The key to a good monologue

How can we improve our speeches or oral presentations? 

We have already dealt with this topic in class and we should bear in mind different pieces of advice, such as:

• be ourselves
• try to be calm and relaxed since the audience always wants us to succeed
• get rid of our nervous ticks and habits
• stick to the point and make it relevant
• don't exceed the time limit

We all know that it is difficult and it is a question of practice, as always.

Some days ago, I found out about "Famelab", a cultural organization that tries to encourage scientists and engineers to make science more approachable to the general public by communicating this scientific knowledge in a more simple way so that society can understand it better. They organize a contest in many countries every year and they choose the best speaker.

Here's an example of a good monologue. This woman was the winner of the contest in 2011. (By the way, you should check who the winner of 2013 is). Since we have talked about a mother's love as being "pure", here you have the opportunity to reflect upon it and what the origins of this love might be.

What do you think? Is this an incredible speech? What are the good points? Has she used a wide range of vocabulary and grammar expressions? Has she used correct pronunciation and intonation although she's from Cyprus? Is her speech relevant and accurate? What about the most important part -the beginning? Did she catch your attention from the very beginning of it?

Common, guys. It's not that difficult!!! You can do it as well!!!

Torn by Natalie Imbruglia

After our listening comprehension in 2NI last Thursday, we left school with a big question in our heads ... who's Natalie Imbruglia? So, as this must be general knowledge and although we aren't big fans of her, everybody should know her. That's why I attach one of the most famous songs by Natalie Imbruglia, Torn, I'm completely sure you've heard it thousands of times.

I've copied the lyrics,as well. Enjoy it!!

I thought I saw a man brought to life
He was warm, he came around like he was dignified
He showed me what it was to cry
Well you couldnt be that man I adored
You don't seem to know, don't seem to care what your heart is for
But I don't know him anymore
There's nothing where he used to lie
My conversation has run dry
That's what's going on, nothings fine Im torn

Im all out of faith, this is how I feel
Im cold and I am shamed lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed into something real
Im wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
Youre a little late, Im already torn

So I guess the fortune tellers right
Should have seen just what was there and not some holy light
To crawl beneath my veins and now
I don't care, I have no luck, I don't miss it all that much
There's just so many things that I can't touch, Im torn

Im all out of faith, this is how I feel
Im cold and I am shamed lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed into something real
Im wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
Youre a little late, Im already torn. torn.

There's nothing where he used to lie
My inspiration has run dry
That's what's going on, nothings right, Im torn

Im all out of faith, this is how I feel
Im cold and I am shamed lying naked on the floor
Illusion never changed into something real
Im wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn
Im all out of faith, this is how I feel
Im cold and Im ashamed bound and broken on the floor
Youre a little late, Im already torn

THE BEHAVIOUR IN A MUSEUM

Hi guys, this time is Mercedes, your classmate in  the Advanced Level, who wants to share this entry with you all and make you participate with your comments. It's a very original entry and above all, it makes us reflect upon our attitude towards art. Read it and comment on it.

Taken from the film The Stendhal Syndrome

The behaviour in a museum

Do you like to visit museums? Everybody, who wants to see a really interesting person, says “yes, of course, I go very often”. But, is it totally true? How is our attitude when we go into an art gallery or we are in front of a monument? It might be highlighted that there are many researches about that; however, I have my own classification:

1.- The sensitive- they are people who know everything or almost everything about art, but they don´t show their knowledge. This kind of people walks around the places very slowly, putting attention in everything and learning new things about this subject. Although there are people who speak without knowing anything, and that gets on my nerves.

2.- The Romantic- They are people who stop in front of an sculpture or a picture and they start to cry. On the other extreme hand is the Stendhal Syndrome, which is suffered by people when they see many beautiful things and they left to enjoy.

3.- The Tourist-  They are people who want to see everything, because they have read it in guide books. They only stop when they watch a huge group of people in front of a masterpiece. They suddenly catch the camera and take thousands of photos. After that, they follow the rest of the people. This kind of people don´t read any information, because they waste time doing it and they have to take more and more photos. Moreover, tourists don´t like to pay tickets for the entrance.

