Bravo,+Lina

==Hi my name is Lina Maria Bravo, I'm from Bogota, Colombia South America, which is a beautiful place. I'm married and I have two beautiful daughters who are twins, they are 8 years old. I love traveling and I Love to be with my family. I studied business administrations but that was not my passion. I started working in an international school 13 years ago and I discover that I was good at teaching. I studied about it, now I have a Master's in Education, an Specialisation in Bilingual Education, I have attended several seminars about education and this is my last cohort to finish a master in Multidisciplinary areas in Education. Now I know this is my passion and I will continue working and studying to improve and become a better teacher.==

I think a course in Conflict Resolution / Peaceable Schools should be about how to solve different situations between students, or between teachers and students, or between teachers. When I talk about situations I'm referring to misunderstandings and problems, that are usually cause by communications issues. I believe that conflicts in school, or in families, in relations with friends and in general are generated by miscommunication and because of differences in points of views or interests. I hope this course will give me the tools to handle different situations of conflicts in my school practice. When you work in a school you know that you are working with children who are the most important and valuable treasure for their families, making it more difficult when there are a conflicts because there are many things to take into account. When you try to solve the problem there is going to be someone who is going to be affected or that is not going to be completely satisfied with the solution. Another thing that I feel is complicated is finding the causes of the conflict in an objective way.

To have peaceful schools it is necessary to have clear rules and expectations for students and for staff members, also clear procedures when there is a conflict and stablished consequences for the ones who break the rules.

I would like to learn:
 * 1) How to be diplomatically correct to solve and handle the situation when there is a conflict, and not getting personal involved.
 * 2) Different strategies to solve conflicts.
 * 3)  How to handle conflicts with colleagues.
 * 4) How to set up rules and procedures in a classroom to avoid conflicts.
 * 5) How to create a safe environment to have a peaceful school.

Assignment #2

The movie American History X shows different points to analyze; the most relevant is racism not only for black people but also for Chinese, or Latin American immigrants, also Jewish and any other population different from white people from the United States. The time were the movie is developed is around the 1980’s, were immigrants from many different parts of the world were coming to this country and start been part of the society and the government didn’t have clear policies about that, generating inequality y instability in the society. There is also important to review that not long before that time in the movie, African American people had suffer until they were able to be part of the society with equal rights. Nevertheless this also generated difficulties because they wanted to get power and demonstrate Americans that they were strong and that they deserve respect. This is how the problem in the movie began, with a discussion about who was going to stay and be the owner of the basketball court.

There were different factors in Derrick’s life that affect him and that make him become a skinhead, which is the group that he belong and the group that gave him all those extreme ideas about racism. The first factor was the way his dad talked to his family about African American people; he was upset because according to him this people were getting jobs not because of their capacities, just because they belong to that group. But what detonates and increase his hate was that his dad was murder by an African American. His friends also influence him to hate and being angry at the world. He was a very good student that the school didn’t know how to develop his potential, but the leader of the skinheads did. This is why he became the most important member of that group, the one who share the ideologies and the one who told others what to do. He was a real leader!

On the other hand after he kill those two people and by living all those hard experiences in jail, the support of his teacher Dr. Sweeney, and also see that life is not only black and white. I think he understood that some people in life have double moral and that they go where they can get more money, or where is more convenient for themselves. He also learned that not all white people are good and not all African Americans are bad, there are just people with different points of view.

I watched the movie with my husband and my brother and we discuss that in life people cannot be extremists and I believe that is what Derrick learned after living all what he had to live. It’s not good to be racist, it’s not good to be a skinhead but it’s also not good not to have a position. What we conclude in our conversation is that we need to generate in our families and in our schools, is respect for others and for ourselves. We are all different not just because our skin color, but also because we think different and because we do things in different ways and we have to respect each others, we all come from different backgrounds and have different cultures, and religions or believes, but not because of that we are better or less than anybody. There is also important to have clear rules and expectations, this is why governments need to have policies that help people to live in society where we are equal, with equal rights. As we are center in education, this is crucial in schools too, we need to have a safety environment were students don’t solve problems with guns. Education is the base of a good society.

Assignment #3

The first elements in a peaceful school are equal rights and equal responsibilities for all members of the community. If professor Hank will go to our community I will show him, that in our school is very important for students, for staff members and for parents to feel and to know that they are in a safe environment, that they are protected and that everybody is respected. To be able to show him this, there are different aspects to be consider, every member of the community most be active, by taking part in the decisions making, for example students should be in charge of establishing class rules and consequences with the teacher, this kind of commitment make them feel valuable, and also responsible for their actions and for others. Teachers need to have high expectations of students, which means that they need to know their students potentials and maximize it. When students are involved and participate in their own learning process and in making decisions, they feel appreciated, which is a key component to have high self-esteem.

