A reflection...

Do you remember the first days at Teacher Training College? I do. To start with, I remember coming to Rosario to live on my own with a friend in order to attend the pre-entrance exam courses. Then, I remember how excited and happy I felt after passing that exam. I had never imagined that the course of studies was going to be as demanding, exhausting and time consuming as it has been.

We´ve had the chance to meet a lot of people during these years: teachers, peers, class teachers in different schools, lots of students we´ve observed and practiced with. We´ve also learned lots of things which I guess none of you would have expected to learn: from those cultural details we´ve studied in Social Studies to the analysis of a text from a discourse analysis perspective and from an ideological perspective as well; from analyzing word by word of a sentence, underlining its subject, verb, object, modifier, etc., to learning how the mind works and how to make teaching (and learning) meaningful; from how to plan a lesson perfectly to dealing with those unexpected problems lots of us have faced during the practice period.

And now that the course of studies is coming to its end –or at least that is what papers say- our responsibility it too heavy. In the first place, we have to graduate. As I said last class, we have a further responsibility with ourselves to be persevering and conscientious enough to finish studying on our own; we have to be hard-working enough to finish the final works on our own, too; we don´t have to lose contact with the institution we´ve been studying during these years, with teachers or with peers.

We´ve always waited for this moment to come, we´ve always waited for the moment in which we could start working after having the degree, we´ve always waited for the moment in which we could say we are TEACHERS. Those moments are about to come and we have to be ready for that new period in our lives. Most importantly, we have to be ready to do our job the way we´ve been taught to do it, we have to be ready to face new situations each day either at a school or at an institute, we have to be ready to prove that we know how to do our job.

Finally, I´d like to ask you if you remember how our Language lessons were like at the beginning of the year. Do you remember we all wanted to read every single answer we had? Do you remember how competitive the group was? Do you remember that talk the teacher gave us the third lesson? I´m sure you remember that. And I´m also sure that you feel things have changed throughout the year, or at least that is the way I see it. I feel we´ve felt more comfortable and freer after that talk and after changing the seating arrangement, I feel we´ve all had a role to play during the lessons and I feel we´ve all understood how important listening to others is. It was great to have discussions, to have the opportunity to prepare presentations, to read lots of texts which, even though they have represented lots of hours of hard work have been a very useful tool to learn vocabulary, expressions and to develop our ability to understand texts, haven´t they? I´ve really enjoyed our Language lessons and I dare say I´ve enjoyed them more than any other year at teacher training.

Dear peers and dear teacher/s, it´s been a pleasure to share so many things with you and to get to know you. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope to see you around.

Here is a gift for all of you:

Teacher: Now, give me the opposite of this sentence: “Children in the dark make mistakes.”
Juan: Mistakes in the dark make children.

Always remember that, as the saying goes, “to teach is to touch a life forever”.

New technologies; old company

I remember browsing books, newspapers and magazines every single day, trying to find the answers to those questions the Science teacher had asked us to answer as homework. I also remember the moment my father bought a computer, in 1997. In those days, the word Internet was occasionally heard or read. A couple of years later, I remember that peculiar sound that the phone line made each time I tried to have access to the web after 8 p.m., when the service was cheaper that during the day. Nowadays, Internet us a buzzword and no one dares say he has no connection at home –it feels so awkward and prehistoric that it makes one feel embarrassed.

I guess all of you have heard or read about the new policy of giving netbooks to all secondary schools (we also talked about this in class a few weeks ago). I know that next year there´ll be elections in our country and, of course, this might have been a strategy to attract followers as well as to gain votes. However, I believe that it has been one of the best decisions the government has taken.

It was unbearable that schools didn´t have access to the Internet in such a globalised and modern era which, by the way, has been called “the era of communications and technologies”. It is paramount that both teachers and students learn how to take advantage of a computer and of the Internet, since these are two of the most important tools we have in the world these days.

Children and adolescents need to get to know other cultures and to learn about everything that happens around the world. Getting in touch with people from other countries, reading newspapers from various nations and even watching or listening to the news from all around the globe by means of a computer is one of the ways in which students can broaden their minds and be ready to face a multicultural world.

Now the challenge is for most teachers to learn how to handle a computer. We know that some people are reluctant to even switch the processor on. But we also know that students are more computer literate each day and hence, as teachers and future teachers we must satisfy their needs, or at least, we should make an effort to make our lessons appealing to them. Catching their attention with only the blackboard and chalk is almost unthinkable at present.

As for students, they also have a challenge. In the first place, they should learn to take care of those computers that they were given for free. If I´m not wrong, they can´t take them home yet, so they should value those netbooks even more, as they have to share them with their peers. Then, students should also learn to discern between reliable and unreliable information. Some information that they may come across while surfing the net may be misleading and consequently, they should learn not to believe in everything they read.

There is a further challenge for all of us as society. One which is even stronger and more significant. While live surrounded by computers, we should not forget about that handy, portable, cheap, scented and even dog-eared object: the book. Who wasn´t given a book as gift when child? Who never took delight at staring at the pictures which appeared in that story book that mum read each night? Who never cried at that moment when you were going pass a bookshop and your parents said “no, no money today” when you begged for that colourful cover which was on sale? If these examples have evoked your memory, plunge into a good book right now and then, and only then, read the on-line newspaper if you feel like doing that. You´ll tell me which you prefer.

The human face of hypocrisy

Last week an unexpected event shocked everybody, regardless of one´s political preferences. A former president died last Wednesday and, on top of everything, that meant that the actual president´s husband died. Before plunging into a reflection towards this topic, I´d like to say that I don´t adhere neither to any political party nor to the former or actual presidents´ ideas, beliefs or tendencies. I´m just a citizen who has been bombarded for a whole week with details about the death of a person and with comments about the future of politics in our country.

