NETWORKING PROJECT

Project advances

I spoke to my boss to find out his opinion about the network project, and he accepted and authorized me to go on, the next step was to talk to Norah Ossa, the person in charge of contact the companies for the SENA apprentices, she informed that the person who was in charge of that follow up with students was Edith Torres and that she just visited the companies when something wrong was going on. Norah also comment that it would be a great idea, although in her opinion the technical part was Ok but the most common complaint from the companies was the lack of compromise of SENA students, and the high dropout rate among our apprentices.

Simultaneously I contacted some of my ex students who are working in the companies in this moment, I spoke to three of them and all of them showed enthusiasm and expressed their will to help with the project, one of them works in the aqueduct and sewage system company of Bogota, and she even told that I could go Now if I wanted.

Now that I have the contact I want to prepare a well-structured questionnaire for students and for the company bosses, and for that I want the help of my coworkers in my center. 

Personal teaching project reflection

The objective of my personal Project implementation was “the implementation of activities for software programming in the context of an English language learning class, to promote the use of the English language in real work situations.”

The first part of my project was to find out information on what do the students use in their working life related with English. I made three interviews and it was very surprising for me to find that they had to do lots of thing in English, not only programming, but sometime reading texts, analyzing complete manuals, and the most surprising, writing the manuals themselves, something that in my opinion requires lots of knowledge on the language.

On the other hand I wanted to know what was going on in class meanwhile they are learning with me, the answer was also surprising. When I observed teacher Edith’s session and when I interviewed her I discovered that even some of the students who have a good proficiency level felt insecure when using the programs in English, and they always try to find the Spanish version, although sometimes it does not even exist. That gave me the idea that they feel insecure when facing the language challenges.

All that information made me wonder again, what material should I include in the project implementation? What could be the best way to include the software information in class due to the limitations on time and the curriculum given by SENA? At the beginning I thought in creating complete sessions of software in English, but then I realized that I would have time limitations and that it would be redundant with what they do in class, I would also have difficulties with computers, additionally I am supposed to stick to the program created by SENA, it opened my eyes and I realized the it was not going to work. That is why I decided to include the software embedded inside the topics of the course, not separately, so for example when I was teaching “there is, there are” I also included the vocabulary of a program menu and they described it; When we were talking about giving instructions, they created a tutorial for a software program, and so on. It made it easier for the teacher and softer for the students.

In terms of motivation it really surprised me, unfortunately I lost some of the class recordings but let me tell you that there were moments that the inclusion of software vocabulary or software topics transformed an ordinary class into a passionate discussion where everybody wanted to participate.

One of the hardest parts is to decide what to include and when to do it, I think I need to work a little more on that, experience some other possibilities and make decisions based on the classes given trimester b trimester. Another issue that makes me wonder is if the real effectiveness of what I am doing, that is why I asked the teacher Edith Nancy to help me keep track of the students that she knows feel scared with the English. We are still waiting for the results but so far it seems that is working.

The best part of all this process was to witness that small changes can cause an important impact in the learning process of the students. And that the reflecting on your own teaching may bring lots of nice consequences. Additionally for me was very interesting to see me teaching, sometimes you make a picture in your mind but then when you observe yourself from other point of view the things change a lot. Actually it was one of the biggest surprises, I also gave me more ideas on what to improve in my own teaching.
 

Implementation 2

Implementation 1

Class Observation 5

 Teacher: Raul
Program: carving
Time observed 6 hours
Date 2015-05-14

This session was on the third floor in an open classroom with a group of students that are taking a complementary course of emerald carving. In the interview with the teacher he comments that the objective is to prepare the students to a field trip to the most important zone of emerald trading in Colombia.

The class

It began as an informative lecture leaded by the teacher where he explained some of the most important aspects to take into account when travelling to Muzo. But then it turned different when he started to explain the way o trading and bargain with emeralds because it included the active participation of students, and turned into a forum where everybody gave opinions and ideas on how to act, what to buy, and what to do. The first three hours finished with the T proposing a deeper investigation from students.

