SUMMARY OF THE 3RD PROJECT PRESENTATIONS - Ayperi SAL

INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS (Amigos del Football)

Amigos del Football made a presentation about ‘Inclusive schools’. They started with the definition of the term and mentioned some important characteristics of the inclusice schools such as diversity, heterogeneity, equal rights for each student.

They talked about Gordon Porter, Tony Booth, Mel Ainscow and Gerardo Echeita, who support inclusive schools.

They highlighted the point that ‘inclusion’ and ‘integration’ are not the same terms. Integration means different people trying to have place in a group of people. However, inclusion means that everybody has the same rights and we all should respect each other. In our life we have to respect diversity so this kind of schools are ideal also to prepare the students for the real life. Despite its advantages, sometimes there may be difficulties due to the different policies and didactics.

They also talked about some strategies such as creating inclusive cultures, producing inclusive policies to get an ideal inclusive school.

We watched two videos: ‘Amanda Berri’s School’ and ‘O Pelouro’s School’. These videos were about the importance of the respect to the different learning styles and speeds. ‘Multiple Intelligences’ can be a good strategy to achieve this respect and promote a good learning experience.

To sum up, inclusive schools not only prepares the children for the real life but also promotes a good learning experience together with the important values such as, respect, understanding, empathy etc.

ICT AND LEARNING DISABILITIES (Cronicas Viajeras)

The topic that Cronicas Viajeras presented was ICT and Learning Disabilities. Their conceptual map was colorful and there were clear, brief explanations on it.

They talked about autism and its difficulties in social life, imagination, language etc. The technological devices that help these difficulties improve are tablets, games (pictogram, just dance, sing star).

The difficulties for the children with down’s syndrome are distractions, poor differentiation between old and new stimuli. Again, with technological devices like whiteboard and cameras, the memory and concentration of the students can be improved.

As a result of motor disability; physical and motor difficulties, unadapted facilities may create problems fort he students. At this point, mp3 musics, computers and laptops can be helpful to make improvement.

If we search and follow the benefits of technology fort he students with different needs, we can create a good, memorable learning experience for them.

ICT AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT (Team Perk)

Team Perk made a presentation about ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and School Improvement. Everything keeps changing and more and more technology is integrated into our lives. As a result, education system also is affected by this developments. Nowadays, the children grow up in connection with technology and they know how to use it. Using technology in the learning process can make the students more interested in the subject and we can make use of the technology as future teachers.

Sometimes it may be difficult for a teacher without technological skills to use it in a beneficial way. So, it is very important that teachers should follow the technology and try to improve their skills to create an effective learning atmosphere.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING (Wanderlust)

The presentation topic of Wanderlust was Social and Emotional Learning. I think this topic worth to understand deeply and put in the practice in our classrooms. Because we’re all human, we are learning not only theorical subjects but also life in the school. The diversity of the people also means diversity of the feelings. We, as teachers should be a good example fort he students about knowing and understanding ever emotion and feelings. This also helps them improve their empathy skills. We can’t be in the same mood all the time and this is very human, so the younger they learn these social and emotional situations, the better adults can they be.

In my opinion, understanding our feelings and making empathy with the people around us are very important skills that should be learnt and if we teach these subjects also in our classrooms, we can grow a healthy and happy society.

LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS (Dumbledore Teacher’s Army)

Dumbledore Teacher’s Army team presented their topic with a colorful and clear conceptual map. They talked about the importance of a good leader fort he school effectiveness.

Why is leadership important for schools?

In fact, leadership is important in every part of a management. And the schools are the most important kind of management. In a business or factory, you manage the workers, finance, products etc. However managing a school is not only material but also a moral situation. If a school don’t have a good leader, there may be many difficulties in arranging school needs, lesson durations, children development, teacher quality and so on. Tos um up, leadership is important for every organization and the schools are the most important ones.

What are the characteristics of a good leader?

Firs of all, a good leader should be a good decision-maker. He/she must be able to affect people with a good diction. But if he/she doesn’t have a fund of knowledge and eager to learn new things, he/she can’t affect the people in a good way. As a result, a good leader must have a fund of knowledge, a good diction, ambition and should be organized.

INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS (Unknowns)

The Unknowns also made a presentation about Inclusive schools, which was presented by Amigos del Football. Each group highligted different points about it and they gave different information, so we had a chance to understand this topic deeply.

They started with a definition and gave the names of the people important in this subject like Porter, Ainscow, Booth and Echeita. Then, they talked about general ideas of the topic: inclusive education is the right of all children, they have chance to learn together and know each other. Also it’s important to remember that inclusive school is related to multicultural education. We can say that the inclusion is a single system for all and learning objectives are flexible.

Inclusive schools promote values such as democracy, justice, respect, dynamism, interaction, awareness and as a result we have a formative learning environment. After touching upon some benefits and difficulties of inclusive schools, they asked some personal questions, which were upon to discussion. Together with the videos, I think it was a attention-catching and informative presentation.

WAYS OF LIVING TOGETHER IN SCHOOLS (Modern Students)

As I always say, the school is the place where the students start to learn about life. As a result, learning to live together in the world starts with learning tol ive together in schools.

There were three main points in the presentation:

School maditation, which is a kind of technique to solve the problems in the school such as bullying, discrimination and disrespect towards the diversity. Thanks to the teachers, students learn how to solve their own problems and respect each other.