The first thing I´d like to say is that I´ve found many comments which I´ve heard on the grapevine and which I´ve listened to on the radio and on T.V. very offensive and disrespectful. Being content with someone else´s death is one of the worst sins we could commit and I´m not saying this from a religious point of view, but just from a humane perspective.

In most cases, comments have been either offensive or too flattering about the dead and his family. Even the opposition parties, whose representatives usually criticized the previous and the actual governments, have said things like the best leader in Argentinian history has died, or that a great man died, while they opposed him fiercely in speeches and in interviews they gave to different radio and T.V. programmes. Lots of people have also expressed their opinions about the death, about details of, for instance, what the wife was doing at the moment the man died or details about which car took them to hospital; things that shouldn´t interest anyone.

As regards the media, they have made a business out of the funeral. There hasn´t been anything more important than the president´s face during her public speeches or during the funeral. They have also talked a lot about the son´s and daughter´s expressions and lots of journalists and commentators have been wondering about their future. Some T.V. programmes have even invited doctors specialized in heart attacks so that they could explain why they happen and how to prevent them.

Political parties (even the one that the former president represented) are worried about next year´s election –although they may say they are not- and they are discussing and rethinking tactics to attack each other as soon as the deep feeling grief is overcome. Those people closest to the former president were present during the funeral and have accompanied the widow at all times, but all the same it is said that there are political interests behind their presence.

The question which I think we should all ask ourselves at this point is: the images that have been shown, the comments that have been heard, the feelings that have been felt since the moment the news spread, aren´t they a clear proof of the society we are? It has always been claimed that we are the society we deserve, and I believe there is no discussion around this.

I.C.T. Lesson

As part of Workshop IV we were all asked to design an I.C.T. lesson. In order to do so, we had to choose one of the activities we had done with our students during the practice period and digitalize it in some way.

The final task that I prepared for my lessons was making cover pages. That activity was both motivating for students and it was also an evaluation tool for me and for the class teacher. At the same time, the activity forced students to watch the news or to read newspapers at home. As students could use any grammar tense they knew and as they felt very proud of their cover pages, I decided to use them for my I.C.T. lesson.

Our Workshop teacher had given us the addresses for some web pages in which we could perform various tasks. I had to make the same cover pages that students had done, so I had to use (and learn how to use) Openzine, a website for creating online magazines. I thought it was going to be hard work and sort of a very complicated task but except from the time it took for each change to be uploaded, everything went right. Of course I couldn´t find the same pictures students had used in their cover pages, but I tried to find similar ones. Once I had corrected students´ covers I copied everything they had written in them, trying to follow their same layouts as far as possible. It took me a couple of hours to choose the design, to upload the pictures and to write students´ texts but by the time I got used to working on that website I had no more cover pages to upload.

I think that having learned to use another tool has been very useful, not only to comply with the I.C.T. lesson that I had to plan, but also to use that tool in the future, as a teacher. At the same time, it´s been a clear proof that there are no limits using the Internet. There is always something we can profit from and the best thing is that we don´t need to be computer literate to do so. We just have to click and, through trial and error, try to succeed.

I guess you want to see the cover pages. If so, just click here!

The last lesson

Wednesday 13th, October. The moment came for me to say “goodbye” to all those students who made me feel so comfortable for more than a month; it was the end of the practice period.

When I started Workshop IV this year I thought that it was going to be the most difficult workshop we had ever had and that planning every single lesson would represent a daunting task. Contrary to my expectations, the practice period turned out to be a challenging but invaluable experience. It was just necessary to get started with the plans and to get to know the students a bit each lesson. Then things started flowing naturally.

During the month I spent at Normal I I learned a lot of things. Surprisingly for me, I´ve discovered that I feel quite more at ease working with adolescents than with kids. Teenagers allow one to be ironic, to mock at them and at yourself freely –without hurting their feelings, of course-, to carry out a systematization with the certainty that they have or they haven´t understood. Teenagers are more challenging and more demanding than children in terms of explanations and justifications. If you don´t know whether, say, the passive voice is clear for them or not don´t worry: they´ll immediately let you know. Teenagers usually value the effort one makes to prepare handouts, to take photocopies, to find interesting topics and to correct homework. Perhaps they don´t express it, but be sure that they know that one prepares the lessons if one does so, they know that we go to bed late, they know that we will explain things twenty times if that is necessary and they know that, in our case, we are trainees who want to make the most of our period in their class and that we want to graduate in order to see our dream come true.

The last lesson was highly emotive. I was about to burst into tears at all times. Everything went as planned and fortunately no one missed the lesson. I had prepared lots of funny activities for them to enjoy the lesson and to unwind, but without forgetting that it was an English lesson. I tried to leave an imprint in their lives, so I showed them Susan Boyle´s video (see previous post) and I also read a story for them. As a gift, I had prepared cards with a chocolate for each of them. It was so funny to make them shut their eyes before receiving the gift! They were very anxious and they couldn´t wait to open their eyes. While keeping their eyes closed some even hypothesized that the class teacher and I were going to carry out a massacre! After opening their eyes they were so pleased to see a little gift on their tables! They were thankful, as well and some even told me that they were about to cry.

When I asked them to give me feedback in a sheet of paper, they wrote the most rewarding things one could ever read. It was great to discover that even the laziest ones had enjoyed all my lessons and that they have learned. In fact, one of the boys told me that he would never forget me because it was with me that he passed the first English test in his whole life. I guess that this is one of the most precious prize for a teacher, isn´t it?

