Bakerna2

2007-05-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

The Good-Bye

2007-05-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

THE GOOD-BYE

I’m conscious that this adventure is going to finish, because everything in this world have a beginning and an end, but we don’t have to be worried, even if the next year we can’t be together learning this fantastic language!!

This year, for me, it has been a bit hard. I work as a primary teacher in a private school (and writing this I’m giving you an important clue for the Sitge’s Party!!) and at Christmas I decided to prepare the competitions for Primary English Teacher (that is to say “oposicions” in Catalan).
I’m studying all the theory in English and I’m preparing all my didactic programming in English too, so… I’m doing a REALLY HARD WORK! (You know!)

In fact, on February, I had to go to the doctor because I suffered a nervous breakdown!
The exam will be the next 23rd of June and at this moment I’m so busy that this summer I will be the whitest people in the beach!!!
It’s for this reason that this post it will be the last one for this year, but I don’t want to finish it without summarising my impression about how the course has functioned.

First of all I want to speak about the BLOGS.
At the beginning, I thought that to post our writings on the net it will be a bit surrealistic but now I think it’s a great idea because we have access to our companion’s writings and we can give our opinions and receive comments that make you feel better with your creations.

On a second hand, I think that even though the student’s book is a good one, we haven’t got enough time to do it and practise it so much that we had liked.

But, in general, I’ve learned a lot of new things, I’ve improved my oral and writing skills and I’ve won great and interesting friends so… My personal mark for the development of this course is a 10!!!

See you in the Teacher’s party!!

Bakerna 2

Becoming Human's Summary

2007-05-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

Summary from Becoming human's documentary

Prologue

• Donald C. Johanson  perhaps human’s existence begins 4 millions years ago.

Some species adapted to the changing world while others were extinct. They developed a complex culture than nobody does it before and for that reason they could survive.

Evidence

1) HADAR (Ethiopia) it’s placed in the northern.

1972 they do a little travel to explore and they discover how rich the place was in fossil animals.

19731st fossil hominid discover, a knee joint, dated in 3.4 millions of years from a hominid

1974return to Hadar (last October) discovered the most important hominid on the all times. LUCY

2) LUCY

Donald looks further and found the whole skeleton of an hominid. The son “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” was sounding all the time while they were celebrating the discover. 3.2 millions years old.

AUSTROLOPITHECUSAFARENSIS

AUSTRO: Southern
PITHECUS: ape
AFARENSIS: afar region (where she was discovered)

Around ETHIOPIA they find more interesting hominid fossils.

3) RECONSTRUCTING ENVIRONMENTS

Kaye Reed Paleocologist She reconstruct the environment

Animals are a good source of information about past environment. Their anatomy reveals whether they were grass eaters or fruit eaters. That help us to reconstruct the environment.
HADAR very dusty place now but before there were a lot of plants and vegetation and animals.

AFRA REGIONthey work with them and they help to discover from who are the bones (fossils) from cats, lions…

The preservation of the bones gives us information about the past, how they are conserved through the years. The environment exposition give us interesting clues. They find more carnival bones than others.
Lucy was bipedal, and she’s got long arms with the benefit to climb a tree and get away from other dangers. However the trees disappear and this specie certainly will not survive.

Anatomy

1) The common ancestor

1971 Darwin proposed than human and apes got a common ancestor.

Primatesinclude monkeys, apes and humans, and they share many important similarities to make us distinct from other animals, they share brains, eyes, nose, teeth, clavicle, hands and thumbs.

African Chimpanzee=a lot of similarities

We share a common ancestor. In a concrete time in Africa, apes begin to develop like for example. Grasping toes (there was a big diversity of apes living there).

6 millions years ago, the world became a dryer and a colder place. African forest change and some apes species extinct but other begins to adapt to the new climate. And it survives the common ancestor of apes and humans.

Saint George and the Dragon

2007-04-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

Legend of St. George

The life of St. George is shrouded in legend. He was born in Cappadocia of noble Christian parents. On the death of his father, he lived with his mother in Palestine. He held an important post in the Roman Army - the rank of Tribune during the reign of Emperor Diodelsian (245-313). When the persecution of the Christians by the Emperor started, St. George personally complained to him. He was imprisoned tortured and beheaded.

In the legend of St. George, he is usually portrayed with a dragon. One of the legends is of Saint George rescuing the princess in the town of Silence.

"In the town of Silence, in Libya, there was a dragon, who was appeased by being fed two sheep a day; when these failed, the townsfolk offered by lot one of their young people. One day the lot fell on the King's daughter, who was led out to the sacrifice, dressed in her wedding gown. St. George came along and slaughtered the dragon and rescued the princess".

A cult dedicated to St. George can be traced back to as early as the 4th century A.D. and it was his subsequent veneration as a military saint in early Christianity, which established the nature of the St. George's legend. Early evidence for this can be seen in the Byzantine Empire of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Becoming humans

2007-04-18T03:26:00.000-07:00

BECOMING HUMAN…

I am delighted with the becoming human’s documentary, it’s a really good one and I have enjoyed a lot with all the theories that they explain about the human’s ancestors.

