teaching style because students are immerse in the use of the internet and
technological stuffs, to teacher have to be aware of it and prepare classes including tech for
a better result in the teaching practice.

Works Cited

Eric Klopfer. (2009, february 07th). the education arcade. Retrieved june 14, 2014,
from the education arcade:
file:///C:/Users/RhinaArely/Desktop/TP/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade
.pdf
Fred Korthagen & Angelo Vasalos. (2005, February 1). Teacher and Teaching.
Retrieved June 13, 2014, from Teacher and Teaching:
http://kernreflectie.nl/Media/pdf/Levels%20in%20reflection.pdf
Jack C. Richards. (1990). The Teacher Trainings. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from
Towards Reflective Teaching :
http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/File/back_articles/Towards_Reflect
ive_Teaching.pdf
Wikipedia. (2014, june 11). Retrieved june 14, 2014, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_portfolio