My daughter: Martina

I would like to include in my blog an entrance about my daughter, we had not the opportunity to have a personal interview and for that reason for me is necessary talk about the most important person in my life and the girl who give me every day the strength to continue and fight for my goals that obviously most of them are for she.

She was born in 2006 when I was in my second year of university; it was very difficult to cope first able with my parents’ reaction because they felt very disappointed and then when Martina born cope with the university because she was born in May, and deal with my duties as mother until nowadays. My mother is a great support in my life and my daughter’s life, she take care my daughter when I have to go to the university and when I have to work.

My daughter now is two years and six moths and I feel very proud with any achievement or mischief that she made. I can describe in words all the love that I feel for her maybe only a father or mother could understand what I am talking about.

Role play in education

This presentation was carried out by Claudio, he talked about how we can teach through role play games the idea is that the student assume the role of fictional character according to the presentation that Claudio carried out role play was created in late 60’ and are more than 400 different games in dozen.
ROLE PLAY GAMES helps students to put themselves in complex situations to make situations with no real danger or traumatic experiences.
Claudio looked very self-confidence with their insolence that he is characterized.

Femicide and violence is not fashionable

This presentation was made by Kathy, she talked about Femicide is not something fashionable she talked in a different way about femicide because she reflect femicide into the advertisement and in what way these kind of violent advertisement affect the relationship between men and women, and specially how it will affect in children in the future with their couples because if we analyze television programs as cartoons, series, and many other that nowadays we can see women are used as sexual objects, and no only in television, too as Katy said in different advertisement of important brands.
So we must be careful with what kind of things see our children and always talk about this topic, education and communication about all of this topics and others, is very important to develop in our children values and common sense and why not educate a big person.

Course books

This presentation was made by Rodrigo Ortiz, he made a very clear and self-confident presentation and too he chose a very interesting topic.
Course books are very familiar for us, for example this year we worked all the period with a book named Fast Track to FCE, the purpose of this book is prepare students for and specific exam.
Rodrigo talked about the advantages and disadvantages to use a course book, maybe referring to the only course book that I know I can say that I do not feel prepared to do the FCE exam because the exam has different items and in the book these appears only few times and we did not do (from my point of view) enough essays of the exam.
So I think that the best way to prepare for an exam is doing essays but as the real exam is, I think is the same way as PSU doing essays you can feel more prepared to do it.

The end of the year's stress.. My turn!!

I talked about what happens with the end of the year's stress and how as a teacher we can face and cope with it, because the end of the year is approaching for many of us, we are next to give the exams… :S

Stress:
Is the body’s reaction to a change that requires a physical, mental or emotional adjustment or response.

I made a very short presentation, and I gave to my classmates some tips that I found interesting, as;
- Have a positive attitude, you might be dealing with an unmovable bureaucracy, an unsupportive parent, or a belligerent parent; they cannot affect your feeling or make you angry.
- Do not try to accomplish too many tasks in one day.
- Get plenty of sleep.
- Leave your teaching at school as often as possible.
- Find things to laugh at; watch a funny movie, tell a joke, etc.

5 reasons to become a teacher :)

1. Teaching a Subject Helps You Learn a Subject
You will never learn a topic better than when you start teaching it and the student questions just made you dig deeper and learn more. There is an old adage that it takes three years of teaching to truly master a subject and in my experience this is the truth.

2. Daily Humor
If you have a positive attitude and a sense of humor, you will find things to laugh about each day. Sometimes it will be silly jokes you will make up as you teach that might get a laugh from your students. Sometimes it will be jokes that kids share with you. And sometimes students will come out with the funniest statements without realizing what they've said. Find the fun and enjoy it!

3. Affecting the Future
Yes it might be trite, but it is true. Teachers mold the future each day in class. In fact, it is a sad fact that you will see some of these students more consistently day-to-day than their parents will.

4. Staying Younger
Being around young people everyday will help you remain knowledgeable about current trends and ideas. It also helps break down barriers.

5. Summers Off
You will have a couple of months off in the summer where you can choose to get another job, teach summer school, or just relax and vacation, which can really be a huge benefit and provide much needed rest time, and obviously to share with your children because they have the same holidays as you.

