Analyst

Hello everybody! Now that we have finally finished all the things of this long week I am going to evaluate us. First of all, I have to say that I have seen how this group has improved bit by bit, and it's a pity that this finishes when we have learnt how to work; but, otherwise, to continue doing what we already know won't give us many things.

1. What was the best part of the activity?
For me, the best part of this activity has been to listen and to read things about "the dark side of textbooks" because, on the one hand, it is always interesting hearing different opinions and perspectives of something, in this case, of how usefull textbook can be; on the other hand, I think that it is a topic really close to us because we are going to be teachers in a future and we will need to have our own opinion about it, for using or not them.

2. What was the worse?
The worst part of the activity, although it was not that bad, was to have good and original ideas for putting in just 30 seconds of advertisement as much negative aspects of textbooks as possible. It was complicated because you can't be sure if you are conveying well the message.

3. What was the best moment of the week (in the work of the group)?
Without a doubt, the funniest moment was when we were recordering our advertisements. We enjoy spending time together and it is great because in the meantime we have new ideas for improving the result of our project. 

4. What was the worse?
The worst part all the weeks, in my opinion, is when we have to stay at the univerity until too late, because we feel tired and our headaches don't allow us to think clearly; we start to lose too much time.

5. What have you learnt?
We have learnt many things about "the dark side of textbooks". Firstly, we have banished the idea that textbooks are compulsory for carrying out the curriculum; they do follow it, but... Are they the best way of teaching? No, they aren't. Secondly, we have also explored how, nearly always, textbooks are just a business of editorials. Finally, we have internalized that textbooks are heavy and expensive, and they limite our knowledge; besides, they avoid learning by dicoverying and sometimes teachers are more worried for teaching all in time than for their students learn.

6. What do you need to conserve - as a group - for the next weeks?
We should mantein the members' responsability. People in this group usually do what she is ordered to before the deadline.

7. What do you need to improve - as a group - for the next weeks?
We ought to investigate more on the web because there is lot of interesting information that we are losing.

8. How this content is related to other contents in the course and in your degree?
It could be one of the topics which are more related to our degree. Since the change of the law and the "boom" of editorials, they have been an indispensable tool for teachers. But how we have seen, they have a dark side: they are making richer editoriarls and sillier kids. And about how is this content related to others, in our English textbook it appeared a text about a school in which children didn't use textbooks; they went out everyday, it doesn't matter if the sun is shining or if it is raining cats and dogs, to explore the world and discovered things by themselves.

9. There is any evident social conection of this content (news, politics...)?
Of course they are. Education is becoming a bussines too again, as textbooks are. In public schools, theoretically, each teacher can choose the way he or she is going to teach as long as it respects the curriculum, but in private schools and, even worse, charter schools, make money with the editorials.

My experience as the journalist!

Well...I am Cristina Gil and I have the Journalist this "week". It hasn´t been exactly a week, they have been two because a lot of exciting and unexpected things had happened to us in these two weeks. 

Anyway, I´m going to explain what we did the first week:

Monday, 3rd March: some of us met in the afternoon and we decided that we were going to do three different advertisements saying "NO" to books, well, text books. So we wrote the dialogue and the ideas each advertisement would have, always defending our own knowledge instead of text books. 

Tuesday, 4th March: our two stars of the week met to practice more or less what they were going to say according to the advertisements we thought of the day before. 

Wednesday, 5th March: we all met in the afternoon and we analized our advertisements properly. After this we start recording our adverts. It was great and very funny because people look at us as if we were weirdows or something strange... it was hilarius! I have to say that it has been the best work we have done so far, well, that´s my opinion anyway.

On Thursday, 6th March our teacher Linda finished the lesson earlier so we could finish some of the advertisements... we only had one left to do. We were very thankful for that.

On Monday, 10th March Mercedes came (@Longdones) to talk to us about text books. We thought she was just going to talk and talk all the time but no way! She was amazing! So so interesting! We weren´t expending her class to be that way... she put on a show and we really enjoyed it! She divided the class in three parts, each one of 40 minutes. In the last part of forty minutes she said to us that we had to find something outside the classroom that was related to text books and education. We also had to say a sentence to define what we wanted to transmit to the class... our phrase was: "Grow learning; Learn to grow". Afterwards we had to go back in the class and all of uf had to say the sentence we had thought of.

On Thursday, 13th March the presentations started... there was not enough time so only two groups we able to expose:

• Common Tutankammon: they did and advert of the high cost of books and the need of having to get second hand books.
• Brain Storming: they told us a story about the different functions of bees and they related them to text books in education. They also made us play a very entertaining game in which we had to relate the bees´functions with reality.
• Hide and Seek: we made three advertisements showing that texts books makes our knowledge decrease. 
• Give me 7: they made a really interesting infography about the disadvantages of text books.
• Step by step: they wanted to explain that text books are ok, what is wrong is the way we use them.
• Teachleaders: in their advert they say that books shouldn´t be compulsory because not everybody can afford them.
• T8T: they want to show us how people manipulate us by text books.
• Little Ants: they made two comics in which children realized that books aren´t as good as people think.
• Educational Rush Hour: the message of their adverts is that we learn better without using text books.

We have really enjoyed your presentations, we hope you have enjoyed our one dear collegues!

I have loved this topic because it is so true... I didn´t know much about the way text books influence people... and I have to say it is absolutely disgusting... I think that when I become a teacher I won´t be using text books... I don´t think is worth it. I think I can teach better than text books! 

#LIBRODETESTO

My experience as a Star!

Hey bloggers!! María and me, Cristina F. have been the stars this week and it has been a great experience!
We have been preparing our exposition some days before so we have been ready for days! We couldn't expose our work on thursday because of  time and the visit of Mercedes on Monday, who taught us many interesting things :). Firstly, I wasn't nervous because I knew I had prepared my exposition, but then I thought that I would have a heart attack!!! :(. But the result has been good and my classmates have enjoyed it. María and me have laughed a lot!!

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CURATOR-FARMER

Hello, this week I am the curator-farmer.
The resources that we have used for this practice called "Textbooks" are as follows.