Knowing the School, Knowing other Ways II

This week has been very intense in all senses. Not only I have gone through my first teaching experience, but I have also participated in some other projects taking place in IES Bernat el Ferrer. The objective: improving my knowledge of the educational project of this school and knowing other strategies and teaching dynamics from other teachers.
A couple of the projects I have attended have a lot to do with the Foreign Languages Department. In the subjects Arts and Crafts in ESO and English in Computer Education in Professional Cicles Formatius, the language of communication and interaction is English. But there is an important different between these two subjects: Arts and Crafts in ESO is in English, whereas the content in the English class in Computer Education in Professional Cicles Formatius is about computers. In the first case, this cross-content education means a further exposure of the students to the English language. When they interact in class, English becomes a means of communication about and around the content of the Arts and Crafts. They are learning English and making use of their listening, speaking and interaction skills in a natural way, indirectly, through learning other contents. In the Cicles Formatius English class, on the other hand, it seems that the only way to keep the students interest in the English language is focusing the class on the content they are there to learn about: computer systems. No English grammar, no other contents.
In the Arts and Craft class, most of my students in groups B2 and D2 were there. So I have felt confident in the observation of this class, moving here and there with the teacher listening to her conversations with the students and having a look to what they had been drawing. I have not been able to participate much in the class, as my knowledge about Arts and Crafts is in fact very low. I must confess, anyway, I have thought it is admirable and brave of both the teacher and the students to carry out this subject in English. Despite some tries of a couple of students to make themselves clear in Catalan, what the teacher has refused, the class and its interaction was completely in English (excepting the interaction student-student). The structure in the class has been very similar to my tutor’s: first, she has checked attendance and homework delivery. Afterwards, she has proceeded to present the drawing activity they had to work on during the class and she has taken note of who had brought the right tools to carry on this activity. The dynamic of the class, on the other hand, was different to my tutor’s: instead of theory and exercises, the students of Arts and Crafts have been on task during the whole class. When the students are on task with my tutor, the work is usually silent and individual. In the Arts and Crafts class, despite working individually too, the working environment has been generally loud (some students were even wearing earphones, what I could personally never tolerate in a class of mine). But each teacher has his/her own ways, and they are all equally respectable. On the wall, a very interesting drawing with four instructions calling for discipline: I will not interrupt someone else’s speech, I will follow the instructions of my teacher, I will cooperate with my counterparts and I will respect the others. This could summarize the discipline I would expect in a class.
The English class in Cicles Formatius has been all of an experience too. According to the teacher, most of these students haven’t passed the ESO examinations and some of them have registered in Computer Education because they simply like computers, without any other firm vocation. As she had warned me, both the dynamic and the climate in the class have been very different to what I had seen so far in ESO: excepting four of five quiet students sitting at the front of the class and some others who were trying to follow the teachers’ explanations, four students have been loud all the time, interrupting the teacher and the others when they were speaking. They were not listening and one of them was even chatting on his computer or designing new desktops all through the class... What I would call an absolute lack of respect and discipline and an unsuitable learning and working environment. The teacher has made several calls for discipline and tried to keep the boys calm. She has asked them to turn off their monitors, to be silent and to be respectful with their other colleagues, all without losing his temper. But they have ignored her and continued their own way. After the class, the teacher has confessed me she is not there to be a policewoman. She is there to teach those students who want to learn and it wouldn’t be fare for the other students to waste her and their time paying attention or focusing on those students. They might be there, according to the teacher’s words, because they are obliged by their parents to continue with their studies. Analyzing this experience, I have realized how important it is to set up and negotiate with the students a series of disciplinary rules at the beginning of the course. Afterwards, fighting has no sense and your only solution is to carry on the best possible way.
Another project in which I have participated is the Newcomers’ class. The teacher has been very gentle to sit with me for about 20 minutes before the class started. He has explained me when and how this project was born both in Catalonia and in IES Bernat el Ferrer. The Newcomers’ Project is part of the LICS programme (Plan for Language, Interculturization and Social Cohesion), whose main objective is addressing diversity. Through the Newcomers’ class, the schools try to guarantee a quick integration of the foreign students in the school for their educational success. This information is all new to me. When I was a student of Secondary School fifteen years ago, these projects did not exist. We did not have the immigration levels we have nowadays in our country. Those schools which have this programme accepted by the Catalan Government receive an economical aid and they are assigned an additional teacher. The maximum time a student can take part in the Newcomers’ class is 24 months. After this time, it is understood the student can attend the classes in a normal way. This teacher I have interviewed is the coordinator of the Newcomers’ class in IES Bernat el Ferrer. To be a coordinator of such a project you must have a fix post in the corresponding school. The class I have attended was with only two students, one from Cuba in 3rd of ESO and the other one from Moldavia in 4th of ESO. The dynamic of the class has been a real working environment. The teacher has firstly explained some Catalan grammar issues which are going to be assessed in an exam they both will have to pass in short. The teachers taking part in the Newcomer’s project must be in complete coordination with all the teachers of the students attending this class. After this grammar point, the teacher had prepared a couple of activities in order to improve their vocabulary in Catalan. It has been nice to see how both students made the effort to speak Catalan all through the class, though sometimes they had the need to resort to the Spanish language. Furthermore, it has been curious to see, independently of their levels, how the students had difficulties in learning different words, particularly those which were not similar in their mother tongue. The experience has been very enriching as a whole and it has made me realize of the importance of addressing diversity: not only at a school level, but also in our classrooms. What would be the role of these students in the schools without a newcomers’ class? Better to prevent from conflicts, they come already on their own!

