Sunday, 28 May 2017

Type of schools.

Hello everybody;

Today, in this post, we are going to talk about the different types of school.

Every year, a lot of parents decide the school where their children will be educated. In this moment, they dude if is better a public, private or semi-private school, and in which one of these schools they will have the best education. In this way, families start to think in some things like: if the school will have all that their children need, if it is a bilingual centre, what the school would do with a problem of bullying (because, currently in the news, we are always hearing that each day there are problems of bullying in the schools), if this school will introduce or not new methodologies and technologies, if teachers are good or not to the education of children, the type of diet that they will follow in the dining room… (
Urquizu, 2006)

In order to do a good choice parents must reflect about the values and capacities that their children will achieve. Some parents will want that their children learn different languages, and other ones will want that their children acquire some religious values.

 It is also important that parents visit some different schools: the facilities that it offers, the social atmosphere and environment, the projects they develop… The “perfect school” does not exist, but we can look for the best one adapting it to our necessities.

Some parents, they value the marks that students from the school have had in the University Entrance Examination. Following an analysis that the UNIR from the Pisa report did, it says to us that “the students of private schools obtain better results than those of the public schools, although in several cases the differences are not statistically significant (UNIR, 2014)


Every people of our group, we went to a semi-private school, but one of us, he was also in a public school. The experience was good in all the schools, but it is true that he preferred the public one. Maybe, because teachers were better and have more vocation, but also because of the diversity. In semi-private school there are a lot of rules: the uniform, sometimes the hair colour is a problem, and a lot of these types of things that for this person of our groups should not be restricted. In his public school, there were no problems, talking about the clothes or the hair that each people could have, so maybe it is a point in favour of public schools. (Llera y Pérez, 2012)

We can also explain that in public schools, there is more assistance to use new infrastructures, but in semi-private schools, there are not problems because they are financed by the “Junta de Andalucía” and other Foundations and Religious Congregations.

From our point of view, to be in a semi-private or private school, people have to be very religious in order to accept without problems all the requirements they impose in order to be in these schools: Religion as a compulsory subject, values inspired by the Gospel based on faith… while public schools, they offer the possibility to choose if people want to have a catholic or a secular learning.

References


UNIR, (19.05.2014). ¿Colegios públicos o privados? El informe PISA analiza cuáles son mejores. El confidencial| Alma, corazón, vida. Recuperado de : http://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2014-05-19/colegios-publicos-o-privados-el-informe-pisa-analiza-cuales-son-mejores_132970/

Llera, R. F., & Pérez, M. M. (2012). Colegios concertados y selección de escuela en España: un círculo vicioso. Presupuesto y gasto público,67,97-118.

Urquizu, I. (2006). La selección de escuela en España. XI Conferencia de Sociología de la Educación: Santander, 1-24.



Monday, 8 May 2017

FLOW


Hello everyone!

Today, we are going to talk about an interesting topic that we discussed in class. We think that it is important because it will help us to find solutions to the various things that cause us stress and despair. This is FLOW.
The Flow is a positive emotional state that is characterized by an implication in the activity that we are doing, maintaining a degree of absolute concentration. We feel Flow when our capabilities and abilities are in balance with those challenges that the activity presents.


There are times when we are blocked and for some reason, it is impossible for us to proceed. Under these circumstances, what is best is trying to relax ourselves and accept the situation, letting things flow. In this way, the blockages will disappear and new ideas will emerge.


However, we have to be very careful, as to its meaning. Flow does not mean that things are done alone, doing nothing. To reach the flow, it is necessary that we have a lot of constancy and concentration.

Finally, we think that anyone can reach the Flow at some time, because nothing is impossible. Although you must try.

We are already experiencing the flow. And you? What are you waiting for?

We hope you liked this post. We will back soon.

                                                                                                                      Regards,

                                                                                                           Strong Bloggers

Sunday, 7 May 2017

Fun VS. Homework

Hi guys!

Today we are going to talk about homework, a topic that could affect negatively the health of children; they could impede children's physical and psychological welfare.

“In our country, since the age of 11, there are a high percentage of children (25%) who feel overwhelmed by the excess of exercises they have to do at home”.(Bailén y Polo, 2016). With these evidences, we can observe that afternoons and weekends consist on being at home, studying and doing homework. In this way, they haven´t got any free time to carry out playful and creative games, or to practice extracurricular activities, like some sports, which are essential in the physical and mental children’s development. Everything they could live in these activities is positive: the interaction with their peer group, with a team, the experience of having a coach (who becomes an important figure in their lives), etc. 
In addition, homework affects the harmony of the home; the relationship between children and parents could become irritable. Parents are working during the day and when they arrive at home, their children are doing their homework. They haven´t got enough time to interact between them; they need to talk about how the day has gone and carry out activities together.

However, there are authors who are in favor of the assignment, and they consider that homework, if they are well programmed, makes children more responsible, and that they allow a review of the contents, which children have previously learnt in the school. (De toro, 2014)

Therefore, it would be a good idea to reduce the amount of homework or to leave free periods, in order to motivate children, and giving them time to enjoy with their families, interact with their friends… With this method, we could achieve that students arrive each day with enthusiasm to class, taking advantage of the hours they spend at school.

Finally, we think that is important to achieve that children have a balanced life. That is, they have to be responsible to do their tasks, and at the same time they need free time to enjoy with their friends and their family.

In our own experience, we remember that we arrived so tired at our home, and we had to do a lot of homework, and even we had to do some copies because of we were very noisy or something like that. In this way there were a lot of things we could not do: play with our friends, visit our grandparents, watch films with our family…

On several occasions, we did not know how to do our tasks, perhaps because teachers didn’t explain what we had to do, they only told us that it was compulsory to do the homework, and if we did not do it, we had a negative, or maybe two…


We remembered that if we did not finish the tasks or activities that the teacher had ordered the day before, we stayed at breaks in the classroom finishing them, taking away the time that we had to enjoy with our friends. This action made us hate our homework more. Sometimes, we felt that the teachers’ worry was if we had done the activities, and no if we had understood it.

References:

Bailén, E; Polo, I. (2016). Deberes escolares/school homework: the reflection of an educational systmen. El reflejo de un sistema educativo. Avances en supervisión educativa”, (25), 36.

De toro, I. (2014). Deberes de calidad Vs deberes de cantidad. Universidad Internacional de la Rioja, 53. Extraído de: http://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/2589