... BoOkS...

... Last presentation was about course books and how some teachers abuse of them!!!

The course book must be a guidence not a bible......

I think that books are necesary for children... but we need them to love books.. not to hate them!!

When teachers abuse books children notice that the teacher is unable to give a class without the text... they realized that the teacher is not good or creative enough.. and of course children get bored....

We must encourage children to love books, to know how to use them ... because books provide structure, are reliable and provide confidence to children...

Stress at the end of the year................ something that affects us all!!!

Through my teaching practice I could face stress.... Students are not the same after "Fiestas Patrias"... they look tired... they arrive later....their faces look different...and you know that they are tired!!!

Teachers suffer from stress also!! and we have to work with the stress students...and that can be a problem if we do not know how to manage stress!!!

Nicole gave a useful presentation about how to cope with stress... she also gave us some tips, like do not take school issues to home!!!

We need to learn how to put aside work from home...

If you are stress as a teacher .. you will stress your students... and class will be stressing... and will be AWFUL... so we better learn how to deal with the end of the year!!!

FeMiCiDe Is NoT fAsHiOnAbLe.....

Kathy´s presentation was about femicide and how society sees it as a normal thing... well not as normal but is being accepted... is not as shocking as it used to be....

She also commented about a brand of jeans that uses images of hurted women.... and how they sell a product using femicide....

I do not know why women do not ask for help when they suffer from abuse.... I cannot image how afraid they are that they prefer to be hited than going to the police.....

This topic is very delicated... because women are suffering in all kind of social classes.... and the abuse can end in femicide.....

I think that schools should teach children to respect each other ... talk to parents and teach them how important are each member of the family ....

I don`t know... what else to say........

HaLLoWeeN.....

.... and halloween came... we organized a nice party for the kids....

we played games.... we acted... made a barbecue... it was a lovely evening!!!

EsTaTuTo DoCeNtE: una tragedia peor que el transantiago

.... Mr. L made us read about this topic based on what Mario Waisbluth.... This professor said that education in our county is living a terrible crisis....

This professor also said that nowadays anyone can be a teacher.... and I agree with him.... I think that in this career nobody selects the students... if they have skills to become a teacher.. or if they are psicologycall normal.....

I studied another career before ... and I can say that now I do not have any kinds of demands.. as a student..... If I Compare this career with the one I studied before... I can say that we are not well prepare.....

Teachers need to be prepare... need to know about world matters... country situation...and many other things....

A teacher needs to talk properly.....

Anyways...I do not think that education would change.....

Education is a tool.. to keep the power ..... If students are not well prepare... if they do not develop critical thinking... they will not complaint.... and you can keep the country without too many problems...

This is way people that rules the country do not have their children in public schools.....

...OxFoRd DaY.................

Today was Oxfor Day at Telefonica's building... it was a great seminary; "Prescribe Stories: magic the medicine for the mind"...

It was very interesting, there were two argentian's that gave speeches. The woman was focus on neuroscience.She talked how the brain works: left hemisphere for logical and right hemisphere for emotions, but the brain needs to be balanced....

She said that schools always emphasizes the brain hemisphere although it is proved that the right one understand over a 500% faster than the left one.

She also said that when you exercise your brain finds the balance needed to be open to work or to learn properly, so If you are in your office seating boring infront of a computer your brain isn't working in a balanced way, but if you are in your office making a phone call and you walk from one side of the room to another, your brain is working in a balanced way.... interesting... isn't???

It was also said that reading makes your brain use both hemispheres... when you read you use the left one because there is grammar but at the same time you use imagination an it is there when you use the right one...... so if you have a math test... you should read a fairy tale before going to give a test....your brain will be balance in a good mood to learn in a better way....

Emotions were made to be out of our bodies... when you "eat up" emotions the emotion has to find a place in your body and be hidden there ..... and when you have eaten up so many emotions your body doesn't have enough room for more emotions.... and it is here when your body explotes through depression or another disease......Reading helps you to bring up your emotions and balances your brain.....

so before any activity you need to be aware and paying attention.... read something... your brain will be pleased!!!

