Storytelling in year 4 15.02.13

As I told you on the last storytelling post, my school tutor provided me with lots of scanned tales. Year 4 students are currently learning vocabulary related to food so I looked for a story about this topic and I found a very funny one called Eat your Peas. The book tells the story of a girl who doesn't want to eat her peas and her mum tries to convince her offering lots of presents.

To tell the story I interacted a lot with students. I constantly asked questions to them in order they guess what was going to happen next. For example, when the mother offered to the girl some pudding, bicycles, etc. in exchange for eating her peas, I asked to children: "Do you think she will agree or not?" and they were so enthusiastic to raise the hand and bet what happens. I think that this methodology helps to better understand the plot of the tale and also contribute to help the kids to know the meaning of new words, for example, they should learn the meaning of new vocabulary if they want to bet about the answer of the girl.

Once I finished telling the story, I want to practice the oral skills of kids thanks to a conversation. I asked them this question: Which is the food you hate the most? and each kid said one. Then, we played a memory game and to do it I randomly asked some children this other question: Do you remember which food (name of one kid) hated the most? so they should remember other food names. This is a funny way to make a revision of the topic vocabulary and also an opportunity of knowing new words if a student hates a food we haven't learned yet.

I continued the session asking children more questions like: Which present do you prefer to eat your food? so they had to think in objects, actions, etc. they would like to have or do. This part was the funniest one because they said such a lot of exaggerated things that everybody could laugh and have a fantastic time.

"Valentine's day" with year 6 14.02.13

On Thursday we celebrated Valentine's day. I think that culture is an important theme to work with kids so I decided to prepare a special activity for that day. I found nice to write some love cards using different positive adjectives so I planned a cross-curricular activity which involved art and English. On Tuesday I made a heart card with different coloured cardboard and then, I wrote some good adjectives on it (nice, handsome, clever, imaginative, etc.). I showed the card to year 6 students and then, they created their own ones at art time. Here you can see the fantastic results.

On Thursday, at English class, we started the lesson reading the Valentine's day origin so kids could practise their written comprehension and know more culture aspects. Then, I prepared an activity in order to learn positive adjectives. The exercise consisted in drawing arrows between some words and the corresponding image. For example, I wrote "clever" and I put a brain in the same page. I could print one activity for each pupil, but I decided that they had to move so they came to the board and wrote on it with the digital pen. I was so surprised because although children know a lot of vocabulary and they can recognize lots of words, they hardly use them when they talk or write in English.

Right after, I gave the heart cards to students and they chose the adjectives they wanted to write them on it. I think that it's a good activity to learn positive words and write them to friends, family, etc. Children should learn to be kind to other people because it will satisfy them in their lives. Finally, I hung all the cards at the English class so all the pupils of the school could observe them.

"Where the wild things are" with year 3 14.02.13

On Thursday afternoon I told a very nice story to year 3 students: "Where the wild things are". This story is about a very imaginative boy who travels to a land full of monsters, so it's perfect for young learners.

 

On Wednesday my school teacher provided me with lots of scanned stories in order to practise the storytelling with my students. I found this set of resources very useful because pupils can listen to the story at the same time they see the book images on the board so I decided to choose one of the tales and tell it to my year 3 children.

That evening I took a look to all the books and I liked so much the one called Where the wild things are. Although it contained some difficult words, I thought it was a great story to tell the students. I had previously worked on The Gruffalo tale with these kids and they loved it so I was sure that they would love this one too. As I have said, this story is not easy for young learners because the vocabulary we find in it requires a high level of knowledge, so that's why I decided to use other resources in order to make children understand the plot. To tell the story I constantly used mime because it helps to understand unknown words. I also talked with different voices and showing different feelings and finally, I interacted a lot with my students asking them to repeat actions or sounds and also to anticipate what was going to happen next in the story. Definitely, non-verbal communication is perfect to help our students to understand the whole meaning of stories without working analytically. I could see how the kids were enjoying the tale all the time, guessing what was going to happen and imitating the monsters.

