Racism

I have learned that race is relative that it doesn’t really exist; it’s just the consequence of the geographical location of our birth if some people’s ancestors migrated to a cold environment then they developed light skin, while if they stayed in hotter environments their skin became darker just because evolution was protecting the folic acid that mothers need when they are pregnant. Its because of this that race is relative it doesn’t matter and the only reason that we even consider it important today its because people in power loves to divide us, so that we stayed busy killing each other and we don’t focus our attention on them.
Its ironic that the country that calls itself the nation of freedom, was one of the most racist countries on earth until recent history, only a few decades ago if your skin tone varied just a little bit from that of a white person you couldn’t use the same public facilities, or you couldn’t sit on the front of the bus. That is why I believe that there is a lot of work to be done on the topic of tolerance and integration, more work should also be done in schools to educate kids on the different types of intolerant behavior that they can experience of be part of, one great way of getting to understand the fact that we are all equal is to teach the scientific fact that we all come from Africa, we all are part of a small family that migrated to the middle east and later to Europe, Asia, and America.
So if we are all related why can we act like what we are, which is a large human family that should only astride to the betterment of civilization and making this experience called life a more positive one, the bad thing is that there is a lot of special interest in between who have benefited for many years in our differences, peace is not convenient to the big powers who strive in war and in the exploitation of poor countries and their natural resources, not until we realize who the leading elite is, and until we stop allowing them getting away with all these crimes we will stay in the same situation for ever.
So what is the right way to act? The best thing that we can do is promote peace and understanding, peace is big and is something that the ruling groups don’t know about, if we act violently we will get violence, it’s the rule of the universe, so all we should do is stop allowing this type of behavior from our leaders and from ourselves, because the most important struggles should always start from within us, only then we will reach tolerance in a mass scale.

The Holocaust

The holocaust is probably the worst genocide that has occurred in the history of humanity, it all started in Germany during the late 30’s it first started by just the harassment, then the German Jewish community were the target of attacks, boycotts and violence. Jews in Europe were being accused of all the problems in Germany, things like the capitulation of Germany during WW1 and the signing of the treaty of Versailles were attributed to the Jewish community, Hitler’s speeches were full of hateful messages toward the European Jewish community adding to the hate speech there was a full propaganda machinery targeting all aspects of German society.
This type of constant persuasion led to the perpetration of a great crime against humanity, in my opinion all crimes are crimes against humanity I don’t like to put crimes into certain categories all crimes are bad, all crimes are inexcusable and all governments have blood in their hands, during world war two, fifty million human beings were killed, many in the hands of the Nazis others on the hands of the Russians and Japanese some also died form our regular and atomic bombs used against humanity, when somebody tells me that we are all conscious beings I can always find many historical events that contradict that notion.
What I think about people who deny the Holocaust? Well I don’t agree with them but I don’t think that its right to incarcerate them for their opinion like it has been the case some European countries, we might not agree with their opinion but if we are going to put people in jail just because their opinions are full of ignorant or hateful expressions then we shouldn’t call ourselves the countries of freedom of speech, if we did this then the jails would be full of politicians and journalists that say stupid things all the time.
In order to prevent another holocaust to occur all of humanity should have to evolve to a higher state in understanding and integration, for this to happen we have to concentrate on the younger generations in which hand is the future of humanity.

Education

I have learned that education is not only conformed of the rudimentary and repetitive techniques that I experienced as a child in my country, but there has been a lot of research on the matter of education throughout the years, two different approaches emerged from the research the constructivist and behaviorist approach, both plans aim to deliver a better learning experience and both take advantage of the modern technology to provide better more interesting lessons to its students.
Many important advances in technology have contributed to education and learning most noticeable the invention of the internet, the internet has brought a new era of communication and learning, in my opinion it’s the equivalent to the invention of the printing press, the same invention that took the world from the darkness of the dark ages, to the modern era of inventions and ideas called the renaissance, during the dark ages the catholic church ruled the western world, and they had a monopoly on knowledge, most of their power was gone because of information, the same thing its happening today with the invention of the internet, we are living in a crucial stage of humanity it could be called a crossroad, we are experiencing a modern renaissance but this time it’s in a much larger scale.
Education has had to adapt itself to the ever changing world of technology, because of the unlimited amount of information that the internet provides the tasks in a class are going to be different, today students have an infinite amount of research material for their projects so more it’s going to be expected from them, technology has also introduced students with new tools for them to present their assignments, we have programs like power point that students can use to present their lessons in a fun and creative way.
The use of technology has changed the face of the modern world; things that were unheard of a few years ago are now part of our daily life, there is no doubt that the world has changed and why shouldn’t education change as well, with the ongoing improvement of technology the next few years are going to be very interesting for teachers.

