Author Archives: Victoria Veragoeiz

A Document Filling Out Day

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Today my students had standardized testing, so we did not have class today. I can’t be in my usual classroom due those test, so I spent the whole day in the arts classroom, surrounded by color, paints and crafts:

ArtsClassroom

What did I do during the whole day? First, I completed a lot of pending documents: the teacher student activity report, the teacher student practice hours report and the teacher journal. I did not completed any of those documents yesterday (I must complete them out daily) due the evaluation. This is one of the hardest parts of being teacher for me: keeping all the required documentation organized and updated.

Second, I had a brief meeting with the special education teacher about how to help better a specific student. Today was the perfect day to have that meeting. Having a meeting also means filling another document: the learning community relations document.

Third, my mentor teacher invited another student teacher, another teacher and me to a morning snack. That time counts as “learning community time” in our reports.

Finally, I made Tuesday’s test and also made Monday’s lesson plan. The only thing I still need to complete is the Power Point presentation for Monday’s class.

Said in other words, today was a document filling out day, but still a growing day.

Let’s keep growing!

Grammar Egg Hunt

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Today was a very important day to me: today was the day of my first evaluation as student teacher! I was scheduled to be evaluated by my supervisor professor and by my mentor teacher.

I planned everything related with today’s class with extra care. I choose to make an Easter activity related with the grammar topic I had been discussing during these days, comparative adjectives and superlative adjectives. I choose to do a “Grammar Egg Hunt”. Here is today’s lesson plan: Easter Egg Hunt Lesson Plan. Here is the Power Point presentation of today’s class: Grammar Egg Hunt.

During the hour prior the class, the first thing I did was arranging the candy appropriately in order to avoid any possible mess. I needed three kinds of candy, so I chose Easter chocolates, Easter candy eggs and Easter candy bunnies. Each kind of candy had a bucket to be stored. I placed them in a table near the Smart Board.

The next time I did was activating the correct alarms in the iPad. Today the class changed of time (it was at 9:00 am instead of 1:20 pm), so I needed to set new alarms for being aware of when I had 10 minutes of class left and 5 minutes of class left. I left the iPad near the place where the computer would be.

The next thing I did was resolving a technological issue: my supervisor professor would need to have my computer with her, because I have several documents of my professional binder in the computer. So I borrowed a school computer for giving the class and left my MacBook to the supervisor professor. I tested everything in the school computer, including the clicker, and everything worked perfectly.

When the bell rang and I had an empty classroom I began to place an Easter bag in each seat. You can see the Easter bags in this photos:

EasterEggHunt1

EasterEggHunt2

Shortly after my supervisor professor and my students arrived (my mentor teacher was already in the classroom), and the fun began. The kids became very excited when they saw the Easter bags in their seats!

First we did the usual beginning routine. Then I reviewed yesterday’s class material. Then I explained what is an egg hunt. Finally, I explained what we were going to do in our Grammar Egg Hunt: each Easter bag had two plastic Easter eggs, one Easter egg had a paper with a number inside and the other Easter egg had a paper with an inspiring thought inside. The number was the exercise that the student was going to do. If the student answered the exercise correctly, he or she may have Easter chocolate for filling their Easter plastic eggs or their Easter bag. If the student explained correctly why the answer was correct or wrong, he or she may have Easter candy eggs for filling their Easter plastic eggs or their Easter bags. If the student identified correctly if the adjective was comparative or superlative, he or she may have Easter candy bunnies for filling their Easter bag (they were too big to fill the plastic Easter eggs). If the student had everything wrong, he or she may explain the inspiring quote of the other egg in his or her own words, and then he or she may have Easter candy too. This is the list of the inspiring thoughts placed inside the Easter eggs: Egg Hunt Quotes.

The students LOVED the game, and of course, they LOVED the different kinds of Easter candy. I also gave an Easter bag with two eggs to my mentor teacher, so when the number 15 came and no student raised his or her hand, I knew that was the number in his bag. He did the exercise like all the students, and he did it correctly, but most students did not let him to take Easter candy for his Easter bag! The students thought he had enough candy already. We all laughed. Then some students went to my mentor teacher and shared the Easter candy of their own Easter bags with my mentor teacher. That was an excellent empathy lesson!

The first alarm rang when we finished the last exercise, the exercise number 20. After we finished that exercise, I had the time to ask three students what their inspiring thought meant. Then the second alarm rang, so I close the class giving them a handout that they needed to glue in their notebooks: it was the announcement of a test for next Tuesday, including the material that is going to be tested. This is an image of the test announcement (my mentor teacher was kind enough for cutting the paper for me):

Test Announcement.jpg

I made a special “joke” to my supervisor professor and to the students. While they finished to glue the test announcement to their notebooks, I asked them if they knew what the word “complaint” meant. They told me they did not know. So I explained them what that word means, and let them know that if they had any complaint about me they could say it to the professor that was seated in my computer’s place (my supervisor professor). I told them she was my “boss”. The supervisor professor laughed (she is not really my “boss”, and she explained so to the kids) and asked the students if they had any comment about me, anything that they felt she should know about my teaching tasks. Several student raised their hands and I let them tell her whatever they wanted. So, I made the students part of my evaluation!

