Work as Analyst (Rosana Yepes)

This week I am the analyst and I have to admit that I feel fortunate because the topic of this week, The Dark Side of the Textbook, is a topic very interesting with many things that I can extract and comment it largely.

My work consists on the one hand, marking my partners´ work; on the other hand, responding different questions. However, now we are studying a subject where the most important is the creativity. So, am I going to respond these systematic questions? I don’t think so. I am going to present a comment about my point of view about this topic where I am going to integrate all the questions.

I will start by the beginning, last Monday when we saw the activity: The Dark Side of the textbook and we thought: really? Do Textbooks have dark side? Then, I have been all my student life in the dark side. Later, our teacher, Linda showed us her position about this, and little by little we realized to things we didn’t know. So, I could say that this moment when I opened my eyes was the best part of the activity.

In this way, our facilitator, Raquel divided the work and each one had to investigate about any concrete topic. Here, I realized that there is much information about this and I didn’t know it, so in this moment I felt a bit frustrated, why haven’t I heard about this before? I could say that it was the worst part of the activity, when I realized that I have so much interesting information and we don’t have enough time to dedicate it, because we have more subjects. Notwith, to be honest, with a good organization and enthusiastic everything is possible.

Later on, brainstorming group had to decide how we were going to present our work. We´d rather do the fable because we thought that we can represent better the topic. Writing a fable is not easy at all. Moreover, we have a lot of information to add in a fable and especially it must be adapted for children. So, it requires have the five senses on it, and above all time, it requires time, and it is something so scarce at this date of the semester… Notwith, we created it as our group name says, as brainstorming. Each one said one thing; other improved it and so on. However, at the beginning it was pour, but we didn’t know how to improve it since my bulb started and the fable was modified hardly. With this change all of us cheered because we already saw everything clearer. So, it was without a doubt the best moment of the week, when we saw the light and we were directing to the correct way. 

And finally, when our star told the fable there was a nice environment to tell it, and then we played at kahoot app was a moment incredible, because it was some different and funny to motivate students. So this moment was a success.

Here we can see a graphic which show us how we have felt this week.

Brainstorming´s Feelings

Well, this has been our process and our progress this week, but the most important thing is to know what have we learnt in reality? because each work has his objective. And how are we going to put in practice?

I have learnt many things. Firstly, I have learnt the existence of the dark side of a textbook. Textbooks are the best business for editorials. Editorials manipulate us as they want. They show us their ideology, steal our many, reduce our creativity, our critique sense, our capacity to decide, and foremost, our opportunity to learn. We are paying something that makes us less intelligent, less skilled and more useless. The Government, editorials, schools, headmasters, teachers, parents are promoting this. And why? Why? It is very sad, but it is true. The main cause is the money. All of them are richer with the use of textbooks, the government and editorials earn huge amount of money; teachers don’t have to worry about anything, because in textbook everything is redacted and explained, they only have to reproduce what textbook tells; parents feel better when their children follow the book and they do their homework and so on. Certainly, textbook is a comfort for everyone, and a real business for editorials. Unconsciously or not, we are paying our stupidity. How much political interests there are in text books...

To deep more, why do teacher use them? Because the school require them? Oh my God, what lack of personality! All teachers have been studying during years to carry out their job as well as possible, and now am I going to reduce everything I have studied in a textbook? No, darling no. My time and my professionalism are worth more than this. When  I finish my degree, I hope to be capable of develop my classes in the best way, I won’t need some textbook that will say me how I have to carry out my class.

All of these arguments are some of we have been able to detected only in a one week. However, I am sure that if we still investigate about this topic we will be able to be specialist in it and the most important thing, we are making aware to avoid textbook. Now, we know the dark side but, what can I do to promote it? Probably, the most of the teachers had never heard about this point of view. Firstly, we must give publish at our discoveries by tweets, blogs, and whatever. Next year, when we will do our practices in a school, I will promote a different way to learn, without any textbook, using several resources and strategies. We must feel fortunate for living where we live. We have free and quick access at the information; we have uncountable recourses to use, why do we resign ourselves with the worst? It can seem a bit contradictory, but unfortunately it is true.

We mustn’t be narrow-minded, technological develop increase, why don’t we do the same? Aren’t we living in the same society?