Monday, August 30, 2010
Si
Cuántas veces imagine verte frente a la puerta del vagón. Nunca pasó hasta hoy. Las puertas se abrieron y tu sonreíste, travieso. Mientras tus ojitos me decian "amémonos en silencio".
Friday, August 27, 2010
Amistad
Trescientos ochenta y un amigos en Facebook. Doscientos treinta y ocho contactos en MSN. Muchos amigos virtuales de todo el mundo. Domingo 23 de Agosto de 2009. Tengo miedo, me siento sola.
Verdes
05:30 am: Me levanto como todos los días lunes y viernes. En estos días no me importan el sueño, ni el cansancio, ni los apretones ni empujones.
07:00 am: Me duelen los pies, me contorsiono y el vagón huele a sudor.
15:30 pm: Tus ojos me ven y siento que valió la pena.
En el Golf
La encontré en El Golf. La amé toda la noche. En la mañana la sentí mía. Lamentablemente, ella se vendía.
Vagón lleno
Tomé el Metro en Las Rejas a las 07:05. Como avanzaba, más y más gente entraba. Llegamos a República y uno de mis mejores amigos se subió al vagón. Hace mucho no lo veía. Lo salude desde lejos porque se subió en la primera puerta. Se bajo en Los Héroes para hacer la combinación. Seguí mi camino pensando en llamarlo para que nos viéramos. Al llegar a mi casa lo llame por teléfono. Me contesto una mujer y me dijo que él no estaba. Nunca mas estaría.
Volando
Y subí. Vi todo desde arriba. Vi a toda la gente que quiero y que demuestra cuanto me quiso con el dolor que impregna sus ojos. También lo vi a él y no estaba triste. Ese amigo que quise tanto no derramó ninguna lagrima. Enojada lo seguí con la mirada hasta que se escondió detrás de esos árboles sin hojas. El escondía su dolor, su angustia y su arrepentimiento que le inundaba el alma por nunca decirme lo que sentía. Si tuviera un minuto para volver a la vida le diría que también lo amé y morí pensando en él.
Deberes
¡Pucha! Hubieron tantas cosas que no pude hacer. No pude llegar al aeropuerto para tomar el avión que me llevaría al paraíso con mi familia. No pude enseñar todo lo que quería ni en los lugares en donde quería. No pude escribir todas las historias que sin saberlo se escondían debajo de mi iceberg. Tantas fotos, tantos álbumes que no pude tomar ni llenar. Lo que pude hacer fue ir al supermercado ese día lluvioso. También pude sentir como todo en mi cabeza daba vueltas, mientras mi auto giraba. Lo último que pude hacer fue cerrar los ojos y morir.
Camino a Baquedano
Camino a Baquedano, te sentí tan cerca de mí. El vagón lleno y mi nariz olió tu aroma a varón con toque de ternura. Mi piel se estremeció cuando sintió tu abrazo. Mis ojos te buscaron en ese pajar de gente y no te vieron. Mis labios no gustaron de los tuyos. Y mis oídos no escucharon tus suspiros de amor. Probablemente, fue tu alma, amor, que me acompañaba en mi camino.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Diagnosis
In this paper we will analyze San Juan Evangelista School which is a private school located in Las Condes. In this diagnosis, we used the SWOT analysis method which analyzes Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. We were also able to label these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats under the categories mentioned in the Marco para
The second part of this report will contain all the strategies needed to improve these aspects according to the appropriateness of each of them and the possibilities given by the school and its environment. It will include all the improvement strategies taken from the theory and also our own experience from being part of this school community. The final aim of this paper is to visualize the aspects that need improvement and research about the best ways to accomplish it.
Leadership
Missing Principal (W)
After being a year in this school, we can bluntly say that we never met the principal of the school. His absence can be a great weakness because he is the one in the school to be leading its members to success and progress. His absence is at the same time providing the community members a sense of freedom which can be negative when other individuals take more power and their practices may deviate from the clear objectives the school has.
