Cromosoma 5 (Mónica)

It tells the story of Andrea, a girl who has a disbility, and her family, how they manage this situation.
Andrea was born premature and due to that sha had to spend several time inside an incubator, when she finally was ready to go home, her parents notice that something was not right. They took her to doctors all over the world and after several years Andrea was diagnosed with an illness called Chromosome 5 or Cri du chat, which is characterized by an unic weeping that it sounds like the meow of a cat, this illness also affects at the psychomotor development and the ability to speak. Besides the eyes of the people that sffer from this illness are like chinese.
Lisa, her mum tells us that at the beggining when they finally had the answer to their child's problem, they felt relieved but when they got home and started to think of all the facts, they started to feel overwhelmed and can't stop wondering "Why them? and why Andrea?" As they said it is a "putada", because you have never heard about this illness until your daughter has it, so it must be pretty scary, and as they said they felt lost and with a lot of questions, I think that what this film is trying to do is to normalize this situation and not us to feel sorry for them.
Another important thing is that Billie, Andrea's sister, doesn't know what is Andrea's problem, but we can see that she adapt at her sister level and plays with her, this demonstrate us that the saying that 'children are very cruel' usually is not true, we can perceive this when Andrea is in class, because she doesn't suffer any kind of bullying or margination, on the contrary, children helps her and cares about how she is doing. They also learn how to communicate to Andrea by signs, and they all know the language and the basic things. This is also very beautiful and teach us how special the human can be.

I really liked this film, I found it very touching and a way to think beyond the superficiality that most of the times distinguish people. It also shows us the strengh that people can get from nowhere depending on the situation. I think that is very enriching, personally and mentally, both.

Cromosoma 5 reflection (Javier Muñoz)

Before watching it, like it was a documentary about people with problems and it was from Spain, I thought that it was going to be boring and not very good. But, after, watching it, I’ve discovered that is a good film that combines different sceneries using the like analogies of what is occurring.

It was interesting and incredible, because without watching it maybe you would see her, Andrea, the (protagonist) of the documentary and a real person, as a kid with problems and you would feel pity, but when who has seen it, will know that is a person like others and more special, because as she can’t express or communicate herself by language, she is always transmitting something in every (Mirada) and every gesture.

It’s hard to have a son or a daughter with problems, of the type that are, but is more difficult to know that you can’t make anything to change the way he or she is, because the illness he or she has is minority, and the resources as scientists and money are focalized to discover cures or treatments for the illness that affect a big part of the population and that with which the companies could obtain more money. You can’t understand why your son or daughter is not a human being for the rest of the world, only a statistic.

I think that is good for Andrea, not only having so good and patience parents, as the jobs they have, he building models and she as a photographer, and an intelligent and talkative sister, that is always caring about her, but to go, besides to a special school, also to an ordinary one, where she can have relation with normal children, that will teach her more things that those that are in a special school.

From my point of view, all the children with problems should go or be at ordinary schools, because the other kids understand what happens, but they don’t aisle or avoid that kids, they (tartan) to help them, they concentrate around them, talking and playing, and I think is a good method for these children to socialize, to acquire language and to accustom to live in society like everyone.

Our ideal school (Javier Muñoz)

Well, I’m going to start my reflection talking about the other groups and at the end I’ll talk about us.

The Minions was the first group. They adapted their voices and the explanation of their ideal school to the minion’s films. I think it was funny, but from my point of view there were some long scenes that are unnecessary and they include them because were part of the movie. If it were me, I had cut that scenes and concentrate in the important parts. Another thing was the sound; I couldn’t understand well the voices.

The second group was The four magic teachers. They combine some manga comics which were talking about ideas for an ideal school. I liked the idea of ask other people around the world about what was their impression about how the ideal school should be. I want to recognize their effort to put the voices, although the video was perfectly understood with only seeing the speech bubbles.

The third group was LASH, which concentrated their efforts in answering what the teacher asked us, explaining very well the theory and the structure of their ideal school. It was god.

The last group was KIA, which first presented their video as if it were an American program which was going to help some people to improve their school, with Gizem as interviewer. Then they shown us the structure of their ideal school by doing a look around all the playmobil settings they had done: I think it was an incredible work to set all that playmobil bodies, in different positions: It will had required a lot of time. Wow, good job!

So now I’m going to talk about our group, Encendiendo bombillas. In my opinion, we did a great job and the trouble is that we couldn’t include, although we pass the time limit, all the scenes, all what we rec. Maybe we lead the work many days and that must be the reason why we were, some of us, so stressed about finish the work. So, for the next time, I think we should start to work the day after they the teacher tell us to do it, and doing like it, we will do it better.      I also want to talk about the subtitles, that I don’t know yet if were necessary, but it was hard to put it, more for my partners which were the ones who adapted every scene to every subtitles, than for me that I only translate them.                                                                                                                                             I enjoy the making of the work, as when we were interviewing some teachers and children from the school La Paz, and I’d want to recognize the work of my group, all of us by making the interviews; Laura by providing the cameras and the microphone to do our interviews; and Mónica and Elisa for making the picture of the structure of our ideal school with the game The Sims.

