WHICH TRAINING COURSES WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE ACCESS TO AS A TEACHER? WHY? WHICH IS, IN YOUR OPINION, THE BEST WAY TO SHARE GOOD PRACTICE AMONGST TEACHING PROFESSIONALS?

I think that all teachers must take part in courses related to my area of knowledge. In my case, I am a kindergarten teacher, at this level is necessary to innovate and use active learning methodology for children. For this , as teachers, we must be in continuous training.

Therefore, I would also like to take part in courses related to new technologies, for example about electronic interactive whiteboards, create a blog or interactive activities.

I think it is fundamental to know how to exploit the great opportunity that the Internet offers. If the teachers know how to use them, they will be very useful tools to arouse their interest of the students.

This type of technology involves a lot of advantages in my classroom and learning of my students, such as:

-       You can enhance any presentation or lesson by easily integrating video, animation, graphics, text and audio with the spoken presentation.

-       The interactive whiteboard allows a large group to sit and participate comfortably in a presentation as opposed to a group crowding around a smaller computer screen.

-       You can display material from a number source such as CD-ROMs, websites, DVDs, VHS tapes and television.

-       Notes, diagrams and entire lessons or presentations can be saved, archived and added to the internet or disk. This means that presentation or class work in progress can be saved ready for the next period or school day.

-       Creates an environment of collaboration and interaction, allowing the students to be more engaged and therefore more likely to learn and remember the information.

-       Teachers can do and create different activities adapted to our pupils' necessities or work specific content depending on the project topic. We could do materials to develop cultural awareness.

Also, as teachers we must learn another language, especially English.      This language will give us a lot of opportunities in the future.

In my opinion, the best way to share good practice amongst teaching professionals is, nowadays, Internet. Teachers can use it to share lesson plans, ideas to encourage students, and other innovations.

Today, they are online webs in which people with similar interests or common goals get together to share their resources, develop working strategies, solve problems and improve individually as well as organizational performance. 

We also can take part communities of practice, where people share their repertoire of resources, experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems. It can be small or large, other local and some cover the globe, some meet face-to-face, some mostly online, some recognized and other informal and invisible. For example, Harvard style, Erasmus + for teachers, among other.

f were not limited by the demands of the national/regional curriculum,what would you say is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU WOULD TEACH YOUR STUDENTS ABOUT YOUR SUBJECT(in a CLIL)

If I were not limited by the requirements of national / regional curriculum, I would teach my students other aspects that I consider essential in my classroom (in a CLIL context). For example, I would like my students to have more time to play freely and less time to do worksheets while sitting on a chair, but the reality is different. Personally, I am a kindergarten teacher and in this level we work under a globalizing approach. For this, We don't work with subjects, we work on content areas.

 From my point of view, it is essential to respect the spontaneity of children because in many cases there are restrictions of many hours doing activities led by the teacher. Also, I'd do less equal work and choose more for difference and naturalness. I apply an active and motivating methodology, because children learn so much easier and fun all the content. I use the game as an essential resource in my classes. But sometimes in many cases, this would be difficult, just because you need to follow a guideline for achieving contents and parents will be informed quarterly.

Now, I am going to talk about how the teacher would assess their learning. First, I would say that teachers should identify the conditions, prepare different types of tasks and use of different tools in order to properly evaluate and reflect all objectives in one unit. To do this, an evaluation must have the following characteristics: it is diagnostic, formative and summative. It should be done before, during and after each activity, unit or lesson.

In my opinion, one of the most important things to evaluate success would be to familiarize students with the measures and criteria and try to do so through different types of (oral or written) assignments and responsibility for their own assessment. As you know, language is an essential aspect of a learning process. Therefore, all content related to it should be appropriately assessed (for a real purpose in a real context). It is essential to know that we must evaluate both students and ourselves as teachers. If we share our assessment criteria with students help them more easily achieve the goals.

How can we link language learning and communicative competence with Bloom's thinking skills?

