Modern times or stressful times?

According to dictionaries “modern” means to be contemporary, using the latest techniques, equipment to be up- dated. I have never seen “modern times” by Chaplin; however I have heard a lot about it. In my opinion comments were not enough to describe how amazing the film is.
Charles Chaplin delighted us with his piece of art. Showing what 30´s depression was like. I think he meant to express his point of view by this movie, besides of representing what a lot of people thought, think about that period of time.
The movie was very expressive in the aspect it showed that this supposed “progress” was actually a remote dream for some part of the society while some other part of the society could took advantage and benefited from other people’s hard work.
People have the need to work, but not in such bad conditions that can be compared with pigs. Chaplin was absolutely over worked, he was going insane. This refers to how long hours schedules and how workers were pushed to produce more and more.
Machines were the main focused for employers who sought to reduce their cost by reducing their workers life quality. Moreover, people were in general disappointed and not heard.
Poverty was an important issue in the movie, the girl who Chaplin felt in love with was a clear example how difficult was to find something to eat. Families were large, so there were more mouths to feed.
Chaplin managed ironic humor to transmit perfectly what progress was. Progress might be a lot of things at the same time, but I am sure it isn’t living beings happiness. This movie also is a way to protest in an intelligent and funny method. As teachers, this movie is essential to be aware of what happens around us. We need to be sure that the system will try to make us its machines. We need to fight for what we believe and for what we are.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking might be such an overused concept that we just use it for almost everything. But, what is actually critical thinking? According to Steven D. Schafersman, critical thinking means “correct thinking in the pursuit of relevant and reliable knowledge about the world. Another way to describe it is reasonable, reflective, responsible, and skilful thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do” So we could say that critical thinking is the main aspect to create a democratic society where everyone is able to give their opinion and differentiate what is true or false. For example history books tell what events happen and how they took place. However, readers need to be aware of who wrote that and why, so the idea is to be able to analyse what you are being told. Critical thinking is a key concept because as human beings we are absolutely social, due to the fact it influences our interaction with others.

Critical thinking is much related to education because teaching means to build up what people will be and the way they will behave. Teaching is a great influential factor that helps students to create their identities. Besides, taking in consideration teaching a foreign language or a second language signifies pass on a brand new culture trough language. I think that teaching is such an important process that as teachers to-be we need to be so alert about the impacts that our actions have on our students. Having the knowledge that teachers are a model to follow.
I think that nowadays Chilean education is prioritising memory learning rather than meaningful learning. Living my work experience during these two last semesters I have realised how little attention teachers pay to foment critical and evaluative people. Teachers, especially English teachers, are interested in just academic result and forget about the processes, the context and previous knowledge their students bring to the classroom.


The big question is how to apply this in daily classroom. First of all it is essential to understand that this is not an impossible goal, we must believe that through education any change is possible. To promote critical thinking in our students is very relevant to generate activities and home works that improve active thinking skills. There are several techniques that help teachers to promote and encourage this type of thinking among our students. “Critical thinking cannot be taught by lecturing. Critical thinking is an active process, while, for most students, listening to lectures is a passive activity. The intellectual skills of critical thinking--analysis, synthesis, reflection, etc.--must be learned by actually performing them. Classroom instruction, homework, term papers, and exams, therefore, should emphasize active intellectual participation by the student”.
Teachers need to be focused on the process their students are living and as a second aspect the result their students get. For example, activities that make students to reflexive about the things that happen to them daily, recent issues in the country. Produce debates where students can defend their opinions, but always taking into consideration other people’s point of views.

To revisit critical thinking as one of the primary aims of education requires us to take seriously our labour. Teachers need to teach the students to think analytically, critically and independently, to solve problems. A crucial clue is by making students to be participants of their own learning process and not to be a teacher as a dictator who rules the entire class. Students need to think by their own, analyze facts, organize their ideas and to be able to protect their opinions and beliefs assertively.

Bibliography.
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/think/critical.htm
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/critical.htm

Industrialism-Progress or Decline?

