My Diary

My Diary

2023-2024

English Language Didactics

María García Valentín

Choose a month!

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

OUR CLASS PHOTO

September

Choose a day

if you want to know more about each class

28

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And suddenly, you know... It's time to start something new and trust the magic of begginings. MISTER ECKHART

Wednesday, September 13th

The presentation of the subject has taken place today. We have met our teacher, whom we had not met before, who has explained to us in general terms what the English Language Didactics subject will consist of. In this class, very important topics have been addressed, not only about the subject, but also about us as future teachers. First of all, the teacher has detailed her professional career and what her different jobs have been as a result of being a primary teacher. Next, it has been explained to us how the contents to be worked on in this subject will be distributed, how the work will be done and how the evaluation will be carried out. On the other hand, some activities and exercises that we will carry out have been mentioned, among them the creation of this class diary, in which we will be able to have all the things that we have done each day in this subject recorded. In conclusion, I would say that I thought it was a great class, in which not only the subject, but our profession, was presented to us in a very pleasant and optimistic way, making our willingness to face it much greater. Finally, it is also worth highlighting the final conclusion of the class, in which the teacher has placed great emphasis: pupils attend classes to enjoy learning. It seems very obvious, but as future teachers we must burn that principle into our minds, so that our teaching and relationship with the little ones can be always based on it.

Thursday, September 14th

In this class, presentations have taken place, starting with a short presentation of the teacher for those who couldn’t come to class the day before. Then, we have shown our names, which we had written at home in many original ways.At the beginning of the class an important reflexion was carried out. We have talked about the importance of the exercise of writing a class diary. We have discovered that this type of activity has lots of advantages, which affect the present and the future. While recording our experiences in class, we are able to be more conscious about our learning process and about our development and growing not only as students, but also as human beings. Then, we have introduced ourselves to the rest of the class, in order to know more about one another, saying our names, our age, the place where we live and something special about us that can represent us. To conclude, I would say that, even if this type of classes doesn't work on contents of the subject, they can be very useful for us as future teachers, because they give us ideas that maybe we will be able to use in our future English classes.

Wednesday, September 20th

To show us how she wanted us to be in class, the teacher in this class has carried out an activity called "When to be silent".We started by talking in pairs about which were the moments when we should be silent and, later, we all shared our ideas with the rest of the class. Everything we said was related to the school environment. However, later the teacher showed several ideas that were very far from ours and that had very little to do with silence in classes and at school. With all this, she wanted us to know that in classes we have to talk and participate, generate debates and contribute ideas. This has made us reflect on what kind of class we want for our future. It has made me personally realize that it is essential for our future students to communicate, express their ideas and feelings, their doubts and concerns, feeling in a safe and understanding environment.

Thursday, September 21st

In this class we have begun to work on educational law and the organization of the current Spanish educational system.The teacher showed us a mind map in which we could clearly see the different stages that a person went through during his or her educational journey in our country, pointing out, among other things, which were the stages of compulsory basic education, which were the different types of baccalaureate and higher education that could be taken or the different stages or academic levels after the baccalaureate (degrees, masters...). I think it has been a very beneficial and useful class for us because it has allowed us to have a clearer idea of ​​the entire educational system, especially the primary stage, in which we are going to work in the future. Furthermore, it is very important for us to know which are the stages children have previously gone through and those they will go through after primary education, so that we can guide our way of working in a clearer context. Moreover, we have been able to learn which are the different branches that can be followed and we have been able to place much better the point at which we currently find ourselves as students of the Primary Education Teacher Degree, also seeing what alternatives we will have when finishing the degree.

Info

Wednesday, September 27th

To begin this class, the distribution of work groups has been carried out, associating methods and topics for future tasks that would have to be presented in class, as well as the dates to show our work to our classmates in the classroom. Afterwards, a very interesting video was shown about the educational reform, about the General Education Law Project, in which we were able to see what the classes were like years ago and what were the main changes that have been introduced due to the legislative change. After watching the video we have been able to reach a very clear conclusion: learning in classrooms continues to be by rote, when it should be by competencies. Furthermore, the way of working and the distribution of students in the classroom remains the same, when it may not be the most appropriate. For all this, in conclusion and as a reflection, I would say that, as future teachers, whether these problems are solved and whether there are changes that favor the teaching-learning process in the classrooms, depends on us. We are capable of making students' learning different, so that what they learn can be used in their daily lives and can help them to solve problems throughout their entire lives.