After having told the narrative, I planned an activity to develop the kids oral and written comprehension. I had already put in practise some storytelling with year 4 students and we did some activities that weren't related to the plot at all. I found these activities (which were included in the book) not very meaningful because they didn't check if children had understood the story or not, they just were about parts of the house, time, etc. In this case, I wanted to work on the oral and written comprehension of the tale so on Wednesday I looked for some questions on the web to ask to kids after the storytelling. I found a very interesting kind of test that was perfect so I projected it on the screen and students could answer to the questions in groups. I was wondered how well kids answer to the questions, they did it almost perfect, although the story was difficult. Thanks to that experience I could observe that teachers can teach English in a globally way so it's not necessary that children understand every single word or grammar structure of a text to catch the whole sense of it.
I want to share with you the story, so click here if you want to read it and take a look to the scanned book .

Here you have the comprehension questions as well.

"Menu II" in year 4 13.02.13

Last week I started an interesting activity with year 4 students: they had to design a menu. Although I planned one session for the exercise, it took more time, so we have continued writing our dishes this week. Here you have a picture of the menus. I think kids made a fantastic job and they also learned a lot of new vocabulary related to food.

If you want to see more pictures about the activity process, click here

Having done that, one of the year 6 students has helped me make a book which includes all the menus. For doing it we have used cardboard, paint and some string. In my opinion it's nice to collect all the kids craft in a book because they will feel very proud of their work. Then, we can show it to other students, to parents, etc

.

"Prova d'avaluació d'anglès II" with year 6 08.02.13

On Friday I practised some oral comprehension with year 6 students. As you know, they are going to take an important exam in May so it's good to get them used to doing these kinds of tests. 

Before the lesson I photocopied the two last year oral tests in order to help the kids to do the first one and then, let them take the second one on their own. The first step on Friday session was to explain to the students how the oral exam was. I told them that they would hear a conversation three times and they should choose the correct answer of every question at the same time. 

Right after we started the first test. They had time to read all the questions carefully, so they got familiarized with the topic of the test. Then, I played the audio and I stopped it when I listened to the answer of a question. Next I repeated the dialogue slower in order to make the kids hear the answer. I also asked them what had they listened to so children showed me if they had understood the conversation or not. I continued with the track and I stopped again until the dialogue finished. I think this is a very good way to make students hear the essential information to answer the questions and avoid the supplementary information that won't help them guess the solution.

After finishing the first test, I let the kids take the second exam on their own. I played it three times and I didn't help them at all. During the break period I corrected the test and I was very pleased with the result. Most of the kids passed the test and they did it with a fantastic mark. I also calculated the arithmetic mean of the exams and I obtained a 7,6, so much better than the reading comprehension mark. That means that children must work harder on their writing skills in order to improve the results, but they also have to keep practising their oral comprehension not to lose the habit.

If you want to see the 2011-2012 English exam click here

If you want to hear the listening comprehension audio click here

"Menu" in year 4 08.02.13

During this week, year 4 students have been learning new food vocabulary. In their Surprise! book they could find some activities in order to memorize the new words but, despite that, I thought that an extra activity related to this topic would help the kids to consolidate the vocabulary.

The activity I planned was called "Menu" so children have been designing a set of dishes of a restaurant. Two weeks ago I asked the students to bring some supermarket leaflets in order to cut some pictures of food out and then stick them on their menus. 

I started the lesson showing to the kids an example of a menu. The menu was composed of: starter, main course, dessert and drink options, so they had to write their meal plan including all of these sections. Then, I divided the class into groups, so children worked in groups of three students. Right after I explained the process of the creation of the menu: first write the dishes, then find the appropriate pictures and finally, decorate the menu with a coloured sheet of paper.

Before putting in practise this activity I thought it was going to take just one lesson, but I was mistaken. Kids started the activity this week and they are going to continue the next one in order to finish their crafts. 

I saw children very excited doing this exercise. They love cutting out, creating crafts, designing...Children are naturally creative so we should offer to them open activities to develop their artistic skills. Usuallyy the book's activities are so closed so students just have to copy something and write the unique and appropriate answer. In exchange we have more creative activities like the "Menu" where there is not just a correct solution. There are a lot of possibilities that kids can write and most of them are right. 

The activity also contributed to encourage children to discover new words, to be curious and to look for them in the dictionary. During the lesson I could see how kids learned new vocabulary in a different way so we spent a great and profitable time.

