Self Evaluation of my Academic Year

The 2009 has been a very harsh year, with this whole new experience that has been being a university student.

I have been through a lot of surprises, good things and bad things.

A lot of challenges had arrived to my life, and now I have to prove myself that I am totally and completely capable of getting my life goals, so I can become a great teacher, who loves their students, and that they love me back.

The experience that is going to give me this specific university would make me the best tools to become what I want, and to be happy with my professional life.

The first semester was full of things to face up. I had to get used to the standard ways to do the things. I had to learn how to manage myself on the university ambient, like meeting the faculty, to know the places where you have to do the things when you are a freshman year.

The first day I did not know how to do or where to go, and I hated that everything was so slow. And it took me a lot of work to do all the paperwork by myself, because until that I have never done anything without the help of my parents. But this taught me how to grow and be more independent that I was before.

Regarding with the subjects I was scared to death because the names of them sounded like if they were very difficult like Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, Human development, etc. But while the time was passing by I could adapt myself and I discovered that I should not have been scared ever, because if you dedicate enough time to read all the texts and go to class, you can keep up easily, and get involved with the subjects.

I did it well because I pass all the classes without having exam. That made me feels secure about myself, and gave me more confidence about what I can do.

The second semester I have took it easy; I was relaxed, considering the experience of the past semester. I have already known most of the teachers and some of the subject’s dynamics were the same as before. This affected me a lot, and brought me too much negative things. Because I thought that everything was going to be very easy, and it was not, so I got my first bad marks and now I have to do almost all the exams. Fortunately any of my averages are bad grades, it was lack of hundredths.

In conclusion I have learned many important things. Between them are how did I get used to these whole new system. And I have to admit that I was very nervous, I felt kind of miserable because of the prestige of our institution, and the social burden that comes with the careers. I thought I was not going to be able to do it. But I realized that you have to put a lot of effort to literally survive inside this system.

I am a freshman year and to become a really great teacher, where I am going to have the most important responsibility ever, taking care and guiding little children so they can develop their best faculties and abilities I still got to pass 4 years more, so I have to give the best of myself to made my wish come true.

Challenges in your discipline

The education has to go through a lot in all of its matters. About technology this is very helpful if we see it for the working and learning side.

The technology, like computers and internet help the students to improve their knowledge by investigating themes about the subjects, it helps them to do their works, and to maximize the job, doing everything very fast. Something that it’s a problem with this is that it may be helpful, but in the internet you can find a lot of stuff that are very distracting, time-consuming, and without any importance. Besides a lot of sites that contains inappropriate stuff for an under-age person.

I don’t think that this has a certain way to be solved, it is responsibility of each person about how are they going to use the tools they have, the adult people just can act as a guidance.

About social matters I think this is the most important topic. We have been through a lot of crisis of education in the past few years, because of the way it is planned for the country, so unfair for the ones that don’t have enough monetary sources. They can’t have education of quality, because the state doesn’t permit it. The same way, the P.S.U. is an instrument of social segregation, because the same ones that don’t have the money to get good education, got bad results on the test, because the things they learnt are not enough, and maybe they have been teach badly by professors without any commitment with what are they doing.

Nowadays we are in middle of a crisis with the teachers. They are denying doing classes if they don’t get something the government promised more than twenty years ago. They are not getting good conditions, and that is affecting a thousand students (for not saying a million) in the whole country.

Related to this subject, there is a lot to improve, so the education can be good and more equitable, with this I mean that the people who cannot afford private schools should have the same type of education, it shouldn’t be different because the municipal school are for free.

The government must improve the conditions for the teachers and for the students so they get motivated to improve themselves.

A piece of news

To be honest, I haven’t watched or read any kind of news recently; anyway yesterday I watched some news on the subway T.V, while I waited for the “metro”. On the notice was announced that the football game between Chile and Germany was canceled, because the German goalkeeper was dead by suicide. The man was about thirty eight years old, and he throws himself to the train lines. The reporters of the notice said that he had been going throw a depression for the past two years caused by the dead of a daughter from about two years old that had a heart malformation.

