Final Session

In our final session with Carlos we made a list of everything that we could remember from what we had learned in this class. It was interesting to see that we still didnt´have clear the difference between conocimiento and competencia.

After creating a list for both (knowledge and competency) the difference between the two became clearer to me. From what I understand conocimientos are more like understanding general concepts and knowledge, and a competencia is knowing how to take that knowledge and apply it. For example: Understanding the concept of scaffolding and what is, versus actually using scaffolding to give a clear example of an assignment in one of your classes.

In addition to reviewing what we covered in this class Carlos also challenged us to define what kind of teacher we want to be and continue studying and adding to our body of knowledge as professors.
Below is my list:

As teacher I want to...

• Evaluate fairly (Ex. not deduct on grammar in a reading comprehension)
• play games in class as much as possible 
• dedicate alot of time at the beginning of each course to get to know my students
• assign them to write a letter to me as Luz suggested
• give clear explanations and use scaffolding for assignments 

Final Reflections:

All in all I enjoyed this course, but I think many of us felt that we were ready for class to be over, and actually start teaching. Even though you were all excellent teachers I felt the burn out factor about two to three weeks ago. You can only hear theory and ideas for so long before you want to put them in to practice. Perhaps this feeling is exacerbated for me because I'm working in the morning and have been "observing" for almost three years, as an auxiliar. I'm REALLY ready to have my own class, and start doing things the way I want. 

I'm not sure of the feasibility of the idea, but personally I feel that perhaps this masters could be structured differently to facilitate more knowledge and less "burn out". For example, I would really like to see the masters split in to the common module, then 4 weeks of "prácticas¨ where you go to your center and learn all about the documentation, unidades didácticas, PEC, etc... and then come back to class for the modulo específico/didáctica and then another four weeks of ¨prácticas¨. I think this would help to break up the monotony of always being in class and also give students real contact with these documents right after taking ¨diseño curricular¨. After having this knowledge and getting to know the center a little bit and observing, then you have an idea of what you are getting in to with the center, and then during the ¨didáctica¨ class you would be able to get a sense for whether or not the ideas they suggest could be applied in your center. 

Thank you all so much for sharing your time and knowledge, it was definitely the most worthwhile and interesting class in the entire masters. Graciñas!! 

Debate - Homework?

Too much homework? - For Who?  and Why...?

I found the video that we watched about the "job" of students to be an interesting starting point for this debate, and I actually talked about this with some of my students in 1st of Bach this week too. I remember that in what would be the equivalent of 4th of ESO, and especially in 1st of Bach, in the United States I had alot of homework, an easy day would be an hour, but there were some days I had two or three.

After this masters, and learning more about the education system here in Spain I have two major critiques that also involve the question of homework.

1. Too many subjects, too little time
- In high school in the U.S. I only had five classes, and they were the same every single day
(Mon-Fri). - In my opinion this creates a much better retention, especially for subjects such as languages. If you have class everyday you don't loose momentum, and you are practicing more frequently. However, it also means that you can't assign as much homework, since it would need to be completed for the next day.

How would English language levels be in Spain if students had class fives times a week instead of three?  Would as much homework be necessary to reinforce? I don't think so.

2. There is little to no flexibility to account for the differences of intelligence and future academic goals of the students. From what I've learned so far, the education system here seems to be a bit "one size fits all" with perhaps the exception of the PMAR groups.
- In the U.S. you are able to skip courses if you are an advanced student in Math, Science, or English or go slower depending on your needs. Additionally, during your final two years of high school, you can dual enroll at a local community college or university to take classes there, which can later count towards your undergraduate degree or the american version of a "ciclo superior".
This flexibility allows for students to be challenged and engaged at their level.
As far as homework, it should obviously vary, for the students who choose the slower path it should be less, and for those who choose university prepartory classes they should expect more.

Tutoría - Life Skills

¨Lo que no puede ser es que venir al instituto es un problema más en su vida.¨ - Luz

This was a quote that I wrote down from class the day that we discussed Life Skills and PMAR, and I have to say that I completely agree. Ana has also said something similar along the lines of, "if you are the teacher that when they see you in the hall, they think "we have to go to "her/his" class" and they have a bad attitude towards you, it's not going to be a fun 50 minutes for anyone.  

