"What we do"

CEPA Güímar

CEPA Güímar is an Adult Learning Centre in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). Most of our students are Secondary Education learners. We’ve been working on how to teach and learn through peer-mentoring, which is the objective of our Grundtvig Learning Association, since September 2012 on. That means that we’ve been developing strategies and activities to do so.

Here is an extract  of every methodological approach we’ve undertaken. Below each summary there’s a link to click and visit our blog, with all information related .

2012-2013

-> “Teams of experts“

It has been developed in our school in the following way:

• DEFINITION: Teams of students become “experts” in a given subject or topic. That way they can share their knowledge and abilities with their classmates. In other words, their partners will learn from those “teams of experts“, which rotate with every different chosen topic.
• Every student has the chance to belong to a “team of experts”.
• The topic each team becomes “an expert” in, is provided by the teacher, and it’s part of Secondary Education syllabus for adult education.
• We’ve taken notes of several sessions in our blog:

1. Spanish Language and Literature
2. English Language

->”Using a blog to do a Market Research“

Our institution chose “Entrepreneurship” among other basic skills to focus on peer-mentoring activities, and we organized this one to accomplish that objective.

We created a blog (http://cepaguimar2012.blogspot.com.es/) and we gave content to it from several school subjects, so we had Spanish syllabus as a reference.

• Social Science: http://peers-anabel.blogspot.com.es/2013/03/social-science.html
• Spanish Language: http://peers-anabel.blogspot.com.es/2013/02/spanish-language-and-litterature.html
• Mathematics: http://peers-anabel.blogspot.com.es/2013/03/mathematics-statistics.html
• English Language: http://peers-anabel.blogspot.com.es/2013/02/english-contribution-to-this-project.html

2013-2014

 -> Mathematical Olympiad

Our learners participated last year in the Second Edition, and they got good marks. So we’ll participate on the Third Mathematical Olympiad this year.

An advanced Maths learner is mentoring their partners once a week, so they can solve Maths problems, similiar to those solved in previous editions and new ones too, of course. The aim is getting ready for the contest, thanks to peer-mentoring, and at the same time, stimulating our learners’ Maths talent and skills. The Olympiad will be held in May. We’re using the Evaluation Survey we agreed in Germany.

http://peers-anabel.blogspot.com.es/2014/02/mathematical-olympiad.html

-> WhatsApp group as a way to improve Spanish spelling through Peer-mentoring

The purpose and justification of this peer-mentoring activity

- “Improving Spanish spelling” is part of the Spanish syllabus for Secondary Education, and Spanish Languague and Literature is obviuosly the subject where we pay special attention on this feature.

- We introduced several digital articles related to the convinience of spelling correctly in order to have a chance get a job (Curriculum Vitae), to offer a good public image of oneself on the web, such as Facebook, forums, blogs, twitter, etc., and to help our partners and friends not to make spelling mistakes by means of posting or emailing correct texts.

-Those articles confirm the fact that you learn to spell correctly when you read correct words. And the opposite: if you are constantly reading mispellings, that’s what you learn, and you’ll mispell too. AND you contaminate your chats and emails with mispellings, which means you are harming your friends’ spelling. This is where PEER-MENTORING can be a useful tool.

More information, here: http://peers-anabel.blogspot.com.es/search/label/whatsApp

And here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/How-to-Educate-Learners-through-Peermentoring/

Testimonials: Isis Rodríguez

V Meeting: London

CEPA Güímar's delegates (Mary Carmen Gil Hernández, Iván Jesús Rodríguez and Anabel Coello) met our partners in London in February 2014.

We introduced our institution, talked about our job during last term and our job so far.
Here is our presentation.

Mathematical Olympiad

2012 was the first time a Mathematical Olympiad for Adult Learning Schools was held in Spain. It was organized by “Isaac Newton Teachers of Mathematic Society", in Tenerife. Our learners participated last year in the Second Edition, and they got good marks. So we'll participate on the Third Mathematical Olympiad this year. We've learned from our European colleagues in relation to using Peer-mentoring as a weekly activity held by a mentor. This technic has been tested by most of them and it works. We also wanted to include it in our school, and the Mathematical Olympiad is a good chance for doing so. An advanced Maths learner is mentoring their partners once a week, so they can solve Maths problems, similiar to those solved in previous editions and new ones too, of course. The aim is getting ready for the contest, thanks to peer-mentoring, and at the same time, stimulating our learners' Maths talent and skills. The Olympiad will be held in May. We're using the Evaluation Survey we agreed in Germany.

WhatsApp - Feedback 1 (17 Dec- 24 Dec 2013)

We've got two different whatsapp groups: one for Güímar III Class and another one for Güímar IV Class.
Everybody has joined the group and most of them participate. We started on 16th December using whatsapp.

Previously we've agreed on helping each other correct their spelling mistakes by writing the correct word followed by # or *

This "correcting activity" is working just a bit. I mean, there are only a few corrections. Learners seem reluctant to correct their classmates' mistakes.

I've saved both conversations (erasing everybody's names), I mean, only what was written, so we can use those posts in class later in January, and work with that document, in groups, paying attention to what's written.

