Which training courses would you like to have access to as a teacher? Why? Which is, in your opinion, the best way to share good practice amongst teaching professionals? Why?

I would like to have access to different courses, which allow me to train about a subject, or develop a project of pedagogical material among teachers, or share good didactic practices.

Teachers should share and learn good educational practices in order to promote language skills in education. Also to promote the “knowledge triangle”, this integrates education, research and innovation.

Teachers can develop their good practice through different training activities as: seminars or work groups or workshops. When I have done these activities, I have had the opportunity to learn and share many resources: experiences, stories, tools, and ways of addressing recurring problems in my daily classes.

By other hand now teachers are challenged to join in a European project like the Erasmus + program. Multilingualism is one of goals of the European project. The EU wants every citizen to have the opportunity to acquire at least two foreign languages, from an early age. All levels of education are included: school, vocational training, higher education and adult education. This new program aims to improve education and training capacities of individuals for the employability of students, teachers and workers.

In conclusion, at this moment we have the opportunity to improve the teaching- learning process through our own development of good educational practices by means of different mass like: information sessions, workshops, seminars, training courses, exhibitions, demonstrations, blogs, websites, dissemination platform. Also to share our own experiences with other profession partners.

As a vocational training teacher of Business Administration, now I have the challenge to teach English language through content classes. In this way I have, we have, the opportunity to make more attractive teaching programs. We can prepare our students to work in any country. Are you ready?

If you were not limited by the demands of the national/regional curriculum, what would you say is the most important thing you would teach your students about your subject (in a CLIL context)? How would you assess their learning?

In the first place, if I were not limited by demands of national and regional curriculum, I would like to teach my students learn to develop in real situations of everyday life.

So, I would put emphasis in experiential learning instead of working so many conceptual contents. Because I think that it is better that students develop skills that allow them to construct their own learning.

As a Technical teacher of Vocational Training, I would steer students in the direction of improving their professional capacities, values, and skills for their working future.

How would I assess their learning?

Assessment is one of the most difficult area for teachers in general and for CLIL teachers in particular. The assessment is an integral part of every lesson. Due to it, I would assess through:

• Diagnostic assessment:  before instruction, with the purpose of establishing a baseline from which to observe growth.
• Formative assessment: during instruction, with the purpose of providing on going feedback to students. This involves children in assessing their performance and deciding their next steps.
• Summative assessment: after the instruction, with the purpose of testing the learner outcomes.

Moreover CLIL teachers have to assess content and learning skills, and the use of language and decide how to do it. From my point of view, being CLIL teachers we should focus on content, “the language will be learnt in progress”. Therefore, content and skills first, then language.

By other hand, we have to select the tools we can use to assess not only the content but also the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). We can asses the language through a variety of approaches:

• Selected-response activities (true/false, matching, multiple choice).
• Constructed-response tasks (fill-in, short answers, performance assessments).
• Personal-response assignments (conference, oral reports, portfolio, essay writing, self- and peer-assessment, interviews). 

In conclusion, assessment is a difficult area for a CLIL teacher because we have to assess the content and the language. Moreover, I would like to coach my students so they can achieve a good job; I therefore prefer to use assessment for learning and not assessment of learning.

Taking into account my personal teaching context, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of using the ELP with my groups?

The European Language Portfolio (ELP) is a personal document in which language learners can write down their language learning and cultural experiences – whether at school or outside school.

The ELP has three obligatory components:

•  A language passport: where the language learner summarizes his/her linguistic identity and language learning and intercultural experience. Also he/she records language qualifications, experience of using foreign languages and contacts with others cultures.

• A language biography, where the learner register his/her language learning and intercultural experiences and regularly assess progress.

• A dossier. In this part the learner collects samples of his/her work in the different languages he/she has learnt or is learning.

The language biography provides learners assess themselves. First students put signs, minuses o ticks for the descriptor on the assessment grid and then the teacher follow the same procedure to assess learner’s performance. So the ELP provides a record of students’ linguistic and cultural skills

In this sense ELP contributes to learner's autonomy and motivation. The pedagogical benefits are: The transparency in the learning process, reflection and self-assessment development, responsibility and the autonomy for their own learning and the possibility of record their lifelong learning

The use of ELP in class has some disadvantages from my point of view. The major one is that the ELP isn’t common at schools or high school and isn’t supported by books or network.

In conclusion the ELP helps students to organize and keep a record of their learning and empowers them to take responsibility for it, but curricular teachers need to create more communities of practice, which allow them share experiences, and save planning time on this subject.

