THIRD WEEK (from 1 to 5 February)

And we come to the third and final week of Practicum I of primary education. It seems like yesterday when I arrive at this school. I was nervous and scared to see what kind of children were in my class. However, everything was better than I had imagined, all the children grow fond of me and they don´t want their new teacher goes away; although I still have 5 days before reaching that point.

This week has been very interesting and fun. As usual children have had 3 exams, I know that  are too many, but, as I said in the previous day, the subjects are extensive and the trimester is very short. The exams that the students made were Language, English and Science. As is usual for me, I had to watch over exams for students not be copied (even at this age is unusual that they copy) and also helping my teacher to resolve any doubts that the children had, or while she is doing other tasks that needed to end. I, as always, try to lend a hand to the children, but obviously I never tell them the answer. The  students often have doubts about the statement because its autonomy is still limited and many of them do not read well the statements (or just do not read them); then, as a good teacher, I advise them to read the statement right or I demand them to read it in loud; that's when they say "ah now I understand! Thanks teacher" .

In addition, this week the teacher has made ​​more use of the interactive whiteboard, not only for interactive activities, she also  put videos to help the students to  understand better  the lesson (videos about the water cycle, water-saving measures, videos about animals …) . 

I found this very interesting, and it's amazing the difference between how students react when the teacher explains the lessons and how they react when they watch a video. Even children with certain learning disabilities and attention problems are completely silent and attentive to the explanation of the videos. 

This reminds me of the importance of today's technology and the wide range of use can be given. In the twentieth century were normal that books will be used to teach a lesson or study and learn; but today the world has changed and therefore education and ways to learn. We must give greater use of technologies that surround us and the children of these new generations, that practically born with a smartphone in their hands. Definitely, technologies can be helpful for children today, and a support for teachers.

Meanwhile, this week I gave one more class, this was a math class, specifically, subtraction. They already knew subtract, but it was a part of the theme that serves to strengthen that and where the exercises are a little more complicated. 

The teacher told me the day before that I would give a math class that day, so I decided to organize some activities with a manipulative blocks (bloques multibase) that they have in class, but rarely use it.

I must say it was an interesting and fun class; however, the more difficult to give a lesson,I think, is to keep the attention  and the silent in the class. It´s because there are many children in a class and always they just want to play, laugh and talk, so that cost little to maintain the attention of students.

What´s more, I have also followed teaching children with learning disabilities, which is like taking a class, student per student. As always, my teacher  appreciates it, because she can not always be attentive to these children with problems without neglecting the other 24 students .

As the week went on, children gave me a lot of drawings, and they asking me to stay longer; although  I told them I could not stay more because I also had to continue studying.

Soon an important event for the children approached: Carnival. That's why during the week they made ​​masks, colored them to decorate the classroom and halls.

And finally came the day. All the children were more nervous than usual, they were running and playing in the class when I arrived, all with their costumes. The teacher also disguised herself and at the beginning of this week she said that I also had to go in disguise, so I also disguised myself. They had three hours of regular class, but after that there was a party which involved the whole school, including parents of AMPA, also disguised. There was music, dance, “chirigotas”, jokes …

It was very fun, especially for kids. I have to say, as I have also been a child not long ago, that many times these events are such as important as the lessons the teacher explains in class. With this I do not mean that Carnival is more important than what is learned at school, but I mean  that these events are very positive for children and they can have a good memory of school, linking fun with learning .

Finally the last day arrives. No one wanted me to go away. What´s more the teacher told me to stay the complete course as I was a great help for her. In addition,  the children did not want me to go because I had taken a lot of affection. They were giving me a lot of drawings, stickers and wanted me to stay one of her stuffed animals (which I declined politely) .

I have to say that it has been a wonderful experience. I had  learn from an excellent teacher and the things that this school provides its students have helped me a lot. It's my first experience in a public school and the truth is that I love it. 

I want to keep studying and learning many things to be a good teacher in the future and to continue to help children learn other different funniest ways, taking into account children with learning difficulties, or family problems.

SECOND WEEK (from 25 to 29 January)

In the second week I noticed that I have improve a lot. Gradually I understand the children better and they also understand me better.

I already know how a class works from the point of view of a teacher. It is not just teach a class, you have to organize the collection of themes, taking into account any unexpected events that may happen, correct all the material and student activities, make your own tests and exams... 

So, this week I can say I've been more participatory than the previous week and I have more confidence with my teacher and my students. 

In some subjects,such as education in values ​​or religion, I havn´t  participated so much, but in others subjects like language, mathematics and science I participated  more.

