Challenge 20/20

For me participating in the High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them Challenge , is very exciting.  Having young children be aware of certain topics is very important but having the opportunity to guide them through the process of finding solutions is amazing. This challenge gives us (teacher and students) the opportunity to get in touch with another classroom from a different part of the world and find ways to work on solving issues that are affecting the world.

For the children that I work with I think Global Warming is a great topic. It is very important for them to understand, in child friendly vocabulary, that we need to do something to save our planet. I think that  teaching them the importance of recycling can be a great start. They can come up with ways to recycle at school and at home and team up with the other students to create a campaign, but really, it is up to both groups to come up with ideas and propose activities that have meaning to them.  

I would really like to invite other teachers to try this challenge with their groups at school, it is a fun and interesting way to teach students the importance of involving themselves in altruist actions and also teach them a valuable lesson. It is not about helping others but caring enough to want to change the world for everyone.

Run for your life...and have fun while doing it!!!

Assignment 7 - Advertisement

• Why did you decide to use these photos or clips?
• Who is your target audience?
• What is your ad's message?
• How do your visuals enhance the message's impact?

What I basically did was have fun, it  was an assignment for me to learn how to use Pixlr and play a little with the app, so I did. I tried to make it funny and decided that from the pictures I took for the assignment this was the funniest one and while browsing for images this one came up and I knew it would match my picture perfectly. My audience is my classmates because they will understand that even if its simple it's funny. My message is just to make some one smile and of course the visuals are the whole advertisements focus, because of  fun in the jungle, and me running to save my life! jajaja

Is a reward necessary???

Wow!!! I really didn't expect to like Dan Pink's video, Puzzle of Motivation. When I started watching it, I was tired, ready to go to bed and zero motivated to continue with my masters homework. Boy was I surprised. I started watching it lying in bed, but as minutes went by I sat down and really started paying more and more attention.  Dan is so right. I grew up always being offered a reward in exchange of my best performance and I guess I was that kind of kid that wanted to get the reward rather than the satisfaction of accomplishing something greater. This TED talk took me back about 9 years, when I was working at a Starbucks coffee. I was 21 and working day and night to get myself through college. Mornings at the store where always hectic but there always was a time of the month were all baristas went all the way in our performance. SNAP SHOTS!!! It meant that for a whole week we would have undercover costumers visit us and grade our stores, skills, cleanness, attitude, performance, costumer service, etc. It was a life and death situation because a bad grade would automatically give a warning to all staff members, but a set of three 100% would give a BONUS!!! $3000 MX each!!! OMG we would work our a**es off during that week, most of us really needed the money but I remember thinking how sad that after that week, most of us would go back to our same old routine (not being as aware of every detail). We just worked very hard during that week because we knew that our gratification was worthy, but thinking about it, it was our obligation, written in our job description, to perform our best all the time. That is a trademark as a Starbucks barista. OK OK, know that being said, and going forward 9 years, I find myself in a kindergarten classroom rewarding kids behavior many times a  day. Shoking but true. If they behave their best during morning meeting and calendar, I add 2 minutes to their recess.   If they line up correctly and quietly I give them an extra minute, and if they clean up the classroom and make sure everything is tidy I give them another 2 minutes. So I see how they try their hardest everyday to earn those extra 5 minutes and I also have to admit that behavior that is contrary to the expected will take minutes away from their recess.  As Daniel was saying at the beginning of his TED talk, rewarding people on their tasks, will dull thinking and block creativity. Of course this has not been my intention but I have not been very creative myself and I have allow them to believe that what is an expectation from them in the class will always receive a reward. I believe that as a teacher, working with children in a International School I should work hard on motivating them to be creative, to be critical thinkers and also problem solvers. I need to teach them to reward themselves by feeling proud of their accomplishments, to always have the desire to do something because it is important to them and whatever is the result (could be a positive or negative outcome) is their reward. They reward themselves by feeling proud of their work, their own accomplishments. I hope to be able to learn how to change my primitive thinking on always expecting to receive or give something in exchange and teach my student to feel proud of their work without anyone giving them any gratification, only a big smile!

#PA3a

I leave this video for you guys to enjoy. It makes me laugh so hard, and it has a little bit of reward in it!

Traditional Classroom vs. PBL

Researching on Project Based Learning has really made me feel that sometimes in class we think we are a PBL classroom but still work as a traditional class. It is hard for teachers to let children go and let them be in charge of their learning. For teachers it is hard and difficult to stop teaching a class and only guide students along the way but as 21st century learners we need to change the way we see learning and give students the opportunity to explore and express themselves. Teachers need to be willing to participate in this learning process and teach students efficient strategies that will develop lifelong habits. As teachers, it is our duty to create a healthy environment, a learning pathway,  where students can engage and commit to learning and be reflective along the way of the results.

This chart shows, in a simple way, the difference between traditional classrooms and PBL classrooms. The most evident difference between this two is that PROJECT is the UNIT for PBL as for Traditional Classrooms is only part of the unit.
What is PBL?

Difference between  Traditional Classroom and PBL - Cacoo chart.