El sistema educativo canadiense. Rosa´s Perspective

Escrito conjunto

2016-01-19T10:45:00.000-08:00

Este documento fue elaborado por el profesorado participante en esta actividad y presentado a las autoridades pertinentes para que, en el futuro, no se cometan los mismos errores de esta convocatoria

PIALE. Canadá 2015

Aclaraciones a las reflexiones

2015-11-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

Acabo de recibir una nota de la Academia Kens explicándome el malentendido con inmigración en el aeropuerto el día de llegada y quisiera aclararlo.

Al parecer el problema surgió porque algunos profesores/as dijeron a inmigración que iban a Canadá a trabajar, pagados ( quizás estaban nerviosos o no hubo un problema con el idioma y no entendieron bien a los/las policías de inmigración). Si se va a trabajar a un colegio, sí se necesita certificado médico; si - como era nuestro caso- se va a observar, no es necesario; de ahí que, una vez aclarado el entuerto, nos hubiesen dejado entrar al país sin más problemas.

Ésta es la aclaración:

Some teachers told immigration that they were coming here to work and also that they were getting paid. This is where the problem arose because the moment you enter a foreign country to work and especially for paid work, you require a visa. In the case of working in schools in Canada, in addition to the work visa, you would need a medical checkup. Since you were not working and therefore DID NOT require a visa (since it is never required for these types of programs as they are observation programs not work programs), you DID NOT require a medical. The problem is that after certain teachers said this, the immigration officers did not believe that you were all going there to observe and so it needed to be cleared up by me and by Lester B Pearson as well before we could convince immigration otherwise.

Reflexiones finales

2015-10-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

En primer lugar, quisiera mencionar lo afortunada que me he sentido de poder participar en un programa como éste. Cuando eres una profesora vocacional y quieres seguir aprendiendo (aunque ya empieces a pensar en la jubilación, como es mi caso), pasar un mes en un país como Canadá es un regalo.

He constatado que casi todas/os los que estamos en este programa tenemos motivos muy distintos para estar aqui pero algunos coincidimos en que este mes es casi una terapia para ayudarnos a escapar de/olvidar ciertos problemas personales y/o profesionales, que estarán ahí cuando volvamos pero a los que podremos enfrentarnos con mas fuerzas gracias a esta oxigenación.

Dicho esto, empecemos con la crítica constructiva:

• Montreal como destino ha sido un error absoluto para una beca cuyo primer objetivo es la inmersión lingüística en inglés. Es cierto que todos vivimos en West Island, parte anglófona, pero la vida diaria, incluso aquí, esta pensada en francés: los buses, las tiendas, los letreros... todo es francés y, por supuesto, hay muchas personas cuyo primer idioma es ése así que es el idioma que mas oyes por las calles, en las tiendas ... y, en la mayoría de los casos, la gente cambia a inglés cuando les respondes en ingles pero hemos tenido casos (y no uno ni dos) en los que la gente hablaba solo francés - o hacía como si solo hablase francés que, para el caso, es lo mismo; o sea, inmersión lingüística no ha sido

• Quebec como provincia. A estas alturas la mayoría de nosotras/os no entendemos cómo funciona el sistema educativo de Quebec pero sí tenemos muy claro que es totalmente distinto al del resto de las provincias – por el idioma, el francés. ¿Es lógico que vayamos a observar un sistema educativo tan distinto del resto del país cuando el objetivo no es la convivencia de los dos idiomas, francés e inglés sino el sistema educativo en inglés, minoritario en la provincia?

• la organización de los viajes ida y vuelta a España ha sido malísima. El horario de los vuelos de vuelta solo hace pensar en una cosa: ahorrar dinero a la agencia; no hay otra manera de explicar que cojamos un vuelo a las 23 horas de un sábado (24 de octubre), lleguemos a Barcelona a las 11 (del día 25) y tengamos que esperar hasta las 19:40 - retrasado hasta las 20:00 - para coger el vuelo a Coruña. Y después el viaje a casa. Las personas que viven en Vigo, por ejemplo: no hay medio de transporte público a esas horas para llegar a casa, un taxi???!!!Y, a mayores, la Xunta nos dice que tenemos que trabajar el lunes 26 - porque, dice por escrito, el ultimo dia para este proyecto era el 23 de octubre - y que, si no lo hacemos (ir al trabajo el 26), se nos descontará de nuestros dias de asuntos propios....Todo esto cuando nos ha venido impuesto; no se nos ha dado opción a buscar otro vuelo, otros horarios.

Fotos del traslado al aeropuerto: intentando acomodar las maletas en el `school bus´

• un programa con 50 personas es difícil de organizar, por ejemplo para buscar familias. ¿Por qué? He de explicar, en primer lugar, que a mi la idea de las familias no me pareció bien desde el principio. Creo que , a cierta edad y después de todo el día de trabajo socializando en la escuela, una/o busca un rato de tranquilidad y no mas socialización en casa. Pero, si tenemos que adaptarnos, nos adaptamos; claro que un profesor/a quiere vivir en una familia que cumpla unos requisitos: no buscamos lujos pero si ciertos mínimos: que la familia hable inglés es uno. Si no tenemos inmersión lingüística en el ambiente, por lo menos lo queremos en la escuela y en casa - y aquí ha habido gente viviendo en familias con otro idioma como primero y que hacían esfuerzos por relacionarse en inglés cada vez que la profesora/profesor estuviese cerca pero que hablaban inglés con un fuerte acento extranjero (insisto: para una inmersión lingüística no es la situación ideal, aunque algunas de estas familias eran absolutamente encantadoras y se desvivían por ayudar) Aparte del idioma, ha habido otras "incomodidades": personas que no querían alojarse en familias con niños pequeños o con perros o gatos y han tenido que aguantar con unos u otros (efectivamente, no es un caso "de alergia" pero si no te gustan, un mes aguantando es MUY incomodo, y no hay que echarle imaginación para entenderlo). La limpieza ha sido otro tema "delicadillo" en algunas de las casas - quizás por estar relacionado a veces con el tema anterior de los animales domésticos. Los que no tenemos animales en casa no entendemos cosas como usar la manta donde se sienta el perro como manta para no tener frio en la cama, por ejemplo, y parece quisquilloso pedir otra pero... en fin, a buen entendedor... Colegas que participaron en este programa en Ottawa y Toronto en ediciones anteriores comentaron lo bien seleccionadas que estaban las familias ya que el protocolo de búsqueda de las mismas había sido exhaustivo: se exigió un certificado de penales, se visitó la casa por sorpresa para asegurarse de que la profesora/el profesor español tendría su propia habitación (no el despacho de la familia, como ha habido algun caso), que habría wi-fi (alguna persona de este programa no la ha tenido en casa, cuando estaba en las condiciones del programa y parece algo imprescindible hoy en día - y más en un pais como Canadá donde es facilísimo acceder gratis en todas partes), y se respetaron escrupulosamente las exigencias del profesorado en cuanto a los animales domésticos y niños pequeños en las casas (Una anécdota: una profesora de este programa pidió alojarse en una casa sin 'pets', pues bien, en su casa hay un'pet' y dos pájaros que revolotean con toda la libertad por toda la casa…) Y en esas ediciones del programa (Ottawa y Toronto), tanto la 'homestay family' como los `guests´ (=nosotras/os) tenían las direcciones de correo electrónico y la información correspondiente semanas antes de empezar el programa - nosotras/no. En realidad, algunas/os recibimos el nombre de la familia (no su correo electrónico) unos días antes de la salida pero a muchas/muchos nos cambiaron el día anterior a la salda, o sea, el 25 de septiembre.

• las escuelas: quizás con un grupo más pequeño de profesorado se habría podido pulir la elección de los colegios. En algunos casos ha habido 6 profesores/as en el mismo centro; en otros casos ha habido profesorado observando clases que no tenían nada que ver con su materia durante varios días (una o dos clases son interesantes para ver la metodología, incluso un dia entero, pero varios días acaba cansando porque no ves la manera de relacionar todo lo que estas viendo con tu trabajo). En algunos colegios el director del colegio estaba implicado, preocupado, interesado por el profesorado español. En mi caso, aparte del día en el que nos enseñó el centro a Loli y a mi, ni una palabra más. Y yo he echado de menos una integración mayor en el centro: no se me permitió asistir a ninguna reunión de profesorado (pedí expresamente asistir a la reunión sobre Personal Projects del profesorado de IB, por ejemplo) y en todo momento he tenido la impresión de que yo era responsabilidad única y exclusivamente de mi mentor, Glenn Katz, y que él pensaba que mi única función era observar sus clases. Es verdad que tuve suerte en el sentido de que él es profesor de inglés asi que - como se puede leer en el blog - sí pude ver actividades que quizás pueda adaptar a mis clases y metodología que, seguramente, incorporaré también. Pero eché de menos una programación de mi estancia para visitar otras clases sin tener que pedirlo yo porque las visitas a otras clases fueron gracias a que lo pedí y eso a veces no es fácil, sobre todo, teniendo en cuenta que el profesorado estaba con las protestas (el 'work to rule') y más de un profesor/a no estaba de acuerdo con mi estancia en el centro porque les parecía que rompía las normas de las protestas. Por otra parte, también mi 'mentor' me prohibió expresamente asistir a alguna clase de inglés de una colega suya porque, supuestamente, tenía que estar con él en clases de inglés; no tuve ganas de discutir, acepté pero me habria gustado ir. ¿Cómo creo que se debería haber planificado la estancia en las escuelas? Creo que por ciclos: un ciclo (6 o 9 dias, dependiendo del colegio) para variar de asignaturas y actividades y, por supuesto, asistiendo a las reuniones del profesorado porque me gustaria ver, por ejemplo, como consiguen que las reuniones NUNCA duren más de 1 hora. Habria estado bien aprender esto para enseñarlo en mi centro en Lugo.

Al parecer, en algunos colegios (no en el mío) se explicó al profesorado español que los `mentors´ (profesorado canadiense encargado del profesorado español) cobraban una cantidad de dinero por hacerse cargo de esa profesora/profesor; si esto fue así, se nos debería haber hecho saber y entonces habríamos tenido que aceptar haber estado con esa persona únicamente – aunque observar a un solo profesor/a no sea la mejor manera de conocer el sistema esducativo cabadiense

• el bono de transporte. Se nos explicó que solo recibiría el bono de transporte (bus y metro, no tren) para toda la estancia el profesorado que viviese a mas de 15 minutos andando del colegio y cuyas familias no pudiesen llevarlos y recogerlos todos los días. Una premisa totalmente injusta, ¿por que? el bono se podía utilizar para todo tipo de viajes: a y desde casa al colegio pero también para hacer turismo el bono se podía utilizar en días laborables y en días festivos porque era ilimitado durante nuestra estancia y eso provocó una injusticia comparativa flagrante porque cada trayecto en transporte publico cuesta 3,25

Las familias que llevaban al profesorado al colegio fallaron algún dia, no muchos, es verdad, pero siempre surge alío en una estancia de un mes, a la ida o a la vuelta, y, teniendo en cuenta que prácticamente todos teníamos que coger más de un bus por trayecto, esas personas se vieron obligadas, o bien a pagar los viajes de su bolsillo o a forzar (como obligación moral) a las familias a llevarles. No era un gasto exagerado pero un agravio comparativo, si. Y el colmo fue que acabasen dando dinero a estas personas para compensar sus gastos y se les explicase que ese dinero venía del bolsillo de los encargados del programa, no del programa en sí - a mi me pareció un detalle vergonzoso y totalmente inapropiado.

