Living, Breathing Languages

Free Online Courses!!!

2014-01-02T23:24:00.001-04:00

Hello There Everyone, long time without posting here...

Today I want to share with you two amazing websites that I found. This are Coursera and edX. Both of these sites have one commonality, they both offer FREE online courses to everyone who creates an account with them.

These courses range from Science to Literature, from Economics to Health, and everything in between. These courses are taught by faculty members from prstigious Universities world wide and although they might not amount to actual credits within those universities, the knowledge learned is yours to keep. Some even give you a type of certificate which proves that you successfully completed the online class.

Curricular Maps: Important Links

2012-09-08T03:26:00.000-04:00

In my previous post I talked about what are the new Curricular Maps and my thoughts on the matter. Here I’m going to give you a set of links for you to read if you would like to learn more about them. To read this post visit THIS LINK.

Let’s start with the actual Circular letter that brings the concept into play. (Most of these links are in Spanish.)

Carta Circular Núm. 2-2010-2011: Planificación del Proceso de Aprendizaje

Aclaración Carta Circular Núm. 2-2010-2011: Planificación del Proceso de Aprendizaje

Curricular Maps
At the moment there are only the curricular maps for the main four basic courses; those are English, Spanish, Math and Science. But the orator at the workshop ensured us that one for Social Studies is in the works.

Standards & Expectations
I’ll update this post as needed when more information is available (or I realize that it is available).

Puerto Rico's New Curricular Maps for Education (Mapas Curriculares)

2012-09-08T02:23:00.001-04:00

This trimester I’m taking 5 college courses; yes, I know crazy right? In one of those courses, Teaching Strategies, we study the various ways we can structure our teaching methods effectively.

About a month ago, our professor informed us that the public school’s educational curriculum for the whole of Puerto Rico is being re-structured; effective this past August. Teachers all over Puerto Rico are being given workshops on how the new curriculum works and the materials they need to learn it and begin implementing it, etc. My professor also informed us that she had managed to, along with another professor, bring the workshop to our university for one day so that us –future teachers– can begin getting to know the new structure.

So what is the new curriculum about?

Basically is a form of escalated learning based on skills. Let me explain and take my major as an example. I’m currently doing a Bachelors of Arts Degree in the Teaching of English as a Second (more like foreign) Language at the High School level; or TESL (TEFL) for short.

As far as I could understand from the presentation, in the old model you were given a set of skills that you had to cover, but which skill you started with was completely your prerogative. For example, two 10th grade English teachers from two different schools had to teach their students how to do essays, do group work, and public speech. One chooses to start with essays, and then move to public speech, then group work. While the other could choose to start with group work, then move to public speech, and finally essays. If there were students that were taking longer to learn the skills the teachers could extend a particular skill segment indefinitely. If the school year ended and the students didn’t learn the required skills they were next-year-teacher’s problem to deal with.

Now, with the new curriculum, the teachers are given what I call a “paint by numbers” approach to skill-learning concept. Teachers still have a set of skills to teach their students, but now they (we) will have a strict calendar to stick to. The list of skills has been scheduled throughout the academic year in a very uniformed manner; all the teacher has to do is follow the schedule strictly and he/she should be great.

Now, this model is escalated because it depends solely on previous knowledge. A kindergarten teacher must cover the entire set of skills for her year in order for his/her students to succeed learning the teachings in first grade. As such, second grade students must have learned the skills from the two previous years in order to continue with minor hitches. Each set of skills for each grade is built on the assumption that students successfully completed and learned the skill sets from previous years all the way through high school senior year.

The Pros

The teacher has more flexibility when creating classes. Why? Because we have to teach skills, not content. Taking it back to my previous example, if I have to teach students how to write essays I could do it by assigning novels for them to analyze, or a movie, or a play, or give them a topic. I can use whatever technique I believe will help the students accomplish the skill.
If (and this is a big if) the model is used correctly by all teachers throughout all the academic levels and the knowledge is learned expected, the students can actually get the most out of the education system.
It’s supposed to make teachers lives easier, since teachers no longer need to create activities out of thin air to give a class. Although you are not forced to use them, the curriculum has suggested activities for each skill.

