"Advantages and disadvantages of blogs in the English classroom"

In this last semester of the English course, we started doing blogs work. At first I didn't like very much the idea, because I wanted to practice my oral english and also, I wasn't very fond of computers. I have never had a blog before so I didn't know what it was for. In the first classes it was hard for me learning this new kind of teaching method, but then I realised that it wasn`t that bad or difficult.

I think that there were many advantages of working with blogs in our english classroom this semester. One of them was that we could practice our written redaction, orthography and fluency, all at the same time. Also, the blogs were importan for knowing our partners, because through them we had to express ourself about personal taste or things that we had done on vacations, or things related with our degrees. Finally, I think that this method allowed the person in charge (in this case Ksenia) to correct the posts in a very efficient and flexible way. The reason of this is because it is a cibernetic program so you can correct the posts from any place; from your house, from the university, from your work, etc.

Now, in spite blogs are a good way of learning and practicing your english, I think , giving the context, that it takes a lot of time from the students. Having seven subjects in parallel leaves you very little time and motivation for posting and redacting texts in a foreign language (wich is a difficult task because you don't have the fluency or vocabulary that you'd like for expresing your self in the best way). And in addition to this, we had to finish the English Discoveries program, so at the beginig it was too much. Then we talked with Ksenia and she was very flexible with us and arranged the classes so that we could finish all the assigments.

As a conclusion, I would like to say that this english course allowed me to keep my school english level and also, that it was very interesting having a native "private tutor", like it was Ksenia, because she show us a different culture (a bit of it because of the little time that the classes last) and forced us (in a good way) to talk and express our self in english, and also, but not less, made us eat lots of exquisite ice creams (thank's for that!).

It was a great year, my best wishes for all the persons that participated in this course.

MATTA

This piece of art belongs to a famous Chilian artist called Roberto Matta. I first so his work when I was at second high school year. A friend's mom invited me to an exhibition of all Matta's art work. There I fell in love with his paintings. Their surrealism and mixture of colors make you want to look at them for long minutes, appreciating the lines and tridementional effects. This is the kind of paintings that you never get bore of seeing it. Generally, Matta paints crowded scenes so you always find new things on them. Some people hate this kind of art, but I think is a very creative, interesting an beautiful expresion of art. I would love to have one of Matta famous paints hanging from one of my future house walls.

"...there's nothig written about tastes..."

I' must say, I'm not realy a cibernetic fan. I mostly use my notebook for doing works, for cheking my mails or sometimes, for posting in friend's blogs. I don't even use messenger any more, it bores me. So, because of these, I don't have a favorite website to recomend you, I only can tell you about my friend's blog so you can meet them and know a little more of my life. It's adress as www.fotolog.com/to_amigas
I hope you visit! It has funny pictures and also funny coments about some of them.

Sixth Sense

This is one of the best horror films that I'd ever seen.Their main actors are Bruce Willis, who plays the role of a children's psychologist called Malcolm Crowe, and Haley Joel Osment, who plays the role of an isolate and misfit child called Cole Sear.
Malcome was in the middle of a matrimonial crisis when Cole went to his office and asked him for help. They started having a very strong relationship in wich Malcolm tried to help Cole convinced that he had esquizofrenia or some psychiatric patology.
Finally, Cole told Malcolm his secret, and after some events he realised that Cole really was able to see and talk with dead people. Once he kneew this, he started helping Cole to overcome the fear of making contact with the spirits, and so it is how Cole started helping them as well.
But the end of the film is the most interesting and emocional part of it. Cole's mom finally believes him and Malcolm found out that he was dead as well. It's very tragic but the hole film you are feeling shiver on your back.
I have no critics for this movie, it's exelent and it has exelents actors, if you haven't seen it, I recomend you seeing it as soon as you can.

"Return to Slender"

This article, made by Peter Suciu, claim that the technology sector has discovered that thin is in. With these estatement he means that the new technology is better because it has more ergonomic designs that have nicer esthetic and have a lot less weight.
For suppoting his claim, the author talks about three kind of technologycal devises: desktop speakers that are very thin but very powerfull because they generates sound by vibrating a large thin surface; a very thin tv screen that can display both pc and tv images with high resolution and minimal distortion of images; and finally a laptop that is sleek and sinewy on the outside and powerfull on the inside, having a fast 900MHz processor and many other qualities.
I think that Peter is right, the comun objetive of technology advances is to create smallest and thinner things.... now a days thin and small are synonymous of better.

Fiestas Patrias

This september 18th me and my family went to Punta Puyai, a ressort that is placed at Papudo's beach. It's a very passive and relax place to stay. We have a department on the 3erd floor since 1994 (I think). When you go out at the balcony, you can see the ocean and Papudo so it has a very good view.
But this time, neither my older sister or my brother went to Punta Puyai, so my little sister invited a friend to stay with us until the 19th. In spite it was rader a lonely weekend for me, I enjoyed time spend with my parents and the time that I had alone with myself. I eat a lot of empanadas, choripan, prietas, papas, carne, cerdo, mote con huesillos, you know, that kind of stuff...and also I enjoyed the ocean, the sun, and even climbing a very high hill.
I think next year I will spend fiestas patrias with my friens and boyfriend because I had never done that and, as some people say, "its good to balance things on life"

DO AND MAKE

The main diference between do and make is that they are use with diferent nouns and in diferent contexts. There for, do is use when we refer to an activity that not necesarily needs to have a product as result. For example, do exercise, do the homework, etc. Meanwhile, make is use in the context os creating or building things. For example, make a cake, make a sweter, etc.

