1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,600 Okay, initially, very briefly, let me outline what the session is going to be like. 2 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:23,520 First, we're going to present a model, a cooperative and collaborative model we're using to promote 3 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:27,040 the language English basically outside the classroom, okay? 4 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:31,680 We'll present you with a model, our beliefs, and then I will present to you some of the 5 00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:37,720 activities that actually we're implementing in the class, okay? 6 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:39,140 This is who we are. 7 00:00:39,140 --> 00:00:40,140 We are a working group. 8 00:00:40,140 --> 00:00:45,360 I was appointed by the school administrations, both Generalitat de Catalunya and El Prat 9 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:46,360 City Council. 10 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:51,960 And it's composed basically of primary school, secondary school teachers, university teachers 11 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:52,960 like myself. 12 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:59,040 Here, actually, we thought of showing you the pictures, putting the name to the face, 13 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:00,040 starting from myself. 14 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,200 The second one is the director of the local resource center. 15 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:07,120 We have a primary school teacher right in the middle, a secondary school teacher. 16 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:12,040 The best picture, in my opinion, is Leticia's right by the beach, okay? 17 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:16,600 Actually, one picture is missing because we have a representative from the school board 18 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:20,960 of education, the regional school board of education, which is part of the group. 19 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:25,240 That person is part of the group, too, okay? 20 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:26,240 Our beliefs, okay? 21 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:28,720 As a working group, what are our beliefs? 22 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:32,580 I mean, some of them are pretty obvious because it's just common sense. 23 00:01:32,580 --> 00:01:37,020 We believe that English learning should be enhanced outside the classroom. 24 00:01:37,020 --> 00:01:41,960 We believe that four or five hours a week, even if they have more instruction, time instruction 25 00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:48,600 in the class, is not enough for them to acquire a good command of the language. 26 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:54,920 We also believe that all students have the right to study and to enjoy and to practice 27 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:55,920 and to speak English. 28 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:01,480 It's not just those that are good achievers, that are high achievers that should learn 29 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:02,480 the language. 30 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:04,480 Everybody needs to have that. 31 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:10,640 Also, we believe that teachers are the key to our students' success. 32 00:02:10,640 --> 00:02:15,480 Definitely they are a very important part of the learning community, I mean, definitely 33 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:16,760 the most important part. 34 00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:23,240 Also, we believe that cultural exchanges are essential for our students. 35 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,640 We definitely live in a globalized world, and they need to know more. 36 00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:32,280 We have the feeling sometimes that they lack this experience of meeting people from different 37 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:38,600 cultures, and that's why they might have negative reactions when they meet them. 38 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:43,320 Of course, as a working group, we have a very big problem, which is lack of funding. 39 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:46,360 I mean, that's another secret to everybody. 40 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:50,360 But we believe, we honestly believe, otherwise we wouldn't be doing this, that if we are 41 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:54,800 organized, if we are well-organized, if we are enthusiastic and we have imagination, 42 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:58,920 we may overcome the obstacle of having no money, basically. 43 00:02:58,920 --> 00:03:02,720 And how can all this be done? 44 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:08,800 We truly believe that networks between working together, between the administration, the 45 00:03:08,920 --> 00:03:15,280 school board, teachers, students, all the representatives of the learning community, 46 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:20,640 it's truly essential, it's the only way to move on the project. 47 00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:26,040 As we mentioned before, to ensure our children come out of the language, we need to maximize 48 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:27,040 exposure. 49 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:34,760 Parents are not in position to organize after-school activities, so we are a link between providers 50 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:36,560 and parents. 51 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:42,640 Our city is located near an international airport and Barcelona harbour, so work opportunities 52 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:46,280 are determined by fluency in English. 53 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:53,800 Our experience intends to show that collaborative work produces a better result. 54 00:03:53,800 --> 00:04:00,320 Here you can see a diagram, you will be able to visualize a little bit better what our 55 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:04,160 group structure looks like. 56 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:08,160 Here you've got all the institutions that are involved. 57 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:14,600 We were thinking to draw in arrows because it works in both ways, but finally we never 58 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:18,360 came to it. 59 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:25,160 We understand that all administrations, they have training courses for prospective schools, 60 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:30,120 they talk about how European projects are organized, but basically what many schools 61 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:35,040 lack is a person that's there to help them, to assist them with grant writing, for instance, 62 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:36,040 finding partners. 