Have you ever thought being a teacher is only about teaching? Then, let me say you are wrong. Among the dozens of functions the teachers are involved in (imagine… preparing the classes, thinking of activities, preparing exams, correcting exercises, being responsible of the students, correcting exams, input the marks in the system, development of projects, implementing new regulations, etc.), the most remarkable is attending to meetings: department meetings, tutor’s meetings, teachers’ meetings, assessment meetings, parents meetings, etc. As with the limited hours of this CAP we cannot attend them all, this week I have focused on a tutorship class, its corresponding tutor’s meeting and a department’s meeting.
My coach is the tutor of group 31 in 3rd of ESO in IES Bernat el Ferrer. As in all her classes, she has checked attendance and then she has informed the students about the agenda of the day: the forthcoming students’ elections to the Board of the School, as one of the students of this group has applied as a candidate following the advice of my tutor. Then, some remarks about behaviour rules to be established in the next meeting of tutors of 3rd of ESO, such as for example the number of delays which are to be considered punishable. The return of a template filled in by the students with the grades they expect in the forthcoming exams signed by their parents (self-assessment). The design of a personal study agenda, day by day, with a view to the forthcoming exams signed by their parents too. And finally, a voluntary work to be carried out in class about a conference they have just seen. Each school has normally a tutorship plan to carry out. According to what I have been able to deduct from the class I have attended, the tutorship plan to be carried out in 3rd of ESO has two main objectives: on one hand, to foster the human values of the students, their discipline and the rules who govern the school. On the other hand, to improve the academic results of the students by improving their study strategies and techniques and by involving their parents in the process. When they started the last point of the agenda, the activity on human values, my tutor has taken the chance I was in the class with the students to have individual and personalized meetings with some students outside the class. The topic, the opinion of the teachers about the student of one side and the opinion of the student about his/her needs and results on the other.
The tutor’s meeting, and the tutorship class, takes place once per week. The tutors’ meetings are organized by academic year. In the case of the meeting I have attended with my coach, all were tutors of the groups in 3rd of ESO. They have spoken about the procedures and functions they, as tutors, have to carry out, such as meeting with the parents of the students, templates to fill in, inspections, etc. They have also agreed on some rules for the students and their corresponding punishment, such as for example in the case of delays in class. They have spoken about the students’ elections to the Board of the School and the candidates, as there should be at least one from 3rd of ESO. They have mentioned my tutor’s student in group 31/D2, who has applied for candidate to the Board. They have also spoken about past and future activities, as for example, the results on the activity on human values and, then, about the activities focused on improving the learning strategies of the students. My tutor has mentioned her idea of making her students in group 31 prepare a study agency to be signed by their parents. The idea has been welcome by all the other tutors of 3rd of ESO and they have agreed they all will apply this learning strategy to their students too. Finally, they have spoken about some particular students group by group, focusing on those with particular cases such as curricular adaptations or those causing conflicts in the school. This part has been of special interest given the importance of knowing how to proceed and deal with these issues in the right way: not only with the aim of neutralizing the student’s conflicts, but in order not to get involved into any legal issue too. A tutor’s meeting is, therefore, the cradle of all the different functions of the teachers as tutors, for the tutorship class and for the daily everyday life within the school.
The cradle of the teacher’s didactic function is the Department Meeting, in this case the Foreign Languages Department. In these meetings, which take place very one or two weeks according to the agenda, the teachers deal with all the issues concerning common teaching procedures and strategies such as compulsory readings, the division of the students in groups to foster particular skills such as speaking and interaction, changes in the curricular units at a school or a greater level such as the increase of the mark percentage of the speaking skills in the pre-university exam, etc. Then, about the exams and the different resources to be used in them as, though each teacher prepares his/her own exams, resources such as listening or reading cannot be repeated for the same group in the following years… They have also spoken about language projects that can be carried out in the school, with a special mention to the Comenius Project they are already involved in. About new regulations taking effect in short and the requirements for adaptation to these new regulations, etc and about bureaucracy: about how many documents, papers, regulations, projects, etc they must get involved in.