Mr Litman... visit www.brainrules.net

and go to the video which says exercise-brain rule # 1

you'll love it!!!

...SmArTbOaRdS..........

... Last class I had to do my oral presentation ..... I had made a movimaker presentation but it did not work so as Fernanda was presenting her topic I went to the computer lab and created a quick powerpoint.

The subject I chose was the impact of IT's in chilean education, this speech was based on a seminary I attended a few weeks ago.

For me was a very important issue to discuss and think about.... children are different from us!!! they were born in a high tech environment.... so instead of trying to understand why children do or act as they do, we have to accept them. Accept them chatting, playing games..... using their cellphones as a tool to socialize... etc. We need to understand this world they were born in and try to use technology as a way to understand them .

Nowadays many teachers are prepared to use IT'S but schools are afraid of incorporating the different technologies a teacher can use in the classroom.

In Chile only one private school has incorporate tic's in all the institution, but they had to deal with a lot of problems like refusing technology, different levels of computing level,etc. This School is Dunalastair.

Dunalastair had to invest in hightech equipments such as smartboards, laptops for teachers and teacher's training in other countries.

In our university there is one smartboard that nobody uses... probably nobody has received the training to use the software.

I think that is important for us as future teachers , to know how to include but not abuse of these elements or tools that IT'S provide us........

GeNdEr BiAs... by fernanda

Fernanda made her presentation about gender bias... this topic is also very important for us .... future teachers.... we have to be able to put away discrimination and teach students values... and acceptation... we can not reinforce gender discrimination....

Men and Women have the same rights and we have to teach in diversity and multicultural respect.....

Suicide and Depression in Teenagers...

Last class Eduardo made a presentation about suicide and depresion in teenagers.... Although it is a wellknown topic ... Eduardo reinforced the idea that I have about the importance or impact that the teacher can have in students....

Children spend most of the day in the school.. so teachers know their friends.. school performance...love crushes... and many other things... so it is our labor to pay attention to student´s attitude and change of moods......

...SeMiNaRy....

... Today I attended an interesting seminary about TIC'S and its impact in Chilean's Education. This seminary took place at Finis Terrae University....

The seminary was great for me , because my thesis is about TIC'S and its impact in the development of reading and speaking abilities in the English class.

The speeches I heard were very interesting and useful....

The people that gave the speeches were the following:

* Hugo Martinez Alvarado --> Director of EducarChile website.

* Sayde Barcelata Montaut--> Director of Anáhuac (virtual university) and also President of Aula24horas International.
* Nick Perkins --> Teacher Development Unit Coordinator Pearson Longman Colombia.
* Pablo Aguayo and Andrès Muñoz--> Teachers of Dunlastair's School.

The teachers of Dunalastair told the audience that the whole school has incorporated TIC's ; the school has a datashow per classroom and the school provided a laptop to every teacher.
Pablo Aguayo went to Australia to get trained in the use of smartboards.
This is the only school in Chile that uses TIC`s at this level...

...PrOjEcT zErO......

... and the day came.....

Last class I had to present an oral presentation and debate about project zero....

We did not find enough information about the methodology of this project, but we found out that children remember the 20% of what they were taught during their schooling years!!!! Project Zero has been applied in other countries with an amazing result..... In Chile some private schools are training their teachers to work based on this project.

I think the topic was interesting , but there were few people in the class to had have a better debate.....

...OoOopsssssssss....

I could not attend yesterday's class... it was Lukas' National Day's Act... and we had to be at his school at six pm...... so.. I am really sorry... but I had to miss classes...

....YeS.... I aM a GuArDiAn.....

...... Today I answered the Keirsey Poll to determinate my personality... and ........... yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss .... I am a guardian.... not an angel.. but a guardian...

I was not interested on answering this poll , but I had to.... but when I read the results I shocked!!!! It was my personality what I was reading on the screen of my computer...