Racism

Cultural chauvinism is when people act like if their culture is the only one in the world they don't seem to acknowledge that there are many other different cultures, most of the time the chauvinism comes from ignorance like in the case of the United States people act very immaturely toward other cultures but this is only the result from ignorance and a lack of understanding of the world we live in.
the lack of knowledge about other peoples culture can come from a lack of interest in world events to a poor education at home or school, there is some people who travel to other countries expecting to behave the same way they do on their country, and many times this type of behavior is viewed with antipathy on the eyes of the locals, for example when an American travels to a place like japan, place were the culture has a deep respectful tone to it, there is going to be a clash of cultures, but most of the time the Americans don't even have a clue that there is going to be such a thing.
Cultural pride is when you are proud about your heritage sometimes race or nationality, the dangerous thing is when it becomes extreme, Nationalism is a term used that has a lot in common with cultural pride but there have been many cases in history when nationalism will turn dangerous unfortunately we have too many examples in our history, from the nazis to the serbians who believed that because of their Cultural pride they could get away with horrible crimes all in the name of the fatherland.
Cultural degradation is when a cultural group will claim superiority against another the most common historical example is the holocaust In which nazis claimed not only cultural superiority but also racial superiority and they ended up killing millions of people in their concentration camps, we can see other examples in history like the genocides in Africa that take place because of tribal or political differences, they might not be the same but they share the same basic factor which is the claim that their ideas are superior to that of others.
Finally the world has gone through a lot of horrible crimes because of ideologies and superiority complexes, its about time for humanity to reach a level of maturity that will allow us to move on to the next stage in our evolution, a stage of integration for a common goal, the advancement of humanity to a higher level of tolerance and acceptance.

Prejudices

The article talks about prejudices and how they start, most prejudices come from childhood and this type of prejudice is the most common around people since we are children our minds are filled with culture and with the views of other people, in a country were there is many different ethnic groups there is always going to exist a friction between them, and each culture will enforce their beliefs on their children, because of this many people grow up with the first type of indirect prejudice, all prejudice is bad but when it is indirect rather than direct it doesn't play an active role on the person's life.
When the prejudices are passive or indirect they don't play a big role in a persons live, these prejudices only come up to light when a person is involved in a certain type of situation in which he will use these prejudices in order to justify their anger or insecurity, all types of prejudices are negative and all of them can be changed, when our prejudices are not active they are easier to overcome, many different methods can be used to overcome them but it all starts with awareness of the problem, another step is recognizing that there is a problem and by talking about it our guilt will diminish and we can maturely approach the problem to its core.
The other type of prejudice its a more dangerous kind, when prejudices start taking an active part on a persons live the they become extremely negative, most of the people that is active in this type of racist behavior have experienced a negative childhood, many times they have been victims of abuse and have had a very rough upbringing, most of the time people who are actively racist will associate themselves with political movements that reflect their racist views, this type of prejudices are very hard to eliminate, because of their involvement with the persons live, but still can be overcomed if the individual becomes whiling to deal with it, by the use of therapy, by acquiring self awareness and by starting to create relations with the people that they direct their prejudices to.
Any type of prejudice its bad no matter if it takes a passive or an active role in our lives, but the responsibility of all adults is to move their lives to an state of acceptance and tolerance, so that this experience called life becomes one that is full of joy and acceptance toward others.

Beliefs

The most important thing that I have learned, is the power of beliefs, most people underestimate the power of their mind, the mind specially the subconscious is in charge of performing the most complex functions of the body, its in charge of regulating blood pressure, the creation of skin, the regeneration of cells, the beating of the hearth, among many other things, if we would try to do all of these activities consciously we would go crazy, that is why many negative beliefs are so hard to let go, they are wired to our subconscious mind, and that is why becoming aware of our beliefs systems its probably the most important task of our lives.
In my opinion all beliefs are negative to an extent, because the way they act is by taking over our mind and body, their only purpose is to prove themselves right, and they do this by looking for justifications for their existence in our environment, if we have a negative belief he would see reflected in all aspects of our lives, on the other hand if the belief is positive he will do the same but with a different outcome nevertheless I still think that when a belief either good or bad takes full control of you life it becomes a problem, because if it is negative you will have a miserable experience, but even if it is positive someday he will be challenged and once its challenged the most probable thing is that it will change, more often to a negative one.
So the best way to deal with beliefs is not letting them take control of our lives but instead use them as tools to help us live better lives, and whenever these beliefs are challenged we can easily give them up with other positive beliefs, that way we take over control of our lives and we can apply what we have learned to the classroom to let kids know that they are the masters of their beliefs and that they have the power to choose the ones that are going to help them become better persons and have better lives all by using their beliefs as tools.
The teaching of beliefs should start early on in life, I just wander where would I be if I had known the power of beliefs when I was a child, most people have an idea about the power of beliefs, they always say that the mind is powerful when what they really mean is that beliefs are powerful, I don't know if it is a big conspiracy or if it is because of the new era of communications that the power of beliefs is becoming a popular topic anyway its for the better of humanity and of teachers that the topic of beliefs its being discussed so much fervor.