The next day they continued with the discussions but with clearer information, and then the T again took the lead of the conversation and presented some other clues to take into account including the transportation and the housing there.

DO’s

It was interesting to see that the teacher transformed a lecture into an open discussion, he used an activator that was bringing samples of emeralds to the classroom and it provoke the immediate reaction of Ss. T promoted the discussion and encouraged Ss to participate actively in it.

The strategy of giving the Ss time to investigate and go deeper was very successful and helped to clarify some assumptions from the same Ss.

Class Observation 4

Class Observation 4

Teacher: Edith Nancy Espinel
Program: Software
Time observed 4 hours
Date 2015-07-21

This class was on the first floor in one of the computing classrooms, where there are 30 computers and there were 16 students, this session was the second part of a series of sessions where the objective was to train the students in the identification of mistakes in C programming.

The class

The first part of the session was with the teacher giving reviewing the work done in the previous class, then she presented the activity, every student will receive a program already created and they were supposed to check it carefully and little by lttle identify and correct the mistakes in order to make the programs run.

After the explanation the Ss go to their computers and start the work, although it is individual, they are encouraged by the T to try to help the people they can, so from time to time some of them stood up and went around the class helping each other, after trying the option of collaborative way the go and ask the teacher.

During one hour T seemed to be disconnected for what was going on but after a while she started to walk around the classroom monitoring the Ss work. The session almost ended but I had to leave earlier because m class was about to start.

DO’s

In this case there are many, I liked the way the Ss cooperate one each other, also the route proposed by the teacher, first try to solve it individually, then try the internet, if not ask your partners and if definitely you can’t solve it ask the teacher.

I also liked the strategy used, where the Ss is the one who has to experience the work of be responsible of making things work. The Ss work was very independent and the T function is to set the situation and to support them in the process.

DON’Ts

I think that the T took too long to walk around the class, she could have done it before. Specially with the lowest level students.

Class Observation 3

Teacher: Diego
Program: English
Time observed 2 hours
Date 2015-07-14

This session was on the third floor in a closed classroom with a group of 15 students (Ss) from different areas taking a 40 hour course of English. According to the conversation with the teacher (T) the objective is to cover some of the basic grammar topics, because they are supposed to have been taken the virtual courses in advance.

The class

It was a theoretical class, The T goes over grammar topics like simple preset, simple past, adverbs of frequency, countable and non-countable nouns among others, T makes an explanation on the board mixing Spanish and English, but mostly in Spanish, after every explanation he asks questions like “¿Como se dice?” (How do you say…?), trying to find out how much the Ss know the vocabulary, but most of the times the answer was given by the same 2 Ss. Meanwhile most of the Ss take note.

DO’s

For me it was very difficult to extract the best because it seemed like the antithesis of what I consider an English class should be.

DON’Ts

It was a totally teacher’s centered class, I did not really found the order of the topics, the T did not give time for Ss to analyze or even ask, and the questions were always answered by the same students so there were many Ss that did not say a word during the whole; T jumped dramatically from one topic to another and there was no a communicative objective for the session.

 

After the session I interviewed the T and he told me that he felt pressured for that class because he was not an English teacher, that he was a technical drawing teacher, and he had to take that class just because he knows how to speak the language, and also because he has to complete the teaching hours in his schedule. That he does not know if he reached the objective of the class, but he tries to do what he can.

That makes me think that the administrative decisions taken by the coordinators are sometimes contradictory and not coherent with the institutional perspective, and of course they affect the Ss learning process.

Class Observation 2

 

Teacher: Manuel
Program: Precious Stone Carving
Time observed 2 hours
Date 2015-07-09

This session was in the second floor in a closed classroom with a group of 22 new students in the specialization of gem carving with ages between 19 and 45 years, this session is one of the first of the trimester and the group is still in the contextualization cycle of the program. The objective of this session is to bring the students close to the world of carving.

