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

Back to School 2013: Steady...

Dear students,

I do hope you are in a good mood to come back to school, expecting something positive, interesting, appealing...

In the last weeks we have seen quite a few examples of the bad use of English  by some important people from Spain, but don´t think you will get away with something like that; we do encourage speaking in our classes and we will do some practice with speeches as well.

Click here to read an analysis of the pronunciation mistakes made by Ana Botella in her real speech.

I want to welcome all of you to both this new school year and my classes in a very enthusiastic way so please, watch this video as if it were meant for you: Nick Selby is a sophomore at  Georgia Institute of Technology and this is the video of his welcome to the freshman class 2013 (click on the captions to read his message because it will probably be a little bit fast for you)

I wish you were all lucky enough to have only great teachers at school; I always do my best to be one but life is hard, you know, and one does not always achieve his/her goals. I´ll do my best, though - I can promise that much... (by the way, what are you willing and able to promise in relation to our classes?)

Infographic taken from Visually.

See you soon!

Back to School 2013: Ready...

We (teachers) have been working hard since the beginning of September: preparing lessons, doing paperwork, getting everything ready for the school year...Sometimes we work on other own but these days meetings are very frequent at school; we spend a lot of time "planning" lessons and activities.

Most of us feel excited about the first days of the school year: what will our students be like? will we be able to get the message through? will they enjoy our classes and learn from them?...

I often wonder what most of my students think of my classes but I do know I will feel like the teacher in this video more than once:

A Taste of My Students´Speeches 2013. Group 3

These are the shortest speeches: 

A Taste of My Students´Speeches 2013. Group 2

The speeches of the group below were between five and six minutes long:

A Taste of My Students´Speeches 2013. Group 1

These are some of the speeches we listened to this year - not all of them have been uploaded, so we may get some more in the future.

I have classified them according to their length - I had told the students each speech should be from 6 to 9 minutes long. This is the first group, the one whose speeches lasted that long:

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...

Flash-mob Exam

With so many tests these days, I wouldn´t like to see this in one of my classes; well, maybe if I could play the violin...

This happened during an engineering exam at the University of Toronto

Edublogs Awards 2012

Today I want to recommend some of those blogs I follow and learn from; my way of letting them know how much I like them is nominating them for the Edublogs Awards 2012 (Edublogs is a blogging platform for people involved in education). There are 18 categories but I am afraid I do not have a favourite for all of them - I have more than one favourite for the categories below, though, which has made it really hard to make a choice.

My nominees are: 

• Best ed tech/resource sharing blog: Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero. David Kapuler has a concise but well-defined way of presenting sites, tools, apps...

• Best individual blog: Cristina Sky Box. Ana Cristina Pratas has a nice visual way of presenting her resources and explaining her ideas. She lets you see she is really into education; she obviously loves blogging and sharing things with us.

• Best group blog: Edudemic. Learning, parents, technology, social media, advice... you name it, lots of different issues usually dealt with in a very clear way.

• Best teacher blog: Movie Segments to Asses Grammar Goals. Claudio Azevedo is certainly original in his way of presenting grammar issues; the films he chooses get a new dimension when we see the activities he suggests and when we eventually use them in our classes.

• Free web tool: Dropbox. So convenient!

• Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast: Wonderopolis : activities to make kids wonder and reflect on all sorts of topics related to everyday life.

• Best mobile app: Shazam: an app that can quickly (impressively quickly) identify any song you are listening to.

An Obituary for Kristina Westerberg

An obituary is a notice of someone´s death, usually accompanied by a short biography. It is not common to read obituaries in blogs for students but death comes to us all and I want to pay homage to a Swedish teacher who meant a lot for quite a few of us at school - and I mean teachers and staff, students and families, and to the city of Lugo in general: Kristina Westerberg.

Today is All Saints´Day  and a few days ago we read about the origins of Halloween in our 2º BAC classes (how Samhain became All Hallows´ Eve) so this is a good time to remember Kristina.