Another important part to promote peace in school is generating spaces for effective communication and conflict resolution, not only between students, but also with teachers and parents. I am not an expert in history but I have no doubts that most wars and conflicts trough out the years have being because of lack of communication and also because people don’t know how manage conflicts and come up with a good solution that benefit the majority of the population, not only a few. This is why I use in my classroom “I” messages, which have help my students a lot when solving communication and other conflicts with their peers. Adding to this is crucial to follow the 10 Rules for Managing a Conflict and the 5 Rules for Conflict Clean Up! (Nicols & Baum, Staying in STEPP, Pp. 219-221). When I first read this rules seems pretty obvious, but when you try to apply them, they are not that obvious for every body. I believe these are respectful and thoughtful; there is also an opportunity to practice the solution and change it if people (students and teachers in this case) feel that is not the best one or if is not working. It also makes people not to feel hurt if the final decisions were not their favorite. Another activity that I love because what wins is not the majority, what wins is the consensus of everybody, at the end no body feels as a winner or as a looser, every body feels as part of a group, feels that they have a voice and that voice was listen, this activity is the multi-voting (Nicols & Baum, Staying in STEPP, pp, 12-15).

I think all this will show professor Hank, that our school is a place were peace is a value as Mr. Oscar Arias says, were we respect and we care about others, were we have an environment with tolerance, responsibility and cooperation. We all belong to the community and is our family.

Assignment #4

1.Why do you think the rate of homicide violence has gone down in the last 800 years? There are different factors but taking into account assignment # 2 tolerance and the acceptance of differences in race, religion, and culture has help decrees homicides. This is also part of education, which has change in the past 800 years, more children have access to education, growing with a different perspective in life, not only that, education it self is different, there are a diversity of values that are taught in school, making people think different. On the other hand police forces has been increase through out this years, with better training and the use of technology, have help them in taking more control over the cities. In more recent years, after Nine Eleven, in the Unite States, security change incredible, there are cameras everywhere, there are police officers everywhere and there are new procedures that have also contribute to decrease homicides.

2. Did you over or underestimate violence in the United States? When my friends and I answer the quiz we all overestimate violence in the United States, in my personal case I answer all wrong because I thought the opposite in every question. I’m glad I’m wrong, but what we see in the news all the time is always something related with violence, usually is a man who kill ten or more in a theater, for example, or a student who kill many others in school. Things like this make us think that United States is not a safe place.

3. What did your 4 subject colleagues think about violence in general? Except for my husband, the other ones think the same thing as me.

4. Why? Because this is what we see on the news. On the other hand I have to say that is not only about the Unite States, news are bad everywhere, showing that the world is not a safe place. But we need to go beyond that and analyze where and why the information come like that. Newspapers and news are made like and they show tragedies all the time to capture people’s attention. But some of that gets into our minds that make us believe them and in this particular case answer all the quiz questions thinking that everything is bad.

5. What did you think about this lesson? There is a saying in my country, “appearances are deceptive”, I mention this because after reading the article of Mr. Erik Monkkonen and with the things that I mention before things are different of what we think. It is good to research a little bit more before we give opinions or judge about things, places or people. My country, which was consider in the past not long ago a dangerous place because of the drug trafficking and the guerrilla, and more and less people around the world think that here everybody is a drug dealer or consumes it. I can tell you that Colombia is more than that, not everybody does that for leaving and our country is not a dangerous place. This is why I think this lesson was important to make me realize that whenever I have to think about others is good to know before you answer and if I don’t know I need to research before.

Write a brief comment about what you think about using torture or other "enhanced" interrogation techniques.

After watching the video I was almost speech less, for me there is no excuse or reason to do that with anybody. I felt that is so easy to kill somebody with the excuse of an interrogation, something that I totally disagree. It’s really hard for me to try to understand how people think or believe that they have the right to do that to another human being, and the guts to do it. I read that terrorist use these techniques with people to obtain valuable information for them, but I also read that in some countries that is what they do with prisoners to interrogate them. I think torture degrades a human, which for me is not acceptable in any circumstances.

