Assignment 6

The present essay talks about using Blogs in the English Classes and its advantages and disadvantages. First of all, we will speak about the Blog itself, to evolve rapidly into what it means to use these blogs in a pedagogic process and its implications from different points of view.
A blog is a virtual platform in the internet that anyone could have for free and easily. The interesting thing is that one could use it for many purposes, for example, to write personal information, to upload music, to put some interesting links, to keep in contact with friends and much more. You can practically have a personal web page with almost everything you could imagine! Also, it can be used for pedagogic intentions as we use it in English classes.
The last purpose has some good and bad things. The advantages are many: well used, is a very good space where anyone could display all his creativity and write assignments or essays, which one can complement with some other pages in the internet. Also, one can have relations with the other partners of the class, post each other blogs or make fun of them. In addition you don’t need to be in the classroom to visit it; you just need a computer and internet.
There are some disadvantages as well: if one abuse of it, it could become the only pedagogic way of teaching, and that’s bad because there are many other aspects of the learning process that should be done in a class. The blog itself is not bad, it could transform on something bad if the teacher doesn’t complement with other ways like oral conversations, oral and written tests, typical board classes, etc.
So, in conclusion, we might accept the blog as a good tool for learning and teaching, but just as a tool for that and not as an end in itself. One just have to know how to use in a correct form.

assignment 5

I saw recently a film called “Underground” (1995), whose director is Emir Kusturica. I found it awesome! It is a really brilliant movie. It tells us an “historic” story about conflicts, hopes, wars (not just military wars), love, misunderstandings, etc, in the Eastern Europe, especially in the ex-Yugoslavia.
The movie starts in the Second World War, with the resistance of the local people against the Nazis. Then, the story goes around Blacky and Marko, the leaderships of the resistance and the country. Blacky during the war keeps with his family and a lot of people in the shelter of a home, having an underground manufacture of weapons for the war, while Marko is cheating Blacky and everybody in the shelter, telling them to keep there and wait until the best moment to surprise the enemies, when in fact the war ended many time ago. So, the underground people stay above for about 50 years, all the time the Communist government was up. Then, they go out and enter to the war, but this time at Kosovo war 50 years later!
The extraordinary thing is that everything evolves in such a surreal way, that it is really a funny story. I hardly recommend it, it doesn’t have weak points.

Assignment 4

I visited daniel castillo`s blog and it surprised me because of its simplicity. Not simplicity on a bad way, but on good terms, because I like simple things, not much decorated or with many stuffs. However, there is too much black and it could have another colours. Of course, I think the assignments are well written and interesting, I liked the article about Wikipedia, because I agree with what Daniel is commenting, and the usefulness of that web page. In fact, I usually enter that page to complement my studies -obviouslly taking care of what is written, it could be wrong- and to search for something that I dont know.
I also liked the post about Klimt and his picture "The kiss". When I was a kid, I used to visit an aunt who lived in Viña del Mar, and she had that picture in her room. So, I think I will never forget it, because when I see my aunt Veronica, it comes immediatly to my mind "the kiss".
The post I think is boring, is the one that talks about neanderthal. I always hear "neanderthal" in my classes of prehistory, and I had to study it, so it is nothing new for me and quite boring.

http://spectacularenglish.blogspot.com/

third assignment

The dark side of the moon (Pink Floyd)

This is one of my favourites work of art. It may not be a typical work of art, not a sculpture neither a painting, but the best art for me is music, so I picked a music album as a work of art.

Pink Floyd is an English rock band and maybe one of the best rock bands ever. It is know by its psychedelic and special kind of rock, sort of an experimental and philosophical music, also known as "space rock". Its an old band; appeared in scene in the late 60s and its last album was made in 1995. They are not playing anymore, at least not oficially.

I heard it for the first time, when I was ten year-old. My father also like it so he heard it oftenly, and I met Pink Floyd thanks to him.

From the name, to the sounds and meaning of the songs, its just incredible. The sound of the guitars, keyboard, drumset and bass, mixed in one music, produce an extremely relaxing sensation. Its feels like going over the clouds.

But the most interesting thing, for me, is how connected with the music are the lyrics of the songs. They are not separated. In fact, they are one, when the singer says "breathe, breathe in the air", he could say nothing but the most elementary act of life, meaning also the need to relax and live our own life. Just live.

second assignment

Researchers open secret cave under Mexican pyramid (By Miguel Angel Gutierrez)

Archeologists are now investigating about a secret cave that is 20th feet beneath the Pyramid of the sun, that is part of the famous city called Teotihuacan, now in Mexico. This cave has not been excavated so researchers have many expectations about what they could find there. The interest thing, is that nobody knows too much about the civilization who built this incredible and huge city -archeologists estimate 200,000 people around 500 AD living there-, so this investigation could bring many lights about the city and its costumes. It is known, although, that it were not the aztecs who built it. Researches also asociate the cave with ritual and ceremonial purposes. http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN0229318320080703

First assignment

www.elciudadano.cl is a really good website I enjoy visiting. It has a lot of interesting news and articles about Chile and his society and culture, as well as news about many things that are occurring around the whole world. I found it because I once read the newspaper “El Ciudadano” in a friend`s house and he told me there was a website of it. So I searched it and liked it, because it gives me a special point of view, different from the others typical newspapers, more critical, about the reality. El Ciudadano has different perspectives about Politics, Economy, Justice, Education and so forth; and takes other lines of development like Organization and Environment. I visit this website regularly, about 3 days a week.