Gender bias at school

“Gender bias is difficult to detect because it affects girls and boys in different ways. In school, it is the boys who may be expected to “act out” and rebel at school work, while the girls are expected to be docile, conforming and willing to work hard" (Sadker 1994)

Fernanda decided to talk about this interesting and different topic, we as a future teacher must try to cover all the different situations ( that I am sure this will be a great number) and try to face them and resolve it, one of them is change the vocabulary in our classroom creating a good atmosphere with inclusive and specific vocabulary like:

mankind; humanity, humankind, human civilization, man-made: synthetic, manufactured, artificial, imitation.
businessman: executive, wholesaler, business person. cameraman: camera operator, techniciancongressman: member of Congress, representative. craftsman: carpenter, artisan, skilled craftworkerlandlord: land owner, property manager.

Fernanda made a very good presentation with self-confidence and enough research of the topic with relevant and interesting information.

Drugs and alcohol

This is a very common issue that happens into the classrooms, many children are dependent of this kind of substances.
This topic was presented by Diego E. that show us a very shocking video about drugs specifically cocaine and how it works in your brain as well as Eduardo’s presentation was very clear and short with specific and relevant information.

What are the most common type of drugs being abused by students?

Marijuana (THC, Cannabis)
Cocaine
amphetamines
Phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust)
opiates (morphine, heroin, codeine)

Depression and Suicide

Definition:
Depression is a disorder of the brain and body's ability to biologically create and balance a normal range of thoughts, emotions, & energy.

This topic was presented by Eduardo A.

he made a very good presentation and talk about all the important factors that we make to consider in our students because depression is an issue that nowadays are very common and if we do not pay attention this will be finish in a suicide (a terrible ending but unfortunately it happens)

Eduardo show us a video that yo can see on http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=CHynDpYv1Gw

Estatuto docente

Una tragedia pero que el transantiago!!

Mario Waissbluth, teacher from “Universidad de Chile” made a research about the quality of teachers and the educational system in Chile, and results were catastrophic, Waissbluth concluded that our educational system is something like a Greek tragedy and he made many examples with different people and evaluate their situation and this was an horrible evaluation as:

-People that obtained 500 points in PAA 15º years ago nowadays they don’t understand everything that they read.
- Teachers that come from doubtful university and nowadays are doing classes, and they don't want to be evaluated.

- Teachers’ assessment is doubtful, and many other horrible situations that must worried.

Teachers victims of bulling

Cuarenta casos de agresión a profesores en colegios particulares llegaron a la justicia en 200.

The numbers of aggressions are incredible, many experts affirm that violence is a phenomenon multidimensional, many teacher never had a preparation about the student atmosphere so they cannot face violence issues.

There are social factors too, according to a research 75% students are victims of mistreatment.

If we think there are many factor and all of us are responsible of the increase of violence and as a parents we must talk about this topics and educate our children because this issues are completely unacceptable.

Pre-universitary courses in Chile

This was a debate presented by Marlene, Paula and Claudio;
They informed us about all the different alternatives, Eg: CEPECH, PEDRO DE VALDIVIA, etc. and the discussion was focused on the idea if the pre-universitary courses are necessaries for students.

I think that pre- universitaries are necessaries for people who do not what they interests are or for people who didn’t have a good quality of education, but its need maturity to make a good use of it.

Project zero

Daniela, katherinne and Nadia prepare a debate about this topic, they said that it was very hardtry to find information about this topic , but it was very interesting and we can know a topic ( for me ) completly unknow.

"Project Zero's mission is to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels".

Curfew for teenagers

Fair or unfair?

This is often a topic of debate among teens and their parents.
The big question if curfew is fair or unfair?

I think that all people born free and a curfew is to make an attempt against it, the people who are in charge are the parents of each teenager and they must control and give them all necessary tools to face the life, because curfew is for teenagers but What happened when they will be 20 years old?? Teenagers need responsibilities because in some years they will be in charge of their own life.

