Diary of a Trainee Teacher: Week 7 (14th to 18th Mar)

End of 2nd term is closer and so is my training period at IES La Nucia.

If I were to describe this week in one word, I'd say “a frenetic week”. It was indeed filled with activities, excitement, nerves, stress…

Let me start by talking to you about the exam I did prepare for 1st BACH and next steps. In short terms, it consisted in the evaluation of three skills: use of vocabulary, use of grammar and reading. The extension of the exam did fit well with the timing and students proved to have enough time to complete it. However during the exam a student realised there was a typo in one of the exercises. So I made the clarifications to the class and learned that I should have double-checked it. Lesson learned! Now… the funniest part of the exam is correction and marking. ;-D My tutor and I decided to split the work (well, to be fair, I couldn't wait to have an eye on those papers and punctuate them!), so we designed a marking scheme for those exercises where subjectivity might be implied. And also specific evaluation criteria for each one of the exercises… Great job, it was! The next day, we sat down together and spent some time comparing both templates and reaching an agreement on the punctuation. I have to say that the exam was not easy and the average of the class was 6 out of 10. Only 5 students failed out of 23. Below you can see the flavour of my Thursday afternoon at home.

To carry on with the best of the week, I'd like to write about an unpleasant (speaking correctly) incident that ocurred in INTEGRA while we were watching a documentary film. A student was playing around with a piece of paper so the teacher approached him and crumpled it. All of a sudden the student pronounced “¿Qué haces gilipollas?” to the teacher. At the end of the class, the teacher had a word with the kid and informed him of the consequences. Since it was his second warning in less than 7 days, he had to be expelled for one day.

On the other side of the coin, the group had been working on a “maths project” called “The colour of cars”, including percentages, degrees and pie charts. This is the final result posted on their wall:

As far as I have observed or noticed, one of the most delicate matters to deal with in class is taking care of students with special learning needs (AANEE in Spanish). At the same time that there is a growing tendency to detect learning difficulties (and at a younger age!), the reality can be very disappointing and frustrating, as teachers can barely pay attention to them while leading the whole group (27 students more or less), very little human resources are dedicated to give extra support inside the classroom, and so on and so on… As a result, it seems to me that these kids are not receiving the special needs they are entitled to. Based on my experience, teachers are doing their best to keep students with ACIS (Curricular Adaptation) active and integrated with the group. The Orientation Department plays a great role, too. Undoubtedly, the fault lies in our system and poor budgetary resources.

On the other hand, two big events happened on Thursday afternoon. Firstly, I witnessed a performance about “Human Figures” by my 1st BACH group in the gym. It was their P.E. exam. Three groups gave an excellent performance of acrosport combining acrobatics and coreographies. They showed discipline, team work, collaboration and physical fitness. 15 minutes later, our first evaluation session was held. I had been looking forward to this moment as I believe it is one of the most important staff meetings that happen at the end of every term. It was the first of many to come (6 or 7). I am really enjoying it!