interesting site

I came across  this link and I found it  very interesting. Have a look!
http://www.english-guide.org/category/others/reading

changing paradigms

I found the two videos extremely interesting. It is obvious that there is an urgent need to reform state education. I agree that the model was conceived for a great number of students to be educated at the lowest cost, where the particular necessities of each student are hardly ever taken into account. I also agree that children are besieged by too many stimuli that promote a constant zapping and a tendency to get too easily bored inside the classrooms.

Also those who grew up without technology sometimes get out of dated as regards mass media. However; technology is a very potential tool that is hardly exploited at school.

Teachers should catch up the use of them and try to get familiar with it so as to be able to offer a better use of them in class.

It will take some time but it seems to be the only way to engage young students and shorten the gap between different generations

finding new ways to promote active learning

Finding new ways to promote active learning

I was searching material for my paper on autonomous learning and I accidentally found this professor of Harvard who developed a new way of making learners participate and assume an active role in their learning. I found very interesting videos about some of his lectures. I think it is worthy to have a look at them and find out more about his research on education.

Eric Mazur is a Dutch Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University and Area Dean of Applied Physics. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University. Mazur founded several companies and plays an active role in industry.

In addition to his work in optical physics, Mazur has been very active in education. In 1990 he began developing Peer Instruction, a method for teaching large lecture classes interactively. He is the author of Peer Instruction: A User's Manual (Prentice Hall, 1997), a book that explains how to teach large lecture classes interactively. In 2006 he helped produce the award-winning DVD Interactive Teaching. Dr. Mazur's teaching method has developed a large following, both nationally and internationally, and has been adopted across many disciplines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYiI2Hvg5LE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBzn9RAJG6Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9orbxoRofI

Emilio Tenti Fanfani

On the 19th of June we were invited to participate in a talk given by the lecturer Emilio Tenti Fanfani. Apart from the fact that it is always very interesting to meet personally a writer from whom we have read material at the teacher training institute, I think that most of the people who attended the talk were pleasantly surprised with the lecture.

I was definitely impressed by the warmth, clarity and simplicity that this well-known sociologist addressed to the audience. He talked   of many problems that we face at school every day. One of the things that struck me the most was that currently schools are overloaded with too many demands that in fact tend to make impossible to cope with them. He also brought the issue of technology and the enormous amount of information present at internet and the necessity of developing the skills to be able to decode that information. At that point he mentioned the very important role of education to unveil and seize that knowledge.

I found lots of sites and articles on the web and, for those who were not able to assist to the lecture, may be this is a possibility to meet an extraordinary and inspiring author who is constantly defending the right of each citizen to a dignified and public education.

can we change the world from the classroom?

Despite this very well-known quotation sometimes seems to be an idealistic desire, T think that education is the basis for transforming societies. Only through education people may feel free to have the power of choice. Ignorance, on the contrary, develops dependence.

 I strongly believe that teachers should never give up to this noble ideal of promoting critical thinkers and autonomous learners. May be we cannot change the world from the classroom but we certainly can enjoy the magic of teaching and learning together with our students.

Hello! The purpose of this space is to share  interesting material  with my classmates and any other colleague or person interested in the fantastic process of teaching -learning!