The Cross for Learning

Prior to this post I stated that I saw diminished the ignoramus in me. Well, I was right… and I wasn’t. I think I’ve learned a couple of things concerning learning, at least theoretically. That small achievement reflects that I’m aware of some more issues of which I was not before. At the same time, now I’m aware of a lot more things that I actually do not know… and that awareness implies an increase in my little ignoramus as well.

What to do from now on? Keep on learning. Definitely. Such a never-ending task, in time, shall not lead me to acquire more wisdom –of which I can rest assured. If anything, it will supply me with an insightful way of living, and that is nothing to despise.

Will I happen to teach? So it seems, provided the offers I have come across these days. Will it come along alright? Of that, there’s still nothing I can say, but I cross fingers.

Language, in itself, is supposed to be easy. It just so happens, I like to make the easy complicated. That’s why, in the future, I would like to study philology and linguistics. As a future psychologist, I have developed a few theories on my own concerning these fields. Who knows. Maybe I have something to do in this world other than just passing by while I pass away. Something to give. Something to share… or die trying. In my case, it turns out to be even more important, for I’ve got a tiny seed to feed and water.

I want to thank my teacher Ellen Graber for sharing her knowledge with me and giving her best at every step of the way, even though there were times we did not cooperate the way we should have. I want to thank my comrades, the ones I made during the term of this, quoting Ellen, wonderful  journey of self-discovery, for all their friendship and support –a special mention is due to Heber for not allowing me to give up. Thanks for keeping beside me, Heb!- I know there’s more, guys.

A whole life expects us. Let us seize it!

Hi everybody! Guess what! This is, by and large, my longest post ever. That’s right. Want to guess? Believe it or not, there are 11,955,355 words in it! Oh, you don’t believe me, do you? Dive into this document:  WHAT I’VE LEARNT.

See you around!

ERRATA

In a previous post, I had stated that Bloom’s Taxonomy could relate to the different levels of the CEFRL. Mea culpa! Still, I thinki it would be hard for a beginner to locate, for instance, in the Evaluation level requirements.

Anyway, more than anything else, the Taxonomy looks quite helpful for making up exercises appliable to evaluating how much the learner advances through knowledge acquisition… as long as you find a fair way to develop such evaluations. Take a look at the example below to see how I think the Taxonomy could be applied.

Task to exemplifying how to apply the Taxonomy

After reading silently this text about the Lacandons, I suggest the activities beneath the reading:

The Lacandons are a group of people who live in a region called “The Caribal,” on one side of the Lacantun River and also along the West Bank of the Usumacinta River in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. The number of Lacandons living in the area is about 1,000. Lacandon, in the Mayan language, means “big stone.”

This tribe lives in the tropical forest where it rains very much. Some Lacandons live in huts that they build with corn stalks, while others live in huts with palm roofs  and no walls, and many Lacandons still live in caves or under trees.

Both men and women wear long, loose tunics and have long hair. They believe that long hair means a long life. That is why they never cut it off.

They are mainly farmers and grow corn, beans, fruits and vegetables. They also fish and hunt. The Lacandons work very hard every day making canoes, nets, hammocks, flutes, bows and arrows, and pottery. They also weave cloth.

(Taken from: Hess Federico, Astivia Susana, Ramírez Eliseo. A close-up of English. EPSA. México, 1994)

1. Knowledge: List 3 different things the Lacandons do for a living.
2. Comprehension: Have you ever seen anybody weaving cloth?
3. Application: Choose 2 types of shelters and/or buildings Lacandon population live in.
4. Analysis: Compare the kind of life people from modern cities have to that of the Lacandons and write a short excerpt reflecting the differences between them.
5. Synthesis: Compose a short essay about your own environment and its characteristics, based on the reading about the Lacandons above.
6. Evaluation: What advantages and/or disadvantages do you find in the lifestyle of the Lacandons’?

After going through the test on multiple intelligences calculator, according to the results, the specific areas where my intelligence concentrates most are:

Linguistic (Word Smart)

Kinaesthetic (Body Smart)

Intrapersonal (Myself Smart)

The rates were the highest in those specific areas. Awesome!

