The human face of hypocrisy

Last week an unexpected event shocked everybody, regardless of one´s political preferences. A former president died last Wednesday and, on top of everything, that meant that the actual president´s husband died. Before plunging into a reflection towards this topic, I´d like to say that I don´t adhere neither to any political party nor to the former or actual presidents´ ideas, beliefs or tendencies. I´m just a citizen who has been bombarded for a whole week with details about the death of a person and with comments about the future of politics in our country.

The first thing I´d like to say is that I´ve found many comments which I´ve heard on the grapevine and which I´ve listened to on the radio and on T.V. very offensive and disrespectful. Being content with someone else´s death is one of the worst sins we could commit and I´m not saying this from a religious point of view, but just from a humane perspective.

In most cases, comments have been either offensive or too flattering about the dead and his family. Even the opposition parties, whose representatives usually criticized the previous and the actual governments, have said things like the best leader in Argentinian history has died, or that a great man died, while they opposed him fiercely in speeches and in interviews they gave to different radio and T.V. programmes. Lots of people have also expressed their opinions about the death, about details of, for instance, what the wife was doing at the moment the man died or details about which car took them to hospital; things that shouldn´t interest anyone.

As regards the media, they have made a business out of the funeral. There hasn´t been anything more important than the president´s face during her public speeches or during the funeral. They have also talked a lot about the son´s and daughter´s expressions and lots of journalists and commentators have been wondering about their future. Some T.V. programmes have even invited doctors specialized in heart attacks so that they could explain why they happen and how to prevent them.

Political parties (even the one that the former president represented) are worried about next year´s election –although they may say they are not- and they are discussing and rethinking tactics to attack each other as soon as the deep feeling grief is overcome. Those people closest to the former president were present during the funeral and have accompanied the widow at all times, but all the same it is said that there are political interests behind their presence.

The question which I think we should all ask ourselves at this point is: the images that have been shown, the comments that have been heard, the feelings that have been felt since the moment the news spread, aren´t they a clear proof of the society we are? It has always been claimed that we are the society we deserve, and I believe there is no discussion around this.

I.C.T. Lesson

As part of Workshop IV we were all asked to design an I.C.T. lesson. In order to do so, we had to choose one of the activities we had done with our students during the practice period and digitalize it in some way.

The final task that I prepared for my lessons was making cover pages. That activity was both motivating for students and it was also an evaluation tool for me and for the class teacher. At the same time, the activity forced students to watch the news or to read newspapers at home. As students could use any grammar tense they knew and as they felt very proud of their cover pages, I decided to use them for my I.C.T. lesson.

Our Workshop teacher had given us the addresses for some web pages in which we could perform various tasks. I had to make the same cover pages that students had done, so I had to use (and learn how to use) Openzine, a website for creating online magazines. I thought it was going to be hard work and sort of a very complicated task but except from the time it took for each change to be uploaded, everything went right. Of course I couldn´t find the same pictures students had used in their cover pages, but I tried to find similar ones. Once I had corrected students´ covers I copied everything they had written in them, trying to follow their same layouts as far as possible. It took me a couple of hours to choose the design, to upload the pictures and to write students´ texts but by the time I got used to working on that website I had no more cover pages to upload.

I think that having learned to use another tool has been very useful, not only to comply with the I.C.T. lesson that I had to plan, but also to use that tool in the future, as a teacher. At the same time, it´s been a clear proof that there are no limits using the Internet. There is always something we can profit from and the best thing is that we don´t need to be computer literate to do so. We just have to click and, through trial and error, try to succeed.

I guess you want to see the cover pages. If so, just click here!

The last lesson

Wednesday 13th, October. The moment came for me to say “goodbye” to all those students who made me feel so comfortable for more than a month; it was the end of the practice period.

When I started Workshop IV this year I thought that it was going to be the most difficult workshop we had ever had and that planning every single lesson would represent a daunting task. Contrary to my expectations, the practice period turned out to be a challenging but invaluable experience. It was just necessary to get started with the plans and to get to know the students a bit each lesson. Then things started flowing naturally.