A clear example

Merryl Goldberg was one of the main presenters at F.A.A.P.I. She broke the ice by playing the saxophone and then she also invited Harmer to play with her. After a bit of music she started with her speech. Hers was one of the presentations that I liked the most, since she gave lots of concrete examples of how to include art within the four walls of a classroom.

I had never listened about her and hence, I hadn´t expected such a presentation. She seemed to be a very active and efficient woman, at least on stage, and I guess she must be like that in the classroom, too. She not only gave lots of practical examples but also made each of us feel part of her presentation as well.

At one point in her presentation she gave a list of the ten basic things that enable both teaching and learning. One of the key points she mentioned was CONFIDENCE. And she showed us this Susan Boyle´s video to exemplify what she meant:




I had never seen that video before and I didn´t know that the jury and the audience laughed at this singer in her first appearance. In fact, I hadn´t heard much about her or about her music. As if she knew she was going to win the contest, this woman showed everybody how important confidence in oneself is. Maybe she was quite conscious of the great voice she had, but anyway, confidence was paramount. She didn´t panic on front of such an audience, she didn´t feel nervous and she didn´t tremble! –Or at least it didn´t show!

At the moment in which the judges gave her feedback they were all right: Susan Boyle turned out to be a great surprise. It is really nice to listen to each of them apologizing and to listen to the audience clapping. I think that it is a clear example of how cynical about and prejudiced against people society can be. The video should leave each of us wondering why we pass on judgement before even listening or getting to know each other. And obviously, we should understand that we can do whatever we want to do if we are convinced and determined to fight for our dreams.

This week I´m finishing my practice period at Normal 1 and I´ll show this video to my students, not only because they will understand everything that people in it say, but also because I want to leave an imprint on them. I want them to remember me, my lessons and my teachings. And I hope I can still confidence in them to achieve all their dreams and to understand that, as the slogan claims, “impossible is nothing”.

I hope you can apply this video to your lessons as well! Enjoy it!

F.A.A.P.I. 2010

To tell you the truth, I went with no clear idea on mind of how the congress was going to be like. I knew that some of the people –Harmer, to be more specific- we´ve been reading to throughout these years were going to attend the congress and to give speeches, but I had not expected to enjoy the three days in Córdoba as I did.

I am one of those creatures who love collecting brochures and who like entering raffles, so imagine that F.A.A.P.I. was Wonderland for me! It was a pity I didn´t win anything, but I enjoyed filling in each blank space I could. I also enjoyed a lot browsing at books, buying stickers and sealings which who knows when I´ll use them.

It goes without saying that I couldn´t enjoy the presentations more! When attending speeches, I remembered the Pecha Kuchas we have been doing in class. It was great to see slides and to feel that I was ready to do the same sort of presentations those people were doing. Some of the presentations were boring, even as regards design, as the colours were just black and white, or the pictures were not the ones I would have chosen. Those things made me fully understand the importance of everything we are doing in class. As future teachers we must learn how to stand in front of a crowd, how to speak in public, how to design a presentation and how to teach others to do so. I could feel the need of changing tones and of designing and using techniques that could motivate and engage the audience while one is speaking.

I loved those presentations in which the speaker didn´t have a sheet of paper in hand! That was a clear sign of how confident and how well-prepared they were for their presentation. Not to mention how efficiently they handled the overhead projector and how professionally they moved from one topic to the other one, making plenty of connections in the audience´s minds so that there were not loose ends left by the end of their speeches.

Apart from the technicalities and the abilities of each speaker, I found the contents of most presentations extremely interesting. Herbert Puchta mentioned that “mirror neurons” have been discovered, and that those neurons are the ones that, for instance, make one yawn while someone else is doing so. In the same way, those neurons are the ones we are supposed to activate during our lessons so as to make everybody feel eager to participate and eager to learn.

Jeremy Harmer, then, gave an incredible speech during which I thought I was looking at and listening to a poet. He was amazing, really! The energy with which he spoke was really contagious and he managed to make everybody feel eager to participate. There were some moments during his presentation in which I felt like a like child, listening at everything he was saying, laughing, shouting and staring open mouthed at him. Among one of the various things he shared with us, here is an example of a “diamante” poem he showed:

Man
Brilliant, perfect
Working, learning, earning,
Speaking, speaking, speaking
Furious, exhausted
Woman

Imagine! Most of us were women, so everybody started shouting. As he knew quite well that that was going to happen, he immediately started laughing and make us read this poem:

Man
Stupid, rude
Sleeping, eating
Trousers, underpants, knickers, shirts
Working, sporting
Clever, beautiful
Woman.

In this case we all stood up and just clapped and cheered!

That was by far the best example of an effective presentation I had ever seen.

Presenting: a rewarding experience!

I had never thought I was going to present using the Pecha Kucha format. In fact, I had never heard about it before this year so it was a totally new world for me. When we had to decide on the dates for the presentations I plucked up the courage and I enrolled for the first day. I didn´t want anyone to “steal” my ideas and I didn´t want to be influenced by others´ either!

Once I chose a topic, I searched for the pictures. I spent a couple of hours doing so because I wanted my presentation to be both touching and humorous, and it was very difficult to find pictures which were funny if the topic was chaos. After selecting the pictures, I decided how to organize them in a logical and clear way. I wanted others to understand the presentation or to have their own interpretations of it, without even listening to my voice. Finally, I plunged into the presentation itself.

It was the first time I was going to use Power Point and hence, I asked for a little help at home. After learning how it worked, I moved the slides, I wrote titles, I rotated them and I chose the colours. I was really engaged in the process!