The class

It started with the teacher (T) telling his students (Ss) a little bit of the importance of the precious stone industry in Colombia; then T introduced the central activity that was to observe a video from Nat Geo channel about the emeralds in Colombia. It was a really interesting video that showed the reality of the commerce of precious stones in the country and also the unbelievable change in price after a good carving. The video took around one hour, after the video the T asked the opinion of Ss in regards to the video and the career they selected. And Ss gave their opinions one by one.

DO’s

The material used in class was totally adequate for the objective of the class, and I think the Ss were totally fascinated by what they were watching; a warm up at the beginning and a wrap up at the end of the session were very important, and in this session those two parts were very clear.

DON’Ts

I would have included some pre while and after video activities where the Ss could have interacted and shared their thoughts, For example a predicting activity before the video, and some discussion after the presentation of it.

Class Observation

Teacher: Julio Rueda
Program: polyester
Time observed 2 hours
Date 2015-05-14

The class was in the third floor of the Complejo Sur, in an open classroom (with no walls) and the apprentices are a group of High school students with ages between 14 and 16 years old. At the beginning I interviewed the teacher Julio in an informal talk, and he tells me that these students have been working with him for about 6 months; the topic of the class is the transference in measurements between centimeters and inches, and the understanding of the measurements in tools used for the polyester manipulation.  

The class

The session was very theoretical; it started with the teacher (T) explaining on the board the way of transferring from cm to inches. He eventually asked his students (Ss) about some mathematical operation answers. He seemed to focus on 2 or 3 students apparently the lowest level students.

T presented most of the information on the board, and asked some open questions trying to elicit information, although the answer of the Ss was poor or they remained silent for a while and T answered by himself most of the questions.

After almost 1 hour of explaining the way it is transformed and the Ss taking notes; the T starts telling them the importance of doing the measurements correctly and how if they make it incorrectly this could cause them severe legal difficulties. It seems that many of the Ss are distracted but the T maintains the discipline.

Then we had a break of 20 min. I could not continue observing any more.

The do’s

The teacher has a clear knowledge of who his students are; he calls them by the name, T has a complete control of the discipline and Ss believe on what he says (although as a personal note I wouldn’t be so strict). T provides good examples for the class. The objectives were clear and most of the class turned around them. T cares about personal life issued of his Ss

The don’ts

The teacher talking time was too much, and the students’ participation was almost nothing. The class was completely teacher centered. I am not totally sure if the Ss got it. The Ss did not have time to think. There were many opportunities for team work and they were wasted. I have the sensation that the class was boring for the Ss.

Essay: Current situation of Networking in the CME SENA Bogotá

Current situation of Networking in the CME SENA Bogotá

In the world of education networking is a necessity, if you are not connected you are probably missing so many opportunities to improve or have better performance in what you do, and for the SENA it is an issue that attracts the attention of so many people. In the national scenario we have connections with the industries, the employees, and the academy.

But this is a big institution and the networks that work in a school, not necessarily work in all the schools. The Centro de Materiales y Ensayos CME where I work is located in Bogota, and the majority of the programs that we have are related with the industry, such as welding, jewelry, material testing, polymers and software programming, therefore must of the collaboration is aimed to support the industry in the city of Bogotá. All this networking is done specially in the south part of the city, and with companies located in specific zones according to the specialization, so for example, most of the jewelry partnerships related to emeralds and precious stones are focused in a town called Muzo and its surroundings where we find the biggest market for that kind of product.

But what exactly are these kinds of networks about, the objective of the relationship with the companies is to know the necessities of the industry so we can provide more appropriated programs, to know the new technologies and challenges of the industry with the purpose of implementing them in the programs taught at SENA. They also pretend to offer the courses given by SENA in order to provide training to the employees, but additionally to accomplish the goals determined by the general direction. The other purpose is the inclusion of our students in the labor life, so the contact with the managers of companies is very essential to complete the learning process in their practical stage.

Sometimes the contact with the representatives of the companies is done directly between the instructors and the company personnel, but the majority of the times are the SENA coordinators and the leaders of the programs are the ones who go and contact them.