Changes are impossible to stop. A civilization needs change to shape its characteristics. However these changes sometimes are harmless, some other they aren’t. Focusing on the age of reform during 19th century, there were a lot of elements which divided an important number of people. Machines were one of the main reasons why the mills and factories began to grow. Having people to move where their work was, a lot of small cities started to get bigger. The railway was also an essential development to “start a new era”. People could have access to places that were beyond their communities.

Women and children work was a big issue. They represented a significant percentage of the working class. Employers hired women and children because they could pay them less. Moreover, living condition was absolutely humiliated.

Some leaders wanted to take their beliefs to the parliament. “The greatest happiness of the greatest number” statement shows that in fact there was the intention to make a helpful change, however there would be people left aside. I think this period of time meant a lot to history. It is, in some way, the basis to nowadays period. People are more interested in making money than in their real life quality. Long hours work timetables are invasive to people’s life. Live to work or work

Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

I have never seen the film before, so I had not a clear idea how it was going to be.
Elizabeth was the queen of England from 1558 to 1603. The queen’s personality was charm, she was full of energy. I could see in the film that it is not easy to be a queen; it is just not like in tales. First of all, Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary Stuart, who was the queen of Scotland didn’t get along very well with Elizabeth. The reasons are simple; they didn’t share the same religion. Elizabeth was protestant and Mary Stuart was catholic. Besides, Mary Stuart wanted to become the queen of England. She ended up being beheaded under Elizabeth’s instructions.

Elizabeth was a strong woman who didn’t give up easily. She always fought for what she believed was right.
She was known like “the virgin queen”, due to the fact she never got married. Some people recommended her to do it, but she was doing just great by herself. She left aside the role of a passionate woman and preferred to be alone in order to govern in a better way. Moreover she was interested in a good match; which means to get married for beneficial purposes.

England and Spain had a bad relationship. England was a protestant country and Spain was a catholic country. After Mary Stuart died Phillip II, king of Spain, decided to sent his armed forces to England. This was a very crucial moment; I think Phillip II wanted to take over England in order to be more powerful; he just used religion as an excuse.
I think this film was a good representation of reality; maybe not an exact one because of the changes that were made. It was good for me to know more about this period of time. I sometimes believe it was a long time ago, even though it means a lot for our time.

The Resurgence of English

English language hasn’t been always the way we know it. It took a lot of time for language to become into what is nowadays. This process had the help of different cultures to shape English. One important event was The Resurgence of English during the 12th century. Throughout this period a lot of things happened. One of the most important is the fact that literacy was widespread, so people had more access to papers. Cambridge and Oxford universities were established. But not everything was going well; England and France were not exactly good friends. The Hundred Years War began in this period.

English was used for the first time in the parliament in 1362, becoming the language of power. Even though, Latin and French had a big participation in English words formation.

Reading Crystal’s article I could realize how complex the formation of English was. Every aspect of a culture contributes to shape a language. Language is changing all the time due to this fact.

As teachers is essential for us to be aware of where the language we are learning comes from. It is also relevant to connect English history with our own language in order to not forget our roots.

Stonehenge video

I think Stonehenge is an important memory from the past of Europe. Due to the fact we can learn a lot from it.
Experts believe Stonehenge was used as monument where people could get healed and find a spititual guide.
This misterioun temple has some evidence to believe so, but I think that some things are just beyond human being understading. Some things are better left undiscovered. Even though is really interesting to see that a place like Stonehenge, which is absolutely more than just stones .

Summary of Ways of seeing.

Ways of seeing seeks to express how important images are, due to they represent one of the most important act done by human beings; the act of seeing. The book begins by saying that “seeing becomes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.” We are always seeing things and people, no matter where we are or what we are doing. However, the perspective we get from seeing is not neutral, I mean it is determined or at least influenced by our previous knowledge or our beliefs. From this fact is understandable to think that the way people see changes through time, history and context. There are several ways to show ways of seeing; images, pictures, paintings, etc. Every image wants to communicate something. What we need to be aware of is what it is, why and from what point of view it comes.

Summary of Ways of seeing.