My Practicum is almost over…

Today I have finished my teaching unit. I’ve done my sixth hour of class with the 4ESO students and, to tell the truth, I feel happy and sad at the same time, because I’ve enjoyed working with these children very much, and I’ve lived a really nice experience while observing, learning, teaching and getting to know how a school works.



I’ve developed my unit plan in six hours. As I said the previous day, I introduced the topic by showing them a PowerPoint presentation and talking about music preferences. I’ve tried to work particularly the communicative competence by writing and expressing their personal likes, dislikes and opinions using activities with different kinds of approaches and resources.

Some of the activities worked out really well, others didn’t, but at least I think they’ve practiced a lot and they’ve talked very much in class. That’s what I wanted from them, because it seems to be a class where they do grammar and other exercises from their course book and not many tasks where they can interact and speak.



I’ve also tried to use different methods and resourced, such as ICT activities (although resources are very limited here), exercises in which they have to work in pairs or groups, activities where they could go moving around the class asking their classmates, interviews, songs, etc… I’ve been assessing all the activities they’ve done (in the way that I know who has participated more, who has tried their best and who hasn’t done the tasks) and I gave them a final project which would be an important mark; they had to write a poster with biography of their favourite music group or singer. We played the “who is who” game with that too, and I’ll be marking their works this week.



So, my experience as a trainee teacher at IES Joan d’Àustria is almost finished. Now, we still have two more “out of class” hours; that would be a meeting with my tutor in order to consider how my Practicum has gone and the “avaluació final”, where the teachers will talk abut each student and group and we’ll be able to see how this kind of meeting works. After that, I guess I’d still keep in touch with my tutor, but we won’t go to the high school anymore… well, I might set foot in this school some day as a teacher, but not as a teacher-to-be anymore (hopefully!).




I just want to finish by thanking my tutor, Mercè, who has been very nice to both me and my colleague; to Marta, from whom I've also learnt a lot and with whom it's been a pleasure to work with; and to all the students, to whom I've gotten very attached to. It's been a nice and enriching experience and I'm sure I've taken a lot of advantage of it!

Let's get to know about MUSIC...

Today I did the first hour of my teaching unit.
While my colleague was recording me, I introduced the topic by telling them a very short story about a concert of my favourite music band that I went to see last weekend. That was just to involve them in the subject.

.

After that, I asked them some questions just to check whether if they understood everything I said and talked a bit about their musical preferences. Then I showed them the Power Point Presentation I had prepared for this day. I wanted to show them the different music styles, some musical instruments, and basic things about Music for half an hour.
It worked really good and they seem very interested and engaged, maybe because I knew some of them play musical instruments and also because I knew a bit about their musical interests. They spoke a lot, mentioned groups that they like and characteristics about music styles and they even dare singing and playing some instruments the following day. What a success!!! I felt very happy because I saw they were participating and they liked the topic, and even if singing or playing some instruments in class was not in my plans, I really found it a very good idea. Let’s see if we can make it!
:)

Finally, I gave them a photocopy with a couple of dialogues and more vocabulary. We read them together and then some volunteers read them aloud. They asked what they didn’t know and then, in pairs, they had to create a new dialogue, similar to these ones, but including all we had seen during the lesson.

Some did it very good, others’ compositions were a bit short or simple, but they all tried their best and that’s the important fact! I have to say that I was a bit nervous at the beginning of the class, since I didn’t know whether if they would get engaged and it would be the first time I spoke in English for the whole hour. I guess they understood everything (although some are very shy and it’s hard to make them speak) and even if they tried to speak in English some of the times they found themselves a bit lost because they didn’t now how to express what they wanted to say.

Wow! I feel much more confident now, once I’ve overcome the first hour of class because this was, for me, the most difficult stage and I’ve already got through it.

Tomorrow I will present them an artist’s biography, we will go through it together and then I will explain them what they are supposed to do. Since there won’t be a final exam, I want them to create a project, and this will consist of writing a biography about a singer or group, and from there, we will do some funny and nice activities, like an interview or a “Who is who?”. We will also do a crossword and a treasure hunt and we’ll listen to a song but I will let you know more about how my teaching unit is going later on.

