Etiqueta: teaching

Proyectos – los buenos por qué de mi desaparición

Deja un comentario

Hará mañana un mes que no publico absolutamente nada en el web-blog, y es que he estado muy ocupado.

Para empezar me he graduado, ya soy maestro de inglés, cosa que agradezco mucho. Han sido cuatro años muy largos y muy duros – pero ahí estoy, un maestro más sin poder ejercer.

Sin embargo, aunque el mundo de la escolarización no parezca aparecer en mucho tiempo en mi vida (ni yo atendiendo ni ejerciendo como docente), no significa que no pueda seguir utilizando mi profesión como medio educativo además de entretenimiento… Y es que ahora mismo estoy desaparecido por haberme embarcado en cuatro proyectos bien diferentes:

  • El spot cinematográfico: desde hace un mes que ando liado colaborando con la ONG STOP Accidentes en un nuevo spot de prevención de fatalidades en las carreteras. Mi objetivo es tratar de causar el mayor impacto posible en un tipo de anuncio hacia los que, desgraciadamente, la sociedad siente ya empatía cero. ¿Cómo podrán los chicos de VisionFES y STOP Accidentes cambiar este hecho? Ya lo veréis – y en cines -, pues estamos bastante convencidos de que podemos influir un pequeño gran cambio en la sociedad con este proyecto.
  • El guión de espectáculo radiofónico: me enorgullece anunciar que a partir de ahora formo parte del equipo de guionistas bajo las órdenes de Nacho López Echeverría, Cheve: canta-autor, actor de doblaje y creador del programa radiofónico en vivo La última emisora, que lo petará en Madrid. Me uno al mismo Cheve y a otros grandes guionistas en la composición de los nuevos programas – podéis engancharos y escuchar el Piloto aquí.
  • La novela gráfica: dando vueltas de mi cabeza a un cajón, de un cajón a un dossier como proyecto de cortometraje, y de proyecto audiovisual a novela gráfica por fin estoy en la labor de dar vida a mi primera novela gráfica de fantasía C A V I T Y – el primero de tres ensayos sobre la vida desde tres puntos de vista muy, muy diferentes. Para poder hacer tangible a esta idea uno fuerzas con el fantástico ilustrados Oriol Tuca, cuyo trazo digno del Moon Knight de Sienkiewicz podría dar vida fácilmente a cualquier cuento parido por Neil Gaiman… He aquí su blog – ¡espero estar a la altura!
  • El cuento educativo: finalmente, uno fuerzas con el maestro e ilustrador infantil Jere Oner para la elaboración de una serie de cuentos infantiles educativos con la intención de integrar la lengua extranjera (inglés) con el entretenimiento infantil. Podéis visitar su blog aquí, y pronto tendréis más noticias.

Todos estos proyectos, o la mayoría al menos, bajo la firma Vision Factory – mi empresa de medios y entretenimiento multi-plataforma. Dentro de la misma sigo colaborando en todo aquello que se necesite de mí, desde echar una mano construyendo un Iron Man 1/1 a participar como actor en algún que otro metraje.

Aunque este verano estaré algo out, escribiendo y buscando cómo encauzar bien todos estos proyectos, seguiré con las reseñas de todo aquello que necesite reseñarse. Espero poder trabajar una reflexión acerca de Inside Out y de MARVEL’S Ant-Man las próximas semanas, y de empezar una nueva sección con reseñas vintage titulada ENCARECIDAMENTE, donde encarecidamente recomiende pelis y series que me gustan.

Así que ya sabéis, no os abandono: os quiero más que nunca y sigo trabajando para educar, inspirar y entretener.

Sergi

On Dialogic teaching – CLIL through oral communication

Deja un comentario

During my last Practicum as an English teacher on a Catalan Primary School, I’ve been teaching Science through CLIL. When my tutor proposed me to teach a subject using a foreign language (L2) instead of just teaching English – you now, grammar and vocabulary – I happily agreed.

Now, I’ve been studying subjects in L2 since I was in Year 5. In fact, Science was the first subject I learned through English, so teaching it to a new generation was something I thought I would be fun to do. There was a slightly little difference though – when I was little, Science was taught through text books in English as if they were translated from Catalan, so there was no language adaptation to L2 learners as we were and we had to work it out as we could… and the school where I’ve been teaching do not use any kind of book.

“This should not be a problem”, I said to myself. “We’ve been taught in class that CLIL should be based upon dialogue, and it is in first place through dialogue how you can identify the needs and aims of the class group”. So true.

I was terrified when I started teaching there – I watched my tutor teach English to the group I was supposed to teach on Vertebrates later on, and his level was quite lower than expected. The idea that I couldn’t adapt my speech to them or the fact that some of them wouldn’t be able to follow the class was horrifying. What could I do? Then I realized: let’s ask them.

After talking to several of my new pupils, I was clear on something: visual support was the key to understanding. Not just for them – the use of colorful presentations, remarked contents, videos, gestures… But for the teacher, for if you pay attention at their eyes you’ll be able to know if they understand before using your main weapon: ask them if they understand. If they don’t, let them explain between them.

Creating a dialogue between the class group – or several dialogues in small groups – you’ll be reinforcing trust and empathy between classmates, and therefore creating bonds that, sooner or later, will become a small community of people. Then I realized that I shouldn’t be teaching, but sharing my knowledge and experiences during several sessions, aiding myself with videos and presentations, and always asking for their knowledge and opinion.

That’s what CLIL is really all about, not learning using another language but learning through another language. Speaking, asking and sharing.

Sergi

Child-Centered Education

Deja un comentario

The title – and topic – of this post should reflect an accurate description of our Educational System. Pitifully, it doesn’t. In fact, our System resembles a factory in which effective members of our society are «produced».

We hardly can say «educated» or «taught», as their education is based upon a series of compulsory knowledge to be learned and minimum marks to get in order to «pass». I’ve been through three Practicums and visited five schools, and four of them have proven to me that the «Effective»-Based Educational System, through books, marks and class-centered teaching, are the past, present and near-future of education in Spain.

Nevertheless – as I said – there’s still hope.

There are State Schools who are trying to center their system into a child-centered one. This is the case of the CEIP in Barcelona in which I’m practicing my teaching skills at the moment: a two decades old school in which there is no room for books, exams or homework; in which co-education and personal formation is vital, and dialogue and coherence in learning are the bases of the formation of its students.

For four years now I’ve been reading about the Dialogic Learning System as written in Ramón Flecha’s Aprendizaje dialógico en la sociedad de la información, a learning system never used at the classical system schools I’ve been. This system is used at the CEIP I’m right now, and it has proven to be quite efficient.

Based upon teaching through dialogue the pupils are easily assessed, for the conversations between the teacher and the classroom reveal easily if they comprehend or not the lesson and why. This, of course, has a bigger impact on linguistic-based subjects – such as the study of foreign languages or social sciences -, but helps creating a quite nice and direct educational environment with all the children.

Child-centered education is the near-future of education – avoidance of grading and defining the education of the children through marks and compulsory knowledge has no future in an ever-evolving society as ours. I’ve been two day doing my Practicum in this school, I’m looking forward learning more and write about it in here.

The children are the ones to decide how they need to be taught. Teachers: let’s stay in silence, pay attention and, over all, listen.

Sergi