• las excursiones del programa. Es cierto que fueron interesantes (Montreal, Ottawa y Mont-Tremblant) pero a mi me parecieron mal organizadas en un par de aspectos. En primer lugar, la salida y el regreso se hacian desde un punto bastante alejado para todos y con unas conexiones de transporte público incómodas por estar ese 'meeting point' tan alejado de cualquiera de nuestras casas o escuelas. ¿Cómo lo solucionaban cuando no podían llevarnos o ir a recogernos nuestras familias? Con taxis, es decir, una fortuna cada dia de excursión porque nadie (de las personas con las que yo hablé - aunque no me dedique a hacer una estadística) pagó menos de $20/viaje; todos pensamos que habria sido más lógico recogernos y dejarnos en la estación de autobuses de Pointe-Claire, por donde necesariamente teníamos que pasar la mayoría de nosotras/os para ir a a casa - con el bono de transporte ya estaban los trayectos pagados - y únicamente necesitarían el taxi un par de personas a quienes el bus dejaba lejos de su casa. Se habrían ahorrado un montón de dinero y habría sido incluso más cómodo para todas/os. He de decir que a veces eramos nosotras/os quienes nos poníamos de acuerdo y nos acercábamos a las casas de otras/os para compartir taxi porque nos parecía un gasto ímprobo. En segundo lugar, la hora de regreso nos pareció demasiado temprana; todas esos lugares resultaban apetecibles para estar más tiempo y, teniendo en cuenta que la hora de llegada a Montreal era las 5:30 p.m., la visita llegaba a poco. Y quiero comentar lo disgustados que quedamos algunos el día de la excursión a Mont-Tremblant, cuando pasamos dos horas en un outlet en las afueras de Montreal, al regreso; ¡cómo habríamos disfrutado ese tiempo en un pueblo tan precioso! Quizás podrían habernos preguntado y aceptaríamos la elección de la mayoría.

• información que deberíamos haber recibido antes de empezar el viaje - y que no recibimos:

1. datos sobre las familias (miembros de las familias, profesiones, edades, correo electrónico, dirección...). Como unos quince dias antes del viaje, empezamos a recibir, por tandas, el nombre de la familia (nada más) y los datos de la escuela. La tarde anterior a la salida, es decir, el viernes 25 de septiembre, nos cambiaron de familia; a mi, por ejemplo, se me dijo que pasaria a vivir con mi 'mentor', que tenia dos hijos pequeños; alegué mil y un motivos para que me dejasen en la familia anterior y no hubo manera, se me explicó que mi 'mentor' había pedido, explícitamente, que yo residiese en su casa. En cuanto llegué a mi "homestay family", mi familia comentó que les habían dado el nombre de otra persona pero que la noche anterior les habían cambiado de "guest" sin motivo.

2. datos sobre el profesorado. Si nos hubiesen enviado una lista con datos básicos: nombres, lugar de residencia, email y nº de tfno. podríamos habernos puesto en contacto para viajar, quedar, ir conociéndonos... Creímos que nos la darían al llegar, pero, nada... Un colega creó una pagina excel para agregarnos y eso es lo que tuvimos - pero no todo el mundo se anotó por uno u otro motivo.

3. necesidad de tener un certificado medico para presentarlo en inmigración en el aeropuerto

Conclusiones:

1. finalidad principal del programa: "a mellora da competencia lingüística e comunicativa en lingua estranxeira do profesorado"/ "inmersión total en ingles": no se cumplió

2. este blog consta como memoria y propuesta didáctica asi como parte del plan de difusión del proyecto. Mis colegas en mi centro educativo, IES, "Nosa Señora dos Ollos Grandes", han tenido acceso al enlace desde el dia que publiqué mi primera entrada; durante el tiempo de duración del programa, el enlace estuvo en la pagina de entrada de la página web del centro. El blog de la biblioteca también publicó una entrada sobre mi estancia con un enlace al blog. Mis alumnas/os fueron redireccionados desde mi blog, English for You, Rosa's Blog

Sights Of Montreal

2015-10-26T07:59:00.001-07:00

"Curiosidades"

Plantillas para no pasar frio

Rafa Nadal en la calle Ste. Catherine

Polícías no sólo sin el uniforme de reglamento sino con un colorido "peculiar" para protestar por los recortes salariales:

Bien abrigados pero tomando el aire en sillas Adirondack, típica silla de jardín canadiense:

El lunch al aire libre:

Sesión de fotos y concierto delante de la iglesia:

Sagging = a manner of wearing trousers or jeans which sag so that the top of the trousers or jeans are significantly below the waist, sometimes revealing much of the underwear

Perros de paseo a pares :

Gente leyendo:

Disfrutando al sol:

En Montreal, sobre ruedas, mejor que andando:

`Street dance´para no tan jóvenes:

Y es que hay que hacer ejercicio a todas las edades, y aquí lo saben:

Cualquier tipo de ejercicio:

El `moose´omnipresente:

Saturday 24th

2015-10-24T13:14:00.003-07:00

Hoy es el día de regreso - por media hora, porque salimos a las 23:30 de la noche. La llegada a Coruña está prevista mañana a las 21:30, así que pasaremos muchas horas volando y MUCHAS horas de aeropuerto, alguna en Montreal y muchas en Barcelona.... No comment!

Previendo las horas de estar encerradas, por la mañana nos fuimos Eva y yo a pasear al Parque Natural de Cap-Saint-Jacques. Un día y un lugar preciosos.

La playa:

Temperature in Montreal: 10ºC / 6º C

Friday 23rd

2015-10-23T19:12:00.001-07:00

Hoy fue un PED Day en St. Thomas H.S. así que también tuvimos el dia libre. Hay que empezar a hacer la maleta pero hay tiempo para bajar al centro.

Escultura `The Tree of Life´, de Joseph Rifesser, tallada en un tronco de avellano: representa las diferentes razas humana saliendo de un tronco común. Se encuentra en la estación de metro de Lionel-Groulx.

Edificio de estilo `Art Deco´del mercado de Atwater: construído por el gobierno después del crack de 1929 para estimular la economía - el edificio se terminó en 1933.

Calabazas para Halloween en los puestos exteriores del mercado

Escenas de la calle Sainte Catherine:

Mural en una esquina

Exteriores de otra época ( ¿o parodiándola?):

Y los bancos dejando su huella siempre:

RESO: la red peatonal subterránea de Montreal, entrando por Peel St. - aquí, en esta entrada, ¡es tan fácil perderse!, es un veradero laberinto rodeado de tiendas por abajo, edificios por arriba...una pesadilla algunas/os:

De vuelta a casa: eligiendo la calabaza para Halloween:

Y la cena de despedida:

Temperature in Montreal: 9ºC /-2º C

Canadian English

2015-10-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

Canadian humour:

This article is reblogged from BBC.Culture. Why is Canadian English Unique?

Is there such a thing as Canadian English? If so, what is it?

The standard stereotype among Americans is that Canadians are like Americans, except they say ‘eh’ a lot and pronounce ‘out and about’ as ‘oot and aboot’. Many Canadians, on the other hand, will tell you that Canadian English is more like British English, and as proof will hold aloft the spellings colourand centre and the name zed for the letter Z.

Canadian does exist as a separate variety of English, with subtly distinctive features of pronunciation and vocabulary. It has its own dictionaries; the Canadian Press has its own style guide; the Editors’ Association of Canada has just released a second edition of Editing Canadian English. But an emblematic feature of Editing Canadian English is comparison tables of American versus British spellings so the Canadian editor can come to a reasonable decision on which to use… on each occasion. The core of Canadian English is a pervasive ambivalence.

The core of Canadian English is a pervasive ambivalence

Canadian history helps to explain this. In the beginning there were the indigenous peoples, with far more linguistic and cultural variety than Europe. They’re still there, but Canadian English, like Canadian Anglophone society in general, gives them little more than desultory token nods. Fights between European settlers shaped Canadian English more. The French, starting in the 1600s, colonised the St Lawrence River region and the Atlantic coast south of it. In the mid-1700s, England got into a war with France, concluding with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ceded ‘New France’ to England. The English allowed any French to stay who were willing to become subjects of the English King.

At the time of the Treaty of Paris, however, there were very few English speakers in Canada. The American Revolution changed that. The founding English-speaking people of Canada were United Empire Loyalists – people who fled American independence and were rewarded with land in Canada. Thus Canadian English was, from its very beginning, both American – because its speakers had come from the American colonies – and not American, because they rejected the newly independent nation.

Loyal to the Crown

Just as the Americans sought to have a truly distinct, independent American version of English, the loyalists sought to remain more like England… sort of. These were people whose variety of English was already diverging from the British and vice versa: when the residents of London and its environs began to drop their r’s and change some of their vowels people in certain parts of the United States adopted some of these changes, but Canadians did not.

There did end up being more British influx and influence in Canada. After the War of 1812, Mother England encouraged emigration to Canada to ensure that loyal sentiments prevailed. The accent did not become British, though Britishschoolteachers and authorities did leave their marks on spelling and grammar. Canadians are indeed subjects of the Queen, but they are also neighbours – and the greatest trading partners – of the United States. The British may be family, but Americans are friends. Or sometimes ‘frenemies’.

Canadian English varies only a little across most of the continent. The Canadian west was not much settled by Europeans until the late 1800s, when land incentives were given to Anglo-Canadians from Ontario and to immigrants from Britain and some other countries (for example, Ukraine, from where immigrants began arriving in Canada in 1891). There are more distinctions in the Atlantic coast provinces, but especially in Newfoundland, which had been settled by Irish English-speakers and was not officially a province of Canada until 1949.

Today, one-fifth of Canadians have a mother tongue other than English or French – nearly as many as have French as their mother tongue. And yet the basic character of Canadian English still appears like a household of Anglophile Americans, with bits from other cultures mainly in the kitchen, a few traces of the indigenous cultures who used to be the only occupants, and some influence from the French roommate.

‘Oot and aboot’

Canadian spelling is, as mentioned, a tug-of-war between the British and the Americans – jail but centre, analyze but colour. Because Canada is bilingual, French may also have an effect. For example, many signs and labels and institutional names are in French and English, and it’s easier if you can press a word into double service: Shopping Centre d’Achats.

Most Canadians will tell you they don’t say ‘eh’ much

Also possibly influenced by French is the Canadian eh. French Canadians use hein (also colloquially spelled han) in most of the same kinds of places English Canadians use eh, and they use it more. The eh of Canadian English is not a Canadian invention; it is used in England and elsewhere, but it is used in more different ways in Canada, notably as an emphatic and to maintain conversational involvement: No kidding, eh; Thanks, eh; So I was going to the store, eh, and this guy cut me off. The truth of it is, though, that most Canadians will tell you they don’t say “eh” much, and it is more associated with less-educated speech.

Nearly one-fifth of Canadians have French as their mother tongue (Credit: Alamy)

The Canadian accent – or accents, since there is a bit of variation across the country (and much more in Newfoundland) and a larger amount across socioeconomic levels – has a few signal features, and they, too, trace partly to the US and partly to Britain. The best-known feature is ‘Canadian raising’, which affects two specific diphthongs before voiceless consonants: the first part of the diphthong is higher in ice and out than it is in eyes and loud. The out raising makes the vowel sound more like ‘oot’ to American ears. This feature is present across much but not all of Canada. It may be influenced by Scottish English (many British emigres were Scots), or it may be a relic of Shakespeare-era pronunciation.

Another feature is the ‘low back merger’, which makes caughtand cot sound the same. Following on this is what is called the “Canadian vowel shift”, whereby bit sounds a bit like bet, betsounds a bit like bat, and bat is said a bit farther back in the mouth. This shift is still in progress. These changes seem to have originated in Canada, though similar patterns can be seen in some parts of the US.

Happy ‘May two-four weekend’!

Beyond these details, Canadians tend to sound like Americans, especially depending on where the Americans are from. This is why citizens of each country can be blindsided by the unexpected differences peppered throughout the vocabulary. There are many. Katherine Barber, former editor-in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, has collected many signature Canadianisms in her book Only in Canada, You Say.

Sometimes Canadians use the same words as Americans in different ways: in Canada, if you write a test, you’re the one being tested, while in the US you’re the test maker. Sometimes Canadians use different words for the same things: garburatorfor kitchen disposal, bachelor apartment for studio apartment,runner for sneaker or running shoe, two-four for a case of 24 bottles or cans of beer (the uniquely Canadian holiday Victoria Day, which occurs on a Monday near 24 May, is called the ‘May two-four weekend’ in reference to this).

‘Poutine’ is the Quebec French word for a popular fast-food snack across Canada that consists of French fries, cheese curds and gravy (Credit: Thinkstock)

Some words refer to things Americans don’t seem to have:toque for a kind of fitted knitted hat; poutine, Nanaimo bars, and butter tarts for three of Canada’s great culinary gifts to the world if the world would but accept them; Caesar for a bloody Mary made with clamato juice (tomato plus clam). There are hockey metaphors, of course, like deking someone out andstickhandling a problem. There are occasional borrowings from Quebec French (unrecognisable in France) such as the aforementioned poutine, and dépanneur for a convenience store.