During the month I spent at Normal I I learned a lot of things. Surprisingly for me, I´ve discovered that I feel quite more at ease working with adolescents than with kids. Teenagers allow one to be ironic, to mock at them and at yourself freely –without hurting their feelings, of course-, to carry out a systematization with the certainty that they have or they haven´t understood. Teenagers are more challenging and more demanding than children in terms of explanations and justifications. If you don´t know whether, say, the passive voice is clear for them or not don´t worry: they´ll immediately let you know. Teenagers usually value the effort one makes to prepare handouts, to take photocopies, to find interesting topics and to correct homework. Perhaps they don´t express it, but be sure that they know that one prepares the lessons if one does so, they know that we go to bed late, they know that we will explain things twenty times if that is necessary and they know that, in our case, we are trainees who want to make the most of our period in their class and that we want to graduate in order to see our dream come true.

The last lesson was highly emotive. I was about to burst into tears at all times. Everything went as planned and fortunately no one missed the lesson. I had prepared lots of funny activities for them to enjoy the lesson and to unwind, but without forgetting that it was an English lesson. I tried to leave an imprint in their lives, so I showed them Susan Boyle´s video (see previous post) and I also read a story for them. As a gift, I had prepared cards with a chocolate for each of them. It was so funny to make them shut their eyes before receiving the gift! They were very anxious and they couldn´t wait to open their eyes. While keeping their eyes closed some even hypothesized that the class teacher and I were going to carry out a massacre! After opening their eyes they were so pleased to see a little gift on their tables! They were thankful, as well and some even told me that they were about to cry.

When I asked them to give me feedback in a sheet of paper, they wrote the most rewarding things one could ever read. It was great to discover that even the laziest ones had enjoyed all my lessons and that they have learned. In fact, one of the boys told me that he would never forget me because it was with me that he passed the first English test in his whole life. I guess that this is one of the most precious prize for a teacher, isn´t it?

A clear example

Merryl Goldberg was one of the main presenters at F.A.A.P.I. She broke the ice by playing the saxophone and then she also invited Harmer to play with her. After a bit of music she started with her speech. Hers was one of the presentations that I liked the most, since she gave lots of concrete examples of how to include art within the four walls of a classroom.

I had never listened about her and hence, I hadn´t expected such a presentation. She seemed to be a very active and efficient woman, at least on stage, and I guess she must be like that in the classroom, too. She not only gave lots of practical examples but also made each of us feel part of her presentation as well.

At one point in her presentation she gave a list of the ten basic things that enable both teaching and learning. One of the key points she mentioned was CONFIDENCE. And she showed us this Susan Boyle´s video to exemplify what she meant:




I had never seen that video before and I didn´t know that the jury and the audience laughed at this singer in her first appearance. In fact, I hadn´t heard much about her or about her music. As if she knew she was going to win the contest, this woman showed everybody how important confidence in oneself is. Maybe she was quite conscious of the great voice she had, but anyway, confidence was paramount. She didn´t panic on front of such an audience, she didn´t feel nervous and she didn´t tremble! –Or at least it didn´t show!

At the moment in which the judges gave her feedback they were all right: Susan Boyle turned out to be a great surprise. It is really nice to listen to each of them apologizing and to listen to the audience clapping. I think that it is a clear example of how cynical about and prejudiced against people society can be. The video should leave each of us wondering why we pass on judgement before even listening or getting to know each other. And obviously, we should understand that we can do whatever we want to do if we are convinced and determined to fight for our dreams.

This week I´m finishing my practice period at Normal 1 and I´ll show this video to my students, not only because they will understand everything that people in it say, but also because I want to leave an imprint on them. I want them to remember me, my lessons and my teachings. And I hope I can still confidence in them to achieve all their dreams and to understand that, as the slogan claims, “impossible is nothing”.

I hope you can apply this video to your lessons as well! Enjoy it!

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.