Conclusions

To finish my blog, I would like to summarize all my learning, that I have been explain along this blog and my portfolio and my final conclusions about my nowadays situation and thought and some reflexions that I want to take into account in the future and go deepen in these themes.

First of all, I have to underline the fact that I have felt very secure and involve in this school. I have participated in every chance that I have had and I also have offered my help and excitement to do things. I believe that they have seen my willing of working and be active in the school, so Mar is very grateful with me for that reason.

As I have explained, in this school, I have seen another reality very different from the ones that I used to observe or work. So it helps me to learn how I should work with children of these characteristics that have real problem that affect their behaviour at school. According to the perfect methodology of ELT and CLIL, I have not learnt a lot; but, now, I know how to catch these students attention and make them enjoy and learn with English, despite the fact that they do not have a very high level of this language.

Moreover, I have changed most of my prejudices and I realise that each child need one specific education and it is not only about teaching contents; it is about giving them care and paying attention to their needs and individual characteristics. Then, when they are happy and they feel comfortable at the classroom is easier to teach them theory and do activities. This one of my big aims of this experience and I have achieved it, so I am really proud of the learning that I have acquired in this point.

Moving on other objectives of this subject, I believe that I have the chance to know myself better as a teacher, so know I am more conscious about my strengths (empathy and individual attention) and my weakness (authority and timing); but, thanks to my tutor comments I have made a reflexion on them and I want to follow my personal formation and experience in order to improve them.

According to the methodology, I think that I have achieved my goals but I should still working on them. I made all my lessons only using English and with the proper lesson plan. Despite this positive aspect, I consider that I have to work more on timing and on the adaptation of the language that I use in class because, for me, using English all the time is more difficult with young students, so I have to find the way.

Summarizing, I completely believe that I have amplified my critical sense about my and other professors teaching practice. Through my observations and reflexions in tutorials at the faculty and on this document and my blog, and thanks to all the comments that I have received, I have imagine the characteristics that I want to have as a future teacher and the methodologies that I want to use for the benefit of my students. With experience I will get all this qualities and I want to fight for them because the most important thing for me are students and I do not want to let down them.

Finally, I want to express my gratitude to Mar and Theresa for being an example or teachers and make me improve through their positive and negative comments about my teaching practise. But, for me, the protagonists of this story have been the children. I would like to thank each gesture of every pupil; with all they care and comments make me happy and encourage me to be a good teacher in the future. Thanks to them I am sure that being a teacher is the future that I want.

What's differenciated instructions?

5 WORDS

• Buddies
• Subsets
• Individual needs
• Learning enviroment
• Successful lesson

3 IDEAS

• We have to identify and differenciate 4 classroom elements: contents, process, products and learning enviroment; in order to get a successful lesson.
• Teachers have to identify and treat individualities on class by differenciation.
• Teachers have to prepared different kind of activities in order to take into account different ways of learnings and students thoughts. They have to feel comfortable and motivated with their learning process.

1 MAIN IDEA

Each student has his own characteristics. Teachers should respond to them in order to achieve a good learning for each pupil. It's a big effort, but teachers have to provide children with specific tools to develop their knowledge in their own way, which means involve them in their learning.

IN MY SCHOOL...

As I could observed in my school, Mar tries to include all types of learning in her classrooms as she prepares different activities that are better for one intelligence or another. So they have the chance to learn through their own ability and, also, to practice the other ones.

Despite this fact, they follow the book, so in some way they are a little bit limitated, but Mar tries to prepare warm up and wrap up activities in order to review learnings. Although books are very established, I consider that, nowadays, they include a huge range of activities taking into account all skills and intelligences, but they aren't so flexible to adapt to each child, so it is our task.

Dialogical teaching

5 WORDS

• Interacive
• Communicative process
• Dialogic understanding
• Shared understanding
• Frame of reference

3 IDEAS

• We have to encourage children to communicate by the use of open-questions.
• Teacher have to select the appropiate communicative approach in each moment.
• It's important to guide the development of understanding in order to make communication effective.

1 MAIN IDEA

Providing students with real dialogues makes them get a more meaningful knowledge and improve their communicative skills by interaction. It helps them to consolidate their learning.

IN MY SCHOOL AND MY RECORDING...

I have realised that Mar and I don't promote a really dialogical learning as there aren't many conversations in English lessons. Children try to use the language but only with vocabulary words and brief sentences. Moreover, we tend to use yes or no questions, so they can answer them easily and it isn't challenging for students, that can participate more but without a real use of the language.

Another courious point is that most of conversations between the teacher and one students usually are with a small group of pupils, always the same ones as they have a better level of English so they feel secure and motivated to use this language.

My reflection is that we have to encourage children to use English, but not only telling it to them, we have to provide them with specific moments to speak in this language and make a real use of it. As a teachers, we have to control this moments, otherwise they will speak in Spanish as they normaly do.

CLIL

5 WORDS

• Personal meaningful understanding.
• Interthinking
• Patterns
• Interactive behaviour
• Apprentice

3 IDEAS

• Using the language in everyday experiences improves communication and makes it successful.
• Children need to transform their everyday understanding into the systematic and meaningful knowledge of a community subject.
• Teacher has to be an expert guide to assure understanding and the correct developing of learning and communicative skills, giving them tools.