Before the day of the presentation I rehearsed what I was going to say. I wrote some guidelines just to organize my thoughts at the moment of speaking and I tried not to look at them, as I didn´t want to be glued to the paper while speaking and, to tell you the truth, I cannot speak properly in public if I have a paper in hand. I practiced a couple of times and I predicted possible mistakes or slips I could have at the moment of the presentation.

When that moment came I was a bit nervous and I felt my knees were shaking. However, I just need to start talking. Seeing my classmates´ faces looking at the pictures and seeming engaged and surprised by each slide made me relax. My voice was trembling at some points but I was feeling that everything was going as I had expected. Time flew during the presentation and when it finished, the round of applause was highly rewarding.

Fortunately, most classmates said they fully enjoyed the presentation and they said they had not expected to find under the title “chaos” all the topics I had included. While this was rewarding, it was also rewarding to learn how to use Power Point, to put my thoughts into words in a meaningful and concise way and to make a presentation using Pecha Kucha. In fact, I would try it again!

If you want to see my Pecha Kucha, click here!

Scientific developments...in paintings!

When the moment came to choose a picture related, in some way or other, to science, I first thought it was going to be an easy and quick task to solve. However, I googled “famous paintings” and “science paintings” and nothing convinced me at all. I wanted to find a picture which made me immediately think of scientific development. After looking at dozens of paintings, I found this one, the one I talked about in class.

The picture was painted by Lorena Bonillo, a Spanish artist, and even though it imitates the original, still haven´t found the name of the artist who originally painted it. Maybe it is a very abstract painting, but I think that it can be interpreted in many ways. In fact, I sustain that the multiplicity of forms (squares, triangles, circles, arrows, irregular lines and rectangles) shows the multiplicity of advances that have been made in the scientific world and in all life spheres. In addition, some of the circles seem to portray the Milky Way or, to be less specific, the universe; and this makes me think of Astronomy, one of the oldest sciences in history. And look at the arrow. Its position seems to indicate a progression, as if science was going to go on advancing, without a clear final destination.

This other picture also portrays scientific development. It is a miniature painted by the British Frank Forsgard Manclark, who belongs to the Society of Limners (limnings=miniatures), and the name of this work is “Aeromaximum”.

Aren´t the car and the plane among the most amazing and useful inventions? If it hadn´t been for these means of transport, trade wouldn´t have been as quick as it is now. Furthermore, lots of cities have flourished after the invention of the car, as it has been easier to visit them and to build factories there; and hundreds of small towns have been connected to bigger ones and their inhabitants haven´t been isolated any more. If travelling wasn´t as easy as it is now, then many scientific developments wouldn´t have been possible. In Medicine, for example, it is easy to take drugs for experiments from one country to another, and it is possible for scientists to spread their word when they go on a business trip to different countries.

Communications have been improved as well. Nowadays, it is very common to buy a newspaper that was printed in the States, in the U.K. or in Buenos Aires. But this couldn´t have been possible without cars, vans, lorries and planes.

Of course these vehicles have their flaws (they are made by humans after all), but all the same, their relevance for the present cannot be denied.

And what about this World Cup?

We all know the World Cup is over. And in fact, it had been over even before the championship finished! During those three weeks that the Argentinian team enjoyed in South Africa everybody seemed to be a sports fan. Unfortunately, we aren´t sporty at all!

Not everybody knows that the Hockey World Cup is taking place here, in Rosario, only a few kilometers away from home. And who knows that the Basketball World Cup is also taking place these days? We have to watch the news or to be too sporty to know that. It´s really a pity that these sports don´t take as much attention as football takes. If they were more promoted we could see a lot of children engaged in more sports other than football.

If you think about it, it´s very strange to see people wearing the Argentinian t-shirt while “Las Leonas” are playing a game. And the world doesn´t stop to watch a single match. This is obviously the result of the way in which the media deal with all issues. If the press pays little attention to the hockey or the basketball World Cups, then society won´t pay attention to these competitions either.

Apart from that, have you heard about the games´ fees? I´ve heard that each ticket doesn´t cost more than $95… isn´t that too cheap if we take into account that you are paying to see the best hockey players in action? Besides, compared to the high fees that are paid for each football championship, the hockey fees are too undervalued.

Clearly, what´s happening nowadays in sports reflects what we are as society. We are people who let ourselves be deceived by the media. And we usually don´t realize that those who practice a sport which isn´t football are also professional people whose job is to play certain sports (hockey, if we stick to the topic in this post) and who also make a lot money out of them. I think that, although you may not be a sports fan or you may not like sports, it´s time we acknowledge that there is another world in sports apart from football.

Our future is in their hands... My God...

Last Sunday night I came across “El Imbatible” at Susana Gimenez, while zapping. Though this programme may not be interesting at all, I can say that I found it really… worrying! Yeah, worrying. The quiz involved children between nine and twelve years old. While I started watching it, I was expecting to listen to correct answers or at least reasonable ones. However, the contrary occurred. I could listen to the most unthinkable answers to even very basic, simple sentences. To mention but a few examples, a girl answered that Egypt´s capital was Nigeria; a boy said that three hens and two pigs made twenty four legs! Maybe it may sound funny… but I think this is funny peculiar, not funny ha ha at all! Going on with the examples, another boy didn´t know that there exists a hymn to Sarmiento and, to cap it all, another boy answered that, if a car had to go along a 50 km distance at a 100 km/hour speed, then it would arrive at the destination in 5 hours! Can you believe it?