Differences between schools

As we know in our country there are many differences in educational system
And the difference most important is between private v/s public schools where results are demonstrated in the exam PSU and a great quantity of young people that belong to public school obtain the lowest punctuation.
This issue is one of the most important into our educational system DIFFERENCES nowadays are not corrected and our system continuous in a corrupt circle.
Make our education equal is one of the main objectives, but for many people that make a profit with education aren’t agree and continuous supporting it.

Private schools are very selective when you want to enroll your child they are not obligated to accept any child (as public schools where they are less competitive) so you and your child must pass a great numbers of test as; psychologist, physics, students knowledge, etc. so they are the best because they choose the best and exist a great discrimination, something that is not right, or is it?
Many people have their own opinion and some of them support this method, maybe because they were not discriminated or they are not interested on what happen with other people that did not have the same opportunities as they.

My personal opinion is that we must change these differences and integrate all the people whatever the social condition we cannot continue supporting it because every day we enlarge the economical breach and impoverish the education.

Your Keirsey Temperament Sorter Results indicates that my personality type is:

Artisans are the temperament with a natural ability to excel in any of the arts, not only the fine arts such as painting and sculpting, or the performing arts such as music, theater, and dance, but also the athletic, military, political, mechanical, and industrial arts, as well as the "art of the deal" in business.

Artisans are most at home in the real world of solid objects that can be made and manipulated, and of real-life events that can be experienced in the here and now. Artisans have exceptionally keen senses, and love working with their hands. They seem right at home with tools, instruments, and vehicles of all kinds, and their actions are usually aimed at getting them where they want to go, and as quickly as possible. Thus Artisans will strike off boldly down roads that others might consider risky or impossible, doing whatever it takes, rules or no rules, to accomplish their goals. This devil-may-care attitude also gives the Artisans a winning way with people, and they are often irresistibly charming with family, friends, and co-workers...

Education in Cuba

All the schools in Cuba are subsidized not private schools or universities are permitted.
Historically, Cuba has had some of the highest rates of education and literacy in the World, especially after the revolution.
Cuba has maintained high standards of educational development. A 1998 study by UNESCO reported that Cuban students showed a high level of educational achievement. Cuban third and fourth graders scored 350 points, 100 points above the regional average in tests of basic language and mathematics skills. The report indicated that the test achievement of the lower half of students in Cuba was significantly higher than the test achievement of the upper half of students in other Central and South American countries in the study group.
School attendance is compulsory from ages 6 to 15 or 16 (end of basic secondary education) and all students, regardless of age or sex, wear school uniforms with the color denoting grade level. Primary education lasts for six years. Secondary education is divided into basic secondary education and pre-university secondary education. The curriculum in primary and secondary schools is based upon principles of "hard work, self-discipline and love of country". At the end of basic secondary education, pupils can choose between pre-university education and technical and professional education. Those who complete pre-university education are awarded the Bachillerato. Technical training leads to two levels of qualification - skilled worker and middle-level technician. Successful completion of this cycle gives access to the technological institutes.

learning to learn

The main idea of this program is to increase the effectiveness of student's natural abilities to solve problems, increase their academical performance and comprehension.
Learning to Learn is a research-based learning and thinking skills system. LTL has significant, lasting impacts on:
students’ academic performance across the curriculum;
critical thinking skills;
reading, writing, math and science skills; and
scores on statewide standardized tests
LTL students move away from rote learning towards inquiry-based learning. They also acquire skills that help them use their natural visual learning abilities.
Continuous application of our strategies to content coursework allows students to internalize the LTL strategies and integrate them into their own system of learning. LTL helps students excel in all their subject-matter work and addresses their individual learning needs.

Education 2020

Education 2020 is a movement that wants to recluit people in order to promove a change in chilean education, The main objective is to increase in a 20% the poorest student's quality of education

To achieve this purpose educacion2020 drives the following proposals:

-more and better kinder gardens.
-meaningful change for the teaching statute.
-unequivocal and transparent teaching evaluation.
-advanced and decent early retirement for many teachers.
-high quality tranining and certification for all teachers that have potential.
-inmediate selection process for a post held for life headmasters from state schools who still are in the educational system.
-pedagogic carrers closing which give academic qualifications to non-qualified people.
-intensive usage of educational televison and new technologies in the classroom.
-number of students reduction where is necessary.
-bilingual teachers immigration.
-schoolarships and high remuneration.
-servicio-país in loss-making schools.

