F.A.A.P.I. 2010

To tell you the truth, I went with no clear idea on mind of how the congress was going to be like. I knew that some of the people –Harmer, to be more specific- we´ve been reading to throughout these years were going to attend the congress and to give speeches, but I had not expected to enjoy the three days in Córdoba as I did.

I am one of those creatures who love collecting brochures and who like entering raffles, so imagine that F.A.A.P.I. was Wonderland for me! It was a pity I didn´t win anything, but I enjoyed filling in each blank space I could. I also enjoyed a lot browsing at books, buying stickers and sealings which who knows when I´ll use them.

It goes without saying that I couldn´t enjoy the presentations more! When attending speeches, I remembered the Pecha Kuchas we have been doing in class. It was great to see slides and to feel that I was ready to do the same sort of presentations those people were doing. Some of the presentations were boring, even as regards design, as the colours were just black and white, or the pictures were not the ones I would have chosen. Those things made me fully understand the importance of everything we are doing in class. As future teachers we must learn how to stand in front of a crowd, how to speak in public, how to design a presentation and how to teach others to do so. I could feel the need of changing tones and of designing and using techniques that could motivate and engage the audience while one is speaking.

I loved those presentations in which the speaker didn´t have a sheet of paper in hand! That was a clear sign of how confident and how well-prepared they were for their presentation. Not to mention how efficiently they handled the overhead projector and how professionally they moved from one topic to the other one, making plenty of connections in the audience´s minds so that there were not loose ends left by the end of their speeches.

Apart from the technicalities and the abilities of each speaker, I found the contents of most presentations extremely interesting. Herbert Puchta mentioned that “mirror neurons” have been discovered, and that those neurons are the ones that, for instance, make one yawn while someone else is doing so. In the same way, those neurons are the ones we are supposed to activate during our lessons so as to make everybody feel eager to participate and eager to learn.

Jeremy Harmer, then, gave an incredible speech during which I thought I was looking at and listening to a poet. He was amazing, really! The energy with which he spoke was really contagious and he managed to make everybody feel eager to participate. There were some moments during his presentation in which I felt like a like child, listening at everything he was saying, laughing, shouting and staring open mouthed at him. Among one of the various things he shared with us, here is an example of a “diamante” poem he showed:

Man
Brilliant, perfect
Working, learning, earning,
Speaking, speaking, speaking
Furious, exhausted
Woman

Imagine! Most of us were women, so everybody started shouting. As he knew quite well that that was going to happen, he immediately started laughing and make us read this poem:

Man
Stupid, rude
Sleeping, eating
Trousers, underpants, knickers, shirts
Working, sporting
Clever, beautiful
Woman.

In this case we all stood up and just clapped and cheered!

That was by far the best example of an effective presentation I had ever seen.

Presenting: a rewarding experience!

I had never thought I was going to present using the Pecha Kucha format. In fact, I had never heard about it before this year so it was a totally new world for me. When we had to decide on the dates for the presentations I plucked up the courage and I enrolled for the first day. I didn´t want anyone to “steal” my ideas and I didn´t want to be influenced by others´ either!

Once I chose a topic, I searched for the pictures. I spent a couple of hours doing so because I wanted my presentation to be both touching and humorous, and it was very difficult to find pictures which were funny if the topic was chaos. After selecting the pictures, I decided how to organize them in a logical and clear way. I wanted others to understand the presentation or to have their own interpretations of it, without even listening to my voice. Finally, I plunged into the presentation itself.

It was the first time I was going to use Power Point and hence, I asked for a little help at home. After learning how it worked, I moved the slides, I wrote titles, I rotated them and I chose the colours. I was really engaged in the process!

Before the day of the presentation I rehearsed what I was going to say. I wrote some guidelines just to organize my thoughts at the moment of speaking and I tried not to look at them, as I didn´t want to be glued to the paper while speaking and, to tell you the truth, I cannot speak properly in public if I have a paper in hand. I practiced a couple of times and I predicted possible mistakes or slips I could have at the moment of the presentation.

When that moment came I was a bit nervous and I felt my knees were shaking. However, I just need to start talking. Seeing my classmates´ faces looking at the pictures and seeming engaged and surprised by each slide made me relax. My voice was trembling at some points but I was feeling that everything was going as I had expected. Time flew during the presentation and when it finished, the round of applause was highly rewarding.

Fortunately, most classmates said they fully enjoyed the presentation and they said they had not expected to find under the title “chaos” all the topics I had included. While this was rewarding, it was also rewarding to learn how to use Power Point, to put my thoughts into words in a meaningful and concise way and to make a presentation using Pecha Kucha. In fact, I would try it again!

If you want to see my Pecha Kucha, click here!

Scientific developments...in paintings!

