Un mensaje de texto muy especial de de Lari...

From Agus

Thank you for sharing all your knowledge throughout these years!

"The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves." - Joseph Campbell

                         Love,

                                  Agus

Un poema para Patsy... De Miss Yamy

El árbol de los amigos- Jorge Luis Borges

Existen personas en nuestras vidas que nos hacen felices

por la simple casualidad de haberse cruzado en nuestro camino.

Algunas recorren el camino a nuestro lado, viendo muchas lunas pasar,

mas otras apenas vemos entre un paso y otro.

A todas las llamamos amigos y hay muchas clases de ellos.Tal vez cada hoja de un árbol caracteriza uno de nuestros amigos.

El primero que nace del brote es nuestro amigo papá y nuestra amiga mamá,

que nos muestra lo que es la vida.

Después vienen los amigos hermanos,

con quienes dividimos nuestro espacio para que puedan florecer como nosotros.

Pasamos a conocer a toda la familia de hojas a quienes respetamos y deseamos el bien.Mas el destino nos presenta a otros amigos,

los cuales no sabíamos que irían a cruzarse en nuestro camino.

A muchos de ellos los denominamos amigos del alma, de corazón.

Son sinceros, son verdaderos.

Saben cuando no estamos bien, saben lo que nos hace feliz.

Y a veces uno de esos amigos del alma estalla en nuestro corazón

y entonces es llamado un amigo enamorado.

Ese da brillo a nuestros ojos, música a nuestros labios, saltos a nuestros pies.

Mas también hay de aquellos amigos por un tiempo,

tal vez unas vacaciones o unos días o unas horas.

Ellos acostumbran a colocar muchas sonrisas en nuestro rostro,

durante el tiempo que estamos cerca.

Hablando de cerca, no podemos olvidar a amigos distantes,

aquellos que están en la punta de las ramas

y que cuando el viento sopla siempre aparecen entre una hoja y otra.

El tiempo pasa, el verano se va, el otoño se aproxima y perdemos algunas de nuestras hojas,

algunas nacen en otro verano y otras permanecen por muchas estaciones.

Pero lo que nos deja más felices es que las que cayeron continúan cerca,

alimentando nuestra raíz con alegría.

Son recuerdos de momentos maravillosos de cuando se cruzaron en nuestro camino.

Te deseo, hoja de mi árbol, paz, amor, salud, suerte y prosperidad.

Simplemente porque cada persona que pasa en nuestra vida es única.

Siempre deja un poco de sí y se lleva un poco de nosotros.

Habrá los que se llevarán mucho,

pero no habrán de los que no nos dejarán nada.

Esta es la mayor responsabilidad de nuestra vida

y la prueba evidente de que dos almas no se encuentran por casualidad.

Un mensaje desde el Litoral!!!

'Eduardo Galeano dice: la utopía esta en el horizonte. Camino dos pasos, ella se aleja dos pasos y el horizonte se corre diez pasos mas allá. Entonces para que sirve la utopía? Para eso, sirve para caminar, y con ese caminar forjar nuevos proyectos y concretarlos, y volver a empezar; eso es la vida, un comenzar sin olvidar lo anterior'.. Te deseo que mantengas vivas tus utopías, ideales, ilusiones y espíritu de búsqueda.. Y te agradezco por haber sido quien me enseñó a caminar esos primeros pasos.. Te adoro con todo el corazón.. Un abrazo fuerte desde lejos.. Silvi Gimenez

                                                  The power of words
Educating children is a daily challenge. We try to cover everything: contents, strategies, techniques. But we know that there is something that underlies all these aspects. I´m referring to good behaviour, to create a good atmosphere in the classroom where we can listen to each other in a respectful way, taking turns to speak.
I´m aware that it´s not easy to accomplish these instances. Sometimes, we feel that we have achieved some, or most of them, but then, something happens and we go backwards with a bitter feeling of disappointment.
In my opinion, the best way of struggling against these situations is TALKING TO OUR STUDENTS", using simple, well-chosen words that can touch their hearts and can lead to a deep, mature reflection.
I´m not saying that disciplinary sanctions have to be avoided. We need them at school. But I think that going "over and over" VALUES, is a profitable investment in our students' emotional development.

                 The way Assemblies introduced changes to my” teaching style”

 

   Some years ago, after teaching for a long time, I felt the strong need to make a significant change in my career. I knew, beforehand, that “starting again”, would bring many challenges. That was my clear, specific objective! It represented an interesting move towards growing as a teacher and as a human being.

   Of course I was not going to leave aside my academic background and my experience in different grades. The idea was to add, combine and recycle new strategies and techniques to the ones I had been applying for years.

   I felt immensely enthusiastic about my new situation. But planning was a big issue, it had to be done meticulously.

   It was not easy at the beginning. It was completely different from the way I had planned my Spanish lessons before.

   But, what really called my attention was the “concept” of the Assemblies. I could not imagine how students could get a valuable lesson without writing for an hour and a half.

   I imagined children getting bored, misbehaving, not knowing what to do with their time. I didn´t know how to time this stage, thinking it could mean a waste of time and energy.

   Little by little, I realized that it was definitely worth carrying out these Assemblies. More than that, I started enjoying them!

   Framing an interesting question, presenting a conflict to be solved, talking about a hard situation, mentioning characters from stories, making connections with real life, or just telling them:”What is the first thing that comes to your mind in relation to the topic, to this person, event or to the content in itself ?”

   It has been a pleasure to listen to students retelling anecdotes that parents or relatives had told them once. It has also been a wonderful opportunity for shy kids to “say something” because they could feel confident, and of course, I prized them immediately with warm, rewarding words. Mates listened to them and these contributions triggered other interesting comments. Sometimes, breaktime was due, and many children wanted to go on participating.

 

   Arranging the tables and chairs in a semicircle was also an asset. This “U format” allowed us to have eye contact, and I could carry my chair around the classroom, so as to be able to work with all the students.

 

   Assemblies brought real benefits to all the children and of course, to me. I noticed that they achieved and acquired fluency in their speaking and it also had a direct impact in their writing too. Sounds could be polished, functions used in the right contexts, types of words correctly collocated, among other linguistic advantages.

   Above everything I have mentioned before, what I like most is the way children expressed and shared their own feelings and emotions. Creating a relaxed, warm atmosphere in the classroom, also facilitated to strengthen enormously the emotional bonds among all the people who are involved in this cognitive, mental process called “LEARNING”.