Week diary 5!

Hello everyone!

It's been a while, but I will like to share with you my experience on the last week in the school. That week I could observe an avaluation meeting with the teachers and how they put the marks to every student.

When they write the marks, they use a table with 2 parts: one with numbers 1-4 and the other one is composed by the titles of the curriculum. For example, llegir i comprendre. The first part means a range between the excelent and the fail. 1 is the best option and 4 is the worse. Furthermore, I could observe that excepts some students, all of them were between 3 and 4.

On the other hand, in the meeting, teachers talked about what they did this trimestre and what group activities used to create cohesion between students. Instead of that, not all of the teachers could make a good cohesion, but they noticed better behaviour between them. Finally, they talked about every student and if he or she passed the last cicle of primary. My surprise was that most of the pupils are going to high school with not all the subjects passed. The teachers explained me that it is because they can't make repeat everyone every year. I was very surprised because I didn't expected that situation in the school.

See you soon!

It's been a great time doing that :)

Week diary 4!

Hello everyone!

This week I have got an important aspect to explain. It happened when I was doing one of my project lessons. The class was well until we started the group work. All the teams were okay cuting and painting the activity that I explained before until two girls started to shout each other.

The teacher in charge of the group, we tried to understand what was happening. Then, the student started to cry and say that the other girl was saying bad words to her. She was very angry and she resisted to the teacher when he was trying to calm her, she was catching a table and a chair!

I was very surprised and I tried to continue the class, but the other students were distracted. I tried to made them continue but it was so difficult, she was screaming and crying while the teacher was trying to calm her. Finally, after some advices she calmed down and he could speak to her. He talked to her and he solve the problem between the two girls. I was very happy and calm because I didn't want a big problem between the students.

This experience made me think and reflect about the students and group work, we have to consider lots of aspects when we have an activity like this.

See you next week!

Reading 6: What is differentiated instruction?

Hello again!

This entry is the second reading that I had to read for this week. The second one talks about differentiation. As the article says: differentiation consist of the efforts of teachers to respond to variance among learners in the classroom. The part that I like of this short article is that it gives examples of differentiating content in the four classroom elements that he describe.

-5 key words: content, process, products, learning environment, differentiation

-The main idea

-Create the best learning experience responding the learners necessities with different resources.

-Three other ideas

-We need to give to our students different options to do the contents in a lesson.

-We can use rubrics to analyze student's behavior and what they need.

-Hand on activities helps teachers to motivate their students in class.

Finally, I would like to say that this is my last entry about readings, because this is the last one that we did in class. It was a short one, but it gave me some ideas to prepare more lessons in my future with my students. I want to relate this entry with all the projects that I did and thank during my four years in the university. When we plan a project or a lesson, we have to think about the different necessities that our students have, not only physical needs, also content needs and try to afford all of them.

Reading 5: how dialogue with teachers helps children learn

Hello everyone!

This week we have got two reading analyses. The first one is a book chapter that talks about how dialogue with teacher helps children learn. Also, the author talks about the importance of questions in the classroom, how teachers guide students through them and a key concept, the dialogic teaching. It was a dense reading, but it made me feel and think about those concepts that I did not analyze in that way yet. I found that learning that helped me to understand better the role of a teacher and why when we do a class, we use some kind of strategies to help our students. As other readings, here you have got the keywords, the main idea, three other ideas and a reflection.

-5 key words: dialogic teaching, guide learning, scaffolding, classroom interaction, meaningful questions

-The main idea: 

It is important to dialogue with children as teachers, and make them know that when we ask a question, they have to know through our body language and voice.

-Three other ideas:

-Make children to reformulate their discourse through questions.

-Asking children to verbalize their options.

-We need to challenge our students during our activities.

Finally, as the other entries, I will make a connection with my previous experiences. As a student, I could saw teachers do that to me and I did not realize that it was so important until I read the text. Now that I am in my teacher training, I usually do that type of questions, because I want that my students could follow the class and understand what I am explaining. Also, I could saw that not only in English lessons, the teachers use that strategy, they are always doing it in all the subjects, and when I realized that I understand why they do and the importance of doing it.

Week diary 3!

Hello everyone!

This week it was a short one because all the school was in a school trip for three days, so I don't have so much aspects to explain. Instead of that, I have got one that it really surprised me.

On monday, we were in class with 6th grade preparing some questions to do in a Skype session with another school of Comenius Project. I was helping them with the teacher because they were in a group work with a computer, looking on the website page of the school, when two pupils (a boy and a girl) started to shout each other. That aspect was not new, because it happens more or less every day, but the aspect here was that the girl hit the boy in the head, and then she started to run to the teacher, the boy ran behind her and he punched in her arm.

I was very shocked with that because I didn't expect the problem. I saw the hit but it was not so strong, it was like a friend. The teacher put them outside the class and shout them. Then, she listened the explanation of the two. I liked this second aspect because we need to know what was the origin of the problem. I couldn't listen at all because I was helping the other students, but later, I asked about it. She told me that it was because the boy told her bad words. Also, she told me that she put them outside the class and with no playground. I agreed with her because we can not tolerate that students punch each other for any reason.

