PROJECT

This last month I have been workin in th Music therapy with autistic children project with four classmates. I think it was kind of difficult to find in wich way we wanted to go through the project and that is maybe the reason why we sere a little bit lost for the first two weeks.

It was difficult to get all the same idea of what we really want to do and choose wich things were important.
I am happy with the result of our work, but I think that it could have been better if we knew from before waht exactly to do.

Even all these things, I think that was a good way to get to know each other, learn in gropus about one topic that we all find interesting and experiment new ways of doing things.

MODES OF STUDY

About the modes of study I can not tell a lot of things cause woth the group I worked with, all the systems were very different. One thing that surprised me was the fact that in countries like Turkey, for example, they don't have the possibility to go abroad for the practical placement. I realized that the northen part and the southern part of Europe have similar education plans so, Spain Education System is more similar to the Italian and French one as Holland , Denmark and Finland are also more similar beetwen them.

Another difference that is remarkable is the possibility to get into a higher education and the money that the students recieve fron their governments.

CAMP

About the camp in the first week of class, I just want to remark how interesting I founf the activities that we did there. They were very helpful to get to know each other and find out how difficult or easy can be that act of communication beetwen two people from different countries.
Maybe it could have been more interesting to spend there 2 more days and have more free time, at nights to know each other better and just have fun talking together.
The international dinner was  agood opportunity to work and organise things together but, I think it could have been more organised triying to control the number of dishes we prepared.

26th September

In there two last weeks we have recieved classes from two guest teachers. The class about child's rights was interesting from my point of view, but mabe it could have been more active, making the people participate and taking us into the subject, so I just think it was interesting even it was difficult to understand the teacher sometimes.
The other classes from the other guest teacher, I found them really interesting and useful and they really made me think about all the thinks he was talking about young people nowadays. He made the classes interestig and the activities he proposed were helpfull to understand what he was explaining to us.
I am very happy recieving classes liek this beacause I don't have them in Spain and, even if I study another degree pretty different to this one, I think that they would help for the future and thay help me to open my mind for a different knowledge.

Perspectives for professional work with children and young people

This year I have been in Nepal for my Practical placement. Nepal is a country in process of development whose primary source of income is tourism. The society's core values are honesty, helpfulness, respect for other cultures and satisfaction to others. Still remains a country that lacks socially years to evolve as the role that women play in it.For my Practical Placement, I was working in a school with children from fourteen to eighteen years. My experience in communication and adaptation in another culture working at school, has to do with the values I have mentioned before.When teaching at tha school, the methodology  I applied was the one  that I had experienced during my years as a student and I assumed it would work.After the first two weeks of class, it seemed that the children responded well to the methodology but when creating a new activity for them, I realized that something was wrong.After explaining the activity on the board, make sketches and ask if anyone had any doubt they all started to do the exercise. My surprise was that it had been ten minutes doing who wrote in silent but they have not written anything.

After thinking about what I might have missed, I thought about the possibility that they only said they had no doubts in order  to please and so it was. Students never acknowledged his doubts, not looking or asking for help because their culture is not well seen to disagree with someone who is above you, as is the case of  the the teacher-student relationship.

The known difficulties which were mainly found in the comucation. Take for granted things that for me are seen as normal beacuse of the culture I'm coming from like  when a student has questions or does not know an activity the teacher has the obligation to help are not the same. The student does not ask questions or have  any doubts, just learn by heart and never disagree with the teacher. Therefore, the change in methodology for the rest of the practical placement was the solution for both the students and I in order to learn and understand each other better: collective activities and individualized correction, exercises on the board, open-response questions, exercises of expression of opinion, etc..

about me...

My name is Bea, I 'm twenty years old and this is my last year of degree to become a Primary Teacher. I live in Madrid, Spain, with my parents. I have an older brother who is now living in London. I love living abroad and find new challenges that make me develope.



I chose this International course because an experience like this one, will enrich me not only as a person, but also as the future teacher I will be in a near future.

I am happy to have so many nationalities in class beacuse it give us the great opportunity to discover and learn about other ways of doing things and lifestyle.



It is really interesting how different kind of activities can be done and the variety of results that provoke depending on the person, the group he or she has worked with and the big group that we are.

I am really surprised about this type of education and even if I am now trying to get used to it, I find myself more comfortable everyday.



Just 4 months so, make the most of the opportunity!