An experience in a role of writer

I felt interested in writing when I was a child. Everything began by reading old books which I found in a little bookcase in my grandma’s bedroom. By reading I wanted to write because I really admired how those authors from the old articles shown good attitude in writing. At this moment, I do not remember how much pages I wrote but at the end of each school year, it became a great opportunity to collect blank sheets of paper from my old notebooks and start writing what I felt and lived. I wrote about  interesting things that centered my attention from a child's perspective. Unfortunately, I could not save those papers with me but as a result of that past, now I am person who is very concern how much important is wirting as leaving evidences for the future. By the way, I have been in some important writing contests which I had written with enough inspiration in order to attract the attention of the readers.

            I was in in my first year of college when I won an important contest of writing called “Ramon Oquely”. I did not want to participate in it, but I was informed about the event in regarding my love for writing. I did not really feel inspired for writing at that moment. During the process of studying at college, in Santa Rosa de Copan, I met a really nice friend. She is a professor at the university, and her name is Lourdes. She was an important person in my personal and social development. However, Lourdes knew my lack of motivation for participating in the contest. Besides that, she motivated me to being part of that event and she expressed her wishes for me about winning the contest. Consequently, I did believe those words taking enough time because at that moment I may have not learned how to believe in myself.

            After the intervention of my friend I began to write immediately. I did not  know what to write about. But later, I put to my head the issue about what the contest was looking for. And there was when I perceived a cultural purpose in it. Although I have already written some cultural papers; in fact, my purpose was to write something different. At the end, I got an idea about what to write. First of all, I see a great opportunity to show the people my interest for our national culture. That means that I directed my paper in the Mayan culture . I have been interested in the Mayans since a lot of time ago. I am really impressed about this civilization which gave us important contributions and mistery as well. 

            My main goal with this project was to let people know about one of the biggest civilizations in the world, the Mayans. Therefore, I created a story about a child who became the main character of the short tale. Finally, I got fascinated for the story of the Mayans which was focused in a specific event happened to a little child called “Xotlit”, this was the name of the main character and also of the whole story.

            The day of the contest was a prominent fact. I felt very unpatient and when I looked in the face of the others participants I could observe the  same expression. The  college has called three good writers  for being judges in the contest.  At the event arrived many people  and  all of them looked excited to hear about what was the best story of the contest. I saw there some of my teachers which felt surprised about me as a participant in that place.

The final hour come and the judges explained first why they  have chosen  the winner story. I knew inmediately that that person was  me. Efectively, the judges of the  contest said my name as the winner.  I felt so happy  and surprised, but at the  same  time so  proud for my work. This project has become my first experience as a writer and now maybe I was more motivated to continue writing more. Now I believe more in myself that I have a special attribute of making others feel good and interested in what I write. 

Published in December, 2015

By Elvin Herrera

Smartphones as an Educational Tool in the Language Classroom

I never thought that smartphones could be used as a tool in a classroom; however, I started having a job and instead of using it for pure entertaining, as it was supposed to be, I started using my smartphone to take notes, record conversations, look for information through the internet and making it my main way of communication between my classmates. I marveled at the different applications I had at the palm of my hand.  Who would have thought that a technology trend would become in such a useful educational tool for me?

I bought my first smartphone because it was an ongoing trend everybody was talking about and almost everybody had one. No long after that, I started working as a teacher in a local school, which made my time almost nonexistent. Little by little, I started realizing there was more to my smartphone than just catching up with friends. Since I had data service, I had instant access to the internet, hence, to any resource that the World Wide Web could provide me. Also, I had my email set up in it and that made my communications faster both at work and at college.

The beauty of smartphones relies on their applications. The first app I ever used in a classroom was the camera; it saved me from losing information while actually paying attention to presentations made by my classmates. After that, apps were my best friends. I would do several activities with them, such as: record speech practices, tape plays, translate words I did not know and edit last minute papers. This helped me to realize that years ago I would have spent time writing several pages and while doing so, I would have missed what was explained by my classmates or my teacher. Also the recording app made it easy for me to increase my knowledge as well as improving my pronunciation  These apps were really helpful for me as a language student because phonetics and practice are key factors for me to improve my language development. This has helped me to refocus my opinion on smartphones due to the fact that a single device can hold many features that once were considered expensive and they should be carried all in a bag; now they are all free and easy to bring anywhere I go. 

What makes smartphones a useful tool is how practical they can be. You can have a memory drive, a mini computer, a media player and a library all in one; your very own Swiss Army knife. As a student and a teacher, these features came in handy as a learning and educational device.

