Mckinsey’s report

"The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers
The only way to improve outcomes is to improve instructions
High Performance requires every child to succeed" (Mckinsey's report)

What is a good teacher? What makes a good teacher?

Mckinsey's report shows which are the top education performers in the world according to a certain criteria and detecting filters. These countries are: South Korea, Finland and Singapore.

These report shows the best practises carried out in those countries which education plays an important role in society and this is why choosing the right teacher becomes so vital for them.

Iñaqui’s lesson went through several points: Mackinsey’s report, Pisa’s report and how the Spanish and American system have many similarities:

Teachers in the USA are badly paid

Not much recognition or prestige

It is almost impossible to get a promotion : there is not much spam for promotion as it could be in the private sector.

This report values the excellency of teacher. The filters used in these countries helps detecting the best teachers according to a certain criteria.

What do countries like Finland, South Korea and Singapore have in common?

High salary and Prestige for the teachers in the 3 countries.

Freedom to teach what they want, in the case of Finland.

Let's go back to my initial question

Why do people want to become teachers?

Can vocation make you the best teacher?

You have take into  account the high responsibility you are taking on board when you are a teacher.

You have to like what you do because the salary is ok and the prestige you get is quite low.

You have to be mentally and emotionally strong as sometimes you will be faced to confront problems not only with students but also parents, Conselleria, etc, etc.

In this period of crisis that we are living in, the challenge today it is the difficulty of getting engaged professionals

The lack of vocation, a job, commitment equals the mediocre result we have obtained in the Pisa’s report. 

At the end of this lesson, I had this sad feeling as it seems to be almost impossible to improve our country's result unless we change the mentality of the people ruling this country. 

Having said this, my question is, is the government interested in producing a well educated population or do they just want mediocre students and future tax payers?

I may be an illusionist but I do have some hope for this country and for all my colleagues in the master. We are all motivated to become the new teacher's generation who will take into account the student's multiple intelligences but also their emotional intelligence. Teachers who will want to find the root and not just the symptoms of the problem, who will go into deep into understanding why a student fails and how we can help.

I hope that we will also find a place in this society that lacks in high salaries and prestige.

For more information on the Mckinsey's report please click on the following link:

McKinsey's Report

Having fun and learning at the same time

Lesson of the 25th October

We had a good time especially in the beginning of the lesson where our drawing capabilities were put to the test.

In pairs of two, we were back to back and we have to describe and give details of the picture we had. This task was given to us to prove how difficult is to speak and express yourself in English. This is an innovative way to evaluate your students level and knowledge of English but also a good way to evaluate the 4 main skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Dealing and solving conflicts

"Conflicts can be seen as an opportunity to grow" (Jose Antonio)

Jose Antonio made a brilliant speech about dealing and solving conflicts with the students, in this case, most of them will be teenagers.

Jose Antonio has been working in Pedro Herrero’s High School for a number of years as the high School psychologist

I’ve found his speech very interesting, positive and enriching.

He had also a friendly approach to expose his PowerPoint. Iñaqui was also there and it was rather funny seeing the interaction between Iñaqui and Jose Antonio.

In my professional life, I have to deal with many different types of conflicts but not directly with teenagers so seeing Jose Antonio’s point of view added a bit more to my personal experience.
There is a thin line not to be crossed between teachers and students: RESPECT.
We have to make ourselves respectful and also win the student's respect in order to teach

His way of dealing with conflict involves the students. It is also an excellent way for students to take responsibility of their actions which makes them for responsible.

In his first lesson, everyone in the classroom decides the rules and its consequences, which means that if someone in the classroom does not abide to the rules he/she will have to confront consequences which have been previously drafted by them and it is not seen as a  punishment from the teacher.

This reminds me of the operative conditioning which we are also learning in the “Adolescence developing problems”.
These are the strategies to follow when a conflict arises:

As any other problem, first thing that needs to be done, is to understand the root of the problem.
"Preventing a cold is better than curing a pneumonia ",that's to say, prevent the appearance of conflict before it occurs, creating an atmosphere of communication.
Negotiate to resolve conflicts.
Maintain an attitude that encourages mutual respect.
Establish rules clearly and accurately and stand firm in the enforcement of these rules, which in some cases can be drawn by the students themselves.

First impressions

15^th October 2012

This was our first session with our teacher, Iñaqui.

Iñaqui is an associated teacher at the University of Alicante. He has a long working experience in European Secondary High Schools and dealing with difficult teenagers. He is the Head Director of the Pedro Herrero’s High School.

He introduced the subject and the method he wanted to use to teach.

He also mentioned, José Antonio the psychologist who works in his High School will be giving us a speech next week as Iñaqui thinks that learning psychology can teach you how to deal with student's conflicts, one of the areas, we will surely experience during our future life as Secondary teachers.  

In this class, Iñaqui's objective is to make us aware of the importance of how do we teach the English we know not how much English we know or learn?
It is important to notice that for some students we will be great English teachers and for others not so good but why do this happens?
We need to adapt our teaching methods to different types of students, intelligences and needs and this is where we raise for the first time Howard's theory of multiple intelligences.

I've heard about this theory for the first time last year and it absolutely makes sense to me. 
In fact, now I understand why I was so good at learning languages (apart from Chinese that one was pretty hard) and not so good at Maths.
We find in our daily life so many different types of intelligent people, my father is an exceptional example of intrapersonal intelligence, my niece, a great in athlete (kinestetic intelligence) but also a great artist like my sister who is a singer. 
Another important point of this subject is how do we implement learning styles using these different and multiple intelligences.