MAGIC SUPERNATURAL PLACES…. December 10, 2011

 

Göbekli  Tepe

Magic places…

Dear students, last week I was amazed for your creativity and imagination…you created fantastic and never seen before towns for the class….

Please read this information about magic places thru history  , then you will see that you are not so wrong..thanks to share…

 

All the time in different cultures have been real and imaginary places involved of legends with a special power, almost fantastic, over human been. Those were sceneries surrounded by magic and myths that have surprise to archaeologists and scientist until these days.

Most of these places that be called legends made cities, permanents links to the spiritual search, religious or not,   the human race. The best example is the Paradise, a place of     wholeness and harmony life in different religious considered the site of the beatified souls, charged according to various forms of cultural contexts. In religions of Abraham is a flower garden and abundant, in the Vedic religion of Hindustan, a kingdom of light in the confines of heaven, in Buddhism, in an unspecified astronomical sky, captured by the personal liberation of earthly desires, classical and culture of the Greeks is the Eliseo the abode of the blessed, besieged in the end of the worlds, according to old Homer –or beyond the Seven Pillars of  Hercules, in a fertile land that ‘three times a year produced fruit as sweet honey’’. The geographical and spiritual contrast of these sites is splendid and bright hell, the same Hoer in the Iliad describes as ‘’stay rot odyssey filled with horror to the gods themselves. http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewArticle.asp?id=16474

 

 

 

http://www.google.com.mx/imgres?q=eden+biblia&um=1&hl=es&biw=1280&bih=

 

 

http://www.aztlan.org.mx/

 

 Aztlán

We all know the old legend about the birth of Mexico: a group of pilgrims following the indications of God Huitzilopochtli, looking for centuries a place to settle, indicated by the emblematic image of the country: the eagle devouring a snake, same as found in the 1325. Where did from the founders of the Great Tenochtitlan come? From a mysterious place called Aztlan, the land of the herons so also are often called Aztecas. Historians debate whether a site that really existed or it was just a myth conceived by that culture, comparable to  Tamoachan, a heavenly place common to Mesoamerican cultures, probe supposedly shaped the man and invented pulque. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gtceHSmU_0

 

                                                                                                                          King’s Salomon mines

                                                                                                                                                                         

               Göbekle Tepe

http://calendariomayaplus.blogspot.com/2011/07/gobekli-tepe-el-templo-inexplicable-del.html

http://www.tellicotimes.com/Solomon.htm

 

Science fiction comes true December 10, 2011

 

 

The students imagination goes beyond the classroom, when they have to create new words they always go…….far form books, tales and movies. I have enjoyed their creations, new cities, food recepies, songs, games……names and lots of new, fresh, amaizing, ideas. This information is to show how their ideas could become true…..

 

Thanks for being  the way you are….

 

 

 

 

On the world of science fiction most of us have dreamed with the perfect plane….Now it is like the dream will come true…

It will be the end of the boring transatlantic flies.

To make more enjoyable intense and interesting the flying experience at high attitudes- and more if it is a 12 hours trip- the aeronautic European company presented a new concept of passenger’s cabins for the future design. These are authentic entertainment   and digital assistance rooms. The most outstanding factor is its translucent cover, which will allow a panoramic view from the sky. Passengers can enjoy comfortable sofas that will take their body shape; at the same time its walls will be coated with a conductive material to serve as intelligent interface between passengers and the airplane to resolve their necessities or requirements. Besides it will have various rooms with art entertainment, that would provided added value and to permit a unusual adventure trip.   http://coolamazingblend.blogspot.com/2011/06/revolutionary-transparent-airplane.html

 

 

 

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/06/airbus-aircraft-of-the-future/174521/1

science fiction?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5K1ZDs-li0&feature=relmfu

Why is good to learn english???? December 10, 2011

 My dear students always ask me:  why do I need to learn English? I do not see the point…others than music and video games, maybe fashion or technology,  to travel or to study…

                           The next information is to provide them with a few more examples about why it is useful for them to learn this new world….