From my point of view, the more information we have about our past, the most prepared we are for the future.

To know about when and where the human’s life begins it’s an important fact, but nowadays we’ve got a very little clear information, and I think that the most interesting is coming!
-I would (...) stand out the discovery of Lucy’s skeleton.

Lucy had a small brain and was only about one meter tall, the pelvis showed it had been a female, and the team named her Lucy after the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." I couldn’t imagine the happiness that his discoverer felt at that moment!

Another important point explained at the documentary it’s the moment of Bipedalism. In 1978, Mary Leakey discovered ancient footprints preserved in the ground around what was once a water hole at Laetoli, Tanzania. These prints showed clearly that small primates walked on two feet there. This put upright walking even further back in time.
But the most important discovered for me is the aptitude to be conscious, what is the same, the “consciousness”.

Sometimes I wonder: Are human beings alone conscious, or are other creatures also conscious? Is an animal such as a dog, for example, conscious?

Yesterday, IN class and with the explanation that we received we could learns that chimpanzees and gorillas may not be able to speak as we do, but this is not because they lack something in their brains; they lack a voice. They have no larynx, or voice-box, and cannot move their tongues as freely as we can.

For one reason or another, human beings evolved slightly differently. We have a well-developed voice-box, and after the first year of life the tongue frees up, permitting the complex sounds necessary for speech. With these two advances, everything changed.

This kind of art representations approach us to our ancestors and to know more about how they feel, how they think…

In short, I think that human(NO S) evolution IS an interesting topic that affect us directly and that MAKES us to pay attention and to be aware of the new discoveries.

Cool Hunters

2007-03-06T04:29:00.001-08:00

Nowadays, to be cool means to be accepted for a big part of the society, it’s for this reason people wants to wear fashion and to feel as cool as possible.
But, in fact, we are surrounded by a society that search cool things everywhere.
Cool hunters try to find out what people think it’s cool, how they have to wear, to think or to be to become a great member of fashionable.

Students are a clear example of fashion and cool. By means of little works at the weekend or through their parents kindness, every week they spend time and money searching cool clothes or fashion complements like jewellery, bags, etc. in different street markets or strange shops.
But, sometimes, they buy this kind of entertainment that, previously, they have seen at television, on magazines or in wall charts at streets.

Teenager’s mind change quite quickly, in fact cool hunters are very necessary to discover and to inform us about teenager’s tendencies or preferences, and as much young they are, more near of them they will be!!!

2007-02-14T01:29:00.000-08:00

My long Saturday

7.00 Somebody is crying a lot. At first I thougt that it was a nightmare but….. no! It’s my nephew! My sweet and little nephew…
I can’t believe it!

The day before we had a dinner with our friends and we went to bed very late! But now… now it’s different! I’m here this weekend to help my sister with his baby because she is very tired, more tired than me! I’ m conscious that looking for a baby is a hard work.

15.00 After visiting five different costume shops, to buy a tiger disguise for the baby (he's only four months old) go to the supermarket and go to the drugstore to boy some milk and cereal pap for him, now, I can say that I’m really tired. At this moment my sister is taking a break at his bed and me and the baby, we are in front of the television because the television calm the baby and he doesn’t cry!!
But anyway he can’t control his feelings and he's crying all the time, perhaps because he can’t sleep or he’s hungry o he notice that his mother isn’t here… I don’t know…. See you later diary!!!!

23.00 What a long day! Now I understand my sister, she works six hours a day, then she has to buy the food, clean the house, prepare the washing machine, etc… but she has to do all this things even if she’s tired or has a headache, because now she has a responsibility, a big responsibility, SHE HAS A BABY!!!!!!

At this moment I can value how difficult a mother life is at first. Nowadays women work as much as men, and they look for his children and clean the house, prepare the meals….

I only wish that my future husband helps me a lot!! I hope…..
See you tomorrow my sweet diary!!!!!

MINI SAGA

2007-01-24T02:33:00.000-08:00

A grandmother sat down next to a person in a party school. The grandmother was criticizing a teenager for his appereance, she thought it was a boy. The person corrected her: is a girl!! Then the grandmother replied: ok! Men! and the person answered: excuse me but I'm a woman!

My anecdote

2007-01-17T03:25:00.000-08:00

This anecdote happened to me 4 years ago. It was summer and I was on holidays with my boyfriend, my cousin and his girlfriend spending some days in a country house in Osona.

That morning we decided to visit a viewpoint located in a beautiful town called Sant Llorenç de Morunys. The view was spectacular, we could see a lagoon, big and wonderful mountains and a really blue sky, we were fascinated!!!

After that, when we came back to our car we saw and indicator with the word: Monastery and I proposed to go there to visit it.
We didn’t know how much distance we had to cover but that wasn’t a problem, we were on holidays!!!
The path began between big trees and far away we could see some stairs. At first, the stairs were small and easy and we went up without problems, but as long as we walked, the stairs became more and more difficult and we had to climb them, but the top never arrived. In the middle of the way, more or less we met a couple of hikers coming down and they encourage us to arrive at the top!!!

