A youtuber teacher from Dénia explains economics in the simplest way
Sergio Cruz teaches at the IES Sorts de la Mar to girls and boys of 3rd ESO and Bachillerato. Due to his skills in front of the camera it is easy to see that he knows about image: before graduating in Economics he studied Audiovisual Communication, which has now formed a perfect combination to embark on this adventure. Cruz has created a channel Youtube called «Economía en cuarentena», with the aim of continuing with their classes and making them closer to their students. As has happened to much of the educational community, in a few days he had to rethink the way he taught and adapt quickly to do it online. How did you come up with it and how did you start it?
Complicated concepts translated into the language of YouTube
Gross Domestic Product, National Disposable Income or depreciation are difficult words that this professor transfers to his channel. «Igual me grabo unos vídeos y me hago youtuber»Sergio Cruz told a friend about three weeks ago. He decided to upload explanatory videos and corrections to the exercises, to make the task more enjoyable for his students and to explore its communicative facet. And he reached for his camera, bought a tie microphone (the ones that hook on the lapel) and went to record himself. In his videos there is montage, superimpressions that appear and disappear next to him, and the tone he uses is casual, with humor and irony. It seems that Cruz had thought about it but in reality it was the result of a need, that of being as useful as possible to his students.
«No me gusta la cámara pero le estoy cogiendo el gustillo»
Who was this teacher inspired by? Although it seems that he has soaked in the influencers of the moment, Cruz explains that he only sees channels for scientific dissemination, such as Quantum factor. «Yo no he visto youtubers de los que ven los adolescentes»So his transformation has been very intuitive and progressive: he doesn't like being in front of the camera but in his latest videos he already feels more comfortable.
It has more than 200 subscribers, a lot of followers and boasts of having haters: «Mis amigos son críticos y me ayudan a mejorar».
The students' response
The channel Youtube «Economía en cuarentena» salvó los primeros días en que la plataforma informática de la Conselleria, Classrooms, no funcionaba, probablemente porque no estaba preparada para soportar a toda la comunidad educativa subiendo y descargando materiales. Así que los videos de Cruz comenzaron a lanzarse y en general, los alumnos le comentaron que les gustaban y que les eran útiles. «The boys and girls who are involved in face-to-face class are very useful, my problem is the kids who have to be on top«, explica el profesor. Youtube It has the great advantage of providing content whenever they want, one hundred percent availability. The disadvantage is that the teacher cannot know who is taking advantage of the classes and who is not, so a very high level of self-discipline is required.
The end of the course and the future of the channel
«Algunos alumnos me comentan que jamás lo habrían pensado, pero que tienen muchas ganas de volver al instituto», explica Sergio Cruz. «Desde Conselleria nos aconsejan que relajemos el temario, que repasemos y consolidemos, pero que avancemos de una manera ligera, para no estresar a los adolescentes», continúa. Lo más importante es encontrar el equilibrio entre mantenerlos ocupados y no presionarlos en exceso, y crearse una estructura para los días, con una planificación y unas rutinas de trabajo, buenos hábitos y descanso. El departamento de orientación del IES Sorts de la Mar propone un routine schedule for quarantine days.
A la pregunta de «How far are you going to go with your Quarantined Economy channel?«, Sergio Cruz responde que de momento, sirve a los alumnos y a la comunidad educativa porque enlaza a actividades y a un manual para que los demás profesores vean cómo lo está consiguiendo hacer, así que lo toma como su pequeña contribución a mejorar esta situación. Los profesores están trabajando mucho desde casa y Cruz cree que hay críticas al profesorado que no son justas. «Cuando acabe la cuarentena he pensando volver a mi vida normal, pero quién sabe…», apunta. A la pregunta de si va a desvelar el misterio del pijama, responde: «You have to leave them with the doubt, but read between the lines. "
At the moment, this is his last video, in which he even allows himself to do audiovisual experiments:
