5/05/2017

Ideal School Reflections (Marta)


First of all, I would like to say that all the groups made a great work in spite of being under pressure because there were a lot of concepts to explain and maybe less time that the wanted. So, for that it is necessary to congratulate every group.
 Now I am going to make a reflection about each group particularly:

    Education league

This group start by explained all of us their particular commitment in the group and after watch the video I think that all of them made their part and finally the had an excellent video.
I think that the video was original and quite good, also they explained so well all the concepts such as context, methodology, etc.
From my point of view they could have improve the explanation of how they want the school to be but above this I think that they made a great job.
Congratulation for each member.

    Los gochos

First, congratulations for the great work. I think that the video was so nice and that the concepts were quite good explained. Maybe some parts weren’t explained and were just only mentioned.
From my point of view parts such as the skills, the coexistence model and the conflict resolution were very good explained.
The methodology could have been explained a little bit more but above this the video was so good, so congratulations.

    Fernweh

First of all, congratulations for the great job you made. I really like the video and I think that you explained almost all so well.
I think that the methodology and the use of ICTs was so well explained in the video.
Something I missed is a deeply explanation of the conflicts resolution model and maybe why they decided to design that model of school but above this I think that they made an excellent job, so congratulations.

    Travelchers

Firstly, congratulations for the excellent job. I think that the video was so complete, maybe a little bit long and some parts weren’t well organised but above all this I think that the video is quite well.
From my point of view the better part was methodology and also the skills and the values.
The mock-up was also a great part of the project.
To sum up, I think that the work was really good so congratulations to each member of the group.

    Ana Rallo and Marta Alonso

The first point to make is that although they had problems with their group and finally they separated, a strong point in their favour is that they had the project on time.
I think that they made a good job working against the clock and that the result they had is great. The thing I liked the most was the mock-up and the explanation of why they decided to distribute the school like that.
All concepts in general were well explained but for example the economic situation wasn’t explain so well.
But above this, I think that their ideal school was incredible and the only thing I can say is: CONGRATULATIONS GIRLS!
  
    Contrasters crew

About this group, I think that they achieve finish it but they had more time than the other groups and in the video there were some parts that could be improved before the presentation.
I think that they explained well some parts and other were missing or bad explained, the things that they explained in a good way were for example the context and the leadership but methodologies from my point of view weren’t well explained. Another thing to improve is the organization of the video.
A good point was the school design and the explanation of why they decided to create a school in Cabanillas.

In conclusion, I think that they could improve some things but at least they could finish their project and present their video. 
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Ideal school reflections (Blanca)

Educational league:
First of all I must say congratulations to this team not only because of the effort that they made doing the video, but with the fact that the really look as a team, as a great and united one. They all had clear objetives and task to achieve and it obviosly help them to work in a better wat. This is something really important in cooperative learning, and from my point of view needs to be valuated in a possitive way.

Talking about the video I would say that the main idea of it is great and that is really creative. The fact of the roles of teachers and students in a class helps a lot at following the concepts that they wanted to talk about.

It is a really complete video, with clear explanations, references, examples… (and of course I had to mention that the drawings of it are amazing!), the methodology of the school (constructivism one) was really well explained and argued, and the idea of an inclusive school is really sucessful.

But the only thing I could say as a constructive criticism is that I miss a more detailed context part, with an explanation of the number of students they would have in their ideal school, how would it be profitable and deeper explanations in some aspects of their ideal school such as values.

Apart from that there is nothing more to say, well done Educational League, keep going!!!

Ana and Marta:
Being concious about the fact that Ana and Marta had some troubles with their group and that they ended up being separate and with it they have to start again from the very beggining and that they finally got their work on time as the rest of the other groups, I would say they did a very nice work.
To start, I would say that they have proposed a very coherent and nice school. The methodologies that they wanted to work on with were well explained and with good autor references.
Tthey proposed good solutions to face different problems situations such as the “Semáforo” project against bullying.
And something that I specially like was the values that they pretend to have in their ideal school, fosting critical thinking so students may have their own ideas in a peacful enviornment.

Some aspects that could have been improved are the fact that Marta speaks sometimes very fast and it is difficult to follow her, and that they could have made the video in a more dinamic way to make it more catchy because I got a bit distracted ocasionally.
And also the structure of the video as sometimes I had the feeling that they were repeting things because it wasn´t complete organized.
I would like to finish this reflexion mentioning their real school model, it was very well explained and I really loved the “3 little pigs”methaphor.
You did a great work girls! Keep working this way!!!