But I did not agree at all about what it said about the kind of job I should have....... but ... wait a minute..... I studied public administration for four years... so If a take that as a reference I can say that being a principal of a school... does not sound crazy at all!!!!!!

...CaN aNyOnE bE a TeAcHeR????...

.... Last class we disscussed about what characteristics a teacher should have and which of them were a must.... like respect , to be at the same level as a student (meaning not acting like Gods), among other characteristics..... It was an interesting topic... but I think that we disscussed too little... I think that these kind of topics are very "formative" and necessary for our human development.....

Well then some of my classmates presented a topic to debate about.

They talked about a programme call "maestros de maestros" . This programme consists in outstanding teachers teaching other teachers from their experiences.

This programme has a lot of success but it does not exist for teachers of english....

Then came the debate which was about teachers improving their knowledge for a better level of teaching.....

The debate was interesting... I participated a lot... I think that to improve education the country or the government must look up to teachers and see education as an investment instead as a spend..... otherwise this will be an endless story...

...EdUcAtIoN iN cUbA...

Last tuesday we had classes with the other section , because Miss Patty was having an acreditation meeting.....

Well Amira`s group presented a very interesting, but hard to debate theme; Education in Cuba.

In Cuba children are taught under one ideology ; comunism. Religion is not taught in the classroom, parents can not teach other ideology different from comunism.... But beside these facts, Cuba has the best results among latinamerican countries, in terms of education.

The presentation was too long. The group gave a whole speech about Cuba, they showed graphics, stadistics, which made the debate looked more like a speech than a debate.

The debate did not work out very good...

I got to be against Chilean schools and in favour of Cuban system, and I`m afraid it was too dificult to provide arguments to support the motion given.... It is really hard to believe that learning without freedom of speech is something accepted in our society......

In Chile, nowadays, we are free to do many things, to believe , dress and think as you wish without being punish or paying a fine.... so it was really difficult to defend our motion.......

javiera got married!!!

Yesterday was a very special day... my cousin javiera got married ... Vicente and Javiera did a very nice ceremony... the four elements ceremony... where javiera`s daughter watered a plant that my cousin gave to vicente.... it was a emotive celebration........

At ScHoOl

Today I did not attend the class.... In the school where I do my teaching practice, I was asked to help on a Catholic Religion Class...

I prepared some prayers for the first grade (elementary).

It was a very nice experience, there were 13 kids... all very interested on praying in english. We sang, painted and had a wonderful time together.......

I hope I could do it again!

...pUbLiC sChOoL`s In eNgLaNd

Today we had a very interesting debate in our class.

The debate was about public schools in England.... it was a very interesting topic because what we understand for "public school" is totally different from what english people understand for it.

In England a public school is a very expensive school, with more than 300 years of tradition. Kids go to these schools from the age of ten. Normally they are boarding schools, which means that students must live in the same school.

The debate was well done. We discussed a lot about the importance of family support when you are a teenager.

I can not imagine a ten years old boy being by himself in a huge , traditional and strict school. Educating is also a family role...so I think that it is cruel to leave a child at that age by himself in such scenery.

During puberty it is necesary to count on your family......

I do not like boarding schools........ and of course ... education should be equal for everybody

..... MaRiA mUsIcA aNd OtHeRs....

These week in Mr.L`s class we talked about Maria Musica Sepulveda.... the teenager that pour a pitcher of water to the Minister of Education. We realized that a lot of factors are involved, such as media, values, parental responsibility, among others.

In my opinion I`d say that Musica could have done things in a better way. She could have apologized in a media conference and she would have had a better image and people would have thought that even she acted unpolitely she had the courage to apologized infront of the country.

After talking about Musica, we disscused about learning to learn.

We went to the computer lab and surfed in the web for information. I found that there is a project in England which tries to change the way people think about education and learning.... this page explained how important is to make learning motivating for kids and adults, otherwise people reject learning........

I think this week we will talk about the teacher from antofagasta who treated his student awfully infront of the class......

May 13 ....Presentation

... Today a group of classmates did their presentation.... about troubled teenagers...