The kids behave amazingly good during the activity! I needed to catch their attention several times with some pauses for jokes and comments, but that is normal, especially considering their age.

I waited a little bit after the class was over while my supervisor professor and my teacher mentor completed all the evaluations. I was not expecting a good grade because we are told in the pre-practicum that the punctuation of the first evaluation usually is not higher than 50.

When they called me and I was informed of my final punctuation, I became happy and very emotional. There is always room for improvement, but it was a very high punctuation for being the first evaluation of a student teacher. My biggest failure was that in some moments I gave my back to the students while giving the class, and I must care giving the class facing the students at all moments. I also had some pronunciation issues, especially every time I said the word “thought.” I was given the freedom to write my own philosophy of education, despite not being exactly like the philosophy of education that everyone writes, my philosophy of education is like more “original,” although this is not intentional.

We also discussed how I am going to complete my 300 teaching practice hours. I will have 250 regular student practice hours at May 18, the last day of classes, so I need 50 extra hours to complete the required 300 teaching practice hours. I am not authorized to arrive earlier than 7:30 except if I have a school meeting at that hour (I had a school meeting today at 7:00 am to coordinate an extracurricular activity) nor I am authorized to have less than one hour  for lunch break. The first one is not allowed because I come from far away and the second one is not allowed because it is not healthy for student teachers or teachers to cut their break time for completing school work. I need to learn to distribute my teaching time reasonably, and that includes learning to take the appropriate break times. I am authorized to complete the 300 practice hours with extracurricular activities (25 hours maximum) compatible with my other University classes (besides the teaching practice, I am also enrolled in two college classes: Writing About Literature and Ceramics), with research time for the action researches done at home (12.5 hours minimum) and with all the time spent at home writing my philosophy of education (12.5 hours minimum). My supervisor professor thought I should be able to reach 300 hours with those arrangements. I agreed.

We scheduled my next evaluation at May 9. I worked very hard for today’s class, but I also thanks God for making it possible. I expect to improve for the next evaluation.

Let’s keep growing!

A Little Success

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Yesterday I couldn’t write a blog post because I forgot to bring the charging cable of my MacBook, so I didn’t have a computer to write the post. Life happens!

Today I came late to school for the first time. I had a very good reason: the train where I was coming to the University ran out of gas, so we needed to wait until being delivered to the nearest train station and then wait for the next train in direction to the University. It was a very funny situation for everyone in the train. I have never imagined a train could run out of gas (I always thought it was an electric train).

Yesterday’s class and today’s class are about superlative adjectives and about being resilient. Here is today’s Power Point presentation: Superlative Adjectives.

Yesterday the students wrote in an index card their biggest struggle in school or at home. I glued those struggles besides the poster I made, inspired in The Butterfly Circus, that says “The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph.” I taught them that struggles are important because they helps us learn to be resilient. Here is a picture of our “struggle wall”:

StruggleWall.jpg

Today’s lesson plan is the first lesson plan where I apply integraction, although it is not applied as a method but as a context. Here is today’s lesson plan: Superlative Adjectives.

Besides all the classroom practice, I made a practice handout for today’s homework. Here is the handout:

Comparative:Superlative Handout.jpg

Comparative:Superlative Handout 2.jpg

Today I made calculations and I realized something very important. I was absent the whole first week of my practicum due the reasonable accommodations needed for the PC Mas (the teaching certification test of the Department of Education of Puerto Rico), so I started my practicum on March 12. Besides that, I need to leave early on Fridays (at 12:30 instead of 2:30) and I am going to be absent on April 26 and May 31 due medical check-ups. For compensating those hours, I am doing six hours of teaching practicum daily (except on Fridays, when I do only five), instead of the five hours required per day. The classes at the school end on May 18. If you calculate the total teaching practicum hours, there is no way to complete the 300 required teaching practicum hours in that time. I can only make 253 hours, or a little bit more if I get the permission, which I asked, to take only half an hour of lunch break instead of a whole hour and to begin at 7:00 instead of 7:30. I can make some extra hours with some extracurricular activities too. Even then, there is no way for me to complete 300 hours. I can only complete them if I am allowed to make teaching practicum hours until May 30, that way I would be able to complete exactly 300 hours, but there are not school classes after May 18, so I am not sure if that is possible.

I made a table with all my current teaching practicum hours and the projected hours calculations to my supervisor professor to illustrate visually that it is reasonably impossible for me to complete 300 teaching practicum hours and to see what the Faculty of Education is going to do about that. The only thing I can do to try to complete them is to request the authorization to have less lunch break time and to begin earlier. I have a reasonable accommodation that allows me to be absent of my classes for going to all my medical check-ups, and I would be able to complete the 300 hours if I wouldn’t have so many medical check-ups and reasonable accommodation issues during these weeks, so I may be receive an authorization to make less hours due that. The Department of Education only requires around 200 hours to certificate teachers, so there is no need of completing 300 hours of teaching practicum besides the University’s requirement. I really don’t know what they do in cases like mine, we will see. I did my part and informed this as soon as I noticed it. It is true that in a regular semester I would have been able to complete the required 300 hours even with all the time needed for medical check-ups, that is something that must be taken in count too: the extraordinary circumstances of this semester, that started in March instead of in January.

