Ref lection: “A Good Teacher is a n Excel lent Student.” Emmanuel Pérez I have always considered that I am a really skillful educator in the use of technology. When they told me about the opportunity of spending one of my precious months of vacation and some Saturdays participating in workshops about technology and art and their implementation in the classroom, the idea did not convince me at all. However, by reference from a friend, who had the opportunity of being part of the workshops, I decided to participate in them. I have to say that I am really satisfied and thankful for the experience. During the workshops’ course, I learned about many tools that I did not know existed and that I think are excellent to use in the classroom. Among them I emphasize the workshops about the use of the web page, Weebly in which students can create a customized web page about a specific theme from which they would like to talk about or one that the teacher assigns. By the way, I started to use this tool with my students and I have to say that the experience fascinated them. The chance of presenting the required information in an interactive way, and in which they were able to organize the content, the pictures, the sounds, the colors and a wide variety of options, converted a work (such as writing an essay), that can be tedious, and not so motivating, into an attractive and motivating activity for them. It surprised me a lot, because with the limited resources of our school, (there is only one classroom with internet, and some computers with internet connection) the students were so motivated that they did the work from their homes, from tablets and phones, and out of school hours, because they did not want to wait to use the computers at school. In fact, some students, by the accessibility that technology offers to which they are used to, said that they shared their work on their personal social networks, places that are not related to academic topics. Obviously, it was not a requirement of the class. This filled me with satisfaction because when a student takes something from his/her academic life and uses it in their everyday life, we achieve significant and authentic learning that will remain with them, farther away than a simple grade or rating. The use of authentic videos for the teaching and practice of listening and the understanding of language has been very effective. I provided students with different options of series from sit-coms to work with. They chose to watch the show Every Body Loves Raymond. This helped students, not only to reinforce listening skills, but as they followed a sequence, they were able to analyze characters and their changes, the importance of the setting, where the action happens, the identification of conflicts, and many skills related to reading comprehension. The need that this generation has of visual stimuli has contributed to their involvement and immersion in this type of activity. I also take with me the opportunity of sharing with excellent partner teachers from our Island, both from the public and private sector. Even by sharing our frustrations and victories, our varied methodologies and strategies, it was a learning process itself. To see, that like me, there are teachers that still want to give an extra mile by sacrificing and a bit more to get more knowledge and eventually achieve a better professional performance, is something that fills one with desire and passion to continue working and continue looking for academic excellence. As the provincial saying says: “A good teacher is an excellent student.” To the workshops’ professors, a thousand thanks. Thank you for your teachings and for you human warmth and motivation. You must know that if to teach is a task for eternity, in me you have perpetuated your knowledge.
104