Thursday, September 28th

During this class we have continued talking about the new educational law, focusing more on the history of education and the previous laws.We have focused on the evolution from one law to another and on the new changes introduced by the current law, among which we have higholighted the approach to competency-based assessment or the organisation of the primary school stage into cycles. In addition, we have watched a video showing how classes used to be in the past, as well as other aspects related to the functioning of the educational system and the laws that governed it. The images in this video have made us reflect on how little change there really is between the old classes and the current ones. Finally, I think this class has made me realise once again how important it is to be teachers who innovate and try to really change education for the better, because, in my opinion, not all changes should be based on what the law reflects, but how teachers work with their students in the classroom and how they face their challenges.

Play

October

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if you want to know more about each class

25

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Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter. CAROL BISHOP HIPPS

/31

/30

Wednesday, October 4th

Today we have continued talking about the LOMLOE, reviewing what we have seen previously and focusing more on the different concepts introduced by this new educational law and the Decree 81, on which we must base our work in the classroom today.Firstly, we have analysed and explained concepts that we need to understand correctly in order to be able to carry out our didactic programmings and guide our teaching, among which we can highlight the descriptors of the exit profile, which indicate what is expected of the pupil at the end of the stage. On the other hand, it has been discussed whether numerical grades and marks are really important or whether they have a negative impact on students. This issue has been discussed among the whole class and the option of being able to evaluate in a more qualitative way has been considered, which will not affect the competitiveness among students, despite the fact that the teacher is finally asked to give a numerical mark to the student. Finally, I would say that this class has been very useful for me to clarify some concepts that I still didn't understand well about the decree and, in addition, it has made me think about how I want to evaluate my students in the future, since, in my case as a student, numerical marks have sometimes caused me discomfort due to self-demand, so I could prevent something similar from happening to my students by approaching the evaluation in a different way.

Thursday, October 5th

There's no class today. The welcoming to new students in the degree has taken place.

Wednesday, October 11th

Today's class has begun with a review of some concepts related to the curriculum that we had already seen in the previous class.To continue, different tasks to be carried out in groups have been explained, all of them related to the curriculum, the law, the preamble or the components of the decree. We have worked in groups on these tasks and, although we only had time to finish two of them, I think it has been a very useful class, because when talking about the topic with the classmates and trying to synthesize ideas to carry out the work, we have been able to internalize and understand much better the concepts that were being worked. Furthermore, I really liked learning about new resources and applications that I didn't know about, with which we have been able to carry out some of the work.

Thursday, October 12th

There's no class today. It is the National Day of Spain.

Wednesday, October 18th

In today's class we have begun to watch the videos about some of the most important methods in teaching English that, divided into our work groups, we have made for the subject. We have started with the Grammar-Translation Method, from which we have been able to draw the conclusion that it serves to strengthen some grammatical aspects, but that it is very monotonous and boring to use in classrooms. Then we have moved on to the Direct Method and the Audiolingual Method, which can have positive aspects, such as correct pronunciation, but they can also be very closed and boring methods if used too frequently. Finally, the video on Project-Based Learning was viewed, a way of working that, from my point of view, can be very enriching and motivating for children, since they will learn the language while acquiring the skills to defend themselves regarding a topic on which the project is based. Before concluding, I also found the resource that the teacher used to carry out the co-evaluation of classmates very interesting, in this case, a qualitative evaluation. I think it is essential that in the classroom children can evaluate each other's own work, always teaching that it should be done objectively, but with empathy and friendship.

Thursday, October 19th

Today we have continued watching the videos we had done in groups on different methods and approaches for teaching English in the class.First of all we have watched the video about Suggestopedia, a method that I think that may be very interesting and that I have never seen applied in any of my English classes since I began my life as a student. It seems to me that by creating a relaxed environment as this method proposes, students will be able to learn better and will be calmer and more concentrated in classes. Then, we have moved on to Community Language Teaching. I think it is a method that could be very beneficial, since the fact that students are interacting with their classmates and with the teacher so it will make the students learn much better to communicate in the language, which, in my opinion, is the most important thing. However, I think it has a disadvantage: using Spanish too during classes can mean that the communication you are trying to practice is not as fluid or meaningful, because students will be using their mother tongue a great part of the time. Finally, we have seen the video related to Total Physical Response. In my opinion, I think it can be very good to work with this method because children will associate gestures and movements with the concepts they learn, so it will be easier for them to remember the meaning of each word, for example. In addition, being in action almost all the time and using some tools such as songs can help prevent boredom from being present among students during the class. Before finishing, it is important to say that another day of the week a video call was held to be able to comment and evaluate the work of those groups that were not able to present in class: the Communicative Language Teaching, the Content-based, the Task -based and the Participatory Approach, and the Learning Strategy Training, Cooperative Learning and Multiple Intelligences. In conclusion, I would say that I consider that all the videos were very good and that carrying out this activity, which has been very entertaining for us to do, has allowed us to have a much clearer knowledge of each methodology in order to, in the future, decide which one or which ones are best for our students.