 

Cromosoma 5 (Elisa)

Last week we saw in class a documentary called “Cromosoma 5”. This documentary tells the story of a child, Andrea.

Andrea is a girl born premature, doctors attempted that remained inside his mother, Lisa, because every minute was within best for Andrea; after birth had to spend a month in the incubator. He was born with a condition known as "chromosome 5" or "cri du chat". This disorder is due to the lack of a part of chromosome 5 that produces some features such as slanted eyes, she did not sit down Correctly, she had a strange crying, she had slanted features, she could not express herself very well and she did not talk a lot.

No parent is prepared to receive the news that their son / daughter will be born with a psychomotor and mental retardation, and Andrea's parents were no exception. But nevertheless, accepted her, wanted her, tried to give all the best, sought their happiness ... She found it hard to relate to others, but his parents were seeking all possible methods to help communicate (games). Andrea had a sister, Billie, at the beginning she did not understand very well Andrea's behavior but then they played together and understand each other. This shows that children, despite of children are different do not care; they play, they have fun, they learn, they laugh with them as with any other child.

Andrea was receiving special education, she went for three days to a special school and another two days to a school with other children. This seems fantastic because a child with the type of disorder Andrea needs special, monitoring and more individualized care, yet also is good to go to other centers with more kids that can play, learn and go slowly linking.

No one is ready to hear the news that we will have a close relative or a person with a disability. At first, the first thought that comes to mind is that it will be a problem, it will be hard work ... But once this first thought have to think much further. Such things can enrich you as a person much culturally and sometimes these people can make you see the world differently, can make you happier ... So we should not see it as a obtáculo but as a new experience.

Elisa Perez Sañudo

1ºB Magisterio Primaria Bilingüe

Our ideal school (Elisa)

The presentation of our ideal school was the second presentation. We have to do a video sawing how we want to be our school.

• The first video was my group, ENCENDIENDO BOMBILLAS. We comparate two real school, a state school called Colegio La paz in Azuqueca de Henares and a private school called Escolapios in Alcalá de Henares and our ideal school. With this video we can see that not depend on the school , depend on the teacher, the students… Also we want to saw that our ideal school isn’t so far than real schools, only it’s necessary change come little things. Our video are so long, but we want to saw that. To be as long sometime was boring and we can’t write all the subtitles.

• The second video was THE MINIONS video. Members of this group are Raúl García, Irene Merino, Ainara Rodríguez, Elisabet Lopéz and Isabel Lopez.  I like so much this video was so funny. I know that they have made a great effort and adjusting the audio recording time when talking minions. Moreover I think the goal of this activity is not achieved completely because despite being visually very nice, they did not explain much as would their ideal school. But the goal of this activity was not only make a nice and entertaining video, but also explain our ideal school. But the effort and interest that’s behind this work is noticed.

• The third video was THE FOUR MAGIC TEACHERS video. Members of this group are Sara Arenas, Eva Sánchez, Ramiro Pérez, Claudia Torrecilla. I think the opposite that in the minios video. Because I don’t like visually so much, but they explan very good their ideal school. The purpose of this activity has been achieved, but the goal of this activity was not only explain our ideal school, but also make a nice and entertaining video. But the effort and interest that’s behind this work is noticed.

• The forth video was L.A.S.H video. Members of this group are Héctor Vázquez, Sara Sánchez, Laura Borné and Andrea Santos. What I liked about this video is that used different tools like powtoon, a card to explain the structure of the school and everything that I like and where it can best reflect the goal of our video (our ideal school isn’t  so far from the real school) interviews with teachers and children. But the effort and interest that’s behind this work is noticed.

• The fifth and the last video was K.I.A video. Members of this group are . I liked the idea of ​​this group to make a video like the TV show 'This house was a wreck' but the school version 'This school was a wreck. "the part that explained his school with playmobils was a little boring, in my opinion should have done something more to pass photos. But the effort and interest that’s behind this work is noticed.

All videos are original and creative, so it is very difficult to decide on one. In a better explains the ideal school, have a better visual techniques, other uses are more tools ... All very well and got everyone to the purpose of the activity.

Elisa Pérez Sañudo

1ºB Magisterio Primaria Bilingüe

Chromosome 5 (Laura Sanz)

This video talks about a family with a daughter who has a disability.

On an interview the mother says it was difficult to remember her feelings but she needed them to film the video. It is very common to try to forget bad feelings and it is hard to remember them. It is natural that the brain deletes some details.