This is the importance of having reasonable accommodation, among other reasons: if you have any problem related with being absent due medical check-ups, the issue can be handled without being penalized due needing extra time than others for medical issues.

My students learned something very important today: if they play with any toy during class, I consider that the toy is mine and confiscate it. I got a very nice Play Doh piece today! I love Play Doh! Besides that, I had my hdmi adapter in today’s class (the Amazon order was finally delivered yesterday!), so today I used my own computer to give class for the first time. I also had a clicker for the first time, so today I had a lot of fun with my tech toys too, besides having fun with the Play Doh! The hdmi adapter and the clicker made the process of giving class with Power Point a lot easier: today was the first day I ended my class earlier than expected! This was a little success for me.

Let’s keep growing!

Respecting My Student’s Minds

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Today I want to talk about a very important theme for me: respecting my student’s minds. My aim is to respect their whole personal formation, but today I am going to talk specifically about respecting my student’s intellectual personal formation.

What “respecting my student’s intellectual personal formation” should mean? It is respecting their process of achieving their own ideas, methods, thoughts and conclusions. I as teacher have a powerful intellectual influence on my students, but that influence is not for making harm but to helping them to grow intellectually? How?

First, I never think for them what they should be able to think by their own. I may help them in the process of thinking, but I never think for them. It is important that they learn to think by their own.

Second, when I explain something, I explain it in a way that it can be understood from different thought methods. For example: now that I am explaining adjectives, I explain them through induction, through deduction and through abduction. That enriches my student’s intellectual skills and helps them to understand better too.

Third, when I explain a point of view, I explain the pros and the cons of that point of view, both, even if I am not agree with some of the propositions, and let the students arrive to their own point of view. For example (this is not an example that I have experienced with my current third graders): if I am going to talk about why someone considers that Puerto Rico is not a nation, I explain both why it may be considered a nation and why it may be not considered a nation, an let each student to build their own point of view about why considering Puerto Rico a nation or not. I personally do not consider Puerto Rico a nation, but I never state, except if explicitly asked, my own point of views. The important thing is to let the students have their own point of view in debatable themes.

Fourth, when I provide information about a concept, I give it providing information from different theories. For example (this example is not an example that I have experienced with my current third graders neither): if I am going to explain the concept “political systems”, I will talk about capitalism, and about socialism too, although I have disagreements with both. I give to the students the information they need for both understanding the concept and understanding the whole scenario of the concept from different perspectives. That way the students can build their knowledge with information of all sides and even they may create a perspective of their own.

Fifth, I avoid by all means intellectual proselytism. What is intellectual proselytism? It is promoting certain ideas only, usually those that you are agree with. There are many ways to commit intellectual proselytism. Books and studying material must be rich in sources, not using sources from one perspective, one kind of persons or one system only. For example: I had a college course once whose bibliography only had references of Marxism and Socialism, but the class was about Latin American philosophy. Another example: I went to a workshop where the theme “kindness” was being discussed, but all the references discussed the ideas of only one author, the founder of the institution where the workshop was being held. Other example of intellectual proselytism is to only promote in the classroom certain opinions, those which agree with certain agenda. That is grossly wrong. For example: I don’t talk to my students about my own theory. That something they don’t need to know for growing intellectually.

Sixth, I give the information to my students according to their developmental age. For example: when I discussed the theme of being open to diversity with my third grade students, I did not discussed it from a sexual identity perspective because that is not an age-appropriate theme for third graders, that is a theme that belong to the parents to discuss. With my third graders I discussed the theme of being open to diversity it from the perspective of being open to people with diverse abilities.

Finally, when a student has an conclusion that is clearly wrong, I confront him with the facts and different point of views, without allowing personalist arguments and without “forcing” a change via intellectual authority. For example: if a student says that being racist is a right or necessary thing, I don’t tell him “you are stupid”: I look for bibliography, references and information that can help him to understand why his premise is wrong.

As teacher, it is very important for me to promote the best intellectual personal formation possible for my students. There are many ways to do this. I hope to discover more than the ones I have mentioned.

Let’s keep growing!

Explaining the Integractor

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Today I am going to explain the integractor, the structure of integraction, piece by piece and form by form. Remember that integraction is a personal formation model with four processes: integration, action, realization and projection. The explication that I am going to give in this post can help you a lot to visualize integraction. So, let’s begin to explain the integractor!

The first form of the integractor is a triangle, like this one:

This triangle is formed by 14 pieces: seven orange sticks and seven wood connectors. The integractor has two of these triangles:

Each one of these triangles forms a dimension of the integration, the first of the four processes of integraction. Let’s talk about these triangles.

The first triangle forms the organic dimension of integration. Each orange stick of this triangle is a property of the organic dimension:

–Hierarchical Property: every human body is ordered hierarchically.

–Nutritive Property: every human body is capable of obtaining the energy that he or she needs to subsist.

–Regulative Property: every human body is capable of maintaining his or her internal equilibrium towards the environmental changing circumstances.