I met her in Santiago de Compostela in July 2000, when we both attended a summer course for teachers from different European countries. In the first term of the school year 2000-01, our principal, Javier, asked the English Department to prepare a school trip for a group of students who were taking part in a bilingual project. I started to look for a school that would agree to have an exchange programme with us and, eventually, Kristina accepted. She was really enthusiastic about it (I was soon to learn that Kristina showed the same enthusiasm on everything she laid her hands on) and very thankful for this chance to get back on the track again because she had been distanced from school programmes for a while. She was so excited about the project! She included this poem attributed to both Borges and Mario Benedetti (does anyone know who really wrote it?), called "El árbol de los amigos," in one of the e-mails she sent me back then and I think it fits just perfect right here and now (I am sorry but I can´t find  a bilingual version of the poem):

El árbol de los amigos

Existen personas en nuestras vidas que nos hacen felices 
por la simple casualidad de haberse cruzado en nuestro camino. 
Algunas recorren el camino a nuestro lado, viendo muchas lunas pasar, 
mas otras apenas vemos entre un paso y otro. 
A todas las llamamos amigos y hay muchas clases de ellos. 

Tal vez cada hoja de un árbol caracteriza uno de nuestros amigos. 
El primero que nace del brote es nuestro amigo papá y nuestra amiga mamá, 
que nos muestra lo que es la vida. 
Después vienen los amigos hermanos, 
con quienes dividimos nuestro espacio para que puedan florecer como nosotros. 
Pasamos a conocer a toda la familia de hojas a quienes respetamos y deseamos el bien. 

Mas el destino nos presenta a otros amigos, 
los cuales no sabíamos que irían a cruzarse en nuestro camino. 
A muchos de ellos los denominamos amigos del alma, de corazón. 
Son sinceros, son verdaderos. 
Saben cuando no estamos bien, saben lo que nos hace feliz. 

Y a veces uno de esos amigos del alma estalla en nuestro corazón 
y entonces es llamado un amigo enamorado. 
Ese da brillo a nuestros ojos, música a nuestros labios, saltos a nuestros pies. 
Mas también hay de aquellos amigos por un tiempo, 
tal vez unas vacaciones o unos días o unas horas. 
Ellos acostumbran a colocar muchas sonrisas en nuestro rostro, 
durante el tiempo que estamos cerca. 

Hablando de cerca, no podemos olvidar a amigos distantes, 
aquellos que están en la punta de las ramas 
y que cuando el viento sopla siempre aparecen entre una hoja y otra. 
El tiempo pasa, el verano se va, el otoño se aproxima y perdemos algunas de nuestras hojas, 
algunas nacen en otro verano y otras permanecen por muchas estaciones. 
Pero lo que nos deja más felices es que las que cayeron continúan cerca, 
alimentando nuestra raíz con alegría. 
Son recuerdos de momentos maravillosos de cuando se cruzaron en nuestro camino. 

Te deseo, hoja de mi árbol, paz, amor, salud, suerte y prosperidad. 
Simplemente porque cada persona que pasa en nuestra vida es única. 
Siempre deja un poco de sí y se lleva un poco de nosotros. 

Habrá los que se llevarán mucho, 
pero no habrán de los que no nos dejarán nada. 
Esta es la mayor responsabilidad de nuestra vida 
y la prueba evidente de que dos almas no se encuentran por casualidad.

We, the Spanish group, visited Sweden first, in May 2001, and I planned their visit for the beginning of October so that they could enjoy our "San Froilán" celebrations. Both visits were a big success and that was the beginning of the current exchange programme between our school and "Tibble Gymnasium." Both Kristina and I realized that both our cities were excellent for an exchange programme and we did our best to make it work from the very beginning. It wasn´t difficult because Kristina had worked in programmes like this before and she knew exactly what to do and it was then when I noticed something else about Kristina - apart from her enthusiasm: she never felt intimidated when problems arose. You could feel she was fighting to find a solution when you saw the way her lips closed against each other - that was the most outer expression of worry you could notice in her - but the next minute she would grasp her phone, make a phone call and everything would be on its way to a solution. In fact, that was another trait of Kristina´s personality: she had a special ability to know exactly who to call and how to ask for whatever she wanted or needed.

I took part in three exchange programs with her; the last one lasted for two years, the school years 2005-2006 and 2006-2007: it was the first Comenius project in our school and it involved a 3-week stay in Sweden for us and a 4-week-stay in Lugo for the Swedish students.The preparatory part of this project and its carrying our left me exhausted (during the second part of this programme I had to do all the work, which was a lot, believe me, in my free time) and that, together with some personal problems -which Kristina found out right away, because she had a developed interpersonal intelligence  as well - made me stay away from school projects for a while.