First Steps

Thought and done. The week started as I expected. When we went to class with group B2, my tutor had forgotten her textbook in the department, so she asked me if I could start the class alone while she was going to look for it. Myself in front of 16 students for the first time, deep breath, a rush of energy coming up from my stomach and go! My tutor was out of the class for around 15 minutes, during which we started to do some new exercises all together in class. What a dynamic! The kids were very motivated and willing to participate all the time, even those girls who always speak non-stop were trying to answer their best. Loud voice, high intonation and very clear pronunciation, this all came by itself. Expression and non-verbal language came out from inside naturally too. The experience was extraordinary, as if I had been doing it all my life. When my tutor came in the class, my mouth was totally dry from the excitement and the unexpected circumstances I had been gone through. At the end of the class, my tutor suggested me to prepare the following class if I had enjoyed this experience. More than welcome, how could I refuse such an invitation!
And so it has been. I have been one whole lesson in front of 16 students on my own, while my tutor was observing me, taking some recordings of the experience and enjoying my class sitting at the back of the classroom. I have started with an introductory presentation, as it was my first full class. In this presentation I have asked them for their participation whenever they had any question, insisting on putting up their hands anytime they wanted to speak. I have tried to humanize me too, as it was my first class as a teacher ever, just in case they observed I was nervous: because I was. And my mouth, it was dry again. But it has only been during the first five minutes. After that, all has gone smoothly. The objective of the class was the students learnt the difference between the past simple and the past continuous, so I have started presenting this grammar point together view a review of the present simple and the present continuous too. As in the previous class, loud voice, high intonation, clear pronunciation and corporal expression have come out alone in a natural way, I have not had to worry much about this. I was confident with the issue I as teaching too, so this all has been very positive to be able to focus more on the students needs than in my own teaching procedures and strategies: In the middle of my explanations, among grammar and examples I have been writing in the blackboard, all of a sudden, when I have turned around, I have seen they were all very serious. I got a thrill coming out form the inside. Being such a social and dynamic class, I have thought I was boring them. But, then, I have realized their eyes were wide open looking at the blackboard, with complete concentration analyzing all what I had just written on the blackboard. The students were paying attention to me! The dynamic of the class was working. Therefore, I have decided to concentrate on the objective of the lesson and making sure all the students were understanding my explanations. I have approached to them and asked them if they had any doubts while they were doing some exercises (especially to those I know they have a lower level of English and have more difficulties to follow the classes). When we have corrected them, asking one by one and in sitting order, I have noticed all of them had understood this grammar point correctly: objective achieved!
At the end of the class, my tutor has informed she was very satisfied with the development of the class. The only thing to mention was about how to keep the girls at the back of the class quiet and silent during the exercises. All the rest had run perfect.
After the experiences of this week with group B2, my tutor and I have had a meeting to speak about the didactic unit I will have to implement with group D2. Their next unit will be about the present perfect and the difference with the past simple, as well as the use of related words such as already, since, for, during, ever, just, yet, etc. She has made some suggestions to me. Then, I have come out with the idea of using Jules Verne’s character Willy Fog and a power point with photographs of different countries of the world as the starting point for my lesson plan. I still have to organize it all, but at least I know where to start from. And I must admit it has not been easy. On the other hand, my tutor has suggested carrying out an activity, which would be very useful for both me and our D2 students: doing a presentation of both my student and professional life in the next class would let me feel more confident with group D2 before implementing my didactic unit. At the same time, it could be very encouraging for them to keep on working hard and to make them understand the importance of learning languages nowadays. It has been in fact an excellent suggestion, so no doubt I will be implementing this next week!

