Gine, Spain by Gine

About me

gine_tomas — 2017-10-26 18:27:49 UTC

Hi everybody! My name is Gine I am from Murcia, Spain. I am teacher of Spanish language and literature. I work in a secondary school. The secondary school where I work is a big place, there are 700 students. Different subjects are taught as Spanish language and literature, mathematics, technology, physics and chemistry, art history, geography and history, audiovisual culture, universal literature, etc. I specifically teach Spanish Language and Literature and Universal Literature (this is an optional subject, which relates literature with music, painting, myths, etc.).

In my classroom I have an interactive whiteboard and a movie screen. I normally use all those means to teach my classes.

1.1 What is PBL and why use it

gine_tomas — 2017-10-26 18:33:57 UTC

I remember when I was a child school was boring, I had to memorize a lot of contents in order to pass an exam. A bit time afterwards I were not able to remember what I had memorized and all these contents had not any sense for me. Now I am teacher and I realize how education needs to be innovated because the new generations of our students are demanding and ask that the learning process becomes interesting, useful, creative and motivating. It's been a long time since I realized that classes should be creative and motivating and that's why PBL is the perfect tool.

1.3 Optional P2P- Reflections on our current teaching practice

gine_tomas — 2017-10-26 18:35:13 UTC

I try to engage the students by asking questions that relate the issue that we are going to deal with real life, with their lives. I try students relate their thoughts, their experiences and relate it to the subject we are presenting.I spent a lot time asking questions, answering other questions suggested by the students, creating a small debate, watching some video…I think that somehow the idea of something like PBL has been in my mind for some time. I believe that critical thinking, collaboration and comunication are the education of the future.I am going to use PBL for my universal literature class. The subject is the myths in literature, its survival in today's society and its influence in the rest of the arts as music, apinting, theater, cinema, etc.

1.2Why I think PBL is not used more widely in our education systems?

gine_tomas — 2017-10-26 18:44:20 UTC

I think that at present a very traditional concept of education still persists. There are many people who find it difficult to change their perspective.

1.4 Which of the 5 componentes of a good PBL I feel will be the most challenging to realize and why

gine_tomas — 2017-10-26 18:47:34 UTC

I think that the most important challenge is the current educational system that is deeply rooted in traditional teaching.I think there is an important work to do to raise awareness of the entire educational community about the need for a change in education. It is necessary to make teachers aware of the importance of the students become more engaged, self-directed learners and learn more deeply and transfer their learning to new situations. Improve problem-solving and collaboration skills

2. Developing effective collaboration for PBL.2.2 What is effective collaboration?

gine_tomas — 2017-10-28 11:03:55 UTC

Collaboration in my class room.The content of the task is a research work about ancient legends in the locality where the students live. The students have been divided into groups and each of these groups has a task assigned. It is necessary to look for information of old legends that have been transmitted orally, also must investigate in local municipalities or cultural institutions about legends that have passed from the tradition to the written text.Another part of the work is to compare these legends with others that appear in the literatures of other countries.

With all that information the students have made a documentary and they have also made a short film about one of the legends. I think that with this work I have achieved  the  followings goals with my students:  Work together, give feedback, share responsibility,  make substantive decisions about the content of the process of the product, work interdependently and develop skills.

2.3 Effective collaboration for PBL inside the classroom.

gine_tomas — 2017-10-28 17:59:32 UTC

The content of the task is a research work about ancient legends in the locality where the students live. The students have been divided into groups and each of these groups has a task assigned. It is necessary to look for information of old legends that have been transmitted orally, also must investigate in local municipalities or cultural institutions about legends that have passed from the tradition to the written text.Another part of the work is to compare these legends with others that appear in the literatures of other countries.

With all that information the students have made a documentary and they have also made a short film about one of the legends. Regarding the collaboration in this task.I have worked on the following aspects: I have made sure that all students were aware of the importance of the shared goal of the project. A series of rules and roles were created in order to provide opportunities for groups to everyone could participate. I as teacher took part as facilitator in order to working in harmony. We created a checklist of the week in order to catch each student was doing something right.

2.4.Finding collaboration partners outside the classroom. Wich people from your community or your students could engage with?

gine_tomas — 2017-10-28 18:00:56 UTC

As a literature teacher I have worked some content through small projects. In this project I have tried to relate the literary content with different aspects and themes of life. In this sense I have counted different supports such as environmental groups, theater companies and music groups.

3. Developing student-driven activities for PBL

gine_tomas — 2017-10-31 18:41:28 UTC

The situations in which I have failed have always been those that have made me think about the value of the challenge. These failures are what have given me the impetus to want to overcome the difficulty and finish successfully.

