Teaching

the environment

2005-05-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

The Environment and the animals.

In general , people are quite interested in the environment, but I think not many of them actually protest about environment damage. But recently the question of animal rights in England has united people from different areas of the country to protest against live animal exports. The British are passionate about protecting animals. Many people are vegetarian for reasons of conscience, not just health, and very high number of people keep pets. There have been regular campaigns and even violent protests against fox – hunting and other blood sports.

Of course, people are also worried about air and water pollution, traffic levels, deforestation and many other environmental problems, but the most emotive area for the general public is definitely animals.

CETA. A GOOD EXPERIENCE

2005-05-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

The last weekend I was to Cordoba where had a sessions about how we can teach English through the new techniques.

First of all, this organization had the pleasure of having the most important teachers around the word. They tried to explain us a lot of things about education in he classroom such as: How to make materials work in our primary classroom, Children’s creative theatre, how to encourage to students to read, etc.

I think that the most important focus of information in the sessions was the following: We have to promote the bilingual project. This is based on a process that tries to be a framework of teacher and learners because promote the use of the own materials and the communicative interaction.

Also, we spoke with a principal person of British Council which is Mark Levy. His session was called “ Teaching: It’s no joke!. He told us a few jokes and used these to make some serous points about teaching and learning and how we might make these more successful.

I liked a lot the M. Silvia´s explanation which was based on playacting stories to provide an opportunity to children to be totally immersed in a wave of language.

But, What’s British Council. British Council is an organization to promote the interchange between different countries to improve the language. This organization designs a programs and activities that help us to improve our language. We prepare a interview with Mark Levy. We are going put them in the Legua inglesa IV soon.

TEACHING LITERATURE IN THE CLASSROOM.....

2005-04-30T03:25:00.000-07:00

It is important that young children make contact with one of the best playwrights in the world. On way of doing this is with something children love- cartoons. Why not teach Shakespeare from The lion King?

If young students like The Lion King, they will like Shakespeare. The teaching activities are related to the main aspects of narrative writing by obtaining as much as we teachers can from them: summarizing, critical thinking, working and learning in cooperative groups. Did Shakespeare write the plot for The Lion King more than 400 years ago?

I would say that he did it in a way as we can find lots of similarities not just with his Hamlet but some other of his works such as A Midsummer Nights Dreams, Macbeth, Henry IV his sonnets.

On the other hand, teaching Shakespeare to second grade students could seem a difficult task because today children are more interested in the technology than in other aspects of the education, such as English literature. But if we chose plays which contains a magical word, the interest can raise. We can quote fairy tales such as Midsummer’s Night Dream.

How to be a good teacher?

2005-04-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

First of all, the teacher who has his own personality, is a good teacher. I think that teacher have to Know a lo of things. This is imoprtant because sometimes children ask him about something and teacher should know it.

Good teachers are flexible ennought to cope with the situations because they are focusing on the students and what they need.

On the other hand, teacher recognise that their plan might noot develop because there are days where pupils respons in other way.

To sum up, I think that a good teacher ought to know the child´s development, love his job and the most important thing, teachers have to transform the children in in an adult persons.

Taboo Words

2005-04-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

There are three groups of taboo words in English. The first has religious, i. e. Christian, connections, and some people find the use of term like " My God!" " Damn" and " Hell" shocking.

The second group includes words related to sex, and parts of the human body. These are not used in polite or formal speech, and generally not is writing.
The third group relates to the excretion of body waste and, again, these words are not used in polite or formal speech or in writting.

All these taboo words are used to strong emotion, however, their constant everyday use has made them less shocking to most people, except when they hear them on radio or on T.V.

If you use swear words, it may look as though you think you are part of the group too. If you want to, you can use the exclamations" What on earth", " What the hell"...

RULES.........................

2005-04-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

How to be British...
English people sometimes think foreign visitors to Britain are rude. This is often for two reasons:
-Their intonation pattern is very different from English.
Some languages are more direct than English when discussing. Certain subjects, especially when they are about money.

For example, if two people is having a cup of coffee in a café and one has no money, he wouldn’t say” can you pay for the coffee?” I forgot my money” as this sounds too direct in polite English( although it could be acceptable in other languages). It would be better to say” Would it possible for you to pay for the coffee?”” or”” Do you think you could possibly pay for the coffee?” Note that the word” could” is considered more polite than “ can” in these cases.