This occur yesterday in Germany, for how they describe the story it was very shocking for all of his teammates, that’s why the German football federation canceled the game, because the German players declared they couldn’t believe it and that they were very sad.

Even though this is not even close to our country, it’s a very surprising notice, because of the way he died. He was sick, and for two years he couldn’t get recovered from a daughter’s dead, so he may have been going through a lot of bad feelings.

A lot of people are involved. Not in the fact that he got suicide, but they are because of the repercussions of this. His wife, and adopted daughter, his football team, and all the people who knew him.

This affects our country in the way that they canceled the game that was for training, and preparing themselves to the FIFA world cup South Africa 2010.

I would like to hear more news; I don’t care about in which of the formats, about ecologists and naturist stuff and cultural things. Because we always see the same things like politicians, delinquency, just problems, and more problems.

Improving your faculty facilities

Eighth Blog: "Truants, bullies and the recession".

The article that I choose to comment was about the truancy on the schools.
This one can appear for many reasons, but the author of the article mentions two: the recession and the bullying.
About the recession he says that this is starting to have a huge impact on the houses, so the parents count a lot on their grown sons to run the house, so they can keep working to get money to live. He mentions that a lot of parents have been sent to jail for this reason, because they are preventing their children for truancy.
The bully is a reason of truancy, because the children that are victims of it don’t want to go to school anymore. This issue was treated on schools and the numbers of truancy for this reason were decreasing, but with the recession many schools decided to cut the budget and they are not investing on these problems.
In my opinion this is becoming a vicious circle because one thing gets to another. It is kind of silly that the parents make their children to drop out the school, because this causes them serious damage. It’s a fact that the people are like money needed, but it is not a good reason to put the money over the studies, because there are many ways to solve the household problem. Maybe they can divide the responsibilities of the house, and they can do the things together, supporting each other, when the whole family gets at home.
And about the bully, I think that is a very serious problem and we all know that it is increasing too fast all over the world, so they have to realize that the integrity of some students it is in danger due to the ones who commit the bully.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/21/education-bullying-truancy-recession-care

Seventh Blog: "Election Day"

I am registered to vote, even when I always thought that I would never do it, because I used to go with my parents when they had to vote, and I hated it so much, because the weather it was always so hot, and we had to wait so much hours standing in a line, and I was very little so I got bored like right away.
This perspective was completely changed by the time when I was on third year of high school. It all happened thanks to my teacher of elective history. We were passing civic education on that subject, and there were explained things like how does function the law in Chile, and those kind of stuff, and between those it was the citizenship rights and duties. And when my teacher explained that, my vision changed and I knew that it was my duty as a citizen to get registered and to vote, because we have to choose who is going to represent us taking important decisions for the country, that’s what is about this, the logic thing is that you choose someone who propose things that you are agree with.
About the electoral campaigns I can say that in some ways are good, for example to show the proposals of the candidates, but on the other hand they are created to catch as much voters as possible so, sometimes you can notice that are a little superficial.
A person who’s running for president must be clear on what his or her is proposing, the candidates must show their knowledge, their astuteness, their personality, so we can notice which qualities has the candidate as a person and from that we can infer if they are capable of having this huge responsibility.
I have never consider becoming a politician, but if I think about it I wouldn’t become either, because on my perspective I see it like a little bubble that function always with the same people and it’s full of corruption.
In the case that I would be part of a ministry, I would like to work in the education. Because obviously is my career and I would like to be helpful using everything that I could learn here.
Five problems could be poverty, violence, delinquency, bad education and the disorganization and the disagreement that exists between the politicians.

Sixth Blog: "Criminal Laws".