There is also another way to contact the industries and is through the so called “mesas sectoriales” which are the official meetings between the representatives of the economic sectors, the government, and the representatives of academic society. The objective of those meetings is to agree the politics concerning to the training and qualification of the human resources and the decisions of what is pertinent in education according to the needs of every sector. Unfortunately the participation of those meeting is limited, but it also includes the participation of instructors.

Taking this information we can analyze that the relationship between the educational institutions like SENA and the industries and the companies that are affected with the training of the centers is close but it is limited to just some specific people and not everybody can participate actively.

But the information and the decisions of those networks cannot stay on the official meetings, thus, there is another form of network inside the center and is through the program teams. The teams are formed by the instructors who teach in the same area, they are the experts of an specific area and they are the ones who can take clearer decisions on the aspects that may affect their teaching responsibility. There is also a person who is the leader of every team, he is the one in charge of transferring the information from the teams to the director of the center, and this person also belongs to the pedagogical team. The pedagogical team is a relatively new figure, and is formed by the director of the center, the coordinators (academic, administrative and complementary courses), the leaders of the different teams, and some representatives of the administrative group. They have meeting every Tuesday and discuss about the different issues that are taking place in the center.

The structure is interesting and it works in some levels, although sometimes the information stays in the meetings and is not transferred to the majority of the groups, for example, in the area groups an advantage is that the people involved in the groups belong to a same field of knowledge and it permits them to speak in a common language, the meetings that they have are specially to discuss the planning of the trimester activities, and the projects to be performed by the students during the trimester. Unfortunately the opportunities to meet are few due to the tight institutional schedule, so the complete teams usually meet just twice or three times a year, and this could be considered too few.

It is also common to hear that after the meetings some teachers decide to ignore the proposals of their coworkers and go to class to continue doing what they always do, that is something that is very difficult to change because of the organizational structure, and also the independence that every teacher has, so the only thing to be done in a case like that is to trust in the team and hope that their compromise become more important than their own precepts. On the other hand we have witnessed some very successful experiences where the instructors have come to agreements that have transformed the learning of their students, one of those examples is the team of software programming that after some meetings transformed a disorganized and sometimes incoherent structure into a more unified and clearer organization of the program and the projects proposed among it. To understand it, is necessary to know that the program is proposed nationwide and the same structure is presented in different regions, but the projects that are tied to the program used to be proposed for every instructor each trimester, it caused that for the same program the students had 5 or 6 different approaches, and the results were totally different. When they analyzed the situation, the problem was not the diversity, but the unnecessary spend of resources and time, and in some cases the low level of the students at the end of the process. So they decided to discuss and agree on a new common structure for their program projects, and after experience it for a period of time, they met again to analyze the results and make the corresponding changes. That was a very fruitful process and an example for the rest of the groups that it was possible to work as a real team and have real changes.

Another aspect to be improved in this level of networking is the retention of the information, especially from the pedagogical teal to the instructors; even though the pedagogical team has weekly gatherings, no information is published and the rest of the instructors ignore what is going on those meetings. That is a concern, because it seems that the efforts that they might be doing inside the pedagogical team could be eventually lost due to the lack of communication with the rest of the teachers.

But the networking must be done not only with the companies and the coworkers, there is a group that is directly affected with our actions and is the community in general, and I think that it is one of the weakest points in our center, even though there are some spaces created like fairs where we present the programs available to the public, no other actions take place with the community.

Therefore the challenges in terms of networking are opened, even more when there is no a complete creating of networks between technical teachers and the teachers of the transversal areas like math, communication, ethics and English, that are involved with all the different groups programs that the center offers. We are constantly in contact with the teachers of the different areas, but our work is escencially support the programs that they lead, I think that there is more to do in terms of agrrement with the instructors, athe companies and the community.

 

 

 

 

Collaborative workshop analysis

The implementation of a collaborative workshop implies a series of decision taking during the planning. Initially it is important to decide and focus the learning outcome; sometimes the topic to be studied during the workshop can cover so many themes that it is essential to narrow the information and the kind of discussion to be implemented. In the case of the scavenger hunt we decides to focus on 6 main topics out of 10 options, anyway it seemed that the number of activities proposed exceeded the limitations of time that we had, and caused that at the end of the activity we had to accelerate the things.

