IKTen eraginak haurren idazketan?

Graduan zehar ez dut ia denborarik izan ilobekin egoteko, eta ez ditut nahi adina ikusten. Hala ere, tarteka izaten gara batera, eta benetan ondo pasatzen dut orduan.

Joan den astebukaeran erabaki nuen aurtengo ikasturteko lehen astebukaera librea hartuko nuela (ia-librea, datorren asteazkenean izango dugun saioa prestatzeko ordu batzuk erabili nituelako), eta larunbata goiza sei urte dituen ilobarekin pasa nuen. Lehendabizi erosketak egitera joan ginen, gero gure etxera, han bazkaria prestatu eta bazkaldu ondoren kartetan ibili ginen pixka batean, bere etxera joan aurretik.

Erosketak egitera joateko, zerrenda berak idaztea proposatu nion, eta oso gustura egin zuen. Gustukoa du egiten dakiena erakustea, eta gogoz aritu zen. Hori bai, zumorako laranjetara iritsi ginenean pixka bat aspertuta zegoen jada, eta hori luzeegia zela eta kexati azaldu zen, baina bukatu zituen denak.

Zerrendako lehenengo gauza bi kilo patata ziren. Segituan galdetu zidan ea bi zenbakiz idatz zezakeen, hizkiekin izan ordez, eta esan zidan kilo adierazteko "k" idatziko zuela. Gauzak gehitzen joan ginen, eta zerrendak itxura hau hartu zuen:

Piper berde batera iritsi zenean, esan zidan "berde" idatzi beharrean, margo berdea hartu eta orban bat egingo zuela. Gero, esan nion "litro" idatzi beharrean, nahi bazuen "l" idatzi zezakeela, kiloarekin egin zuen bezala. Bigarren aldiz dozena idaztera iritsi ginenean, galdetu zidan ea ez ote zegoen laburdura bat dozenarentzat, eta azaldu nion ezetz, baina nahi bazuen 2 x 12 idatz zezakeela. Biderkaketaren esanahia azaldu ondoren, esan zidan hori konplikatua zela, eta hitzez idazteari eutsiko ziola.

Deigarria iruditu zitzaidan hizkien ekonomiaren inguruko interesa, eta hitzak sinboloen bidez ordezkatzeko joera. Nik ez dut uste sei urterekin "berde" idatzi beharrean orban berde bat marraztea bururatuko zitzaidanik.

Bestetik, ez dut uste haur hau ezertan berezia denik. Nire ustez, IKTen eragina izan daiteke. Iloba ohitua dago bere gurasoen mugikorrak erabilita mezuak idaztera, eta hor oso ohikoa da hitzak ikonoekin ordezkatzea. Agian hortik datorkio ideia.

Azken batean, IKTek gure pentsamendua aldatzen dute, pentsatzeko modua bera, eta agian hau adibide bat izan daiteke.

Back to school!

Well, here we are, after some weeks spent in our school placement, it is time to go back to our "school" for the short last term of our degree. Wow, that sounds so great, I can hardly believe it. It is amazing to see that we are at the end of this road, after almost four years.

I can't say I was delighted to go back to university last Monday, that's for sure. I thought I was going to feel down for some time, but it was actually great; before our first lesson was over, I was feeling extremely happy and optimistic. And I have felt like that all week, despite an awful cold I caught in the middle. I am determined not to let anything wipe out the smile on my face until we finish (oh, wait until the computer crashes again and refuses to connect to the Internet, or the Cisco VPN application which gives access to the library's databases refuses to work after the next Windows update...).

Our teacher prepared a soft landing for us on Monday morning, so we had a few videos and songs to cheer up. They showed children happy to go to school, if not on the first day, at least on the second. They were very nice, and useful for the future; they could make a nice start after the Christmas break. They got me thinking, though. We tend to put pressure on children (and on ourselves), in the sense that we show them that everybody, at all times, should be happy to go to school; that is the "desired state". During the school placement children from the first to the fourth grade in Primary did the same starting routine every English lesson, where the helper had to answer to four questions, one of them being "how are you today?", and they were only praised if they said that they were happy. And what about those who are not happy? Is there no room for them in school? What about models which can actually show children how to cope with those unhappy moments at school?

