Midweek madness forging international speed dating sessions

After a very restful night, everyone was on time for breakfast and left for Castuera 145 km north east of Badajoz.  The young ones started the journey planning games and chatting loudly - but it only lasted 15 mins before the snoozing started.

We were taken to the Teachers Resource Centre to meet the local adv isors then onto our first visit.

Visit 1 - CP Pedro de Valdivia (Lee Connor)

Our first visit of the day was to a primary school which was built after the Spanish civil war.  Castuera was basically flattened as it formed the boundary between two conflicting factions. Set in a town with a population of 7000, the school had approximately 200 children on its roll, with 61 in the Nursery section and 130 in the Primary range.  Within the town itself there were several other schools, with a pre-Primary, two Primaries, two Secondary schools, an adult school, and one SEN school.

This school was involved in a European project with schools from Denmark, Romania and Italy and they were very interested and keen on establishing links with as many foreign schools as possible.  We also discussed their environmental project with them, which had been ongoing within the school for the previous 6 years and focuses on such things as pollution and recycling around the world. 

Our first visit was to a class of 5 year olds who had been learning English since they were 3 years old.  They had very enthusiastic teachers and we were treated to renditions of English nursery rhymes.  They stared in wonder when we broke into 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes".  Kelly and Katherine also performed a song they use with their early years classes.

In terms of ICT use within the school, we observed a Year 6 English lesson which used ICT throughout.  The class consisted of 12 children, and had 19 computers, with a portable Interactive Whiteboard also in use.  The teacher was using the JClic program, focusing on irregular verbs in English, and learning about the Geographical aspects of the

Children were invited to the front of the class to highlight particular rivers, lakes, and countries on the IWB, which was closely followed by independent work on their individual computers (word searches and labelling maps).  There seemed to be a much more structured lesson in place today, with similar features such as oral starters and a plenary recognisable. 

 We then observed a PE lesson using ICT.  The beginning of it was based on the previous day's lesson and focused on the children's jumping technique, using the video recording the teacher had made. He went through several jumps and highlighted good aspects and areas for improvement, through pausing and whole class discussion.

The teacher then introduced a new unit of work to the children - Basketball.  Using the IWB, he presented a basketball court to the children and also a list of the rules and how to play it properly. 

 He went through the zones of the court with the children, and invited children to the front to label it on the IWB.  All the children were very engaged and on task, with no problems in terms of behaviour and discipline.

The children were motivated by the use of the IWB and it was put to effective use throughout the lesson. 

A very productive morning for all! 

We returned to the Teachers Resource Centre and had a demonstration of their VLE with various fre e software packages and completed resources.  The teachers make very good use of this to find out about available training, sign up for courses and any government (local and national) initiatives.

There followed a shared discussion explaining how ICT was used in schools across all keystages in Gateshead.  This will form the main article for their next ICT publication.  The blog is promoting a lot of significant discussion and interest.  Antonio is keen for all teachers we meet to have the address and they have all have been invited to comment - especially in Spanish.  It is hoped that the teachers will share the blog with students to motivate and enrich their language skills

By now it was 14.30 and time for lunch so we adjourned to a nearby restaurant.

We had yet another fantastic three course banquet (except the first course was 3 courses in itself) for lunch.  We started with the local cheese (La Serena) along with a range of local Iberian cooked meats.  This was followed by a Portuguese fish delicacy - cod cooked with eggs and grated potatoes.  The main course was a choice of fish (bream or halibut) or meat (pork fillet in a cheese sauce or lamb chops).  Dessert choices included custard, rice pudding, crème caramel, ice cream or fruit.  All this was accompanied by homemade rolls, bottles of red wine (excellent quality) and water.  The meal was rounded off with coffee.

Two hours later we set off for our final visit of the day in Zalmea de la Serena - 10 km from Castuera.  No rest for the wicked!

Visit 2 - IES Antonio de Nebrija (Colin Carr)

After lunch we visited the Antonio de Nebrija Secondary school at Zalmea de la Serena.

The age range of the pupils is 12-16 and 16-18 (600 in total) the school was completed in 2006 with European funding and covers a large country area with pupils travelling by bus from all parts of the district.  Pupils have the option of weekly booster classes and we were invited to view an ICT Design lesson.

The teacher controls the class computers using gnulinex and set an appropriate task in computer design using a QCAD on Windows and Linex.  This is a multifunction program which enabled pupils to design in layers and included line, shape, space, colour and measurement.

The pupils were set an appropriate task and worked in pairs to complete.

The second part of the visit included a school pupil and teacher ICT video production. The subject was the local region over the last 2000 years and was excellent both in content and production.

Finally we were all given a school produced calendar which was the latest ICT led multi subject production. Once again the final product was excellent.

Unfortunately our visit to the Roman ruins had to be cancelled as it was too muddy underfoot.

However, we were invited to have coffee and cream puffs in their cafeteria.  This facility is unusual in the school and came complete with a proper espresso machine.

International relations were enhanced when the female students spotted Lee from afar.  As he walked passed there were cries of "Lee we like you!" and within 20 mins he left to a chorus of "Lee we love you!".