NUACHTÁN ELEMENTARY | January 2022

The Elementary teaching team gives you the warmest welcome to this new semester of the school year and to a new year that we are sure will be filled with joy, health and prosperity.

Our best wishes for 2022!

2022 A good opportunity

By Consuelo Zamudio | Spanish Coordination

We begin the year 2022 and with our list of resolutions, it is time for good intentions to invade us. Take advantage of this environment that is generated at the beginning of the year to include academic training purposes along with your children, according to their areas of opportunity.

Share your list of resolutions so that you can be the example of the effort and set a review period. It is important that the list is balanced, with goals according to age or grade level and  to be achievable.

Here are some ideas:

• Read 15 minutes every day.
• At the end of reading a book, discuss it as a family.
• Do one or two basic operations a day.
• Do calligraphy exercises for legible writing.
• Writing your experiences in a journal will help you write ideas more clearly.
• Practice the multiplication tables.
• Learn a poem, song, speech, etc., to stimulate memory.

Parents, acknowledge the perseverance, effort and celebrate all the achievements.

Self-management skills as a strategy to generate organizational habits

By Psic. Gabriela García | Psychopedagogy Department

Life and time are the best teachers … life teaches us to take advantage of time and time teaches us to value life. (Anonymous)

During our return to classes, students continue in a process of adaptation, integration of habits and organizational adjustments.

We know that from a young age, the organization is an important factor that implies, according to their stage of development, an opportunity to favor their learning and school performance as they grow and mature.

That is why we invite you to review the following information that is focused on providing some recommendations that can guide us towards the structure through time management and organization to promote autonomy according to our students’ age.

Establish a series of daily routines.  Routines help us know what comes next and organize our time.

Create a workspace.  It is suggested that they have all their belongings within reach and organized on work tables, furniture for their books, for example, organized by color considering the subject or its level of importance, or drawers to store school supplies. It is also suggested that their have its own place so that they can find things instantly and not waste time looking for them or forgetting something.

Make lists.  To-do and checklists help us know what to do and check off when we have done it to make sure we are not missing anything. Questions can also be asked to see if they have ready everything they need.

Divide tasks into parts.  In light of a more complicated or long project or task, it is best to divide it into simpler and shorter parts so that children can be able to rectify the activity from the beginning, the development and the end, getting involved at all times.

Teach how to use their schedule and to manage time.  As our students progress through the school level, the agenda can have two functions: a  homework notebook or a school agenda. Being a homework book, it can be an element of organization by the annotation of tasks that must be delivered a day later, and when its function is to be a school agenda, it will allow them to schedule the delivery of work in the short and medium term. As they understand the function and usefulness of this tool, they will be able to favor the management of their personal, spare and school activities, as well as the management of their time to carry them out. 

Planning of activities. By organizing our activities in advance from previous days, it allows us to voluntarily make adjustments or changes within the established time and avoiding the least possible conflict. 

Follow the 1-2-3 method. This method consists of three fundamental steps that must be taken into account and maintained before each task: 1. Get organized, 2. Stay focused, 3. Complete the task. With any activity, our children will be able to organize themselves, maintain concentration while they carry out the activity and finish the task.

Organize the family calendar. It isn’t only important that the child knows what activities to do for the following day or week, but it is also good that all family members take into account the family calendar and the activities that must be done all together (birthdays, trips) so that the student can take it into account when organizing to make a balance between their personal, family and school time with greater anticipation.

Fostering the development of self-management skills in our children is not only practical, but knowing how to do it will help them feel more competent, independent, proud, confident, effective and capable of doing their activities with higher quality; besides that, by being more organized, they will have more free time to do what they like the most.

Approaches to learning

By María Eugenia Varela Maldonado | 2nd grade teacher

Learning approaches consist on the diversity of perspectives or visions that are held about the teaching and learning process, all of them with the goal that the fact of learning makes sense for the student in terms of their own development and their projection as subject of knowledge throughout school life, that is, from preschool to upper secondary level and with a view to the professional future.