After watching the programme I realized that the same generation which usually competes in this quiz is the one that will govern us in the near future. Worse still, I realized that this same age group will be our students in a couple of months. Considering that the children who participate in this quiz are generally those students with the highest marks in their school, then it is undeniable that the educational system is in crisis.

We are going to be teachers in a short time (at least I hope so!) and we cannot be unaware of such deficiencies. If students do not handle knowledge or skills proper of their native language almost proficiently, then can we expect them to be excellent in English? Of course I don´t mean to say that ours is a losing battle, but it will surely be an uphill one. We cannot expect to teach just English, but we´ll surely have to teach them other contents and we should be ready for this. Sometimes a whole lesson can be altered if our students lack background knowledge to do an activity or to understand a listening or a reading text and hence we need to breach that gap between what they know and what they don´t.

I believe we should start worrying about our students´ knowledge. But worrying shouldn´t be seen as something negative in this case; on the contrary, it should be seen as positive. If we worry about it, then we will help them to learn better, more and even more efficiently. The best thing we can do for our students is to be ready to help them to learn, not only English but anything that they may not know, don´t you think so?

Me... a cartoonist?

As soon as we were asked to write a comic I started wondering which topic I was going to choose. I´ve always liked to read comics and I enjoyed writing some when teachers told me to do so at school.

Before starting writing, I had to decide which topic I was going to write about and I´ve found it hard to do so, as there are many issues which worry Argentinians in particular and society in general. Even though my comic´s theme is delinquency, in fact I think it also reflects social hatred and social prejudices. It is quite common to hear delinquents claiming that crime is their only option in life. And in fact, sometimes it seems as if they felt they had the duty to steal, to rape, to kidnap, to mention but a few criminal acts. The worst thing is that they generally don´t feel remorse at all.

Last week, it really shocked me to hear the news of the death of Isidro, a baby who, 4 days before birth, was a victim of insecurity, together with his mother who is still fighting for her life at hospital. I cannot understand why someone who earns every little penny to buy a car, to buy a house, to feed his family or even just for the sake of earning it has to be afraid of criminals. People don´t want to have money in their hands because they feel they´ll probably be robbed or even murdered. Why can´t the rich be rich? Why can´t a worker come back home happy after being paid? Why can those delinquents go out with guns and just ask -violently, of course- for the money or the goods they haven´t earn or bought?

Is this the society we want for us, for our children, for our grandchildren? Is all this madness we live in justified? Why can´t officialdom realise that we could have a better, more secure country if laws were stricter, if they taught us to respect each other a bit more? The President claimed this morning that each country has the institutions and the systems that her society creates... Maybe it´s the other way round and if institutions changed, then society would change as well... If those in power assumed the responsibilities they have, they would teach us a lesson. It isn´t enough to listen to them, I guess we all want to see actions rather than to listen to their words.

If we continue being unprotected, if we go on listening to authorities saying that insecurity is just a "feeling", then society won´t change. We´ll become even more infuriated, more resentful, more determined to act on our own will. And the worst thing is that insecurity will never be deterred and that criminals won´t pay.

More than just a comic, I´ve found this experience really motivating, enriching and moving and I think I´ll start using cartoons as a way to air my feelings whenever I need to do so.

If you want to see the cartoon in a bigger size, click here.

If this wasn´t a meaningful lesson, then what do we understand by meaningful?

After studying too much Methodology and Didactics, we should all know that it is usually better to learn and store vocabulary or grammar if the context in which you learn is meaningful. Well, I´m sure it must have happened to you that you´ve discovered yourself learning in this way; or at least I´ve discovered myself remembering things after some unforgettable events.

Yesterday, Analía said something about a hail storm when I said those words and so I will explain what she meant. Once I told her a humorous anecdote about my first year at college. It was a hot day in November and we were having one of the last Language lessons of the year. We were discussing some vocabulary when we started feeling a warm breeze coming from outside. It was obvious that there was going to be a storm, although we had never expected it to be as violent as it turned out to be. Despite the breeze, we kept working with our copies as it seemed there wasn´t much to worry about; it was just a breeze.

Suddenly, we looked around and the sky had turned black. The city lights went on and it seemed as if it was night. But it was around 4 in the afternoon at that moment! We went on with the lesson and suddenly strong wind started blowing. The teacher told us to close the windows and she told us that we were experiencing a gale storm and she wrote it on the blackboard. Of course we all copied it down in our notebooks. The gale storm became fiercer, tree branches started to break, cars were running fast outside and many passers-by started running or hiding somewhere. All of a sudden, huge blocks of ice starting falling and we couldn´t avoid feeling awfully scared; some of the girls were about to cry, some others were shouting and we could hear the pieces of ice falling on the institute and crashing against the windows. We were really desperate and worried about our homes and our beloved ones who could be outside at that moment.

Despite the seriousness of the situation and our desperation, the teacher shouted (because we even couldn´t listen to each other if we didn´t shout, due to the noises made by the storm): “You see, now the gale storm has turned into a hail storm!” and she also write the new word on the blackboard and we also copied it down. Maybe this sounds unbelievable, but it did happen and now that I remember the episode it seems very funny.

The following lesson the teacher apologized for going on with the lesson despite our faces and feelings and she told us she didn´t realize that the storm was going to have the serious consequences it had. We all burst into laughter and we told her that we were never going to forget the words she had taught us that afternoon. In fact, whenever I say those words I cannot help remembering that lesson. Really memorable!

Her own techniques

Do you remember studying learning strategies? And what about multiple intelligences? Well, I remember learning that we should always be aware of our students´ strategies and techniques, and that teaching strategies is an essential part of education. However, it was difficult for me at that time to imagine how to realize which strategy each student preferred or which techniques they use at the moment of studying.