Knowing the School, Knowing other Ways

My tutor has thought I have already acquired a good notion of the dynamics of her classes through the observation and participation so far, so we have thought it was time to start widening my vision of what teaching in a Department of Languages and in a Secondary School means. We have arranged to attend a couple of classes with one of my tutor’s colleagues: one Batxillerat class and a Comenius Project Class, in which IES Bernat el Ferrer is involved in.
The Batxillerat class had a quite turbulent start: once more, the unpredictable. At this point, I am starting to think this plays a very important role in a Secondary School teacher’s daily life. She was not able to find the exams of this group, which she had just corrected. Already in the department, she was looking for them here and there with no luck. When the bell rang, I could see she was very worried and stressed along the corridors on our way to class. So, I couldn´t help trying to be positive and cheer her up by saying they were most probably in her car or even maybe at home, 24 exams are not so easily lost. I have even suggested her I could take care of the class while she was going to check if the exams were in her car. And fortunately, they were there. She is a young teacher, she is only 28 years old. The difference of age with her students is only around 10 years and this has been especially remarkable when I come to analyze the difference between the dynamic of her class and my tutor’s. The climate is different. If both are friendly, my tutor generates a tridimensional role: as a teacher, as a friend and as a mother. Her colleague’s class lacks of the protection role I have been able to observe all through my tutor’s sessions. Discipline and motivation are, therefore, handled in a different way. This teacher was somehow not so imperative with her orders, so when she made a call for silence, the class was noisy again in less than a couple of minutes. She was probably not imperative enough, from where I consider we need to be serious and especially firmly imperative when we want the students to follow our rules. On the other, it might be because Batxillerat students are older or because of the small difference in age, but I have not noticed any call for encouragement throughout this class. It seems as if the students knew, or were supposed to know, what the objective of being there is and what is expected from them. After this class, anyway, my main conclusion is each teacher creates with his/her students a different dynamic, a different climate. The objectives of this class dynamism and management might be the same. But the means are definitively different. Unfortunately, the unexpected had a remarkable influence on the development of this class from the beginning to the end. But we all have the right to have a bad day.
Total turnover when I have attended to Comenius Project class with the same teacher. She already more relaxed and the development of the class has clearly profited from this. Comenius Project is an educational exchange programme she has organized and applied by herself with the support of the other members of the department. She has let me know the whole process of organizing, applying and having it accepted with its corresponding economical aid has not been easy at all. This project started in “e-twining”. Four schools from different parts of the world, including IES Bernat el Ferrer, had been in touch for a long time through “face to face”. But as organizing and exchange programme through this system was not free, she suggested the other schools applying for a government subsidy to make this project real. She even had to study a special course to become a project coordinator… In this Comenius Bilateral Partnership Project are involved IES Bernat el Ferrer and Freiherr von Stein Schule in Necharsteinach near Heidelberg in Germany. The teacher selected the best 20 students of last year’s 3rd of ESO to carry it out. The dynamic of the whole class is working in groups in order to elaborate a complete guide of Barcelona. They are a total of six gr of 3 or 4 student, working a different topic each. Attending to this class has been a very enriching experience. Each group has explained me what topic they were preparing for their German counterparts: gastronomy, bars & restaurants, on one hand. Religion, bank holidays, celebrations and festivities, another one. Organizing the trip, required documents and how to arrive to Barcelona, the third. Transportation and sports, the next one. Architecture and touristic attractions. And finally, Economy and politics in Catalonia. I have tried to cooperate with them as much as possible too, with vocabulary requests and even suggesting them how to search and find the information they required. The event will take place in March. These students will visit their colleagues in Germany and make an exposition of their project. Then, in 2010, it will be their German counterparts who will come to Spain to present their project. I have had the chance to have a look at the website they are preparing for them too, where the teachers, the students and their parents are able to interact. So, this project, not only expose the students more time to the English language, but this exposure involves research in English, creativity and developing their communication skills: designing and expressing their ideas in writing and communicating with other people in real life too.
Once back to the department, I have been very pleased to stay with the members of the Departments of Languages for more than half an hour without any other objective than communication. They are very friendly and nice. The main topic of conversation has been the forthcoming strike and they were mostly discussing if they would go on strike or not and why. I have arranged to assist to three other classes for next week: Arts and Crafts in ESO and a computer class in Professional Education courses, which are in English in IES Bernat el Ferrer. Furthermore, to the Newcomers Class. This way, I will be able to learn more, not only from the different teaching strategies of other teachers, but about the structure, the curriculum and educational project of a Secondary School. My tutor, on the other hand, has told me the students in group B2 adore me… So, apart of my classes with group D2, she has suggested I’d better teach group B2 for some sessions too! I have obviously welcomed this suggestion, so I can clearly envisage what I will come across in practicum next week!

Come into my World

This is already my third week of practicum and i have the impression things are developing faster than I had expected. The serious concierge of the school already greets me enthusiastically and with a smile on his face every day when I get in the school, many teachers and students say hello when we meet in the corridors and I have started to feel, somehow, integrated within the school. With the students in my groups is happening exactly the same thing and the best of all is that it is reciprocal. I can recognize the faces of most of the students in both groups and, despite being a total of 39 students all together, I have easily started to remember most of their names too. And I am glad I have, as I am participating little by little more actively in my tutor’s classes!
As I have mentioned in previous posts, the classes are divided into two groups once per week. My tutor has explained me this is compulsory when they are more than 25 students in one class and that, despite neither of them has more than 25 students, they decided at the beginning of the course to separate them anyway in order to be able to pay further attention to each particular student and their needs. This is especially required when they have to do interacting and speaking activities because, as my tutor has said to me, the new curriculum for foreign languages demands to focus more on these skills. As we had half of the students in group D2, my tutor has asked them to change the sitting arrangement in a semicircle. This is very important, she has said to me, as it provides a warmer and more appropriate environment to develop the speaking skills of the students. When she said to me this class would be about plastic surgery, the first thing I thought was this topic might be quite boring for the students. I thought that, if I had to prepare a class like this by my own at this at this stage, I would'nt know what sort of questions I would have to ask them or how I would manage to call their attention and interest throughout the whole class. Afer this class I have realized it is possible to keep the students' attention even when dealing with the most boring topics: if we are empathic with the students and try to get into the world within their heads, we could achieve it. Each student is a different and has different interests. It can be very difficult to reach and to respond to the interests of all the students, but if you make the effort of thinking as a teenager, to get into their world, you will surely have more chances to succeed. So, when we have asked the students if they would pay money to change parts of their body, their reaction has been unanimous: an emphatic "No". But when we have asked them if they wouldn´t in circumstances such as being an actor or an actress, after an accident or if they had low self-esteem, they have started to hesitate and some of their answers have changed. As it seems to be an important issue for teenagers, we have focused on self-esteem. We have related this it to their preferences of boys and girls and the models they mostly like to justify the increasing demand of plastic surgery at early ages. We have even spoken about the Spanish Health System and the operations it covers. It is always very useful to provide them with information of the world around them. And last, but not least, we have spoken about a very important issue for teenagers: the physical and phychological consequences of acne and its medical treatment. This has particularly called their attention. I was amazed to see how thet are able to construct sentences and express themselves. I did not expect they would have such a good level. To finalize the class, we have worked on a listening about plastic surgery in order to review the use of comparatives and superlatives. When my tutor has had a problem with the cd-player she has apologized and has made a laugh at herself about being so bad at technology. I have realized how important it is, despite being though and strict, to sometimes make them understand teachers are human beings too.
With group B2, as they are smaller in number, things are developing even faster than with group D2. This group has an excellent cohesion given the special expressive and social virtues of some of these students. This is very positive, though sometimes this makes it difficult to know how to make them calm down. My participation with them is becoming very peculiar: not only I am helping with their questions carrying out some grammar exercises and other writing activities, but I have started to be the official reader of the class too. This is helping them to realize how important it is the pronunciation and the intonation in a sentence, to copy themselves. Particularly for them, being so expressive. When my tutor gave back the results of the exams, and they saw they were not as good as they expected, one of the students has started to cry. She felt lost and was not able to follow the classes, she has confessed. I would have never thought I would live such an experience. It has certainly been very sad to see such an outgoing girl crying while she was justifying herself. I have somehow felt helpless... but we have considered the best we could do is meeting with her during the break time, to listen and to analyze ther thoughts and her circumstances in a deeper way with the aim to see how we could encourage her and make her continue following the rhythm of the class. This has particularly made me think that, if our objective as teachers is the learning process of the students and improving their results, we must pay special attention to all and each of these issues. If you don´t listen to them, if we don´t analyze their feelings, thoughts and beliefs, the world within their heads, we will very easily start loosing students along the way.

