Statement of intents

I strongly believe that, as all Practicums, this subject or period in a school is a good opportunity to observe, in the real context, all themes that we have been working at the university and to put into practice all our learning, ideas and hypothesis.

Firstly, I would like to say that, for me, Practicum III is very important because is the one that is going to prepare me to be a teacher in the subject that I like more and the one that I would like to be the teacher. We have done some subjects of didactics and CLIL in this year, but I want to see how a real teacher works all the contents that we have been talking in a very theoretical and hypothetical way.

Moreover, I think that this experience could help me to define myself as an English teacher. Personally, I have many ideas and preconceptions about how I want to introduce this subject to my students and what kind of activities I would like to do, but now, I want to see if I am prepared for doing them and to observe if they are useful and meaningful for children.

Another important point is that, as I can be with the English teacher all time, I am going to be able to feel like a real teacher and to know more about their job and to value it. Feeling in this situation, I consider that I can evaluate myself, in this task, with a more realistic point of view, so I can realise my weak and strong points.

According to this, I would like to say that, on the one hand, as my strong points, I consider myself a very empathetic person. Because of my long experience with kids, since I was sixteen years old, I know how I have to listen to them and to pay attention to their needs and problems in order to know them and create confidence, which I think that is basic to make them feel secure and motivate in classrooms. Also, I have been private tutor since then, so I believe that I can explain things in different ways to make them more understandable for students and I think about how I should scaffold their learning.

On the other hand, my weak point is all my doubts. Nowadays and because of my experiences and observations in other practicums, I am not really sure about the management of a full class in English. I try to avoid translations and explanations in Spanish or Catalan, but I have seen that it is more difficult with a normal class because there are more students and with different levels.

Furthermore, the authority is one of my huge problems when I am in practice. Although I consider that I manage and create routines on my private lessons and on the academy (I believe that I have defined my personal way of teaching), I find difficult to take it to schools of practice. I lose my methodology and authority because I try to adapt to the manner of the school because, for me, it means respect for my tutor; but, sometimes, it can be a problem as I can be myself or pupils can see me as a real teacher. Maybe, it is only my fear because, in last experiences, I achieved children’s respect.

For all these reasons, my objectives for this experience are:

• To know and improve all my weak and strong points through the comments of my tutors (Theresa and Mar).
• To learn to treat with children of different backgrounds and with their individual characteristics. Knowing their personal situations and adapting my help and teaching to their special needs and characteristics and including all of them in the same class.
• To know how to use only English in my lessons and to encourage children to do the same.
• To plan an effective lesson following the structure(3P + 2W)
• To develop my critical sense of my teaching and other methodologies that I can observe. Getting the good ideas and refusing the bad ones.

In the way to get all this objectives, I would like to participate in class as much as I can and try to help my tutor with her pupils and works. During these moments and in the ones that I am going to be doing my intervention, I want to listen to Mar’s comments in order to improve as a teacher for the benefit of all my students.

Finally, I want to develop my critical sense of my actions and the ones of the teachers that I am going to observe because it is a way to know what kind of things I want to do in the future and what kind I want to avoid.

To sum up, I would like to say that I want to take profit of each moment that I can live in the school and learn about it for trying to be a well-prepared English teacher.