STAR II LAST WEEK

Hi! It is Marina García! This is my third week as a star, and unfourtunately the last one, since, as you've read, the course #SOyER1516 is about to finish and there won't be more tasks. It's a pity... Despite of having too much work, we've really enjoyed during this course working in groups, fostering our creativity and adquering a lot of new knoledge...

Stop sensitiveness, let's me talk to you about this last task about relationships between the two articles we have rencently read (from A. Bolivar and M. T. González) and the two chapters about complexity and connections in schools. [All of them are avaible in the curator page]:

My turn as star helper arrived in the last week. I had to help my mate Alicia Gomis in order to expose perfectly this connections that we all have create. It was the second speed learning exposition we did, I really like it because I 've never done something similiar. For the ones that don't know what it is, let's me explain that it is a circle done all over the class by the stars of each group. They place with their poster and they have to explain the activity to one group who will be changing each 5 minutes so as to visit all the stars.

It is a really interesting way, although it is a bit tiring for stars (at the end we have no saliva at all!).
I was really confortable while talking to my mates since I've already known all of them and I am not shy anymore. Even with Linda I felt good! I was pleased to explain to them my work, since, personally, I think that we did a really great job this week.

It's a pity to say goodbye to this subject, but the end has just come. I hope you all have enjoyed as much as we've.  Thank you, bloggers, for all  your support.

Much love,

MARINA GARCÍA


PS: If you want to discover more about this topic, here is my speech, it was the piece about complexity in schools, for connections in schools, checks Alicia Gomis star's slide.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wcoKUP4bh-p9Pe2tdQNKUjZrfENnFgApnNVV5FjcIEU/edit?usp=sharing

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Last week, last stars!

Hi guys! The last star is here! I am Alicia Gomis and I have a lot of things to tell you.

First of all I want to say that I consider that this has been one of our best tasks due to or easy coordination and our final work, it was excelent! Secondly, on Monday I was really afraid to be the last star, but fortunately two star would be in charge of the task this time, and I have to say that working with Marina is always a pleasure because she always knows what to do in each moment.

Well in this task we were in charge of compare two new texts: “Estructuras para el trabajo y la cordinación de los profesores en los centro” by M· Teresa González and “Los centros educativos como organizaciones que aprenden: una mirada crítica” by Antonio Bolívar,  with the two of Complexity in school and the different connections. With this information what we had to do was a poster, and present it on Wednesday on Speed Learning form. So both, Marina and me prepared our speech with the other Chalkies’ help.

This is my improved part of the speech, Marina is going to show you the other part on her post, don’t miss it please!

Now you can read:

“As you know, the school is a complex context y which different relationships occur, and that’s what happen between teacher and student. They learn from each other due to the fact of teacher-student connection. 

How teachers teach has a great influence on student achievement. As we have difficult contexts, we have different relatioships and as you can see in the text “Schools organized” those relationships are different depending on the school level. In primary education we find that teachers teach more than one subject, the relationship with students is better and closer because they spend more time together. In schools, students see their teachers not only as a way of tranmision of the knowledge but also as a person they can count with. Meanwhile in Secondary Education teachers spend less time with students because they specialize just in one subject, as a result the relationship teacher-student is different.

Not only teacher and student take part on the school context but also the learning and the whole class relationship. So as Antonio Bolívar says in his text,  it is not enough that the teacher have a lot of knowledge about his subject if he doesn't know how to interact with the students. Teacher must transmit his knowledge to the students, so students begin to familiarize theirself with the new concepts (learning) and at the same time, they exchange views with other peers, so the class work as a group, there is cooperation. That means that there are different factors involved in the Organization of a school and that these factors must be connected together.

Talking about the school as an organization, we haave seen in the Antonio Bolivar’s text that it could be an organization that learn due to the fact that an organization (in this case the school)  improves, and consequently, learns, when the learning is seen at different levels; individual, group, and system learning. So that way can accomplish the desired and benefitial organization for everyone.

In contrast, we have also found in the other text that there is a big mistake in the organization of the school that produce isolated teachers and a lack of cooperation between them. The reason of that is the physical disposition of school centers, because as they don´t have a space to work together, beyond the classroom, they spend the most of their time here, in the physical classrooms.”