In my opinion, and I have to admit that I consider myself ignorant in this subject; I think that the criminal laws in Chile are a little too lax. In despite of this I think that the capital punishment it would be too much for the type of crimes that exist in our country. Maybe it would be ok for some kind of criminal acts like rapes of women or children and any kind of murder, because the persons who do these things always have some kind of mental disorders, that actually those same people have admitted that they will never get cured, so it would be a benefit for the society that those criminals pay for all the pain they have caused to their victims.
The pros of capital punishment can be that with this you can get rid of the problem at once. But the cons can be stronger, because although it could be applied just to criminals, that doesn’t take them away their human being condition, so it would be a contradiction with the human rights.
I think that we all have seen that the jail experience it’s not reformative for the criminals at all, so with that we can say it’s not enough to reduce criminality. Inside the jail the prisoners don’t do anything productive, there they should have worked to do, classes, some workshop and psychological therapy, so that maybe they can improve and when they come out of jail they can do something better with their lives.
In my opinion I think that what increases criminality rates in Santiago is that the people who do these things are attracted to the easy ways, whether it is robbing or killing. If it is robbing, that’s an easy way to get material things, and killing an easy way to get rid of differences with another person.
Surprisingly I have never been a crime victim of any kind. I have never been robbed or violated in any way and I think that I will never be either, because I am very precautious.

Fifth Blog: What to do / Where to go in Santiago?

In Santiago there are a lot of places to go, if you want someone to know the city you definitely should take them to the center to know the “Santa Lucía” or “San Cristobal” hills, in the “Santa Lucía” hill there is a castle and the whole place has an amazing historic value & in the “San Cristobal” hill there is the metropolitan zoo and a huge statue of a virgin that was donated to Chile for France. Or you just can go over downtown streets walking around them.

There is the government palace “La Moneda”, where you can cross it by the inside garden, you’re not going to meet the president, but it’s ok to see it not just for the outside. And if someone come in winter they can go to the sky centers like “Valle Nevado” or “Farellones”. Somewhere you can take a tourist too is to “El cajón del Maipo”, it’s a little far away from the center but it’s very beautiful and quiet so it worth it.
A foreigner tourist in Santiago would do an excursion in some park near the mountains, like going to the “Mahuida” Park and go trekking, biking or do some picnic, while you appreciate a very nice view, because you can see the whole city from there.
A tourist has to go eating to “El Rincón de Azócar” restaurant, because there is the best sea food, and it’s a very cozy place where you can go with the whole family without any trouble. And if they don’t like the sea food you can always take them to a place where it’s served traditional dishes like “Donde El Peyo” restaurant, or the famous barbecues in “Los Buenos Muchachos” where they have a show showing the cultures of the country with different dances, and after that there is a band who plays music so the people can dance.
I think that the top five places to meet or activities to do are:
1. Going over the downtown streets, because you can see the reality with your own eyes, and there you can find anything you want.
2. Going to the “Mahuida” Park, because there you can know the green part of the city and do some sports, like the ones I already mentioned. And besides near the park it’s a place where you can do some extreme sports like bungee jumping, paintball, among others.
3. Go eating to any of the three restaurants I mentioned before, because they have some exquisite traditional dishes, that anyone would love, and they have a variety for everyone.
4. Going to “El Cajón del Maipo”, because it’s a very familiar town to go to, and there you can find some crafts around the square, and you can go to relax, and escape from the center a while.
5. Finally, I choose going to the “San Cristobal” hill, because you can travel on the funicular an see the whole city.

Fourth blog: "Education"

I always tell everybody that I've loved my high school experience in all the ways, because from all the schools I went to, the one where I spent that time was the best.
About the subjects I can say that in first and second year of high school I had the common ones like mathematics, language, physics, history, biology, chemistry, English and sports. But during the third and fourth grade I had to choose which elective I wanted to study, between biological, humanistic and physical. I chose the humanistic elective and that gave me extra hours of history and besides I had to choose to eliminate one subject between physics and biology and I took physics. Besides, the subjects of literature and philosophy were added.

