The Ideal School of ESCUELA DE BOCACIÓN, LA BANDA DEL PATIO y THE ROL KIDS.

On Tuesday we watched the rest of the videos of the ideal school of our class mates, including Rigatonis´Angels ideal school, which we hope everyone has enjoyed, as we had a lot of fun recording and making the script.

So we were the first group to show our video, our goal was to make a fun and enjoyable video to explain important aspect of our education nowadays, and how we would like it to be, so this way maybe we could catch better the attention of viewers.

ESCUELA DE BOCACIÓN

For me this video was one of the best ones, as, in my opinion, it combines what we all wanted to reflect in our video, the path for changing the actual education to a inclusive and diverse one. They did it in a precious way, with a shadow theatre to explain the sad story of Bocationcito, who doesn’t learn in his school, and where there is a lack of interest in education. With a beautiful soundtrack, they explained to us like a fabule with talking animals, how their education system would be. They ended their video with a remake of Disney´s Aladdin “A whole new world”, where all of them with a funny costume showed different pieces of paper of the conclusion of an ideal school. It was very nice and creative, and you could see all the hard work and cooperation there is between the members of the group.

LA BANDA DEL PATIO

In spite of all the technological problems they had, they accomplished to end their video, which was a remake of an episode of the Banda del Patio. It was short but clear and concise. They have been able to summarize all the main ideas they wanted for their ideal school, so they have done a great job with the script. The building had a circular shape, with a garden in the middle, which is an area for relaxing and of reflection.

A funny thing was the fact that even though there were different characters, everyone put the voice of all of them, showing an equal work and a great union between all the members.

THE ROL KIDS

So the Rol Kids have done a lot of extra work for this task, which was great, as it was really interesting. At first they presented us their magazine, which was a really original idea, and they even gave us a copy in paper! But for me, the explanation of each part of the magazine was a bit dense, especially because it was the last video. The second part was the building of the school, which was very nice, as they made it with the Sims like us, and this way, there are more details and it looks more realistic. My favorite part has been the episode about a death child who goes to an inclusive school that tries to end with the learning barriers. In addiction they showed us a video about community learning, something that the other groups didn’t talk about. It was really interesting, they showed us photos with the methodology of the classes, full of interactive game to learn, joyful environment of the school, and special classes to develop all the basic skills, like the psychomotor class.  

The only thing is that the group didn’t seem very united, as the video had different parts which didn’t have correlation between them.

I have learnt many different things from each video, not only theory, but also creative things to do in class, now and in the future as a teacher. I also think this project has helped us to be more united, both as the members of a group, as all of the class together, because we all have come up with different ideas of telling to the rest our ideal school, and all of them have been brilliant!

IDEAL SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS,

THE DIFFERENTS.

The video of this group was divided into three parts. The first part was a representation of traditional school methodology. They made a critic about this way of teaching and lerning. Then, they show us their ideal school building. It was good to see the different parts of the school, with green areas promoting enviromental awarness. The last part of the video was putting in practice their ideal methodology. For doing that, they represented a PE class, where the teacher made a dance for teaching their students the parts of the body. I liked this a lot because in a sport subject, they included biological theory in a funny way of learning, so I found that pretty interesting. 

What I liked about this video was that they emphasized a lot in cooperative learning and group work. The idea that they tried to transmit is that any child should be left behind. Also, it's important to change roles, because everyone has to have the same opportunities. Another thing that impressed me in a good way was the way of evaluating children in a group work.

What I missed from this presentation was some content. It's true that it's difficult making a dinamic and not boring video talking about theory but I believe that they didn't show the whole theory needed in practice.


FUTUPASTA.

The main part of the video was an episode from the Futurama series. Here, they explained enough theory in a clear way. Also, they included some jokes of funny scenes characteristic from this series, which made the video very nice. The theory was based on cooperative learning and the need of changing current education. They explained that we must evaluate students according to their improvement and capacities of learning. Also, they emphasized in the school changing, we have to put into practice the scaffolding and give autonomy and responsabilities to students. Also, it's very important that the teacher is aware of students' personal problems and help them as long as they can. 

I liked the way they showed us the building, because they told us like a fairytale, so I found that very creative. 

What I missed about the video was some creativity, because the main idea was showed before in other videos.


LA BANDA DEL PATIO.

This video was develoed in an episode from the La banda del patio series. Here, they showed us the main ideas of an inclusive school. First, children took the reins and faced with teachers. At the beggining, they didn't take into account their protest, but finally, with the support of parents and some teachers they won and changed the school system.

What I liked the video was the group work, because they told us that their video was removed from their computers s they had to work hard succeed. 

What I missed from this video was some theory, because it was too short and they didn't have time to have a good explanation of their ideal school. Also, it had a lack f creativity, because like I said before, the idea of Futupasta and this video was created before, so I think that imagination is very wide.