And that’s all, I have to say goodbye again, but this is the last time.

There have been a lot of good moments and also bad ones because it’s not easy to work in cooperative groups during an entire term, eventhough I love my mates you know, but sometimes a really would like to kill them!

I hope you have enjoy reading our posts these weeks like we have done doing them!

See you bloggers, I’ll miss you!

Alicia J

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STAR WEEK 10

Hello guys, it's Alicia de Prado!! How is it going? The end is coming!!
Well, I have been honored this week with the important mission of being the face of The Chalkies as if it was a political campaign. I had to be a headmistress and I had to give a speech about how was my school ruled and which my methods were.

When I first realized I was going to be the star (once again), i felt nervous (once again). However, when I knew what the topic was about, I started being excited because it was a task that appeared interesting for me.

Work began! We got organized to make my campaign and prepared the speech I was going to defend. We decided to follow a "participative leadership" because we all agree in that point of view at the time of working in a school. I started to learn by heart my speech, but then I realized that it wasn't something I had to do like that. I mean, I had to have the structure clear, and knew about I was going to say, but I decided to do it more like a politician would do it: with passion!.

Wednesday came, and I started to get reeeeally nervous. Our mates did beautiful campaigns, and ours were good too but a bit more less attractive. My mates started doing their speeches, and they were all awesome. My turn came, and I just told to myself: "Come on Alicia, It's just like a game, have fun and do the best you can". And so I did! I am quite happy of how it was, I spoke fluently and I think that I made myself clear. My Chalkies were proud of me, and they gave me a huge applause and congratulated me.

You can see here the fakebook we made, in case you want to vote for me in the next elections ;) !!
http://www.classtools.net/FB/1737-ZBPMMm

Another task done!! It's the final countdown Chalkies, we can! xx

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STAR WEEK 9

Hi bloggers! This week the star of the Chalkies has been me, Elena González.

Unlike other weeks, I didn't mind being the star since I didn't have to present any task or explain anything in front of the whole class, as we usually do.

This week I was part of a group leaded by my partner Isabel Ramirez de Arellano and my job was to look for a place to record a strory for the Diary of Leona, for that, I had the help of my classmate Eduardo Gálvez.
 On Monday we looked for some sofas, a class with a green wall and for some backgrounds for the chroma.
On Thursday we recorded everything, we prepared the decoration. I also was part of the public of the Diary of Leona and helped also with the camera.
I really liked this task due to the fact that it has been complitelly different from the ones that we have been doing until now.

I hope we could do more tasks like this one and have the opportunity to experience what is to be an actor/actress, camera or decorator.

I hope you like our video! See you next week!

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STARS WEEK 8

Hii!! I am Marina de Vicente and I am the star of this week.
The task of this week have been very different so we have never done any task like this one.

The task consist in create a news about the technologies in education, the advantages and disasdvantages of use it , once we have the news we have to represent it.

Although I am the star of this week my role in this task or in the representation of the task was being the camara, it has not been easy because we have to repeat it several times but in general it would be a wonderful experience.
Doing this, now I know how hard it is to be a camara of a movie, TV programme, TV show...

Doing something different is always better because you star the task raring, we go out the class so  we leave the typical things like being in a class sitting in a chair.

I am happy with our work so I hope you have enjoy !! See you soon.

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STAR WEEK 7

Such a different star.

Hi guys! It's Marina García, and this week I've got the star role. It's not my first time as the representing voice of the Chalkies, since in the second week I helped my star mate. So, obiuosly I wasn't as anxious as the previous time,

However, something make me feel a bit nervous. It was the way to present the topic, which, personally, seemed to  me quite difficult if we compare it with the previous ones (complexity contexts). For the first time in the course, Linda, the teacher, didn't explained how to present this week, so my wonderful helper, Isabel, and I were so confused. Will we do a oral presentation using powerpoint, poster, maybe performing a debate...? We hadn't got any idea, so...the only solution in order to perform it as better as we can, was to study everything perfectly.

