Atauro, an unusual island.

Atauro is an island that is located in the south-east of Asia on the extinct Wetar segment of the volcanic inner banda, I have been reading about this and also I have learnt a lot of new words, the reports of the CI are a good resource to learn new things.
Atauro is an unusual island and it is not just because is an island, it is because it has one feature that it is not usual in a city and it is the lack of fresh water, in this island there are no lakens, ponds , rivers or large stream. The water is supplied by the limestone rock beneath the forests and it is literally a trickle, people who live in there have to walk kilometers  from their homes  to get fresh  water, "people understand that protecting water is non-negotiable" (CI report)
There is a really close connection  between  nature and people, they understand that living this way is not that simple but is the awarenes of taking care of nature.
Even of the lack of fresh water they understand that they have to take care of animals too and the variety of mammals and lizards are part of their normal life.
with this article I have learnt a lot of vocabulary such as the words: watershed, cope, lizards, limestones,pitfall, reef and trickle.
Maybe I know it is not necesary to write these new learnt words but for me it is necessary  to remember  it them all.

Dark tales: Edgar allan Poe's Black Cat

Edgar Alllan Poe, was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, also he was considered part of the American Romantic movement.

He is better known for his short stories of mistery and horror, one of them called the ''black cat'' a short story of a happy marriage who live  appily with a black cat, and then the principal character killed his wife and the black cat too.

the adaptation of the book Dark tales: edgar Allan Poe's Black cat, into a game, is shown from the perspective of a detective looking for clues about the disappearence of Sarah, who appears in several scenes as a ghost. The game has six chapters and in everyone yu have to find clues and with them and the items givwn, the mistery gets resolved.

A lot of people think that games do not teach anything but it is clear demonstrated that you can read a book  through  it.

I think it is a really interesting game, I really enjoyed all the journey through it, it feels like you are linving the story from the perspective of a detective who is investigating who killed the woman of the story.

I loved all the soundtracks that catches your attention preventing you from quiting the game, also there were a lot of scenes where you had to put your brain on work, and it was very tricky because when the game asked you to look for thing in the scene they were pretty hiden and you do not even imagine where the asked thing would be.

in conclusion this is an example of how teacher and students can use games to make more interesting a topic, a reading or even an exam, not just to make it interesting but to learn and teach.

David Emmett- Asia-Pacific field division.

David, a zoologist, is a man who has dedicated his life to his fascination in wildlife, he has been in several countries such as Malawi, Tanzania and Madagascar for diverses studies of biodiversity.
He and his wife were hired by Conservation international to conduct detailed biodiversity surveys of the remote, unexplored places, he had documented about his expeditions, that is what I  will post about.

Singapore, a model for cities worldwide,
In Singapore you can find a lot of treasures, it is one of the most avanced and thriving cities in Asia and in the world, not only in all the business stuff but also the world-class demostration of urban nature conservation.
In the documentary it was shown how there were a lot of nature landscapes and they were pretty beautiful, well-conserved and well- attendenced.
the singaporean government have been worked long time ago to conserve its rainfalls, forests and freshwater reserves, even the government has decreed that  is prohibit  hunting and fishing, making society understand they do not need to hunt their food.
I also find some great new words I did not know and great information you do not found anywhere.

The wildlife is alwasy present in the whole country

"The country was developed based on the same principle that shapes CI’s mission: People need nature. The country was decades ahead of its time.'' -Conservation International

just a tip for learning and teaching

as I said before, I have been reading a book called '' Teacher Language Awareness'' and I think it is pretty awesome and they talk about L2 and the knowledge of the teacher, there are two types of knowledge according to the book, Implicit knowledge and Explicit knowledge. the first one is the ''acquired knowledge'' that is unconscious and the Explicit knowledge is the ''learned knowledge''.
According to this book it can not be in the procedure of learning, first the learned knowledge and then the acquired knowledge, it goes different; first the acquired knowledge and then the learned knowledge, that is it. First you have like a contact with the language and unconscious you learned things and then you go on looking for the correct grammar and all that stuff.
My advice for you is, as a teacher, it is to look for activities that take your students to an acquired knowledge and you can do that through the interest centers, according to what your students are looking for and what they like, then you go on to the learned-knowledge activities.
I  think this is a good way to learn and to teach  English.

Teacher language awareness c

Yesterday I went to the library, because we are discusing all that strike thing, and one of the purposes is that it should be more books of english at the library, that was my purpose. One day I went to the library long time ago and I found not many books where you can choice according what you are looking for, so I decided to get back again, indeed there is a lack of books, I needed to put in the list the books it should be there, and when I was looking for it, I found one special book, called TLA it is about teaching and it is really complex but also it is really interesting, I took it with me....
The book talks about the importance of subject matter in an english class, we as teachers need to have a lot of knowledge about the language to have  a good response to the student's questions and mistakes.... I am still reading the book, I hope to keep on learning new things and vocabulary.