In this family the parents lose the concept that they had of being parents when their daughter born. This type of situations broke people´s mental schemes. They didn´t suppose it. Andrea has an illness, it is called “Chromosome 5” or “Cri du chat”. Some characteristics of this illness are: low weight, size and psychomotor and retardation because the chromosome 5 is not complete.

Doctors tell the parents that Andrea won´t to die soon. They are very happy until they arrive to home. Then, they realised about the situation. As parents say “hemos perdido la hija sana que esperábamos. Está aquí, pero no es la hija que esperábamos. Es una putada.” It is very usual that problems arrive after a stressful situation happens. When everything is calm, people have time to think about what have happened. In this moment, Andrea´s parents think about the future of their daughter. They feel alone. People realise about their disabilities when they confront the disabilities of others. In the video these feelings are represented in a metaphoric way: The mother is drowning in the water.

The mother needs to write on a diary her feelings. These parents suffer alone, not in front of their children. A lot of parents do the same as them, and because of that, many children don´t know about the effort that their parents are doing. People realise about it when they are adults. So I think parents should speak with their children about their situations and feelings. Not with the children of the video because they are so young.

It is very surprising that Andrea has a little sister. It seems that it implies more effort but it is not the case. Andrea and her sister play a lot and thanks to that, Andrea has improved her language. Now she can communicate. Communication lets people to feel as a part of the society and the language structures the knowledge and the thinking.

In my opinion, siblings are very important in a family. They help each other; they are peers if they are more or less the same age. In this type of families is very important that the member with an illness receives a lot of affection but also the rest of siblings. Because sometimes, the rest of siblings envy them and they try to call the attention of their parents all the time.

Andrea goes to two different schools, to the common one 2 days and to a special one 3 days a week. I think it is good that children with disabilities receive different education than the other but I don´t think going to different schools is the best way. I think the education system should change. Everybody should go to the same school. But if people with disabilities are in class with the rest of students and sometimes they go out with a special teacher, they feel different as the rest and maybe excluded.

I want that these people feel included in the society. So I propose a solution: Every student has his/her group of classmates, like now. But each student has a timetable different, so every student work with students of other classes in different subjects. Students are not always in the same class with the same students, they change. In one of these changes, people with disabilities, foreign students, students who have social problems … and so on have a special subject adapted to them. So, none is excluded because all the time students are changing the subject and the classmates. Well, it could be a solution.

In Andrea´s school students accept and respect him. But they integrate him? It is very difficult and in most of schools it doesn´t happen. The role of the teacher is very important. I feel that the nature try to integrate humans instead of their differences, but the society not. Students with disabilities of Andrea´s mother felt discriminated in their previous class. Andrea´s sister don´t do it maybe because they are sisters but also because the parents have taught her not to do it. Education is essential to build the personality.

To sum up, Andrea´s parents have changed a lot. They have accommodated to their new situation. Now, the mother works with teenagers with disabilities. She was unhappy because her daughter can´t do usual things fluency. So she wants to help this kind of people.

"Cuerdas" is a short video related to this topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYfK9jaUvg4

 

Whatever could be a problem or an opportunity, it depends on you.

The human is like a surprising box.

Laura.

"Our ideal school" (Mónica)

I'm going to do a reflection about all the videos in just one post:

Let's start with a general view:

I think that all the groups make a very big effort to do a great job. I believe that every video is very original and teach us new things to learn. I couldn't decide whether a video is better than another, I think that they are all different and we all used different resources but we did a great job

-"The Minions":

I think this video was amazing because they have to act as the characters in the film, I think is very funny, however I didn't unederstood quite good their ideal school. I think it was very dinamic and entertaining despite not explaining their ideas very good.

-"The four magic teachers":

I found this video fantastic. They expressed their ideas very clear and I understood everything perfectly. They also used a different programm to do the project, as Yolanda said it wasn't necessary the voices because the video gave us enough time to read the script. I think they also did a great job.If I have to decide which is the group I like most, I'd say this one. Congratulations guys !

-"LASH":

This group did a great summary of the theory. They seem to overcome with thecommunication difficulties they had previouly.

-"K.I.A":

Their project was very good as well. If I have to say something that I didn''t like very much is that at the end it was a bit boring, but I can see that the made an enourmous effort to create all the classes with the playmobils.

-"Encendiendo bombillas": (US)

I think we did a good job, we worked very hard on this project and I think we were able to face all the problems that appeared, I have to admit that maybe our video has parts that can be a bit boring because of the interviews and so on. But I think that it was very good.

"My ideal school"

- Microtask

- Responsabilities

- Commitments

- Objetives

Our ideal school (Laura Sanz)

I don´t know how to start… It is difficult and also to do in English.