Both conversations (download)

WhatsApp group as a way to improve Spanish spelling through Peer-mentoring

"WhatsApp" group as a tool to improve Spanish spelling through Peer-mentoring.

This is a proposal that emerged in Spanish Language and Literature lessons, with Classes III and IV of Güímar Morning. Our aim is  self-correcting spelling mistakes ("Peer-mentoring") using one of the most popular social networks: WhatsApp.

Today we have created two "Whatsapp" groups, to provide an educational target to that application (WhatsApp), apart from socializing and being in touch.

The purpose and justification of this peer-mentoring activity

- "Improving Spanish spelling" is part of the Spanish syllabus for Secondary Education, and Spanish Languague and Literature is obviuosly the subject where we pay special attention on this feature.

- We introduced several digital articles related to the convinience of spelling correctly in order to have a chance get a job (Curriculum Vitae), to offer a good public image of oneself on the web, such as Facebook, forums, blogs, twitter, etc., and to help our partners and friends not to make spelling mistakes by means of posting or emailing correct texts.

-Those articles confirm the fact that you learn to spell correctly when you read correct words. And the opposite: if you are constantly reading mispellings, that's what you learn, and you'll mispell too. AND you contaminate your chats and emails with mispellings, which means you are harming your friends' spelling. This is where PEER-MENTORING can be a useful tool.

Here's the digital material we read together in class:

1. http://blog.lengua-e.com/2007/ortografia-correo-electronico-chat-messenger-y-sms/)
2. http://es.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/fineconomiaparatodoses/letra-paro-entra-ortograf-fundamental-encontrar-trabajo-181043078.html
3. http://www.cronicaeconomica.com/articulo.asp?idarticulo=59866

And here's our learners' conclusions, agreements and challenges, after reading and commenting those articicles:

- All of our learners have smart phones and all of them use whatsapp everyday and at every time. 

- They recognized how important it is to spell correctly: the curriculum vitae is their presentation card when applying for a job; people may have a poor impression of a person who mispells; they don't read much and use whatsapp everyday instead, so this activity can help them to improve their spelling.

- They admit they don't pay attention to what they write, and they read lots of mispells at any time.

- We can whatsapp regularly so we can help each other to correct one's mispellings.

- That correction will be the right word followed by # or *

Anotación en el Proyecto General del Centro (curso 2013-2014)

Asociación de Aprendizaje (Grundtvig) – Cursos 2012-2014

Título: How to Educate Learners through Peer-mentoring (H.E.L.P.)

           (Enseñanza utilizando como metodología la tutorización entre iguales)

Nuestro centro comenzó este proyecto Grundtvig durante el curso anterior (2012-2013). Tiene una vigencia de dos cursos académicos, por lo que estamos inmersos en el segundo.

CEPA Güímar representa a España y forma equipo  con otros centros relacionados con la enseñanza de adultos, pertenecientes a diferentes países europeos: Francia, Grecia, Reino Unido, Irlanda y Alemania.

Cada uno de estos centros, y nosotros, estamos experimentando esta metodología adaptándola a las características propias de cada uno, y durante los encuentros que se han llevado a cabo hasta el momento (en Francia, Grecia y Alemania), hemos intercambiado información sobre el desarrollo de las experiencias e intentamos incorporarlas a las realidades de nuestros centros.

Toda la actividad generada en torno a este proyecto, está registrada en nuestro blog del CEPA creado para este trabajo metodológico (http://peers-anabel.blogspot.com.es/), en nuestra página de Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/How-to-Educate-Learners-through-Peermentoring/198961213606856), en el blog general que compartimos todos los socios (http://www.peer-mentoring.eu/), y en una wiki también general (https://sites.google.com/site/peersedu2011/)

Durante este curso escolar (2013-2014), CEPA Güímar va a desarrollar las siguientes actividades metodológicas:

-          “Grupos de expertos”: es nuestra aportación a esta Asociación de Aprendizaje, diferente de lo que se realiza en los otros centros socios. Iniciamos esta metodología durante el curso pasado y vamos a seguir promocionándola a partir de ahora. Consiste en formar “expertos” en un contenido concreto (por ejemplo, diferentes expresiones literarias durante el medievo; diferentes técnicas de comunicación; contenidos concretos relacionados con Naturales; etc), que luego transmitirán dichos conocimientos a sus compañeros. Los “expertos” van rotando de forma que todos los alumnos de una clase lleven a cabo este rol.

-          “Apoyo tutorial a iguales”: es la actividad metodológica que nuestros socios alemanes han desarrollado y que CEPA Güímar va a poner en práctica durante el presente curso escolar. Los “alumnos mentores” apoyarán a sus compañeros en horarios predeterminados, y serán compensados académicamente por su labor. También serán tenidos en cuenta a la hora de seleccionar a los alumnos que acudirán a los encuentros de Reino Unido (en Febrero) y de Irlanda (en Mayo).

-          Utilización de las “Hojas de Evaluación de la labor de tutorización entre iguales” desarrolladas durante el encuentro en Alemania (Julio 2013).