That was my week!

See you next week!

Reading 4: The Integrated Nature of CLIL: A Sociocultural Perspective

Hello everyone!

Another week has passed, so it is time to another reading analysis. This week we have got reading 4 that as the entry says, talks about CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) from the sociocultural perspective. Personally, I think that it is a good reading to do in that time of the semester, because I can compare with all that I learned this year about CLIL, reflect about it and learn new aspects that I didn't now before. Following the structure of the past readings here you have got the five key words, three important ideas, the main idea of the article and a little experience:

-5 key words: language, CLIL, community, curriculum, communication

-The main idea:

CLIL and language are the keys to provide students a good, useful and meaningful learning through different tools to motivate them.

-Three other ideas:

-We need a community to understand and learn because it becomes meaningful for us.

-Subject learning should be dynamic, interactive and practice to pupils.

-Key words and important expresisons are important while the pupils are learning to understand whats it is has been explained by the teacher or other student.

Finally, I want to say that while I was in my high school or primary, I didn't have a CLIL lesson at all. I did some little tasks in English related to other subjects, but I don't understand that as CLIL. Instead of that, during my teacher training this year I can see some CLIL lessons, like art and science and I found really interesting. In science class, I could saw the pupils interact in groups and watch a cell through the microscope while they were completing some questions. I couldn't see the entire unit, because it was the last session, but I saw that they know the vocabulary that they have been working and that they like it the way it was done. 

I am sure that nowadays we need CLIL lessons in our schools because we can link language to other aspects and learn them in a funny and motivational way.

Week diary 2!

Hello everyone! 

This week I am going to focus in one aspect that I think that it is important to share. On my second week in the school, I saw in arts lesson, that one of the students was not able to participate in class because of his bad behaviour. He was in a corner during all the lesson and he could participate only in the last five minutes.

Personally, I think that the student needs to participate in class but also learn about behaviour. I am not with that, but the pupil needs to participate in class with his classmates and try to learn about what he did wrong and how can correct it. Furthermore, art class, helps the students to think and stay calm while they are imagining, painting, drawing or making a box.

Also, I realise that the teacher didn't talk with him, and dialog it is very important, not only with adults, children needs to understand why and how. I am sure that if there is speaking change between them, the kid can improve his behaviour. Instead of that, I understand that maybe is not only a school problem, for this reason, the teacher should talk with the family and other teachers if there is a bad behaviour in all the lessons.

Next week I will explain more!

Reading 3: MARILLE - Promoting plurilingualism in the majority language classroom

Hi everyone!

As I am doing every week, I am going to analyze reading number three. This reading, as the name said, talks about plurilingualism in the school. To explain that topic, the article uses MARILLE project (Majority language instruction as basis for plurilingual education. It is a project carried out within the third medium-term program of the European Centre of Modern languages (ECML). Furthermore, I am going to write five key words, three ideas, the topic idea and compare it with a experience about learning that I had.

-5 key words: plurilingualism, teachers' knowledge and skills, learners' knowledge and skills, multilingual society, skills development.

-The main idea:

We have to promote plurilingualism in the school to be able to create a multicultural class and a future society that respect cultures and languages from other countries.

-Three other ideas:

-Students can use their own language to have benefits between them while they are learning using their competence.
-It is very important to know that lots of learners in Europe bring other language to the class and we have to adapt us to it.
-All teachers need to collaborate sharing teaching strategies and help to amplify student's linguistic repertoires.

The pluralism that the article talks about it is something that we seen nowadays in class. Personally, I saw during my high-school period and also, during my teacher training. In the first experience, it was difficult to communicate with the students that talked another language because we didn't understand each other. The teachers had to deal with some problems and sometimes the foreign students are not integrated in the classroom. On the other hand, in the other experience, I could saw that they used the foreign student to explain some cultural aspect from his origin country. I really like that because they provide partnership and friendship between the students, and we need to do that in our classroom to provide a good behavior and a good classroom climate.

WEEK DIARY!

Hello everyone!

One week has passed since I started my teacher training. The time fly! Now, I am going to sumarize my week and explain some observations that I did.

On my first day, my teacher explained me how the school worked and she introduced me to the different classes that I watched. All of the pupils were very curious and all the time they asked questions, I really enjoyed because it is one of my favourite parts when I start in a new school, the kids are really amazing and I like how they see their environment, with that curious eyes. The teacher told me that to improve their English, I will play a role as a foreing teacher. I agreed with her because when I was in my high school I had that experience and it was really helpful when I was learning.

On the other hand, I saw a CLIL lesson with 5th grade. It was one of the aspects that I wanted to see when I knew that they do CLIL lessons. The topic was living things and it was part of a unit that the English teachers designed with her partners. The kids went to the school lab and the teacher explained the instructions after they sat in groups. They had to watch a plant cell from an onion and they were really enthusiastic about it. Furthermore, except some punctual things (some bad behaviour from some children) that they solved it quickly in catalan, the class was all in English, and I could see how the vocabulary was previously worked and the pupils knew them. Personally, I really enjoyed the class and I saw some aspects that we explained a class, and also new ones to add at my resources list.