Los Gochos:
Having a good actitude at working time is essential, and that is a really strong point to take in to account in this group.
It seems that they worked a lot, in a very unificated way, and that it´s clearly reflected on their project.
First of all I would start saying that I got a bit confused when I heard Miguel talking in Spanish and the rest of them in English, but at the end of the video they explained why they have decided to do it that way so I finally understood it.
I would highlight the fact that their video is really a complete, but I kind of miss some explanations of some theoretical facts that were mentioned on the video and that I didn´t know before as the “Waldorf method”. Anyway everything is very well explained on their video guide so It is really helpful.
I think that is the only thing I could tell them to improve, because the rest of the work was really well done. They include lots of stadistics, references, datas… they explain in a really good way ICT and how to use them in a class and the different materials they could work with. Leadership was well explained as well, they talked about really nice and creative ideas such as having animals in the school to foment a better relation with the environment…
And of course it is worht mentioning the super cool end of the video, a muscial explaining ideas and values of their school!! I really had a great time with that part of the video,
Los Gochos you rock!!!!

Fernweh:
I want to start this reflexion talking about how much I liked they way that they explained why their school was named like that, and with it, the definition of Sinergia.
Their video was very clear, they did great explanations about the values they want to teach with in their school and the importance of citizenship and the different methodologies that they want to put in to practice, convining constructivism and working in projects theories with the multiple intelligences one.
Another possitive fact to highlight is the idea of a bidirectional education, which it was really well explained.
Some aspects that they could have improved are the dinamic of the video because sometime it got monotonous and maybe having a deeper explanations in some aspects such as the spaces and structure of the building (althought the 3D model of the school was nice) or solutions programs to face bad situations as bullying…
As a final conclusion I would say they did a nice work, it is not difficult to see the big effort they made doing this project and how much they have developed their skills as a team.
Congratulations Fernweh!!!

Travelchers:
Fromm y point of view, this video was especially difficult to do it because of the fact that they used toys in different scenarios and that meant that they had to build lot of different decorations.
I really liked the fact that they were really realistic with their objectives and personal commitments so I think that is something we should take in to account.
They did a very nice relationship between the name of the group and the beginning of the video, so that made it catchy from the very first minute, althought it is true that at the end it turned up being a bit boring becuase it was really long. But in the other hand, the fact that subtitles were included was really helpful to follow it.
They explained in a very clear way and with lots of practical examples their methodologies and cooperative learning (explaining the jigsaw method).
They also did a nice work explaining the leadership and promoting good references of different authours in whom they were basing their theories.
The only thing I would say as a costructivism critism is that as I said before, it was too long, which made us getting lost and a bit boring, so I would recommend you to summarize in a better way next time!
Good job Travelchers!!!!

Contrasters crew:
This group made a great job explaining the context (especially the economic part).
At the time they were explaining their ideais they included different references and resources of authours so that is great.
The fact that the wanted to have an inclusive school was really well explained and with it their decisión of not having a Bilingual programm to help inmigrants students to adapt to our educational system, culture and language in a better way.
They also explained nice possible projects about people with learning dissabilities, the importance of ICT…
A really nice part of the video that I really want to highliht is the one of the values, as it is really well explained and argueed.
But in the other hand, I would say that they need to organize themselves in a better way becuase the structure of the video (as the information is a bit mixed) is not well built.
And I also think that the fact that they had more time to develop their job should also be considerated, becuase althought they had the same problem as Ana and Marta because they were in the same team at the beginnig, they did it two weeks after the girls and so, they had more opportunities to improve it.
Despite this their work was very well done, I see that they are learning how to work in a cooperative way and that is great!!





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5/04/2017

Ideal School Reflections - Nacho

Education League

First of all I must congratulate for the realization of the video by draws. Many of the aspects such us physical organization are very clear because of that. I guess it has been a lot of work but it’s really good. Fine artists Education League people!

Focusing on the content, I consider that the simulation of a philosophical lesson about ‘ideal school’ it has been a good resource to introduce all the topics needed in an easy and comprehensive way even for people not connected with our studies. We can see this when they talk about social constructivism or collaborative learning and put examples like the orchard they do cooperatively. In the same way they introduce theoretical sources and mention real experiences like the school Calasancio of Almazán or Ramiro Solans of Zaragoza which show how to connect theory and practice in the real world.

