Carpe Diem

Still love my students!

2010-12-15T13:18:00.001+01:00

Why Is Learning a New Language Harder After Childhood?

2010-11-10T10:26:00.002+01:00

It is true that we've always talked about the right to preserve one's language when living in another country but there is a real need to learn the language of the host country. It's clear, according to Norman Doidge!!

On the move

2009-10-19T15:42:00.013+02:00

Whereabouts have I been... Well after Rome with Clàudia I went to Oviedo and met many of my American friends. I bathed in the cold waters of the Cantabric, something I had never done before. I spent the local Fiesta in Sitges at the end of August and then left for Berlin where I stayed at Gary's, my friend's apartment in the centre of Berlin.
Berlin is incredible. I loved the dynamism of the city. I loved the institutional buildings and the more corporative Berlin as well as the daily life I could breath in the different quarters.

I've explained the experience to my granddaughter, Claudia. If you want to know more see the Blog "Cartes per la Claudia". In Berlin, I've taken my daily notes and impressions about the learning and the teaching of foreign languages for further revision in the future and I have developed a well settled interest: cooking!

While I was there I shared a few meals with Gary, American; Joëlle, French and a friend of hers from the French Antilles, Henry, an exquisite, gentle black man! We exchanged our culinary charms and I decided to prepare a paella for them one evening. It turned out different than the ones I make at home. I cared for the rice and for the ingredients which were in no way similar to the cuttlefish I have around the corner in my village. I found frozen shrimp at a Chinese supermarket and nice bio-vegetables. I made the stock with some of the shrimps' heads and used a soup fish cube I found in the supermarket. They found the paella delicious!!!! The truth is it tasted nice but it had nothing to do with the paellas at home. I started wondering what happens with the cooking you make at home and the one you take home with you from different countries... There's a cultural filter, even when we cook, not only when we speak. When we are in a different country changes take place and this may be because of the ingredients, the utensils you use, the water or the stove. It also varies when you want to make a dish from another country in your own. So it happened when I tried to make the "kohlroulade" at home where I added my personal touch and it became a similar dish, but quite different in taste. I'd say tastier! but maybe a German person would not agree with me. Have a look!

So I decided to open a new research line on the topic and opened another Blog "Food and Culture Crossroads" where I'll be posting around these thoughts and hope for your contributions.

I also went to a little village at the far end in Aragon, near Soria and Navarra (Torrellas) were I had spent a couple of summers during my childhood. It was fun to revisit the Fiestas and meet the friends I used to play seek and hide when I was 7 years old! Here are some of us at the social bar having a drink!

You may wonder whether I've started or not. Yes, I am on the move but, for the moment back and forth from my homeland. Summer was busy, travelling around and having visitors at home. Summarizing I'd say that Nell's, Kate's and their friends from New York, were the most rewarding visitors. They were easy going, independent and collaborative when they were at home. I've also enjoyed the visit of Charlotte, my Irish friend, who unfortunately only stayed for a couple of days. Here she is...

The star trip in terms of pleasure and peacefulness has been to Formentera where I have spend a week recently and have walked the land and bathed in the blue clear crystal waters. Incredible nature and wild experience as well as culinary too. I still need time to digest the feelings... Here are a few shots.

That's all for now folks... And you? How are you doing? Let me know.

What is that?

2009-10-04T01:06:00.000+02:00

Thoughtful, isn't it?

Pre Rome trip

2009-07-06T15:26:00.003+02:00

My granddaughter Claudia always asks for a trip with her "nonna", as she calls me, when her birthday is coming. She was nine last Friday, July 3rd. So, tomorrow we are going to Rome!
It's always exciting to go on a trip with her. I always try to plan "serious" or, let's say, more "sophisticated" activities together with those that seem to be more frivolous or appealing to her. The funny thing is she always remembers the more sophisticated stuff! So this time I'm ready for anything so called "cultural"!
A few days ago I gave her a guide of Rome and ask her to check on the places she wanted to visit. Here is the list she came up with:

Most of the parks in Rome
The Pantheon
The Colosseum
Roman Forum
Baths of Diocletian
The Catacombs
Ostia Antica...