First of all I won´t do one reflection to each video. I prefer to do only one and connect all the videos with my thoughts. Before start with the connections, I want to say that we are not using “properly” the blogs (it is only my opinion and my perception) Yolanda, not get angry, please ; ). In this subject we are using them only to publish our reflections and that´s all. We are using blogs but the use is the same than papers. The most important difference (and maybe the unique) is that we can read other reflections when we want because they are on Internet. Well, maybe this is the objective of the teacher. In my opinion, blogs are an excellence tool and we can use them deeper than we are doing in this subject. But, I repeat, Yolanda´s objective could be another like, for example, to focus our attention on our practices or our groups and not give too much importance to blogs.

For me, the comments in a blog are essential because they let the communication between people and the learning could be bigger. In our blogs, there aren´t any comments. There could be some reasons:

-          Teacher doesn´t forced us.

-          Teacher doesn´t propose it to us, or maybe not a lot.

-          We have a lot of work.

-          We consider that writing posts is enough.

-          Nobody wants to be the first person who writes a comment.

-          People doesn´t give too much importance to comments.

These are my hypothesis (I think they are hypothesis but I really don´t know exactly if they are or not) I know that I have said that comments are essential for me and until now I have not written anyone. Because of that I am writing this post (and also because it is an “obligation”). I am sure that if we write comments to our classmates, it would be funnier; more people would read other posts; it would be more interesting; we would write our posts thinking on the reaction of the rest… So, let´s start with the comments! ; )

The previous semester we also had blogs and I remember that Alejandro wrote in our blog some comments to our posts. I don´t want to compare the teachers, neither the subject nor the blogs because they are completely different and also their objectives and the contexts. I only want to say that it was really motivating to some of us.

Well, maybe I am saying too much things but I want to ask something else: why each team have a blog? Each member writes his/her reflections individually. We could have only one blog to the whole class or, as we are doing in another subject, each group could “correct” the blog of other group.

This is part of my reflection. Now I want to say something about the last work “Our ideal school”. I think it was a difficult work because we needed to read a lot of information and then adapt it and imagine an ideal school; it was interesting and funny (we almost sleep in the university more than one day).

In our group we divided the texts and each member read one, then me met and put all the information in common. We were thinking a lot of time how to do our video. When we found an idea it was very complicated and too long. So we needed to summarise it a lot, nevertheless our video is 25 minutes. For the next time we have to summarise more or think on another idea.  I am very proud of my group because everybody has made a big effort to do the video. Another think we need to improve for the next time is to start before to work, because we made the video the last days and the program we used was so slow. I had some stress that days and I couldn´t enjoy the work as I would have wanted. And also I consider that it was not finished, there aren´t enough subtitles…

I am satisfied with our work because we cooperate better than I thought and because our ideas of an ideal school appear on the video.

Before start to comment the other videos I want to say that it is difficult to put a mark to each group and take this decision with my group because one of us think something different. Well, this is one of the “best” parts of heterogeneous groups, there are different opinions. I also think that the mark we put to one video or one presentation is influenced by what the teacher think, how the others react, how is this group, their progress, what we have done in relation to the others, how we feel this day…

Minions group did a video really funny. I think it is the funniest and also the presentation was really good, it is like a real movie. But the organization inside is not clear at all. Maybe if I could see again the video it would be clearer (and I could laugh again).

Lash group did a great summery of the text we read and they explained very clear the structure of their ideal school on the video. So I think this work was the most complete one. I can notice their progress as a group. On the first work they had communication problems but it seems they have overcome them. Congrats!

4 magic teachers group also made a funny video. They did it like a comic. They included an interesting idea: Not to do your ideal school alone, you can ask for help. Their main character of the comic asks to some people before do his ideal school. I like this because sometimes we make a lot of thinks alone and “empezando de cero” and there could be people who know more than us or have other ideas and could help us.

KIA group also did a good work. And I think they work a lot, like all of us but in a different way because they put all play mobile in their ideal school. To do it, they need to have a lot of patience. It seemed like a game in which they moved teachers and students. I also like the idea of make the video as the program “Esta casa colegio es una ruina”. They divided the school in different areas like languages, science, art…

Lump together some subjects is a good idea because divide them is not natural, our brain doesn´t divide the knowledge. If the school only have three or four areas, pupils could develop better their skills like communication, critical thinking, or cooperation than now. Now, pupils have around 12 subjects.

To sum up, in my opinion the ideal school should have an ideal structure (the building) but this is not the most important part. It should have a great organization, great teachers and also the help of the government and the families. The idea of education should be changed. Teachers are like guides of facilitators of the human develop. We will be teachers, so let´s start! (Manos  a la obra ; )

 

Laura.

 

LASH (Mónica)

The first time they did the presentation we really thought they were going to do really well as they were the last group, but they had little issues to fix, for example they divided they class putting etiquetes like "smarter, normal and those who need more help" I think it was basic to know before doing the presentation that we can't put a "name" to each student because they could "believe" they are the ones who need more help and this will pause them to do some things.