Wednesday, the presentation day, arrived,  We still had no idea of what to do, and although concepts well clear, we contious being a bit nervous. Linda divided stars according to the chapter they were representating ( 1 or 4) and started to explain the function of this task:
In my case, chaptar one, I belonged to a group who were the management of a newspaper, and our mission was to guide and create a TV news show about the news we have just mention. So, by this time we don't have to explain anything to the whole class

We are still working on it, so...NEXT WEEK YOU'LL DISCOVER OUR NEW EXPERIENCE.

XOXO,
Marina García

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STAR WEEK 7

Hello guys! I am Isabel Ramírez de Arellano Sevilla and I have been the second star of this week.
At the beginning we were nervous about the way we had to present this task. When Wednesday arrived we were waiting for knowing how we would have to present ''Complexity theory''. We came up with a different thing that we didn't expect it. All the stars became like facilitators of two big programs divided into: actors and writers. We are looking forward to developing this project with all our partners!

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STAR WEEK 6

Hello bloggers!
I'm Alicia Gomis and this week I've been the star of The Chalkies.
When we arrived to class on Monday after our Easter holiday I was so afraid because I had not been star until then and I knew that it was my turn. Anxiety arrived when the teacher began to explain the task for the week, but I felt more relaxed when I heard this sentence: "the stars this week have a very brief role".
And so it was,  the task of the week as you know was to make a video using one of the tools proposed, summarizing what had we learnt so far on the subject, and the function of the star was just to present that video. On Wednesday the stars of all the groups presented the videos and then we lived a kind of Eurovision programme and I, as a star, was in charge of giving the points to the rest of the groups. We felt really entertained, it was amazing!
You can see here our video and help us to achieve a good mark giving us a like on youtube, It's so easy!!

We did a good job Chalkies! But Tuttifruties did it excellent and they won the contest, congratulations girls!!

See you next week  :-)

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STAR WEEK 5

Hi guys!
I am Elena González and this week I have been the star of our group. When my mates told me that I was going to be the star I had the hope that, as in other cases, we could be 2 stars, but unfortunately it did not happen. So I was even more scared of having to expose our task in front of the whole class by myself.
On Tuesday night I studied our work,the topic of this week was quite interesting: the dark side of text books so we did an infographic giving 8 reasons to run away from textbooks. I also tried to improve my accent and gestures due to the fact that I have been a long time without speaking in English for so many people.
In the blink of an eye it was Wednesday and I had to expose. I was really nervous but I calmed down when Linda told us that we had to do small groups and explain them our work. I did my best trying to explain my infographic to them and I also sawed them some alternatives to textbooks. When I finished, we had to create a question for an oral exam and ours was: Taking into account all the negative aspects of textbooks, why do we continue using them?
I have liked a lot this task since as future teachers we have learned the negative aspects of using only textbooks in a class.
I think that Ï have done my work quite well so I am happy with my group and with myself, although we can always improve.
See you after holidays!!

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STARS WEEK 2

STARS: ( WEEK 2)

ISABEL:

"This week I have been the star of the group. At first, I was scared because it was a new role to do. However, I had the opportunity to have a helping hand: Marina García. Both of us were finally the stars and we had to reseprent the whole group.

We finished late the work and we had little time to study our presentation, but we decided to make it quite different to the other ones in order to do it funnier and more interactive. I worked really good with Marina and I felt very comfortable with her in front of our public.

 At the begining, we were some kind of nervous but when we started to talk, everything disappeared and we were sure about what we were doing, so we faced the work we made with our group, and everything went quite good."

MARINA GARCÍA:

My happiness arrived when I discovered my “no-role” for this task; I only had to help my mates as much as possible. My surprise arrived when the teacher announced that two stars had to performed this week. So that was my turn.

" At the beginning I felt secure; the task seemed to be easy.  However, little by little, I started to get nervous, I thought that there were such little time that it couldn’t be possible to finish our work as we wanted. This brought me insecurity because I had too little time to study and prepare my oral presentation.

I hadn't had spoken English in public for long time ago, and recovering my English fluency was more difficult than I had thought. The previous night to the presentation I spent some minutes in front of the mirror talking to myself, I was practising my presentation about maps projection: I tried to use my body language, to speak louder, to point out the slides so as to perform perfectly!

