Finally, the STAR is here!

Hi everybody! Do you miss me? I am Silvia and this week (as when we started) I have been the star of our group.

I must say that this week my work has been relatively easy because I have been evaluating the questions about the Topic 1 with the rest of my group during the first two hours of class. We have done this activity under the supervision of some members of the Busy Bees’ group. In order to do this activity we have divided the questions of each group and we have selected the questions of one group individually and have read them. After we have expressed to the rest of our group our opinion about the questions that we have read and we have done a little summary about each one too. Finally, we have filled out the different surveys about the questions of each group together.

Secondly, in the third hour of class we have worked with a part of the Power Puff Teachers’ group in order to determinate what questions about the Topic 4 were duplicated and united them in one simple question. We have divided all the questions into three groups and in three groups of three we have analysed them. After all, when the groups have finished our part, we have compared the final questions that each group has obtained in order to create the final list of questions. I must say that this activity has been worse for me because there were some questions that were very similar but they did not say exactly the same, so we did not know if unite them or leave them behind. In spite of everything, finally we can establish these questions about the Topic 4:

• -   A family with two children live in an area with small population centres. To what type of provision would they belong? Explain it briefly.
• -    Angel is a child with some health problems, and because of this he is in the hospital every day and he can’t go to school with his peers. What solution can be given to Angel so he can’t keep up with his school mates’ academic level? Explain it. What is the organization of this type of education?
• -    Can a student of primary education that does not go to school receive home teaching programs in her or his house? Why or why not?
• -  Can Moroccan students that are four years old schools be in the target group of Spanish-Moroccan programs?
• -  Determine the measures of educational attention which are needed according to LOMCE to facilitate the schooling integration of a Moroccan pupil who doesn’t speak Spanish and recently he has accessed in a Spanish school tardly do to he recently arrival from his country, you must determine the specific programs developed and the objectives that LOMCE want to get.
• -  Do Gathered Rural Schools (CRA) and Rural Schools for Education and Innovation (CRIE) have exactly the same target group?
• -  Does the Gathered Rural Schools worked in cities such as Barcelona?
• -  How many types of rural schools are there?
• -  I live in Murcia and I can go to school by bus. Could I study from distance?
• -  If a child has been studying his pre-primary and primary educational courses in a Bilingual School in Spain, does he have the obligation of continuing his studies in Spain?
• -  If a primary education student cannot attend school do to personal circumstances; such as for being hospitalize for a long term or a prolonged stay at home by medical prescription; what time of program would be used with this pupil? Justify your answer.
• -  If your parents work in a circus and your family is constantly moving from one place to another, it is possible to get education at compulsory schooling age? Reason your response. (Repeated by 2 groups)
• -  Imagine that you live in a rural zone and you cannot go to school, which is the best solution and how it works?  (Repeated by 2 groups)
• -  In Primary Education, if a French student is living in Spain but (s)he is enrolled in the French Education System can him or her be within the flexible studies?
• -  Kinds of itinerancy and non-regular schooling?
• -  Laura is 12 years old and she is from a foreign country (Morocco). What is the best education programme for Laura? Why? (Repeated by 3 groups)
• -  Mohamed is an immigrant student who moved into a rural neighborhood called La Aparecida in which there is no school; also both his parents, are unemployed with a low income. What type of schooling would be the most appropriate for this child to be able to attend school? Describe in detail the basic resources the LOMCE would provide him.
• -  Name at least three reasons for a student to choose a distant education. (Repeated by 3 groups)
• -  Nowadays, bilingual schools (Spanish-English) are very common in public schools of Spain. Do they need other curriculum?
• -  Rural schools for educational innovation are destined to pre-primary and primary education. They are organized by pedagogical and curricular aspects with some action plans. What do they want to achieve with these kinds of schools?
• -  There are two kinds of distance education, the "distance education" and "flexible studies in primary education". Related to the second one, what is the purpose of this type? Who can adopt this type of education? Do the pupils of this kind of studies have the same curriculum as the official curriculum? (Repeated by 2 groups)
• -  What are the main characteristics of rural schools?
• -  What are the programmes that compose the bilingual teaching?
• -  What characteristics have bilingual teachers who take part in the Convenio MECD and British Council?
• -  What does the State provide for the Itinerancy and non-regular schools? (Repeated by 2 groups)
• -  What is the relation between Gathered Rural Schools (CRA) and Rural Schools for Education Innovation (CRIE)?
• -  Which are the main differences between CRA and CRIE focused on organization?
• -  Which kind if bilingual teaching does not teach pre-primary?
• -  Who is charged of formalizing the agreement with companies whose itinerancy is permanent during the school year?

       Finally, I must say that I have enjoyed working with members of other groups in this activity and comparing my opinion with the others. However, I have to say that in the second activity, when we have compared all the questions about the Topic 4, besides the problem about the similar questions that I have mentioned before, I have felt a little overwhelmed because, as there were a lot of questions and we were a lot of people, it has been a bit difficult order all the questions, although at the end we have tried to do it in the best way possible.

I'm back to solve your doubts!

