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It had been a month since our last meeting in Sicily and we were meeting once more in our lovely Bilbao. Unfortunately, because of the devastating earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria back in February, our visit to Istanbul had to be postponed until April this year. I am sure it will be an amazing experience, but I hardly believe that it will be as extraordinary as the visit to Bilbao. Bilbao is too much Bilbao.
Picture by Fernando Villadangos
On Monday morning, March 27, we all got together at the entrance of our school, Ignacio de Ellacuria-Zurbaran, at 9.00. We were ready to kick off the visit to Bilbao and enjoy another wonderful and productive meeting together.
After the reception, we headed for the library of the school, where all the participants of the project were welcomed by the Head Teacher of the school, Patxi Erezkano, and the Head of Studies, Ana Arrizabalaga.
Patxi gave the participants a general idea of what type of school our school, Ignacio de Ellacuria-Zurbaran, is. Patxi and Ana both wished that we would have a very productive week. Wink wink! What we absolutely did.
Afterwards, the team visited one of our classrooms where the knowledge of all the participants in the project about the Basque Country and the Basque people were going to be put to the test by our merciless students. Portugal came in first, obvs, but I guess it is the proximity that helped them win the Kahoot!.
After the Kahoot!, our kids analysed and broke, very convincingly I must add, some of the stereotypes and clichés of the Basque people to all the members of the project.
Well done! You guys are really something!
After a coffee break, we were rewarded with two really interesting workshops by two of our most talented teachers in school: Maria Asunción Requero Zabala, a Geography, History and Art History teacher who teaches in Basque and French in our school. Also, Alazne Escondrillas Ugartondo, a teacher of Technology who teaches in Basque and English in our school.
Mariasun was the first one to talk to our team. She used a Genially presentation to give us a few notes on CLIL.
She first explained to us what CLIL is by using Metimeter. We had to come up with terms associated with CLIL. The letters actually stand for Content and Language Integrated Learning.
She went on to clarify that there are two types of it: hard and soft CLIL.
Hard CLIL is learning a foreign language while working on a curricular subject, like learning music in French, whereas soft CLIL is learning different content of curricular subjects while working on a language.
She then talked about D. Coyle's 4 Cs of CLIL: Content, Communication, Cognitive and Culture. Content always being at the centre of it all.
She moved on to talk about the European Parliament Recommendations as a legal and academic reference to encourage schools to introduce CLIL in their teaching system.
She told us that there are two specific language projects in our school: the English and the French projects, and explained how these projects are implemented in our school.
She went on to talk about the methodology used in these CLIL lessons. She underlined that it is a student-centred methodology which encourages interactive and autonomous learning. She pointed out how CLIL help students to improve and acquire vocabulary and new terms. Also pronunciation gets improved.
She explained in detail a couple of examples of projects that students have to carry out in her lessons. She showed us how important the above 4 Cs are in CLIL. In one of the projects students had to design a brochure of Bilbao for tourists.
She also explained that formative assessment that must be used to evaluate the kids’ projects process and showed us a Google forms she uses to achieve this.
She mentioned that one of the challenges she has to face is the collaboration between language teachers and CLIL teachers. Creating material for the lessons is also a hard challenge. She believes that publishers, curriculum designers, content teachers and language teachers should be the creators of this material needed for the lessons.
Eventually, Mariasun’s talk opened up a debate among us, where teachers shared the challenges they also have to overcome, mostly when it comes to getting material for these lessons.
And this was Mariasun's talk on CLIL. You are a pro, Mariasun! Great job!
After Mariasun, we had to opportunity to have another great teacher from Zurbaran give us a talk about STEAM this time.
Alazne told us that STEAM helps students acquire the key competences that will help them face the challenges that they will meet in life.
She showed us a project for students she uses in STEAM and explained what students have to do in the project. She used this project to explain quite visually how all subjects are combined in the project. We joined her Classroom group to take a closer look at the activities she had thought about to carry out this project.
According to Alazne, thanks to STEAM students can work on many competencies at the same time.
She explained that the UK has a STEAM platform where you can find a large number of activities. So does the USA and also the Netherlands.
She went on to explain what methodology strategies she uses in her lessons. She added it has to be an active methodology and, actually, she stated that she cannot stand being talking or explaining for long, which meant she wants students to do most of the work.
She also mentioned the advantages and disadvantages of using STEAM. The greatest disadvantage, in Alazne's opinion, is the time it take to prepare the projects for the students and the lack of materials.
Thanks a lot, Alazne, for such an interesting talk!
The first day was over, but the week programme was not. The next days proved to be as intense and interesting as the first day.
