Minorraren inguruko feedbacka

Ingeleseko ahozko azterketa taldeko eztabaida bat izan zen, gure irakasleak entzule lanetan zeudela. Guri jarri ziguten gaia Minorraren inguruko feedbacka ematea izan zen. Beno, egia esan, borobilean eseri eta Minorrari buruz ordura arte esandakoaz gain beste ezer gehitu nahi ote genuen galdetu zigutenean galdera izotzaldia urtzeko sarreratxo bat zela ulertu nuen, eta "benetako" azterketako proba ondoren etorriko zela uste nuen.

Gauza da ez nintzela oso gustura geratu eztabaidaren emaitzekin. Ikasleon aldetik feedback negatiboa egon zen ia bakarrik, eta esan zen gauza positibo bakarrari heldu eta hori pixka bat landu beharrean, segituan eman zitzaion buelta alde txarra bilatzeko.

Gure irakasleek ez zuten ia hitz egin, guk hitz egiteko momentua zela adierazi zigutelako. Irakasleen artean gure iritziek izan zuten harrera argitzeko, haien hitz batzuk ekarriko ditut hona. Ez ditut hitzez hitz gogoratzen, baina honelako zerbait izan zen:
A: Tira, ba zuen kexa horiek guztiak idatzi egin beharko zenituzkete eta "B"-ri bidali - ezkerrean zuen irakasleari zuzenduz - zuzendaritzako taldeko kidea baita.
B: Beno, agian "A"-ri bidali beharko zenizkiokete, bera baita Minorreko zuzendaria.
A: Zuzendaria ez, koordinatzailea.

Hori guztia irribarreen artean esan bazen ere, iruditu zitzaidan ez zuela lagundu ikasleon eta irakasleen arteko harremana hobetzeko eta konfiantzazko giroa sortzeko. Agian orain ez dauka horrenbesteko garrantzirik, ez baitugu ia elkar ikusiko hemendik aurrera, baina ez ninduen ondo sentiarazi, hala ere.

Behar bada feedbackaren inguruan dudan iritzia lanean partaidetza prozesuak dinamizatzetik datorkit. Hain da nabarmena jendearen artean aurpegira botatako gauza negatiboak positiboak baino gehiago direnean prozesuak emaitza garratzak izango dituela, unibertsitateko eragileen arteko harremanak ere arreta berarekin behatzen ditudala, eta antzeko jarrerak ikusten ditut.

egon + egin = izan

Graduko lau ikasturteetan zehar ikasi dugu irakasleak bi lan nagusi dituela: egotea eta egitea. Horrela ulertu dut nik behintzat. Graduko ikasgai guztietan izan dugu aukera egoteari eta aritzeari buruz ikasteko. Hala ere, ikasgai batzuk bereziki zuzendu dira egotea lantzera, eta beste batzuk egitera bideratu dira. Lehendabizikoen artean jarriko nituzke Hezkuntzaren Soziologia, Hezkuntzaren Teoria eta Historia, Irakasle Funtzioa, Hezkuntzaren Psikologia, Eskola Inklusiboaren Oinarriak eta Zailtasunak Garapen eta Ikaskuntzan. Garapen Psikomotorra I eta II egotea eta egitea estuki uztartzen dituzten ikasgai moduan bizi izan ditut nik, baita Ikastetxearen Antolakuntza ere, hiru Practicumekin batera. Gainontzeko ikasgaiak, orokorrean, egiteari buruzkoak izan dira, irakasleren batek edukiak egoteari buruzko gogoeta egitera bideratu bazituen ere.

Ondorioz, esango nuke gradua egoteari buruz ikasten hasi genuela, eta hortik aurrera egitearen inguruko ikasgaiek nabarmen hartu zutela aurrea. Batzuetan faltan bota ditut egotea lantzeko aukerak azken bi ikasturteetan. Nire ustez, zailagoa da egotea lantzea eta hobetzea, eta zailago izate horrek azkenean garrantzitsuago bihurtzen du. Zer egin errazagoa da ikasten, baina nola egin... hori beste kontu bat da.

Bestetik, beldur naiz nire gelakide gehienak ez ote diren azken bi ikasturteetan gehien landu dugun horrekin geratuko, egitea alegia, egotea alde batera utzita. Azken batean, hogeita bi urte dituzunean duela lau urte egindakoa galaxia urrun batean dago.

Back on the road

I finished with all the assignments, and now I only have the dissertation left. I have been dreading the moment when everything else but the dissertation was finished. I thought I had probably forgotten where I had left it two months ago, as well as the contents of all the articles I had read.

