Members present: Sofía, Graciela, Norita, Janine, Alina, Cecilia, Silvia G, Omar, Silvia I, Pimpa Excused: Paula
Absent: Carolina
Announcements:
Books: Cecilia told us that she got the Activate Series (three levels) from Longman’s rep. We agreed that we would keep the books in the office for a week or two before anyone teaching those levels takes them for classroom use as extra-material.
Teacher’s day ceremony: Carlos thanked the 1st Polimodal team for taking care of the ceremony last Thursday Sept 11. They said there had been some criticism of improvisation from the Administration because the text to be read by the MC was not ready. Carlos reminded everyone he had been sick the whole week and had not had a chance to put it together. Still, at home he did search on the web and sent the text for the speech which they informed everyone liked. We agreed we would put more attention to the organization of ceremonies in the future.
Congratulations: Carlos congratulated Cecilia on her presentation about "The Use of NICT in the EFL Classroom" at the Primeras Jornadas de Actualización en el Uso de la Lengua Inglesa organized by the UNT CELALEI last August 21-23.
Needs
Carlos informed that upon the concern expressed earlier that day about the lack of good cassette and CD players, Mercedes and Filomena authorized the Department to purchase two units that respond to our needs. Cecilia and Alina agreed they would get together soon to get them.
Alina expressed concern about the lack of available times for her class to use the Computer Lab. She requested a schedule be set so that she can have access to it once every 2 or 3 weeks.
Silvia expressed the same type of concern about the availability of the library. Since 8th graders use it at the same time 9th graders sometimes do so too, it was agreed that since the latter only need it every so often, they would communicate the 8th grade team a week in advance so that alternative arrangements can be made.
Professional Development
- Eleven members of the Department attended the UNT Jornadas mentioned above. Five of them are working on the written evaluation for accreditation.
- Apart from her CELALEI presentation, from May to mid July, Cecilia was part of the program "Del Pizarrón al Monitor: la funcion tutorial en los entornos virtuales de aprendizaje", an online course for teachers sponsored by UNT. She also took the graduate course "Analisis del discurso de los aprendientes a proposito de la lectura" taught by PhD Mark Souchon.
- Omar attended the talk on evaluation given by Miguel Angel Santos Guerra at Tulio school on Monday, Sept 15.
- Carlos attended the presentation of the Department of Psychology on their Tutoring System last August 22. He will also be giving a professional development training session at IES Lola Mora on the use of blogs in the classroom.
- Silvia I. and Pimpa will be attending this year’s FAAPI in Santiago del Estero from September 18-20.
More opportunities
Carlos announced that the UNT Formación Docente Department is going to publish its annual magazine and has invited people to submit articles. It would be great to put our work on paper and publish it in this prestigious journal. Further details about length and deadlines will be given in the Dpt blog.
FCE/IB News
Carlos informed that the note for parents with information about FCE payment is posted on the Dept blog. Grace, Silvia G., and Cecilia asked whether the note could be adapted for those students who are not entirely prepared but could take the exam if they work really hard. Also, another note could be drafted to send parents of kids who want to take the exam even though they are really not ready in their preparation to pass it. We agreed that for the latter group, the same letter could be sent, but the parents of these kids will be called by the teacher in charge of the language class.
This year’s 2nd Polimodal students that pass the FCE will be added to the A2 group next year. These kids are likely to sign up for the A2 Standard Level, whereas the group that started A2 this year in 2nd Polimodal will be able to take the A2 Higher Level exam.
Class visits
Due to his fewer hours for coordination, Carlos announced that instead of formal class observation, he will informally visit classes for a few minutes, especially on Tuesday mornings and whenever else he can be around. So, he may just pop over and visit your class any time to help you continue to do your excellent job.
Meeting with Diana, Filomena and Andrea
Carlos reminded Dpt members that on Monday Sept 29 at noon the Department will meet with the afore mentioned to discuss a mid-year evaluation of our performance and our plans for next academic year.
Carlos mentioned he’s been updating the Department’s Portfolio. If he has the time, he’ll try to finish it for this meeting. He thanked Norita for using her well-organized personal files to rescue our Department mission statement. Carlos has revised it and is sharing it for your comments for further amendment.
Curriculum ongoing evaluation
The 7th Year team informed that their groups have been working really well. Students are responsible and work hard. Discipline is good, maybe due to this year’s smaller groups (18sts). Carlos asked this team if they could make a list of books this class has read. We want to keep track and make sure we keep the momentum going later on in their HS experience.
After this, there was a discussion about how to deal with the language textbook with only four hours a week. Some teachers expressed concern about the poor level of some of the kids all along the curriculum. We agreed we would use the same textbook for two years so that there’s no pressure of using the whole book in one year –an impossible task at this point. We’ll be able to assess the progress of the last curricular changes eventually. The proposal is we find ways to tackle error patterns and work on not allowing gross mistakes go unnoticed in class conversation. Carlos asked everyone to make a copy of the students written production in this year’s final exam (composition, essay, etc.) so that we can assess their progress and spot patterns of error. He also stressed the importance of our continued use of pair and group work in every class, monitoring the exclusive use of English at all times, and not letting gross language errors go uncorrected with covert error correction techniques.
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