Welcome

Welcome to my blog.  

I would like to introduce myself.  My name is Megan and I'm from Canada. and I have been an ESL teacher for about five years now.

I have had the pleasure to teach ESL in Argentina, Korea, Chile and Spain.  From those experiences, I have worked with young children, elementary school children, middle school children and adults.

All of these experiences have been invaluable to me because they have opened my eyes to different cultures, values, educational systems and teaching experiences.  

I am currently working as an Auxiliar de Conversation for the ministry of Madrid.  I work primarily with 3rd grade and 4th grade in a public school in Madrid. 

I have been doing this position for two years now and have had a very positive experience.  In this blog, I have included a lot of useful material for an external English speaking exam called the Trinity Exam for grade 3, 4 and 5.

C.V.

Teaching Experience

Colegio Agustín Rodriguez Sahagún, Madrid, Spain (October 2015- Present)

•       Language and culture assistant primarily for grade three, four classes but also some grade one, five and six classes in the community of Madrid
•       Assist with lesson plans, teaching, pronunciation and preparation for the grade three, four and five Trinity Exam
•       Work closely with teachers from another culture and become culturally sensitive and adaptive to their teaching style and class management techniques

International Center Language School, Viña del Mar, Chile (March 2015-July 2015)

•       Taught a customized language course to Navy officers at the Navel Academy in Viña del Mar.
•     Taught an advanced English class to employees of the Senate in Viña del Mar,
•        Focused on oral communication, listening skills, grammar, writing skills, pronunciation and fluency

Eastern English, Busan, Korea (November 2012- December 2014)

•       Circulated between two different academies and adapted to the different work        environments and cultures
•       Enforced classroom management while keeping the students engaged and interactive
•       Prepared lessons for elementary and middle school level students and changed the teaching style based on the individual class needs

Profesores Nativos. Buenos Aires, Argentina (April 2012- June 2012)

•       Taught individual English classes to students of different ages, levels and needs
•       Prepared lesson plans and used different interactive and compelling methods of teaching to engage the students and incorporate a variety of learning styles.

EDUCATION

CELTA certified. Madrid, Spain International House Madrid (2016)

• 120 hours in class - one month intensive course
• Certificate issued by Cambridge University 

Tesol Teacher Training.  Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (2011)

• Tesol 120 Advanced Certificate

University of Montreal.  Montreal, QC Explore French Program (2011)

•          Studied intensive French for five weeks as part of a government bursary program

University of Guelph. Guelph, ON Bachelor of Commerce (2007-2011)

• Specialized in Human Resources Management
• Graduated with Distinction

La Trobe University. Melbourne, Australia Student Exchange (2010)

•          Studied abroad for one semester      

My Philosophies on Teaching

• Give each student an opportunity to participate and engage in the class.

• Have a positive and inviting atmosphere in the class.

• Use games to engage students and help them review and retain information.

• Be approachable and always remind them that you are there for them.

• Make the classes student centred and reduce teacher talking time.

• Maintain a class structure and follow through with promised rewards, discipline and class rules.

• Use positive reinforcement more than negative reinforcement.

• Make expectations clear.

• Get to know each student individually.

• Encourage group work and class discussions.

• Make learning fun and interesting.  

Profesional Development

Current Growth and Development

• Working with other teachers, I can observe them on a regular basis and see what tools and techniques they use for classroom management, engagement and learning.

• Talking with peers and co-workers.

• Learning from my own experiences.  This is my second year doing the Trinity Exam so I could improve some of my techniques this year and think of ways to improve my system even more for the next year.

• Trial and error.  Experimenting in the class, coming up with new activities, ideas and games.  Seeing how the students respond and modifying when necessary.

• Using different resources such as videos, music, group work or role-plays.

• Getting feedback from the students based on their reactions, their results and their behaviour.

Future Growth and Development

• Doing a third year working at the same public school in the Community of Madrid.

• Studying a masters in International Education 

About the Trinity Exam

Trinity Exam

My approach for preparing for the Trinity Exam is very student centred.  I am fortunate that I can work with the students in small groups and give them one-on-one attention throughout the school year, to not only prepare them for the exam, but to also give them opportunities to practice their English directly with a native speaker, ask them if they any questions or concerns and give immediate feedback and support.

Grade 3 Trinity

The grade 3 Trinity Exam is an oral speaking exam that will be around 8 minutes long with an external examiner.  I have included in another post called Grade 3 Trinity - Information Manuel  exactly what is expected for the grade 3 level.  I have also included another post called Grade 3 Trinity - Practice Questions.  

I took out two students at a time and I asked them to read the practice questions and then write their answer.  I would correct their answers and then get them to write it again on a fresh worksheet with the corrected answers.  After they finished writing, I would chose randomly some of the questions to ask them and get them to answer without looking at their worksheet. They would practice reading, writing, speaking and listening with this activity. Per session, I would usually do about 5 or 6 questions with each student and spend about 15 minutes with the two students.  I would go through the entire class and then start again with the next 5 or 6 questions until we had practiced all the of the questions.  At some points, I would review and ask them questions at random from any of the worksheets we had covered in the past.  With the two students, sometimes I would make it a game or competition to make it more fun by pointing to one of the students to answer and giving them a point for each correct answer. I noticed, having them write their answers and giving them immediate feedback on their answers made a huge different helping them to answer the questions again correctly in the future.


In addition to the worksheets, I would also have a couple sheets with pictures to practice asking questions in the present continuous, practice using can/can't and to go over vocabulary words.  There are some good resources for that on the Trinity website.  Finally, I also have a worksheet with a map to practice simple directions.



