THIRD HOT REFLECTION

Describe It was Friday, February 19th at 3:00 p.m., and I was giving my last class at English Access First Year. At the beginning, I was really nervous because I was not in a good mood. Nonetheless, it was a good opportunity to challenge myself because I had to teach and create a good environment in the class in order to achieve the objective of the lesson. It was the first time I had to teach “Quantifiers,” and I was worried because I have noticed that most students struggle with this topic since they tend to confuse them. I tried to vary the activities, and I found interesting ways to teach in this class. Now, talking about the last activity students developed makes me feel happy and proud because it was better than what I expected. I asked them to work in pairs to create a conversation using Quantifiers to discover how much they had learned from my lesson. Then, I asked them to share their conversation in front of their classmates, and they participated willingly. I really loved the way they performed the conversation because they used Quantifiers correctly, and they were not afraid of making mistakes.
(Analyze)		Plan Action
Interpret	Generalize
To have a good attitude helped students to feel comfortable and motivated during the lesson.	Making students feel you like to teach them helps you to encourage them. It happens because they notice the effort you have while developing the lesson.	In my future classes, I will continue working to improve my attitude to create the best context, and I will not allow my mood to be an affective filter in my classes.
Letting students work freely helped them to increase their imagination and to put into practice all what they know about the language. Also, they developed the speaking skill.	It is important to develop activities in which students decide what to do and how to do them because they practice the target language and develop independence. Moreover, it decreases TTT.	In my future lessons, I will use as many speaking activities as necessary so that I can help my students work on different tasks and use the target language freely. However, I will be careful to provide feedback.
Sharing helped students to increase their confidence while talking because they learned how to control their tension when they were in front of the whole group.	Teachers need to tell students the importance of increasing their confidence. Moreover, students need to discover that the benefit of making mistakes is that they learn a lot.	In the future, I will select activities in which students can have the chance to share their ideas with others. Moreover, I will help them to notice the positive fact of the mistakes.

SECOND HOT REFLECTION

Describe It was Friday, February 12th at 3:00 p.m, and I was giving my second class at English Access First Year. The topic was Demonstrative Pronous. As usual, I organized the desks in a different way because I did not want to have the same seating arrangement I used in my first class. I developed a warm-up activity in which I asked students to go out for having enough space to enjoy the activity. The warm-up was simple to do because I showed students the correct way they had to work. They had to work in pairs and follow my example. Likewise, they had to play with their hands according to the Demonstrative Pronoun they listened. I was really happy to notice that I gave clear instructions because they understood the activity very quickly. I could notice the outstanding way I was beginning my class because I activated students in the best way. I discovered that it was a good environment because students wanted to play with me, and they felt free to make mistakes. That was a good point because I helped them to feel in that way.
(Analyze)		Plan Action
Interpret	Generalize
Something that helped students´ learning was the fact of challenging them to develop an activity in which they had to make movements and pronounce pronouns.	Letting students feel you trust in their capacity to solve a task builds more confidence in them and motivates them to do challenging activities.	In my future warm-up activities, I will include at least one activity oriented to challenge students’ full text comprehension; a survey or a mind map can be options.
Having showed students the way they had to work with their hands helped them to understand better the activity.	The use of body language helps students´ learning as the teacher is more likely to show the process of the activity.	In my future lessons, I will use as much body language as necessary so that I can help my students understand and work on different tasks. I will also help visual and tactile learners.
Taking an active role in the activity helped me to encourge students participation and motivation as they were even asking me to play with them.	Teachers need to be active participants on their lessons and not the authority or the ones that provide knowledge.	I my future lessons, I will do my best to be an active participant in my lesson to show my students that we are in a learning environment in which I learn and enjoy as much as they do.
Developing the warm-up activity outdoors provided more space and motivated more students to participate.	A class is not only developed into the classroom. Taking students out to develop an activity provides a different environment mostly when it is a warm up activity.	In my future classes, I will develop not only warm up activities but also any activity that can be adapted outdoors.

FIRST HOT REFLECTION

Describe It was around 3:00 pm, and I was giving my first 50-minute class at English Access First year. It was the first time I had to deal with basic students to give a lesson. I was nervous as it was the first time twenty basic students were learning from my class. I remember the teacher being writing on his page, and I could not help feeling a little nervous. He was next to the door to let me control the class. Besides, he had a great view of what was going on in the class. And a little bit more centered in my general view of the back part of the classroom, I could see some students, Abigail, Christian, Joselin, and Natalia paying attention to the development of the lesson. I started my warm-up activity, which was a modified version of the common “Hot Potato.” I used three balls – one meant affirmative, another one negative and the last one interrogative. The students had to pass the balls, stop when I said it, and provide a sentence based on what the ball they got meant. I provided an example of what I was asking for. Although I did not have any problem to give clear instructions, I noticed that  the warm-up was not suitable for their level. It was difficult because they do not have the ability to speak without fear, and they do not know a lot of vocabulary to build their own sentence. However, I felt happy because students got my instructions, and they participated in the best way. This part of my class helped me to discover that with basic students, I need to be  very careful while assigning a task to encourage them in the best way paying attention to their level.
(Analyze)		Plan Action
Interpret	Generalize
My modeling helped students´ understanding and willingness to perform the actions. They saw me doing and not just saying	Modeling the activities to avoid giving long and confusing explanations is one of the key factors of effecting teaching, mostly with beginners	Before giving my lesson, I will dedicate some time to practice giving clear directions and modeling with gestures. This will lower my TTT.
Assigning a task according to students’ level is really necessary to have positive results because they need to feel comfortable to participate.	Most students fear being asked to do something right in the spot, mostly when they are starting their learning process.	The next time I teach this lesson, I will consider their level to choose suitable activities because it helps to achieve the objectives.
Students´ struggle with some pronunciation (Possessive, question, tall) hindered their comprehension and performance at some point in the activity.	Students need to have a clear idea of the pronunciation of the new words to make a clear picture in their minds connecting meaning, form and use.	I will include more pronunciation drilling in my lessons to help students become aware of the pronunciation of new or already-known words.