                       The name- Cambridge School of Languages conjures images of spires and Anglo-Saxon aristocrats conversing in the Queen’s English. But this Cambridge is composed of new dank rooms with wobbly chairs at the edge of a crowded Delhi suburb. Its rival is not splendid Oxford but the nearby Euro Languages School. ‘’We tell students you need two things to succeed: English and computers,’’ says Chetan Kumar, a Euro Language Manager. ‘We teach one. For the other’ – he points to a nearby Internet  stand- ‘you can go next door.’

                  The professors back in Cambridge, England, would no doubt question the schools’ pedagogy. There are few books or CDs. Their teachers pronounce ‘we’ as ‘ve’ and  ‘primary’ as ‘primmry’. And yet such storefront shops aren’t merely the ragged edge of the massive English-learning industry, which in India alone is a $100 million-per-year business. They are the front lines of a global revolution in which hundreds of millions of people are learning English, the planet’s language for commerce, technology-and, increasingly, empowerment.  Within a decade, 2 billion people will be studying English and about half the world- some 3 billion people- will speak it, according to a recent report from British Council.

                 From Caracas to Karachi, parents keen for their children to achieve are forking over tuition for English-language schools. China’s English fever- elevated to epidemic proportions by country’s recent accession to the World Trade organization and coming 2012 Olympics-even has its own Mandarin term, Yingwen re. And governments from Tunisia to Turkey are pushing English, recognizing that along with computers and mass migration, the language is the turbine engine of globalization. As one 12-year-old self-taught English-speaker form China’s southwestern Sichuan province says, ‘If you can’t speak English, it’s like you’re deaf or dumb.’

                       All languages are works in progress. But English’s globalization, unprecedented in the history of languages, will revolutionize it in ways we can only begin to imagine. In the future, there could be a tri-English world, one in which you could speak a local English based dialect at home, a national variety at work or school, and international Standard English to talk foreigners.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tft5IluKca4 Global language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwQNFaID1Iw&feature=related 30 countries with a million speakers

www.languagemuseum.org/WorldEnglishesOxfo   world englishes and varieties of Englishk

 

Reading is fun… December 10, 2011

Teacher recommends!!!!

Reading is one of the most precious…….experiences

When you go to a library or a bookstore there are lots of books,

Tales, narrations, essays….etc…  

www.phinnweb.org/links/…/borges/aleph.html

These are some  books that  you will enjoy and remember always.             

Let’s read and share different words…..

El Aleph

 Borges

Is a short story by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.

In Borge’s story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Any who gazes into it cab see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping or confusion. The story continues the theme of infinity found in several of Borge’s other works.

http://www.enotes.com/aleph

Zipper represents the infancy of the sixties, a scientist who believes in the intuitive rather than reason, is capricious and has not    lost touch with his early life. I think that every great thinker retains some of that spirit. Baudelaire said of geniuses that we have of children. “
(John Villoro)
The formidable scientific Cremallerus, jealous of the prestige and charm zipper distracted professor, takes a fierce struggle against it. From his results depends the future of cloud liquid, popular and fun rock band whose career is in jeopardy.

                                                                                              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTWB94EcRWE

The Dairy of a Wimpy Kid’ is a realistic novel by Jeff Kinney. It is the first book in the diary of a wimpy kid series. The book is about a middle-school child named Greg Heffleyand his struggles in middle school. Greg also had problems with his best friend, Rowley Jefferson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDdy1Z0Pn_M

http://www.wimpykid.com/

The book opens with Greg Heffley saying how embarrassing it is to be having a journal with “diary” on the front and that whoever sees him with it will call him a “sissy”. Greg also goes to mention that one day he will become rich and famous but for now he is “stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons”.

Discipline problems in the classroom… December 10, 2011

Neurons and autism

In the classroom we use to believe that some students or classmates problems of discipline are part of their personality. There are some aspects to take in account before stereotyping.