Senses and Stimuli

Articles 5 and 6 are both about the senses and our interpretations of the stimuli that we receive from our different senses, article 5 The miracle of sensation talks about how our senses work, from our vision to our kinesthesis, it explains in detail how each of our sense travel to our bodies, it shows on pictures and in quotes the experience of senses and stimuli in our brain, the next article titled Making sense out of sensation deals with our interpretations of the different sensations that we experience, it talks about how we interpret different senses and how the same sensations can have different meanings to different people, individuals with a different social or economic background can have different experiences about the same stimuli.
One of the stories I could easily identify with is the one where the son is waiting for his father and he was able to recognize the unique sound of his fathers car, even though there were many different sounds in the background, the same used to happen to me when I used to wait for my father to get home when I was a child, I would immediately recognize the sound of my fathers car when I was waiting for him, and I am sure that the other people on the street couldn't recognize that unique sound, because their senses weren't adjusted to do it.
The four most important things that I learned reading both articles are: fist I wasn't aware that when the light goes into the retina and forms an image, the image its actually upside down, this is new to me and it makes me think about the nature of reality itself, if the image at some point is backwards, then probably the whole reality its upside down and we are experiencing it in a different way, reality its really relative then.
The second thing that I didn't know before is that we can actually train our senses to do things that aren't normal, I really liked the example about the black and white photographers, they have to make an image in their brain about how a color picture would look like if it was in black and white, they have to determine where would the different tones of gray would be, and I can identify with this because I like to draw and until now I realize that whenever I draw a charcoal sketch, I am drawing the black and white version of the color image that I see in my brain, its really amazing that we have the ability to change our senses without realizing it.
The third thing that I learned and that really called my attention was our preferences for certain tastes, like our craving for sugars to get carbohydrates or our craving for salts to get sodium, when you see it this way its easy to see why fast food chains like McDonalds have made so much money basing their product on our most inner human needs.
The fourth thing that I learned and that is wasn't aware before is that different cultures react different to certain stimuli, like for instance the smell of certain foods, I cannot stand the smell of curry or lamb, I didn't know why until now, because I never got to experience those types of foods when I was young because of the geographic location of the place were I was born.
Our interpretation of the different senses play a great role in our lives, and in our cultures, and I cant help to see a relation between making sense of our sensations and Schemes because they booth base themselves in previous experiences, and take the role of filters that we use to see the world, hopefully by becoming aware of how our senses work we can let our differences behind and become a more accepting and tolerant world community.

Awareness

The Transformation Awareness and Consciousness article is a very interesting article dealing with the different concepts of Awareness, The different concepts are explained by the different experiences of different spiritual influential people, the main idea about Awareness is the transcendence of the conscious mind, going beyond our thoughts and ideas, and getting into contact with the nature of the universe. In my own personal experience the best way to get to a state of awareness is by doing self analysis of ourselves, we are a specie that developed language as a tool to communicate in order to survive in a hunter and gatherer society, but these languages developed into ideas and later on into abstract concepts, which later became ideologies, political ideals and religions.
The different concepts that we developed as a society for the most part have been negative, and have contributed to the deterioration of the planet and that of other animal species, what we don't realize is that we have become slaves of our thoughts and opinions, the only constant in the universe is duplicity things just want to make copies of themselves, genes are scared of disappearing and make us develop some crazy mechanisms just to keep themselves alive but this concept of duplicity doesn't stop in us, or in animals, it also applies to concepts ideas and opinions.
These ideas and opinions follow the same rules as everything else they just want to make copies and perpetuate themselves, maybe they existed or not without us but once they found us they just used us as a medium to duplicate themselves, thats why so many people are extremist, or live their whole life trying to validate their opinions or inculcating them in others.
This is how we became our opinions, and why Awareness is probably the most important stage in a person's life, it challenges the ideas and concepts by simply ignoring them and putting yourself in contact with the soul of the universe which is one, one single consciousness from which all of us belong. Once somebody reaches Awareness opinions ideas and beliefs become simple tools that can be used to improve our life instead of being our master's, by becoming aware we take back the control of our beings and we can experience our true self which is always quiet, just listens and it just knows.
Since we are all one single consciousness that it is experiencing itself any change in that consciousness will affect the whole and given that many people seem to be reaching the state of awareness, this leads me to believe that we are all living in a very crucial stage in the history of mankind, will we be able to give the next step into a higher state of being? I hope so, its about time to stop being slaves of opinions and beliefs.

