My first term

In my first term this year I had good and bad points, but this time I’m going to try to see the good side of it.

Some good things related to the subjects that I got in university is that I could learn a little of all the work areas in psychology. With these subjects, now I can chose one and keep learning about it. I like the educational psychology, and I dislike the organizational psychology, this is a beginning.

Actually in my firs term I didn`t practice any sport, I studied a lot. But some weekends I went to scout meeting in Rengo. This is the place were I used to leaved before I come to Santiago to study.

A challenge that I had to face was a course of hypnosis that I got. This was really difficult, because to practiced I had to hypnotized voluntaries, and they always was my friend or my sister, so some time I was scared to hypnotized them. But fortunately I past this course whit out problems.

A bad thing was that my grandfather died in June, he was a really old man, but I mess his. Any way I met some people last term, really nice people, and I hope I can keep contact and a relationship with them.

My blogging experience

I think that my blogging experience is good. Of course at the beginning of the period I have some technology problems, because I’d never had a blog before. So I had to learn to use it. I remember that in some of the first blog sessions I have to add “your blog list” and I do this in my house, so I spend a lot of time to discoverer how can I add the gadget. Now everything is easier, because I learned to use it.

I don’t know if I enjoy this activity, actually I feel terrible tired after the blog session, I think that this is because I have vision problems, so I do an effort to work with the computer. Thinking all the time in English is exhausting too.

In spite of this, I think that the blog session is really useful to improve our writing skills, because the teacher’ feedback help a lot to see mistakes that we do all the time. So I think that my writing is coming better than the first blogging activities.

I think that an advantage to do these activities is the constant evaluation that you received from the teacher. You have to develop this skill, because this is an important tool to studying some times. For example if you need read something that has no translation to your language, you must read it in English.

Have a class hour to write the activity is positive too. Because you don’t spend extra time in home and you can ask your teacher about vocabulary, for example.

A disadvantage I think is that the blog activities touch complicate items, difficult to explain even in your own language. For example the question who is the best in your field? Actually I never think in this question before.

Ken Robinson: schools kill creativity

Ken Robinson talks in the video about the importance of creativity in human acts. He criticizes the educational system because it cuts the capacity for creativity. In his presentation Ken considered three relevant things: the extraordinary evidences of human creativity, the educational system in the most of the countries in the world and the capacity for innovation. He says: children must be helped to find their talents.

He gives some examples about two children, the girl who is drawing God and the boy who does a mistake in a representation. Ken gives some reflections about these examples and says that in the school children learned that mistakes are the worst that they can do, and when they come to be adults the are afraid to do them. He also says that if you are afraid or you are not prepared to be wrong you never can do anything original. So he criticizes this result of educational, because the systems are educating people out of their creative capacity.

In the most of countries in the world the educational systems have the same distribution and priority of subjects. The most important are mathematic and languages, they are in the top. Then we find the humanities, and in the bottom are the arts. He says that the objective of school system is educating people to be successful like a university professors. But he criticizes that because people focus only in his or her heads, and forget about their bodies and lose their creative capacity.

Then he talks about intelligence, he say three important things. First, intelligence is diverse, we think with all of our senses, he gives the examples of a famous choreographer. Second, intelligence is dynamic; we can use multiple aspects of intelligence to solve our problems. And third intelligence is unique. Everyone thinks in different ways.

He finally says that we must rethink the educational system, and the way we use the human ecology to confront the world ecology changes that we are living.

My Favorite Subject

I really don`t sure, but I think that Educational Psychology is my favorite subject at the moment. This subject is teaches by a team of three teachers: Jesus Redondo (the director of the Psychology Department), Paulina Castro (the Career director) and Jorge Inzunza.

I like it because I always had an especial interest in Education, actually teacher was one of my possibilities too. So, in this subject I can find a kind of fusion between both disciplines and I can talk by hours with my father. He is teacher, so I enjoy and learn a lot talking whit him.

This semester I learned especially to have a critical vision, see the educational system considerer the historical context and I can understand a lot of thing that I did live in my school period. Things that are to the base of the principal problems today. And I learned how we can contribute, as psychologists to improve the deficiencies and make a better education.

Ok, this is my favorite subject, let’s see what happen! Maybe I work in this area in the future.

Me in five years??

Wow!! This question is dificult for me. I think of my future and I have a lot of plans, projects and dreams...

Professionaly, I think that in five years probably I’m going to be working, I wish in something that I can enjoy, maybe in the health system or educational psichology, I don’t know yet. Maybe I will keep studying and get a postgraduate title. I’d like to do both. Personally, in five years I’ll be emancipated from my parents, I’ll get my own place, maybe with Martin, my boyfriend.

Probably I’ll be living in Santiago, but not for ever!! But, if I want to continue with my postgraduate studies, Santiago is THE place. Or maybe another country, we don’t know... Work and study, this is my future. No children for now, or maybe yes??? I really can’t know that. But I think that five years is still to soon.

An ideal future? Basically having my place, with my couple, our own home! Out of Santiago, but near. I’d like to have a nice garden, with a lot of colors, not many things but a library and a workshop. And a stereo, to put some music in my life every day.

Paulo Freire

If you ask me, I can’t thik only in one peroson as a best on my field. So today I’m going to talk about one person that on this days was repercuted in my ideas. This person is Paulo Freire.

He was a brazilian techer that also studied filosophy and law. He worked principally with poor people, poor workers, that weren’t knouw read or write. In this time read and write was a requirement to can vote in political elections, so he begun to created a new method to teach this people in short time. Freire has oportunity to used his method in political planificacion on some distrit of Brazil, but he was exile by the dictadure in 1964. He come to Chile and worked with the christian democrathy movement to the Agrarian reform.

I thik he is some of the best on my field because his method is the base to the popular education that today is an importan movement knowed like Pedagogy of the liberation that influenced the traditional education and popular movemento to theach, especially in latin america. He is very importan in Chile because he work in an importan reform in our country, he was the propulsor to the complete education in the goverment to Frei father.

Today he is an importan exponent in educacional psychology an in social-comunitary paichology, so he is a mentor for thausen of psychologys and teachers principally. So I think that he is some of this person that you must to considerer in your formation like a professional and in your life. He inspired me a lot on my idea of the education, naw I know the importance to have a critical vision in all of the think that I live, learnd and do.

Here a link to a video of some of this thinking about popular education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmcGbbmBr1I

My career

I am studying psychology because I think this is a very complete profession, actually I chose this career because I was confuse about what I did want to may future. Now I’m sure that I want to be a Psychologist.

You have a lot of options to contribute to society. Of course you can chose don`t do it, but this is not my option. I think that you must do something in the world, even something small. In psychology you can work with people in their space, you can work in schools or in hospitals, in groups or individually, you can work to a institution or by your own, even whit a team, whit another professionals like teachers, sociologies, doctors, musicians, artists etc. Actually you can work to de government. So if you want, you can do anything.

Like a psychologist you need some specific tools, the most important is the empathy to can help people. But you need other tools like creativity, tolerance, optimism, interest to help people, etc. Always whit a proactive attitude.

I don’t know what is my favorite subject, I suppose I have more than one. I like educational psychology, social psychology and clinical psychology.

In these sent, in the future I want to do something that includes these areas. I want work in family health, maybe in a small hospital or something like that; with projects make whit people who needs basic things, or people who needs solution to important problems.

So, I hope can do it!