International day Against Gender Violence

From 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign is a time to galvanize action to end violence against women and girls around the world.

DO YOU AGREE?

Which is the best linguistic program in Valencia?

A fundamental principle of the European Schools is the teaching of mother tongue or dominant language as first language (L1).

The term ‘bilingual’ refers to an individual who uses two or more languages or dialects in his or her everyday life, regardless of the context of use. At an individual level, there is a distinction between a person's ability in two languages and their use of those two languages: A bilingual typically use their two languages with different people, in different context and for different purposes. In terms of ability in two languages, they can use the four basic dimensions: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

According to this definition Valencian people are bilingual.

Plurilingualism is the capacity of individuals to use more than one language in social communication whatever their command of those languages. This set of skills constitutes the complex but unique competence, in social communication, to use different languages for different purposes with different levels of command.  The language learner becomes plurilingual and develops interculturality.

Plurilingual education will refer to all activities, curricular or extra-curricular of whatever nature, from the earliest schooldays and throughout life.

The aim of plurilingualism and plurilingual education is not simultaneously teaching a range of languages, teaching through comparing different languages or teaching as many languages as possible. It is a competence that can be acquired and cannot be considered the privilege of a “gifted” elite.

Being plurilingual does not mean mastering a large number of languages to a high level, it consist in acquiring the ability to use more than one linguistic variety to degrees for different purposes (conversation, reading or writing, etc.) and this degree may change over time., considering the linguistic varieties as language in the family, at work, in official or everyday situations,…

In our autonomous region, our government implement for a bilingual and multilingual educational programs.

In fact, it is better that the child is able to express his/her feelings in one language than that she/he is unsure to use any language, but certainly, children who know more than one language have a greater potential for creativity , they are being able to see the world through different lenses, tend to be better in problem-solving which is cognitively demanding.

What is more language awareness gives the potential for enriched information processing,  knowing more than one language may help the brain sharpen its ability to focus.

 To sum up , multilingualism is reported as helping to nurture interpersonal communication awareness and skills and speaking more than one language may have cognitive benefits that extend from childhood into old age.

Therefore, our Autonomous offers an education system which is structured in bilingual, at the beginning and more recently in a multilingual  educational programs.

Our students are going to be able to use more than two languages (Valencian, Spanish and English) although some of them are able to use one more (French or German as a second foreign language)

A multilingual Educational Program is the way to manage it

Start a Reading Revolution: Flip Your Class With Blogs

Nowadays children do not read. For them, books are boring and uninteresting because they have other instruments to amuse himself/herself  as video games, on-line games… and they prefer this to the books. The computer science is present in his/her lives.

But you can change that and you can make a reading transformation in your classroom .How to do it? It is easy!  By means of the flip!

 In this classes students learn content online by watching videos or between lectures usually at home what used to be homework  is after done in class with teachers and students. There, they discuss and solve questions more personalized. Students works under guidance and interaction with other students and teacher.

It is true flipped classroom is used in math and science classes but we can use in other subjects, as in Spanish, foreign languages, arts, music… In many of this classes the focus on one common text (like a novel) is to take notes, complete worksheets, or do group work. The reading occurs at home, far away from the assistance of a teacher. The trouble is that  we cannot if students are actually reading and we have not any chance to help them when they have problems.

BRIAN SZTABNIK is a literature teacher who employs the flip to teach his subject. For him, the first step is students are who choose the work for reading and read in class 3-4 times a week for 2.5 weeks. They must read actively getting to choose their method: index cards, post-it flags, their notebooks, etc. After at home, students write on their blog. They have the freedom to craft posts on topics of their own choosing. Every day they read in class students blog. Teacher can help students, do comments on their blog. The most important is that  students and teacher engage in the learning.

    On the other hand, creation of blogs increase imagination, makes grow thought, they open their minds for create, design….

   Another dimension of that is when students publish a post their writing is known by the rest of the class and can be read beyond his/ her classmates. What is more, his /her writing belongs to the world.

    In my opinion, flipped class with is a good tool for using in our classes. It can be positive in our pupils because simultaneously that they work and learn increases his / her self-esteem.

CHANGING EDUCATION PARADIGMS

Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

HAY NIÑOS QUE JUEGAN...

Hay niños que juegan...
Un buen video que nos hace recapacitar y reflexionar de un problema existente en la sociedad como es el maltrato infantil, es una buena manera de hacer promoción de la salud con materiales que inviten a los sujetos y comunidad a respetar y hacer respetar los derechos y libertades que tenemos. 

CATHERINE L'ECUYER Investigadora sobre educación infantil

'Los niños en España tienen muchos deberes y deberían jugar más'

• 'Con más estímulos no se están consiguiendo mejores resultados'

• 'En Finlandia dedican cuatro veces menos tiempo a los deberes que en España'

• 'En el aburrimiento se encuentra la chispa de la creatividad'

Casi todos los niños están escolarizados en España a los tres años, una edad a la que empiezan a aprender a leer y escribir, mucho antes que en países como Finlandia, donde se comienza a los siete.

A pesar de ello, y de que aquí hay más deberes y extraescolares que en la media de la OCDE, los resultados académicos son peores. Con más tareas a los críos les rinde mucho menos. Catherine L'Ecuyersostiene que parte del problema es que los padres de ahora saturan a sus hijos desde que son bebés con aplicaciones para tabletas, idiomas y todo tipo de actividades que les apartan del juego, la naturaleza y el silencio.

Todo ello les causa una «sobrestimulación» que atrofia su capacidad de interesarse por el mundo y les predispone a la apatía y al fracaso escolar. Esta investigadora canadiense sobre educación infantil, que vive en Barcelona, sacó el jueves la novena edición de su libroEducar en el asombro (Plataforma).