The Cons

The curriculum is (as far as I know) being implemented throughout all the schools all over Puerto Rico this year.
Teacher are still receiving training and from the atmosphere at the workshop, not all of them are fully understanding the model or even convinced it’s what the system needs.
The model is being implemented throughout all academic levels at the same time.

My thoughts

I think I understand the mechanics of this new model. Personally I like the concept of skill based learning for its flexibility. I also like structure, I might not always have it, but I like the fact that the skills are organized (I’m hoping) in a way that students can get the best out of school. However, I am concern that it is being implemented in all academic levels at the same time while not all teachers are prepared or even willing to undertake the change.

What I’m concern about is for those students that do not have the previous knowledge to cope with the change. What would happen to 11th grade students that are seriously behind in certain subjects and have no way to acclimate to the new order? Will they be able to adapt and actually excel in this new model? Or will they fail and feel so frustrated about not doing well at school that they end up dropping out?

I wish they would have started with only the very formative levels in a progressive way. Implement this curriculum in K-3rd Grade first by ensuring that all the teachers for those grades learn to use this model and then the kids. While this kids take one, two, three, and some (kindergartners) even four years to immerse in this new style, take that time to move on to the next set of grades (4th to 6th). Rinse and repeat until all academic grades are up to part. It’s a longer process that will not show immediate results, true, but it can also be a sounder process, one that doesn’t risk breaking the morale of students countrywide.

That is just my humble opinion.

For more information VISIT THIS LINK which lists a few places to learn more about Curricular Maps and how to get your hands on them.

Idioms

2012-09-07T22:52:00.000-04:00

What are idioms?

According to Dictionary.com, an idiom [id-ee-uhm] is:

noun

an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements, as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language, as the table round for the round table, and that is not a constituent of a larger expression of like characteristics.
a language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people.
a construction or expression of one language whose parts correspond to elements in another language but whose total structure or meaning is not matched in the same way in the second language.
the peculiar character or genius of a language.
a distinct style or character, in music, art, etc.: the idiom of Bach.

Basically, idioms are the good ol’ sayings that you hear many times; in Spanish we know them as “refranes.”

Here is a list of some common Spanish idioms and their English equivalent.

Idioms
Spanish	English
A lo hecho, pecho	Don’t cry over spilled milk
¿Te crees que me chupo el dedo?	Do you think I was born yesterday?
Como aguja en un pajar	Like a needle in a hay stack
Pan comido	Piece of cake
Mas blanco que la leche	As White as a sheet
Colorín Colorado, este cuento se ha acabado	And they all lived happily ever after.
Correr como pólvora	Spread like wildfire
El fin justifica los medios	The end justifies the means
Poner los puntos sobre las íes	To set the record straight
De noche, todos los gatos son negros.	At night, all cats are black.
Cuando el rio suena es porque agua trae.	Where there’s smoke, there’s fire
Cara a cara	Head to head
En resumidas cuentas	To cut a long story short
Poner el grito en el cielo	To go through the roof
Harina de otro costal	A horse of a different color
Perro que ladra no muerde	His bark is worse than his bite
La prueba de fuego	Acid test
No es santo de mi devoción	He/she isn’t my cup of tea
Donde manda capitan, no manda marinero	What the boss says goes
Errar es de humanos, perdonar es divino	To err is human, to forgive is divine
Mal de muchos, Consuelo de todos	Two in distress makes sorrow less
No se oía ni una mosca	You could have Heard a pin drop
El que persevera alcanza	If at first you don’t succeed, try, and try again.
Esta lloviendo a cántaros	It’s raining cats and dogs
Cuesta un ojo de la cara	Cost an arm and a leg
Mas vale pájaro en mano que cien volando	A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

Can you name others in both languages?

Basics of Email Etiquette

2012-03-09T19:13:00.000-04:00

Emails, along with texting, IMing and face-timing, have slowly but progressively been anchoring themselves as the standard way for communications for our current and future generations. But just because these forms of communicating can be so informal and open to a “whatever goes” policy doesn’t mean that all situations merit this informal stance. As such, it is always important for every individual to know the basics of how to politely or professionally write or answer an email as not to unwillingly antagonize the recipient.

If you have been dealing with emails for a while, chances are you already know this information, either because you’ve research it or because you’ve been the recipient of bad email etiquette. This simple tutorial is aimed to people that have had limited use of email and want to know the basic concepts.