Department Meetings (S)
While the principal may not be very present, we have other members of the direction team making themselves present and leading their people to success and progress. This is the case of the very strong department meetings which were held once a week and where the discussion among professionals took place. This is where the main decisions were taken related to all the subjects and teaching practices. We could also see that each department had a chief that led the meetings and the teachers in their practices. What is important for us to highlight is that the time for the department meetings was established and all the departments had access to them. The UTP chief also had meetings with the department chiefs where they would discuss the different department problems and achievements.
Over present department chief (W)
Another weakness that we identified in this school was the over presence of the department chief. This means that teachers cannot be autonomous and make decisions of their own because the head of the department did not allow it. Teachers were not allowed to do what they wanted, in other words, there was no possibility for suggestion or new ideas. The department chief was the only one who was allowed to give his opinion about tests, teacher’s performance or new ideas. The rest of the English department had to follow the department chief’s ideas; after all, he was the only one who would approve or disapprove what an English teacher wanted to do in the school.
Curricular Management
High quality teachers (S)
As we all very well know, in a school we have different components. An important component is the students. As important as the students we have the teachers. As far as we could see, teachers in the school are effective in their teaching practices. For instance, in the English department all teachers do know their disciplines very well and have methodology to teach it. Without having observed all teachers in other disciplines, we can observe this because San Juan graduates do get good PSU results and later on attend university. In high school, teachers also help students develop their critical thinking skills by discussing society issues in all subjects such as History, Language and English. Therefore, teachers do care about students’ integral development rather than mere content.
Extracurricular Activities (S)
Another relevant strength in San Juan Evangelista was the promotion of extracurricular activities. Members of the direction, principal, teachers, students and parents were able to participate in several external activities of the school. For instance, pastoral for students, retirements for teachers and parents, many sports practice, workshops of art, field trips for teachers and students, reflective meetings during the weekend for all the school. These activities are extremely helpful and meaningful when building a comfortable and close community in which the instances of knowing others, sharing different experiences, points of view, ideas, projects, etc, could be constantly given.
Resources Management
Library or facilities in general (W)
If parents pay almost $200.000 pesos per student every month, they will expect some standard materials for students or at least accessibility and availability of the present resources. Due to the fact that we know the school, we can say that the amount of money the school receives is not shown, for example in the technological aspects, facilities or infrastructure. The amount of computers is definitely not enough for the amount of students. To have the opportunity to use a projector you need to have patience since you have to confirm availability or wait until some other teacher is done. (There is only one laptop to move around with the projector).
In terms of technological aspects, we believe that the school must have an improvement in the number of computers students have to work with. It is true that computers can be a multifunctional tool that can provide several facilities, but it is not the unique resource to improve language learning.
Another aspect in which the school facility is deficient is in the library. Those books that are the base of knowledge to consult are not enough for subjects and students' needs. A final aspect is the accessibility of the materials. Recently an order came from the head of the school: teachers could not print in the teachers’ room printer anymore. Instead they had to ask the head of the department for permission which limits the possibilities of having access to material from the internet. The accessibility and availability of material resources is definitely affecting the school progress.
Internship and ELAB(O)
One of the biggest opportunities we could observe is the acceptance of internships and ELAB students. The school greatly values the incorporation of pedagogy students in many disciplines such as Physical Education, English, History and Elementary into the school community. Teachers really benefit from having university students because they can have a change on their methodologies. We bring several new and fresh ideas to the school and are able to develop new projects for the school. Apart from helping teachers, we are an aid in giving feedback especially with the more receptive educators. In this constant exchange of methodology, new ideas and information related to teaching, we value the inclusion of internship and ELAB in the school. Moreover, both sides will be fully enriched with new experiences and thoughts that will help teachers and internships to develop their jobs in a better way. That is to say, they will be consciously aware that, for example, peer observation is positively needed in order to improve teacher or future teachers’ performance or methodology inside the classroom.