The communicate competence is necessary to work in school through language learning, because people need to express and communicate their feeling, thinking, ideas, wishes…

Thus, we keep relationship with people. It is a primary need for human being. Perhaps for this, it is so important to link language learning and communicative competence with Bloom's thinking skills in teaching educational system in  our schools.

Education and society is very changeable. Nowadays, we can find out many things searching them on internet because we live in a  technological age. For this, teachers, caregivers and  parents must help and lead their children  teaching  everything that is  around them, but we should do it experimenting, comparing, classifying, structuring, inventing and so on. 

That is to say, according to Boom's methodology " Higher order thinking skills",  helps pupils to understand and sort out all the knowledge they acquire. This theory is very useful in achieving meaningful learning. To apply the Bloom's taxonomy teachers must work and propose a lot of variety activities to foster critical thinking of students.

For example, If we are teaching the words ´pronunciation, we can realize an activity where we work different pronunciations letters and then we ask them to choose a picture with each letter they listen to. This way, we will improve our pupils ´skills, because students work different strategies to acquire a meaningful learning. Following the six levels of Bloom's taxonomy which are remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating.

This way, students can also organize social gatherings, where they exchange feelings, expressions, words and promote linguistic understanding. Making a significant learning of the learning we promote and encourage critical thinking and better understanding.

However, freedom of learning should be guided by an adult to encourage and maintain knowledge, because otherwise the educational system will fail  and everybody must learn the minimum established in the curriculum.

 Finally, I believe that the class´ environment must be a motivating place for learners to express their views and enhance their abilities with  the practice without fear of being intimidated, but with fairness, tolerance, dialog, active participation and respect for each other's opinion, they gain new expressions, words and...

El racó de les emocions

Hola a tothom,

Vos presente el racó de les emocions que hi tinc a l'aula. Després de la lectura del llibre el mostre dels colors, hem treballat a través de diferents activitats, dinàmiques i jocs l'educació emocional. Els ha agrada moltissím realitzar l'activitat, on de manera lliure podíen dibuixar el mostre de colors que més li agradara.

 El resultat final ha sigut aquest mural elaborat per la creativitat dels xiquets/es de cinc anys.

Activitats propostes per a treballar les emocions a l'aula

The core features of CLIL and the importance of including in the teaching the ICT in CLIL methodology.

People need to speak to communicate and to understand everything around them. The CLIL is precisely the integration of many of these features into one's teaching repertoire, which presents a challenge to teachers.

There are different ways to apply the CLIL in the teaching repertoire such as multiple focus which could be supporting language learning in content and  in language classes, integrating several subjects, organizing learning through cross-curricular themes and projects, supporting reflection on the learning process (cognition). Other is to promote a safe and enriching learning environment or displaying language and content throughout the classroom, such as the math corner, the science corner and so on. Guiding access to authentic learning materials and environments and increasing student language awareness.

The authenticity about this way to learn and teach letting the students ask for the language help they need, maximizing the accommodation of student interests in the selection of the topics, tasks... Students make a regular connection between learning and the students' lives and connect with other speakers of the CLIL language participating in Comenius projects. They can use current materials from the media and other interactional sources combining them  with their own knowledge. The CLIL is an active learning because students communicate more than  teachers. They help setting the content, the language and the learning skills outcomes. The pupils evaluate the progress they have achieved, favoring peer co-operative work, negotiating the meaning of language and so on.

One example this methodology is the ICT. It is very important and useful in education, because we live in a technological society and the school must adapt it to social progress.

So this is important to link of ICT in the learning progress of students, because ICT is motivating resource to learn and understand all contents studied or worked in school. The CLIL is a very practical knowledge, because it needs a continuous process to acquire a good language proficiency, learning skills and so on. Thus, is better link of ICT in CLIL methodology, because I think that helps to make learning meaningful through websites, where you can practice different interactive activities,  shared different content or ideas with other educational community. This brings new opportunities for learning into our world.

ICT has some advantages above the traditional books or other resources, because nowadays teachers can do and create different activities adapted to our pupils' necessities or work specific content depending on the project topic. We could do materials to develop cultural awareness.. Using ICT to teach CLIL is a more enjoyable and engaging way to motivate students about some topics and enhance the pleasure of culture and learning in the world.