63 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,840 There are tools, but sometimes they're not clear enough, so what we do is we work very 64 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:45,920 close to schools and we say, okay, you need to write, we have expertise in writing grants, 65 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:49,320 so we help them with that. 66 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:56,320 Then as Leti said before, hi, welcome, that's okay, we have started late anyway, we try 67 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:04,000 to organize some activities, actually we hire a commercial theater company that what they 68 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:10,400 actually do is they offer a play, they have a performance for our schools, and what we 69 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:17,400 do is we contact them, we're somehow the link between the schools, the overwhelmed teachers 70 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:23,720 and these companies, and we hire them, the city council offers the venue for free, and 71 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:28,520 there we perform, and we tend to organize, we select plays and stuff like that. 72 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,920 Okay, then one of the main, what the programs we're really proud of is this radio program, 73 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:37,040 we have a radio program in English called Time for English. 74 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:42,120 As you can see there, it's a weekly radio program at the local radio station. 75 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:45,160 Actually who started the thing? 76 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:49,520 They came to us and well, we would like to have students, high school students coming 77 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:55,240 to a radio station, getting to know the place more, so why don't we do something in English, 78 00:05:55,240 --> 00:06:00,000 so we started with the idea of a weekly radio program. 79 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,560 Initially we were a bit reluctant, we thought that was going to be really hard work on the 80 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:10,000 teachers, and we understand that teachers are overwhelmed, so what we did was that yeah 81 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:15,480 definitely teachers have to supervise somehow the contents of the radio program, but they 82 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:20,120 don't have to go to radio station themselves, because the students, we have initial meeting 83 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:24,600 at the beginning of the year, in which we establish the calendar, we set up the calendar, 84 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:30,760 and then the staff at the radio station, they take care of them, okay, so they come once 85 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:37,080 or twice a month to record the program, we supervise the context, but they go on their own. 86 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:44,280 At first we're not sure how that was going to be like, because we thought well maybe 87 00:06:44,280 --> 00:06:48,360 some students will be too shy actually to go to radio and speak English, we thought 88 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:53,240 we planned the activity for those high achievers that we'll have in the class, but believe 89 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:58,600 it or not, what happened was that many students were not very good at English, but they liked 90 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:04,440 going to the radio, it was a nice activity, so they joined in, and as you will see, some 91 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:09,080 of the students that go there to record the program, their level of English is okay, just 92 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:15,400 okay, but that has been tremendous motivation for them to do better in their regular English 93 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:20,280 class. Okay, so as I wrote there, it's a mixed ability group, we don't have the best students 94 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:25,000 at all, and of course some of the results are, I mean we're improving, but they need 95 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:29,800 to get used to working in a professional environment, which is also an excellent experience for 96 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:37,000 them, we're moving beyond the linguistic experience to offer them like a professional experience, 97 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:45,160 and if that works, we will hear an excerpt. Fantastic. Doesn't work? No. 98 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:51,960 Okay, maybe we can find a hyperlink. 99 00:07:51,960 --> 00:08:07,400 And we also have in some schools, we have language assistants that are of great help, 100 00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:11,400 because they are in charge of monitoring and actually supervising the activities. 101 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:13,080 Well, we try to... 102 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:15,160 Third question, how about books? 103 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:18,760 We need books, because I thought this day is the day of the book too. 104 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:23,720 The 23rd of April, two of the most important speakers of the literature book died in England 105 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,600 and in Spain, William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes. 106 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:32,200 Okay, so other nine, what type of books do you like to receive on St. George's Day? 107 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:39,080 I like the books of Loha Somborini, like Music for the Other Room, or the Domenico. 108 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:45,160 I like the Domenico too. So Edgar, how about you? What books do you like to read? 109 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:48,680 I love fantasy books, above all, Laura Gallego's books. 110 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:53,240 Okay, so are the roses always red, or are they different colors? 111 00:08:53,960 --> 00:09:00,760 No, roses could be blue, yellow, pink, white, dark purple, everyone with a different meaning. 112 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:03,480 The red roses represent the passion. 