Yes, We Can!

This has been the slogan of Barack Obama in his presidential campaign. And he has won. “Podemos” was the slogan of the Spanish National Football Team… and they won too. These words seem to carry the sense of motivation of encouragement. They seem to carry the energy of success, the power of belief, and they make real, now more than ever, the proverb “Where there’s a Will, There’s a Way!”
Yesterday, the 5th of November 2008, we had class with group B2 at 8.15hrs in the morning. And what could have been under other circumstances a monotonous boring class turned to be a very effective and enriching session for the students, not only due to its contents in the English learning process, but more particularly, as a lesson for life. Apart of the usual call for discipline, her lively dynamism, her effective sense of humour and her charismatic smile, the lesson I have learnt is about motivation and encouragement. As I have already explained in previous posts, my tutor usually uses encouraging strategies such as thanking the students when they are willing to participate in class or the reiterated use of motivating words such as “came on!”, “very well done”, very good”, “you are brilliant today!” etc. But it was really amazing to see her walking along the class, gesticulating, moving her hands, with her face full of expression, eyes wide-open and saying “I have backache… and I want to feel perfect! I feel perfect! And you? How do you want to feel?”, after a student had answered her he wasn´t feeling very well… The students have afterwards felt full of energy and motivation to continue the rest of the class. Being a teacher is not only about teaching the contents of a curriculum. In fact, you have the choice. But it must be enormously rewarding to transmit your students energy, encouragement, motivation… this is, a philosophy of life. Yes, we can.
Today, we were back to Room 28. This room is becoming my favorite in the school. I have not seen so many so far, but I guess it must be because it is one of the few classes I have seen with high technology resources… a computer, an overhead projector, loudspeakers, a printer… It was not the classroom assigned for today, but she had prepared something special for the kids today. So she has had to ask the concierge and other teachers involved to make some changes in the classroom planning so that group my group D2 of 3rd of ESO could have this classroom available. The way my tutor has decided to start the class has called my attention and I have enjoyed it at lot. After calling roll, she has turned off the lights and, taking the chance of Barack Obama´s victory against John McCain in the US elections, she has played two video from BBC website: one with Obama´s words after his triumph, the other with McCain words after his defeat. The objective was, not only that the students tried to understand their messages and noticed their different accents, but to bring the world and its current news to her class. An excellent warm-up, under my opinion, to approach the students and their learning process to the real everyday life… A great strategy to motivate the students, which I will try to implement once I become a teacher.

What would happen, nevertheless, if we would only use one only way to encourage the students, this only through dynamism or only through the use of ICT activities? I bet for a balanced combination.

After class, we have been speaking for a while. I was curious to know if our Establishment obliges teachers to follow any particular didactic book, about the high technology limitations in secondary schools, about the English level, the discipline and the good work dynamic of group D2… And I have particularly appreciated my tutor changing the date of an exam to their students because today has been the only Thursday I will be able to participate in this group.

Today I feel particularly satisfied. It has been my 5th Day in IES Bernat el Ferrer and I have finally felt relaxed. It seems as if I had finally adapted to this new direction my life has taken, as if the school had already started to be part of my life and as I had already started to be part of its organization chart too. Day by day, the number of teachers and students greeting me is higher, on the corridors, in the department, in the playground when I am parking my motorbike or while I am waiting outside for the doors to be unlocked. This is making me feel integrity and, subsequently, relaxed and pleased. Very content and very happy indeed.

It is the Students Who Really Matter

Today I have attended a couple of classes. They have been so different one to the other, I have now a lot of things to think about. What kind of teacher would I like to be? Do I need to prepare the classes beforehand? Why is discipline so important? Thanks to today, now I know what really matters…

