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Curriculum Guidelines
Centro Educacional Primeiro Mundo considers it of great importance to define, for allz those who directly or indirectly participate in the work accomplished here, the concepts maintained as pedagogic practice under both the theoretical and methodological aspects. It was for this reason that we prepared this document containing the CURRICULUM GUIDELINES, with the purpose of defining the educational concepts upon which our pedagogic action is based.
The cultural development achieved by social groups is not granted by simple interaction between the persons who comprise them and the environment to which they belong. It is for this reason that it is up to the school to provide for a social function that enables students to become active and responsible members of the society .
To put this into practice, a planned out intervention is necessary, where all educational intentions and methodological choices clearly have a systematic curriculum proposal, even though it may not come in a complete form based on either teaching conceptions or learning processes adopted by the school.
It is also very important to give a social character to our work. It should be known and shared not only by the teachers who perform it but also by parents, colleagues and the community in general, so that the subjects can always be discussed and assessed focusing on the teaching aspects of the process which is based on coherence and quality principles.
A Glance at our History
Centro Educacional Primeiro Mundo works with children from the kindergarten, grouped by age (1-6 years), with students from elementary and secondary schools and from the high school as well, who have been gradually introduced.
The school was founded in 1990, inspired by the new pedagogic movement which began in Brazil in the late seventies and became widely known in the mid-eighties.
This movement proposed a different school model to the one culturally accepted and seen as "ideal". In this model, teaching meant "transmitting knowledge", while the student was given the role of "receiver" of the information provided by teachers.
This view started to be questioned with the construction of a new educational concept in which a critical study of the principles is concerned. Researchers see knowledge as a process of interaction between subject and object, committed to sociocultural needs. In the field of pedagogic practice, some educators look for a new meaning for the relationship between teaching and learning, looking for a link between classroom and social reality.
This new knowledge, which began in literacy with study works developed by Emília Ferreiro and Ana Teberosky, made us choose a constructive conception of teaching and learning.
The quality changes observed in the way of teaching and positive results attained confirmed that the adoption of constructive principles extended to other principles was worthwhile.
At the same time, school educational concepts developed by soviet psychologists lead by Vygotsky emphasized the teachers' role in the teaching process as well as the importance of an appropriate methodology in the definition of learning results.
The pedagogic practice became more consistent in the school, producing positive results, thus allowing for improvements in the structure of the pedagogic project.
Today, our work reference comes from the genetic theory which emphasizes the construction of knowledge considering cognitive capacities, from a sociocultural theory that reaffirms the importance of teaching in the quality of leaning results and the related affective components which constitute parameters for quantifying learning and the importance of expectations, interest and self-confidence.
In 1995, wishing to spread this knowledge and exchange experience with other professionals, the Educators Study and Training Center was created for purposes such as pedagogic dialogues, courses, lectures, amongst other activities.
The study centre has held successive educational events with the participation of professionals from other states who shared their experience in different areas. It also offers the school's own teachers a chance to share their experience through reports of pedagogic practice.
References to Pedagogic Work
The pedagogic view which sustains educational intervention in our school does not consider education as limited to a process whose focus is the transmission of contents.
For many years, this idea was part of regular school practices and students reproduced information rendered with no changes. Such practice showed that the learning procedures didn't develop cognitive competence; instead, the students repeated lessons without understanding them. The successful learning situations more frequently happened when the activities proposed for evaluation corresponded to the models that had been worked out in the beginning. Learning meant "to reproduce information received without changes".
From this prospective, teachers did not consider their role to be the one of an educator, but that of a specialist who knows the subject being taught, and has the authority to control the students' procedure.
For us, learning is "to give sense to an idea and build meanings regarding a certain subject for the purpose of personal construction". Learning is an active process, where the studentelaborates knowledge with the teacher's help. This has an important role in knowledge construction, being the nucleus of the work not the subject to be taught, but the students who will act on the said subject.
In this process, teachers should be mediators between students and knowledge to be acquired. This teacher is seen as someone who knows more and therefore becomes a source of valuable information who intervenes, guaranteeing the students positive conditions for learning. Teacher should plan and guide activities, making the proposed objectives and established programming clear.
Knowledge, the object of students' learning in school, is a result of the acquisition selection that is relevant to culture. Culture gives meaning to human activities.
However, school practices should not only provide culture, but also allow the students to modify and critically review this culture, thus contributing to its renewal.