Privatization or Improvement

Personaly, I think that many people in these campus support decisions like going on strike without knowing the reasons of this kind of acts. Unfortunately, the only kind of information that students get is the one that talkes about the negative things that supposedly are hapening. But they never research on the advances and improvement that the campus of Chile university has have along the years.
I think that any kind of extremes are dangerous and unhealthy. It is ok to defend our right of having a great education, but for that we have to be able to recognize and respect the effort of all the people that is working for this to happen.

Drogs rehabilitation: fighting the worst of deseases

Monday, June 11, 2007
"Surviving life with crystal meth"
This article talks about a 18 years old girl (Jessica) who was raised by a woman who used crack and crystal meth. Because of this, she jumped from home to home, living with family and friends, while her mother spent time in jail, rehab and other facilities to quit her habit.
Jessica remember seeing her mother clean only few times, and also remembers that she got to the extreme of prostitute herself.
The crystal meth is a kind of drug very adictive, and it production destroys communities, kills, maims and puts an incredible financial burden on our penal system, medical community and foster care systems.
In spite of the terrible experiences that Jessica had to live because of this adiction, she seems to cope with this in a very natural way, with no anger or sadness or no hate for her mother. Instead of this she had hope.
For the past few years, Jessica and her mother have been living in a group home called the Renewal House. It's a recovery community for women addicts and their children.The fact that mother and son are allow to live together it's very important because, with these, the relationship is kept intact. Also, it helps the children to grow with more confidence, avoiding the risk of future adictions or criminal acts.
The kids go to school and live as normal lives as possible, while their mothers attended meetings, workshops, and therapy sessions. With this, the users take up again their social roles and responsibilities, being able to provide a healthy home for their children. It doesn't always work, but the Renewal House has a success rate of more than 50 percent.
Experts say that's impressive, and the reason of this succes is that Renewal House provides a loving home for kids who normally would be send to live with someone other than a parent. So that was why Jessica was not angry or scared. In fact she was proud of her mother, who now works with other women in the program and now, both of them hope thay can defeat the adiction ones for all.
Posted By Val Willingham, Producer, Medical News: 9:02 AM ET

Interesting topics that are related with Occupational Therapy

My career is very versatile because we have subjects from many areas, like biology, psychology, bioethics, sociology, ecology, body expression, psychiatry, etc. This give us a very global vision of the way that we have to intervene in the future.

An interesting topic that we are laerning of is "body expression". In this class we experience different techniques wich principal objetive is to "let the body speak for it ones".

One of this techniques is an activity, like a rol playing, were the participants have to walk as if they were real models, so they need to have a very self-confident attitude. The purpose is that the participants achieve to overcome their fears of been exposed, that is why it´s use in patients that have bad self-steem or are very shy.

This kind of therapys are a different way of treating ill people and it could be very interesting for them, increasing their motivation.

At last!! a really relaxed weekend

I have to say I didn`t do anything too exciting this weekend. I`m a very home-loving person. The week before we had two tests so I was constantly studing for them, they weren`t difficult but I had to read LOT`S of documents. So on friday, I finally could do NOTHING, or I could do things without thinking that later I had to study. I went out with my boyfriend and it was really nice. On sunday I went to visit my grandfather, it was his 96th birthday!! It`s a LONG time, don`t you thing? I was really happy to witness this day.
The rest of the time I slept, watched tv, read and ate, so that`s the reason of the title.
I HOPE that this kind of weekends repeats along the year!

About my carrer

How did you become interested in your area of study? What motivates you to continue learning about your career?
When I was in school, in 3erd grade, I started searching for the carrer that interested me most. It was very important to found the wright one because it would be my future profesion.
First I was interested in animals, so I decided to be a vet, then I started to like things related with the field,so I considerated to study agronomy, then I wanted to study art. Finally, I started to hear about Ocupational Therapy and it was a carrer that had all the things that I wanted to do. First, it`s a carrer of the medical area so it has many elements from biology. It needs a very creative mind because the ocupacional therapysts do rehabilitation through many kinds of activities. And it`s a very humanist profesion because you treat with real people all the time and you can help them live in a better way without suffering.

There are many things that motivates me to continue learning about this carrer. One of them is that we have been to institutions where we worked with patients and we have seen and experienced the impact that our work did in the pacients improvement. This experience was very motivating and this year we are starting with a new proyect based in old persons. Our main purpose is to achieve old people´s real participation in society. It`s very interesting an there are so many things that I still have to learn.

About me

Hi! I'm Tati Ayala, and as you can see, you are now in my expectaculary blogspot. I would describe my self for you to know me better. My real name is Maria Jose, so why everyone calls me Tati would you ask?...well, this is muy older brother fault, he started saying me like that an now even my parents call me Tati. So pleas, refer to me by my nickname.
I'm 20 years old, borned and raised in Chile, the most beautiful and lovely country in the world!
I study Occupacional Therapy in Chile's university, a very complete and interesting career.
Well, now a have to go, but next week you will know more of me.
See you!!!!

Journal

What is something you should throw away, but can't? Explain

I would love to throw away all the things that are kept in the back yard of my house. There are things like tools that my dad use to do the graden and many things that have been kept since my big sister was born (twenty three years ago). Also there are boxes, papers, plastic bags, news papers and unimaginable things. But this isn't so terrible, the problem is that the room were all this staff are kept is durty, dark and it has bad smell. In spite of this, my dad would never allow anyone to touch anything, so I have to resign and live with that desorder.