Hi bloggers! How has Easter been? It's been a while since we last updated our blog, so let's get to it! 

I'm Alba García and my role for this activity has been the translator. I have to admit that this week it is a bit challenging as we have been working on the previous task, which means that the main keywords for these activities have already been defined by the previous translator. Because of that, I have decided to offer you the definition of some key points which have helped us to work properly as a group not only for this activity, but also since the course began. I have also included "evaluation" because for this task we had to evaluate the other groups' questions, and "supervision" as while we where evaluating the questions we were supervised by another group so they made sure that we evaluated the others fairly.

* Communication: it is the act which takes place when two or more people exchange information, ideas, thoughts... An effective communication is essential in a group of people who are working together.

Communication - definition of communication in English from the Oxford dictionary. (n.d.). In Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/NIDgRD

Communication - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/v2AqFU

* Agreement: it is the act which takes place when two or more people share the same opinion about something or, in the case that they don't think the same, one approves what the other thinks. Getting to an agreement is of great importance for a team so its members can fulfil their duties properly and in the best way as possible.

Agreement - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/tiwPBW

Agreement definition, meaning - what is agreement in the British English Dictionary & Thesaurus. (n.d.). In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/4Z39xO

 

* Support: to encourage someone and approve his or her ideas to help them be successful (I'd like to point out that we should always be critical). Also, to help someone when they are having a bad time either because of personal, academic or professional situations. Support between a team's members is crucial.

Support - definición en el diccionario inglés americano. (n.d.). In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/EZ75CH 

Support definition and synonym. (n.d.). In Macmillan Dictionary . Retrieved from http://goo.gl/hjbfbp 

 

* Evaluation: it is the proccess though which we value and assess whether something is good or bad, and how it can improve. 

What is Evaluation. (n.d.). In Evaluation Toolbox. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/D8nUFY

 

* Supervision: the act of watching how someone does something in order to ensure that it is properly done.

Supervision - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/M74fWC

Supervision definition, meaning - what is supervision in the British English Dictionary & Thesaurus . (n.d.). In Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/S8NuPw

Who has returned?? María is back with breaking news about Powerteachers' work!!

Hi bloggers! I'm María García and this week I have been the JOURNALIST of Powerteachers!

 

After Easter holidays we have to return to our work and continue our tasks with more energy! So, I will explain you how this activity has been.

 

Before our holidays, we were working with the Spanish Educational System in our mindmaps and we continue with this activity but doing different things. In this activity we had to do 24 questions (4 questions for each topic) about the information that we had known about LOMCE.

 

We decided that we had to do the questions before Easter holidays. So, the last week before the holidays we divided each topic for each one of us by a drawing and we said that the next day we had to bring the questions to class for showing them to Linda on Thursday.

 

 

 

Wednesday afternoon, we worked individually with our topics and we did the questions. Many times we didn't know how express a content in a question that wasn't very easy but at the end we got 4 questions of each topic.

 

However, on Thursday we couldn't show the questions to Linda because she didn't come to class. But, we read the questions of all of us and we saw that in our opinion they were good and that we hadn't any doubts.

 

Rebeca suggested that she could print the questions in the right measure and bring them on Monday after holidays. So, we joined all the questions in a document and Rebeca printed them.

 

(Easter holidays............................................)

 

And we are back! On Monday after holidays, Linda explained the work that we had to do. The groups (some of them with other components of other groups) had to evaluate the questions that Linda gave us with the survey that she uploaded in the Internet.

 

We worked with a half of the components of BusyBees. They had to evaluate our questions and supervised that we were evaluating in a fair way the questions of the other groups. So, we got into the survey of the Internet and we evaluated the questions of the other groups having the opinion of the BusyBees.

 

 

 

We passed a good time working with BusyBees in this activity and we can see many ways to doing the questions because each group has his way to present the boards and to express the content, so, I think it was interesting.

 

 

 

 

As you have already known, the Journalist has to reccomend one of the blogs of our classmates and one of Education. In my opinion, these are the best:

 

 

Education:

 

Link: http://boscosprimaria.blogspot.com.es/

 

 

 

 

I have chosen this blog because I really like the organization of it. I will explain: The blog has five parts, Learn to learn, where they offer us all kind of activities or games with the purpose of learning many things. This part has a lot of videos explainig several issues, as the problems in maths and the videos are done by the students and I think this is fantastic and a creative way to explain subjects or topics. It is a great way to help other children or teachers for explaining the content and at the same time, the students that participate in the video are learning and having fun. Other part is Boscos English Corner, other blog of the same school but this is making by the English department. Other one, is Study Techniques, where there are many advices about how study and the better way to study and learn. It is awesome because it includes videos about people giving advices, vignettes, and photos that catch the attention of the children and that are useful for them. Cluboscos is other blog of the same school but about the activities that they develop in their free time as excursions or visits and this is so good. Finally, Animation in the lecture, other blog where you can see news about lecture, advices for improving the ortohgraphic, history about the lecture...

 

The blog has several tags for doing the search easily and quickly and the blog includes things like the sentence corner that I think it is a little good detail.

