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 (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.