Email Providers:

There are tons of email providers on the Internet, some of the major companies that offer a free service are Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, and AOL. To use a service from either company you must sign up and create a free account which in turn grants you the email privileges as well as other functionalities. Many sites and organizations also provide their clients or employees with access to a “personal” email accounts. Usually designated for uses related to the company or organizations, they tend to be more limited that their free counterparts. Some of these places include Universities, different types of Work Places and Institutions.

Information Manager Applications:

Two of the most known information manager platforms are Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird. Both can be “match” to your personal email accounts and directly manage the email flow from one convenient place without the need to individually enter each website for those who have more than one email account. Outlook comes as part of the Microsoft Office Suite and aside from managing emails, it can also manage multiple calendars, contacts and tasks. Thunderbird can be downloaded for free from the Mozilla web page and considered as a cross-platform email and news client. Thunderbird can be personalized through add-ons and theme selection.

Parts of the Email:

Click the image to enlarge it.

To – here goes the email address of the recipient.
Cc – "carbon copy", secondary recipient of the email, visible to every recipient of the email.
Bcc – "blank carbon copy"; for hidden recipients, email addresses added in this field will not be seen by the other recipients.
Subject – here goes the title of your email
Content Space – is where you write your email.
Attach a file – any document, picture, or type of file can be uploaded as long as it weight less than the limit amount established by your email provider.
Formatting Tool Bar – where you tweak and fix your content. Keys included are (from left to right):

Bold – bolden the selected text.
Italics – italicizes the selected text.
Underline – underlines the selected text.
Font – font style.
Size – text size.
Text Color – choose a color for the text.
Highlight Color – highlights the selected text.
Emoticon insertion – inserts an emoticon or smiley face.
Link creation – creates a hyperlink to a desired destination online.
Numbered List – creates a numbered item’s list
Bulleted List – creates a bulleted item’s list.
Indent Less – indents the selected text less.
Indent More – indents the selected text more.
Quote ("") – marks the selected text or soon to be added text as a quote.
Align Left – aligns the text to the left margin.
Align Center – aligns the text to the center of the content space.
Align Right – aligns the text to the right margin.
Remove Formatting – eliminates all formatting changes from the content of the email or a selected section of text.
Plain Text – allows the email to be written without any formatting.

Check spelling – a correction tool for individual word spelling.
Send – send the email to its recipient(s).
Save Now – saves the email for future reviewing; does not send the email.
Discard – eliminates the email without saving or sending it.

Basic Etiquette:

Use the subject to express in a single sentence a clear idea of what the email is about.
If sending a private email to a dear one while that person is at work use the subject to state that the email should be open while alone.
Balance the content. Give enough information as part of the content that the recipient can identify your ideas without cluttering the email with unnecessary information.
Do not use terms like URGENT or IMPORTANT or constantly tick the “high priority” checkbox unless absolutely necessary.
Be concise and to the point.
Reply an email as fast as possible; the longer you leave the bigger the chances that you’ll forget about it.
However, before you reply an email (especially one that enraged you), give yourself a bit of time to cool off and have a clearer mind when writing your response; this could avoid potential regretful moments.
Check your spelling and grammar before sending the email. When in doubt, write the email in a word processor program to verify; then simply copy/paste the content into the email and style as necessary.
Adding spaces in between paragraphs makes the email easier to read.
Unless you are writing a personal email or the recipient is familiar enough and understands acronyms, do not use them; especially for professional or academic emails. Leave LOL, BRB and others of the sort for more personal matters.
Read the email throughout before hitting send.
Do not use capital letters or uppercase, in the internet world this is the equivalent as shouting.
Replying to the same message creates a thread, do this to keep the conversation contained to one single email.
Clean up the thread before sending it forward. When an email has been send back and forth a few times the previous statements tend to clutter the thread; by erasing the unnecessary text you have a cleaner, shorter email.
Be wary of the ‘reply all’ button. Unless is necessary to truly reply to all the senders don’t do it. Is better if you just select the ones that you need to reply to.
Avoid chain letters, very few people welcome these; the vast majority of people just finds them annoying.
File Attachment – Sometimes attachments can be forgotten and we end up sending an ‘empty email’; to avoid this attach the documents before writing the email.
File Attachment – Do not attach unnecessary files to the email and try to keep them as small (size wise) as possible. All email providers have a limit to how ‘heavy’ a file can be so that it can be sent through; combining several files increases your email size. Size limit varies from provider to provider; best to check the email capabilities before trying to send a big email and find yourself unable to do so.
Remember, emails are easy to hack and the information made public. Choose your words carefully.