Other strong point of Education League work is when they talk about the implication of the families in the school life and the ways to promote it, they are conscious of the importance of that participation. As we know, if parents are connected with their kid’s school they learn more and the absenteeism decrease.

On the other hand I miss a clearer explanation about the context, they mention it and point a couple of challenges but I think it’s the weakest part of the video. Adding to that I consider that the explanations and theory mentions could be deeper to establish all the facts of their ideal school better but in a ten minutes video it’s almost impossible.

So, overall, I think it’s a really good job, well planned and done, that reach all the items needed and shows the reflection about theory that our Education League peers have done. Congratulations again my friends!!


Los Gochos

The beginning is very attractive with the opinions of children about their ideal school, also the way of presenting the “ideal school” as a news program is very engaging. I think they cover all the items related to a school and do it in a deep way like methodologies, leadership and coeducation or school relations to mention some of them.

I think is very interesting what they say about “connectivism” as a new theory of learning which, according to the video, can be defined as 21st Century constructivism connected with technology. This is new for me and encourages me to further research. Furthermore, the video it’s a good example of what they promote, make connections to learn, as they included information from other subjects from this and last semester. Very well done! Also I consider very interesting what they say about coeducation context and the solutions they propose to face this real challenge.

Finally I would like to stress how Los Gochos highlight key information with subtitles, the references they have done to authors that support their ideas and the images that show in a realistic way their ideas. I think these help us to follow the information and understand better their school.

So… I think it’s a great job that worth a second and third view. Clap, clap!


Fernweh

Fernweh partners have shown us their “Sinergia’s School” project which, as the name, it’s more than the sum of individual elements and that’s the way of education they want to promote. In this sense they have explained quite well the values that school promotes, the way of leadership, the methodology they will follow and the importance of the involvement of parents in the school community and learning process of their children. But I think in some of these explanations there is a lack of “how” they will implement their ideas (I think this has been a common characteristics in almost all our videos, we have explained what we want but don’t how this would affect the daily activity in our schools – I guess we would learn that ahead and this ideal school project has been sort of start point). In the same way (and like us) I miss some references and authors to support their ideas.

On the contrary they have been very realistic and accurate talking about the implement of ICT in school trough an agreement with “bq” company, I appreciate that this is something real that we can develop once we become teachers. Also facts and figures they used and the model of the school gives us the same sense of reality. Finally I would like to emphasize the use of school playgrounds for all the community in the non-teaching ours, this helps to develop links with the school so everybody would feel a part of it.

I consider Fernweh have done a good project and I have liked very much the production of the talented ilustrator of the team. Congratulations!


Travelchers

Travelchers’ video has been a revolution to me for the way of teaching they have shown us. I consider the “time for learning” methodology they promote based on Design for Change to create meaningful learning connected with real life. This will encourage students to develop it and to learn the goals they want to achieve such us responsibility, diversity, empathy, confidence and self-esteem. I think their ideas are very well explained, sometimes too much, and connected with theory and main authors in all the fields the talk about. They have done a really good research to develop this project.

In the same way, family’ involvement in the school life is well explained and its importance emphasized and also is the way to promote a friendly environment to encourage learning. The idea they promote change completely the traditional way of teaching and their proposals sound very interesting. I think that Ken Robinson would like a lot this school.

On the other hand I see two limitations to Travelchers’ project. First I don’t know if it’s possible to develop such a curriculum in Spanish education system. I don’t know if the suppression of subject it’s allowed or not. Our peers said that it’s possible in the same way that some school work by projects instead of subjects. And second, I consider that many teachers would be necessary to implement this way of learning. Also they said that 60 students would work together under the supervision of three teachers… I don’t know if that can work, on the contrary I think that less students the better to let them develop all their potential. But, just the making of these questions shows the great job Travelchers has done because they push us to want to learn more… Just as their school. Congratulations, it worth the effort you have done!!


Ana Rallo and Marta Alonso

This new group is the result of the split of a big group which is a failure of all the members involved. But things happen and the new group has done a big amount of work in a short time so for that congratulations but I think they have had things easier because they are friends, not just peers, so their relation give them a strength others don’t have and that must be considered to be fair with the other half team.

About the video I must say that general items are good introduced by tittles that help to know what they are talking about. Good.  They explain very well the sociological context connected with violence and bullying and the ways to face it but no so deeply other context as economic or location of the school. In the same way they encourage family participation and the contact between teachers and parents through new technologies and I consider it’s more effective doing face to face when possible.

