EXTRAS: #ePORTFOLIO #SOyER1718

If you are reading this post, it means that this is coming to an end. As we have said before, we take a lot of experience from this course with us that is going to be useful in our future professional and personal life, so we wanted to do a kind of REVIEW about our feelings towards the subject now we have almost finished it.

• WHAT WE REMEMBER THE MOST is the alternative way of teaching and learning due to it makes the classes practical and different from other ones. There is a wide range of methods of teaching and, as we have learned in Psychology of Education, ‘‘discovery learning’’ encourages learners to interact with the environment in order to develop meaningful learnings. In conclusion, both, learning by discovery learning and using this information in a continuing way during the entire week, are the reasons why we retain better the information.
• THE HARDEST THING has been the pressure of being creative and of doing it well. Some tasks were difficult to understand or harder to represent, so we spent lots of hours thinking what to do and being original at the same time. Also, there were some extrinsic factors such us the competition with other groups that motivated us to develop the task as well as possible, and sometimes, this was a tough challenge.
• THE EASIEST THING has been to use Instagram in order to upload stories, the roles of the week, photos and so on each week. We find it easy because, nowadays, social networks are common in our daily lives as they have advanced for the last years. On the other hand, taking pictures lasts just a few minutes in comparison with the rest of the parts that we have to work on.
• THE FUNNIEST THING was when we have to meet with the entire group in the afternoon. We enjoy a lot because we were together and we learned things from each other. In addition, apart from doing the task, we enjoy making jokes, having a snack and a lot of things more. It’s important that while we are working, we enjoy the time and create a good environment to give the best of us.

• THE MOST BORING THING has been to read the necessary documents to do each activity. We know that it is very important in order to perform the activity properly, but texts have loads and loads of pages and we spent much time reading them.
• SOMETHING THAT WILL BE USEFUL FOR SURE is to make oral presentations due to this is a good way to lose the shame and to practice the fluency. It would be useful in our future as students, in the oral exams and presentations that we could have, and as a teacher, we need to teach our students or talk with parents.

• WHAT WE WILL NO LONGER USE will be the types of comics because, although we will know what kind of comic it is, we don’t see the necessity of doing a big variety of comics in our future life as teachers or as students. To say something, we think is the less useful thing that we have seen in this class.
• THE ACTIVITY WHERE WE HAVE LEARNED THE MOST has been the task were we had to put all the content that we had learned till the moment in a cover magazine, as we learned how to collect all that information and summarize it, what is really important for a student. Moreover, we had to present it in an “exciting” way, as if we were presenting each one of the headlines of a real magazine, and we think that we are going to present in this way some of the activities for our pupils to encourage them when we are teachers.
• WHAT WE SHOULD IMPROVE OUR WORK FOR OTHER COURSES is our productivity because sometimes we lost the time talking or wandering in others things. We should be concentrated in our task to develop it in the best way possible and it is an important fact that we need to have for the following courses.
• WHAT WE NEED TO KEEP FOR OTHER COURSES is everything that we have learned and improved such as pronunciation, good presentations, work team… If we maintain this domain correctly, we can focus on our content.
• IF WE PASS, IT IS BECAUSE  we are satisfied with the results of our tasks and because we work very well together. Definitely, we did a really hard work and all of the members participated in each activity and develop the work giving the best of us because as a collaborative group, we are assessed with the same mark.

• IF WE FAIL, IT IS BECAUSE OF the lack of coordination on the blog. Although we upload the posts weekly and everyone is responsible for their roles, we recognize one of our mistakes is that we sometimes don’t read others’ posts and we do not guide by the best ones so this provokes to make different structures and has led us to repeat the whole blog.

 

CURATION.

CURATION WEB PAGE

 

 

 

 

 

TASK 9: LEADERSHIP.

1.GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

In this context of complex institutions, there are different types of leadership.

Children need to find the variety of leader, to answer the following questions:

How must be the good leader?, Who would be a good leader and Who is the best leader for our institution? There is a leadership style preferable for any institution?
This is a document where you can find information about the four basic leadership styles, but also you can find more on the Internet.
Hoyle, John R. “Leadership Styles.” Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration. Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2006. 595- 98. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 30 Jan. 2012

Then they are going to personalize a candidate to the direction of the centre and make a campaign for presenting itself.

In this campaign, it has to show its style and express what styles it doesn’t have, moreover the characteristic of the school.

Finally, all the class decides what is the best and why.

2.PRODUCTS.

– Speech Viki

Hello everyone!! I am Vicky, one of the candidates for the future headmaster of this educational institution. First of all, I would like to ask you some questions…

Any of you has ever felt that your decisions were not being taken into account? Have your parents ever felt that your teacher was such as enemy? Have you ever felt that you don’t belong to your class and you don’t receive love? Well, if you have experienced some of these situations, don’t worry, because we will give you the solution.

There is still enough time to make the changes. By the way, I don’t want you to feel I’m superior because I’m not. I’m just one of the pieces of this machine and I need the rest. You are the rest. I understand how you feel sometimes but, If I don’t, at least, I try. I don’t want to promise you that all your desires are going to be reached, but at least,  I will try it.

The main objective of this campaign is to create a school where decisions are free and accepted and where everyone has the freedom to participate in every activity that is being done. Among our moral values, we can find equality, inclusion, evolution, diversity, freedom, and love.

As it is not important what we say, it is important what we do, we want to share with you the projects that we will develop:

Firstly, it is being planned a diversity week during the school year, in which there will be several activities per day. Each day will be dedicated to a topic: we will focus on the different cultures that could be found between scholars, we will explain some functional diversities another day, the gender gap will be also discussed and so on… Our purpose is to encourage the inclusion and to make people feel that we are equal regarding rights, but different regarding characteristics and those make us special. For the same reasons, we want to develop a classroom for blind children by adopting the classroom and the materials to meet their needs. All of us have right to be educated and this school offers a chance to everyone, regardless of their peculiarities.

On the other hand, a solidarity market will be also held. Children can provide perishable food. It’s completely volunteer but with this idea, we try to transmit not only to students but also to parents and other people that take part in this, the values that our school supports. so we think that this is a great way to teach more than academic topics. We want to foster generosity and fellowship.

Because this is not our responsibility, another project is to make a suggestions’ corner. We know that there are diverse opinions or ideas about everything and we don’t want to impose anything as compulsory without taking into account others opinions. But we are not only talking about students or teachers, we include families and other staff of the school. We don’t want our people to feel timidness. We don’t want them to feel that we don’t care their thoughts, they are important for us to work. Please, who among you have you ever seen that your teacher was under the headmaster decisions like not being himself? This is the moment to start the change.

