#4 Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish

Hi everyone!


This week, I saw for the first time a speech that touched me and turn back my desire to always continue learning new things. It was thanks to a wonderful speech made by Steve Jobs, a great example of constant learning process and new creating thinking.
  In this speech, Steve talks about the importancy of teaching what is really need to know for the students in their every day life. He also says that it is important to spend more time teaching about things that the students really have an interest in and wants to know more about. At the end of the day, what interests them may be necessary for their future.

"can not connect the dots looking forward, only looking back can do. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will join will give you the confidence to follow your heart. This approach has never betrayed me, and has made a difference in my life. "

It also highlights the idea of ​​never giving up and always have confidence in yourself. That attitude should be more worked in schools. but the questions is How? We should stop paying attention to the mistakes and instead seek solutions in order to learn how to not do the same misstake next time. It is useless if you will correct the same exercise to a student three times. What you have to do is to sit down with the student and find out where she/he fails so that he/she realizes and fixes it for the next time.

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Do not lose faith. Do not settle."

And the last advice Jobs offered, is to always be yourself. Know you and know what you really want to do. We are all different, we all have different interests and needs. Therefore, as teachers we need to know that each of our students is special. That each of them has something to teach and everyone can fight to achieve their goals. As teachers we need to encourage and support them to achieve their goals, we must believe in them. Part of his time is in our hands, so let's take the most of it.

"Your time is limited, so do not waste it living someone else's life. Do not let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And what is most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Somehow he already know what you really want to become. Everything else is secondary."

I love this speech. Thanks Steve Jobs.

Clara ***

#3 That's Halloween

Happy Halloween!

This Wednesday, I celebrated my first Halloween as an assistant professor at the college where I work. I was in the class of N2Y with children of four years. Throughout the week, the children had been singing different songs about Halloween, decorating their classrooms with drawings of skeletons and witches and had heard the book "Room on a Broom" by Julia Donaldson.

Children's audio book, "Room on a broom"

Each class had a crown of some fear. "My class" were called monsters in one eye. All children had left their uniform at home and instead they were wearing black dresses. The teachers also left out their uniforms and replaced them with black dresses decorated by cobwebs, bats and a witch's hat.

The whole school was decorated with drawings made of the ​​children of preschool and elementary. High school students went to elementary classes to explain stories they had written about halloween and the primary students accompanied the pre-school children to do the "trick and treat" to students of secondary students.

The traditions and festivals is a good opportunity to weave links between younger students and older. In this way, you create a family atmosphere and a cozy place where all students feel valued,  for example when the older students explains stories to the younger ones.  Furthermore, the fact that the school is decorated with the drawings done by the students means how much value we put on their work and give them the chance to show their work for the whole school. Many times these small gestures are more satisfactory for the students than a high mark.

For us as teachers it is also a great time when we are having different activities such as Halloween, out of the normal activities day by day. As a teacher we have an obligation to make our students enjoying their daily school and in order to do this, we also need to enjoy our daily work.

Clara ***

#2 We are connected all the time

Hi everyone!

This week we've been talking about the importance of working with the various resources offered by Web 2.0.

Since we are in the era of new technology, why not use them in the classroom?

  Nowadays, the children are born with a computer in their hands and we fail to exploit this skill . They are familiar with facebook, twitter, skype, blogger, etc.. But not with websites where they can learn while having fun. Thanks to an exhibition of an English teacher, I realized the amount of websites there is for preparing lesson which are totally different to what we are used to doing in the classroom.

Voicethread, Voki, Storybird  or Woices are some of these applications that allow students learning, gaining a sense of responsibility for their work and, at the same time, have fun, isn´t that great? These applications allow teachers assess student's constant work, effort, dedication and learning process.

Although we cannot forget that to get a good use of technology, we need to do a previous preparation. Therefore, before using any Web 2.0 application, the teacher has to spend some time to get familiar with this and how to use it when teaching. So important is the knowledge of the application as the result that you can get.

To finish up, I want to say thanks to the era of technology that we are living in, I have been able to find and use many different ideas for creating lesson that I have been doing in the University. I think sharing of the different knowledge about teaching gives a lot value to our work and especially when it comes to these new technologies and applications. 

Here an example of the ability of children with technology.

Clara ***

#1 About me

Hello everybody!

This is my first entry in a blog. I'm a little excited.

My name is Clara, I'm 22 years old and I'm from Barcelona.

I have to say that I have always wanted to create a blog where I could talk about fashion. In this fashion blog, everyone could take a look about the new trends and daily styles. Cloathing is one of my favourite passions. However I do also have a big interest in movies and cinema. In a raining day (like today), I like to sit in the sofa with a cup of tea watching a movie. I like every kind of film but especially musicals. Also, I am a follower of diferents serials as Grey's Anatomy, Games of Thrones, Lost (was a pitty when it finished), The Vampire Diaries, Desperate wifes and Friends.

I also like almost every kind of music because every one can be used in different situations. Not long ago I discovered Andrea Motis, a young Spanish girl who is an jazz's instrumentalist. I love her version of Somewhere over the rainbow and I recomend all of you to listen to her songs.

Furthermore, I love travelling. Last summer, I went for the first time to London (I loved it) and also to Menorca. One of my dreams is to go to Australia and be able to surf on those heavenly beaches.

Now I will explain three secrets about myself: I have panic for the cockroaches, I cannot leave the house without earrings nor perfume and I'm passionate about all sports.

I think that this is all for now. If you want to know something about me, you just have to  ask me!

See you soon!

Clara ***