Practice 5: Project work.

Hey guys! We half way on our practices! And I have to say that this one is may favourite as we got to use our imagination and create our very own project work. Here is an esqueme we used to guide us through.

It is set out to make us be creative and come up with our very own project work for a class. It teaches us how to go through step by step on a series of questions in order for us to have a clear and complete idea of the project that is going to be executed.

The preliminary idea that I had about this topic was the definition of project work. Project work is a series of activities that allows the students to study, do research and act by themselves using their abilities, interests, personal experience and aptitudes. The students can work alone or with a group according to the project scope and difficulty.

We have designed a project for 6th grade based on the multicultural reality that are found nowadays in classrooms. Presently, we find children who come from different nationalities in the same classroom, so we thought that it would be very interesting to develop an activity  in the subject of Social Sciences to learn more about the different cultures and countries all over the world. Furthermore, students will learn new vocabulary, customs and different ways of life. In this way, they gain a deeper knowledge of reality from a comprehensive perspective by manipulating objects and learning procedures that help them to organise, understand and assimilate information. In this project we have learned how to create a project work, how to put ourselves in the position of both the teacher and the students, we have learned after discussing various ideas that there are many exciting project works that are also very important for students to accept. It has also learned, by the questions planted, everything that needs to be taken into consideration when completing a project work and the outcomes and advantages that come from this.
The hardest part for us to learn was finding its disadvantages. This is something we need to work on as when we do projects we are only capable of thinking of the positives but never the negatives. This is something we need to work on. In the end we found many disadvantages. Students may e nervous to work in a group of people who aren't necessarily their friends. Another aspect that can complicate things is the fact that some students may have extracurricular activities. This means that their amount of free time that could be used to complete their project is now minimized. Finally, the individuality and creativity of a student can be lost due to the overrule of the other participants. Katie Tonarely wrote a website which talks abut the advantages and disadvantages of a project work in schools. When we had to answer the questions it was from our point of view. These we presume come from someone who knows about this topic therefore reading this article was very useful to have a proper answer for my future job. Tonarely, K. (s.f.). Advantages and disadvantages of project work. Recuperado de https://classroom.synonym.com/advantages-disadvantages-classroom-projects-7933801.html
The knowledge I can generate is an example of how a certain school elaborates a project work. Duke school shows us the preliminary planning, how to begin a project, develop a project and how to conclude it. It is similar to our project but without examples. Having said this, it is very detailed on how they develop a project work. project work. (s.f.). Recuperado de https://www.dukeschool.org/learn/project-work References: Tonarely, K. (s.f.). Advantages and disadvantages of project work. Recuperado de https://classroom.synonym.com/advantages-disadvantages-classroom-projects-7933801.html project work. (s.f.). Recuperado de https://www.dukeschool.org/learn/project-work  

Practice 4: timetables and schedules.

Welcome guys to another practice post. This was a very interesting one as we had to discover all the criteria needed to draw up a timetable or a schedule. Here is todays esqueme.

This practice is destined to show us and make us understand all the scheduling regulations we must take into account when drawing up a timetable, who draws it up, who approves it, the hours that must be assigned to important subjects, hours assigned to core subjects and finally, it puts us to the test to elaborate our very own timetable.

The preliminary ideas that I had about this lesson are the definitions of school timetable and who is responsible for drawing it up. Timetable means to have a series of activities organised and classified in certain time blocks. The Management Team is in charge of drawing up the school timetable. However, The Teachers Board and The School Board must be informed of this action before finally passing the information along to The School Management so that he can approved this schedule.
In this lesson we went through all the different criteria that must me taken in account when designing the schools timetable. We found many of these, but here are a few examples: The school will be open from October to May from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and June to September from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The weekly timetable for each school year must have 25 hours, distributed from Monday to Friday, including official breaks... We also had to state who draws them up and who approves them, which we already know. Another thing we learned were the bodies that can be consulted being these The Teachers Board and The School Board to make sure that they agree with the proposition of The Management Team. We also had to say how many hours are assigned to the most important subjects. With this we found out that t
he number of hours assigned to the block of core areas ( Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Spanish Language and Literature, Mathematics and First Foreign Language) has to be at least 11 hours and 15 minutes per week in each school year. Finally we learned that the number of hours assigned to core areas has to be a minimum of 3 hours. To finish this project off we had to draw up our very own timetable following all criteria. Here is the end result:

SPLIT DAY	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00 - 9:50	NATURAL SCIENCE	SOCIAL SCIENCE	SPANISH	MATHS	RELIGION
9:50 - 10:35	SPANISH	MATHS	MATHS	CATALAN	P.E.
10:35 - 11:05	B	R	E	A	K
11:05 - 11:55	P.E.	CATALAN	NATURAL  SCIENCE	SPANISH	ENGLISH
11:55 - 12:45 (extracurricular)	AC	TI	VI	TI	ES
12:45 - 15:00	L	U	N	C	H
15:00 - 15:45	RELIGIÓN	ENGLISH	ARTS	ENGLISH	TUTORING HOUR
15:45 - 16:30	CATALAN	NATURAL SCIENCE	SOCIAL SCIENCE	SOCIAL SCIENCE	ARTS

This was the hardest part for us. We needed to make sure that every single rule was followed. We need to work more on the fact that we don't know enough about the criteria that is set out. In this website that I found on Athar Khan explains first of all the meaning of timetable, the types that we can find and generate and finally steps to consider when making one for a school. These aren't criterias, these are steps. For example: you need to prepare a list, analyse it, be flexible, write tasks, etc There are many more and every one is detailed. Worth looking at. Khan, A. (s.f.-b). How to make a school timetable. Recuperado de https://www.toppr.com/bytes/how-to-make-school-time-table/ We already know now how to make a timetable suited for children, but what about teachers, they need one too. I found a website with unfortunately no author that tells you four steps on how teachers can build the timetable that suits them. If the teacher isn't organised, they will most likely be nervous with everything everywhere giving the result of not being able to teach in an orderly fashion. Therefore, even though this piece of information isn't mentioned in the power point I thought it would be useful just to have it in mind.Teachers timetable. (s.f.). Recuperado de https://www.studyinternational.com/news/step-by-step-how-to-make-a-study-timetable-that-works-for-you/

School timetable for children should be colourful or give to them to decorate. When a child or students looks at a boring colourless timetable they won't want to do it where as if they have it painted as they wish, they might be a little more excited. What do you think?