Related to shyness, students sometimes feel excluded in the group, or they have little fights in class. So, we propose that we could dedicate an hour per week to make ‘’book therapy’’. This is a relaxing and spiritual activity that motivate them to socialize, to imagine and to read. But beyond this, to share their feelings and open to other people.  Students have to close their eyes and listen to a story where he or she is the main character and they try to imagine what happened there. Finally, they are going to share their feelings in the story with the rest of the class and through that, the rest of the people is going to know how he or she really feels. In that way, students would help them and they could solve any problem in their relationships.

Another issue that we think is very important, is the teacher’s academical formation. We would offer to all our staff plenty of courses that they would be able to do, such as one about emotional intelligence. We believe that our students deserve to be understood, and it is an essential requirement for them to learn. They need that the teachers create a great atmosphere, fulfilled with love and sympathy.

Support is important for students too, so we are working on a plan:  from now on, smaller students will be provided with a tutor all along the school year. Their results will be checked by that person and they will receive feedback, so as not to let them fall apart. In addition, it will be voluntary for the oldest one.

Furthermore, teachers are not the only one who need to support students if they want them to succeed and be safe. Parents are too. So that is why we are proposing a day per month when parents will be invited to come inside our installations and to spend some time with their offsprings. They would be given the opportunity to participate together in several activities. Students need to feel that their parents care about what they do.

Finally, we want to announce you that as part of our evolution and in order to adapt to the new times, we want to be involved in the using of ICT. For that reason, our campaign we will be published on our blog and to show how we are implied in this initiative, we will also improve the classrooms for computer science with the aim of improving the students’ technological skills and of facilitating their rapprochement with the ICT.

In conclusion, this is the school that you deserve because of me, that I have been a student too, would have dreamt to be in a school like this where we are concerned about the best formation for everybody and we try to face all the changes presented. Because you, my students, can achieve everything that you propose with our help. Honestly, because I don’t like order and I dislike to be ordered too, What’s better than a system where everybody works in groups? Where is anyone better than another? Where are we worried about our values? Please, don’t forget what Howard G. Hendrick said ‘‘the education that leaves its mark is not the one from head to head, but from the heart to heart’’.

That has been all, thank you, everyone, for your attention.

– Presentation genial.ly GENIALLY 

– Pictures

 

3.ROLES.

• Journalist: Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández.
• Star:  Mª Victoria Aupí Román.
• Curator-Farmer: Ana Gil García.
  
• Analyst: Andrea Álvarez de Toledo.
  
• Facilitator: Beatriz Meroño Ortega.
  
• Translator:  Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez.
  
• Supporter: Elena Fernández Mira.

 

4. A SUMMARY OF WHAT WE HAVE LEARNT WITH THIS TASK.

We had to choose a type of leadership among the four ones that we have to read about: the authoritarian, the participative, the transformational and the transactional. I think that one of the best parts of the activity was when we had to decide which type we were going to represent, as we all agree really quick that we wanted to do the Transactional one, and we started to think of ideas that could represent our leadership styles better. There, each of us showed our most creative part.

I coincide with the rest of the members that the worst of this activity was the fact that two of our members couldn’t attend the faculty this week, so the rest of us had more work than ever. However, they did everything they could at home, so it wasn’t so bad to have missed them for a week.

Actually, the best moment of the week was when we did a kind of “brainstorming”, trying to come up with the most original ideas for Viki’s presentation, as we wanted to highlight among the rest of groups. Honestly, I think we did it. Our presentation was entertaining for everyone, so I think we had our reward for our hard job.

Thanks to this task, we haven’t only learned the different types of leadership (as obvious) but we have learned as well how to write a speech that catches the attention of the audience, how to move in the scene so everyone would be delighted with your presentation… and how to gain easy votes (thanks to our idea of giving Heart Balloons and lollipops to everyone ;). I think that this content can be useful for us, not only if we want to present ourselves to a campaign for being the headmaster of our future school, but also to convince anyone of our ideas, to know how to expose them correctly and to make the others agree with you, to reach a consensus, which I think it’s really important if you are working with a team (in our case, the AMPA, the teaching team, the school counselor…).

If we really want to succeed in our professional career, we will have to act like a leader with the children, for example, but also with parents, other teachers… to assure that our ideas are going to be listened and thought. We have to think about the pros and cons of each type of leadership: for example, you may see an authoritarian leader as a really strict person, not appropriate for a Primary School, but also, you have to think that it depends on the type of school and the type of children that this authoritarian leader is going to find.

To sum up, we don’t think either that the Transactional leadership, based on peace and love, is the best one. Maybe it’s is in some schools, but in others, it doesn’t. It happens the same with the other types of leadership, as we think that each person can have different styles and use each one of them if it’s needed. For sure, we are going to pass through a lot of children in our life, and we will have to learn how to treat them in every occasion: sometimes with love, and sometimes with hardness, as we have definitely learned that every leadership style has its lights and its shades.

5.THE PRINCIPAL TERMS THAT WE HAVE WORKED ON IT.

-Leader: a leader is a person who leads a group, company, organization…He guides others toward reaching organizational or personal goals. He is responsible for decision making, interpersonal relationships and planning. The leader has the power to influence other subjects. Their behaviour or their words succeed in encouraging the members of a group to work together for a common goal.

–Authoritarian leaders:  He makes the decisions without giving explanations about it. It is based on rewards, punishments and the search for obedience. Direct and control all activities without any significant involvement of subordinates.

–Participative leaders: is one in which the leader is integrated as one more in the work team. The productivity and human relationships were closely linked and opened to informal structures and social systems. It is quite useful for those processes that are not focused only on the results.

–Transactional leaders: The worker offers his services and obtains salary and other benefits, and on the other hand, the leader recognizes what he wants to achieve and provides the workers with the necessary resources to make them achieve it. This type of leadership requires the integration of organizational goals and expectations with the needs of the people doing the work.

–Transformational leaders: It focuses on human capital, on the members of your organization to achieve the change you are looking for. He knows that the transformation of the company or organization is only possible through them, that is why he values them, invites them to participate and motivates them. It is a common process of leader and workers to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation.

 

6.SELF-EVALUATION.

Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández. 8

Mª Victoria Aupí Román. 9

Ana Gil García. 7

Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez. 8

Beatriz Meroño Ortega. 7.5

Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez. 7

Elena Fernández Mira. 8

Talking about the mark of the entire group, We would like to highlight the incredible speech that our star Victoria carry out during her presentation. We know that everything can be improved but from our point of view, it was brilliant. Also, we brought balloons, lollipops and distributed leaflets to each group as you can see in the images.

So we think that our group mark should be a 9.5

 

7. HOW THIS ACTIVITY CAN HELP US TO DEVELOP THE COMPETENCIES OF THE COURSE.

The main competence that we had found was: to know the processes of interaction and communication in the classroom.

Since in this task we have talked about the types of headmaster and we analyzed all the characteristics of each one, we can see that everyone has a thought about the way of educating that there must be in their school and this also leads to the way of relating of the students of the center, and the level of permission that is going to have inside the classroom which leads to a level of communication also greater or lesser.