–Reproductive Property: every human body is capable or replicating himself or herself. Sexual reproduction requires a feminine gamete and a masculine gamete, and supposes a longer maturation time related to asexual reproduction.

–Evolutive Property: every human body evolves maximizing his or her survival.

–Progressive Property: every human body grows, develops and matures progressively through life time.

–Sensitive Property: every human body reacts to changes and interacts with the stimulus that surrounds them.

Each wood connector is a Christian attribute of the organic dimension of ecclesial integraction. The Christian attributes of the organic dimension are the seven sacraments:

–Baptism: this sacrament frees the human person from original sin, incorporates the human person to Christ and makes the human person a member of the living body of Christ, the Church. It is administered with natural water and chrism, and invoking the Holy Trinity. Anyone can be baptized once in his or her lifetime.

–Penance: when a sin is committed the human person betrays God and the Church where he or she belongs. This sacrament forgives the committed sins with an absolution given by a priest, and reconciliates the sinner with God. Contrition and satisfaction are required. Anyone can receive the sacrament of penance as many times as needed during lifetime.

–Eucharist: in this sacrament the human person becomes one with Christ, present in the Blessed Sacrament, when eating bread and drinking wine. Bread and wine are transubstantiated into the Holy Body and the Holy Blood of our Lord: Christ offers himself through a priest. The Eucharist is part of the Mass, that commemorates the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord. Anyone can receive the sacrament of Eucharist once daily or weekly if the person is in state of grace (without mortal sins).

–Confirmation: this sacrament is administered by a bishop who lay on his hands and anoints with chrism the human person while saying a prayer. Anyone can be confirmed once in his or her lifetime.

–Matrimony: this sacraments is administered by the spouses, with a priest as a witness. With this sacrament the spouses commit to help each other in their sanctification. Any woman and man couple can receive the sacrament of matrimony, but once given it can’t be repeated until the death of one of the spouses.

–Holy Orders: this sacrament ordains priests. It is administered by a bishop by laying of his hands and following the ordination formula. The laity is also part of priesthood, but in a different manner, not through holy orders. Only men, authorized by the bishop after years of study and preparation, can receive the Holy Orders.

–Extremeunction: this sacrament gives strength to the soul and the remission of sins, if necessary. It is administered by a priest that anoints the human person with blessed oil, accompanied by a prayer. This sacrament can be received by any baptized person that is in danger of death.

The second triangle forms the onthological dimension. Each orange stick of this triangle is a property of the onthological dimension:

–Ens Property: every human entity is a being.

–Res Property: every human entity is a thing.

–Aliquid Property: every human entity is something.

–Unum Property: every human entity is a unity.

–Verum Property: every human entity is true.

–Bonum Property: every human entity is good.

–Pulchrum Property: every human entity is beautiful.

Each wood connector of this second triangle is a Christian attribute of the onthological dimension of ecclesial integraction. The Christian attributes of the onthological dimension are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit:

–Wisdom: this gift helps the human person to keep God in the center of the personal formation, to embrace spiritual values over worldly values and to view everything from God’s perspective.

–Understanding: this gift helps the human person to comprehend the meaning of God’s words, to be leaded to God’s truth and to embrace God’s mystery.

–Counsel: this gift helps the human person to choose the best options to follow God’s will when choices are given, to recognize the difference between good and evil or right and wrong, and to avoid sin.

–Fortitude: this gift helps the human person to be committed to what he or she knows that is right, to sustain the choice of pursuing God’s will even when threaten by injury or even death and to endure evil when choosing to do the right thing.

–Knowledge: this gift helps the human person to contemplate God’s revelation, to be aware of God’s will, to grasp God’s creative project and how he or she should answer to God and to discern if he or she is living according to God’s plan.

–Piety: this gift helps the human person to pray with true devotion, to honor to God’s creative will and to correspond His creative will with love.

–Wonder: this gift helps the human person to embrace God with respect and amazement, to be conscious of His glory, majesty and kindness, to increase his or her desire to be closer to Him, to dread sin and to fear not honoring His creative plan.

These two triangles are united by seven pink sticks and fourteen wood caps:

These seven pink sticks and fourteen wood caps form the filial dimension of integration. Each pink stick is a principle of the filial dimension:

–Humanization Principle: every human subject is  called to become more human.

–Autonomy Principle: every human subject is called to determine by himself or herself.

–Equality Principle: every human subject have the same rights and duties.

–Complexity Principle: every human subject is called to act according to what is determined by his or her own discernment, departing from what they know from reality.

–Totality Principle: every human subject is responsible of the totality of their personal being. 

–Solidarity Principle: every human subject is called to contribute to the common good according to his or her possibilities.

–Subsidiarity Principle: every human subject is called to develop all his or her talents to the best expression possible, assuming everything that he or she can by himself or herself.

Each wood cap is a Christian quality of the filial dimension of the ecclesial integraction. The wood cap of one extreme of each pink stick is a capital virtue and the other extreme of the same stick is a capital vice. The seven capital virtues are:

–Chastity: the inclination to embrace purity and gives to the gift of sexuality the proper respect in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This virtue is counter to lust.

–Moderation: the inclination to embrace self-control in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This virtue is counter to gluttony.