I really enjoy their final presentation, I think they did it very well and knew how to fix their previous problems, they still had little details not very well, but I think they had very good ideas, dinamic and entertaining for children. I have to say that they used the TGT technique, not cooperative at all, they didn't realised that until Yolanda told them, but I think this is very enriching because even when we are presnting our work we are still learning. 

I really like the beautiful ideas they have, so good job guys ! 

Guizem´s presentation (Laura Sanz)

Guizem did a big effort because she was alone, he hadn´t got any group. Despite of it she did her presentation very well, I think. I feel she is familiar with expositions because she did it very natural and dynamic. She had problems with a video but it doesn´t matter, she could continue with the rest.

I was thinking about this. Using technology in class is not secure, it can fail. Because of that, teacher should have a B plan. If it happens in a class I think it is a great opportunity to talk about this with the students, as Yolanda did with us. Sometimes we have some plans but there could be some external factors that don´t let us to carry out our plans. Some things don´t depend on us. In these moments we need to control our feelings like ire, fury or irritation. We also can talk about these feelings in class with the pupils.

Guizem explained us she chose Jigsaw technique because it is the most effective one. And I think it is true. Because of that all the groups have used it.

When she finished, each group asked her a question. There were interesting questions; I remember that LASH group did the same question as we had thought. It was: “What is your experience of work alone doing a task about cooperative learning?” I find this question really interesting, but unluckily I didn´t heard her because I was with my group thinking on another question. Finally we found a new question, but in my opinion, that new one was not as better as the other, and we didn´t head her answer.   : (

I was thinking about it too. Often we focus our attention on irrelevant things or things that are not so important than others. And with the time we realise it, but it is late. Why? Where should we focus our attention? And when?

Laura.

LASH presentation (Laura Sanz)

I really learn a lot with their first presentation.

They were the last group so I thought (and almost all the class) that they would do very well because they had the opportunity to change their work more times than the rest of the groups. But it was not the case.  We are all the time expecting something (feed-forward) and the world gives us something (feed-back) sometimes different and sometimes the same as we expected.

There could be a lot of reasons that made they didn´t do a good work. It is curious that we often ignore this factors despite of they are so important.

Hector hadn´t a commitment, well he had one but it was really estrange, he said he put the first thing he thought/find. As he said “Puse eso por poner algo”, in our daily lives we do a lot of things by obligation and some of them haven´t got any value because we don´t make them ours. A commitment cannot be an obligation. Many teachers forced children to have X commitment, I think this is stupid. A real commitment is something volunteer and each people need to have some motivations and reasons to have this X commitment. I think this should be worked and reflected with pupils. They are free to have the commitment they want.

Going back to this group, they had the opportunity to make again their exposition. This is putting into practice the theory we are learning, one of the main idea of cooperative learning is: IPROVE.

One of the problems of education is to separate the theory and the practice and not to connect the learning with the real live. In my opinion, this is not learning. Luckily, in this subject and in almost all of our subjects it doesn´t happen.

I was really surprised with their second presentation. Maybe due to I didn´t expect they would do as well as they did (another feed-forward and feed-back). This second presentation was very similar to the rest of presentations; they used the jigsaw technique too. They divided the class in two groups (the students that don´t know how to cooperate and the others that can do it) to make the basic groups. I think this is a good distribution of the class if we want they learn how to be cooperative. I know it now, before this subject I didn´t think this. I have learnt this doing our presentation. This group made a mistake the first time they did their exposition because they divided the class in these two groups: “Intelligent students and not” or something similar.  But the second time they did well. It is a common distribution nowadays but it is not correct in a cooperative way of learning and teaching. Not all the students with excellent calcifications are cooperative, most of them are not.

In this second presentation this group used bad the TGT technique. It is a common mistake because this technique is not cooperative at all. They used the competition despite they didn´t wanted to use it. Once again they modified it thanks to the teacher´s explanation. This is one of the best parts of the cooperative learning: We are all the time learning and we always have the opportunity to improve.

Laura.

LASH presentation (Elisa)

The fourth group that did their presentation was us, ENCENDIENDO BOMBILLAS (Javier Muñoz, Laura Sanz, Mónica Santos-Olmo And Elisa Pérez). We did a presentation about the environmental science where the children and the teacher use activity of all type( theory, trip, work in basic and expert group…). I think that our work is good, but of course we can improve it. But some of my partner say me that it’s the work that most liked them and also the most completly and funny.

And we can learn the theory using the practicse, during we do the activity. This is the most important thing.

The fiveth group that did their presentation was LASH (Laura borné, Andrea Santos, Sara Sánchez and Hector Vázquez). This group was a presentation about what the children have to know about the diet and the importance of that. The work was for 1º gade of Primary and was divided in 5 sesion.

