martes, 24 de marzo de 2015

Hello everybody, the translator is here!!


Law: It's a system of rules which are enforced through social institutions to the correct govern behaviour. The two laws we have worked this week are LOE, which is the old one and LOMCE which is the one we have now and which changed in order to improve the previous one.


LOE: Is the state organic law which regulates the Educational system in Spain. This law cesed to be valid when the government approved the LOMCE.


LOMCE: LOMCE is the " ley organica para la mejora de la calidad educativa ", is also known like Wert's law, which modifies the LOE in some aspects in order to have a better education.


Educational system: An educational systems contains everythings related to education, like school resources, educational laws, but this educational systems only have state schools.


Organization: Is the way through which one, people divide and organise the things. In many cases like in the case of education, the organization was governed by educational laws.


REFERENCES:



Law. (n.d.). In Dictionary.com. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/law

Organization. (n.d.). In Dictionary.com. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/organization?s=ts

Education System (2013, August 29). In The Glossary of Education Reform. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://edglossary.org/education-system/

Ley Orgánica para la Mejora de la Calidad Educativa (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_Org%C3%A1nica_para_la_Mejora_de_la_Calidad_Educativa

Ley Orgánica de Educación (España) (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_Org%C3%A1nica_de_Educaci%C3%B3n_(Espa%C3%B1a)

Analyzing not only the LOMCE, but also how we work!

Hello bloggers! I'm Alba García and this week I'm the group's analyst. As you know from previous weeks, the analyst is in charge of analysing how we have worked as a group and also as individuals, and also what we have learned.

The task we have had to do this week has been about the Basics of the Spanish Educational System. We have analysed the LOMCE, which is the new Spanish educational law. As it has been recently introduced, we only knew some aspects of this law, which actually were very few. As future teachers, this activity has helped us to know how the situation will be (if the law stays the same) when we arrive to the classrooms, what we will have to face and deal with. It is true that educational laws don't stay the same for long, but even if they change some aspects of it are likely to stay the same (as it has already happened between the LOE and the LOMCE, for instance), so it is never a bad idea to know about them beforehand.

It is vital to know about the law, about what will be demanded and expected from us, and what we will have to do with our students for them to achieve their best in the current educational system. This also happens in any other job. This way, any employee will have to know the business' rules and what will be expected from him or her so that person can perform his or her best in the role they are performing at work. We can't just act freely. In order to succeed, we have to stick to the rules  and try to don't go beyond them or otherwise we will have to face the consequences of not doing what we were supposed to do.

Thanks to this activity we have also realized that we don't have to read the hundreds of pages a law contains, but we can instead look for official websites which offer an understandable and complete summary of the law we want to know about. Besides, this can also be done with thousands of other topics. This way we won't have to spend too much time reading a document which we hardly understand because of the complex vocabulary. 

The best part of this activity was, without a doubt, getting to know how things at schools are nowadays, as they are very different from when we were at school (which wasn't long ago). Otherwise, we wouldn't have had the initiative to read a document about the new educational law and know a bit about it. On the other hand, the worse part of the activity was having to read so many documents, especially for topic 1! But, luckily, as we are six members in the group we divided the documents between us so it wasn't as tiring.

As a group we almost always tend to agree on what we are going to do and how we are going to do it. However, sometimes we discuss a bit because one of us thinks that doing a different thing is better, but I suppose that happens in every group and it will also happen when we become teachers at a school. This week's activity hasn't been a problem with that aspect, as we all knew how the programme we were going to use (Cmap Tools) worked and we all had a common idea of how we could do the conceptual map for each topic. 

Furthermore, dividing the big group in two smaller groups of three members each was a great idea as we could work on both topics at the same time and profit better the time. But not all that glitters is gold. As one of the topics was longer that the other, one of the groups had to read and analyse more information than the other group, but overall we all worked hard on the topics we had to do.

 Because of that, although we tend to work well together, something we could improve on is looking well at the documents and what the task is about before dividing the work among us, as at first sight it may seem longer or shorter than what it really is. This way, we will make sure that the work will be divided equally between us.

To finish with I would like to stress the idea that for doing our best we have to know what is expected from us and how we are expected to do it not only in the professional aspects, but also academically. And remember, you can always improve what you do. The sky is the limit!

Here is the CURATOR - FARMER!

Hi bloggers! I am Silvia García and this week my role has been the curator-farmer.

The activity of this week has been based on the creation of a Mind Map about two topics related with the LOMCE. In our case, the topics which we have worked have been the topic 1(An Overview of the Educational System) and the topic 4 (Organisational Variations and Alternative Structures in Primary Education). As this activity has been focused on looking for information, we have not got images or music that we must reference, but here you can find all the websites and books that we have used.