It is with these principles that the school contents are selected, not only considering the scientific characteristic of each discipline, but also the sociocultural dimension which makes the school concerned about the formation of citizens to whom it is fundamental to be aware of facts, concepts and attitudes which allow them to better integrate with society.
The abilities that we intend the students to build at school have educational purposes, in general, and more specifically are related to each one of the curriculum contents.
General objectives define the goals to be matched by the school, making the selection of contents easier, thus allowing for the correct choice of appropriate didactic guidelines which will be a reference for evaluation.
The general objectives of our work are the following:
To make participation possible in a social life, where citizenship implies a set of political, civil and social duties;
To develop a better personal understanding and confidence in affective, cognitive, physical, ethnical and aesthetic capacities for personal and social relationships;
To use different languages such as verbal, mathematical, graphic, plastic and corporal, as a means to express and communicate ideas, to interpret and produce pieces of culture.
To use different sources of information and technological resources to understand them so as to acquire and build significant knowledge.
To adapt the contents covered by each area, using them appropriately in social situations.
Methodological Orientation
Learning a content involves giving a meaning to it. Education received at school only makes sense when it is the result of the interaction between the school and other acquired knowledge. In other words, between that which the students learn at school and that which they bring to the school. The school is not uniquely responsible for education. Nowadays, other institutions share the responsibility of transmitting and rendering information. Means of communication such as newspapers, television, radio and computer networks have become important channels of information, demanding substantial changes in school teaching methods.
Knowledge building is the result of a personal elaboration process in which the students select and organize the information received through different channels - teachers, friends, family and other experiences outside the school. If the student establishes a relationship between subjects learnt and his previous knowledge about the said subjects, he will be able to attribute a meaning to it, building a mental representation of the content he/she learned, thus taking significant advantages of it. If, on the other hand, he/she does not establish this relationship, learning will be merely repetitive and mechanical.
To produce significant learning, two conditions should be fulfilled:
The content to be taught should be potentially significant (the material to be learned has to be important and organized so as to offer the students increased possibilities to assimilate it). It should also be adapted to his/her cognitive capacities;
The student should be motivated to significantly learn by relating the object of learning to the one he/she already knows.
The conditions above allow for the application of the students' previous knowledge.
To produce good results in pedagogic activities, there are some recommendations to be followed:
start with subjects already known by the child, taking into consideration the importance of previous knowledge in the learning process;
allow the students to demonstrate their knowledge, connecting it with the subject to be taught, so as to create a confident situation in which it becomes easier to carry out the activities organized by the teacher.
structure and organize activities in an atmosphere of discipline. A good class planning guarantees the success of the dynamics to be developed in the classroom which will in turn determine the level of the students' participation;
stimulate interaction in classroom, considering that the acquisition of knowledge most of the time occurs in social situations;
offer models. The model exercises play a very important role in the learning process. Every creation is the result of knowledge in the model. The most important educators who made a revolution with some aspects of knowledge began their work by understanding a model from which they were able to create something new. So, in order for Picasso and Miró to become famous painters, they first had to understand the classic forms of painting.
A great poet wholays with words must first know the essence of the said words. In order to write a good letter it is necessary first to know the specific characteristics of the type of text to be written. Further, as the student is given more information and access to different models, the greater is the chance he has to move forward, creating his/her own ways of understanding reality, so as to express it more faithfully.
The above mentioned methodological option is related to the work with projects. These projects, defined, built and evaluated correctly by both teacher and students, are considered products of interaction. They give a new meaning to the learning activity where the students' needs become the focus of our attempt to solve problematic situations, allowing the students to discover "what" and "why" they are learning.
The choice of the methodology of the project allows for the construction of a cooperative atmosphere, where experiences of interaction favour a democratic feeling among students, helping them to:
exercise their autonomy, make choices, participating in the decisions of the group and planning the work in cooperation with their colleagues;
undertake responsibility for planning, executing and evaluating activities with a view to project development;
be able to learn by themselves.
Curriculum Contents:
Portuguese language
Although the school is not the only place where the mother language is taught - it is in the school where both the spoken and written languages are systematically taught so as to allow the student to develop his/her abilities to produce oral and written texts.
Portuguese, the official language in Brazil is the result of a sociocultural construction, thereby being subject to changes. It has been changing not only in its use, but mainly in the concepts which sustain pedagogic practices in schools.
If, in a particular way, we insert Portuguese in a historical, geographical and human context, in order to understand the teaching and learning processes related to it, we must take into consideration its universal characteristics.