Arctic monkeys

Once again, it is proved how the music is the main tool of learning english.
Today I was singing an Arctic Monkeys' song but I did not knew the lyrics of the song so well, there were a lot of things that I did not understand while listening the song and a friend of mine listened to me singing and he said, that band has a lot of good songs and you can learn a lot from them, so, I was thinking on that, ''actually, I do not understand some words'' so I went to the internet and there was.... just one song, there was a lot of knew words... like ''summer down'' ''pucker up''  ''cusp'' ''guts'' honestly there were not the big deal, but I did not know the meaning of these words.
another thing that I could notice is that these are not the common lyrics you found in a song, so that is even so much more..... I think I will keep on listenning Arctic Monkeys.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is an Island located near India, in this island there is  a lot of forests and wildlife but communities are rising, they are cutting down forests for firewood, so this conserservation area is getting down.

what Conservation International have planned in cooperation with Disney worlwide conservation fund, the Fund is going to give support to the CI in Indonesia, Cambodia and Sri Lanka that protect monkeys and other endangered  species, by seeing the Disney nature's film ''Monkey Kingdom''

the purpose is to create conservation areas and give the management to the local communities under the supervision of the department of wildlife Conservation, also aducating and engaging these communities..

I think it is really important to help with this cause...

#NatureIsSpeaking :) 

Learning how to teach

Today we had a long schedule, because of the teacher's strike and the support we are giving to them, but even when there is a strike we have to continue learning, and that is what I did.
I was reading something interesting about Albert Morlachetti and his input in the education, he was a good teacher... and he died today... I wanted to take in to account what he said about education, so I gave to my dear friend a lesson for an exam she has tomorrow and I learnt a lot about her as a student, taking in to account her questions and her way to see the stuff, actually  she asked a lot and  as teacher I will be, I need to know everything  to answer her questions.
At the end she understood everything and I hope she gets a good grade in her exam, tomorrow :)

Amazonia

Amazonia is one of the world's greatest rainforest, we have seen how the pollution in the world it is destroying it, there is one corporation that is called Conservation International CI a nonprofit environmental organization (I have just realized about what a nonprofit organization is) this is a cool organization I have found a lot of interest things through their web page and I feel very attracted by it.

Today I learnt some new vocabulary, and I read about what I like.

I was reading something about the Amazonia and the damage that it is receiving from different factors such as the deforastation, climate change and the growing energy demands the CI's solutions to this issues seem to be very good for protecting nature but we have a lot to do there and there is where they need owr help, you can protec an acre! go to : http://www.conservation.org/where/pages/amazonia.aspx?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=social

and there is a lot of information about it.

Louis' presentation- argumentative essays

Honestly I have not been very interested in the presentations during this semester, obviously I have been putting attention because it is important, I have learnt a lot about everyone and some presentation were good but today's presentation was really catchy (as the teacher says) I learnt a lot and I felt very comfortable doing the exercises our mate assigned us and I participated in every thing I could.
An argumentative essay consists in convince the reader about what you are defending, that your opinion is right and support the reasons with solid evidence (arguments). However you do not only give reasons to support your point of view, in argumentative essays you also rebut the ''other side's reasons'' proving they are not good reasons and also being shown how we are capable to consider all sides of the issue.
we did thesis statements with supporting reasons and I wanna share mine:
-local government should invert money in homeless animals such as dogs and cats.-
*Many of these animals have diseases that can be dangerous to other animals, even for humans are dangerous and someone needs to take care of it,  it is not only the willing of doing it but the money is, it has a lot to do too*
next monday it is my presentation, I hope to do it as well as Louis! congratulations Louis (actually his real name is Luis but I prefer to name him Louis :3 )

paraphrase

Today, I have learnt how to paraphrase in class and our partner showed us a whole presentation explaining how to be a good paraphraser, I have learnt that sometimes in writing academic you need to support your ideas and you can do it by paraphrasing or summaryzing.
In paraphrase you take information from another side and you rewrite it but in your own words, according to my partner the paraphrased text has to be as long as the original and also it is important how to use that information you took with out committing plagiarisim, the paraphrased text it has not to be too similar to the original in that case you would be committing plagiarism and when you don't paraphrase do not forget to cite..
Of course we have learnt too how to summarize and summarazing it is different from paraphrasing, because it is shorter than it, it includes only the main ponts and you leave out most details.
I think it is a good exercise and we are learning how to be good at academic writing, this semester has been more interesting because of that, even when I am not so good at writing but I have got better at it! thanks teachiii! :)

technical vocabulary

Technical vocabulary can be difficult to understand for english learners specially when  it does not belong to your interest center and it becomes really frustraring.
Every english learner should develop this kind of vocabulary because it is supposed that we  should know a lot of vocabulary in any context but even ''any'' context can be too difficult for us.
Today I was reading an article about veterinary medicine because a firend asked me to help her with this article that is in english, and I though, it can not be too difficult, but damn! when I started reading it I was like WHAT!? I had no idea about the meaning of a lot of words I had to look for every word I did not know and then it became really frustraring.
I think it is really important to start reading this kind of articles, but the easy ones in order to get out of our comfort zones and learn new vocabulary even when sometimes it is frustraring! Start now!