Assignment #5

When I was at the university I studied in a group of twenty-five students, were twenty of them were boys and the other five were girls. I came from a female school and to tell you the truth I was kind of tired of being with girls all the time, so I decide to be with the boys. In that group there was a very bright girl, she always had the best grades and every body wanted to study and work with her, she was clever and really good in all subjects. Later on in the career we had a cohort about oral expression, which was about how to speak in public, how to present projects and other things related with that. This was the first time we were surprise with our friend, the best student ever, was failing the class. Every time we had to present something she was speech less, it was like if she didn’t know anything. Some of us decide to talk to her, to see if we could help her, and she told us that every time she had to speak in public she was panic, that her brain became blank. I believe that her amygdala was working there and interfering with her performance. She talked to the teacher and explained her situation. But her major problem was our last and most important assignment; each student had to speak for five minutes about a surprise topic, in front of the class, and been recorder with a video camera. That day I saw her devastated, she was sweating while others were presenting, and I think she almost had a heart attack. When it was her turn all her classmates help her, the topic was peace. All of us made signs of things related with the topic to give her ideas to talk. She did it, not very well but she was able to finish. It’s amazing how the brain works, an amazing person, full of capacities, but when it comes to speak in public she became another person, someone insecure and weak. I hope she overcomes this inconvenience because this ability is important in life.

Ted Talk

I saw the video first and I decided to share it with my husband. He is a businessman; he has his own company and I believe this topic about the position and attitude toward others, is crucial for his success in business. We watched the video together and he was amazed, he said, “She is absolutely right”. The way we get into a room, or the way we introduce our selves to others, or how we look at people when they are talking, all of this determine our relations with other people and how things can be in favor or against us. Our concern is that we don’t know how other people see us, we always talk about others (in a good way) and the way we think they are, for example, my husband’s brother in law is very successful and we think is because the way he acts, he shows himself secure, powerful, capable of everything and sometimes arrogant, nevertheless all of this makes him successful. On the other hand my husband and I are most of the time in the position that we are very respectful, and we don’t like to show power or show off what we know and how we do handle things like business, and this is why we think we are not that successful. There are two saying in Colombia, the first one is “You have to show it to sale it” and the other one is “It’s not only been it, but to seem it”. Both of them are related with what the speaker said, “Fake it until you become it”. It’s not enough just to be good; this is what happens with my classmate at the university, you need to be able to show it and to demonstrate it with power. That determines success in life.

Assignment #6

According to a dictionary, conflict means: “to come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition, clash”//.// ([])

What is conflict resolution? “It is seen as a peaceful solution to individuals and groups that are in conflict”. ([])

In my opinion conflicts are cause by various aspects, one of them is different points of views, another one is misunderstandings, more over different believes, and different ways of seeing and doing things, and many others. As it says in the book Staying in STEPP, “relationships will never be totally free from problems”, conflicts are parts of people’s life even if they are alone, because there are internal conflicts that are parts of what a human been is and as part of societies. What really matters is the way we can handle conflict and the way we find solutions to end the conflict. Like wise I mention before communication is also crucial to solve problems, because the way we say things can cause difficulties, not only the way we speak, but also the words we say and the body language we use, can generate conflicts. We have to listen to others and try to put ourselves in each other’s positions to be able to handle conflicts communicating our ideas or points of view in an effective way, and also finding solutions that could be beneficial for the majority.

Analysis of a conflict:

I consider myself a very honest and respectful person, even though in my country people believe that it’s ok not to do a line if I can skip it, or it’s ok to get in front of other cars when they are waiting in the red light, and many other situations that can be consider silly but they are not, and all this situations cause a lot of conflicts and most of them don’t have solutions, they cause stress and accidents. I’m telling you this to analyze a conflict that happened to me not long ago and I am still feeling frustrated about it. One day a was in my car with my two daughters, I was making I long line to put gas to my car, when suddenly a taxi who just arrived cut in line and stood in front of me. I was there waiting in line patiently for more than 15 or 20 minutes and there were a lot of cars waiting too. You can not imagine my reaction, I put my window down and I stated to yell at the taxi driver complaining about the situation, he just looked at me and started to laugh, that is when I became crazy, I yell at him all the bad words that I know and I repeatedly honk the car horn. I became insane, I completely forgot that my daughters were there, that the gas station was full of people; I definitely believe that my brain was hijacked. Even worst when the taxi driver went out his car and the lady who puts the gas (from the gas station) was laughing and talking to him that I was crazy, I felt more disappointed and really really angry. When the gay ends, he told me something really bad about my mother like an insult, and I almost hit his car. I went down my car to put the gas and another man that was there and saw everything talked to me, he ask me to relax in a very good way, he told me that I was right but that the taxi driver was a person without education that it was not worth it to loose control because of that. Then I realized that I was shaking from anger, ma face was red and I was also sweating. That gentleman told me something that really impact me and that made me calm down, don’t do that never again because you don’t know what kind of people you are arguing with and they can end up hurting you or even killing you. I got into my car and I saw my daughters who were prettified, I tried to explain what had happened and I went home. When I arrived I went to my room to cry, I felt awful, because what the injustice and because I never thought of the consequences of my reaction in front of my daughters.