These Canadianisms stand as evidence of the difference between Canadian and American culture. It is very important for Canadians to maintain that difference, even if people from Vancouver sound more like people from San Francisco than people from San Francisco sound like people from San Antonio. Though English-speaking Canadians remain loyal to the Queen, they aren’t truly interested in being British or sounding British; they’re just interested in using the British connection to assert their independence from the independent United States, which they left because they didn’t want to leave. An ambivalent situation indeed.

Thursday 22nd

2015-10-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

The days are much shorter now; when we left home it was dark but I noticed something new on some streets. The borders of the garage driveways had been marked by poles over the night: that means the house pays someone to have the entrance snow-cleaned in winter. They pay around $240 per season (which I do not find expensive) so that they will have their entrances clean when they leave home in the morning.

Calefaccion en todas las aulas

Period 1: English 1IB

Since tomorrow is a PED Day at St. Thomas H.S., this week has been really short, only 3 work days, so Madison starts the class asking the students about their plans for this long weekend, and many of them raise their hands and share their plans. I am surprised by how much many of them want to share; by the way, a few of them are going to their elementary schools tomorrow, just to visit.

The class activity today is related to short stories. Students were given a short story by Paul Constant, "Locks". Madison explained what ' theme' is and the students were told to read the story, get their Chrome books and note down what the theme of the story was, in their opinion. They were asked to write the main idea of the story in more than one word. I was surprised by some of the answers I heard, they sounded really deep (I have written the students' words in italics and the teachers' suggestions are next to them):

anger and frustration
realization and perspective: the boy takes a new perspective on his life
power and control: father/son relationships
meeting the expectations of your parents
being trapped, having no control over your life

The teacher shared, as an online document, a copy of literary devices which they will be learning until the end of Sec 1 and then asks the students to list the devices they can find in this short story.

Period 2: English 3IB

Finishing the tests; Day 2

These students got the first 20 minutes of the class to finish the tests they started yesterday: they had to choose 4 questions out of 7 to write minimum 150 words/each. The questions of the test were about things they had discussed in class: 'coming out of the cave', writing tweets impersonating a character...and they had to include a quote and a citation (author + page number) in each answer.

Then the students handed in the paper work related to their Mockumentary Projects and commented their work. Some students mentioned it had been hard to create a Creative Commons licence for the video; a student complained that she had missed more guidance from the teacher - the teacher thanked the criticism and agreed that, since this had been the first time the students had carried out this project, there were too many loose ends; other students complained that it had been difficult to get together outside the school to work on the project.

And next we watched each all the videos. They had to be related either to the characters and/or plot of Farenheit 541 or to anything mentioned there. Some were really good and imaginative. I am not allowed to share them because they are only public at the LBPSC. These are some of the titles: "The Seashell Radio", "The Hound 2.0", "The Book Dealer", "Fahren High"

Period 4: English 3IM

These students had to do the test on Monster; 5 of them had forgotten their test books at home, they got one from the teacher and they will have to bring back one on Monday.

Doing the tests with their earphones on

The test consisted of 2 questions the students had to choose out of 3, and they had to write about 100 words/each. Each question was 20 points. The questions were about the themes in the story (peer pressure, racism in Harlem, guilt vs. innocence), the ambiguity in the novel, the significance of Steve;s journal - the introspection.

The students asked the same questions about the test over and over again, but the teacher replied each and every one of the questions without losing her temper or raising her voice. I doubt this would have been like that in Spain...

Period 5: Ethics and Religion

The first half of the lesson was spent talking about the Elections Project due next week. Since a video is part of the project, the watch some videos related to the topic of elections: Justin Trudeau´s speech accepting the Leadership of the Liberal Party in 2013, Donald Trump´s presidential announcement, Kanye West announcing 2020 presidential run.

Then the students worked a little bit on their projects: posters and video

Period 6: Drama Secondary 5

I went to a Drama class with Tannia Ditchburn; it was a big class, over 30 IB and non-IB students. Two groups performed their own play including different conventions: silent performance, dialogue, narration, monologue, flash back and cross-cutting (= two or more scenes performed on stage at the same time).

The teacher asked the audience to pay attention to their reactions, too. After each performance, every member of another group had to give the actors positive feedback: smooth transitions, different storyline, good interaction with the audience, the music added to the emotion, well used stage presence. (I like the way teachers make students focus on positive aspects, and I also like the way they subtly involve as many students as possible in every

different stage of the projects, including evaluation. I also find amazing the amount of work students do outside the classroom/school because any of the projects these students do means hours of group work. Tannia mentioned that the classroom was always open at lunch time, at recess and before the first period in the morning, so many of these students got to school before 7:00 a.m. to rehearse)

After school, I decided to go to the Botanical Gardens in Montreal again. I visited the Insectarium

I saw (again) the exhibition of 3D photographs by Takashi Sato.

Lake Kibara & Mount Bandai in the morning, with a field of lythrum in bloom

Minumatambo bamboo stands in the morning

And I was there for that magical moment when the day turns into night

Temperature in Montreal: 3ºC / 15º C

Wednesday 21st

2015-10-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

Aunque los días son considerablemente más cortos que cuando llegamos, tanto al amanecer como al anochecer, la luz durante el día, cuando hace sol, es espectacular y, los árboles ya han perdido muchas hojas pero todavía se ven colores tan vivos como éstos

Period 1: English 4IB

Shepherdess at Vallangoujard (Seine et Oise), de Marc-Aurele deFoy Suzor. This painting is at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, and this is a copy on one of the walls of Ms. O´Neill´s classroom.

Today I attended Kate O'Neill's English class with 10th-grade students.

These students are reading Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, like many of the other classes this level at school. They have chosen this novel for many reasons but one of them is the amount of racial problems taking place in North America right now; another reason, from the point of view of the English language, is the amount of vocabulary (including legal words they hear all the time) students can learn with it.

First of all, she checked that the students had done the homework: 2 words per student from the novel that they had to write down on a class document, together with a definition of the word. They will have to study this vocabulary for the 'Vocabulary Quiz' next week, where they will get 10 words and they will do the following: learn their correct spelling, define them, and use them in a sentence.

After that, they did a 10-minute comprehension test about chapter 16, which they had just finished reading. The answers had to be short, about 1 line long.

Next they did a group activity on idioms. It lasted a little over 6 minutes. Nobody in the class knew the meaning of all of them and Kate explained that was because they were expressions related to the time period and that was why they included vocabulary related to farming.

They started reading Chapter 17 aloud - apparently they had not done any reading aloud in class with this book so far. They will have to finish reading the chapter at home, that will be their homework.

Ms. O'Neill has a whiteboard and a printer in her classroom so, when she ran out of copies for her students, she just printed them there. Convenient, I thought.

Period 2: English 1 IB

In the English 1IB class with Madison Green, the students were reminded of the group projects and the individual reflections about them due next Monday.

Then they got extra time to finish the tests they had started yesterday. Some of them needed the whole period plus recess time. As they finished their tests, they got their Chrome books and started working on their IB Reflections.

IB Reflections: All IB students have to write 18 reflections per school year, 3 per some subjects at the end of each term: English / 2nd language , French or Spanish / Maths / Science / Geography and History / Art, which means one type of Art: Music, Drama, Drawing...

Mr. Katz prepared a prompt to help the students write this first English class reflection, which must be 200 words minimum. He suggested 2 paragraphs, one about the multiple conflicts presented in AMNSD and the way the characters reacted to them. In the second paragraph, he suggested that they should think about themselves in relation to the projects: how they had coped with it, the choices they had made, why, how he/she had behaved.

Period 4: English 5IM

I was at Kate O'Neill's class again. The students in this group are reading W. Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Today they read Act IV, Scene IV aloud. They find it tough - both the story and the language - and I see they have some difficulties reading aloud. The teacher needs to explain what the characters do and say all the time; they seem to be a very talkative and easily distracted group too (like all the Immersion groups I have observed - which makes me think "immersion" means average students)

Charging his cell phone in the classroom like a pro

At the end of the lesson, the teacher played two videos representing the scene they had just read, to make sure they did get the action in it; one of the videos was from the film with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and another one was Commedia Dell'Arte

Period 5: English 3IM

This group was revising for their test on `Monster´ tomorrow. They did an activity on Socrative and I think I had not seen them so attentive before. They were really focused on what they were doing, on asking each other about the story - on knowing who had finished first, too.

Ayer comenté que no existen tutores; al parecer en otros colegios hay `homeroom teachers´: profesorado al que se le asigna un grupo; en el caso de St. Thomas H.S se le asigna el grupo que el profesor/a haya tenido en la primera hora del día 1. Se supone que se encarga de organizar eventos especiales, recoger el dinero de ciertas actividades que la clase lleve a cabo... A principio de curso, es el encargado de ayudar a sus estudiantes a conocer el colegio, entregar los libros...

Today some students left a box in each classroom to collect non-perishable food for Halloween, as part of the community service of the IB students; the homeroom teacher is responsible for the box.

Servicio de correos: la primera foto es un buzón cerrado y la segunda es una foto de un cartero repartiendo el correo en los buzones de un edificio (en la calle, no en el portal)

Temperature in Montreal today: 9º C/ 4º C

Tuesday 20th

2015-10-20T18:18:00.003-07:00

It was so much darker as we left home this morning

As a result of the elections, there is a Liberal majority government in Canada now. As it is only natural, not everybody is happy with the result, especially the francophones here, in Quebec province.

Today is Day 6 at school and it is the protest day for teachers at St. Thomas. Because of the 'work to rule' many things have been cancelled in schools and here, in St. Thomas, they have decided not to have the 'Open House Day´ next Thursday: that is the day when parents come over, have a look at the school and talk to teachers and current students to make up their minds as for choosing this school for their children. Other schools have maintained theis 'Open House Days´ but not St. Thomas so they are afraid this will lower the enrollment next year.

Period 2: (8:50-9:45) & Period 3 (9:55-10:45): English 1IB

These two groups of students took their AMNSD test today. Instructions: they needed their Hillroy test books, a copy of the play for each one of them (that was on the tables when they came in) and a black or blue pen. Some students had left their test books in their lockers and they could go and get them only when the question sheet had been read aloud and explained to the class. One student had even forgotten to get a test book; he did get one from the teacher but he will have to bring another one tomorrow.

They could use the test paper for notes but at the end of the class they had to tuck it in their Hillroy books.

The test had 3 questions; it was a subject test. They were expected to answer question 1 (about the setting of the story) in a couple of lines, question 2 (creating tweets about a character in the story) in bullet points and question 3 (about the themes) could be as long as they needed. As for the grading, it was out of 60, so each question was 20%, but there is no rubric for this test as the answers will be subjective.

During the test, a video was playing, mute, "Liam Neeson stares at you for 10 hours", as a reminder that they were not allowed to talk to each other.

In both classes, only one student finished the test so the teacher took the tests and question sheets in but tomorrow they will get the first 10 minutes of the class to finish the test. (This is something I have never seen in Spanish schools; we would be afraid the students would prepare an answer, ask someone to write it for them and what not, but here they seem to accept that may happen, but they do not care, 'so what?,' they say. They think it is OK for students to revise at home and prepare the answers because the students will have to write a personal justification after all)

Period 5 (12:40-13:30): English 3IB

The introduction to the class was a long talk about the weekend. The teacher usually asks the students about their weekend on Mondays and students usually raise their hand, if they want to share what they did with the others. Today the students gave lots of details: babysitting for 24 hours, grandmother ranting on about an aunt, camping (which was not fun because of the cold, the rain and the frost)...( I find this action of showing interest in students´lives and hobbies very interesting; they are usually very respectful and attentive when they listen to their classmates and I guess it shows the student that the teacher cares, too. It is also a way of getting to know them better)

The students were reminded that they are expected to upload the videos for their projects in YouTube and send the link to Mr. Katz, who will then create a playlist with all of them. Some students will also include a video with bloopers. The project is group work, except for the reflections, and consists of the following parts:

an outline
a storyboard
the video
individual reflections - 150 to 300 words long - about the process, the choices made, the reason for the changes that took place...