Language is a very important way of solving problems in society. It is also an important tool in communication and interaction, because it is through language that man accesses information, expresses his ideas, defends points of view, shares or builds his own vision of the world, exchanges culture and produces knowledge. It for this reason that the Portuguese language plays such an important role in the school curriculum.
Portuguese exists at school because it exists outside of it and everywhere in the country. For many years schools ignored this fact, exclusively transforming the language into a school object and forgetting to include it in extra-school functions. Learning it was considered to be a process of coding/decoding letters in sounds, so as to memorize them through reading and producing texts which were only found in text books.
With this practice, grammatical exercises needed to be memorized by students in order to learn their rules and orthographic usage with the main objective being to keep the a ortography of the words under rigid control. Oral and written languages do not stop changing. They are dynamic. The reasons for keeping established orthographic norms within certain limits is merely a convention to allow communication at distance amongst speakers.
It is known today that teaching language in a school is a social process. For a group to participate in a society, some reading and writing skills must be developed, much more than they were a short time ago. Different and complex situations in modern societies are solved by using language.
We need to use language in almost all situations:
to consult written materials such as informative texts, important notes, amongst others;
to receive and transmit information, by means of newspapers, magazines, etc.;
to share ideas and opinions;
to communicate atdistance, through letters, telegrams, invitations, e-mails;
to have fun (games; crosswords; puzzles);
to read and sometimes write about a theme.
In other words, to work with such a textual diversity it is necessary that the school offers the students access to a wide range of texts, stimulating them to read whatever is good even outside the classroom.
Guiding Principles
Reading and writing can not be considered strictly as a school activity. Due to social practices existent not only in the family but also in society, in general, children have, from an early age, to be able to read and write, imagining themselves to be "pseudo-readers and writers" in their game playing.
Schools should therefore start a literary work from the kindergarten, offering the child different texts from everywhere in the world, through which different social functions will be presented, allowing them to read and write even if their reading and writing do not follow conventional patterns.
At school, students gradually learn about both different ways of using the spoken and written language, and the specific variety of written texts, in a systematic and planned form.
To train language in real situation, the text should be viewed as a learning process, since it happens in a dialogue context. In language teaching, the school should firstly focus on situations of language production, where students are the writer or producer of the speech, and on situations of textual understanding, where students are the receivers of written or oral messages.
If students need to learn how to produce and interpret texts, they can not take either the letter or the syllable, the word or the sentence as basic units of teaching, because they usually come in a non-contextual way which does not allow for the development of the necessary discursive competence. This does not mean that it is not recommended to work with the words or sentences; it only means that they should not be considered the only linguistic units around which the process of teaching a language takes place.
Regarding the processes of teaching and learning the Portuguese language, it is expected from the students:
to produce different types of oral and written texts, using them in many different situations, according to their capacity;
to understand oral and written texts, knowing how to interpret them in accordance with their capacity and being, as much as possible, faithful to the content and form originally produced by the author;
to become more an more interested in reading, whether for information or pleasure;
to use language as a learning source, dealing better with different contents which make up the curriculum;
to learn how to think about the language, improving both their textual production and the capacity to understand other texts in oral or written communication;
to recognize the characteristics of different oral and written forms and the different types oftexts (narrative, descriptive and argumentative);
to use language with the purpose of improving the quality of personal and formal relationships.
Methodological Orientation
The principles and general objectives proposed for the language teaching in school require that some aspects should be observed.
Materials used for teaching should present a textual diversity so as to enlarge the students' contact with such a variety of texts, including those coming from outside the school. The interaction with the said models will enable them to progressively learn not only the characteristics but also the use of written language.
The production of oral and written texts are important activities and they should be developed inside a process of different projects or at other moments of learning, as part of real contexts of communication.
Besides activities of text production it is also necessary to organize interesting situations for text listening to stimulate the students' reading practice beyond text books. The textual diversity helps to produce competent readers and writers.
The proposed reading strategies should improve the students' previous knowledge regarding both the use and social function of the text.
Schools should imitate social forms of reading that happen in the world. Reading is never an end-activity itself. We read because we need. So, reading is a means to achieve our goal.
It is also important to remember that reading and writing are interactive actions, that is to say, by reading a certain type of text, we can improve writing. On improving writing we can improve understanding. It is then necessary that students spend most of the time as readers and writers of the texts with which they work. It depends on the teacher to promote such an interaction.