Wednesday, October 25th

In today's class we have begun by testing the Teams platform, so that all students have connected to a video call to be able to check our access and the correct functioning of our microphones and cameras.Next, we have started working on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). To do this, we have watched a video and subsequently we have learned the objectives of this document and the different levels of the language that it establishes, mainly. On the other hand, we have done an exercise in pairs, in which we have talked about what level each of us has based on this. It has been concluded that the level of the class is between a B2 and a C1, something very positive considering that at the end of our training we must have reached the B2 level. In conclusion, I would say that I found the CEFR's explanations very important, since as teachers we often do not know which things we should and should not teach to children, because we are not told in the current decree what the specific contents that must be taught are. However, this document can help us a lot when making our programming and can guide us to know what is expected of our students at the end of the Primary stage.

Thursday, October 26th

Today we have started working in class on the European language portfolio, a document that helps the students to record their own learning, the reflections on that process and the relationships they find between different languages. Furthermore, it is a very positive instrument because it reflects only achievements, rather than failures.During the class, an activity was carried out and I found it very interesting: creating activities based on the criteria presented in the portfolio. We have designed quite interesting activities that have helped us realize that it is very important, when programming our classes in the classroom, that we start from the evaluation criteria that we want to evaluate to design activities, and not the other way around, in a way that we make sure we work on what we want to evaluate. To finish the class, we have begun to create our own European language portfolio and our passport, thus being able to also reflect on our own learning, on the way in which we have learned and on the achievements we have obtained so far. As a reflection, I would say that I have loved this class because I think the portfolio is a fantastic tool to work with in the classroom and with which I would love for my future students to be more aware of their own learning. Furthermore, it has helped me to realize the great relationship that exists between what is evaluated through the portfolio and what we have to evaluate if we look at the curriculum and the primary education decree.

November

Choose a day

if you want to know more about each class

30

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The month of November makes me feel that life is passing more quickly. In an effort to slow it down, I try to fill the hours more meaningfully.HENRY ROLLINS

Wednesday, November 1st

There's no class today. All Saints Day is celebrated.

Thursday, November 2nd

In this session, we have started with a Kahoot, with which we have evaluated and reviewed the contents studied in the previous classes, especially those related to the portfolio and the CEFR. Then, the teacher has explained unit 2, more focused on the part of didactic programming. It has been taught how to make and structure a syllabus and a didactic unit, so that we can be able to elaborate our own.In addition, very important ideas were mentioned during the explanation. Firstly, the importance of avoiding initial assessments in the first classes was mentioned, as these sessions at the beginning of the course should be used to get to know the children, how the relationship between them is, what their predominant intelligences are..., so that we can know how to adapt the activities we propose to them. On the other hand, the teacher has talked about aspects such as the fact that the most important thing when programming is to bear in mind that children have to know how to apply everything they learn or that the organisation in cycles can be very beneficial for those children whose maturation process is slower. Also, we have been shown many models of programming, which will help us a lot when it comes to making our own. In conclusion, I would say that I found the class very useful and full of learning, both for the Kahoot activity, through which I was able to review and consolidate the contents, seeing which ones I should review more and which ones I understand better, and for the explanation of unit 2, as some concepts that I had not understood so far during the course were clear, so that it will be easier for me to put them into practice.

Wednesday, November 8th

Today we have started the class by going over important aspects of one of the group works we have to do about a chapter of a book. After reading it, we have to plan activities for different cycles and a lot of importance has been given to the fact of being able to disguise ourselves and make a performance when developing them in the classroom. Then we have started the next unit of the subject, the one which is more related to the didactic part of English. Special attention has been paid to the differences that we have to take into account when teaching in terms of the ages of our students, analysing what they are like and what their interests and concerns are in each one of them. We have also talked about advices for teachers when carrying out their teaching work, among which we can highlight the importance of good communication with families (who must be involved with the teacher in their children's learning), the use of breaks to pay special attention to those children who show some strange behaviour or needs, the striking decoration of our classroom, the application of routines and repetition in the sessions, the way we organise the students in the classroom or the effectiveness of praise rather than punishment. Finally, there was also an activity of rhythms and tongue twisters, with which the teacher has explained us a resource that we can use at those moments in which pupils are more dispersed or restless than usual. It helps them to concentrate and calm down, so that they can then focus on the class much better. In conclusion, I would say that I found the class extremely useful for our training, as we were shown many very useful tips to take into account when working in a class full of children. These aspects are not usually shown to us during the degree, so it is very important that we are shown such important things before we start working as teachers.