Referencias:

Khan, A. (s.f.-b). How to make a school timetable. Recuperado de https://www.toppr.com/bytes/how-to-make-school-time-table/

Teachers timetable. (s.f.). Recuperado de https://www.studyinternational.com/news/step-by-step-how-to-make-a-study-timetable-that-works-for-you/

Practice 3: Educational project and AGP.

Welcome to another practice. Here is todays esqueme.

The preliminary ideas that I have of this practice are the meanings of the Annual General Programme and the Educational Project.  The Educational project is a document that has to be approved by the director after hearing the school council, but if any changes have to be approved, that is up to the school management before the end of the third quarter of the academic year. This is a document that describes the organisation and functioning of the centre, it establishes the participation of the various members of the educational community and it defines the coordination of existing relations between public and private agents. I also now that the Annual General Programme is a document that governs the school's planning, management and performance. It allows the coordinated development of all educational activities, the proper exercise of the powers of the different governing bodies, the participation of all sectors of the school community on the basis of the principles of co-education, the updating of new actions of the Community-Building Plan that are proposed for the current school year based on the previous school year's community-building report...

This practice wants us to learn the parts that we find of an educational project and AGP of a school, what parts are not included, we also need to state what improvements we thing they should take into consideration and how these documents are drafted. When it comes to the project, we had to chose a public school in the Valencian Community and try to find on its webpage the parts of the Educational Project and the Annual General Programme, which part of the documents are not observed on the website, how they are drafted, what we think can be improved and finally an auto-evaluation. In our case, we chose CEIP Juan Manuel Montoya. Through this we learned what parts of an educational project it had. Some of these were the curriculum concretions, a tutorial action plan, linguistic programme of the centre... We also learned the parts of the annual general programme that it contained were we found school council, activities, class schedule... The it asked us which part of the documents are not included in the files obtained from the website. These were quite a few, something we didn't expect. The educational project has to be approved by the director after listening to the school council, any modifications need to be approved by the school management  before the end of the third quarter of the academic year, it doesn’t clearly mark which are the relations that the school has with private agents. For example: the relation that they have with the council of the town, or the suppliers, etc. And referring to the annul general programme we need clarifications referring to the Educational Project, the updating actions of the Community-Building Plan proposed for the current school year based on the previous school years community-building report, an administrative report that adds the organisation document of the centre, the statistics at the beginning of the academic year and the condition of the facilities and equipment, etc. The next question was to briefly outline how educational projects and annual general programmes are drafted and lastly, what aspects we think could be improved in the documents

The part I struggled with the most and therefore need more help, was how they are drafted as in the first school we weren't able to find this information but thanks to another school we now have an idea.

On the one hand, we have the Educational Project. This states that all schools have two years to develop its Educational Project, which is really the School Ideology. This project must be public and must be available to all parents once it’s been developed.

On the other hand, we have the Annual General Programme. This says that all activities of the school are reflected in the PGA. Unlike the Educational Project, the AGP doesn’t have to be public, and the people who have access to this are the representatives of the parents of the school, without being able to leave the centre, due to the personal data contained within. It is true that there are schools that publish an extract of the AGP (the AGP of a school can have more than a thousand pages, since because when it starts, it gets more dynamic every year). 

We now have a rough odea on how each one is drafted.

How they are drafted. (s.f.). Recuperado de http://www.ceice.gva.es/es/web/educacion


I was browsing something that isn't really information but I think that parents should be well informed about the educational project of the school. I found a school that has a beautiful structure where everything is explained in such an organised and detailed manner compared. I am going to leave both links below so that you guys can leave me comments as to if you agree with me or not. The first one is the school we completed this project on and the second one is the one which I consider to be perfect.
http://mestreacasa.gva.es/web/ceipjuanmanuelmontoya/42
https://saintnicholas.cat/educational-project/?lang=en

Something I would like to add so you guys are a little more informed, the aspects that my team and I came up with to improve these documents. Here are our solutions:

It was difficult to find a public  centre of the Valencian Community that included both documents, the Educational Project and the Annual General Project. 

Despite the fact that we have had some difficulties to find the information, we finally found it. From our point of view, an aspect that should be improved is the lack of important information, as we have said in the question 2. We think that some essential aspects like the information about the dining centre or the relation that the school has with the town council, needs to be included in the Educational Programme. As far as we are concerned, it is also very important that the updating actions based on the previous school year’s community-building report should be a part of the Annual General Programme.

To sum up, we think that all the centres need to have in their own webpages this information because it’s very important that families with children in the school are informed about the essential issues of the education of their children. Don’t you agree?

References:
How they are drafted. (s.f.). Recuperado de http://www.ceice.gva.es/es/web/educacion
http://mestreacasa.gva.es/web/ceipjuanmanuelmontoya/42 our school.
https://saintnicholas.cat/educational-project/?lang=en the best school.