"How to make a carnival mask" with year 6 07.02.13

As you know, kids are having a great time at school preparing all the carnival stuff and also thinking about their costumes and masks. My year 6 students made a plaster cast mask and it was really nice to wear it during the carnival party. 

Ignasi Iglesias school has a digital magazine where all the children write different sections as articles, games, etc. in order to develop their writing skills and to create an enjoyable reading for all the students. For year 6 students it's easy to write an article in Spanish or Catalan, so the teacher decided that the kids would write an article in English related to carnival: how to make a carnival mask. 

My tutor suggested that I prepare a lesson about the creation of the mask and I completely agreed. I decided to do a power point to help the students to learn the name of the materials we need to make the craft in English and to learn the process as well. First of all, I have written all the materials in English and I have added three extra ones in order that kids learn more vocabulary. Then, they have copied the words in their notebook. Right after, I have showed them some verbs that express the actions to make the mask (to cut out, to stick, etc.) and they have completed the sentences (to cut out the plaster cast strips). So with the materials and the process, kids have written their article about carnival masks.

Before doing this activity in class, I thought it was a bit difficult for year 6 students, but they haven't had any problem to do it. They have even worked quicker than I planned, so they have done a good job. Children have paid attention during most of the time and they have been motivated to learn the new words and to write the making process of the mask. At the beginning of the task they were a bit confused because they didn't know what  to write in their notebooks, but as they are very clever they have got it fast.

I think that power point is a good resource to show writings to the whole class. Students can see the sentences and can also interact with the teacher and with the rest of their classmates solving the activities. I consider that cross-curricular activities are very useful to learn a new language; in this case we have learnt English writing an article about crafts for the school magazines. If we are obliged to work with the book we can combine these kinds of activities in order to enrich our lessons.

"50x15" with year 6 05.02.13

During the last sessions I've been teaching the past of the verb to be in year 6. On the first lesson I taught the grammar structures: affirmative (I was, I were...), negative (I wasn't, I weren't...) and interrogative (were you...?). Then, we practised this grammar thanks to some exercises from the book. On Tuesday, I decided to prepare a very famous a motivating game to keep learning and to consolidate the grammar in a different and funny way: 50x15. This game consist in asking a question and offer four different answers, then the participants must choose the correct option. In this case, I wrote an incomplete sentence and children had to select the word that matched in the gap. Here you have an example:

To play the game I divided the class into four groups formed by students with different English level. Then I gave very clear instructions: all the groups had to answer all the questions and they should write the correct option on a sheet of paper. After writing their answers on the paper, I took a look around to check them and I showed the appropriate option. The teams that guessed right won a point.

I saw the kids enjoying the game and very motivated to guess the correct answer. They were very concentrated and although some of them cheated and looked into the book to answer correctly, they did a good job. I also think that this game was very useful to see the verbs in real sentences and kids had to understand the whole meaning of the question to say the word so it wasn't just a mechanical exercise.

I think that I controlled the situation when kids were playing and I tried to manage the group in the best way. When kids were so noisy I stopped the game and until children didn't realised they were behaving badly and then they paid attention again, I didn't continue playing. I also have to say that I explained the most difficult sentences. For example, there was a question that nobody got right so I stopped the game for a while and I told why it was the correct option. 

Class observation 04.02.13

Yesterday afternoon I came to school to put in practice some games with year 3 students. The games didn't take the whole session so I could observe how my tutor acted in class, which was her methodology, the activities she proposed, how she dealt with kids, etc.

My tutor has a traditional style of teaching and she follows the book structure to create activities but it doesn't mean she is a bad teacher or that kids don't learn English. As I could observe, she always prepares extra activities apart from the ones in the book and children like to do these kind of exercises. For example, I have seen two similar tasks in different classes which consist in describing pictures or drawings. In year 3, students drew a wizard and a castle and then, they talked about them in front of their classmates. Thanks to this activity, kids learn and consolidate new vocabulary as broomstick, hat, cape, tower, flag, etc. and they did it in a different way. With this methodology students felt also very proud of their crafts and they made an effort to do their best drawing a painting beautiful wizards and castles. Apart from describing the drawings in an oral way, they also wrote some sentences, so they practiced grammar as well. For example, kids used the structure "It has..." + the new vocabulary they learnt. I could observe the same kind of exercise in year 4 but in this case, children wrote their descriptions about their favourite animals. 