Smartphones are considered babies in relation to communication technology. They have just been developed in less than a decade and have changed the world’s way of doing day-by-day activities. Personally, they have changed the way I take care of my learning process. Specifically, by recording me and listening to what is that I am doing wrong or by taking pictures of information that I would not have been able to retain. This is significant for me because, as language student because I have been able to master those little flaws that could once stop me from becoming the professional I have ambitioned to be.  Smartphones are an incredible tool in a language classroom and I cannot wait for the improvements and assets that technology will bring to them and therefore, to me.

How to improve your English skills

By Elvin Herrera

The domain of a language is measured in the use of English skills so it is important to ask ourselves what about our language skills as a second language? Have these already acquired in the mind or do they need more practice? If we want to know what is our level or quality of language we must focus in our listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Learning another language requires a lot of time because it is a constantly process where we are involved with several contexts of knowledge. Therefore, we will never speak, read, write or listen to English like a cracking of fingers because there some strategies that we must follow all the time, that's if we want to be recognized inside a linguistics environment of English. There are many things that we can do for improving our skills although the most important aspect of learning a language is summarized in communication, motivation with ourselves and determination for achieving goals.

We must not forget that learning English means communicate the language. Unfortunately, schools have been leaving out this important skill of learning, bilingual education systems have to start to produce English in the students and how can they do it; well, the answer is working hard in our language skills through the communication. Our environment is the first element in where we can improve all these skills; the classroom has to be a stimulating place of interactions with the language. Every single space to practice any of those linguistics competences should be our chance to improve our English. We have our classmates for speaking all the time so do it; books are around whatever site so read them, we born with a lot of imagination in our heads so use it for writing. Morever the internet offers incredible websites where we can strength all these skills; so then what are we waiting for, we should star using all these resources.

The key for realizing whatever activity is in doing it with motivation because we need stimulus to work well. When we do something that we enjoy, it is sure that we are not going to forget that experience, it will be kept in our mind and the most important part, it will be available to attach the knowledge that we acquired. Learning English has to be great, not boring and we can catch up this condition if we add our special sense of learning. Perhaps, you like listening to music so it is time to get it for learning English, the same situation if you like movies, go to watch movies in English. My point is that we can learn more if we do something that we love. Being motivated is essential for improving our skills of the language because this process of learning could be exhausting, anybody learn English immediately so we must make every situation of learning the most amazing experience of our life.

It is easy to say “I am going to speak English very well”. However, inside these words must be a lot of determination with us. Learning English has to become a habit, something that we can do everyday like our meal time, a need to continue living. Every skill of English has to be worked continuously; one skill practiced per day could result an excellent way to improve our language. Sometimes, little things make incredible results but only if we are constant in the way. Consequently, if we read, write or listen to English at least fifteen minutes every single day, at the end we will achieve great things; our quality in the language will be reflected in how we communicate with others. Just at this moment, we finally will be able to say that we speak English very well.

Learning English requires a lot of creativity and imagination, this aspect of language allows us to interact with the skills that we need to handle. The bases of teaching English has to be focused in communication, speak English is produce English accompanied of motivation which is the bases to keep going in the process of learning with a state of safety for realizing the goals that learning a second language requires form us. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are skills of English which have to be present all the time in our process of learning and only making them work very well is how we will feel the great results such as part of this beautiful communicative human expression. Accordingly, my time of putting into practice my writing skill have finished at the same time that you may have finished your daily practice in your reading skill.

Learning theories for the classroom. Analysis of our current education system.

By Elvin Herrera

       

         All teachers that are found doing this amazing job of teaching inside the classroom should ask themselves what is important for their students for acquiring the knowledge. According to this query is how we can achieve a quality of education in the process. First at able, we must be aware that every single person is different, each student learns in different ways. Therefore, the study of the theories of learning has a vital purpose in giving to students the best tool for engaging their abilities with the knowledge that we want to transmit them. The most recognized approaches in learning intend to guide the process of education toward different purposes, some of them are oriented in the student and others are focuses on the teacher. These theories are Behavioral, Cognitivism, Constructivism, Social Learning, and Humanism.

             In a certain way, the current system of education could be working without the consent about the useful of learning theories. This is the reason why we have serious problems in education. Traditional methods are still dominating inside some national classrooms. Unfortunately, many teachers do not know how to exploit the great abilities that students have acquired naturally since they were born. Accordingly, students are not developing their capacities because the system does not allow them. Absolutely, I consider crossing the line between traditionalism and active education. Education is the first need of a nation; and as a primordial need that it is, we have a big responsibility for creating changes in order to obtain an educational quality generalized in people able to generate a good development for the country.