Program to support peers, which is similar to school mediation. The most important thing here is the cooperation and effective communication between the teachers and the students.

Archeology of feelings in school is a metaphor which was developed by Miguel Angel Santos Guerra. There are five steps in this process such as discovery, excavation, indagation, protection and exposure.

At the end of the presentation we saw a program called Kiva, developed in the University of Turku. Their aim with Kiva is to promote an anti-bullying approach, which shows us how a perfect school must be.

LEARNING COMMUNITIES (Musical Chairs)

Our presentation topic was Learning Communities. We preapared our conceptual map cooperatively and it was a very fruitful group work for me, so I’m sorry that we couldn’t have a chance to present it in the class.

The main idea in Learning Communities is that school and education are generally considered as it is about just between students, teachers and parents. However, in school we are actually educating the people that will form the society, we are educating future mothers, fathers, drivers, citizens and so on. Consequently, not only students, teachers and parents, but also every citizen should take the responsibility of education.

Community Learning gives us a chance to take this responsibility in coordination with the school. For instance, if a teacher teaches the students jobs, just talking and reading about different kind of jobs may be boring. However, if volunteers come to class and introduce their jobs to the students, this experience can be more enjoyable, attention-catching and memorable. The students can be informed by different point of views. They also can have chance to know social life of the volunteers.

This cooperation between everybody is actually what makes community learning special.

CONCLUSION:

In this last project we were informed and prepared for the different situations we may face in our classrooms. I think it is very important to know and learn these kind of things rather than just scientific and theorical information. The schools are the place where we learn and prepare for the life and I am sure with these important information we will do our best to give our students a great learning experience and a peaceful environment. 

LAST PROJECT

INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS

This technique is related with integration. To get it, it’s necessary the collaboration of parents and the teaching children in values. This collaboration is based in trust because children should take in count parents when they have problems and they should have an open mind to understand them, in this way teacher should have the capacity to realise on possible problems that should appear in a class. The role of teachers and parents are so important to children because they are their references.

We have some barriers too like the attitude of teachers and students or the methodology and resources that some centres have. Sometimes we don’t realise in the fact that some ways to work are excluding either with the capacity of some of them or the knowledge or resources that they could have. I like too much the idea that they expose that is something like:

“…all of them are barriers because of the attitude of teachers because if you caught something state, without the thinking that you could change, it will be a barrier but if you think how to solve this difficulties and the way to change it to get a better result or an advantage, this barriers will disappear.”

In some school there are quizzes to know the abilities  of each teacher to have a support for others teachers, this means that if you needs help with some concept, material or activity you can know people how could help you.

In this technique the difference is consider as a quality. This is the idea of one of the authors that talk about this, Gordon Porter.

One of the ideas that I consider so attractive and important is the difference between inclusion and integration. It could sound the same but there is a difference that is the clue of all; relationship. One thing is to put together all people that this is integration but if their talk each other and they try to understand them, they have a relationship and this is inclusion. These ideas are developed by Mel Aiscow.

Some schools that put this in practice are O’Pelouro and Amara Berri, both in Spain.

MY CONCLUSSION: I think that this technique should be in all schools because it’s necessary to inculcate some knowledge or values in children to avoid problems like bullying.

ICT LEARNING DISABILITIES

In a general idea this is focus in the usefulness of ICT to integrate people with some difficulties. They talk about autism, Down’s syndrome and motor disabilities.

            AUTISM.

They don’t understand the relationships that we have so they feel quite strange, like been in other planet. The socialization of them is so complicated because they talk a little bit, their thoughts are different; they don’t ask like their classmates. Another difficulty is their imagination because they don’t have so much developed. For all this difficulties, this group take two ways to teach trough to improve them and get a solution: tablets and games. Its will works as a support to have a real integration and to develop the initiative that they need to have more imagination or to starts relationships.

            DOWN’S SYNDROME.

These people are more distracter than other ones because of the illness. They are excited about the world and they wanted to know everything, they are so curiosity people and this is the reason of this distraction. Also, as autism people, their initiative could be more develop. To improve or solve these difficulties, they propose use cameras and whiteboards to transform the information in a more attractive one and to get all the attention of them to avoid distractions. Their memory could be improved with different memory activities or games that could be develop for all the class.

            MOTOR DISABILITIES

Children with these problems have either physical or motor difficulties or both. The main difference with the other ones is that these people is so intelligence, have capacities like be focus on something, understand feelings, communicate… but they need a help to move or to express all the things that they have on their minds. To get it, it’s so important the use of computers or laptops and it’s a good idea to complement this with music or other stimulus. In this way the technology, in my opinion, lends them to have a better life in general not only in school because they have more mobility and independence and this helps to be comfort and to have a better adaption.

MY CONCLUSSION: We should look for all the possibilities of new technology because some of them could be the difference of understand both lessons and people and get a group where all are integrated and include.

LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS

As a little summarise, this concept develop the idea of the relation between leadership and the success or effectivity of schools.

Why is important leadership in schools?