In order to revise for the test, today they did an activity on Socrative which they really enjoyed and helped them to discuss the novel with their classmates

Period 6 (13:35-14:25): English 3IM

They finished the reading of `Monster´and they handed in their projects

Cosas que aprendí hoy:

Hoy me enteré de que la evaluación continua se basa en el siguiente porcentaje: 20% para la 1ª evaluación, 20% para la 2ª y 60% para la 3ª. El alumnado recibe el boletin de notas tres veces durante el curso: final de noviembre, final de febrero, y en junio.

Las asignaturas de 'History, Maths, and Science' tienen 'midterm tests', asi que, justo antes de las vacaciones de Navidad, que es cuando coinciden esos examenes, no hay clases para ese alumnado, solo examenes.

En Quebec, la enseñanza es en inglés y francés al 50%. las asignaturas que se enseñan en francés obligatoriamente son: Geografía e Historia, Francés y Ciencias. El idioma de la asignatura de Arte depende del profesor/a. El resto son en inglés: Inglés, Educación Física, Informática.

Hay una gran variedad de asignaturas optativas; cada colegio elige las suyas pero el denominador común es la orientación práctica para la vida cotidiana: marketing, contabilidad, música, teatro, danza, diseño gráfico, ebanistería, cocina, costura...la cantidad y variedad depende del profesorado y de las instalaciones

También me enteré de que no existe personal de la limpieza en los colegios, los conserjes realizan esa función pero no hacen fotocopias, por ejemplo, cada profesor/a hace las suyas y el alumnado ninguna.

No existen tutores; hay dos dias al año para recibir a los padres, fijados por el centro (el mismo día para todos/as, es decir, una romería - con lo ordenados que son para otras cosas, ésta me parece planificada sin pies ni cabeza): cada profesor/a recibe en su aula a los padres/madres que quieren hablar con él/ella en horario de 17:00 a 21:00 con un pequeño descanso a las 19:00 - si ya no hay más padres, se van... Los padres no piden cita, esperan estoicamente y en fila - claro, son canadienses - a que les llegue su turno. Si el profesorado quiere informar a un padre/madre de algún problema con su hijo/a, lo llama por teléfono; y los padres/madres envian notas al profesorado por medio de su hijo o de las oficinas. Para suplir la labor de información que hacen los tutores en España, al principio de la segunda clase del día se leen todos los avisos por megafonía y el final siempre es el mismo:`Thank you very much for listening and have a great day!.

Temperature in Montreal today: 1º /16º C

Monday 19th

2015-10-19T18:38:00.001-07:00

Today was Election Day in Canada, it was a Pedagogical Day too, therefore there were no classes. We, the Spanish group, had a workshop, "Digital Resources Across the Curriculum" with Sam Bruzzese. Most of us wished it had lasted longer; we really enjoyed it and thought it was both fun and useful.

Mr. Bruzzese believes in using technology to engage students at school; he also believes cell phones will be the technology of the future for education but he soon learnt that we are way behind for that in Spain. Here is why: he wanted to show us the use of a webpage, Poll Everywhere, which is based on texting, so he asked us to text him to start the activity going and we explained to him that texting is not free in Spain and that is the reason why most people use whatsapp. (In fact, when we arrived here, we were surprised to notice that most people send text messages, so that is why.) He went over the webpage with us but we coould not actually use it...

Next he asked us to take out our tablets - he had some devices for those of us who did not have one - and we did quizzes to learn how to use Socrative to create, give answers and assess multiple choice, true/false, graded short answers or open-response questions.

The third app we learnt about was Adobe Voice, with its own microphone, to produce short and simple videos and slide show style presentations.

As I mentioned before, most of us would have enjoyed staying there longer, but that was it. So off we all went and, since there was no school today, we decided to go downtown. We even knew where we wanted to go to and what we wanted to see but...

This is a video of one of Sam Bruzzese´s students - a class assignment in an undergraduate course, Integrationg Educational Technology in Classrooms. It was filmed at McGill University, a campus we are all familiar with, although not in snowy weather

We started at Jean-Talon Market, a farmer´s market in the Little Italy district. To our disappointment, many of the stalls were closed. We liked what we saw, though, because the products were nicely displayed and we were surprised by many of them, for instance, the variety of pumpkins and squash (click here to know the difference between them)

As usual, everything was written in French... we had a few jokes about this: we are all afraid we will greet our students saying, "Bon jour!", when we go back to our classes ...

When we left the market, we meant to walk south St. Laurent Boulevard. but .... we headed the opposite direction, north... It took a while before we noticed it - we were so engaged in our conversations - and we ended up bordering Jarry Park a couple of times.... We had a few (many laughs) with this...

We decided to get the subway (streets are several kilometres long in Montreal) and, when we asked a couple of kids from a school nearby where to get it (the metro, as they say), we noticed that these students wore no uniform but the prevailing colour was black.

We eventually found the subway, got off at Victoria Square to visit a part of the underground city of Montreal at the World Trade Center. We walked along the Ruelle des Fortifications, bordered by offices and some pricey stores, but a relaxing place with a black marble fountain and a piece of the Berlin Wall - donated to the city of Montreal by the city of Berlin to commemorate Berlin´s 350th anniversary. We took the last picture at the `Circulations´mural

And that was the end of our day...

Lunes: día de recogida de basura orgánica, compost, y restos de limpieza del jardín - siempre en bolsas de papel

Temperature in Montreal: 4ºC / -4ºC. It was really cold today, the cars were frosted over when we left home, and there were freezing cold gusts of wind during the day.

Sunday 18th

2015-10-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hoy cayeron copos de nieve varias veces, a ratos con sol pero prácticamente todo el tiempo con bastante frío y con rachas de viento gélidas de vez en cuando. Con este viento, las hojas de los árboles caían a un ritmo que presagia el fin del otoño de verdad.

Por la mañana fui a Parc de la Chute-Montmorency, las cascadas de Montmorency. La publicidad de las cascadas menciona que son 30 metros más altas que Niagara Falls; están en la desembocadura del río Montmorency sobre el río Lawrence.

Hay varias escaleras para observar la cascada principal desde distintos puntos de vista y un puente colgante sobre ellas. Al parecer, durante el invierno el vapor de agua se solidifica formando una masa de hielo en la que hacen escalada.

Este parque es público y el traslado hasta allí se puede hacer en bus urbano ($3,25/trayecto)

El otro lado de la cascada es feo porque la piedra es pizarra y tiene un tono gris triste. El agua de la cascada tiene mucho hierro, de ahí su color `amarillo/gris sucio´y en un día menos luminoso que el de hoy debe de tener un aspecto bastante triste - a pesar de la vista sobre el río San Lorenzo y sobre la isla de Orleans.

El bosque detrás de las cascadas y al otro lado del puente es precioso y en esta época del año, y con las rachas de viento tirando las hojas, un espectáculo casi o tan bonito como la cascada principal en sí.

Antes de coger el bus de vuelta a Montreal me dio tiempo a dar un pequeño paseo por la ciudad y a poder fijarme en detalles que ayer me llamaron la atención como:

las puertas el Hotel Clarendon (dificiles de fotografiar porque siempre hay coches aparcados en la puerta)

la catedral-basílica Notre-Dame de Quuébec ("Our Lady of Quebec City"): crei que sería como la de Montreal pero me lleve una pequeña decepción

los grandes almacenes del edificio `Empire´, antiguo cine; imagino que esto era el adorno del techo del vestíbulo de la entrada al cine

Temperature in Quebec City: -4 C/ 4 C

Saturday 17th

2015-10-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

Hoy tocó dia de turismo en Quebec City, capital de la provincia de Quebec, con un recinto amurallado Patrimonio de la Humanidad. Es una ciudad puramente francófona.

Según la Wikipedia, hay tres teorías sobre el origen del nombre`Quebec´: El estrechamiento del río entre las ciudades de Quebec y de Lévis, en la ribera opuesta le dieron el nombre a la ciudad, Kebec una palabra de origen algonquino que significa «allá donde el río se estrecha». Otra teoría, aunque menos conocida que la anterior, afirma que el nombre de la ciudad pudo ser a causa de la confusión de Samuel de Champlain (el explorador fundador de la ciudad), cuando los nativos lo invitaron a bajar (Kepec) tomó esta palabra como el nombre de su región. Otra hipótesis relata que la ciudad lleva el nombre de los autóctonos que habitaban cerca de la región, los « ebik», actualmente conocidos como «montañeses».

Mientras desayunábamos cayó aguanieve, luego llovió un poco y por la tarde llegamos a ver el cielo azul y el sol pero siempre con tiempo frío y a ratos con rachas de viento gélido. Por aquí es `vox populi´que Quebec es mucho más frío que Montreal, y va a ser que es verdad.

Jardin Saint-Roch

Empezamos a caminar dirigiéndonos al Vieux Quebec (Patrimonio de la Humanidad). Por toda la ciudad hay tramos de escaleras uniendo las dos partes, alta y baja.

El Ayuntamiento de Quebec City ( Hôtel de Ville) preparado para celebrar Halloween

Tres edificos Art Deco en Quebec City:

El edificio `Empire´(1922), hoy convertido en grandes almacenes

El edificio `Price´, construido en los años 20 y cuya construcción fue objeto de gran controversia por su altura. Desde hace unos años, el Primer Ministro de Quebec tiene su residencia oficial en los dos últimos pisos

El Hotel Clarendon

Monasterio de las Ursulinas, la más antigua institución educativa para mujeres en Norteamérica

Tejados de Quebec City:

Puertas de Quebec City:

Edificios:

El Parlamento

Maison Mailleau

El hotel Château Frontenac y la Terrase Dufferin, con vistas al río Lawrence

Murales:

Llanuras de Abraham:

Promenade des Gouverneurs :

Y mucho más, pero ya está bien de Quebec City...

Temperature in Quebec City: -3ºC/ 6ºC

Friday 16th

2015-10-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

Preparing the roof for the winter

Today Mr. Katz brought different things to eat for the students in each class. He had promised a group French fries so the first thing we did after we arrived at the school was to go to the kitchen and cook the French fries in the oven. Two students came and took them to the classroom.

Period 1: English 3IM

When I came into the classroom, the students were finishing their in-class writing. Then they read aloud the closing statements of ' Monster' ; they were very long pieces, so what he shared with them was the cake that was left from Arielle's fourth birthday cake yesterday.

Arielle and her cousin getting ready to blow the 5 candles: one candle for each year and one for good luck

Anxious to get a piece of cake

These students handed in their projects today; this is what some of the CD cases of the soundtrack they had prepared looked like:

Period 2: Ethics and Religion

The students continued working on their Canadian Elections Projects: two posters for the political party they had created. Some of them worked in the classroom, others went to the cafeteria to work but all of them got some French fries first. The students were really engaged in the work and in the planning of the things they still had to do before handing in their posters.

(When I see students working on their projects, I am always surprised by their use of the agendas to plan the different steps. It seems to be one of those things that the students do naturally; they have probably learnt to do so because all their teachers encourage this methodology. In my opinion, students are not taught `the basics´like this in Spain ; the teachers do not seem to bother to teach students how to plan their work. To a certain extent, it is something we always take for granted. I like the way students seem to have internalized some important things related to both group work and self-learning here. Repetition - in different projects and different subjects- surely works.

And I also like all the encouragement they get from the teacher. Teachers are used to praising students- `Great job!´, Èxcellent idea´ can be heard in any of the classes over and over again- and very often students thank them for their words)

Periods 3 & 4: English 1B

The first thing they did in both classes today is learning how to get a Creative Commons licence for the videos that they are filming for their projects.

These two groups of students have their tests on AMNSM next Tuesday. To revise for this test, they play a game; some of the questions are `candy questions´, that is, they get a marshmallow or a lollipop if they are right.

First of all, the students form groups ( 3 or 4 people), then each group gets a small whiteboard and a marker. They listen to the questions and write the answers on the board. They raise their hands once they have written the full answer but they get so carried away that some of them end up standing on the chairs or tables; they also clap, laugh, jump.... they are really excited to get the correct answer, and, of course, to get the candy. Mr. Katz has brought his Go-Pro cameras to class today and lets a student record the lesson

Taking note of the questions asked during the game today - he was convinced they were clues for the test. Smart!

