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
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
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