...still more on that degree program...

I forgot to mention that starting next fall (I think), students entering Spanish universities will be under a new plan, so what I'm describing here will be somewhat different. Currently the teaching degrees are 3-year degrees, whereas things like Literature or Psychology or Architecture or what have you are 5-year degrees. Next year, everything will be four years, to bring the Spanish degrees more in line with a common European Union standard to ease mobility and recognition of credentials between countries. I suspect that there will be more student teaching and obviously, more of a lot of other stuff, too, to fill out the extra year. This won't affect me because I will be finished after I do my last student teaching in the fall, but I thought I should mention it anyway. I wish I knew where to find the information about what will be included in the new plans, but that may very well not even be dteremined yet.

And I forgot one of the English-specific courses, so I'll add that in here:

8) Investigation in the Foreign Language Classroom. Semester-long course, taught in English. As always with this instructor, the notes were clear and well-presented. The course discusses different types of research that can be done, and focuses on Action Research. It's still a pretty basic overview (for example, it doesn't go into any detail about interpretation of statisics, which is too bad because throughout the degree program I have come across articles reporting findings and I am always at a loss as to the statistical parts-- I could have used a crash course or basic introduction. Also it would have been nice to see a discussion of how to design a questionnaire, etc.) Really, the course is meant to encourage future teachers to think of AR as something they can and should be doing in their classrooms, even without a lot of technical knowledge, which is probably a good thing beacuse otherwise most people wouldn't bother. So it serves its purpose well. No exam-- instead you have to carry out an AR project and write it up, or if you don't have access to a classroom (and are too ethical to use made-up data) you can do a research proposal and a critical review of two published research articles. This was a good class, but still, didn't delve deeply into the subject matter.

In fact, that is a common characteristic of all of the classes I've taken for the degree, with a few exceptions. I'm sure that college-level classes at most US universities (and actually, from what I hear, for other degrees in Spanish universities) require much more work. Magisterio is seen as an easy degree, and my impression is that it is likely quite a bit easier than an Education degree in the States. I am still quite curious about what courses are required or offered for US Ed degrees.

Now, on to the non-English classes required for the foreign language degree (because the degree will also allow me to teach as a regular classroom teacher in bilingual schools, so we still need to get the basics of general ed.)

8) Physical Education. Semester-long course, taught in Spanish. Since this is online, we don't do any actual physical activity for this-- there were a couple of sessions I think at the jornadas, but I was pregnant and couldn't go to them. The class was not as boring as I thought it would be, though parts of it were very technical and/or dry. It also gave way too much emphasis, IMHO, to the history and evolution of Physical Education, as opposed to more practical and useful stuff. In any case, Physical Education in schools is taught by specialists (though this university doesn't offer that particular specialization) so it's unlikely that a regular classroom teacher would actually be in the position of teaching Phys. Ed. But we study it anyway.

9) Knowledge of the Natural, Physical, and Social Environment. Semester-long course, taught in Spanish. This subject shares the same name as a subject area taught in Primary school that is basically Science and Social Studies. Our class focused only on the science part, and was intended not to teach you how to teach science, but instead to make sure that future elementary teachers have a basic background in science. This subject is one that is often taught in English at bilingual schools (as is the case at my kids' school.) The class was interesting enough, but I've already forgotten much of what I learned in it, and will need to refresh my memory with a textbook if I ever have to teach it. Given that, I would rather have had a class more focused on teaching science-- I think that would have been much more useful. Oh well.

10) Art and Music Education. Semester-long course that consisted of two different parts. It really should have counted as two separate classes, based on the amount of work required for each part. The music part requires you to read music, keeping the beat and using correct rhythm while saying the correct name of the notes as you read them. The actual pieces of music they used on the (individual) exam were given to us at the beginning of the semester so we could practice them, and the music wasn't that difficult, but for some reason it took me way more time to get it down than I had anticipated-- I really struggled with this. Also, they use the "Do-Re-Mi" system of note names. The second part of the music exam was playing the recorder-- we had to learn how to play it and had a selection of 8 songs to practice for the exams (reading from the score, not memorized.) I got through this pretty well, after a lot of work, and I suppose it is good background for a well-rounded education professional to have. Not to mention the fact that both reading music and learning to play the recorder are required activities in many Spanish elementary schools, so in that sense it is relevant, though the regular classroom teacher would not be the one teaching Music.

The Art half of the class (and again, it was easily enough work to qualify for its own 4.5 credits, dammit) was great. I'm not a particularly crafty or artistic person, and in fact not only am I not good at it, I don't even enjoy it. But the class was very interesting. I even liked the part on history and trends in art education. Also good was the topic on evolution and interpretation of children's drawings-- especially interesting to me since I could use my own kids' artwork for comparison purposes. In addition to some annoying--to me-- art-making assignments, we had to do a Power Point on an environmental artist (loosely interpreted-- could be someone who makes art out of recycled materials, whose art has an ecological message, or even just shows a very strong sense of place etc.) and then create our own artwork inspired by that artist. I choose Andy Goldsworthy, who I had never even heard of before this class so getting to know his work and watching this amazing film was enough to make the whole class worthwhile for me. In any case, the notes were very well put together and complete, and assignments were relevant and engaging. The class is very relevant to the FL degree because in bilingual schools, Art is another class that is typically taught in English. Unfortunately, after learning about all these neat approaches to teaching art, it may come as quite a let down when you receive the English-language textbook (yes, a textbook-- maybe workbook is a better term-- for art class) that you must use to teach the class and see how unimaginative it is (at least that is what I thought of the book my son is using for Art this year.)

Hmm, this post is getting long. I think I'll end here for today and continue on again tomorrow...