I think they have explained very good learning model and methodologies they will use in their ideal school. In these fields I would like to highlight the great idea, for a hiking lover, of “monterapia” to let children be in contact with the natural environment and the emphasis they put on assemblies done by students or parents (or even all with teachers) to work with emotions, relations on school and to make learning more significant.

In contrast they don’t talk too much about values, leadership or ICT’s which are mentioned but not too much developed. Besides that they have done a really good model of their ideal school and apparently have spent quite a lot of time doing it and I don’t think if it worth all the effort but is a nice piece of architecture so congratulations for that.

Overall I consider that they have done a good job and show us the importance they put on methodologies and learning model to design a school so consequently they are the strongest points of their project along with the programs to eradicate violence. Well done!

Contrasters Crew

First of all I should congratulation to you for finish the job, well done. I appreciate that you didn’t say anything about the split of the group; if you said something about that it would felt as an excuse more than anything else because you have had more time than the rest of the class to finish the project. Furthermore, I think that the fact that you are only three people has helped you to clarify the project, goals to achieve and tasks to do it and has impeded to avoid responsibilities. I hope you have learnt some lessons with this project and the problems you have had.

Talking about you “Utopia Learning” video I must say that I liked very much the model of your school and the way to present it to us. I think is a nice idea for small schools to have classrooms around the library, connected to others and with doors to outside. I only miss the distribution of tables in spike to have a complete picture of a nice school. In the same way I consider that context, values, leadership, use o ICT and the way to prevent bullying are well explained and supported by theory.

On the other hand there aren’t clear explanations about the methodology you will use and how you will implement it, you just talk about learning by doing and cooperative learning but didn’t mention how you would do it. In the same way, It’s not clear how families will be connected with the life of the school apart what you say that parents will be in touch with the center to avoid bullying.

Finally I consider very helpful the subtitles and diagrams you put in the video that help a lot to follow your explanations. In the other hand, sometimes the editing was confused and with a better organization items will be clearer. Overall a good job done that will help to you to learn about yourselves.


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4/26/2017

IDEAL SCHOOL REFLECTIONS (ISA)

First of all I would like to mentioned that every single group have done a fantastic job even though it was a really hard and long task. All of us have thought different ideas which could be, in a future, excellent proposals to carry out in schools.

Well, I am going to write my reviews of the rest of the groups.

EDUCATIONAL LEAGUE:
At the beginning of the presentation they showed us all their personal commitments and the results of what and how they carried out them. It was an idea that our group forgot to introduce in the presentation, and they tried to show to the rest of the class that every single person has done the same effort and task of the project. What they showed us was that they did an equal assignment. 

It was a very good idea to focus the project on what students think about what it is an ideal school in their opinions. At the beginning ,they start mention  the idea of introduce new cultures (multiculturalism) and the factor of the immigration which nowadays it´s an important point in the society. 

They mention the structure of the schools and also of the class, where students would be located in groups where they could work together involving everyone and working better. 

About learning models and methodologies they talked about social constructivism that was developed by Vygotsky. It said that students construct meaning through the interactions and the meaningful learning is create when individuals are engaged in social activities. They also talk in the video about cooperative learning and inclusive education, which both ideas where studied in class.

They also have  introduced in their project one interesting aspect that we have learnt in psychology. Resilience that it is the capacity of people to face difficult situations of their lives. 

An important aspect that Educational League talk about it in the video is the idea of leadership. They explain that there are different types of leadership like authoritarian, the “laissez faire”, and the democratic. 

Finally I think it was a good idea to mention a coexistence plan (KiVa) for dealing with bullying at school, the participation of families with a project called “Entre Todos” and also the use of ICT´s for helping students with disabilities.

Some things that they can improve for next projects are for example to deepen explaining how and why they want the school in one or another way. 


