UNIT 1. Activity 11. IT IS ALL ABOUT EDUCATION

1. Why are we doing our jobs in schools?

In my opinion the school is a place were the teachers can structure their work using the different areas they are provide and concentrating in there a great group of students, maybe in other

place we can not teach as many students as in the school  at the same time, and is a teachers job to use the school only as an aid to achieve their goals not as the limit of these.

2. What is education for?

The aim of education is just to prepare students for the life they will have to face at. As teachers, we can teach them Maths, English or even Science but they will probably forget everything

so our main objective should be to give them the appropriate tools in order to cope with the challenges they will have to cope with. For this reason, schools need very flexible teachers in

order to change things regarding students’ needs. They must be open-minded as students will live in a very wide cultural world and they have to be very convinced about the job they are

accomplishing. If schools have the best teachers, this will be easy but if it is not the case, schools must give them training in order to achieve this aim.

3. What should schools achieve?

If students and families are happy with the schools they are in, the school will be successful. It is not only a matter of philosophy; this philosophy should be seen as something personal, something that can help students in their learning process.

However, the school must also follow the guidelines of the Ministry of Education; it has to obey the law and sometimes, these guidelines are not based on the main things a student needs. I have been working as a teacher for more than 15 years and I think that, regarding education, law is made by thinking on the personal interests of politicians and not thinking on students and the conclusion is clear: a bad education.

Teachers cannot follow the rules with all the students because not all of them are alike. It is the same with the educational theories. We cannot follow just one because what is good for one student, it is not for others. Teachers must face the differences students present and the differences a student presents along his/her life. A teacher must use difference theories in a same class.

If we want to evaluate the school; the best thing is to involve all members. All of them should say what they think in a constructive way. If they feel they are being heard and what they say, it is taken into consideration, they would feel better and will be willing to improve things.

4. What will the future be like for your students?

Thinking  and reflecting on the future our students will have to face at I contemplate the importance of new technologies for our students and the languages needed in order to get a job and in order to be connected with the world they will be living in, the world they will have is not a neighborhood anymore and even living in a small apartment, they will have the opportunity to be connected to the world. This will make a more challenging world for our students so they need to be more prepared for that.

What I have learnt from that is that as they will have to cope with a more challenging world, our task, as teachers, is to show them how to face this future. If we are good enough, our students will be more open minded and flexible for this new challenge they will have: their future.

5. What attributes and skills should students have for the future?

These are the results:

Caring = engaged  Principled 

Critical thinker  Knowledgeable

Well trained = literate  Thinkers 

Open-minded  Hardworking 

Brave = courageous  Humble

Non racist  Independent = autonomous

Resilience 

Healthy

Creativity 

Respectful

Curious = inquirer 

Reflective

Conscious 

Responsible

Good communicator 

Confident

Hardworking 

Empathetic

Life-long learner 

Skillful