The launch of the UAARE Newsletter, streamlined by the team SEAM-ND, is another step to consolidate and involve everyone in the process of reconciliation of our student-athletes. It comes after the development of the short training course "Collaborative teacher work in the UAARE digital learning environment", with all the UAARE school teams, sharing the SEAM ND Digital Notebook , where teachers have access to learning guides, by grade.
This Newsletter's main goal is to promote the sharing of best practices of SEAM from around the country, as well as inform the UAARE community of the most recent developments of the program. We will publish periodically, the events and news of the UAARE program, where school teams will share, in direct speech, good practices of intervention in their schools and where student-athletes will present their perspective.
We count on all of you, with your experiences, so that, from this sharing, we are all better able to support our student-athletes, the main reason of this programme.
The SEAM ND team will invite the different UAARE and share their testimonies and, whenever they have a good practice or relevant information, they can share it with the Accompanying Teacher of each SEAM, who will bring it to the Team for publication in this space.
Enjoy your reading!
The SEAM-ND (Ângela Coelho, Carla Gonçalves, Carlos Ubaldo, Célia Galveia, José Mesquita, Michel Pimenta)
Message from the director-general of the directorate-general for education
I welcome the publication of the UAARE newsletter, a new way to disseminate this project that has been developed in our schools since 2016 and which aims to successfully reconcile school activities with the sporting practice of primary and secondary school students/athletes who are part of the high performance system, national teams or high potential sports. This project is the result of a partnership between the Directorate-General for Education and the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth (IPDJ).
After the launch of the new website, the newsletter represents another way to disseminate the activities developed and above all allow collaboration and sharing of the already much work done by the nineteen schools that are part of the uaare schools network. I wish the newsletter a long life and regularity of publication and, above all, that all UAARE schools contribute actively in its construction, giving voice to teachers and students, reflecting the great work that is being done.
José Vítor Pedroso
Message from the President of the Directive Council of IPDJ, I. P.
It is with great pride that, as chairman of the board of IPDJ, i. P. , i join the launch of the new UAARE newsletter, which will be an important factor of interaction, information sharing and dissemination of good practices developed over the years, under the UAARE program.
The high quality of the development of this programme is evident in the excellent results achieved by about 700 students/athletes, who are part of the high performance system, national teams or high potential sports, both in their academic career and in their sports performance.
In this context, it is crucial that all those who are part of this huge "national team", from school groups to sports organisations, including parents and local authorities, contribute effectively to enhancing the success of dual careers in Portugal. All the best!
Vitor Pataco
Message from the UAARE National Coordinator
The UAARE newsletter is intended to be a vehicle for information, where good practices and shared challenges that we all have to face our mission - to reconcile sporting and school success - will be disseminated.
At the end of the 2nd period, the sporting and academic performance (93.78%) demonstrated the quality of the work done by the whole uaare team and that involved the different stakeholders (student-athletes, parents, sports interlocutors and coaches), even in the context of covid.
The TEAM is fundamental in this programme, so the systematic, collaborative and networking work is essential to turn ALL the stakeholders into ACTORS.
We are all invited.
WE ARE ALL UAARE
Victor Pardal
UAARE Podiums
In this section, we highlight the most recent podiums of our student-athletes, who should be congratulated!
UAARE news in focus
In this section, we include some news published on the UAARE website.
In the following video, student Madalena Fortunato, from the UAARE of the Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro School Cluster, gives her testimony of what it is like to be a student-athlete at this school.
At my school I have office hours in the UAARE office between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm. During this period, which includes the two morning breaks, student-athletes consult it preferably daily, and at least weekly. In addition to communicate with me, they fill out the office wall, in their individual area:
1. Results of the evaluation sheets
2. Schedule management and support classes
3. Relevant sporting events
4. Themes addressed in SEAM support
5. Needs management and articulation with the different UAARE stakeholders.
This is the day-to-day of a thorough detailed, resilient and very motivating work. The success of the student-athletes is, without a doubt, the commitment.
In the learning guide Gas exchange in multicellular animals, I used a simple, objective language that would didactically guide my students in E@D during the first confinement (May 2020), and that would allow me to have feedback on their learning (hence it is important to include questions in these guides).
The structure of the learning guide followed an orientation suggested when I attended the UAARE Training Course "(Re)thinking teaching and learning in dual pathways, through the acquisition of digital skills". Thus, its structure begins with a starting question and with the presentation of the essential learning. This is followed by instructions and activities to be developed throughout the script. At the end, we present a suggested timeline and the bibliographic references for its implementation.
In my view, the use of educational videos in the learning guides allow:
more flexibility in studying;
access to contents in the most comfortable schedule for the student;
more efficiency in capturing students' attention than reading, despite the fact that the interpretation of written ideas is very important.
Physics and Chemistry - Learning with digital environments
Hello everybody! My name is Michel Pimenta, I am a Physics and Chemistry teacher at the Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro Secondary School in Caldas da Rainha and I belong to the SEAM-ND team. The invitation to join this team was made following my attendance at the UAARE training action in 2019-2020 - "(Re)thinking teaching and learning in dual pathways, through the acquisition of digital skills" - as a support teacher.
The introduction to various digital tools that i was unaware of at the time, as well as the approach to pedagogical practices in a remote environment were useful to me in the transition to E@D in the first confinement. At that time - in the middle of the pandemic emergency - I considered it interesting to create a youtube channel in order to develop some activities in that action I didnt know that it would become very useful in E@D. On the other hand, the work done in the action was also strengthened by the emerging need in the transition to E@D.
As it is said, the necessity is the mother of invention.