Working on my "unitat didàctica"...

Since I have already finished my observation, participation and out of class hours, and what remains me to do now is the development of my teaching unit, I will still go observe some of my colleague’s classes, but this week I will concentrate on doing research and using my imagination in order to create a nice lesson plan. I’ve planned to do it about MUSIC, and I’ll try to use as many ICT and other resources as I have seen during the CAP classes.
As we have very little hours each week and my colleague is doing it right now, I won’t be teaching in class until the second week of December.
Until then, I’ll keep dreaming about my teaching unit every night, which is becoming kind of a nightmare!!! :)

More meetings...

I’ve just come back from a “Reunió d’equip docent” with the tutors and teachers of “segon cicle d’ESO”. They have met for an hour and have talked about all the problems and things that are going on with these groups.

There were around 25 teachers today in the “sala de professors”, and they’ve basically based the meeting on the absences of the students, the appropriate punishments, and the dates of assessment that will take place before Christmas holidays. They have also mentioned the topics that the coordinators have thought for the “crèdit de síntesi” of both grades (3th and 4th ESO) and have pointed out the recent problems dealing with some students that have occurred lately in the centre. Since Christmas break is coming soon, they have also agreed that they will meet next week to talk about what to do on Friday the 21st (last day of teaching), as they want to prepare something different, such as a musical concert, or a short drama performance.

I didn’t report this the week before but last Wednesday I also attended a “claustre”. I wanted to wait until today to talk about this in order to compare it a bit, but since I’ve already been to both meetings, I can say now, that both the subjects of discussions and the people present at the meeting are completely different.

Last week, I found myself sitting in the “sala de professors” with all the teachers of the “institut” around me, and in the middle of the room there was a large desk with the principal, the director of studies and the secretary of the centre. We were about 60 people that day and what they did was to talk about institutional things during a bit more than one hour.

First, the secretary read all that was said in the previous claustre and all the teachers approved it. Some added little objections that they all discussed and the head teacher announced some relevant things (they talked about the teachers who retired last year and who were the new teachers, etc… ). Then they talked about the things that everybody in the centre should do in case of emergency, and they fixed a day to test the alarm and see how the evacuation system would work. They also talked about the “cicles formatius” that are carried out this year in the centre and finally, they talked about the projects and future projects that IES Joan d’Austria will carry out soon.

So, as you can see, both the “claustre” and the “reunion d’equip docent” deal with different aspects of the centre. In the “claustre”, teachers talk about things that have something related to the running of the school, and in the “reunió d’equip docent” what they talk about is more specific and connected to the students and the concrete groups. Bearing in mind that I’ve attended both, I would say that the “reunió d’equip docent” is more active than the “claustre”, since most of the teachers have something to say about their students or they just express their opinions about the procedures to be followed in the specific cases.

Marta's lesson plan...

Yesterday I attended my colleague’s first hour of teaching. She planned her unit in order to develop it during six hours and its main core is: The Airport.
I sat at the back of the classroom and kept in silence for the whole hour, observing, listening, recording and learning from her and from the students. She chose a nice topic and students were very engaged during all the time and that was not only because they liked the unit core but because Marta motivated them a lot.
She started by telling them a story about a non-real situation that happened to her in an airport. That was a good point because they already found themselves involved in the story. Then she presented them the main areas of an airport and the basic things they should know (check-in desk, passport control, excess baggage, etc…). To continue with the topic, she gave them a photocopy with some dialogues that they had to read first and then, represent it in pairs. Finally, they had to create a new dialogue using the vocabulary they had just learnt and act in front of the class.
The students found this lesson very interesting, since they were engaged during the whole time without losing attention, and very active, since they all liked to participate and develop their creativity by coming up with a new dialogue to represent.
I was so surprised to see that the students listened to her all the time and that they all asked her questions in order to do their performances as good as possible. I also noticed that if you really motivate them and if you make them have a nice time in class, they learn more than teaching them grammar or other tough subjects.
I liked her way of teaching, moving from one place to another, helping the students all the time, repeating and acting a bit when needed, talking out loud and with a clear voice, and trying to motivate them during all the time.
I really think that her lesson was a total success, since we have seen during these weeks we’ve been in class with them that this is not an easy group, and from my very best objective point of view, I’d say she did a great job!