I was first with my tutor with half of Group D2 (the other half was doing a conversation class with a native speaking teacher). On our way to the classroom, my tutor has explained me the groups of more than 20 students must per law be divided into two groups one hour per week. I didn´t know about this, so this piece of information has been very useful to understand the timetable of teachers and students. Once in class, after the usual call for general silence, my tutor has started asking some questions about what they like and what they don´t like. It has been a very positive starting point as it has called the attention of the students and my tutor has taken the chance to continue with today’s activity: a listening. Being only 11 students in class, we have asked them to seat forming a semicircle. This sitting arrangement has provided a warmer atmosphere to carry out the class, so both the students and we have felt one another closer. It was a difficult listening, my tutor has informed the students accordingly. But what really matters, she has continued, is trying to catch as many words as possible. Then, working together we will be able to find out what the listening is about. So we have done. After listening the recording, the students have written in the blackboard different words and sentences they had understood, one by one. What a motivation! They put their hands up and stood up all the time, so many of them wanted to write on the blackboard the words they had understood! Once the listening was finished, we have discussed all together what the text was about: nice surprise to see they had understood more than we had expected!
After this class, we have decided I should go with the native teacher so that I could observe the dynamic of a conversation class. This native teacher is in fact an Erasmus student doing a practicum in IES Bernat el Ferrer. She is managing the conversation classes in all those hours the groups must be divided during the whole school year 2008-2009. The class has been in the library and it has started ten minutes late as the door of the library was locked. I have realized life is a Secondary School is sometimes unpredictable, things don’t always happen as you would expect. The students were a bit noise in the corridors while the concierge was coming up to the first floor to unlock the door. But once in, the students have continued with their noise and their loud conversations… The native teacher was trying to speak, but she never called for silence. I was waiting for her to do so, but strangely, she never did. I felt like doing it myself, but then I thought that, as she was not my tutor I didn´t have the right to do so. I have tried to help in a more discreet, with a serious face staring at the noisy students… until one of the students has noticed me and has called for general silence in Spanish. They have calmed down. She has made the students sit in a circle around two big tables and she was sitting in one of the sides. Short after she had started the class, some students have started complaining in Spanish they weren’t able to hear not to see her. So, while the teacher was speaking, a couple of students at the other end of the table have started speaking to me in a loud voice in Spanish to ask me if I could tell her to sit in a circle arrangement without the tables. Surprised because they were asking me instead of her, I have answered them to try to ask her direclty in English using the words they have already learnt. Quantity, not quality. I thought. And so he has done. With a simple “Can’t see” and the word “circle” the teacher has clearly understood his message and she has organized the class with a different sitting arrangement. But the boys have continued asking me questions in Spanish, now if they should take the books and the notebook or only the notebook or only the book... And once more, I have given them the same answer: “Ask her!”, trying not to become their conspiratorial translator. Once the class has calmed down again and has adopted the new sitting arrangement, the native teacher has started the class. To her surprise, the students have informed her they had already done that exercise with my tutor, so she has fallen silent, not knowing how to react. It seems she had not prepared any alternative lesson. I have felt I had to help in this situation and I have suggested her in a low voice to go over the lesson again: different teacher, less students, different sitting arrangement, so why not a conversational approach of this session. It could be a useful activity anyway. In the meantime, the students were speaking loud and noisy again, until another student has called for silence once more. All of a sudden, they have become quiet. They know how they are expected to behave in class. And this is from my point of view what the native teacher expected too. Then she has started asking them spontaneous questions about the lesson, to which the students have replied in order and correctly until the end of the class. When the bell rang, they have all collected their things, put the chairs and tables in their place and the students have gone out without saying goodbye.
After the day of today I have learned some important things: the importance of making aware your rules and discipline in class, of knowing when and how you have to ask for silence. Then, I have also learnt the importance of preparing the unit and an alternative lesson and the different pedagogic effects of using different sitting arrangement. And, finally, I have learnt how important it is the role of participation and cooperation in the teaching/learning process. It is the students who really matter. Cooperation has made them meet the goals of the listening activity in the first class. And now that I am back at home, I think I should have maybe participated more actively in the development of the second class... Well, next time!

Dear students, my name is Charlie Brown...

Today has been my second day at IES Bernat al Ferrer and, as my tutor and I had agreed, I have met the three remaining groups my tutor teaches this year. If last Thursday I was with groups B1 in 3rd of ESO and D2 in 1st of ESO, today it was the time for 3rd of ESO D1 group and the two groups which I will follow, this is 3rd of ESO B2 and D2, where I will participate more actively and I will implement my unit plan.
The first group was 3rd of ESO D1. While she was entering the class and the students were getting ready to start the class, my tutor has greeted the students and has asked them about their weekend with a smile on her face. Then she has checked attendance and homework. No-one missing today, buy some hadn't done their homework. She has asked them why they weren´t able to do them and, after hearing their reasons, she has insisted in the importance of doing their homework on a daily basis. Afterwards, she has briefly introduced what they would be doing during the class (difference between the past simple and the past continuous) and has started writing a sentence on the blackboard as a way to start the session. The main language used by my tutor has been English, but when she suspected there was any important word, sentence or grammar content the students mightn´t have understood, she has translated it for them or has given clear examples to clarify the meaning, sometimes even related to our daily lives (such as “imagine you were watching TV, Big Brother, for example, and…”). This strategy seems to keep the attention of the students, they smiled and listened carefully. And at the same time, my tutor made sure this way they were following the key issues. The students seem to try to interact in Catalan or Spanish with her. But, in such a situation, she has used her sense of humor and her usual smile to answer them “sorry, I don´t understand”. Then, the students have tried to reformulate the question in English and she has helped them when necessary. After the grammar part, my tutor has asked the students to do an exercise and she has been around checking all the students were doing it or if they had any question. All of a sudden, she has seen there was a student with a mobile phone in his hands, and despite the excuses of the boy, she has taken it from him and kept it until the end of the class. Mobile phones are obviously not allowed in class, they must leave them in their lockers during their classes. For my tutor, discipline is basic: calls for silence, listening carefully, sitting correctly or not making noise with the chair when sitting or standing up are very important. She wants an effective working atmosphere and with her insistence on discipline, her sense of humor and her personal attention to the students, she has managed to achieve it. Then the bell has rung. Time-break non-verbal sign to keep the students silent, which they have very clearly understood: before leaving, my tutor has assigned them homework for the next class. Then the students have collected their things, stood up and said goodbye to her as they were leaving.
After group D1, I have participated in group B2. This is one of the groups I will follow more closely, though I will not be implementing my unit plan with them. Their level of English is low comparing to D1 group and it is quite similar to B1 group. If group D1 uses Oxford’s English Alive, groups B1 and B2 use Oxford’s Spotlight, which has the same contents but seem to have a lower level of English. Group B2, nevertheless, seems to be a very nice and friendly group. They are only 15 students and when my tutor has introduced me as a CAP teacher and has said my name, one of the girls has said tomorrow will be my saint day!
Following her routine, my tutor has first started checking attendance. Then she has seen one of the students wasn´t feeling very well, so she has worried about her and has suggested her she´d better go home. Her throat was swollen, so my tutor has accompanied her to call her parents. When they were back, the student has collected her things and my tutor has taken good attention and care of her until she has finally left the class. By the tone of her voice and the slight physical contact, with her hand on her shoulder, I can see there is reciprocal affection going on between my tutor and her students. After this, they have corrected some exercises. There were volunteers all the time, so the students seemed to be motivated to participate in the class and to learn. Her questions are not usually directed to any student in particular, so all the students feel free to answer. She thanks them when they participate and, when they do and they do correctly, my tutor encourages them positively by saying “¡Hoy estáis que os salís! (You are brilliant today!). This seems to keep them even more effective for the next question. The class was in English, but as the level of the students is so low, they needed translations very often. So, either she asked the class in general for the meaning of a word or she translated it directly if she considered it was very difficult for them. The students’ interaction was only in Spanish or Catalan, as their vocabulary in English seems very limited. Nevertheless, my tutor has constantly encouraged them to use basic words such as “sorry” when they were caught speaking in class, “please” when they wanted to ask for something and “thank you”. Even when they said a sentence in Catalan or Spanish my tutor asked in general to all the students how to say that in English. Another strategy she uses to keep the students motivated and participating is using a sentence repeatedly together with a touch of sense of humor. It works for her: “copy, copy!” keeps the students’ attention on learning and “taking home” the outstanding vocabulary.
Next, my tutor has asked the students what they had had for breakfast one by one. With such a simple conversation, where the kids have been smiling and laughing all the time, they have used the past tense, which was, in fact, the objective of the lesson.
After this class, I had a small conversation with my tutor about the need to pay slightly more attention and be more affective to some particular students, after watching her attitude in this class. These are normally students with family issues such as divorced parents, lack of any parent… We both have agreed these students need a bit more of encouragement.