Grade 4 and 5 Trinity

PART 1

Part 1 is a personal topic.  The students are required to each choose their own personal topic and to be able to answers questions about it with the examiner.  I took the students out in small groups and we went through each part of the topic together, I would ask them the questions, get their ideas, help them write their responses and then we would practice together.  The four main points for each topic are, talking about the topic in the past, likes and dislikes, how often and comparisons.  It is also good to go over the topic in the future and have a question ready to ask the examiner.  I have included a blog post with a template of the grade 4 and 5 personal topic called Grade 4 & 5 Trinity Part 1 - Template of Answers.  The examiner also told us in the feedback one year that he liked when the students brought in a personal item or poster related to their topic.

PART 2

The resources for grade 4  and 5 trinity also include worksheets with questions, but these questions are about specific categories.  You can find these under Grade 4: PART 2   -  Discussion Topics Practice and Grade 5 PART 2 - Discussion Questions Practice

For grade 4 

Food
Weekend/Seasonal Activities
Hobbies and Sports
School and Work
Shopping
Holidays

For grade 5

Festivals
Means of Transportation
Special Occasions
Entertainment
Music
Recent Personal Events

I would use a similar method as I did for the grade 3 Trinity by getting them to answer the questions in a worksheet, correcting it and then getting them to rewrite their answers correctly and finally practicing the questions and answers with the assistant.  Another way I like to get them to practice is as a class or in partners by getting them to work with another student asking and answering the questions.  It helped them see some of their own errors by asking the questions and hearing their partner's response.

Grade 5 PART 2 - Discussion Questions Practice

Grade 5 Trinity Questions

Festivals

Tell me about a special festival here in Spain.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you usually eat / drink at this festival?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Does it take place at the same time every year?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do people wear special clothes?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is there any special music or dancing?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you like traditional customs?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you ever seen a festival from another country?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What´s the next thing you will celebrate?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Means of transportation

How do you normally travel around the city?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have a bike?  Are there a lot of bikes in your city?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you like riding a bike? Where do you go if you go cycling with your friends?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do your parents have a car?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you prefer the metro, bus or car for transportation?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Are there a lot of cars in your city?  Is it a problem?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What could we do to encourage more people to use bikes?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 Special Occasions

How do you usually celebrate your birthday?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you prefer to celebrate your birthday with friends or family?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did you do for your last birthday?  Did you have a cake?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you usually get a lot of presents?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tell me about a special day that you remember?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you ever been to a wedding?  Tell me about it?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you usually do at Christmas?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What´s the next occasion you will celebrate?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Entertainment

Do you like going to the cinema?

·  _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How often do you go to the cinema?

·__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tell me about a film you´ve seen recently? 

·  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who´s your favourite film star?

·  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you watch a lot of TV?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What types of programs do you like watching?

·  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you ever gone to the theatre? Tell me about it. 

· _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Are there good entertainment facilities in Madrid?

·  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Music

Do you like listening to music?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What type of music do you like?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have a favourite group or singer?

·  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you like singing?

·  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Can you play any musical instrument? How long have you played the…?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you listen to the radio?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you prefer listening to the radio or to CDs?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When do you listen to music?

·  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you often buy CDs? Do you think music is too expensive nowadays?

·  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you ever been to a concert? Tell me about it. 

·__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Recent Personal Events

What did you do last weekend? 

·__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you been anywhere interesting recently? 

· __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you celebrated a birthday recently? What did you do? 

· __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tell me about something interesting you´ve done recently with your friends. 

· _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When was your last holiday? 

·  _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Grade 4: PART 2 - Discussion Topics Practice

Holidays

Can you tell me about your last holiday? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where did you go on your last holiday? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When did you last visit the beach?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who do you usually go with?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Which type of holiday do you prefer – beach or city?  How is a beach holiday different from a city holiday?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How often do you go on holiday?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you like doing when you are on holiday?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you prefer to have a relaxing or active holiday? Why?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are you going to do for your next holiday?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you prefer winter or summer holidays?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you usually go abroad?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shopping

Do you like shopping?  Why/Why not?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are your favourite shops?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are the general opening times for shops here?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When do you usually go shopping?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who do you go with?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How often do you go (clothes) shopping?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Can you compare two of your favourite (clothes/sports) shops?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What type of things do you buy when you go shopping?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Which is a good shop for me if I want to buy a souvenir/ some shoes….?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you sometimes buy books/ CDs?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Did you buy anything last weekend?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are the best shops for looking for presents?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

School and work

Where is your school?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is your school big or small?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How many students are there in your class?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is your favourite subject?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What time do you start school?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tell me about a typical day for you?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you like about school?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What job are you going to do in the future?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hobbies and Sports

Tell me what you like doing in your free time?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you play any sports?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How often do you play/do/go………?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When did you start playing/doing/going…….?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you play on a team?  At school?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have to wear anything special/ use any special equipment?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you got any hobbies?  Where do you do……….?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you like watching sports on TV?  How is it different to playing a sport?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who´s your favourite team/ player?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Food

What´s your favourite food?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you like cooking?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you sometimes help with the cooking at home?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tell me about some typical Spanish food?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you like fast food?  Is it popular here?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What´s better – fast food or Spanish food?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did you have for lunch yesterday?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How often do you eat out at a restaurant?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is it expensive to eat at a restaurant in Madrid?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What food do you recommend me to try while I´m here in Spain?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Weekend/ Seasonal Activities

What do you like doing on the weekend?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you usually spend time with your friends and family?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you like being busy on the weekend or do you prefer to relax?  Why?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How often do you watch TV?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What´s better – going to the cinema or watching a video at home?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tell me about what you did last weekend?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where do you usually  go on Saturdays?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are you going to do this weekend?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How do you celebrate Christmas?  Where?  With who?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What´s the difference between winter and summer activities?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________