Schemas and Culture

Mental Representations and Schemas relate to culture because both of them are a set of ideas that we use to experience reality, Mental representations serve the purpose to help us understand better either concepts or ideas, by creating mental pictures of what we hear or say, cultures are created when these Mental Representations have become accepted by the majority of the population of a certain region, Mental Representations are very can be very effective teaching tools because they use the concept of imagery, and this concept has been used by some of the most successful people in history, for example Albert Einstein and Stephen Covey both used imagery one for solving problems and the other to create positive images that would help him reach his goals and improve his live.
We all use Mental Representations in our daily life, whenever we hear a story, or the description of some place we have never been to, we create images in our brain about of those places or events this can be also seen in the different cultures around the world, whenever we hear the stories of Greek mythology or the stories of ancient Mayan Cultures we create a movie in our brain with the characters of these stories, so Mental Representation has played a great role in our Cultural evolution as a specie.
Schemas is the way we react to situations based on our previous experiences, whenever we avoid to eat a certain food or to buy an item of a certain brand we are using a Schema, if we don't eat the food or buy the product its because we had a previous negative experience about those situations, we have been creating Schemas since our childhood and all of them adapted and transformed themselves into the type of things we do to this day, the impact of Schemas in the history of cultures its enormous since its by the use of Schemas that we developed language, our use of tools, writing, reading, all of these things that are essential in the development of any culture.
When it comes to teaching Schemas are very important because whatever impression a student has about a topic early on in life it will greatly influence his future concepts of the world, so its very important that teachers know how they can use Schemas to create a healthier more positive outlook on their world.
Both Mental Representations, and Schemas have played a critical role in our cultural evolution and both are an innate tool that we have used for many generations to create the societies we know today, if we could improve both of these so that students can develop their full potential the future of mankind would be brighter.

Rites of Passage

The rites of passages are important because they constitute one crucial phase of the human experience, rites are extremely common on different cultures, one of the first writers that talked about these rites was Van Gennep, he suggested that there are three different types of rites, Separation, Aggregation, and marginal, many of these rites we experience today like for example the rite of aggregation would be the today equivalent to marriage. the concept of rites is very important because its closely linked with transformation, all antique civilizations had initiation rites for young children, most of them involved violent acts, and at the end the boy was transformed into a man, his social class changed, and the child in him died, this kind of transformation it’s very important because it turned children into responsible adults, and that’s something that today’s society lacks thus creating a generation of immature adults who never experience true transformation.
On the three articles that I read there is one common factor they all deal with cultural initiations to adulthood, the first article Facing Mt Kenya, talks about the ritual of female circumcision that takes place in the Gikuyu tribes, the article explains how the practice received strong criticism from Western missionaries that considered it, brutal and barbarian, the missionaries then started to deny students the education based on the practice of irua, once the government intervened they proceeded to fire the teachers that supported the custom, the matter even got to the British Parliament, where the matter was investigated, but what the missionaries and western politicians failed to realized was the importance of this practice in the Gikuyu culture, and how detailed and complex it was, girls weren’t just savagely mutilated, but instead the ritual consisted of a preparation, a ceremonial dance, and when the ritual itself is performed it includes herbs and cold water to numb the pain, this is an example of the collision of two different cultures one being extremely judgmental of the other.
The article Sitting Quietly tells the story of the transformation of young boys into manhood, they are all made to be sacred of the forest thing, the elders make them hide in a tent, were they stay for days hearing tales about the rage of the forest thing, at some point they are told to eat pepper or to drink a sour tasting milk, they do all these things and they never cry they never show weakness because that would make them an easier prey for the forest thing, after a few day they hear the calling of their fathers, the children leave the hut and proceed to walk to the village where they are received with dances and acclamations, this is the first step In a four year journey that would turn them into mature men.
The last article called the Sambia, was the most shocking and disturbing for me talks about the bizarre sexual rituals of the Sambia from New Guinea, their rituals involve homosexual acts between boys and the young males of the tribe, they believe that the older males can give their powers to the boys by performing oral sex on them, they think that by performing oral sex it will help them to become more powerful males and be able to increase their chances to have children, the young boys perform sexual favors on the older teens during a period of time until they themselves grow older and get married and have children, this ritual practice is probably shocking for most westerners, but it shows how different cultures an rituals can become.
I believe that the relationship of rites of passage to formal education is that most rituals serve the purpose of transformation into adulthood, this concept of transformation can take the shape of the rituals mentioned above but on a modern society we can come up with better ways to help kids reach transformation during the critical stages of their lives, for instance by letting them know the importance of their belief systems and how they shape their world, this in my opinion would be an excellent alternative to initiation rituals in the modern era.

High and Low Context Cultures

High and low context cultures are the names we give to the different way that people behave in different societies, the high context culture is one in which people are used to each other or have known each other for a long time, the most common type of high context culture is the family, in a family setting people have strong personal ties that have been developed throughout years of interaction, people know who does or does not belong to the family group, all the behaviors and knowledge that are present on a high context culture are subconscious as they are the result of long years of interaction and bonding. The communications that take place on a high context culture are on a very personal level, one on one type of communication.
On the other hand the low context culture is a less personal type of environment, people who have no close ties or relationships with the group can easily incorporate themselves to a low context culture, low context cultures also have defined rules, as a result low context cultures are more accessible than high context cultures, and the type of relationships that are formed are of short duration, one example of low context culture could be a parent meeting where not all the people know each other, but they have a more clear defined objective, to know about their kids progress.
Proxemics is the space that each person has for themselves and the distance they keep from each other, the proxemics of different peoples varies with their cultures, some are more comfortable with people keeping their distance, while other cultures may encourage being close to others, there are different reactions when our personal space or territories are being invaded by somebody else, many times the most common reaction will be that our bodies will take on a different posture or we may get offended if our territory is being violated.
The knowledge of the concepts of high and low context cultures and the concept of Proxemics it’s important for a teacher to know because on the field we are going to experience both, we are going to have students who come from a high context culture (their home) to a low context culture which is the classroom, and we would have to deal with the difficulties they may have to experience while adapting to a low context culture, the concept of Proxemics its extremely important for teachers to know, because we would never want to make sure that students learn to respect their classmates space, especially if they are from a different culture, teachers themselves should know to respect their students space and privacy and the way to achieve this is by having a great knowledge regarding other cultures.