Thursday, November 9th

During today's class many different aspects have been developed, all related to lesson planning and ideas for carrying out different types of activities in the classroom.First, we have talked about how lessons are structured and planned, mentioning the importance of establishing routines at the beginning of the class. To explain this, we have talked in pairs about different ideas for routines to start the class in each of the different cyclesand then we have shared them with our classmates. Next, we have discussed about the importance of drawing pictures for our classes, how useful they are and how important it is for a teacher to know how to draw. To help us, the teacher has shown us some videos and resources we can use to learn or to carry out activities with children. In addition, we have talked about other resources such as limericks (and we wrote one together), songs, stories.... We have seen how to work correctly with them, making a very different class and feeling ourselves as if we were kids. It has been explained how important it is to work the songs step by step, starting with the rhythm and introducing the lyrics little by little, as well as how beneficial stories can be if we use them wisely. In conclusion, I could say that this has been one of the classes that I have enjoyed the most so far, because, during the class, I felt that I was learning things that I could really take into my class in the future, which had never been presented to us in this way before.

Wednesday, November 15th

Today we have started a new topic in class: evaluation. This is a very important topic in the teaching activity and therefore very interesting and important aspects have been mentioned during the lesson.

First of all, we have differentiated between assessment and evaluation and talked about what we mean by evaluation. The conclusion we have been able to reach is that assessment is often related to exams and anxiety, when in fact assessment should take many things into account and be a positive part of the teaching and learning process. On the other hand, we have started to discuss the two types of assessment that exist: formative (assessment for learning) and summative (assessment of learning). In this class we have focused more on the first one, saying very important aspects such as the need to give feedback from the teacher to the students, the positive of reinforcing good behaviour to encourage further learning and improvement, the importance of creating a favourable environment of respect, the necessary involvement of students in the evaluation process... In conclusion, I would say that I have found this class very useful, because we have been shown a subject as important as evaluation in a way that had not been done before, as they tend to always give more importance to the summative part. In addition, many tips, ideas and tools have been mentioned that I am sure will be very useful in my future as a teacher.

Thursday, November 16th

In this lesson we have continued looking at assessment. First of all, we have reviewed some important ideas from the previous class, namely Assessment for Learning. Then, we have learnt new concepts and we have gone deeper into other aspects.First of all, we have explained some very important ideas when it comes to assessment, such as the need to give children time to think, to recognise their work and good behaviour or to accompany them throughout the process, among others. The impossibility of being totally objective when assessing a pupil was also discussed, as teachers are also people who will inevitably be influenced. Then we have started to look at the Assessment of Learning (formative assessment), with special emphasis on the wide variety of assessment tools that exist and trying to leave aside the typical exams, especially when children are very young. After looking at various tools, giving more importance to the portfolio as an assessment tool and a tool for monitoring and reflecting on the student's learning, we have carried out an activity in pairs. Each pair has been assigned some activities (obtained from previous didactic programmes) and an aspect to evaluate. In my case, I was assigned activities related to autumn and the portfolio as an evaluation tool. In conclusion, I would say that this class has been very important to make us think about how we can evaluate, which strategies are the best and what is our role in this process. Also, the huge amount of resources that the teacher has shared with us will be great for us in the future.

Wednesday, November 22nd

There's no class today. This class will be recovered next Wednesday.

Thursday, November 23rd

Today the class has started with an activity in which we have been able to check if we had really understood the contents in previous classes, which were related to evaluation, by playing a kahoot.Then we have continued the class by talking about homework. We have discussed what we understood by homework, and then we have observed the different forms of homework that teachers can order their students and mentioned strategies such as the flipped classroom.

We have also talked about the need to break down each evaluation criterion we use when assessing, as it is very difficult to assess everything at the same time. Once we had seen this, we have carried out an activity in pairs in which we have made a rubric breaking down an evaluation criterion into degrees of achievement that could be related to the activity we had done the day before (the one on assessment instruments). Finally, before the end of the class, taking advantage of the fact that it is Thanksgiving Day today, we have done a kahoot to assess the knowledge we had about this important holiday.