Jefatura del Estado, . (2013). Boletín Oficial del Estado. Retrieved from https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2013/12/10/pdfs/BOE-A-2013-12886.pdf


TOPIC  1: An Overview of the Educational System

BOOKS:

Eurydice – Facts and Figures, . (n.d.). Organisation of school time in Europe Primary and secondary general education 2014/15 school year. N.p.: Education and Training. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/facts_and_figures/school_calendar_EN.pdf

Eurydice – Facts and Figures, . (n.d.). Recommended Annual Taught Time in Full-time Compulsory Education in Europe 2012/13. N.p.: Education and Training. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/facts_and_figures/taught_time_EN.pdf

Eurydice – Facts and Figures, . (n.d.). The Organisation of the Academic Year in Europe 2014/15. N.p.: Education and Training. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/facts_and_figures/academic_calendar_EN.pdf


WEBSITES:

Educational Support and Guidance (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Educational_Support_and_Guidance

Funding in Education (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Funding_in_Education

Management and Other Education Staff (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Management_and_Other_Education_Staff

Mobility and Internationalisation (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Mobility_and_Internationalisation

Ongoing Reforms and Policy Developments (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Ongoing_Reforms_and_Policy_Developments

Organisation and Governance (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Organisation_and_Governance

Overview (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Overview#top

Primary Education (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Primary_Education

Quality Assurance (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Quality_Assurance

Teachers and Education Staff (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Teachers_and_Education_Staff



TOPIC 4: Organisational Variations and Alternative Structures in Primary Education

WEBSITES:

Organisational Variations and Alternative Structures in Primary Education (n.d.). In Eurypedia: European Encyclopedia on National Education Systems. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Spain:Organisational_Variations_and_Alternative_Structures_in_Primary_Education



DEFINITIONS:

DICTIONARIES:

Law. (n.d.). In Dictionary.com. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/law

Organization. (n.d.). In Dictionary.com. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/organization?s=ts


WEBSITES:

Education System (2013, August 29). In The Glossary of Education Reform. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://edglossary.org/education-system/

Ley Orgánica de Educación (España) (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_Org%C3%A1nica_de_Educaci%C3%B3n_(Espa%C3%B1a)


Ley Orgánica para la Mejora de la Calidad Educativa (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_Org%C3%A1nica_para_la_Mejora_de_la_Calidad_Educativa




lunes, 23 de marzo de 2015

''Are you ready Powerteachers?'' -Yes, boss!! ''I can't hear you!'' -We are boss! ♪ ♫

Hi bloggers! I'm María García and this week I have been the facilitator! As you have already known, the facilitator has to divide the work of the activity and make sure that all the components work and do their roles.

The roles of this week have been...

REBECA CASCALES RIBERA = STAR
ANTHEA CLEMENTE SHARP = JOURNALIST
MARINA CREVILLÉN FERNÁNDEZ = TRANSLATOR
SILVIA GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ = CURATOR FARMER
ALBA GARCÍA SUBIELA = ANALYST
MARÍA GARCÍA ZAMORA = FACILITATOR

 
This week the activity has been doing two mindmaps about several topics about the LOMCE. My group had to do the mindmaps of the first (''An overview of the Educational System'') and the fourth topic (''Organisational variations and alternative structures in Primary Education''). So, as we are six in the group I decided on Monday to do groups of three and each group had to do one topic and collect the main information to do a good mindmap for the following day (Tuesday).
The first topic has been done by Anthea Clemente, Alba García and me and the fourth topic by Rebeca Cascales, Marina Crevillén and Silvia García.
 
However, I made a mistake: In the web page of the topic one there are six different points. So, I divided these points between Anthea, Alba and me, and I assigned two points for each one. The problem was that the following day, Anthea said me that in one of her points there were many documents for see and that was a lot for only her, so she didn't do all of these documents. Moreover, one of the points of Alba was references of other pages and from that we didn't take any information. So, when we met this day (Tuesday) the group of the topic four had almost the whole information but my group (topic one) didn't. We had to collect the information of some documents more. So, Anthea, Alba and me did the rest of information that we needed to complete our mindmap.
 
Moreover, in the beginning, we thought that we had to compare the LOE with the LOMCE, so, for example, when I did my points of the topic one I was confused because I was seeing that the information that it was on the page was the same that I was seeing in the document of the LOMCE. But, then I realized that the page where I was taking the information was modified and had the information of the LOMCE that it was what we needed. So, Tuesday morning I asked our teacher for guarantee that the purpose of the activity was put the information of the LOMCE in the mindmap and not doing a comparaison.
 
Our teacher said that it was only necessary the information of the LOMCE. This afternoon, while Rebeca, Marina and Silvia were doing the mindmap about the topic four, the others took the missing information. We collected all and we did a part of the mindmap. When the group of topic four finished, they passed the evaluations of the activity of the videos of ''What have we learned?'' activity to a post for upload to our blog.
 
