Areas Needing Professional Development:

 

As pointed out by students during my first semester one of the areas where I was mentioned I needed improvement was in having students use English as a method of communication in the classroom. As it is a college level course students should address each other mainly in English. To target this deficiency from my part I began having students speak in front of the classroom more, when doing this students were more aware of their language use in the English classroom, as they were addressing an audience of their peers. Occasions such as handing in essays on the due date provided for students to present up front their thesis and the main idea of their essay and were required to do so in English. As none of them wanted to be signaled as the person who did not present, they would all bring up front their essay and present their thesis in the English language. Other opportunities such as group presentations and video projects provided for students to speak in English in front of an audience and get used to speaking in English in class. Little by little, they and I became aware of language use in the classroom and were able to identify the moments when English language was a requirement for class participation. Another aspect, which students during the evaluations given on my second semester as a teaching assistant pointed out, was group control. I was able to improve this on my third semester as a teaching assistant. Because the students from my first semester as a teaching assistant and my second semester as a teaching assistant were mainly the same it became difficult for me to correct this, as I had already set a president in the classroom and demonstrated my personality. In my third semester, I was finally able to begin teaching setting out from the beginning the strict manner in which I would conduct my class, where group control was essential and I was able to address situations with more efficacy to prevent losing group control. Thanks to student evaluations, I am able to address the areas where I need professional development in the classroom.