In systematic textual works, an analysis of elements such as its social function and linguistic markers which characterize it should be of priority. Gathering all these elements is a very complex activity for a beginner, but allows not only teachers but students to evaluate skills acquired during the process.
Doubtless is the importance of the didactic work developed in the form of projects. Projects allow the students to attribute larger meaning to the study, planning, execution and evaluation of activities, together with teachers in the decision-making process.
Mathematics
Throughout time, Mathematics has been considered to be the science of quantity and space, whose main characteristics are of a logical nature, with properties linked to accuracy and education.
Nowadays, the concept of accuracy is shared with other theories such as the one of probability in which estimate is used so as to give the concept a different role.
Estimation is a strategy to work with numbers in real situations. It allows for the forecast/prevision and control of numerical values and is widely used for economical adjustments (interest rates, taxes, etc.) as well as by people in general when dealing with domestic situations. It is present in cases where it is not possible to determine exact values.
Deduction is valid in Mathematics when the students' knowledge has not been sufficient or properly applied. Then a constructive process involving deduction and induction takes place, improving reasoning.
Another important aspect to be considered is that mathematical knowledgement is not only the result of a number of discoveries. Being of social nature, it has been restructured in response to social historical facts.
Guiding Principles
For Mathematics to be treated as part of the school content, some basic questions have to be considered under the point of view of education:
to explore mathematical concepts in the classroom, teachers need to search for familiar situations which may support what is going to be taught;
while being a science, Mathematics is not inserted in a context but generally presented making it difficult for students to perceive that it can be applied to real situations, therefore building real mathematical concepts;
it is expected that the knowledgement acquired does not restrict to concrete and limited experiences but that it is generally transferred to other situations, giving it an universal character;.
the more significant are the mathematical activities carried out by the students, the greater will be their ability to relate them with other subjects and with their daily experiences;
mathematical learning does not happen in just one step. Most of the time it is necessary to review and reproduce it with the objective of understanding what has been done and why, with teachers leading the students towards this concept.
As far as Mathematics teaching and learning are concerned, we expect the students:
to apply mathematical concepts and procedures to solve problem-situations so as to evaluate the adequacy of strategies adopted in relation to the results attained;
to develop reasonable means to decide about solutions of problems which comprise deduction, induction, analogy and estimate;
to be able to select, organize, produce and analyse information related with both quantitative geometric and metric aspects;
to be able to communicate by means of Mathematics, making use of oral and written languages;
to establish a relationship between Mathematics and other curricular areas;
to build a meaning to rational numbers (fractional and decimal) from their different social applications;
to use the calculator as a means to demonstrate procedures, giving a meaning to the operation as well as to the verification of results;
to use procedures and measurement tools, selecting amongst them the most adequate to solve problems;
to live problem situations, recognizing that to solve them it is first necessary to understand them to further establish a solution plan which must be checked to allow for the right answers.
Methodological Orientation
In the Mathematics teaching and learning processes, the starting point does not have to be the memorization of a definition, but the use of problems from which the students significantly learn how to choose the best strategy to solve them.
A problem is not an exercise, a formula or an operation to be done mechanically. On the contrary, it requires that the student build a sequence of actions or operations to obtain a certain result, thus developing his/her creativeness and autonomy. Teachers must be competent persons to decide about the choice of problems, adjusting them according to the cognitive and social capacity of the child. It becomes necessary to explain to them that some problems can be resolved more quickly than others; that they can be resolved through different ways.
Teachers are not supposed to solve problems for the students but to supply the necessary information to help the students to solve them, stimulating cooperation and interaction. Cooperation takes place at the moment a value is given to an exchange of experiences where students respect each other's opinions and ideas.
In pedagogical work organization, activities can be solved as games, reports on daily situations, analysis and tasks which organize information acquired within a system.
These tasks, however, need to be related to real situations and adjusted in accordance with the students' way of thinking.
When making use of mathematical knowledge to clarify or investigate problems from other areas, students change their point of view about Mathematics as not being the result of a knowledge built by men, but a powerful tool of education, when related to other disciplines.