When the moment came to choose a picture related, in some way or other, to science, I first thought it was going to be an easy and quick task to solve. However, I googled “famous paintings” and “science paintings” and nothing convinced me at all. I wanted to find a picture which made me immediately think of scientific development. After looking at dozens of paintings, I found this one, the one I talked about in class.

The picture was painted by Lorena Bonillo, a Spanish artist, and even though it imitates the original, still haven´t found the name of the artist who originally painted it. Maybe it is a very abstract painting, but I think that it can be interpreted in many ways. In fact, I sustain that the multiplicity of forms (squares, triangles, circles, arrows, irregular lines and rectangles) shows the multiplicity of advances that have been made in the scientific world and in all life spheres. In addition, some of the circles seem to portray the Milky Way or, to be less specific, the universe; and this makes me think of Astronomy, one of the oldest sciences in history. And look at the arrow. Its position seems to indicate a progression, as if science was going to go on advancing, without a clear final destination.

This other picture also portrays scientific development. It is a miniature painted by the British Frank Forsgard Manclark, who belongs to the Society of Limners (limnings=miniatures), and the name of this work is “Aeromaximum”.

Aren´t the car and the plane among the most amazing and useful inventions? If it hadn´t been for these means of transport, trade wouldn´t have been as quick as it is now. Furthermore, lots of cities have flourished after the invention of the car, as it has been easier to visit them and to build factories there; and hundreds of small towns have been connected to bigger ones and their inhabitants haven´t been isolated any more. If travelling wasn´t as easy as it is now, then many scientific developments wouldn´t have been possible. In Medicine, for example, it is easy to take drugs for experiments from one country to another, and it is possible for scientists to spread their word when they go on a business trip to different countries.

Communications have been improved as well. Nowadays, it is very common to buy a newspaper that was printed in the States, in the U.K. or in Buenos Aires. But this couldn´t have been possible without cars, vans, lorries and planes.

Of course these vehicles have their flaws (they are made by humans after all), but all the same, their relevance for the present cannot be denied.

And what about this World Cup?

We all know the World Cup is over. And in fact, it had been over even before the championship finished! During those three weeks that the Argentinian team enjoyed in South Africa everybody seemed to be a sports fan. Unfortunately, we aren´t sporty at all!

Not everybody knows that the Hockey World Cup is taking place here, in Rosario, only a few kilometers away from home. And who knows that the Basketball World Cup is also taking place these days? We have to watch the news or to be too sporty to know that. It´s really a pity that these sports don´t take as much attention as football takes. If they were more promoted we could see a lot of children engaged in more sports other than football.

If you think about it, it´s very strange to see people wearing the Argentinian t-shirt while “Las Leonas” are playing a game. And the world doesn´t stop to watch a single match. This is obviously the result of the way in which the media deal with all issues. If the press pays little attention to the hockey or the basketball World Cups, then society won´t pay attention to these competitions either.

Apart from that, have you heard about the games´ fees? I´ve heard that each ticket doesn´t cost more than $95… isn´t that too cheap if we take into account that you are paying to see the best hockey players in action? Besides, compared to the high fees that are paid for each football championship, the hockey fees are too undervalued.

Clearly, what´s happening nowadays in sports reflects what we are as society. We are people who let ourselves be deceived by the media. And we usually don´t realize that those who practice a sport which isn´t football are also professional people whose job is to play certain sports (hockey, if we stick to the topic in this post) and who also make a lot money out of them. I think that, although you may not be a sports fan or you may not like sports, it´s time we acknowledge that there is another world in sports apart from football.

Our future is in their hands... My God...

Last Sunday night I came across “El Imbatible” at Susana Gimenez, while zapping. Though this programme may not be interesting at all, I can say that I found it really… worrying! Yeah, worrying. The quiz involved children between nine and twelve years old. While I started watching it, I was expecting to listen to correct answers or at least reasonable ones. However, the contrary occurred. I could listen to the most unthinkable answers to even very basic, simple sentences. To mention but a few examples, a girl answered that Egypt´s capital was Nigeria; a boy said that three hens and two pigs made twenty four legs! Maybe it may sound funny… but I think this is funny peculiar, not funny ha ha at all! Going on with the examples, another boy didn´t know that there exists a hymn to Sarmiento and, to cap it all, another boy answered that, if a car had to go along a 50 km distance at a 100 km/hour speed, then it would arrive at the destination in 5 hours! Can you believe it?

After watching the programme I realized that the same generation which usually competes in this quiz is the one that will govern us in the near future. Worse still, I realized that this same age group will be our students in a couple of months. Considering that the children who participate in this quiz are generally those students with the highest marks in their school, then it is undeniable that the educational system is in crisis.

We are going to be teachers in a short time (at least I hope so!) and we cannot be unaware of such deficiencies. If students do not handle knowledge or skills proper of their native language almost proficiently, then can we expect them to be excellent in English? Of course I don´t mean to say that ours is a losing battle, but it will surely be an uphill one. We cannot expect to teach just English, but we´ll surely have to teach them other contents and we should be ready for this. Sometimes a whole lesson can be altered if our students lack background knowledge to do an activity or to understand a listening or a reading text and hence we need to breach that gap between what they know and what they don´t.