List of Internet Acronyms:

http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php

List of Emoticons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons

References:

Email Etiquette: Netiquette in the Information Age by David Tuffley

http://www.emailreplies.com

For more information visit:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/12-tips-for-better-e-mail-etiquette-HA001205410.aspx

http://careerplanning.about.com/od/communication/a/email_etiquette.htm

USDA Internship Webinars

2011-11-07T15:33:00.000-04:00

Hello People!

I just received some news through e-mail that I thought it’ll be good to share; you might wanna check your calendars for this one.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will be offering some internet seminars – also known as webinars – with the objective to explain the USDA internship and employment programs for summer 2012. The webinars are open to everyone who is:

Currently enrolled in a College (either in the undergraduate or graduate programs)
US Citizen or Resident
Minimum 16 years old
2.00 GPA or higher
It is open to all majors

The webinars will take place during November 15, 16 & 17, 2011; between 5:00 - 6:00 pm. If interested you can see the flyer for contact information.

Webinars' Flyer (2nd after the jump):

Well Rounded Classes?

2011-10-31T15:38:00.000-04:00

I was reading a news article at Yahoo! News about how a scientist – a well-known skeptic – has discovered that in fact global warming is real and happening. As I’m reading the article, I star wondering about how can I, just one individual, do something to ease my ecological footprint?

When I started my college career, immediately after graduated high school, my major was chemistry; as I took different classes, I turn towards general science with my sights set on environmental science. However, as the semesters went by I realized that my true passion has always been books and eventually switch to TESL major and working to see if I can get a minor in English. Regardless, my background in science is something that always comes up front and center whenever I read news or articles about the environment or other science branches.

I’m aware that I haven’t taken any classes about how to organize or actually give a class yet; I am only about half way through my degree so there are still many classes left for me to take. Still I wonder, given my class subject, how can I create a well-rounded class? How can I create a class that is educational, practical, current, and is not a snooze fest?

This is a subject that, honestly, worries me a little; how can I, as a teacher, create an environment that allows them – the students – to learn, explore and be creative.
Just because I love reading a lot doesn’t mean that the kids I’ll be teaching will love it too; so how can I offer a well-rounded class. English is such a wide concept that its possibilities are practically endless; and kids have an incredible array of interests that should be allowed to be explored.

Needless to say is that books are in fact an important tool when it comes to classes, regardless of the subject. And they give the tone of how the class is going to develop.

I am an advocate for the arts and culture and i like reading classics, but I’m also an advocate of giving students reading materials that they can connect with. I’m not saying to ignore or completely put aside the works of the likes of Shakespeare or T.S. Elliot – not at all – just to diversify and include other types of reading materials; whether they are articles on current events that affect everyday life (directly or not) or because the materials are books that were written for the present generation.

I don’t believe that anyone should be limited to just one type of reading material; I do believe that one should give others the opportunity to begin their journey into the literary world with a subject or genre that makes them feel most comfortable, then we can help them branch out and explore the ever expanding worlds that can be contained in books. After all, we all begin hearing and reading fairy tales just to move on as we grow up.

Here is the link to the article that sparked this post:
http://news.yahoo.com/skeptic-finds-now-agrees-global-warming-real-142616605.html

A Welcome Quickie

2011-10-27T19:21:00.000-04:00

A quick Hello, Welcome and Thank You for visiting my blog. This blog is a mere baby (literary just being created) as its nakedness proves; I will be posting and fixing it soon.

I am a TESL student on a journey to become a high school teacher in my beloved Puerto Rico. I intend to use this blog as means to chronicle my journey, in addition I would love to create a community to facilitate the interaction between, students, parents and teachers and professor. I want to have reading lists and other tools that can help others in their own journeys to learning a second language.

Again, Thanks for visiting and hope to see you back another time ^.^