113 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:04,920 Well, I think that's enough, you get an idea. 114 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:07,000 The yellow ones represent a good look. 115 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:07,720 Of what the prime is like. 116 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:09,320 The white ones represent love. 117 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:19,160 As you can see, it was the language assistant that asked the questions this time. 118 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:22,920 And they were at the radio together, right? 119 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:29,640 Okay, so sometimes the language assistants go vote with them, sometimes they don't. 120 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:32,120 Okay, this is their own activity. 121 00:09:32,680 --> 00:09:37,240 In Ireland, Rush, and one from Spain, El Prat de Llobregat, 122 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:42,440 one school of the Irish side, and four schools of our side. 123 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,280 Good Baccalaureate students, both in English and other subjects, 124 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:55,960 are offered the activity on the basis that they will have to host an Irish student in their homes. 125 00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:02,120 We have moved beyond cultural and tourist activities, 126 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:07,240 although we do have a guided tour and a cultural evening with fireworks, 127 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:08,840 which is typical in Catalonia. 128 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:17,320 And we base the exchange on a music project, which ends in a final performance for families. 129 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:21,640 The activity is crucial because it's carried out by music teachers, 130 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:28,360 and it contributes to enhancing bonding between Irish and our students. 131 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,640 The visit is the final outcome. 132 00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:36,040 Some of them have some musical knowledge, some of them don't at all. 133 00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:38,600 And what they do is when they meet for the visits, 134 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,280 either here or in Ireland, then they have a joint performance, okay? 135 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:45,080 And that's their opinion. 136 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:50,920 We asked them their opinion about how the exchange was, and if they had enjoyed it or not. 137 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:52,520 And it was really positive. 138 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:53,880 This is meant to be for those... 139 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:57,560 We do select the students, as you understand. 140 00:10:57,560 --> 00:11:02,280 For teachers who go with them, go along with them, they only take the best students. 141 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:04,680 So this is just for those high achievers. 142 00:11:04,680 --> 00:11:08,280 It's a way to motivate those good students who always have in the class, 143 00:11:08,280 --> 00:11:14,200 and they need to strive, they need to soar, they need to have excellent grades. 144 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:16,600 Otherwise, they are not allowed to go into this change, okay? 145 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:19,000 So that's to motivate our top students. 146 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:26,920 Now we are going to speak about the group activities organized for teachers. 147 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:30,840 Well, this is a conference organization. 148 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:37,160 The title is a bit misleading because it's an experience sharing day. 149 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:42,920 We give our local primary and secondary teachers a chance to share an activity 150 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:47,240 that they have successfully implemented in class. 151 00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:53,960 Simple sharing, no students attached, no certificate of attendance, no formalities so far. 152 00:11:57,400 --> 00:11:58,760 Okay, digital training. 153 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:03,960 Of course, as I work here, we don't have the resources for the next training courses. 154 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:08,360 So we work together, we collaborate with the local resource center, 155 00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:11,000 that unfortunately don't have a lot of money. 156 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:17,160 So this past year, what we do, we try to organize as much as possible, bottom up, 157 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:21,320 teacher training, which means we ask our teachers, we meet with them just once. 158 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:22,840 I mean, we don't have a lot of meetings. 159 00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:27,880 And what we asked them this year, what would you like to do? 160 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:31,560 And this year, they came up with a nice idea, which was act English. 161 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:37,560 They wanted to have an acting class in English, okay? 162 00:12:37,560 --> 00:12:38,600 So we organized that. 163 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,680 It was very successful because sometimes we have the feeling that 164 00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:44,680 we are overwhelmed with training. 165 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:46,840 We have a lot of training on methodology. 166 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:49,480 And sometimes what we want, many teachers, at least in our area, 167 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:51,720 many primary and secondary teachers want, 168 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:55,880 they just want to have a place where they could talk and use their English. 169 00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:57,880 And they have some conversation in English. 170 00:12:57,880 --> 00:12:59,720 And that's missing in many of the courses. 171 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:01,480 I mean, they learn a lot of methodology, 172 00:13:01,480 --> 00:13:04,760 but they don't have that chance of learning grammar techniques, 173 00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:07,560 but at the same time, talking in English. 174 00:13:07,560 --> 00:13:12,760 We have had the school districts from Scotland and England 175 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:18,520 to observe our language immersion system and our art programs. 