After a period of crisis that has had the Rosa Sensat Teachers Association in a discreet background in the convulsive educational debates of recent times, the historic entity is being recomposed around the project of its new president, until now acting president, Hurtado Sea, who is very clear that the new stage has to be based on networking. Closing the course as still head of studies at the El Roure Gros Santa Eulàlia school in Riuprimer (Osona), and in the middle of the entity’s Summer School, Hurtado receives EL PERIÓDICO at the association’s emblematic building on Avenida de Drassanes to review the challenges of the Catalan school.
-Is the Catalan school abusing the screens?
-The use of the screens must always be at the discretion of the teacher. You have to know how to use this for the benefit of boys and girls. Technology is helping us in many things. The teacher must always have the upper hand and decide how and when that technology is used to guide learning.
“The use of screens must always be at the discretion of the teacher”
-In your eyes, is that happening? Is it being used well?
Now we have the opportunity to do it right. We have good resources, technology has reached the centers; let’s see if we know how to use it well; that a screen does not become just a blackboard. We have to know the potential of technology and focus it on the school project to improve it. Teachers who put their hands on their heads because, my goodness, how many screens are there in the school, maybe later they walk down the street with their cell phones glued to their faces.
-In parallel to the debate on the hyperdigitalization of the classrooms is that of how we face lousy results in reading comprehension.
-It is the subject that occupies us in the Summer School; where the common thread is the right to read. A mainstay that has been lost and that perhaps we have to reactivate are the libraries in schools; spaces that allow an expert in literature; in books, in knowing how to find them…
-What else fails so that the results in reading comprehension are so bad?
-As a teacher I have realized that we do little work on observing small details.
“Reading comprehension is not only learned by reading. You have to understand what you read, you have to stop, and sometimes we go very fast”
-What does it mean?
-Reading comprehension is not only learned by reading. To come to understand there is a whole process that goes through calm. To understand what you read you have to know how to stop. The problem with screens is that they offer us many inputs that do not let us stop. From school we have to do a very rigorous job of stopping to look at the little things and give value to the everyday. For example, in infants, the cards, the environments… everything is quick, and we do ‘vistas’ for the children to go through all the learning environments. Perhaps so many environments would not be necessary because there are many details in each environment and there is not time to stop in all of them. We have to know what we want, what is important; and prioritize that and economize as much as possible what is superfluous to all that.
-What we want is to improve reading comprehension?
-Of course.
-One of the measures presented by the Department to improve this comprehension is the introduction of half an hour of daily reading. What do you think?
-Alright. It is a moment in which time stops, but you have to give quality to that space. If it is a moment of pause in which you order the shelves while the children read, it will not help.
-And how do you get that quality?
– Being present. The presence of the teacher is key. First you have to choose the books well, and then you have to accompany them in reading.
“The new curricula are much more inclusive because they propose different learning contexts at different levels”
-Tell me about the new resumes. In Rosa Sensat they have always been defenders of these, but in the union they also have not a few detractors.
-They propose a way of teaching that for some teachers is very daring. The new resumes shake you up a bit as a teacher because you’re not in control of everything; and when the teacher is not in control of everything he is afraid that the students will not learn well enough. These new curricula put a lot of trust in the student, and you have to let yourself be carried away by what they want to know and create appropriate learning contexts for them to learn, and that is not easy and we are not used to it; but it is a way of learning with much more sense.
-The opposing teachers point out that it is essential that the teacher first establish some theoretical bases.
-Many times what there is is fear of not controlling what the children are learning.
–One of the current problems of the system, especially in secondary school, is that of macho discourses among young people..
-Here it is very important to face all the debates and dedicate time to the tutorials. Give them the centrality they deserve, not put them on Friday at the last minute. We need to prioritize. We talked about reading comprehension; another priority is to stop these speeches.
-Another of the great challenges is how to fight against bullying.
-The protocols are there, and the protocols are the theoretical part, which helps you to know where you have to go. You have to know how to detect and act from minute zero. As with everything, we have to know how to stop things and give them the importance they have, and not pretend that we don’t see it because the material we are giving is more important. Stand up, see that there is a problem, ask for help, and work with the families of everyone involved.
“Inclusive requires reducing ratios: having 25 students per classroom is outrageous”
-Families also ask for a truly inclusive school.
-Many resources are missing; many. Without them it is impossible to deploy the inclusive decree. But in our hands, as teachers, what do we have? We have the new curricula, which are much more inclusive because they propose different learning contexts at different levels. And that is also include.
-What resources would be missing to deploy the decree of the inclusive school?
-More staff and smaller groups. We need smaller groups to cater to diversity.
-What ratio would be optimal?
-It depends on the diversity of the boys and girls, the number of children who need specific help in the classroom… But what is clear is that 25 surely not. 25 students per classroom is outrageous.
-The defense of Catalan at school is another of Rosa Sensat’s mainstays. What will happen if the judges finally force the application of 25% of Spanish in the classroom?
-The principles of Rosa Sensat are public school and in Catalan. That has to be preserved above all else.
Related news
-Would they call disobedience?
-More than disobedience, we call for a union of teachers to build a wall that defends Catalan at school.