That was my first week and I am sure that next week I will have new school aspects to explain! 

See you!!

Reading 2: Child centered education

Hi everyone!

This week we had to read the second text for our pràcticum. It was called "Child centered education" and I really found very interesting, because nowadays, the students learning has changed, and also their needs. To be able to reach a good education, we need to change our perspective of teacher centered learning, to children learning centered. As the other reading, I will structure this entry in three parts that you are going to read now.

-5 important words: children needs, active-self regulated learning, learning environment, social learning, encourage.

-The main idea: 

The child-centered education helps the children to develop their personality and competencies and also, his needs and individual requirements.


-Three other ideas:

-Social learning helps children to share their ideas and need when they are doing an exercise or a task in class.
-A good learning environment encourages the students to learn in a meaningful way.
-A really good education community is necessary to develop relationships between students and teachers.

During my teacher training, I could not see any child-centered learning. The different schools are trying to change their point of view, and focus more on children. On the other hand, I could see an English room in one of the schools that I was training in year 2 of my degree("Torre Barona in Castelldefels") and also here in "La Ginesta". I really like that structure, because students can focus more in English because they have a good environment with posters and flashcards to follow the lesson.

First impressions

Hi everyone!

This Monday, Monday 4th I went to my practice school "called La Ginesta" to present myself. I couldn't see lots of things, but there are some points that caught my attention.

First of all, the nice buildings that they have with the big playground. I could see a little place where they grow up vegetables, a space where the students can play football and that the infant education is divided from the primary part. This last aspect I think that it is better when they are in the same building, because little children, can see the big ones.

Inside the bulding, I could saw some aspects of the comenius program that the school have and participates with pictures and posters in the walls. I really like that because I saw some projects that the pupils did but I could observe that some aspects in the building seems a little old.

Before I talked with the teacher, she gave me a little tour and I could saw the teacher room. It was a middle room very simple with tables, chairs, a little bathroom and some  materials for them. I found very familiar because they can share their time here. Also, she presented me the English teachers that they work in the school, the ones that I found really friendly. They gave me good feelings.

Finally, before I met the teacher, I could observe how parents leave their children in the school. Some of them leave them with their car, because the school is not in a central place. Furthermore, I could saw that immigrant people has a important percentage. I think that is challenge for me, because I have never been in a school with lots of immigration, so, I am sure that I will grew up as a person and I will learn a lot.

Reading 1: A butxacades

Hi everyone!

This week we had to read the first text for our pràcticum. It was called "A butxacades" and I really found very interesting, because it is a situation that we can find in our schools. I will structure this entry in three parts: 1st, it will be 5 important words to improve my vocabulary or important; 2nd it will be the main idea and three more that are related to the principal one, 3rd part will be a reflection between the text and a experience that I had related to the topic.

-5 important words: "Noves tendències", Professora, Diccionari, "good morning", Problemes.

-The main idea:

• You have to deal with lots of elements in the classroom and if the routine that she has doesn’t work, change it.

-Three other ideas:

• The teacher prepared the class
• She doesn’t pay attention to the student’s problems
• The teacher doesn’t motivate her student's

Personally, I could observe two years ago that the English teacher of the school that I was sometimes didn't remember a word or a structure and she has to find it on the computer or in a dictionary. Instead of that, they children didn't laugh to her and she didn't felt so unconfident, but at the end she explained me that sometimes needs to check what is saying or writing because of the repetition of the students. I understand her because, we are not native English speakers and lots of us we need to improve our knowledge of the structures and other aspects of the language to felt confident.

Hello!

In this second entry I will put my statement of intents, that I wrote this week. Hope you like it!

STATEMENT OF INTENTS

In this statement of intents, and also before reading the instructions about how to do it for this subject called “Pràcticum III”, I think that doing teacher training in a school, in this case “La  Ginesta” school in Vilanova i la Geltrú, can show me new resources and aspects to grew up as a person and also as a foreign teacher in a real context.

On one hand, I feel that this training will be a little different because I will be practicing as an English teacher, so I am sure that I will learn a lot of strategies and resources from my two teachers, the one in the school and the one in the University. On the other hand, I expect to put in practice all that I learn in the different subjects of these past 4 years and the specific subjects from my foreign languages speciality. Personally, I would like to put in practice CLIL lessons, because I am sure that they can be really meaningful lessons for the students and the teacher.

Next entry will be my first impressions!

Welcome!

Hello everyone!

I'm Marta, a student from the primary education degree at the Universitat of Barcelona. First of all:

welcome to my blog!

I've made that blog as a part of my last practicum in the degree, and I will upload every week some entries  related to my experiences in the school and the class, and also, my reflections about some readings that I have to do for the subject.

I hope you will enjoy this little adventure that just begin!