Science
Science, as well as other subjects which integrate the school curricular grid undergo significant changes due to conceptual and social modifications related to the object of knowledge. For many years, science has been guided by different trends. Although trying to follow scientific and technological advances, the methods adopted were diverse enough to support the school work. Some educational programs are developed in accordance with instructions divided in learning modules; other projects are basically characterized by the production of texts for the teacher training, and by experimental material for the students' learning, valuing not only the content to be taught, but also the importance of the scientific work. Pedagogy focuses on practical experiences carried out by teachers assisted by students. Each day, a greater number of teachers use practical experiences in their science classes. However, the main purpose of this procedure is to make the students able to identify a problem through the observation of facts, raising hypothesis which are tested allowing them to draw their own conclusion. In brief, students have to discover science by themselves, adopting a work method besides understanding that a scientific method follows a rigid sequence of preestablished steps. Such a practice ended up being the only possible way to learn concepts. Only in the middle of the 80's it became evident not only the impossibility to reproduce scientific thoughts through methods but also the experimental fragility of having only one way to discover ideas conceived by science.
Guiding Principles
In a society influenced by the development of technology, it is impossible to think about a citizen who has no access to scientific data. Science and technology are part of our daily routine and it is no longer possible to understand a world in which those two elements are not present. Teaching science means to allow students to see it as a powerful tool to understand and change the world.
The main purpose of scientific education is to give the student an understanding of the relationship between human beings and the environment where they live, beyond the scientific position of mere observer of nature.
Knowledge about "how nature behaves and how life is processed" becomes instrumental in making the student aware of the most basic needs to survive. Science is the way through which natural phenomena are explained so as to make the students think about and understand the existing limits of each educational model adopted, therefore developing their autonomy.
As per teaching and learning science, students are expected:
to identify the acquisition of scientific knowledge as being the result of what has been produced previously (historical-philosophical context);
to develop health and body care habits, understanding then as part of social and environmental contexts (individual and collective), as something which need to be physically, mentally and spiritually preserved;
to learn with curiosity and interest, organizing information in an way to develop autonomy and responsibility in the accomplishment of tasks (e.g.: projects).
Methodological Orientation
Teachers are responsible for planning in classroom, selecting subjects in accordance with the social reality of the group. It is recommended the use of projects adequate to the subjects to be developed. Teachers should be aware of not explaining concepts which may confound the students in terms of previous knowledge, creating situations where conflicts are set and new information can be processed. Of fundamental importance is the scientific education. Activities should be carried out in places such as parks, forests, gardens, etc. or by means of software with which students can interact. It demands observation which, in turn, to be developed requires courage to face challenges and problems. Another important procedure is the experiment by means of which students manipulate materials, instead of focusing their attention on theories and demonstrations. Lessons can be elaborated by both the teacher and the students, in accordance to a plan which will be further discussed and put into practice. The results attained will be the basis of a report on data found. The work with projects deserve special attention in the scientific area.
Social Sciences
Subjects related to History and Geography play an important role in the school teaching program. They allow for the students to insert themselves in a historical-geographic context where they better understand the relationship between men and culture. Social sciences play a very important role in understanding reality.
History, characterized by the description of facts and events, names and dates to be memorized was traditionally taught by means of contents previously elaborated with ready and finished concepts in which students had to memorize while being mere and careful listeners.
Geography, likewise, was presented through texts describing geographic spaces where men historically organized societies. Inversely, it is the role of Geography to explain historical changes undergone by those societies.
Guiding Principles
On arriving at the school, the children already bring with them preestablished patterns representing the relation between their families and the communities where they live. These pieces of information are incorporated according to the level of understanding they have regarding reality. Reality is the starting point in the acquisition of knowledge. From it, students extract elements to think about the world. Each part of reality carries at the same time, singularity and totality. To understand "here" and "now" is to assimilate the concept of distance. To understand reality, a process of moving within a space is required. It is the concept of near and far in a continuity where both are justifiable.
To teach History and Geography in a pedagogical way, concepts such as those of time and space, similarity and difference, permanence and change, nature and culture must be basically introduced so as to allow for an analysis and a reasonable understanding of the social processes.
The present trends of History are to understand the social aspect of daily situations, dealing with historical facts as mere events to be recomposed in line with time. History searches for social, political, economical and cultural actions to understand social activities collectively.
As per Geography, it is very important to understand reality in terms of dimensional space, thus trying to rationalize the use of natural geographic space preserving it as a historical result of the relationship between nature and society.
On thinking about their immediate reality, students start to understand the world and changes in nature, those made by men and on respecting each other's ideas, the geographic space where they live acquire forms which reflect the relationship between them.
The school aims at helping citizens to acquire the necessary basic knowledge about the social reality to which they belong, by analysing the production and organization of geographical spaces.