I have seen that some students that look absent could be for medical reasons like autism.  

Apparently the lack of so-called mirror neurons in the brain is the origin of autism. This disease, which prevents children to communicate and interact with the outside world, it has been investigated by scientists   at the University of California at Los Angeles. Compared the reactions among children with autism and normal to different stimuli such as fear, hate, and joy and measured the pressure of the blood supply to the brain with magnetic resonance imaging, which enabled to determine which parts of the brain were used. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hdqKiGmXGg The difference of the autistic children and the rest showed very little activity in the base area near the base of the brain where mirror neurons reside, allowing them to humans understand the intention of others by observing their actions or mimic their behavior, when they are damaged, they infer with speech.  http://www.autism-society.org/

Video games and english….. is it posible?? October 8, 2011

This is for the ones who love video games, in this case you know more than any teacher. We can name  different kinds of plattaform, from the oldest to the newest. Have you listen about Atary?  yes, it was one of the first ones, what about pac-man? and is still one of the most famouse. Nowdays you can do many things with a video plataform. You can go every where, challenge players from all aroud the world, have amaizing  adventures, get abilities for a graet battle, for scaping, for driving a car in a city.More info

 

 

 

Check the link

 

Environmental education October 8, 2011

Lately some educational programs have included the subject of   Environmental education…. But,  what is the reason??

Global warming? Marketing? Fashion? …there can be many answers. The true is that we face reality every day. It is a fact that environment is unpredictable, a few years ago there were seasons but nowadays we have the four seasons in just one day. Also weather affects our life it affects our future. This article pretends to be an invitation for my colleges and students to become part of a genuine awareness in this real problem or human act consequence. It is simple to follow a few steps for help on the change, I am pretty sure that you know them, like water save when you take a shower, when you wash a car, when you wash the dishes, or wash clothes. About electricity, there are a lot of appliances that do not need to be connected all day long, like T.V. computers, microwave, washer machine, lamps, and more stuff. About transportation, in other countries the use of bicycle became popular, obviously the cities are made for the use of this, but we can try to start to make it popular, with the car, we can share it not just for certain occasions, it can be part of our daily routine. With disposable plates, bottles, glasses and more is better to check its material and how long ii will take be into the nature. What about when you buy an electronic device, you can check how much energy these consume and the materials it was made.

What about these and teaching English? As I mention before we are a model for our students,  if we provide them with tips to help on the environment salvation, we make an invitation to do it constantly, not just for the school subjects, we are making our part as educators, models and facilitators. On the other hand we have to be careful about contradictions because sometimes we use a lot of paper, copies, electricity, machines, markers, etcetera. Or outside the school we use the car a lot, or more than that, we put trash on the wrong place. Remember, you can not recommend or teach what you do not do or believe in.

There are certain groups where you can get information about these tips or more direct participation for the whole country and your town. One of the most famous besides the controversy is Green peace. There are lots of videos, documents, groups, activities and direct real information about what we can do.

I hope that unless it is a very popular message, it helps you to take into consideration for your teaching.

http://www.greenpeace.org/mexico/es/

 

As old as mankind…..but just take into consideration ….Bullying October 8, 2011

Bullying….

As teachers there are many factors to take into consideration  about our students’ behavior.  As you remember we have to function as a tutor, psychologist, model, friend, also as a coach. There are some situations when we do not have the tolls, knowledge or authority to act in the most appropriate way. One of the reasons that we suffer this lack of potential is information.

The schools do not always provide us with the right way to act in certain occasions because most of the time they do not have the complete information neither. As an example there is this new term called bullying. Bullying is very wide and also controversial. Constantly the media sends the incomplete or wrong information about this, so is better for us to look  for the most suitable information in order to have the best tools in favor of our profession and our students benefit.

Bullying is the new name for an aggressive behavior, which is visible as abusive treatment, most of the time the use of  physical force or intimidation to affect others. It may involve verbal annoyance, physical assault or coercion and may be directed continuously towards particular victims. In some cases race, religion, gender and sexuality are factors of bullying. Some persons use it as a gain of power above others.

