In
order to reach a correct idea of what school counseling and guidance is, the
teacher proposed a webquest as a guided way to investigate and find more
reliable information. This task helped us to learn what a webquest was for and
how it worked. The purpose was to expose through a groupal presentation (we
chose Prezi) what school counseling is about, who is it for, when is it needed
and some other questions given in this webquest.
The
fact that it had to be a groupal work allowed us to share ideas, knowledge and
opened our minds to others ways of thinking and working. It seems interesting
to say that performing in English develops different ways of explaining and
exposing ideas.
Therefore,
I can say that I´ve acquired some new skills like working with Webquests, how
to find reliable information about a topic in the web and how to make Prezi
presentations.
I
am also learning about how to create and place all my ideas and works into a blogg,
I've never seen one before, what a great challenge!
Yesterday,
February 29th, we had to evaluate some groupal presentations that we ourselves
will be doing on Monday. Evaluation, in my opinion, is the most difficult thing
to do. Being able to develop the skills to evaluate others and evaluate myself
will be a great step to take.
Regarding
this evaluation topic, I have to say that I started doing it on my own and had
my own ideas about what I had seen. It was hard buy I agreed with myself. But
then I had to put them in common with my mates within my group, and that was
even harder, the fact that we may all think different and having to
"convince" each other that our points of view are better in order to
write just one groupal opinion is not an easy thing to do... That's life,
sometimes you have to give up on something and next time will be the other in
allowing you.
I
have also acquired skills on working in groups with an until now unknown
technique named 'Group of Experts'. The class is divided into groups. Within
each group each of the components is responsible for learning about one topic.
New groups are to be done among the people of each topic. So experts of topic 1
had to form a new group, read, understand, structure the ideas and develop a
method of teaching others about their topic. After doing so, initial groups get
back together and each component explains to the group the 'topic group' ideas.
Great technique to share points of view and develop different abilities to
communicate the same thing.
With
the Activity we had to carry out in class to make our mates participate on our
topic, I here draw some conclusions, from my 'assessor' point of view and as
acquiring the skill to properly make an evaluation. Therefore, as for
assessment to others' knowledge, I should say that a very important thing to
keep in mind is not letting your personal feelings interfere. Sometimes if
someone does not pay too much attention to what you are saying or to your topic,
interrupting or not having a proper behavior you may feel like giving a
negative evaluation to their knowledge. In my opinion there should be at least
two kind of assessment, one for contents and another one for attitudes toward
the subject or class time.
I still need to work on the following...
Improving
assertiveness skills:
What does being assertive mean? In my opinion is a ‘win-win’
situation, where everyone has different opinions, expressing them in the proper
way and no one gets hurt. If conflict arises, an assertive person may be able
to deal with it in the most suitable manner. It requires being authentic,
having a lot of self-control, showing and feeling empathy and, being generous
in terms of sharing and accepting others points of view.
As a skill it has to be trained. I find it rather difficult to
achieve, but of course not impossible.
The main principles for assertiveness are:
1.- I have to respect
myself.2.- I must recognize my own needs as an individual.
3.- I must make clear ‘I’ statements.
4.- I have to allow myself to make mistakes.
5.- I can change my mind.
6.- I have to take time to think, and ask for it if needed.
7.- Allow myself to enjoy my success.
8.- I have to be able to ask for what I want in the appropriate way.
9.- I am not responsible for others.
10.- I have to respect other people.
