FCE results!

Only four of twenty two CSP students could not pass the FCE last year. Three of the four had not been recommended by us -the only ones by the way, i.e. no unrecommended student made it this year. With this year's 18/22 passing rate -i.e. 82%, we add another excellent result in international evaluations. We heard of the other one when we got back to work in February, which is that 100% of our 3rd Polimodal kids passed the IB exam last October. Keep up the good work!

Activities Feb 27-28

On Tuesday, we have a full day of meetings or workshops or whatever Diana, Filomena and Eduardo are preparing for the whole faculty. It will be from 8am to 5pm, and lunch will be provided. On Wednesday morning we are having a Department meeting. For this particular occasion, please, bring the following:

• Your personal goals for 2007. We shall schedule brief individual meetings so that I can have a chance to discuss your goals with you.
  
• An updated CV/resume. As I'm working on a Department website - which, unlike our blog, will be open to whole school community - I would like to include a bio on each one of you.
• Part of the agenda for our Wednesday meeting will be: a) determining class groups for this year; b) determining Department goals; c) discussing syllabus design for your classes; d) possible use of technology in your classes; e) list of literary works for each of the levels to be used this year; f) annual planning; g) diagnostic period planning; h) any other issue not mentioned here that I may have overlooked - if so, please make me aware as soon as you get a chance.

Enjoy the weekend, and see you around soon!

Rosario's here!!!

Sofia gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl! Mom and daughter are fine at Sanatorio del Parque. Congratulations!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Though borrowed from another culture, this celebration of people we love is a great idea to have. Enjoy the day with all your loved ones!!!

Department pics!

Hope you like 'em! Still missing: Paula, Alina, Elvira and Sofia. AND none of the group pics was good, so we'll give it a try again on Friday! If you don't like your individual pic, we can get another one from you Friday as well. Hey, feel free to post your comments on this or any of the other posts. You can publish your comment on the blog for everyone to read or if you'd like to make a comment and email it to me, that's also possible.

Interesting links

To create a website for your class. Check it out, it's easy and opens a wide variety of opportunities because it's been created specifically for educators -and it's FREE!!:
http://www.cfkeep.org/static/index.html

To create your own blog:
http://www2.blogger.com/home

Share your own interesting links here!

Food for Thought

The world was once as flat as a pancake. Or so we thought.

It is the willpower of individuals that buries the past and opens the door to the future. When he set sail, Christopher Columbus had a distinct purpose. He also had papal blessings and the latest nautical technology, the financial backing of a king and queen, and a crew made up, in part, of ex-convicts. There was tremendous risk, but the desire for wealth and truth outweighed that risk: a whole new world was waiting to be discovered. When he set sail, Christopher Columbus was being more than just creative, he was “thinking outside of the box.”

When I first began teaching I heard this term quite often, but could only guess at its meaning. My administrator rarely modeled it and the examples my graduate school professor provided never applied to my students. The most important thing I learned during that first year was taught to me by those I was trying to teach: that different people experience that world in different ways and that these perspectives are not only healthy, they are a resource to be put to use. Unbeknownst to me, I had taken my first step toward thinking outside of the box.

A half-century after Columbus’s arrival in the New World, Miguel de Cervantes created the first modern novel and literature’s greatest idealist, sweetest romantic, and biggest dreamer. Readers still make the mistake of calling Don Quixote crazy when, in fact, he should be held up as an example of reality’s pliability. We each see the world in our own way. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Relating the author to the history of his native Spain, Carlos Fuentes described Cervantes as “caught between the flux of renewal and the stagnant waters of reaction.” The same can be said of our schools. Educators are always looking to change the system, yet we remain mired in a factory-style environment of terminal points and quality control that smacks of political tunnel vision. We are working in the world of the Industrial Revolution even as we live in the world of the Technological Revolution. One aspect of teaching has not changed, though: a meaningful education requires a teacher who sees beauty where others see the ordinary.

