The Power of Education

How would you spread the message of the power of education?

This is what they did in Mexico: the Non- Violence Project divided one bus into two parts: a school bus and a prisoner bus trying to explain visually the following statement: Violence ends where education begins

 

Share your thoughts: what do you think of this project?

Reasons to Study Languages

A couple of years ago, Alex Rawlings won a national competition to find the UK´s most multi-lingual student; he is 20-something now and speaks eleven languages.

Watch the video and reflect on this question, how and why did Alex learn all those languages? When learning a language, do you use any of the strategies he mentions?

If you want to imitate Alex, here´s a video which tells you how to learn a language in ten days

Sophie´s World, the Movie

Sophie´s World  is a book written by a Norwegian philosophy teacher called Jostein Gardner; it presents philosophical ideas and the history of philosophy in the form of a story, from ancient Greece, over the Roman empire, the Middle ages, the renaissance, the enlightenment, the big revolutions and up to today. 

I think this book is a must for all BAC students so here you are:

Sophie´s World, free pdf in English, click here

El mundo de Sofía, free pdf (in Spanish), click here

And here is the film - original version in Norwegian with subtitles in English. 

I would read the book first and watch the film afterwards, but that is just a suggestion...

Father´s Day 2014

Father´s Day  is celebrated on March 19th.

Watch these two videos with two different perspectives of father; in the first one, a father uses the web to share memories with his daughter as she grows up in this video depiction.

In the second video, Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman describes his father's unique teaching methods. “The difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something,” is a quote in this video, R. Feynman uses it while he describes what he was taught by his father.

Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988), scientist, teacher, raconteur, and musician.  He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb, expanded the understanding of quantum electrodynamics, translated Mayan hieroglyphics, and cut to the heart of the Challenger disaster.  But beyond all of that, Richard Feynman was a unique and multi-faceted individual.

Words Matter

Read the following paragraph; do you agree with it?

When a little boy asserts himself, he's called a “leader.” Yet when a little girl does the same, she risks being branded “bossy.” Words like bossy send a message: don't raise your hand or speak up. By middle school, girls are less interested in leading than boys—a trend that continues into adulthood. 

Ban Bossy is a campaign to encourage young women to feel good about themselves and to be confident to take the lead. Do you think a campaign like this is necessary and / or useful? Why (not)? 

Students´Tweets About Teachers

I do not know how many of these tweets about Los Alamitos High School teachers  are true but I am sure there are quite a few tweets about teachers  everywhere …

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This video imitates American TV host Jimmy Kimmel´s segment in his show called "Celebrities Read Mean Tweets"

Finland´s School System

For the record, a long documentary about the school system in Finland: The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World´s Most Surprising School System

What surprised you most? What do you "envy" the most? What do you disagree with?

If you would like to read some reviews of the documentary and its content, click here

Stay in School or Else...

What do you think about this commercial, called "Set Yourself Free"? It was paid by "Learn for Life Foundation of Western Australia", a non-profit organization which promotes the importance of education for people of all ages

Check the meaning of this verb before you watch the video: Slack off

I would say this is a controversial ad - to say the least

Primary School Graduation Speech

Listen to Ryan Anthony Quenangan Balaoing in his graduation speech at Pearl Zanker Elementary School in Milpitas, CA. He delivered this speech on June 10, 2010 but it is a very good example of a well-rehearsed speech - he had learnt it all by heart!. He was graduating from Primary school to go to Middle school.

Pay attention to all the details that make this a very good example of what a graduation speech should be like: 

• the notes in his hand (which he does not read)
• the layout of the speech
• his body language
• his intonation
• his pauses
• his eye contact
• his outfit

 

Will You Sign This Petition?

This post has been copied and pasted from the internet

The class of Sinenjongo High School in Cape Town, South Africa wrote an open letter on Facebook requesting free access to Wikipedia on their cellphones so that they can do their homework. They don't have a library at their school, and don't have internet access at home. The only books they have are the ones they are issued at school, so they have very limited access to information. 

They were inspired to write their letter when they heard about Wikipedia Zero, an initiative of the Wikimedia Foundation (the non-profit that supports Wikipedia) to enable mobile access, free of data charges, to Wikipedia in developing countries. The objective of the program is to reduce barriers to accessing free knowledge—one of the largest barriers being cost of data usage. 