The second day promised a really interesting experience and it did not let us down. We started off with a course on Emotional Intelligence given by Guy Fayter from the British Council in Bilbao.
If you are not sure what Emotional Intelligence is, here is a definition by Daniel Goleman: ‘the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.’
Guy Fayter started his course by introducing the concept of Intelligence Quotience (EQ). He stated that IQ is an important fact in academic success, but that, ironically, some kids with a high IQ have problems at school. They "struggle in school due to a lack of motivation, poor study habits, or other non-coginitive factors." He went on to ask us what we thought of EQ. He pointed out that we do talk so much about IQ, but what about EQ? We were then asked to define EQ and talk about our experiences with it in the classroom. Guy gave us a couple of minutes to discuss about it. Later on, he asked someone to give a more detailed description of their relationship with EQ in their school and recorded their impression.
He moved on to explain what EQ Theory is and showed us how to access websites that deal with Emotion Intelligence. He mentioned "The Role of Emotional Intelligence in the EFL Classroom" by Ismail Alrefaai and took us to the site where we can know more about this study.
He pointed out that motivation, self-awareness, empathy, self-regulations are key aspects and they are “crucial for building and maintaining positive relationships with colleagues”.
Participants started commenting on cases of students that struggled in school because of lack of confidence, emotional issues, personal problems that definitely interfere with their studies.
Guy underlined the importance of EQ skills in the 21st century, where there is an "increased emphasis on collaboration and teamwork"; in a world that is changing fast; with a "increased diversity and globalisation"; with a lot of technological advancements.
He moved on to explain how Storytelling can help students develop their emotional intelligence. He stated that this is something we have been using for thousands of years. Guy pointed out the benefits of using it. Actually, in the link above, you can see a list of reasons why storytelling should be used in the classroom. Later, he showed us some advantages and disadvantages to using this technique.
By the way, if you want to get a complete picture of your EQ by IDRlabs, click here.
IDRlabs 2023
IDRlabs 2023
Afterwards, there was an exchange of different experiences among all participants. Guy pointed out that a positive learning environment is key to success in the classroom. But what makes a "good learning environment"? He mentioned key points such as establishing a routine, minimising distractions and rewarding the kid's progress, varying approaches and setting targets.
However, the location is also important according to Guy. Students should feel it is a safe place, both physically and emotionally. Trust should be built and shared too. Actually, "there is a positive relationship between the teacher and students and among students in the class".
Lastly, Guy gave us some techniques we can use to incorporate EQ in the classroom. Among others, he mentioned active listening, establishing trus and respect, reflection, mindfulness exercises, role-playing, etc. He also suggested experiential learning techniques: live action role-playing, simulation games, outdoor adventure activities (kayaking, canoeing, etc).
After the coffee break, we enjoyed a second workshop on Emotional Intelligence, but this time is was given by Mónica Muriel Ríos from Incoma (Sevilla).
Monica's intention was to target the concept of Emotional Intelligence. She said that we tend to focus on others lacking these abilities, but an important aspect is to be aware of what point we (ourselves) are at and she underlined that we sometimes tend to ignore that. She reminded us what Emotional Intelligence is, a person’s ability to manage their feelings so that those feelings are expressed appropriately and effectively.
Monica asked us to think about the five factors that integrate this concept of EI: Empathy, self-regulation, motivation, self-awareness, social skills. Later, she opened a debate about it and we discussed how we see ourselves. She suggested that we should avoid telling others if they are doing right or wrong directly, since it would eventually stop them from opening up and sharing their emotions.
She also suggested that spaces for people to talk about their feelings should be created. She asked us how we deal with our feelings, with our self-regulation. Some of the participants wished she could do worse, so she could let it all out. I would not want to be around to hear all that!
This was a really interesting training session or should I say therapy session? :-D
On the next day, we had another member of the British Council team, Katie Lines. Kathie gave us a workshop on Critical Thinking.
First off, we were given a large pink card to create a KWL chart where we were to write what we knew, what we wanted to know and what we would have already learned in that session about Critical Thinking. The whole group had to share and discuss what they had written.
We moved on to form pairs and were given a little task in which we had to read a little paragraph and try to explain it to each other, a jigsaw reading. She explained that no one is really born with a critical aptitude. That these skills have to be learned and put into practice.
She pointed the attributes connected with CT: Clarify, question, identify, analyse, evaluate and create or synthesise. After we have done all this process, we come to a kind of conclusion or argument. We spent some time reading about them and carried out another jigsaw reading with it. In this one, we had to share what we had read with the rest of the group.