We all know that the world is round. We are just now learning how small it can be. Television and the Internet have enhanced, for better and for worse, the background knowledge of students. This home base of information is vastly different from that of teachers, no matter how young those teachers might be. To adjust appropriately requires the initiative of Columbus and the vision of Quixote. And only a Rip Van Winkle (a parable of fear in the time of the Industrial Revolution) would be unaware of the impact that technology is having on learning. If our schools are to keep up, greater capital is required School districts are continually mining, new resources; they must, otherwise teachers, and the tools of their trade, will be antiquated by the time freshmen become seniors. Thinking outside of the box now means signing partnerships with local businesses. It also means creating new opportunities for parental involvement and finding new and different ways to engage the students. We must all continue to think outside of the box.

Teachers have always been creative, just as the world has always been round. And like Don Quixote, teachers will continue to see Dulcinea’s beauty . . . every time we take our place before a classroom full of students. It is a journey just like any other.

Randy Howe

Minutes Meeting February 12

Discussion on Monday Feb 12: Members present: Silvia, Carolina, Norita, Janine, Cecilia, Omar, Adela, Graciela, Carlos. Absent: Alina; On leave: Sofia.

Agenda sharing. Our next meeting will be Friday Feb 16 at 10:30am

Welcome back reflection: The text shown above was shared and discussed. Norita expressed a high level of anxiety at using technology in class or rather at the pressure of having to use it. Carlos said he does not expect everyone to start developing websites for their classes but he would like everyone to be open to the exploration of the possibilities that the use of tech offers. It is a process that takes time, but a healthy degree of openness to the idea and a predisposition to begin to tread on this path is necessary to be able to become proficient at some point. Carolina said that last year she felt it would be impossible to implement it and felt blocked by the idea. She seems to feel that she could now give it a try and change attitude. Pimpa agreed on the need to give it a try. Graciela said that at home she insists her children teach her how to use their PC and Internet connection and asks for constant clarification and repetition of instructions from them, yet she is determined to keep learning. (Note from Carlos: I would like you to re-read the text and find the aspects beyond technology that it makes reference to, such as a vision of the type of education we want to provide, the strong belief in the transforming power of education, an openness to change, the need to catch up with the times, and the love of kids and of teaching. Feel free to post your comments on this blog!)

Department News for 2007: Carlos announced that the Department's proposal to keep the four sections in 2nd and 3rd Polimodal was accepted. Therefore, the course assignment for this year is: Cecilia will be teaching IB English B in 3rd Polimodal with Norita; Carolina will be teaching the A2 class with Carlos in 3rd Polimodal, she has asked for a leave of absence from her 1st Polimodal hours and will be teaching the full load of 14 hours in 8th Year; Adelita will be subbing for Sofia in 9th Year, she will also be teaching 1st Polimodal -welcome back!; Carlos will be on leave from his 2nd Polimodal hours and Elvira Llobeta has accepted the offer to teach this class that begins preparation for the A2 exam.

Reflection on your 2006 personal objectives: to be completed on Friday, except Alina, Janine, Graciela and Norita who did it upon request last December.

Planning Workshop

Ø Set personal goals: due Friday

Ø Set Department goals for the year

v Raising the bar: The next step in curriculum adjustment is taking place this year. 7th and 8th Year will teach at the Intermediate level; 9th Year will start preparation for FCE and selected students will take the exam at the end of this year; for the last year, 2nd Polimodal will complete preparation for FCE and start the A2 program; 3rd Polimodal will finish the preparation for A2.

v Technology: email, website, grades! Carlos discussed the use of technology and shared the websites to create a web page and a blog.

v Student Portfolios: Carlos shared the document published on this blog and a lengthy discussion followed. Pimpa was very interested in implementing it in 7th Year. Norita shared her experience with the dossiers in her 3rd Pol. class. Most Dpt members were interested and requested more literature on the subject.

v Get Dpt bio: Friday. We had a picture session but will need to have another on Friday - especially the group picture!

v Publication: Friday

v ?

Setting time and date for team meeting

Determine syllabus for your class: Carlos is working on his syllabus and will share it and other formats when he's done.