Where is the key? ...

Tuesday. 13th of November. 1.30 p.m.
Myself and my partner walking up to the 3rd floor, were the English class of 2n.Batxillerat is about to start.
A crowd of teachers and other students in front of the 4t.ESO door.
4t. ESO students inside the classroom, shouting, screaming, knocking.

What the hell is going on?

I ask my tutor. She tells me this morning, when she had English with them (I didn’t go to her class because students had an exam) these students locked themselves in the class and she couldn’t get in. She explains me that, as I already know, the doors in this centre are always shut and only teachers have the keys.

What does that mean, then?
Yes, someone has stolen the key.

They open the door to her and she asks for the key. Nobody has it. She tells them that she’s going to come back to that room at midday and that she wants the key on the desk. They miss the chance to give back the key anonymously, because when she gets there, the key is not where she wanted it to be. She gives them another opportunity but when another teacher goes to the following class, the door is locked again.

1.30 p.m. Time to go home for the ESO students. But the teachers are the ones who decide to lock that door now, and so if the students do have the key, they themselves will open it and go home. No one makes a movement. No signs of wanting to give the key back. They stay in. But they shout and cry they want to leave. They even bang on the door and almost break the glass. They all know who has it but no one says anything.

1.45 p.m. The head of studies comes. She and a couple of teachers decide to get in. Other teachers send students in the corridors who are observing what’s going on home.
We go to the 2n.Batxillerat class, which is next to the one where all the mess is happening. My tutor asks us to start the lesson with them and so we decide to play a game to break the ice and keep concentration. But there’s a lot of noise and we all want to know what’s going on. We go on with some exercises from the textbook.

2 p.m. The teacher comes. Everything is more silent now. We finish the lesson with the 2n Batxillerat students talking about their interests.

2.30 p.m. The lesson finishes. We stay for a while and ask Mercè how everything has ended up. She tells us they’ve talked to them, they’ve asked them for the key, they’ve insisted on the matter, but there has been no point on doing that. Nobody wanted to say a word. No one informed against the responsible. And the teachers decided to punish them all staying for an hour longer and calling everybody’s parents if the key doesn’t appear.
…

It really seemed like if we were in an American school. I felt scared when they started banging on the door and even the teachers didn’t know how to react. Some said students couldn’t be locked inside a room. Others said that, “yes, if they have they key, they have to be brave enough to open it”. I wanted to stay there and see how these kinds of problems have to be solved. Luckily, the teachers finally got in. I’m sure that if they hadn’t done so, the guys would have broken the door down.

We talked to the other students. Of course they knew who had stolen they key and they though he was a coward and a selfish person, because it was his fault and because of that, all of his classmates had to pick up the tab.

So tell me now, what is the key to education? How should we educate our children?

(They are hardly listening to their teacher; not engaged at all, sometimes)

Out of class hours...

It wasn’t all about presentations that week. We did the second and last “guàrdia” and that time we had to replace a teacher who was sick at home for half an hour. Our tutor told us that these 3r. ESO students already knew what they had to do, so we just had to keep the order in class and control that they were all in silence or speaking quietly but doing their homework. As they knew we “were English teachers”, some took advantage of it and did their English homework so that we could help them, and that’s what we did. There were some others who didn't want to do anything, and there was no way to make them work, so they kept on chatting, but quietly.

Since this school doesn’t have a real project on teaching other subjects in English yet but wants to do it soon, there is a teacher who is trying his best this year teaching a “crèdit variable” about Science in English. We had a meeting with him for an hour on Wednesday and he explained us what that course was about and how was he carrying it out. He was very kind to us and showed us the activities that they were doing. He wanted his classes to be very communicative and active, and so he mostly wanted to develop his students’ oral skills. I find it very interesting and his exercises were so funny and useful that I suddenly found myself willing to attend one of his classes and thinking how good it would have been if I could have had that in school when I was a kid.