Organizational Climate and Environment Management
Parents (T)
One of the threats that we could see is the parents' demand about their children's learning. This is a school with high quality education and very professional teachers that need to maintain a standard level of education in comparison to the schools in Chile. Parents' demands can influence the school environment if it is not well administrated. Parents can be very influential in the way they want teachers to do their jobs or the educational aspects they want their children to receive. In fact, parents can affect the school climate positively or negatively according to their expectations and the answers they receive from the school leaders.
Lack of collaborative work (W)
One of the weaknesses that we saw in this school was the lack of collaborative work. The problem was that teachers work independently focusing only on their work, in other words, they never share experiences or ask for suggestions from other teachers. The problem in this case is that there is no connection between what one teacher does in one class and what the other does in another class. If there is no collaborative work, there is no feedback; therefore, teachers do not have opportunity to improve their teaching practice.
Transfer of Responsibilities (T)
One of the changes that the last decades have brought to schools is the transfer of responsibilities from parents to teachers. Most of parents look for a quality school because they are considering what their children will receive from it, in terms of content, strategies and even values. This situation can enormously affect the school climate because teachers can be overwhelmed by the amount of responsibilities they need to achieve inside and outside the classroom which can be influenced directly by the relationship among them and the school administrators.
Parents' Participation (O)
One important characteristic that we saw at the moment of being at San Juan Evangelista's school, it is the participation of parents as active characters of it. In fact, they were very present in the school environment as well as in external activities the school has. In several occasions we observed that, at the moment students entered to the school, parents were able to leave them inside of it and even in their own classrooms. All parents knew all teachers and were able to speak to them at any moment. Moreover, parents showed a lot of interest in students' learning processes as well as the kind of education their children receive. These situations have huge impact in the development of the school as a learning community in which all the participants are included.
Improvements
In this section we will offer some solutions as of how to improve the weaknesses and threats present in this school diagnosis.
Missing Principal (W)
The principal of a school is one of the main characters and administrators of the institution. That is why, we believe it is very important that he or she can understand his or her role and accomplish it in all sense. The principal must be present in every activity of the school, for instance in financial operations, students' problems, students' discipline, school management, promotion of the school program, teachers' performances and other school matters. Moreover, it is essential that the school leader can be an active part of the teaching and learning process in the school. They have to monitor and guide teachers in their performances and identify, beforehand, weaknesses so that they can help to improve teachers’ practices.
The duties and responsibilities of the principal should also be clear. For example, considering and engaging all the members in the decisions, projects or programs of the school. This way, he or she will be promoting collaborative work, resulting in a more committed community. Furthermore, principals are also in charge of including parents in the community of the school. They have to inform parents when behavioral problems arise, when students are having problems with their performances, and also be willing to listen to parents when they have concerns about some teachers or their own child. We strongly believe that, the active participation of the principal can support the environment of the school, the success of its characters and the progress of the whole learning community.
Over present department chief (W)
One of the solutions for this weakness is to stop having a hierarchy with the relations between the department head and the teachers. Thus, the relationships should be open and direct between all teachers. Without having a hierarchy, teachers can become more autonomous and more interested in the aspect of leading their department to better practices. Otherwise, teachers disconnect from the responsibility of learning together and building a learning community and give that responsibility to the head of the department.
Library or facilities in general (W)
The solution is to change the focus of the importance of the material resources for the school. With the amount of money parents pay to have their children in the school, the management should provide the required amount of money to update their resources and to buy more books, computers and projectors. However, owning more books or more computers is not the only solution because the problem of accessibility is also present. Therefore, a plan should be created so that every resource is available for students and teachers. This plan can be a schedule or different rooms for the library and computer laboratory among others.
Parents (T)
One of the ideas that can be applied to face this situation is to promote parents meetings more often and also, inviting subject teachers to promote a community learning more than just giving a description of the students' learning processes. These meetings could be once a month but including parents' work at home. For instance, the head teacher could invite some subject teachers to create and develop certain topics to talk about which promote learning in more aspects than just school content. Having these ideas in mind, a journal can be created in which parents and students could work at home, reflecting about this and considering their children's likes and opinions. Then, once a month parents will come to parents meetings with more processed reflections and information in order to give opinions and suggestions about how to improve their children's learning, and not just waiting for a report from the head teacher about what is happening with their children. First of all, the idea is to promote learning inside and outside the school, make parents realize that learning is a complex process that involves everybody around students, and finally, consider parents meetings as a place to start building a community of learning where everybody learns from the rest of people involved in the school.
