I HAVE A DREAM

I especially like writing the introductions to your own entries rather than to mine. This time we are going to have a look at a recent event, the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King's speech in Washington D.C., thanks to your classmate, Mercedes. She is offering you the opportunity to think and write about a huge variety of topics, such as the importance of historical events like this, equality of rights, honesty, your fulfilled or unfulfilled dreams, or the characteristics of King's speech. Whatever you would like to write about, the sky is the limit.

 I have a dream

Everybody has a dream, everybody dreams about getting something, everybody wants to be higher, richer or happier, … When we were children, in class the teacher always questioned us what we would like in the future. But we all know what one of the most famous meanings of this sentence is.

Forty  years ago, an activist from USA said those words in a massive march while they were protesting for their rights.  Martin Luther King’s speech started with “I have a dream”, a very simple expression which has become a legend.

Martin Luther King was a black pastor who spent all his life fighting against the social injustices suffered by the black people in the USA. He was the leader of an important movement appeared in that country which wanted to get the vote in a democratic system, the same salary for everybody, the difference between children in public schools, … One of the most famous actions was the buses boycott in Montgomery, when another activist, Rosa Parks, didn’t want to lend her place on the bus in favour of a white man. The black society started to organize in a huge movement led by Martin Luther King.

On 28^th August of 1963 he headed the Protest of Washington for Job and Freedom in the Capitolium Square in front of almost 250,000 people. In that space, he pronounced one of the most important speeches of the history. Martin is considered the best speaker of the century even he got to change the world, at least he started.

Thanks to this character, one of my favourite men, today I can say this sentence with another different sense. In my case, to have a dream is not related with something material, for me to have a dream goes further than that. So I have a dream: to be free.

Thanks again, Mercedes for your work and ideas. This space would like to continue having your reflections on different topics, so keep blogging!!! Now the turn is yours. What do you think?

TALKING ISN'T BAD

Hi there,

I know it's a long time but everything seems to be back after the summer break. We can catch up thanks to an interesting entry written by Vicky. Please read it and then comment on it.

I want to share with you some thoughts that started “wandering” around my mind after reading an article about not talkative people.

The article said that talking isn’t bad, but talking less is better, because you finish earlier.

In general, talking could be a brief operation most of the times. Definitely, there aren’t so many issues to talk about. Everything might be rather short, almost always, to go to the next point or leave home.

Some sentences, after the first verb, turn into a high wall, sometimes impassable.

To express yourself with shortness could be difficult, not everybody has the ability to be “people of  few words”.  Needless to say, you don’t need to keep quiet. A laconic and cautious guy isn’t a silent person who never has anything to say. Absolutely not, he is more than that. He probably has a lot to say, but he gives it up, or says it briefly, encodes it, or simply says it to himself.

Few words aren’t much silence around them, they are other things. To start with, they are what they are, they are just enough, the necessary ones, neither one more.

Few words, although some ones, are some kind of philosophy of sobriety, and the idea that life passes quickly, especially when you tell it with so many sentences. This is the attitude you must have, you couldn’t improvise or pretend, probably you’d need to practise for years.

People who remain silent before a few words could be eloquent, in their own way, they never bore the audience.

A writer said that talking about something which explains itself is a waste of time. A book hasn’t been written to be talked about after finishing reading it, overall it has been created not for talking about it.

I’m not a talkative person, but I always saw it like a defect. After I read this article, I am starting to think that maybe it wasn’t. Probably I have a skill to say only the necessary words, and I prefer spending my time on other stuff instead of diving in a long conversation or speech, from time to time it could be harder to get to the point than filling them with useless words.

Of course, to be in tune with this article, this writing couldn’t be very long.  Common! Now it is your turn. What do your think about it? 

Back to the Start

Why not finishing this academic year's entries with a song? If I don't remember badly, we also started with a song. While I was trying to find one that you might like, I spotted this one by Coldplay, one of the groups I like most and whose lyrics are usually easy to understand, and I thought why not? The title of the song The Scientist. Maybe it's worth a try!

A short break for the holidays and then we will start again. Looking forward to hearing from you. ;-)

Farewell

Hi guys,

This entry isn’t meant to be the last one of this blog this academic year, but in a way, it is a farewell entry and if you go on reading, you’ll find out why.

When I was told I was going to teach at the Official School of Languages in CR nearly a year ago, I felt a bit uneasy even though, previous teachers there had talked wonders of you. At that time, I didn’t know how amazing this experience was about to turn out to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Room 4

 This has been our classroom for nearly nine months and this is the way it is now: without you, my pupils. It seems to be eerily silent but I’m completely sure it still keeps your conversations in English, sometimes in Spanish, your constant questions and doubts, your laughter, your nerves and fears before the finals, … all those good and not-so-good moments along the whole academic year.

To tell you the truth, this course has been extraordinarily unusual for me and although some of you would like to do now what Loly (2NA) is trying to do in the photo below, I do think you feel the same as well.

A dissatisfied pupil trying to chain me unseeingly

Regardless of the academic results, which would make this entry sadder, the first thing I want to do is to thank you for having been able to endure me for such a long/short course. MANY THANKS TO YOU ALL. I know it hasn’t been easy!!!

I would also like to thank you for all your presents, some of which I didn’t photograph, although I enjoyed them a lot.

Some of the fun-tastic gifts

Well, let’s bring back some good moments we have lived together!