Culture

I had never thought very deeply about culture, but after reading the articles I have gained new insights about what culture means, I always knew that the culture we inherit was something that was being forced upon us, and that seems to be the overall definition of what culture is, that would be a set of beliefs that people have come to agree with, and trough the passing of time, these beliefs become larger and end up absorbing a whole population and giving it its own identity, there are many factors that affect cultural beliefs, like for instance the geographical location of a group of people would make them more likely to develop a different type of cultural belief i.e. (the culture of a hot dry place like Africa will be very different from that of a cold place like northern Europe), culture also has a lot of influence in religion and vice versa this leads to many different rituals and set of beliefs that define the human experience.
There is no better or worst type of cultures, they are all just a result of the environment in which they are developed, nevertheless there are people who do belief their culture is superior from that of others, we see this with the usage of the term “high culture”, that implies that people who share this type of culture has some better taste in arts, cuisine, literature etc, sometimes this belief of a superior culture can lead to terrible crimes, like the many genocides that have taken place throughout history.
The different types of cultures will also reflect in the way that people speaks, for example most Asian countries have very polite way of speaking, to the point that they will never say no to you, this can lead to difficult situations when two different cultures collide, like on the article gives the example of an American woman talking to a Japanese hotel representative and how out of respect she just wouldn’t say no.
the difference in cultures also shows itself in the use of gestures and facial expressions, some gestures that are appropriate in our culture could be highly disrespectful on a different culture, like also some greeting mechanisms, for example in my country its very appropriated for a men to kiss a woman when they meet, but here in the United States that could be interpreted as intrusive or disrespectful.
In conclusion my views on the meaning of cultures have been greatly enhanced because of reading these articles there are some things that I already knew, but I have also learned many important cultural differences that could come up handy someday like for instance, never to give the thumbs up in Iran.

Paradigm shift

Paradigms are the way we look at the world based on our own experience or on our set of cultural values, everybody from birth it’s given a set of beliefs either from home, school or religion, these beliefs make us look at the world in a certain way, and all the experiences that we have in our lives will be seen through our paradigm, paradigms are not only based on beliefs but also on experiences for instance I know men who because of their bad experiences with women will never trust their female companions, and would generalize about women based only on a single experience, the same can happen to women who experienced an abusive relationships, a paradigm is created and take control of their lives.
A paradigm shift is one of the most important experiences in life, because when it happens will dramatically transform our life, hopefully for the better, a paradigm change its when our whole concept of the world its challenged by a new radical belief, like the article recalls we can find many examples throughout history, like the one about the position of the planet earth in the universe, or to cite another one the discovery of America.
Paradigm shifts challenge the current set of norms and values, and many times the old paradigms will be defended by the people in power who had become used to make a living out of them, in my life the first paradigm change that I experienced was when I was about 8 years old, I loved history and I would read lots of books that would depict historic events, I liked to see battles being depicted in maps that showed different nations attacking each other, on these maps I would see little lines that divided countries and I thought that they were actually real, in my young mind I believed that nations somehow were actually separated of each other by lines or walls, later when I found out that these lines didn't really exist my paradigm completely changed and from then on I stopped believing in the existence of countries, this was followed by my disbelief in nationalities, cultures, religions, and races, since then my view of the world was completely altered and I no longer believe with fervor on most of human concepts.
It is important for teachers to read about paradigm changes because most of the students will come to a class with a set of paradigms, and most of the time they will be negative, like for instance: social and racial prejudices or low self esteem result of a bad paradigm, teachers themselves will have their own set of bad paradigms, that would need to address in order to be able to deliver a better teaching experience, if teachers help students re frame their old paradigms, the learning environment would become one of acceptance and equality.

Transformation

After reading the two papers dealing with transformation, I could easily identify with the concepts of transformation, as a young adult I am experiencing a transformation of my own into a mature adult man, the idea of transformation is one of improving oneself, to become better and to let go of old negative beliefs systems, beliefs are our reality and they are real because we make them real, they can be positive or negative, but in my short experience the big majority of the time they are negatives, I see people everyday living life with a set of negative beliefs.
I used to have lots of negative beliefs, some of them were, that I used to think that I was somehow less important than others, I also had a strong negative belief regarding my communication skills and my lack of social interactions, as a result my self esteem became very low and I became involved on a never ending cycle of negativity, all of those negative beliefs had only one purpose, to exist, ever since I was a child I have always liked to look at the big picture regarding everything, and when I grew older I realize that the only constant in the universe is duplication, all things just want to make copies of themselves, and this doesn't only includes people but also ideas, concepts and beliefs.
So in other words my negative beliefs would try to duplicate themselves, and expand, and they did this by looking for justifications to exist, for me this became a horrible experience, I wasted may opportunities to meet great people and to have a better life experience, this is why the concept of transformation is so important to me, when you become aware of your negative beliefs, and from where they come from, you can start to change and to become a better version of you.
Reinvention its one if not the most important experiences one can ever have, it doesn't matter what kind of addictions or what set of negative beliefs you have it can all be changed, just by becoming aware of oneself and recognizing that most of our prejudgments and insecurities came from either from someone else, an experience or a negative belief, once we recognize this we can throw it all away and replace them with positive proactive beliefs.
Today I have a new set of beliefs for my life, I achieved one level of transformation and I replaced many insecurities with confidence, reading the two articles only ratifies my thought that I made a great choice in coming back to school and following my objectives.