Lack of collaborative work (W)
In order to improve this situation our proposal is to have meetings during the week apart from the one that they have once a week as the English department. In this school, there are two English teachers per class; therefore, there is a necessity of communication between them that does not exist. With one meeting per week, teachers could inform about problems inside their classroom that need a timely solution, they can also discuss certain issues that can be happening inside the classroom and ask for feedback from their colleagues. Finally, teachers can also propose activities related to their subject in order to improve students' learning and teacher's performance. If there is no communication or feedback among teachers, nobody tells you when you are doing a good job or when you need to improve certain aspects. Collaborative work helps teachers to know whether they are going on a good track or if they need to apply certain changes in their teaching practice. Teaching is a process that involves every person inside a school.
Transfer of Responsibilities (T)
First of all, the school curriculum has to include the parents' role expected to promote students learning. This means that parents know that this school will be different than others because there is an involvement required from parents more profound that in other institutions. This involvement means: being informed about their children's performance; becoming a continuous support at home for their children; and being aware of their responsibility in their children's learning so, giving proposals to improve the learning environment at school. All these elements can work if the head teacher is continuously promoting and listening to parents, but at the same time, informing parents that there are some aspects such as methodology, tasks aims and processes that need to be decided based on the teachers' knowledge.
The inclusion of parents in certain decisions is fundamental in order to let them know which are the responsibilities of teachers and the ones of parents. Schools are the place where learning occurs but not the only one. For instance, parents need to be informed that what their children do at home influences directly their disposition, motivations and performance at school. Therefore, parents need to take the responsibility of educating their children, while the school gives them (parents and students) the appropriate tools to accomplish it.
With “The Framework for Good Management” as a reference we were able to diagnose the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that can be observed in the San Juan Evangelista School. We later on took the weaknesses and threats and propose several solutions, mainly taken out of the several texts we read as a requirement for this course, as of how to improve them. We believe that these improvement can be easily done because it mainly requires plenty organization and will.
Letter
Mr. President,
Due to the current situation in our educational system, I feel I must be part and state my opinion. I took the liberty of doing so because I feel I am qualified by experience to expand your knowledge on the current state and provide you with the reason I think is causing big problems in our education.
One of the biggest problems I have been able to observe and the cause I truly believe is causing most of the problems in education is the lack of importance our society gives to education. I must be bold and state that these problems can find a solution by the active participation of parents in the school community. The incorporation of parents to our daily practice is an urgent matter. When we have to deal with students that do not understand the importance of education, we are also dealing with parents that do not understand it. Therefore, it is essential that parents can be included in the activities of our students in order to build a learning community.
Once we make our parents understand that education is essential in the lives of any participant in this society, we will find a way of encouraging our students to become responsible of their learning processes. I was able to make this conclusion after observing different realities. In private schools, teachers do not have to fight with the students so that they learn because they already understand that in order to become a citizen of this society they must be educated. However, teachers in the public sector need to fight everyday with students that simply do not care about their education process and that see no benefit in being educated. Once we can incorporate parents in the educational process, we will be able to transmit it to our students.
Who am I?
I have always thought that I do not have much to say about me. My name is Carolina Jiménez. I am 22 years old now! I am from Santiago, although I lived in San Antonio for 8 years, and live with my parents and younger sisters.
I think I have lived a good life with the normal ups and downs. I truly love my family and many times I do not like going out because I rather stay at home with my sisters. I am the older one; therefore, I have always had to be the role model which is something I do not dislike since I am very quiet and academically successful: something all young women ought to be. Anyhow, I feel my younger sister who is 19 feels a lot of pressure to become more successful which does not contribute to a healthy sister-sister relationship.
