jueves, 29 de noviembre de 2007

Chilean Education and the Rol of Future Teachers

Chilean education is divided between Preschool (for children up to 5 years old), Primary school or Enseñanza Básica (for children from 6 to 13 years old) divided in 8 grades, High school or Enseñanza Media (for teenagers from 14 to 18 years old), divided in 4 grades and Technical and Higher education or University.
According to the chilean constitution, Primary school and High school are mandatory for all Chileans. The Chilean state provides a free public system of primary and high school education for those who cannot pay a private education. But I think that in Chile exist an injustice in terms of quality of education because public education is not so good, comparing with private education due to the Constitution dating from Pinochet's era, because since 1980 Chile's public education system is supervised by the Ministry of Education but controlled by the municipality of each commune and as a result of this change municipalities of poor areas deliver poor education to their students, with a low standard of quality and a high number of students per teacher (45 in average), however communes with more resources manage a less number of students (since parents in those communes can pay private schools), and children of richer areas receive a better education and I think that this is one of the greatest injustices in our country.
On the other hand, society is changing constantly and the needs of people nowadays are not the same from ten or twenty years ago, due to that and with the return of the democracy in 1990 was created the educational reform that included more equipments and resources, more time for learning, better and deeper improvement programes, better and more teaching processes, curriculum reform and frameworks and support inside the class room, but I think that the chilean education system is concentrated in the traditional style of education given, which is old fashioned and defective because still it has a great emphasis in the memorization of contents.
I hope that the authorities of our country do something in terms of education and the last student protests in Chile can help for that.
On the other hand, teachers nowadays must have the capability for to be competitive, they have to study always because have to renew their knowledge constantly in order to be productive and valued for any job.
I think that this capacity, requires embodied key competencies such as flexibility and innovation or creativity.
Teachers have to be disposed and capable of continuous learning because it is a requisite for survival in the environmental of teachers.
But I think that there is something very important too that is the vocation because a teacher who does not have vocation is not a good teacher.
Finally if all of us like teachers do a good work and reinforce our knowledges constantly we will create a quality education for all the Chileans.

martes, 30 de octubre de 2007

Adolescent Pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy is defined as a woman pregnant before her 18 years old. The term usually refers to women who have not reached legal adulthood, which varies across the world.
The fertility in girls leads to early pregnancy but it depends on a number of factors, both social and personal.

Most teenagers don't plan to get pregnant, but many do. Teen pregnancies carry extra health risks to the mother and the baby. Often, teenagers don't receive timely prenatal care, and they have a higher risk for pregnancy-related high blood pressure and its complications. Risks for the baby include premature birth and a low birthweight.
One of the most common factors in teenage pregnancy include lower educational levels and higher rates of poverty.
In Chile many adolescents do not lack knowledge of conventional methods of preventing pregnancy, but the majority of they have not received a good sexual education from their parents and they may be too embarrassed to seek such information, many of the teenagers do not dare to go to the medical centers to ask for contraceptive. This situation is more common in people who have a lower educational and economical level than in people who have more education and more money. In Chile and in many countries of the world poverty is associated with increased rates of teenage pregnancy. In our country economically poor places such as La pintana, San Miguel, Maipú and Cerro Navia have far more teenage mothers compared with economically rich places such as Vitacura, Las Cóndes, Providencia and La Reina.
However, some recent studies have found that the rate of contraceptive use among teenage girls is almost the same as that among older women.

But what happen with sexual behavior in adolescents?
Do they know everything there is to know about sex?
Some Teenagers reported feeling pressure by their friends to have sex , others Sexually active teenagers reported "being in a relationship where they felt things were moving too fast sexually". Nowadays Teenagers are enough irresponsible with their sexuality, They have sex with any person in a party or in any place.
And this behavior has consequences like teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

lunes, 20 de agosto de 2007

HURRICANES

What is an hurricane?
The hurricanes are strong storms that are formed in the sea and provoke winds with superior speeds to 100 km/h. Though often they become highly destructive, the hurricanes form a important part of the atmospheric traffic system, which provokes the heat movement of the regions near to the Ecuador towards major latitudes.

Classification
The hurricanes are classified according to the force of its winds, by means of the scale Saffir-Simpson. Being based on this scale, the hurricanes Category 1 would be the weakest and the Category 5 the strongest.
The National Center of Hurricanes of the United States consider to all the hurricanes that exceed the Category 3 as Major Hurricanes.


Seasons The cyclonal activity reaches its maximum point at the end of the summer, when the oceans temperature is warmer; nevertheless, each zone in particular has different patterns from activity.In the North Atlantic, one season of hurricanes begins on June 1st and finishes the on November 30th , being September the most active month. The northeast of the Pacific usually has a longer period of activity, although generally in such months of the year.

Effects
The most devastating effects of a storm of this nature happen when they touch land. The winds of a hurricane can damage or to destroy completely vehicles, buildings, ways, and so on. They produce an increase in the level of the sea, which can flood coastal communities. This is the most harmful effect, since 80 % of the victims of a cyclone dies in the places where they touch land. The constant rotation of a hurricane foments the formation of tornadoes, which can provoke serious damages.

jueves, 31 de mayo de 2007

Will Warming Lead to a Rise in Hurricanes?


This article talk about the effects of global warming in the increase of hurricans. Almost three-quarters of Americans say there will be more and stronger hurricanes in a warming world. On the other hand, fewer than one-quarter worry about increased coastal flooding. Scientists says that in a world warms, seas will rise, increasing the flood risk, simply because warmer water occupies more space, and hurricanes will be more frequent or more powerful or both. The World Meteorological Organization said it was likely that there would be some increase in hurricane wind speeds in a warmer world. Climate experts say a period of high activity began in 1995.Nevertheless, the annual hurricane season begins on June 1, and scientists are pressing on a number of fronts to learn how hurricanes form and move, what factors limit or expand their lethal potential and how to tell with greater precision when and where they will strike.For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Miami have been studying how vertical wind shear — the differences in wind direction or speed at different altitudes — can inhibit hurricane formation.But other experts have the idea that a warmer world means more and stronger storms.

viernes, 25 de mayo de 2007

this sucks!!!!!!xD

I don't like blogs, but I was obligated to do this by the teacher