These were amongst her first choice. Not bad for a nine year old, right?

Meanwhile...

2009-06-24T13:08:00.002+02:00

I will probably start my trip in September in Berlin, I will come back to Sitges and start my round the world adventure in November. Meanwhile I thought I'd keep you busy. I've continued posting videos on Nicenet but those I'm posting here are extremely interesting. I think you'll love them. Chomsky is getting old but his mind is still so brilliant!

I hope you have time to enjoy them!

What we think about the course

2009-06-13T14:07:00.003+02:00

I have carried the experience of the Blogs for four consecutive years and I'm fully convinced that those students who get involved improve their writing skills. This is why I insisted so much. From your letters I see that those who got especially involved feel the same. Thanks for joining in and sharing! Thanks for caring!

Allow me to share with you quite a few comments from your letters that I feel summarize what you all say:

About the BLOG:s

-If I had to give a prize to one of the class bloggers it would go to "Sand in my Shoes", not only because of her delicate and sensitive writings but because she was the most active commentator and this stimulated me to write.
Thanks "Sand".
-I have to say Jack the Ripper’s blog is a really good one, his English is perfect and in my opinion it’s the perfect blog in that way, but there have been others which have appealed to me more such as Sand in my shoes, because it was so artistic, or Rip Van Winkle who writes very nice pieces too.
-My preferred one had been ‘Jack the Ripper’. I think I know who the author was because we were classmates last year; he has a very good English and he wrote about very interesting topics, about history or what happens nowadays. But about art, the best has been ‘Sand in my shoes’.
-I’ve specially enjoyed the blogs by "Rip Van Winkle" and "Jack the Ripper". They are two really prolific authors and I’ve learned many things reading their posts. I would have liked to post more comments on their blogs but I haven’t found the time to do it. I’ve also enjoyed some concrete posts on the other blogs. Finally, your blog, together with Nicenet, has become a powerful tool to complement your classes because we could watch videos or read articles before and after coming to the school.
-The blog that interested me most was: “Sand in my shoes”...I used to post comments on her blog and she also used to comment some of my posts. It was interesting and strange because I think there was a connection and complicity with “Sand”. When you post something on your blog and someone makes you comments it makes you feel really good and special.

-I have a soft spot for "Sand in my Shoes" and I enjoyed reading "Carpe Diem", "Leire", "Someschetch", “Gentleman” but I have to tell you that I was really curious with "Rip Van Winkle"...
-I loved your link on your Blog "Do schools kill creativity?"
-I have to confess I was so happy when I received comments. I think that they are like a drug; you need them because they make you think that your blog helps other people to find their own voice, at the same time you are looking for the same.
-With a nickname you can hide your identity, you can play different roles. That is funny and it gives you more freedom of expression, but you know that your identity will be discovered at the end of the course.
-I think having a nickname is a good way to have people reading you without any prejudice. If people don’t know who you are, their opinion about you won’t affect their reading. On the other hand, having a nickname might become a way to write without assuming your responsibility. Some people might hide behind their nickname to write things without being totally sure of what they write and I think this puts the truth at risk. Anyway, it isn’t dangerous if people contrast information with other sources.

About Nicenet:

-Good tool to check what we had been doing in class if we could not attend...
-Nicenet is a better database than the blog. This is because Nicenet makes it possible to post a lot of information organized in different categories. Therefore, you can easily find what you’re looking for because everything is in its place. You have posted nearly two hundred links on Nicenet and it would be unthinkable on the blog: we would go crazy looking for one of them. So, in this way, I think Nicenet is more useful than the blog.
-There were some links I enjoyed like the one about Steven Jobs' speech where he explains three stories about his life that I think there are lessons for all.
-I liked the Inaugural speech by the President of the United States , Barack Obama. I think it wasn't too difficult to understand his speech because the transcription of his words beside the video was very helpful too.
-I’ve enjoyed most of the videos, specially the Dead Poets Society, The Hire or that interesting documentary: The Elegant Universe.
-I think the videos are a great stuff to learn. I've really enjoyed some of them, like the video "Who killed the electric car?"... I also read Newspapers in English, watched BBC videos. The last I watched was about the man who was going to get the best paid job in Australia.
-The Newspapers, an article "After the Fiesta", Walt Whitman’s poem “Oh Captain, my Captain”, and the video of Shakespeare’s poem “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day”, trailers and films like “The Constant Gardener” or “The Reader” which was very useful to make a decision about which book I could read at the end of the course...

