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.