To finish the day and the participation in all the different groups my tutor teaches, I have had my first attendance to D2 group, where I will implement my unit plan. This group has the best level of English compared to all the other groups in 3rd of ESO. My tutor speaks only in English and she uses Catalan or Spanish only in the case of some translations. The interaction with the students is in English too and if any of them forget, one “Eps! In English!” is enough for the students to change their interaction language. They are using Oxfords’ English Alive 3 too, as group D1. But they seem to be even a bit more advanced than D1 group.
After greeting the students, the first thing my tutor has done is introducing me. I was sitting at the back of the class, so everybody turned around and looked at me. Afterwards, as a warm-up, my tutor has asked the students if they had gone to any party last Friday. It was “La Castanyada” / Halloween, so some students explained what they had done on Friday night and over the weekend. Then, my tutor asked the students to open their books and for a volunteer to read. Some hands were risen. This group seems to be very motivated too and to learn faster and easily than the students of other groups. There are 22 students. It's classroom number 2 and it has the same greenish tones of all the other in IES Bernat el Ferrer. This one in particular is not equipped with audiovisual material, but my tutor has brought a CD player to do a listening. It is a bit cold in the class, approximately 19º. Some students have their coats on. The blinds are open, it is a bright sunny day. During the listening the students were silent. They were trying to concentrate on what is being said. After this, she asked questions to particular students using their names and when they did not know the answer, she asked other colleagues or asked in general to all the class. All of a sudden, two students have started talking. When my tutor noticed this, she asked them to separate their desks. Then she has asked another student to sit correctly, this time reinforced by a “sit correctly in my class!”. A call for discipline is implemented with this group too, as she has already done with the other groups. When another student has yawned, apart of telling him off, she has in addition taken the chance to make him speak in English by asking him at what time he went to bed and what he had done until that time. This has, under my opinion, been an excellent combination of how discipline can be used to practise English in class too.
Then my tutor has checked the time in her watch. Only five minutes to the end of the class. So she has changed the subject of the conversation and has assigned them a composition as homework. The remaining time until the bell has rung has been used to clarify what they need to check and study for their exam, which they will have next Monday the 10th of November.

Now I have seen all my tutor’s groups. It has been very useful, as I have been able to experience and take my own conclusions about their different levels and the different strategies and methodologies my tutor has to follow to teach each of them. A call for discipline, this has been very common in all her groups, and managed, if possible, with sense of humor. It seems to be a great recipe to keep the students paying attention and participating in an effective working environment, as my tutor manages to achieve.
Tomorrow I will have group D2 again and, afterwards, I will participate in the class of an English speaking teacher with half of group D1. She is an Erasmus student doing a practicum as a teacher in IES Bernat el Ferrer, so I am sure the experience will provide me with some interesting conclusions too.

Time for Action!

