Working with Blogs

1. What is your opinion about using blogs to teach "writing" in EFL classrooms?
Well, I think it is an interactive way to teach English, if the High School has the possibility to have this type of computer lab for their classes. Nowadays people use so much internet and teenagers are leaders in it.

2. Do you like working using blogs?
In my case I have had lot of problems with it. Since the class started I have felt so sad because different bad situations have happened with connection on the internet, the function in my blogs or something like that. At first I waited for it very enthusiastic but now I think I have had a great headache almost always.

3. What are some of the advantages of using blogs ?
If all function well the class could be very interactive and entertaining, because there is a personal work and the results are intrinsically significant for the students.

4. What are some of the disadvantages?
· People must know how the blogs function first.
· If the computer lab have problems, people can’t to do the assignment.
· If people don’t have internet in their home, they can’t finish the homework on time.

5. Do you plan to use blogs in the future?
Yes, but with less assignment... I think this type of work is atractive for teenagers and as teachers we must use different media to catch the attention.

6. Do you have any suggestions to improve these "lab sessions"? or was everything all right?

I think the unique problem was the time because it was frequently short for so much activities. But the work done in classes with this methodology were very rewarding.

Opinions about writing

Why is Writing important for an EFL teacher?
It’s very important because writing help people to develop ideas and to express in good way their thinking. The practice of writing is the best way that people can correct their oral mistakes.

What is the best way to teach writing to children? to teenagers? ( provide examples and references)
I think there are different ways to teach children and teenagers. Is essential that they develop this capacity at early age, because writing helps them in the process of achieve a good oral communication. I knew a boy that has friends in other countries, he sends emails and chat with them by internet in English, he began to write day by day and now he writes very good because he practice every day with them.

Mugshots

The Gadget Girl

What does she like to do on Saturdays?
She likes to enjoy with her friends while playing to create new things.

What is the secret she doesn't want anyone to know? She doesn’t want that her family found her last invention.

What does she think she does well?
She wins every year the first prize of the science fair.

What is she NOT very good at doing?
She doesn’t have interest in sports.

What is her favorite memory?
When her father gave her the first set of science.

What does this invention do?
She invented a radio transmitter.

Who is her best friend?
Her neighbor Adams

What does she want most in the whole world?
She wants to be a scientist and to invent something that help people.

In a small village near to a lake lives Mary with her family. She is an intelligent and creative girl. Every Saturday she plays with her friends to create new things, all is useful for them. She has a small house in the backyard, inside there are a large amount of tools that her father gave her.

Mary is working in a new project that is very important for her. She doesn’t want that her family find it because it is not ready yet. Every year Mary wins the science fair in the school and this year, she thinks, she will achieve it again.

With the group after the school she goes to the park and drive bike an hour and sometimes she plays a little football game. Although she doesn’t like sports, she deduces that is good for her. She thinks healthy mind in healthy body.

She always remembers when her father gave her the first set of science. She thinks is thanks to this that she can enjoy creating and composing things and furthermore have very good grades in the school.

One day in the afternoon after she rode bicycle near the lake with her best friend Adams, she was working in her new project. When she finally ended it, she acknowledged that the thing that she wants most in the life is to be a scientist and help people with something that she can some day invent.

Story Kitchen

Super Howie & the Science Fair
Bruce Van Patter.

I thought I had the perfect science project. First prize was going to be mine.
After all, who else in the school had figured out how to get superpowers? Just me. Well, I don't exactly know how I did it. Okay, to tell the truth, it was all by accident. I didn't plan on finding that glowing triangle. And I sure didn't plan to have my kid brother sneak it under his pillow all night. But when he woke up and lifted my bed over his head, I knew the Science Fair first prize was mine.
It took some heavy promises to make him put on the costume I made for him and come with me as my experiment. Howie can be such a pain. I even let him play Ape Invaders, my favorite video game. But it was worth it to have a shot at beating Trey, the whiz kid of fifth grade.
So imagine how upset I was when I walked by Trey's display, and there was the most amazing model of an alien I've ever seen. I mean, it looked so real it was creepy. On top of its short body was a long stretchy neck with a slit for a mouth and one, unblinking eyeball. Trey even gave it shiny silver clothes.
Rats! He was bound to win with this thing. But how did he make it so real?
He was talking to some teachers, so I snuck up and got a close look. Its orange skin even had bumps on it.
Then the eyeball turned to me. The little mouth said, "Where is my zeron triangle, you dirty Earthling thief?"

I was so scared that tripped and fell. Every person looked me and laughed. It was a shameless moment.

My kid brother explained all to my parents. That night I couldn’t sleep. My father castigated me for a complete week, without television and without my favorite video game.

Tray won the science fair again. I don’t know if it was my imagination when the model of alien talked me. The most important thing now is that I learned the lesson and next year I will prepare the science fair myself.

IMAGINATION

Hello every one!

I would like to talk you about the story of my friend Brenda that lives in Connecticut, United States. She studies in the Lincoln High School, in the downtown.

Two days ago I received a letter with this photograph that took her a classmate called Mark when she was in a sad moment. Now she laughs about it but in that moment she felt very vexed…

Each day she walks to the school with her best friend Christian that lives next to her, they are so close that are like brothers. He is 17 years old, two years more than her. He is very friendly, he likes practice several sports and share with many people.

One day Christian showed interest in another girl called Mary, a classmate with whom he always does the homework. She is a beautiful, sweet girl of almost 17.

When Brenda saw Christian with her among a group of friends, she felt so sad and jealous that she didn’t want to talk him neither to see him. After a deep meditation she thought that she will tray to know Mary and to share with the friends of him too. In that moment Mark took a picture and caught her in the precise moment when she felt cross.

Although all is very well now with Christian, and Mary and Mark are very good friends, she never will forget that she felt jealous only for a foolishness.

Newspaper Article

I chose this article because this type of news show us that Jesus is coming soon and we are an important part of this event. I invite you to pray for people that is suffering in that place.

The war is something that affect seriously since many years. Is incredible that nowadays there is a part of the world that continue with the same problem. Three weeks ago in the class of “Ciencia y Religión” the teacher showed us a video about the consequence of the war between Tutsis and Hutos. The genocide that happened in Rwanda in 1994. It was a very sad moment, because we saw the suffering and the real effect that provoke in children and adults the war.
Ancient conflicts have awakened this week between Tutsis and Hutos, but this time in the Congo. Many people have begun an exodus to Goma that is in the limit with Rwanda. A man called Laurent Nkunda who started this conflict said “he is fighting to protect the region's minority ethnic Tutsis from Hutu militias that fled to eastern Congo after the genocide”. People wanted help from the United Nation peacekeepers, but they started the evacuation of civilian staff from the fighting region. People felt alone because the peacekeepers are failed to protect them.
This conflicted have stayed for decades and as we can see it will remain regretfully for many years.

Vocabulary:
Frantic: Person that not can control himself
Displaced: People that must to leave their home

Persona Poem

A s t r i d

Hard-working, church leader, sincere, kind,

Student and pastor's wife
Who loves pizza, chocolate ice cream and kids;
Who is afraid of dogs, illness and failure;
Who wants to see her children successful,
Her husband ordained and herself as a teacher;
Resident in the University neighborhood,

… Salas