Happy Birthday Mr. Darwin!!!

On february 12th, 1809 Charles Darwin was born, and so was Abraham Lincoln, the former in Shrewsbury-England, ans the latter in Spring Farm, Ketucky-USA. They both had significant work and imprtance in World History in the case of Darwin; and US History in the case of Lincoln.
But let's focus on Darwin. I was fascinated by his theory when I started reading about it, and even though many scientists have tried to prove him right or wrong, it is undeniable that his theory clarified the way we approached to changes of living organisms. This comment is like a double-edge sword because Charles Darwin's ideas have been criticized and disputed since the publication of The Origin of Species, his masterpiece. And even though it is the book that marked his evolutionary theory, he only mentions the term Evolution only once in his book.
Many have psychiologically analyzed Charles Darwin's ideas, work and life in general. Most of his work was a direct and indirect influence of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin, nothing less than one of the leading minds in the 19th century England.
Darwinists and NeoDarwinists, such as Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene) and Stephen Jay Gould (Ontogeny and Phylogeny) have had a hard work critizicing but maintaining Charles Darwin's ideas fresh, current and far from any expiration date.
I recommend to see the series of Darwin's life as part of an english production.. There are also a good number of video lectures by Standford University. Check them out.
Of course, speaking of evolution and Darwin I just cannot let pass the new concept in evolution mentioned by Juan Enriquez in his 2009 TED lecture, the Homo Evolutis. this is a very current, dynamic and entertaining presentation of today's crisis reality, robotics, scientific advances and evolution.

Class Management - January 29th, 2009

Most people think that the teaching profession is not as honorable as it is. It is a very common thought that long vacation periods during the summer were an attractive portion of the profession. However, vacation periods for teachers are usually less than regular professionals in other areas. Teachers don't stay still during the time off, because they keep finding resources, new tools, best and more suitable lesson plans, etc.
In a world were globalization is our daily bread we can only think of the teaching profession as one of the more demanding of all. Because the available amount information is immense, and is growing exponentially. Those who choose to continue teaching the same contents from the previous year without any updates, will fall into the less visited or solicited teachers.
Kids demand a lot of attention, patience and respect. Most of what they are not willing to reciprocate until further their adulthood.
The following video is about class management and was produced in 1947, amazing.


And in this more "current" video made by students and teacher, you can see that the approach is significantly different from that used 60 years before.


How should we conduct our classes? Is there one masterplan? Can we simply extrapolate techniques to handle classroom behavior? The answer is simply NO!!!

Even though there are general guidelines and classroom behaviors that are universal, it is the student population what makes a customized adjustment necessary in order to succeed as a teacher and as a learner. Moreover, student population must be seriously polled to learn about the cultural differences and the nationalities from our students. I learned about CUltural Competency when I was trained to be a Medical Interpreter. And at this point in time, I think every profession should have a mandatory Cultural Competency course to be able to notiuce that different cultures have specific and vital differences within their own cultures.
It is very important to consider the mother language of most of the majority of the student population, but also consider that minority mother languages. this is important at the time of reviewing difficult concepts in subjects such as Science, History and Geography, as well as others. Private Bilingual Schools are a great example of that. But more important, is the public schools in certain countries such as: Canada, USA and England, where immigration is a serious issue to consider in public education.

For now, I must read a lot about teaching in bilingual environments, and I have to read that in more than one language as well.

I finish this post with a question: Should teachers in the future be proactive, facilitators, multiculturally-competent bilingual professionals?