Sóc mestra

Avui m'ha arribat un correu electrònic amb aquest text. Tal com estan les coses, crec que estaria bé que més d'un el llegís...


Sóc mestra, sense pors i sense complexos.
Sóc mestra, i m'honora ser-ho i estic orgullosa de la meva professió.
Sí, tinc gairebé dos mesos de vacances i un horari de docència directe molt dens.
Sóc mestra, treballo a l'aula i fora d'ella i la gent no ho sap i a mi
no m'importa.
... Sóc mestra i no discuteixo els dies de descans dels bombers, ni els dels funcionaris de presons.
Sóc mestra i quan vaig al metge no li discuteixo el seu diagnòstic, només espero que em curi.
Sóc mestra i quan vaig al meu advocat no li discuteixo les lleis,
només espero que em defensi.
Sóc mestra i quan vaig per l'autopista, condueixo amb confiança perquè sé que la va dissenyar un enginyer de camins.
Sóc mestra i visc en una casa tranquil•la, la que va projectar un dia un arquitecte.
I vostès, qui són? Per què s'atreveixen a dir que treballo poc i malament?
Sóc mestra i ensenyo cada dia el camí a seguir per aconseguir les competències d'una professió.
Sóc mestra i acullo cada dia de cada curs a un munt de canalla dels quals aprenc tant com ells de mi.
I vostès, qui són? Per què s'atreveixen a dir que treballo poc i malament?
Sóc mestra i treballo cada dia amb persones sensibles i fràgils perquè encara no han assolit la maduresa.
Sóc mestra i intento inculcar treball, esforç i dignitat peraconseguir l'èxit personal.
I vostès, qui són? Per què s'atreveixen a dir que treballo poc i malament?
Em rebaixen el sou, m'augmenten les hores de feina, m'incrementen els alumnes a l'aula… JO SÉ QUI SÓC .
Però… vostès, qui s'han cregut que són??

Il·lusió, vocació, passió

http://paper.avui.cat/article/societat/168995/il%C2%B7lusio/vocacio/passio.html

La vida en fascicles

Il·lusió, vocació, passió

Els mestres fan alguna cosa més que vaga o vacances, i l'educació és bastant més que un problema

Carles Capdevila / carles@carlescapdevila.com

Una mestra fent classe en una escola de Sant Cugat del Vallès el setembre del 2008
CRISTINA FORÉS / ARXIU

Demano perdó tres vegades: per col·locar en un títol tres paraules tan cursis i passades de moda, per fer-ho per parlar dels mestres, i, sobretot sobretot, perquè la meva idea és -ho sento- parlar-ne bé.

Sé que la meva doble condició de pare i periodista, tan radical que les seves sigles són PP, em convida a criticar-los per fer massa vacances (com a pare) i em suggereix que parli de temes importants, com la llei d'educació (és el mínim que li escauria a un periodista aquesta setmana).

Però n'estic fart que la paraula més utilitzada al costat d'escola sigui "fracàs" i al davant d'educació hi acostumi a aparèixer sempre el concepte "problema", i que "mestre" acostumi a compartir titular amb "vaga". L'escola fa alguna cosa més que fracassar, els mestres fan alguna cosa més que fer vaga (i vacances) i l'educació és bastant més que un problema. De fet és l'única solució, però això ens ho tenim molt calladet, no fos cas.

El meu procés, íntim i personal, ha estat el següent: vaig començar sent pare, a partir dels meus fills vaig aprendre a estimar-me el fet educatiu, la feina de criar-los, d'encarrilar-los, i, ves per on, ara m'estimo els mestres, els meus còmplices. Com no m'he d'estimar una gent que es dedica a educar els meus fills?

Per això em dol que es malparli per sistema dels meus estimats mestres, que no són tots els que cobren per fer-ne, és clar, sinó els que en són, els que sumen a la professió les tres paraules del títol, els que mentre molts pares se'ls imaginen en una platja de Hawaii són tancats en alguna escola d'estiu, fent formació, buscant eines noves, mètodes més adequats.