1 MAIN IDEA

CLIL is something that involves  all educational community. It's a project of the whole school, not only the responsability of an English teacher during one our. If any center want to promote successful leassons of CLIL, it has to be very concious about the amount of effort and the proper way of work it. I doesn't mean only translation of few words or contents; it means teaching only in English some units, so they have to work in order to get a lesson at the same level of one in L1 but with more scaffolding, language help and supervision of understanding.

IN MY SCHOOL

In this school, they make Science in fifth and sixth grade one our per week. They also have a book, so they follow it and practice the content through its activities. In each trimestre, there is a book with a specific topic that they treat along the three months.

Moreover, I consider that there is a whole school connection because its content is shared with Sciences in Catalan, so they have to arrange the different themes that they are going to treat as they have to be different but with a relation.

Finally, as I can observe is very challenging and motivating for them. Maybe, they like more Science than English lessons as they can practice and acquire the language skills without thinking on them, so they find it more engaging and meaningful. They participate more they feel more secure using this language and it is funny for them learning somethings in English.

Promoting plurilingualism

5 WORDS

• Plurilingualism
• Practical knowledge
• Language learning process
• Different backgrounds
• Witnessed

3 IDEAS

• Teachers have to be trained in language learning in L1 and L2 and methodologies to teach them.
• Curriculum must consider the teaching-learning of different languages, allowing teachers ans students to expand their linguistic repeoire.
• Teachers have to pprovide students with meaningfun and motivatng information from other cultures to promote plurilingualism.

1 MAIN IDEA

Learnes don't share common linguistic bases, their process of language acquistion can be a little bit different. Moreover, we have to provide them with a direct contact with all the languages in the class to make them natural and integrated in the school, which means respect for them and a big benefit  for children education and development of their social skills.

IN MY SCHOOL...

The first thing that you can observe in Escola Pia Sant Antoni is that it is full of different cultures around the world in every class, so it means that children can speak many different language. Most of them know Catalan or Spanish and they speak another language at home, but some of them who have already arrived for a different country are learning our languages with support teachers.

I strongly believe that they respect all cultures and children are very conscious about multiculturalism because it is treated in classroom. Despite this fact, it means a lot of effort for teachers that have to be very well prepared in order to teach languages. For example, Mar makes translations into Catalan or she compares somethings with its grammar; but she has to take into account that there are children from other places and they don't share that knowledge, so she has to scaffold their learning in an oder way like images.

Finally, one curiosity is that children from places like India or Philipinas have a very high level of English as the education system in their country is in this language, so they can get a little bit of prominence on English lessons because they can help their classmates or read as an example of pronunciation.

Child - centered education

5 WORDS

• Feedback
• Cooperative learning
• Autonomy
• Sociability and emotions
• Needs and requirements

3 IDEAS

• Feesback is really important to children's learning process as they can realise how well or wrong they are working and achieving objectives.
• We need to take into account individualities in ordr to provide pupils with the best opportunities to learn.
• Education is formed by students and teachers; but it also includes families and staff, so a connection between all these elements is very important for a succsessful learning.

1 MAIN IDEA

As teachers, we have to try to get children's autonomy and their personal development and competences through a treatment of their needs and requirements. Teachers are only guides of the learning process. so we have to give them opportunities to develop their social skills by working in groups.

IN MY SCHOOL...

Escola Pia Sant Antoni is very focused on this theme. They have children with many different characteristic and backgrounds, so they try to know each child very good in order to provide him with spicific tools and activities that are useful for a successful learning.

They usually work with digital book, so Mar can observe their individual development, looking when they are working or cheking their results on "mark book", so she can identify their weak points as a group and indivifually ans she can help them with more accuracy.

A butxacades

5 NEW WORDS

• CLIL
• New tendencies
• Lack of communication
• Innovative
• Motivation

3 IDEAS

• Having daily routines and engaging activities is really important in order to motivate children to learn and to be participative and active in class.
• Teachers should work in teams and help each other with difficulties, dubts and new ideas. They have to follow the same way in order to get a coherent education thorough an union that families and students can observe.
• Teachers have to keep on with their personal training in order to be prepared to face difficulties and innovations.

THE MAIN IDEA

For me the main idea of this text is that teachers have to be active and energetic to take into account all the individual characteristics of each child in order to encourage them to learn and enjoy the class. We have to include them in education and they have to be the focus of this process.

I consider that we have to take profit of each moment that we can enjoy to speak our students and to know them. They have to feel our support during their process of learning and personal live. In this way, they will have confidence and they will be encouraged for every challenge that they have to face in school. Moreover, I think that they will participate more and put more effort in all activities that they can do and their own learning.

To sum up, I believe that we should know how they are and work because they are the things that show us with kind of activities or routines can be useful and meaningful for them.


IN MY SCHOOL

I can observe perfectly that the teachers' attitude affects students' motivation and behaviour in class. Mar is very active and dynamic, so children can see her example and copy this kind of behaviour in class.