The last day the began their presentation but they were so nervious and their presentation was incomplete and Yolanda sais that they have a second opportunity the next day to improve their work.

Some of them explain the work looking only at Yolanda or Reading the Power point, but i but it is normal because most of us have done (including me) by the nerves of speaking in front of people and above in English. I believe that with time and practice all of us solve this problema, because no one is born learned.

They used the Jigsaw and TGT techniques using the technology. In one session they pupose a game where there were winners and loser, and the aim of this work is that all of the children will be winners and none losers. Because we have cooperative learning and not competitive learning. In my opinion, this is a think that was bad, but also I think that now that the have do a mistake they have learned it.

Other interesting thing is that they have used less than that they expect, the opposite that the other groups. 

Elisa Pérez Sañudo

1ºB Magisterio Primaria Biligüe

Javier Muñoz Sánchez LASH

The fifth group to present was LASH, name formed by the first letter of each member of the group: Laura, Andrea, Sara and Héctor. Their didactic sequence was about animals, for a class of 1^st or 2^nd of Primary for about 24 students.                                                                                                      Their objectives were to listen and accept different points of view, learn from others and encourage cooperation on students. Some of their commitments were curious, as “Share all I can think”, from Héctor, or “sleep less to have more time to work”, from Sara.

They planned five sessions of one class and one hour each, except the 3^rd session, of three classes and three hours each. For the methodology, they used TGT and Jigsaw techniques, and materials like computers, tablets and school supplies.                                                                                              The first session was about the creation of the basic groups. It’s interesting how this group always try to find new solution, different from the one told by the teacher. For example, in the case of the base groups’ distribution, they found a new way of do it, with the tables in a semicircle looking to the teacher’s table.                                                                                      In the second session the teacher brings the students to the computer class to show them how to look for information.                                                                                                                   In the third session the students that share the same subtopic get together to form the expert groups. The distribution of these groups is the same than in the basic groups, but with less tables.                                                                                                                                                 In the fourth session, kids return to the basic groups and share ideas, and in the fifth session, they make a game.

            In my opinion, they have done a good work solving their English problems and the problem of meeting when they are from different places. The disadvantage, from my point of view, was that they only explained the structure of what they planned, but didn’t make examples or tell how to organize the contents.

                                                                                 

 

 

The four magic teachers (Mónica)

On one side, The ideas they have used in the presentation are very good and dinamic, I really like the idea of the children taking the role of teachers to explain some things to their partners, what I like the most about this idea is that it's equal, not only the "intelligent students" teach, but also the rest of the pupils.

They all have a portfolio which they have to use everyday, this is also a very good idea because it helps the children not to forget what they have done and to reflect about the activities. They also said thet one of the main objectives was, besides teaching new things, they will be looking forward to encourage the student to grow as a person, to teach them useful skills for their future.

On the other side, I was a bit bored at the beggining of the presentation because they have introduced too much theory, in my opinion. We already knew the theoretical part so from my point of view they should have reduced this part. 

As a conclusion I think it was a pretty good presentation full of new and fun ideas to teach verbs, adjectives and nouns that before could sound boring, I believe that this group have worked very hard and, consequently have done a great job. Well done guys !

4 magic teachers presentation (Laura Sanz)

I liked the idea that children have a portfolio and they work on it every day. They have the opportunity to reflect every day during the didactic sequence. It is like a diary, they can write “whatever” they want, they can be creative and can compare their portfolio with other classmates. But I think, if it is not motivated by the teacher, it could be boring. Motivation is so important.

Another point I want to mark is the idea that each student has activities according to their level. And they work by basic teams, so they can help each other. Every student need to do an effort to resolve the activities.

This group also used the peer tutoring technique, I like this technique. It consists on feeling as a teacher. Half of the class works some activities with the teacher and they explain these activities to the rest of the class. And another day the roles change, not only the most intelligence students can feel as teachers but every student, because all of them are important. And feel as a teacher is a good experience that all need to fell.

I think one of their objectives is really fantastic, with this didactic sequence they want that students grow as people. Sometimes the teachers´ objectives are focus on the content and they forget the real and the most important one. We, as future teachers, cannot forget it!

 

Laura.

The four magic teacher presentation (Elisa)

The third group that did their presentation was The four magic teacher (Ramiro Pérez, Eva Sánchez, Sara Arenas and Claudia Torrecilla). This group was a presentation about how the children can use the cooperative learning techniques to learn the different tipes of words (verbs, nouns, adjectives…).

This group have a good part and a bad part. In my point of view, the good part was that the things that they thought to do in class were so funny and very interesting and dinamic as the technique that the use to do the presentation (prezi). But on the other hand the bad part was that the introducction was so long and a bit boring, because they explain all techniques of cooperative learning. All of us had to know that (all techniques os cooperative learning) before doing this activity so we knew each one, and for this it was a bit boring.

