Classroom Based Experience 1: 45 hours Samantha Keyser I started working as an ESL teacher for Mommy and me literacy program

in the spring of 2012. I got the opportunity to teach with the program, because I had been volunteering during the fall semester. I worked with the children in the Pre-K classroom and had very little contact or interaction with the students until I began teaching. I got the opportunity to teach at the program when the teacher for the Basic 2 level decided to leave. The majority of the students in the spring semester had completed the fall semester, but there were some students that had just registered. The class met three hours, three days a week for five months. The program follows the same calendar as the Dekalb Public School System. The first day I was very nervous, since I had never taught adults before. The book that we use for the Basic 2 level is Foundations and I just, basically, followed the way the teachers manual said to present the material. I also used the accompanying Activity Workbook for their practice exercises. I also used a picture dictionary to assist with some of the vocabulary. The thing that I didnt realize was that the dictionary was too difficult for this level of students and was rather ineffective. I also tried some worksheets out of another activity book for reading, but they were also very difficult for the students to understand. It was definitely a period of trial and error. I, eventually, did manage to come with some activities that were on their level and that they enjoyed doing. The students really enjoyed a game that I developed when we were studying Every day and Right now forms. I had modified this activity from an activity that a fellow student had done in my practicum course for my TEFL certification. I wrote both forms on separate post it notes and stuck them to the board. I then had two students go up the board and then I would make a statement using either the simple present or present continuous. I would say, Every day, I go to school. The students would then try and find that post it on the board. The

first person to find it won. When we were studying food, we walked over to the local supermarket and I had them identify the different aisles and what they would find on each aisle. They really enjoyed competition! All in all, I have to say it was definitely a learning experience. I had no idea what I was doing and even after the course I questioned whether or not they learned anything. The good and bad experiences helped to make the fall semester much better, but there was still plenty of room for learning.