I had agreed to go back to work with her on a new project in our school but the principal chose someone else and that was the end of our professional relationship but not of our private one. We kept in touch and, even though I am not much of a "phone-person" and she was just the opposite, we had quite a few long conversations which always involved lots of laughing; the truth is I cannot remember a single conversation with Kristina, either on the phone or in person, when we didn´t laugh a lot but I do remember how we nearly split our sides laughing several times. I think that laughter unites people and those moments  became our inside jokes. 

Some people just pass by in your life but others become part of it and Kristina was one of these; I will do my best not to forget her optimism and her positive attitude in life - they are two excellent qualities that can surely make a difference in everyday life. I feel honored to have shared so many good moments with her.

For those of you who knew Kristina, here´s a video of an interview on the local TV in the year 2007. I think she is splendid here - just the way she was.

Kristina, R.I.P. (= Latin for "requiescat in pace", which is "rest in peace" in English)

Steve Jobs´Fans

Ever year I have at least one major Apple / Steve Jobs´fan in my classes; Emilio is the one this year - the only one that I know of. This post is for him and for all those people who admire Steve Jobs.

This is a quote from the commercial "Think different" which was released in 1997 - I thank Emilio for the correction since I thought it came from Steve Jobs´ famous speech at Stanford University in 2005.  

You can download the poster, thanks to Apple-Zen Blog, click here.

What Type of Learner Are You?

In our first lesson in 1º BAC this year we have been reading about Dr. Howard Gardner´s theory of 8 multiple intelligences; do you remember the intelligences he refers to?: 

• linguistic / verbal : good with words, with spoken and written language; it involves the ability to learn languages.

• logical / mathematical: good with math and logic; it involves being able to analyze problems logically, to carry out mathematical operations

• musical: good with rhythm; it involves skill in the performance, composition and appreciation of musical patterns

• bodily / kinesthetic: good with activities - using one´s whole body or parts of it to solve problems

• spatial: good with pictures - recognizing and using the patterns of open spaces and confined areas

• interpersonal: good with communication - understanding the desires, motivations and intentions of other people

• intrapersonal: good at analyzing things - understanding oneself, one´s fears, feelings and motivations

• naturalist: they enjoy interacting with nature

Do you know what intelligences are strongest for you? If you don´t, this quiz  or this one may help you. Remember Dr. Gardner thinks people use more than one type of intelligence 

Once you have found out the types of intelligences that work better for you, click here to see (and do) some activities classified according to the different types of intelligences.

Infographic: original source: OnlineCollege.org

What kind of jobs would you associate with the different types of intelligences? Continue the list: 

• linguistic: writers, lawyers, speakers...
• mathematical: scientists, computer programmers, chess players...
• musical: musicians, singers, conductors...
• spatial: artists, designers, architects...
• kinesthetic: athletes, actors, dancers, soldiers...
• intrapersonal: psychologists, counselors, philosophers...
• interpersonal: teachers, politicians, social workers...
• naturalist: farmers, naturalists...

World Teachers´ Day, October 5th

Today is World Teachers´Day . It has been celebrated on October 5th since 1964; it was created by UNESCO to support teachers and celebrate their job (wow!).

Are you going to do anything about this day? What about the Thank A Teacher Campaign? If you are going to do what the campaign suggests, do so before having a look at the cartoons below - some of them are a little bit embarrassing for teachers. And here´s something else you could do, choose a cartoon, analyze it and then give your opinion about it. The first cartoons are about teachers in general:

And these ones are about one kind of teachers, English teachers (do you really think English teachers require special attention? are we are a category apart from the rest of teachers?)

Finally, here´s a video about Ms. Kornowski, a teacher at Kettle-Moraine High School, in Wisconsin, USA. You can watch it with a double purpose in mind: for English practice - since you get both the audio and the transcript - and for its content. What do you think about the way she connects with students?

My Teacher Last Year Didn´t See My Potential

I am getting to know my students these days reading what they wrote about themselves in their diagnosis tests. "My teacher last year didn´t see my potential," wrote one of them and the statement reminded me of this video: a visual reflection on how we teach nowadays, and how we classify students (mind you, I couldn´t help laughing when I read the sentence,too, but I don´t want  to go any deeper into that because I  do not want to offend anyone´s sensibilities).  

