THE END

I am so sad to say good bye to this subject. The professor has motivated us a lot to be incredible English teachers.

We have learnt a lot doing activities for instance preparing our online portfolio or doing our Pel. Because it is good for our future. And it is a task that we do not need to do in a future because we have done yet.

But the better part is all we have practiced doing lots of different activities to students. Or we have worked with lots of different resources that are so efficient for our future as teachers.

So I am so happy of what I have learnt in this class, because I have improved my skills of teaching.

PRESENTATIONS

The professor showed us a book where it containt the different skills o fthe English language. It contans a lot of differetn activities and thing to improve a skill or how to develop it in a not common way.

Our task was divide us in groups of two to create some interactive activities with a skill of English. In my case, we have to work in writing.

We decided to create a lot of activities to practice writing but not in a common area as wrting somo sentences or writing some text.

We decided to relate all the time writing with the other skills, and for that reason, pupils can 

understand and practise in a better way a language without thinking they are doing an specific skill.

The activities were like games, so it help students to enjoy doing this activity. We release that they were having fun while they were learning English and practising writing in some different ways. For example, one activity was a bingo, but without only crossing numbers, they had to write what they have heard and then cross it. Others activities were for instance running to write what the had understood or wrtiting by memory what they had seen or to write an invented history student by student.

In my opinion this kind of activities at the university help us to open our mind to change the traditional education and to practice on activities we could do as teachers. 

The presentation of the rest of my parteners help me to know how can develop my English classes in the future, because they had other skills like speaking or reading. What I have discovered going to the presentations of my classmates or mine, is that we have to change the way of teaching, not only using the typical book with boring activities. If we want to our students to learn English, we have to do activities where the have fun while they are learning!

GAMES

In this subject we have learnt that the best way to teach English is trought different methodologies. 

Different resources in class make the pupils have fun.

If pupils know that they are going to enjoy, they will be happy to learn.

With games, we can do everything in our class. You do not need to prepare complex activities to learn something.

If you prepare short activities that take the students out of the traditional methodologies, it will help your students to learn in a better way.

Some examples are for instance telling stories, where they will improve some skills, listening in this case. And it is an incredible tool if you use a good entonation, because it will atract them.

Other simple thing are for instance rhymes, reading rhymes is okey. But pupils have lots of creativity, so they can create a short one and they will enjoy doing it.

Listening to songs. It is a good method to relax them when they are stressed after the break for example. If you play music on the internet, while they are doing some activities, it will relax them. As a prize of a good job is a good tool to motivate them. Or for instance, listening to music trying to guess a blank. Or listening a song trying to understand what it says.

All this simple things will change the way of our classes. And it is important to help students to learn in a better way. 

FLIPPED CLASSROOM

I would like to talk about this method because in class we have been debating it.

It is a classroom where students are introduced to content at home and the they practice working throught it at school.

For instance, the teacher can make a video of an specific content. Pupils will watch it at home and then in class they practice about what they have learnt previously.

So, it creates independant students, because it increases the opportunity for personalization and more precise guiding of learning. In the flipped classroom model, students practice under the guidance of the teacher, while accessing content on their own.

It is a self - sufficient learning, because pupils learn what they watch at home. The problem comes when they do not understand the content. So it can be solved in class, because if they have some doubts at home, in class we will solve it, that is better than in a first place when they do not know anything about a topic.

Other important thing is that the knowledge is not conditioning our students, because they will do it relaxed at home and there is not any distraction. So they will understand better what they have to learn.

I think it is a good method for primary education because it motivates pupils to learn better the content. It is because it is a differetn method, and for that reason, students will be motivated to learn more and more. 

RUBRICS

What is a rubric? A rubric for assessment, usually in the form of a matrix or grid, is a tool used to interpret and grade students' work against criteria and standards. Rubrics are sometimes called "criteria sheets", "grading schemes", or "scoring guides". Rubricscan be designed for any content domain.

So, as you can see this is a solution for the previous post. It is a way to change the assessment in our English class. That is because you can do a rubric for whatever you want. For example, you can create a rubruic for each skill, or for each unit, or for each content. 

A rubric can help ypu to change your mind about doing exams, beacause for that reason for instance, you can do with your students a lot of activities, and if you only assess them with the rubric of each activity, you do not need any assessment tool to do it. 

I have created some rubrics along all my degree, but for this subject as a way to practise with an example I made a rubric to assess a debate- That is an interactive activity where all students can practice speaking and I do not need to sit down them in a chair to talk on English. With my rubric with numbers 1 to 5 I can check if they are able to mantein a conversation in English in a good way. 

ASSESSMENT

To talk about this topic we have developed some debates where we have spoken abpout our opinion. An it is that exams are not necessary in Primary Education to certificate the level of English of a chlid.

For instance, we have spoken too about the fear that pupils feel with the mark of the exam that they obtain. It happens too because of the parents, because they want all the time the best marks for their children. But it is not necessary. 

I believe that with some activities we can do with our pupils, we can check how are they in our subject. But marks are not important as I have said previously. But in my practise period I have ckeched that parents are all the time worried about the marks their children obtain. 