And some other repeatedly favourites were:
-Grey's Anatomy's Chapters.
-The Power Point about Organic Food.
-The links about September 11th to complement the teacher’s talk.
-Our Power Points on the book presentations.
-Text to Speech
-The Wordle
-The Video of “The Vagina Monologues” author.
-The Fora TV videos.
-Dafur in 10 minutes.
- The “Know Thyself!” links.

About the classes:
From your letters I gather that very few enjoyed the grammar lessons. Maybe I feel responsible for these, because I did not know how to make enjoyable classes with this topic. However, some of you think I haven't done enough and others think I've given too much (Grammar)... Always too fast, you complain! Fortunately there are many things you have enjoyed. See your comments:
I know I have to learn grammar but I find it a bit stupid, I think if I want to learn this grammar I have to watch films and this kind of things...
-I felt a bit stressed because you are not that kind of teacher who just forgets about their students out of school and who only cares about what they do in class preparing everything and giving them everything chewed, I’ve learnt English but, what is even more important, I’ve learnt many other things: in English but not only about English, about life. And “other things” may seem two empty words, without meaning, but just for you to believe me I’ll give you some examples: since September, I had never listened to anyone who had been in New York on September 11th; since September, I almost didn’t know Barceló, and two days ago I was watching an interview with him on the television and I had images and comments in my mind that allowed me to have an opinion about what he was saying; since September, I had never met an English teacher with the ability of fitting students with poetry until they were living in the words in only one class; since September, only one teacher had given me a book, ...since September, I had never been in any teacher’s home. You make your point now but, don’t you think that’s somehow related to being a good teacher? The lessons in here have been different; if they hadn’t been, I would probably now be fed up with chairs, tables, pencil cases and pens because they would be the same as what they are in a conventional school: a book, a teacher, and if you are not interested, then it’s not interesting. And as the chairs, tables, pencil cases and pens here have had a different meaning, I don’t hate them now. Can you see the result...?
-I have learned in your classes that I can always choose and find out "how to learn"... and thus I have discovered through Nicenet that I like reading English curious news and documentaries but I do not like reading novels or similar books.
-I have special fond memories of your talk about September 11th in New York. It was touching! But I also loved the day we talked about healthy food or the day we memorized a poem.
-I like the motivation, the constant bombardment of information in English to force me to use English in my daily life, like a habit...
-I will always remember a Friday class with all my fellow classmates sitting in a circle and spending all the talking about personal experiences, cinema, jobs... and also about class issues. It was so different, so relaxing and so useful to improve and be confident when we have to talk in English.
-You have helped me to change my point of view about studying a foreign language carrying out different activities in class that changed my opinion. What you did shows us that there are other ways to teach, even to learn English. The only thing is to be creative and be daring to carry different activities. Nowadays there are many tools to do so. You have done it!
-Being honest, I have to say that this year I've learned more than English. You have given to me lots of ideas to improve my personal style as a teacher.
-The class I enjoyed the most was the one about Art, with everyone choosing a piece of art and explaining the reasons of the choice. And the most useful exercise in my opinion was to do an oral presentation with the support of a power point.
- I loved that debate between two teams about different laws we had to defend.
-When we debated about women and men's tasks, about conservative and liberal policies and also the debate with different film scenes.
-I enjoyed all classes related with "Carpe Diem" because I love that film. You learn a lot with it and furthermore there are a lot of memorable quotes. And I also enjoyed all the classes we talked about films. However I enjoyed least the classes about food.
-I just want to add that I’m not sure if I have a favourite class, in fact I doubt between the two ones when we watched de BMW videos, not the one for the exam but the others when we commented the hidden messages in films, and then the one about films and their soundtrack. But while writing this, another one has appeared to my mind: I don’t know when it was, or if it lasted all the class, but I remember us, talking about photos you had collected and you projected on the screen, and there appeared black and white people… I think that conversation about what those images were trying to say was one of the classes I will keep more in my mind, and although you see I can’t remember many things about it, what I’ll keep is the feeling of that class being nice and interesting.
And now the worst class… I think you’ll guess: for me the worst ones were when we did grammar, mostly from the book at the beginning of the course. Then we did more vocabulary, which I liked because, although I thought I would forget many of the expressions, I’ve discovered that I’ve kept more in my mind than I thought!
-You've always tried to make different and funny classes, and this is great. But the main problem, I think, is that you can't do whatever you want, you have to give us some contents that have to be the same as the other teachers in the school. Otherwise your students have to work double.
-...your classes have been so different from the other English classes I've been attending throughout my life. I liked a lot one exercise we did one day. You told us to think about something we liked: a picture, a monument, a song... And in just five minutes you created a Power Point with all the ideas and the images we mentioned. Then we had to explain to the other students what we said and why. It is a simple exercise but I found it different and really interesting, because we had to find the words to justify our ideas and we had to give reasons to what we thought.
-Reading The Dead Poets Society was great! I enjoyed it a lot because I found a lot of coincidences between the book and the experience we were having in our classes.
-One of the best things is the amount of idioms we have learnt. For me, idioms show a mastering of the language, as you have to use figurative language, so I like to be able to apply them in my conversations.
-I will remember some classes that had a profound impact on me. Now I’m thinking about that class where we were talking about Carpe Diem. It made me think about the importance of seizing the day, of doing always what you think you must do, what you really want to do, and not wasting your precious time doing what people want you to do.
-I guess I'll remember the presentations. Some of them were very nice, like that mock quiz by Pol and Adrian, the one about energetic issues by Marc, The Beatles, featuring Alex and Lluis and of course our presentation about "Death Penalty in Barcelona"...
-I'll also remember that class where we represented two different parties with different points of view. At first, I thought it would be difficult to defend some stupid ideas you don’t believe in. But, in the end, it was really fun.
-Nevertheless, although I assume one man’s meat is another’s poison, I got tired of the Messiah Obama’s electoral campaign. In my opinion, our society needed to pin all their hopes on somebody but I think he won’t solve anything: the prisoners of Guantánamo will be moved to other prisons with the same "rights"...
-Thanks you very much for everything! I won't ever forget your way to motivate students to learn a foreign language.

