Sunrise

My English activities

Sunday, October 9, 2011

My first 5th writing - The best and the worst teachers






I still remember my very first teacher at nursery school, I'm talking about 1966. Her name is Ana Maria and she was the person who taught me how to read between my two and a half and five years old. Her kindness and patience helped me with all the new things at school, and she did a good job increasing my interest on reading through tales and comics at the beginning. I keep with me the first book she used to read in class “un barco cargado de...” and I still have in my memory her checked blue and white work coat, her sweet hands and her always smiling face. Since then I am an obsessive reader and I love her for that and chat about this anecdote with her sometimes when I see her somewhere. She usually laughs and asks me “ Carmen, how many books did you read last summer?” I am sure she is proud of all her students as we are proud of her

On the other hand, my worst memory about a teacher is related to my last year at secondary school in 1981, then called BUP. He was my maths teacher, a person who did not have the ability to encourage people in this, in my opinion, difficult subject. One of the lessons of the syllabus was about integrals and derivatives and I did not understand anything with his first explanation and when I asked for some help, his answer was – I will remember it all my life – “You are now and adult, find your way to solve it”. I was only sixteen, I failed the second exam in the course – the only one that I have failed in all my student life - with a mark of 4’95 but on the preparation for the final exam I said; “this is my challenge, if I fail he wins” and my final mark was excellent....I am a bit stubborn, I know....

Sunday, April 24, 2011

4th writing: A discursive composition_2






Socials networks: good and bad qualities

If you are a modern and sociable person you probably need to use this kind of tools to keep in touch with your friends and family. I disagree with this form of communicating. Probably because of my age I prefer doing this in a more traditional way.


In the first place, I enjoy seeing and touching my relatives when I am talking with them. For me it is a great experience to see the eyes of my daughter when I am talking with her about something. The expression of her face aids me to know what she is thinking about the subject we are talking. If she does not agree with my opinion she normally tries to convince me with caresses or cuddling me, which nowadays, from what I know, is totally impossible through social networks.


One point of view in favour of social networks can be the quick contact with other people. Unless you have good visual software and fast broadcast connection that does not distort the images and sounds, actually this is a bit difficult through Facebook that is generally overused and has usually bad connections. It is said that you can communicate with people around the world with these tools, but I think that you can only talk, which is not the same.


I might use these social networks if I did not have other option. However, I still prefer listening to a warm voice or have a calm chat with my family and friends instead of this modern type of communicating. To conclude, I love with any doubt a face-to-face conversation in lieu of a cold email or SMS.