I think that most of the time emotions affect conflict resolutions, this is why I believe that when there is a conflict is better to have a third impartial party to help to solve the problem or to help finding a solution to the conflict.

Assignment #7

“I” messages


 * Ø When you talk bad things about me with others, you are creating a wrong image about me, which makes me feel disappointed.

I haven’t been able to give this I message but I really want to do it, to see if this person changes her attitude.


 * Ø When you listen to me, I vent my sorrows with you, and I feel relived and grateful to have a good friend.

As soon as my friend read this message, she gave me a hug. That was really good because when you have good people around you, it’s hard to tell them how important they are for us.

I gave this message to my husband who has been very understandable and supporting with my studies. He also hugged me and told me that he will do what ever is necessary to help me.
 * Ø When you help me with our daughters, I have more time to study; I really value and appreciate what you do.

Dear Gigi when you come to my house and take my things, Everything gets messy and misplaced, and if I want to use them I can’t find them, making me irritated.

Dear Gigi I really appreciate that you are asking me before taking my things, now I know that you have them and I feel confortable with the situation.

You stink! As a teacher I would write a letter to the parents apologizing for the way I presented the problem. I would clarify that although hygiene is important and should be cared for by all the parents and students maybe my approach was not the best one. In future situations I would address the problem in a more generalized fashion, by reading books to the students, having class discussions about cleanness, sending home some related worksheets and this way creating a class culture that encourages these abilities. If the children are educated about the importance of hygiene they themselves will seek for it. If this approach does not solve the problem I would talk to the principal and write to the parents but being more careful with my wording. I could also give an “I” message but I don’t know if my student and his or her parents would like it. “I” message Dear student, when you come to school with your clothes dirty, you have a strong smell, which make others feel uncomfortable.

Assignment #8

M Y C O N T R A C T

I student X agree to the following terms:

These are my goals:

1. Do his homework and bring it to school

Threshold: Complete and bring back to school at least four out of five homework per week

2. Start and finish class work during class time

Threshold: Finish at least three out of five classwork during the right period of time a week.

These are my rewards/reinforces if I meet my goals:

He can play with an I pad. He can work with a friend to finish an assignment once a week. He will not come to opportunity day.

These are my consequences if I do not meet my goals:

He will have to come to opportunity day. When other classmates are having free playtime because they finish their assignments on time, he will have to finish his class work or his homework. The teacher will call his parents.

My contract will be reviewed in a month from now.

Signatures

Student _ Date

Teacher_ Date _

Parent___ Date__ _____

Parent _ Date _

Student X is an intelligent boy who is having a hard time at home because his parents are getting divorce. He is sad and even though he has good times in school he is not motivated at this moment of his life. He believes is a failure, so he doesn’t put any effort to show the opposite. On the other hand I believe he can do it, I talk to him about how good he can be, how capable he is, I’m always expressing him how much do I care about him. That’s the only thing that has helped him to feel motivate. Here is were I agreed with the article and with the fact that intrinsic motivation is crucial for students success, you as a teacher can give them different extrinsic motivations, and do many things to motivate them, but if they don’t have something inside that moves them or a desire to do it, it’s really hard to make it. Having parents signing the contract is really important because they become a team player, they will share the responsibility with there soon or daughter, and they would support the teacher. In this particular case with student x, his parents were also having a hard situation obviously because of the divorce, but the contract and other things related with school, made them realize that life goes on and that even though they are living a hard time, there are other responsibilities that they have to take care of.