Leadership is important not only in schools but also in all factors of our lives. We can relate this concept with “organise”. Leadership is basically one of the main factor to get a good develop of school because it’s necessary have a person or image of order, I mean, we have the necessity of authority that organise, order and solve all the problems that we could have. This image is usually represented in the headmaster. Normally he is helped by teachers, secretaries… and so on. The most important thing is that these people look for the best develop of the school, so they think in the improvement because they take very important decision that could intervene directly in children and the educational system – and with that in the future of the country because if children are bad educated, they wouldn’t know how to invest or wouldn’t have the capacity to create something to solve future problems-.

What are the main characteristic of a leader?

To get all the ideas developed before, it’s necessary to have the best leader and its should have some specific characteristic like:

•      Been a pedalogycal expert. It’s so very important that they know children, not only their capacities but also their needs. Some problems that we have here in Spain with the educational system is that its done by people who don’t know nothing about children, schools, or education, they only know the things that are in book and it’s not education.

•        Been like a businessman. In contrast with the last idea, all this necessities need an order and been studying by another point of view different to the teacher’s one to know some values like the real effectiveness, usefulness… taking into account all the factors: number of children, localization of school, mentality of the culture, government…

•          Been as an organizer. Because of the necessity to know where is all the information, what are the things that schools need and their priorities, the formalities that they need to work with different methodologies or techniques…

With all this characteristics a leader will be the best becoming the school in a effectiveness one.

MY CONCLUSSION: To have the better result we need to have all the points of view and all different opinions, not be focus on one think although this is only focus on children.

WAYS OF LIVING TOGETHER IN THE SCHOOL

The theory of this project is divided in three parts: school meditation, program to support peers and archeology of feelings in school. And to close this item they choose a school called Kiva, who I will talk about it later.

-          School meditation: it is based in the reality that is schools are many problems related with discrimination and the diversity in classrooms. The most known is bullying. One solution is creating the role of the mediator, a person who listen all the problems and talk with the different parts to get an agreement. With this, children, helped by teachers, could solve their own problems.

-          Program to support peers: this is related with mediation and solved problems. This is the cooperation between teachers and students to get the objective of the last one.

-          Archeology of feelings in school: this is a metaphor of the feelings in schools. Is developed by Miguel Angel Santos Guerra and he divides this process into 5 steps: discovery, excavation, indagation, protection and esposure.

One of schools that develop this technic is Kiva that has an anti-bullying program developed in the University of Turku.

MY CONCUSSION: This process should be developed in all school around the world because bullying and problems like that could affect so much both in children and their surroundings.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Nowadays there are many people that don’t know how to express their feelings. This is something that this technique couldn’t understand and for this reason Rafael Bisquerra and some authors defend the idea of educate children in feelings.

The main difficulty is that we don’t have in schools some subjects or activities that develop these concepts. This is the first thing that we should change. Children when are babies and they can’t talk, express their feelings crying or laughing but in our society there are some children that have still done it. This is something that shows the importance of all this theory.

We should introduce a subject where children learn how they feel and demonstrated but also feel empathy to have the capacity of understand others and how to manage these feelings.

Many people don’t know how to put this theory in practice but this group develop this part. Some ideas that they proportionated us were:

-          Talk everyday with children about their feelings, they could be done through images, emojis, colours… it’s not necessary that they open they harts because some of they could be shy or embarrassed.

-          Do activities to understand each feeling and things that could affect our mood. Make some plays where everybody has a role and a feeling and they should act like this.

-          Try to develop the empathy doing same games where they should guess how others feel. We could do it in a funny way created new feelings like when you are sad but happy and the same time. One activity is called walk on my shoes and it works when there is argue and teachers try that children feel the feelings of the other person.

All this ideas are related with multiple intelligences because it’s necessary that children develop the emotional intelligence to feel all this.

We should relate this project with ways of living together one because if se introduce these concepts in cooperative learning we get the idea of avoid bullying like in this one.

MY CONCLUSSION: I think that this is very important but not also in schools, at home too. Children should learn how to manage all feeling to have as lees problems or argues as possible understanding other people.

ICT AND IMPROVEMENT SCHOOLS

This project reminds me the subject of the first part of the grade that was communication and sociocultural ways.

The main idea is related with the use of new technology or ICT in schools. This topic is very current because technologies are too new and there are different ideas about it.

Many people think that are horrible and are a distraction for children and they don’t use so much, only for play sometimes or something like that. These people don’t know the opportunities that technologies offer like we have said before with people with disabilities for example.

This has many advantages that we develop then better but there are some disadvantages too. If we don’t know how to use them we could get a counterproductive result. Nowadays all children are digital natives so teachers should know how it works perfectly to teach a high level because they will understand it because of the fact that they born with this. I think that this is the biggest disadvantage because people who is studying to be teacher have subjects to develop this concepts but people who is teacher need this knowledge so a solution will be organize some courses to develop all this items.

Some advantages are the fact that units with I-pads, apps or different electronic tools are more dynamic and motivators, children enjoy more when they are playing and they associated this tools with play, children with problems or disabilities could improve their knowledge at the same time and with the same rhythm when use them, they can keep all the book on it and in this way the bags will be lighter, children could create their own games, quizzes, knowledge… with different apps that exist…

This group give us some apps that we could use in class like zombies vs maths, crash class, duolinguo, babble… but it is a good idea to use robots too because this could be programmer in many different ways, to play, solve problems, do something… and children could programmer them too.