TASK 8: STOP-MOTIONING BASICS FOR A NEW EDUCATIONAL LAW.

 

1.GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

The platform #porotrapoliticaeducativa is an educational association which is striving to achieve the basics for a New Educational Law in Spain. So, for supporting this campaign and for increasing the alternative ways to express our work using technology, students are going to make an advert in Stop-motion format that represents the ten main principles which this association claims the clearest as possible. Once done, they have to upload the advert to Youtube. Remember! All the material used must have the CC licensed. Then, in the next class, the students will present their videos in class for doing a special ‘’Eurovision contest’’. In addition, during the next week, students must share their video in the most social networks as possible to obtain the highest number of likes, views and comments of the whole class. There will be two winners: the best video and the most visited one; they will obtain an award! Here, you have the Decalogue to find the information for doing the activity:

https://porotrapoliticaeducativa.org/portfolio/decalogo/

   

  2. PRODUCTS.

Video in Stop-Motion Format: STOP MOTION #porotrapoliticaeducativa

 

3. ROLES ON ITS PREPARATION.

• Star: Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez.
• Curator-farmer: María del Mar Martínez Hernández.
• Translator: Ana Gil García
• Analyst: Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez
• Facilitator: Elena Fernández Mira
• Journalist: Beatriz Meroño Hernández
• Supporter: María Victoria Aupí Román.

 

4. A SUMMARY ABOUT WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM IT.

Reviewing a New Educational Law and summarizing its main ten concepts wasn’t easy at all. Due to it’s an important domain for us since it guides our intellectual future, we wanted to put all our effort into this task and we took it really seriously.

We have learned how to reach an agreement among our different opinions and points of view, as we didn’t support all the electoral promises on the Decalogue and either it was difficult to reach to a consensus between us. If it was hard for us, seven people, we couldn’t imagine how stressful and difficult is trying to contain more than forty millions of people which is a whole country.

Moreover, to decide the main points of our education law is not something that citizens are used to, especially us, that have just been allowed to vote. Normally, although there are many demonstrations or suggestions about education, health service… those specific aspects are decided by the Governments and sometimes used as a tool in their electoral program to get their main goal: to convince people that they have the best reforms and to be the most voted ones.

I can relate this to an experience that I had last year when some political representatives of different parties attended my school to make a public debate in front of the students of the last year. When we asked them why any of the parties suggested a votation to decide if the LOMCE had to be implanted or not (as it was a law that affects us more than the politicians who proposed it), the most “conservative” one explicitly said that “education laws were an excuse to content the voters and that’s why they didn’t ask for our opinion, as they didn’t really care”.

This makes us think that, sometimes, complaining to the “bosses” of the state with Educational laws is unuseful, as it doesn’t seem like we are going to be heard, but reading this decalogue, we have learned that education is so important for the current and future society that we don’t have to give up. Instead of that, we have to fight to reach what we want and to make them hear us. That’s why putting all your effort on developing an Educational Law with so many interesting and necessary points like “#PorOtraPolíticaEducativa” has, we can try to make all the changes that we want and to be heard by thousands of people until we get to the Government.  

To sum up, I think that another thing we learned in this task is how difficult is to complement each other so every one of us does the same amount of job. For example, when we were doing the pictures for the stop-motion, we only needed two people doing the main job, while the others had nothing to do at that moment. For that, we have learned to organise ourselves, and rotate the main roles so none of us is not doing anything, but that’s definitely really difficult: it was necessary to know in which domains each of us highlight, to focus on them and try to do your best in that aspect that is easier for you. This means that, in this task, we get to know ourselves a little better, discovering new abilities that we didn’t know at all.

5. THE PRINCIPAL TERMS TAT YOU HAVE WORKED ON IT.

– Stop Motion: is a technique which consists in pretending the movement of objects through the succession of pictures of that objects in slightly different positions.

– Decalogue: Is a set of rules that are considered basic for an activity.

– Inclusive Education: It is considered the difference a value, allocating the necessary resources to who needs it.

– Educational compensation fund: provide money for students whose families are in a disadvantaged economic situation.

– Ratio: the maximum number of students a teacher can have per classroom.

– Secular Education: this term means that education is not based on any religious doctrine and that can be managed by the state.

– Educational policy: educational policy are the actions that the state does in relations.

– Universal access to education: is the right that all people enjoy for having equal opportunities in education, regardless of their social class, gender, ethnicity background or physical and mental disabilities.

– Lay curriculum: it argues about the rejection of any religious symbol or act in the educational system and its environment to avoid any influence which could produce religion in the educational domain.

–Constitutionally guaranteed financing:  Financing at least the 7% of the PBI to education through materials, books, resources…

– Pedagogical autonomy of educational centres: Is the space given to them for adapting and formulating the process that they are going to develop for specific situations and to the characteristics of their students, with the main goal of obtaining the school success of every student.

– Early schooling: the right to receive a free education during the Childhood Education and Primary Education, receiving the importance and the personalized attention that every student deserve during this periods.

6. SELF-EVALUATION.

Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández: 8,5

Mª Victoria Aupí Román. 8

Ana Gil García. 8

Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez. 9.

Beatriz Meroño Ortega. 9

Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez. 8

Elena Fernández Mira. 9

For this task, we worked very hard and we tried our best to be the most creative possible. We spent a lot of time thinking how to improve our work and, although we didn’t end up really well in the Eurovision Contest (the fourth position), we think we deserve a good mark: 8’5.

7. HOW THIS ACTIVITY HELPS YOU TO DEVELOP THE COMPETENCIES OF THE COURSE.

The main competencies that we have achieved with this activity has been: to analyze the teaching practice and the institutional conditions in which they are framed and to participate in the definition of the educational project and the general activity of the school attending to the quality management criteria, as we have reviewed a project of an Educational Law that includes all the main points about what a quality Education should include and the changes that are needed to make it happen.

In addition, we achieved another competence: to know the political and legislative determinants of the educational activity. It is due to the fact that the decalogue of #PorOtraPoliticaEducativa includes a variety of tools such as the right of education, a curriculum without particular ideas, how the pedagogic autonomy and organization is going to be carried out… Especially, an important approach that helped us to achieve this competence is all the aspects related with the Constitutionally guaranteed financing: about the gratuity of public education, to include the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the Constitution…

TASK 7.2: RELATIONSHIPS.

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

In order to develop this activity is crucial to understand how the school is organized and the relationships that occur inside, but it is a complex process that you have to investigate.

You must read two chapters (1 and 4) from the following book: It will be very useful to understand the meaning of complexity at schools:

Starkey, L. (2012). Teaching and learning in the digital age. London: Routledge.

As the last week was the week from reality, now is the time to fiction. So, we are going to work with the chapter: Connections and Relationships.