After 45 min. we reached the top and a very small and little chapel. Incredible! We couldn’t believe it! That was the fantastic Monastery??????

After 15 minutes of relax we decided to come back but suddenly I saw a monk next to the chapel putting some candles and I realised that few metres behind him there was a beautiful monastery next to a big cathedral!!! We were so lucky!!! Incredible!!!

What is Asperger Syndrome?

2006-10-31T03:28:00.000-08:00

Asperger Syndrome or (Asperger's Disorder) is a neurobiological disorder named for a Viennese physician, Hans Asperger, who in 1944 published a paper which described a pattern of behaviors in several young boys who had normal intelligence and language development, but who also exhibited autistic-like behaviors and marked deficiencies in social and communication skills. In spite of the publication of his paper in the 1940's, it wasn't until 1994 that Asperger Syndrome was added to the DSM IV and only in the past few years has AS been recognized by professionals and parents.

Individuals with AS can exhibit a variety of characteristics and the disorder can range from mild to severe. Persons with AS show marked deficiencies in social skills, have difficulties with transitions or changes and prefer sameness. They often have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. They have a great deal of difficulty reading nonverbal cues (body language) and very often the individual with AS has difficulty determining proper body space. Often overly sensitive to sounds, tastes, smells, and sights, the person with AS may prefer soft clothing, certain foods, and be bothered by sounds or lights no one else seems to hear or see. It's important to remember that the person with AS perceives the world very differently. Therefore, many behaviors that seem odd or unusual are due to those neurological differences and not the result of intentional rudeness or bad behavior, and most certainly not the result of "improper parenting".

By definition, those with AS have a normal IQ and many individuals (although not all), exhibit exceptional skill or talent in a specific area. Because of their high degree of functionality and their naiveté, those with AS are often viewed as eccentric or odd and can easily become victims of teasing and bullying. While language development seems, on the surface, normal, individuals with AS often have deficits in pragmatics and prosody. Vocabularies may be extraordinarily rich and some children sound like "little professors." However, persons with AS can be extremely literal and have difficulty using language in a social context.

At this time there is a great deal of debate as to exactly where AS fits. It is presently described as an autism spectrum disorder and Uta Frith, in her book AUTISM AND ASPERGER'S SYNDROME, described AS individuals as "having a dash of Autism". Some professionals feel that AS is the same as High Functioning Autism, while others feel that it is better described as a Nonverbal Learning Disability. AS shares many of the characteristics of PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder; Not otherwise specified), HFA, and NLD and because it was virtually unknown until a few years ago, many individuals either received an incorrect diagnosis or remained undiagnosed. For example, it is not at all uncommon for a child who was initially diagnosed with ADD or ADHD be re-diagnosed with AS.

In addition, some individuals who were originally diagnosed with HFA or PDD-NOS are now being given the AS diagnosis and many individuals have a dual diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism.
For your information, I've included below a copy of the DSM IV Description. In addition, I've also added a more down-to-earth description that was originally posted to the autism listserv.

Me and Henry Moore's art

2006-10-31T02:35:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, 27th of Octobger 2006, all my english group and me, we went t Caixa forum museum to contemplate Henry Moore's art, and I enjoyed it very much!

When Núria, our English teacher, told us about Henry Moore's life and art I realised that when I was in Cambride last summer, in the garden of the Fitzwilliam Museum there was a Reclining Figure, characteristic of Moore's sculptures. I passed overthere every day to go the University but I didn't know the author of this great sculpture.

Nw, I know that this sculpture was created in 1951 by Henry Moore and represent an abstract female figure intercut with voids. It is made from painted plaster buty there are several bronze versions of this sculpture. Moore's signature is this reclining figure, influenced by a Toltec-Maya sculpture known as "Chac Mool", which he had seen as a plaster cast in Paris in 1925.

Is for all these reasons that I'm becoming a Henry Moore's fan and I would be an expert in Moore's art.

Spanish People

2006-10-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

“SPANISH PEOPLE”

There are a lot of stereotypes[1] about Spanish people but like in most other countries not all is true.

As regard the food, for example, people think that we are all the time eating “paella”, potato omelet and drinking “sangria”.
Our “Spanish parties” are very famous between English and German people because they think that we drink a lot of alcohol and that we are dancing all the night.
Bull fights and flamenco have a great success between Chinese and Japanese people, and they think that we are cheerful and very charm people, too.
We have a really good weather all the year and a lot of tourists love waste their holidays in our beaches.

In my point of view, there are true and false things in this comments. For example, I love paella and potato omelet but I like salads, ham, eggs… and more things, because the paella is from Valencia and in Spain there are a lot of traditional plates like potage, “callos”, etc.
Nowadays, bull fight is consider a violent act and organizations supporting animals want to leave out this kind of sports, however there are Spanish people that love it, and other ones who hate it.
Our weather, its ok but that depends of the part of Spain because at the north is always raining and the sun doesn’t shine every day!

So, Spanish people, like other cultures and countries have good and bad things but I was born here and I couldn’t choose that, only respect it and enjoy it!

[1] a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group