The only Spanish candidate for best teacher in the world makes every one of his classes special.
He teaches at a school in Zaragoza and he makes his
pupils feel that they are important. He is one of these teachers who
gives little homework and barely uses text books. Teaching in his
classroom is dynamic, interactive and even fun. He was one of 38
teachers from all over the world - and the only one from Spain - who
took part in the recent Global Teacher Prize, a type of Nobel Prize for
teachers, which was won by a female teacher from Maine, in the USA,
Nancie Atwell. Last week, César Bona held a conference in Malaga as the
guest of the Club de la Infancia.
Respect and responsibility
Teachers should encourage children to take responsibility
for their actions and respect for others should be one of the classroom
rules. Children need to be made to feel important, so they have a
positive attitude, not only at school but in all aspects of their lives.
“We have to teach them to coexist with others, to respect people and
the environment, and make them understand that this planet does not
belong to us, it has only been lent to us,” he says.
Stimulate creativity
“For me, it is vital to stimulate the creativity of the
children, to encourage them to use their imagination, to be involved in
society and see that they can cause change. These are attitudes which
will serve them all their lives,” he insists. At first, the pupils find
it hard to respond because they are not used to this way of working, but
then they like it. “You have to let them be themselves,” he says.
An inclusive school
Society is not something divided into compartments. Men
and women coexist, people of different races and cultures, ages and
beliefs. That is why he considers that the school “has to reflect what
society is like.” We have the opportunity, he says, of training global
beings, because we are in a global society. That is why he believes a
school “must be inclusive, of course, because when the children leave
school they face a real world which is very diverse.”
New technologies
The new technologies are here to stay and that is why
schools cannot remain apart from the reality that children experience at
home. However, he warns that “it must never replace a one-to-one
relationship.” That is why children need to be taught to use it
properly.
Families
Education, says César Bona, is a common task, one shared
by the family and the teachers. That is why he does not agree with a
difference being created between education within the family and
teaching as something that happens at school. “We all have to educate,
there is nobody better than the teachers to do that. Parents have to
teach as well, of course; children have to be prepared to take their
place in society from the very door of their home,” he insists.
Educational policy
He does not agree with educational reform for the sake of
it, or because every political party wants to make its own mark on
education. In this sense, he considers that teachers should be listened
to and their views taken into account. With regard to the latest
educational reform, he considers that “competition is never a positive
thing. What we need to achieve is for children to do better than when
they arrived at the school,” he says.
Interactive groups
New teaching methods involve parents and volunteers.
César Bona says any initiative which involves the participation of
social agents in children’s education is positive, because “when you
talk about education the doors and windows of the school need to be open
and the children need to participate and become involved in society.
Children have a great deal to say and to offer, and that is why we have
to invite them to take part,” he says.
University
University should be more highly valued and knowledge is
not enough. Pupils should be taught emotional intelligence techniques,
to prepare the teachers of the future to manage their emotions, he says.
No comments:
Post a Comment