Assignment #9

Personality Test

Unfortunately I totally agree with the personality test, I’m not a people person, which I believe is a pity; relationships are one of the most important parts in life. I have good qualities as a person, I’m always eager to learn new things, which make me score high in “learn expert”, I can handle different situations in a practical way, finding solutions easily, making me a good “partial manager”, and I consider myself as a very creative person and I love to do things with my hands, I’m very good with arts and craft projects. I would like to do something to improve in the area of “people person” it really make me feel sad, I have never being in related with others, I consider my self as shy person, who hide her self under a hard cover, pretending to be rough and have a bad temper, to avoid been expose as a week person. This has causes me a lot of difficulties in life, I don’t know how to relate with people my age, I have better relations with older people. I don’t have the ability of interact and have friendly relationships.

On the other hand my husband scores very equally in all subjects, which makes me realize that he is very balance in life, we both agreed with the results. My only concern with his results is that he is the manager of his company and his lowest score was “partial manager”, he will have to work on that to improve this area.

Assignment #10

1. The role of nurture by the families of the two main characters, Derrick and Homer. Both families belong to the middle class, were both dads work hard to have a decent life for their wife and children. In both cases children go to public schools and don’t have much opportunities to have a possibility to go to the university or to change their life styles. In Homers case, he lives in a place that everything goes around the mine, in other times, were people were use to follow rules and life styles without complaining, giving them no other chances. His dad is an important person in town because he runs de mine, but he doesn’t have the power to make decisions since he works for other people. Derrick lives in a city were things are different from Homer’s town, because is a big place that have different options. On the other hand, he had a difficult life after his dad was murder, all his believes and actions change.

2. The role of the mother in the development of each of the two main characters Derrick and Homer. Both mothers were very passive, they didn’t interfere in their son’s lives much. They didn’t show a strong position regardless their behavior or their actions. Never the less Homer’s mother help him by talking to Homer’s dad to make him support and understand his son, that was almost at the end. I understand that was the way woman should be at that time; they didn’t have the right to contradict their husbands. Derrick’s mom could not handle losing her husband, she didn’t have the control of her children and her life, and she was a man dependent. The only moment she shows some control is when she throws Derrick out of the house, but after that is when she loses her house, her boyfriend, everything. The role of the mother in both movies are not very relevant in both Homer and Derrick, they are not supportive, they don’t give good advices to them, they are not a guide for their sons.

3. The role of the teacher Murray in Derrick’s life and the role of Miss Reilly in Homer’s life. Teacher Murray in Derrick’s life was not very helpful, he was just concern about Henry’s thoughts and believes and obviously he had different points of view because he was Jewish. I think he was more concern about his own security than his student. Miss Reilly was a real inspiration for her students, she support them all the time, give them ideas, books, tips and the most important thing was that she always told them that she believe in them. When they were in trouble with the principal, or when they went to jail, she was always there to support them. She was able to built a strong relation ship especially with Homer to demonstrate them respect and care about them.

4. The role of the two principals in the lives of Derrick and Homer. Homer’s principal was not relevant in his progress, he didn’t want to support them more over he was checking on them to find them doing something wrong and been able to punish them. This is why when the police came to school he was the first one to turn them to authorities. In that time people were not allowed to think different and his job was to make sure all students follow the rules. In the contrary, Dr. Sweeney, was a good adviser for both boys Derrick and Henry, he showed that he really care about them, he also said that he was not going to give up on Henry yet. He was the one who ask Henry to reflect on his brother’s life, he knew things could be different for both of them and I bet he was a teacher that could see the difference and the potential in each student. He visited Derrick in jail, something that it was not his duty, but he did it because he really cared about him. When he was out of prison he looked for him to advice him to help the police and make things right.

5. The role of the community in the lives of Derrick and Homer. Homer’s community was very restricted, no many chances, no many opportunities and not many people who wanted to think different. More over not very supportive, when some one like Homer and his friends were doing something completely new, they were very skeptical, some made jokes and lough about them and about their dream. They were afraid of changes but at the same time the community was tired and also afraid of the mine accidents. Like in all communities we cannot generalize, some adults were very supportive, like the once who help build the cylinders for the rocket and some young people who at the beginning didn’t believe in them but later on in the movie when they started to have good results with the experiment, they were supportive and wanted to go and see them. Homer and his friends were a really good example for the other member of the community, especially young ones. Derrick’s community was very difficult because they were divided in different sides or groups, whites, blacks, American’s, not American’s. I would like to clarify that in my country is ok to call African Americans, blacks if you say it in a nice way. They were not only divided in groups they were looking for territory and power possession in extreme and strong believes. No body was accepted to be partial, each person had to belong to a group, think and defend their believes even with their lives. When somebody has to live in this circumstances is really hard not to be part of conflict, and try to find a conflict resolution seems almost impossible, creating chains of resentment and hate for generations.