The teachers I had were really good teaching the subjects, but some of them were significant for me, as a person not just as a student because they got involved with the class and were interested in us, in our problems, our feelings, and those kind of stuff, so that is important for the students, because personally I think that developing relationships is necessary to get along and really get to understand the others.

The level of education that school gave me allowed me to get in this university to study what I wanted; I really do think that just affected me in where I was going to study not what. But all the things I learnt from those important teachers I mentioned have helped me a lot now, because their advices from school and all the help they gave me I’ve applied it now to get used to the university life; and the difficulty level of the school had helped me too.

About the whole educational system I have to say that everyone knows that it’s not perfect at all and it has a lot of things to improve, but if I have to choose one to point a defect I definitely would do it about the differences between the private education and the public education. It’s not fair at all that the city hall doesn’t have enough sources to keep a good school, which means the infrastructure is deficient and the teachers have bad incomes so, they lose motivation, in most of the cases; and the affected ones are the students. Moreover, the students have to put themselves into the studies too, is not enough the teachers motivation, it has to be from both sides, because the teacher can fulfill the experience of the students in many ways but as well the student has to be interested in it.

I really never heard before the saying "when the student is ready, the teacher appears", but I think it’s related with what I was saying before, about the motivation and the interest. When a student feels that wants to learn he will learn, and if they want it will result very easy to catch on.

Third Blog: “Transantiago: Before & After”

I really like Transantiago a lot, because it has been very useful for me.
This system just appeared when I started to use the bus to get where I wanted to go, so it made me the thing easier because a subway station was built near my house and a bus line implemented that passes just out of my condo to get there. It’s true that before, the yellow buses could have a trip from a place in the city to the other extreme, and that worked for a lot of people, but I think no one have realize the real value of the Transantiago system, that in the same way than the older system, it transports the people, and better because the buses were changed for new ones.
When it started the system I think I took a while to catch up in how to use it, but in the way that I didn’t knew the streets and to get oriented but once that I get used to it, it resulted me very easy, and the best is that with the “bip!” payment system it’s easier now because you don’t have to be paying the driver with coins an that.
I think that what it takes to the system to improve is that it has to increase the number of the buses in the lines, so they pass fluently and we don’t have to wait a lot for a bus, or if you miss one, etc. because sometimes I got to wait from fifteen to thirty minutes, more or less, and the most of times I get late to where I go.
Another thing are the prices of the tickets, I am lucky to be student because I pay always a hundred and thirty pesos, but the people who don’t are students have to pay like four hundred pesos, and that’s a little too expensive.
I have to mention the drivers. Their attitude has changed a lot, because before they where disrespectful and too mean to people and they just cared about getting passengers that paid a ticket, because their salaries were based on that, but now I have had a good experience with them, they have all been very gentle too me, and I never had get a bad attitude form them.

SECOND BLOG: “A COUNTRY I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT”

I’ve always liked to travel, and my parents told me once that I was going to be born in France, but something occur and that didn’t happened, so since they told me the plans they used to have twenty years ago, I’ve always wanted to go to the country that it was going to be my birth place.
The thing with France is that it is one of the most characteristic European countries. All the things I know about it is because people that have been there had told me.
My dad traveled there some years ago and when he arrived home he shared his experience with me and my family, and named all the places he had went to.
France has a lot of historic monuments and important museums, as the Eiffel tower, the triumph arc and the Louvre, etc. and if I get the chance to be there I wouldn’t doubt on visiting them. The only thing that I think it would complicate me it’s that the water is too expensive so the people don’t take a shower everyday, so the personal hygiene isn’t the same as here, and I have to say that I like to get bath everyday. Besides that everything would be just fine.
Moreover of meeting the important places I would love to live in there, while I study the language. The place to stay it wouldn’t be a problem, because I had a lot of family, and one of my best friends lives in there too.