Moreover, as I can see in English teacher meetings, they work a lot as a group. They have a meeting one hour every week, so they can arrange everithing about activities and books. They decided this kind of things together, but all of them put their personal point when they are teaching. They help a lot each other when it comes to prepare materials and activities, so older teachers can advice younger ones and this one can offer innovative ideas.

Finally, related to teacher formation, I have to say that Mar makes a lot of courses about her interests on education. Many times when we are talking, she encourages my to do it because it's useful for your career and personal formation.

Statement of intents

I strongly believe that, as all Practicums, this subject or period in a school is a good opportunity to observe, in the real context, all themes that we have been working at the university and to put into practice all our learning, ideas and hypothesis.

Firstly, I would like to say that, for me, Practicum III is very important because is the one that is going to prepare me to be a teacher in the subject that I like more and the one that I would like to be the teacher. We have done some subjects of didactics and CLIL in this year, but I want to see how a real teacher works all the contents that we have been talking in a very theoretical and hypothetical way.

Moreover, I think that this experience could help me to define myself as an English teacher. Personally, I have many ideas and preconceptions about how I want to introduce this subject to my students and what kind of activities I would like to do, but now, I want to see if I am prepared for doing them and to observe if they are useful and meaningful for children.

Another important point is that, as I can be with the English teacher all time, I am going to be able to feel like a real teacher and to know more about their job and to value it. Feeling in this situation, I consider that I can evaluate myself, in this task, with a more realistic point of view, so I can realise my weak and strong points.

According to this, I would like to say that, on the one hand, as my strong points, I consider myself a very empathetic person. Because of my long experience with kids, since I was sixteen years old, I know how I have to listen to them and to pay attention to their needs and problems in order to know them and create confidence, which I think that is basic to make them feel secure and motivate in classrooms. Also, I have been private tutor since then, so I believe that I can explain things in different ways to make them more understandable for students and I think about how I should scaffold their learning.

On the other hand, my weak point is all my doubts. Nowadays and because of my experiences and observations in other practicums, I am not really sure about the management of a full class in English. I try to avoid translations and explanations in Spanish or Catalan, but I have seen that it is more difficult with a normal class because there are more students and with different levels.

Furthermore, the authority is one of my huge problems when I am in practice. Although I consider that I manage and create routines on my private lessons and on the academy (I believe that I have defined my personal way of teaching), I find difficult to take it to schools of practice. I lose my methodology and authority because I try to adapt to the manner of the school because, for me, it means respect for my tutor; but, sometimes, it can be a problem as I can be myself or pupils can see me as a real teacher. Maybe, it is only my fear because, in last experiences, I achieved children’s respect.

For all these reasons, my objectives for this experience are:

• To know and improve all my weak and strong points through the comments of my tutors (Theresa and Mar).
• To learn to treat with children of different backgrounds and with their individual characteristics. Knowing their personal situations and adapting my help and teaching to their special needs and characteristics and including all of them in the same class.
• To know how to use only English in my lessons and to encourage children to do the same.
• To plan an effective lesson following the structure(3P + 2W)
• To develop my critical sense of my teaching and other methodologies that I can observe. Getting the good ideas and refusing the bad ones.

In the way to get all this objectives, I would like to participate in class as much as I can and try to help my tutor with her pupils and works. During these moments and in the ones that I am going to be doing my intervention, I want to listen to Mar’s comments in order to improve as a teacher for the benefit of all my students.

Finally, I want to develop my critical sense of my actions and the ones of the teachers that I am going to observe because it is a way to know what kind of things I want to do in the future and what kind I want to avoid.

To sum up, I would like to say that I want to take profit of each moment that I can live in the school and learn about it for trying to be a well-prepared English teacher.

My first impresion of... Escola Pia Sant Antoni

On Tuesday, I went to visit Escola Pia Sant Antoni, where I’m going to during my practicum III during 1 month, so it was really important to me to know the place and the people because I will be there much time and I would like to have a nice stay, learning a lot to get prepared for my future as an English teacher.

On the one hand, I consider that it is an overwhelming place because it’s a huge building with many playgrounds, where students from preschool to high school study in four groups per course. Despite the fact that so many people could be a mess, I strongly believe that it is very good organized because in each floor, we can find the classrooms of three levels. Moreover, I would like to say that these large corridors are very warm because all of them are really decorated with projects and works that pupils have done.

On the other hand, I could meet my tutor, Mar. My first impression about her is that she is a really energetic teacher because she explained me many things that she does with her students and some ideas that she wants to do in the future. Mar was really welcoming because she showed me all the school and made me an explanation about what I should know about the English subject, organization and methodology of the school. Furthermore, she offered my all her help for whatever I need as a trainee teacher.I also had the chance to speak with some other teacher and they were very friendly, too.

Finally, through Mar’s explanations and what I could see, I can say that it’s an innovative school because they are trying to use the interactive books and some units the work through projects, so I think that they want to promote the interaction and cooperative work in the way to make the children the focus of the learning process.

If everything goes like I have thought, I will have a really nice experience! I’m really anxious to begin my practices!
                                   

                                                                

Inspiring quotes

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world". Nelson Mandela

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education".

Martin Luther King, Jr.