Open letter to Cell C, MTN, Vodacom and 8ta

We are learners in a Grade 11 class at Sinenjongo High School, Joe Slovo Park, Milnerton, Cape Town. We recently heard that in some other African countries like Kenya and Uganda certain cell phone providers are offering their customers free access to Wikipedia.

We think this is a wonderful idea and would really like to encourage you also to make the same offer here in South Africa. It would be totally amazing to be able to access information on our cell phones which would be affordable to us.

Our school does not have a library at all so when we need to do research we have to walk a long way to the local library. When we get there we have to wait in a queue to use the one or two computers which have the internet. At school we do have 25 computers but we struggle to get to use them because they are mainly for the learners who do CAT (Computer Application Technology) as a subject. Going to an internet cafe is also not an easy option because you have to pay per half hour.

90% of us have cell phones but it is expensive for us to buy airtime so if we could get free access to Wikipedia it would make a huge difference to us.

Normally when we do research Wikipedia is one of the best sites for us to use and so we go straight to it. The information there is clear, updated and there is information on just about every topic.

Our education system needs help and having access to Wikipedia would make a very positive difference. Just think of the boost that it will give us as students and to the whole education system of South Africa.

From
Sinombongo, Sinako, Busisiwe, Ntswaki, Bomkazi, Lindokuhle, Ntsika, Patrick, Ndumiso, Sinazo, Bathandwa, Nokuthembela, Lutho, Mandlilakhe, Zingisile, Aviwe, Nezisa, Ncumisa, Nokubonga, Pheliwe, Zama, Unathi, Malixole and Ntombozuko.

Will you sign their petition? Click here

A Message to Parents

I´m sure both my colleagues and my students know this is true...

(Photo from You Can´t scare Me, I´m a Teacher. Thanks, Monsa!)

Strike Against the Education Reform

Students, parents and teachers from all levels of the Spanish public education system are on strike today to protest against the massive cuts and the education reform passed by the government. 

Last May we lived another strike like this. The video below is about the situation then (the education reform had not been passed yet). Watch it and pay attention to the vocabulary about education you can hear or read there; you know the topic so it shouldn´t be difficult to follow. If you read the captions, try to follow the general idea but remember they are not man-made so you will see quite a few mistakes there.Make sure you know what the following words and expressions mean before watching the video:

• pre-school
• participation rate
• austerity measures
• budget cuts
• reduce spending on education
• tuition
• non-obligatory secondary education
• labour unions
• protester
• to demonstrate
• the public sector
• student-teacher ratio
• charter schools

The Use of English

Harris Academy  in London  has introduced new rules on the use of slang: they have banned the use of some slang words frequently used by their students in order to improve standards of English. Have a look at the banned words:

In case you are wondering what these words mean, here´s an explanation for some of them:

'BASICALLY, IT'S BARE EXTRA, INNIT?' WHAT DO THE BANNED WORDS MEAN?

Coz - short for 'because'. As in 'Care is required in handling elemental sodium coz it generates flammable hydrogen and caustic sodium hydroxide upon contact with water'.

Like - Often used erroneously in sentences. American in origin. For example: 'School dinner was, like, lasagna'.

Bare - Very, a lot of. For example: 'Shakespeare had bare influence on the English language'.

Extra - pointless, stupid, weird or just plain dumb. 'Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis is extra'.

Innit - Isn't it? As in: 'The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world's oceans, innit

Read more about this here

Are you interested in learning a little bit more about British slang? Click here

Note: meaning of "academy" according to the Wikipedia:  In the English state education system, an academy is a school directly funded by central government (specifically, the Department for Education) and independent of direct control by local government in England 

Idea for the post taken from The English Blog

Support Universal Education

I didn´t expect to write any posts until the school year starts, that is, next September, but this piece of news is worth both your time and mine. 

