Final post

I must say that I really enjoyed this. I like writing and I think that this has helped me very much. Everytime I write i'm inmediately checking my grammar. Sometimes, when i'm writing fast I make some mistakes with speliung haha see? Spelling.

If you, reader, find any mistakes I would be pleased if you let me know right away in order to fix my mistakes. I need to learn from them.

I missed Mr Litman's last class and I'm sorry but I was working in my seminary. I'm sure Mr Litman understands.

What I didn't like about posting was the error that sometimes I got when I was trying to post. Erasing html codes it's a pain in the neck!

I would like if we could receive an email every time we get a comment. There are no notification when we get one, you just need to look for them (if any).

This is not the end of my writing, that's for sure.

If you want you can check my other blog. Even though I haven't updated it in a while. That's because I haven't got the time to do it but I'm sure I'll have it soon.

My Other Blog

Cartoons, Tv and Video games

November 18th, 08
(part 4)

This was the last presentation of this day. Felipe was in charge of it. He talked about Cartoons, Tv and Video games.

Felipe showed us that kids and teenagers see more English words that we think. In cartoon, Tv and Video games we can find many words that kids recognize and sometimes they know how to pronounce them correctly.

As an example of this we can find the anime series "pokemon" which it means pocket monsters. In this anime series we can find characters with strange names that turn out to be english words. For example "Ekans" means "Snake" and its evolution is "Arbok" which means "Kobra". You just need to unscramble the letters.

Felipe also talked about many sitcoms that we see everyday on Tv such as friends, prison break, Two and a half men, etc. These sitcoms don't change their names in latinamerican countries, which helps students to know at least some words in english.

Felipe made a very interesting and original presentation that none of us expected. Great job.

Role playing games in Education

November 18th, 08
(part 3)

After Evelyn's presentation, Claudio started his presentation about RPGs or Role Playing Games in education. He started presenting what a Role Playing Game is. Is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.

Claudio not only presented RPGs, he also related this topic with education. How? I'll tell you.

He said that when you play these games you develop critical thinking and speaking. Even though is in another language rather than English, you might develop a way to give ideas more clearly.

Claudio as moderator (the one that control other characters and gives instructions) can cope with his empathy and develop a better way of teaching. Yes, teaching. This has helped him to re-discover pedagogy where he can teach and feel comfortable.

This proves that even though this game looks like a waste of time, it is good for using it with students once in a while, in order to help them increase critical thinking and speaking.

Claudio did a great job. He introduced a very original topic that we have never expected to see. He related this topic with pedagogy and it turned out to be a very interesting way of teaching, and it also helps in the learning process. He explained well and made it very clear. Nice job.

Teachers burnout

November 18th, 08
(part 2)

After Pedro's presentation Evelyn started with her presentation. She started with a video of a teacher losing control of himself in a classroom. This video introduced the topic of "Teacher burnout".

Burnout: extreme tiredness usually caused by working too much*

A Teacher burnout is when a teacher loses control and get nervous, desperate, anxious and stresses and its reflected in an emotional and physical crash.

Evelyn talked about this and just like as Nicole, she presented some ideas (tips) to not lose control and remain calmed.

This was a very interesting topic which introduced new vocabulary as well. It was a very well organized presentation and not boring at all.

* From Cambridge Dictionary.

Communication as the base for a good relation with parents

November 18th, 08
(part 1)

The previous tuesday (Nov 11th) I was absent. I read and heard about the presentation that my classmate Rodrigo made. It was about course book. I might talk about it but I don't think I can add much because I wasn't there.

This day (Nov 18) We had 4 presentations. The first one was about Communication and it was presented by Pedro. He talked about the communication between parents and children and how this create a very good relation among them.

He gave some tips such as saying "I love you" or "I care about you" once in a while to make children realize how much you love them and care about. Parents should demonstrate this kind of love to their kids, maybe not using words but at least showing them some affection, a gesture or something.

Nowadays we have a lot of families facing drug, behavior, violence problems and we can find that some of the causes are the parents' fault. It all starts with the education at home. If we give our kids a good communication and good values they will grow up knowing that their families have taught them the most important value: love.

Femicide is not fashionable

November 4th, 08

After Nicole's presentation, Katherinne talked about femicide. She presented the ads from a well-known brand of clothing: FES. In this ads we could see a man beating a woman. It is a campaign about femicide but the images talk more than the words and the idea of this ads gets misunderstood by some people.

Katherinne mentioned ideas related to femicide that we have seen through other presentations, tv and newspapers but she related this topic with the idea of making it fashionable. Nowadays our society is getting used to hearing about this kind of problems. More men are killing their wives or girlfriends because of jealously, anger or just madness. This is the world we are building? Where are we going to stop? I think that our society is loosing sense. We will never become a very well developed country if we continue like this. We are not going anywhere. It's a shame but its the truth.

At the end Katherinne made a very good presentation with a very interesting topic in a fresh way.

Stress at the end of the year

November 4th, 08

This class, Nicole talked about the stress that we as teachers might cope with at the end of the year. She gave us some tips to help us control our emotions and maintain calm.

One of the most remarkable points she talked about was about not carrying the problems of the school back home. We as teachers have right to have a regular life with a regular family. If we take our problems back home it won't be good for our families and our mental health.

The end of the year is always a period of stress. Teachers, students and other professionals face this kind of situation and we should remain calmed and try to find a way to work things out. Not everything is lost. Just breathe and remain calmed. Don't panic!

I think Nicole made a very good presentation, and even though she was a little bit nervous she did a good job. She explained well and moved around. We could see that this presentation was well-prepared.

Estatuto docente: Una tragedia peor que el transantiago

October 14th, 08

The second topic which we had to make a research for was the "Estatuto Docente". Mario Waissbluth, a teacher from Universidad de Chile, wrote an article for the magazine "Qué Pasa" on August 23rd, 08. He talked about the dramatic situation that our education is going through. He revealed some ideas that were floating in the air but nobody really saw.

He made a lot of studies, researches and statistics. He interviewed education experterts, directors of schools, teachers and students with the idea of getting a picture of the quality of education in Chile. At the end the conclusions were not good at all. He made some comparisons with private universities and public universities.

At the end the situation he described showed that the students of pedagogy get into the university with a lack of knowledge in certain aspects -that can be proved with the scores that a student gets in PSU- and come out of the university after some years with the same limitations.

I think that this problem will be restricting us as teachers for a long time. The quality of education in this country is not so good and we are moving too slow if we want to change this situation. I think that solving this problem will required not some, but many years.

Here's the complete article