And off to Quebec for the weekend. Crossing the Jacques Cartier Bridge:

Temperature in Montreal: 3ºC/ 10ºC
Temperature in Quebec City: 1ºC / 8ºC

Thursday 15th

2015-10-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

Los árboles se están quedando sin hojas.... todo el mundo dice que está llegando el invierno...

Today I visited some classes of an Art teacher, Lily Skuja. She teaches IB and non-IB students; all the students in IB need to take each of the following subjects at least once: Art, Drama and Music.

Example of lettering

She suggests different things to her students and they choose the one they want to do (this is a big difference with our education system: here they seem to want to make the students feel comfortable and happy in the lessons at the same time as they boost their potential).

This year she is doing mandalas and lettering (the art of drawing letters) with some of these groups. As for assessing the students and their work, they always assess themselves first and that helps her to give them a mark since she says judging art is very subjective, but also because she has seen the students work in class - in very rare occasions do students take the things home to finish them off, only when the student is really slow. 20% of the mark of these students is based on participation and effort during the class and the marks they get are the result of an agreement between the teacher and each student: when the student finishes each assignment, he/she fills up the rubric and shows both rubric and assignment to the teacher, who explains why she agrees or disagrees and they decide the final mark. If one student wants to get a higher mark, he/she can redo the assignment before the end of the term. By the way, the end of the first term at the schools in the Lester B. Pearson School Board is 6th November; the second term finishes in February and the third in the first week in June (then there is testing for a couple of weeks)

Period 1: Art 4

Today these students started a new assignment: they will make an art deco poster. First of all, she handed out some information about what art deco is and examples of the kind of work she expects from them. They had just been studying art nouveau so she referred to that to tell the big difference between both types of art: art nouveau is flowery and art deco is lineal and graphic. That introduction took less than 5 minutes and then the students started working on their task for the day: 2 sketches that included lettering and an image.

Lily showed them some examples of posters on the internet but also one made by a former student of hers; they could use their phones or her computer to look for ideas but they couldn't just copy the poster, they had to make their own. She also mentioned her favourite art deco artist, Tamara de Lempicka, and showed some photos to some of her students to see if they would like to get an idea from her work.

There are IB students and non IB students in this class but, once the poster is done, IB students have to write a reflection on their work and, apart from mentioning the fact that they are IB students, they have to include certain vocabulary since the expression is really important for their marks.

Some of the students finished their sketches in this period and they were told they could do the lettering on the computer and then trace it.

During the class, the students were engaged in conversations, showing their work to each other, but all of them worked and did (most of) what they were supposed to do. Lily had to correct some things students were not doing correctly, for example, eyeballing instead of using a ruler; she taught the whole class and then reminded some students individually. As the students finished their sketches, they got their poster paper and could start working on their actual poster.

These students have to present five drawings by the end of the term (Nov. 6th), apart from the assignments they work on in class. Some students showed Lily some of the other work they have been working on, in some cases to ask for advice, in others to check they were doing the right thing.

These are some of the drawings they do at home

Period 2: Art 2IM

Many of the students in this group have learning disabilities - because of their physical or mental problems; Lily explained to me that when there are coded students in a group, the ratio is 25 students/group, not the usual 34 students/group. Besides, teachers are paid more when they have this kind of students in their classes.

These students were meant to finish their assignment in this class (the had started in the previous lesson): divide a page into rectangles using a ruler, minimum 10 rectangles (the smaller the rectangles, the easier to shade); shade from dark to light in each rectangle, leaving some white at the end; use a 2B or 2HB pencil and do the entire page.

When some students complained that it was difficult, Lily explained to them that it helped them to control their pencils well and showed them a photo of what a page should look like.

Rubric for the shading assignment (a blank one and one with both the student´s and the teacher´s assessments)

First, the students were told to finish their black and white assignments, next they filled up their grading sheet, went up to the teacher's table and showed it to the teacher together with the assignment; after that, they went to the next assignment: shadowing in colours.

If the students are not happy with the mark they get, they can redo their work any time until the end of the term - some are told to redo the entire page, others are told to redo only half of it. One student showed her his second work and he did get an improvement in his mark, I liked the way she asked him to feel positive and successful about it: do you see the improvement? does this make you feel better? (I think this is one more example of how much they focus on emotional intelligence, here)

Deciding how to grade himself

She reminded students of some important things several times during the class: the need for proper equipment (2B or 2HB pencils), how to press hard at the beginning of the shadowing and release pressure afterwards, how not to smudge the work using a piece of blank paper.

Not all these students were consistent workers, quite a few of them were easily distracted, so she insisted that this was not a homework assignment and, if they socialized during the period while they had not yet done the assignment, there would be a consequence (I guess she meant they would not get 20% for participation and effort in their marks).

As I mentioned before, some students were talkative, distracted and did not get to finish their work, so those students will finish their paper at home because the next class will be the only one to show the coloured piece of work.

Period 5: Grade 8 Art 2IB

These students had to do the same task as the ones mentioned above but they were much focused on their work; they were very talkative, though, probably because of one of these three things: it was the period after lunch ( teachers agree that all students find it harder to work then), they had a Science test the next period, or it is going to snow soon ( teachers find the students go hyper when it is going to snow...)

While these students were working, Lily showed me some of the portfolios they had designed to keep their work during the year. They had to include their name and show their hobbies and then they presented it to the class as an introduction of themselves. Afterwards, they did their self-assessment and wrote the reflection (they are IB students)

This is the rubric and the reflection for the portfolio above

And the following pictures show some of the drawings and designs they did for an assignment meant to reflect feelings and emotions. I was really impressed by some of the ideas expressed in them (both in the drawings and in the reflections).

Period 6: Textiles and Design. Grade 11

This subject is an elective and most of the students agree on the reason why they have chosen it: they relax during this class but do things - many of them also mentioned they liked the teacher.

Today was the last day to finish their embroidery so they had to fill up their assessments,too.

This is what the students looked like during the lesson:

The students who finished this task could go on to the next one: yarn painting, which consists of drawing a design and gluing yarn on the pattern. By the end of the class, there were students doing different things: the embrodery, the drawings for the yarn painting, and some had already started gluing the yarn.

And last, but not least, this is the project that all Art students will do to celebrate the Day of the Dead, in November. They will do an exhibition of the skulls on that day:

At lunch time, while eating their salads, fruit, microwave-heated/cooked food and sandwiches in the teachers' room, the teachers were talking about the sick days they get per year. The conversation started because many people have big colds these days - no wonder with the fluctuation of temperatures in the day!: they get 6 sick days/year, which you may use or bank. Apparently many people bank them for an early retirement. However, the first time they are hired, they get 6 extra sick days, because they assume you will get sick more often until your immune system gets used to the bacteria at school. There extra days are not bankable, though.

The weather today: 7ºC / 14ºC

Wednesday 14th

2015-10-14T17:52:00.004-07:00

Today the teachers protested in front of the school again as part of the `work to rule actions´. Some students joined them. They encouraged any cars passing by to show support by blowing their horns. This protest in front of the school takes place once a week; it lasts for about 15 minutes before the first period starts at 7:55 but some teachers are usually there at 7:10 a.m. Today they asked the principal to join them but he answered that he was on duty...

These photos were taken at a different school:

These are the regulations of the `work to rule´:

Today was Day 3

Period 2: English 3IB

The class starts with an in-class writing activity: Think of the different reality shows on TV these days (Survivor, Amazing Race, The Bachelor / Bachelorette, Big Brother...) Would you be a good contestant on any of the many shows? Explain.

As usual they had to follow the instructions:

Date
60 words
# (hashtag)

Next they start working in Farenheit 541; they skim the reading they did at home as homework assignment, they revise what alliteration is and learn what hyperbole is.

Since their test is next week, they are asked to read the 10 pages that are left of the book for tomorrow.

A Real Madrid fan in Canada

Period 3: 3IM

Next week this group has a test so Madison agrees with them when to email a reminder to them; they agree the best day is Friday after school has finished so they will remember to revise during the weekend. This is something I have never done; I do remind my students of the dates of the tests off and on but not with an email just before it.

Ater the students had read aloud some pages of the book, Madison told the group about point of view and narrative voice. She used the novel they are reading, Monster, as an example of first person narrative and to make it even clearer, they did a written activity. She showed them a photo taken during a baseball game: someone is throwing a baseball bat to the spectators in this photo. She asked the students in each group/table to choose one spectator in the photo and tell their story of that moment in first person, "I".

Periods 5 & 6; English 1 IB

These students have been extremely talkative and fidgety for a couple of days. Even though they have a test next week and that usually makes students concentrate more on the classes, this is not what is going on with these groups. As a way to stop this, Madison will prepare a new seating arrangement for tomorrow, and she told the students so.

Madison started reminding them of a few things: the blog, due Friday, which will be marked out of 10 instead of out of 5 because it involves 2 activities: since Thanksgiving was last Monday, they have to think about someone (or a couple of people) who they would like to say thanks to and they should explain why, including some examples. The second activity consists of taking a selfie with that person and emailing it to the teacher, or asking them to take a selfie and then sending that photo to the teacher. (Sometimes I am surprised by the activities the students are asked to do. For example, in this case, the writing part is really interesting, not only because of the way it is related to life outside the school and the way it makes students reflect on the people around them, but also because of the fact of making students thinking positively about the people they know; on the other hand, marking that task with the same score as a selfie is something I find disproportionate. But I also think that these easy tasks are the ones that help every student to pass the subject at the end of the school year. There is always one thing or another that is very easy but gets a mark - and one task after another helps students get enough points to pass)

And then there was some reading in the class with lots of volunteers.

Today Madison had to explain the meaning of these two words: tedious and brief

The IB teachers at our school had a meeting after school today to talk about the students' personal projects. These projects are mandatory in the IB programmes for the students who want to do Grades 11 & 12 in IB; however, schools with IB programmes organize them differently. For example, in some schools students prepare these projects during Grade 10; they have the whole school year to work on them and, thus, they can focus on getting good marks during Grade 11. In St. Thomas, they decide the topic of their projects and choose their mentors in March and present the project in November; they do it like this because they think students can do the bulk of their work, with no distractions from other subjects, during the summer. This project is a 10-page paper that somehow shows what the students have learnt in their IB years at school but it is also personal so they choose a subject they are interested in and they like. A committee assesses the projects.

Examples of projects: a student built his own hockey stick, another built his own bicycle, and they both wrote the processes in their papers; another student created a fictional nuclear war, which involved lots of readings and very careful writing. This last student got 32 points out of 39 but you only need 9 out of 32 to pass. It doesn't look too hard...

This photo shows the way how students show their projects after they have been assessed

And this was the sunset from St. Joseph´s Oratory, a Roman Catholic basilica in Mount Royal.The wind was so cold!!!

Tiempo en Montreal hoy: 3ºC / 11º C

Tuesday 13th

2015-10-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

Los lunes se recoge la basura orgánica, el compost, y los martes el resto; hoy, martes, las calles están llenas de cubos: llenos por las mañanas y vacios por las tardes

There is another Spanish teacher at St. Thomas High School, Loli; today we swapped classes: she attended Mr. Katz´s classes and I attended her mentor´s, a Spanish teacher called Hillary Cruickshank.

Periods 2 & 5: Spanish 2 IB (= second year Spanish)
This is Ms. Cruickshank´s Spanish classroom

The Spanish classes take place twice in a cycle and they last 50 minutes, like all the other classes at our school. Today was Day 2 (of the nine day cycle at St. Thomas). Each school distributes the days and the time for each period. Some of our colleagues at other schools attend lessons which are 75 minutes long in a five day cycle.

Attending a Spanish class meant Spanish as a foreign language, not a first or second language - which is what English and French are. That is probably why I found some similarities between her lessons and ours in Spain - the use of a coursebook was the first one.

One of the things I liked the most in the classes today - and I have noticed it in many of the other classes I have attended here - is how activities and tasks that seem to be unrelated and improvised are not so but they always have a purpose and by the end of the lesson it is easy to see the connection.

For instance, the teacher greeted the students reminding them that today was Tuesday, not Monday so there was no reason why they should be tired today; therefore, they would start the lesson with some physical exercise. The students stood up behind their chairs and the teacher started giving them instructions in Spanish (and miming them): "arriba / abajo / a la izquierda / a la derecha". They had to imitate her at the same time as they repeated the words; this lasted a

couple of minutes but when they sat down, they had all got the meaning and the pronunciation of the words.