There was one day during the school placement when one girl in the 4-year-old class didn't want to say goodbye to her mum, and entered the class crying. Two of her friends came to her: one gave her a hug, and the other gave her a drawing she had in her hands. All children experience sadness at times in school (some feel miserable for long periods), and they act very empathically, because they know so well what their friend is going through. Maybe these cartoons about going to school could show situations like that, where children actually feel sad, but sad in an environment which embraces them even when they feel like that, and not in an environment which expects them to turn into a happy smiling kid before they are taken into account.

During the week we have also continued with our warmers and activities. I enjoyed very much the mad discussion; it was great to see how our classmates came out with very ingenious arguments to promote their "word". It was also interesting to notice that while some concentrated on putting forward arguments for their word, others spent most of their time trying to undermine the arguments of the other classmate. Some were so witty that they managed to integrate their opponent's word into their own argument, using it in their favour. This game reveals a lot on the strategy we follow when we are placed in a competitive environment: some concentrate on themselves without interfering with the others; others concentrate on the attributes of the opponent, forgetting about their own strengths; and others can look at themselves, the others and laugh about the whole situation at the same time. What is apparently an innocent game can give the teacher a lot of information on the way their students interact among each other.

A funny thing happened when we got our diaries back: in my mind, the previous term had been so long and busy, and we had worked so hard, that when I picked up my diary it seemed so thin that I thought a part of it got mixed with somebody else's. Reality didn't match the impression I had in my head somehow.

We also received feedback on the exam we took before going to our school placement. It turns out it was a good thing we went on our school placement right after it, because otherwise our teacher might not have been as lenient as she has finally been. Receiving her first impression on the results would have been much harder. It is a good thing to use diverse means to assess your students, because that will give you a much more accurate measure of where they stand. She clearly felt that many of us underperformed in that exam, and it is very nice to know that she has been using other tools to assess us during the academic year, which actually allowed her to detect that the outcomes didn't match her expectations, based on other evidence of our work.

It reminded me of this joke, which uses humour to point out the unfairness of bad assessment:

Twelfth week of my school placement

This is it. Last week of school placement. I can’t believe it.

I have been extremely lucky in my three school placements; the school staff have been so welcoming, nice and helpful there are not enough words to express how grateful I am. They have taken me with them for some weeks, treating me as if I were to stay for good, making me feel like I belong, and they have offered all the help in the world. I am absolutely delighted.

This week was short too, because we had a Bank Holiday on Monday to celebrate carnival. Tuesday was a big day, because I took over one of the English teachers for five lessons (two groups of 4-year-olds, two groups of 5-year-olds, and one group of second graders in Primary). We had planned the lessons on the previous Friday, so everything was organised. The lessons came out perfectly well, and I had no trouble at all. Two of the groups were a bit louder than when both the English teacher and myself are present, but it was manageable. So, I can say I enjoyed it. It must be hard if you happen to have one of those days when someone throws up in the middle of the lesson, or somebody misbehaves really badly, or the whole group goes wild. I guess those are the sort of nightmares us rookies have. In a couple of the lessons I definitely felt warmer than I usually do when the English teacher is with me, but it was nothing that taking the jumper off couldn’t fix.

I have also taken some time to at least get a taste of other things in the school. I attended a lesson with the third English teacher in the school, who teaches in the 5th and 6th grades of Primary. They use a different set of materials, and their lessons are more project-based, closer to CLIL. Besides, the teacher is very different from the other Primary teacher; she has a completely different style. She also uses the materials more freely, and combines materials coming from other methodologies. Today, for instance, they were going to use some materials coming from the Amara Berri methodology, where the teacher had worked before.

It is great to see different styles of teaching. It helps you realise that you can be yourself, that you can (and should) develop your own style.

I have also had the opportunity to experience the free-circulation method that the school applies. I have spent a whole morning with three groups, two on their last year of pre-Primary, and the other one in the first year of Primary, during their free circulation hours. One of the classrooms offers several art activities; the other one has puzzles, building blocks and card games; and the third one has some building games and the reading and writing corner. Each teacher stays in one room, and they rotate classrooms every two weeks, because some children tend to stay where their teacher is. Children choose freely where they want to be, and which activity or project they will pursue. Every day of the week they have several hours in free-circulation. Of course, teachers encourage them to get involved in all activities over time, they help them decide what to do, and they push them to go further in their productions. I have also had a chance to see how the assessment is done, as it is quite different from the assessment if you spend all the hours with “your” group. This system needs very good coordination among teachers; they meet twice every week and discuss about problems that arise, or children whom they particularly want to follow.