As Anthea, Alba and me didn't finish the mindmap in Cmap Tools (we had the whole information in several outlines), Alba and me finished it the Friday afternoon because we lived in the same town, so we can did it more comfortably.
 
I know that if I would have realized that one of the points of Anthea was longer than the others and I'd have divided better the points, we would finished the mindmap of the topic one Tuesday afternoon. But I had a mistake. However, we did the activity well and I think that we worked almost in a same way. This experience will help me to organize better the future works.
 
So, I want to thank my partners for being excellent hard-working persons and for understanding my little mistake.
 
I hope our mindmaps give you a good and clear information about the LOMCE and that you visit our blog one more week!
 

Complete Conceptual Map of topic 4!

The complete Conceptual Map of the topic 4. Organisational Variations and Alternative Structures in Primary Education checked by Power Teachers, Busy Bees and Keep Calm and Keep Organised  is the following one.

We hope you like it!

★★★★Something is shining? Yees! The star, here, NOW! ★★★★



Hello everybody!                
My name is Rebeca Cascales Ribera and this week I'm the STAR of Power  Teachers! The star of the groups has the job of represent the weekly job and each week has to upload something different on the blog post depending on the tasks.

This week, we've been working into the law, the LOMCE. The stars didn't know what was our task this week because Linda said that she would tell us the same Monday, so this weekend, when I printed the two maps I read and I reread them many times for being prepared for whatever. 
The two Conceptual Maps are the following ones. 

  

Today, 23 of march of 2015, when the class started Linda has said that we're going to be separated of our group depending on the topic that we had and we would  work with the other group who has the same topic. My topic's group were 1. An Overview of the Educational System and 4. Organisational Variations and Alternative Structures in Primary Education.  The other groups with those topics are Busy Bees and Keep Calm and Keep Organised; in my case, the Native Group was the Busy Bees and the Aliens are four members of Keep Calm and Keep Organised as Marina García Beltrán, Clara Pérez Ríos, Paula Peral Vegara and Holly Rose Terry. We have worked with the topic 1, an overview of the Education System. 



In this task, my role has been being the evaluator of the evaluation. Each group of the same topic had to evaluate the other's conceptual map regarding a criteria that the whole group has acquired. Our criteria has been the following one:



Then, apart from this criteria, the conceptual map has been evaluated into a survey that Linda has done and prepare for it.

To be honest, the evaluation has been done in a correct way. The two groups have evaluated themselves individually and then, they have spoken about what were their scores and the reason of it. For example, Busy Bees have told the other group that it was complete but the title's colour and the letter' size make a bit difficult the lecture. On the other side, the Keep    Calm and Keep Organized have told them that some words were bad written in English and the lack of connectors.

 They have done the same with my group's Conceptual Map, they have explained me the reason of my score. So, in my opinion I think they have done it well and in a fair way.

The three Conceptual Maps that we have been working are the following:



Keep Calm and Keep Organized

Busy Bees

Power Teachers


Then, we had to take the best  and the most complete Conceptual Map. We have take my group's one and we have added some things that the other groups have. The final Conceptual of this topic is in the Busy Bees Blog.

My experience as STAR has been very special because I have not lived as the other  week's star. I have  had the opportunity of working with other people of the class and this is very worthy because I have realized that there are other dynamics, other ways of organize the work, etc. I really like being the star, maybe if I had to do a presentation of something I wouldn't have like it, I don't know. 
I hope you enjoy with us and with our tasks!

martes, 17 de marzo de 2015

The facilitator is here, let's organise!!!

Hi bloggers! I'm Anthea, and this week I have been the facilitator of the group. As you already know from last weeks, the facilitator has to organise and divide the work, so that every member of the group knows what she must do.

The roles this week have been the following:

Rebeca Cascales Ribera – CURATOR/FARMER
anthea clemente sharp - FACILITATOR
marina crevillén fernández - ANALYST
silvia garcía martínez - TRANSLATOR
alba garcía subiela - JOURNALIST
maría garcía zamora - STAR

Thes week, the activity has been a kind of summary of the four previous activities in a video of one minute and a half by using one of the programmes proposed by Linda: Powtoons or Moovly. It has been up to us.

We put in common the main ideas of each task for having the video as complete as possible. Then, we thought about the organisation of the video, how we were going to structure it, which aspects we were going to mention... and, even, I divide the group into two groups, so that we could work better. We though the best idea was to include every task in the related part of the first task, in a way that it wasn't just telling what each task was about.

Finally, on Thursday, we showed the video to Linda to know what we could improve, add or remove.

To conclude, I would like to congratulate the members' group for working so hard. So girls, keep up the good work!