It should be also pointed out that the teacher decided to show all of the kids' writings in the corridor so the rest of the students could observe them and check how hard they had worked. Here you have the children's creations:

Today I have been observing a year 4 lesson. First of all, kids have corrected their homework about food and drinks. For correcting the activities we use the digital board because Surprise! book has a very useful resource to correct homework in an interactive way. Then, my tutor has told the story of a witch with the help of some flashcards. Although the story was in the class book and she could just turn on the audio, the teacher has decided to interact with kids and use her voice to tell the story. While she was talking about the witch she had asked some questions to students in order to improve their comprehension about the story line. I think that this is a perfect way of catching the kids' attention and also to ensure they assimilate the aims we had planned. After listening to the story, children have done an exercise of the activity book but before doing it in their books, they have solved it in the digital board. Kids love movement so it's a good idea to make them come to the board a write on it. This task is also positive to facilitate all the students the view of the correct answers.

A visit to the radio station and school blog updating 01.02.13

During this teaching placement I'm spending most of the time with year 6 students. My school tutor, who is also one of the two English teachers, is the tutor of the oldest kids so that's why I'm joining other subjects they learn apart from English and also some excursions.

Yesterday I went with children to the local radio station. We had already been there because last week we visited the place just to know how all the stuff worked. During the next fifteen days, students have been preparing a radio program in order to become journalists and be able to record it in a real studio. 

Kids were very excited with the experience and they enjoyed a lot reading their programs in front of the microphone. It was a fantastic activity because they work very hard in groups and they planned in pairs different sections about news, music, sports, video games, etc. Previously at school they had to write all the scripts, so they developed their writing skills and also they practised the dialogues many times, so the oral expression was taken into account as well.

Ignasi Iglesias school has many blogs that talk about excursions, important activities, English, music, books, etc. but sometimes teachers are so busy to update them. For that reason I offered to write a new entrance in the year 6 blog talking about the radio experience and also showing some pictures I took in the morning. My tutor was so grateful to me because she didn't know exactly how to include photos in the blog. I think that blogs are very useful to show to the children's family which activities they do at school and outside it, so this resource is very useful to establish a good and trustworthy relationship between the school and families.

Here you have the school blog, where you will find some pictures of the excursion.

"Prova d'avaluació d'anglès" with year 6 31.01.13

As you know, year 6 students are taking a set of official exams in May. The Generalitat tries to evaluate the competences' level of Catalan, Spanish, English and maths of kids who are going to finish primary education in June.

For that reason, last week and today I've been practising some reading comprehension with children. My school tutor gave me the last year exam so I made photocopies of the two texts and the corresponding questions. Last week we read the text together and I helped the kids to choose the best answer (the exam is a kind of multi answer quiz). Today I have let the students be more self-efficient and they have taken the exam on their own. 

During the next class, I have corrected the exam so I have had the opportunity of checking how high the marks are. Most of the kids have passed the test but some of them with a low score. I have calculated the arithmetic mean of all the marks and I have obtained a 6 (last year the arithmetic mean of the whole exam in Catalunya was a 7,4). I think that kids should work more on their reading comprehension because it's a very important part of a language learning process so I hope they keep practising when I leave. Next week we are going to take some oral comprehension exams so I hope they get better results.

If you want to see the 2011-2012 English test click here

If you want to hear the listening comprehension audio click here

"Word by word" in year 4 30.01.13

Last week I put in practice the game "word by word" with year 6 students. To play this game I wrote some definitions in every letter of the alphabet and kids had to guess the word. Because it was a very successful game and students enjoyed a lot playing, I decided to prepare the same game for year 4 pupils. As I said in the previous entrance, for young learners is easier not to write definitions but just put images in every letter.

Now I'm going to talk about the development of the game. As I did in year 6, I divided the class into four teams and they had to raise the hand to answer. In the case of year four, I have followed the order of the groups to let them say the words, so the game has been better organised than last week. If a group didn't know the word the next team could answer. 

I have also managed the class better than the other day because I have stopped the game every time there was some noise and kids were distracted. Finally they have been very concentrated and they have participated actively in the activity.

"Word by word" in year 6 25.01.13

On Friday I put in practice a very funny game with year 6: Word by word. Last year at university, the English teacher showed us this game to play with kids and told us that it was very useful to consolidate new vocabulary. For that reason, I used this resource in most of my lessons as a teacher, both with pictures for young learners and with definitions for the older students. 