ESCUELA DE BOCACIÓN.

I wholeheartedly believe that this proyect was the best. The story was extraordinarily creative and dinamic. They made a story of a child, Bocacioncito, that went to a school in where he was not socially accepted and the teachers were just focused in their content classes. Her mother, Inclusion, took action into matter and find a solution to his child, the ideal school where anybody is left behind and basic values are learned. The whole story was represented with shadows and I really enjoyed.

Another part of the video was the school building. This part was the simplest, but it was also good explained and justified. 
Moreover, they sang a song according to their ideas of ideal school.

What I liked the most was the development of the video, there was good connection between parts and coherence.

I believe that they really deserved the highest mark because they worked hard as a group.


THE ROLKIDS.

This group developed their idea in an educative magazine. I found this idea very creative. They recorded the magazine and at the same time they were explaining why we should change education and what things we should improve and promote.

Then, the second part of the video was a story of a boy related to the main ideas of the ideal school. Moreover, they made the school building recording from the Sims' game. We also used this game to make our own school and it's a great idea to explain and represent whole parts.

Finally, they ended with a video of the inclusion of deaf children. I believe that it was interesting but maybe did the video too long, so I would have cut some parts of the video.

What I missed from this video was coordination between members and it maybe took too long for us, so I would have put some funny in it to make it more dinamic.

videos about the ideal school (futupasta and the differents)

Last Thursday we watch two videos about the ideal school, the first one was from futupasta, and the other one was from the differents.

The futupasta video was an episode of futurama but they had changed the voices and have done all the audio, the video was about the crew from futuama going back to the past to see the education system and then going to the future to see how the improvements were and then going back to the present and change it. The main ideas were an inclusive school, learning through practice and doing it applying the cooperative learning. I thought that the video was really good because it was exactly like a futurama episode, and they made jokes about it like they do in the series too. The theory was very well explained and I enjoyed a lot, the part that i liked most was when they explained the school building because they did it like it was a story tale that they read before going to sleep, I think that was a good idea.

The differents presentation was divided on three parts. The first part was like an episode from The Simpsons where they show a bad education system, by changing the audio voices and replacing them to their own. The second part was the explanation of the school building with a drawing of the school on a white board. And the last part was a practice class of P.E. that was also a biology class because they learn the parts of the body. I think it was interesting that they have show three different ways of doing it but i think it didn’t have much theory. My favourite part of the video was the final song in which they show the parts of the body, I think that’s a fun way of learning them. 

IDEAL SCHOOL OF FUTUPASTA AND THE DIFFERENTS

Today we saw the video of Futupasta and The differents, and now I am going to write about this, and the ideal school.


In the one hand, the group of Futupasta made a video with the program of Futurama, and they made a good work. They explained the main ideas very clear, like the cooperative between child and adolescents,with cooperative school. Also they spoke about the differents evaluation, according to the level of the students. It is a important thing to make develop all the students, at more or less the same time.

About the creative, I think that it is not a creative idea, because this style of video, we see more times. I like it,because the sound and the parts of the video are very good. And the idea of ideal school was very understanding.

In the other hand, The differents, they made a video firstly about the traditional education with the simpsons, and this was very funny. Later they made the explanation of the structure of the school, and with this I am not agree with this structure, because they was not successful. I think they forgot classes different, like arts or biology. Where the children could make the practical classes.

This groups was very creative, and at the final, they made a class of P.I. And in my opinion, I could make other style of class, one class of Math or Spanish. Because now the PI classes are very practical, and we did not see the change, about before and after.

I learned with them, that the children help each other, and the practice it is important but we need think in base of the theory.

Videos of FUTURAMA and THE DIFFERENTS.

So today we have started to watch some of the videos we have made about our ideal school. First of all it is important that we are aware of all the effort we put in our group tasks, but specially in doing the videos, as sometimes not all the work is reflected in the final result.

FUTUPASTA

They have changed the dialogue to a Futurama episode. It has been full of theory very well explained, and also with funny moments to make it more joyful, they have talked about all the important changes we must try to improve in the school, like the importance of the teaching being a guide and scaffolding for the students, and give them autonomy and responsibility listening to them and letting them learn from their mistakes.

I think their building had a good distribution, with a friendly and confortable area. In my opinion, it had a bit of lack of creativity. My favorite part has been the intro, which they have sang and written the letter about this theme.

THE DOFFERENTS

Their video had three distinguished parts, being the first one a Simpsons episode, in which they have criticized the current education system, then they have explained how their school building would be, in a very nice way (with a white board), also a friendly place full of green areas for students to relax and study peacefully. And the third and last part was a practice class where they have danced to learn some parts of the human body. In this video, maybe they have not reflected all the content needed and learnt doing this practice.