Congratulations for doing a really good job! :)
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4/25/2017

Ideal School Reflections (Angélica)

Education League

I really enjoyed Education League’s video. Regarding the positive facts about their project I would like to mention:


  •          The idea of the team planning because they used it to organise themselves in order to give each member of the group a similar amount of work and to keep up to date with this project. We kind of did a similar team planning but we didn’t think of including it in our presentation, though.
  •          About the video, I really liked the drawings which resembled each of the members of Education League and how well-drawn they were. It was quite entertaining.
  •          I also enjoyed the drawings of the structure of their school with open classrooms and surrounded by nature.
  •          About the model and methodology that they would use, it was clear they wanted to base their school in constructivism, cooperative learning and inclusive education.
  •          They also mentioned the connection of their school with real life experiences. This connection helps in developing critical attitude, teamwork, creativity and resilience which are useful skills in order to face adversities of life and getting adapted to them.
  •          They also wanted to include different cultures and religions in their school and then they explained very well the kinds of leadership, choosing the democratic leadership as the one they wanted for their school.
  •          About the coexistence plan, they choose KiVa which I think is the nicest way of dealing with bullying that we have seen. They explained that students and teachers collaborate in order to stop abusive practices and that they also wanted to have peer assistance.
  •          The values they promoted were self-motivation and social and emotional learning, including the approach and participation of families with the Learning Communities project called “Entre Todos”.
  •         Regarding ICTs, they wanted to have all sorts of digital devices such as laptops, projectors, tablets in order to help children with learning disabilities, and different kinds of apps and software, too.

    I also think that there are some things that they could have improved such as:
  •         Focusing more in defining how they want their school to be.
  •         Probably being more specific in some aspects such as the budgets or the values they want to promote, I feel like the topics are not deep enough and that they have missed a few things.
  •         Although I think that the theory is worked and is clear, they need to go deeply in all of these subjects in order to explain and define better their ideal school.
  •        And also, adding subtitles to the video because sometimes we couldn’t hear well what they said (but I’ve seen that they solved this later, so it’s okay).
    Overall, I think they did a really good job and that all of them worked hard in order to have this fantastic project done. Congratulations, Education League!
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Ana and Marta


First of all, I have to mention that Ana and Marta did a great job considering their team split and they had less time to prepare everything.

About their presentation and the video, I would highlight:

  •          The model that they made. It was great for supporting the explanation of the structure of the school and how they would organise the different facilities and classrooms.
  •          The fact that they talked about the violent nature of our society and how to solve them by using games, group dynamics, the support of the superior courses and encouraging non-violence and tolerance environments amongst students. Also, the use of the app called Bully Semáforo which uses a questionnaire to find out if a child has been bullied.
  •          The fact of the emotional issues that can be treated through peer assistance and through the book collection “I am valued, I am emotion” by Begoña Ibarola, or the use of Emotiblocks for preschool, this shows that they have searched deeply about this issue
  •        The Learning Model based in an inclusive education, with their motto “Somos Union” showed as an “U” in their main building.
  •        Children as agents of change and the creation of a community with students, teachers and families.
  •        The use of cooperative groups in order to work in projects, and how they will develop it in the classrooms (e.g. the tutor decides which role has each student). And the evaluation methods: self-assesment, coevaluation and evaluation of the teacher.
  •        The “learning-by-doing” method applied in a natural environment, in order to learn real life facts. To emphasize this, they would use books such as “Monterapia” or their ecological orchard with the donation of crops to associations.
  •        The Multiple Intelligences theory by Gardner, in order to work in other skills and their students’ needs.
  •        The fact that they wanted to introduce the element of surprise in their classes in order to stimulate students’ memory.
  •        The methodology that they used, with cooperative learning so that students learn how to work together, joining tables 4 by 4, for example. And the constructivism model, where students can investigate and discover by themselves.
  •        The bilingual project to promote the knowledge of the English language, taught in different subjects, with the help of native assistance.


I would also like to mention some things that could have been improved:

  •                   Maybe the organization of the information, since sometimes it felt like it was a bit mixed. For example, they talked about values such as tolerance when talking about their coexistence and anti-bullying program. However, it was hard for every single group to organise all the information that we were given, so this is completely understandable.
  •                        They could have added some subtitles or maybe charts in the video in order to have a better understanding of the whole video. Sometimes it was really hard for me to understand what they were saying, and, in fact, I watched the video multiple times to get it.
  •                         In some parts they could have gone deeper, but it is also true that they were only 2 people.
  •              I think that their strong point was the organization and structure of the school and that maybe it took them a very long time to build the model, which could have been solved by a drawing instead. However, the model is also very nice and well-done and I also think that each group has a point that is stronger, in their case, the building.


Overall, I really liked it and I think that they made a really great effort in order to have everything prepared for the day of the presentations. Plus, I really liked the model! Well done, Ana and Marta!