I´ve been having a private student for almost two years now and I´ve noticed that she uses too many “self-made” techniques. To mention but a few examples, she uses two or three colours in each exercise she completes. She´s told me that by using colours she can recall the words or examples easier than if she didn´t. As she´s for sure visual, when I explain her something, from the meaning of a word to a grammar point, I use colour pens or drawings for her to pay more attention and to help in her storage process. I´ve also noticed that she changes the letter type from one word to the other one. For instance, she writes “a” in a word and, the next time she writes that letter she writes “A”. She´s told me that if she doesn´t do so she cannot concentrate properly on what she does.

Despite these strategies may seem an advantage for her both at the moments of studying and or storing information, I´ve told her that she should try to attach to a specific typology to make her writing tidier. I´ve also realized that she wastes too much time when using her techniques. In fact, her teacher at the institute has told her that she should use the same colour all along exercises and tests. While even for the teacher it may be easier to resort to the same techniques students use if they want the latter to pay more attention, many questions cross my mind. How should we combine all students´ strategies? Should we let students use their own learning strategies and study techniques? Or should we tell them to use those techniques only at home, to practice and to study? Should we be more concerned about the syllabus than about the way our students find it easier to learn? Surely it must be highly difficult to strike a balance between strategies and complying with the syllabus´ contents. After being with this girl for such a long time I´ve started wondering what I´ll do in the future… I´ll try to teach both strategies and contents but I think striking a balance will be the result of experience. How do you see it?

A child´s story

It was 2001 and my teacher of English invited my class to submit short stories about Halloween for a competition that was going to be held here, in Rosario. She told us that members of some editorials (of which I hadn´t got a clue in those days) were going to be the jury who was going to pick the winners.

As I´ve always loved writing stories I decided to participate and that same afternoon I started thinking what I was going to write about. I remember the photo of an old house that I had taken the previous summer, when I went to Santa Fe with my family to visit some acquaintances. In fact, I had taken that picture because I had the feeling that it was going to be useful at some point in my life. And there I was, in my bedroom, looking at the photo. It didn´t take me long to invent the story. I had always read too many books both because I was asked to do so at school and because I really enjoyed reading whatever I came across.

I wrote the story and I submitted it. It was September then but it wasn´t until a month later that the news came: I was awarded the first prize in my category. I cannot tell you how I felt when my teacher phoned me to tell me the good news. Both of us were really thrilled and I was surprised as well. On November, 2nd I came to Rosario with my family to the prize-giving ceremony at Ameghino and I was given the abridged version of “Sense and Sensibility” as gift.

This morning, I reread the story. There were moments in which I blushed and I was open-mouthed at the inaccuracies and there were other moments in which I couldn´t help bursting into laughter. Now that I´ve been at College for almost five years I feel embarrassed at those awful mistakes I made when I wrote that story. At the same time, I still feel some pride at having written that tale. I was only 13 when I wrote it and the most important thing is that, apart from being the winner (something which, to tell you the truth, hadn´t crossed my mind when submitting the short-story), I enjoyed the whole process, from choosing the plot to writing the story.

I´m sure I´ll share this experience with my students in the future because I would really like to help them develop their imagination and to make them learn that there´s no need to be proficient at the language to love writing.

Now, would you like to read my short story? If so, click here. And please, let me apologize for all the mistakes I´ve made! There are some which truly deserve a prize! (Only joking!)

Hallmark - Front of the Class

Two weeks ago I was watching T.V. at home and, although I wasn´t expecting to find anything important or too entertaining, I came across an excellent movie. It´s called “Front of the Class” and it´s the story of a teacher who suffers the “Tourette Syndrome,” which made him make various strange noises. Those noises bothered people around him so much that he even had a detached relationship with his own father, who couldn´t feel anything but shame and embarrassment in front of his son (especially in public).

Despite his uncomfortable noises, this boy wanted to become a teacher in order to be “the teacher he never had” and it seems he´s managed to become such a special teacher. In the film, he´s a second grade teacher who manages to teach in a very didactic and engaging way. He establishes a very close relationship with his students and he teaches them both the contents in the syllabus and many other things useful for the children´s future lives. Together with his students, he goes through both difficult and happy situations.

While I was watching the movie, the way the teacher taught made me remember the almost perfect plans we have had to make for the Workshops. By the end of the movie I discovered it was based on a true story. The real teacher is called Brad Cohen and he´s American. The film shows most of his life and teacher career. This man has become a famous teacher in his country and around the world, since he´s got a foundation to help those children who suffer the same syndrome he has. What´s more, he´s published an autobiography in which he explains how much he´s suffered and how determined he´s been to see his dream of becoming a teacher fulfilled.

I guess you´ll love the film. It´s been broadcasted in Hallmark all this month, but you could rent it at a video club for sure. Just to see some of its scenes, here is a short video:

And in case you want to see Brad Cohen´s website you can click here. If you´re interested in watching the film with your students there´s also a guide available for free.

I hope you enjoy it!

Peer editing

After many years at College, I´ve undoubtedly learned many things, not only for our future career but also for our future life as well. I believe that one of the most important things is that we have been encouraged to work cooperatively. Although I must have complained a lot about having to meet with my classmates to do research, at the end I´ve always realized that it served a purpose. Each group assignment has made us work together, discuss, take decisions, make concessions and agree on what to do. Once I have had subjects such as Pedagogy, Didactics and the Workshops I´ve fully realized that group work does work, even when forced to work with classmates who aren´t very close to me.