I believe we should start worrying about our students´ knowledge. But worrying shouldn´t be seen as something negative in this case; on the contrary, it should be seen as positive. If we worry about it, then we will help them to learn better, more and even more efficiently. The best thing we can do for our students is to be ready to help them to learn, not only English but anything that they may not know, don´t you think so?

Me... a cartoonist?

As soon as we were asked to write a comic I started wondering which topic I was going to choose. I´ve always liked to read comics and I enjoyed writing some when teachers told me to do so at school.

Before starting writing, I had to decide which topic I was going to write about and I´ve found it hard to do so, as there are many issues which worry Argentinians in particular and society in general. Even though my comic´s theme is delinquency, in fact I think it also reflects social hatred and social prejudices. It is quite common to hear delinquents claiming that crime is their only option in life. And in fact, sometimes it seems as if they felt they had the duty to steal, to rape, to kidnap, to mention but a few criminal acts. The worst thing is that they generally don´t feel remorse at all.

Last week, it really shocked me to hear the news of the death of Isidro, a baby who, 4 days before birth, was a victim of insecurity, together with his mother who is still fighting for her life at hospital. I cannot understand why someone who earns every little penny to buy a car, to buy a house, to feed his family or even just for the sake of earning it has to be afraid of criminals. People don´t want to have money in their hands because they feel they´ll probably be robbed or even murdered. Why can´t the rich be rich? Why can´t a worker come back home happy after being paid? Why can those delinquents go out with guns and just ask -violently, of course- for the money or the goods they haven´t earn or bought?

Is this the society we want for us, for our children, for our grandchildren? Is all this madness we live in justified? Why can´t officialdom realise that we could have a better, more secure country if laws were stricter, if they taught us to respect each other a bit more? The President claimed this morning that each country has the institutions and the systems that her society creates... Maybe it´s the other way round and if institutions changed, then society would change as well... If those in power assumed the responsibilities they have, they would teach us a lesson. It isn´t enough to listen to them, I guess we all want to see actions rather than to listen to their words.

If we continue being unprotected, if we go on listening to authorities saying that insecurity is just a "feeling", then society won´t change. We´ll become even more infuriated, more resentful, more determined to act on our own will. And the worst thing is that insecurity will never be deterred and that criminals won´t pay.

More than just a comic, I´ve found this experience really motivating, enriching and moving and I think I´ll start using cartoons as a way to air my feelings whenever I need to do so.

If you want to see the cartoon in a bigger size, click here.

If this wasn´t a meaningful lesson, then what do we understand by meaningful?

After studying too much Methodology and Didactics, we should all know that it is usually better to learn and store vocabulary or grammar if the context in which you learn is meaningful. Well, I´m sure it must have happened to you that you´ve discovered yourself learning in this way; or at least I´ve discovered myself remembering things after some unforgettable events.

Yesterday, Analía said something about a hail storm when I said those words and so I will explain what she meant. Once I told her a humorous anecdote about my first year at college. It was a hot day in November and we were having one of the last Language lessons of the year. We were discussing some vocabulary when we started feeling a warm breeze coming from outside. It was obvious that there was going to be a storm, although we had never expected it to be as violent as it turned out to be. Despite the breeze, we kept working with our copies as it seemed there wasn´t much to worry about; it was just a breeze.

Suddenly, we looked around and the sky had turned black. The city lights went on and it seemed as if it was night. But it was around 4 in the afternoon at that moment! We went on with the lesson and suddenly strong wind started blowing. The teacher told us to close the windows and she told us that we were experiencing a gale storm and she wrote it on the blackboard. Of course we all copied it down in our notebooks. The gale storm became fiercer, tree branches started to break, cars were running fast outside and many passers-by started running or hiding somewhere. All of a sudden, huge blocks of ice starting falling and we couldn´t avoid feeling awfully scared; some of the girls were about to cry, some others were shouting and we could hear the pieces of ice falling on the institute and crashing against the windows. We were really desperate and worried about our homes and our beloved ones who could be outside at that moment.

Despite the seriousness of the situation and our desperation, the teacher shouted (because we even couldn´t listen to each other if we didn´t shout, due to the noises made by the storm): “You see, now the gale storm has turned into a hail storm!” and she also write the new word on the blackboard and we also copied it down. Maybe this sounds unbelievable, but it did happen and now that I remember the episode it seems very funny.

The following lesson the teacher apologized for going on with the lesson despite our faces and feelings and she told us she didn´t realize that the storm was going to have the serious consequences it had. We all burst into laughter and we told her that we were never going to forget the words she had taught us that afternoon. In fact, whenever I say those words I cannot help remembering that lesson. Really memorable!