Let Growing Blog parent education and educators

In post last week I reviewed the paper that Elsa Punset performed at the event last Big Profes 17 Jan..

As I promised, in today's post I will share with you the rest of the papers.

Mario Alonso Puig

Mario Alonso was the second speaker of Grandes Profes. He is a doctor, lecturer and writer. During the half hour he shared with us he told us about impact of mood and how to manage it.

His presentation amazed me because I couldn't agree more with him..

Mario Alonso began with a story of those that marks a before and after in the life of a child.

The protagonist of the story is Ben, a black boy who lived in Detroit during the years 50. Ben came from a broken family with few resources.. He was a little valued boy at school and had a reputation for being the “dumb” one in the class., but there were two people who believed deeply in him: his mother and his science teacher.

His mother who logically wanted the best for her children, He forced him and his brother to go to the library and that's where Ben starts reading science books..

One day, during science class, The teacher takes out a stone and asks the students what stone it is, Ben knows, He has read it in one of the books during his visits to the library, but he's afraid to say it.

Finally, After seeing that none of his classmates know, he says so.. When Ben says the name of the stone the professor, in addition to congratulating you, He asks if he can explain anything more about the stone to his classmates.. Of course, The professor knew perfectly well that Ben had much more information about the mineral, I believed in him!

As well, this black boy from a broken family is Ben Carson, one of the best Children's Neurosurgeons in the World.

Surely, if it weren't for people like his science teacher and his mother who believed in his potential and encouraged him, He wouldn't have gotten to where he is now..

Why is our state of mind and that of our students so important??

This is a question that I loved that the doctor asked because it is something that I fervently believe in but for which I have no objective arguments..

Personally, I have seen how my mood absolutely affected my day and that of my students and that is why I find Mario's presentation so extremely interesting..

He mentioned the following reasons:

• Mood affects imagination, to perception and everything in our life.
• The reticular system. If you are excited, your reticular system seeks. But if you give up, your reticular system does not look for. Therefore, those days when we have the feeling that everything is going wrong for us, It really goes wrong because our brain does not look for positive experiences, look for the negatives.
• Emotions affect health. They affect the heart, to cortisol. States of hopelessness affect white blood cells (responsible for fighting bacteria).
• He said Santiago Ramon y Cajal: Every human being, if they set their mind to it, can shape their brain.. Therefore, we can all change.

Have you ever wondered why certain people are so lucky and others are so unlucky?. Could it be that those people who are so lucky are positive people, who always see the good side of things and whose brain only looks for positive experiences and discards the negative ones?

I fervently believe it is the latter., there are no lucky or unlucky people, There are people who look for the positive side and that, for us as teachers, It is essential because it will make our classes positive, that if we are happy and optimistic our students will be, that if we believe in ourselves we believe in them and that, therefore, become people confident in themselves and their abilities.

Another question that Mario Alonso asked us in his presentation was How to manage your mood? These were some of the keys he gave us:

• Focus on what you like about yourself, not in what you don't like.
• Focus on what is valuable.
• Use the language in a positive way.
• Manage your body. “Get up like a motorcycle” I loved this phrase. Don't you realize that how we wake up will mark our day?

Well let's get up positive, with energy, wanting to do things and transmit that positivity to others.

Mary Garaña

María Garaña is the President of Microsoft Spain and there is no one better than her to talk to us about the implementation of new technologies in the educational field with a presentation titled “Methodology for technology”.

María began by telling us about the factors that are driving the adoption of technologies in school. She mentioned the following factors:

• Access. Although it may seem obvious, there is no doubt that without adequate access it is impossible to implement new technologies in classrooms.. If, for example, we have computers but no where to plug them in., This access cannot be carried out. The same thing happens if we have the necessary software but not enough computers per student., etc. Everything must go hand in hand.
• contents. It is not the same to digitize content, that are not actually intended for use through new technologies, than directly creating content for digital use.
• Curriculum. Technologies must be integrated into the curriculum in a coherent way. Use of technologies for data analysis, for image processing, etc.
• Consumerization. The technology we have at home is beginning to be almost better than the one we have at work.

But, What technologies do we have at the service of education?? There are many teachers who do not use technologies because they do not really know and do not know the technologies they have available..

María Garaña in her presentation told us about five types of technologies currently available at the service of education:

As for the contents, It is interesting to see how the impact of technology itself on learning is being..

Technology is moving beyond being a means for content delivery, to be the delivery of content itself. María Garaña mentioned an event, “The Hour of Code”, in which programming is used for learning.

He also talked about how games like Minecraft They are used for learning subjects such as mathematics. Amazing!

Another interesting point was the use of educational platforms. These are a great tool to establish a bond and effective communication between teachers., students and parents, but the big problem with the educational platforms we have is that they do not unite the digital and real worlds.

By last, A fundamental topic that was mentioned in this presentation was the importance of communication and collaboration between the three fundamental agents of the educational process: parents, students and teachers.

María Garaña told us about the technology of Skype Simultaneous Translation. Without a doubt, a system that will change our way of seeing the world and our relationships with educational institutions anywhere on our planet..

Roberto Brasero.

Surely you all know Roberto Brasero. Journalist and weather presenter on Antena 3. With his presentation “Techniques and tools for effective communication” he told us about how to carry out effective communication.

I also found this presentation very interesting because sometimes it seems that we forget that we are dealing with the most demanding audience.: children. But we neglect our way of communicating with them because they are children..

During his presentation, Roberto Brasero gave us some tricks to capture the attention of our audience.

First, what is effective communication? He told us about the ISS theory:

• Entertain: communicate in a pleasant way.
• Excite: reach our audience through emotions.
• Inform: There is no doubt that we cannot speak without saying anything, We must provide useful information to our interlocutors.

What tools do we have at our disposal and how to use them when communicating?

• Non-verbal communication. The gestures, the appearance, the attitude, etc.
• Concentration. On many occasions and during a class in which we have students making noise, talking, etc., it's almost impossible to stay focused, but it is essential if we want to communicate effectively.
• Improvisation. We must be prepared for improvisation, especially when we talk about children 😉
• The voice. It is a fundamental tool that we must know how to use and shape to capture the attention of our audience..
• A good communicator must know how to listen to know how to communicate..

Xavier Valbuena.

Xavier Valbuena is quite a example of improvement. A person who shows you that we have no limits, that we set the limits for ourselves and that if we want we can achieve everything we set our minds to.

Therefore, Instead of telling you about his presentation, I encourage you to watch it..

I hope it transmits strength to you, desire and vitality that he transmitted to me.

Video Xavier Valbuena in Grandes Profes.

A hug and happy week!

“In the middle of the harsh winter I learned that inside me there was an invincible summer”.

Albert Camus

Tags: cheer up, communication, Education, state, Great Profes, Mary Garaña, Mario Alonso Puig, minecraft, platform, Roberto Brasero, technology, Xavier Valbuena

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2015 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Present. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.