During the week, I had been teaching job's vocabulary in year 6 so I wrote some professions' definitions in every letter in order to make them remember the new words. I decided that they worked in groups so I divided the class into four groups with a speaker in each one. If they knew the answer, they just raised the hand and said the correct word.

I think that games are very useful to motivate children to learn a new language and in case of "word by word", it's appropriate for all ages students. I saw the kids enjoying the game so I want to prepare more games for my future lessons.

The English classroom

I want to show you how the English classroom of Ignasi Iglesias school is:

This is the entrance.

This is what you see when you come into the class. The tables are grouped in groups of two or three and when kids sit down, they face the digital board. With this spatial distribution is almost impossible to work in groups.

On the right side of the classroom we find a shelf with the material (resources, handouts, stories, etc.) and some books to read.

Kids use Surprise! book, which includes lots of digital exercises and sources.

On the opposite wall of the digital board, there is a blackboard. We have to remember that kids face the digital board so when the teacher writes something on the blackboard they have to turn around and it's difficult for them to copy or just see.

This is the teacher table and shelf. There she has the books, the handouts for the next class, her material, etc.

In the corridor we find two murals with students' writings so everyone at school can observe them.

"The Gruffalo" with year 3 24.01.13

Yesterday I watched the film "The Gruffalo" with both classes of my year 3. This film is about a mouse that looks for some nuts in a wood and he finds lots of animals who want to eat him. The mouse invents a monster to scare the animals and finally, the monster called Gruffalo, becomes true. Will the Gruffalo eat the mouse at the end of the story?

Before watching the film, I explained the kids what was it about and I told them to pay attention to all the animals that appeared in the video. I saw children really interested in the story and they enjoyed the plot. When the film ended, I asked them which animals they had seen and how the Gruffalo looked like.

With this activity we worked on the animals' vocabulary and parts of the body. I think that kids loved the film because it's addressed to this age children so I want to use it with my future students.

Storytelling in year 4 23.01.12

Last week, my school tutor suggested me to do some storytelling with year 4 students. She provided me with a very nice book called "What's that noise" that explains the story of a nine years old girl who goes to live to an old house. Three mice live in this old house so, who will stay finally in the house?

Because we had enough books for all the kids, all of them have started reading the story in silence during 5 minutes. Then, I have read the text loudly in order to make them listen to the pronunciation. I have read the text in English but I have translated the most difficult words to Catalan to help students to understand it. I have also done mime because I think it's a good resource to develop their oral comprehension. I consider also important to change the voice and to use different tones of voice to catch children's attention and to make the story more realistic.

After reading the story, we have done some activities I had previously photocopied from the book. The activities were related to the story and they contained lots of contents: the time, prepositions of place, family vocabulary, etc. We have done the activity with the whole group class and all the kids have participated and have written the answers on the blackboard. We haven't had time to finish all the activities but  we have had a very great time. Tomorrow I'm teaching the same lesson to the other year 4 class so I hope to do it well!

My first day teaching 22.01.13

Today I have started teaching unit 3 of Surprise! book at year 6. Previously, I had planned the session and I decided to combine the contents from the book with extra vocabulary I looked for. 

From the beginning of the lesson I have established very clear rules: the class must be in silence when I talk and if someone has a question he just has to raise his hand and I will answer. I have also talked in English most of the time of the session and I've just switched to Catalan when kids didn't really understand (I have to admit that it has happened a few times because students had good oral comprehension).

I have had a great time at today's class because I have interacted with kids and they have participated a lot. I think they have learnt the vocabulary and they have also practiced their speaking and pronunciation thanks to a tongue twister.

The only thing I haven't controlled has been the timing. The lesson was only 45 minutes because it was in the afternoon and it has started late so we have only had 35 minutes to do the activities. I prepared a game for the end of the lesson we haven't had time to play. I hope we can put it in practice another day and I would also like to control better the time.

My tutor has congratulated me at the end of the class so I want to keep going with the same methodology and doing it well.