–Generosity: the inclination to embrace giving and the appropriate concern of earthly possessions in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This virtue is counter to greed.

–Diligence: the inclination to embrace persistence and the effectiveness in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This virtue is counter to sloth.

–Forgiveness: the inclination to embrace patience and mercy in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This virtue is counter to wrath.

–Kindness: the inclination to embrace brotherly love and compassionate concern for others in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This virtue is counter to envy.

–Humility: the inclination to embrace modesty, appropriate appreciation of one’s self worth and selflessness in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This virtue is counter to pride.

The seven capital vices are:

–Lust: the inclination to sin of uncontrollable passion and lack of respect for sexuality in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This vice is counter to chastity.

–Gluttony: the inclination to sin of over indulging in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This vice is counter to temperance.

–Greed: the inclination to sin of avarice or excessive desires of material possessions in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This vice is counter to generosity.

–Sloth: the inclination to sin of laziness or lack of using talents diligently in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This vice is counter to diligence.

–Wrath: the inclination to sin of anger, hate and conflict-seeking attitudes in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This vice is counter to forgiveness.

–Envy: the inclination to sin of sorrow over the goods of another person in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This vice is counter to kindness.

–Pride: the inclination to sin of inappropriate appreciation of one’s self worth in thoughts, emotions and behaviors, in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the brothers and sisters. This vice is counter to humility.

When the two triangles are united with the seven pink sticks and the fourteen wood caps, they form a tridimensional triangle:

Each one of the three dimensions forms a Christian aptitude of the integration of the ecclesial integraction. The Christian aptitude of the organic dimension is charity. The Christian aptitude of the ontological dimension is faith. The Christian aptitude of the filial dimension is hope. The unity of all the properties, principles, attributes, qualities and dimensions forms the formative task of integration: helping to be.

The integractor has three crosses:

Each cross has one wood center, four green sticks and four wood connectors.

Each wood center is a factor of the action:

–Thoughts: developing your ideas.

–Emotions: developing your sentiments.

–Abilities: developing your skills.

Each green stick is an expression of the action:

–Intention: developing the motivation of action.

–Disposition: developing the attitude of action.

–Signification: developing the meaning of action.

–Volition: developing the determination of action.

Each wood connector is a moral standard of the action:

–Prudence: developing the faculty to judge actions appropriately, according to truth.

–Temperance: developing the faculty to temper the action appropriately, controlling the appetite.

–Courage: developing the faculty to confront actions appropriately, without fear.

–Justice: developing the faculty to undertake actions appropriately, fairly.

The integractor has twelve springs:

Ideally, six of these springs would be of one color and the other six would be of another color, but today they are all the same color (the store where I bought the wire did not had the same kind of wire in two different colors, that’s why I used wire of only one color).

Six of these springs are the influences of integraction. The human integraction has six influences and the ecclesial integraction has six influences. The influence of the human organic dimension is genetics. The influence of the human ontological dimension is knowledge. The influence of human filial dimension is laws. The influence of human action is role models. The influence of human realization is the priority of needs. The influence of human projection is goals. The influence of ecclesial organic dimension is the Revelation. The influence of ecclesial ontological dimension is the Magisterium. The influence of ecclesial filial dimension is Canon Law. The influence of ecclesial action is prayer. The influence of ecclesial realization is mission. The influence of ecclesial projection is personal consecration.

The six other springs are the manifestations of integraction. The human integraction has six manifestatioms and the ecclesial integraction has six manifestations. The manifestation of the human organic dimension is health. The manifestation of human ontological dimension is health. The manifestation of human filial dimension is politics. The manifestation of human action is behavior. The manifestation of human realization is economy (management of available resources). The manifestation of human projection is obration (work in formation). The manifestation of ecclesial organic dimension is the resurrection. The manifestation of ecclesial ontological dimension is adoration. The manifestation of filial ecclesial dimension is living the Mandatum Novum (the Commandment of Love). The manifestation of ecclesial action is liturgy. The manifestation of ecclesial realization is apostolate. The manifestation of ecclesial projection is communion of the saints.

The unity of each of the three crosses with the tridimensional triangle forms the formative task of the action, helping to do:

Please notice that there are two springs in each side of the cross: an influence and a manifestation. It can be hard to notice because the two springs are of the same color.

Each cross of the integractor can move by rotation:

The movement of each cross is a cause of the realization:

–Creating Communion: generating gifts through sharing who we are.

–Creating Family: generating bonds through engaging ourselves.

–Creating Community: generating values through inspiring others.

Please notice that the direction of the rotation can be neither to the left or to the right. Each direction is an emanation of realization:

–Actuality: grow as who we are.

–Potentiality: grow as who we are meant to be.

The unity of the movements of the three crosses forms the formative task of realization: helping to grow.

Now, let’s imagine that the crosses, that have four extremities, radiate light when they move in coherence. The light that is radiated by each extremity of each cross forms a key of the projection:

–Vital Identity: cultivate dreams that project love.

–Vital Vocation: cultivate freedom that projects service.

–Vital Communication: cultivate self-giving that projects life.

–Vital Perfection: cultivate plenitude that projects joy.