You have to give an example (5 fiction mini-cases, such as plots) of the 5 types of relationships at schools and show how this could affect possible day-to-day situations of the teacher.

The start has an important role, she will be a theatre director and has to manage this very well.

 

2. PRODUCT.

Teacher-student connection.

Connections with peers.

Connections within the learning context.

Connections beyond the classroom

Connections within learning.

 

3. ROLES ON ITS PREPARATION.

• Journalist: Mª Victoria Aupí Román.
• Analyst: Elena Fernández Mira.
• Supporter: Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez.
• Facilitator: Ana Gil García.
• Curator- Farmer: Andrea Álvarez de Toledo.
• Translator: Beatriz Meroño Ortega.
• Star: Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhoLNM5lD-v/

 

4. A SUMMARY ABOUT WHAT WE HAVE LEARNT.

In our view, the main purpose of this task is to realize how relationships have an impact on daily school situations, limiting or fostering students learning while being in contact with peers, teachers and with the environment as a whole. Making up fiction examples have made us think of different situations that could happen whenever in the school context.

Schools are complex systems and this complexity arises from the relationships and interactions between the participants and the different types of organization. All parts that form this institution are important and teachers should know them in order to react properly and solve the possible problems. It is very common disputes between peers in which teachers should perform and solve them.

However, the schools are so complex that, even though teachers should study and know the different situations that could occur, the experience is what helps them at all. Basically, to put into practice what you have learned is something that prepares us. For that reason, practices in the university are really useful. Future teachers can deal with the daily organization of a school and have the chance to make connections between knowledge and experience. Moreover, the connections have benefits such us learn from other partners or from other teachers’ methodology. That’s why teachers are developing these connections increasingly.

Another aspect that influences the relationships at school is the social context. Due to the diversity in the classrooms, teaching and some methods have to take into account some aspects such as culture, religion, and ethnicity to develop a correct environment. We need to know all or almost all the aspects that surround schools and especially our students. We have to transmit to our students that no matter what your origin or your beliefs, everybody have the same opportunity and it is essential to encourage the collaborative learning to make learning in a positive way.

Furthermore, we think that this activity would make us think of the ways of getting rid of negative influences on children’s learning. By this, I mean that we, as future teachers, we will have to deal with different settings that make students become less productive, such as lowering their motivation by our lack of awareness of their real interests or even trying other students not to influence on their mates attitude toward learning. It is a big deal, actually.

5. THE PRINCIPAL TERMS THAT WE HAVE WORKED ON IT.

– Connections within learning: a knowledge that students have about many concepts which is used to create new ideas by adding unknown information. These type of connections also reinforce the previous concepts.

– Connectivism: is a learning theory which proposes that learning occurs through connections within networks. It explains how digital technologies have brought with them new opportunities for people to learn and share information across the internet and among themselves.

– Connections between peers: all the relationships between classmates that allow them to share ideas, beliefs, knowledge… that impact on the learning process.

– Connections within the learning context: it means that the learning process is also influenced by the history, the culture and the relationships between all the members of the school.

– Collaborative learning: it is a teaching technique that consists in grouping students together to impact their learning in a positive way. It involves learning and evaluating how to learn with other people who may differ from your own social group as well as from perspectives and understandings.

 

6. SELF-EVALUATION.

Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández. 8

Mª Victoria Aupí Román. 8

Ana Gil García. 8

Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez. 8

Beatriz Meroño Ortega. 8

Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez. 8

Elena Fernández Mira. 8

From our point of view, this was a fun task because we enjoy doing the videos. We as a group, collaborate together to realize this task and the work was divided equally and fairly trying to participate the majority of the members of the all the videos. The mark that we deserve would be an 8 because the videos are so interesting but the quality of the camera is not so good. Moreover, the edition of each video is not so professional and we did not add the final credits.

 

7. HOW THIS ACTIVITY CAN HELP US TO DEVELOP THE COMPETENCIES.

This activity allows us to achieve some of the competencies of this course such us: to know the interaction and communication processes in the classroom, to address and to resolve problems of coexistence and to participate in the meaning of educational project and in the general activity of the centre attending to the criteria of quality management.

To know all the processes that occur inside and outside of the classroom and the importance of carrying out a process in which the interaction and communication are integrated, not only with or between teachers but also with or between students, is definitely what we have learned with the information about the relationships and the complexities in the school. But furthermore, these aspects teach us how to achieve and develop a quality education because we can take advantage from the benefits of the different types of relationships and organization that exist trying to solve the problems of coexistence that occur in the educational centre, among other goals. Finally, take part in the connections at school and in the organization as future teachers and as partners involve us in the educational project obviously.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhoBNoFlJmX/?taken-by=teachersformation

TASK 5: THE DARK SIDE OF TEXTBOOKS.

1.GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

The textbooks have been the traditional and most extended resource for the classroom for several years in the Educational domain. Currently, there are still some educators that regret to accept that there are other alternative materials which do the same function. For that reason, this task is about doing a campaign against the use of textbooks through the research of information and actual news that support your arguments. Some of the recommended lectures are:

• The Wikipedia entry about textbooks, available in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textbook   
• Apple, M. (2000) Cultural politics and the text. Official Knowledge, 2nd and (2000), London: Routledge, pp. 42–60
• Crawford, K. (2000). Researching the Ideological and Political Role of the History Textbook: Issues and Methods. International Journal of Historical Learning Teaching and Research 1, 1
• Libros de Texto electrónicos: Peras al Olmo available here http://elbonia.cent.uji.es/jordi/2012/03/04/libros-de-textoelectronicos-peras-al-olmo/  
• Lecturas sobre libros de Texto available here http://elbonia.cent.uji.es/jordi/2011/07/18/lecturas-sobre-librosde-texto/

Then, to expose your ideas, you have to use a variety of tools such as an infographic, a Twitter timeline or a fable in a physical format. Later, this is going to be presented in class as if it were an art gallery, where the presenter acts like a tourist guide, explaining each one of their arguments and their conclusions about the use of textbooks or other tools for every classmate that comes to their group stand. 

 

2. PRODUCTS

• Fable video:

• Infographic in English: INFOGRAPHIC IN ENGLISH
• Infographic in Spanish: INFOGRAPHIC EN ESPAÑOL

• Pamphlet:

•   The physical Infographic we did apart from the digital ones

 

3. ROLES ON ITS PREPARATION.

• Facilitator: Mª Victoria Aupí Román.
• Star: Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández.
• Curator-farmer: Ana Gil García.
• Analyst: Beatriz Meroño Ortega.
• Journalist: Elena Fernández Mira.
• Translator: Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez.
• Supporter: Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez.

 

4. A SUMMARY OF WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT WITH THIS TASK.

About the use of textbook as the most common tools that we use during our student life and its main disadvantages, it’s was really difficult to criticise since, when we think about of education, one of the first images that come to mind is a textbook so, how can we change this cliché?

