JORNADA DE PRÁCTICAS DOCENTES 2024 "ESCUELA PRIMARIA FEDERAL EUGENIO GARZA SADA"

 INTRODUCTION 

This document details the characteristics, achievements, and challenges I faced at the “Escuela Primaria Federal Eugenio Garza Sada” in “Colonia Maravillas”. This institution is near factories, malls, sports units, the “Cuahutemoc” stadium, the “Hermanos Serdán” baseball stadium, and the “Universidad Tecnológica de Puebla” (UTP). It is managed by the principal Raquel Morales Peréz, who has 20 years of experience in education. 

Also, this document addresses the challenges and strategies in teaching English, with a special emphasis on the new educational program: the “Nueva Escuela Mexicana”. Finally, it presents a personal reflection on my experience in that school. 

INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT 

The “Escuela Primaria Federal Eugenio Garza Sada”, is located at “Cord de Las Cascadas 1, Maravillas, 72220 Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza”, with the working code (CCT) 21DPR2246Q.

The zone where the school is located is urban, being close to factories, malls, “fondas”,  sports units, the “Cuautemoc” stadium, the “Hermanos Serdán” baseball stadium, and the “Universidad Tecnológica de Puebla” (UTP).

The “colonia Maravillas” where the school is located, has an approximate population of 5,000 inhabitants, of which 800 are under 14 years old, 2,000 are between 15 and 29 years old, and 960  are over 60 years old. 

The “Escuela Primaria Federal Eugenio Garza Sada” is in good condition, however, rain affects the school due to the water. Water enters the classroom and causes parents to attend the school and clean the classrooms. 

The school has 3 buildings of 2 floors with 22 classrooms including the “audiovisual” and the principal’s office. Two bathrooms, a central yard with a dime, a basketball court, and a land zone with 2 soccer goals. Besides in the school there's a school store, in front of it there’s a place where children can eat and near to the basketball court, there are some “palapas” for all the school community.

The institution encourages values toward different cultures considering their beliefs and valuing the history of the cultures, respecting their ways of thinking, maintaining good communication, and retaking activities and traditions of the different cultures that exist in our state. 

CLASSROOM CONTEXT

The “Escuela Primaria Federal Eugenio Garza Sada” is organized by the principal, 18 classroom teachers, 1 physical education teacher, 2 English teachers, and 1 USAER'S teacher who visits the school once every two months. None of the teachers who work at the school have a postgraduate degree. 

The principal, Raquel Morales Pérez was a teacher for 22 years. She has served as commissioned principal in 5 schools: “Escuela Primaria Miguel Hidalgo”, “Miguel Rivera Anaya”, “Jesús Reyes Cervantes”, “Emiliano Zapata”, “Alfredo V. Bonfil”. She has been the principal at  “Escuela Primaria Federal Eugenio Garza Sada”  for 3 years. 

During the interview conducted in March 2024, the principal Raquel Morales Pérez, mentioned that one of her main functions is to oversee the pedagogical work done in classrooms. She tries to be and give the best as a teacher, but also as a principal. She looks for each teacher to receive the necessary training and courses because all teachers who work there face many challenges. All of them must have the necessary tools to solve problems in the teaching-learning process in the classroom. At the same time, she said that she knows and addresses all students´ necessities such as nutritional issues, family problems, and emotional issues, because she believes that in that way the academic performance would improve. 

The principal promotes respect among her colleagues through dialogue, collaborative work, considering everyone´s opinion, motivation, and emotional support. 

The groups assigned to me during this year were the second and fifth grades of primary school. Both groups were characterized by their participation, values, creativity, innovation, curiosity, research skills, reading habits, and mathematical knowledge. However, some areas of opportunity, they should have improved were the discipline, organization, and cleanliness in their work. 

According to the interviews conducted in May and June, 2 out of 29 students have concentration and attention problems in class, mainly on an emotional level, which is reflected in the classroom. Additionally, parents support the institution and their children. It´s estimated that 90% of the students receive academic support, which is crucial as it is key for them to develop all their capacities and successfully face the challenges life presents. 

It proposes that to have better academic performance, it´s essential to promote active participation, integration, and engagement in the work. 

The students and parents of the group I attended have a good relationship with the entire school community. Through observations and interviews, it was confirmed that the teachers in the classroom promote respect through dialogue, creating a calm environment, and intervening in problems when it´s necessary. This is achieved through agreements and commitments with the student and tutor, and when it´s necessary, by imposing sanctions.

Parents highlight that they don´t know the training background of the teachers of the institution. This is relevant because the teachers are responsible for transmitting essential knowledge and skills for the students' development. the parents and students from the institution value the cultural and sports events that they do. Participation is notable in each activity due to they attend the activities, and contribute materials and money. 

DIFFICULTIES FACED IN PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING THE METHODOLOGY OF THE “NUEVA ESCUELA MEXICANA” 

A lesson plan is important in English classes because this document details the parts of a class and how to apply them. It´s considered an essential tool that helps us to develop and structure our classes, ensuring that we achieve our main objective, activities, and if it´s possible an evaluation. 

