Progress Report

I think that I have followed my Practicum Plan pretty well so far over the course of this semester. My main goal for this semester was to become more confident in teaching ESL students. I was very, very unsure of myself when this semester began because I had never been around students who are not fluent in English. I was not sure what they were capable of and what types of learning strategies help them succeed. I have tried my hardest to dive into the lessons, but I still feel like at times the students have no idea what I am talking about. I need to learn how to use simpler words when I explain activities. My mentor teacher has explained to me that they students learn best through acting out words and drawing pictures. I have been trying out those methods over the last couple of weeks. I already taught my small group lesson and I hope that I actually did it correctly. I taught a multicultural lesson involving counting money. I have been lucky because my PDS is very close to my house and I haven't experienced any snow days so far ( crossing my fingers!). I know I will continue to learn more and more about ESL classroom because I still feel like I have so many more aspects of the program to figure out!