Us desitjo que aprofiteu aquests dies per rearmar-vos moralment. Perquè cal molta moral per ser mestre. Moral en el sentit dels valors i moral per afrontar un dia a dia feixuc sense sentir l'estima i la confiança imprescindibles. Ni els de la societat en general, i a vegades ni tan sols els dels pares que us transferim la canalla però no l'autoritat.

¿Us imagineu un país que deixés el seu material més sensible, les criatures, en els seus anys més importants, dels zero als setze, i amb la missió més decisiva, formar-los, en mans d'unes persones en qui no confia?

Les lleis passen, i les pissarres deixen d'embrutar-nos els dits de guix per convertir-se en digitals. Però la força i influència d'un bon mestre sempre marcarà la diferència. El que és capaç de penjar la motxilla d'un desànim justificat al costat de les motxilles dels alumnes i, ja alliberat de pes, assumeix de bon humor que no serà recordat pel que li toca ensenyar-los, sinó pel que aprendran d'ell.

Notícia publicada al diari AVUI, pàgina 35. Diumenge, 5 de juliol del 2009

Recepta de l'educador

Ingredients:
. 4 tasses d'amor
. 2 tasses de lleialtat
. 3 tasses d'oblit d'un mateix
. 2 tasses d'amistat
. 5 cullerades d'esperança
. 2 cullerades de tendresa
. 4 parts de fe
. 1 tona de rialles

Preparació:
Agafem l'amor i la lleialtat i els barregem bé amb la fe. Després, hi afegim tendresa, bondat i comprensió.

Ho amanim amb amistat i esperança i hi tirem força alegria. Finalment, ho fem coure amb raigs de sol.

Ho he aconseguit!

Informació cursos

CAP (Certificat d'Aptitud Pedagògica)

Informació notes

Cognoms, Nom:	SUBARROCA ADMETLLA, ANNA
Didàctica específica:	Notable
Formació pedagògica:	Notable
Pràctiques:	Excel·lent

Thank you!

Ja he entregat la memòria i he acabat els exàmens. Si tot va bé, aviat seré professora de secundària.
Durant els últims quatre mesos no he pogut passar gaire temps amb moltes persones importants per a mi, La meva vida social i cultural s'ha vist retallada. Altres us preguntareu perquè no contesto els e-mails. La resposta a tot això és que em faltaven hores... Una nova feina de teacher, classes a la universitat, treballs i les pràctiques a l'institut.
Però ara s'ha acabat un etapa i sento que tot serà diferent.
Només volia agraïr a totes les persones pròximes a mi, la paciència i el suport que m'heu demostrat. THANK YOU! Sense vosaltres ni hauria pogut.
I moltes gràcies per tots els comentaris positius!!!!

---

Some of you may be wondering where I've been? Why does Anna not answer e-mails?
The reason is the lack of time. I've been really busy with my new job as a teacher, lessons at university, the practicum... and now I almost got it!!
If I pass the exams and the project, in some months time I'll be a secondary English teacher!
Finally, I will have some more free time!!
Thanks a lot for your support.

The last day

Yesterday was my last day of the Practicum in the high school. I finished my teaching unit before Christmas but I had to complete the 30 hours in the class, so I spent the whole morning there doing different things:

New group in the CV with Songs

I went to the class where I had been teaching and, as it is a “credit variable”, I met the new students. The core of the subject is the same, but Núria might be changing the songs.

For example, during the first sessions, they had asked her for a song by Akon. Núria had already prepared it. They listened to the song and order it. The main activity consisted on a reading comprehension about Akon’s biography. Afterwards, they were given the answers to some questions and they had to write the questions.

I found that the group was a little bit more “active” than the group from the first term and at first sight their level was better.

The song was Don’t matter by Akon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3u65f4CRLk

Aula d’acollida

I had been thinking on visiting the Aula d’Acollida during all these months and I finally found the time the very last day. I spent three one hour and I saw some students who where reading different books.

Empar, one of the teachers, explained me how the Aula worked and the changes they had been suffering during the last years.

I found it very interesting.

What I think is better from the current system, is that, as students improve their language competence, they might be assisting some lessons with their colleagues in the normal classroom and combine these hours with some hours in the Aula d’Acollida. With this system, they can have contact with other students from their class and, at the same time, they receive special help in the aspects where they have difficulties.