To end up, I’d like to thank Rip Van Winkle, my dear colleague and friend, Rodrigo, for sharing the Blog experience with me. Sorry for not being able to write everything you wrote. I’ve tried to select the issues that appeared several times in your letters.
I have to thanks those who understood that learning a foreign language doesn’t only mean to attend a class twice or three times a week for four or six hours. To learn a foreign language implies getting involved with it, reading and listening about the topics you are interested in, the news… being constantly curious (in English!, using the language every day.
Get ready to start fifth. You’ll meet two great professionals and wonderful colleagues and friends; Estefanía and Marc. With them you’ll explore other ways… Get ready! means that you should not forget to continue with your “English routines” outside the classroom just to prove you were the best!

Carpe Diem and Noctum!

P.S. Please, add anything you want/feel if I have missed anything important for you. It was difficult to go through your letters. I was quite moved, I must say!

Thank you

2009-05-29T07:44:00.005+02:00

Surprise after surprise, my dear fellows!
I'll treasure all the moments I've lived with you, all the presents, the chained stories, the interview, the pictures, the images, the flowes and the thoughts...

And again... this is not a "Goodbye"; just keep in touch!

I love you all!

Insomnia

2009-05-27T06:06:00.005+02:00

I have always been inspired by this quote:

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers,
gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom,
but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
Kahlil Gibran

Whilst in the middle of the night I cannot sleep, still reading your blogs and thinking how fortunate I am to be finishing my classes with all of you!

Thanks!!! my dearest, my unique and powerful students!

It's not a farewell!

2009-05-23T00:37:00.004+02:00

My dear students,

There's an end to everything and here comes my last communicative exchange with you before my other beginning. So, this is not a farewell, it is an invitation to keep in touch through my Carpe Diem Blog which will be updated as soon as I begin my “round the world” adventure. However, just in case some of you turn out greater travellers than myself and get lost somewhere in the Universe, I’ll ask you for some advice.