This task was a reflection itself. We think of ourselves as students with a book in our hands, walking from class to class, talking to a teacher, studying at home or at the library… but always with a textbook. We are practically dependent on them, and it’s been hard for anyone of us to open our minds and change our approach in order to experience other resources as the main ones.  

Something we have learned in this task was to collect all the information that we have from all of our student life about this topic, as it wasn’t a theme where we were totally ignorant about it. Although we had to inform us with a variety of resources, we already had our own idea and opinion that our teachers, parents, peers… have transmitted to us over the years. Each of us has a different opinion, so it was interesting to construct our ideas and make an agreement among them in which all of us felt identified, after making some concessions, of course.

Nevertheless, all of us had experienced the same a lot of times: a teacher skipping the half of the book because he/she is run out of time, or the feeling of forgetting everything that you have studied five minutes after taking a test.

To reach a final agreement helped us to learn to construct a general opinion and to work with people that have contrary ideas, which is necessary for every job, but especially in our future career, where we are obligated to work with a big teaching team with a boss, headmaster, a studies co-ordinator or whatever that, probably, will order us to do some things which we won’t agree with, and we have to expose our ideas respectfully, with hard arguments, and try to convince them in order to benefit us.

Moreover, we learned to face the adversities with so little time as we weren’t absolutely sure about the role of the star and if a presentation was necessary apart from the Infographic that we made.  Instead of feeling insecure and being in a blank, we take the opportunity to show that, even improvising, we can take everything forward!

To sum up, the most useful thing that we have learned in this task is to know other resources apart from textbooks to carry on with our classes in the future. One of our objectives as teachers should be to be innovative and discovering new materials and not continuing with the “tradition” of textbooks that so many teachers already see so important nowadays. This doesn’t mean that they are completely unuseful for the current century, but we should start becoming more independent and try on other new resources which might be more appropriate for our students.

 

5. THE PRINCIPAL TERMS THAT WE HAVE WORKED ON IT.

-Textbook: it is a book that contains detailed information about a subject for people who are studying that subject book that contains detailed information about a subject for people who are studying that subject.  Although most textbooks are only published in printed format, many are now available as online electronic books.

-Infographic: infographics are visual representations of complex concepts and data in an easy to read graphic form.  People use infographics to quickly communicate a message, to simplify the presentation of large amounts of data, to see data patterns and relationships, and to monitor changes in variables over time.

-Bundling: bundling is a marketing strategy that joins products or services together in order to sell them as a single combined unit. For example, we can make a “package” of three products and sell them at a certain price that is cheaper than the total cost. The products and services are usually related, but they can also consist of dissimilar products which appeal to one group of customers.

-Open textbook: an open textbook is an openly-licensed textbook offered online by its author(s). The open license sets open textbooks apart from traditional textbooks by allowing users to read online, download, or print the book at no additional cost.

-Visual thinking: visual thinking is a form of non-verbal thought that is most commonly used in musical, mathematical and kinaesthetic thinking. People tend to do most of their thinking in words, rather like a one-sided conversation. It is a visual processing using the part of the brain that is emotional and creative to organize information in an intuitive and simultaneous way.

-ICT: “Information and Communication Technologies.” ICT refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications.

-Genially: is an alternative app to create visual presentations, the information is transmitted through a link or URL, making it more convenient and easier to share.

-Fable: It is a fictional story where the characters are features of animals and inanimate objects whose aim is to give a final moral lesson.

-Twitter-Timeline: It is a list of tweets which are displayed chronologically.

-Editorials: They are companies which collaborate with authors and publish their books with the aim to obtain benefits both of them.

-Deprofessionalize: it is to make something non-professional. In this case, when teachers only use textbooks as a learning resource; the national curriculum says that all the information is in the textbook, so teachers are like ‘’forced’’ to follow them, however, it can be very frustrating to teacher because they can’t change anything, and also is very boring to kids. Consequently, teachers suffer from what is called burnout syndrome.

-Burnout Syndrome: Is the syndrome that some teachers suffer due to the effects that external agents cause them to not performing well in the classroom. One of the main reasons is the lack of freedom some teachers feel when they have to teach only with the use of textbooks. This syndrome can have a hard effect on teachers, affecting their quality of performance.

-Biased: It means that something is not neutral because this is influence from other things; related to textbooks, they are influenced by ideological issues.        

-Broken Market: It the kind of market that makes very expensive the prize of books due to the competition and economic interests.

-Publishers: the people who have the job of publishing books, obtaining benefits from that.

-Curriculum:  the general educational project where are collected all the objectives of school education. We can find there important data for teachers such as when and how to teach something.

 

6. SELF-EVALUATION.

Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández. 9

Mª Victoria Aupí Román. 8.5

Ana Gil García. 8.5

Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez. 9

Beatriz Meroño Ortega. 8

Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez. 8.5

Elena Fernández Mira. 9

Honestly, we think that we deserve a 9 in this task as we had two days of really hard work where our attention was only focused on improving our work and being original with the physical Infographic and the Pamphlets, which we spend a lot of time doing. Moreover, our star Maria del Mar left us in a really good place in front of our classmates, and the final result made us feel that all our work was worthwhile.

 

7. HOW THIS ACTIVITY HAS HELPED US TO DEVELOP THE COMPETENCES OF THE COURSE.

In this activity, the competency that we have worked with the most is to know the communicative characteristics of media and resources in the teaching-learning processes and the processes of its implementation. Here, by listing the main disadvantages of the textbooks and comparing them with other resources as main tools in the classroom, we have seen its different characteristics such as they are monotonous, obsolete, heavy, outdated… As the same time, we have seen that there are other possible features are more current, interactive, innovative…  Some of the processes of implementation of these resources that are substituting textbooks are by including digital blackboards in the classrooms, or tablets for all the students, although this is a long trip until every school gets these materials.

Another competency that we have developed is to promote the development of a critical attitude toward the use of audiovisual media and new displays on the teaching-learning processes. As we have said, we have learned to construct our ideas and reach the most objective agreement as possible, which means that we have to think critically and make conclusions about different resources. This is an important ability that should be compulsory to learn at school.

TASK 3: CREATIVE COMMON LICENSE AND PRESENTATIONS.

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

First of all, we can observe two basics on the use of educational resources: how to do a really good presentation and to create and use free resources.

For this purpose, pupils are going to explore them in the context of telling a good story.

They must create two different slideshows: in the first one, students are going to explain what means the use of Creative Commons Licence resource and how to do that in 10 slides. Then they are going to summarize the 20 basic tips for developing a great presentation in a maximum of 20 slides, in all of this slides they need to use the images with CC license.

The second is about an exclusive topic, person, short list or Decalogue. It’s preferable to choose something related to any content on Primary School. They should prepare an oral presentation and show to their classmates.

