O Pelouro - inclusion and diversity

Every student is unique in it's own way with different personalities and individual needs.

Heterogeneity and diversity of learning are a reality in schools and colleges. The growing diversity poses challenges to educational institutions and teachers, but also provides opportunities for designing inclusive learning opportunities and environments. In order to take into account the different personal dispositions, learning approaches and learning needs, a culture of individual support with inclusion-oriented forms of learning is required for all learners, which enables equal and self-determined participation in the educational process. The task of the educational institutions is to support and promote all learners.

A good example therefor is the “O Pelouro”- school. The school's system is different from other schools.

Here there is no hour of mathematics or language, but of course these subjects and many others are learned. As well they work on social, relational and emotional expression.

Teresa Ubeira and her husband, Juan Llauder, founded this centre for the integration of children with psychological and emotional problems.

It enables all children to get to know each other and can contribute to natural and relaxed interaction. In that way children can learn from each other, understand each other and support each other.

Montessori's method.

During this week, our teacher has mentioned the Montessori Method of Education, which was developed by Maria Montessori. This method is a child-centered type of education which is based on the observation of children and it has been used for over 100 years in many parts of the world.

The Montessori method views the child as the one who takes the initiative for learning. It attempts to develop children physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively.

This kind of education has surprised as, we think that it sums up all the aspects that a good education should have. During our research, we have found that The Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and the American Montessori Society (AMS) cite these elements as essential for the children education:

• Mixed-age classrooms.
• Student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options.
• Uninterrupted blocks of work time, ideally three hours.
• Students learn concepts from working with materials rather than by direct instruction.
• Specialized educational materials often made out of natural, aesthetic materials such as wood rather than plastic
• A thoughtfully prepared environment where materials are organized by subject area, and are appropriate in size for the child.
• Freedom within limits.
• A trained Montessori teacher who follows the child and is highly experienced in observing the individual child's characteristics, tendencies, talents, and abilities.

 

VOICES OF THE FIELD

VOICES OF THE FIELD: UNIT 3 ACCOUNTABILITY- TEACHING QUALITY EVALUATION:

  This video shows us a brief reflexion from different experts on the matter of teaching development and the different factors that influence it such as: the fact of diversity of teaching methods and their effectiveness in each education center, collaboration between personnel, a critical perspective on one self in order to improve our skills and influence, the wish for learning on educator and student alike, the different variables that influence our class´ flow, and so on.

   In general, it is shared between the many experts that teaching development is a matter of student and teacher putting their cards on the table and giving it their all in order to develop an optimal teaching environment, an environment which we are but scratching, meaning that there is much more than what meets the eye, a higher cloud of possibilities that we must take into account for the future education, for everyone's wellbeing.

COMMENT ON THE VIDEO "SMOKE"

Related to the video “Smoke”, we can extract different morals, being these

relevant in the teaching field.

Thus, analyzing rigorously each part of the video, we can notice all the meanings it hides.

But, first of all, we will describe the two key points of the video from our point of view:

First, when the man who is seeing the project notices that all the pictures are apparently the

same. It is because all the pictures were taken in the same place, at the same time and from

the same angle (from a corner).

However, as the author’s Project said, they are not the same. As sun rises each morning

everything is different from the rest of the days: the temperature is not the same, people are

not the same, people’s  clothes are not the same, the illumination is not the same….
Everyday we notice any change, however small it may be. Thus, a place that seems to have
no movement, no change it is totally the opposite, but unfortunately society doesn’t realize it.

Linked to this idea of change, we see primordial to mention the Heraclito's change theory. This greek philosopher established that everything is dynamic, everything becomes (stop being one thing to be another) so nothing is permanent in reality. He explains it with the following example: “nobody can bathe twice in the same river, because the second time we bathe in it the water is no longer the same", we can no longer call an object that is now different (the river) with the same name.

Then, another key point of the video is when the album’s creator told the other man to
pass the pages slowly and to look each photograph with attention, without dismissing
any detail.

                                    

What is the aim of creating the album? It is clear that what the man pursues is to reflect this idea: “the world is constantly changing and we reject any sort of change without valuing the details of our daily life apart from going too fast and thinking that we will live forever”.

                   

Afterwards, if we transfer this meaning to the teaching field we can conclude that as

everything is in constant change, as we said before, we have to observe slowly and carefully

each detail. We should pay attention to the several problems that students can present as well as

as noticing any change in their behavior and attitude. Sometimes we don’t take it into account

and when we are going to realize this kind of conducts it is too late (e.g. bullying).