I’ve been a “formal” teacher for more than 30 years! Of all these years I gather fond memories, wonderful experiences which I shall treasure for years to come. I’ve tried to share with you some of these moments in our classes and have lived with you some of these moments myself. I’ve tried hard even though I know it is not easy to please everyone. Please, forgive me those who had different expectations. I couldn't avoid being myself.

As you know I’m embarking on a different project soon. I’d like to find out what makes a good teacher and what makes a good student and I’m going to ask you to comment on the following with your best English, the English you’ve learned throughout these years in your school, in this school…

Give me your opinion about:

The Blog Project
Were you engaged? If you weren’t why do you think it was so? because of work? because of your personality?
What made you choose the name you chose?
Was it thrilling to have a nickname?
Which blogs did you enjoy most? Why?
Were you happy to receive comments? Did you write comments yourself?

The Nicenet Page
How often did you check the contents?
What materials were most useful?
What materials did you enjoy most?
Do you think “Nicenet” is a useful tool?

The classes
Which of our classes do you think you will remember most in the future?
Which classes did you enjoy most and which did you enjoy least? Why?

By getting your very honest answers, I’m starting my new project with you, my unique and powerful students!

Thanks for sharing, thanks for believing.
Please, keep in touch,

2009-05-22T10:38:00.003+02:00

I want to thank you for the wonderful company, the nice words, the lovely presents, and specially... for being you, my UNIQUE AND POWERFUL STUDENTS!!!!

Here comes a song to think about before I post my letter. The song has to do with these last teaching days I'm living with all of you.

Thanks for sharing!

Get ready for the DISCOVERY party!

2009-05-13T09:57:00.002+02:00

Any ideas? any problem?
Let us know so that we can share it at the party!

Am I a teacher?

2009-04-03T19:33:00.002+02:00

Can you understand why I insist so much on being creative?
I'm a non conventional teacher! Sorry!
Enjoy the video!

Waltz with Bashir

2009-02-27T22:20:00.003+01:00

Don't miss that one!

Listen to Ari Folman talking about the film. Food for thought!

Picnic at Hanging Rock

2009-02-20T14:03:00.005+01:00

Get the feeling of another Peter Weir's film

Here's the beginning

From 'Ulysses,' by Tennyson

2009-02-09T10:22:00.003+01:00

"Come my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world... for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset... and though
We are not now that stregth which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;-
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Quoted from: Dead Poets Society pag. 57

A Christmas Crossword

2008-12-16T11:59:00.003+01:00

Do you want to learn all the vocabulary you need to survive the Christmas Holidays?
There is “A Christmas Crossword” on the web that will help you practice these words you forget every year and that just come back to you when you use them.
Here is the chance! Let me know if it works. You can also download te printable version and practice while you travel in the subway...
Have fun!

Shake it off! (Your lazyness, I mean)

2008-12-02T17:29:00.001+01:00

Dear students,
Here goes my last letter, I guess, before the New Year!
I know how difficult it is for you to be motivated with a prompt that started with our classes at the beginning of October. I know it's difficult to keep writing if nobody is telling you how important it is to write a little piece every day. Maybe somebody is telling you how important it is, even your own inner voice but... are you listening? I know it is almost impossible to be motivated if you do not have comments on your posts... What can I say? Little, without your contribution.
I wanted to list some of the thoughts that have been hovering in my mind while I was reading you these days.
May I? Thanks!
a) If you write on your blog and do not read the others and do not write comments on your partners blogs... do not expect to get any comments. Keep this moving! Write and comment and answer back when they tell you something. It shouldn't be a very long text... A few nice words can be motivating enough.
b) Correct your mistakes when the teacher suggests some changes. It is very frustrating to come back to you and find the same mistakes I've corrected before.
c)Spell-check your texts before your publish your texts. Very often I find mistakes that could have been avoided.
d)If you have language doubts, check them out in a grammar book or in the web.
e)Write short texts but do it often. Be versatile Use different materials; videos, listening texts (podcasts), texts, films, songs, web pages or books for inspiration and support... Try different topics and approaches. Be daring! Experiment with language; use chunks you know by heart from songs or books you've listened to or read. Insert those into your texts and make them sound more “English”.
f)Do not expect to be corrected by the teacher immediately and every time after you write. Keep the flow of your own pace, make it fluent, continue writing. Interact with each other and be happy or at least challenged with your partners' comments and those your may get from the teacher sometimes... But, by any means, do not stop writing if I do not say anything to you.
All I need to see is that you get from 6 to 10 comments in each of your posts... To get all these you may have to write 15 comments yourself! And... what about these native speakers of the language we were going to look for?
I have the feeling of being a ghost, for I cannot be seen but I can tell you I'm there! The doctor said he will keep me on a sick leave al least until after the Xmas Holidays. I feel better but I'm still in pain. I met Irina, your replacement teacher, last Friday and she is certainly taking care of you. So you are lucky to have her, meanwhile.
I'll be back soon and I will take into account all you have done, all you have written. (Tutorial meetings will take place right after the holidays.)
Do take care. All the best,