I love reading so much that I spent some of my free time doing it, but I do many other things too. I like watching films, and dancing. I have been considered by my family a communist and a feminist but I like the latter description better. In my short life, my major achievement has been learning a foreign language. English has completely changed my life and I feel so happy that I have achieved it properly. I am glad that I made the decision of studying English Pedagogy because since the very first class I have felt that this is the right place for me to be.
During my years at the university, I have discovered my biggest flaw: lack of assertiveness. I am too abrupt to say things and people misunderstand me most of the time. Thus, I really want to develop my assertiveness because it is an extremely important concept when dealing and sharing with people. As you know, many times you have to be assertive especially with your students and colleagues, but assertiveness will be helpful in your entire life with every relationship you build. Thus, after you become aware of this problem you need to work on it because it will be essential in life.
University is a place where you encounter many different situations and especially a place where one is changed entirely. In my opinion, I have changed so much, but I like what I see know because I became a more intellectual, independent, passionate and committed person. University has definitely changed my perspectives and without a doubt is the best thing that has happened to me so far!
Final Reflections
Reflections: 11th Grade
May 10th: Today was my first class with the 11th Grade. I was a bit nervous because I thought that things were not going to work. I was able to observe the class for two weeks and I was able to notice that the students did not care about English. Girls were more worried about putting on make-up and boys were more worried about talking to their friends and playing with their cell phones. We did a listening lesson and I was able to manage through the pre and while activities. I can say this class was successful because it could have been a total mess. I was able to engage students and monitor their work. They were used to doing one activity every class, but with me they did around five considering that I also spent time introducing the class rules. These were: no use of bad words, no insults, no more make-up or cell phones in the class and use as much English as you can.
May 14th: Today we finished the listening lesson and everybody was able to go in front and share with their classmates what they did. I think this is important because students need to develop self-confidence in what they are doing. They need to trust in themselves and believe they can do activities with the language. They need to feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the class and say “We did something amazing in English class. We created a magazine”. Otherwise, they may feel they are wasting their time. The reading lesson was good. Again, I managed to go through the pre and while activities; therefore, I think I need to shorten the activities or plan less. I think students are just adapting to the new style of the class and I should give them time. Otherwise, they will feel overwhelmed and they will not be so willing to participate feeling like that.
May 17th: Today was not a good day compared to the previous ones. Students were not collaborating in the class and that really made me feel frustrated. I managed to finish the reading post activity which took around 30 minutes and we began working on the listening lesson. When we were doing the pre of the listening lesson, I could see that they were not doing the activities even though I was monitoring them. My first thought was: I should not do any group work. But, it would not be very smart to think that I should stop using group work in class. They needed something else. Therefore, I stood in front and started talking to them about the importance of learning. I also told them that they should be consistent and start complaining about the education here and not in the streets and that they should take advantage of the good teachers they have in the school. I told them they deserve the best education as any other student in the country and that they should demand it from teachers. I think it was a good talk and ever since things improved a 100%.
May 24th: Today the students created an acrostic so as to finish the first unit. The topic was FRIENDS and they worked with the dictionaries and with the book. This was done in about 40 minutes. I think it was a lot, so maybe I should give them less time to work so that they work under pressure. Later on, we had a Quiz for which I had told them the vocabulary that would help them understand the listening and reading passage. It seems to me that they do not know how to behave in a test. They were constantly talking and making jokes. I think I could have handled them better. At least, I told them to be respectful with the classmates that needed silence in order to concentrate. They started working more quietly.
May 28th: I gave them the quiz back and quickly review it with them. The grades were not so bad, so I felt happy because I was giving them enough practice in reading and listening comprehension. We had another listening class and I managed to lead them in the pre, while and post activities. It all worked out well.
May 31st: Today they took a test. The test was created by me and I evaluated reading and listening comprehension as well as language functions such as: reported speech and giving advice. These had all been practiced in class. They were again very noisy and did not behave properly for a test. I told them to be quiet, to be respectful, and I got mad because they were not listening to me. I did not know what to do. I guess it is hard to change their behavior when they are so used to it. Anyway, they took the test and the results were shocking. Not a single above 4 mark. All of them had below 4 marks. I firstly thought the test was too hard, and it was. I also thought about their attitude in class while taking the test. But, I guess there are deeper issues which can be explained as a poor language basis.