Here you have some recommended lectures for the developing of the activity:

• Creative Commons License-Creative Commons Kiwi https://youtu.be/AeTlXtEOplA
• Also, take a look on this special license CC0 https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
• Prepare your presentation http://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/prepare/
• Design your presentation http://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/design/
• Deliver your presentation http://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/deliver/

2. PRODUCTS. 

Here you have the two presentations that we realized, hope you enjoy them!

1. The first one was about a presentation of some interesting facts of the United Kingdom:

https://www.slideshare.net/AndrealvarezdeToledo/facts-about-uk

2. The second one had two parts: the one about Creative Common License and then, twenty tips about what a good presentation should have:

https://www.slideshare.net/AndrealvarezdeToledo/what-does-creative-commons-licenses-means-88771480

3. ROLES ON ITS PREPARATION.  

• Journalist: Beatriz Meroño Ortega.
• Analyst: Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez.
• Facilitator: Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez.
• Curator- Farmer: María del Mar Martínez Hernández.
• Translator: Elena Fernandez Mira.
• Star 1: Ana Gil García.
• Star 2: Maria Victoria Aupí Román.

 

4. A SUMMARY OF WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED WITH THIS TASK.

Learning about the laws of the Copyright and how to avoid plagiarizing is essential for our roles, first as students, since our degree is full of projects that force us to investigate and look for information in different resources and also because, even though our first “option” by studying this degree is to be a teacher in a Primary School, is also possible that some of us end up investigating some educational topics in the future, and it’s good to know some important aspects of this field since the beginning of our professional career. Or isn’t it important to be sure that you are quoting the author in the correct way and that you are not stealing anyone’s ideas?

About the other part of the Project, the PowerPoint presentation about some interesting facts of the United Kingdom was also useful as a rehearsal of what we are supposed to do for the rest of our lives: introduce a topic (some of them less interesting than others) to thirty children in the most enjoyable way as possible to make sure that, at the end of the lessons, they have got the knowledge and they would use it later.

The connection that I have already mentioned between this week’s task and our future jobs has been, by far, the best of all, since we could learn really useful information that can also help us with other subject activities, above all that we have learned about the Common Creative License. In this Project, I wanted to highlight the cooperation and coordination between all the members, as we have learned how to organize ourselves so everyone could stand out in her own part of the activity without trample on anyone.

Last week, we all agreed on the fact that we didn’t know how to manage the time to do the work, but I don’t think that it was a big problem these last days, but, no matter what, we will try to fix any problem that may appear during the week to do our tasks as perfect as we can.

5. THE PRINCIPAL TERMS THAT WE HAVE WORKED ON IT.

We are going to define some concepts so that it will be easier to understand our task:

-Creative Commons License: It is one of the several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. A CC license is used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they have created. CC provides an author flexibility (for example, they might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of their own work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author’s work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.

-Copyright: It is the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material.

–SLIDESHOW: It is a presentation supplemented by or based on a display of projected images or photographic slides. It is wrong to call it PowerPoint because this name is given to a certain App which provides users with slideshows.

–ICT: It is a common tool which is used to improve a presentation and a speaker’s task

–(NC): It is a kind of creative commons license that allows the work to be copied, distributed, displayed, and performed. It also allows people to make derivative works and remixes based on it only for non-commercial purposes. It is important because it is the one that we have used the most during this task.

6. SELF-EVALUATION.

Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández. 8

Mª Victoria Aupí Román. 9

Ana Gil García. 9

Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez. 8

Beatriz Meroño Ortega. 8

Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez. 8

Elena Fernández Mira. 8

For us, we think that this task will be very important for our future as a teacher because we need to know how the Creative Common License is significant. Also, we appreciated this task very interesting due to we acquire a lot of information about the topic that we chose.

We work like a group collaborate together as always.

The mark that we deserve would be an 8.5 because we did the slide projection as well as, we think, that we can, and also our oral presentation was in the best way. But the work can always be improved.

7. HOW THIS ACTIVITY CAN HELP US TO DEVELOP THE COMPETENCIES OF THE COURSE. 

In this activity, the competence that we have worked with is to promote the development of a critical attitude towards the use of audiovisual media and new screens in teaching-learning processes.

So we saw that there because when we did the task and the slide projection we obviously thought in the importance of audiovisual media because if we didn’t know anything about it our activity will be very poor of information, not all members had the same view of it but we knew that is an important tool.

The same things occur with the new screens and their use in teaching-learning processes.

TASK 2: TPACK.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfLMrdqDzB1/?taken-by=teachersformation

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

First of all, you have to inform about some documents relating to the TPACK (which will be available at the end of the description) with the aim understanding it correctly. Then, you must answer the following questions and prepare a physical poster including them:

• What exactly is TPACK? (p.e. it is a technology, theory, a model, an animal, poetry, an author? All of these? About what?)
• What are the essential elements of TPACK and how are they related each other?
• How would TPACK be useful for you?
• How is TPACK related to your degree?
• There is an important part of the Teacher’s action that is not already included in
• TPACK model? Is TPACK enough to understand the work of a teacher?

These answers will be presented by the group’s stars through a 5 minutes speed dating dynamic. They will have to be express in an Information Map, which you have to choose among six types of information map (Buzan mind maps, Spidergrams, conceptual map, and so on), taking into account their differences. It is very important that the relationships between the concepts are well organized in order to develop a proper info-map.

The texts that you should read for doing this task are:

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70. Retrieved from: http://www.citejournal.org/volume-9/issue-1-09/general/what-istechnological-pedagogicalcontent-knowledge
TPACK mini video: TPACK in 3 minutes by Royce Kimmons
http://youtu.be/0wGpSaTzW58

2. PRODUCT.

1. What exactly is TPACK? (p.e. it is a technology, theory, a model, an animal, poetry, an author? All of these? About what?
TPACK is a model of knowledge that is considered essential for the effectiveness of today’s teachers. TPACK provides an interaction between three forms of knowledge: Technological (TK), Pedagogical (PK) and Content Knowledge (CK).
As a result of these three key concepts, there are four additional areas that teachers can apply to the Technological teaching: Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK). TPACK term was created by Koehler and Mishra (2007), and its framework is built on Shulman’s (1987, 1986) descriptions of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) to describe how teachers’ understanding of educational technologies and PCK interact with one another to produce effective teaching with technology.

2. What are the essential elements of TPACK and how are they related each other?
The three key elements of TPACK are:

• Content Knowledge (CK) is the knowledge about the subject matter which is going to be learned or taught. According to Shulman (1986), this knowledge includes concepts, theories, ideas, organizational frameworks, knowledge of evidence and proof and established practices and approaches toward developing such knowledge.
• Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) is the knowledge that teachers use in the practice of their classes and that helps them to acquire skills and to develop habits of mind and positive willingness toward learning.
• Technological Knowledge (TK) is the knowledge and the mastery of information technology for information processing, communication, and problem-solving that can be used in the classroom by the teacher even if it is not required.