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Los Gochos

I really liked the video of this group. I had the feeling that they made a big effort in making the video and also that they have a great union between all of the members. I want to point out some things that called my attention and that I liked:

  • The fact that they mentioned the four pillars of education by Jacques Delors: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be.
  • About the methodologies, they took into account aspects like the curriculum as a questionable guide, the individuality of each child or the multiple intelligences.
  • The methodology is based in a democratic environment and they want to raise curiosity in every student. They also mentioned that knowledge is nurtured through nodes based in a theory called connectivism.
  • I liked the methodology based in working by projects that allows students to be self-directed and to become creators instead of passive recipients in order that they create their own knowledge.
  • Something that called my attention was the balloon game, which is a relaxation technique that they would use to relax their students and prepare them for the learning lessons, as well as connecting with the classroom and their classmates
  • They based their methodology in the Waldrof method.
  • I also liked the fact that they would do meetings with the school community to talk about the best diet for their school, which is based in the Mediterranean food.
  • About leadership, they mention that they have a distributed and pedagogic leadership, and describe how the headmaster is. He shares responsibility, promotes a collaborative environment, uses realistic strategies and is involved in pedagogical decisions.
  • I really liked the fact that they mentioned the promotion of coeducation and that they supported it with facts and figures (female unemployment and salary rates).
  • The role of families in the school is quite important and the do periodic meetings with them. They also keep up with the teacher’s professional development and make sure that there is a continuous improvement.
  • They also want to develop the emotional intelligences in their students, even using the Pygmalion effect to improve the self-esteem of them.
  • Parents are encouraged to participate in excursions, workshops and shared reading.
  • The classroom organization is very well explained, which are bright, extensive and adapted to every student’s necessity. The acoustic, ventilation and temperature are also taken into consideration. They also mentioned the fact of the uncomfortable chairs. They also mention some other issues such as light and dividing classrooms into two spaces and the library section which is located in the centre of the school and it also keeps an aesthetic environment.
  • They mention the values they want to promote such as: civilization, wisdom, strategy, science or justice.
  • Bullying program is KiVa and through an assistant plan which consists in choosing a classmate by assembly that will supervise any conflict and act as a mediator during breaks. They also mention the Godfather plan, which is a method where a higher course student helps the younger students which also serves as a method to help new students’ integration.
  • I also liked the fact that they mentioned their school is surrounded of nature, with a vegetable garden and animals.
Of course, there are some other things that could have been improved such as:

  • Using subtitles because sometimes I couldn't understand what they were saying.
  • The fact that Miguel spoke in Spanish, even though if it was for the joke, it still doesn't make sense.
  • It feels as if some of them made a more ellaborated content and had longer parts in the video, so I feel like maybe they didn't have the same amount of work, or maybe not all of them put the same effort onto it.
  • Umaima's cat is very funny, but it is quite distracting! :)
  • I also felt like the classroom organisation and the buildings structure and environment played a big role in the video and took a great part of the video.
I think that this group had a lot of fun doing the video as you can see in the last part of it. It has been very well done even though it was the first time they edited a video. Congratulations, Los Gochos!
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Fernweh