Currently, I collaborate with the SEAM-ND teachers and with colleagues from the UAARE schools' support teams, developing and improving support strategies for student athletes. In this sense, digital tools are facilitators of this support and so, I consider it necessary to continue to invest in the development of digital skills in both teachers and students. I have learnt a lot during this last year and a half, mainly through sharing experiences with other colleagues. We were forced to go out of our comfort zones and therefore we have evolved a lot in terms of our knowledge of pedagogical practices using digital tools. Stepping out of our comfort zone allows us to expand our own horizons and to take courage to face the unknown and to reach potentials that we thought were unreachable before. My participation in seam-nd requires this and i am grateful for the experience. Thank you!
Vocational education - The digital portfolio as a tool to enable learning
When in the teaching and learning process the best strategies for more effective learning are discussed, the answers are almost endless! The same holds to discussions around assessment. However, the most common solutions are those we all know and continually use.
In this short text, we want to present you a proposal that has some potential: The Digital Portfolio.
Portfolios can be considered personalised documents of the learning pathway, being logically rich by their diversity and individuality, demonstrative of the contexts in which they were produced. They contain organised documents with a specific purpose that clearly demonstrates specific knowledge, skills, dispositions and performances achieved during a period of time, which in the case of vocational courses can be structured according to disciplinary modules.
The digital portfolio, also known as e-portfolio, has a big variety of tools including text processing, programs like Word and PDF files, multimedia, blogs and web links. The e-portfolio includes the students’ considerations about his own content and respective learning process, and also connections between all the several elements. With e-portfolio the student becomes the central piece in the learning process, as though he ‘writes his own history’ and is responsible for the publication/distribution.
One of its biggest advantages is being managed by a user, in this case, the student. E-portfolios allow users to demonstrate their abilities and express their opinions and personal issues. When online, the user can maintain a permanent dynamic, managing the e-portfolio in the most convenient way.
Some e-portfolio applications enable several degrees of access. That is why the same portfolio can be used for different situations and purposes. In Distance Learning context those purposes were experienced by all.
The e-portfolio becomes the subject’s identity, always in transformation in each context and throughout his life. It is a tool that supports change. And without a doubt, changing remains absolutely urgent.
Here’s a student’s opinion about the advantages of this tool:
“As students of the vocational course of Childhood Support Techniques, that create digital portfolios (namely in the subject of Psychology) we think that elaborating these portfolios is something very promising and useful to our future. It isn’t just a tool to organize and storage data. It is also a project that allows us to take our work beyond. It’s really useful because it allows us to show a bit of our capacities and preferences. It is incredible that this tool says so much about us and also about another theme, even better… All this virtually."
For the academic year of 2020/2021, “By your side” is the name of our school mentorship program.
In this program, the students participated voluntarily in a cooperation environment, where supporting tools are shared to their emotional, behavior and academic development. Here, a more competent student in one area (mentor) helps another less competent (trainee) according to the defined goals.
“By your side” includes three UAARE. We know that their double careers, in where the passion for the sports modality goes hand to hand with the school, demand very important interpersonal skills.
Quoting a student mentorship-trainee in 9th grade (UAARE), the mentorship helps me get better grades and to understand the subjects better. Because of all the training, I’ve less time to study. Having someone as a mentor is an asset. On the other hand, the mentor points out the opportunities to train his communication skills: “I was promoted to captain and mentorship can help me to explain better and to convey words of trust to my colleagues/teammates (…) while helping others study, I study, and I improve my oral expression skills.
Another mentor also verbalized the same: “It helps me communicate with words”, adding the fact that her sports modality demands focus, important skills performing the role of mentor: “I know that I’ve to do something and I don’t postpone (…) the focus in gymnastics is important because of the moments in which I’m a mentor, helping my colleagues.
“By your side”: an experimental mentorship project whose benefits increase beyond the illustrated. We could consider many, since the strengthening of relationships to the perception of self-efficacy. If there’s anything that we’ve learned is that relationships between pairs take a very powerful role in the informal learning process of the youngest, both in school and sports.
I welcome the publication of the UAARE newsletter, a new way to disseminate this project that has been developed in our schools since 2016 and which aims to successfully reconcile school activities with the sporting practice of primary and secondary school students/athletes who are part of the high performance system, national teams or high potential sports. This project is the result of a partnership between the Directorate-General for Education and the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth (IPDJ).
It is with great pride that, as chairman of the board of IPDJ, i. P. , i join the launch of the new UAARE newsletter, which will be an important factor of interaction, information sharing and dissemination of good practices developed over the years, under the UAARE program.
The UAARE newsletter is intended to be a vehicle for information, where good practices and shared challenges that we all have to face our mission - to reconcile sporting and school success - will be disseminated.
At my school I have office hours in the UAARE office between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm. During this period, which includes the two morning breaks, student-athletes consult it preferably daily, and at least weekly. In addition to communicate with me, they fill out the office wall, in their individual area:
In the learning guide 
Hello everybody! My name is Michel Pimenta, I am a Physics and Chemistry teacher at the Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro Secondary School in Caldas da Rainha and I belong to the SEAM-ND team. The invitation to join this team was made following my attendance at the UAARE training action in 2019-2020 - "(Re)thinking teaching and learning in dual pathways, through the acquisition of digital skills" - as a support teacher.
Portfolios can be considered personalised documents of the learning pathway, being logically rich by their diversity and individuality, demonstrative of the contexts in which they were produced. They contain organised documents with a specific purpose that clearly demonstrates specific knowledge, skills, dispositions and performances achieved during a period of time, which in the case of vocational courses can be structured according to disciplinary modules.
