Teaching Portfolio
Working at IES Valdebernardo
Working with the bilingual students at IES Valdebernardo has been quite a shift from working in a primary school. Because my students’ command of English is better, I can speak with them about more complicated ideas. I genuinely love that I can get to know my students better and have more interesting conversations. They are also able to teach me things, especially about Spanish history and culture.
When I make lesson plans, I always try to ensure that the students will be interested in the topic. Even if I’m asked to present about something I know nothing about, I take time to research the topic and understand it well enough to tell my students thought-provoking facts or to answer questions they might have.
In just the last few months working at my school, I have made dozens of presentations. I work in English classes from 2 ESO to 2nd Bachillerato, so I have to adjust lessons and content to fit a wide range of learners. Being able to readjust on the spot and change my vocabulary is a skill that I am continuously improving.
One of the biggest challenges that I face is dealing with different expectations from each of the teachers I work with. Usually, I am asked to make several completely different presentations or lessons each week. I often begin making a lesson feeling that I do not have enough content to fill the presentation, only to find that once I begin putting slides together, I get so many ideas that I end up cutting content to fit within the class time.
Presentations interspersed with conversation works quite well for the Bachillerato students, but I have to come up with different ways to keep younger students engaged and calm. I have dealt with this by interspersing presentations with multiple choice questions—students are quite competitive! I also like to bring short films into the classroom for my 2 ESO students. For Thanksgiving, I made bingo cards to go along with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and gave out candy as prizes. I’ve also made worksheets involving song lyrics. In the future, I’ll be bringing comic strips into the classroom to see how that goes over.
I have also dipped into the well of my creative writing background with some of my Bachillerato classes. Students wrote their own “Where I’m From” poems that described Madrid or their neighborhood using sensory descriptions.
I have done so many different activities since starting in October, that I can’t remember all of them, and online teaching resources and Prezi’s have been a lifesaver. I hope to better hone my skills over the coming months so that I can continue to keep students engaged and improving their English. Below are some descriptions and links to a few projects I’ve created this year.
Dystopian Literature
I made this presentation for a 2nd Bachillerato English class. This was to give some background information on the genre of dystopian literature before the class began reading George Orwell's 1984. I tried to illustrate links between different books and films to the social problems they were trying to critique. I also made sure to discuss some young adult dystopian fiction that the students might recognize, such as The Hunger Games.
WWII: American Soldiers in Britain
This presentation was made for 2nd ESO English. They had been reading The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, a book that is set during the Second World War in the UK. American soldiers also appear in the book, so I researched this particular facet of the war and made a presentation about the meeting of two English-speaking cultures during this crisis. The addition of sporadic trivia questions worked well. The students remained interested throughout the presentation.
City Life in the United States
This was made for a unit about life in the city. I discussed several of my own observations about life in Madrid versus life in various US cities. I discussed cultural difference and was able to introduce concepts like redlining and gentrification. I initially made this for 1st Bachillerato English, but I was able to use it in 2nd Bachillerato and 4 ESO with some minor adjustments.
The History of the Academy Awards
This slideshow contains facts and trivia about the Academy Awards. I used it for both 2nd and 3rd ESO English for an arts and film unit. Both classes enjoyed the trivia. It also helped facilitate a movie discussion.