June 4th: Today we worked with the test. I spent the entire class talking about the test. I had several hypotheses, but I needed to know what they had to say. I entered the classroom and asked them to be quiet. I said the results of the test were not good. I told them that their behavior had not been appropriate and that I thought it was amazing that in 11th grade they behaved like that. I thought it was shocking to see that I had to teach them how to behave in a test if they had been in school for almost 12 years. I asked them if they do the same in every class and the answer was yes. I felt lonely. I thought I will have to do something and teach them that because it is my responsibility. After talking about it, I asked them to look at their tests and tell me what it is they have problems with. This was the best thing I could have done because I gave them the responsibility of their learning. The answers were: “the accent is strange”, “they speak too fast”, “I need more vocabulary” and “I do not know the sounds of the written words”. I thought Bingo! They need to connect the written form and the spoken form of the words. They know the words when they are written but they do not recognize it when it is spoken. I said “we will work with songs”. They also gave me proposals in order to solve their difficulties. They said we should use American English in the listening, we should study more vocabulary and we should practice more. I told them that we could do some changes in class and the rest was up to them. It was a good class and I felt I could teach these kids well.
June 7th: Today we did a reading lesson. It was the first reading of the second unit. I managed to go through the pre and while activities. Students discussed about preconceptions and culture. Students behave pretty well and I think things are going well. Although I feel alone because the teacher is not in the class, I think it has been an advantage because the students recognize me as the teacher and that has made my job a bit easier.
June 11th: Today we did the reading post activities that were missing last class. It was an important day because we began the final project: Readers’ theater. They had to form the groups, designate the characters and read for the first time the scripts. They had to answer the following questions about the story: What is the story about? Who are the main characters? Which are their characteristics? And which feelings can you identify with the story and the characters. I could sense students were very excited with the project.
June 14th: Today we did a listening lesson. The topics were magazines and teenage culture. Students behaved pretty well and we managed to go through the pre, while and part of the post. During the post they were invited to design a magazine on their own where they could decide which sections they wanted to include and how they were going to make it. I like this type of activity because students feel they do something in class instead of only listening to a teacher. Someone said once: “Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.”
June 18th: Today students finished their magazines. They also worked on their autobiography draft. The autobiography is a task where students can see how their writing level is. They, during the last 30 minutes, continued practicing their scripts for the readers’ theater.
June 21st: Today we did not have class. Football match Chile v/s Switzerland.
June 25th: Today students answered a small interview. The questions were the following:
1. Do you think this school gives you enough space for giving your opinion regarding any topic?
2. Do you think this school should give you enough space for giving your opinion regarding any topic?
3. Which activities do you think could be used in English classes so that you can give your opinion?
They were also asked to write briefly about my performance and attitude. I wanted full honesty from them; therefore, I told them they were not asked to write their name on the paper. They continued practicing their readers’ theater.
July 2nd: Today we did a final rehearsal of the readers’ theater. They were doing well, so I was really satisfied. I gave them the entire class to continue practicing and I was monitoring the groups because some of them needed a lot of help with the pronunciation. I also took the tests that were pending.
July 5th: Today was the last day. Students performed their readers’ theater and I evaluated them. Later on they had schedule a rehearsal for the PSU, so I could not even thank them for what they taught me throughout the semester. They made me remember why I should be a teacher and that is great! I learned with them that I love teaching and that was really important to me.
As a final reflection for my classes with this group, I can say that I am grateful to all of them because they learned many things not only related to English, but to life. They became more respectful to each other and that was an important step. They began to feel more interested in their education. They also acknowledge me as the teacher, and that was a great advantage for me. I can say this experience was very successful.