Of all the activities that we examined during this class, I found the "My Weekly Timetable" to be the most interesting, because I think it gives the teacher a "sneak peek" into the personal lives of their students, and the opportunity to get to know them better and see how they spend their time. Even if I don't have the opportunity to teach a Life Skills class I plan on using this sheet with my regular English classes.  I think it is vital information for the teacher to have to see how much homework he/she can realistically expect the students to complete. For example, after reviewing all of the "my weekly timetable" sheets for a class you may realize that Wednesdays are a very busy day for the majority of the class, it would make sense to be considerate and try not to assign homework, or extensive homework on Wednesdays etc. I also liked the idea of making a "pact" with your students about how many times a week homework would be assigned. I hope that if students feel you take their opinions in to account and it is a joint decision it will make them more accountable for the work.

CLIL

In today's session Ana talked about CLIL and her experiences coordinating a bilingual section of Math with a colleague at her school. I have to say I'm disappointed that there is not more flexibility in the formation of teachers here in Spain, because I would really like to be able to teach English, and a CLIL subject. I often find myself frustrated when I have to focus so much on grammar. In my opinion, CLIL teaching offers the ability to communicate with students in a more natural way. Language is not the focus, it´s the vehicle.

Perhaps I also feel this way, because I consider myself a "grammar rebel" meaning I think we should teach as little grammar as possible. I know it is a controversial opinion, especially amongst teachers who utilize translation based teaching methods, but I feel this way because of my own experiences learning Spanish and Galician, as well as the experiences I am having teaching/practicing English with my boyfriend here in Vigo.

I started learning Spanish when I was 19 years old in my second year of university. I took a year and a half of Spanish before coming to Seville, Spain on a study abroad program. During my semester in Spain I had one grammar class, a conversation class, Spanish Art History, and History of Flamenco. The later two utilized CLIL methods.  At the beginning I was completely lost, and I couldn't understand my Spanish "mother" with her thick Andalucian accent to save my soul, but little by little I started understanding and it had nothing to do with spending hours doing fill in the gap exercises or discussing the subjunctive tense in great detail.  

Listening... and lots of it, as well as natural (in context) language production. I think that is the key to learning any language and CLIL provides this opportunity. 

Written Expression

In today's class we talked about written expression and some activities we can do in class and later expand as writing tasks for homework. Luz made a very important point during this class, which is that now a days it's not common that students have a reason to write outside of an academic environment. The majority of their written communications are Whatsapp messages, or at the most an email. As a result, they don't see the value in this type of communication so we need to contextualize it and make it personal.

I really liked the idea that Luz gave of having them write a letter to her at the beginning of the year and plan to use it in my future classes. This letter can serve as a way to get to know the students and a general "initial evaluation" of their English level. I'm including the instructions she gave for the letter to have for future use:

1st Paragraph: Who are you? What do you like? What do you like to be called? (Nickname)
2nd Paragraph: What is your experience learning English? Good parts? Bad parts?
3rd Paragraph: What are your plans after school? (Do you want to study at university..etc..)

*Students must use present, past, and future

I also really enjoyed the "ode to an object" it was a fun, creative way to work through some of the parts of speech. I'm hoping I might be able to use it with some of my private students because we are studying the transformations of words from adjectives, to adverbs, and it seems like an enjoyable way to work the boring differences of grammar!

The scholastic story starters was also fun. I'm including the link here, so that I have it for future reference. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/

Evaluations

In today´s class we talked about evaluations, the different kinds, and when we should do them. Of all the different evaluations we talked about I found the ¨lista de control¨or control list to be the most useful for an oral evaluation. 

I have never seen a teacher use this type of evaluation in my experience, but it seems to be a fast, useful way of making sure that when a student is speaking they have used the correct words, pronunciation, and structures that were taught in class. We came up with a small example in class to help clarify this type of evaluation, and it looked something like this:  

Pronunciation                  Always        Sometimes      Never 

1. /y/

2. I'm

Grammar

1. on

In another class with Luz she also shared the idea of putting all the questions that you would ask your students in an oral evaluation in a box and practicing those questions in class. As a result, when you do the oral evaluation, the students know exactly what questions they are going to be asked and how they need to respond. A control list could be developed based on the structures/answers/pronunciation for the questions and discussed in class so the students know how they will be evaluated. I plan on using this type of control list for oral exams in my future classes. 

Activity 2 - Photo based reading comprehension

Below is the link to our activity with the photo:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17tPOoyBsWP_QBs3WzmGPskMAAwK407XkqZA0or-ssMQ/edit?usp=sharing

Personal Reflection:
This photo is one of mine, and as a result, I obviously have a more personal connection to it. I chose it because the style of houses in the United States is very different than here in Spain. Also, I think it might be an interesting topic for students who are about to go to university and will have to live with roommates.

Some additional activities we could do might be having them write the history of their own house. Here in Spain many houses have been in the family for several generations. We could also expand the post - reading to include a more formal debate as to the pros and cons of living with other people and traditional residence hall living versus renting a house.