 

I really love this blog because this school give us many useful things about several topics and overall from their experience. I appreciate the fact of including the children of this school for doing the videos. It is awesome. So, I think that everyone has to see this blog because it is so original and useful for students, teachers and families.

 

 

Classmates:

 

Link: http://7upgroup.blogspot.com.es/

 

 

 

To end with, I have chosen the blog of 7Up because I really like the way they organize the blog. I love the pencil-cursor, it is so fun! Moreover, the structure of the different parts: the roles, the task and the blog archive. The photo of the apple and the sentence in the blackboard are great and too decorative. Finally, I have to say that the posts are really good because they follow a structure and I like that 7up use several colours for many words. Congratulations guys!!

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed with our activity and you visit our blog ever week!

 

 

Be careful! The BOSS is here, now!

Hello bloggers!

My name is Rebeca Cascales Ribera and this week, my role has been the FACILITATOR again. The facilitator has to coordinate the group, distribute the different roles and control that the whole group have worked properly and if it is any problem, try to solve it. He also must guarantee the quality of our blog and if someone comments, he's the responsible of answer.

The roles of this week are the same of the first week, we all have passed into every roles. So, the roles are the following:

FACILITATOR: REBECA CASCALES RIBERA

JOURNALIST: MARÍA GARCÍA ZAMORA

ANALYST: ANTHEA CLEMENTE SHARP

TRANSLATOR: ALBA GARCÍA SUBIELA

CURATOR-FARMER: MARINA CREVILLÉN FERNÁNDEZ

STAR: SILVIA GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ

To summarise the week, we started when Linda explained the week's activity and the facilitator, me in this case, decided that we would do a draw to divide the 6 topics and each one of the group would do 4 questions of its topic. 

The Tuesday 24th of March, we met in Anthea's house to do another subject's project and when we finished, I did papers with the numbers and each one achieve her topic. The topic's distribution is the following: 

TOPIC 1: Marina

TOPIC 2: María

TOPIC3: Silvia

TOPIC 4: Rebeca

TOPIC 5: Alba

TOPIC 6: Anthea

We decided that the questions must be done on Tuesday, and if we have any question, ask to Linda in class.

On Tuesday, we would read every questions of every member of the group and we would tell our opinions. If some question must be changed, we would change it. But, the topic 5 didn't be uploaded on time and our classmate Alba couldn't have it for this day, so she would ask for it and the next day we would have her questions, we would comment it on Whatsapp. 

Then, I would print it during Easter holidays and I would bring it the next day of class. 

Moreover, working in group is a pleasure from day one. The truth is that it is difficult but we have understood it properly, so that always comes out all right in the end. We help each other and that makes us feel confident for future projects.

To conclude, we really enjoy writing posts and telling our stories and anecdotes. We hope you enjoy as much as we do it!

Let's tell the story of the week!

Hi bloggers! I'm Anthea, the journalist this week. As you already know, my work consists on telling the day by day of the group and, at the end, recommend two blogs: one of my classmates and another one from outside, but related to education. 

The activity this week was about doing two mind maps connected to the Spanish Educational System, each one about one topic, ours were 1 (An Overview of the Educational System) and 4 (Organisational Variations and Alternative Structures in Primary Education: Rural Schools, Itinerancy and non-regular schooling, Bilingual Teaching and Distance Education).

Firstly, on Monday, after Linda explained the work for the week, the facilitator divided it so that we could start doing the project. Afterwards we decided to meet on Tuesday, because it wuold be better preparing the information and having clear ideas before we start working. In this way, we could save time the following day by having everything read.

Secondly, on Tuesday, we were at the library completing the mind maps for being able to show them to Linda on Thursday, in such a way, we would have the chance for correcting the mistakes we could have committed while we were doing them.

We thought that it would take less time, but the reality is that we can say that we closed the library... as you can see.

We wanted to do what we had though at the beginning, so we had to spend all the needed time there. But it doesn't mind, we make the effort and we did almost everything.

Finally, on Monday, we had to work with the star of the group Busy Bees (Ana) and a half of the group Keep Calm and Keep Organized (Elena, Noelia and Ángela). This day, we had to look what was right and wrong of the topic four's mind maps and mark them by using an online questionnaire provided by the teacher. In addition, we had to complete the Busy Bees' mind map.

Now, the second part of my role. I have to choose two blogs.

The first one is... the Busy Bees' blog!!! This group has a very fun, organised and clear blog. It's understandable and  easy to read and find last posts.

Congratulations guys, you have a really good blog. I enjoy reading your posts and... what's more! Not only the post, but also seeing your expositions, which are great! Go on working like this! Good work.

Blog's link: http://busybeestakeiteasy.blogspot.com.es/

And to conclude mi post I want to recommend an educational blog which talks about the education in Latin America and the Caribbean.

There is not a quality education there, so in this blog they fight for it, they want children to receive a good education. For this reason I can't stop admiring them. Maybe they won't achieve anything, but they try. An that's what has made me suggest to you the blog.

Blog's link: http://blogs.iadb.org/education/

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!