BEING A TEACHER IS A DIFFICULT TASK NOWADAYS, SO I DECIDED TO FOLLOW THIS PIECE OF ADVICE BY BRUCE LEE:
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
Our younger generations are claimed to be the best educated and trained generations ever. They are supposed to be bilingual, and even plurilingual, with a high digital competence, with the best marks ever, with excellent social skills, with the highest expectations... and so on. And, all of a sudden, we discover that they tend to be a fake. I do hope that I'm wrong because the outcome can be fatal for our world, our planet.
Lately I have found out that my students don't read the compulsory readers that we have, that most comments are not genuine and that all the articles and videos I provide them with in this blog are not read or watched, among many other things.
Well, life is hard and has no mercy, and in a few weeks' time they will face the real world, that is to say, the Selectivity exam. And this is just the beginning of a long race full of hurdles and you have to be better educated and trained than ever before. This is no fake!! The requirements that are demanded are probably the highest ever and only those who have done things properly will succeed. I know the pandemics and the lockdown didn't help, but we should be more conscious of the real/analogical world and we should not be mislead by the metaverse or any other kind of virtual world they create.
Therefore, my piece of advice is to take advantage of all that is offered to us, all that is available on the web... but always being sensible because the fact that we have all 24/7 does not mean that we do not make a proper use of it. So, for example, we mustn't watch TV 24 hours 7 days a week because they are broadcasting films, series, documentaries, sport... all that time.
THIS WOULD BE THE JOURNEY TO NOWHERE!!!
Some activities for you to do:
The English We Speak: Bad hair day (BBC Learning English)
A listening exercise for you to do: Remembering Desmond Tutu (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)
This was not the case of Shakleton. He knew where to go and the goals to achieve. Do you remember? We need Shackleton's Endurance to keep on fighting Here's an interesting Lingohack episode for you to broaden your vocabulary about the issue.
And remember the song we were listening to last week: "While you see a chance, TAKE IT!!"
Talking about chances, here's the latest about the possibility of going to Dublin next year, but first have a look at this document about our trip in 2016.
The Taliban has told men who work for the government that if they
shave their beards and don't wear traditional local clothing - long
loose top and trousers, and hat or turban - they will not be allowed in
their workplace and might even be fired.
The group regained control of Afghanistan last August, 20 years after
being ousted, as the remaining Western troops and diplomats left.
Do you think that this kind of requirements are necessary to be allowed to work? Is it the same in all jobs? For example, there are certain jobs tattoed people cannot apply for. Is it fair?
Here are some articles for you to read related to the issue:
‘No entry will be available in office without beard and dress code’, orders of Taliban, said – may be leave from job (NewsNCR)
My musical hint for today also makes reference to the issue:While you see a chance by Steve Winwood. Yes, my dear students, while you see a chance, take it!!! Stay healthy!!
Here's a version with the lyrics for you to sing along!!
Not long ago in the 1000 Master Miami tennis tournament we saw how the Norwegian tennis player Caasper Ruud conceded a first serve to Carlos Alcaraz, despite the chair umpire's opinion, after a wrong decision he had taken. That is what we call 'great sportmanship', that is to say:
fair and generous behaviour or treatment of others, especially in a sporting contest. Example:"he displayed great sportsmanship in defeat"
A synonym would be 'fair play' and there are sports where this attitude is usually present and applauded by the public.
As the song says, "that'll be the day when you say goodbye, that'll be the day when you make me cry..." Yes, time flies and this school year is coming to an end, a group of students that began their secondary studies are about to finish and ten years ago....
But let's start first analysing the expression: "That'll be the day"
Need-to-know language: to face, bullying, uniqueness, educate & stigma.
Carlos Alcáraz making history in Miami 2022 against Cilic, Tsitsipas, Kecmanovic, Hurkackz and perhaps Ruud?? with a great moment of sportmanship by the Norwegian tennis player.
