Alberto Padilla is an Early Childhood Education teacher. Born in the Jaén municipality of Bailén, he began to work as a teacher about 12 years ago and did so in Almería, specifically in the Nijareña district of Ruescas. Now it is also in Almería where he has obtained his permanent teaching position and where he will continue to develop his concept of education, which has led him to be chosen among the best in Spain at the Educa Awards.
How did Diego Velázquez de ElEjido arrive at the CEIP this year?
–Through the network that I had established with the people of the CEP of El Ejido and the one of Almería through the training courses, I know the way of working in El Ejido. At the provincial level, in El Ejido there is a lot of educational quality, in the Most of the centers do very interesting things and share good educational practices. In addition, he knew in particular the way of working of this center. I was very interested in how they carried out their projects and above all the respect they have for childhood, which is vital for me. Thus, although the final school I have is good, I value all the options and the way of working really appealed to me, because this center at the project level is a leader in many of the activities it organizes and they were in the same line of what I was doing
– Are you still working the same way you did these previous years in Cádiz?
–Yes, my class here is the same one that I had in Cádiz, the same way of working and the same line. I was looking for that, that the change from one province to another, after so many years, would be easy for me and to reach a center where I was allowed to work and continue betting on what I believe. I am lucky to have found that center and I am delighted. I ask and everything goes forward. And all this despite the fact that it is not easy to come from the last and place yourself here and be part of active life.
How do you understand education?
–The first thing is that education is the main weapon we have to change the world. Nelson Mandela said it and that phrase stuck with me many years ago, in the first oppositions because I think it is the basis of everything, where everything begins, both at home and at school. I am lucky to belong to that first stage of education, early childhood education, where so many things are sustained and the foundations are laid so that later the building can rise high. I believe in the transforming power of society through the school.
How is your way of working in class?
-The first thing is that I take the children into account, their needs, characteristics, peculiarities, their way of interacting with each other and with me, of working, what motivates them… I make a very important sociogram, because for me the focus principal is in them. Based on this, I already articulate different methodological approaches. I follow the regulations. And I am usually very up-to-date with everything that is being done at a national and international level, through different European mobility programs. Then I put all that amalgam together and do my way of working, which up to now is giving me good results. But, above all, I respect childhood and I respect the process of each boy and girl.
How do you see education today?
–I think it is important to highlight that since the pandemic, teachers and teachers were recognized for part of the work, due to how difficult it was to set up a school that we did not have, remotely, using resources and tools. The families, being at home and having to carry out processes that they are not used to, valued our work more. I think there is a moment of change and there is also an important moment of what I call the pedagogy of contagion, and that is that we infect each other and that greatly expands the process of educational innovation and promotes that quality that we seek so much.
As a result of the Educa Abanca Awards and others such as the Global Teacher Award, we are also recognized in some way and no longer from a specific specialty, but from the 0-3 Infant School, which seems to me that they do a wonderful job. From there there is already a social recognition. We are in a moment of change for the good of education. In addition, the new Legislation that we have has unified the entire process and I believe that we are rowing in the right direction.
What is lacking in education?
–Many times there is a lack of resources at all levels. It also needs to be reached from the offices to the class and the students. Many times, who articulates the laws or values a project, forgets that with the children in the class you live differently and perhaps it is difficult to carry out a certain project or value a specific thing, because it is not a reality in the classroom. Bringing the office closer to the class is very important to me. That is why I value so much the initiative of the Delegation to get together and talk for a little while about what happens in my class. It seems important to me to sit down for a while and find out what is done in the class, how the boys and girls are currently doing, because that is what is missing in this process of change, to focus on the real classes and what is real about us, and based on that, articulate the resources.
How do you get these awards?
–They arise through the Educa Abanca Foundation and it is the students and the family themselves who propose the teachers and they have to present the reasons why that person is proposed and evidence that they deserve it. From there, a screening is carried out and based on that, the organization articulates an official list. There is a delivery of merits of what is done in the classroom and the projection that one as a teacher has through training, networks or initiatives. The parents of my students from last year nominated me, because the last four courses I have been in Alcalá de los Gazules, in Cádiz. In that school I have been nominated three times, two of them a finalist. In this case in fourth place. For me it is a source of pride, because it does not come from me but from them, and that families recognize my work and bet on you time and time again, is a source of pride. I feel like a representative of so many teachers from Almería who fight every day to keep the school going with a quality education. For me that is the best award.
What have you valued the most in your case?
–My day-to-day in the class, because despite the fact that I have collaborated with the Teachers’ Center and in some book or manual, I do not have a research or field work, and I am not very active on social networks either. They have valued my day to day in the classroom. It is true that the different projects we did last year managed to involve people and situations that were echoed in the press. But for me the most important thing is to have my feet on the ground and my feet in my class.
How is a day in your class?
–My children always say that every day there is something new. That is the phrase that sums up the day to day. And families tell me that their children tell them that there is something new every day. And it’s true. I take each day as a challenge and a new adventure, and I try to make sure that the children experience it that way as well. On a day-to-day basis, although there is a schedule that is followed, they have a lot of weight and they change it depending on how they are or if something comes up in class that day that is of interest to everyone else and from which they can obtain a didactic use, I use it. My day to day is an adventure, there is no day like it. We work as a team and I am always with them at their tables, on the carpet. I am not a teacher of being on top, despite the fact that I am tall, but of being below, at his height. I try to make them happy, from the moment they enter until they leave, that doesn’t mean they don’t learn, but I believe that if we are happy we learn better.
–In class they have an emotions kit. What is?
–It is a medicine cabinet for use but it has other types of things inside and they use it when they need it. There is an anti-stress ball, a jar of calm, a kaleidoscope for when we need to concentrate, some candies to cure anguish, some hugging bandages, a laugh cushion for when we are sad, an anti-fear spray. I also use it so that they see that I am also a person.
–What led you to decide to be a teacher and when did you make that decision?
–Since I was little, I have had a vocation to be a teacher. I have been lucky enough to grow up in a family where my parents gave us the opportunity to study whatever we wanted and spend our free time on our hobbies and tastes. I have some studies in Dance and Dramatic Art, but I had the urge to do Teaching and when it came to deciding which specialty, I was clear that I wanted it to be Children’s, because I remember my time in Children very fondly and age seems very important to me. in which I move I found in the Magisterium a way to combine all those concerns that I was good at and put them in favor of others, in this case of boys and girls. Being a teacher I am a bit of a singer, a bit of a dancer, a bit of an actor, a bit of a magician, a bit of everything. I understood that all my capacities could be put at the service of others through the Magisterium and for me that was the motivation and I found what I liked.
–What would you ask of 2023 at an educational level?
–It is true that with the new legislative changes we feel a bit lost. In Infantile we were with a Law of 2008 that was a bit obsolete. Right now there is a chaos of new names, of new things and the whole teaching world is the same. I would ask for a bit of peace of mind in this sense, that they do not demand a lot of paperwork from us yet because we are on the road but we cannot reach the end so quickly, we have to go through it. And then on a day-to-day level, I think it is very important that teachers see both students, classmates and families as people, because we often forget that we are people and that we work with people.
How is the course going?
-I am delighted with the school and I have to thank the management team and the Infant team because I am lucky to have a team in which we all go together and propose things and succeed, and we help each other between classes and others. Next year I want to continue here and I have no intention of moving at least for a while. And also the families have been involved from the beginning in education, they were very keen and have been involved from the beginning and have participated in the classroom.