I had arranged with my tutor to have our second meeting today before the break so that we could continue speaking about how we will be carrying out the practicum. Once more, this meeting with her has been very useful to me. As I have been so many years out of the educational system, I need to get adapted to the new situation, this new educational system and, of course, to the daily life in this Secondary School. Afterwards, I felt like having a cigarette. So, I went outside the school building to smoke. One minute later, the concierge came to me and let me know I was not allowed to smoke even on the playground of the school, so I have had to go out of the enclosure. I was impressed. I expected they had applied in the schools the new 2006 Law about smoking in public indoor spaces, but I had never imagined smoking outdoors would be forbidden too. When I was a student we were even allowed to smoke on the corridors. And today, si ut us, at least, in IES Bernat el Ferrer. Then the bell has rung. The break had finished. It was time to follow my tutor to her next class. Five minutes later, the bell rang again. It was time to be in the classroom and ready to start the lesson: my first observation class.
The course I have first observed is group B1 in 3rd of ESO. According to my tutor, these are the students with a lower level of English comparing to the other groups in 3rd of ESO. My tutor seems to be very punctual. When the bell rang, we were already in class and she had already closed the door of the classroom too. Her students seem to know about this, so they all have tried to take out their book, their notebooks and their pens before my tutor started the lesson. Her first words have been to call for silence. She has moved away the tables of a couple of boys who were speaking non-stop and then she has started to call roll. At the same time she has called attendance she has asked to the student if they had made their homework. The students of this group reply in Spanish or Catalan, rarely in English. There are only 13 students and they interact with one another only in Spanish or Catalan. In the process of calling roll, one student has stood up and asked if he could go to wash his hands. My tutor has refused, as the class had already started.
The classroom is Aula 28, on the second floor. Three rows of two tables organized in 5 lines. There were approximately 20ºC in the class, it is maybe a bit cold. A couple of students have still their coats on, today is cold and cloudy outside too. The lighting is correct. Not only the natural light coming through the windows, wide open, but also the lamplight is the appropriate. The class has two computers, one on the teacher´s desk and one at the back. The one at the teacher´s table is connected to an overhead projector. There is a 2 squared-metre screen next to the blackboard. Next to the teacher´s desk, a CD player and a printer machine. On the ceiling, a couple of small loudspeakers. There is a map of the world on one left side of the class, under the corridor windows. On the light side, the exterior windows. There are greenish tones all over the classroom, from the blackboard to the painted walls. The class looks ideal for an English lesson.
They have started correcting exercises about the past simple and the past continous. The class has been in English, but my tutor had to speak in Catalan often so that the students could understand what she was saying. Translations were made constantly. She has used a lot of non-verbal language to clarify the meaning of some words. She has always been standing and moving from the right to the left side of the class, approaching to the students’ desks. She has spoken loud and clear, smiling all the time. She has been asking for the answers in general to the class. One reply, one “thanks”.
All of a sudden, one student was almost to tears. My tutor has noticed this and has asked her if she was feeling ok. She has taken the girl out of the class to speak to her. One minute later, my tutor came in. She has left her speaking with the teacher on duty. Five minutes later, the students came in, picked up her things and gone out of the class. They had called her parents and the student was going home.
The class has continued with the correction of exercises. When the students were wrong, she has corrected them. When the same student was right for a second time, sentences such as “you are brilliant today!” have encouraged the student to continue participating in class. If any question, the students have always asked and spoken in Catalan or Spanish. Nevertheless, my tutor has always made the effort of translating their words into English with a smile, as a way to encourage them to use the English language as much as possible in class. She has used titles or famous sentences of songs, examples of the daily lives of the students to explain the meaning of words … Despite the dynamism of my tutor, some students were sometimes lost and needed reconfirmation in Spanish or Catalan of what was being done. A couple of girls got distracted touching their hair, another student playing with his pen, some students not sitting appropriately… Wherever she has seen distraction, she has called their attention and tried to make them follow and participate in class. Whenever it was required, she has used her authority asking for discipline. The students have always done what she has asked to this respect, and she has never had a replay against it.
Finally, a student has asked in Spanish about the marks of the pre-evaluation exam and my tutor has replied she is not allowed to provide them, following the instructions of the school. One students has then told her they would not tell anyone and my tutor has answered that what they have to do is studying, specially now they are studying the present simple and the verbs are learned by heart because this way they would be able to show their parents they can pass English. And joking, she has told them that if they pass she wants a commission! This sense of humour has made the students smile and have looks of complicity in general. After this, the students have paid attention to her words and she has been able to encourage them again offering a “positive” because their behaviour , despite the usual interruptions and calls of attention to stop talking or to sit correctly, has been appropriate today.
Then the bell has rung again. The 60 minutes of class were over. The students have started to collect their books and have started asking my tutor questions at the same time. As the students were leaving, she has said goodbye to most of the students one by one.
After this class, the students of the group D2 of 1st of ESO came into classroom 28. Today, the group was to be divided into two: one would go with my tutor to the library for a conversation class and the other will stay in classroom 28 with another English teacher. In the library, they have all sat in circle around one big table. Today’s class was about directions and they all had to explain how to go from their homes to the school. There are only 13 students. Their level of English is good. They are able to create sentences and their communication language with my tutor is usually in English. They ask for the meaning of words in English, they ask for translations of words into English. After having B1 group of third of ESO, I am surprised these students in 1st of ESO have a better level of English than the previous group! Or at least, this is what it seems! They dare to use what they have learnt...
After these two classes, I know now how it feels to be back to school after so long. There have been many changes, but I am sure I will adapt very easily. Once more I feel very happy with the assignment of my tutor and my school. Only by observing her today I have already noticed and learnt some strategies which I am sure will be very useful for me in the near future.
I have agreed with her next Monday I will continue visiting all the other groups she is teaching English this year (5 in total). After the two classes of today, I am now very curious to know the level and the attitude of her three other groups and, especially, of those two groups I will be following more closely, which are groups B2 and D2.

Oooh Yes! Things have changed!