Afterwards we were given some objects and we were told we had to create a story with the objects. This is a type of activity that can be used in the classroom to develop CT skills. Katy asked us how we could introduce this type of activity in our lessons. She also asked us to reflect on why should anyone acquire any critical thinking skills at all.
Right after that we were asked to design a quick “pub quiz” where we should include different types of questions about any topic we wanted. She thinks asking students to do that encourages to challenge what they have learned, but also apply their critical thinking since they have to actually make the questions and think about if they have anthing to do with what they have learned or not. Are they useful?
Finally we added to “what we had learned” to the big pink card to complete the activity we were assigned at the beginning of the workshop.
After the coffee break, we had Helena Andicoberry from Incoma, who also gave us a workshop on Critical Thinking.
She introduced us to this activity called Total Physical Response, in which you are training your braining, basically you’re waking it up. This is an useful activity to wake up students in the first period in case they came in a bit sleepy.
She emphasized the reason why critical thinking skills should be taught in school. As an example, she mentioned two mythological creatures that are believed to exist by some people: Bigfoot and the Chupacabra. Should we question things like that? Let’s not forget people who still believe that climate change is not real or those who think the Earth is flat. She let us know that one of the goals of education is to help students foster the skills necessary to be informed consumers of information (DeAngelo et al., 2009).
She moved on to point out practices that foster the development of thinking skills and also underlined the importance of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which is a real useful resource to evaluate the process of students. Later, she led us to this site called Project Zero's Thinking Routine Toolbox, where you can access lots of activities or routines you can use in class to work on Critical Thinking. (Utterly interesting and useful!!)
She mentioned that brain teasers are also puzzles are also a very practical way to put your Critical Thinking into practice. Project Zero, Thinkers Keys (a set cards you have to use to find the solution to a problem), simulations, gamifications and debates are also of examples of activities to foster CT in the classroom. Another activity she talked about was “Six Thinking Hats”. She explained that each of the hats is endowed with a special power.
On our last day, Joshua Underwood, another member of the British Council team, gave us a talk on E-Safety.
We started off by playing a get-to-know-each-other’s-name game. It is quite interesting, every one must associate their name with an adjective that starts with the initial of their name. I was “crazy” Carlos. No more to say …
He introduced the session with a warmer activity where we got to ask other participants if the had ever done things which were on cards that Joshua had previously given to us. We had to stand in concentric circles and ask each other in pairs those questions for a couple of minutes and the move on to talk to other one. All these cards were somehow connected with E-safy concerns.
Using Quizziz, we navigated through Joshua’s presentation and answered questions related to E-Safety, such as what we had done on E-safety Day in school. Then everyone explained what they had done in their school. The objective of this day, Joshua said, is to get students talking and becoming aware of what E-Safety is.
Later we were asked to think of some words which were connected to E-Safety. In about 5 minutes we got 6 words? Joshua told us it only took ChatGPT 5 seconds to come up with a whole list. Scary, isn’t it?
He invited to use this website, where there are pictures, symbols students can use in a more visual way to raise awareness among them.
After watching a couple of resources on E-Safety, we were asked to explain to the rest of the participants at the table the resource we had watched.
Joshua asked us then to brainstorm three E-Safety projects and come up with the idea of a mini project connected with it. We shared our projects with the rest of the participants.
Our last speaker of the week was Antonio Albín from Incoma. He gave us another workshop on E-Safety.
Antonio underlined the importance of keeping a security while surfing online. He mentioned some guidelines to follow like using strong password, only logging in using trusted devices, using two-step authentication, ignoring malicious emails and using filters to stop SPAM.
He went on to talk about the risks we may encounter online: phishing, allowing apps to access our contacts list, sending messages which are not encrypted, security and privacy breaches on social media apps. He stressed that we must always check the security and privacy settings.
Antonio suggested using strong passwords and avoiding bad practices like using our favourite number, name and date of birth or recycling old passwords.
We were encouraged to check all of our accounts and make sure they had not been compromised. You should definitely do the same here!
Antonio also warned us to be aware of the dangers of installing apps from non-official sources and even when they were downloaded from official places such as the Apple Store or the Play Store, one must always check it is the original application. Beware, some of them look very much like the official ones.
By the way, know that if the site you are downloading something from has lots of ads, banners, or pop-up windows, it is not very reliable.
And that was all for the week. What an interesting week! Thanks a lot to all the members of the British Council and Incoma for your participation in this week, which has surely proven very useful to achieve our goals in this project.
Sadly, once again, it was time to bid each other farewell and wish them a safe return home. We hope you enjoyed your stay in Bilbao and till we see each other again in Istanbul.
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