Do you remember Malala? Click here, if you don´t

Next July 12th Malala will celebrate her sixteenth birthday delivering a speech about education recommendations for youth to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. You can join Malala´s fight for universal education signing this letter to Ban Ki-moon

Dear Mr Secretary-General,

I stand with Malala in demanding that the leaders of the world end our global Education Emergency. After the recent violent murder of 14 girls in Pakistan who simply wanted an education, I support the civil rights struggle of 57 million girls and boys who will not go to school today — or any day. Side by side with Malala, we demand that at the United Nations General Assembly, world leaders agree to fund the new teachers, schools and books we need — and to end child labour, child marriage and child trafficking — so that by December 2015 we meet the Millennium Development goal promise that every boy and girl be at school.

We must be united in this fight, and we must act now. Thank you for standing with us.

Click here to sign this letter, "Stand With Malala"

Graduation Speeches 2013. Day 1

The first turn of graduation speeches took place last Tuesday; the students were divided into two groups according to their class numbers and, funnily enough, they turned out to be two single-sex groups. 

Here they are: on the one hand, Sara, María, Catalina, Cristina and Alba, and Carlos, Alejo, Simón, Abraham, Víctor and Emilio, on the other.

Here are some photos to remember that wonderful experience ( I hope the videos will be ready soon)

Girls & Sports

Watch this video and tell me what you think about it - I do not mean from the point of view of bag styles or as an entrepreneur idea; I mean the statements about girls and the comparison between boys and girls in relation to sports.

Activyst: Help Girls Play Sports from activyst on Vimeo.

Monsalud, thank you for the video!

Philosophical Issues Explained by a 9-Year-Old

Read the following questions and think about their answers, what would YOU say? Ask one or two adults close to you and pay attention to their answers (can they make their points of view clear?)

• what is the meaning of life -why are we on earth? what´s our place in the universe?
• is there life elsewhere in the universe, on other planets?
• is it possible that there are multiple universes? do we live in a multiverse?
• what is the meaning of our lives?
• are the events in life pre-destined: might our life be predestined - all scripted for us in advance?

Now listen to a 9-year-old discussing the meaning of life and the universe. Click on the video to watch it with captions in English; it will be easier for you to follow.

Read the story behind this video here

I bet no many grown-ups can give better answers than this young philosopher; what do you think?

March 8th: Working Women

graphics18.com | Women's Day 8 march

Tomorrow, March 8th is IWD= International Women´s Day; a day when we pay homage to working women so you will find quite a few things in this entry related to that.

Here´s what you can do for optional homework: choose one of the photos in this post and explain its message in relation to the celebration; whatever image you choose, try to see the irony in it, go deep into its meaning (see if you can find a double meaning), and explain why you like it or not, or why you agree or disagree with it. 

And here are a couple of videos related to the topic of "working women".

The first one is a short film (about 10 minutes long) called What´s A Girl Doing Here? It is about women working in a job not frequently associated to them:  female cab drivers in NY; but they are not only taxi drivers, one of them is also a photographer, another one has a master´s degree.... The film director is also a woman, Diana Diroy .

There are no subtitles in this film but I am sure you will get a pretty good idea of the things they talk about; read this introduction by the director first, it will really help you understand it better:

Loud flashes of yellow are all around you in this city—46,000 taxi sedans, vans and S.U.V.’s streaking across the streets of New York. Yet, only about 170 of them are driven by women, a percentage even lower than the national average. In all my years of hopping into cabs here, and elsewhere, I never met a female driver until I shot this documentary. I needed to find them.

I went from one taxi garage to the next, the only woman in a sea of men, and the drivers would look at me like I was crazy. For weeks I had no luck. Then one evening, a good friend of mine hailed a cab—and there was Shonna Valeska behind the wheel. He told her about my project, wrote her phone number down on a record sleeve, and texted me right away.

In November 2010 I began filming Valeska, and Elena Tenchikova, to whom I’d been connected via the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission. They graciously brought me into their world—one of late nights, early mornings, and forgotten corners—and a year and a half later, I caught up with the women for an update.

Tenchikova recently graduated from Brooklyn College with a master’s degree in urban policy and administration. She put driving on hold for ten months as she completed a program at the NYC Civic Corps, an AmeriCorps initiative, through which she was placed in the NYC Housing Authority to work on its “green” agenda. She hopes to someday work in environmental sustainability, but until then she’s back behind the wheel, navigating a yellow cab through the streets of New York.