Planning and grading exams! 16.01.13

Today has been the third day at school and I'm having a fantastic time. Yesterday I talked with my tutor and she suggested me to start teaching next week. I'm so motivated because next Tuesday I will start a new unit of Surprise book with year 6 students. I will follow the book and my tutor has provided me with lots of resources as the teacher's book, extension activities, etc. Although most of the time we will work with the book, we are going to practice some readings from the "avaluació de competències bàsiques" because they will take this exam in May. 

I'm going to plan activities for other levels as well. For example, for year 4, I have selected a book story and we will read it in class. After reading it, we will do some comprehension activities in groups. I'm also planning to put a film called "The Gruffalo" to year 3 students because I'm sure they will love it, but I have to asked it to my tutor first.

Today year 6 pupils have taken an exam and I have offered to correct them. During this afternoon I have been grading exams and I have realised it is a hard work because it takes a long time. 

PLC. Linguistic Project of Ignasi Iglesias school

Today I have had access to the Linguistic Project of my school practice. I have read it all but I have especially focused on the part that talked about English. The Project was written in 2008 and teachers have added new information during the last four years. It was approved by the school council and by all the staff. 

In the Linguistic Project, specifically in the part referred to English language, we read:

• The English plan follows the curriculum and it distributes in a progressive way all the contents of the primary years.
• The methodology tries to promote some abilities and strategies in order to have a successful communication. Teachers will always try to create meaningful and motivating communicative situations in class.
• Teachers will always adapt the materials used in class to new students who don't know so much English.
• The school will make profit of some technogical learning resources as CDs, digital blackboards, etc. With this set of resources, teachers will try to motivate students and to develop kids cognitive abilities.
• In English class, the vehicular language will be English. Teachers will plan oral activities in order to improve this skill.
• Kids will start to study English in P5 of infant education. The lessons will be oral and playful.

My first day at school 14.01.13

Today has been my first day at Ignasi Iglesias school. When I have arrived, the head of studied had all the documents prepared for me: the timetable, the work plan, etc.

Then, she has shown me my class for the rest of these five weeks. I will be with the English teacher, who is also the tutor of year 6. My tutor has been very kind and friendly with me, and from the beginning, she has allowed me to participate and to do some activities. For example, in the first Catalan class, I've been writing in the blackboard some ideas of the pupils in order to write a legend. I also have been talking with kids in two English classes: with year four and year six. Children have introduced themselves in English and then, they have asked me some questions in this language as well. I have enjoyed a lot this activity because students have practiced their oral skills. In an Catalan class I have dictated a text so I thing that my first day has been so profitable.

I have already talked with my tutor about the classes I have to plan. We have arranged that I will plan some sessions of year 6 and I will use the book. I'm going to prepare English activities for the rest of the levels so I'm looking forward to observe how kids work and then start teaching.

Statement of purposes

In the second year of this degree we had our first school practice. In my case, the experience wasn’t good enough because I didn’t get very well with my school tutor. We didn’t have any communication and then I could participate in class so I couldn’t have the experience of being a teacher. For this reason, during my second school placement I decided to change my mind and I got very involved with my students and with the whole school. In the second school practice I learn how to plan units and activities in real situations. Moreover, I could analyse how the primary schools work because I assisted to many teachers meetings and I could observe lots of the teacher’s tasks. Last year I felt as a real teacher and I finish my placement with a very good feeling: I had learnt a lot, I did my best and I got on very well both with my tutors and students. In this practicum three I want to act in the same way I did last year and I hope I can enjoy my teaching English practice because actually, this is the main subject I’m going to teach at schools.

In our third period of practice, we are going to spend five weeks at school and we will have tutorial sessions at university as well. I hope these two experiences help each other to improve our docent assignment. I would like that our university sessions guide us in this experience and give us resources to do it properly. It’s also very important to put in practice everything we have learnt during these three years and a half at university because both theory and practice complement one another and doing this, we will realised if our learning has been useful or not.

One of the main strength I have to face this English practice is that I’ve been working as an English teacher of primary and infant students during two years. Although I only had ten kids per class, I gained experience in planning, inventing activities, assessment, classroom management, etc. I think most of the resources I put in practice with my students last year will be very useful at school this month. I will make profit of the most successful activities and I’m sure children will enjoy them. I also think that the fact of having studied ELT methodology in the first semester is an asset for us. We have learnt how to plan meaningful English units, to develop CLIL projects, different resources to put in practice in class apart from de book, etc. Definitely, I’m sure I’m going to use most of the tasks we saw at university because I found them very interesting and useful.