Regarding the processes of teaching and learning Geography and History, students are expected:
to think about History based upon reality and their own experience;
to base historical knowledge on concepts made up of real facts;
to improve their ability to observe, interpret and analyse reality, starting from the point of a dimensional space and trying as much as possible, to understand life quality as a parameter to change prospectives;
to build concepts based upon the geographic space as a product of the relationship amongst social groups, in the historical transformation of nature;
to understand the importance of knowing the past to better understand the present;
to feel like subjects of knowledge so that they can feel like subjects of history;
to value justice and solidarity, mutual respect and participation as basic conditions of exercising their citizens' rights and duties;
to play the role of transformers, with critical attitudes towards any information received or any ideas represented by them.
Methodological Orientation
Teachers should base the teaching of History and Geography on both the children's perception of reality and on his own experience. The acquisition of knowledge will then be processed taking into account problems which may be a starting point to think about history.
In this context, teachers create situations to stimulate the students' curiosity developing their capacity to think by means of activities based upon social experiences, therefore enabling them to establish a relationship with other realities different in time and space.
The proposal of the pedagogical work is to organize activities based upon projects so as to provide the appropriate tools for the teacher to create strategies for treating information rendered from different areas in the correct manner, thus allowing students to acquire significant knowledge in social sciences.
Arts
Under the educational point of view, arts are conceived as both a human creation and patrimony. It is the reason why it is so important that it figures amongst the school curricular grid.
Besides being a cultural patrimony, art allows students to observe nature and the world where they live by means of colours, shapes, sounds, the atmosphere and people's behaviour, analysing them according to similar or different criteria as well as to opposite ideas such as proportion and distortion, etc.
Obviously, it requires much reading which allows the students to improve their knowledge on different ways of expressing their feelings and perceptions, thus improving their ability to create.
Guiding Principles
The work of art comprises three phases: history, appreciation and aesthetics and creation.
Creation implies the work with different shapes (drawing, cutting, collage, modelling, sculpture, painting), using lines, colours, varied forms, volumes.
On doing theatre, students give winds to their imagination and Phantasy, sometimes transporting themselves to another reality, different in time and space, thereby promoting a cognitive decentralization, an insight into new actions in harmony with different points of view and last by not least, a mutual cooperation amongst people involved.
By performing music and dance, students develop aesthetics and learn how to use is as a means of expression.
The development of aesthetic appreciation includes the observation of artistic productions, as well as the discussion of subjects related to arts performed inside and outside the school.
Knowledgement on arts allow students to understand reality and express their feelings within social groups and at certain moments of history.
Regarding the processes of teaching and learning arts, it is intended that students:
understand the importance of arts in the development of culture;
understand arts as a form of expression placed in a social and historical context;
develop both their creativeness and sense of aesthetics;
improve their knowledgment on arts, establishing relationships between different artistic productions and the social-historical moments of their creation.
Methodological Orientation
On planning his/her activity, the teacher of art should give priority to projects which allow for the students to access some historical contributions of renowned authors thereby increasing significantly their knowledgement on arts.
Teachers have therefore to bring diversified activities to class allowing the students to participate in artistic production, by means of the so called creative didactic.
Physical Education
In educational projects where there is the social interaction between teaching and learning, corporal expression plays an important role in the acquisition of knowledge.
While being a curricular component, Physical Education aims at giving the students the opportunity to understand, learn, criticize and transmit lessons, correlating them to the sociopolitical and economic reality whose main focus is to create a new model of society.
Guiding Principles
Man can be represented, amongst other things, by his body. So, there is rarely an action which is not expressed by it. It marks our presence, participation and significance in the world through the corporal movements, by means of which men reproduce, create, criticize and change facts.
It depends on the teacher to plan strategic teaching situations, where contents and activities are adapted to the physical, motor, cognitive, emotional and affective development of the students.
In this sense, as far as Physical Education is concerned, the students are expected to:
grow up with all aspects of education: physical, cognitive, social and the affective in an integrated harmony;
identify themselves as being critical, social and responsible citizens who use their movements as a form of expression;
organize their own games, establishing rules for them;
play recreational games and sports with official or adapted rules;
Desenvolvam o pensamento técnico-tático, individual e coletivo através de situações reais e simuladas.
develop technical, tactical, individual and collective procedures by means of real or simulated situations;
recognize their capacity, accepting, on the other hand, their technical and motor limitations.