My Educational Philosophy

My educational philosophy is Constructivism, and I agree with the result of the survey; because, I have always liked to believe that learning comes from experience and from observing the environment and facing different challenges, this is the way that many important inventions were created, someone faced a problem and he looked in his environment for solutions for that problem one example is the creation of the wheel, the problem was the need to transport heavy objects, and the solutions was found by observing the environment and realizing that objects moved easier when they were over a round object like a tree trunk, the observation of the environment lead to the discovery of the wheel, and that invention had a constructivist core.
Since in my opinion the biggest inventions in human history were reached by a constructivist approach, why not use the same approach to teach students, by letting them come up with their own conclusions and ideas, another point that I like about the constructivist approach is the use of groupings to find solutions and do research about topics, by working in groups students develop their social and leadership skills which are going to be very useful in their daily lives to deal with real problems.
Constructivism is the natural way of learning, when we are children we learn by observation and by practice, this is how we learned to walk, write and talk, and all of these extremely important activities in our lives were learned by taking a constructivist approach, so in my opinion constructivism seems to be more attuned with nature and evolution itself, so from that point of view how can we teach on any other form that is not constructivist.
In conclusion I agree with the result of the survey that indicates my teaching philosophy as a constructivist one, it’s the best way to teach and the best way to learn, if it is so effective for some of the most brilliant people in history then it’s good for me, experience is the best teacher in many aspects of life and when it comes to teaching school subjects I believe that it would immensely facilitate teacher’s work to expose students to different experiences related to their subjects and when you add the research that has to be done, you get a better learning experience.

Digital Stories

Digital stories are the modern equivalent of the old tribe stories that took place around a fireplace thousands of years ago, people will always have an urge to tell their life’s story, but with the improvement of technology the way we tell stories has changed, Digital Stories are done with a computer and they include images, music, and voice recordings. Digital stories shouldn’t be that long; they usually last from five to six minutes.
Digital stories are fun to do, and students will become interested in a subject if it is fun, they can also be used to help students become more deeply involved with a subject, since story telling can be a very personal experience, the learning that will take place will be of a more transcendental level. Digital stories most include a point of view: the point of view can be your own and it should be directed at you audience, a dramatic question: it’s a way of gaining the students attention by asking an interesting question at the beginning of the story and then answering that question at the end.
The next component is called, Emotional content: in this step you hold the students attention by using the images and music of the presentation to create an emotionally filled environment that will encourage learning, Voice: here you can use your voice tone to create an interesting environment for students to learn, Music: the use of a good soundtrack will greatly increase the appeal of your presentation and if it is very interesting you can ensure that your class wont be distracted by something else.
It seems that with the increased popularity of the internet more and more people are becoming interested in the creation of digital stories, and they will either use them in a class environment or in a web based video community like YouTube, and it all goes back to that old burning desire to let our stories to be known and to tell them to other people.

Telecollaborative Lesson Plan

Telecollaborative lessons are a number of different activities that stimulate the use of technology and information for students to communicate with each other over the Internet in different parts of the world, this communication can take the form of a journal or a group assignment that let students interchange information about themselves and their lives, one of the goals of this type of lesson plan is for students to gain awareness of their fellow student’s culture and values, and at the end they will gain a higher knowledge of the world and learn to respect different cultures.
Like all the other lesson plans the Telecollaborative lesson must have a main goal and this goal should be relevant to the lesson itself, another important aspect of Telecollaborative lesson plans is that their goals should be dependent on the technology that is going to be used, for instance since the activities are online based the goal should be obtained by the use of different web based tools like an email Internet system, or a social global community in which they can interchange messages, finally the main goal of the lesson plan should be consistent with the on line activities.
The structure of the lesson plan activities consist of three categories these are: Interpersonal Exchanges, these consist of the use o f Internet conference sites, or web based class programs, it can also include the use of social communities for the exchange of information.
The next category is called Information Collections and here students can use the Internet to create digital databases to store and add information this step is all about the use and analysis of data, the last type of activities is called Problem Solving, here teachers ask students to find solutions for the tasks they are given, it can take the form of simply gathering information for an activity, to actually solving problems in their community.
Telecollaborative lesson plans take advantage of the current technology to help students from different cultures to work together to solve different types of assignments, at the end of the lesson the students will gain a better understanding of the different types of cultures around the world and will hopefully develop a better sense of tolerance and respect for people of different backgrounds.

