WHICH TRAINING COURSES WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE ACCESS TO AS A TEACHER? WHICH IS THE BEST WAY TO SHARE GOOD PRACTICE AMONGST TEACHING PROFESSIONALS?

Nowadays everybody is concerned about education. Furthermore every family are worried about which kind of teacher takes charge of their children’s education. Therefore, is very important for teachers to be up-to-date with something new related to education.

As teachers we are committed to form us every day. Today, we have to pay attention to the new technologies and keep up with it. So I would like to have access to courses of new technologies applied to education such us training course of the use of an interactive white board in classroom and for example how we can create our own programs to use during our lessons.

New technologies can help us teaching children in class because they attract and motivate pupils, and it could be what we need. I think this tool is the best invention of all time. We have platforms and courses related to the educational world that we can use. The government offers us a little variety of them but we can participate in other forms too. Internet and blogs are a good alternative to share experiences, educational plans and units. What is more the best way to share good practice is using the internet, for example, web pages, and a channel in YouTube...all about this type of things. It's a good way to share useful information and experiences because you can keep in touch with teachers from all over the world. In each part of the world the education is different and if you pay attention to other professionals, you are going to learn new things which will be useful for you as a teacher. In same way you can help other people with your experience,

Another important thing for me is to continue studying English and trying to improve my English level because I think that’s important for be a good teacher just keeping up with the demand of the new society.

To summarize, the future of education involves new forms of communication, and both students and teachers must know and use these forms of communication so the best way is to form in them.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU WOULD TEACH YOUR STUDENTS ABOUT YOUR SUBJECT?

  As an infant school teacher and knowing how important is teaching children at that ages I think the most important thing is that they will be able to know our world. What I mean is we should let them know everything about our culture and different cultures in our world. I think that the most important thing is teaching them in an intercultural atmosphere.

  How would I teach it? Well, every week we will introduce a new country or a new human civilization and we will follow different steeps. For example, we will introduce it at the assembly. Some teacher will dress up as a culture’s character and she will tell one sort story and introduced them in the country or culture we are going to work at class.

  Secondly, we will speak about what they know about it. Furthermore, we will show them a video where there were some children explaining them what we are going to do and talking about that culture or country. After that, they will do a worksheet and we will say them that they have to explain, however they wanted, what they have understood. For example, they can do a picture o write some story… anything else. Obviously that may take up to 3 sessions.

  In addition, we will do different workshops every week. We will organize the class in different groups, what is more, they will work in different class with one teacher so we will need two extra teachers to do that. In those workshops we will do something relevant about that culture, for example if we will study Brazil’s culture we maybe will do the traditional costume of the Brazil’s carnival. Furthermore we will perform our own carnival party at school when we finished the lesson. 

  Generally, we will go for a hike. In Brazil for example there are wide rivers and important river basin like the Amazon River. So we will visit some river or visit local nature centers and gardens, climb up mountains, and explore lazy creeks.


  Undoubtedly let them know everything about their earth but going out and see it, not doing it inside their classroom just like to experience it by their own. As well as the involvement of the families is particularly crucial because without them we won’t be able to do that. If they want they can come to the class and participate in the workshops and of course in our trips.

  To summarize, our methodology is an active one where children can experience with our reality and their knowledge will be as a functional learning. They are able to know different nationalities and cultures and we will teach them in an intercultural atmosphere where the most important thing is to respect one another.

THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING THE EUROPEAN LANGUAGE PORTFOLIO WITH MY GROUP

The ELP has been developed for use with language learners of different ages, different countries, different contexts and different purposes. The ELP is a personal document of a learner. In this document learners of all ages can record their language learning and cultural experience at school or outside school. A learner using the ELP takes over ownership of his learning process. He develops strategies to plan, monitor and evaluate his own learning. Thus learning it becomes more efficient and effective and very motivating.

The ELP has two functions: reporting and pedagogical.

·         Reporting because it shows the abilities in relation to foreign languages. Its purpose is not replacing the official certificates, but to supplement them by presenting additional information.

·         Pedagogical because it's also intended to be used as a means of making the language learning process more transparent to learners, helping them to develop their capacity for reflection, self-assessment and for assume more and more responsibility for their own learning.

So, the ELP is designed to support these four aims of the Council of Europe’s key political:

·         The preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity.

·         The promotion of linguistic and cultural tolerance.

·         The promotion of plurilingualism.

·         Education for democratic citizenship. 

All this that I have explained is based on the advantages that have the European language portfolio.

The disadvantages that could have are:

·         If you want to use the ELP in your class or your school, you have to train teachers and students in order to use it correctly.

·         It isn't suitable for all levels, so you have to adapt it to the characteristics of your pupil’s level.

·         The students could be frustrated if they do the same effort but their progress is not as big as their classmate’s progress. Comparisons are awful.

Finally to give the end to this post I’m going to do my conclusion about this European Language Portfolio, is a very effective and positive tool for children because they can evaluate their own learning so this motivate them because they see their progress, also helps them to record their personal language experience and achieve personal goals.

Personally I don’t think this ELP have any disadvantages because is a good tool for the students. Maybe teachers find it so difficult taking charge of the levels and do it at class is a little bit difficult because of time and usually there are a large number of students at class.