NUACHTÁN PREPA CELTA | April 2021
Prepa Celta’s News
From Claudia Molleda’s desk | Prepa Celta´s Principal
Reflection is a very important process in education, it is essential that students understand their progress and those issues in which they are lagging, as well as their importance; but beyond all this, it is essential that they reflect on what is the usefulness of what they learn every day in school and how they are going to put it into practice throughout their personal, academic and professional lives.
One of IB’s educational pillars is reflection, because it allows them to understand the why, what for, how and when of everything, it allows them to question themselves and above all to continue inquiring about what catches their attention and what it could represent the beginning of great projects.
Regarding this, I congratulate our students because they are generating very interesting products in each of their subjects, in which their ideas do not remain only in the everyday but go further in order to develop greater skills and not only that, but rather promote a culture of support within the community.
From now on and during the following months, we will present projects of students who wish to show the community what they are doing, such is the case of Julia Hidalgo Trejo who shares with us what she is doing in Cultural Management.
MYP
By Alicia Silva | MYP Coordinator
The way in which our students deal with adverse situations they face is part of the skills that IB programmes seek to develop and strengthen, not only by carrying out activities that allow the work of this valuable resource, but also by reflecting on the world around them and the problems they face every day.
Such is the case of the activity in which the 10th grade high school students participated with the teacher Jessica Paola Hernández, in the Reading and Writing Workshop II class, with the purpose of presenting the topics and leading them to reflect on the topic through the creation of posters. A forum that served to listen to the contributions of our students and how to face these challenges, realities and problems of the society in which they develop.
Some of the posters that I present here, addressed the topics of:
• Pandemic fun
• Equality is love
• Quarantine, online classes
Guided by the teacher, we were able to learn about the type of activities they carry out to find a recreational space in these times of pandemic. Along the same lines, the students told us about the advantages and challenges of online classes. One of the posters invited us to make a deep reflection on the value of respect.
I invite you to take a look at the children’s products and join in the reflection.
Toska: A New Definition
From Julia Sophia Hidalgo Trejo’s desk | CP student
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), around 25% of the world’s population suffers from a mental illness. That means that 1 in 4 people is a mental patient, and even so, these kinds of challenges are still taboo. Throughout my life I have watched movies and series where mental patients are exposed as a danger and threat to society. In addition, I have experienced these types of challenges closely, and for a moment I was part of the problem and I also judged them. This project is my input to decrease negative stigma and inform others who, like me in the past, do not know the reality behind mental illness.
As a small but important fact, I would like to explain the meaning behind the name. Toska is an untranslatable word from Russian, defined by the writer Vladimir Nabokov as «in its deepest and most painful sense, it is a feeling of great spiritual anguish, often without a specific cause.» Mental illnesses, such as Toska, sometimes lack clear reasons, and yet they are a source of pain and marginalization for some.
That is why I have created Toska. A project focused on young Latin Americans between the ages of 15 and 21. I would like to clarify that within this project we will not use the term “mental patient”, but rather that we will call them “friends”. Because that’s what they are and will be.
The first phase of Toska will be based on calls to know how our friends live their mental challenges, to go to the second phase and choose 4 or 5 of these testimonies, draw them as mini-comics, and share them through social networks. In addition, we will present scientific information and tips so that young people also know how to help their own friends.
Toska is linked to my Career-related study, as it is directly linked to the culture of our country and how society perceives mental illnesses. At Toska, we have focused on studying our public, to know their problems, needs and interests: a fundamental aspect of Cultural Management. For the past two years, I have understood the importance behind the humanities and project management.