From this is important to know that we must always contrast theory with practice, so the learning process is easier for the students, as they learn by experience, having fun, doing different things, different ways and this way it is easier for them to remember for many time, what they have learnt. But all the activities must be done with a purpose which is based on theory.

I have enjoyed watching both of them, and I am looking forward to see the rest. J

About cooperative learning.

Well, as I have been ill the past two weeks I haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy seeing the other teams presentations in class, but I have seen their blogs and seen the power points to see what caught their attention about cooperative learning, and what they that was more important to guide others. Let´s begin:

The Rolkids

Their guide had many content, we can see they paid more attention to the techniques, as they explained them very well so we understand them properly. They also have added some advantages and disadvantages about cooperative learning, as we learnt in didactics, I think this is very important, because we have to know the drawbacks to try to change them or decrease its effects, so this helps us to be aware of other activities and methodologies we can also include in the class. 

We can see how in peer tutoring, one student becomes “teacher” and the other one learns from what he knows, always with supervision of the real teacher, but it is important that none of them gives the solution, as they have to be a guide for the student to find out the solution by himself.

The Differents,

This group has also incorporated the webquest to the techniques, it is a great way of working all together, as nobody is left behind, because everyone has something to contribute with to get all together to the final solution. They have explained very well the way the students and the different teams must distribute the different rolls to work better as a group, and highlight the importance of changing the rolls each time. They also have explained the way students and groups should evaluate themselves and other teams, to know what to improve and what they have done well for future tasks, it makes them observe and reflect bout others and their own activities and the way they have carried them out.

La Banda del Patio

This group has explained to us in what the based teams consist in, they are those who shouldn’t change unless we do any other activities with sporadic groups. To create them, it is necessary that they are heterogeneous, with between four and six people. To achieve this, it is important that teacher makes the groups, he/she can use many methods to do it. One of them is a psychometric test, but it is rare, as we need many information; also the students can choose two other pupils with whom they would like to be, but this way we could find more differences and some kids could feel excluded. So the perfect method would be the “three columns” if the teacher chooses for each group, one student who works advanced and who can stretch the group (first column), two who are more needed to carry out their work (third column), and one of the remaining’s of the class (second column).

As the classroom will be the space where we will be working every day for at least a whole school year, it is important that the pupils feel comfortable, and to achieve this it is important to set some rules for a better coexistence in the class. But we also want to motivate them and let them know that school is a great and fun place where they will learn many things for their life, so as my group exposed, it could be interesting to have a class philosophy to catch the attention of the student with slogans, for instance: “Believe and achieve” or “Be yourself”.

They also explained the jigsaw technique: the base teams are split up heterogeneously with other members of other teams, they specialize in a subtopic, exchanging ideas with the other members of the new group, and then they return to the base groups to explain what they have learnt. This way all of them are bound to cooperate, and they all feel they are needed, as each one is a piece of the jigsaw.

Escuela de bocación

The teacher planning is very important to carry out cooperative learning, the teacher must have a clear and organized idea of what are her goals and how is she going to achieve them for her students, without messing them up and being able to show them to work with this method if they learn not only content, but also they develop the basic competences. In every moment the teacher must be a guide for them, she/he is not the center of attention, just a scaffolding.

Autonomy: Is one of the main skills which students must develop. In cooperative learning the way we show them responsibility is by giving each kid a different roll inside their teams, being rotated each time. To reflect their work, they have to elaborate tables with objectives, functions and achievements of the team.

Another technique is group investigation, which basically consists in the student choosing their group and what subject they want to develop, so the teacher then gives them the steps to follow and find information. From here, each group must elaborate an exposition and answer questions from others, finally there is a joint evaluation between students and the teacher. This is a great way of doing expositions, as the proper kids get more involved as they are able to choose which topic the prefer, and with how they want to carry out the work.

Futupasta

Futupasta clarified the TAI and TGT techniques:

TAI (Team Assisted individualization): Its and individualized program in which all the student have the same content, but each one in a different way, as the teachers adapts it to the diversity of the class (different needs and multiple intelligences´), then in the base groups the members help each other to achieve their different goals which accord to the different levels and rhythms

TGT (Teams Games Tournament): This time the base group has to split up to win points. Homogeneous groups of three are formed, they compete to win points by responding correctly different questions. This is a a great way of making everyone feel involved, as those you have more needs in their base team, have the opportunity to win the most points for them, as he is competing with other students who have similar cognitive development as him.

So as we can see, cooperative learning is a great way of working in class, and it shouldn’t be a sporadic method of working, we have to work on it as a content more by using techniques like the ones we have explained, so with a bit of commitment and organization, you could carry out a great classroom and achieving all your goals.