It was a good presentation even they could not present the video they had prepared..... Sometimes aids don´t work and you have to continue .... you must keep going... otherwise your presentation seems to be based only in the audiovisual material you had......

... Then we went to the computer lab to visit http://www.educarchile.cl/, the idea was to see the english version.... but I think that the page was not very helpful for students or teachers that are interested in visiting some more links.... I think the english version is very poor, and it should be as the spanish one, so people from all over the world can visit it........

...Schools and Videocameras....

I forgot exacticly when was this... I now it was in may.... but we went down to the computer lab and we surfed on http://www.latercera.cl/. The idea was to read an article about video cameras in school to let parents know what their kids do while they are studying....

I think this is too much....... I mean ... as parents we want to prevent bad experiences , bad things , fights, among other things , but we are not letting our children to live life.......

We can ask them if they have a problem at school or if they didn´t , but they also need privacy.... They need to face things by themselves...... It is not normal being controlled the during the whole day..... children need experiences to ripe.... if they do not live life how are they going to learn about life............

I think we are becoming more and more fearful.... we want to have our belove ones inside a bubble.... and that doesn´t help them to face reality.......

....LiFe.....

Well in may 12th we watched a video called Life..... In this video you could see God creating the world..... but then you can see how men, and of course women, did not appreciate what we have recieved from our God.......
You can see God troubled... it is hard for him to understand how these beautiful creatures he gave life to suddenly became selfish and ungrateful...... God saw how the world has become surrounded by pain.... hopeless.... selfish and hate......
I really enjoyed this video.... because it made me think on what have we become in the last years.......

.... Missed the Class!!!!!!!!!!

I did not come to class this day.... but my classmates told me that they went to the computer lab to look for a poll about LGE...... they had to translate the poll and then mister L. asked them to tranlate some parts into english..... some of the students felt embarassed because they are afraid of making a mistake........

...Classroom Managment...

This was the day of my oral presentation..... I only came to give my speech and leave..... Lukas is ill...... I think we did fine.... but something surprises me .... one classmate said I was nervious because I talked too fast!!! That really surprises me because I always talk fast.... doesn´t matter if is in english or spanish....... but my classmate thought I was very nervious.... I guess I would have to pay more attention to my attitude .........

Teacher`s personality and Bullying

These groups were better than the ones that appeared the week before. They were dress properly, and they improved compared with the first group. The first group talked about the teacher`s personality, which was a very interesting topic, it would be very useful for us as teachers.
The second group had a topic which was very interesting ; bullying
This is a topic that nowadays, you can see everywhere. For me as a mother , is very worrying to know that kids are acting violently in the schools.
I do not understand why as we become more and more developed as a country we act like barbarians in old times.....

... tOo LaTe???

... It is really hard for me to write in this blog as often as it is required. I go to my professional practise four days per week... and then.... I have classes during the whole afternoon......I am very tired... I have too many things to do..... I have my professional practise, a mayor, thesis and other subjects.......

Well the first oral presentation was only a lecture about classroom management. The group forgot that the assigment was to do a microteaching..... anyways.... the lecture was very meaningful, but too long.
The other thing that caught my attention was that one member of the group was wearing formal clothes and the other one was wearing demin jeans.

... ThIs WeEk.....

Well...... I do not know what to say........ I am tired... very tired..... it is hard to manage ALL things I have to deal with.... but I think I`ll do it.....
This week I had classes with Mr. L..... I did not how he looked like... but I´ve heard many things about him..... so finally I met him...... It was very exciting to feel as an university student and not as a high school kid..... as usual..... at the moment I think the subject would be interesting..... I hope so.....

I still do not know what to write in my biography..... it is funny because who else could write a good biography about me ??! who else could know better my fears, my beliefs... etc......??? It´s hard to stop , thinking that it is an easy task..... but is NOT.....
... This weekend we are going to Culipran... it will be fun..... the horses... the lagoon.... it would be very relaxing.....
That´s all..... for now....