In Language classes we have also worked cooperatively as well. For instance, we have always practiced peer editing. I´ve particularly found such way of working really useful, haven´t you? When writing I sometimes make mistakes that go unnoticed for me but that my classmates usually see when reading my work. Editors raise awareness towards those mistakes and generally give an overall appraisal of the whole work.

When deciding to write about this topic here, I googled “peer editing” so as to gather more information about this issue and I could confirm all I thought about its usefulness. I´ve found that peer editing isn´t only essential for the person who writes but also for those who edit as well. It is a moment in which editors have the opportunity to criticize others´ work, to analyze it, to judge critically what others´ have written. At the same time, editors can learn from the way in which others write: they can learn vocabulary, expressions, organizational patterns and they can become more sensitive to connotation and style.

In our particular case, as future teachers, peer editing helps us to correct others´ writing tasks. We can practice how to correct, how to raise awareness towards mistakes and how to address the person we are correcting. We should be very tactful when correcting, since our intention should be far from hurting our classmates´ feelings. And in a couple of years we should be very careful not to hurt our students´ feelings either! Finally, by editing our classmates we can “play” to be teachers at least for a while and this is more encouraging and challenging if we think we are correcting those who are at our same level or even above us. ¨

Would you like to read something about peer editing? I´ve visited this site and I´ve found it quite interesting. It gives many guide on how to edit. Maybe you can make more contributions!

A dazzling performance

Probably many of you won´t find this video appealing at all. I know how fiercely criticized the Church, as well as its members, have always been. However, I am a Catholic and, though I may or may not agree with some principles the ecclesiastic institution still holds, I do believe in both Jesus and The Bible and I try to follow my religion as much as I can. I´m making this clear because it is necessary to know this in order to explain why I´ve decided to publish this video here.

A friend of mine once published it in her facebook and when I saw it I felt really pleased. Seeing all those people gathered together watching such a performance made me have goose pimples. The video shows in a quite clear and didactic way how Jesus has given his life for all of us. We are shown how the girl feels tempted by many vices and how others try to coax her into doing what they want her to do.

The song which accompanies the performance is highly effective since its “ups and down” (I don´t know anything about music) in its tones have been made to match all the different situations which are acted out. The loudest moments in the song are the climactic moments in the show, too. This makes the video even more dramatic and catchy.

Now, let me tell you there´s no need to be a Catholic or to follow any other religion to either watch or like the video. I´m sure we must have felt the need to have someone (and here I´m not restricting “someone” to mean Jesus!) to listen to us, to free us from those things that are worrying us, that are perturbing our minds and that can´t let us feel contented with our life or achievements. In this case, the video shows Jesus helping and freeing the girl. But I guess that the same we see him doing in this video is the same thing any other person (a friend, a relative, etc.) will do for us whenever we get the blues. How do you see it?

South Africa: who cares about it?

We all know the World Cup is taking place in South Africa. But what is shown on T.V. about the present of that country? Has discrimination truly disappeared? Are all South Africans free from starvation nowadays? I guess no channel has said anything about all that. At least I haven´t heard anything, have you? Shouldn´t we be more critical and demand all this information from the media? Maybe we are too busy to stop watching a match to think or to talk about this. We talk about the “vuvuzelas” instead.

As a future teacher and as a trainee teacher I cannot understand why schools haven´t taken advantage of this whole month to teach something new and interesting. Why letting the students go back home after each match if each teacher, in each subject, could have taken the opportunity to teach something? Students would be highly motivated to investigate about the African continent and about South Africa. Why can´t the Geography teacher ask about that country´s climate for instance? Or why not asking students to compare the climates of Argentina and Nigeria or Greece, with whom we were opponents? Why can´t the language teacher ask students to write a piece of news about each match or to create a story of what could happen in the opponent´s changing room after losing? Various examples like these ones cross my mind now. It´s not worth mentioning them. What I want to make clear now is that I´m not against enjoying football matches for a month, but surely there are other things happening around the world which are worse than Italy of France being out of the tournament in their third match. And as for schools, authorities should have implemented ways of keeping students engaged to study.

We still have two weeks to entertain ourselves with matches. And teachers and authorities still have two weeks to do something with the World Cup, don´t you think so?

Before starting the course of study I didn´t have very clear in my mind the way in which we were going to learn about the Language and how to teach it. In the first Language lesson, our teacher welcomed us to the teacher training and she told us we had just started a "never-ending process". She was quite right! One never finishes learning vocabulary, expressions, structures or whatever forms part of the English language. In fact, in a couple of months I discovered myself reading and learning "scientific" vocabulary when studying Psycholinguistics or Methodology, for instance. And the most amazing thing was that I could understand everything I was reading!Hasn´t it happened to you, girls, that you had never thought you were going to learn some things that you now know almost by heart? What about the vocabulary we "discoverd" in Social Studies, in Language and in the Workshops? Let´s share our experiences!!!

The greatest photo?

When we said we could include pictures in our posts this photo immediately came to mind. It was 2003 and I came across this picture in “VIVA” Magazine. I remember staring at it for at least a minute and then showing it to my mum. It really shocked me. I couldn´t (and I still can´t) believe how someone could take a picture when facing such a harsh reality.

If I come to analyse it, this picture has, at least for me, many points that should be discussed. In the first place, I believe it is the best example of selfishness. It is said that the photographer, after taking the pict, helped the child to get up and that she could go on walking on her own. Why could the camera be more powerful than his feelings? Despite the situation, the man took the photo before helping the girl. Other people would have thrown the camera away instead.