On the other hand the opportunity to discuss freely gave them the chance to work on a more confident environment, risk free, where the participant had the opportunity to analyze and take so many aspects into account. The task proposed pretended to create inspiration, to place their thinking in different environments, and to explore other skills in relation to the same topic. It was very interesting to see the participants creating music at the same time of thinking in dropouts. It was also particular not only criticize the actions that cause the dropout but also experience themselves the situation of creating an activity in an area like math to avoid one of the causes of dropouts, so the purpose of creating thinking is a more complex way gave us an interesting experience to be multiplied in our own teaching.

Education Society and Culture

The mind map of the Colombian representation shows us a very particular reality that moves between the optimism and the pessimism and gives us the idea of an uncertain but still open future. We can see through the different articles that the importance of the education is a priority that concerns all the actors of society, from the worried mother who wants to give an appropriated education for her children to the ministers and governors who must provide the best efforts to improve the quality of education.

One of the most interesting sentences that can be found in this document is the one mentioned by Antanas Mokus ex-mayor of Bogota “La confianza en los profesores es una premisa básica” The confidence on teachers must be a premise. As we know the society is built around the family, but the families must trust in a group of professional who are in charge of the school process of their children. It is mandatory that we as society believe in the abilities of our teachers, and also we as teacher must give out biggest effort to make the school the place that the society desires. A great example of it can be the story of Natalia Patiño, a woman who became a teacher for choice.

But the optimistic features do not come only from teachers, but also from the people who rule the country, one of the articles that really surprised me was the one about the increasing of money in the public universities for the next year because it was one of the aspects that had been forgotten for the previous governments. Another aspect is the improvement in the level of use of English according to Education First EF, and that is the result of new politics in relative to the teaching of foreign languages that have been implemented in the last years. As it is mentioned in the Warton University article, Colombia’s reality is better than before but we are facing lots of new challenges. And the education has the key to face those challenges in a better way, but for it there must be a change like the one presented in the video “the forbidden Education” which is a masterpiece in education in the Latin-American modern times.

But as I mentioned at the beginning of this reflection, the perspectives are also pessimistic in some areas, maybe because the media sometimes emphasizes in the negative, or maybe because there are some truths that cannot be hidden, things like the poor use that most of our teens are giving to the internet, where they just want to play, surf, chat, and hang out online. Maybe that is not only a problem, maybe it is also an opportunity. I also found interesting the fact that most of the teachers complain on the same things that students do, but if we see it deeper, some of them are attitudes that the same educational system have instigated, and can be changed by a deep change in the way education is conceived.

But the culture and the society also bring their own diseases, one of them is the culture of the “easy way” like in the article that presents the people that they do not do either study or work, and that become scrubs of the society, as well as the ones who prefer to beg to the government for a subsidy or a governmental allowance instead of trying to find a job and earn their own money, and it is a phenomenon that has been increasing in the last years as it was mentioned.

So as I mentioned before the future is opened, but we need to understand our reality and our history to solve this puzzle that the reality proposes today.

Task 1

This presentation from the Walden University is the one that I selected.

in my opinión the Kolb's theory can be used in a language class in a very simple way, when the students have the opportunity to experiment the use of the language by taking the risk of alking with others who have a higher level of use of the language, then it is very common that they make their own conclutions of the experience and reflect upon it. Based on those reflections they can créate abstract consepts, to finally experiment their new knowledge actively with other people in a more confident way.

Theory Of Experiential Learning Fields[1] from Vida Williams

Task 2

The rovers story from Fredy Roa

Diary September 19th

Finally yesterday was the final project presentation, in most of the cases my students had a good performance, although in some cases they decides to do the presentations memorizing the information. It was an interesting exercise but it makes me wonder how effective the last activities were. It was clear that the “stage fright” affected their normal performance but the question now is what can a teacher do to avoid the effects of it in a situation like this one.