But what I think would work, it was the activity was a very good activity and very well developed it so the children can learn and have fun at the same time, always in cooperative learning. They also use the jigsaw technique the same that the others groups and the same that my group. I believe that all groups have used this technique because is the better to develop the cooperative learning but not the unique.

To sum up in my opinion thay have explain too much theory at the beginning and it was a bit boring because we know that theory . They should have focused more in the techniques that they have used and explain this techniques. But I can see the effort and the work that they had dedicatted at the activity and also all resources that thay have used.

Elisa Perez Sañudo

1ºB Magisterio Primaria Bilingüe

KIA Presentation (Javier)

The first group to expose was  , formed by Ana Escribano, Pablo Magallanes and Ana González.

They talked about Solar System, combining sciences and arts. The sequence was prepared for a 2^nd cycle class and about 25 students. As cooperative learning techniques they used Jigsaw and TGT.

I liked the form they invented to teach theory by cards, giving them the opportunity to discover new information by their selves.

It was good to apply the Stop game to this topic or to anyone else, because makes kids review fast the words and know the concepts better than with a bored method.

I thing the art project was original because the kids make something manual while they are also learning how is disposed the solar system, the size of each planet and the position of every one.

It was also good the form they invented to organize the home groups: advanced child, intermediate child, more creative child and kids need of help;  allows to make very distinct groups.

Minions presentation (Laura Sanz)

In my opinion they started very well, they were speaking all together but then, each member explained his or her part. It seemed that each one only had worked a part of the whole work. I suppose it is not true because I know all of the members of the group. But for the next time this group should take care this aspect.

I really liked this work but I think the ppt had too much letter. The explanations of each one were better than the ppt. Spectators understand better a person´s explanation than a text of it because a person uses signs, familiar expressions, he or she can control the volume of the voice… it is more showy. So I think, it is not necessary a lot of letter in the ppt, they did well.

Another interesting thing they did was giving a lot of importance to the individual reflection. I like this type of “assessment” because students can use it to dig deeper, learn more and reflect about their process of leaning. And it is very useful for the teacher.

 

Laura.

 

K.I.A presentation (Laura Sanz)

It was really good they explained their name, it did that we included this in our presentation. It is very important a good beginning, it should call the attention of the spectators and it should contextualize them. We started learning from this group. Another thing they said us at the beginning was that cooperation is not only a methodology but content too; I find it really important.

This group added their previous expectations (feed forwards) and the results (feedbacks) and they said they will take them into account for the next time.

All they did all the work, they have a responsible for each task but all they did all. We, on the contrary, did some things together and other ones individually, we divided our work. I was used to think it is better to divided but they said they worked well. We may try to do our work by this way for the next time.

For this group, the basic groups have an advanced student, a creative, a needed and a mediated one. In my opinion it will depend on the class, each class is different and the teacher need to take into account more judgments. But as an idea it is ok.

The teacher gave them some proposes to do the work better, the most important one was avoiding the competition between students. Another very related with the previous one was promoting the success of all students not only of the cleverest ones.

And I think the co-evaluation is so important and they added it. As we are doing right now, students (as the teacher) should evaluate their classmates and provide them constructive criticisms. And not only make this but also learn of the rest. I think it is quite interesting.

 

Laura.

Minions presentation (Elisa)

The second group that did their presentation was LOS MINIONS (Irene Merino, Ainara Gonzalez, Isabel Pastor, Raul Garcia and Elisabet Lopez). This group was a presentation about how the children can use the cooperative learning techniques to learn about music. First each memeber of the group explain their commitments. They also use the jigsaw thechnique in which each one receive  a part that preparate with a expert group with members of the others groups  that have the same part, then each one explain his/her part at the basic group, the principal idea of their work was that they want that their class should be cooperation not competitive.

One idea that they included in their presentation and I really like was that the children have to do a diary  about what they learned in all of the class. Sometime this diary can be so boring, but is a very good method to the teacher know what exactly each student learned, which aspect he/she need improve…

I hesitated a bit if all members knew explain all parts of the work. Some have given evidence that itself would be able, but not others. I also think that the powet point had too much letters and sometimes was too boring, which is enlivened with different colors, but it should be less than dusting letter but not the content say that in the presentacion. They have become very nervous and sometimes not I couldn’t undestand very well what they were explaining and have talked very fast, but this is normal and happens to everyone and we can change it in time and with more presentations. But it shows that behind this there is a great effort needs work and dedication.

I like so much this work because now I have more ideas and I know more interesting activities to use in the future when I will be a teacher.

