Carpe Diem
By José Jesús Castro-Schez (Professor of the LSI area).
I have always considered myself lucky to be able to dedicate myself to what I like the most: teaching. A passion that I inherited from my father, who was a teacher and whom I saw prepare ingenious materials and activities, using the few resources that were available, but innovative due to their originality. Materials and activities that were later used in class to work on the contents of the subjects he taught: mathematics, history,... Still, if I close my eyes, I remember him with traces of chalk on his pants when he got home, and his face satisfaction when he achieved the expected progress with his students or, his thoughtful face devising new things, when not. He was a teacher who taught from emotion and affection.
It is clear, I am passionate about teaching, I have grown up in that environment, but what does it mean to be a teacher? Being a teacher is more than just going into class to explain some content and require your students to acquire some concepts. It is more than just proposing tests, exams that allow students to be graded according to the results obtained in them. Being a teacher is dealing with young people who, like any person, have their peculiarities, their problems, they feel, they get excited and, of course, they have their goals based on their wishes and desires.
A good teacher must get involved with their students, understand them, respect them... in short, they must be understanding and above all human. He must trust them and their abilities to succeed. He must create pleasant work spaces that allow learning.
Some time ago I read a review about a conference given at the University of Piura in Peru, by Professor Dr. Pablo Ferreiro in which, among other things, he presents the keys to being a “good teacher”. Some of the things he told the teachers at his conference were: "Students are the reason for being for teachers, so you have to serve them, with respect and with quality time." Indeed, the center of the entire process is them, the students and their learning, so we must dedicate all the necessary time to them.
There are many more phrases from the conference that caught my attention, such as “teaching students to develop transcendental virtues and values”, “developing trust with students”, “engaging with students to get them to commit to us” , «helping students to develop as citizens», and many others.
When we think about learning, we usually do it in the context of our classes, and we prepare materials for them, so that the student is motivated to learn and learn... but motivation, and above all learning, can and should also occur outside the classroom and we must be willing and available for it to happen... In addition, it is usually in experiences "outside the traditional classroom" where a relationship is established that facilitates teaching and learning.
Since 2015, I have been carrying out project-based learning and service-learning experiences at our school, which has allowed me to meet and deal with young people who do different things, often involving small sacrifices, but who are always willing to help in for the sake of doing something useful for other people who need them. And this allows me to verify the great values that our young people have. They are generous, committed and willing to look to those places where they are needed, they do not shy away from responsibility, they even seek it, complicating their lives for others. I am not talking about their knowledge or skills or abilities, which deserve another entry, I am only referring to the values that govern their way of acting and that mark their way of being. They are TEN young people, young people worth having around. Without a doubt, they are young people that I would hire for my company or that I would want by my side in any project.
The School Management is making a great effort to create pleasant environments, propose non-academic activities of various kinds and promote social responsibility activities such as "ResiCLA Y AYUDA" that allow the relationship between teachers and students, in which they can carry out learning and teaching, voluntary and involuntary, outside the classroom. It is in our hands to take advantage of it as teachers and as students. Dr. Pablo Ferreiro in his lecture told teachers: "If you don't have fun teaching, dedicate yourself to something else", I would modify the message a bit: "If you don't have fun teaching, something is wrong, rethink how you are doing it » and I would add something for the students who are reading this opinion article: «If you do not have fun learning, if you do not collaborate in learning, you are not seizing the moment». CARPE DIEM.