How to be British....(II)

2005-04-15T03:14:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, The English are rather reserved when it comes to physical greeting, but this is slowly changing.
The handshake is the most common and the most formal way os greeting, but even this may not always be used when you meet someone. May people in all walks of life prefer to simply say:"Hello" or " Please to meet you" without handshake

How to be British?

2005-04-15T03:01:00.000-07:00

It´s always difficult to interrupt without appearing rude. British people often cough discreetly and then say"Excuse me..."you can make it even more polite and apologetic by starting:

I´m sorry for interrupting you, but...
Forgive me for interrupting , but...
I do hope you don´t mind my interrupting , but...

Why is English Spelling so difficult?

2005-04-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

Any learner will tell you that English spelling is very difficult. It is far less regular than Spanish, for example. There seem to be so many ways of spelling the same sound that it´s imopssible to form a regular spelling rule for many words. What is the problem?

The problem is partly one of Normans and Saxons. Norman scribes spelt words in french way. Saxons scribes spelt words in the English way, so there were two spelling systems in operation. When printing began in Britain in the 15th century, the first printers came to England from Europe. They brought their own systems and pronunciation and changed the spelling of words to suit it.

The Daisy

2005-04-06T03:29:00.000-07:00

Today the world remember the tales of Hans Christian Andersen. He wrte a lot of tales to Children Such as : The Daisy, The Chlid in the Grave, etc.

Hans Christian Andersen was a product of two towns, two social environments, two worlds and two ages. Both as a man and as a writer he thus continually developed and changed, but was also in constant dialogue with himself and even at times at war with himself. Thus his social rise provides the direct and indirect motif in many of his tales, novels and plays, both as a productive source in his search for a new and more comprehensive identity and as a source of perpetual and unresolved traumas.

The Shirt Collar

There was once a perfect gentleman whose whole household goods consisted of one bootjack and a comb. But he also had one of the most remarkable shirt collars in the world. I'll tell you a story about it.

When the shirt collar had passed his prime he turned his thoughts to marriage. In the fullness of time he went to the wash, and there he met with a garter.

"My!" said the collar, "anyone so slender, so tender, so neat and nice as you are, I never did see. May I know your name?"

"No," said the garter. "I won't tell you."

"Then at least tell me where you live?" asked the collar.

But the garter was so modest that she couldn't bring herself to answer such an embarrassing question.

"I believe you are a girdle," said the collar. "A sort of underneath girdle. And I dare say you're as useful as you are beautiful, my pretty little dear."

"I forbid you to speak to me," said the garter. "I'm sure I haven't given you the slightest encouragement."

"Your beauty is every encouragement," said the collar.

"Kindly keep away from me," said the garter. "You look too masculine."

"Oh, I'm a perfect gentleman," said the collar. "I've a bootjack and a comb to prove it."

This wasn't true at all, for they belonged to his master, but he liked to boast.

"Please don't come so close," said the garter. "I'm not used to such behaviour."

"Prude!" the collar called her as they took him from the washtub. They starched him, hung him over a chair back in the sun, and then stretched him out on an ironing board. There he met with a sadiron.

"My dear lady," said the collar, "you adorable widow woman, the closer you come the warmer I feel. I'm a changed collar since I met you, without a wrinkle left in me. You burn clear through me. Oh, won't you be mine?"

"Rag!" said the sadiron, as she flattened him out, for she went her way like a railway engine pulling cars down a track. "Rag!" was what she said.

The collar was the worse for wear at the edges, so the scissors were called for to trim him.

"Oh," said the collar, "you must be a ballet dancer. How straight you stretch your legs out. Such a graceful performance! No one can do that like you."

"I'm well aware of it," said the scissors.

"You deserve to be no less than a countess," said the collar. "All I have to offer is my perfect gentleman, bootjack and comb. Oh, if only I had an earldom."

"I do believe he's daring to propose," said the scissors. She cut him so furiously that he never recovered.

"Now I shall have to ask the comb," said the collar. "My dear, how remarkably well you've kept your teeth. Have you ever thought of getting engaged?"

"Why, of course," said the comb. "I am engaged-to the bootjack."

"Engaged!" the collar exclaimed. Now that there was no one left for him to court, the collar pretended that he had never meant to marry.

Time passed and the collar went his way to the bin in a paper mill, where the rags kept company according to rank, the fine rags in one bin, the coarse in another, just as it is in the world. They all gossiped aplenty but the collar chattered the most, for he was an awful braggart.