Lack of Inspiration?

2008-11-27T13:01:00.002+01:00

I was thinking to offer two possibilities:

For the left brain functioning people go to The Naked Scientists: Science Radio & Science Podcasts
and try to find an appealing topic to comment on.
For the right brain functioning people may this quote by D.H. Lawrence stir your minds in times of "crisis"?

The human soul needs actual beauty more than bread.

With all my love,

Right or Left? Nothing to do with politics

2008-11-09T11:12:00.000+01:00

Whenever I have time, that is to say, right now, when my 24 hour day have a painful touch and I can do what I fancy for an hour, at least, between painkiller and painkiller, I love reviewing these books I read in the past and which have been meaningful to me.

Maybe inspired by our dear bloggers The Walsh Family, Rip Van Winckle and Jack the Ripper who also brig us back to the values of classical literature, forgotten nowadays?

Here I am this morning reviewing one of my masters, one of the forbidden writers (according to Sara Palin) Aldous Huxley's Music at Night, 1931. A collection of essays, short enough for me to finish between pain and pain.

This is the essence:
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

I also came across one paragraph which I related to the aforesaid bloggers that I transcribe below:
"When the experiences recorded in a piece of literature correspond fairly closely with our own actual experiences, or with what I may call our potential experiences-experiences, that is to say, which we feel (as the result of a more or less explicit process of inference from known facts) that we might have had-we say, inaccurately no doubt: 'This piece of writing is true.' But this, of course, is not the whole story.

I wonder how much of their lives you share with your characters, and what is it that you share? I'd love to have an answer, and yet, you might not have it.

That very same paragraph shows the usage of "piece" in English.
*This piece of writing
*A piece of paper
*A piece of advice
*A piece of literature
*A piece of furniture
*...
Huxley was probably aware, as much as his own language has proven to be, of the "pieces" in life.

English, a language that allows pieces and almost forbids the "whole". What a language! I know it can drive crazy more than one. Easy in a way (no accents, easy verb structures) and difficult (no rules for pronunciation, different sentence structure...) I realize, almost at the end of my professional career, how it has affected my other languages; Catalan and Spanish, not to say French. Languages that I have used most of my life...

What a mess! The final mess which brings me to my last point, the one I want to convey, to share with you, for you to consider and help you develop the side of the bran which is less active by showing a clear example of a "right brained" person. The one who has written this very inarticulate piece of writing.

Here are my results:

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (56%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain.
Left Brain (36%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Would you like to know your tendencies? Take the test, and let us know.

Obama President!

2008-11-05T11:25:00.000+01:00

As you, my dear students, may guess, I'm happy with the results of the American Elections.
Pain woke me up at 4am and I could follow the final results of the American elections directly on TV3. It's been really moving when the metter has shown the electoral votes for California and this was enough for Obama's victory.
As you know, I have lived in the US for a long time and I was unsure of this victory for I had exprerienced the racism they were so afraid of in my own skin. I know now, America is changing for the better.

Read the news and watch the videos of the magic night and just enjoy the flavour of change!

