One More Lesson For Life

Here is one of those stories that may change the way we look at life.

Zach Sobiech turned 18 on May 3rd, 2013. He was diagnosed with a type of bone cancer, osteosarcoma, in 2009. Since then, he has gone through several surgeries and chemo sessions; the cancer has spread to his pelvis and lungs and there seems to be no effective treatment for him right now. Zach turned to music (writing and performing songs) as a way to say goodbye to his friends and family. This is his story, told in a documentary called "My Last Days." You may not understand everything that is said but you will definitely get its message: it is certainly painful, but really positive. I warn you, it will be difficult not to burst into tears.

"Clouds" is one of Zach´s songs, really catchy, so read the lyrics below and sing along!


CLOUDS, Lyrics:

Well I fell down, down, down
Into this dark and lonely hole
There was no one there to care about me anymore
And I needed a way to climb and grab a hold of the edge
You were sitting there holding a rope

And we'll go up, up, up
But I'll fly a little higher
We'll go up in the clouds because the view is a little nicer
Up here my dear
It won't be long now, it won't be long now

When I get back on land
Well I'll never get my chance
Be ready to live and it'll be ripped right out of my hands
Maybe someday we'll take a little ride
We'll go up, up, up and everything will be just fine

And we'll go up, up, up
But I'll fly a little higher
We'll go up in the clouds because the view is a little nicer
Up here my dear

It won't be long now, it won't be long now
If only I had a little bit more time
If only I had a little bit more time with you

We could go up, up, up
And take that little ride
And sit there holding hands
And everything would be just right
And maybe someday I'll see you again
We'll float up in the clouds and we'll never see the end

And we'll go up, up, up
But I'll fly a little higher
We'll go up in the clouds because the view is a little nicer
Up here my dear
It won't be long now, it won't be long now

World Water Day, March 22nd

Today, March 22nd, is World Water Day and we are celebrating it just as we should: it is pouring with rain. The rainy weather in Lugo probably makes it difficult for us to imagine life without plenty of water around us but ads like these really show what lack of water must be like; this is their message: 

Today 1.1 billion people will have no choice but to drink dirty water.

Thanks to an accident of birth, you're not one of them.

But what if you were? If you had to wash the dishes with it, bathe in it, drink it - and ask yourself this question-if you had to give dirty water to those you love knowing it could kill them, would you?

Imagine New York City's taps went dry, what would people do? Jennifer Connelly walks to Central Park to get dirty water for her family as millions of mothers in Africa do every day. This is an ad by Charity: Water; it was directed by Hotel Rwanda's film director Terry George.

More about water, click here and here

The Spanish Crisis

I know that this is not the typical "Happy New Year!" message but I am afraid the new year, 2013, will not bring any good news here in Spain for most of us - as far as working / living conditions are concerned. If you watch the following documentary, you will understand why I am not at all optimistic about it.

It is a long documentary, about one hour long, but it will be good listening practice: you will be listening to a nice British accent while you read the subtitles to make sure you understand the message. In this BBC documentary,  reporter Paul Mason explains the development of the financial situation in Spain from Franco´s times to the present.

We are all having a hard time and protests are non-stop all over Spain but "Spain is Different" and some people carry their protests in very peculiar ways, like the one in the following videos: a Seville-based performance group calling itself Flo6x8 has been sending trained dancers into the lobbies of bank branches across Spain to disrupt business. Here´s an example of what they do:

The second video was recorded in a Bankia office; as you know, Bankia, one of Spain’s largest banks and the current target of corruption investigations, received a 30 billion Euro (US $36.9 billion) bailout from the EU’s crisis lending body. In the lyric, the singer is addressing the bank as an old friend from whom he now feels distant:

Your character and will
have changed a little my friend
Ay, since you got rich
I can’t put up with you
and your new money ways.

We´ll soon see what 2013 brings; meanwhile: 

Happy New Year Glitter Pictures

"Prohibited Education"

Do you think we need a different kind of education?