Following my CAP teacher’s instructions, I contacted via email the tutor I have been assigned for the CAP practicum experience and we arranged to meet today at 12pm. Just arriving, it has not taken me long to realize things have changed considerably since my old times at Secondary School: the school was locked, obviously for safety reasons. I had heard a lot about this on the news some years ago, but I had never had the chance to check if this was certain. So, I have had to ring a bell and after a short while waiting for the door to be opened, they let me in. I have parked my motorbike in the parking area, then, I have started to look for the main entrance. Wrong all the time. I would have imagined it would be located next the parking area, but the school has two totally different access roads: the one I used for vehicles, up the hill, at the back side of the school, and then the pedestrian access too, facing Molins de Rei and the Llobregat valley.
When I have arrived to the main entrance thanks to the indications of one of the teachers I have found on my way, the door was locked again. I have had to ring another bell and the concierge has opened it for me. I have informed him I had a meeting with my tutor and, while he was calling her, I made my way to the toilette. They were locked too. I have had to go back to the concierge to ask for the key without making any making any comment or question and then I have headed for my tutor´s department, on the first corridor to left. There I have met my tutor. She was waiting for me, working on the department's computer.
We have had a meeting for around one hour more or less, we have introduced ourselves and then we have started speaking about the Foreign Languages Department, about IES Bernat el Ferrer, the curriculum and the courses and levels of her students.
The Foreign Language Department is located inside the Language Department, together with other language teachers such as Spanish and Catalan. They are in total 18 teachers there. In the Foreign Language Department there are five teachers: four of them are teaching English and one of them is teaching French. The Head of the Department rotates every year between my tutor and a colleague of her. She is not the Head of the Department this year.
Oh yes, things have changed a lot since I was a Secondary School student, back in year 1993! When my tutor has started explaining me the different courses and levels of her students, we have both soon noticed there was a piece of missing information there for me. I had heard about the LOGSE and the LOE and the introduction of the compulsory Secondary School education until the age of 16. But I didn’t know the old division of the students into Arts and Science from the age of 14, as it was in the times I was a secondary school student, had disappeared. My tutor has explained me there are now what they call “instrumental subjects” such as Spanish, Catalan, Mathematics and English, which are taught in flexible groups organized by the different existing levels in each course of ESO. Therefore, there are not only classified per year of ESO (groups 11, 12, 13 for 1st of ESO, 21, 22, 23 for 2nd of ESO, 31, 32, 33 for 3rd of ESO and 41, 42, 43 for 4th of ESO), but they are also organized in flexible groups for these “instrumental subjects” according to their level. This is B1, B2, D1, D2, where B1 has the lowest level and D2 the highest level of English. They all have 3 hours of English per week. My tutor is basically teaching in 3rd year of ESO this year: she teaches the four above mentioned levels in 3rd of ESO and only group D2 in 1st of ESO. She has also explained me this first semester finishes on the 5th of December. The assessment meeting will take place on the 11th and 12th of December, then my tutor has to leave on an inspection trip. Therefore, as we have only 6 weeks to carry out the practicum, we have agreed I will first attend, observe and assist in one class of each of her groups and afterwards I will follow two groups instead of one: B2 and D2 of 3rd of ESO. Then, I will attend to the assessment meetings of these two groups too. As the tutor of group 31, I will attend a tutorship classes. Then, a department’s meeting, a tutors’ meeting and a teachers’ meeting too. Half of group D2 goes once per week with an English speaking teacher too. She is an Erasmus student and she is studying Spanish and Catalan in England. My tutor has introduced her to me and we have arranged to attend to one of her classes. She has introduced me a couple more of colleagues of the Foreign Languages’ Department. So, I have been able to arrange to be present in a couple of their Batxillerat classes too. IES Bernat el Ferrer has a Newcomers Welcome Program too, has my tutor explained me. I will try to do my best to attend to one of these meetings too.
To finish our meeting today, my tutor has informed me she is using two didactic units in 3rd of ESO. Oxford Spotlight 3 for the B2 group and English Alive 3 for group D2, both by the Oxford University Press. My tutor has provided me with a copy of each of them to check at home and have arranged to meet next Thursday the 30th for the first observation class. This has been my first approach to my CAP Practicum and I am very satisfied. My tutor seems to be very active and dynamic, a great professional, always a smile on her face…. I am sure I will be able to learn a lot from her. I must admit I have been lucky with this assignment.

Welcome to my School!!!

The School I have been assigned is IES Bernat el Ferrer in Molins de Rei (Barcelona). The school is located in the northern part of this town, up the western side of Collserola range, near Ciuró's Castle.

IES Bernat el Ferrar was founded in 1978 as a Vocational Training School. The name of the school pays tribute to the first professional in Molins de Rei, back in 1188, when Alfonso II of Aragon's Kingdom and Count of Barcelona ordered the construction of a mill in the area, which was to be run by Royal designation by Bernat el Ferrer with the condition of living there and taking good care of the mill.

IES Bernat el Ferrer is currently a Secondary School run by the Generalitat de Catalunya Government's Education Department where more than 500 students from 12 to 18 years old study ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education), Batxillerat (High School) and Cicles Formatius de Grau Mitja i Superior (Intermediate and Superior Grade Formative Courses).

It´s Back to School!

Eleven years after I finished my studies of Translation and Interpretation in UAB, it´s back to School!
Who hasn´t dreamt of being a policeman, a fireman, a nurse, a lawyer or a doctor when we were only in Primary School? We all had dreams about what we would like to be once we had become adults. We were all somehow unconciously obligued to have a dream about the future... And me, unlike most of the boys of my age, I wanted to become a teacher. That was my secret vocation.
With the years, some have been able to make their dream come true, some others had to renounce this. They might not have had the means, or maybe, this childhood dream never had an important role in their lives. We were only kids. In my particular case, my life moved into a different direction. The thriving tourist industry and the magic of travelling easily called my attention and gave me the chance to put my languages in use. These eleven years devoted to the tourist industry have provided me with professional maturity to meet new challenges, so the time has come to wake up that childhood vocational spirit, always vivid and vibrant all through the years, and going back to school. First as a CAP student, then hopefully as a teacher.