One school that use this tools and technologies is Tamajar’s school in Vallecas, Madrid. They use I-pads instead of books and they have better results than others.

MY CONCUSSION: I think that new technologies are the best think that society could develop but we should be aware because it’s very important know how to use it. A teacher with a good knowledge about it is amazing but in the contrary is so dangerous.

COMMUNITY LEARNING

This is our project so I will develop in a simple way because it is explain under the posts.

The main idea of this technique is get the best relationship between teachers, students and volunteers. Its necessary have in mind some concepts: communication, coordination, cooperation and collaboration. There are quite important to improve all these relations.

We know what are teacher and what students because they always exist but it’s not usually talking about volunteers. This people could be parents or not but they want to work with children or to help teachers because they want or they have the vocation but they have never developed as a job.

We have three steps:

-          Dream: it’s like a brainstorming. All the members of the school say the possibilities or ideas that there could be developed in school.

-          Priorities: the process is take all the ideas an punt in a list taking into account the necessity, possibility, importance for children or school…

-          Working committees: make different groups to work in each idea to develop in the best way. They should solve all the problems that could appear but not alone, they have the support of al school.

MY CONCUSSION: I think that this is a way to understand that the school is not only for children or teachers; the school is something more because from there we have the future of the world. The community should be involucrate in schools to get the best an develop as much as possible.

FINAL CONCLUSION

With this project I realise that if we don’t change education is because we don’t want because there are a lot of methodologies and techniques. Some of them are more complex but others are quite easy and you only need collaboration and motivation.

Beatriz Martinez Isidro

POST ABOUT 3RD PROJECT - IRENE MEGIAS

INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS

The teams that talked about this topic were The Unknows and Amigos del Football. As we all know, the inclusive schools are a school that include and effectively educate all students. Inclusive education means that all people in a given community to learn together regardless of their origin, their personal, social or cultural conditions, including those that present any problem learning or disabilities. This is a school that doesn´t put entry requirements and selection mechanisms or discrimination of any kind, to actually enforce the rights to education, equal opportunities and participation. In the inclusive school pupils benefit from an education tailored to their needs and not only those who have special educational needs.

Among the features that must have an inclusive school that our colleagues have talked about us I would like to highlight the following: defend diversity, heterogeneity and interpersonal relationships; promotes equal rights for all; promulgates the following values: humanization, freedom, criterion of standardization, democracy, justice; methodologically focused on student characteristics, not the content; construction of an educational community; and finally, the great importance is given to the involvement of parents and community in school activities.

Amigos del Football team also spoke about the differences between inclusion and integration, since a priori may seem synonymous, but there are differences between both terms. It is important not to confuse them. Full inclusion means the bet by a school which welcomes the general diversity, without any exclusion or for reasons relating to discrimination between different types of needs, or for reasons relating to the possibilities offered by the school. On the other hand, the integration is based on the normalization of the life of the pupils with special educational needs for which enabled are certain supports, resources and professionals.

Both teams talked about the thoughts of several authors like Gordon Porter, who defended a school which promotes equality and quality, and in addition, believed in the importance of use effectively the different resources that teachers have at their disposal; Tony Booth, who believed that the inclusive schools had to be both for students and for teachers, and also who believed in the importance of build supportives communities; Mel Ainscow who supported the idea that the inclusion was a long process and to meajksure what we value rather than what we can measure valueing.
Something found me interesting were the barriers that we could find in the inclusive schools. They grouped them into three groups: policies (contradictory regulations), diversity (conceptual and attitudinal) and didactics (teaching - learning).

As told us, the first barrier that prevents the learning and participation of students in the classroom, and that is hampering the construction of a public school without exclusions, are the contradictions that exist in the laws regarding the education of people and different cultures. A second barrier that prevents the inclusion is widespread in the world of education that there are two different types of students: the, say, 'normal' and the 'special' and, logically, is convinced that the latter requires modes and different teaching strategies. In relation to these barriers arise the didactic, impeding the construction of a school without exclusions.

Also explained us various strategies for the construction of inclusive school, e.g.: building community, establishing inclusive values, producing inclusive policies, developing the school for all, organising support for diversity and evolving inclusive practices.
Finally, they talked about four Spanish schools that promote these values. Amigos del Football talked about the O Pelouro School and Amara Berri School. Its features include the diversity of the students and the point of view that has in relation to it, since they believe that diversity is a quality; equal opportunities for all of them, the use of a methodology which respected the group work and the  individual work, and live in the same space all kinds of students. What most caught my attention was the idea of making an Assembly every day in the morning with students so they learn to resolve conflicts.

On the other hand, the Unknows talked about father Piquer school center and Sadako school. Padre Piquer is a center of opportunity for everyone since it is a school which tries to answer every day world cultural and social reality. This school takes into account the importance of educating in values, with the aim of educating people of the future. Sadako school fight for the work in team and defends the idea of learning by doing, learn from our failures and learn practicing. In addition, gives great importance to role distribution and the implementation of new technologies in the classroom.

As a conclusion, I like to stress the importance of schools inclusive. I think that all the school should try to follow the characteristics of this to improve our education schools. As future teachers must know that not all students are the same, so it is important to detect the needs of each one, know the way which is easier to learn to be a more motivating and more satisfactory learning process. This way to deal with and respond to each student and student, this eagerness to respect diversity, valuing it as the richness of our classroom and not as a problem, complicated life in the short term, but is what gives you a sense.