Cooperative and Collaborative Learning

Cooperative/ collaborative learning it’s a teaching method that has been used since the late 1980’s and its purpose is to engage the students in a deep discussion of a subject and to provide as a result a deeper understanding of the subject, Cooperative/collaborative learning takes the form of small groups and they are given the task to explore a subject, question, task or project, most of the time the whole purpose of the task is to engage the students in a discussion and to explore different perspectives opinions and teamwork, the group work is highly encouraged but there is also a lot of interest in holding individual students accountable for their own work, even though at the end of the lesson the group will be assessed as a whole.
Cooperative/collaborative groups take such a small form because this will encourage students to learn how to deal with different opinions, it will also help students who might not have developed social skills, but the main reason why the group assignments are so popular it’s because the debate and discussion that takes place in a group will give students a greater understanding of the lesson itself.
The Cooperative/collaborative learning it’s very different form the classic approach to teaching because it deviates from the formula of individual lessons, and stimulates the student social abilities by encouraging team work. Cooperative/collaborative groups can take different forms, the most common are: Pair: which is the simplest of them all, it involves students getting together in groups of two to perform a single activity.
The next type is called Jigsaw, in this type of group students will study one topic either individually or as a group, then once the student or group has a full knowledge of the topic he will explain his topic to the rest of the group, or to other groups.
The last of the most popular types of groups is called the Split-Class Discussion and like the name states it requires for the whole class to be split in two, and discuss or debate a topic, most of the time the topics would be of a controversial type, and they be highly contrasting, so that the students will learn from the debate.
Cooperative/collaborative groups are highly used today, and they have a great number of benefits, including the encouragement of diversity and respect in the classroom, the environment that a cooperative group should portray is one of respect, safety, teamwork and finally it should also include a clear task or goal to be obtained.

Inquiry Lesson Plan

Inquiry Based Learning it’s our first method of learning, its starts with our burning desire to know the ultimate truth and we do this by using our senses, by observing our environment and duplicating the the things we see or the noises we hear, it’s all about our curiosity and how we use our brains to satisfy our thirst for knowledge.
During the school experience this way of acquiring knowledge is all but lost because of the way the education system works, most of the teaching takes place on the shape of memorization and repetition, this strongly comes into conflict with our natural way of learning which is based on questioning and self observation, the most brilliant minds learn by inquiry based learning, I read somewhere that Albert Einstein used to have only one type of shirts and pants on his closet, because he didn't want to get distracted with those trivial matters and instead paid more attention to the questions on his mind.
The inquiry based learning is meant to be used as a way to understand concepts and then apply that learning to the resolution of problems, the teachers are not the focus of the class and they don't provide the full knowledge of the subject, they just need to make subjects look interesting and fun, then students will be encouraged to learn and create concepts on their own.
The encouragement of questions its a great factor on Inquiry based learning, also the use of technology and activities that go beyond the classroom, the current education system its really outdated, it was meant for a different type of society, we live in a totally different era where communication and information are at the reach of the hand, its because of this that the education system must change to adapt to the modern era, the different types of questions that are critical on the use of Inquiry Based learning are: Inference, interpretation, transfer and Hypothesis questions.
On the Interpretation questions teachers ask for students to gather more detailed information, and to get new perspectives based on that information, next we have interpretation questions: here students can change the interpretation of certain concepts in order to get a better meaning of the concept itself, for example: when adding color to a black and white picture how would this affect the perception of the same picture.
Transfer questions take the previous knowledge to new and unexpected places, like for example in an art course, asking students to imagine Leonardo DaVinci performing a Post modern painting, Questions about Hypothesis ask from students to make predictions on the lesson based on their knowledge, Inquiry based learning goes hand in hand with the constructivist approach to learning, they both aim for stimulating the minds of their students by making them create their own concepts and gain a better knowledge of the world around them.

Constructivist Lesson Plan

The constructivist lesson plan takes a different approach to teaching than that from the behaviorist lesson plan, in a constructivist lesson plan the students are encouraged to reflect about the lesson and come up with their own conclusions and theories, on a constructivist lesson plan group assignments and artistic related activities are encouraged, the first step on the plan is called situation; this step will introduce the tasks that the students are going to perform, and it will give a clear indication of the conclusions and interpretations that the students will be able to come up with once the lesson is finished.
The second step is called grouping and it deals on how the students are going to be organized, either in group’s ore individually, this step is also used to determine how the materials are going to be organized for instance how many pencils or drawing paper are you going to need in order for the lesson to be successfully performed.
The third step is the bridge, and it serves the function of determining the knowledge of the student before the lesson is performed this may take the form of a test or a set of questions directed to the whole class or to individuals, the whole purpose is to use the bridge to transition from their previous knowledge and their new perspectives reached on their own.
The questions are very important on a constructivist lesson plan. Because they can be used at any point of the lesson ant their only purpose is to encourage thinking, when students think on their own about the questions and the purposes of the lesson, they come up with their own perspectives and open their mind to new ideas and by doing this their learning will increase dramatically.
The next step is called Exhibit here the students will give a presentation of any kind, to portray their experiences of explaining the lesson, this means that students will talk about how they reached their new conclusions and ideas based on the main lesson. The reflection is the last step of the lesson plan, here students will talk about what they thought while they were giving their presentations, they will also comment on their classmates presentations, at the end all students should have clear what they have learned, their new conclusions and the contrast with their previous knowledge.
Finally the constructivist approach of teaching seems to be the one that I like the most, because it encourages students to think on their own, humans are free and shouldn't be forced to learn the same things over and over again, with constructivism you can help students come up with new and fresh ideas of their own by using classic lessons.