These two meeting and the tutorship class have been very useful to me to widen my knowledge about the school and the different functions the teachers are involved in. As far as this kind of meetings is concerned, and given I am already running out of hours to carry out this practicum, I will only be able to attend one more, this will be the Assessment Meeting in a couple of weeks, once I have finished implementing my didactic unit and the exams week of the first term is over.
My coach is the tutor of group 31 in 3rd of ESO in IES Bernat el Ferrer. As in all her classes, she has checked attendance and then she has informed the students about the agenda of the day: the forthcoming students’ elections to the Board of the School, as one of the students of this group has applied as a candidate following the advice of my tutor. Then, some remarks about behaviour rules to be established in the next meeting of tutors of 3rd of ESO, such as for example the number of delays which are to be considered punishable. The return of a template filled in by the students with the grades they expect in the forthcoming exams signed by their parents (self-assessment). The design of a personal study agenda, day by day, with a view to the forthcoming exams signed by their parents too. And finally, a voluntary work to be carried out in class about a conference they have just seen. Each school has normally a tutorship plan to carry out. According to what I have been able to deduct from the class I have attended, the tutorship plan to be carried out in 3rd of ESO has two main objectives: on one hand, to foster the human values of the students, their discipline and the rules who govern the school. On the other hand, to improve the academic results of the students by improving their study strategies and techniques and by involving their parents in the process. When they started the last point of the agenda, the activity on human values, my tutor has taken the chance I was in the class with the students to have individual and personalized meetings with some students outside the class. The topic, the opinion of the teachers about the student of one side and the opinion of the student about his/her needs and results on the other.
The tutor’s meeting, and the tutorship class, takes place once per week. The tutors’ meetings are organized by academic year. In the case of the meeting I have attended with my coach, all were tutors of the groups in 3rd of ESO. They have spoken about the procedures and functions they, as tutors, have to carry out, such as meeting with the parents of the students, templates to fill in, inspections, etc. They have also agreed on some rules for the students and their corresponding punishment, such as for example in the case of delays in class. They have spoken about the students’ elections to the Board of the School and the candidates, as there should be at least one from 3rd of ESO. They have mentioned my tutor’s student in group 31/D2, who has applied for candidate to the Board. They have also spoken about past and future activities, as for example, the results on the activity on human values and, then, about the activities focused on improving the learning strategies of the students. My tutor has mentioned her idea of making her students in group 31 prepare a study agency to be signed by their parents. The idea has been welcome by all the other tutors of 3rd of ESO and they have agreed they all will apply this learning strategy to their students too. Finally, they have spoken about some particular students group by group, focusing on those with particular cases such as curricular adaptations or those causing conflicts in the school. This part has been of special interest given the importance of knowing how to proceed and deal with these issues in the right way: not only with the aim of neutralizing the student’s conflicts, but in order not to get involved into any legal issue too. A tutor’s meeting is, therefore, the cradle of all the different functions of the teachers as tutors, for the tutorship class and for the daily everyday life within the school.
The cradle of the teacher’s didactic function is the Department Meeting, in this case the Foreign Languages Department. In these meetings, which take place very one or two weeks according to the agenda, the teachers deal with all the issues concerning common teaching procedures and strategies such as compulsory readings, the division of the students in groups to foster particular skills such as speaking and interaction, changes in the curricular units at a school or a greater level such as the increase of the mark percentage of the speaking skills in the pre-university exam, etc. Then, about the exams and the different resources to be used in them as, though each teacher prepares his/her own exams, resources such as listening or reading cannot be repeated for the same group in the following years… They have also spoken about language projects that can be carried out in the school, with a special mention to the Comenius Project they are already involved in. About new regulations taking effect in short and the requirements for adaptation to these new regulations, etc and about bureaucracy: about how many documents, papers, regulations, projects, etc they must get involved in.
These two meeting and the tutorship class have been very useful to me to widen my knowledge about the school and the different functions the teachers are involved in. As far as this kind of meetings is concerned, and given I am already running out of hours to carry out this practicum, I will only be able to attend one more, this will be the Assessment Meeting in a couple of weeks, once I have finished implementing my didactic unit and the exams week of the first term is over.
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