I really hope you enjoy.

1. 10 Key Points
for Professional
Development
Yussef Barrientos – 6076-09-11059

2. Developing Action
Steps.
1. Obtain my Bachellor’s degree, and immediately
move on to my masters.
2. Develop a pedagogical strategy to shorten the
gap between students and knowledge.
3. Read the complete collection of “The Great
Conversation.”

3. Bachellor´s Degree and
Master´s Degree
• The opportunity to be the best I can has presented
itself in many different ways throughout my life. I
have now the chance to attend university once
more, and I am more than willing to go all above
and beyond. Studying is my passion, and teaching
is my life. For this reason, I know that everything I am
asked to complete and present, is one more step to
reaching my goals. I will study a masters in resource
management, and then will implement what I will
have learned by then, into my everyday teaching
practice.

4. Academic Achievement

5. Pedagogical Strategy.
• There is a constant search for strategies that
engage students regardless of the subject being
taught. It is one of my biggest wishes to develop a
new methodology where any educator, from the
most experienced to the less trained can easily
discover a few guidelines that bind teaching and
learning into a trully meaningful experience, without
spending time in things that souldn´t be part of the
classroom in the first place. Ultimately, I would like to
develop the formula to motivate any student, in
any place, at any time.

6. Strategy

7. Read the Great
Conversation.
• A few years ago, I fellow-teacher told me he had a
collection of books that he needed to get rid of. He
said he didn´t have enough space, and asked me if
I was willing to take them myself. Much to my
surprise, they were a collection of the best
European thinkers of all time. In the introduction of
this collection, the editor invites readers to dialogue
with those involved in the Great Conversation, and
would like to read them all.

8. List of books
found among
some of the
authors.
The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
The Dialogues by Plato
Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais
Critique of Pure Reason by I. Kant
Experimental Researches in Electricity by
Michael Faraday.
Moby Dick by Heran Melville
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection by Charles Darwin
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodos
Mihalovich Dostoevsky.

9. Long Term Goals First.
• Am I satisfied with the work I perform?
Certainly, the answer to this question might present
itself in the form of a typical apology, but for the first
time in my life, no such thing is necessary; rather, I’d
say that I am in fact content with how intensely I
perform at work everyday. I have always believed
that hard work pays off, and even today, I am
absolutely convinced that those who give everything
they’ve got, every single day, are bound to get to
great places in life.

11. • Where would I like to be?
Many wise men have answered this question in very
much the same form: I wouldn´t like to be anywhere
else, because HERE is where the Lord intended me to
be today. Inasmuch as this response captures how I
feel, it cannot be denied I would like to be in Europe,
perhaps in France or Greece, teaching in the morning
and attending university after the noon. On the
weekend, I´d like to stroll wide and winding streets
with my family, go to museums, or simply sit by the
Seine, and read Alexandre Dumas to my children.

12. Greece. France.

13. • Do I really enjoy my everyday activities?
As I child, I heard a teacher say “he who chooses to
do what he truly loves, will never work another day in
his life. ” So powerful an impact those words had on
me, that I, decided that day I would become a
teacher. More than twenty-five years later, and after
so many ordeals I´ve had to overcome in my life, I
fortunately still have the blessing of jumping out of
bed every morning, and go to work fully charged;
that is, because I really enjoy what I do.

15. • How can I feel better about my own performance?
Certainly, at this point in my career, satisfaction at
work comes in the form of my students´s individual
and collective achievement. It is not only the charts
indicating their constant improvement, or the more-
than-welcomed praising during PTA mettings, but the
certainty they all take something valuable with them
at the end of the class. It is the smile, the wink, or the
daily pat on my back at the end of each class what
keeps me moving forward, and feeling better about
my own performance.

17. • Is there something I need to change?
• Absolutely. There are many people who assert the
only thing we can be sure of is change, so why
would I be any different? There are others who say
that we do not see life as it is, but we see it as we
ourselves are, and the fact is that, while I try to live
my life in harmony with the lives of those around
me, I can only be perceived from the eyes of
others. Those who see in me the faults I have yet to
improve on. In counclusion, I would say that by
paying attention how those around me respond to
me, I will better know what it is I need to change
first.

19. Developing Action Steps to
Improve as a Professional
1. Become as knowledgeable as possible on my
subject area, teaching methodologies, and the
use of technology in the classroom.
2. Develop people skills, and put them to practice
everyday not forgetting that our students are
above all, people who deserve the best of
treatments from us.
3. Finally, I need to have a job where I would only be
required to teach three or four lessons a day, so
that the rest of my time could be used for research
and padagogical reflection.

20. Record of “My Pinnacle
Moments”.
• March 11, 2000 – My first class ever.
• November 2002 – Conference at the “IGLOO”
USAC. Served in front of 350 guests.
• Private School 2005. – A 25-student group leveled at
the end of the cycle.
• Met my Wife. 2007 – Changed my life forever.
• P.E.M. in Highschool English Teaching - 2008
• My children were born. - 2009 – 2010
• Managed a regional branch with Operations in
Central America and the Caribbean – 2012 – 2014
• Gotten my current job. Oct 2014.

21. Evaluate yourself.
• Strengths: Fortunately, life has given me the
opportunity to keep up with technological
developments, and for that reason, my employers
have regarded me as a relevant educator.
• Weaknesses: The world requires us to be certified for
our current duties, and to this point, I still need to
complete something I should have finished a long
time ago.

23. Explore Content.
• At this moment, the organization I am working for is
moving towards a fully one-on-one daily class
practice, which is confronting all of us with highly-
skilled students who know how to use computers
two or three times better and faster than most of us.
It is for that reason that I have decided to act upon
it and change myself for the better.

24. Be ready for changes!
• As it has been stated before, there are important
changes being made. Fortunately, my department
is being considered for feedback and
implementation of new strategies.
• I believe these opportunities have presented
themselves at a time when I am ready to take
them, so I will give my best.

26. My Skills and Putting
Them to Practice.
• Give presentations
• Manage people
• Coordinate services
• Verbal communication skills
• Designing materials
• Training others
• Written comunication skills
• Multitask
• Promote products or service

27. Work as a team.
• I truly believe and practice on collaborative skills.
After many years, life taught me the most important
lesson of my life which is, you can only shine if there
is a team to back you up, and the team is there,
only if you back them up.
• I have learned to appreciate the value team work
to the point where I have been become a big
supporter.