Wednesday, November 29th

This afternoon, in which we have developed two sessions of the subject, we have started to work on the topic of ICT. The tools that have been explained to us have been very varied and numerous, all of them very useful, among which we can highlight: symbaloo, plickers... Above all, I would like to mention those tools with which we will later carry out various tasks. First of all, we have worked with Google form, a resource with which we will have to create our own form on the subject we want to work on at that moment in the classroom, inserting different types of questions and images. Learning to use this resource is crucial for a future teacher, who will be able to use it on many occasions, not only with students, but also with families, other teachers... We have also worked with Google sites, learning how we can create our own page. As a group we will have to create one justifying its possible use in the classroom. It is a fantastic tool to work with children blogging or sharing their work with others and their families. Thirdly, we have also learnt how to use storybird, an application unknown to many in the class, but very interesting. We have learned that it allows us to make stories from images that are no longer provided thanks to diverse illustrators who share them. In groups, we will have to create a story using this application.

Thursday, November 30th

In this class we have continued and finished the topic of ICT. Today we have also learnt a lot of new resources to use in the classroom.First of all, I could say that we have talked about audio editing applications like audacity or some applications where we could get songs in MP3 or separate different audio tracks. All of them are very useful tools in case we want to work with songs in our classes in the future. We have also been working on educational online games and we have focused on talking about two websites where we can create our own games: Educaplay and Learningapss. With them, we have started to do one of the group tasks that we have to do to hand in. Finally, we have had some time to be able to work in groups before the end of the class, so we have moved forward in some of the tasks we have to hand in before the end of December.

December

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if you want to know more about each class

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A month of lights, snow and feasts. A time to make amends, and tie up loose ends. A time to finish what you started and hope that your dreams come true. ANONYMOUS

Wednesday, December 6th

There's no class today. It's a National Party.

Thursday, December 7th

There's no class today. It is a long weekend.

Wednesday, December 13th

In today's class we have started to present the work we have done in groups about different chapters of a book called "How to teach English", analysing what it said and creating activities based on these contents.All the groups have presented very creative and interesting activities for the different cycles of Primary Education. The first group has worked on the basis of cartoon or anime characters, such as Doraemon or Shinchan, which could be very motivating for the students. The second group has used a lot of resources and materials, doing fun and playful activities such as twister, blind findings, Simon says, etc. And for the third group, they have resorted to a wonderful resource such as origami, from which they have worked on "Listen and make", and through which the students could make very creative origami figures while learning the instructions in English. The last group to present was mine. My colleagues and I have dealt with the topic of "Speaking more freely" through activities based on gossip (relating them to the name of our group: Gossip Teachers), and in which the students could practise speaking in a playful and motivating way, through games such as the broken telephone, chained gossip or celebrity interviews. In addition, we have dressed up as "Viejas del visillo", to make our exhibition funnier and more different. In conclusion, I would say that this class has been very useful and fun, and we have been able to get a lot of ideas for activities and games that we can put into practice in our future as teachers.

Thursday, December 14th

There's no class today, because we are doing an exam about Phonetics.

Wednesday, December 20th

Today, we have continued with the presentations of the group projects, and three groups have presented their proposals. Firstly, the initial group has explained three activities (one for each cycle, like all the other groups) to work on reading in the classroom. All of them have actively involved the students and have been very interesting, although at some moments, they might have seemed a bit challenging for them, especially the one aimed at first-cycled students. The second group to present has focused on story creation, suggesting activities based on the main characteristics of each age group of children. These have included turning children into writers, creating comics from audiovisual stories, or organizing a storytelling competition. All of them have been fun and creative for implementation in the classroom. Finally, the last group has worked on writing through activities where students have drawn, have created interconnected stories, or have engaged in small roleplays. In conclusion, similar to the previous class, I would say it has been a very productive session for learning many ideas that we can implement in the future. Additionally, it has allowed us to discuss possible improvements, which I find very beneficial for us as it has helped us reflect and improve.

Thursday, December 21st

Today, it has been the last day of classes of the subject and of the term and it has turned into a fantastic class. First, we have started with the presentation of a new group, who has talked about storytelling and presented activities to work on stories in a very creative and colourful way with the children, through stories that actively involved the students, making them participate by reading, moving or making deductions. Then, the last group has presented their work, about festivals. They have chosen to work on the theme of Christmas and have proposed wonderful activities with which we have had a great time: a Christmas gymkhana, a secret Santa in which we have made dedications to our classmates saying nice things about them and Christmas carols. We have ended the class singing together, taking a farewell photo and eating chocolate bonbons. It has been a wonderful class, with an atmosphere of companionship and joy, in which we have realised how much we have learnt and how nice it has been to share this time together. .