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.