As I know myself very well, I think this could be a good lead when I happen to teach in the future: Whenever I run into a pupil with the same attitudes that I have, dealing with him and his needs will be piece of cake! Of course, this could also be applicable to those cases in which the student doesn’t seem to show any likeness with me whatsoever. Specifically, everybody must have a certain degree of linguistic, or kinaesthetic, or intrapersonal intelligence. If I am well aware of what particular intelligence prevails in my students, I think I can perform my duty better.

I like teamwork. It helps you get things faster, if speed if something we pursue. And if we don’t, we should!!! Just think: We live in a world that changes rapidly, so we’re allowed by no means to let time slip away. Nowadays, in this new environment, we must achieve goals… and there’s always a deadline for them.

So, whatever helps to get the work done is to be taken into consideration. And whatever gets the work done TODAY, is to be followed nonstop. We are to learn skills that put us in the track of taking advantage of time the best way we can.

One of those skills refers to what I call “matrix structure”. Nope, I’m not making the term up. It goes back to logistics, organizational development. O.D. is a discipline that teaches us how to improve our performance at work –of whatever kind that work may be. This specific structure, the “matrix” structure, establishes different roles for different people at teamwork, ideally, based on what abilities each one of them possesses. The more divided the task is, the faster the outcome is produced.

Learning is an everlasting feature in my life. It is just something that stuck at some point, didn’t even notice how or when. As for me, learning is much more important than teaching; looking at it deeply, teaching never takes place: only learning occurs.

One particular verse from the Mishna whose assessment I really agree with is “Whoever learns for the sake of teaching will be offered the opportunity to learn and teach, but whoever learns for the sake of performing, will be offered the opportunity to learn and to teach, to keep and to perform.” (Avot 4:6) True! When the main purpose behind the appropriation of (whatever) knowledge leans on other different than putting it into practice, its valuable decreases, not to mention its results.

Learning makes us human. It is a process that appeals to a self-discovery journey as well as to an admonition which leads us to take what is still in a state of flux and turn it into matter. A spark from within that expects its turn to reveal itself in the outside and ignite, lighting our lives with meaning in the process. The way I see it, further intentions constitute a hoax.

Here, a few considerations concerning social constructivism: VYGOTSKYVSPIAGET

And my personal Learning Style: LS

I happened to check some useful tools included in the On-line Speaking (http://onlinespeaking.tumblr.com/)webpage. Really amazing! All those wonderful ideas lead me to use them with my would-be students. If we talk about teenagers, ages 13-18, we mustn’t forget they’re in search of identifying themselves through their own personal preferences. Each one of them has something to say about their world, their lives and their tastes.

 So, I think a good way to engage them in the learning process is to make them podcast on their blogs. Podcast what? Anything they feel comfortable with. Does Paquito enjoy metal music? Make him develop a lecture or dissertation about his favorite bands. If Laurita feels cozier talking about role-playing games, let her do it. Believe it or not, when I was a teenager I would have love being encouraged to express my views on political issues!

 How to go about it? Avoid anything that makes them feel awkward with. If they feel comfortable with making a video, let them. If they’re too shy for that, let’s not make them feel embarrassed – a voice recording would be just fine. Reading, improvising or reciting by heart? Their own abilities shall let them know.

 When to go about it? When we talk about expressing personal preferences in a foreign language it is quite obvious that only mid-level students could achieve such a task. In that stage, it wouldn’t be a bad idea advising them about complicated vocabulary they might not be familiar with, but they plan to include in their podcast, which would take one or two sessions of the class prior to recording.

 And after all the above has been carried out, what comes? Sharing. It is no use making them go through all that if their final product is to be ignored. Showing in class what they all have done will not only provide them with feedback from either their teacher or classmates. It will also offer them a forum to express their opinions. A raffle could be made to determine which video or playing comes first, and so on. They will love it! And you know what? I can assure you that lots of creativity will emerge from their own when you make them talk about something they love.

 When you make them talk.

 Make them talk.

 Make them.

Nowadays that proficiency in education seems to reach a well-developed improvement, it is no wonder that many of the traditional methods that everyone in my generation (I was born in 1982) or country (Mexico) had to go through or suffer once as pupils, have now had a KO downfall… which I find quite fair, especially when a quality learning is at stake.