So as you can see it is so difficult to change the way of assessment, because people do not agree with different methods, as parents, So I think we can introduce other kinds of assessment little by little to concern people taht exams are nor necessary to pass a subject. 

ONLINE RESOURCES

In this subject we have learnt a lot of different online resources taht will help us in our future class. 

Symbaloo has been one of this resources. It is an online platform where you can distribute a lot of different parts. It help students to find the things they have to use in a subject. For instance in English you can do some parts. One part could be for searching information, like word reference or something to find meaning of words. Other part could be the things they have to use to study, like an online notebook with the differetn unit. And other part could be resources with online activities like kahoot, educaplay or something like that. 

Other resources are for instance kahoot, where you can do some questions to your students and they have to solve it in some seconds using their computers. I have created for this subject one with the topic ''Healthy food'' and it so easy to prepare and pupils will enjoy a lot.

Other resources we have done is for instance educaplay, an online platform where you can create different activities with the topic yo choose. In my case I have created an activity where pupils will review the weather. It was an activity where thwy have to relate the word with the image because it was for students of the first course. 

And we have practised with more resources, because the professor was all the time showing us how motivate pupils an how to be different as the right now teachers. 

ASSISTANCE TO A CONFERENCE

The class was invited to a conference to listen to some teacher that have been working in a foreing country. One of them was in United States. 

Their topics were so interesting because thay have motivated us to wo working to a differetn country. In first place bacause we are going to improve our level of English that i very important for our future as English teachers. And in the other hand because it will open our mind, firstly because we are going to stay so far from home, and secondly because we are going to learn a lot of new methos of education depending on the country we go. 

From my point of view, this kind of things help us to change our way of thinking. Because we probably do not know this kind of opportunities. 

In my opinion, I would like to do this, because I believe that it is an incredible experience for our job. I want to do something similar next year, but not as a teacher, otherwise a volunteer in an association abroad. It will help me to improve my level of English and to know how is life abroad. 

CEFR AND PEL

FIrst of all I would like to give a definition of CEFR. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is an international standard for describing language ability. It describes language ability on a six-point scale, from A1 for beginners, up to C2 for those who have mastered a language. This makes it easy for anyone involved in language teaching and testing, such as teachers or learners, to see the level of different qualifications. It also means that employers and educational institutions can easily compare our qualifications to other exams in their country.

For that reason, in class we have been talking about our level according to the CEFR, and I have discovered that I have abilities in two levels. In some cases or in some skill I am a proficient student, but in others, I have a B2 level. 

It is so effective because it help us to know what are the abilities we are in or the abilities we would have to improve to obtain a good level of English that is very important four our future as teachers. 

The other topic we have been talking about is the PEL. It means European Portfolio of Languages. It is so useful because you enter in the website and you can fill the gaps with the abilities, skills and common thing you do or that you have done to study and improve a language. For instance in this case, English. At the end you can download a PDF document with all your different information. 

TIME LINE OF THE LAWS IN SPAIN

In this lesson, we were talking about the different laws that have existed in Spain since the first law.

So after that, we had to plan the different laws and to search the information about the years of duration of this law. 

In pairs we had to create a timeline of the different laws and the we upload it to moodle. 

It is so important for teacher because we have to have a general view of the differetn laws that have existed, because in a few years the recent law would disappear, so we have to know how many laws and why have existed.

ORGANIC LAW OF EDUCATION

It is a topic to introduce the subject, because is the base we have to start on.

So we were talking about a definition of what is the law or what is it for. Appart from that, we were debating the differences between laws, or for instance, how is it in Finland.

By the way, we saw a video too, that talks about how was the ancient law in Spain. So it is a good way for us to know what we have to change in a future to give to education the importance it has. 

In this lesson, we were deciding and searching information about what was the preamble. That is something very important in the first pages of a law or decree. 

So, as a homework, we have to find the important information that appears in the preamble. The next day, we checked it, and we made a kind of debate about the different ideas we had about this topic. 

From my point of view, I think it is so important to start taliking about the law, and analyse this, make us good teachers. 

INTRODUCTION

In the following lessons, the subject was introduced. the professor told us how was going to be the subject.

The professor added us in an application called Class Dojo, where we were as a class in a list. 

ClassDojo is a behaviour management tool for the classroom. Each student has a profile completed with their own avatar. And we have chosen one of these and they were so funny because they are monsters. 

This application is so interesting because you can control the attendance of your students, or you for instance can give extra points for doing well the classwork or bad points too. 

It helps parents too because the professor give us a fotocopy with the password and user for parents.

So, from my point of view, with this online tool you can motivate your students and it is so important for children and in addition, it is useful for the teacher. 

WELCOME!

My name is Samuel García cáceres and I am studying Primary Education in Toledo.

I have created this online portfolio to show what I have learned in Didactics class. It is a kind of class diary, but with the approaches, methods, resources and didactic things I have practised in this subject. 

I will talk about what we have done in class, and for instance the things I have learned or the things we have practised. 

In some cases I would like to show my personal opinion because the portfolio is a personal view of the subject, so I consider it is so important too. 

As a first point I would like to say that I am so excited with this subject because I think it is so practical and it is important for us to learn how to teach English in some different ways going out the traditional learning. 

I hope you to enjoy learning my blog!