The light can be radiated horizontally, vertically and circularly. Each way the light is radiated, horizontally, vertically or circularly, forms an emission of projection. The emissions of human projection are:

-Primacy of the Good: esthetic criteria, arts.

–Primacy of the Right: ethical criteria, religion.

–Primacy of the True: logical criteria, science.

The emissions of ecclesial projection are:

-Primacy of the Person: the person is sacred because he is image and likeness of God. Personcentrism, new humanization, sacralization or the person.

-Primacy of Christ: the person is ecclesialized because he follows Christ. Christcentrism, new ecclesialization, Christianization of the person.

–Primacy of Love: the person is sacramentalized because he becomes a living sign of God’s Love. Lovecentrism, new evangelization, sacramentalization of the person.

The unity of all this lights forms the formative task of projection: helping to radiate.

The complete integractor looks like this:

So, this is an integractor, the structure of integraction. As you can see now, the whole integraction can be explained with the integractor. The difference between explaining integraction with the integractor and without the integractor is that if you use the integractor it is impossible to separate ecclesial integraction from human integration: both are merged. If you explain integraction without the integractor, you can explain the Christian elements of integration separated from the other elements.

When you explain integraction with the integractor it is easier to explain why integration is formed by four processes that happen at the same time, not by sequential stages or phases. That’s why integraction is a model of personal formation and not a model of human development: it intends to explain how the person becomes who he is and who is called to be; it intends to explain the personal formation. Integraction doesn’t intend to explain the stages of physical growth of human development (although that is taken in count in the organic dimension), or the psychological phases of human development (although that is taken in count in the action). You will be very disappointed if that is what you expected.

I hope this post has helped you to visualize integraction as model of personal formation and the integractor as its structure. In the near future I will write another post about integractive education.

Let’s keep growing!

The Origins of the Integractor

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We are in the spring break, so I will write about something that I wouldn’t have the time to write about during school time, as I usually do during Sunday’s posts. Today I will write about the integractor, the structure of integration that is made with Tinker Toys. How the integractor was conceived? It has a story.

For those who need an image of an integractor, here is one:

How the idea of designing and building an integractor began? In the moment that I conceived this Tinker Toy structure I was studying in two faculties: in an ecclesiastical faculty of philosophy and in a graduate faculty of philosophy. In the ecclesiastical faculty of philosophy the focus was Saint Thomas Aquinas. In the graduate faculty of philosophy the focus was Charles S. Peirce. I wanted to integrate, somehow, the thoughts of both philosophers in a single visual structure. Those who know these two philosophers know that thomist thoughts and pragmatic thoughts can’t be easily merged, besides their curious tendency of using trychotomies (as a matter of fact, many philosophers use trychotomies, Aquinas and Peirce are not the only ones).

I integrated thoughts of both philosophers by creating a Tinker Toy robot called “Charlie.” Charlie moved with a control remote, it was not a completely independent machine. He had two kinds of movements: the external movements and the internal movements. The internal movements were independent from the remote control, but the external movements depended on the remote control. That was my way of explaining the two kinds of movements of human beings: the “inside” movements and the “physical” movements. The movement I was focusing on for my graduate thesis, that was about creating a philosophy of education based on the philosophy of Peirce, was the “inside” movements. However, action by its own is worthless. It needs a three-dimensional structure to sustain it. Later on I would observe and discover that action can’t be and end by itself neither; humans do no act with the aim of solely acting, human actions, besides an integration, also have a realization and a projection.

How did Charlie united thoughts of Charles S. Peirce and Saint Thomas Aquinas? The tridimensional external structure of Charlie (the triangles) was inspired by the trascendentals of Saint Thomas Aquinas, that later evolved and become the seven properties of every being (ens, res, etc.). I later integrated to those first seven properties the seven properties of every living being, that I learned in a graduate neuroscience class where we studied a real brain. These properties did not caught my attention in the class, where I was focused on studying the human brain. It was later on that this information made “click” on me while thinking the integraction, that initially had only three processes (integration, action and realization), not four.

The thought of Charles S. Peirce was integrated in the three moving crosses inside Charlie. Peirce talks about firstness, secondness and thirdness. That’s why I built three crosses inside Charlie’s tridimensional body: one for firstness (essentially monadic), one for secondness (essentially dyadic) and one for thirdness (essentially monadic). They were not meant to be moved at the same time, that came later on, with the idea of unity and coherence.

I did not used Charlie for my graduate thesis project very long. Someone told me that students do not come to philosophy graduate school to play with toys, I got discouraged and never brought it to the graduate faculty of philosophy. Sadly, I had to destroy Charlie myself because I couldn’t move back to Puerto Rico with it, I didn’t had enough space. I trashed all those materials prior traveling so they didn’t become excess weight in my baggage.

Later, when I chose to design a personal formation model, I rebuilt again what I destroyed with new materials, but I did not rebuilt it as a robot (I did not had the materials for doing that), but simply as a Tinker Toy structure. As the time passed by, the search for meaning of the Tinker Toy’s structure became more contemplative. That means that I began to pray how to build a personal formation model inspired in the Trinity and in the commandment of Love. In other words: I used the same Tinker Toy structure that I used for building Charlie, but now for building a new personal formation model. That way the integractor was conceived: as a structure for a new personal formation model. The model came after contemplating the integractor in prayer and in ordinary life, applying both reason and faith while observing human nature to define better all the processes.