It’s a shame that all may be changing again soon.

1 year ESO B.- The human body

And during the last two hours, I was with Núria in 1 year of ESO.

First, the A group had class in the computer room, where they worked with a reading comprehension.

Afterwards, we moved to the class of 1 B. They had to begin with a new topic: the human body. Núria had designed an activity that consisted on cutting out pictures of magazines and creating a fantasy body. In the following sessions they will learn the vocabulary and will have to write a description of the character they have created.

During that session they all were amazed with cutting and combining shapes and photos. Some of them did really nice pieces of work!

It’s a shame that it is already to the end!! I will miss them all!!!!

Video from my teaching unit

I finally found the time to edit some videos. Here you have a short one, which I am going to use today for the oral presentation.
It is from one of the firts sessions on Umbrella by Rihanna. I had printed the lyrics and given a card with some sentences to each of my students. When they heard their sentences, they had to stand up and hang the card to order the whole song.
They really liked the activity and participated!!!

Well done, teacher Anna! :-)

Before Christmas...

I was yesterday at the school. It was my last day before Christmas and it was very interesting.

During this last week they are not celebrating Christmas at all, mainly because of the diversity of origins, religions and cultures that can be found on that school.
Instead of singing Christmas carols and decorating Christmas trees, they do the "Crèdit cooperatiu". It consists on different activities based on the same topic, which for this time was “Les llengües del món” (The languages of the world).
Each year there is a different topic and during three days (Monday to Wednesday) the students work with their tutors and teachers. On Thursday they spend the morning finishing the works and preparing an exposition on each floor. In the afternoon the parents visit the school and they can see students’ work and listen to a concert where the students themselves play different instruments.

Here you have some posters made by the 1st year students and the Babel Towers by 2nd year students.
I spend the morning with them, helping them and visiting all the classes. They all did really nice things!

I WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

Teaching unit

It's been so long since I last posted anything in my blog!
Lots of things have happened. I’ve been ill… and I have already finished my “Unitat didàctica”!

After observing the results of the survey I decided to choose some of their favourite songs and build my teaching unit from there.
I thought there should be different songs because the students were already used to work with different songs on each session. So, if I wanted to work consciously with only one song, they might get bored and lose motivation and attention.

I organised the teaching unit as follows:

• Session 1: Work with a small group of three students. They would choose a song and prepare activities for one session.
• Session 2: Umbrella by Rihanna.
• Session 3: Umbrella by Rihanna.
• Session 4: Zombie by The Cranberries.
• Session 5: Stan by Eminem. Worksheet available on http://wizard.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=110645&page=1
• Session 6: Assessment, watching some videos I have recorded during the term. It was the last day of the term.

More details will be given, but for the moment, I just wanted to say that the most important moment for me was the last day. We had finished the lesson and then Núria asked them which mark they would give me as a teacher. The majority of them said: “Excellent!”
That’s my best acknowledgement!

Teacher Anna is ill

Yes, I'm ill. Feeling really bad since Wednesday. I have a temperature, a sore throat and cystitis.
What else could I have? I've been in bed and I couldn't do my "Unitat Didàctica" on Thursday.
why now? why? why? why?

Preparing materials

These are the cards I will be using for my teaching unit during the sessions about Umbrella.






I let my students express themselves, I am interested on their musical taste and preferences. These are the surveys about music.

First "little" project

After some weeks of “observation”, and as agreed with my tutor Núria, I’ve taken the first steps!!!

As said before, I decided to teach in the group of 4 ESO. As every lesson from the subject is related with songs and the group showed a low motivation, I thought it would be a good idea asking the students about what they would like to do.

I prepared a short survey and asked Núria for her opinion. She agreed, so, last Tuesday I passed them the questions, they had only to choose the music styles they liked and write down some of their favourite artists and songs.
Now, I will compile the results and try to work at class with some of the most popular songs.