The video is meant for parents but I feel identified as a teacher; it makes me long for a more flexible school system, one which allows me -as a teacher- to know my students better and care about them the way they need to be taken care of.

As a student, do you identify with any of the animals mentioned in the text? Why? Is that good / bad? 

Back to School: First Day 2012

So tomorrow is the bog day: first day with students for the school year 2012-13... Butterflies in the stomach again and probably not only in my stomach but in most of my students´... lots of mixed feelings... So, let´s star with a smile (or two or three...)

The following video is from "The Cosby  Show, " a popular sitcom which ran for eight seasons, from 1984 to 1992. In this episode the Huxtable children (Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy)  face the first day of the new school year while their parents (Cliff and Claire) seem to be looking forward to getting the children finally out of the house. I guess lots of families will be living something like this tomorrow morning.

There are no subtitles in the audio but the situation is familiar to all of you so you shouldn´t have big problems to understand the episode: rely on what you see and what you expect to see. Read the following vocabulary first and make sure you understand it -this will help you follow the story: 

a date 

understated

fortune-teller

prom

chase someone

fix breakfast

get someone dressed

Are you up? To be up

drown

the room where the clothes come to die

first warning

auction

vacation 

bowl 

to beg

lunch box

tuna fish

to look good for the teachers

a senior student

braces

A Smile for the End of the School Year

The end of the school year is getting closer and we are all exhausted, the students because they are sitting for the last exams and the teachers because they are correcting like crazy so we all need a little bit of humour to keep us going, I think. My classes do not look like this one in the first video yet - who knows what may happen next week, though.

But the European Football Championship has just started, I am not much of a football fun but I know this championship is the most important conversation subject for many people in Europe right now- maybe to try and forget our financial crisis. 


I guess many of our students keep their excitement for the football matches but here´s a preview of what may happen to many football fans if they get too excited over them.

I do not really know if there is any campaign going on to support the Spain national team, but sometimes these campaigns are very original, and they manage to involved really big crowds. Here´s an example

In 2011, Telecom Telefonica became Colombia’s National Football team´s Official Sponsor; by that time, Colombians had stopped believing in their team, but the company wanted to give a message of optimism so that the team would feel they were supported.

They made an open call to every woman in Colombia named Gloria. And for an entire day, the "Gloria" was theirs. They showed their love and admiration for Colombia´s soccer players, and the whole country came together to form a unified symbol to support their national team.

By the way, soccer or football? Click here  for an explanation

One More Farewell to 2º BAC Students

Dear 2º BAC students,

Once again, it is that time of the year when I have to say goodbye to the senior students in my classes. It is not easy, I would like to tell you so many things, not only about English but about life in general...I feel we could / should have done so much more in our classes...but there just wash´t enough time. Anyway, in this post you´ll find plenty of practice for your university entrance exam: reading, listening, comprehension...

As many of you pointed out in your graduation speeches, finishing your studies at school is a turning point in your lives and, if I had to give you one piece of advice for your future, this would be it:

And if I could extend my advice a little longer, I would mention everything in the next video. Don´t get distracted by the title, "Wear sunscreen", it is not about summer, sunshine, holidays  or leisure time: it is about life.It´s seven minutes long but it is worth every single second. The original version is meant for citizens of the USA but the translation is adapted for citizens of the world - people like you; so click here if you´d rather watch it with the subtitles in Spanish

I guess I feel a little bit philosophical these days, so here is a story to help you keep your priorities straight in life. You get the video and the transcript so that those of you who have problems downloading the video can  read it and learn its lesson. The story is called A Jar of Life. The Secret to Keeping Your Priorities Straight

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and two cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and fills it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “YES”.

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things – God, family,

children, health, friends, and favorite passions. Things, that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car. The sand is everything else — the small stuff.” he said.

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “There is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are

important to you…” he told them.

“So… pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Worship with your family. Play with your children. Take your partner out to dinner. Spend time with good friends. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap. Take care of the golf balls first — the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled and said, “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

And last, but not least, one more piece of advice: be positive:

Farewell 2011, Farewell 2010

And now some memories of our classes this year - I took many more photos of you but I am afraid they are not very good so I decided not to include them here. I apologize to those of you who are not in any of the photos: