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”.
Friday 5 November 2010
Thursday 4 November 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday 3 November 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday 2 November 2010
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 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!
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