Debates

Mr. Litman show us a power point concerning about main characteristics about debates and the importance of this topic related to our development, because this kind of activities are going to improve our speaking, critical thinking and to be informed about what kind of things are happening in the world mainly with the education, we must investigate to have solids arguments and create a debate between our classmates.

The last week Mr. Litman talked about some things that we read in a newspaper; about the strikes against the agreement of LGE, and we talked too about if more computers at school increase the quality of learning and we gave our opinion mainly about the first one about the strikes of the teachers, and I believed that LGE is not the best,. But at least is a progress, so these are examples of questions that could be present in a debate.

After Rodrigo, Dreny, Eduardo and me, began with the debates, our topic was about LOCE, first able we made a little presentation then we divide the course in two groups some are in pro and others in cons then two groups share opinions and they create a debate about this controversial topic.

María Música

Today we began our second semester with an issue that happened during the winter holidays, I am talking about María Música Sepulveda who doused ed. Minister Mónica Jiménez. When I saw this new I realise the depression in our education concerning meanly with the students (the futures professional of our country) but I was thinking about what’s going on with the students? Meanly with the high school students and I was talking with many teachers of my university about this topic and I realise that students do not have any referents of superiority as many people that normally respect their parents, family, teachers, or any other adult person, maybe I sound like an older person that is talking but I think the respect is a great values that must come from ours homes and in the home of this girl is clearly that it does not happen.

I was thinking about a punishment for this girl but maybe no one could be meaningful for her education, as a future teacher I would like to talk with her and try to investigate the real reasons for their behaviour but I think the only way is to talk with her and obviously with her mother, but is for her mother to find a solution for this problem is difficult because she said to María that her reaction was good and justify, but the government, the minister, the education in general said that her reaction was unsuitable. So now I am sure that María has a great confusion in her mind about who has the reason.

A second topic was related to learning strategies and we focus on one that nowadays is the most effective student success programs in higher education in the USA.

Chilean education

It is a controversial topic, politics believed that their work is enough or in some ways an advance but meanwhile we, the students of this country are waiting for a change in our education, because we realized that many institutions make a profit with the education, with lack of quality and our education has many others mistakes that students and teachers can see in the reality.

First able to make a change we must change Ley orgánica constitucional de educación or LOCE but the new law must cover many points that LGE or Ley general de educación not cover we need a deep change but maybe LGE for the beginning is not bad I am a very optimistic person and I believed that now in the futures things will change and we as a teachers are responsible of those changes.

Leadership

It was the last presentation and Fernanda, Rodrigo and Felipe show us the difference between Leadership and Management because are things very different but its goes together in a lesson plan, the teacher needs have this two characteristics at the moment to face a course. They made us participate distinguish between leadership or management here we can practice the definitions that the gave us at the beginning of the class. They made a very good work I enjoy their presentation.

Classroom management II

In this presentation Daniela and Evelyn talked about almost the same tips presented in the last classroom management presentation, the tips for improve ours lessons, our attitude, eyes contact, fluency.

They show us a very powerful power point with lots of colors, and very well organized, this presentation was a really micro lesson because they made us participate in the lesson.

Trouble adolescents at school

Nowadays we are facing a deep change in the adolescents specially between 12- 19 they try to look different to their pairs, they put make up in their faces, they wear strange clothes and all of them try to take place between their friends imposing their styles.
I think it is a problem because they adapt their style too to the clothes of their school and according to my outlook they do not look good, and I consider that maintain a discipline at school must be in the behavior and too in an acceptable appearance, because most of students use perforation and expansions in their bodies, and I think is not an ornament to use with the clothes of the school.

