Claustre

That was an interesting meeting. It was long (3 hours) and a bit tiring, but teachers received many interesting information.

It is not easy to discuss school issues with so many people participating. Sometimes one issue may take too long, if many teachers want to give their opinion on it. But I guess this is the price one has to pay to keep cohesion in the group, share the information with every one and make all participate in the school maters.

No voting system was used to approve or reject decisions and for that reason they were made when teachers with ‘lauder voice’ proposed or opposed something. It would be more democratic to apply a voting system that would allow shyer teachers to participate in the decision making process.

There was one thing that surprised me. The Principal seemed not to have any power at all above the rest of teachers. He was more like a secretary than like a Principal. I studied in a private school and there the Principal was The Principal.

Claustre, equip docent’s meeting and evaluation

It is the end of the trimester. Today teachers met to discuss the marks. The meeting was short because most of them agreed on the way students will be evaluated. Kids with learning difficulties were awarded better marks than other kids with better academic achievement but worse attitude and behaviour. There were no surprises at all during the meeting. All the teachers agree on which students are disturbing the rest of the class, which of them are lazy, which of them have made an effort to improve, which of them have learning difficulties but they try hard…

I was surprised by the comments they made on one of the students, who (apparently) is studying too hard and is too obsessed about marks. Instead of being happy about her results (she managed to get all ‘excellent’ for the first time), teachers said they would warn the family about her excessive effort. I had the feeling that if she was studying in a ‘private school’ no one would be worried about her but they would encourage her.

If she likes studying, why shouldn’t she do it hard and get better opportunities than the rest of her classmates. Her brother is studying in London. Why shouldn’t she aim the same, if she is happy with that and capable of doing it? Teachers always complain that students in that school haven’t proper studying habits and that they could perform better. When they have a motivated student, they want to push her down? This doesn’t make sense. She deserves being motivated and reaching as far as she wants!

However, I had the feeling that some students behave slightly differently with different teachers. In fact, I think that some teachers know better how to manage certain students.

This week one of the kids has been temporarily expelled due to violent behaviour and will be sent to a centre of the Generalitat with psychiatrists that will try to help him.

Almudena starts teaching..

I have recorded Almudena’s second lesson. She has a slightly different style than Cristina, but she also gives very interactive and very recreational lessons, with lots of materials and games. Kids like it very much. Both of them have accomplished their job! I think the nationality of our students has inspired them to choose flags and countries as the main topic of their unit. In fact, I thought about choosing that topic, but I will have to choose a different one, because Almudena is teaching the same group I will have after Christmas.

It is very useful to see my classmates teaching, I learn a lot from their experiences and most of my fears have disappeared.

Classe d’acollida???

I think only few schools have a classe d’acollida. It is easy to guess what it means. Foreign students that arrive to the school spend some time attending these classes, which allow them an adaptation period. There, they basically learn the language and get used to the new learning environment, with easy lessons on different subjects (maths, geography..).

Many students in my school have started in that group because many of them have arrived from a foreign country. Moreover, quite a few of them join the course at half term (families don’t plan their migration taking into account the school term).

Students of different age are mixed in the classe d’acollida. They don’t spend the whole day there, but attend some lessons with their regular group and join the aula d’acollida the rest of the day. Therefore each student has a different schedule.

As a general rule, they spend one semester in that group. After this adaptation period they join the regular group. One semester is never enough to master the language, but it is usually enough to follow (more or less) the classes.

What impressed me the most was seeing how difficult is for newcomers to understand our language. They always say kids pick up a new language very quickly. However, it is not so easy. It was sad to see teenagers (even those coming from Latin America) trying to read a book for preschool kids and not being able to pronounce a single word properly. And not to talk about their understanding!! They teach them to read mechanically at a first stage, so they try to read the letters but don’t understand what words mean.

Can you image a class with students aged 13, 14 and 15, all from different nationalities, with different educational background, unable to say or understand a word in the language, unable to communicate with each other, trying to read a book for kids? I felt like in a refugees’ camp. They don’t feel like rich students learning English in Brighton in a summer camp!