Advantages of plurilingualism

There are many advantages of plurilingualism in education and now teachers have the opportunity to promote the plurilingualism through CLIL lessons.

CLIL is an integrated form of teaching content and language. In the CLIL methodology content is analyzed from different cultural perspectives and that offers opportunities for intercultural learning. Besides, students and teachers work with projects. This fact lets learners understand the relevance of forms of collaboration.

The advantages for children to start with plurilingual programs from an early age, are:

·        They learn the different subjects in different languages; this makes them develop metacognitive skills which are common to all the languages.

·        They recognize the language learning like a task or ability to develop during their lives.

·        Their motivation, their self-confidence and skills rise in order to learn languages and other cultures.

·        As regards, children can value and develop positive attitudes towards cultural and language diversity.

The society needs plurilingual programs in schools, high schools and University in order to compete with most advanced societies because we have a global economy. English and other foreign languages can be a passport to the world, and the key to a richer professional, personal and cultural life.

To conclude, I think that all the teachers should be open-minded in order to learn and teach foreign languages. It is an educational objective because, on the one hand, it contributes to the education of the student and on the other it promotes understanding among people and improves relationship among different cultures.

Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory

The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University.

The theory shows eight criteria for a behavior to be considered an intelligence. They are: verbal-linguistic (word smart), mathematical-logical (math smart), visual-spatial (art smart), interpersonal (people-smart), intrapersonal (self-smart), bodily-kinesthetic (body smart), naturalist (nature smart), musical-rhythmic (music smart).

Gardner distinguished the intelligences with great detail but he opposes the idea of labeling learnings to a specific intelligence. Each learner has a unique blend of all the intelligence. The theory empowers learners not to restrict them to one modality of learning.

These intelligences could be related to the to the CLIL classroom.

When we deal with diverse learning styles we have to keep in mind that we teach  students and not just a subject. It is also important to identify the learning styles and have different materials, lessons plans or exercises for the class.

There are three basic groups of learning styles: auditory learners, visual learners and kinesthetic or tactile learners.

·    Auditory learners learn best through listening the message. Some of the materials teachers could use with them are: lectures, verbal instruction, songs, acronyms, flip cards, books on tape or listening to review material, oral exams. In order to study, auditory learners should read their material aloud.

·     Visual learners learn best through what they see and the images they have created in their mind. Teachers could use with them: illustrations, diagrams, and charts and flip cards.

·     Tactile learners learn best through touching, feeling and doing. Teachers should incorporate hands-on projects, multi-media assignments, skits, movement, and physical artifacts as examples. These students also respond well to object lessons if they are able to touch the object involved.

To conclude I believe that we should bear in mind the different learning styles, and take advantage of the classroom diversity. So we have to identify how our students learn better and to make groups in order they could help each other. Beside we need use a variety of lessons plans and exercises for the class, in this way we offer a better teaching learning process.

Howard Gardner on Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner , Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 2011 , revolutionized psychology with his theory of multiple intelligences  more than two decades ago.
Here you are, an abbreviated version of Redes program interview.

#Gardner #multipleintelligences

Let's dream! Let's learn!

The best teacher I've ever had

I have had good teachers and bad ones in my life, and I have learned from all of them and their methods. Nowadays, as a teacher and a learner, I believe that the main characteristic of a good teacher is to be passionate and to have the ability to convey enthusiasm for learning.

What other features do I appreciate in teachers?

§  Communication. Good teachers should be great communicators and they should keep in mind the purpose of responding to different learning styles of their students (visual, kinesthetic, verbal).

§  Creativity.  I like teachers that always think of new ways to do things, because they are never content with doing something the usual way if a better way is possible. They use different techniques that allow students to explore their skills through a variety of resources such as, newspaper articles, video clips, blogs or Internet.

§   Humor. Great teachers add humor to the class in order to create rapport and make a safe and enriching learning environment. Students must feel free and they shouldn’t be afraid of making mistakes.

§  Leadership. Leadership teachers are good organizing activities and getting everyone feels included. They act as facilitators and provide cooperative work (pair work, group work, whole class). And they let students being the protagonist of their own learning.

As a conclusion, goods teachers love learning and love their work and have the ability to challenge their students with new task, and new ideas. Those teachers make their students go out of their comfort zone. They invite their students to the magic zone, the zone where students have new experiences and where the process of learning is creative and powerful.
#Talent
#CLIL