Essay

Hello everybody,

So here is my essay,

Best wishes for the end of this year...

"La Vale"

Respect, Religion and Education: How are they related?

Have you ever thought of how many different beliefs can be found inside the classroom? Many teachers assume that all students think the same. Also, students who represent the majority of something might be a little rough with those who think differently. Some teachers think that the solution is to create a lesson focused on the minority, and others in the majority, but here is my opinion:

According to the results of a survey that I personally did in Plaza de Armas, Santiago, the majority of people answered to the question “What’s the main religion in Chile?” that they believe in the Catholic Church and in second place, the Evangelistic one. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have other options to consider. However, when it comes to teaching, we need to see the majorities in order to get a respond that tries to represent the class in a lesson.

When we consider the majorities in the classroom, our aim is try to accomplish all those doubts that seem important to solve. We shouldn’t consider a minority to make a lesson plan because our lesson will be a waste of time for many inside that space. But if we consider them, not to create a lesson but to boost the amount of students who are learning, then, we should do it with any kind of subject.

Respect is one of the things that everybody understands but sometimes doesn’t use it as it should be.
Have a look at these definitions taken from http://www.itsnotok.org/whatisrespect.html and reflect a little bit about them.
Respect is...
Respect is...listening with out interrupting
Respect is...taking your partner's feelings into consideration
Respect is...keeping an open mind
Respect is...agreeing to disagree
Respect is...trying to understand your partner's viewpoint
Respect is...loving yourself
Respect is...trust and honesty
Respect is...giving each other space
Respect is...nonviolence
Respect is...direct communication
Respect is...building a person up instead of tearing them down
Respect is...friendship
Respect is…not pressuring the other person

So how many of those are being part of your conception of respect? Are you really doing that? What about your students?

Nowadays, we are seeing clearer what bullying is, what autism is, what ADD means, among others. The thing is that even if that was part of a classroom 50 years ago, people couldn’t or didn’t want to go further on these issues. But today, a new generation of teachers is trying to do completely the opposite. As part of those topics, we can find discrimination towards people’s different beliefs. And there is when the role of respect takes place.

So, the question is what can we do about it? Well, we can’t find ourselves explaining our students what respect means because they actually need to see it in practice. Theory will be never enough if we don’t bring it to the classroom in concrete examples.
I would recommend having a look at the Elizabeth’s movie (The Golden Age version) and watching with your students the fragment where the Queen Elizabeth tells her advisors that she will not punish her citizens for not believing in the Catholic Church.
She clearly shows respect for others’ beliefs.
I wouldn’t use the whole movie because what we are trying to focusing now is on the show of respect and not history. But if you need that your students understand this part of the history of England then go ahead.

The movie has a really good plot but it should be for a sophomore or senior class due to the amount of information and complexity that it has (sometimes).
Basically, one of the ideas I would like to suggest you is to take a fragment of the movie and create an activity where the students can form groups in order to discuss what they think, reflect, see the topic’s relevance and create an analysis of the way the Queen gives freedom of thoughts during the clip and, how we can see that reflected on our days.

To sum up, respect can be tested in how students react towards different beliefs in the classroom. This can lead to a discussion about it that can later integrate and consider the conception of respect and the activities presented on my suggestion.
We do need to take advantages of these useful resources to improve our own way of teaching, learning and likewise our students.

"Modern Times" Post

Hello everybody,

Considering the fact that Industrialization was forcing people to change their ways of living, I could say that that was expressed in the beginning of the film where the guy started to act madly because of the amount of time he had to work. That's one of the things that happened in London where poor people who used to live in the outskirts of the city travel to it, thanks to the train invention, to find better opportunities and instead found themselves transformed in the worked social class.
Also, it brought new requirements to get a job, for instance, people had to acquire new knowledge about the inventions. This part could be represented by the scene where the main character got mad and the employee in charge of the machines was trying to put the buttons in the right position while he was messing around with them. Moreover, the inventions produced changes in the language because they were needing new words to refer to them.

Cheers!

"La Vale"

My understanding of Elizabeth's reign

Hello everybody,

After watching the film I got a little confused with so many characters. However, as we discussed it during classes, now I really can see how much Elizabeth has impacted England, the world, and the forthcoming Victorian times in so many different ways. For instance, when Spain (Phillip) wanted to kill the Queen and fight against England, Elizabeth had to act very quickly but wisely, so she asked to release the prisoners because they were part of England as well as the other people, and she also asked the peasant people to stop worrying about the crops because serving during the war was going to be more helpful for the country.
The main difference that England had with Spain was about Religion. England was governed by a Protestant Queen while Phillip from Spain was Catholic. So for him the Queen was the darkness while he was the light that had to make the "bastard" pay with her blood.
Being called "The Virgin Queen", Elizabeth used to be considered as a saint that could bless the babies. So even if that proved she wasn't married and childless, she said she was the mother of England.
In my opinion, I think her perfomance as Queen and woman was outstanding. Without her the Anglican religion couldn't have antecendents. And most important at all, she showed the relevance of freedom to express people's beliefs.


Have a nice day,

"La Vale"

Native and Inmigrants

Hello everybody,

Here is my reflection,

Like 7000 years ago, near the Neolithic age, nomad people where in England just hunting animals to survive. They didn't have crops or livestock. Then, 6000 years ago in the Stone age immigrants started to join those people. This start allowed people to be able to learn new things and evolve in a way that civilization started to grow. For example, native people learnt from immigrants how to buried the dead in stone tombs. Later, people probably from Spain brought the ability to work in bronze. By this time which was 2000BC, there were a great number of population in England that by the end of the Bronze age increased with new immigrants arrival. Again, new skills were developed and variety in people was part of England already. This continued until the Celts showed up and if it hadn't happened then natives wouldn't be able to learn about marriage, religion and new ways of getting food and a comfortable, certainly better, life.

Have a nice day,

Valeria

My definitions

Hey everyone!

So here are my definitions:

Critical thinking is a reflective process that let us see solutions, not just in a creative way (or that would be Creative thinking), but that make us react and do something very independently.

Culture is what involves all our knowledge, experience and influences which affect us in our way of communicating with others.

Civilization is a group of people who share similar thoughts, beliefs and different types of development, in a certain place and period of time.

Have a nice day,

Valeria

What do I expect?

Hello everybody,

The word "expectations" is sort of hard for me to use because life has shown me that expectations are illusions that can make me feel disappointed at the end of the story. Just like wishes that can't come true, expectations make me feel frustrated.

That's why every time that people ask me this I come up with this idea because if I would say that I don't have any expectations at all I think that would be careless and non-sense. I believe that when someone has any point of view, it is going to be acceptable as long as it has reasons to say that. However, I decided to add that I do expect things like punctuality, respect, honesty and responsibility. They might be obvious but…

Finally, the most important point that I would like to write is that I hope to finish this course knowing more about the past, present and possible future thoughts, beliefs, opinions and points of view.

Knowledge is the only way to make us evolve.

Have a nice day,

"La Vale"