“Do not let the day end without having grown a bit, without being happy,
without having risen your dreams.
Do not let overcome by disappointment.
(…)”
Leaves of grass, Walt Whitman

3.1 Scaffolding for Student Ownership and Independence

gine_tomas — 2017-10-31 19:16:04 UTC

I think students should be aware of the importance of the shared goal of the project. In this sense it is very important students become the drivers of the project The teacher becomes more of a facilitator and the students take more control. The teacher needs to re-direct if necessary, give hints but not answers. It is about introducing the topic in a way that will build curiosity,to provide opportunities for kids to enquire, to find their own answers.

1.6 Optional P2P. My PBL Design: Formulating my driving question.

gine_tomas — 2017-10-31 20:05:51 UTC

1.6 Optional P2P. My PBL Design: Formulating my driving question. The students will create a blog in which different posts will be published about the following topic: Literary myths from Antiquity to the present day: Survival (the presence of these myths in current societies) and transcendence (the repercussion of myth in other areas and other arts).

I think this question contains the criteria of open-ended, engage and inspire students by creating curiosity, and be aligned to the learning goals because:

1. Open-ended: The students will bring myths closer to current society and therefore can relate it to their own experiences.

2. Engage the students: The subject of myths is related to multiple facets of the human being of all times and because these myths are present in many other arts such as painting, music, comic, film and these topics are interesting for students.

3. Is aligned to the learning goals identified: The students will have to consult different sources and select information, in addition they will have to do a critical and reflective work.

The project focuses on the following goals identified:

Collaboration
Knowledge construction
Self-regulation
Real-world problem-solving and innovation
The use of ICT for learning
Skilled communication

3.2 Developing Student Resilience

gine_tomas — 2017-11-01 12:01:56 UTC

I think that one way to make the work less interesting and get the students to lose motivation would be: Indicating that the work to be done is very complicated, that they have to have very specific skills; I would also demotivate my students by criticizing their work negatively, showing their errors in public or not encouraging collaboration to solve problems.

2.6 Optional P2P - building your PBL learning design

gine_tomas — 2017-11-01 19:22:03 UTC

This is my learning design link: https://v.gd/gCZCSj

4. Assessing PBL

gine_tomas — 2017-11-07 19:44:56 UTC

The assessment that we follow in my center is completely standardized by the educational system of the country; I cannot evaluate outside the established standards. Normally there are between 60 and 110 standards in the different levels in which I teach. These standards are distributed in quarters and at the end of each trimester the students are evaluated following this unique pattern of established standards.

4.4 Creating & Using Rubrics for PBL Assessment

gine_tomas — 2017-11-11 10:45:55 UTC

This is my Rubrics for PBL assessment link http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?ts=1510252366

4.5 P2P - Your PBL Learning Design

gine_tomas — 2017-11-11 13:49:41 UTC

This mi final Learning Design link:https://v.gd/gCZCSj

Rubrics of my Learning Design

gine_tomas — 2017-11-11 13:51:08 UTC

| Essential Project Design A)Element | Lacks Features of Effective PBL The project has one o more of the following problems in each area:
B)| Needs Furhter Development The project includes some features of effective but has some weaknesses:
C) Includes Features of Effective PBL The project has the followings strengths:

| Collaboration |

A)The working group has done a very poor selection work. They have only been able to select a few myths.
The working group has not worked well because there are students who have not been involved in their part of the work.
B)The working group makes an acceptable selection of myths but they limit themselves to mentioning some of the myths and not always the most relevant ones.
The working group has worked with some deficiencies in the collaboration of some of its members.

C)The working group has made a careful and rich selection of literary myths.

The working group has worked perfectly, all the students have participated with equal workload and responsibility.

| Investigation |
A)The research work is very poor. Very few characteristics are mentioned and when they do they are limited to very basic and simplified and little documented features about the origin, consolidation, survival and transcendence of the myth. |
B)The research work is acceptable. Some relevant characteristics are mentioned but they are not widely developed but they are limited to a brief explanation and sometimes not very well documented about the origin, consolidation, survival and transcendence of the myth. | C)The research work is brilliant. The relevant characteristics are mentioned through rich, detailed and documented arguments about the origin, consolidation, survival and transcendence of the myth.

Critical Thinking |
A)The working group explains very sparingly and sometimes wrongly the relationship between the meaning of the myth and the reality or experience with which it has been compared.
B)The working group explains in an acceptable way although the arguments used are somewhat scarce and do not explain well enough, so that the relationship between the meaning of the myth and the reality or experience with which it has been compared is not clear.
C) The working group explains brilliantly, with detailed arguments, establishing an accurate and clear relationship between the meaning of the myth and the reality or experience with which it has been compared.

| Creativity |
A)The design of the blog is very poor. The distribution of the contents is chaotic and therefore incoherent. The navigation design is not clear, it is not very visual. Colors, images and typography are not adequate.
B) The design of the blog is acceptable. Although the distribution of the contents is a bit disorganized and the navigation design is not always inductive. Colors, images and typography are not adequate enough and can be improved.
C) The blog design is bright and original. The distribution of the contents has a very clear and precise organization and the navigation design is very conceptual, very visual and therefore very inductive. The colors, images and typography are very appropriate and very creative.