I find that the students learn a lot by repeating things over and over again. Hillary also played "Simon dice..." for a couple of minutes to reinforce the vocabulary they had just learnt

After this, Hillary wrote "las preposiciones" on the blackboard and asked them to jot down the four prepositions the had just learnt. So the learning in this case had taken place by doing.

Then the students got to work on their presentations, which will take place next week; it was a dialogue they were given but they had to personalize it. As part of the introduction to this dialogue, the students found the verb "bump into" which they had to understand and translate; some of them knew the Spanish for it was "encontrarse" and Hillary explained the irregular conjugation of this verb as the one of the verb "poder" they had just studied. Thus, the relation once again. To practise the conjugation of the verb "poder", Hillary asked each and everyone of the students in the class to ask her for a "galleta", if they wanted one; this meant that she walked around the classroom giving them a biscuit when they asked the question correctly.

Periods 3 & 4: Spanish 1 IB

Hillary greets these students with music (salsa) so some of them come in dancing, either at their desks or in front of the room.

Introducing me to the class also helped to check if the students remembered how to ask and answer questions about their nationality.

And then they start practising the alphabet, also with a song (a type of salsa song). Eventually, she asks them to dance a conga repeating `the alphabet song´. They get so carried away that they leave the classroom - led by the teacher- go to the classroom opposite theirs and dance around the desks there.

During 5th period, the teacher in that class led her students into Hillary´s classroom just for fun. A couple of minutes lost but a lot of time gained as for a nice atmosphere in the class and a better concentration afterwards - it seems to me as if these moments when they move around are just a benefit for the rest of the period because students seem to focus more deeply on what they have to do. I think this is a lesson we (Spanish students) should learn: when students move around a little bit, when students do something together, when they hold each other and touch each other in a dance, for instance, all that has to do with feelings, emotions... and emotional intelligence is something we have not been taught how to deal with in Spain - but we know it works effectively in learning.

There was also a listening exercise in the class to practise the alphabet in a different way. As Hillary knew one of the words used to teach it was "yuca" (fot "y"), she brought one to class and showed it around.

At the end of the class, Hillary handed out the tests they had done last week and asked the students to bring them back, signed by their parents, for the next classroom.

Temperatura en Montreal hoy: 12º C/ 17º C

Monday 12th

2015-10-12T18:47:00.002-07:00

Este árbol es de lo más bonito que vi hoy, y vimos cosas preciosas...

Hoy es Thanksgiving y, aunque nos habían dicho que era una celebración familiar importante en Canadá, hemos descubierto que muchas de las familias que nos acogen no la celebran. Eso sí, es un día festivo a nivel nacional. Por cierto,en Quebec, para demostrar que son diferentes, los anglófonos comen pavo, como los americanos y los francófonos, jamón.

Respecto a estas celebraciones en días festivos, nos han explicado que los dos únicos festivos que se celebran en el día de la semana que caigan son el día de Canadá, 1 de julio y, en Quebec el 24 de junio, `la Saint-Jean´; las otras festividades se trasladan siempre a lunes. Un ejemplo que nos han dado: en Canadá los días festivos en Navidad son el 25 y 26 de diciembre; como este año el 26 cae en sábado, el día festivo no laborable será el lunes siguiente (día 28)

Hoy tocó conocer otra parte de Montreal; con un día espléndido - incluso más de lo que esperábamos, tanto por sol como por calor - empezamos otro día de turismo.

Bixi (bicycle + taxi): sistema de préstamo de bicis de la ciudad de Montreal; la primera media hora es gratis

Empezamos el paseo en Mont-Royal, el Plateau otra vez, el Quartier Latin esta vez. Bajamos por la calle Saint Denis, una calle llena de vida - bares, restaurantes...- con una arquitectura urbana muy especial y con numerosas muestras de `street art´. La `Terrace Rouge´ está pensada como un gran patio / terraza para tomar algo sentado o caminar.

Ejemplos de arquitectura en St. Denis:

Ejemplos de `Street art´en St. Denis:

Y subimos por la calle Saint. Hubert, muy tranquila y principalmente residencial:

Jardines adornados para Halloween:

`Street art´en la calle Mont- Royal:

Bea, feliz, saliendo de la "boulangerie", francesa cien por cien: bollería exquisita y ni palabra de inglés (escrito o hablado):

Y llegamos a Mont- Royal, o "the mountain", como la llaman aquí, el parque por excelencia de Montreal, diseñado por el mismo arquitecto paisajista que diseñó Central Park, en Nueva York, Frederick Law Olmsted. La palabra Montreal es la versión de francés antiguo de "Mont-Royal"

La gente va a Mont- Royal ( en un día caluroso y soleado como el de hoy) a tomar el sol, jugar a diferentes deportes, caminar, andar en bicicleta, pasear al perro, hacer picnic...La verdad es que en algunos momentos parecía una romería.

Jugando al baseball:

En la base de la montaña está una estatura en honor de George-Etiennie Cartier, uno de los padres de la Confederación Canadiense. Es un punto de encuentro, especialmente los domingos.

Hemos tenido tanta suerte de haber venido en esta época y de poder empaparnos de esta belleza y estos colores otoñales....

Y llegamos al mirador panorámico, llamado "Le chalet" porque, como parte del mirador hay un chalet construido en piedra, pero la vista es tan impresionante que ni nos acordamos de entrar:

Quedamos impresionados todos, todos:

Así estaba el mirador, un hervidero de gente, con dron incluido

En la calle McGill College, delante del edificio acristalado de la BNP/Laurentian Bank, está la escultura `La multitud iluminada´ del británico Raymond Mason. Explicación de esta escultura reblogeada del blog Arte Interpretado:

La escultura incluye 65 individuos de cerca de 1.50m cada uno. Algunos miran hacia el futuro con confianza, interpretando “lo nuevo” como una oportunidad; otros reaccionan con miedo; otros con violencia; otros con desesperación; algunos se esconden; otros reaccionan volcándose a lo religioso o místico; otros renuevan sus sentimientos por su pareja; algunos conspiran; otros ven lo nuevo con inocencia o esperanza.

Explicación de la escultura según el foro Los viajeros:

" Una Multitud se ha reunido mirando hacia la luz, una luz producida por un fuego,..." Así comienza la leyenda escrita al pié de la escultura. Representa a la población de Montreal observando cómo ardía su ciudad

Y nos pusimos en camino para coger el metro de vuelta a casa. Esta es la entrada al metro en Victoria Square, la única estación de metro`art nouveau´diseñada por Hector Guimard fuera de París. Fue un regalo de París por haber colaborado en la construcción del metro montralense.

Pero decidimos no bajar por esta entrada y fuimos hasta el Palacio de Congresos (en el Quartier Internacional), donde está el `Lipstick Forest´, del arquitecto paisajista Claude Cormier: son 52 árboles de hormigón pintados de color rosa.

Ésta es una explicación de esta obra de arte:

Cosmetics is one of Montreal’s biggest industries along with Paper and Pharmaceuticals. if you go to the palais des congres you will see a pink forest, they call it the “lipstick forest” representing the top Montreal industries. The trees are pink which represents the lipstick color that was invented here in Montreal “pinker than pink”.

Temperatura hoy: 11ºC / 22º C

Sunday 11th

2015-10-12T04:12:00.000-07:00

Mi parada de bus

Montreal es famoso por su vida cultural: cine, espectáculos... para algunas/os de quienes estamos haciendo esta "inmersión lingüística", la asistencia es complicada o a veces simplemente imposible. ¿Por qué? Muchos factores: la distancia es uno; yo, por ejemplo, para bajar al centro de Montreal desde casa necesito coger 2 buses + metro, ¿en tiempo? una hora y media si las combinaciones encajan (algo que, a diario, es posible, en sábado, difícil y en domingo, MUY complicado. Otro factor, las familias; hay familias que quieren que cenemos juntos y la cena es, como tarde a las 7:00p.m. Pues, como eso es, en mi caso al menos, determinante, ceno con la familia. Y un tercer factor es el idioma, "French everywhere". Un ejemplo: cartelera de los cines StarCité Montréal, cerca del Biodôme: 16 películas; una en dos idiomas, francés e inglés (The Martian / Seul sur Mars), todas las demás en francés. Un ejemplo más de la parca inmersión lingüística en inglés que permite Montreal.

Pero hoy tocaba visita cultural en el paseo de domingo:

Manifestación en contra de la guerra civil en Turquía

Edificios en Le Plateau:

Universidad McGill

Escuela de Bellas Artes

`Street art´en Le Plateau

Otro tipo de `street art´:

Y arte en las ventanas:

Del 7 al 18 de octubre se celebra en Montreal el `Festival du nouveau cinéma´, una delicia para los amantes del cine. Aprovechando que es domingo, allá me fui; la selección la hice en base a varias premisas: idioma (inglés en algún lado: audio o subtítulos), que fuese una película canadiense, y que el horario me permitiese llegar y volver a casa en transporte público.

Película elegida:

SLEEPING GIANT | Andrew Cividino - 90 MIN | VOSTF | FOCUS | 103

Sunday, October 11, 2015 at 3:00 p.m.

Cinéma du Parc | Salle 1

Montréal, QC

Precio: $13

Cena ( a las 5:30p.m.): comida cantonesa en Chinatown

Temperature today: 9ºC- 18ºC (real feel 19ºC)

Saturday 10th

2015-10-11T03:57:00.001-07:00

Hoy fuimos de excursión a Mont-Tremblant, uno de los principales destinos de esquí de Canadá, en las montañas Laurentidas.

Fotos del viaje (desde el autobús):

Mont-Tremblant:

Los Pérez decidimos alquilar unas bicis para empaparnos de naturaleza.

Nos sugirieron dos rutas: una de 6 kms. y otra de 12 kms. Decidimos hacer la corta.

Esta gente está aprendiendo a frenar- algo que, según su profe (en la foto) no es fácil y por eso han de subir y bajar

muchas veces...

Cuando nos parecía que ya estábamos cerca, paramos a preguntar... un salmantino con una galería de arte en Mont-Tremblant-Village nos lo aclaró: estábamos en la ruta de los 12 kms (¡¡¡Mont-Tremblant y Mont-Tremblant-Village no eran el mismo sitio !!!).

Y ya que sabíamos que tendríamos que pagar recargo por pasarnos de tiempo en el alquiler, decidimos disfrutar de la ruta:

Y llegamos, pagamos los $10 de recargo por el retraso, y subimos a la montaña en la `góndola´, con estas vistas:

Primera parada:

Los cristales estaban bastante sucios pero las fotos dan una idea de la preciosidad del lugar:

La bajada:

Con nuestra compañera suiza de bajada:

Hay quien se anima a subir andando a la cima:

A la vuelta, el paisaje sorprende tanto como a la ida. Nuestro acompañante en el autobús nos comentó que Canadá tiene las cuatro estaciones muy marcadas pero que nunca guardan la ropa al acabar una estación, como se hace en otros países: aquí la ropa de abrigo tiene que estar siempre a mano.

Temperature today in Montreal 2ºC (feels like -1ºC) / 10 ºC (feels like 8ºC)

Temperature in Mont Tremblant today : 0ºC (feels like -1ºC) /9ºC (feels like 7ºC)

Friday 9th

2015-10-10T04:03:00.000-07:00

`O Canada´: National Anthem

Every single lesson today, but the last one, was devoted to show students how to create a Google Sit,e to use it as a portfolio for their documents. To encourage them to pay attention and do it well, Mr. Katz mentioned that those students whose Google Sites were updated by the end of the school year would get extra credit.

Choosing a theme for the google site

It was amazing to see how engaged and happy the students are in these lessons. They all seem delighted to work on their Chrome books. Mr. Katz introduced the lesson today explaining how useful it is to use the internet for school but he insisted that they should always do so with a good purpose.

Apparently, 6 students were suspended at St. Thomas for two days -starting yesterday- because of cyberbulling online and Mr. Katz used this information to tell the students about the dangers of cyberbullying.

Even though it looked as if Mr. Katz let them free to do what they wanted, it was not so, and a couple of students were sent out to the corridor for having done something that was not allowed (changing the wallpaper or searching for something inappropriate).

