"A hard time"

Hello!! Today I didn´t want to go to do my second practice!!! But i had to… I arrived around 15 minutes before 7:00 a.m so I had time to prepare everything I would use for my class. When the teacher arrived, it was kind of late but I couldn´t start as soon as he got into the classroom since was his birthday and the students had bought him a cake to celebrate , and I told the teacher they can celebrate first and I could teach the next hour. They just sang the “happy birthday´s song” and I started with my class.

As first activity, I needed a short warm up because the teacher had assigned me 7 activities to be developed and also the warm up. What I did was like a “word search” but on the board and the students were divided into two groups according to some color cards that I gave them. Then I asked them to form two lines in front of the board and I gave one mark to each group. When I said a verb they would look for it and underline it. They would take turns to participate. 

The second activity from the lesson plan was kind of long because first I had to have the students repeating after me, then, I have to dictate and finally they would say the same sentences in interrogative form. So it was like three activities in one!! What I do was to join the three activities into one. How? I got the students into one circle and gave them 4 paper balls. One ball with the interrogative symbol (?), other with the negative symbol (-), other with some pieces of paper which was the “hot potato”, and the last one with a x2 symbol that means repeat! They passed the four balls and I played some music, when the music stops they would stop passing the ball; the person who had the “hot potato” would read the sentence and the person with the x2 ball would repeat the sentence, and so on with the other balls. 

The third activity was a fill in the blank exercise and it was faster, then, I asked to some students to read the sentences in order to check them. 

The fourth activity was orally and in pairs. But I didn´t want them to work with the same person they usually do. So, I asked them to stand up and make two circles, one inside the other. The people from the inside circle would walk to their right and the people from the outside circle would walk to their left. I played some music and when it stops they would start talking about some pictures, which were in their appendixes, with the person in front of them. The activity was repeated three times. 

The fifth activity was a written exercise. The students had to form sentences using “going to” and the given patterns. This activity was done in pairs or trios since not all the students had the appendixes. To check their job; I asked some students to read the sentences. 

The sixth activity was another written exercise with patterns so I assigned it as homework. 

In the seventh and last activity I decided to help them with their listening skill. I asked them to make two lines facing each other. The two lines went to the back until touching the wall. This activity was called PARDON ME! I CAN´T HEAR YOU. The students had to ask and answer about what they are going to do next weekend, on Christmas and for their birthday. They had to scream since they wouldn´t be able to listen to their partners because of the music I would play. Then, I asked them about their partners´ future plans. I guess they liked this activity. 

My objective was to have the students talking about their future plan using “going to.” It was well developed. 

I would change the way of checking the student´s work. I mean, I monitor but I can´t go one by one checking the sentences. Next time I would do a “chain drill” to check. 

About the activity with the hot potato, I had a problem ; the pieces of paper couldn´t be stuck out so I gave them the handout to read the sentences. Next time I would practice first!!! 

And finally, I had to work a little of bit more with my pronunciation and with my grammar…  I had problems with “r” sounds!! I pronounce them kind of strong.