Anyway, after this short explanation about three kinds of visitors of a museum, could you tell me if you have felt identified with some of them? Explain me how your behavior in a museum is, how you prepare the visit, if you don´t mind spending money in culture, …

Needless to say, Mercedes, we really appreciate your effort and enthusiam in writing this interesting entry. Thanks a lot and keep blogging!!

10 Reasons to become a Teacher

As the end of the academic year approaches, I start thinking (one more year!) about the reasons why I am a teacher.

After mulling over for a long period of time and bearing in mind that I’m reluctant to use humour in the classroom, these are my conclusions. They are obviously rated in order of importance. Then it is up to you to trust them or not. ;-)

10. Good salary!

9. Know all the answers in the tests.

8. Teaching is learning. That’s why I learn from you every single day.

7. Practise pedagogy and creativity without fear of arrest.

6. Free apples! (… and carrot cakes, biscuits, chocolate, candies, “obleas and barquillos”, juice, coffee, …)

5. Almost massive funding for classroom supplies in times of crisis. 

4. Accept diversity, advice and others’ opinions.

3. Feel that I am a part of an extraordinary team.

2. Spend leisurely summer in intensive therapy trying to recover my strength for the next course.

1. Might have to work for a living otherwise.

Haaaahh! What do you think? Are they good reasons for you to become teachers in the future? What are your reasons for doing your jobs? Write them down if you feel like it.

“The sense of humour is the oil of life’s engine. Without it, the machinery creaks and groans. Not lot is so hard, no aspect of things is so grim, but it relaxes before a hearty laugh.”

G.S. Merriam

THUNDER ROAD

Well, here we go with an entry created by Abel, your classmate in 2NA.

This tries to be the first entry of a series of our favourite or for-any-special-reason-I-like-it songs. So, maybe it's high time you reflect on that and start writing. This is what Abel wants to share with you all. 

Enjoy yourselves!

“THUNDER ROAD”

A harmonica and a walking piano that will quickly change to running, are the faint prologue that leads us to raise the curtain and introduces a girl who is dancing in her doorstep in front of a boy in a running car. It could be a scene captured by the lens of Scorsese in Little Italy any summer evening.

And indeed, the film is about love, like almost rock and roll songs but they aren´t  the usual lady and gallant. There are two characters physically and, above everything, spiritually beaten for life. Their prime was much time ago, with their broken dreams very far away. And indeed, the film is about love, but it´s about much more too.

Along the song, it flies over the omnipresent topic in the work of the most inspiring Springsteen: the way to fight against pain, defeat or  failure.  And of course, they are here: the, not so classic at that time, images of faith, magic, redemption or promise land to incarnate the idea of the new chance, the always opening possibility of reviving again, leaving  the past behind or understanding tomorrow as the first day of the rest of your life.

There´s only one voice in the song, the boy at the steering wheel´s one. He is telling us how he feels and, in a dangerous leap of faith for his purposes, trying to show to her loved one, which is the way to be able to understand her past and dreams.

With that series of overelaborated images that Bruce´s poetry was made of at the beginning, he will try to explain us that the exit could be there but anyway, it is never simple or easy.

To decide to fight could be dangerous and to challenge the own life could be the hardest work and he has nothing except his love and devotion; maybe the only useful fuel for the last and longest path that he will go through with her by his side. A song run through suspicious and prefabricated epic, only acceptable if it´s the voice of integrity the one that speaks, if the password to lower our guard is a telecaster again.

“And I´m pulling out of here to win” A certain Bruce sings the last verse because, at that moment, he has become the character. He has always believed in himself but, after the commercial failures of his two first albums, it looks like this one was his last chance to triumph, to prove to CBS and everybody else that he was right, that he really had the special talent that someone was talking of time ago. Indeed “Born to Run” was his first masterpiece that turned him into one of the greatest rockers of History.