They know they are in a normal school, they know they are immigrants, they know they are not able to learn and some of them have hardly been to school before. At least, this is how I felt. Some of them were trying hard to overcome this situation but some of them had no motivation at all.

Results of the exam, Cristina's first class

Well, on Friday the students got the results of the exam… not very good! They could have done it better if they had studied a bit, but many of them didn’t study at all. They had some other homework, they said… I will check the list, but I think only around a 30% of the students passed the exam, many of them performing below 3. It was a bit disappointing.

On Friday I recorded Cristina’s first class. She did it very well, the students were very happy about the materials she used and the games they played. She used a Power Point presentation and a map with names and pictures to stick on. It was a very dynamic and interactive class but at the end she was drained! I am sure that her next class will be less exhausting.

I have other things to tell about, like the classe d’acollida, the claustre meeting or the batxillerat class, but that will be on my next post.

First exam…

Today they have made an exam. Three of the students couldn’t write a word, but the rest of them performed much better than in a normal class. At least, this is my impression. We will see after the corrections…

The students… multiculti

One of my first goals was to remember their names… and believe me, I am not talented for this task! I drew a sketch of the position of the seats with the name of the students on it. This way I learnt all the names very quickly. Sultan, Zulfiqar, Meryem, Rodabelle, Fatima, Aatif, Karren, Mohamed, Ibran, Said, Albania, Mariem, Faisal.. are not the most common names in our country. However, I think this makes the job easier.

They chose the place they seat on at the beginning of the course. For that reason they are organised in small groups, boys with boys, Moroccans with Moroccans…, but some difficult students were later moved from their chosen seat to prevent them from disturbing.

As it happens in the neighbourhood, the most numerous nationalities in the class are Moroccans, Pakistanis, Philippines and South Americans. Catalans are underrepresented in the group.

Many times, their nationalities mark their English level. Some Philippines and Pakistanis know better English than most of Moroccans and South Americans because they have had a previous contact with the language.

A bit more about my traineeship…

I have to admit that during the first two classes I was a bit impressed (scared) about the students. The way they interrupted the class at any time and the way they look like made me feel like I was in the film ‘Dangerous Minds’ (only that Michelle Pfeiffer wasn’t there to save me). I remembered the way we used to treat replacement teachers when I was a student myself (some of them had to leave the class crying) and I had nightmares about some of my students challenging me in front of the class and not being able to keep my authority.

In fact, two of the kids challenged me twice during my second day and I wasn’t even conducting the class!

Also, as I was leaving the class after my second day of traineeship I saw a fight on the corridor. Núria and I tried to stop the two kids, but it was not easy. We had to grab them and separate them.

Fortunately I soon realised that things were not the way I had feared. These kids are normal and Núria has established a very good conduct pattern in the class. She knows how to manage them and they behave properly, they know what is not allowed in a class and they respond to instructions and to telling-off positively.

I think I was just oversensitive and also I wasn’t used to some of their manners. Probably they were also a bit excited about the new young teachers in the class.

CAP 2007

This blog started as a course exercise at the University of Ulster, six years ago… and became my personal blog! However, I haven’t posted many articles in six years time, as you can see. Now, my blog has again become a course exercise, this time for the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. It should contain personal comments on the course for future secondary school teachers and on my traineeship experience at Institut d’Ensenyament Secudari Miquel Tarradell.

I will start with a brief description of that high school. It is located in Raval, five minutes walk from home, which is fantastic. Being in the most cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Barcelona has some consequences.. 90% of the students are immigrants and most of them have arrived to Barcelona in the last few years, therefore some of them have difficulties speaking Catalan and Spanish.

Students’ heterogeneous cultural background and the language barrier hinder their learning pace. Discipline and formality are not as strict as in other schools but kids are good, although they have obvious learning difficulties.

Our tutor Núria is a very nice teacher that loves ‘her kids’ but at the same time has a great control of the class, especially taking into account that at least 50% of the students don’t understand anything in English.

I am attending the class 2A, but I have also been in a first grade class and in the Aula d’Acollida, where recently migrated kids try to learn Catalan and to adapt to learning in a foreign language.