International Women's Day is tomorrow 8th March and, a couple of weeks ago, my elder son and I were asked at the official language school (French C1.2) to search for an African woman who had done something really important in life. It had to be among the French-speaking countries.
At the beginning it was really hard to find any woman, but all of a sudden I came across this great woman: Aoua Kéita, from Mali. We found little information about her, but it was really amazing what she was able to do under her circumstances.
It is said that behind every great man there has been a great woman. In this case, behind this great woman there was also a man, his father, who made the effort to send her to school against the opinions of many people, included Aoua's mother herself!!! As you can see, education played a paramount role in the development of Aoua Kéita as a person of such great significance for her country and Africa.
Here's a link to our presentation AouaKeïta, symbole de l’engagement des femmes en Afrique! (in French, obviously) and if you wan to listen to it, you can do it using these two QR codes (the programme we used to record our presentations was Vocaroo). You can do the same: write a comment about a famous woman and once you've done it, record it and send me the QR code!
One of the people that I love the most is my elder sister. Her name is Lucía and she is 23 years old. She is a really cool person, she is very kind and very sympathetic with all the people. Also, she is a really good sister, we get on with each other very well. And she always does whatever she can to make me happy, and helps me. I’m very grateful to have her as a sister.
I admire her a lot, because she started a degree but she didn’t like it so she started working to earn money to be able to go to another city and study what she wants and make her dreams come true. Some years later, she is working in a hospital, she is also working as an administrator in a singing school, and from time to time she goes to restaurants to sing.
I always remember when we were children she was singing all the time, and she always dreamed to be a singer. Now, when I see her singing in restaurants, weddings, etc, I feel very happy. She hopes that in the future, the same will happen with my dreams.
All in all, I’m so proud of her because everything that she proposes, she achieves it. For that reason, I would like to be like her in the future.
Abel Martínez Padilla (3º ESO B)
José Adrián González (1º Bach A)
I am going to talk about the most important woman in my life and I think that If she wasn’t here, my life would be very difficult.
She is my sister, whose name is Lucía, and she is 23 years old. She is a person who loves dancing.
In her free time she usually goes to flamenco's class, where she spends a good time with her friends.
Now she is working with my mother, who is another important person in my life, but she would like to work as a hotel receptionist because she was for 4 years in Granada, where she studied a university degree.
So, when she was 18 years old, She was able to get the car licence.
She is very important to me because we have always been together in the bad moments.
When we were little we always fought over anything but now we get on very well.
One of the things that I admire about her is that she has a stable job and in the last months she has just bought a house.
Her personality is difficult but she has a good heart that is the important thing.
When I am older I’ll try to follow her pieces of advice.
Alba Arellano (1º Bach A)
Clara Campoamor
was born in Madrid in 1888. Her father died when she was ten years old
and she had to leave her first studies to help her family. In 1920 she
started high school, got her degree and enrolled in the Faculty of Law.
When she was 36 years old, she became one of the few female lawyers of
the time. In 1925 she was the second woman to join the Law School of
Madrid
In
1923 she participated in a cycle on feminism organized by the Female
University Youth, where she began to develop her ideas on women's
equality. She was the first woman to appear before the Supreme Court.
In
1928, together with her partners from other European countries, she
created the International Federation of Women in Legal Careers, and in
1930 she helped found the Spanish Women's League for Peace. She
participated in the commission in charge of drafting the Republican
Magna Carta, she was the first woman to speak in the Spanish Courts, in
September 1931.
She
defended women's suffrage in Spain, which led her to enter history as
the main architect of the inclusion of women's suffrage in Spain.
Well, life is hard and has no mercy, and in a few weeks' time they will face the real world, that is to say, the Selectivity exam. And this is just the beginning of a long race full of hurdles and you have to be better educated and trained than ever before. This is no fake!! The requirements that are demanded are probably the highest ever and only those who have done things properly will succeed. I know the pandemics and the lockdown didn't help, but we should be more conscious of the real/analogical world and we should not be mislead by the metaverse or any other kind of virtual world they create. 