By the way, the seven principles of humanization were added to the properties of the integractor later on, in a social ethics class. That completed the three dimensions of human personal formation. These three dimensions were the first elements of integraction that were concreted.

At the beginning, I couldn’t study integraction without using the integractor. Now I can explain integraction without using the integractor, but by writing only. For explaining it orally I still need to play a little bit with the integractor in order to remember all the terms that I know (I don’t know everything by memory yet). When I brought the integractor to the schools kids loved playing with it! Of course, I didn’t explained to them what it was for me, I just let them use it as a toy. Moving the three crosses at the same time requires an excellent two-hands coordination!

How integraction was inspired by the Holy Trinity? I think I have never explained it before. I have explained how integraction is inspired in the Commandment of Love, but not how it is inspired by the Holy Trinity. It would seem like the three crosses are inspired by the Trinity, but as I explained before, that was inspired by Peirce. The Trinitarian inspiration is in the processes’ conception, not in the integractor’s conception. Integration is inspired in the Father’s role. Action is inspired in the Son’s role. Realization is inspired in the Holy Spirit’s role. Projection is inspired in the Trinity’s role, it integrates the three roles. I know that creating a personal formation model that is faith-inspired can be conflictive to some, but integraction can also be founded with theories of the three integractive faculties: the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Education. I have studied in two of those faculties academically, in Education and in Humanities, and has studied classes of the other faculty, Social Sciences, although not as many as in the other two faculties. I had thought about taking a psychological theories of personality course many times, but the fact that I am a twice-exceptional student has refrained me from doing so. Those courses tend to be evaluated mostly by memory-based assessment, and I usually have problems with passing a class whose assessment relies more than 30% on memorization. There is no reasonable accommodation that substitutes the memory-based assessment, I must adapt to whichever assessment the professors choose.

Another question. Why I built a robot for studying something like philosophy? This is also related to being a twice- exceptional student. I did it because I am a visual learner. Visualizing, somehow, the ideas of these two philosophers helped me to integrate information about their thought. “Building ideas” also helps me to keep inquiring. “Never block the way to inquiry,” Peirce says. At the very end, the integractor did retained something from Peirce: the criteria of the emissions (primacy of the good, primacy of the right and primacy of the true) is inspired in the three Peircean normatives (the good, the right and the true).

This is all I have to say about the origins of the integractor. In the next post, I will explain the parts of the integractor as the structure of integraction.

Let’s keep growing!

Inquiry Time

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Well, today I gave to my cooperator teacher the lesson plans for Monday, April 2, and Tuesday, April 3 (the school is closed the whole next week). I made a change in the lesson plan’s structure: I added an “integractive context” in the teacher reflection section. In the “integractive context” I explain how I apply integraction to my teaching. In reality all teachers have a “context”: all lesson plans have a philosophical “frame.” The difference is that I am assuming the context of my lesson plans consciously. I justified the change explaining integraction as a model of personal formation. I even brought an integractor (a structure made with toys that is like the abacus of integraction) to the school! Today was the first time ever that I explained integraction verbally to someone, ant the integractor helped me a lot to verbalize the ideas related to integraction as system. Until now I was simply reflecting how I was applying integraction in the classroom in separate papers, but it is truly a paper mess, so I united that reflection to the lesson plan. I chose to include it in the teacher reflection section because the integractive context is something very personal. I do not intent to change the “official” lesson plan, but enrich it with my context, with the how I embrace the teaching process personally. Here is a picture of me in the classroom with the integractor:

Integractor

I prepared a diagnostic test of the next theme for my third grade students. I am giving it today. This test is for an effect of instruction (measuring the student’s knowledge before and after giving a lesson) that I am required to do as part of my practicum. In general, they did not remembered what superlatives adjectives were. Here is a picture of that test:

Superlatives Diagnostic Test

I also prepared a poster about The Butterfly Circus for the classroom. I wanted to post it today in the wall because today the parents come to get the student’s grades. Here is a pic of the poster I made:

poster

I finished today the Comparative Adjectives Power Point presentation I began a day ago. I needed a computer for giving that presentation because mine does not have hdmi and I still do not have the thunderbolt hdmi adapter (it is on its way from Amazon, but Amazon takes a whole week and a half just to process the order, not including the shipping time), so I learned how to borrow a computer from the library. Last time a fellow student teacher borrowed me hers, but I did not wanted to interrupt her again.

While giving my class today I realized that I need to learn how to make more inquiry questions during teaching time. My cooperator teacher has an amazing ability to transform the class into an inquiry time.

Let’s keep growing!