Total solar eclipse

Today it happened something pretty beautiful but unfortunately I could not apreciate it (so sad) 

I was surfing the internet in the morning and what I found, while I was sleeping there was a Total solar eclipse in the other side of the earth, there was an article on the BBC News page about it and it looked incredible, at the beginning I could not understand a lot of technical words so I looked for them on the internet and I learned a lot of new vocabulary and actually even when from this side of the world we could not see the eclipse, tonight we will have a really huge moon, because tonight the moon will be really close to the earth! finally  I interacted with this page that it has a lot of articles, news and among others! 

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31980255

Divering

I was just chilling and looking for something to read, because teachers say that it is important to read, specially extensively, because you enjoy the reading and all that stuff, but I was like '' I want to learn something new'' ''not just for enjoyment'' and there it was, history and nature together  my two favorite topics and they were together!! also there was new vocabulary, so I felt so happy about learning and enjoy the topics!
 In the Madagascar island,  around 5000 years ago there was a lot of diversity of animals, but nowadays they have been extinct. The introduce of cattle and humans into the island have provoked the extinction of these animals. There is a clear instance about that when an Asutralian diver, Ryan Dart uncovered three flooded caves, calling then,  colleagues of him, "The materials we found in the caves are almost pristine,"  Alfred Rosenberger. the bones of individual animals  were also found so closely grouped together, palaeontologists thing that these bones are from extinct lemurs the size of gorillas. 
 Here is the Link where you can find more info. about it.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/19/africa/underwater-fossil-lemur-graveyard-madagascar/index.html#

A look inside children's minds

 people think that knowing what is thinking a child is so complicated, and actually it is but scientits have descovered a way  to do it and that is what I found in this reading called ''a look inside children's minds'' and they talked about the neural activity inside children's brain, how children's minds differ for one 3 year-old child to one 4 year-old child.
I think it is important, because it help us to find out how to carry on with the cognitive problems children have when they are growin up,
here is the link:
http://now.uiowa.edu/2013/06/look-inside-childrens-minds

love

VANESSA - WENDY :)

LOVE

Some young people think that love is a complicated feeling. It is the responsable of making  young people's mind go crazy fulled with thoughts and hard decissions , is the moment in which the beating heart wins over the brain and reason, this is so claimed to be the worst but best feeling of all. There are a lot of news about people commiting insane actions caused by not being corresponded for someone or cheated on. For example; there was this one girl called Susan who killed her husband for some kisses she found on his t-shirt "People Magazine", second there are a lot of stories about people killing themselves because of love. In short, love must be carry on with maturity and cold head reactions, it is complicated but not imposible.

Teacher, Wendy have already posted on the blog yesterday :)

state and county fairs

Today a learn a lot about modern society, as the teacher said we need to learn  a lot about everything in order to take the IELTS test and also  I think it is important to know about general culture,
I was doing an assigment and I decided to practice the intensive reading to get a better comprehension of everything and I realized about a lot of vocabulary that I did not know and a lot of traditions North Americans have, it is really crazy, funny and entertaining how they found a way to put everything together; the Fair,  in this document we found all the traditions that usually are in the fairs, all the contests, the  themes,  even when the fairs consist the most part  in farming, there is a lot you can find about other topics, like technology .
I think this topic of Fairs is really interesting because shows us how well conservated is the culture and how they keep on these traditions since long time ago.

Paragraph

Nowdays most people in the world are worrying about how damaged is the mother nature and how we can take care of it.
As we have seen through this last few years, as years have gone, the weather has changed a lot and is  getting worst, this is because of us, the question now is;  what were we thinking?
First of all since the globalization; the integration for the interchange of world views, products ideas and other aspects of culture, we forgot about nature, all the employers and bussiness men started to think about money taking advantage of nature, they cut off  trees for their products, they killed animals for clothes and the people just sat down and bought everything in the marker, in other words we swept the nature.
Now we are thinking about how can we recant all the damaged, the answer is starting one by one, even with little things, the damage now is huge but we are too if we joing together.
In brief  now that we realized about all of this, we need to recover it, somehow, nature does not need people, people need nature.  

Vacation, first two weeks at the univeristy.

well long after with out publishing in the blog, I think this semester I got back desiring to learn more and what I  found when I got back; English <3 It was waiting for me, Vacation were a long, long time and I had to work everyday so I did not have time to learn a little bit more, fortunately I have learned a lot this two weeks with the teacher in the classroom, we realized everyday that we don't know as much as we think, now we are learning a lot about writing and I think it is really important, Today we found out a lot of mistakes in just one of my partners' essays I can't even imagine how many mistakes I have in mine so I will start writing about a lot of things in order to practice writing, I hope  to count on my lovely teacher.  xoxo