The interactions between them are:

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) consists of the transformation of the subject matter in order to be taught, through its adaption into the students’ prior knowledge. It requires the interpretation of the content by the teacher.
Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) is an understanding of how the use of particular technologies in the classroom affects teaching and learning process and the teaching strategies.
Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) is the understanding of how some particular technologies can change or influence the application of the subject matter.
Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPACK) is the relationship between the three individual “core” components, but it differs from them because it requires the understanding of how the Technological and Pedagogical learning is based on the understanding of the subjects matters.

3. How would TPACK be useful for you?
We consider that the concepts that TPACK encompasses are essential for teaching nowadays.
Especially, the technology in a classroom as a tool could make higher the motivation of the students and also easier the educational process, so, for this reason, we must learn how to teach children throughout it
If we want to improve the quality of education, to help students to achieve high grades and to make them willing to learn, we should take TPACK seriously.

4. How is TPACK related to your degree?
TPACK is necessary for our future job as teachers due to the importance is given to technology in schools nowadays, since teachers always try to put in practice their teaching strategies and to teach the content in the most possible technological way. It makes the lesson more enjoyable and easier to understand, as it attracts the attention of the pupils.
As we consider that teaching also includes the application of the technologies (TK) and methodologies (PK) learnt by teachers, we think that TPACK is essential to becoming effective teachers.

5. There is an important part of the Teacher’s action that is not already included in TPACK model? Is TPACK enough to understand the work of a teacher?
One of the important action for us that isn’t included in TPACK is the interaction between teachers and students, as this model doesn’t seem to provide any information about having a personal relationship with them.
Also, teachers should be aware of the Racism, Bullying, Discrimination… situations that may appear in the classroom, and to teach moral values to their students so they learn to respect others.
To conclude, TPACK is a theoretical model, so teachers have to learn how to apply it, as studying it is not enough.

3.ROLES ON ITS PREPARATION.

• Journalist: Mª Victoria Aupí Román.
• Analyst: Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez.
• Facilitator: Ana Gil García.
• Curator- Farmer: Beatriz Meroño Ortega.
• Translator: Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández.
• Star 1: Andrea Álvarez de Toledo.
• Star 2: Elena Fernández Mira.

 

4. A SUMMARY OF WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED WITH THIS TASK.

First of all, the task 2 about TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge) has been very useful because we have learned the meaning of common concepts in a new way that will help us as future teachers. The task consisted of creating a poster in which we should answer some questions through an Information Map.

At schools, many students have difficulties to understand some lessons so information mapping is a great method to organize and clarify the information not only because it improves the communication but also because it enables us to develop a meaningful learning by relating all the concepts and terms.  As we have learned in other subjects like Psychology of Education, meaningful learning facilitates the understanding of the students due to they connect new and old knowledge.

The role of the teachers is a big responsibility. Effective teachers should achieve the deepest learning of their students, they should explain concepts in the best way and they should motivate students to be keen on learning new things. With this idea we want to highlight the importance of TPACK, obviously, it is not the only aspect to take into account in order to be an effective teacher but it’s necessary for the actuality.

Nowadays, teachers lean increasingly on technologies. It’s amazing the number of resources that we can be obtained from it and I don’t mean to the Internet, instead, I mean to the variety of ways that teachers can use the screen to teach in a creative, striking and enjoyable way. However, the teaching process goes further than knowing how to use ICT. It’s essential knowing how to use them to support your teaching and to explain the knowledge. For example, a teacher can dominate the use of some video editors but not how to bring it to the classroom.

Finally, from our point of view, the only negative aspect has been the stressful concentration of work in just two days. Although it was the first activity in which we had to prepare a presentation, this has helped us to have our first contact with the oral expositions and with a big work team. Coordination has been essential to carry out this work, and consequently, the engagement and active participation of each member of the group.

Thanks to this work we have started to develop our communication skills and to practice talk in front of a lot of people. In addition, we have learned what is an information map and some concepts about how has to be a good teacher through technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. Definitely, it allows us to increase past knowledge about how to be an effective teacher.

5. THE PRINCIPAL TERMS THAT WE HAVE WORKED ON IT.

– TPACK: (Technological, Pedagogical And Content Knowledge) It’s a framework of knowledge which is considered essential to improve the quality of today’s effective teachers.

– Technological knowledge: It’s the part of the TPACK that contains all the ICTs and technology use in class by the teacher.

– Pedagogical knowledge: It’s the part of the TPACK that contains the knowledge of the teaching skills and strategies that teachers should have to give their classes and to improve and control the environment on that.

– Content knowledge: It’s the part of the TPACK that contains the knowledge of the concepts, theories,… included in the subject matter that an educator uses to teach their students.

– Venn diagram: are schemas which represent the links between the different elements within one topic. In the case of TPACK, the Venn diagram allows us to observe the relations between the three previous concepts and how they impact on one another.

– Effective teacher:  Although the concept includes many other features, we focus on the role of an effective teacher as someone who transmits all the concepts to students based on advanced technology., that is always up to date on technology. He/She is someone that knows the best way of teaching students and treating them with respect, kindness and understanding. 

6. SELF-EVALUATION.

Mª del Mar Martínez Hernández. 7

Mª Victoria Aupí Román. 8.5

Ana Gil García. 7

Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez. 9

Beatriz Meroño Ortega. 7

Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez. 8.5

Elena Fernández Mira. 9

The group works well, but it would be better and quicker if all the members had participated in the creation of the poster. Anyway, we divided the work as equal as possible and we are satisfied with the result because, although it was our first poster, it was visual, it was well organized, the content was clear and the stars prepared a great exposition. So, from our point of view, we deserve an 8.5.

7. HOW THIS ACTIVITY CAN HELP US TO DEVELOP THE COMPETENCES OF THE COURSE.

TPACK addresses different aspects of the teaching practice and the learning project in the classroom not only because it talks about how to apply technologies to the classroom but also because it informs us about the way of improving our teaching in order to develop a quality management. It helps us to understand how the elements of the classroom work, and to create a good atmosphere in which is present the following elements and the interaction between them: Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge.

 

MAIN PAGE: #ePortfolio #SOyER1718

Hi to everybody! We are a group called TEACHER’S FORMATION. We wanted to introduce us to you as here is where starts a trip through a summary of our work of four months!

We are seven students of the University of Murcia and this is the website to present our final Portfolio for the subject of School Organization and Educational Resources (SOyER1718).

Now, we are going to present ourselves so you can get to know us better before seeing all our work. The MEMBERS of Teacher’s Formation are:

• Andrea Álvarez de Toledo Martínez

I’m Andrea and I was born in Murcia on the 22nd of June of 1999, although my paternal family is from Ceutí and my maternal family is from Comares, a small town in Málaga. I studied the Bachiller of Social Science (non-bilingual) in the Infante Don Juan Manuel, and I chose the Bilingual Degree of Primary Education as my first option as I have always wanted to be a teacher.

