Wingardium Leviosa

AMIGOS DEL FOOTBALL:

This group talked about a topic that is very important in our society, INCLUSIVE SCHOOL.

Inclusive school is an educational model that is responsible for the learning needs of all children, youth and adults with special emphasis on those who are vulnerable to marginalization and social exclusion.

Each student is different and has unique characteristics, abilities and different learning needs. Therefore it is necessary to integrate these students into the current mainstream education and not exclude them offering a different kind of education.

This group also discussed about the general features on these schools and some of them are:

1.The inclusive school is based on the vision of the student to be able to achieve its goals and purposes.

2.In the inclusive school is established a positive and collaborative relationship between families and schools. Also the respect, the reflective attitudes and the empathy are encouraged.

3.The aim of the inclusive school is train students to develop critical and cooperative spirit.

4.The inclusive school assesses student progress as whole, taking into account their capabilities individually.

It is very important to note the term of educational integration to implement it.

Educational integration or inclusion is a process by which regular schools are looking for and generating the support that requires students with learning disabilities, special educational needs or disabilities.

Gordon Porter, the father of inclusive education, defends the concept of inclusive education, the one that encourages children with physical or mental disabilities or special needs in mainstream schools must be trained along with the other children.

Tony Booth defines inclusive education as the process has to develop today's society to ensure learning and participation of all students, teachers and parents in school life, with attention to diversity and vulnerability. Inclusive education is based more on rights than on needs.

Mel Ainscow proposes a "revolution" in teaching methods. He believes that the current system is not designed to meet the needs of all students.

Echeita talks about the social, cultural, economic barriers, attitudinal, materials that impede access to the education system or remaining in it. These barriers encourage discrimination and therefore it is necessary to analyze the educational system and remove these barriers by proposing a process of school improvement and innovation.

Finally, we saw some videos of some schools where inclusive education is encouraged.

Amara Berri School considers the student as a global one. It encourages the development of their personalities and their social relations. Also is encouraged the constructive criticism.

O Pelouro School is a school for all, where you can live the diversity. There are spaces for students with different needs. It is encouraged the innovation and the educational transformation.

MODERN STUDENTS:

This group explained the WAYS OF LIVING TOGETHER AT SCHOOL.

They divided the topic into four parts:

1. School mediation, which explains the reason why problems occur at school. For example, bullying, violence, exclusion, etc. There are two strategies to solve these types of problems: by preventive intermediary and by values ​​such as willingness, confidentiallity and personnel intervention. The role of mediator can be played by students, teachers and volunteers. 

2. Program to support peers, some objectives are: obtain foster collaboration, knowledge and finding solutions. Also, improve coexistence and reduce cases of abuse at school. We can talk about some keys of the program, like shared responsibility and the importance of the dialogue and active listening. The results of these program are: improved coexistence, decreased intensity of conflicts and increased safety and satisfaction.

3. Archeology of feelings at school, using technology as a metaphor of feelings at school. It has five stages: discovery, excavation, indagation, protection and exposure.

Finally, my colleagues talked about the Kiva school is in Finland. This school works to prevent bullying and works with online matriales to avoid harassment.

WANDERLUST:

This group talked about SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING and explained the importance of this item at the school as a subject.

Rafel Bisquerra said that emotional learning has been born recently as a social need that is not served in academic subjects we all know. It is based on neuroscience, multiple intelligence and psychoneuroimmunology. 

Through the emotional and social learning we can improve the academic performance, decrease the violence and increase social skills. 

Then they talked about the methodology. We must talk every day with students about how they feel and how their peers feel. We must also encourage the development of multiple intelligences. All children have to develop emotional intelligence, for it set out to do the "week of emotional intelligence" where they would in different situations and they have to say how they feel about each of them.

We must develop the cooperative learning to create friendhips in class and develop the positive reinforcement and make them feel comfortable with their peers in class and work together.

Finally, we must encouragethe develop of the empathy in class, for example, by actividaes as "walk in my shoes" This activity is to put yourself in the situation of the other person when there is a conflict and see how it feels. At this point the relationship between teachers and families is very important because together they can get better answers to the problems.

MUSICAL CHAIRS:

This group talked about COMMUNITY LEARNING which is about the coordination in the classroom between teachers, students and volunteers. The school should not be isolated from society and the collaboration of different people are needed to achieve the objective, which is not insulate the world.

For example, volunteers are helpful, but they do not should have previous qualifications to teach. They can help teachers giving lectures and perform different activities at schools. Coordination is achieved by promoting collaboration, cooperation and understanding among the members involved in this project.