Videos:

Obama Acceptance Speech HQ (Part 1) 11/04 - Barack Obama Victory Speech November 4th 2008

Obama Acceptance Speech HQ (Part 2) 11/04 - Barack Obama Victory Speech November 4th 2008

And Pinch Me ...a message from Michael Moore

Inspiration?

2008-10-24T00:02:00.000+02:00

Put yourself right in the present. This was my principle when I wrote the diary – to write the things I felt most strongly about that day. Start there and that starts the whole unravelling, because that has roots in the past and it has branches into the future… I chose the event of the day that I felt most strongly about, the most vivid one, the warmest one, the nearest one, the strongest one.
Anaïs Nin, A woman Speaks

I was ready to go to my gym class this morning, as I always do on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but when I got close to the sea I observed a marvelous horizon, a pinkish hue line above the sea, a mixture of pink and purple that all of a sudden I decided to change my plans. I went walking by the sea instead and found a great deal of details that made me think of my day as something absolutely different, something special.
As I was observing the passersby I could detect smiles, frustrations, anger, joy, happiness, determination, doubt, anguish… on their faces. I just corresponded with a smile or a few words if they were familiar to me for I felt naughty, as if I had not done the right thing but I was being compensated for my deed.
I was enjoying the first real autumn day thoroughly, feeling the drizzling rain on my face, observing the naked tamarinds, recently trimmed, the sand sculptures demolished by the cleaning trucks and the surfers getting in their wetsuits ready for a great trip! It was their day!
As I was walking, two poems, I would love to share with you, came to my mind: Sea Change by Charles Tomlinson and Ode to Autumn by John Keats. I cherished these delightful thoughts in times of crises.
As I reached the end of the Promenade in Sitges, I took my notebook and scribbled a few ideas. Here’s the organized result of my messy notes.
Enjoy the weekend and plan on a little escape, do something different than you usually do. I hope you feel rewarded just like I have been this morning.
All the best!

The Slow Movement

2008-10-17T16:04:00.000+02:00

Reading about The Slow Movement: Making a Connection I've come up with a list of ideas you may consider. As usual, this is not compulsory. You may write about this unless you have better ideas...

-time poverty
-Home schooling
-making connections
-Buddhism
-organic food
-Schools in turmoil.
-Home schooling...

I got a few ideas from the text. There are many more!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Burn After Reading

2008-10-13T16:27:00.000+02:00

I've just posted in Nicenet a couple of links (trailers and review) related to the new comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen. I hope the links inspire some writing and of course a greater wish to go and see the film in the original version, of course!!!
Keeping you busy, just in case!
Cheerio!

Need ideas?

2008-10-06T10:51:00.000+02:00

I was reading the BBC News last Saturday and found an article on the topic we were discussing in class: Tattoo culture under the spotlight. Here's the link for you to read and in need of ideas you can write a little review using some of the words and taking care of the style.
Here are some quotes to open your appetite:

"It is only now in Western culture that tattoos are becoming an expression of individuality, rather than being about belonging to a community,"

"People understandably tend to be focused on the artwork of the tattoo, but as it is usually an invasive procedure on the skin, people should be aware of potential problems, even if the risk is small."

I hope you take advantage of it and enjoy it!

Welcome to the teacher's Blog

2008-09-26T12:57:00.000+02:00

Carpe Diem! or Seize the Day will be the teacher's Blog for this 4th EOI 2008-09. I hope the sentence is inspiring enough for you to find your own voice just like the very powerful and intense teacher, Mr Keating, from the book and film we are going to read and watch: Dead Poets Society.

As we are starting a new school year, I encourage you to visit my previous year students’ Blog to see how active and creative they were on: http://stillacer.blogger.com The students’ blogs are on the right column of the Blog.

Do not follow their path; go further. Try to read native speakers Blogs and write comments to them if you find articles and pieces of writing that challenge or interest you.

Remember to use your English outside the classroom as much as you can. Talk to foreigners, read books, watch films in English, pay attention to the lyrics of English songs; try to understand the words while you're listening. Create the habit of reading the news in English, listen to pod casts and documentaries. Find opportunities to practice the language. Your learning is absolutely up to you!!!

I do hope you enjoy learning English as much as I enjoy teaching!