 ITC AND LEARNING DISABILITIES

Crónicas Viajeras talked about ICT and learning disabilities. They talked especially about 3 disabilities:

To start, they talked about the people that suffer autism. Autism harms a person's ability to communicate and interact with others. Also, it is associated with routines and repetitive behaviors, such as obsessively arranging objects or following specific routines. Crónicas Viajeras said that people suffering from this disorder used tablets and cameras to be integrated and to increase its initiative.

Later talked about Down syndrome. Children who suffer from this disorder have delayed mental and social development. Common problems include compulsive behavior, deficiency in the capacity of discernment, short attention span and a slow learning. The solution proposed by Crónicas Viajeras is to use whiteboards and games to improve their memory aid and it has help them to concentrate.

Finally, they spoke of children with motor disabilities, this diseases that involve a limitation of motor activity of the organism. Between the motor disabilities, that prevent the realization of certain movements, the movement of people and their self-sufficiency are some such as strokes, Spinal Muscular Atrophies or muscle dystonias. These children often work with music and computers or tablets to improve its adaptations. These resources will serve to communicate better with others and to feel more comfortable.

In the video that they showed us we saw as using the ITC children with disabilities feel more comfortable, also helps them to integrate and communicate better with others. In short, they feel equal to the rest of the children.

As conclusion, I think that technology can help to all the different people, independently of their needs, difficulties, or adaptations. New technologies make us life easier, and also to those who suffer a disability, giving them an opportunity to integrate in society and in education.


LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS

Now is the turn of María Granger and Dumbledore teachers' army

What makes a good leader?

A leader grows and grows its people. To grow, it does not cling to his position and current activities. Always go up. To grow, he teaches his people, delegated functions and creates opportunities for all.

A good leader has to have a number of features such as the ability to know how to communicate, as it must clearly express their ideas and instructions, and get your people to hear and understand. You should also know how to listen to the rest. On the other hand, it is important to have the ability to manage feelings and emotions themselves and others, to discriminate among them and use this information to guide thinking and action. Feelings move people, without emotional intelligence can not be a leader.

A leader knows his strengths and make the most. Of course we also know what your weaknesses and seeks to address them. Hence its ability to set goals and objectives. Without a clear goal, no effort will be enough. On the other hand, it is also important capacity of planning, because once the target set, you need to make a plan to reach it.

Finally, a leader is innovative (always seek new and better ways of doing things), is charismatic (to be nice to others, caring for people, show real interest in it...) and is responsible (knows that his leadership will It gives power, and uses that power for the benefit of all)

Why is it important leadership in school?

Quality is one of the highest goals that every school wants to achieve. There are many factors that promote and facilitate the way to reach it is needed but one of it is the school leadership. School leadership is one of the keys to the development of quality education factors. There is no doubt that the directors must exercise leadership to improve the quality of education.

As we see, leadership is very important in schools because is necesary someone who is able to make decisions and guide the group (in this case the pupils, teachers, parents…) leading them down a path of improvement and quality of education.

ITC AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

Team Perk was the team that spoke about this topic. The presentation began speaking broadly new technologies, as well as all the advantages that could have implanting it in the classroom. The ITC offers numerous possibilities within the classroom: it allows us to adapt the methodology according to the different needs and interests of our students, it is more dynamic and promotes creativity, it is a motivating element that will make students more eager to learn... In addition, also offers us a big advantage: sharing materials and information online between teachers, students and families.

However, may appear some difficulties like the little knowledge that have some teachers on how to use new technologies and how to implement them in their classes, or the cost of all the tools (computers, tablets, digital whiteboards...). Team Perk gave us some solutions which they believed necessary to solve these problems. Including commented of intrude training to teachers so that they knew better the ITC because they need to be adapted to the kids of the 20th century that are digital natives and they learn with ICT. They can´t stay behind.

They also talked about social networks and some of their advantages and benefits. They stressed the idea that was to teach children how to make a responsible use of them, as well as the use of different social networks depending on who had access to them: vertical social networks (only can entry the students) and horizontal social networks (all the people can access).

Finally, talked about the different applications that exist with you can learn a lot of things. Children have fun while they use it can learn maths, English, science, etc... Most importantly, they learn of a more dynamic, fun and all of this in a practical way. We also spoke of robotics, where children can learn through Learning by doing and can learn in a trial and error method and also to solve different problems and to tolerate the frustration.

The video was very interesting. It was a school of Madrid which had replaced free by iPads, and both teachers and students as the parents were very happy with the result. We must take note.

As a conclusion, I believe that ITC are so necessary and important nowadays and as teachers we have to know that it can offers us many possibilities and alternatives to work different contents in our classroom, always making good use and a responsible use of them.

SOCIAL AND EMOCIONAL LEARNING

Wanderlust were responsible for introducing this topic. To begin with, it is important to know what exactly is social and emotional learning. We could define it as the process by which children acquire the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to recognize and handle their emotions, demonstrate interest and concern for others, forming relationships, make decisions responsibly, and to handle the challenges in situations in a constructive way.