First of all, they had to take a self-picture for their Google Site

Learning how to take a self-photo - in some groups, they were allowed to take a picture of a group

Next they had to write a 50-word description of themselves by their photo:

No students are left behind; when the students finish their task, they are asked to help those students who are stuck at some point. It is a very nice way of making students work cooperatively and, at the same time, keep the flow of the class.

Asking for help

Giving and getting help

At some point during the morning one of the administrators came in to distribute the photopackages; I did not get to see any of them but this is what they look like:

Today was the distribution day for the yearbooks, too; they include photographs of the staff:

Period 5: English 3 IM

These students had to work on their projects and they really did so; I do not know if it was because the class was with Mr. Katz today - and not with Madison, the assistant teacher- or because the projects are due next week but the truth is that there was a pleasant working environment in the classroom today - one student was sent our to the corridor, though, there were no shouts; he was asked to log out and after some time outside he was asked if he wanted a second chance then he was invited in again.

Most of them were working on this part of the project

So they were involved mainly with songs - creating a playlist of 9 songs and designing CD cases

But they had to refer to the novel quite a lot and it was nice to see them ask each other about certain scenes, pages or events or just getting the book to reread certain paragraphs or pages.

Next Monday is a holiday, Canadian Thanksgiving, so some students, the oldest mainly, came to school wearing different objects related to this holiday

The colours of the Canadian fall:

Un animalito simpático para nosotros, una rata `para ellos´

Hoy llovió todo el día, pero había que hacer la cola del bus a la intemperie....

Temperature today :2- 10

Thursday 8th

2015-10-08T19:14:00.002-07:00

As I came into school this morning, I noticed some boys walking along the corridors in their suits and ties. I was told there would be a football game at school in the evening and the boys in the team wear suits - or at least a shirt and a tie - to look professional when they show up to the game. By the way, they love it - just like they do for their graduation speeches with me.

Periods 2 & 3: English 1 IB

First of all, the students read the reminder on the blackboard: blogs (the next one, due tomorrow, is about Thanksgiving), test (Tuesday, 20 Oct.: they need a Hilroy Book for tests since no tests on a loose leaf will be accepted, and they need to write in blue or black ink, as it is a formal test; it will be an open book test so once again they are reminded of they way they must quote Shakespeare: act+scene+line); projects (videos must be ready to be watched in class on Oct. 26 - the project is group work but the reflections on the project must be done individually following the outline in `Google Classroom´).They are also reminded to bring their mouse to class tomorrow because Mr. Katz is going to show them how to create their own Google Sites for their portfolios. I like the way teachers remind students of things over and over again: they tell them how to jot things down, what to include in their notes and they make sure everybody understands; I think that `we´ tend to say it one time and then mention it from time to time but not in a clear and relevant way. We take it for granted that they will remember and when/if they don´t, we get angry...

First activity of the class: students had to answer a question on their in-class writing books; this question was related to one of the scenes in AMNSD (= "A Midnight Summer's Dream): Have you ever been so upset, angry or annoyed that you have had to walk out/away? They had to write 50 words minimum in 7 minutes and they needed to focus on the situation and the emotions they had felt but they did not have to give too many details.

Once the students had finished, they left there books in a box (homework for the teacher - but, because of the protest, teachers do not spend so much time on correcting so, instead of getting the corrections in one or two days at most, students may have to wait fot a week or longer- unless Madison, the student teacher, corrects them in this case)

Next Madison chose the readers for Act IV, Scene 2 of AMNSD. As usual, there were lots of volunteers:

These were the lucky ones:

At some time during this lesson, a teacher came and asked for a chair for a student to write a test, why? I do not know and Glenn did not know. There was only one free chair so he sat at Glenn´s table to do it.

As the students were reading Act IV aloud, there was a fire drill. There are 6 fire drills a year in Quebec and one lockout (in case of a shotgun or a terrorist attack). So far, they have already had the lockout and 5 fire drills - including this one today; the last one will be in the spring. They do not do any drills in the winter: it would be too cold (the average temperature in winter here is around -20 C) since the students leave their coats and jackets in the lockers . In case of a real fire in winter, they would go to the school next door, Félix Leclerc or a church down the road - everything is planned. The good thing is teachers know in advance when the fire drills take place so they can plan their tests in advance.

It was cold and little bit windy at times no students were wearing coats, but plenty of them were in t-shirts.

During recess, a former student of Mr. Katz came over to just talk to him. I find this so nice, all these students coming for small talk.

Also, two girls came to ask for help to film a video for their project; they needed their cell phones, the whiteboard and the computer:

Period 5: English 3 IB

In-writing activity: `Tell me one thing that would make you happy right now´

While the students were doing the writing activity, Mr. Katz handed back a former homework assignment: a propaganda poster related for a character in Farenheit 451. These got 10/10 (and they were so proud when I wasked for their permission to take a photo of the posters!)

Mr. Katz read aloud quite a few pages of Farenheit 451, stopping from time to time to focus on some quotes or to make sure the students were following the story.As they were going over the dates of the next test and project, some students asked for a whole class to work on it, so they negotiated extra reading of the novel (pages 115-138) at home in exchange for a whole period for their projects next week.

Period 6: English 3 IM

The topic for the write-in activity for this group was: `If you were taken away from home for a long period of time, what would you miss the most?´Once more, this topic was related to the novel they are reading, Monster, where a boy spends a long time in prison.

This was the last period and this group, normally talkative, was specially fidgety (they did the planned reading, though) so Mr. Katz finished the lesson nearly 10 minutes before the bell rang. He told them they could just take some leisure time (they can never leave the room) but he played a mockumentary on his computer and in no time at all they were asking him to play it for all of them. This is the mockumentary they watched: `The Majestic Plastic Bag´ (The narrator is Jeremy Irons, so, enjoy the audio!)

Y las luces de la ciudad, a las 6:30 p.m.:

Temperature today: 8 (feels like 6)-12 (feels like 11)

Wednesday 7th

2015-10-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

Today the 11th-grade students in many schools in the Lester B. Pearson School Board had a walkout in the first period to show support to the teachers. Some parents were there because security is a big issue here in something like this: who supervises these students? There were TV cameras as well in front of the school. In fact, the rules for this protest were negotiated upon last week, so these students won't be suspended.

Click here and here to read about the students' walkout

Period 1: English 3

Today I attended classes with Mr. Robert Cloney, another English teacher at St. Thomas. This was his classroom before the bell rang.

From his classroom windows we could see students walk out to protest so he decided to spend some time talking about it. He asked students what they knew about the protest and, since many of them, just mentioned rumours, he used that fact to relate rumours to his class and the novel they are reading right now, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. At the same time he used a story to show how dangerous rumours can be and to introduce his topic today: storytelling. The moral of this story was : "you can't take rumours back"

He used one more story to show how 'fabrication' works in a story, how important details are, and he asked students to pay attention to different things as he spoke: his tone of voice, the sound effects he used, his eye-contact, how he represented motions of what characters did in the story. This last story also helped him to make students understand that, whenever you hear a story, there is always a little bit of truth in it. This is Mr. Clonesy's definition of storytelling: it is like TV without the box, like theatre without a stage.

His third story today was meant to show the magic of number 3 in storytelling, i.e. the repetition of things three times ( like in Goldilocks, The Three Little Pigs). Repeating things 3 times is enough to make a pattern but not enough to bore an audience. He also focused on the importance of making a story your own and making it happen naturally, adapting to audiences because each audience responds differently.

Periods 2 & 3: English 3IM

Today is vaccination day at school for girls (3 shots: measles, the vaccine to prevent cervix cancer and one more I didn´t get) and boys (1 shot: measles) so throughout the morning there were continuous announcements over the loudspeaker to remind them to take their vaccination books and go to the library to get their shot.

Girls going to get their shots:

In this lesson, Mr. Cloney did an oral activity. First of all, he asked the students how many of them felt comfortable speaking in public and, to my surprise, most of them do.

The object of this activity was to help them feel comfortable and contact with the audience not just with words; this is the activity:

The students choose a random piece of paper with a topic on it
The students have 2 minutes to brainstorm what they are going to speak about: they are allowed to jot down some ideas but it is an ' impromtu' basis, basically. They can take a pro or a con position or both sides
The students stand in front of the class and speak for one minute about the topic (they are timed)

After each student delivers his/her short speech, he stays at the front of the class while the others comment on his production. These are some of the reflections, with a big emphasis on their comfort level at the moment of speaking: eye-contact, gestures, speaking clearly, enthusiasm, the ability of being convincing...

These are some of the topics that came out:

My favourite meal and how you cook it

Cities are for people, not cars

How to buy a car

Uniforms at school

Your favourite movie, food, TV show, superhero

One thing you want to impress someone with

If I had a mission statement

My favourite phone app

Poverty is a state of mind (this topic made the student uncomfortable when he spoke because he did not want to be rude)

The most difficult thing I have ever done

Poor health begins at the mind

3 uses for a product rather than its intended use

My first memory

My favourite movie

A favourite nickname of mine

These photos were taken in period 1:

And these photos were taken in period 2:

The real purpose of this activity is to prepare the students to feel comfortable when they have to do their presentation for a test: a philosophical question from the novel they are reading ( To Kill a Mockingbird)

Helping some students to prepare the topic

My reflection: it is a great activity to boost students' confidence to speak in front of an audience. I liked the way they (both teacher and students) emphasized positive things but they also pointed out many of the things they did not like,eg. "I felt neglected because he/she did not look at me". I also liked the way the teacher made students reflect about their own presentation and subtly encouraged students to do things differently in the future, spending their brainstorm time to take notes, for instance, and telling them to personalize their story to create an intimate contact between the speaker and the audience.

Period 5: Drama 3 INTRODUCTION

Mr. Robert Cloney also teaches this subject; since it is one of the electives, there were more students in the class, 34.

In this class they did an activity which consisted of expressing an emotion with a body part - in silence. By the end of the term, these students will have to represent a 3/4- minute silent play so the activity today was meant to help them get familiar with expressing emotions through gestures.

The class took place after lunch and these students were very talkative so they were reminded that they had to keep an `audience mode´since they would also be evaluated as an audience.

Each student got 2 pieces of paper, where they had to write the name of an emotion and the name of a body part. To help them choose an emotion, he showed them a list - and he had to explain some nouns like `beligerant´; as for the body parts, since we all know what it is like to work with teenagers, he explained that they could get suspended if they wrote a part of the body that was inappropriate.

Then the students left their pieces of paper on different boxes and they formed groups. One student in each group got one note from each box and represented the emotion to his/her group with the part of the body mentioned there as well. First, they did it in their groups and then in front of the whole class. There were quite a few volunteers.

Period 6: English 3 IB

I went back to Mr. Katz´s class for the last period. After reminding the students of some things ( the blog due tonight, the test on 21, Oct.), he told them they could work on the projects for the whole period. Some worked in the classroom and Mr. Katz was there in case they needed his help.

Here he is showing them how to use the Go-Pro camera:

Most of the students left the classroom to do their videos

Some groups even left the building

This group was looking for a dirty grey car:

And then asked their teacher to be one of the characters, a salesman, in their videoclip:

Everybody was engaged doing something related to the project but having so much fun... This is how one girl put it as she left the classroom `Mr. Katz, you are giving us too much freedom. I´m not used to it.´

And my day ended with a walk in Centennial Park near my home:

Temperatura hoy: 6ºC- 17ºC ( la sensación por la tarde era de más calor)

Tuesday 6th

2015-10-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

Today was another protest day, so teachers wore their Union T-shirts and jeans to school and demonstrated in front of the school for 10 minutes before the bell for the first lesson rang.

Today was Day 4 (of the lessons calendar)

Period 1: English 3IB

First of all, Glenn asked his students to open their agendas and went over some dates with them: the blog is due Wednesday, tomorrow (before 23:59); the test scheduled for November 28st will be changed to November 21st, one week earlier; the projects are due for October 22nd and on that day they will watch the videos in class and in the following class they will do some reflection on them before moving forward.

Then the students were asked to take their literature books (= the notebooks for their literature class). Glenn read a small excerpt and went into a deep explanation: he wrote part of the explanation on the blackboard and asked the students to copy it. Then he explained the content, some vocabulary (eg. `shallow´), the theme and insisted on the importance of quotes.