If now I think about my weaknesses, I have just experience in teaching small groups of students. In the private academy I used to work I had maximum ten kids per class, so it was easy to manage the group. I also think it’s going to be difficult to teach just English. Last year we taught in our mother tongue, so it was easy to explain to students the doubts they had. This year I would like to talk most of the time in English, and I know the level of this language at schools is low. For this reason, I could get a bit nervous if children don’t understand me or don’t know how to do the activities I purpose. I have to consider too, that in Ignasi Iglesias School, there a lot of kids with special education needs. They spent the day both in the ordinary class and in the USEE, so that’s why I will have to adapt the contents for them.

I consider this school placement as an essential process in our degree and it will contribute to our teacher growth. With this, I’m very motivated to start this third practice and I hope it was as great as the previous one was. To have a successful experience I’m willing to work in a positive way at school and at university, to always offer my help to the teacher in class, to analyse all the educational situations and to reflect on my interventions with children. I also want to communicate and get on well with all the teachers of the school and with my university tutor and I will ask about any question I have. I hope to spend a wonderful time at school and to make profit of it for my future teacher assignment.

Reading: Aula

On Monday 14th in the tutorial session we talked about a reading called Aula, from the author Joan Todó.

In this story we see the daily life of an English teacher and all the problems she has to deal with at school. For example, kids are not very motivated to learn English and neither the teacher to teach a new language. At school there are a lot of students who need special education and the teacher doesn't attend these needs.

The teacher is not neither coordinate with other teachers and now the director proposes CLIL classes, thing that will suppose to much work for the teacher. We also see some activities in the English class: she prepares some pictures of The Simpson, but after painting the characters, children don't do any activity related to English. Parents of pupils are another problem to deal with: they don't try to understand teachers and they think their kids behave well all the time in class.

After talking about the problems the teacher had, all the members of the tutorial group proposed some solutions to improve the quality of the teacher English sessions and also to motivate both students and teacher. For example we thought about work group because then kids with different level of English will be able to help each other. Coordination with other teachers is also very important, not just to prepare meaningful activities but also to plan CLIL sessions. In the class there is an English student so we said that the teacher could propose the girl to help her classmates, to talk about her country, etc.

Presentació al CEIP Ignasi Iglesias

Hola a tothom!

Aquí comença el meu blog sobre aquesta experiència de pràctiques III a l'escola Ignasi Iglesias, situada a Cornellà de Llobregat.

Dimarts vaig assistir a l'escola per primer cop per presentar-me i conèixer el centre. L'edifici és molt nou ja que va ser construït fa pocs anys (abans l'escola es trobava a un altre edifici) i una de les coses que més em va cridar l'atenció és la quantitat de llum que hi entra. 

La primera cosa que vam fer quan vam arribar al centre les meves companyes i jo va se tenir una reunió amb al directora i la cap d'estudis del centre. Van ser molt amables i ens van proporcionar una sèrie de papers per entendre millor el funcionament de l'escola i d'aquestes pràctiques. En el meu cas, em van assignar una de les dues mestres d'anglès que hi ha al centre, que a més a més és tutora de cicle superior. D'aquesta manera podré assistir tant a classes d'anglès com a d'altres assignatures. 

Un cop vam llegir tots els papers vam poder fer un volt per l'escola. L'edifici consta de tres nivells: al de baix de tot es troben els nens d'infantil, el gimnàs, el menjador i la sortida al pati.

A primer pis trobem l'entrada i consergeria, la biblioteca, una gran terrassa, lavabos, l'USEE i d'altres classes que aniré explicant més endavant.

Al pis de dalt estan les classes de primària, així com més lavabos i d'altres classes. Si voleu veure més fotografies del centre cliqueu aquí.

A més a més de conèixer les instal·lacions de l'escola, la cap d'estudis ens va informar que ens trobàvem a una escola verda i per aquest motiu trobem un hort a la terrassa.

A mesura que vagin passant els dies explicaré més coses sobre l'escola. De moment aquí teniu la seva web per si hi voleu fer un cop d'ull.

http://www.xtec.cat/ceip-ignasiiglesias-cornella/