Is important to include this learning in our schools as one subject of the curriculum, as commented on my classmates defending the idea of Rafael Bisquerra that was as important as any other subject like math or language. I agree with them, because learn to manage our emotions makes us competent people in our social, academic and labor environments, provides us with tools to deal with conflicts and adverse situations and emphasizes us empathy and understanding others. This type of learning could help children to better understand how they feel, to prevent problems such as bullying and negative emotions, to feel better about themselves, etc.

Later, they talked about a very interesting point, and every teacher who wants to practice this type of learning should know: the methodology, how would put it into practice? The most effective methods for teaching social and emotional skills are active, participative and enjoyable. One of the ideas that were the talk all day with students doing an assembly so they could express how they feel and know how they feel the other students. Another exercise to work with younger children can be taught through performances and training to recognize how they feel and how can feel different.

Also explained to us that this learning is closely related to the theory of multiple intelligences in Gardermoen we have studied in psychology with Ana Belén. Intrapersonal intelligence, which is the one associated with this learning, it is from nuclear capability to feel distinctions among others, in particular contrasts in their states of mood, temperament, motivations and intentions. Is very important for all children to develop it, so they proposed make different activities as "week of emotional intelligence" where we would put students in different situations and would have to say how they feel in each them.

On the other hand, it is also closely linked to the cooperative learning, where stressed the importance of preventing bullying and other harassment in school. If students know how their peers feel, what are their fears, concerns, challenges and working together, we can prevent cases of bullying. Also, it´s important to talk about empathy and how to work it in class. A good idea can be work with different games as of Walk in my shoes!, which consists in putting you in another person's situation when there is a conflict.

From my point of view, the teacher has a great and important role in social and emotional learning since besides teaching social and emotional skills, their participation goes beyond the development of the teaching-learning process, including make representations and create opportunities for students to practice and implement social and emotional competencies in the classroom; maintain constant communication with the families of students about the social and emotional learning activities in the classroom, to recommend reinforcing the learning in casa¸ make use of participatory teaching methods that make use of the experience of the students and to invite them to be part of the learning process.

In addition, parents have great weight also. Parents can promote their children's social and emotional learning, learning more about the proposals for social and emotional education and behavior models that are offered in their schools; and adopting practices that strengthen the learning of social and emotional skills of their children at home.

In conclusion, it is important to work with our students social and emotional learning because emotions accompany them throughout their lives and it is important that they know to cope and manage with them. A child who knows and can manage their emotions not only will have better academic, but that will be more prepared for the labor market.

WAYS OF LIVING TOGETHER

Now is the turn of Modern Students. Not only school is a place to learn or teach knowledge, is also a place of conviviality, pleasure and fun, and for this reason it is important to have a good climate. Conflict is a phenomenon inherent to human coexistence, and in schools are given numerous conflict situations between people and groups of people living during some part of their time on them. Is therefore important as teachers to know how to solve possible conflicts at school in order to create a good climate.

This team spoke of very interesting things. His presentation was divided into four parts:
They started spoken about school mediation and some problems appearing daily in schools such as bullying, violence or exclusion. Mediation is not a magic tool that will solve the conflict. The school mediation is a technique that is used to resolve the problems posed in the coexistence between students; It is a tool that can improve the management of certain conflicts, since it does not provide solution to all conflict situations.

Mediation in schools is structured through the creation, within the own school, of a mediator body, whose composition may vary: can be constituted by people from mediating of students, people from mediators, teachers, and even people from mediating non-teaching staff, which can work individually or in a collegial way. To resolve a conflict between two teachers it can intervene a teacher mediator, or to resolve a conflict between two students can intervene a student mediator or a teacher mediator. What is intended is to transmit communication skills, assertiveness (to express opinions and points of view, whether correct or not), identification of emotions, empathy, listening active.

The second part dealt with the "peer support program", which is also related to mediation, how to solve problems, etc. This program takes the conflicts as an engine of change and give great importance diaologue and active listening, also tries to shared responsibility. It helps improve self-esteem, increased responsibility and promote the ability and responsibilities students. Among its objectives are a foster collaboration, knowledge and finding solutions; improved coexistence; reduces cases of abuse and encourage direct participation. The truth is that this program has achieved much and has some great results, as well as improve coesistence, decreased the intensity of conlicts and increased safety and satisfaction.

Later they talked about "archaeology of the feelings" which is a book of Miguel Angel Santos Guerra where he compares archaeology with education. In the shows 5 steps that should be in education and that also occur in archaeology. The 5 steps are: dig, wakes, protect, investigate and expose.

Finally, we talked about a school in Finland called KiVa. KiVa is a research-based antibullying program that has been developed in the University of Turku. It works a lot through online in order to stop the bullying. In KiVa can find training courses for teachers to learn how to stop bullying in the classroom, antibullying programs and different materials online for students, teachers, parents, etc. It is also important to discuss the role of the student assistances mediator, which are those students who act as mediators when a problem or conflict occurs in the classroom.

In conclusion, it is very important the rol of the mediators. They can prevent conflicts from arising or that they attend more. In addition, children feel more comfortable, secure and backed up to know that someone will help them if they have some problem. Ultimately, children feel better going to school.