Bullying is not just about physical abuse it involves emotional and verbal abuse too; always using the methods of coercion such as intimidation.http://kenrigby.net/

Bullying can be defined in many different ways depending on the culture or purpose for the definition. While some countries currently have not legal definition of bullying some others have laws against it.

The degree of bullying comes from simple one-on-one to more complex bullying where the bully might have one or more “lieutenants” that can seem to assist the chief bully in his bullying activities. These situations in school and work place can be classified as peer abuse.

The context where the bullying takes place is where the human interacts with each other. We can mention school, church, family, the work place, home and neighborhood.  Bullying can subsist between social groups, social classes and among countries.  About countries there are some authors who consider bullying between nations one of the mayor causes why the World War I and WW II occurred.http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=181643

Teachers need to consider this kind of behavior between our students and between us too, society seems this as a new conduct but as we read at the beginning; bullying is as old as mankind ……

Reading the news paper in class: October 8, 2011

Now days with the use of media most of the students do not read the news paper. Why? There are many reasons:  T.V., Internet, radio, and more. Anyway there are some advantages on the use of a real news paper, first the news are on detail, so you obtain more specific details of the article or events that happened in the world. Advertisements are different, the images, the messages, are according to the location where the news paper is edited; local school news, shops, cultural events, restaurants, sales, rents and more.

The most important aspect is that you improve your language in a clear manner without mistakes. Besides reading the different sections and at the same time you practice and raise reading skills.

Other point is that you do not need technology, laptop or a wireless connection or PDA, to read a news paper it goes with you everywhere. Furthermore you can read it sitting outside on the sun, on the school, on a restaurant, on the bus or before sleep. What’s more they do not have to sign in or register or remember passwords to read a newspaper. It is cheap disposable and easy to replace, it is not made of unrecyclable toxic materials, it is reusable for many purposes. In addition the information of the news paper is more reliable than the one on the media, there is not plagiarism.

In a news paper you have crosswords, news, comics, classifieds, all together in one. Your students will improve their reading skills, their world knowledge and they will get involve into a real local world without the necessity of technology.

Economy is another factor, there are lots of people into the creation of a news paper, if your students get the habit of reading it for a little time in the day, besides of growing their reading skills they will contribute to the local economy, also they will find an space where they can participate as writers too, they can put an advertisement or write an article, comment a local or a school event, ask or search for a job, etcetera.

 

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view

The use of music in English class. October 8, 2011

This is a very typical controversial point since some studies avoid the use of music,  some others support it. If you search the topic “The Use of music in learning languages”, you will find advantages and disadvantages. Throughout time, healers, philosophers, scientists, and teachers have recognized the place of music for therapeutic and developmental functions (Bancroft 3-7).

Pointing to the theory of language acquisition we can find pedagogical reasons supporting the use of music, some of them talk about the relationship between music and the learning of a second language, these carry the participation of music therapist in the development of school programs for learning a language. Melodic recognition, contour processing, timbre discrimination, rhythm, tonality, prediction; and perception of the sight, sound, and form of symbols in context are essential in both music and language. What’s more music positively affects accent, memory, and grammar as well as mood, pleasure, and motivation. For those reasons and more I strongly believe that language teachers and music therapists could be an excellent combination on the creation of English school programs.

There is a method or approach that is based on baroque music, which is Suggestopedy, it is still in use as part of teaching a second language but the music is use the baroque however there is wide of music genres than teachers can use.http://www.jwelford.demon.co.uk/brainwaremap/suggest.html

Which music would a teachers use in the class?   The answer is extremely ambiguous, the researchers had different answers most of them base on students background or necessities, and others based on the teaching objective, as well as the teacher style and the classroom conditions. Check your student’s likes and dislikes, chose different genres, new music, classics, and different countries.

To be an innovative teacher, to cause relaxation, to improve class interest, and many other grounds, the use of music is an excellent option for the class.