But today I just couldn't delay it anymore, and I went back to writing. It was actually a nice surprise to see that I remembered the only small bit I had left without finishing in the methodology chapter, and I found the articles I needed for that immediately (good thing I had classified the articles in topics that made sense to me). It turns out my old brain is not as bad as I thought.

Now I "just" have to write the results and the conclusions, and go back to the literature review and fix it. And I have four weeks left until I hand in my final draft and the poster. And after that, a couple of weeks more to present the poster and have the oral defence. I prefer to think it's going to be a piece of cake!

Aurkezpenetarako eta irudien ediziorako tresnak

Aspaldian nire buruari jarritako etxekolanen artean bi tresna hauek blogera ekartzea zegoen. Bata, PowToon, animazio motzak egiteko da. Egia esan, lanen aurkezpenak eta bideo motzak egiteko Prezi baino interesgarriagoa iruditzen zait; Prezi beti iruditu zait lioso samarra eta gelakide bati baino gehiagori arazoak eman dizkio. Itxura ez-profesionala duten adibideen artean hauxe gustatu zait gehien:

Beste tresna irudiak editatzeko freeware-a da, GIMP izenekoa. Ez dut probatu oraindik, baina itxura ona du.

Whom is your text suitable for?

During the degree and the Minor, we have often discussed how important it is to use texts suited for the audience we intend to reach. I have come across a tool that can help in this sense, a website named "Analyze my writing", which gives a set of readability scores for any sample text you copy and paste into it. It offers details about the readability indices it includes and is very easy to use.

I have given it a try with a quite informal text for my self-assessment on a unit in the Minor, the autobiographical story I told a group of fourth-graders during the school placement, and with a sample from my dissertation, and the scores are quite different.

I think it can be useful to test the difficulty level of texts before taking them to the English class, as well as to check that we are producing the right type of texts for our most formal assignments, like the dissertation.

Dissertation, what's that?

I have hardly touched my dissertation since we went back to our university lessons back in February. It's been almost two months now.

I am not terribly worried yet, but I need to get back to it as soon as I can. I am finishing off some last assignments now, and once I get that out of the way I will take out the piles of articles and books again.

This long break has some advantages and disadvantages. I will need to re-read many of the articles, because they are not fresh in my mind any more, which is a bit of a pain. That's the worst part. The good side is that I should be able to have a more objective view on what I have done so far, which is also dangerous, because I might decide to change many things. All in all, I think the break will be for the better, because having finished too early would have made me forget what it was all about by the time I had to present it, and it would have been much harder to maintain the tension I still need to keep until the end of June.

Right now, my body and a good part of my mind want to rest, believe it's all done, and relax. But this is not over yet, and I need to continue thinking day by day for another two months. And regarding the dissertation presentation, our last group presentation of the term reminded me that I need to hope (and work hard) for the best, but prepare myself for the worst at the same time. So, yes, there is plenty of work ahead.

Last reflections on the diary

We have been asked to reflect on the experience of having kept a diary for one of the units during the whole academic year. I have been keeping a diary during the whole degree, which I have used as a learning tool, so it is obvious that I find it very useful. To me, the diary has great benefits:

• It shows me "how much" I have learned. I like to have physical evidence and record of what I learn, and the diary gives me that. Besides, since I am afraid I will forget things, it acts as an external memory to which I can come back.
• It reflects the process of my learning, my struggles, my mistakes, my interests, my fears. They are all there, very clearly stated. That's why I don't like editing posts once I have written them, unless it is to add a few things I realise I have forgotten to mention soon after closing the post. What's done, is done, and if I change my mind, or I need to go into something deeper, I do so in another post.
• It helps me clarify ideas, arrange them, "digest" them, as it were. Writing forces me to think better and slower, it is a good exercise for me.
• It gives me an excuse to summarise. In several units where we have had no exams and no assignments which required us to summarise all that we had learned in the subject, I have done that summary in the diary, and it helps me a lot to see the general picture. The diary is a good companion to the notes I take during the lessons, which I also keep.

I am clearly a great fan of the diary, although I can understand that it might be useless for others. Compared to the rest of the diary, where most of the posts were only written for myself, and not for my teacher to read (except for the posts on the school placements), I have to say that there is little difference between the diary I have kept for this unit and the rest. I have been as honest as I am in the rest of post which nobody needs to read, even though there have been times when I thought it wasn't particularly wise to do so. If I had written the diary only for myself, I would have probably described the warmers in detail, and create a label for them, so I could retrieve them easily afterwards, but I think that is about the only difference I would have introduced. Well, and most probably I wouldn't have written about every lesson. In that sense, having the diary as a requirement for the unit has helped me a lot to be more constant, and I am very grateful for that, because when it isn't an assignment, it tends to be left for last.