After driving for ten months, Valeska hung up her taxi license in February 2011 because of the exhausting and repetitive 12-hour shifts. She loved the customers, but wasn’t making enough money to support her photography studio and simply did not have enough time to pursue her passion for photo work. She continues to take photographs and most recently shot her fourth book cover for Ann Coulter. In the future, Valeska hopes to produce a documentary about the taxi-driving industry.

"What's a girl doing here?" from Narratively on Vimeo.

As for the second video, it shows another type of working woman, Michelle Obama. I have chosen it because you can see and listen to her delivering a speech about education at Renca's Condor Summit Bicentennial School in Santiago de Chile, on March 21, 2011. Michelle Obama spoke in English but the video is subtitled in Spanish. Click here if you are interested in reading the English transcription.

Here are some remarks, related to education, made by the First Lady Michelle Obama that are worth considering:

• the importance of getting a good education - the greatest a gift parents can give to their children
• you shouldn´t be limited by circumstances as far as education is considered
• what really matters is what you think about yourself and what you are willing to do to achieve your goals - because big dreams require big efforts.
• as for school life, the importance of paying attention in class everyday, listening to teachers, doing your homework, not being afraid to make mistakes, asking questions when you don´t understand something.
• Once you succeed, help someone else succeed: none of us can fulfil our dreams on our own.

Any comments? Is there anything you don´t agree with?

How is your Maths?

Maths as a subject was a real nightmare for me when I was a high school student. Maybe videos like these ones here would have made things easier, who knows? Have a look and let me know if you find them useful...

Click here for more rap maths

Numberphile has lots of  entertaining videos about numbers and stuff; here is one of them where they explain what "vampire numbers" are



And with the following video you will learn what a billion is: 




Do you need extra help? Have a look at S.O.S Mathematics 

Do let me know if your marks improve in your Maths exams in the future...

Google Science Fair 2013

Google has announced its third Science Fair; this is the video that promotes it: 

And this second video tells you how to participate - but click here to go to the webpage:

The following information is taken from Google´s official blog: 

For the past two years, thousands of students from more than 90 countries have submitted research projects that address some of the most challenging problems we face today. Previous winners tackled issues such as the early diagnosis of breast cancer, improving the experience of listening to music for people with hearing lossand cataloguing the ecosystem found in water. This year we hope to once again inspire scientific exploration among young people and receive even more entries for our third competition. 

Here’s some key information for this year’s Science Fair:

• Students can enter the Science Fair in 13 languages.
• The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2013 at 11:59 pm PDT.
• In June, we’ll recognize 90 regional finalists (30 from the Americas, 30 from Asia Pacific and 30 from Europe/Middle East/Africa).
• Judges will then select the top 15 finalists, who will be flown to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. for our live, final event on September 23, 2013.
• At the finals, a panel of distinguished international judges consisting of renowned scientists and tech innovators will select top winners in each age category (13-14, 15-16, 17-18). One will be selected as the Grand Prize winner.

Prizes for the 2013 Science Fair include a $50,000 scholarship from Google, a trip to the Galapagos with National Geographic Expeditions, experiences at CERN, Google or the LEGO Group and digital access to the Scientific American archives for the winner’s school for a year. Scientific American will also award a $50,000 Science in Action prize to one project that makes a practical difference by addressing a social, environmental or health issue. We’re also introducing two new prizes for 2013:

• In August, the public will have the opportunity to get to know our 15 finalists through a series of Google+ Hangouts on Air and will then vote for the Inspired Idea Award—an award selected by the public for the project with the greatest potential to change the world.
• We also recognize that behind every great student there’s often a great teacher and a supportive school, so this year we’ll award a $10,000 cash grant from Google and an exclusive Google+ Hangout with CERN to the Grand Prize winner’s school.

Lastly, we’ll also be hosting a series of Google+ Hangouts on Air. Taking place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, these Hangouts will feature renowned scientists including inventor Dean Kamen and oceanographic explorer Fabien Cousteau, showcase exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of cutting-edge labs and science facilities, and provide access to judges and the Google Science Fair team. We hope these Google+ Hangouts will help inspire, mentor and support students throughout the competition and beyond.

Visit www.googlesciencefair.com to get started now—your idea might just change the world.