It´s my favourite song and it´s probably the song that I have listened to more times but, at the same time, it is many other people´s song and it could be the song of everyone. All of us bear defeats and need to heal some hurts. It made me feel better when I was fourteen, when I didn't understand the meaning of a dream because then, I didn't know his price and it continues being useful for me, thirty years later. The song hasn't changed, it remains with the same shine and ability to thrill.

That “Thunder Road” without end is the direction that everybody looks for in their lives. Even the most self satisfied man can see the horizon in his own thunder road that would or not decide to go along. The road and the moving car will stay by our side forever. It´s everything we need. “These two lanes will take us anywhere”. We´ll never know if Mary got  into the car. Did you? Would you?

Here's a link with the lyrics in English, of course.

This is a very good song and a very good entry. Thanks Abel for your contribution to this blog, once again.

Now guys, it's your turn. Leave your comments straight away. They are really welcome.

International Laughter Day

Victor Borge said "Laughter is the shortest distance between two people" and he was absolutely right, don't you agree? I think we have spent really good moments by laughing together along this year and I hope to keep doing it.

Today is another "International Day". This time "World Laughter Day". And this year seems to be our "must-days". Here's a bit of its origins.

The first World Laughter Day was held on January 11, 1998, in Mumbai, India by the creator of Laughter Yoga, Dr Madan Kataria, with the objective of laughing for World Peace. A huge success, the date was later changed to the first Sunday in May and has been observed every year since. There are Laughter Clubs in over 60 countries which meet and laugh at around midday, sending a massive wave of laughter all over the world.

Here's a flash mob where you can notice the different stages in a good fit of laughter.

It is clear that laughter unites us and is universally understood – it connects people, breaks down barriers and promotes positivity, better health and happiness.

But ... what makes you laugh nowadays? A joke? A performance? A person's fall in the snow?

Your classmates' mistakes? Write down anything you may usually laugh at and improve your health and mind.

MAYBE WE CAN HELP

After a few weeks without any entries, here we go again. This time with the help of one of your classmates; Elena, from the second year of the Advanced Level, who has been extremely kind to collaborate with our class blog.

Even when everybody could think that Physiotherapy is a new therapy, the truth is that it has existed since human beings  are in this world. It hasn't been recognised, as a profession apart from doctors and nurses,  until thirty years ago, when it started to be a university degree in Spain. Nowadays, a lot of people are still a little confused about us and it would be interesting for you if you are aware of what a physiotherapist can do for you and, even more important, what we cannot do.

It is well-known that films and TV can be a useful way of making it known, and I have selected a movie, that I’m sure almost everybody knows, just to remind you of the physiotherapy part. Regarding Henry with Harrison Ford, a lawyer who is shot and needs help to come back to his life after losing his speech and mobility. Here is the trailer where you can do two minutes of listening. Of course, you can see the entire film in English online but I am sure everybody knows where. 

 

 

Neurology is a field not very well-known as part of my job however, it is more and more needed every day. Traffic accidents, brain injuries, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy.... We are going to take cerebral palsy as an example of what physiotherapists are ready to do. This is a disorder occurred near the moment of birth. For any reason (there are several causes) the motor development is not how it must be and that creates the disability of movement. The affected can have other damages such as vision and speech problems, learning disabilities, epilepsy...The extension of the lesions will depend on the location and degree of brain damage.  However, it  is demonstrated that with the appropriate treatment, it goes much better helping, in some cases, until the completely integration of the child in the society. In this fight, against the unfair, a lot of experts are working in what we call multidisciplinary teams.

This video is the sweetest one I’ve found in order not to offend someone, although the reality is not so sweet and easy, the video shows you how Physiotherapist´s world works.

Take it as an example of when we can help.

                

 

And now... did you know what a physiotherapist can do for you? Have you ever needed one? Was that a good or bad experience? Do you remember any other films related to physiotherapists? 

Thanks, Elena, and congratulations for you work. Undoubtedly, physiotherapists do a great job. It must be extremely rewarding to see your patients' progresses every day. 

OK, guys, now it's your turn!!!