First of all, I have to mention that Fernweh is a group that has improved a lot since the beginning of this subject. In this last project, I felt that they were more united as a group than in the rest of the projects. Anyway, I want to mention some of the things that I liked and that called my attention during the video of their presentation:
  • I really liked the logo of their school Sinergia, plus the facilities and the 3D building design of the school were really good. They included the importance of having natural light which requires many windows as well as the importance of being surrounded by nature.
  • They also mentioned how important cooperative work and the educational community are, meaning that all parts are essential and that teachers, parents and students should all be united.
  • They gave a context, too. Their school is going to be located in Madrid, on the outside, because of the per capita income which is the highest of the country (31.000€ per year). I really liked the idea of starting by being private and then, little by little, becoming public through projects that will finance the school (such as the one with BQ).
  • I also liked the idea of using the facilities of the school in the non-teaching hours for enjoyment of those people that belong to the centre and those who doesn’t, too, by renting them.
  • They also talked about the participation of families, with facts and figures from the INE, and they consider very important to raise the rate of participation of families in the schools since it is essential for them.
  • About the learning and methodology, they want to apply a constructivist plus a social constructivist model, in order to base learning in the student’s autonomy and in the cooperation of everyone to result in an effective learning.
  • They also mentioned that they want to use the Learning Based in Projects, in order to teach their students how to respond to real life problems, and also the Cooperative Learning model, in order to improve the student’s attention, involvement and acquisition of knowledge.
  • I really liked the fact that they took into account emotional intelligence within multiple intelligences. They want to foster a dynamic learning connected with emotions in order to develop them.
  • They talked about fomenting an inclusive education, too, giving the same opportunities to all the students and adapting their way of teaching to each student’s special needs.
  • The values of their school are related with being a well citizen in their society, considering students the future of our society. They want to teach them in co-education and social integration, promoting equality, in a comfortable atmosphere at the school. Also, they want to teach them in a creative education, as the world changes and we change with it, keeping up with new teaching methodologies in order to make education more attractive. They also think it is very important that children should be able to do everyday things by their own, and to do so, they need some freedom.
  • I really liked the concept of a bidirectional education, which means that students learn from the teacher and the teacher learns from the students. It is an education where students, parents, and the management of the school can take decisions and participate actively in their education.
  • About leadership, they defined the characteristics of a good leader, which would be persistent, patient, comprehensive, tolerant, curious, able to organize the time, innovative, he should encourage everyone’s participation and create a well-environment to work, promotes a climate of respect, acts as a mediator and adapts to each situation.
  • And lastly, they talk about ICTs, as they have a really big importance in today’s world, they want to introduce their students into this ambit, as they will have to use ICTs in their real life. They also looked for a project with BQ, which, through a contract or agreement, provides and gives grants for diverse kinds of materials and technological contents such as computers, tablets, digital blackboards, robots and so on.


I also think that there are some things that could have been improved in their video and in their presentation:

  • I feel like they didn’t explain deeply the spaces and structure of the building. For example, how they would organise the classrooms, where will the teachers meet, and so on. They could have explained this while they talked about the 3D design of the building.
  • I also think that maybe all of them should have talked in the video, as it feels like they didn’t have the same amount of work when you only hear one of them presenting how they want their school to be.
  • I believe that some ideas should have been justified a little bit more, for example, they included a swimming pool but they didn’t say why would they include it (I feel like it is quite expensive and maybe it is not necessary).
  • They also could have explained how they were going to apply the theoretical framework, like, for example, how would they apply the problem based project more specifically.
  • I believe that there are some missing parts and that some of them are a bit mixed, but it might be because they didn’t explain everything too deeply, for example, I know that they want an inclusive education, but they don’t talk about a program for foreign students or a program for bullying.
However, I have to say again that this group has made an enormous advance. Now it felt like they were way more united as a group and that this project was the result of a great effort. Well done, Fernweh!
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Travelchers

To start with, I think that the idea and the work of this group must have been a really great effort, because they challenged themselves to build the school classrooms and facilities by hand, with all the furniture and everything and this really takes a lot of time, so I really appreciated that. 