Prohibited Education  is a documentary released last August about a fundamental question, what does it mean to educate? As a teacher I have found it extremely interesting to start me thinking about several points of view regarding education.

I am afraid it is long (145 minutes) but it is worth every minute of it. It starts with Plato´s allegory of the cave, which, I hope, many of our students will know thanks to their philosophy lessons, and it goes on to explain the beginnings of education: the documentary bases the roots of education on totalitarian regimes and I must admit I found the whole explanation astonishing, just like many more data presented.

The film´s original language is Spanish ("La educación prohibida"); there are quite a few interviews with school teachers in seven countries in Latin America and Spain who have extremely interesting suggestions and ideas. Anyway, I have embedded the Spanish original version with English subtitles, which, I think, are very good (thus, good reading practice)

Watch the trailer first and I hope you ´ll feel like spending two hours and a half to decide whether to change your idea of what education is.

Let me guide you through the film: watch it trying to find out the answers to the following questions:

1. when did the current educational system start? what was its objective?
2. the current educational system doesnt´prepare students for...
3. what values should be encouraged in the family?

Answers to my questions: 

1. ˙ǝɔɹoɟʞɹoʍ dɐǝɥɔ puɐ ʇuǝıɔıɟɟǝ ǝɥʇ ʇǝb oʇ ɯǝʇsʎs ǝɥʇ pǝpunɟ suoıʇɐɹodɹoɔ ןɐqoןb ǝɥʇ ɟo sɹǝpɐǝן ǝɥʇ ˙sɹɐʍ ssǝןpuǝ ǝɥʇ uı ɯɹoɟɹǝd oʇ ʎpɐǝɹ puɐ spuɐɯɯoɔ ʎq pǝbɐuɐɯ 'uoıʇɐןndod ʇuǝıpǝqo ʇǝb oʇ sɐʍ ǝʌıʇɔǝظqo sʇı puɐ ǝdoɹnǝ uı obɐ sɹɐǝʎ 002 ɹǝʌo pǝɯɹoɟ sɐʍ ɯǝʇsʎs ןɐuoıʇɐɔnpǝ ʇuǝɹɹnɔ ǝɥʇ
2. ˙sʇuǝןɐʇ ɹıǝɥʇ sןןıʞ puɐ sǝıʇıןɐuosɹǝd sɐ ʍoɹb spıʞ ǝɥʇ dןǝɥ ʇ,usǝop ʇı 'sǝpısǝq ˙buıɥʇou uɐǝɯ sʞɹɐɯ puɐ sǝןʇıʇ ǝɥʇ ɟo ʇsoɯ puɐ 'ǝɟıן ןɐǝɹ ɐ ɹoɟ sʇuǝpnʇs sʇı ǝɹɐdǝɹd ʇ,usǝop ɯǝʇsʎs ǝɥʇ
3. ˙suoıʇɔɐ puɐ suoısıɔǝp ɹǝɥ/sıɥ ɹoɟ ʎʇıןıqısuodsǝɹ ǝɥʇ sɐ ןןǝʍ sɐ ǝsooɥɔ oʇ ɯopǝǝɹɟ ɐ uǝʌıb puɐ pǝʇɔǝdsǝɹ 'pǝʌoן ǝq ןןɐɥs pıʞ ɐ ˙ǝɔıoɥɔ ɟo ɯopǝǝɹɟ puɐ ʇɔǝdsǝɹ 'ǝʌoן :sǝnןɐʌ snoıʌqo puɐ ʎןıɯɐɟ ɐ uı sǝıן ɯǝʇsʎs ǝɥʇ ǝbuɐɥɔ oʇ ʎǝʞ ǝɥʇ

Any comments anyone?