Concerning to the presentation made for Paula, M. Teresa and Marlene they talked about the common problems of the adolescents the causes, as contexts, family, affection or lack of this, and other factors that are very important in the life of an adolescent. For me the most important thing that an adolescent need is comprehension and limits too and try to balance this two factors because I live this period almost recently but now I fell that I am an adult because when you have a son or daughter things change and you naturally begin to think different don’t caring your age. Sometimes when your parents are extremely apprehensive you try to fight against them (as me) and the relationship is thick but when parents made a good balance between comprehension, limits, affection, permission the relationship is more open I know that is difficult but nothing is impossible.

LIFE

Today Mr. Littman show us a flash where a man create in his desk a world

First he chooses a ball that represents a world then he creates the nature, animals, humans, buildings but when the buildings appears, appears the problems, violence, murders, pollution, and the typical problems that we are suffering nowadays, but it was a disposable world and the man throw it in a garbage can where there were others planets failed.

I think that if we could throw our world many years ago was be in a garbage can, because our quality of life related to health, peace, love, nature (global warming)and many values is depressing, and the only way or solution that I find is begin in our houses, teaching real values, teaching the importance to no waste water, food, electricity, teaching as much as we can to our children about the importance to live in a clean world, I think if we teach that we could harvest in the future.

Bullying

“Bullying is the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation. Bullying can be defined in many different ways. Although the UK currently has no legal definition of bullying, some US states have laws against it. Bullying is usually done to coerce others by fear or threat.”

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying

Bullying is popular outrage, this kind of behaviors are more common in school this topic was presented by Pedro, Fabian and Claudio, they talk about the meaning of this word and then they explained their causes and our labor as a parents and as a teachers.

People that suffer this kind of situations have a lot of bad consequences in the future, because they live with the grief in silence and isolation. So our labor as adults is crucial and we must pay attention to ours students or children.

This topic is an old one, but now with Internet, cell phones with camera, and other resources is more well-known and we can be more informed about what kinds of steps we must take.

Teacher’s personality

Our presentation was about this topic:

The teacher is the most powerful person in the classroom and there are many ways for the teacher to use that power.
here there are some tips that can help us in the future
- First able the teacher must be a manager so he / she needs to be organized specially with contents and extra-material and must be secure because if learners feel safe, they will be more able to take part in the lesson
- The teacher must be a model and a guidance, a model because learners need to be shown new things and shown how to do new things and a guidance because learners need a helping hand to discover new things and to practice new skills.
- The teacher must be a friend and counselor, if we know more about children we can give them more tools or sometimes understanding maybe our student has a problem and we can represent a help for him, so we must show empathy with learners.

Learners need sources of extra information about what they are learning and the role of the teacher is must be an informant, too we must give a feedback because students need to know about their accuracy or about their mistakes.

Is fundamental that teacher knows the limits, mainly his/ her limits related to the contexts of the school and too according their own patience, because in some cases according my experience, with the time teachers tend to be more and more flexible and I think the quality of the contents that you are teaching lose the meaning. When you can’t control the behavior, and students don’t respect the teacher you can’t do many things and none lesson has sense.

Communications and Blogs

In the previous lesson we talked about all this resources that help us to show our ideas and our personal points of view to the rest of the world, and too the importance that they have in our academic life because through the blog we can improve or writing, spelling, and improve our critical thinking, something that is very important in our future labor as a teachers.

Classroom management

It was the first microlesson of this year were Eduardo, Diego and Rodrigo explained interesting points about the things that we should do in a classroom as; the tone of voice, eyes contacts, movements, how is the best form to order our students in the room, etc. and a lot of things that we, as a teacher must do for create a comfortable environment where they feel safe and motivated.

I think motivation is an important point that we must consider at the moment to prepare a lesson because lots of thinks depend on that, sometimes we prepare an interesting lesson for us, but we must be emphatic and think too in the position of our students.

In this presentation I can realize about the difficulty to pass the barrier (teacher’s desk) It is difficult for me try to control my nerves at the moment to speak, especially with my classmates. I think if they aren’t enjoying my presentation or whatever… but at school I have a predisposition different because I can talk with more naturalness.

Returning to the presentation of my classmates I think they look very self-confidents with good material, appropriated vocabulary, clear and well organized.