The best teacher I've ever had

I don't remember specifically who was the best teacher I've ever had, but I remember two teachers important in my life.

The first was my kindergarten teacher and she was called Susi. I remember her as someone loving and affectionate. She applied a methodology active, fun through play and proposed a variety of activities. I remember a lot things, activities, happy memories and positive experiences. She taught many things important to life. I have learnt in a fun and entertaining way. I shared three years of my life with her.

Moreover, I believe that moment was so important in my development as a person that I have always wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. For this reason, nowadays I work as a kindergarten teacher in public school. I try to propose different activities to motivate my students, and involved them in the learning journey.  I think the best teacher should to fun, happy, love her/him job. Teachers must understand their students and try everything to help them.

The second teacher I remember was Reme. She was primary school, she was main teacher, because that moment I had four or five different teachers, who taught different subjects.

In that moment, I only wanted to play and I was bored when I had to do my homework or study to my exams. My mother didn't know how to change my attitude and behavior, and she talked with my mother and she said that: Jenni is very clever and can do whatever she wants, but Jenni has to want to do.

This sentence I  never forget. Reme knew as motivation us to promote learning and increase our competences, abilities and skills. She tried to encourage all my classmates and she used a active and practical methodology. Reme cared for teaching and understand, so we could improve our performance.

Finally, I believe that the best teacher should be and apply a friendly, respectful, confident, loving, fun, active methodology. This is the best way the students can improve their competences and skills.

What would be the advantages and disadvantages of using the ELP?

The ELP is a personal document of a learner. In this document learners of all ages can record their language learning and cultural experience at school or outside school. A learner using the ELP takes over ownership of his learning process. He develops strategies to plan, monitor and evaluate his own learning. This learning it becomes more efficient and effective and very motivating.

The ELP  helps making the language learning process more motivating by involving the learner in the decision making the goal setting and the evaluation of learning achievement. In this way the ELP:

1. Encourages lifelong learning of languages

2.  Helps to develop language learning and intercultural skills

3.   Facilitates mobility

This ELP also have advantages for the teacher, teachers can benefit from using the ELP in class with their students by building on two functions of the tool:

1.   The pedagogic function

                2. The reporting/informative function

The pedagogical function is based to make the language learning process more transparent to learners and to foster the development of learner autonomy; that is why it assigns a central role to reflection and self-assessment. The ELP is engaging learners to share responsibility for the learning process, to think critically when they plan, monitor and evaluate their learning and to develop appropriate target language use.

The reporting function, completes information provided by official diplomas, This means that allows the owner to document language learning that has taken place outside as well as inside formal education.

All this that I explain is based on the advantages that has the European language portfolio  and the disadvantages that could have is that some teachers have find it difficult about the levels and descriptors because the communicative behavior in which one learner group can vary from another.

The portfolio in Infant education is work from 3 to 8 years old. It use the structure and format of an illustrated tale. It way to initiate the user into the contact with languages and cultures.

Finally to give the end to this post I can say about this European Language Portfolio, is a positive tool for children because, support their learners’ thinking about their language learning. It help their learners to understand the central aim of language learning and teach their learners how to assess themselves. Increase their learners’ motivation and help their learners to take their own initiatives. The ELP help their learners to understand what they can already do and decide for themselves what they want to achieve. Promoting explore different ways of evaluating their learners’ progress, the learners to overcome their fear of speaking in a foreign language. Another reason is that show their learners how they can collect and display evidence of what they have learnt. Supporting the development of their learners’ autonomy and learn something new and increase their professional skills.

English summer course, Presentation

Hi, my name is Jenni and I'm 28 years old. I'm from Catarroja a town near of Valencia. I am kindergarten teacher. This year I'm supporting teacher. I love teaching and helping students to solve  facts. My aim is teaching tools for life, so they are more happy and able to do anything.

The last summer I passed the b2 exam. I prepare me with UCV in the intensive summer course and the experience was positive. So this year, I decided to get the English training with you.
I hope to learn a lot and I become certified.