"I've had sweethearts by the dozen," he told them. "Ladies never would leave me alone, and you can't blame them; for I was such a perfect gentleman, stiff with starch, and with a bootjack and comb to spare. You should have seen me then. You should have seen me unbend.

"I'll never forget my first love-such a charming little girdle, so slender and tender. She threw herself into a tub of water, all for the love of me. Then there was the widow, glowing to get me, but I jilted her and let her cool off. And there was the ballet dancer, whose mark I bear to this day. What a fiery creature she was! And even my comb fell so hard in love with me that she lost all her teeth when I left her. Yes, indeed, I have plenty on my conscience. But the garter-I mean the girdle - who drowned herself in the wash tub, is the one I feel most badly about. Oh, I have a black record, and it's high time I turned into spotless white paper."

And that's exactly what happened. All the rags were made into paper, and the collar became the page you see, the very paper on which this story is printed. That was because he boasted so outrageously about things that never had happened. So let's be careful to behave we better than he did, for you never can tell. Some day we may end up in the rag bag, and be made into white paper on which the whole story of our life is printed in full detail. Then we'd have to turn tattletale on ourselves, just as the shirt collar has done.

Are cartoons violent?

2005-04-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, we´re living into a society full of information. This can be good or bad . However, The Children´s education is very important and I think that not always the T.V give them a good example.

If we watch the T.V everyday, the majority of the programs are too bad because show us other point of view about the actual life. T.V shows a life full of material things and It doesn´t show the real situation with diary problems and how this problems can resolve with the moral and friendly values.

Cartoons are significant in the children´s life, they learn to act following the values which are showed in T.V.
What is your opinion abut this?

Is Poor diet liked to bad behaviour in Children?

2005-04-04T03:47:00.000-07:00

The University of Southerm California fond a lack of zinc, iron, vitamin B and protein in the first three years caused bad behaviour later on.

I think there are risk factors which promote the bad behaviour in Children. For example, the parent ´s education or the culture where they usually live. If the father is agressive with his daugther or if the family always are sad.

It can cause hyperactivity disorders, but anti-social behaviour is more influenced perhaps by parentingand genetics and teen peer pressure in teenage groups.

thank you for...

2005-04-01T02:12:00.000-08:00

The first of all, my family, They always helpme when I have a problem. They say: Don´t worry! Please, try to think about persons who are in a bad situation, without food, house...., you are a lucky person!

Secondly, thank my best friends! You are when I cry, when I smile, when there´s a party, in bads moments, you give me a lot of energy! althout sometimes I complain about something.Sorry!.............

Thank you, Teachers! You help me when I´ve an academic problem( Internet, for example). You are the best person togive academic advices...

I have to grateful to my grandfathers because they ´re my favourite person, for example, when I´m tired or sad....

Thank you, Jesu! you are my brother, my friend and overall my other part. Sometimes you are my keeper.

THANK EVERYBODY FOR ALL.........................

Celts

2005-04-01T01:56:00.000-08:00

Who are the Celts?
Celts are the first people who lived in Britain during the Iron Age after Jesus. After this age, the Romans invaded Britain.
They discovered a new metal called "iron". They made the TAL-Y-LLYN. The Celts live in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, The Isle of Man, Cornwall and in Brittany or France.

THEIR CLOTHES AND APPEARANCE.....
THE CELTS USED BERNES AND PLANTS TO DYE THE WOOL DIFFERENT COLOURS......
Men would wear a tunic with a belt, a cloak and a trousers. Women were wearing dresses fastened with brooches.

IMPORTANT...
Celtis soldiers had white spiky hair, The most famous soldiers were fancy bronze helmets on their head to show how important they were.

MY OPINION:
Celts were inhabits that have given to the british culture a lot of things. Without they, The Iron Age wouldn´t have been That moment of iron´s revolution.

However, Celts didin´t be strong because they were destroyed by the Roman civilization.

What´s your opinion about this?

Celts

2005-03-30T01:40:00.000-08:00

Galicia, in the northwest corner of Spain, has traditionally been seen as a rather remote. Until recent times many people had to emigrate in search of a beeter life but nowadays Galicia is becoming a tourist destination. Like others Celthic land-Scotland, Ireland, Wales...

The local people are proud of their celtic roots and you may well hear the enchanting sound of the bagpipes.
Vigo and A Coruña are Spain´s leading fishing ports, so you should certanly try the local seafood and white wines. You musn´t miss Santiago de Compostela