            In relation to describe the theories of learning I see interesting contributions in each of one. First, I have to say that behaviorism is one of these approaches that is more centered in the activity of the teacher than student. Moreover, behaviorism supports the idea to use stimulus to create knowledge in the student as if he or she was a clean slate. Consequently I perceive in this theory a good application with the phrase “transmission of knowledge” because that is exactly what behaviorism pretend with learning.

As a response to behaviorism theory, we also have others approaches which become more active and conscious about the prominent of the learning, the student himself. At the time, Cognitivism is centered itself in an active purpose based on the student. Therefore, the students are who create or discover the knowledge trough a mental process in order to be involved in an environment which allows them to think, reflect, perceive and construct their own knowledge from prior experiences. Following the same pattern, constructivism joins the same idea of Cognitivism. Constructivism induces students to create their own knowledge by realizing practical activities. The teacher is just a guide who provides to the student activities for working on manipulating knowledge. According to the learning seems thorough an environment perception, social learning theory believes in the influence of this element in the process of learning. Everybody is conditioned by what we have around us, and at the end we are a result of this environment who impulses us to act according what the rest do. Despite to this, humanism rather believes in the person as an individual element in the learning. Humanists emphasizes in the values of the person for achieving his goals.

             Several theories can appear as an ideal to incorporate in the process of leaning. Meanwhile, just the teacher is who know what specifically his students need. If as teachers we can focus on the student as an individualized element, the success in the process could have assured a quality of knowledge. Whatever theory that motivates students to participate actively in the process will be very useful for applying in teaching labor. However, a teacher never has to forget the main role in education is centered in the student. The teacher becomes just a guide who accompanies the students in the realization of their goals. Concepts such as motivation, participation, exploration, discovering, practical situations, creativity and so on, should be the ideals that a teacher has to reflect in the process of developing competences for students through the knowledge acquired.

             

Teaching Mathematics in Elementary School

By Elvin Herrera

            Mathematics has been a total different language for children to learn. The reason relapses on its content where students find symbols that represent operations, a not conventional way to get involved in knowledge. Thereby, students find mathematics intimidating, difficult to understand and most difficult to master which makes a challenge for the teacher in the teaching environment. As a response to this situation the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) (2000) invites teachers to imagine the classroom, a school or a school district where all students have access to high quality, engaging mathematics instruction through some principles and standards that NCTM consider a guidance for the process of teaching mathematics in the classroom . In this way, the first thing to account for teaching math in elementary school should be the motivation; children need be motivated to do well according to the mathematics curriculum, this is part of the styles diversity of learning. Each student learns in different ways and that is the reason why teachers find around the classroom some hurdles with their students at the moment to learn math. Some of these students seem able to develop in math situations but others not. Therefore, it does not mean that those students have problems to learn math, it is that they just have learning differences. To address these learning differences of the pupils, it is important for them to have a variety of materials to dominate the mathematical knowledge in multiples ways of learning which oriented students to develop constructive or active activities. “In order to have opportunities to learn math, children need firsthand experiences related to math, interaction with other children and adults concerning these experiences and time to reflect on the experiences” (Carol Seefeldt, 2006). Consequently, the issue to reflect about teaching math is in comprehending the learning of it as a construction of the students regarding to their own mathematical understanding. Teaching mathematics involves a process of handling standards and principles for the teacher to be applied in students in order to feel with math an importance in the school and in society itself looking for continuity in the process.

            The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum and Evaluation Standards (2000) have worked on finding some directions for orienting the mathematics education. The standards are intended as a policy document for professionals in mathematics education as well as a vision of excellence, one which attempts to move the field well beyond the minimal competencies of the back-to-basic movement of the 1980s (Bishop, 1990). This document is a condensed result of hard investigations about what should be a real reform in teaching mathematics. Some aspects of the standards of NCTM are focus on achieving a higher performance in students following the requirements that modern education asks for students of the new era. Also, an important aim traced is having a greater emphasis on conceptual understanding at the moment to solve problems toward cases that involve situations of real life. Specifically, a greater emphasis on conceptual understanding and having students solve longer, less well-defined problems. NCTM (2000) identified some principles for school mathematics which are around of the equity of excellence in math, the curriculum, the teaching and learning strategies, the assessment to support the learning and the technology as an improvement for student’s learning. The objective of these principles is providing teachers important information about the features of high-quality mathematics instruction.