In my opinion, doing lesson plans according to the “Nueva Escuela Mexicana” (NEM) has been a challenge. Previously, english classes were based on topics such as simple present, simple past, present continuous, verb to be, etc. Now, we have to do projects, which has made it difficult to track the progress of my students, because we give classes 2 classes of a week for 50 or 60 minutes.

The planning format that we used in the third semester was Cambridge format, a format, that in my opinion, is organized, allowing all stages of the class to be arranged in order with a clear objective, considering what my students knew and how they would feel at the end of the class. I used this format at the “ Centro Escolar Profesor Enrique Martínez Márquez” because the “Nueva Escuela Mexicana” model had not been implemented. However, in the fourth semester, in the “Escuela Primaria Federal Eugenio Garza Sada”, where we conducted our practices, were already implementing the NEM. 

Honestly, it was difficult for me because English teachers didn't give classes due to the PRONI program wasn´t active.  The resources had been released and their contracts were suspended. The teachers returned in April. 

At first, it was complicated because I had never planned with NEM format. I knew the NEM, yes, but I didn´t know how to apply it in our classroom. As I mentioned before, with NEM, I can´t really see my students' learning, mainly due to the limited time at school. Planning a project in four classes or less, and lasting 60 minutes or less, is frustrating because students go to the bathroom, the group gets out of control, students get sick, etc. 

REFLECTION ON LEARNING 

Honestly, I enjoyed the experience of having conducted my teaching practices with primary students. Fortunately, the students I shared these experiences provoked tears, laughter, anger, etc. but despite that, I leave satisfied with the great work I did with them. 

This semester I noticed that each child is a different culture; each one has different lifestyles, characters, values, teachings, learnings, and experiences. We don´t know what the child thinks, what they live, what they experience, or why they act as they do. Many of our students suffer violence at home because their mom or dad works, and they don´t receive the love they need to be well. Many of them don´t have sufficient resources to eat or to buy the materials we ask them for. 

We must realize that, as future teachers, we can make a big change and turn the school into a safe place. 

Nowadays, children see English as a boring and stressful subject, a subject in which they have to pass an exam, when it´s not like that. I consider English and have expressed this to my students, as a key that opens doors to people, places, and opportunities. 

I remember the first class I taught at the “Escuela Primaria Federal Eugenio Garza Sada” as a disaster because my students were very restless, they didn´t strive to learn English, they stood up all the time because they wanted to go to the bathroom, and asked all the time when recess was.  It was frustrating. I had to implement certain strategies to start establishing order. I began bringing materials they could manipulate, like kindergarten students. I brought magic varieties that both groups loved like songs, dances, and stars.  

In the second “jornada”, when I returned to the school, the student welcomed me with great joy and asked me when we would have English classes again.  The second-grade students always remembered me for a song I taught them called “Feelings and Emotions”. Every time I saw them and asked them how they were in English, they responded that they were happy. They really motivate me to continue implementing these strategies.

at the same time, I was surprised by my fifth-grade students; they began to speak a word or two words in English, fostering curiosity and active participation in the English subject. 

During the time I was at the school, the teachers of both groups commented that they felt motivated and happy with everything their students learned this year. 

MODEL 

During the process of creating the practice school model, I received a lot of help and consultancy from José Daniel Roa Carmona an architecture student from IBERO who is a student in the 10th semester of his bachelor's. 

This project began in April 2024, with a little talk about the school and the areas the academy had, and finished in June 2024 with a video about the practice school that exceeded my expectations.  

This model took us time because we located, took photos, and measured some areas of the school with some specifications, so that way, he could get the scale. The scale of the model we made is 1:150

One of the important specific aspects that this model should have was that it had to be sustainable and recycled, so we decided to make it by “papel batería” that he had from some previous projects. 

As this model was small, he proposed to make a volumetric model because this kind of model offers us a general, but not very detailed view of a particular project but to give that plus to this project, he also proposed to do a digital model which would be rendered. The app used to do this model was AutoCAD, a program that allows us to develop architectural, industrial, graphic design, and engineering projects.

This model was created with laser cutting and engraving which allowed this work to be done a little bit faster and more efficiently. It was designing, cutting, and pasting approximately more than 41 pieces. To finish our model we pasted and cut some natural flowers that it´s only a representation of the vegetation. 

CONCLUSION 

I´m very grateful for all the tools that my teachers gave me since I started my teacher practices, at the same time I´m very grateful to Daniel Roa who supported me a lot in all aspects.

Society forgets that teachers are humans and we can commit mistakes. we have seen, we have lived. some people have told me that as teachers we do nothing, we are only dedicated to playing, singing, dancing, and doing didactic material that doesn´t work.

And you know what causes in me? It makes me improve myself every day. And if it´s worth doing, it should be done well. You know that you are doing things right when they grow up, they want to be like you, that they consider you an angel, and gift, that they like being like you, that you are their safe place, and thanks to you, they learned a lot and are applying in their daily lives. That is one of my biggest satisfaction.