I am in Australia now, almost for a week. I came for 2 months (until the January 20th 2007), half of the time staying in Sydney and the rest trying to see the beauties of the country. I decided that, rather than explaining about the trip, I would post some pictures (don't expect anything interesting though, they will be more tourist pictures).
Find them at http://new.photos.yahoo.com/mvinyals
By the moment I can say that Australians are the friendliest people on earth.

http://www.ideasydebate.com/?p=264#more-264

8th October 2006

Full moon in the Pyrenees

Remember those bucolic passages in many books and movies about the full moon reflected on a lake. It is a typical image, very familiar to everybody. Yet when last weekend I camped in the Pyrenees, at 2,400 m above the sea and no one around in miles (except my friend) I realised that I had never seen that image with my own eyes.

Therefore, although I had the image in my brain, I had never lived that moment myself.
And the experience was very different from my false memories. First of all, the light of the moon in that high and isolated place, with no other light source around, was as bright as the pale-greyish yet strong light of a sun eclipse.

I could feel how the cycles of the moon had influenced the life of the ancient civilizations. I could imagine how people went hunting with such a fantastic source of light or how nomad tribes would have been able to travel through those silent and illuminated nights.

So up on the mountains, by the lake with no noise or someone around, the moon was peacefully monumental and its strangely pale but strong light gave the whole scene a magic air of mystery and calm.

I suddenly made a discovery (probably very obvious for everyone, but half asleep as I was it surprised me). I climbed onto a rock by the lake to se the moon reflected on it and I realised that there were two of them. Yes, no matter which angle I looked from, I always would see two moons on the water. And I wasn’t drunk! :-) Of course, it was due to the phenomenon of refraction, but it is weird to see its consequences.

Up there in the mountains in that magic scene you see everything from the distance, set the present in the perspective of a longer term (as part of the flowing course of the events, between the past and the future), all the problems seem so easy, and one feels so calmed and strong that suddenly everything is simple and clear.

Hungría, cadáveres que no quieren ser enterrados

Hoy es el cincuenta aniversario de la revolución del 23 de octubre de 1956 en contra del régimen pro-soviético de Hungría. Las manifestaciones en contra del gobierno de Ferenc Gyurcsány no cesan en este país convertido en polvorín desde que el pasado 17 de setiembre salieron a la luz unas desafortunadas declaraciones del Primer Ministro. Durante este mes y medio el gobierno se ha mostrado incapaz de gestionar la crisis política que provocaron las palabras de Gyurcsány y ya viene siendo hora que reconozca que su estrategia para salir de este berenjenal no lleva a ninguna solución. ¿Cuántos días más tendrá que sufrir el país este estado de crispación hasta que el Primer Ministro decida marcharse?

La primera reacción que tuve la madrugada del pasado 18 de setiembre al ver la noticia sobre las protestas en Budapest en todos las cadenas españolas fue de sorpresa e incredulidad. Reacción natural, teniendo en cuenta que ni siquiera sus elecciones legislativas no suelen merecer ni una línea en los periódicos de nuestro país.

Enseguida, la sorpresa inicial se convirtió en alegría y en un ‘por fin’, al ver cómo finalmente los húngaros se decidían a actuar, más allá del habitual y continuo lamento inofensivo. Su reacción les otorgaba el derecho a existir en la prensa internacional: ‘deja de quejarte y actúa, luego existo’, diría Descartes. Y es que los 44 años de comunismo han dejado como herencia un cáncer mucho más difícil de curar que el retraso económico: una sociedad conformista y derrotista, una cierta incapacidad de la gente para asumir las responsabilidades individuales y colectivas y actuar más allá del mero cumplir con el deber y las expectativas sociales.

Mi alegría se debía también a que parecían confirmarse mis creencias sobre la marcha del país:
- Se reconocían los errores en la política económica del país y finalmente se devaluaba el forinto, lo cual hacía ya un par de años que venía esperando, teniendo en cuenta los altos índices de inflación y la baja productividad. Tal y como reconocía el gobierno, la lucha por el poder entre los dos principales partidos y sus promesas electorales habían hecho multiplicar peligrosamente el déficit público.
- Gyurcsány se ponía en evidencia, confirmando mi antiguo recelo sobre su conveniencia, sobretodo debido a su sospechosa biografía (joven político de las juventudes comunistas durante los últimos años del comunismo que se enriquece súbitamente durante las privatizaciones masivas del cambio de régimen).