Within this teaching and learning process, a reference path that an individual follows before a certain academic-educational demand is sought, through three central areas that correspond to the apprentice subject, as such, and the subject of teaching (teacher), as promoter of the T-L process:

a) Motivation

b) Inquiry

c) Strategies

The International Baccalaureate Organization (IB) is present in 147 countries, with 3,700 schools and one million students. The IB focuses precisely on the aforementioned learning approaches and divides them, properly, into teaching approaches and learning approaches, whose objective is to guide and focus the work of teachers and students:

Teaching approaches:

• It is based on inquiry.
• It is focused on conceptual understanding.
• It takes place in local and global contexts.
• Focuses on teamwork and effective collaboration.
• It is designed to remove barriers to learning.
• It is guided by evaluation.

Approaches to learning:

• Thinking skills, including critical, creative, and ethical thinking.
• Research skills, including skills such as comparing, contrasting, validating, and prioritizing information.
• Communication skills, including skills such as oral and written communication, effective listening, and formulating arguments.
• Social skills, including the ability to establish and maintain positive relationships, listening skills and conflict resolution.
• Self-management skills, including organizational skills, such as time and task management, and affective skills, such as managing mood and motivation.

To sum up, learning approaches, through the appropriate use of favorable and propitiatory tools and strategies, should be directed towards a better understanding of the world through knowledge of it, always relating the information available through the interdisciplinary approach of the different learning throughout the life of the student, in such a way that he is able to become an actor and promoter of his own knowledge.

REFERENCES

https://resources.ibo.org/myp/topic/Interdisciplinary-inquiries/resource/11162-413505/?lang=es

https://www.google.com/search?q=enfoques+de+aprendizaje&rlz=

https://www.ibo.org

https://prezi.com/pp7zakogugdq/enfoques-de-aprendizaje/

What is music education?

By María del Mar Domínguez Cardoso | Lic. In Musical Education

It is the education that, through music, seeks to develop cognitive, psychosocial and motor skills in people, that is, to train people in a comprehensive way.

In 1958, during the second UNESCO congress, reknowned figures of music education confirmed its importance due to the benefits it offers to human formation. Among the benefits mentioned are:

1. The development of linguistic ability: Singing, due to its expressive and comprehensive qualities, is an excellent means for the development of this ability in the early stages of growth. Let us remember that all human beings sing before we can speak.
2. Group integration: When we play a musical instrument or sing together, we are building affective and cooperative bonds with the people who accompany us in this experience.  
3. Physiological and motor development: The motor responses that we experience during a musical activity stimulate our motor system and help us improve our reflexes and balance. In addition, it stimulates our muscular and auditory memory.
4. Moments of joy that lead to relaxation and self-reflection: When seen as a playful activity, music helps us to relax and learn more about our tastes, abilities and thoughts.
5. Contributes to the development of aesthetics and appreciation of our environment: When we pay attention to the sound characteristics of our environment, we are able to appreciate in a different dimension. We educate our ears through music and thus, little by little, we pay more attention to the textual and musical content in the songs we listen to daily, we are becoming more reflective and selective about what we consume.

As a music educator, I want my students to benefit from this experience. Elementary’s music program is based on music education, which, together with the IB model, allows us to have meaningful musical experiences that develop creativity, solidarity, reflection and love for music in our students, in addition to the skills formerly mentioned.

References:

Sarget Ros, Mª Angeles (2003) La música en la educación infantil: estrategias cognitivo-musicales. Revista de la Facultad de Educación de Albacete, ISSN 0214-4824, Nº. 18. Albacete, España. 

Brince, Mary (2004) The unfolding human potential. Papillon Editions, Geneve, Switzerland. 

Jaques-Dalcroze, Emile (1920) Le rythme, la musique et l’éducation, Foetisch, Laussane, Suisse. 

DATES TO KEEP IN MIND

• JANUARY 3rd – Back to School | 3rd Unit of Inquiry starts

• JANUARY  6th – Class adjourn

• JANUARY 20th – This is Elementary at Celta -for K3 parents- (Session via Zoom)