At first glance it might seem simple, but in practice, it is somewhat elaborate and complex. My Career-related study has allowed me to create awareness of current issues and implement my learning to act and improve the world around us. Today more than ever is the time to be united. Without a doubt, starting to reduce the stigma around something as important as mental illness is essential
I am what I read
From Ana Isabel Christlieb Zaldivar´s desk |IB Teacher
The study of language and literature is fundamental for the integral development of human beings. Not only does it help to communicate clearly and appropriately, it also develops empathy, expands knowledge of the world, and strengthens critical and creative thinking skills. Unfortunately, reading is a habit that has deteriorated for several years and that, even though access to different texts has increased with the digital age, it continues to be undervalued by the younger generations.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2014) affirms that “if all the people of the planet understood that their cell phone could be transformed — easily and cheaply — into a library overflowing with books, access to texts would cease to be an obstacle to literacy”, especially when one is part of a privileged sector of the population that has various electronic devices and internet. According to data from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI, 2020), 41.1% of the literate population in Mexico over 18 years of age, claimed to have read at least one book in the last year. As the Spanish writer Esther Tusquets says, «the taste for reading is almost always acquired in childhood, and I am surprised that it seems so difficult to instill it.»
Why read?
According to different scientific studies around the world (Rodríguez, 2020), some of the benefits of reading are the following:
- Stimulates creativity
- Exercises memory
- Develops empathy
- Decreases stress levels
- Helps to fall asleep
- Improves decision making
In the Language and Literature class, the study of these disciplines is promoted through the reading, analysis and interpretation of different literary and non-literary texts, as well as oral and written production. One of the projects that was carried out was the creation of the profile on social networks of the protagonist of the novel that was read in the period. The 12th grade students gave life to General José Guadalupe Arroyo (Los relámpagos de agosto, Jorge Ibargüengoitia) and 11th graders, to Gabriel Guía (La tumba, José Agustín). The goal of the assignment was for the students to relate better to the character and see the world through his eyes, as well as to summarize the book in a different and more engaging way. I share the link of some examples:
- Profile created by Iker Acosta Arias
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063922054859
- Profile created by Eduardo Iván Lemus Mejía
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063910447884
As George R.R. Martin said:
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. He who never reads lives only one”.
¿Qué carrera vas a elegir?
Del escritorio de Jesús Avalos| Coordinador de actividades interinstitucionales, orientación vocacional y psicopedagogía
Todos en algún momento nos hemos tenido que topar con la pregunta, ¿qué carrera voy a elegir? La realidad es que la pregunta, no se está formulada para elegir una carrera universitaria, sino para correr hacía nosotras mismas o mismos. Estamos en un mundo en donde todo está enfocado en ir hacia afuera.
Es necesario proyectar, crear una necesidad en los demás, fortalecer vínculos a través de imágenes, trabajar físicamente para proyectar salud, tener un intelecto desarrollado para cautivar a quienes ejercen un juicio de opinión, por otro lado, están aquellos que hacen miles de cosas para llamar la atención, entre otras tantas cosas. Hoy, todas esas cosas, son poses para alejarnos de nosotros mismos. No nos damos el tiempo para analizar y reflexionar el para qué queremos no sentir e interiorizar lo que nos sucede.
La respuesta es muy sencilla, nos da pavor no saber si somos lo suficientemente buenos para nosotros mismos, que insensibilizamos nuestro botón de auto análisis, que es preferible ignorar lo que sucede en nosotros, para empezar a fortalecer una imagen, que posiblemente no queramos y ni tampoco seamos. La carrera que deberíamos de elegir es hacía adentro; la carrera que deberíamos de correr a toda velocidad es ir hacía lo ético, lo bueno, construir un prestigio, más que una reputación.
En la película de la Historia sin fin, comienza al querer salvar a una princesa y su reino, en donde dos jóvenes recorren grandes aventuras, para luchar contra el enemigo a vencer, que es la nada. La nada son esos constructos que hemos creado e interiorizado por años, en donde nos llevan a buscar cosas hacía afuera. Esa nada, es ese vacío interior que se origina por la falta de sentido hacía nuestra propia vida.
Es por eso, que necesitamos regresar a nuestros principios, a esa esencia indagadora, cuestionadora y reflexiva.
En el Colegio Celta Internacional precisamente buscamos que a través de preguntas poderosas y con un enfoque humano, encontremos el camino que más queremos y necesitamos como comunidad. Caminar, por caminar, nos puede llevar a cualquier lugar, pero caminar consciente de mí, me estoy dirigiendo a mi propio destino que quiero construir.