Generally children come to ask me questions about the activities we do in class and also my tutor is usually busy and tells me to give a class by myself as she does other things. 

Other times, I help the kids with difficulties; as I said last week, there are several children who have certain problems that make them more difficult to learn. 

In my usual class there are 2 boys and a girl with learning difficulties; however, there are another girl with problems in the other primary 2nd class where my tutor also teaches some subjects. 

The most problematic guy has  important hyperactivity and delay problems, so  it becomes very difficult to give a class with him (he is always jumping, dropping to the floor, making noises...) and, often, the PT (therapeutic pedagogy) teacher wearing him for reinforcement almost all subjects.

To this is added that his family is of Gypsy origin and according to my teacher they parents hardly read or write, so the help is scarce at home. 

This guy has a different book than his peers because he has learned to read about 6 months ago (he is 7 years old); but I'll talk in more detail about this guy on another page of my blog.

Another of the complicated cases is the girl from the other 2nd grade class, because when she was  little she suffered a brain problem that has paralyzed part of her body and she suffered epileptic attacks. She also has a significant curricular adaptation, as the child I said before. 

The girl often answered loudly in class when is not her turn to speak and it shows in the body language and how she reads and write that she is different from her companions who have 7 or 8 years old. She has a different book that  the others schoolmates, with very adapted and reduced contents. So although she is in the same class but her subjects are totally different, at least one or two courses less than it should be.

The third case we have can see on the other guy who is on my regular 2nd class. He is a guy who has learned to read a few months ago, like the first boy, but this child have the same book that his companions; however, often he  doesn´t understand what he is reading, writing and he reads very slow and always need someone to help him think about the activities, chips and exams. 

The last case is a girl in our class who has joined recently to our Spanish education system, from New Zealand. So her spanish level is very low compared with the other classmates and, often, she has trouble to do activities and tests; always when she finds a little difficult, she stops doing exercises to get to color and draw pictures. It's a girl who needs a lot of attention because she is always distracted, because it is hard to her to understand what explains the teacher. However, my tutor says she has learned a lot since she's been here (about 1 year), she defends much better, and her relationship with the other students is very good.

All these students I've been talking, are supported by the PT in a specific classroom within the school, which depending on their educational program, they receive more or fewer hours of support in those subjects they have more learning problems or difficulties .

I must say I had never met so many cases of children with difficulties in a class. In fact, in my school when I was a kid, I've just seen a guy with curricular adaptation and with support from the PT in a specific classroom. I do not know if it's because I was in a private school and this is a public center, or simply it´s by chance. The important thing is I realized that a teacher does not give a class to 27 students; for example, my teacher really gives four different classes to 27 students. That is because she has to teach a class for the child with mental retardation with his own book and content. Another one for the boy with some curricular adaptation and attention deficit, one for the girl who doesn´t speak well spanish and another class for all others. So I can say that being a teacher is not as easy as I thought at the beginning or as it seems.

That is why the help of the PT teacher is necessary, because otherwise it would be impossible to make all students are attentive and doing their respective duties and activities. However, there is another teacher who helps in class and who surprised me. He is what is called a professor of zero hours (horario cero). The name is that because he isn´t a tutor and he hasn´t any schedule, but he goes one hour per day for all other classes helping the teacher of each class, usually helping children with problems and learning difficulties.

What´s more, this week I have given some classes, as I said before, when the teacher was leaving class or she had to do other things. The classes I gave were science and  language. 

In science I had to explain the water´s states and the importance of that for the animals, plants and humans. In addition I have to do classroom exercises with the students and correct them.

Another day, I gave language and explained the uses of the letter “J” and “G” and their differences; also we did exercises and correct them in class. I must say I did not give the classes as I'd like it to be. They were  classes by surprise and did not have time to prepare the lessons, look for videos and pictures to them in class and I couldn´t make the classes more visual and interesting for the children, as I like. Still, I 'm glad I was able to give the classes I 've taken. 

Although, I will explain everything about my classes at  school on another page on my blog.

What´s more, this week there have been more conflicts than last week, but all of them were normal situations in a 2nd grade class: few stomps, pushing, insults , tasteless jokes ... 

Therefore, as I said in the previous day, the teacher always spends time after playground to solve all problems, or simply she solves them when it happens.

She gives more importance to this type of situations that content that appearing on the books. 

So we can say that the Peace Day came like the ring on one´s finger. We celebrated that day the last day of the week (Friday). So the students were able to put into practice everything learned during the week with all the conflicts that took place.