I want to mention some positive facts about their video which I really liked:
  • The intro of the video is very original with the smartphone using Google Maps to locate their school in Santander (Cantabria).
  • The main goals of their school are empathy, self-control, self-confidence, agility and adaptability. 
  • They also want their school to be an inclusive one, which promotes diversity, responsibility, respect and tolerance. Moreover, they want to cover every child's needs. 
  • I also liked the idea of the collaboration and cooperation between the educational community and the society. They want to follow an educational model based in Learning Communities, with the introduction of principles such as inclusion, equality and dialogue.
  • Their leadership model is well explained. They chose the democratic one which facilitates the conversation, encourages people to participate and requires collaboration between leaders and the rest.
  • Also, the knowledge that they want to transmit is to know to be and to know to do, to prepare their students for the real life. They chose the constructivist and behaviourist methodologies, both combined.
  • I also learned about the Design For Change model they proposed with their structural model, which involves four steps of development: Feel, think, action and share.
  • I feel like they made a big effort creating a new organisation of the school with the introduction of the TIMEs instead of the regular classes and subjects.
  • The concept of TIME is really good since it focuses in developing the skills of the students and in offering different learning opportunities for children that can adapt to each of them.
  • They also included some facts and figures, such as the number of students per teacher in Cantabria (28 students allowed). 
  • I also find interesting the fact that they want to include 3 teachers per class, one focuses in the tasks, while the other two focus in the part of socialization, observing the environment and giving support to students.
  • By having 60 students per class, they can promote active participation which leads to the development of self-organization, autonomy and motivation.
  • I really liked the concept of "Aprendizaje en Escenarios Prácticos", which means that classroom must be a place connected to real life, and follows the idea that any place is good for learning, for example, in extracurricular activities.
  • They also adopted the Flipped Classroom model, in order to store everything in a network. 
  • They included the use of ICTs and the different materials, resources and software they would use in each TIME.
  • I also find very helpful the idea of having the reference books in the school library or uploaded in the cloud, since not every student can afford them.
  • The classes are a cooperative space, which is very flexible, versatile and allows cooperation between students, always including the help of ICTs.
  • I find very interesting the idea of Linguistic Immersion, where students can communicate with foreign students in order to learn about new cultures.
  • It is also really good the idea of teaching nutrition and creating their own menus with what they have learned.
  • I also liked the fact that they want to teach the understanding of emotions. They would do this through interactive groups by dialogues with families. 
  • They also have a welcoming project for immigrants so that they feel comfortable.
  • I liked the idea of using a webpage with a flashboard for parents to be informed about their children and what they are doing in school.
  • I think that the idea of the green projects is very well explained and developed, in order to raise awareness in students about our environment.
I also have to mention some of the things that could have been improved in this presentation:
  • I think that a lot of ideas are mixed and that maybe they could have organised them by using some titles or charts that can make it a bit easier and clearer for the viewer.
  • It is a very long video and sometimes it is really hard to keep the attention.
  • I feel like there is a lot of information which added to the new organisation of TIMEs can make you feel very lost in the video, they could have used a chart to explain the TIMEs and the whole organisation.
  • Some information such as ICTs could have also been mentioned in one section instead of repeating everything every time they talked about a classroom.
Anyway, they did a really big and great job since they included a lot of information and they build their own facilities and spaces, I can appreciate the effort and the time that this work must have took them. Congratulations, Travelchers!
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Contrasters Crew

And last but not least, here is my reflection about Contrasters Crew. 

First of all I have to say that, as they were the last group, they had all the chances to improve their work until the last minute in order to make it perfect, since they could fix every mistake the rest of the groups made. 

The things that I liked the most about their video were:
  • The fact that they chose Cabanillas del Campo since it is a small village (8000 inhabitants) and the way they focus their school to foreign students.
  • They chose a Democratic leadership for their school in order to make it more participative.
  • I also liked the Self-Review framework in order to be in contact with other schools and compare them in order to develop together.
  • The fact that they make a comparison between how much the government spent in education a few years ago and how much spends now (from 53 millions to 44 millions of euros) and also taking into account that the number of students has raised (7.7% more).
  • Their school has a cooperative learning structure for children with different capacities and mindsets, including mutual support instead of creating rivality environments.
  • They take into account the introduction of ICTs in the school and its risks.
  • They also mention an app to fight bullying called "Bullying No More", that shows how to work against bullying and how to act, and it also can send a warning to teachers if a student is being bullied.
  • The use of ICTs is also included in order to help children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia or autism. They want to use different apps to help them develop correctly despite their conditions.
  • They included an inclusive program as Cabanillas is really close to Madrid and a lot of foreign people live there because they work in Madrid. The program they would use would be the Assistant Plan, where some students are selected to be the helpers in the task of coexistence.
  • I liked the fact that they did a research about bullying in Spain, as that shows that they went deep into this topic.
  • I also really liked the 3D building as I think it is really hard to create one. They also went quite deep in the structure and material of their classrooms (e.g. organization of tables and chairs in order to foster project based learning).
  • I also love the idea of the garden in order to learn by doing, touching, smelling and so on, as it makes learning more tangible for children.
  • The values their choose are very nice, including freedom, fun, power and the sense of belonging.

There are a few other things that they could have improved in their presentation:
  • Although it's true that they went deep into some issues such as ICTs, bullying or the building structures, they could have also gone a bit deeper in some other aspcets like the values or the economic or social context.
  • I feel like there are some things missing related with educational psychology, maybe they could have talked a bit more about methodologies and how to apply them in their ideal school.
  • I also miss knowing how a typical class in their school would be, maybe they could have shown it while they were talking about the building structures.
  • Sometimes topics are mixed or disorganized, for example, they explained a bit the Self-Review Framework, and later explained it deeper.
I think that this group did a really good job since they had the chance to correct any mistake and learn from the rest of the groups as I mentioned before. However, I know that their original team split and probably they had less time than the rest of us. Anyway, very nice work and very well done, Contrasters Crew!








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