Introduction

When my didactic´s teacher asked me if I wanted to be a teacher, I said no. Now I am not sure. I remember when he said "You have three didactics to decide if you want to be a teacher or not." After that I began with my practices in a kindergarten. I started with the only porpuse of getting a good grade and passing the subject; but with the time, I started to get closer with the kids.

I remember the first activity that I developed in the classroom it  was singing the song "Head shoulder knees and toes." It was kind of funny because I hate that song but it was the  ideal song for the kids to learn some parts of the body. My surprise was that the kids were singing and dancing it happily. After that, the whole week the kids were singing that song, it was something  surprising because  I did not know why they liked that silly song, but the good news was that they learned really fast the parts of the body.

They always asked me for a new song. after a week, they asked me if I could bring them the song of a movie called Frozen. I didn´t have good memories about that movie because I think that movie is silly and boring, but I said: Why not? They had been working really hard so I will bring the song just bacause they are good kids. The next morning I told to the kids that if they behaved well, I will give them a gift. They worked the whole class, and at the end of the class I turned on the computer and I played the video "Let it go" The kids were really quiet; so, I thought they didn't like the song but when I walked to turn the computer off, the main character of the movie, which name is Elsa, started to sing they started to sing along, and I was astonished that they liked the song.

After that event the kids always asked for frozen´s song at the end of each class, so I played the song when they behaved well.

Reasoning the name

Why this is not a test?

The first time that someone asked me about being a teacher; I said that I wasn't excited and that I didn't think of working as a teacher, but with the time working  at the kindergarten I don't feel teaching as an obligation or an activity  for the sole purpose of getting a good grade. Moreover, I think that teacng is something noble and difficult, but you have your reward when your students learn the little knowledge that you, as a teacher, share with them.....

That´s why I dont consider teaching as a test; but, as a noble profession.

The Young Learner

Children have a reputation for being natural language learners, for very good reason.
Almost without exception, they have learned their native language with apparent ease, and
by the time they are 6 years old they have brought it to a level of fluency that is the envy
of non-native speakers. That is why most of the experts said that this stage of the growing of the human being is so important.

When you think about it, you realize that the person that teach the little kid is also important. In fact, if the person in charge isn't qualified the kid will not develop all his potential.For this reason I was terrified about teach little kids. But why? many questions crossed my mind like what happen if I´m not a good teacher?what will i do if i dont like them?what will i do if the whole class is poorly behaved? or worse what happen if I´m not to the level?
But kids are good and kind and for me that is one of the greatest qualities of the young learners

My personal experience teaching in kindergarten was shocking.

My personal experience teaching in kindergarten was shocking. In fact, I was in charge of a little group of thirteen kids, but each of those kids worth per three. My little pupils were really active, they were always screaming and running; at that moment, one of my deepest fears came true, and I said that it was the reason of why I did not want to be a teacher, but when I played one song for them in my computer, the magic started to take place. In fact, I was surprised when they learned the whole song. After the song they were so happy and excited that I decided that every class I will bring them a song.
My supervising teacher told me that I had to prepare material to teach the children and that I was doing a very good job, I wasnt sure about teaching, but now, I think that I can do more for my little pupils because they change my way of thinking about being a teacher.

In this video you can see how they behave when my pupils are watching their favorite song Let it go!!!

Class Management and Atmosphere

Class Management

My first day of classes was the most difficult because I had to give them the whole class by myself, but I remember that the first  thing that I had to do was remembering their names; so, I used the name tags in order to build a good relationship with my pupils. Then, we establish the clasrooms´rules; the first rule was: not to interrupt to your classmate when they were talking; nother rule was: rise your hand if you want to give your opinion,and etc. After establishing the rules, we create a system of reward or penalty depending on their behavior. The system was really simple: if students were well behaved they will get a candy; but if they were  troublemakers, they will get a penalty; that penalty would  be that they had to dance the chicken song or they will miss the opportunity of getting a candy.

In each class I had to look for new activities and ways to teach every topic; even though,the topics were really simple, I didn't want to bored to my students.

With this goal in mind , I remembered the topic of my presentation of the tools of the trade:
 CLASSROOM CLOTHES´ LINES. So I decided to use marionets and paper dolls to teach them the parts of the body.

With this material my pupils learned very quickly the parts of the body and they got fun; the only problem was that my pupils sang the song "head shoulder knees and toes" over and over again.

 Later, I established the parameters of my pupils´behavior, It was really easy to work with them because I knew when I had to assigned individual or pair work group. when I  used an activity with the differents materials like: scissors, glue, or even building blocks in order to get the attention of my pupils because sometimes the topic wasn't easy to understand for them.

After all this work with my pupils, I realized that I needed to be more calm and be more accessible with them because sometimes my pupils said that I was a dragon. They called me in that way not because I was grumpy but because I was strict with them.

Atmosphere

Since the very beginning I tried to create a good atmosphere because It is one of the most important point that we as a teacher never have to forget. As a result, I did a lot of research about how to maintain a good environment. The respect an tolerance are the keys to reach the best environment, also I found the ten step of " How to Create a Positive Classroom Atmosphere?"

