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 ;-)