Behaviorist Lesson Plan

The behaviorist lesson plan starts by clearly identifying all the main objectives of the lesson, it will let students know exactly what is it that they will learn and how it will be learned, it also shows examples on what things the students will be able to do once the lesson is done, for instance I will describe how a student will be able to recognize a feature about a certain character in a novel, on the other hand the constructivist lesson plan starts by the teacher selecting a situation for the students to interpret and explain, when the situation has been given a title the students will draw their own conclusions and will explain the situation in their own words.
The second step on a behaviorist lesson plan is called anticipatory set in which students are presented with some type of introductory activity that draws the attention of the students before the real lesson begins, on the constructivist lesson plan the second step involves grouping the students and the materials needed to explain the lesson, the students are usually grouped in small or large teams.
The third step in the behaviorist lesson plan is called input and it will include all the things the students will need to successfully learn the lesson for instance it will state the important points that the teacher needs to address about the lesson, now on the constructivist lesson plan the third step is called a bridge and it serves the same purpose of a real bridge which is to cross from one side to another, the first side is what the student already knows regarding the lesson, and the other side is what the student will now once critical thinking and group work has taken place.
The fourth step on the behaviorist plan is called modeling and it involves graphic representations of the lesson for instance it can be a slide show or a power point presentation, or it can be an assignment in which the student would have to draw a map of an ancient civilization. The fourth step on a constructivist lesson plan has to do with asking questions that would help students to cross bridges of knowledge, also what type of questions can you anticipate from students and the type of answers will be more effective to stimulate thinking.
The fifth step on the behaviorist lesson plan is about the types of activities that the teacher will have to perform with his class these activities can be performed with the instructor or in groups and all will have for ultimate goal to enhance comprehension, the fifth step on the constructivist lesson plan is the one called exhibit and it has to do with presentations made by students and their reaction to their own presentations and to the one of his fellow students.
The sixth step on the behavioral lesson plan is called independent practice and it is just an activity or homework made by the student that would give an idea of his learning progress on the course, while on the constructivist lesson plan the last step is reflection in which the students look back and recapacitate on what they have learned and how that makes them feel. The closure from the behaviorist lesson plan involves a review of the whole lesson and the teacher will be able to demonstrate the student success in learning the lesson.
In conclusion the behavioral plan seems to be more focused on retention type of learning while the constructivist lesson plan is more about the student learning on their own and looking for his own concepts, both are highly detailed and both seem to be very powerful teaching tools.

Reflection 1

If it wasn't for the use of fire mankind wouldn't be the dominant species today, I believe that all the greatest findings in history come from human need or out of pure luck, the use of fire by our ancestors could be a result of both but regardless the consequences are the same, it helped us evolve to become more than just another nomad species, we can learn various lessons from our ancestors and apply them to teaching, for instance, most of the progress humans made on the use of fire, had to do with observation, they would see what other animals did right after a forest fire, they would observe how scavengers would feed from burned corpses, and then proceeded to do the same.
Observation was also a critical factor on the invention of the wheel, logs or round shaped materials helped transport or move heavy stuff easily, because of observation and need, humans were able to develop the wheel, the basic skill of observation can be applied today in many learning scenarios, the invention of the wheel revolutionized the art of cropping, and led humanity into another era, a new more orderly society all because of a combination of need and observation.
Another thing I noticed on the article was how much of a role the improvement of things that already existed has played on the evolution of mankind, the wheel by itself wasn't perfect from the beginning, only after some major tweaks and improvements it reached its full potential, the same can be implied of students and oneself, not only things can be improved but also concepts and beliefs systems, with the ultimate goal of reaching a higher level.
The improvement of words took place similarly to the one of the wheel, the basic symbols that represented something slowly started to change, they acquired sounds and more complicated symbols, and these symbols were also the result of observation, so if we pay attention to the patterns of inventions, we may be able to apply them to the classroom, teach students to observe, and to improve either the existing concepts or new ones created by themselves
The invention of the wheel, fire, and language started by being small improvements to the lives of our ancestors but at the long run took humanity to what it is today, but humanity has a long way to be perfect, this is where teaching plays a role in helping students develop the qualities that will allow them to “invent fire” again and take humanity to the next level by using the same old tools our ancestors used observation and improvement, this in my opinion is the teaching I can get from the article about the greatest inventions in history and how I can apply them to the classroom.