Children’s productions created during free-circulation can be taken to other classes to be shown. For example, during the morning I spent with them we received the visit of three four-year-olds who told us the riddles they had created, and several of the children in our class went to other classes to arrange appointments to show their work. I very much like the idea of going to another class to show your work, I think it helps socialise and encourages autonomy and self-esteem. I also liked free-circulation a lot. It multiplies the number and size of corners you can have (compared to staying in just one regular classroom), and introduces variables that bring students to face challenges which you can rarely create in one classroom (a wide variety of choices, and having to select one; opportunities to make friends outside your group; very heterogeneous grouping, since children from two grades are mixed…). I think it is a great idea. Teachers also say that it is a heavy burden for them, and that after some time working like that, many of them end up disliking it for that reason.

Finally, I took some time during the week to give some feedback to the fourth-graders about their comprehension tests on the two stories we listened to. I prepared a rubric for each of them, and visited them in their regular classroom to hand it out. They had never seen a rubric before, and I didn’t want to take much time from their regular lesson, so I am not terribly happy about the explanation. It would have been nicer to go through the whole rubric slowly, so everybody understood, but most of them understood it and they were not that interested, anyway, because they know it is not part of their assessment.

As a final self-assessment on the experience, I would say that when I started the school placement I was a bit concerned because I wasn’t going to be able to do it part-time, like I had done the two previous ones. I thought I would have less time to prepare lessons and to think about the things that would come up everyday. I have certainly had less time to prepare lessons compared with the previous two years, as I had to work at the same time, but the experience has been very interesting, nevertheless. After Christmas, when I started being the leading teacher in the classroom with one of the two English teachers I have spent most of my time with, I have been experiencing more or less what it is like to take over without previous notice and with hardly any time to prepare lessons. I observed the structure of the lessons in the weeks before Christmas, and then I performed them after a very short exchange of information first thing in the morning with the English teacher. So, I was sort of improvising after having read the script a couple of times. And, of course, I had the security of having the English teacher in the classroom; my net. It has been a very different experience compared to the other two, and I think it will prove very useful in the future, because it has given me some confidence at handling a quite frightening sight: going into a classroom after being appointed the day before, like all temporary teachers who work for the Basque Government must do when they receive the call offering a temporary job which inevitably starts the day after.

Eleventh week in my school placement

It seemed like it would last forever, but the last week is here! Oh, and we are all sad to say goodbye.

The week went by quite peacefully. The group in the fourth grade of Primary missed two lessons, which add to some others over the past few weeks. There are weeks when bank holidays, school trips and other events pile up and the English teacher needs to manage those interruptions the best she can. The pre-Primary groups have been doing fine, and they are following the lesson-plans set up by the teacher.

In the last two weeks I have also been attending a group of second graders in Primary, because next Tuesday I will be taking over one of the English teachers, and I wanted to get to know the group a bit beforehand. I took over her once she had a burial to attend, but next Tuesday it will be more intense, because I will have five lessons: two 4-year-old groups, two 5-year-old groups and one group of second graders in Primary. I am happy and excited about this.

The only group where it might be a bit more difficult to perform the lesson will be the first one, because they will have a new pupil in the group, and another pupil who has been away for several weeks will come back. The whole group was terribly excited today about the new friend who will join them tomorrow, and it hasn’t been easy to calm them down and guide the class. Besides, the pupil who will come back next Tuesday has Special Educational Needs and he will most likely need some days to adjust back to school. One of my former classmates, who is doing her school placement with this group, will stay during the lesson to help me manage the group, so I am sure it will go well. This afternoon I have planned all the lessons with the English teacher, so everything is set up.

In the last few weeks I have been working on ways to interact with the groups in such a way that they will follow the planned activities without me having to raise my voice. I hate shouting; I dislike noise, and this school is very noisy. Well, to be fair, ours is a noisy country in general, and this particular school is only maybe a bit over average. The noise is especially bad in the corridors and the stairs. Children are not noisy by nature, I believe; we make them noisy. And we make them noisy mainly by shouting at them. So I am determined to be a teacher with a reasonable tone of voice, but it is not easy, especially when children are used to being shouted at. Still, I think I have made some progress with these groups since I took over the English teacher conducting the lessons. Tranquility is a desired feature for me in a school; it is a condition for learning, and too often we ignore it.