Though, as I´ve just mentioned, it is said that the child didn´t die, I guess that if this were true, someone would have found that girl years after the photo was taken, to show that the photographer wasn´t a heartless person –and to make hoards of dollars out the good news, too. Unfortunately, we cannot even listen to the photographer´s words since he committed suicide a year after taking the picture. If the child didn´t die, then why did he receive so much pressure and why couldn´t he shout to the world that he just took a good picture and then helped the child to survive?

I believe there is something else about this picture that should be said. It won a well-known prize among photographers: the Pullitzer. Does the picture deserve a prize? I don´t know much about taking photographs. I guess that the focus is quite good and that the colours combine perfectly with the situation portrayed, but the image that has been portrayed has been known for centuries now and no one has ever done anything about this. Hunger and poverty are not new to anyone.

The picture won the Pullitzer since it was claimed that it summarized the world´s history (and Africa´s history as well) but if this is so, then it should be worrying rather than amazing.
Maybe we´ll never know the truth about what happened after the photo was taken. I´ve always hoped to know something about the girl in the picture and which her fate has been. Do you know something else? And most importantly, how do you feel when looking at the photo? I hope there won´t ever be more examples like this.

"Wavin´ Flag"

I guess that if you ask people which the Official World Cup song is, most of them will say “Waka Waka! By Shakira!”. If you gave me that answer, let me tell you it isn´t right. Though that song is really boosting and energetic, the official one is sung by “K´naan,” a South African singer, and it´s called “Wavin´Flag”.

The song lyrics are really insightful and quite loaded with meaning. The singer has managed to explain how the rest of the world has usually considered the African continent and how the Africans see themselves. It expresses quite clearly that many Africans have been forced to work and to serve the rest of the world under promises which have never become true. Africa is portrayed as a hard working country which has suffered (and still suffers) a lot, where people starve to death and where hundreds of battles have taken place. It seems sort of paradoxical that the word “freedom” is mentioned so many times in the song, since most slaves in history have been Africans. It seems the African continent cannot forget about its past.

Then, it appears to me that there is a shared thirst for revenge among all Africans for everything they´ve suffered and for the way the rest of the world has always referred to them as if they were the last butt of the planet. It seems (and in fact it is stated) that they are all patiently waiting for the day things change for them.
Finally, I believe that this song doesn´t only represent all Africans´ thoughts and feelings but it clearly represents a whole continent´s suffering and struggle to live. Maybe it is time to stop being arms crossed and star doing something so that no one feels an E.T. in his own world, don´t you agree?

After my long, unsolicited speech, you can see the lyrics in this web page.

And of you want to see K´naan´s face and listen to the song, then watch this video:

And what is happening meanwhile?

These days I can´t avoid saying something about the World Cup. The only thing people are interested in today is watching football matches and listening to the players and coaches speeches. It seems as if at least for a month there is no famine, wars or economic crisis. It all revolves around the football ball. I must admit I myself am a football fan and I find pleasure in watching matches and in talking about them with my family, my boyfriend and friends. But I was just wondering what will happen when the tournament finishes. Or what will happen if Argentina looses the next match against Germany, on Saturday (by the way, I hope it doesn´t!). Well, surely newspapers headlines will be utterly different. So, what is it that we are doing wrongly, as society members, letting ourselves be deceived by a tournament? If the media don´t manipulate our thoughts and interests, then what does “manipulation” mean? It seems we´ve forgotten about insecurity, about hunger, about poverty, about the so-criticized government.

Years of strike have come to an end in Entre Ríos, where people spent hundreds of days and nights blocking the “Gualeguaychú-Fray Bentos” bridge in order to prevent the “Botnia” paper factory from working and polluting the Uruguay River. This month, people had to retreat. And I am sure not all Argentinians know that.

Then, it seems there are no swain flu cases yet. Is this true or is it just that we don´t hear about it on the news or on the radio? And do you know something? At least in my town, chemists’ don´t know what to do with all the vaccines they have now – people have stopped buying them.
Finally, there is something else I keep thinking about. When the World Cup finishes, will the actual union and comradeship among Argentinians come to an end? When I look at the flags on flats, houses, cars and on every single corner, I always hope this fervent nationalism doesn´t end the day the Argentinian team comes back. I wish the World Cup could make all of us feel closer to each other, not for a month, but forever. Wouldn´t that mean our country has truly won?

Teaching

Learning English at the Teacher Training College

My experience with the language

ICT

I.C.T. was, until one year ago, a completely new acronym for me. I had no idea of what it meant until I learned in the Workshop, about I.C.T. learners. Since then, I´ve tried to get in tuch with as much technology as I can. Let me tell you it hasn´t been easy at all. In fact, apart from visiting only a few pages on the Web I didn´t use the computer much.

But now I try to explore the world of technologies a little bit each day. I´ve learned to use the computer as much as I can -at least this is what I think- and I´ve learned to handle pen drives quite easily, for instance (I must tell you I first bought a pen drive last year and I had no idea of how to use it!).

Then, I usually try to learn about state-of-the-art technology since I am quite aware that lacking knowledge about certain gadgets may make you feel dated in front of friends, relatives and, of course, students.

Let me tell you an anecdote: I asked a private students to describe his house. At the moment of correcting his compisition I read "... and there is a WII". He had also drawn a huge flat screen T.V. with two speakers. I had no idea of what he meant and, instead of finding out, I thought he meant a "home theatre". Two days later I saw through a shop window a WII: A video games console. I felt so old-fashioned and self.embarrased at that moment! I told some friends about this and, to my surprise, they all knew what a WII was... Fortunately, I hadn´t met my student again by that moment!

Has something like this happened to you? It´d be great to know!