Reflections: 12th Grade
May 28th: Today was my first class with the 12th grade. We did a reading lesson which was the first in the 2 unit. This unit dealt with discrimination. In the past week, I was able to observe that students are not very interested and they do not have much discipline inside the classroom. I was able to lead them through the pre, while and post. However, there is little participation from the students. This is what called my attention the most.
May 31st: Today we did a listening lesson. Again, we managed to go through pre, while and post activities. I think the reason why I am finishing the lesson is because I shorten the pre and while and put more emphasis on the post activity. Anyhow, there is still little participation from the students. Even though I try to give them food for thought, they do not react. I am shocked by the passivity of these students.
June 4th: Today we did a second listening which dealt with important heroes for their fight against discrimination. They were more involved today and I think that happened because they knew the people. It was a familiar topic for them. At the end of the class, students had time to prepare their movie presentation. During the last two classes we will watch a film and students need to present a movie so that the entire class can vote for a movie.
June 7th: Today we did a reading lesson. I do not know why students were so noisy today. They are not very nice and they are always questioning my position as the teacher. They are constantly telling me that the teacher is Claudio and that I have no right to evaluate or grade them. I did not fight or discuss with them. I just told them that I was the teacher now and that if they disagreed they should speak to Claudio. It was a tense moment, but I think I managed to solve it successfully.
June 11th: Today the class was suspended because of electric problems in the classroom.
June 14th: Today students took a test. The test I used was not created by me: it was a test from the book. I could also notice that these students had no discipline when they have to take a test. I do not know how students in 12th grade do not know how to behave. Why do teachers allow this to happen? Probably because they could not care less. At the end of the quiz, students had time to prepare their movies’ presentation which was due next class.
June 18th & 21: During these classes students presented their movies. This presentation was in groups and students were given the evaluation rubric two classes before. I think the presentations were regular: nothing out of this world. But, I also think this was the first time students spoke in English in front of the class. I could notice they were very nervous. I also think there are problems such as reading in the presentation that should be solved in Spanish class. I guess that is the way they present and nobody teaches them how to do it differently.
June 25th: Today students only had one hour because they asked me to give them the other hour to prepare for the match between Chile and Switzerland. I agreed because I could manage to use the first hour in a speaking lesson. I handed them different pieces of paper which had different questions on them. They were working in pairs and later in groups of four. They asked each other the question and elaborated on the answers. It was a fun activity and students told me they really liked it. They said that maybe next time we could do it as a class and students could ask another an specific question. I think that is a great idea.
July 2nd and 5th: Today students watched the movie. All grades were settled and we had already finished with the second unit.
As a final reflection, I can say that this class was a bit harder on me. I could not be acknowledged as the teacher which was a disadvantage for me. They were constantly questioning my position which made me feel insecure since I had little control over them. Although Claudio was in the classroom, he helped just a little on discipline. Most of the time, he was talking to students while I was teaching. I think I tried to give them plenty of space for discussion, but they were never motivated to participate. It was a real challenge for me, but I also learned very much about my teaching skills and how to deal with difficult classes. Even though this class was more complex than the other, I can also say that this was a successful and enriching experience.
Case Study
Developmental Information
· Student: M. M.
· Class: English
· Grade Level: 11th grade
· School: Liceo Cervantes
In this document you will find the description of M’s developmental domains development. Also, you will learn about this student: About her context and development. After the description of each domain and how developed it is, you will find a brief description of the actions to take place in order to help her develop the underdeveloped domains.
M is a more or less developed student because she has reached an age in which most of her domains should be developed successfully. M is seventeen at the moment and is currently in 11th grade in the public school Liceo Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra located in Agustinas. M should be located in the Formal Operational Stage because she has developed her domains and is no longer located in the Concrete Operational Stage. I have observed her and she proves to be developing herself in the Formal Operational Stage. Some of her domains are more developed than others as you will note in the following description. I have found out that she has not been diagnosed with any type of learning disorder or any developmental domain problem.
In this report, I will be using the stage of the Formal Operational and the SPICE model for the developmental domains. The SPICE domains are: Social, Physical, Intellectual, Creative and Emotional.