Methodological Orientation
For teachers to plan their activities in a correct interdisciplinary way, they should know the physical, motor, cognitive, affective and emotional characteristics of the students. On doing it, they will guarantee the globalization of educational actions.
Foreign Languages
In a competitive world, where international businesses take place with the exchange of scientific, commercial and cultural information, to teach foreign languages becomes more and more important and indispensable.
The scope of it is to contribute to the social, cultural, psychological and affective development of the students, given them the opportunity to increase their knowledgment and attain success by attending other complex courses.
At the beginning of this millennium, English remains the universal language of communication. The student who masters it, has a powerful tool in his/her hands to access higher levels of information in whatever is the area he wants to develop, thus improving his intellectual conditions to compete. It is for this reason that English is not considered a foreign language any more, but as a second optional language, for those who wish to succeed.
To learn a second language, students should communicate in this language, preferably with native speakers, creating situations where the use of the language chosen is the only means of communication.
For the said purpose, it is intended that:
English must be effective not only in the English classes, but also in daily situations at the school and outside it;
the students use the English language to interact with different types of texts applying them to real situations;
the access to these texts improve the students' reading skills increasing their familiarity with cultural diversities;
the English language incorporates the students' routine naturally.
To achieve these goals, teachers must be mediators of the process, adjusting situations and needs to the interests and ages of each group. The focus of the teaching and learning processes will be the student whose differences and interests shall be fully respected.
All means of communication (newspapers, magazines, TV and Net world) will be used to guarantee the feasibility of the process..
Computer Science
Changes at the end of the century when the industrial era gave place to the computer science bring the need for additional knowledge, with students searching for new ways of thinking.
Schools, being responsible for education, have to define a model suitable for man and for the society to which he belongs.
Nowadays, technological production, in its diverse forms and uses, is one of the main agents of social transformation, because of the changes it has brought to people's daily life.
In a wide range of techniques, those related to information are considered to be responsible for accelerated changes in fast and direct communication.
Guiding Principles
It is for this reason that schools, traditionally working with oral and written skills must face the challenge of adapting themselves to new ways of communication and learning.
Knowledge for simulation - the computer science has transformed computers into important didactic resources for daily practice. Presently, computers play an important role in the school, with uncountable possibilities for the acquisition of knowledgement.
Besides producing softwares for educational purposes, they can be widely used for all the curricular disciplines. Their presence offering an access road to different learning situations is no longer contested. Likewise, teaching and learning activities processed by means of the computer are significantly increasing.
The use of computers in the learning process is very important because it allows the students to learn in their own rhythm and with his own mistakes. In the constructive concept, mistakes are considered integral part of the learning process, since they open possibilities for analysis, revision and changes in behaviour.
As a consequence, it is expected that the computer science allows for:
the access to new ways of communication and knowledge;
the use of a computer to motivate students for searching and investigation;
better understanding of technological means available in contemporary societies.
Evaluation in the Curriculum
In the last few years, subjects related to evaluation have been dominant in pedagogic practices, becoming the main theme for analysis, reflection and debates, in an attempt to understand their role in the processes of teaching and learning.
During a long period in the history of pedagogic practice, evaluation was considered as a result of learning, or as a quantifying product where learning could be measured at a determined moment by means of repetition and memorization of some information solely transmitted.
Evaluation was characterized by a series of exams and tests to which students were submitted. The majority of questions made for evaluation were of restricted character, forcing students to answer them with the least possible variations within the range of subjects previously studied. Mistakes were rather intolerable and the major concern was the establishment of values to define grades which represented the students' performance and prospectives for the future.
Under the constructive conception, knowledge implies the idea that mistakes are part of the learning process. Removing this practice and evaluation itself until learning is processed is to innovate the process.
If learning is conceived as a process of knowledge construction which involves not only cognitive dimension but also the organic and affective dimensions where school subjects are significant and inserted in a context which aim at the students' qualification, then evaluation starts to play an important role in the process.
Evaluation should not be merely a measurement of the students' success or failure, but rather a fundamental component of the processes of teaching and learning, calling the attention of both teacher and students to the results attained according to the objectives proposed in which learning needs and the students' possibilities are guided and adjusted by means of pedagogic intervention.
A consistent evaluation should try to answer some questions such as:
what to evaluate - the objective proposed by the teaching activity;
why to evaluate - conditions under which learning was processed; whether the results attained were satisfactory or not or which adjustments are still necessary to be made;.
