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

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