Book "Learning for life" chapters 6 to 11

Learning for life
Chapters 6 to 11

*chapter six Information, communication and learning technology

Technology has become the main source when it comes to learn and to dig for information. I can say that nowadays it is the heart of the teaching and learning process, everybody is involved in it. It plays an important role in teachers and students’ meaningful learning.

*chapter seven school design

What teachers and students need is a comfortable place to share their knowledge. The school should have the appropriate material that the teachers and students might need; the classroom should have enough space and comfortable desks. I think that more schools are needed in order for each teacher to have just the students that are required because that will be the only way in which he/she can give individual help and attention to each students .
*chapter 8 Innovation

Many of us want to innovate the teaching and the learning system, but almost no one is doing something to achieve it, most of us are still doing what everybody has been doing. I think that everybody would like to do things different with the objective of doing them better, but this is a hard process because someone must start it and it will take time to achieve it.

*chapter 9
The teaching profession

I totally agree with this chapter. Sometimes teacher don’t really care about their students’ learning. Many of them are used to taking education as a simple job and they don’t give all what they should in a classroom, at least they should be warm to show their students that they are welcome in order for learning to take place for a long time period. It’s sad to see teachers that treat their students as if these were not persons. Many teachers decide to become teachers just because that is a short major, and many others work as teachers because that’s the only resource they have to get a monthly salary. What I like about this is that there are still many teachers that really love teaching and thank to those teachers there are still effective education for some students.

*chapter 10
leadership

Leaders are important in the improvement and the effectiveness of a school. I totally agree with this chapter when it says that many leaders have become leaders for accidents or because the circumstances require so, and I think that’s why the educational world is not having the success that it should. What everybody needs now are not only leaders with the desire and the eager of innovating the education system but also students with the same desires because leaders alone cannot establish the right foundation for lifelong learning at the schools.

*chapter 11
Firm foundation

Education is constantly changing due to its policy, but what happens is that its policies are not strong enough to make a firm foundation of the education. However, they are in the way of achieving it, I really liked when I read that the leaders intend to modernize comprehensive education to create inclusive schooling that provides a broad, flexible and motivating education that recognizes the different talents of all children and delivers excellence for everyone.
So, I just can say that achieving an excellent education and help students to learn for life is not impossible. The world just needs innovator teachers and pupils with the desire of learning for life.

Pictures that show some seconds of the presentation "how to teach pronunciation"

Comment about the feedback I received during my presentation

To have received feedback from my classmates (Gonzalo Chavez, Karla Clemente and Walter Contreras) and especially from the teacher Edgar is something that will help me to improve my language skills, to improve the way I behave when I am teaching and to be aware and self-correct when I mistake.

Well, my presentation was about “how to teach pronunciation” by the way it was in-group of three and I worked with Oscar Jeronimo and Adolfo Bermudez (I guess we were a good team!)During the presentation, I had to talk about tips on how to approach the pronunciation issue.It last almost seven minutes, then I had to do a microteaching, and at last, I received the next feedback:
In my strength, the judges said that I was enthusiastic, self-confident, use of mood attentions, involved the whole class, and that I kept eye contact.
In my challenges, the judges said that I have to slow down my speaking skill in order to be able to self-monitor to avoid mispronunciation problems. One of them said that I looked too serious while I was presenting (I didn’t notice about it, but I can say that I really enjoyed it), also he said that at the beginning I looked like if I was dancing! To hear that made me feel embarrassed.
In the microteaching, they said that I had to model what I asked my Ss to do for them to have a clear understanding of what they had to do. And I totally agreed with this because teacher must always be a model.

The teacher told me that I have improved my pronunciation; however, he told me that I made some mispronunciation mistakes. You know this is the main reason why I’m afraid of becoming a teacher, because my Ss will reproduce what I teach them. But I know that if I put into practice the feedback that I received, my pronunciation will start to improve.

So what I have to do from now on is to take into account these feedbacks, I know it’ll help me improve the things that I need to overcome. What will be more difficult for me to overcome is to slow down the way I speak because it is by nature that I speak very fast, but since I feel the need to improve my pronunciation I will start putting into practice this tips.

Thank you for your feedbacks, and believe me that they were welcome in my life and for sure, I’ll put them into practice.

DRAMA

I think that teachers should make dramas part of the syllabi; I consider drama as an experience that bring success and joy in students life. I really love to perform dramas, when I was in high school my classmates and I performed a drama “el rey barba azul” it is three years ago, but I still remember it as if I am living it again.

The drama “Mona Lisa smile” that my classmates and I performed was meaningful in my life, I really enjoyed it, I was so excited that for a while I felt like if it was not me the one who was performing. That experience was wonderful, we practiced a little bit harder than I expected.  For me it was difficult to work in-group because I want people to think the way I think, but I learned that everyone is different and that we must respect the way someone is. I want to thank my drama’s classmates because they were nice at me and I learned a lot from them.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy them!

A teaching moment!

BOOK "LEARNING FOR LIFE" Chapters 4 & 5

* To what degree is teaching an art or a science? Do teachers need to make deep changes in the way they teach? Yes? No? Why?

In my opinion teaching is 100% not only an art, but also a science.Teaching involves more than having a person at the front of the classroom telling a group of Ss what to do, teaching involves a general and deep knowledge of every single detail not only related to education but also to society (science). Teaching is a dynamic process that can make Ss see learning as something beautiful, interesting, easy and useful, instead of seeing education as a hard process, or as homework, that requires pressures and worry. Teachers must be actors and their main goal must be to have Ss engage in task and make them feel the pleasures that learning brings (art).

I would say that all teachers do need to make changes in the way they teach because the Ss’ needs, interests, and objectives vary and change widely in each of them, and teachers have to adapt to the Ss necessities. However, making deep changes in the way the teachers teach depend on how well the teachers are at teaching, because if they want Ss to become good learners they must become better at the way they teach.  It is important to make deep changes in the way teachers teach because Ss learning capacity depends on how they are taught.