Teacher Trails

Empezó como una idea chiquita, estábamos a finales del 2018. La idea: dejar nuestra casa, nuestro lugar y venir a Cartagena (España) a probar... ver si nos adaptábamos a un nuevo desafío, a "casi" empezar otra vez a esta altura de nuestras vidas. Probar si podíamos con el vértigo e inseguridad que genera dejar lo propio y conocido. ¿Porqué Cartagena? Hace algunos años, dos de nuestros hijos decidieron radicarse con sus respectivas familias, en Murcia y Dublín. Nosotros pasábamos el año planificando la próxima visita y las despedidas eran cada vez más duras. Con ese escenario y pensando cómo seguirían nuestras historias, pensamos que valía la pena intentarlo. Cartagena además de ser una hermosa ciudad, estaba a unos pocos kms de Murcia y desde el aeropuerto de Corvera (20kms de Cartagena) teníamos menos de 3 horas de vuelo a Dublin. Y comenzamos a proyectar, a poner en acción todos los miles de pasos previos para alcanzar la meta. Después de construir una vida juntos d...

These days, when globalization reigns and boundaries between countries are dissipating, a virus is calling us to do our best and share what we can. In our case, we feel that going back to social networks is fundamental to be with others and add our little grain of sand. In these circumstances, we are encouraged to contribute our experience and share what it was like to move into the virtual world on a previous opportunity ( influenza A (H1N1) in a K-12 school in Buenos Aires (June 2009). Once again this has become a necessity in order to shorten distances and continue with our work. With this in mind, we want to share what we learned and "harvested" from the mistakes and successes during that time. It is not our intention to "determine" how or what to do but, to open an invitation to think together what it means to teach in times of physical isolation.  We will try to present some ideas, even the most obvious ones; sharing our doubts, mistakes, concern...

What´s the topic today? Can you guess? If you could give a name to this image what would it be? Do you know who this person is ? Do you know what EI is? What is Emotional Intelligence? Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an inborn characteristic. Source: http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/a/emotionalintell.htm Let´s read an  analyze  the following article: 12 Elements of Emotional Intelligence   By Marcia Sirota MD Would you like to read some more? Here´s an article written in 1998 regarding Leaders and Emotional Intelligence What Makes a Leader?    by Daniel Goleman http://www.undp.org/content/dam/samoa/docs/UNDP_WS_TLDP2_Whatmakesaleader.pdf Sources:  OM Times:  http://omtimes.com/2010/08/12-elements-of-emoti...

A new year is starting.  It is a time when energy is at the top, we are full of expectations, projects, and ideas.  It is also a good time to reflect, consider and share views.  I´ve chosen 2 different inspirational videos from this site:  Best Kickoff Videos Choose one and generate your own video as a response. You can include your views on the topic, what you think, how it relates to your teaching situation. You can use your own photographs, images you get online, music... you can even record yourself!   Making your own video is very simple, probably one of the easiest ways is using   Windows movie maker   (you can download it from this site if you don´t have it in your computer already)  once you have it ready you can upload it to youtube and share it. 

As I was trying to "organize" all the files I have on my computer, I found this paper I wrote back in 1998. It feels strange to read what I thought and read back then...   The idea of computers in classrooms was science fiction for me at that time still, most ideas hold so very true.  My generation stands in awe as we see how much things change, mainly regarding technology and communications. Life has become so accelerated that changes are outdated before we can truly understand them and integrate them into our lives.  Immersed in this situation schools and teachers are facing complex questions: What should schools teach? What knowledge is essential? What knowledge will be most needed when our students leave school? Schools and teachers have a very important challenge ahead; provide our students with tools in order for them to live intelligently in today’s world and become useful members of society. John Holt in his book “ How children fail ” (1964) sustained “S...

Hace relativamente poco, que empezamos a hablar de modelo 1 a 1. Se generan debates, altamente constructivos y creo que todos buscamos lo mismo, entender, aprender, probar... porque en esto de la inclusión de las TIC "todos somos aprendices". Algunos piensan que este cambio pasa por las máquinas, la tecnología, el software, poniendo el acento en el manejo de herramientas.... quizás sea un punto de partida, amigarse con la tecnología, convertirse en usuario para explorar e iniciar el proceso de cambio. Pero EL CAMBIO no se detiene ahí, hay tanto más, ¡lo mejor recién empieza! La posibilidad de presentar situaciones problemáticas, trabajar en base a proyectos, contemplando los intereses de los chicos, dando lugar a sus aportes, sus preguntas, sus hallazgos. Compartiendo con los de cerca y con los de lejos, construyendo el conocimiento a partir de los saberes previos integrando los nuevos y los aportes de los otros. Borrando las paredes del aula y entregándose a la apasionante e...

Another great post by Dean Shareski “ How To Make Better Teachers “. His idea is clear and simple: use a blog, to connect with others, to tell them about what you are doing, to learn with and from others, and also to show your students you are ready to go through the experience yourself. It is also an excellent way so as to leave a trail of your daily activities, efforts, achievements, reflections, and more. There is a whole community of teachers ready to learn and share with you, so take the plunge and get a blog  How to Make Better Teachers If you still have doubts, here’s a great example of two teachers 565 miles apart who share their class experiences in this blog. So, if you think you are not ready to go alone, grab a friend and jump in hand in hand! Two Writing Teachers In my case, my blog is the place where I record my ideas, think with others, keep track of interesting material I come across. The closest thing to a box or folder where I keep my material, nowadays ...