            Motivating students to be a fundamental part of the process of teaching math is one of the most important aspects to account. Teachers should always focus attention on the students who present no interest as well as the motivated ones. The motivation determines how much the pupil learns and how much pleasant he or she feels with it. Accordingly, motivating students to achieve a success in mathematics learning is a challenge to the teacher and it should be a main concern in the process. Therefore, this situation involves to teachers to work more individually with their students in order to concrete a total learning in the classroom. As Ediger (2003) says, each pupil is important and no one should fall through the slats in mathematics. For keeping this stability in students, teachers need to determine knowledge and skills in students and in this way to acquire the mathematical background that sustains a success in the process. Thus, pupils need to be motivated to do the best in the mathematics area which is very important for the curriculum and it current seems to be separated from the others areas of knowledge.

An integration of the other areas of learning could help math to be less independent but it is just an illusion that only the teacher can create in the classroom. Accordingly, creativity should be an important element integrated in math teachers. Ufuktepe and Ozel (2002) suggest the integration of music and drama with concrete manipulatives. He believes that the employment of music and drama with traditional mathematical instruction not only reduced math anxiety but also improved student performance on unit tests. The use of these techniques, music and drama, could help to achieve a major activity in the learning. Despite of the difficulty of integrating motivational methods for teaching math, teachers never have to forget that human senses are the responsible for catching everything knowledge available around. At this point, the advice made by these authors is converting these senses of perception in strategies for acquiring math successfully and at the same time, the practical approach of mathematics is accomplished because it demands to the teachers to be pragmatics instead of the traditional ones which do not still fill enough in this field of knowledge.

The weakness of almost all education systems is the lack of individually attention for students. The process of teaching has been developed in a general way without knowing that children individually are different from each other and possess diverse learning styles. In the same way, they also show different intelligences but this is something that teachers may ignore. For this reason, Ediger (2003) observes that teachers and supervisor need to study pupils in the classroom and know under which conditions pupils achieve best in pertaining to the mathematics curriculum. Through this study in the classroom, the teacher can start to work in teaching- learning toward applying different strategies for each student according to what he or she notices individually in the observations. In a general perspective about learning styles, the problems that children present for dealing mathematics are due to teachers are following a curriculum that is directed to a loss of creativity for acquiring the mathematical knowledge; the playful activity is not integrated in the classroom. Consequently, children find mathematics intimidating and difficult to manage. Instead of this, students should rather learn math in a practical way or in a proximal view to the reality as the constructivist method says.

There are some materials to consider at the moment of teaching mathematics. Bradley (2008) found some primoridal elements as educational resources which can help a lot to guide the process of teaching – learning mathematics. Firstly, Bradley identifies an educative trinomial as the center of whatever process of education settled in society, it is integrated by the student, the teacher and the parents. These human resources for education have a great responsibility for keeping a stability in the educative process. Of course, teaching mathematics also is involved in these three elements as other learning areas do too. Morever, other componets  are formed by material resources as thecnology, the phisycal space and didactic materials which are a very important piece for integrating an active or practical class in teaching math. In the same way, Bradley develop an integration of  strategic elements such as logical thinking in the use of intervention activities, using manipulatives and number lines during whole-group instruction, focusing on explicit instruction with small-groups, engaging students in partner learning and peer tutoring, integrating music, videocassettes and computer software and working problems from the textbook.

Mathematics is one of the three important areas, along reading and writing, which students must master during a process of education in elementary school. However, this learning area seems a little difficult to possess for students due to the lack of a curriculum that promotes a motivation for learning math. In such a way, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics offers great proposals that instructors can follow for getting in the students a high level of mathematics; also looking for feeling an interest about mathematics and seeing the value and beauty of it. Accordingly, teachers have to develop mathematical competences in students because teaching math is a process for evolving pupils to a reality that they must live. Creativity is an essential element in teaching so it promotes an active participation of the students. Consequently, the integration of tools or methods that allow students to be interested in learning math should be an important piece to integrate in the pedagogical teaching agenda. The opportunities of learning that the teacher offers to the students need to be varied in order to accommodate each student to his own style of learning. Following this principle, the most important aim for students is achieving individual abilities for integrating with the social environment which demands professionals in higher competitive availability on labor field.

Bibliography References

NCTM (2000). Principles and standars for school mathematics.

Bishop, Allan J. (1990). Mathematical power to the people. Harvard Educational Review Vol 60 No. 3.

Bradley, J. R. (2008). Teaching Mathematics to Elementary. (J. S. University, Ed.) Asian Social Science.

Carol Seefeldt, ‎. A. (2006). Early education: three-, four-, and five-year-olds go to. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Ediger, M. (2003). Teaching Mathematics Successfully. New Delhi, India: Discovery Publishing House.

Ünal Ufuktepe, C. T. Ozel. (2002). Avoiding mathematics trauma: Alternative teaching methods. Crete, Greece: Documents Reproduction Service No. ED477833.