You gave me a warm welcome by making me feel as if I were at home. Homes which some of you have offered me on different occasions, for example, on that awful snowy day in January, when we anxiously interrupted the class and in a hurry we set off, fearing, as it in the end happened, it would be impossible for me to arrive home that night.

Whether I have succeeded or not, you have given me the opportunity to try to improve my skills as a teacher. Mainly by encouraging you to speak English in class and to use it as many times as you can and as confidently as possible. It is in this point in which you have highly succeeded. You created a very good atmosphere where it was extremely easy to teach, not only because you were eager to learn but also because you were involved in the teaching-learning process. (Pilu from 2NI even bought some markers for the whiteboard …)

You’ve been patient with me, especially in those embarrassing moments when I said “Listen to it!” or “Let’s watch this video” and nothing worked. Ufff! How bad I felt then! At least, everything went right on exam days!!!

You’ve done your homework, participated actively, in class and other extra-curricular activities we have had, such as the ones on Halloween, at Christmas, at Steve’s concert, … you have even used this blog, to some extent. I’m really happy because of that. And do you remember our English-guided tour around Ciudad Rodrigo thanks to Fanny and Rebecca (2NA)? Here’s a photo. (Maybe you’ll miss Manolo and me in it, sorry but I cropped it –you know why.)

Happy tourists

Obviously, it would be impossible to mention all the hilarious moments together. The only thing I can mention is that you made them possible. We’ve laughed our heads off.

As regards our degree of closeness in the class, we can highlight the fact that we have shared our personal reflections as well as our true love stories in that sort of writing competition we had. And don’t forget what a terrifying experience you may live when home alone, a TV set starts turning on and off by itself as it happens to Eva (2NI). It makes my hair stand on end.

Well, I don’t want to bore you with this entry so it’s high time to conclude it …

Thanks for making me not just a better teacher but a better person.

Thanks for teaching me a great amount of new interesting things.

Thanks for all those yummy Friday afternoons we’ve had.

Thanks for those Thursday nights at the karaoke bar improving our singing in English and in Spanish. (I don’t attach photos for these last two extra-curricular activities, ha-ha.)

Thanks for doing my job worth.

Thanks for being the way you are.

It only remains to add “Looking forward to having my summer holiday and then seeing you again … some of you outside school and some of you in our classroom in September. ;-)”

ILY

INSTAGRAM

 Hello again,

After this short break on the blog, it's time to enjoy this entry. It has been created by Vicky, once again, your classmate in the Advanced level. In my opinion, this entry is quite original so you can't miss it. Go on reading and then if you feel like writing a little, leave your comments.

At popular request I am going to share with you my passion for INSTAGRAM. Probably you will say “one more social networking site” but I would like to explain to you why I love it and how amazing it could be, if you are fascinated by photography.

INSTAGRAM was born in 2010, at first, it was designed only for I-phone devices, but later, due to its success, with more than 100 million users, this app was opened to Android in April of 2012.

I set up my profile in 2011, when INSTAGRAM was starting to take off toward stardom. A very good friend of mine, who is an unbelievable photograph-lover, introduced me in the application and gave me some advice about how I could use it. 

The best stuff of INSTAGRAM is that you take the photo with your mobile, you apply some filter and then you load the photo in your profile and share it with everybody, without the necessity of downloading it to your computer and editing it in some programs like photo-shop or similar ones. 

Furthermore, if, in your mobile, you have more photo edition apps compatible with INSTAGRAM you are likely to make wonderful editions very easily. 

Retortillo's Church

My favourite app, the one I usually use, is “Snapseed”. Another gorgeous tool, if you like black and white, is “Noir”. And if you are a fan of fantasy edition, the best app is “Filter Mania”.

When you have decided which photograph you want to share, you can also add a hang tag (#) like in Twitter, in order to get more followers or only to focus your photo toward some particular issue.  I normally create some hangtags such as #igerssalamanca #igerscastillayleon , owing to the fact that I belong to a small group in this huge number of “igers” all around the world.

Nevertheless, I follow people from different countries, like USA, Australia, Turkey, Sweden, France or Italy. And for me, it is great, because when I am watching their photos I feel, for a few moments, as if I were there and I could see what they were looking at. And if something is happening in the world, in a short time, it would appear in INSTAGRAM even before that will get in the news broadcast.

The purists of INSTAGRAM were very annoying and unpleasant when it was sold to Facebook, because they changed the stipulation contract about the photo property.

From my point of view, it isn’t so important, in the moment you share your photo in a social networking site, you lose the control over it.  I like sharing my photos and some special moments that I caught, without expecting a reward only the likes of my followers. But there are people that make business on the internet and I understand them, in case they’d want to sell their photos or get an income, they may be afraid of their rights.

 

CyL Theatre Fair in Ciudad Rodrigo last summer

INSTAGRAM is a social networking site and it has, of course, all the cons of them, but if you enjoy photography you might surf it, I promise you’d have fun with the experience.

My user's name is vickycr74. You can see my gallery whenever you want … And your comment will be welcome.           

Thanks Vicky for this entry, you already know that I follow you and I like your photos, especially the one taken from a roof and your perspective when seeing things and I am becoming a fan of INSTAGRAM.

OK, guys, you have the extraordinary opportunity to have a look at Vicky's photos. I assure you won't be deceived -they're simply great.

 

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