Social Domain
It is easy to observe that M has some difficulties when dealing with other people especially male classmates. M can sometimes become really aggressive when they bother her which shows that she has not entirely developed her sense of identity. She has neither developed the understanding of her emotions and feelings. It is hard for her to understand her feelings and demonstrate them positively or even control them. Therefore, when she is being bothered, she does not control her anger and lets it all out. Hence, my only attention is on the social developmental domain. It was easy to observe that this domain has not been fully developed and there is still plenty of work to do. However, she does keep healthy relationships with most of her female classmates and seems to have no problem in dealing with teachers or other members of the school.
Physical Domain
M has successfully developed her fine and gross motor skills. I have proof of that after reading several pieces of homework where I could see that she did not have any problems with her handwriting. I have been able to observe her movements and she does not look floppy or uncoordinated either. Besides, I have known that M has been practicing dance for many years with one good friend and classmate. Therefore, her physical development has been developed completely. Moreover, she does keep a positive attitude towards health issues which proves that she has successfully developed the physical domain. Besides, M can see and hear well.
Intellectual
M seems to have no problems in the development of the intellectual domain. I have been able to look at the class register book and she does not have any problem in any subject. The main problem I have observed in this domain is the short concentration span. However, I might say that the reason for this is that she has an underdeveloped concentration span, but with what I have been able to observe I think that she gets discouraged or disconnected from the class because the activities are not interesting or because she has other things in her mind such as: Relationships, family or economic concerns. In the language aspect she has acquired sufficient vocabulary to relate to people in both informal and formal situations. She also shows different forms of communication using both verbal and non-verbal language.
Creative
As mentioned previously, I have been able to observe that M is very creative and artistic. She dances for a few years now and she is able to express her feelings with the dance. Also, I have been able to observe some of her works for the art class and they are very subtle and expressing plenty of who she is. I think that she is already developed in this domain.
Emotional
Although this is extremely connected to the social domain, the emotional domain also deals with the development of self-awareness and self-confidence. In this aspect, I think that M needs help to complete her development. She is not so aware of who she is and many times that interferes with her social domain development. Also, she has some difficulties for understanding her feelings and emotions and this as well interferes with her relationships with classmates.
As described in this report, M’s biggest problems with development are in the social and emotional domains. They are intertwined and they affect mutually to the development of the other. Therefore, the main emphasis is to work on these domains to help her in her development. The main aspect to work on right now is self-control. As a first step I need to help her become aware of her circumstances, feelings and place she takes inside the classroom. Marshall and Stern state that “self-awareness is the process of focusing attention on one’s thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors in order to understand what they are, where they come from, and what they mean” (2004). For that, I have to help her becoming aware by asking the right questions when a situation arises. For example, if M hits a classmate after he said something to her I should be able to ask her questions such as: How did you feel when he said it? How did you feel when you hit him? What else could you have done instead of hitting him? Do you think you can talk to your classmate and sincerely ask him not to bother you anymore? Why? A second step is to help her define her feelings and emotions. Many times adolescents react wrongly because they do not what they feel. Therefore, certain questions such as: I feel guilty when…, I hate it when…, I feel overwhelmed when…, I feel relaxed when…, I feel upset so I…, and many other statements that students need to complete, will become an exploration of M’s feeling and emotions and she will realize what feelings arise under different circumstances.
The intervention will continue by preparing different meetings with M in which I will use some input such as: Poems, videos, short stories and others. After working with the input, several questions will be asked, mostly problem solving questions, so that M can identify herself with the characters and with the situation and she can find solutions to the situations and start using them in her own life.
References
Borgen, William and Amundson, Norman. Models of Adolescent Transition. Child Development Institute. http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/teens_stages.shtml
Marshall, Claudia and Stern, Robin. Understanding Emotions in the Classroom. New York: DUDE Publishing, 2004.
Papalia, Diane, Wendkos, Sally. Psicología. Mexico DF: McGraw-Hill, 1988.
Wikipedia. “Early childhood education”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_childhood_education
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