Pedagogical external practice observation summary

During the external practice we observed 2 classes. The whole week had the animals as the
central theme. That Monday started with a story presentation and reproduction: The three
little pigs. That day’s lesson combined literature and music.

Observing the English lessons I noticed that the two kindergarten teachers -the Hungarian and
English one – run the lessons in perfect harmony constantly completing each other. That
doesn’t mean that the Hungarian speaking teacher translated what the other teacher said, but
rather helping out each other by paying attention to one another. They worked hand in hand
preparing and managing every class and lesson. They had a helper in the person of another
English teacher whose task was to conduct free activities , teaching and playing nursery
rhymes , simple songs with preschoolers and even in getting dressed and at lunchtime, when it
was time for songs and rhymes again, plus when children were getting into bed she read a
story to them.

Children were inclined to learn. The teachers prepared the environment, guided the activities,
encouraged children, yet the child is the one learning and is motivated by the activity enough
to persist in it. One of the teachers put on some music and as the children heard it they started
to gather and automatically joined in, just like they had always been familiarised to it. They
sat down on the carpet. All the children took part in every activity, they were 21 all together.
No one felt like leaving the activity and doing something else more interesting. Children
gently tapped each other on the hand (one by one) and on shoulders. They played the
telephone game, they needed to give over the rhythmical message they were shown. They
were doing a kind of rhythmic exercise which was a really calm way to begin the day and
helped each student become focused and relaxed. Actually, there was a relaxing music on
accompanying all the activities.

Then after creating the perfect mood and atmosphere the teacher told them simply, that they
were going to listen to The three little pigs story. Finger puppets, some realia -straws, a
building cube as a brick, some wood - helped the teacher to tell the story as interesting as it
can be. With the help of visual aids, intonation the audience was really engaged and
concentrated on the story and it seemed to enjoy and understand it. All along the story there
were various phrases, imitative words, idioms and interjections that children recognised and
repeated after the teacher or said along with her. For example: ‘let me come in’, ‘huff and
puff’, blow. There were cases when the teacher put some questions and children answered
individually or in a choir. For instance: ‘How many pigs lived in the house?’ Sometimes they
gave a one word answer, at other times bigger children answered with whole sentences. They
were speaking just English; you rarely heard Hungarian words from them. If somebody had
understanding problems, an older classmate helped him understand. Sometimes the teacher
started a sentence and one of the children finished it. I must say that if a child is willing to
speak he should show this intention by raising his hand. No one can just speak without having
permission to it .The teacher talking time versus students talking time was 80% to 20% during
this lesson.

The children were really involved throughout the lesson, since they wanted to start all over as
it finished. They ended the lesson with singing, dancing and miming verses from the story
while they were heading to the bathroom.

The second day’s topic was animals on land and in water, mammals and fishes. It combined
science and maths.

It was quite interesting how they were called to join in the activity. As a start they built a
snake out of green bricks. There was no need to motivate them other way. Their job was to
walk along the snake and at the end of it a task was waiting for them. They had to solve it, and
everyone could, no mistakes were made. They needed to take a piece of a paper with a part of
an animal which actually was a part of a puzzle, name it and put it in the right place,
expressing what it is and if it belongs to a fish or a mammal. There was an order of course, the
child who did the task called the next one to follow. He went up to the mate, called out his
name, tapped his shoulder. It was a fine gesture to show respect, good manners and the best
way to build a balanced relationship in a harmonic community. Relaxing music with forest,
animal and sea sounds was on throughout the lesson on Tuesday as well. The teacher sat on
the carpet among the children.

Both the Hungarian and the English teacher sat among the children. They made sure to be in
the right position to supervise all the children equally therefore they sat opposite to each
other. This position enabled them to monitor those children as well who for the other teacher
was hard to pay attention to, since they were sitting near her. Moreover the children could
follow the teacher’s gesture easily. I tried to have a seat where there was the best view. Some
smaller children cuddled up to one teacher’s lap. It made me so happy that from the second
day of my practice a little girl chose to sit on my lap too.

The second task of the day was to group the animals. To create relaxing and exciting
atmosphere children had to close their eyes, put their hands at their back and wait the teacher
to come and drop a picture there. While the teacher was spreading the cards, she was giving
clear instruction what to do. There were 2 carpets placed in front of the children, one
representing the sea and the other the land. I could recognise the Montessori pedagogy that is
based on building the child’s self confidence since two children were asked to roll and place
the carpets. One of the children stepped out, named the animal, he was given questions to
answer, like ‘What’s this animal?’, ‘Where does it live?’ The child gave one –two words or a
full sentence answer depending on his capability. The teacher sometimes asked questions
from the rest of the class related to the animal they were describing for maintaining the
attention and the interest. The child who wanted to answer again needed to signal with one
hand up. The children’s active vocabulary was appropriated to each task and I must say it was
also rather rich. We heard them using phrases and sentences in the target language. It was
mainly connected to animals, colours, numbers, objects, and instructions.
Each task was fulfilled perfectly. This shows that the instructions were fully understand. New
words were mammals, make sets and negatives. The teacher talking time versus students
talking time was 60% to 40% during this lesson.

The last part was a song: Three little fish. They sang and danced and mimed together. It was a
perfect way to unwind and leave the classroom filled with contentment and joy.

Again children proved interest, self control, freedom and discipline. They were confident of
themselves, enjoyed every moment of the activities completely. The activity itself was
enough to persist in it. No one could resist it.ez azt jelenti hogy senki se volt aki ne akart
volna részt venni. There weren’t any activities that the preschoolers didn’t want to take part
in.

A student and classmate szavakat használják a tanulmányok is, nem tudom mennyire flexibilis
az újra a tanár, ellenkező esetben marad a children , preschooler, room és mate.
A mondatokat túl magyarosra és hosszúra fogalmaztad, én próbáltam követni, de néhol túl sok
a témaváltás egy szövegrészen belül. ezért kicsit darabosabb az angol.

According to the curriculum the room was spacious. There were low open shelves, tables of
various sizes by which one to four children can comfortably sit.
The class is usually divided into areas with shelves. Every area contains materials, didactic
tools for a certain area of the curriculum (art, math, language, etc.) I was surprised to see
interplanetary, spiritual and emotional shelves. Materials have their own permanent place on
shelves. Children always return them to the same place, where they are prepared for another
child. They nurture the sensibility for the group and respect for needs of others. Sensorial
materials are designed to identify and classify information, which they receive from the
environment by using and therefore sharpening their senses. With sight, hearing, touch, smell
and taste they discover characteristics of these materials, learn to classify and eventually name
the characteristics in their environment. Even a terrarium decorated the room in one corner.

One time, just accidentally when it started to rain one of the teachers took the chance to teach
children new words related to weather. They played and imitated with their fingers and
knocking on the floor the rain, the snow and wind.

It was a good idea how the teacher tried to keep silence in the room. The children sometimes
got really noisy; you could hardly hear your own voice. She solved this situation with
humour, she made the children by telling and showing the how to zip their mouth. Children
had no problem obeying the teacher, it wasn’t necessary to calm them using their mother
tongue.
I need to mention the atmosphere in the kindergarten, not just during the activities, but other
times as well. l found a friendly, peaceful environment that supports, encourages and
empowers the child in every way. This kind of feeling I could experience here at Montessori
kindergarten, -but no other place like this I had been before.

This is it!

I hope this time is okay.:)