        

In conclusion, we would say that in order to contribute to this change, as teachers we should
innovate in every lesson and, by this way, we will reach motivation in our students. 

 

The report PISA.

In one of our most recent sessions, we have been informed on the existence of a group known

as the OECD, or Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an interesting corporation formed by no less than 36 countries in constant process for developing stimulation for economic progress and world trade. One of its most important projects is a report, so to speak, this report is called PISA and it consists on a worldwide study relating to each countries' students' grades in areas such as reading, mathematics and science, consequently adding each country in a scaled list, from which the very first is Denmark, thanks to its dynamic perception of education and its way of putting it to practice.

NEW APPROACHES TO OUR EDUCATION’S METHODOLOGY.

Related to the last week's lesson, we have found this video which shows a different way of teaching. This brand new kind of education could be quite beneficial to our children's education due to the fact that it makes learning far more enjoyable for the younger ages. In addition, they are given the chance to discover new values and experiences as it is shown in the video. This state of the art kindergarten has reminded us of the eye-catching video we have recently seen in class relating to Denmark's rainforest kindergartens, which could lead us to reconsider our vision about early childhood education.

                                 

When we think about Kindergartens, we usually imagine a classroom where kids learn how to paint, read, write and play with their classmates in a safe and controlled environment. That's what everyone is used to, right? 

For this reason, the really different approach shown in this video could look a bit scary for some people. Instead of sitting in a classroom, the kids who attend this Danish kindergarten climb tall trees, use knives to create their own stakes and learn from the nature around them. 

Currently, students may get used to constant comfort, be given what they want at each moment and are constantly protected from everything that may initially be considered as a threat. However, with this system, parents prevent children from learning values such as caution and responsibility, from being able to act and decide for themselves. As wild and out of control as this method may sound, it could be beneficial for our children, since education is not just about teaching children how to read or do calculations; it should also be about teaching them important skills and values (e.g. autonomy or maturity) they'll need later in their lives.

We would like to finish this post saying that creativity and innovation in the way of educating children is a key aspect to consider. Making all kids repeat things over and over again in the same way is not real education. The topic about the importance of creativity in young people is covered in a really interesting way by Helen E. Buckley on her story “The Little Boy”: 

"If everyone made the same picture,

And used the same colors,

How would we know who made what,

And which was which?"

Are we "Alike"?

Amongst all the topics seen at class, one which especially caught our attention and was worthy to praise, was the video titled “Alike”. This award-winning short film tells the story of a kid and his father, who live in a boring and monotonous society. It is impressive how this film is able to give us goosebumps without the necessity of words and where the location is not a flat in a cosmopolitan city such as New York, but an universal place, where colour is not a racial distinctive feature but a mirror of the characters’ feelings. 

Such an accurate title for this short film, the word “alike” means very similar, similarity which is found between dad’s and child’s environments, work and school, respectively. At first glance, you can easily be mistaken into thinking that these two worlds are rather different, but nothing further from the truth, this dichotomy offers us a wide range of ideas to be discussed.

While the sun rises to start a new day, some people may not notice this marvelous moment because they are subsumed in our society’s dynamism, where there is not room for things such as art. Some people may wonder why there isn’t room for art, the answer is TIME!, all of us  have turned into the White Rabbit from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".

“Alike” can be interpreted as a symbolic vindication to the arts and to freedom itself to express our own passion in life. The child acquires colour (i.e. happiness) thanks to the music of a violinist, to his creative drawings at class, to the opportunity of expressing himself through art, as the father feels restored with the simple gesture of his child’s hug. However, there is a turning point in the story where the child doesn’t rebel to norms but in doing so he/she loses his/her bliss, his/her yearning to play, to be curious, to experiment, and he/she ends up being in a world totally identical to the world of adults.

All of these dichotomies provide several relevant reflections concerning to our current education that we, as future teachers, will have to consider. Furthermore, this film has been the idoneous first step to gather some key ideas for our journey, some of them are; imagination and education are not opposites, the feature of adapting to our student’s profile is vital, motivation is everything for achieving great things, we should be a source of inspiration and overall when motivation and inspiration are difficult to achieve, we should be able to offer a rainbow of alternatives.

 LET’S START THIS ADVENTURE! :D

Here we are!

This blog is for our subject called Educational Planning which is in the first year of Primary Education, in the University of Murcia and we are part of the bilingual group. The aim of this blog is to comment on the topics which are discussed in our class and providing our own reflections to them. In this post we are going to introduce ourselves as a first contact, we hope that you will enjoy reading our posts and make you learn new things.

And remember! From small beginnings come great things!