Having experienced this activity, what is important to mention is that, although, it is our first time debating: we did our best and it was an exciting moment for us. The first debate, "Other Professionals as teachers", was thoroughly well prepared because they really presented very good arguments which actually sounded very convincing. They certainly thought about every single detail and brought forwards the counter arguments; presenting very straight and catchy questions to the audience. On the other hand, the group against the measure was a bit insecure about what they were defending. Sometimes their anxiety was very obvious, what helped the other group felt more confident with themselves and their topic. Even when, both groups had a different style to present their arguments, I felt that the one against the measure did not seem to be as prepared as the one in favor (in terms of considering all the possible counter arguments and preparing good questions).
In the second debate about “Voluntary Vote and Automatic Registration” something about groups’ organization did not work, but they knew how to overcome the mistake. However, there was a lack of facts and statistics which made this debate weaker than the first one. In terms of their attitude the seemed to be nervous and anxious what meant that some of them were not clear to present their arguments.
Finally, regarding the first topic in discussion I think that the group in favor was the winner because of the way they defended and presented their arguments. On the other hand, the second debate did not completely finished (something was missing) so that I could not say who won.
Note: If you ask me… there were a lot of things I would like to add to defend my topic (things that were prepared I could not say them because of the time)…
3/4/09
Classroom Design
Having students integrated in the classroom is thoroughly necessary in order to avoid discrimination. For instance, some teachers pretend that keeping the problematic students on one side and the smart ones on the other, is the best way to make use of the time and not to get stuck, focusing their attention just in one group of students.
Indeed, all those “easy solutions” have to do with what Jane Jacobs claims in her book The Death and Life of American Cities which talks about the general design of cities. For example, she talks about the bad distribution of resourses which is increasing social differences between citizens. Likewise, if we divided the classroom into categories, we actually would be increasing hostility between students and not challenging them to learn. Therefore, learning mainly takes place when interaction and integration are part of the class or when different students participate and share their opinions and questions between them. For this reason, asking students for working with different partners challenges them to be cooperative and interact with their classmates.
On the other hand, disagreeing with the abstract of Malcolm Gladwell`s article “Designs for Working”: there are no great changes that we can make in terms of the classroom design. For example, it is really complicated to ask students for making a circle and work all together. Therefore, taking into account that we have about forty three students per class, we do not have the enough time to wait while they make the circle specially control their noise and commotion as a result of our request.
20/3/09
Classroom Discipline
Basically, the article “11 Techniques for Better Classroom Discipline" is based on different techniques which have to do with the discipline in the classrooms and how we as teachers can improve it; presenting us several tips related to this goal.
Criticising the first technique (Focusing); it is not helpful to pretend to have all the attention in the classroom before beginning the lesson and not to start until this occurs. But, how can we achieve this goal if our main object is taking advantage of the few time we have for doing a class. For instance, it is known that in our schools: teachers are always fighting against time and seldom have they had the appropriate timetable for meeting all their class goals. What is more, the technique's description also claims that: “A soft spoken teacher often has a calmer, quieter classroom than one with a stronger voice”. But, using a stronger voice in order to call their attention and activate the class is preferred. A stronger voice and a loud- voice are not the same, because we do not need to shout for having student’s attention. As a result, we can have a stronger voice instead of being loud voiced teachers and have a quiet classroom, as well.
On the other hand, the last technique “Positive Discipline” summarize the main idea of this article which presents this tips for making us reflect about how can teachers and students understand discipline as something beneficial and not as something that just works for restricting others. For example, changing the way we establish the rules in the classroom, using other words but meaning the same and acknowledging good behaviour.
Criticising the first technique (Focusing); it is not helpful to pretend to have all the attention in the classroom before beginning the lesson and not to start until this occurs. But, how can we achieve this goal if our main object is taking advantage of the few time we have for doing a class. For instance, it is known that in our schools: teachers are always fighting against time and seldom have they had the appropriate timetable for meeting all their class goals. What is more, the technique's description also claims that: “A soft spoken teacher often has a calmer, quieter classroom than one with a stronger voice”. But, using a stronger voice in order to call their attention and activate the class is preferred. A stronger voice and a loud- voice are not the same, because we do not need to shout for having student’s attention. As a result, we can have a stronger voice instead of being loud voiced teachers and have a quiet classroom, as well.
On the other hand, the last technique “Positive Discipline” summarize the main idea of this article which presents this tips for making us reflect about how can teachers and students understand discipline as something beneficial and not as something that just works for restricting others. For example, changing the way we establish the rules in the classroom, using other words but meaning the same and acknowledging good behaviour.
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