JOB SHADOWING AT BICSKE, HUNGARY23rd-27th MARCH 2015

Fátima Señorán GutiérrezCésar Rodríguez de Sepúlveda Pardo

HUNGARY

Hungary is situated in Central Europe,with an area of 93,000 squ km, and a population of more than 10 milions people. The biggest town is the capital city, Budapest (1,700,000 people). Only seven towns, besides Budapest, have more than 100,000 residents.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

The official language is Hungarian, spoken by 14,500,000 people, almost a third ot them living outside Hungary, in neighboring countries, mostly in Transylvania (Romania).

Hungarian is, along with Basque and Finnish, one of the few non-Indo-European languages spoken in Europe. It is a very difficult language for foreigners

English and German are the second most widely spoken languages.

Ethnic minorities are few: the most significant is the Gypsies, or Roma, accounting for 1.5% of the population.

HISTORY OF HUNGARY

The Kingdom of Hungary was founded by Árpád, considered the father of the Hungarian nation, in the ninth century.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the territory of Hungary was part of the Ottoman Empire; later it became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until its defeat at the end of the First World War).

The defeat of Hungary in World War II caused the occupation of the country by the USSR and forty years of communist rule (until 1989).

HISTORY OF HUNGARY II

During the communist era (October 23rd, 1956) an uprising broke out against the communist government that was crushed by the Soviet army.

In 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, parliamentary democracy was reintroduced in Hungary. In 1999 the country joined NATO, and in 2004 the European Union.

Since 2010 the ruling party is the conservative FIDESZ integrated, into the European People's Party.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN HUNGARY I

Compulsory education begins at the age of 5. From age 6 to 16, school is mandatory for all Hungarians. Most children attend Free State schools. There are alson private school charge subsidized by the state. In Biscke there are two shools: one State school, which we visited, and a Catholic private school, subsidized by the state.

After finishing elementary school (általános iskola) students decide between three options:

-high school (gimnázium)

-vocational school (szakmunkásképzö iskola)

-trade school (Szakközépiskola).

All Hungarians must complete 8 years of elementary school plus two more years in one of the above schools.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN HUNGARY II To gain admission to the university, students must have successfully completed secondary education

(up to 18 years) and pass the final exams of Baccalaureate (Matura).

From 2014, there are also some entrance examinations for certain universities.

EL AÑO ESCOLAR

The course lasts from 1 September to 15 June.

Holidays:

A week in October.

Two weeks at Christmas.

A week coinciding with Easter (Easter week).

National holidays:

-15th March: Independence Day.

-23rd October: the 1956 Revolution is commemorated.

BICSKEI CSOKONAI VITÉZ MIHÁLY ÁLTALÁNOS SKOLA

Bicske is a town of about 10,000 inhabitants, situated 36 kms east of Budapest.

Public elementary school Bicske named after Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, a poet of the eighteenth century.

BICSKEI CSOKONAI VITÉZ MIHÁLY ÁLTALÁNOS SKOLA

Vitéz Mihály Elementary School has a total of 604 pupils aged between 6 and 14 years, distributed as follows:

-312 Students from 1st to 4th, divided into 15 classes.

-292 Students in grades 5 through 8, divided into 15 classes.

In the school there are 72 teachers (note the high teacher / student ratio). The management team is made up of the director and two deputy headmistresses, each of them responsible for one of the two buildings.

The Guidance Department is formed by a counselor, a school prevention specialist and 5 teachers specialists in therapeutic pedagogy.

The management team (secretariat) consists of three people, and there are five concierges.

Classes start every school day at 8:00 am and end at 13:45.

When class begins, delegates reported incidents of the day.

Each session lasts 45 minutes. Between each class, there is a rest period, which lasts between 10 and 15 minutes.

The bell rings five minutes before the end of the class: it's time for the teacher to finish the lesson or to order homeworks .

During the break time between classes, students move freely around the center, both the building and the courtyard.

STAFF ROOM

MEETING WITH THE HEADMASTER

MEETING WITH ONE DEPUTY HEADMISTRESS

LAS AULAS

Most of the classes consist of groups of fewer than 20 students. The low ratio of students per classroom is

explained by the high number of teachers.

JOB SHADOWINGWe attended a total of 12 classes in three different subjects: ICT, English and Art history, with four different teachers. In all of them teachers and students used new technologies.

ICT

ICT students use IWB and computers.They are in one of the ICT classrooms.

It is proposed to use computer design programs to create fantastic animals.

ENGLISH

In this class, the English teacher, Éva Pató, proposes the students a task about augmented reality, with the mobile phones, about the main buildings and monuments in Budapest.

The task was made really fine by the students. Great idea and great job!

ART

In art classes teacher Éva Németh used very effectively IWB to explain, for example, differences between Classicism and Romanticism.

METHODOLOGY

Use was made of an active and participatory methodology in all the classes we attend,. Beyond the use of new technologies, it is interesting how students are involved in their learning. We were struck by the high degree of motivation and student participation.

MEETING WITH THE MAJOR OF BISCKE

BUDAPEST

We took one day to visit the capital city, Budapest, and to learn more about its culture and traditions.

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Columna 1

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