Learning Diary by

MYSELF

mhugue25 — 2017-10-22 21:24:06 UTC

My name is Maria and I'm 41 years old.
I'm from Menorca, but I live in Cardedeu with my family. I've got a 5-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son.
I used to read and go to the cinema when i didn't have children; but now I have no time for hobbies.

MY TEACHING EXPERIENCE

mhugue25 — 2017-10-22 21:26:58 UTC

I've been working for sixteen years as a teacher.
I worked in a rural school for nine years as a tutor of Primary children, from 1st to 6th grade all together. I also gave English lessons to kindergarten children. There, I participated in an Orator project on traditional stories.
Afterwards, I started working in the school where I work now, Escola Fontmartina in Santa Maria de Palautordera.
In this school I do English lesson all the time. This academic year I have 1st and 6th grade children. I have a reduced timetable.
Some years ago we participated in a PELE and we also had a "auxiliar de convera".
We also developed a project with a school in Turkey for 4 years, but the contact there couldn't follow it anymore.
Nowadays, we carry out a project with another school of the village, Bridging Schools.

SESSION 1_REFLEXIONS

mhugue25 — 2017-10-22 21:46:17 UTC

Nowadays, I'm very upset about the luck of time I have to prepare games and interesting activities for my children.

SESSSION 2_REFLEXIONS

mhugue25 — 2017-11-02 19:36:18 UTC

I agree that integrated learning is an excellent idea to use English for a real purpose.
I use some similar activities to the ones presented in the session, but I don't cooredinate with other teachers of the school. The activities don't belong to a school project.
Next academic year, we are asked to start a CLIL project in the school. Maybe, integrated learning would be a good start.

SESSION 3_REFLEXIONS

mhugue25 — 2017-11-11 22:13:36 UTC

From my point of view "flipped classroom" is an interesting methodoly; but I would need to use it some times to see if it works with my pupils. They are not used to do homework in English, and when they have to, they don't do them.
From the session I found interesting the different tools used: Edmodo (group management) Edpuzzle (edititng vidios), answerGarde(voting), etc.

SESSION 4_REFLEXIONS

mhugue25 — 2017-11-26 21:30:52 UTC

I think it is very interesting to share materials with other teachers, but I would have preferred to share materials previously prepared and used in class.

Google drive is a useful tool to programme activities among different teachers simultaneously, I sometimes use it.

Symbaloo is a good tool to organize links for our children to work. I didn’t know it and I’ll use it with my pupils from now on.

Here is my simple example of Symbaloo: https://www.symbaloo.com/embed/shared/AAAABt-fUocAA42AC62xfw==?" name="_symFrame" width="920px" height="600px" frameborder="0" noresize="noresize" allowTransparency="true">

SESSION 5_REFLEXIONS

mhugue25 — 2017-12-10 16:07:44 UTC

It's very interesting to know all the different opportunities we have to participate in shared projects.
Some years ago, I took part in a Comenius project. It was interesting to meet teachers from different countries and to spend a forth night with a native family.

For many academic years, I used to do an exchange with a school in Istanbul, but the teacher I coordinated with could not go on with it any more. Now, I would like to carry on a similar project, but I haven’t got any contact. I should try to find another school to work with in e-twinning platform.
I didn’t know anything about Mystery classroom and I think it is a very interesting activity to motivate our pupils to use English in a functional and real situation; although it is maybe more suitable for Secondary pupils.

Participating in a project gives lots of motivation, but it means lots of extra work that it is difficult to match with everyday work.

SESSION 6_REFLEXIONS

mhugue25 — 2017-12-20 22:27:45 UTC

Assessing is a delicate part of our job. We are supposed to evaluate our children’s progress, but in the end, we only have to fill in a report with a mark; a mark that only means the pupil’s level according to a standard. A pupil whose evolution is very positive, but below the supposed standard, gets a bad mark....

I’m really upset and angry about the items we have to evaluate now, because the “experts” have decided that English is treated and evaluated as any language in the school. English, as a foreign language, is taught and evaluated in a different way that any native language. I consider listening and speaking as two very important skills to be considered separately; therefore they should be evaluated independently. The item for the dimension “Comunicació oral” does not give, from my point of view, accurate information to our pupils’ parent about what their children know.