La primera reacción de Gyurcsány ante la crisis fue pésima, contrastando con la entereza de los manifestantes, que el segundo día de protestas se encargaron de neutralizar ellos mismos a los radicales violentos. Con una imagen de cadáver político desesperado, el Primer Ministro apareció en los medios pidiendo ayuda a la población y erigiéndose como única posibilidad para salvar el país de su crisis. A pesar de lo acertado de su programa de reformas económicas y del apoyo internacional que recibía desde los editoriales de los principales periódicos internacionales, le auguraba una caída rápida.

Sin embargo, esta renuncia todavía no se ha producido, y la situación en Hungría va de mal en peor. Tanto el partido socialista (MSzP) como sus socios liberales de gobierno (SzDSz) han sido incapaces de proponer ninguna solución real a la crisis, según dicen, porque no existe nadie más dentro del partido con la misma fuerza que Gyurcsány para sacar adelante las reformas. ¿Será que los impulsores de la reforma temen que cualquier cambio en el gobierno altere el equilibrio de fuerzas actual dentro del MSzP en favor de sus opositores? ¿Es posible también que los socialistas quieran amortizar a Gyurcsány hasta sacar adelante las impopulares reformas y substituirlo por otro político poco antes de las elecciones?

En todo caso, la coalición gubernamental ha decidido mantenerlo todo tal y como está, ignorando que la mitad del país no acepta ya a Gyurcsány. Para desviar la atención de las nefastas declaraciones de Gyurcsány y conseguir que sus votantes no le den la espalda, el MSzP y SzDSz están utilizando la división social del país entre simpatizantes del conservador FIDESz y del MSzP, insinuando que hay que respaldar al Primer Ministro para evitar que FIDESz se haga con el poder (la fractura social en Hungría es comparable en algunos aspectos a la que existe en Polonia, donde los hermanos Kaczinsky, igual que FIDESz, han hecho de la caza del ex-comunista su caballo de batalla). Se trata de que la gente deje de pensar seriamente en si Gyurcsány debería dimitir o no por sus declaraciones y se concentre en defender a ultranza al Primer Ministro para frenar el avance de la derecha. Da igual qué haya hecho, hay que parar a FIDESz. Lo que no entienden es que la marcha de Gyurcsány no implicaría que FIDESz se hiciese con el gobierno.

Muchos se han tragado que Gyurcsány es el único salvador posible de Hungría, la única alternativa al avance de FIDESz, en lugar de verlo como el causante de todo este berenjenal, de que muchos húngaros sean ya incapaces de confiar en él (lo cuál no augura un futuro muy brillante para las reformas que quiere impulsar).

Sin embargo, yo no creo que no haya nadie más en el MSzP con capacidad para liderar el país. Es absurdo que todo el mundo haya olvidado que Gyurcsány tampoco era muy conocido cuando hace dos años el partido lo eligió Primer Ministro sin convocar elecciones, sustituyendo a Medgyessy (una práctica poco democrática que por desgracia se ha convertido en una costumbre en el ayuntamiento de Barcelona). Igual que Gyurcsány, también ahora un ‘desconocido’ podría hacerse cargo del gobierno, pues él ya ha no sirve.

La auténtica solución a la situación pasa por que el Parlamento elija a otro Primer Ministro, aunque sea del mismo equipo que Gyurcsány. Esto causaría menos rechazo entre la población y la derecha se quedaría sin argumentos para seguir con las protestas.

Tanto Gyurcsány como Orbán Viktor (candidato del FIDESz, ex Primer Ministro que desde que ejerció su cargo ha perdido ya dos elecciones, demostrando poca ética democrática al volverse a presentar) son ya cadáveres políticos. ¿Acaso han olvidado que en democracia los líderes necesitan el apoyo de los ciudadanos?