One example I could (and will) refer to only as a sample is the famous verbatim-dictation system which teachers used to employ as fanatically as if they were to bring up would-be stenographers. And they would not hesitate in investing on such a narrow-minded and middle-age-type usage even for the slightest lesson… – well, maybe that is not completely true… perhaps I am just bringing back my most bitter images as a projection.

One of the particular areas in which such practice came out was the one concerning vocabulary. When new words were needed to take a grasp of the new topic in reference, neither dictation nor repetition would be missed.

A brief gloss about repetition: It couldn’t be truer that repeating leads to memorizing. And, the way I see it, what is learnt by heart won’t be forgotten by rote or even by lack of rote. BUT (and that’s a big but) there are so many things that we don’t get when we repeat, namely, a meaningful learning.

Right, a lot of information can be stored in the brain. My own experience as a student and a victim of traditional teachers might well prove it: “Spiders belong to the class arachnida, order areneae…”. Pause for laughs? OK, but so far I don’t even know what those terms mean, due at least as much to the fact that I never became a taxonomist as to how picayune that information turned out to be for a guy who, like me, would never deal with any spiders whatsoever other than those among my relatives!

Happily, on the other hand, when dealing with languages, there is no room for excuses when it comes to producing and endorsing new learning methods, as well as getting rid of those which are by no means to be utilized anymore! One of the particular and most important aspects of teaching a second language has to do with how to teach vocabulary.

One quick method I might suggest (especially if it is a child to whom the class is addressed) is playing. On this website you’ll run into a useful example: http://www.2flashgames.com/f/f-629.htm

Once those steps have been covered, it wouldn’t be a bad idea leading the student to categorizing what he’s learnt. I made this concept map as a sample:

Of course, the way we apply these techniques will vary depending on what tools we posses, ages of the students an so on (e.g., if we talk about little children we can leave connectors aside). But making them categorize – regardless of the conditions – , for me, is always a must.

If we rely quite aggressively on the principles of the so-called “distributed cognition”, we must yield to the assessment that emphasizes the importance of having a personal blog when it comes to acquiring new teaching skills. Indeed, the using of personal blogs is one of the main differences between the traditional methods of learning – which by no means rendered the electronic and/or cybernetic fields important – and the new tendencies on education that, whether we like it or not, are by and large the ones taking the floor nowadays. The possession of a personal blog, as well as its careful development, is one of the musts people intent on teaching must take into consideration – i.e., if they really want to get somewhere. 

One of the advantages to be mentioned about the teaching-learning process through websites is that there is a wide range of sources we can employ when designing ours, according to the personal preferences and aims everyone might be more willing to attend. For instance, some people will upload videos on their blogs if they want to display choices for a visual learning. Some other would much rather suggest exercises to be found on another links if they pursue the acquisition of another kind of skills through practice, and so on. The personal goals of the teacher – or the teacher-wanna-be – will determine what kind of website a particular person will create. 

One disadvantage, however, is that running into a website that offers a complete and comprehensive variety of choices for every kind of learner is rare. Most of times, these choices are quite limited and don’t fit into everybody’s necessities. That is why blogging should be seen as a challenging experience for improving teaching methods and not only as a reflection of the teacher’s preferences. 

Conclusively, every new step that leads us through the path of improving our abilities is but a great opportunity in the discovery of a new world. Let’s seek after it lest we miss it!

Welcome to your brand new blog at Edublogs.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

Also, if not already, please consider becoming an Edublogs Pro User – you can remove ads from yours and 50 other student blogs (which also get extra themes and mobile blogging), upload up to 10GB or audio, video and every other sort of content and access great features under your ‘Plugins’ menu.

And you get premium email support and over 130 extra cool themes too.

Pro users are what keeps Edublogs running and providing free blogs for education, so give it a go today

For assistance, visit our comprehensive support site, check out our getting started with Edublogs guide or stop by The Edublogs Forums to chat with other edubloggers.

You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.

And finally, if you like Edublogs but want to be able to simply create, administer, control and manage hundreds of student and teacher blogs at your school or college, check out Edublogs Campus… it’s like Edublogs in a box, all for you.

Thanks again for signing up with Edublogs!