Tenth week on my school placement

This week there is a growing feeling that this is about to end; the countdown has begun and soon the school placement will be over. What a pity! I am having a great time and learning a lot, and after having a taste of what being a teacher is like, I don’t want to leave.

I am happy with how the week went by. My second lesson with the storytelling for the fourth graders didn’t go that well, because the introduction to the story took too long. On the second story, I tried to get those students who usually don’t take part to participate, so I directed my questions to specific students, instead of opening them to the whole group. Since I picked the shyer students, they took much longer to answer, and we spent more time than the previous week in the pre-task phase. So now I know that I need to strike a balance between rhythm and wide participation. Other than that, it went down well. The whole group of students got involved in the two lessons and they took the tasks very seriously. I am very grateful and happy.

The pre-primary lessons were great this week. There is a group where the class atmosphere has been deteriorating in the past few weeks, so I decided to share with the 5-year-old students very clear objectives for the lesson yesterday, and it worked. I gave clear instructions regarding the activities we would do, and particularly about how I was going to mark the transition from one to the next, stressing the words I would use. I was pleased with the result, but we still need to work a bit more to set our routines.

I was also very happy with the way things went in the 4-year-old groups, particularly one of them. Besides modelling the main activity in the lesson (making a collage on a sheet with 8 pictures and their corresponding texts, to create a “dictionary” for the unit) using an example made by myself, this time I asked one of the students to come to the front and we went through all the steps together. Being more explicit than other times might have helped some of the students, because one of them, who usually produces quite poor work, did wonderfully. He was so proud of his work that he kept walking around with it in his hands and didn’t want to collect it.

That incident got me thinking about diversity and high expectations. This particular student that I just mentioned comes from a family of immigrants; one can easily tell by the colour of his skin. Since I first got here he didn’t pay much attention in class, often he would be playing with objects around him or with the student next to him. He wasn’t tidy at all when it came to cutting and glueing or drawing, and he tended to do the minimum effort that would be allowed. I think I was told that he was like that, and I have to admit that I just accepted it. Yesterday he taught me a big lesson. It is easy to talk about highest expectations for all students, but it is much harder to apply that principle being honest and fair as a teacher. A teacher needs to be constantly questioning the opinions given by other and their own opinions, to see if they are honest and fair, or just based on prejudice. Always looking for what will prove them wrong, more than for what will prove them right.

Ninth week in my school placement

This has been an important week, because I did my first session to collect data for my dissertation. I had a one hour lesson with the 4th graders where I introduced the topic of my autobiographical story through an open discussion, then we went through the questions they would have to answer after they listened to the story, then I told them the story, and then they answered the comprehension questions. So, if my questions were not well designed or my storytelling was bad, there is no going back.

Next Monday we will do the same activities, but based on the story of the unit they are about to start. That way, I will have data regarding two different types of stories, told in a different way. Too many factors will differ between both set of data, and being a small case study, the sample will be small, but it should allow me to reach some conclusions, nevertheless.

The pre-primary lessons continue being challenging, as I have taken over the role of the teacher. In some lessons she is not even present, like this afternoon, when she spent the whole lesson in the corridor with a student that doesn’t want to take part. It is her way of punishing the student, but I think he quite likes the attention. Taking into account what we learned on the psychology of education, her strategy shouldn’t work, but we will see. Apparently, the student agreed to take part in the next lesson.

These last weeks I want to concentrate on getting as much direct experience as I can, so I am happy with the way things are turning out. But doing more leaves less time for thinking, that is true, and I can see why it is difficult for teachers to reflect on their practice, because their schedules have no time allocated to that. There is time for giving lessons, preparing them, planning them and assessing students, but there isn’t a slot named “reflecting on what you do, how you do it, why you do it and what for”. But getting time for it is crucial, no doubt. Sometimes, I think that instead of engaging in the trivial smalltalk which generates in the staffroom, teachers would better use that time for “useful” things, like reflecting. But, then again, I think that socialising is also very important, because it can help create a sense of team. I don’t know; today I am too tired to think more clearly, I am afraid.