Post eight

Favorite band or artist

Hello everyone!
Today it's time for a new chosen topic to be developed. This time, you'll be writing about your favorite artist or band.

A musician I really like is George Harrison, from The Beatles. 

George Harrison was known as the quiet Beatle. And personally, I don't think he was like that at all, and I mean that because of his music, but also because he had a strong personality and after ending his Beatle stage, he showed a different aspect of his life: politics and activism.

Here he’s taking a selfie, before it was cool.

One of the most famous actions he did during his life, was the Concert for Bangladesh, in which he gathered several musician, and along with his friend Ravi Shankar, played a concert with musicians as famous as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr among others. The concerts were held at 2:30 and 8:00 pm on Sunday, 1 August 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The main reason for this concert was that he wanted to raise awareness and funds for refugees of the Bangladesh liberation war, that at the moment was part of the east of Pakistan.

Another remarkable thing about George Harrison, is that he was a great song writer. Some examples are Here comes the sun, The ballad of sir Frankie Crisp, All things must pass, among many many others.

He passed away on the 29 of November 2001, but he remains to be remembered by many fans and people that are thankful for his presence in this world.

Now it’s your turn! 

Tell me about your favorite artist or band :)

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on my post.
- Minimum Word Count: 240 words
- Remember: NO TRANSLATOR! web dictionaries are allowed, and of course you can call me and I'll go to your seat.

Post seven

SUMMER HOLIDAYS

Even though I know some of you like to live in the moment, and don't plan ahead your futures, today's post will make you think of your future plans for this summer's holiday. 

Would you vacation in chile or abroad?

Who would you like to visit?
What activities would you do?
Is there any place you would like to visit?
What types of food would you prefer?

Please don't tell me you'll stay in the whole summer

On my personal side, I can't really tell you what I'm doing this summer vacation, because I don't know where I'll live by then. I'm currently waiting for an answer from the owner of the place I rent, and if he says yes, I'll probably buy the land and start building my greenhouse.
If that doesn't work, I'll probably have to find a new place to live, and that would mean that I won't be able to go anywhere.
I'll still go to the desert for a week or so, no matter what happens!

So, think about what you would love to do this summer holidays and write about it in 230 words!

Second video turn in.

Dear all,

As I mentioned in class, here I'm posting the details for your second video recording. The deadline to turn this work in is November 23rd.

Post six

Hello everyone!

Today you'll have freedom to write about a topic you chose...

In 220 words, tell me everything about:

HOW TO SURVIVE SDLE.


Of course I won't be able to provide a sample post, but I imagine that you'll know what to do!
Include at least 2 pictures.




It's your turn:

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on my post.
- Minimum Word Count: 220 words
- Remember: NO TRANSLATOR! web dictionaries are allowed, and of course you can call me and I'll go to your seat.

Post five

Postgraduate studies.

Write about a postgraduate course that you would consider taking in the future.
Include:

- Reasons to do the course
- Subject(s) you would like to study
- Where you would like to study (Chile or abroad)
- How you would like to study (distance learning, blended system, part-time course, etc)
- Any other relevant ideas

Here's my sample post for this topic:

I have to start by saying that for me to study a new career or to deepen my knowledge in English teaching, a lot of changes would have to occur, as I'm not willing to get a ton of debt to specialize again. I studied my career with CAE and I really didn't know what it was when I was 18. So now, ten years later, I'd consider it twice before signing a contract with a bank that will profit from student loans.

Now, if the conditions were right, I'd probably study something related to Linguistics. Linguistics is the science that studies the language, not only knowing how to speak, but also how languages are learnt and how different contexts affect different languages. In other words, it could be said like this:

"Each human language is a complex of knowledge and abilities enabling speakers of the language to communicate with each other, to express ideas, hypotheses, emotions, desires, and all the other things that need expressing. Linguistics is the study of these knowledge systems in all their aspects: how is such a knowledge system structured, how is it acquired, how is it used in the production and comprehension of messages, how does it change over time?"

Understanding these factors can really help a teacher become more able to teach a wide varierty of students and also, in my opinion, knowing about how languages work, can reveal some of the patterns that can be found in human behavior.

The aspects of Linguistics in which I'm more interested in are Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics.

Now it's your turn:

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on my post.
- Minimum Word Count: 210 words
- Remember: NO TRANSLATOR! web dictionaries are allowed, and of course you can call me and I'll go to your seat.

Post four

Hello everyone!

The theme of today's post is: My future job.

As a 28 year old teacher, working at the university of Chile, it would be easy for me to say that I am working in my ideal job. But I don't want to be an employee all my life, so i'll be really honest with you guys, I'll tell you all about my dream future job.

Grower

I'll start my own company, actually my own nursery for cactus, and I'll auction some of them to earn money. My idea is to retire from being a teacher when I'm more or less 30. That means I have only 2 years to move forward with my plans.
I've been working for this project for a long time now, I actually started it withut knowing it. First at a very small scale, I still lived with my parents and I was already studying to be an english teacher, that's when I first got interested in cacti, and there I started growing them from seeds and learning different cultivation techniques.

Nowadays I'm at a stage of the project in which I need to get a big greenhouse to start growing plants for the future, so I really need a place of my own. That's why I'm hoping to buy the place where I currently live, because that would make things go faster as I could start growing more and better plants, at a larger scale, and not worrying about where I'll go if my landlord asks me to leave his property. 

This season of spring - summer is when most of the cactus I grow start flowering, that opens officially the 'bee work season' for me. That's right! that's the time when I cross pollinate my plants to obtain hybrid seeds for propagation.

 

I feel happy thinking that I could live with a sense of independance by working with my own hands, and in a line of work that I love, so it feels like a passtime activity So I encourage you to follow whatever you feel your dreams are :).

That's me!

Now it's your turn!

These questions could help you develop your writing: 

- What kind of job would you like to have? How do you imagine it?

- Outdoors /indoors?

- Would you like to travel a lot in your job?

- What about the salary?

- Add any other related ideas.

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on my post.
- Minimum Word Count: 210 words
- Remember: NO TRANSLATOR! web dictionaries are allowed, and of course you can call me and I'll go to your seat.

Post three

Hi everyone!

Today's post will be our first chosen topic, that means you'll have to write about your main hobby (or hobbies)

My hobby, as I've already told you, is related to biology, more specifically to growing plants. But also, not any kind of plants, cactus.

It all started very suddenly, I went from not liking these plants in general to loving everything about them and their cultivation. It was thge year 2008, and I visited Viña del Mar, that was when I first bought a set of different cactus that came all in one pot. After that I separated them and my collection got started.

From then, I started reading and learning about them, but also I started to know more and more people that had been growing them for a long time, that's how I learnt all I know today, that and also doing all kinds of experiments with sowings and grafting techniques.

Here you can see a couple of examples:

In these pictures you can see groups of recently germinated cactus
 

Another reason to love these plants, at least in my opinion, is their forms and flowers, here a couple more examples:



>

I hope you've enjoyed my post, and also I hope I can read about your hobbies now!



Please leave a comment on my post!
And don't forget to comment on at least 3 of your classmates' posts.
Minimum word count 180.