I know it’s kind of a cliché, but I love children since I was one. I am a very patient, responsible and loving person, and I like to organize and control everything to make it perfect, so I think those are some important attributes that effective teachers should have. Also, to teach children at a Primary School in Spain, for example, is not the only goal that I have in life. I would also like to be a volunteer teacher in the third-world countries to teach children the basic knowledge that they should have but they can’t afford. That’s one of my dreams.

• María Victoria Aupí Román

Hi! I am Mª Victoria, but you can call me Vicky, as most people know me by that name. I am an 18-year-old girl from Murcia and I was born the 15th November 1999. I am studying the first year of the Bilingüal Degree of Primary Education at the University of Murcia. It was my first option and I am really happy with this decision. Teaching is a job that I always have desired since I was a child. I have studied high school in the Saavedra Fajardo.

Since I was a child, I like English and I think this is a great chance to improve it, but what is more important, I love children and I hope to teach them in the future. Nowadays, English is essential and this could help me to expand my curriculum and to work in other countries. Another curiosity about me is that I would like to visit ill children in hospitals, especially, those who are in oncology. Being their teacher and the person who amuse or entertain them would make me feel really happy and satisfied.

• Elena Fernández Mira

My name is Elena, I’m eighteen years old and I was born in Alicante the 22nd November 1999. I was raised in a small town located in the province of Alicante.

I attended primary and secondary education in Jijona, my hometown. The atmosphere there was so familiar and I was comfortable. Also, there were beautiful landscapes, but the problem was that I was so fed up with having a dull routine and with seeing the same people over and over again, so as I grew older, big plans were coming into my mind. I wanted to make a change so I joined Primary Education degree at the University of Murcia.

Since I was born, I have always been a very easy-going person who enjoys meeting new people, so I started learning some languages with the aim of avoiding language barriers. What is more, I thought that it was so important to reproduce a set of social values and even to improve them. I felt kind of responsible: Even though I liked other disciplines such as economics, arts and mathematics, I realised that I wanted to teach, no matter where or who. I wanted to help society and I wanted children to look up to me as I did to my teachers when I was their age. My dream is to teach wherever because I’m sure that learning would not only be reached by students and that would make me happy. There is too much to learn and also too much to teach.

• Ana Gil García

Hi!  I’m Ana and I was born in Águilas (Murcia) a small seaside village, on the 6th of April 1999, so I’m an 18 years old girl. Some of my favourites hobbies are music (I play the flute in a band), hang out with my friends, dance… I have studied in a bilingual college during all the ESO and Bachelor. When I finished the Social Science bachelor in IES Europa, I chose the Bilingual Degree of Primary Education as my first option, I consider that is vocational because of my mother since I was a child I have had the role of being a teacher at home.

To sum up, I would like to say that the knowledge of the main languages as English, French, German… Nowadays are very important in our lives for travel, work abroad, to communicate with other people etc.

• Rocío de la Cruz López Rodríguez

Hi!! I am Rocío de la Cruz and I live in Caravaca de la Cruz (Murcia). I was born on the 11th of February of 1999. I have studied the Bachiller of Social Science in the High School IES San Juan de la Cruz in Caravaca. I am studying the first year of the Bilingual Decree of Primary Education at the University of Murcia, it was my first option and I am happy for that

Since I was a child, I want to be a teacher although in Bachiller I had some doubt. I would like to contribute to improving education, for this reason, we, as teachers, need to teach children in the correct way since they are young. I was very patient, kind, cheerful, apathetic… and I think that I can perform a classroom.

• María del Mar Martínez Hernández

Hello! I am María del Mar and I’m from Aguilas (Murcia). I was born on the 9th of August. I am studying the first year of the Bilingual Decree of Primary Education at the University of Murcia. I have studied the Bachiller of Social Science in the bilingual High School IES Europa in Aguilas, too.

One of my dreams is to be a teacher, so this is why I’m studying this decree. My mum is also a teacher, so, when I was little I always play with her books and material. Now, I sometimes go to her class because I love to stay with her students. I am patient, fair and I think that I have enough creativity to carry out alternatives classes, which would be interesting and enjoyable for children. I feel that the Spanish education need to be improved, so this is my opportunity to add a part of me in this change to obtain something incredible.

• Beatriz Meroño Ortega

Hi! I´m Beatriz, I’m from Cartagena but now I live in a student flat with three more friends in Murcia. I was born on the 27th August of 1999, love it because I can celebrate it on the beach, so now I´m eighteen.

The last year I finished my high school period in IES El Bohio, and all the time I have in mind the idea to study the degree of primary because I really like children, but at the end of the year I decided to do it bilingual, because I think that it´s very important to have a lot of languages so I took the opportunity.

In addition, I have been a basketball coach and I worked in a summer school with very little infants, at that time I realized that I was ready to spend all my life working with them.

And, now that all of you know us better, it’s time to talk about #SOyER1718.

We have spent a lot of good times, and so many laughs and jokes during our passage through this course, so it was difficult for us to choose THE 10 BEST MOMENTS OF OUR WORK ON THIS SEMESTER, but finally, we reached an agreement:

1. TPACK, due to the fact that it was our first job and we were enthusiastic because we presented in an alternative way “speed dating”.
2. Using Instagram every week was so much fun: to collect the photos, to do stories, to like and comment our classmates’ pictures…

3. In task 5, when we had to meet at Ana’s house and we were so tired and exhausted, she surprised us with bonbons and a cake. It was an amazing snack that we had together.

4. Another nice memory was in task 6 when we were wishing to make a cover magazine to present our work and, fortunately, we could do it.

5. When we did the newspaper activity in the class we could work with the classmates of the others groups and we were able to improve our relationship with our partners.

6. Recording the videos of task 7.2. ‘‘Relationships in a Complex Context’’ because it was so enjoyable dressing up and representing the different roles, although we couldn’t represent our theatre in front of our mates and our teacher.

7. Recording the Stop Motion was hard but the preparation in the classroom as well as at home was really fun because we had lots of ideas and it was hilarious to see Bea with different costumes.

8. Eurovision contest because there was a great atmosphere in the classroom and everyone did a great diffusion of the video.

9. Leadership task because we worked hard to prepare our presentation and the campaign. Our effort was rewarded as people liked it a lot as they told us.

10. A moment to remember was in task 10 when we were a bit lost in the task, and suddenly, one of us had an astonishing idea that made our work really exciting. 

As we have put so much effort on our work during this semester, we want to spread it in a lot of different web pages, so we have created the following RESOURCES:

• BLOG
• TWITTER
• INSTAGRAM
• YOUTUBE