Quando avaliar - de forma contínua, considerando o processo de aprendizagem como um todo. Quem avalia não é somente o professor, mas também os alunos, que, em função dos objetivos propostos, analisam seu desempenho e traçam metas futuras para a sua própria aprendizagem.
In this case, evaluation becomes necessary at different moments:
at the beginning, to verify the students' previous knowledge about a given content, values and attitudes towards them, so as to allow teachers to plan the necessary intervention;
continuously, for a follow-up of the whole process;
at the end of the work, to identify the final results attained as related to the objectives proposed.The results of the evaluation are for teachers to think about his/her practice, considering aspects that should be reviewed and adjustments in the process. Students should be incentivated for their previous knowledgement and not punished for what they have not learnt yet. It is necessary to remember that learning does not occur at the same time as teaching. It depends on the students' ability.
For the student, evaluation should work as a powerful tool to think about difficulties and possibilities, to analyse successes and failures and to reorganize the objects of learning.
General Considerations
To explain such an extensive work, even briefly, is not an easy task, but we are aware of its importance; so, we did it.
This paper is the result of exhaustive studies and represents the ideal concepts, actions and educational purposes of our school. In spite of the efforts made to conclude it, we think that it was worthwhile because it allows for an open dialogue between the school and the community involved.
This is not a restricted document. It is democratically opened for debate with students, teachers, parents and those who are worried about quality in education.
Ballet 3-5 year old kids Mondays and Wednesdays from 06:00 to 06:30 PM
6-9 year old kids Mondays and Wednesdays from 06:30 to 07:10 PM
Dance 8-12 year old Tuesdays and Thursdays from 06:50 to 07:50 PM
13-17 year old Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 06:00 to 06:45 PM
Soccer 5-6 year old Mondays from 06:00 to 07:00 PM
7-8 year old Tuesdays and Thursdays from 06:00 to 07:00 PM
9-10 year old Wednesdays and Fridays from 06:00 to 07:00 PM
11-12 year old Tuesdays and Thursdays from 07:00 to 08:00 PM
Females (8-12 year old)
Gymnastics Beginners and Intermediate Wednesdays and Fridays
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 06:00 to 06:40 PM
from 06:00 to 06:40 PM
Advanced Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 06:40 to 07:20 PM
from 06:40 to 07:20 PM
3-4 year old kids Mondays and Wednesdays
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 08:00 to 08:30 PM
from 08:00 to 08:30 PM
Swimming Classes Beginners Tuesdays and Thursdays from 06:00 to 07:00 PM
Second Group Wednesdays and Fridays from 06:00 to 07:00 PM
Time Schedule
1) Morning Shift Opening the gate: 07:10 AM
Beginning of classes: 07:25 AM
End of classes:
11:40 AM (for the 5th class)
12:25 AM (for the 6th class)
Regarding the morning and the afternoon shifts, the entrance gate will be closed after the bell rings (10 minutes of tolerance will be given: 07:35 AM in the morning and 01:25 PM in the afternoon).
Students will only be permitted to stay at school after the end of their regular shift period to practice any modality of sport;
Children won't be delivered to unknown people at the end of their classes, unless by previous authorization of the parents or guardians, on identification of the person in charge of taking care of them until they get home (grandparents, new employees, drivers, amongst others);
students are not permitted to be accompanied by parents to the classroom on their arrival at school. They should be left at the entrance gate. After the adaptation period, kids aged 2-4 will be given to the trainees who will deliver them to the their teacher.
Snack Time
The cafeteria will be opened from Mondays to Fridays, offering fresh juices, fruits, cakes, etc.
Adaptation Period
For the first year in preschool, a different procedure will be adopted for adaptation. Children will stay in the school for a period of one hour during the first days. Time schedules may be adjusted by the pedagogic coordinator, according to the child's needs for individual attendance in the adaptation period.
In the second year of preschool, the presence of parents during the permanence of children in school may be discussed with the pedagogic department, in accordance with the individual process of adaptation.
Health Care and accidents
The children who present symptoms of contagious diseases or who need special health care should not attend classes during the treatment or recovery period. The return to classes will only be permitted on presentation of a medical certificate authorizing it.
In case of accidents at school, we will be responsible for the first aids, but not for medical expenses;
In cases where regular use of any medication or special care is regularly needed, the school should be informed.
The use of swimming pools will only be permitted on the presentation of a medical certificate which must be renewed every 6 months. |
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Curriculum Guidelines