This process has three phases:

Dream: at this stage we think of all the possibilities of improvement for our center, which can be physical or methodological.

Priorities: is selected from all those proposals necessary and the most feasible, to be carried out.

Working Committees: is to implement it and try to solve the various difficulties that we can find through the process.

Finally, school is not enough collaboration between teachers and students. In the educational process they have to engage parents and volunteers to facilitate the process and get a better education.

DUMBLEDORE TEACHER´S ARMY:

We talked about LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS. 

Leadership is the responsability of school administrators and principals who want to create positive changes in educational policy and process. As we can see in the conceptual map, e can find the school leader as a businessman, as an organizer and as an institutional expert. This means: 

- As businessman: the leader has to take care that the environmnt don't affect to the pupils and teachers and also he has to take care about the develop of the children and the school as an institution. 

- As an organizer: has to bring qualify teachers, creative concepts and institutional methods that will define the quality of the education following a reform plan. They also motivate children, teachers, parents and the hole community to participate in the school and in education. 

- As an institutional expert: they have to stablish information based on expert communities that make all people responsible of pupil learning and school develop. 

Then we have the concept of effectiveness. A school is effective if the leader gets a higher comprehensive development of all the students tan would be expected of them giving their previous performance and taking in account social, economic and cultural situations.

Some of the skills which a leader should develop are: to be clear, accountable, self-awareness, decisive, astute, influence, trust and innovate.

CRÓNICAS VIAJERAS:

This group talked about ICT AND LEARNING DISABILITIES. Students of nowadays have different needs and we can discover them and help the students to solve their difficulties using technology. The motivation and the creativity is encouraged, so that students will find it easier to learn.

-First, children with Autism have the following difficulties: socialization, language, thoughts and imagination. Technologies can help them to overcome these difucltades, for example, the use of tablets to play and learn at the same time (pictogram, just dance, sing star, etc.). The results are very good, as the integration support and the support to have initiative develops.

-Second, children with Down Syndrome have the following difficulties: distractions, minor initiative and for differentiation between old and new stimuli. Through technology we can help them to overcome these difficulties, for example, using whiteboard and cameras. As a result, we can say that technology helps their concentration and memory.

-Finally, children with Motor Disability have different engine above difficulties, for example, physical and difficulties engine and unadapted facilities. Using MP3, listening to music and using computers, they can overcome these difficulties. Among the results, we can say that this hepls technology adaptation, communication and comfort.

TEAM PERK:

This grup talked about ICT AND IMPROVEMENT SCHOOLS and about some advantages of the technology. There are teachers who are against of the use of new technologies in classrooms and teachers who are in favor. Today, children since they are little they use technology and theyb develop skills that can be very useful later when they became adults. The introduction of technology in the classroom has many benefits, but also some drawbacks.

Some of the benefits are: children can learn in a fun way, for example, playing, is encouraged the interaction, the motivation, the interest, the interactivity, the cooperation, the autonomy of students, etc. 

Some of the disadvantages are: students can be easily distracted, the information available on Internet is not always reliable, the ICT´s are expensive and not everyone can purchase, technology can cause addiction, decreased visual acuity, etc.

Finally, the school must integrate new technologies into classrooms with the aim of improving the educational process of the the children. We must concentrate on educational innovation and the benefits it has for future generations.

UNKNOWNS:

This group talked about INCLUSIVE SCHOOL, which is the process that has to develop the society to ensure the learning and participation of all students, teachers and parents in shool life, giving attention to diversity and vulnerability. They also talked about some authors, like Gordon Porter, Mel Ainscow, Tony Booth and Gerardo Echeita. I explained their thoughts in the other work which treats about inclusive school also. Some objectives of the inclusive school are: not leave anyone out, promote equal opportunities, promote justice, etc.

Some of the benefits of the inclusive schools are: develop personal strengths, involve parents in education, develop friendships, give opportunities to learn about it and accept differences detween pupils, etc.

There are some barriers that prevent the development of inclusive schools:

-Policies: abd contradictory laws rules.

-Cultural: permanent attitude of discriminatory rules categorize and Establish Between the children.

-Teaching: With the resume is structured and with a lot disciplines of books and do not resolve -Promote the learning to actual situations.

Finally, we watched two videos. Father Pique school Promote diversity, multitasking, values ​​and innovation. 

Sadako school Promote the use of ICT's to learn, the role distribution and learn doing and not memorizing the contents which appear on the books.