We also attended the 2n.Batxillerat and 1r.ESO classes. Our tutor told us to follow her instructions and do some exercises from the course book with them. We did a listening and then corrected it together. We also carried out some grammar exercises and talked about their political opinions. When the teacher had to left for a while, we still followed the book but suddenly changed into another activity because we saw they were not engaged anymore. We came out with a game; the spelling battle, and when our tutor came in again and saw that they were very actively participating she let us carry on with it for a bit more.

Next day I’m going to tell you about a very curious and not nice thing that happened in my school that week too…

Do you want to know more about my city... ?

I went to the school on my fourth Monday expecting not that much from their pieces of work and oral presentations. I knew in advance that some of them were going to be really good but

that most won’t have it ready. To tell you the truth I will say that I got very happy when I came into the class and saw that most of them did it and, what’s most, they worked very hard on their posters. They did a great job, writing down in English, putting photos and maps, colouring and decorating their posters.

But that was not all. Now, they had to present their works to the rest of the students. They had some minutes to practice their pronunciation and what they were about to say and I was there to help them with that. And finally, they were ready to do it.

I was impressed. Although they failed a lot with the grammar and were a bit shy at the beginning, most of them did a great presentation and tried their best. I could feel that they were engaged on it. Those who didn’t prepare it at home and just tried one’s luck didn’t succeed that much.

They didn’t have to work with the course book that time. They didn’t have to practice their grammar. That was a different activity. They had to be creative. And so they were encouraged and motivated to do it and it turned out to be a very good work, although some of the students didn’t do it (they just didn’t come to school, so to skip the experience of finding themselves talking in front of the class).

My third week at school...

On Monday, the 5th of November, we had class with the split group of 4t.ESO. Their work for that day was to bring information on a city. Since most of them come from other countries, it was a good idea so that the rest of the class could know a bit more about their hometowns. In some cases, I felt that children didn’t want to hear about their countries anymore or they didn’t remember that much and so some worked on Barcelona, a neighbourhood or a city they’ve visited.

They had the tourist information in Spanish and during these two hours we helped them write in English. We didn’t want them to translate the information they had into English but write very clear and simple things on their city, following the Spanish pattern. Some of them didn’t bring anything, so as we had the computers in class, we gave them the possibility to look for it.

What they had to do for the following day was to find photos, maps, pictures or anything, and write it out neatly at home so that they could hand it to the teacher in order to correct it before the oral presentation.

We did other exercises from the course book during that week, reviewed the comparatives and superlatives and agreed to make the oral presentation in front of the class next Monday, in the split hour.

That week we also did the first “guàrdia”. Our tutor explained us what we were supposed to do and put it in practice the next day. During the “hores de guàrdia” teachers have to check that everything is under control in the building. No students are allowed to be in the corridors, no doors can be left open, and so on. So what we did first was to walk up and down the 4 floors, close doors and come back to the “sala de professors”. There we find that some students were kept in detention and had to do some assigned tasks, and so we stayed controlling them for the rest of the hour.

As days passed by and we got to know them better, we saw that although they seem to be bad students, they can do many things if you teach them how, or if you just help them and guide them. Nevertheless, you need to understand that behind those rebels misbehaving, there is a difficult background.

Let's participate in class...

After being very passive at class during the first week but observing a lot and trying to analyze everything that was happening and not missing any detail, we started to participate helping the students when doing their exercises in class.

That week we worked with the students of 4t.ESO on the comparatives and superlatives. On Tuesday the teacher explained the basic rules and then they had to do some exercises from the book. We helped them in little groups so that they could learn it better and realized that most of them were ashamed to ask because they thought they knew nothing. In the following class with the same course we remembered about it, we did a listening and then they wrote a short composition comparing cities and people. On Mondays we spend three hours at the school. The first two hours we work with the students of 4t.ESO, but they come in two groups. These classes focus on active participation of the students, since they are less and it is easier to put in practice their oral and writing skills. So what we did was to read their work in front of the others and then the teacher asked some questions that they had to answer using comparative and superlative.

That day I observed that most of them learnt and knew the comparatives and superlatives the previous week but didn’t remember how to do it just after the weekend because, although it is a pity, they learn just to do what they are supposed to do in the class but not because they really want to learn English. Nevertheless, I also noticed that if you work with them in little groups and show them that they can do it because it is not that difficult, they see that you show interest and care of them, and they really try their best and make you feel better about it.