176 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:23,400 We see these visits as a chance to start future collaborations. 177 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:30,360 And in fact, we have applied for a convenience ratio grant. 178 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:34,360 So we had some teacher administrators that actually came to see us, 179 00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:36,600 and they interacted with the teachers. 180 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:41,640 And some of the students here have actually started working together. 181 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:45,080 The aim of these visits, which sometimes are difficult to organize, 182 00:13:46,040 --> 00:13:48,360 is that they get to know our teachers, 183 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:51,400 and we establish more of a face-to-face collaboration. 184 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:57,640 Okay, four minutes. 185 00:13:57,640 --> 00:13:58,440 Okay, we'll have it now. 186 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:01,720 Then we talk about what we do for teachers, students in school, 187 00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:05,640 what we do for city, and what other after-school activities we organize. 188 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,840 We have, for adults, we have a book club, an English book club. 189 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:12,360 This is a pretty basic idea. 190 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:14,200 There's nothing new about that. 191 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:19,400 We hire a book club leader, a native speaker. 192 00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:20,920 Doesn't have to be a teacher at all. 193 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:22,360 She's not actually a teacher. 194 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:25,480 And they meet once a month, 195 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:29,000 and they're just for adults who have a good command of the language, 196 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:34,360 meaning they are at least B2, because we read original books, 197 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:35,960 and we help select those books. 198 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:38,600 Of course, we'll work together with the local librarian, 199 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:40,360 but she's the one that tells us, 200 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:42,680 no, that book is impossible because we don't have them. 201 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,160 So those adults come once a month, 202 00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:48,200 and they, having read the book, and they share their experiences. 203 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,600 It's basic activity, but they seem to enjoy that. 204 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:52,840 Actually, we started with one group, 205 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:56,040 and then we found that there were a lot of adults in our area 206 00:14:56,040 --> 00:15:00,360 that had learned English and were eager and anxious to practice it. 207 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:03,400 So that worked, and it's not a lot of commitment on their side, really, 208 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:04,760 because they only have to come once a month. 209 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:07,800 Also, we have cinema that's organized by the city council. 210 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:10,200 We have cinema in English once a month. 211 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:14,040 It's a free session for everybody. 212 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:15,400 It's mainly for adults as well. 213 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:18,920 We just help with, well, that's a difficult thing 214 00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:20,520 because some of the films are not available, 215 00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:21,800 or they are too expensive. 216 00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:26,280 So definitely it's not the new release thing. 217 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:28,840 Then we're planning for the next year. 218 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:30,200 We're very excited about that. 219 00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:31,560 It's the English Day. 220 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:34,200 We're planning to do, that's off-peak, 221 00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:36,440 of course, something we haven't invented, really. 222 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:41,320 We're trying to organize different workshops between schools, 223 00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:43,640 between different primary and secondary schools, 224 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:46,280 and for one day, there will be different workshops 225 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:51,720 led by teachers or by us or by others that we will hire, 226 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:53,640 which will have different activities, 227 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:57,320 both for students at school, but also city activities, 228 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:00,920 like we're planning to do a concert, some cookery classes. 229 00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:05,800 Actually, we're bringing the book club to the main city square, too. 230 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:10,360 So it's making sure that it has an impact in the city, 231 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:11,720 okay, that English is visible. 232 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:18,520 For primary school from P3 to 6th grade, 233 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,280 the activities are held at one school, 234 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,000 and the city council funds the activity 235 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:27,240 by offering the venue and equipment for free. 236 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:31,800 And for secondary schools, we have just started this year. 237 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:36,920 We are offering a song school creative English workshops, 238 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:41,560 and we hope it's going to be a successful activity, too. 239 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:44,040 And that's all. 240 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:44,600 That's it. 241 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:47,160 Thank you for your attention.