Comparative Adjectives

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My students still want to talk about The Butterfly Circus, so I prepared for them a daily lesson plan with examples of The Butterfly Circus and their learning environment. The daily lesson plan is about comparative adjectives. This is the lesson plan I prepared to them: Comparative Adjectives

The most important sentence of The Butterfly Circus, “The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph,” has two comparative adjectives, so it is perfect to discuss this lesson plan. I also prepared a Power Point presentation for them: Comparative Adjectives

I also created a sheet of their beginning class routine. Here is that sheet:

Beginning Routine

 

Besides preparing and correcting this lesson plan, preparing and correcting the Power Point presentation and giving the class about comparative adjectives using the beginning class routine, today I organized some papers of the teacher binder and the lesson plan binder, and tabulated the student’s interest inventories and homework. I prepared a sheet for having evidence of their activities, classwork and homework’s hand in date, so I can know who handed in his work and when, and who did not. This is the sheet: Classwork and Activities

Of course, the original sheet has my students’ names written on it, but I will not share a document with my students’ names on a public blog. I shared a blank sheet instead. I did the table with space for two different hand in dates because in case there is a student absent I can have another day to receive his work.

Finally, today I also observed the first grade ESL class. They had a fashion show today. The teachers created a paper runway, each student dressed with their favorite outfit and each one described the outfit of a classmate. They are learning everything about clothing. It was really fun. Here is a picture of the beginning of the fashion show:

FashionShow

I confessed a very deep secret to my third grade students today: I hate tests, but they are part of assessment, so we must face them together and we are going to learn how to face them together.

I will continue today’s Power Point presentation on Friday.

Let’s keep growing!

More About “The Butterfly Circus”

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Yesterday’s class movie, The Butterfly Circus, had a huge impact among the students, so the classroom plans changed and I am going to continue teaching today about the movie and about integrating diversity and being diverse. I prepared this handout to give to the students today:

The Butterfly Circus Drawing

The questions I prepared for today’s class were: What do you think about The Butterfly Circus? What did you not understood? What is being diverse? (Including people with diverse abilities.) How the Butterfly Circus is diverse? (By allowing Will to act in the circus according to what he can do, not according to what he cannot do.) How is our school diverse? (By allowing everyone to learn according to what they can do, including the teachers.) What was your favorite part of the movie? My third grade students love to draw, so they loved the handout.

My cooperator teacher, along with other ESL teacher of the school, is going to make a research for next year’s TESOL convention. He kindly invited the student teachers to participate, if they want to, and I want to. In order to participate in the research, I need to be certified by CIPSHI (“Comité institucional para la Protección de los Seres Humanos en la Investigación”). I did not understand the instructions to get myself certified by them, so I am requesting a personal meeting with someone of CIPSHI to know what I must do to be certified. My cooperator teacher is going to research the perceptions of English use within the school’s students. This would be my first formal research experience! I had a hard time looking for the CIPSHI contact information, but I finally found a telephone and some emails. No one answered the phone, so I emailed them. I am waiting their response.

After my third grade ESL class I had a meeting with the special education teacher to talk about a very important thing that is related with integrating diversity: we talked about the reasonable accommodations that I need to take in count when planning and assessing my third grade ESL group. This is a learning community meeting. Because learning community meetings are a required part of my teaching practicum, I prepared a “learning community meeting sheet” to fill out in each meeting. This is the sheet I prepared:

MeetingSheet

A student gave me a paper flower and another student gave me a hug.

Let’s keep growing!

My First Class Day

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Today I observed the fourth grade class. They are giving oral presentation about the Universe, made with Power Point. Today I also began to create my physical teaching binder. It has several documents: the self-evaluation, the practice hours evidence, the effect of instruction, the schedules of community relations meetings and action researches. I have another physical binder only for the lesson plans and corrected handouts. I have already created a digital binder with my philosophy of education, my teaching journal, my daily activities report, among other things. This is one of the hardest parts of being a teacher for me: keeping up with all the required administrative documents. I designed an archive system from the very beginning.

I created a very particular interest inventory titled “My style” to know the style of my students’ personal formation. I will be giving it to them today as homework. It is a little bit long for a third grade, that’s why I chose to give it as a homework. Here are the images of my interest inventory:

My style interest inventory

My style interest inventory 2.jpgThose images are, of course, of the interest inventory that has been already corrected by my cooperator teacher. Here are the pics of first draft with all the corrections:

MyStyleCorrected1.jpg

MyStyleCorrected2

Please notice that I only wrote 6 questions, of 28, correctly! Let’s see it the positive way: it had so many mistakes that it was obvious its content was not copy-pasted from internet. I sincerely apologized to my cooperator teacher: I did so many mistakes in that interest inventory, especially considering that I am becoming an English teacher! He said that everything was all right: I am here to learn, and mistakes are part of the process of learning. He also corrected my first lesson plan and the “My abilities” handout. Those did not have so many mistakes as the interest inventory, thanks God.

I had been honored by my cooperator teacher because he told me that he had never had a student who begins her classes in the way I am doing it, admitting that I need help to achieve the best way I can and letting the students know of both my abilities and my limits. He truly believes that embracing diversity is a great way to begin to teach.

Finally, today I gave my very first class: I taught the The Butterfly Circus lesson plan I made about integrating diversity. My students were attentive and asked many question. They needed to understand why Will does not have arms and legs, among other questions. My biggest flaw as teacher was not ending in time. I need to learn the students’ names too!

Today was a great day. Let’s keep growing!