Elisa Pérez Sañudo

1ºB Magisterio Primaria Bilingüe

K.I.A presentation (Elisa)

In this days we have to do a presentation about cooperative learning. How we can use the different cooperative learning techniques with differents activities, subjects and ages.

The first group that did their presentation was K.I.A (Ana Escribano, Pablo Magallares and Ana Gonzalez). This group was a presentation about how the children can use the cooperative learning techniques to learn about the solar system. They use the jigsaw technique in which each one receive  a part that preparate with a expert group with members of the others groups  that have the same part, then each one explain his/her part at the basic group. The activity that they have prepared are very complete, because first the teacher do an explication and give some papers where the children can find all the information that they need to do the activities. They do very different and interesing activities to learn things about solar sistems. And this is a thing very important, that the chilg¡dren learn while having fun. At the end the secuency activity the children have to do a table abour self-evaluation, and they put three columns where they have to choose between J(good) and  L (bad), This is a wrong things, because if you say them that their work are bad it isn’t a motivation to improve, but is you say regulary or something like that they have more motivation.

It is a very interesting and original work, because the proposed activities will have been adapted for primary education, this activities are very entertaining and educational (games, models ...). Behind this presentation the effort and dedication of all it shows, it's a group effort and not the sum of several parts. Also notice that all cooperative learning techniques are known. The fact that they have volunteered and also can correct and learn from their mistakes shows a degree of security ,commitment and interest to the subject.

I like so much this work because now I have more ideas and I know more interesting activities to use in the future when I will be a teacher.

Elisa Pérez Sañudo 

1ºB Magisterio Primaria Bilingüe

Reflection about Minions group (Mónica)

They started presenting the name of the group and telling us their personal commitments, since the beginning of the presentation they were almost all of them a bit nervous, I can understand that but as an advice I have to tell that they have to learn how to hide it because maybe they weren’t very nervous but enough for us to perceive it, that’s why I have to be honest and say that I felt a bit lost in some parts, because they didn’t explain it clearly maybe because they say non-sense things, and by this I mean loads of “em…” and hands moving, or because they speak very fast, but only some parts. Despite this, I think that it is a very good presentation and they took it seriously.

They used the Jigsaw technique, not competitive at all, the ideas were very creative and direct to learn not only the book, but also some skills that the children will be able to develop during the base groups and the experts groups, one of the thing is how to share the information you have searched, or be able to capture the most important things that happened in class one day by doing a diary, I think this was an amazing idea, very good for children and for the teacher to know what they’re learning and, more important, what they are missing, I say more important because this will give the teachers important clues to prepare next classes. Besides at the end of the diary they have to write a personal reflection about the topic and, also say what it has been more important for them or thing they did not know before. I think this was the most important part of the didactic sequence.

I also think that the presentation has too many lyric, it wasn’t schematic and because of this, I was a bit bored in some moments, and in my group we have the feeling that not everyone could talk about everything, only two or three people intervened while their partners were explaining. But despite this I think they have worked hard and took it serious, so good job guys! And thank you for giving us new ideas of teaching music.

Mónica Santos-Olmo Sánchez

Reflection about K.I.A group (Mónica)

First of all I found very brave to volunteer themselves to be the first group to talk, because the class was very nervous and scared minutes before starting, because some people told us that in the other group, Yolanda had sat 2 out of 2 groups.

They started talking about the problem they had with Sara, the Irish girl, despite this they did a pretty good job and managed to control the situation.

I also believe that they all knew what their partners were talking about, I mean, generally they only talked in their turn but when Yolanda asked them something she didn’t understand properly, they all knew how to explain.

They presented us an Art and Science class, in my opinion they have used different types of resources which is very good and the sessions were fun and enriching, they also explained some objectives that children will have to achieve, I think this help them to create the activities, because they were not only interested in them to learn about the topic, the were also looking for something else, like responsibility or collaboration.

They used two types of methods, the Jigsaw or Puzzle method, as we did, and the TGT. The first technique was used when they have to do a project about the planets. And they integrated TGT technique by playing a game, STOP, if I have to point out something I didn't really like it would be this because this technique promotes competition and is the opposite of cooperative learning, but I have to say that the activity promoted competition at a very low level, which I think it's just a kind of motivation, but still I would tell them to point each child, not just the winners.

In the self-evaluation they did a table in where they had to tic if they did it Bad (L), good (:/) or really good (J). Instead of this punctuation, I would have put More or less good, Good, Really good, because as Yolanda explained, if they have worked in class, it’s impossible to do it badly.

To sum up, I think they did a great job, I really like their presentation and the ideas they propose using different resources, it also seems that they have worked a lot and took this project very seriously. We even changed some details of our presentation after watching theirs.

Good job guys! I really like it, keep on working like this because it would teach us loads of new ideas, besides it would enrich us as teachers. Thank you.

Mónica Santos-Olmo Sánchez