Bilingual Education delays the learning of "Conocimiento del Medio."

This article is based on a study carried out by Antonio Cabrales, Jesús M. Carro y Brindusa Anghel. Specifically, they have focused on the community of Madrid and they have come to the conclusion that they devote many hours to the subject of English and not so many to "Conocimiento del Medio" in which is included History, Natural Science and Geography.
The other two elementary subjects, mathematics and language, are taught in Spanish, mastering them to perfection, nevertheless, this study has discoverd for example, that children are able to recite in English  the oseo system, but they do not know its translation in Spanish.
Here, we upload the article's link if you want to read it. We hope you like it as much as we do!

http://www.elmundo.es/espana/2013/12/18/52b1bcda22601d3a6d8b457f.html

References;

SANMARTIN R. O. (2013). La educación bilingüe en inglés ralentiza el aprendizaje de Conocimiento del Medio. EL MUNDO. Retrieved from http://www.elmundo.es/espana/2013/12/18/52b1bcda22601d3a6d8b457f.html

Toothpicks

After a theoretical class about toothpicks and the different uses that we can give. From to remove food of the teeth, to use them for the food... For groups, we use our imagination to create one or you figure several with the toothpicks.
At first we did not know what to do because in 5 or ten minutes you have to do a thing that you have never done before. We try to make a ship with the toothpicks and a rubber hair but the final result was more similar to an hedgehod than a ship. For that we decided to make a hedgehodin a ship that we finally get using scotch tape.
Here you have our work but another group crate in the floor a Eiffel Tower with tourists, a starts in a paper, a house...

Boxes of life

I wanted to talk in this post about the lectura "boxes of life." It is because I think that could be an interested idea to work with our children with the intention to create some bonds between them because they will be schoolmates, maybe, for a long period of time.
This project came up with a group of pre-school in which there were a big diversity of cultures and grow the needed to créate a new form to make that all of them know about the others and the styles of life that they have. It is a useful methods to make children more tolerant with the others and to learn about the experiences besides to make new friends.
Through this boxes that content very different stories, it is starting to appear new inquisitiveness relations with the life of another children. All of them can learn by themselves and not through a book, thanks of the inquisitiveness that arise from the different lectures, they learn about the themes that the teacher have to gave according to the syllabus of all the subjects but in a more dynamic way.
I think tthat this activity is really interested also for the teacher because she or he know more about their pupils and can make activities that interested they a llot or maybe give the clases attending to the things that they really like.
We can do also another types of activities seems like this to work with the children. I think that tecaher have to know that 'what we learned with emotion is learned better. Neuroscience has shown that emotion is an excellent ingredient for cooking meaningful learning.' (Sánchez, E., 2016). It is not the same when you learn something that you considered boring tan another that you like it. For that we considere vital think always abour the concerns, interest... of the children.

Sánchez, E. (2016). Estrategias metodológicas innovadoras. En Sánchez, J., Ruiz, J. y Gómez, M. (Eds). Tecnologías de la Comunicación y la información aplicadas a la educación (pp. 161-173). Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, S.A.

Why did we choose this categories?

We divided our school experience in five categories.
The first is methodology: our exams were tradictional, question-answer. For them, we usually studied learn by heart, even nowdays. The marks could be qualitatives or quantitatives. Over the years this changed, the government gave us laptops and we used to do different activities, more participative, interactive, creative... In which team work was guaranteed.
The following is attitudes: on the one hand, we find good memories like the moments that we lived in the school playing and helping our classmates. On the other hand, we also appreciate bad memories, because some of us cried when we went to school, we didn't like to wear uniform, and we also had strick teachers, despite being demanding, they were supportive and attentive.
The third one is extracurricular activities: it was our favourite category and the most that we missed. In it, we have included the school trips, the Andalucia's day, the First Comunion, the End of School...
The penultimate is relationships: if we compare when we were at school with present situation, we can see some changes. For example at school, we were closer to teachers, students who were in another classes were our enemies... However, we don't have any relation with our teachers nowdays and there are less conflicts. In both, we have lived funny moments and we have made good friendships.
The last one is types and stages: although all of us have gone to different schools, I mean public school, private school and public supported by the state; all have received the same education being the stages also the same: preschool, primary school, secundary school...

School Experience.

First of all we decided to divide some words of the list in five groups. The first one is methodology where we can find for example the exams, marks, the homework, traditional methods, participative methods, learn by heart… the second group is attitudes, where we can point out the uniform, the creativity or the good and bad memories… The next group is extracurricular activities where we can highlight for  example the school trips, the peace day, the Andalucía's day, that is to say that they celebrate the principal days during a year… Another group is the relationships where we can find friendships, games, keeping in touch with teacher, love… and the last group, where we can point out the public school, the public school supported by the state  and  the nursery school is types and stages. In this group we can also find the differences between preschool, primary school, secondary school…

Once we made the groups, we decided to represent this idea in a labyrinth. Why have we used this idea? Because we think because we think that acquire all these skills is a long and complex road. We are also agree

 that all these skills are joined among themselves, that is to say that they complement each other. Although we also have to say that there are ways without exit, which don´t lead to any side.

At the end of the road, we have decided to put school. In our opinion the school is one of the most important aspects in the child´s life, because it is where the children  develop their  first skills and where they establish the first social relationships. We would return to the school if we had the chance, because it was one of the nicest stages of our life and it marked our life and even our personality.

Finnish's education vs Spanish's education

 

     With the video that I have uploaded, I realized why Finland is the country with the best education system and therefore, the hard work that Spain has to do to be able to get a similar level.

     There, teachers have a lot of freedom about how to do their classes and what material or facility use, here we have to ask for permission if we want to change the usual classroom for another different space. Our educational system is based on the Traditional Method, totally rigid, with a passive role of the student in which error is not allowed, however in Finland the student is the protagonist of the teaching-learning process, expresses his/her needs, risks making mistakes and correcting his own productions. In addition, they give their classes in a fun way, with games and using the technologies (videos, comics, music…), so we need to leave the monotonous and boring classes aside, where the teacher imparts the lesson and the students ask questions and do hundreds of exercises, and introduce the technologies and new methods funnier, although personally I think that this, little by little, is taking place. For Finns is more important to learn to think than to memorize.  I question everyday if a note is so important as to get to define your future, and although I think that it is  horrible, our government has a different point of view. Finally, and not less important, on the contrary, I think that is where the biggest problem of this country is, is that in Finland teachers are very respected and valued for their profession, nevertheless in Spain the degree of education is so undervalued, up to the point of being attacked by students or parents of them, without understanding that although the education must start at home, is supplemented by the one they receive in school, and therefore by their teachers.