LEARNING COMMUNITIES

This was the topic of my team. It is a theme that I liked because I hardly knew anything of it. Learning communities represent a bet for educational equality in the framework of the information society to combat situations of inequality in which many people are. The transformation is geared towards the dream of the school that you want to achieve. From now on, school learning lies not solely in the hands of teachers, but rather the achievement of a high quality education depends on the joint participation of families, neighborhood associations, volunteering,…

Through this method tries to show that the school is not something isolated from society. To get it is important to have good coordination and cooperation, compression, and communication between the 3 main groups (students, teachers and volunteers), especially among teachers and volunteers. Within this last group encompasses all those who do not have a qualification to teach but help teachers, give talks, they carry out activities and workshops for students, etc...

There are 3 phases to transform a normal school in a learning community:

The first is dream. At this stage we have to think or "dream" all possibilities for improve our school, whether they are physical elements (improves facilities, infrastructures…) or more related to the methodology and how to teach and organize classes.  The second is selected among all the proposals the most feasible and necessary. It is prioritized and see which are our reach within the context in which we are. We must be realistic. The last is to put it in practice and go solving the various difficulties that we can meet.


In conclusion, I believe that the learning community are a good way to organize a school, because I think that school is something more were all of us have to space (children, parents, teachers, volunteers..). Children learn for adults could teach their them to make to better knowledge and experiences.



Irene Megías Monjo

POST ABOUT 3º PROYECT (María Jiménez)

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION by “Amigos del football”

My colleagues studied the topic "inclusive education", we got a definition for this: "Assumes the principle of respect and recognition of the difference of students and That is organized in a resilient manner, so That is can cater to all the diversity of students ". They also noted the characteristics of these schools:

• Defend diversity, heterogeneity and interpersonal relationships.

• Promotes equal rights for all.

• Flexible in Their school curricula, assessment, promotion and organization.

• methodologically focused on student characteristics, not the content.

• Construction of an educational community.

• Promulgates the following values.

• Great Importance Given to the involvement is of parents and community in school activities.

They discussed the difference between inclusion and exclusion. The term inclusion is associated with quality in relationships, it is linked to emotions, affectivity and is related to the ability of people to accept each other and live in harmony accepting differences. Exclusion are differences that reduce a minimum of social cohesion.

There are barriers that affect the development of this education, the policies, the diversity and didactics. But there are strategies to resolve them as inclusive cultures creating, producing inclusive policies and practices evolving inclusive.

Moreover, we explain four thought authors on this subject.

To summarize we can say that:

• Changing schools is possible with the participation of all.

• New values and new goals.

• We are all equal and Have the same opportunities.

• Interaction and heterogeneity as new organizational structure.

• The participation of the family and the community.

I think that inclusive schools are the best because all the people can be integrated. In these schools there aren´t any type of discrimination. It is very important the collaboration between parents, teachers and children. nowadays in general the parents don´t collaborate with the schools and this is a problem for the education. 

ICT AND IMPROVEMENT BY “Team Perk”

This group taught us how important technologies are today, out of school children they use them daily and therefore it is considered very useful to use in the classroom as a learning tool. Although they have disadvantages, teaching students how to use them and be responsible with them they have numerous advantages.

ADVANTAGES

• - It allows design alternative and innovative teaching materials rather than the traditionalists.

• - The tools are more interactive, so that the students pay more attention.

• - It facilitates the students share with the world what they are learning, inviting others, such as their families, get involved and support it. Social networking involves sharing views and discuss ideas, which helps children and adolescents develop critical thinking.

• - It foments the independent learning.

• - You can communicate with students in class are usually shy.

• - The speeches of teachers turned out boring and to take notes slow, with technology is easier and faster to access to the information.

• - The ability to create multimedia projects and share them, it is possible to deliver work from anywhere, anytime with the assurance that they arrive to the receiver.

• - To access real-time information wherever you are.

• - Accessibility. The teaching material was limited, we only had what the school had; technology gives us access to online material that covers every need.

• - Connect to other classrooms, other schools, other individuals to share experiences and learning.

• - Active participation by the student.

• - Frequent interaction between teacher and student.

• - Encourage participation and team collaboration.

DISADVANTAGES

• - Not all students have access to technology so it accentuates social inequalities.

• - Students may become dependent on technology.

• - The teacher requires updating. He has to be the first to use the technology and should dominate completely before incorporating them into their teaching process.

• - The teacher can use it as a "nanny" of the students, leaving them full time to use it without supervision or guidance.

• - It may be that the quality of information to which access is not appropriate or required.

• - It requires time by the teacher for the planning of use it.

• - The school should invest in the purchase of equipment.

• - Now we do not pay attention to the grammar rules, we can write as we want that we have spell checkers.

• - There are many possibilities of distraction that they affect the study because it is very easy to get lost and not put the necessary focus on our tasks.

• - It can become a way to keep students busy.

• - The technology should not be used to do what we do without it. Draw, write or read, for example, become something attractive if we made with an application but it has no value. To do what can be done with paper and pencil, you do not need complicated equipment, unless technology contributes something new to these activities.

In short, the technology should not be in use for doing what already we were doing traditionally in a different way, but to do anything that till now we could not do because we did not have technology.

ICT AND LEARNING DISABILITIES by “Crónicas viajeras”

They were talking about children with disabilities and how technologies can help us to improve, to integrate into the classroom with other colleagues, to have an interest in participating in class.

They proposed some technologies, like tablets, cameras, whiteboard, games, mp3, computers and laptops.