Student grouping: Friday

Book order:

o 7^th and 8^th: Going for Gold – Intermediate

o 9^th: Laser FCE

o 1^st: Gold FCE

o 2^nd: Gold FCE

Student Portfolio Assignment

Your Portfolio Assignment

What is a portfolio?

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas of the curriculum. It should represent a selection of students' best work or best efforts, student-selected samples of work experiences related to outcomes being assessed, and documents according growth and development toward mastering identified outcomes.

Paulson, F.L. Paulson, P.R. and Meyer, CA. (1991, February). "What Makes a Portfolio a Portfolio?" Educational Leadership, pp. 60-63.

Key Characteristics of Portfolio Assessment

• A portfolio is a form of assessment that students do together with their teachers.
• A portfolio is not just a collection of student work, but a selection - the student must be involved in choosing and justifying the pieces to be included.
• A portfolio provides samples of the student’s work which show growth over time. By reflecting on their own learning (self-assessment), students begin to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their work. These weaknesses then become improvement goals.
• The criteria for selecting and assessing the portfolio contents must be clear to the teacher and the students at the outset of the process.
• The entries in an EFL portfolio can demonstrate learning and growth in all language domains/skills, or can focus on a specific skill such as appreciation of literature, or writing.

Essential Elements of the Portfolio

It is important to include all of the following:

1. Cover Letter “About the author” and “What my portfolio shows about my progress as a learner” (written at the end, but put at the beginning). The cover letter summarizes the evidence of a student’s learning and progress.
2. Table of Contents with numbered pages.
3. Entries - both core (items students have to include) and optional (items of student’s choice). The core elements will be required for each student and will provide a common base from which to make decisions on assessment. The optional items will allow the folder to represent the uniqueness of each student.
4. Students can choose to include “best” pieces of work, but also a piece of work which gave trouble or one that was less successful, and give reasons why.
   Dates on all entries, to facilitate proof of growth over time.
5. Drafts of aural/oral and written products and revised versions, i.e. first drafts and corrected/revised versions.
6. Reflections can appear at different stages in the learning process (for formative and/or summative purposes.) For each item - a brief rationale for choosing the item should be included. This can relate to students’ performance, to their feelings regarding their progress and/or themselves as learners.
   Students can choose to reflect upon some or all of the following:

i. What did I learn from it?

ii. What did I do well?

iii. Why (based on the agreed teacher-student assessment criteria) did I choose this item?

iv. What do I want to improve in the item?

v. How do I feel about my performance?

vi. What were the problem areas?

Adapted from http://www.anglit.net/main/portfolio/default.html

Assessment

Criteria for a finished portfolio might include several of the following:

• Thoughtfulness (including evidence of students' monitoring of their own comprehension, metacognitive reflection, and productive habits of mind).
• Growth and development in relationship to key curriculum expectancies and indicators.
• Understanding and application of key processes.
• Completeness, correctness, and appropriateness of products and processes presented in the portfolio.
• Diversity of entries (e.g., use of multiple formats to demonstrate achievement of designated performance standards).

Folder vs. Portfolio

Your folder is a collection of your class work. It should include the following documents:

1. Class Notes + homework
2. Handouts: Texts & Other documents

> Writing: rough drafts, sketches, works-in-progress, and final products.
> Grammar
> Literary Elements (Short Stories)
> Songs and any other handout

3. Journal Themes: Those given by the teacher or collected by the students
4. Tests & Quizzes: checked by your teacher and corrected, revised, or rewritten by you.
   
   

Welcome Back!

While we're still trying to get over the end-of-vacation blues, let's see if we can get excited about this new beginning at school. I hope your summer was peaceful and energizing.

One of the goals I'd like to have this year is to improve communication within the Department. With this in mind, let me try starting this Blog and we'll see how it goes. Here I'll publish documents that may be useful for some or all of you. You will be able to copy them for whatever use if necessary. Also, you can post your comments for the rest of the Department. Everything that gets published here is to be used only by us, English Department teachers. If later, we find a better, more efficient way to communicate we can always make changes. So here it is. Enjoy!

Carlos