Sitio Web Oficial: http://www.educacionprohibida.com

Mapa de Proyecciones Independientes:http://proyecciones.educacionprohibida.com/mapa/

Closed for the Summer

My summer break applies to classes and to the blog as well. I do not know if I am more stimulated to blogging when I am teaching but I do know it feels right to take a break (both for me and my readers).

Here are my suggestions for the summer holidays:

1. Read: you may find something that suits you here or here. If you are looking for teen or young adult literature, click here and here 

2. Listen to English; podcasts are a good idea: try here and here. Songs are also great to practise both listening and pronunciation; have a look here. By the way, besides making you feel good, singing songs is encouraging as for English learning: have you noticed people have accents when they speak English but not when they sing? Isn´t it weird?


 From Millan.Net


Here´s a video that shows what a podcast is and how it works:



3. Play some games online. Try this one: Placefy - fun geography game, twitter game, travel game. Besides, there are different types of games in my Delicious links as well.

4. If you are willing and able, you can take a special summer course; you can choose any of these:  an elephant camp in Thailand, learning ice-cream making in Italy, learning Senegalese drumming and dance traditions in Senegal... for these and many more, click here 

5. Watch films or documentaries in English. You will find some very interesting ones in this link, SnagFilms:

Watch more free documentaries

6. Dream: if you cannot go anywhere, dream of the day when you´ll be able to travel and visit places like these:

And this is a wink to my colleagues: here´s to all those of you who are real superstars -not the celebrity-type, though:

Teachers as superstars:

If you need me, send me an email or write a comment in any of the entries... If you miss me, browse through the pages of the blog... Happy Holidays! I will be back in September

Our World

Survival International has launched a campaign to persuade the Minister of Justice in Brazil to send away the invaders -loggers mainly- who are killing the very few Awá people who still remain in the Amazon.

The campaign's goal is to persuade Brazil's Justice Minister to send in federal police to clear out the invaders.On the "Survival International" website, visitors can send a pre-coordinated message to the Minister of Justice in Brazil or share the information on their social media pages.

According to National Geographic the Awá are one of only two nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes left in Brazil. This unique tribe has a profoundly warm relationship with their forest, which provides them with food, shelter and spiritual solace.

The Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth supports this campaign; this is his speech in the video below:  

Many Awa remain uncontacted, they are the most threatened tribe in the world. Their forest is being illegally cut for timber. When the loggers see them, they kill them.When the loggers see them, they kill them. Their bows and arrows are no match for guns. And at any other time in history, that's where it would end. Another people wiped off the face of the Earth, forever. But we're going to make sure the world doesn't let that happen.Here´s the plan

One man can stop this: Brazil's Minister of Justice. He can send  in the federal police to catch the loggers and keep them out for good.But But right now it's just not his priority. We have to change that before its too late. We need enough people to message him so that he takes notice: you, me, our friends, our families, everyone counts. But we don´t have much time, when the rains stop, the loggers will be back. This is our chance right now to actually do something. And if enough people show they care, it will work.

Here´s a piece of advice for you to practise your pronunciation: 

• watch the video once (listening exercise)
• play it a second time while reading Colin Firth´s words above; pay attention and make sure you get the message. 
• Then play the video again and read the speech at the same time as Colin Firth: imitate his pronunciation and intonation. You could´t have a better teacher than the one who helped the King of the UK with his speeches. Click here  to watch the trailer of "The King´s Speech" in original version with English subtitles. By the way, you can borrow the film from the school library...

Lucía´s T-shirt

In class this morning, Lucía was wearing a T-shirt with a photograph of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and I couldn´t help noticing it. I find Frida Kahlo mesmerizing

In this video you will get a glimpse of her life, it´s a short biography which includes some of the things we mentioned in class this morning.

The trailer below belongs to Frida, a 2002 biographical film which shows the professional and private life of Frida Kahlo. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera. Antonio Banderas also has a part in the film. 

This film is a good choice for the weekend...

 

Remember your homework: Frida is said to have had a lover who was a member of the Soviet Russian government, someone who died in Mexico, who?