There we were. We were observed by 60 people and a teacher who were evaluating us. I was secure. I had self-confidence. Everything was going as we wanted. Just a problem with the screen light interrupted. My mate and I presented the task as we wanted and we trusted each other. Although we will always have something to improve, I’m sure that next time we will do it thanks to the teacher’s feedback and our mates advices.

The responsibility was not as scared as I thought.

Looking forward to working hard and advising others stars!
See you !"

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STAR WEEK 1

STAR( WEEK 1)

I can hear the voices of my groupmates saying : “Sole, we are sure that  you will do very  well!”

I am very lucky to have friends that cheer me up in bad moments. Yes, it was a really bad moment because it was the first exposition in English of my life and it was also the first exposition of the course. I didn´t know  how the express myself , so I was very nervous. Moreover, I had to show all the work that my group has been doing during Monday and Tuesday and we have spent a lot of hours in it.

A bit of these hours:

On Monday I read the article about Tpack that my teacher shared with us, I analized it , underlined it and I did a schema of it  to ensure that  I had understand all the concepts.

 On Tuesday, my mates explained to me what they had understood about Tpack , I was so stressed because it was a lot of information and each member of the group was telling me a lot of things which I would have to take into account in my exposition. It was a big responsability . For this reason, I was very insecure of myself. When I arrived home, I put in order all of the data that we have collected and I studied it . I recorded myself eight times to know if I really  knew what a Tpack was.I couldn´t sleep well this night. The following morning was the final countdown , I only wanted to run away because I don´t know speak fluently  English….but I had to face to my nerves  and when I started to talk my nerved has been dissapeared. I didn´t like to repeat my exposition  eight times but I think that this exposition helped me  to  my future job :a teacher. A teacher has to spend a lot of time talking and repeating the same things to their students. So , at  the end it wasn´t so bad.

 Soledad Soriano Arnao

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STARS WEEK 4

STARS ( WEEK 4)
Hello, We are Marina and Alicia and we have been the stars again this week. This time we were feeling better and we had more self confidence.

From our point of view this week the organization of all of us has been better and we think that we have worked more than the last week. This is why we have improved this task.

The task for us was easier to present, we tried to follow the feedback that our teacher told us.

Marina: For me is very difficult to control my nerves, it is something that I have to improve throughout time. However I am happy with the results because it was the first time that I did this activity and it was really difficult. I have never had to imagine that I was explaining to a class of         primary school before.
Alicia: This time, I was feeling better and I could control my nerves. I felt more fresh and fluent that the time before. I think we did a good job which it can always be improved, but we were happy about how it was. 

We want to keep improving and this task has allowed us to go over our limits and do things better than we think we could. Come on, we can!

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STAR WEEK 3

STARS ( WEEK 3)
Hello, I am Alicia de Prado and I have been the Star with Marina de Vicente this week.
I felt quite nervous when I knew I was going to do the exposition with my mate. In general, I have always been a bit insecure at the time of doing english oral expositions, but I usually have done well at the end.
I studied what my part was with my partner, and we tried to do our best. We were expecting that the exposition would be done fine. The day it was, when I stood up there in front of everyone my anxiety appeared again, and we didn't have time to finish it properly. I know we couldn't do the best we are able to, I know we can do it much better, and we will try to on Monday.
I want to show how good teacher I can be, and I have to understand that not everything can be done always perfectly, so the main thing I will do is to learn from the mistakes and have the goal of improve myself.

This week I was the star with my partner Alicia.
At the beginning I was very nervous because I didn't have a high level of English as other people and that made me feel insecure.

 I studied a lot for the script of the presentation and I think that we have tried to make it as best as possible.While I was studyng I repeated everything many times and I also imagined my as if I were in a primary classroom. I recorded my voice to make sure that all was ok.

I felt surprised in a good way because I though I was going to be more nervous at the time of presenting the task. However, I was feeling calm and secure and  I learnt to control myself and that is a good thing about me.

After doing the presentation I did not succeed becaus I didn't do the best I know I can do. Another issue which made me feel bad is that we couldn't finish the presentation in time.

This new opportunity to repeat the presentation makes me want to make it better and show people why I have chosen this profession and the good teacher I am goint to be in the future.

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