To my "prodocencia"friends

Hi there fellows. I miss you already. Our course at UFTM was amazing besides interesting, meaningful, useful and very enjoyable. Here I want to thank, again, the coordinators Virginia, Angela, Eduardo and all the staff. Let's not say good-bye, let's say: See you soon.

Workshop:Becoming a reflective teacher

Workshop: Becoming a reflective teacher :6/6/2008
Presentation: Profa. Dra. Luciana M.Colucci – UFTM
Last Friday we were delighted in having Professor Luciana giving us a workshop about “becoming a reflective teacher”. It was very useful. We’ve worked on many questions like “What makes a good teacher”, talked and made many reflections on subjects like: “Don’t go on automatic! Focus and awareness is everything (Jean Houston), the importance of a regular reflection on teachers job and we had many discussions on a special issue “teachers roles”, when, during a lesson, teachers need to manage the activities and the learners in the classroom in different ways. These different kinds of behavior are called “teachers role”. Some roles teachers often use: Planner: prepares the lesson in detail before teaching, Informer: gives information about the language or an activity, Manager: organizes, make sure everything is running and sets up rules, Monitor: goes around checking learning, Involver: make sure everybody is participating, Parent/Friend: gives support when they don’t feel well, Diagnostician: recognizes difficulties, Resource: helps and gives advice. She gave us a message with a delicious chocolate bar that said”A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step….Take the risk…(Calvin and Hobbes). Be positive, be enthusiastic on your career, she told us.
At the end of the lecture we were supposed to watch a movie ”Emperor’s Club”, where William Hundert, a retired "old-school" classic teacher is passionate about his subject. Moreover, he strongly believes in moulding his students by using principles. However, his methods are put to the test by a new student, Sedgewick Bell who shakes Hundert's controlled world and threatens to undermine all that he stands for. Hundert's challenge is to change this young man while maintaining his integrity.
We were given a task to find in this film some of different roles that professor Hundert plays. I could realize that he took many roles, all above mentioned and many others in different situations, always having in mind he was dealing with human beings. It was a wonderful film, a wonderful workshop. Very comprehensive, useful and very enjoyable. And professor Luciana is very capable, nice and sweet . Congratulations.

Freddom Writers (the movie)

Hello everybody. I’ve recently seen an special movie that I would like to recommend:.The Freedom Writers Diary.It is the amazing true story of strength, courage, and achievement in the face of adversity. In the fall of 1994, in Room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, an idealistic teacher named Erin Gruwell faced her first group of students, dubbed by the administration as "unteachable, at-risk" teenagers. The class was a diverse mix of African-American, Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Caucasian students, many of whom had grown up in rough neighborhoods in Long Beach. In the first few weeks of class, the students made it clear that they were not interested in what their teacher had to say, and made bets about how long she would last in their classroom.
By fostering an educational philosophy that valued and promoted diversity, she transformed her students' lives. She encouraged them to rethink rigid beliefs about themselves and others, to reconsider daily decisions, and to rechart their futures. With Erin's steadfast support, her students shattered stereotypes to become critical thinkers, aspiring college students, and citizens for change. There is a Freedom Writers Foundation that uses innovative teaching methods to train teachers, in addition to providing scholarships for deserving students. Using the Freedom Writers Method, the Foundation actively addresses the problem with proven results in communities across the country.
Led by Erin Gruwell, with support from original Freedom Writers and other educators, the Institute is a year-long program centered on a five-day seminar designed to equip teachers with the innovative teaching tools they need to reach and empower their students.
I’m pretty sure you’ll like it and learn a lot besides having a good time of entertainment.

Let's have a pray to start our week?

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come,thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Poem by Emily Dickinson

The heart asks pleasure first
And then excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering;

And then, to go to sleep;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.

Emily Dickinson
(1830-l860)

Pre -Teaching Training Course-Technological Devices-Professor M. Nilce

Technological Devices (May 9/2008 and May 16/08)
Professor Maria Nilce emphasized that nowadays we all belong to the hightech generation. We are indeed the digital generation. We're inserted in a world, surrounded by computers, notebooks, i-pods, dateshow, pen-drives, internet, i-boards and so on.
As she argues we have to keep in mind that tech devices are only tools to help teachers. When to use it or how to use it in benefit of students, teachers will provide the answer. This modern way of teaching and learning is a result of a natural process of evolution, although, sometimes, we find teachers who resist to change instead of to try to adapt themselves, to follow the natural course of this process in order to achieve success on practice. Conflict may be constructive when its effect is to introduce different methods or techniques to deal with teacher's routine tasks.Students have an aim (to learn)and they need a motivation to keep interested day-by-day. Hightech devices can mean a big and pleasant approach.
M. Nilce also pointed out that an approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural and a technique can be implemented.
However, it's necessary to use common sense about how and how much to use these sources because, although new h.t.device means more dynamic and appealing classes, teachers must be careful before putting this method into practice.
First of all teachers must have a dominion about what they are going to teach.Also
be confident and prepare the contents well and in advance.
Hightech can also represents a time consuming that requires a special attention.
Educators must find their own ways to teach keeping in mind that students also have their own ways of learning and that each one is different from another one and carries different needs, aims and motivations.

Enya-The Celts