Blog

Days of celebration

Celebration: A toast to the successful candidates

Friday 15th of July was one of those days of celebration and here is my toast and heartfelt congratulations to Pablo, Eva, Lydia, Cristina, Ángela, Natalia, Paloma, Adelaida, Raúl and Julia. I would also like to make it extensive to three former students: Natalia, Inma and María.

Now, after the necessary paperwork comes days of a well-deserved rest. Remember, though, that this does not mean you have reached the Finish. On the contrary, it means you need to carry on. It means you have a greater responsibility.  You must do your very best and turn the teaching of English in our schools in Spain into something successful. As I am sure you will do.

I also hope we keep in touch and exchange ideas and experiences to achieve our common goal.

Days of reflection

For me

 For me in particular. Because I need to see why some of the candidates I thought were well prepared did not manage to pass the first part of the exam. And what can I do in future to help those I also thought were not ready.

To analyse what I can do to improve the courses and to get people better prepared I plan to use July and August to rest and reflect. Also, bearing in mind the feedback you have given me on the courses, I’ll see what to modify and/or include which was not there. Thank you very much for all your comments. I feed on them.

For those who didn’t make it

I have always believed this kind of system depends on the selection board you are assigned to.  I can now confirm that, when you are inside and feel all the process with the panels around. We were members who took everything seriously, even our time to have a break, and I am glad about that.

We had a template like a summary with the most significant sections for all the topics and assessment rubrics for the summary of the listening, text analysis and questions, and translations. Also for the topics and the second part, that is, la encerrona: whether the candidate has a good written syllabus design, the oral part, all the contents are the correct ones, and so on, and the didactic unit with the suitable methodology, assessment,…

I have to say that the spelling mistakes have been very decisive in the final mark in the first part. The Consejería asked each board about their number at the end of the first exam.

At the time of the claims, we revised all the exams and tried to help the candidate.  It is also very important that all the members of the board can  read all the candidates’ exams: that way they can consider the final mark apart from the different corrections.

How the panels felt

It was a very hard experience due to the multiple tasks you need to deal with during the process and everything you leave behind at your high school, which you must finish before the end of the school year.

And so much red tape …with a lot of pressure every day…, changing the correction dates for us in the last minute. Then, the web system failed and the candidates had to put forward their claim via fax or at the premises.