And then they did the Twitter Activity

Introduction

students made groups of 4
they were handed a piece of paper for the group - they were told to write their names on it
Glenn reminded them of the Twitter rules: 140 characters, including spaces, apostrophes... (for this activity, they had to write 85-140); username: @username; # (hashtag) for trending topics - showing the creativity of the writer
Glen had photos for 8 characters in the book (Farenheit 451) and each group had to create a Twitter Wall for a character

Activity

First, they glue the picture

Then they write that person´s twitter name (@username) - no switching, they must keep the character they got

And they write all the twitter names on the blackboard

Each group is aksked to write 2 tweets in 4 minutes

Then students rotate tables, leaving their Twitter Wall behind, and they write 2 mote tweets on the next Twitter Wall. They have to read what is there to decide how that conversation would go on. Before they switch tables again, they read some tweets aloud

And then they rotate one more time

They read aloud a final tweet ( some groups had not finished) to wrap up the activity.

Everybody has been engaged, has done some thinking, used their knowledge of the characters to write the tweets and they all had fun.

While this activity was going on, with the classroom door open, as usual, a student went by and she greeted Glenn, just like that; this is one example of the nice atmosphere in the school and in this class

Period 2: English 3IM

Before the second bell rang (there is a five-minute break from lesson to lesson), some students were already in the class talking about baseball with Glenn.

When the bell rang, Madison took over the class. She reminded the students to bring their mouse tomorrow because they will be working on their projects

This group is reading the novel called Monster. This is the activity they did in relation to the novel to explain how dangerous gangs can be.

Pre-reading questions

Students are asked to answer these questions individually on their Chrome Books:

How do gang members treat each other?
How do gangs change people?
What are their motives?
Why do people get involved in gangs?

There is absolute silence as the students type away their anwers; they are all totally focused on what they are doing

Videoclip from the film "Dangerous Minds"

Madison uses this videoclip to explain the importance of the choices we make in our lives

Article about a girl who got into a gang

Madison handed out copies of the article and said`I will read the article outloud, if that is OK with everybody.´As she paced the room reading the story, the students seemed quieter than other times; they were reading along, deeply into the story

Afterwards she asked some questions to make students reflect on what they had just read

Post-reading Activities

Students are asked to answer these questions and not to submit them until they have discussed them first

What effects do gangs have on people?
Can people get out of gangs? If so, how?
How can people avoid getting involved in the first place?

Then she shows them an excerpt from this documentary Life Facing Bars: A Gang Prevention Documentary; this documentary was filmed with the purpose of getting kids out of gangs

Periods 4 & 5: English 1 IB

Students are asked to take out their agendas and write out some important dates: the blog assignments are due one tomorrow (23:59) and one on Friday ( the question for this one will be posted tomorrow at 7:00 p.m.); on Friday Glenn will show them how they can create a Google Site of their own; there will be an open book test (i.e. with their books on the table) about `A Midsummer Night´s Dream" on October 20th- being an open book test implies that students will have to quote from the book. They are reminded that this year they will need a book for tests, and they will write in pencil, not in ink.

Right after these instructions, two grade-9 students come in and ask the group to answer, individually, a set questions for their Journalism class. Everybody took the survey and answered the questions in silence

How are you liking high school so far, do you like it better than elementary?
Are you excited for the dances/school events?
How do you find the homework/projects so far?
Are you interested in joining any school clubs/did you join any?

Then they finished Act III, Scene 2 of `AMNSD´. Whenever they need to choose readers for the different parts, there are lots of volunteers

Madison asked the students to copy this quote: "And though she be but little, she is fierce"; she explained the meaning of `fierce´and then they talked a little bit about the way society sees women and about gender differences

Then the students got their Chrome books to create a coggle (= a simple, free mind map or web creation program. I had never heard about it) for Act III, Scene 2 of the play including: setting, characters, quotes and the answer to `who loves who?´

These are some of the coggles that came out:

Y la salida del colegio:

Y dos paradas de bus delante del colegio, sin marquesina

Temperatura hoy: 11ºC- 16ºC

Monday 5th

2015-10-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today we had a workshop, `Balanced Literacy Strategies and Transfer of Learning in Second Language Instruction´at the Pearson Electrotechnology Centre . There are different programs available at this centre, including `Computer Support and Networks´and `Installation and Repair of Telecommunications Equipment¨, funnily enough the internet connection did not work at all while we were there - and yes, they did try to make it work, but to no avail. (I must admit I feel happy inside when things like this happen in Canada because I tend to imagine everything works here, so when it does not, I see that we are not that different after all)

Llegamos al centro, entre 8:00 y 8:30, en taxi - pagado por el `School Board´; algunos nos pusimos de acuerdo para ir juntos y así economizar. Cosas como estas (taxi per tutti) nos parecen un dispendio mientras que hay un pequeño grupo de profesores/as (menos de 10, pero no estoy segura de cuántos exactamente) que no tienen ningún tipo de tarjeta de transporte. El `School Board´ decide si nos da tarjeta de transporte o no en función de dos premisas: que no nos lleve al colegio nuestra familia anfitriona y que, en ese caso, el colegio quede a más de 15 minutos andando ( a mayores, hay casuísticas peculiares, como la mía: me lleva el profesor al centro, porque vivo en su casa, pero a la salida él hace labor de `papá-taxi´- llevar a los niños a actividades y eso supone que mi regreso a casa se pospone un par de horas; con la tarjeta puedo regresar cuando quiera - es un decir, cuando haya buses)

La mayoría de nosotros no estamos de acuerdo con el sistema de entrega de las tarjetas, pensamos que todos/as deberíamos tenerla - quizás porque quienes estuvieron en este programa en Canadá hace un par de años comentaron que en Ottawa todo el profesorado la tenía, o quizás por el hecho de que sea un grupo tan pequeño de profesorado el que no la tiene, y el hecho de que, en casos como este largo fin de semana, tenga que pagar tanto dinero para hacer turismo (mientras los otros podemos usar nuestro `monthly pass´) parece realmente injusto.

Una vez dentro, mientras intentábamos como locos acceder a la wi-fi (que, sencillamente, no iba) íbamos comentando lo que habíamos hecho durante el fin de semana. Un variado de experiencias: la mayoría viajaron a Ottawa el viernes (visita planificada por la organización) y el profesorado que había estado allí hace un par de años se quedó el resto de los días con sus familias anfitrionas de entonces - y hoy nos comentaron lo bien que habían estado allí, no sólo estos días, sino en la estancia hace dos años: lo bien organizado que había estado todo y lo bien seleccionadas que habían estado las familias y los colegios. Otros/as colegas se dedicaron a hacer actividades con las familias, principalmente lo típico de la época: `apple-picking´. Un buen grupo nos dedicamos a conocer Montreal. Y un grupillo de aventureros/as se fueron a ver ballenas.

Shortly after 9 (they had been desperately trying to make internet work since 8:30), the workshop started. We were welcomed by Mr. Tom Rhymes, Senior Director of Educational Services and Technology at the Lester B. Pearson School Board, but the talk was given by Heather-Anne Denton (French pedagogical consultant) and Arlene Scott (English pedagogical consultant).

What did we learn? In my view, this workshop gave me the theoretical background to everything I am observing in the classes. What they explained is exactly what I see ( other teachers disagree because they are in schools were the students are not so motivated and not so good as in `mine´)

So here are some things they told us:

They work wogether with the Ministry of Education. Their job (pedagogical consultants) is to help with the curriculum, to encourage best teaching practices, to oversee the evaluations, in both English and French, at the end of Grades 4 & 6, and to rate teachers.
There is a big difference between Quebec and the other Canadian provinces, because of the emphasis on French (se deben de estar tronchando de risa de cómo han engañado a la Xunta para hacer la inmersión lingüística para 50 profesores/as de inglés en Montreal)
No academic subject is taught in a third language (= no CLIL)
There is summer school but those students who fail one of the basic subjects (History, Mathematics, English, French) but only if they fail between 45 and 59 (60/100 is a pass in Canada). Summer school lasts 3 weeks for them and they must take the exam again at the end of August. In this case, this is not a test prepared by the teacher but a standard test.
If you fail 3 main subjects, you repeat the year
Students get individual support, if they need it, when they find it hard to follow lessons; if they still have problems at the age of 14, they are taken to vocational schools where they learn a job
Quebec is short of teachers to teach French as a second language. You need a certificate to teach at a French school ( being a native is not enough); you need to prove you are proficient.

A la hora del descanso hubo un verdadero caos porque Teresa, de la Academia KEN´S, que organiza nuestro viaje, en una llamada a Noemí, de la Xunta de Galicia, nos ofreció el teléfono para que le diésemos nuestras quejas, y había muchas pero no era ni el modo ni el lugar de hacerlo. ¿De qué hubo quejas? Entre otras cosas, de las siguientes:

algunas familias estaban/están mal seleccionadas. Algunos casos se solucionaron los primeros días pero otros siguen en unas condiciones que no son las que se esperan de un curso organizado para profesorado. Por ejemplo: una persona que pasó la primera noche con una familia con uno de sus miembros con un problema mental ( gritos continuos - sin motivo aparente); otra persona celíaca - y de estos problemas de salud se nos pidió información en la primera reunión- cuya familia no había sido informada y, por lo tanto, no había comida para ella en la casa (además del consecuente malestar de tener que explicar algo que se daba por sentado y que causa ciertas incomodidades a la familia anfitriona y entraña problemas para la persona enferma); familias en las que no hay una habitación adecuada para recibir a nadie; profesorado que no quería vivir con animales y le tocó casa con perro o gato. Sabemos que, del mismo modo que al profesorado gallego no se le dio información sobre las familias canadienses, a ellas tampoco les dijeron nada sobre nosotros/as. Y, en ambos casos, hubo cambios de colegio y/o familias el día anterior a empezar el viaje (25 de septiembre)

el número de profesorado: somo 50 profesores/as y organizar cualquier cosa con tal cantidad de gente es realmente incómodo.

muchos profesores/as están en escuelas donde no aprenden nada porque observan materias que no tienen nada que ver con las suyas. Por no hablar de un profesor que, a día de hoy, no ha sido colocado en ninguna escuela. Quizás si fuésemos menos, se habría podido seleccionar mejor las escuelas

el `transport pass´del que hablé antes

mala organización general; por ejemplo, la retención en el aeropuerto de Montreal por no tener certificados médicos siendo profesores/as- un requisito que mucha gente conoce en este país.

la poca inmersión lingüística en inglés que estamos haciendo en esta zona francófona.

Poco después de la 1:00 p.m. quedamos libres (para volver al colegio, para hacer turismo o para ir a casa). Si regresábamos a casa o al colegio, nos llevaban en taxi; si ibamos a hacer turismo, teniamos que coger un transporte público. Y ésto fue lo que hicimos la mayoría: al bus para ir a Montreal centro

Y allí nos separamos...Nosotros cogimos el metro hasta la Île Sainte Hélène; nos acercamos a ver el museo del medio ambiente "Biosphère" (cerrado, como casi todos los museos, los lunes) pero con wi-fi en la entrada

¡Estos colores del otoño canadiense! Aquí en el Parc Jean-Drapeau

Cruzamos el Pont de la Concordie , con el skyline de Montreal de frente - pero hoy no era un día claro, molestaba el resol...

Y llegamos a Habitat 67, un complejo de viviendas diseñado por el arquitecto israeli-canadiense Moshe Safdie. Este fue su proyecto de tesis doctoral en arquitectura en la Universidad McGill, construido posteriormente como un pabellón para la Expo 67 - la parte principal de la Expo estaba en las islas Sainte-Hélène y Notre Dame. El proyecto - 146 residencias de distintos tamaños y configuraciones- fue financiado por el gobierno federal pero ahora es propiedad de sus inquilinos

Parte posterior:

Y el regreso a la zona de los Quais du Vieux-Port

El Vieux-Montréal:

El Quartier International:

Hora punta: salida de oficinas

Y vuelta a casa, primero en metro:

Y luego en bus; y no entiendo estas dársenas inmensas, en las cercanías de las estaciones de metro, la mayoría sin marquesinas... ¿y en invierno? ¿esperan a la intemperie? Nos han dicho que -20ºC es normal, hoy tuve que esperar 20 minutos por el bus....Definitivamente, los canadienses son de otra pasta...

Tenmperatura: 8ºC-14ºC ( nosotros notamos más calor...)