On the occasion of this day, we made cards with drawings and phrases in relation to peace, doves, songs ... All of that, can help children to learn certain values ​​which are necessary for their training also what they learn in books.

Finally I will speak about the tests that the students in my class have done during the week, because this trimester is a little short and  they have to finish the lessons quickly. 

That's why this week they have 2 exams, one language test and other science exam. 

So, I used to answer questions, corrected some tests when they finished and I helped the teacher to pass notes to her grade book. The exams are easy and I even begin to realize what children always end it quickly and have the perfect mark and what others can not read the wording well and always fail questions and obtain lower marks. 

All of that without mention, as I said before, children with learning difficulties.

Therefore, I want to start my last week in that school and continue learning about my teacher, students and, as a result, how to teaching.

FIRST WEEK (from 18 to 22 January)

In my diary I will write what I do in class and the experiences I learn every week. Why every week? because of, in my opinion, make a diary of each day can become uninteresting and boring; however, if I summarize everything important in a diary every week can be quite more interesting and productive.

The first day I was very nervous, didn´t know what I was going to face, what kind of teacher  would  assigned me , if would be a primary 1st class, with small and innocent children or 6th of primary where children are more savvy and learn faster. So I spoke to the headmistress and I was introduced to was going to be my teacher and my class, 2nd grade of primary.

After meeting the teacher I realized that she was a good person and a good professional. She treated her children with a lot of love and patience.

From the first moment the class structure surprised me. The tables and chairs were not placed on a regular structure, by rows one after the other; in contrast, as we see in the picture, is structured so that there are no rows in front or behind.

We see a diferent structure of a primary class, there are no rows so it could be good for the students who can pay more atention to the teacher and help their classmates

I asked the teacher the reason of that and she told me that in this way there aren´t complaints because the students don´t see the blackboard well or because they are so far in the class.However, there is also another reason for this structure.The reason  is that the class is structured by teams (mixed teams), organized with a coordinator who is responsible for controlling and managing the team and ensure that all members learn and attend, a delegate of material, an official of the dates, and a spokesperson. Moreover, each of the groups have a job to do every time (tidiness and cleanliness, library, calendar, coexistence …). After a few months, the role of each team changes as well as the tasks of the members.

Another thing that surprised me was the time spent by the teacher to promote coexistence and moral values ​​of the students. She always take the time before starting a class or after recess, for example, resolve any conflicts that arise as fighting, shovings, insults and typical situations of primary school children.

The teacher uses these situations to reward those who do good things and punish those who do something wrong, and at the end of each class, students have some chips or boxes with varied drawings that show if they have worked in class, if student has intervened, if they have respected the speaking time of the companions, if they have complied with the rules of coexistence, etc.

Children should colour the boxes have been complete and leave blank those that isn’t  keep. At the end of each week the teacher give them a reward depending on how many boxes are colored. The awards are usually small jelly beans, chocolates ,stuffed animals that are taken home and should look to the next week, etc.

As I said in the first video of " el rincón de reflexión " , this teacher uses a traditional methodology with a lot of tests. She says that has tried to work on projects and workshops, but she does not see it to be productive with many children class and the age of them; however, she introduces other changes to adapt to the modern methodologies. So she does experiments, statistical tables and graphs with the birthdays of colleagues, meteorology, transport vehicles used by students to go to school, etc.

All this combined with the structure of the class (by teams) and interactive activities with whiteboard and computers make it, I think, a traditional methodology combined with a new way of learning and provide more modern and interesting class.

 With the passage of the days I realized that there were children with problems, from a child who does not stand still and disturbs others, to another boy who does nothing or very little. I counted that there are 4 children with learning difficulties, in my opinion, serious difficulties, but I still don´t know exactly which problems are. Next week I will ask the teacher privately to investigate. All I know is that for some subjects the PT (therapeutic pedagogy) collects some children and takes them to another class.

After my first impressions I will try to explain my experience as practice teacher. 

It is true that at the beginning my role was merely an observer, I only analyzed the children, watched carefully if they had any problems or difficulties, I watched the class structure, methodologies… however, after a few time I wanted more. I wanted to speak in class, but I didn´t have enough confidence to ask my teacher to let me participate. Finally, without having to ask the teacher she was leaving me more time to participate. At first only correcting flaws in the work of the students, but, eventually, I could explain certain subjects if the teacher needed it, I explained what they had to do on the tests, I resolved the doubts, we made ​​interactive whiteboard activities with students, etc.

And, to be honest... I loved it!
Quickly the children began to see me as one of his teachers like any other.

That's why I want to continue learning in my second week at school and I hope that it will come soon.