We also worked with the other groups that week. We helped the 1r.ESO students writing a short story about detectives in pairs, after reading a brief and very easy novel. What we did with the 2n.Batxillerat guys was to participate in a discussion they were having about politics and politicians. And on Wednesday, the teacher gave some nice homework for the 4t. ESO students: they will create a poster or leaflet, so they had to look for information about their native city or a city they’ve ever been.

I would say that, although bearing in mind that most of our pupils have a very low level of English, we have to encourage them somehow because I am sure they can do it.

Getting familiar with everything...

During the first week of my Practicum at IES Joan d’Àustria we were introduced to the students we were going to teach and we started to get familiar with them. This year our tutor teaches 4t. d’ESO, 2n. de Batxillerat and a “crèdit variable” with 1r. ESO students, but we agreed that we were going to spend more time with the students of 4t.ESO, since we could meet only one hour with the other groups.

This group of 4t.ESO is made up of 25 students. A third part are boys and what is more surprising is that most of them come from other countries. That is to say that we have students who have not long ago arrived from Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, China, Brazil, etc… and it makes the class a melting pot of different cultures, but a bit difficult one because, leaving aside that they first need to adapt to living here and to Catalonia's education system, they all have very varied levels of English and some have very little knowledge of this language. From my point of view, I would say that the majority of the students have a very low level.

To tell you the truth, the very first day I saw how a 4t.ESO class was, I got a bit scared and felt that all what Oriol told us during the CAP lessons about his students and his classroom management wasn't this way here. It seemed that no one was interested in learning English and students hardly listened to her teacher. That would make our task more difficult but more challenging at the same time.

During those days, we sat at the back and tried to observe everything. Not only how the classes were organized and what kind of activities were carried out, but also the teacher's and the students' attitude, and of course, we tried to keep an eye on everything that was going on in the corridors.

El primer dia a l'institut...

IES Joan d'Àustria
http://www.joanaustria.com/
C/ Selva de Mar, 211
(Sant Martí - Bac de Roda)
08020 Barcelona

Aquest és l'institut on, durant aquests mesos, faig les pràctiques del CAP.


Hola!

Sóc la Sandra, i en aquest blog podreu anar seguint, a partir d'avui, les meves pràctiques en un institut d'educació secundària.

Dilluns dia 22 d'octubre, després d'haver-nos posat en contacte per email amb la meva tutora (Mercè Roman), ens vam poder reunir per primer cop amb ella i les altres 2 noies que també fan les pràctiques en aquest institut.

Es tracta d'un centre situat en un barri de Barcelona proper a Sant Adrià del Besòs i on es pot fer la ESO, Batxillerat, i cicles formatius de grau mitjà i superior. És una escola força gran, amb capacitat per a bastants alumnes i que, durant els últims anys ha registrat un increment molt important d'estudiants provinents d'altres països. És per aquest motiu que, a part dels cursos que correspondrien al currículum també hi ha l'anomenada "aula d'acollida" per aquells nois i noies que necessiten un temps d'integració per tal de poder adaptar-se millor a aquest nou país, nova llengua, nous costums, etc...

El primer dia al centre ens va servir per impregnar-nos una mica de l'ambient que es respirava allà. Vam conèixer la nostra tutora, el que seria el nostre institut, els estudiants i cursos amb els quals treballaríem i alguns professors. A l'hora d'acordar els horaris amb la nostra tutora va ser una miqueta problemàtic, ja que va donar la casualitat que aquest any la Mercè era, a més a més de professora d'anglès, secretària de l'institut i això volia dir que tenia un horari molt reduït, és a dir, poques hores de classe d'anglès. Aquest fet ens va limitar bastant i va implicar que ens haguéssim d'adaptar al seu horari sense gaire opció de triar. Un cop vam poder posar-nos d'acord, vam distribuir la feina que duríem a terme durant les setmanes següents i vam parlar una mica sobre com anirien les pràctiques.

Tot això va ser un dilluns i, a l'endemà, la nostra feina a classe ja va començar...