Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth

Lo había visto en la tele, pero no completo. Me lo ha mandado mi amigo Manolo y creo que debe verlo todo el mundo. Acerca las diferencias y hace añicos las exclusiones entre seres humanos. Si no te pones a bailar, seguro que al menos no puedes evitar una sonrisa.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth (Matt Harding & Melissa Nixon)
What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious - few people are able to watch the above video without smiling.

Zeppelin on fire

Desde el incendio del Hindenburg en 1937, nunca se había armado tanto revuelo con un zeppelin en llamas. El que ardió en Nueva Jersey supuso el fin de los dirigibles como medio de transporte, pero lo que vimos el pasado sábado en La Zubia fue la confirmación definitiva de una gran banda de versiones repleta de talento, energía y buen rollo. God save the Replicants! La cantante Jessica Brizio fue un torrente de energía desbocado que Norberto (bajo), Guillermo (teclado), Juan Ramón (batería) y las dos guitarras de Jesús y Antonio trataron de encauzar durante casi dos horas: In the Army Now, Highway to Hell, Addicted to Love, Black Velvet... pasando por la deliciosa y obligada Because the Night. Still loving you nos llevó a la última copa y, de postre sorpresa, improvisada Italian Connection con el Proud Mary. Si creeis que todo esto es pasión de amigo, ahí van sus dos próximas citas: 21 de febrero en Los Nogales (Churriana de la Vega, Granada) y 6 de marzo en Alexis Viernes (Santa Fe, Granada). Luego no digáis que no avisé.
[En la foto, Mayra, Emi, Manolo, Antonio Maillo y yo tras el concierto]

The Replicants (live in La Zubia)

El sábado 24 de enero toca la banda de mi amigo Mai en La Zubia. Espero que no me surja ningún improvisto y pueda estar en el ZEPPELIN para escuchar por fin el Because the Night que tengo prometido. Os recomiendo que no os lo perdáis si tenéis ocasión. Ya os contaré. Disfrutad Whatever you want para abrir boca. También podéis conocer más cosas de The Replicants aquí.

Dancing in the dark

Nothing to do with the song, a small earthquake registering 3.1 on the Richter scale struck us in the middle of the night. You can imagine we felt it pretty well since we were so close to the epicentre. It wasn't a big one after all, but this kind of things makes me wonder how fragile we are compared to the powers of nature, so often underestimated and damaged by us humans.

Another award for Bruce

I told you it was another masterpiece. It was touched by the boss... what else could it be?
There you have Bruce Springsteen and Mickey Rourke picking up Golden Globes for their work on The Wrestler. I haven't watched the movie yet but it will be worth it, no doubt about it. Congratulations you two!

Speaking of speaking

The main purpose of EFL teaching is the development of the four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. From my experience, speaking is the most difficult skill to develop in the context of our educational system. How do you make your thirty students speak? Can their progress be assessed without forgetting the rest of the course syllabus?

I must admit that I mainly focus in the formal aspects of the language since there are too many students in each class. An excuse? Perhaps. Which of you shall cast the first stone?

So the students' level of language input (listening) is usually higher than the level of language production. I use many speaking activities to enable pupils to participate with a minimal verbal response, but when they are encouraged to manipulate language and express themselves, that's a different story. This is when a little extra help is required.

Back at work, we are about to fix the dates for Trinity College GESE (Graded Examinations in Spoken English). Our school has been a registered examination centre for the last four years and it has become a remarkable help in our students' learning process. I guess there are hundreds of different ways to improve your students' level of speaking and there are also many other factors you should take into account, but this option suits our school fine. So far, so good, but I am always open for suggestions.

Sacar al perro y al reloj

Ahora que los días son cortos y el sol suele esconderse tras un espeso bosque de nubarrones grises, a mí me apetece mucho salir al monte, a pasear entre pinares a mediodía o subir barrancos entre la niebla en busca de la más bella puesta de sol. No obstante, mandan por el momento otras cuestiones de fuerza mayor que me mantienen en casa. Salgo a por el pan y a pasear al perro cuando la lluvia da una ligera tregua.
Hace unos días, el gran Santa Claus se adelantó a los Reyes Magos de manera brillante y se vino desde Estados Unidos con dos relojes nuevos. Uno era para mi amigo Armando, que además se ofreció de emisario motorizado para llegar hasta la puerta de mi casa con el flamante suunto core black yellow. Y claro, desde entonces, el mono por salir a la montaña es insoportable; es como comprarse un todoterreno 4x4 sport plus limited edition último modelo para ir los sábados a hacer la compra al carrefour y los martes y jueves por la tarde recoger al chiquillo de las clases de solfeo.
Ahí lo veo mientras tecleo, observándome desde su caja encima de la mesa, marcando 21º C y 793 metros de altitud. El pobre sufre en silencio pero sabe que llegará el día en que su temperatura vaya precedida del signo menos y marque altitudes de cuatro cifras. Hasta ese momento, se consuela cuando cesa la lluvia unos minutos; entonces decido sacar al perro y, ahora también, al reloj.

BAD HABITS

Still on holidays and I dare to talk about teaching. I know it’s another bad habit but a new year has just begun and I cannot unplug my mind from work completely.
I listen to a song, watch a movie or read a story and sometimes I can’t help thinking about how to use it with my students. Anyway, it is not that I am working hard on preparing activities, but it is impossible for me to stop considering the possibilities.
That leads me to another personal dilemma —common among language teachers, I guess: Coursebook or home-made material, that is the question. As far as I am concerned, up-to-date issues must be brought into the classroom in order to authenticate our students’ learning process. Nevertheless, if that is so, why don’t we get rid of coursebooks? I must admit that I work well with both coursebook —especially for grammar— and own material. Also, if we got rid of coursebook, we would have to take into account the anger of publishers, the annoyance of those teachers who aren’t willing to prepare their own material or the reasonable fact that some students get lost if they don’t follow a book. Would that be worth it?
I am sure that every professional looks for the right coursebook and supplementary materials for their course and then tries hard to find the correct balance and make the most of this assemblage. Or that is, at least, what I aim for.
Enough for today. Obviously, I need more than two and a half weeks to really forget what I do for a living.