Last Tuesday, 13^th November, I also asked the students if somebody was volunteer to help us in the class, choosing a song and preparing activities for their partners. There were three students that decided to collaborate. So, during the following class on Thursday, those 3 students and me, we sat together during the lesson time and listened to some songs. We had a computer, so we could watch the videos in YouTube and then print the lyrics and see if they could understand the song or not. We finally chose Umbrella by Rihanna and agreed about the exercises and activities we could be doing. They suggested ideas concerning the type of exercises they preferred and how we could be organising the class. It was very interesting ! We had a great time!

1 ESO

For the moment I am just observing the lessons in two groups of 1 ESO.
The A group has English on Thursday and they are doing the class in the computer classroom. The whole group is having this lesson with two English teachers, who help the students with the computers and exercises.
Each student has a personal User-ID and Password, so they can work individually. During the two lessons I have been observing, the two topics were “A-an-some” and a reading comprehension. At the beginning of the class they get the instructions of the teacher, Núria, and then they can work alone during the rest of the time, while the two teachers are walking around the room helping students with doubts.

With the other group, 1 ESO B, I am assisting to the lesson they are having in their classroom. They do different kinds of exercises following the course book and hand-outs given by the teacher. One interesting aspect is that in this high school they are using community books.

According to Núria’s comments and to what I’ve been seeing, it is not easy to maintain order during the lessons. They speak a lot to each other and it is difficult to maintain attention and interest.

4 ESO: Learning with songs

The group of 4 ESO are 15 people doing a support course (crèdit variable) during this term. They try to improve their English through songs. I began observing this group and found it very interesting, so I decided to follow this course twice a week and to make my Practicum with them. The teacher, Núria, has a lot of experience with this course, as she has been teaching this "crèdit variable" for years. She has a great variety of songs and materials to work at class, but she also tries to get new songs every year.

I have been observing the following lessons:

• 30.10.2007: Something Stupid, Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=5T7fynhnmQ8
• 6.11.2007: Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=ftlYLcEW_I4
  
• 8.11.2007: Wonderful World by Sam Cooke http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=HNoUoyzCh2k
  
• 13.11.2007: Stand by me by Ben E. King (First session) http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Y6ARjIL-E
  

During these lessons, I have been helping Núria and the students, as we normally go around the class and help them with the activities.
The routine consists on listening to a different song on each session. The warm up activity can be ordering the sentences of the song or filling the gaps.
It was particularly funny the day when we were working with the song What a Wonderful World and each student had to choose two of the school subjects mentioned on the song. Every time they heart the name of the chosen subjects, they had to stand up or sit down. The result was a funny situation because they were all like crazy standing up and sitting down at different times. But the most important is that Núria got the attention of fast all of them, as only two or three of them did not completely understand the activity.
In general, they are a passive group. They don't get easily involved with learning. Some of them are interested and ask a lot of questions during the lesson. The others seem to be still sleeping (the lessons are at 8.00 and 9.00 o'clock in the morning!).
Furthermore, around the 50 % of them are recent newcomers and they neither speak Spanish or Catalan.
Bryan is ordering the sentences of the song while listening to Stand by me.
I was pleased to see that they all have heard to the song before and really liked it!

Getting started

I had a first meeting with my tutor Núria on October, 22. She explained me some things about the courses she is having during this term and showed me her timetable.

I went back home with a nice impression, having a good feeling.

I decided to observe two levels: 4 ESO and 1 ESO, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

IES Miquel Tarradell

This is the school where I am teaching during the Practicum: the IES Miquel Tarradell.
It is situated right in the city center of Barcelona, in the district called Raval. The majority of the students come from other countries, in fact, the immigration rate is about 90 %.
Inside this high school we can find a great diversity of cultures, religions, languages and races, which sometimes can lead to conflicts or difficult situations.

For the moment, I think it can be a really interesting experience.

Teacher Anna

Teacher Anna. This is my "new name".

Since September 2007, I am teaching English in a primary school in Barcelona. My pupils are between 3 and 12 years old. They all call me "teacher Anna" and I find it so sweet to hear the 3-year-old kids shouting at the corridor "hello teacher Anna, hello!!"

Furthermore, I am following the CAP course to become a secondary school teacher. I am assistinguniversity again! Apart from the lessons at university, I must take a Practicum in a secondary school and this blog will be the diary of this period.

I hope I survive ;-)