1.

Change how you interact as much as necessary -- to talk, teach and communicate positively -- with each students, starting today. Your body language and tone of voice makes up the majority your overall communication, so include it in your changes. ~ Show that you have independent, total confidence in each student's individual, potential for progress. Though you treat them as individuals according to academic needs and skills, each one needs to feel the warm glow of inspiring confidence that you will show for her or him.

2.

Begin each class by greeting the class full of students with smiles, and while standing at your door at the beginning of class, extend a personal welcome, with eye contact -- smile with your eyes, also.

3. Encourage the students with positive feedback whenever possible. Praise for successes is a far stronger motivation than criticism.

4. Cover the walls of your classroom with positive messages: posters with motivational pictures and words; inspirational quotations from great people; positive paintings, drawings, prose, poems, done by your students

5. Create stereograms that have hidden positive words. For an example go to www.school-teacher-student-motivation-resources-courses.com/teaching methods and check out subliminal communication.

    6. Embed more positive words in everything that you write and talk about.

7. Create a positive word for the day and start a discussion on it. Apply it to positive case studies, role models. For example - 'Winning' - Lance Armstrong won against cancer, won Tour de France Race 7 times, and won the hearts and minds of charities and young people with his coloured rubber wrist bands.

8. Create a class dictionary of positive words. Start with an A - Z template and get your students to add positive words to the template. Make it big and put it on the wall.

9. Use bright, warm colors in decorations. Most classrooms begin with standard-issue furnishings, all the same. Well-placed wall decorations can make a classroom more homey and occasionally even impart knowledge to those whose attention has drifted off.

10. Make wall displays educational. Make them so that students can easily learn from them.

Listening, Oral work, Reading and Writing

My challenges when I was teaching listening, speaking, reading and writing activities to kindergarten level were: first, that the kids were very indisposed at the beginning because they felt insecure with my presence but then when I give them the confidence to behave normally without fear and they started to participate and give opinions about the topics that we were studying.

       

The second challenge that I faced was that I felt very insecure because it was the first time that I taught to someone, and that I was with children. However, I faced that challenge with the best attitude that I could have and it  did not seem not so difficult than I expected that could it be.

Some of the activities that I used related to the book were:

• Songs: I put many songs related to the topics of the colors, the alphabet, the shapes, the numbers,etc. It was very entertained for the children; they liked the songs and also they learned many things from them. Songs were very important in my teaching experience.
• Putting things in order: I made them to do some puzzles in order that they would put things in order, this tool was very useful to teach the parts of the body because the kids learned were the parts of the body are and also they learned its names.
• Identifying exercises: It was useful to use exercises like those in order to teach the shapes to the children. I made the children to identify in a serie of drawings what the names of the shape were. It was difficult at the beginning because the children were so little but I tried to make the activity fun and at the end the children learned and had fun at the same time.
• Drawing: The drawing activities were very useful for teach them the topic, the children used their imagination and creativity to express their ideas about the topics that we were studying.
• Mime stories: I tried to use this technique but it wasn´t useful because the kids were to little and they did not understand the point of create a mime story.
• Telling stories: Telling stories was also a little complicated because I lost the attention of the children very fast; so, I realized that I have to improve my creativity in order to catch the attention of students and use this technique properly.

When Things Go Wrong in the Class

When I was teaching at kindergaten one of the problems that I faced was that the class went out of control; that was because the children were very hiperactive and I did not know how to keep them in control.  The solution that I found was to play to them some interesting videos about the topics that we were studying like the shapes, the colors, etc. It was kind of dificult to find videos that were fun and related with the topic, but I found some very interesting and watching those videos was the solution to my problem. The children learned many things and they ejoyed the experience of being in class.


                             

The Tools of the Trade!!

Traditional Techer vrs. 21st Century Teacher

Here I present the things that the two kinds of teachers do:

Traditional Teachers: 

• Lecture all day long
• Prevent change
• Be the sage on the stage
• Teach to the test
• Be able to chew gum all day and tell my students they can't
• Retire next year and it just doesn't matter anymore 
• Sit in the teacher loung and complain
• Teach one year 25 times
• I want a computer just to report grades
• Keep my mouth shut and wait to become an administrator
• Cover rather than uncover material and use chalk
• Quit learning

21st Century Teachers

• Collaborative work will be just as important as individual work
• PBL ( project based learning) won't just be an acronym
• Edit, remix, and share media with my students
• Learn from my students
• Expect change
• Create my own personal learning network
• Add students on my space in Facebook ( humm i personally don't agree with this)
• Encourage appropriate online interaction
• I won't fear technology , I ll embrace it
• Create positive learning environments

                   http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/06/traditional-teachers-vs-21st-century.html

Material used in class!!!

For learning the parts of the body! Head, shoulder, knees and toes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxphoOOwTbo


For learning the members of the family! Family finger song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjFcrv6Lfx8

For learning the shapes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTeqUejf3D0

The song Let it go! from the movie Frozen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bU

For learning the alphabet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75p-N9YKqNo

For learning the colors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbXKtFoTBqo

The song of the movie Legos, Everything is awesome!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTqXEQ2l-Y