When school time is not enough . . .

Have you ever thought about what are your children doing at school? Are they
being part of a good process of learning, or they are just loosing their time there? Could you prove that they are inside of a classroom with a teacher who is worried about their learning? Maybe not?! These lines can be useful and you can be impressed about it. So please, relax and analyze!

It’s such a nice experience being part of a school. However, sometimes we are witnesses of some situations which are escaping of our hands. One day, I got shocked because my ELAB’s teacher, Rina Vega, stayed one hour inside classroom. Was she re-viewing contents? No! She was worried about other things! Students were just playing cards and she was worried about Independence Day. English? No thanks! Maybe that day, English was absent at school.
If we think about this situation, lots of questions come to our minds. It’s necessary to clarify which factors are involved in this problem. However, the only thing that is very clear is that students are not learning at school! They are the only victims of this entire problem, and the responsibility escapes of their hands. But it’s necessary to go beyond that. What are the consequences this problem brings? One hour lost means one hour in which contents and values can be taught, and students can learn new things. One hour lost means one hour in which students feel frustrated and disappointed about their school. And this situation cannot happen anymore.

But why does this situation happen? If we need to identify who is the main
responsible of this, all the arrows go to the teacher. The responsibility of all the things inside classroom is the teacher’s. And if we look this reality, we can identify her as the
person who needs to organize, help and stimulate students in order to reach good learning. But if we are in presence of situations in which students are playing instead studying, the tasks are not reached and the school is not improving in order to give a good education to students. If we look around this school, we can note that this reality is not unique. Several teachers were worried about this holiday, and it seems that nobody cares about students. But one thing which is impressive is that teachers are not worried about this. I mean, it’s OK to spend time in beautiful scenes about our national day (who did not do that?) but, when you have a class which is not achieving the minimum contents about the subject, it’s necessary to spend time well! You cannot give your back to students and think that everything is great and we can have a rest! At the end, students feel frustrated and disappointed about themselves, because they cannot have a good learning, but this is due to behavior inside classroom, and this reality is not looked in a way it needs to change. And that makes everything more difficult!

At the end of this analysis, we can conclude that to this problem is not given all the
importance it has. That the teachers are not thinking in a critical way about their jobs. That inside classrooms sometimes are problems which are not solved, and the main responsible of them is not worried about them. But what can we do about it? It’s necessary to think and ask to our students about their lessons. To be involved in our children’s education. To help them in order to reach a good education. If we can follow these tips, we can be and feel great with ourselves. If we teachers do not worry about our children, we can do it!

Hi! Today, we have an interesting interview about a student who could change thanks to his teacher. Dan Morton gave us an exclusive meeting for talking about his experience:


Hi Dan, How are you today?
- Hi!, I'm fine, thanks!

Great!, So, let's start with the interview then! How do you feel now you could finish school?
-Oh!, I feel so good. In fact, I never thought I could do it !, but a teacher believed in me. and I think she was my biggest influence.

Oh, I see! And tell me a little bit about this teacher, please?
-Well, she was a marine before teaching in my school. She was very worried about her students, and the most important thing is that she is very perseverant! For example, in my case, I thought I had no future, but she could see that I'm good in writing, and I can do something with that skill!


Would you recommend that teacher to some "problematic" students?
-Absolutely! she could change my life, and she can do it with them too !

Finally, tell me what are you doing today ?
- I would like to keep studing, because I love writing, and thanks to Ms Johnsons, I believe now in myself, and now the future is in my hands!


I completely agree with you Dan! Thanks for the interview!
-Thanks to you! Goodbye

Mr Editor:

Using your wonderful magazine, I would like to thanks Mrs Johnsons because of her Job. She's a teacher who gives everything for her students. I think nowayads we need more Mrs Johnsons inside classrooms; she has the skill of understand students, help them and achieve goals in relation with contents. I could see that, even she is a lady, she can manage an entire classroom, create affective relationships with her students, and to be compromized with them. Our society need to create teachers with the same thinking Mrs Johnsons has: students are not just like robots for repeating and learning contents, they are human beings, with feelings, needs, emotions, idead and futures, and we need to hel them in order to create a better world.

Thanks miss Johnsons. Thanks to your work, those students have hope in their minds!

Sincerely
Javiera Lopez M.

when art is not looking perfection . . .

One of my favorite painters is Fernando Botero. He was born in Medellin, Colombia, in 1932. His art is characterized for being created by fat people. If I had to choose one of his pieces of Art, I would choose Los Bailarines (2000). I think that Fernando Botero can show his art, and be a successful painter, not just with perfect people. In fact, all his paints are compounded by fat women and men, and I think it's really interesting. Why just perfection is beautiful? For example, in this image, we can see a voluptuous couple dancing, and I can image that couple everywhere! Maybe my parents, some friends, a couple inside a “Fonda”, etc! That’s what called my attention of Botero’s art. In our real world, people are not as perfect as we can see on TV. We all have defects, things that we would love to change, but the important thing is to accept ourselves as we are. And I think this kind of art is helping us to accept our body like something natural. We can be fat, and we can still being beautiful! So, pelase, if you are sad because of your appearance, look for Fernando Botero’s art, and enjoy looking his paints! 

Time of my life*

It is hard to summarize my life in a few words. However, its necessary for making an instrospection about what I have done. First of all, My childhood is an step of my life that helped me to be who I am now. It was very happy, because my parents and my grandma were always worried that I could have all the esential things that a child needs. For example, they gave me love, material things, a good enviroment, and so.

If I need to recall an event which changed everything, I would say: My first year at school. Even before when my parents got divorced! I mean, when we were child, everything changes when you need to go to school. You can meet friends, you have more responsabilities now, and also you have to wake up early! but its a new world. We discover lots of new things, and everything is interesting. I studied my whole life school in the same place, and When I finished my 12 years it was very sad.
In my school life, I realized that I was very interested in English. Why? because most of my favourite bands were English speakers! so, when I finished school, I decided to study English pedagogy. It has been difficult this big change from school to university. However Here I am, with all my desires of ebcome a great English Teacher !