Dear all:

Today I’d like to tell you a bit about myself. When I finished school I realized I did not know what to do. I loved languages but I also loved music. So I took a year off and worked to save money. Later I entered translation because of languages. I did English and German but right in the middle of it, there was a chance to travel to Germany and work there. So I did. When I got back to Chile I fell into teaching by chance.  Later I got my teaching degree.

I think teachers are a great contribution to society but only if they have a vocation. If not, they may be great researchers or academics, but not good educators. I feel a teacher needs to be alert and attentive to what is happening in the classroom in the whole sense of the word. They also need a lot of patience & knowledge in their area of study. A teacher, as any other professional needs constant training  (formal or informal) because the world changes, students change, and so does methodology.

I think one of my favorite subjects at Uni was phonetics. I loved the idea of studying & recognizing the English sounds and also to contrast them with the Spanish sounds. I also enjoyed semantics and pragmatics.

One professional I admire in my area of study is Rod Ellis. He is very well known in the area of second language acquisition.  He has published a lot of books & I love the way he writes. In his books he has covered areas of second language acquisition not only from the traditional angle but also in a more critical fashion. He has got a very clear way to express his ideas. I think this is good because not all teachers have the time to read and if it is too complex, they may get lost and stop reading. This, I think is because the lack of research most teachers (especially school teachers!) do

Say:

-Why are you studying this career?

- How do professionals in your area contribute to society?

- What tools will a professional in your area need to have in the future?

- What is your favourite subject at the moment? why?

- Include this and more in your answer.

- 200 words minimum. (3 comments to classmates and one to me)

May 20

Dear all,
Today I found different secondary students demonstrating and demanding better education. Plus, there are rumors about a possible strike (paro) at university level. Today I'd like you to write about this topic (Education), since it is so important and probably the reason why so many people are in a bad place.Chile needs better and more equal opportunities for all the citizens.
Write about how you feel about this.
Some ideas are:
How do you feel about the educational reform?
How do you think "penguins" have helped in 2006/2011?
Do you think student leaders like G Jackson, C Vallejos, G Boric are trying to make a difference for education today?
Do you think strikes(paros) and demonstrations(marchas) are the only way to obtain changes?

Write a comment on my blog and 190 words. Write 2 comments on your classmates' blogs.

Today you have to choose one of the following topics.

A hobby

Gender and sexism

A place you would like to visit

Write a minimum of 175 words plus 3 comments. Remember to orgnize your text.

Even though I find the three topics interesting, I will choose a hobby (thinking of a sport). 

I have always been a quite active person,however, sports are an issue for me. When I was little I did Olympic gymnastics and really enjoyed it. I also did synchronized swimming and realized I wasn't very synchronized :( so I quit.

My relationship with sports has been on and off, more off than on, I fear. In my adult life I have done aerobics, yoga, swimming, pilates and cycling. Swimming is something I really enjoy and I don’t know why I don’t do it very often. I used to go all the time. I hope  I'll go tomorrow and start training again.  The other activity I simply love is cycling .I used to come to Uni on the bike.After the winter I'll come on the bike again.  At the moment I only do Pilates but only  because of an injury I had. I still like it quite a bit.

I’d really like to motivate myself and do exercise every day because every time I do it I feel so good. One day I’ll get there. I truly believe meditation and sports are the best preventive medicine there is :)

in this dictionary you can click on the speaker American or British and you can hear the word

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-cobuild-learners

Presentation

Dear all,
Today we will write a short text and some comments.
Write about the preparation and the experience of presenting in English today.
You can also refer to other presentations you enjoyed and why.

Write a minimum of 100 words and 2 comments.