They studied three disabilities:

• Autism. 

Children with it have some difficulties in socialization, language, thoughts and imagination.

But if they work and study with ICT they improve and the results and consequences are, integration support and support to the initiative

• Down's Syndrome. 

Their difficulties are many distractions, minor initiative and poor differentiation between old and new stimuli. The can improve their memory aid and the concentration working with technologies.

• Motor disability

Usually they have physical and motor difficulties, so ICT can help the adaptation, communication and comfort.

INCLUSIVE SCHOOL by “Unknowns“

My classmates talked about inclusive schools and how society should be involved to overcome social differences and ensure learning for all students regardless of their difficulties. They indicated the ideas and the main objectives to promote equal opportunities.

Advantages of this type of schools:

• The development of individual strengths and gifts

• To develop friendship

• Participation of parents

• To promote a school culture of respect

• to appreciate the diversity and inclusion positively

The politic, the current laws and a poor study plans are barriers to achieve integration.

These schools often are related to socioeconomic factor but it is not to be the only one.

They cited authors such as Porter, Ainscow, Booth and Echeita.

This school is beneficial because it respects the differences and adapts to all children, in there, they can develop themselves according to their interests and needs. They also teach values like respect each other and to the rest of society.

LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS by “Dumbledore teacher’s army” and “María Pérez”

Why is important leadership for schools?

Leadership is one of the main factors for the successful development of a school and to have a quality education. This charge is usually the principal and other school institutions and teachers, head teacher, etc. 

He should be:

• A businessman: the leader has to take care that the environment doesn't affect to the pupils and teachers and also he has to take care about the develop of the children and the school as an institution.

• An organizer: has to bring qualify teachers, creative concepts and institutional methods that will define the quality of the education following a reform plan. They also motivate children, teachers, parents and the community to participate in the school and in education.

• An institutional expert: they have to stablish information based on expert communities that make all people responsable of pupil learning and school develop.

What are the characteristics for a good leader?

The leader has a great responsibility, he makes important decisions that influence changes in the educational process.

The skills of a leader are: clear, recognize, trust, accountable, influence, self-awareness, astute, decisive and innovate.

WAYS OS LIVING TOGETHER IN THE SCHOOL by “Modern students”

First they talked about school mediation, because there are so many cases of bullying, violence or exclusion and objectives has the mediator to solve them and to avoid them. It is important to decide who is the mediator, may be a classmate, a teacher or any school employee. Children need to feel safe because in this way can help other colleagues and also learn to control and manage their own emotions.

On the other hand, they spoke of peer support program, that is how to solve the difficulties and conflicts, it is important to dialogue and share responsibilities. In this way safety is increased, decreased conflict and coexistence is improved.

A curious point of his presentation was when they related archeology of feelings with education in five steps: excavation, discovery, inquiry, protection and exposure.

They put as an example a school in Finland (KIVA) where work with bullying and online materials to avoid harassment.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING by “Wanderlust”

They talked about the need to include social and emotional learning at school. Rafel Bisquerra, professional expert on the topic believes it is as important as learning math or language. In this way, children understand better how they feel, they can prevent negative emotions and how to manage them.

This theory can work in the classroom in a pratical level. They suggested:

• To talk daily with students about how they feel and how they think their partners feel.

• It is related to multiple intelligences, so that all children have to develop emotional intelligence, for it, they propose to do the "week emotional intelligence", they are put children in different situations and they have to explain as they feel in each one.

• Also it is related to cooperative learning, because if you work as a team with your teammates and you spend a lot of time with them, you can know how they feel and thus prevent many cases of bullying.

• Another important factor to work in class is empathy, they proposed an activity, "walk in my shoes," it is to get in the situation of the other person when there is a conflict. 

In this item it is very important the role of teachers and parents.

COMMUNITY LEARNING by “Musical Chairs” 

Our group worked on "community learning ". It consists of coordination in the classroom between teachers, students and volunteers, they can be relatives, neighbors, anyone who can help and bring benefits to the community.

In this way, it is considered that school is not an isolated entity of society and collaboration is needed to educate and train children for the future. Society appears in the school through these volunteers, it is not necessary they have preparation or an specific academic degree to teach, they can help teachers, give talks, tell personal experiences, perform support activities, etc. 

It is very important to have a good relationship between all members of the community, the understanding, collaboration, cooperation, etc. 

This process works in three stages:

• DREAM

In this first stage, we dream, it is a brainstorm, you think about all the possibilities of improvement for the school and community, whether physical, methodological, related to the organization in classrooms, etc.

• PRIORITIES

It is a selection from the above ideas and prioritize the most feasible and necessary to be, they are those come true.

• WORKING COMMITTEES

Finally, this stages to put them into practice and go solving the various difficulties we may encounter in the process.

As a conclusion, I can say that there are too many factors that influence in the education at school. I realize one important thing, in most of the topics, we are talking about the role of the family, they have to collaborate with teachers. I think this is value because nowadays there are a lot of parents which doesn’t involve in the education of their children, they thing the education is an exclusive task of the school. In my opinion this proyect has been the most attractive and useful for me, because we are talking about many items, all of them very interesting for our future as teachers. I have learnt a lot of about it and I think all my colleagues have worked efficiently.

Congratulations everybody and happy ending of course!