To lie or not to lie - that is the question!

       Besides the Anglo booklet material, the 3ºEM students are also working with texts from one of the most prestigious American magazine, Newsweek. The great advantage of being using this material is the fact that we are always reading about current issues, connecting us to what is happening in the world. One of the chosen articles was written by Samar Halarnkar and it offers information about a study of Cornell University and University of Wisconsin-Madison coauthored by Catalina Toma that examined the lying of individuals on online dating websites. (You can read it here).

      Some lies are considered very inoffensive and are called "white lies". A white lie can be excused because it does not cause great harm. For example: you praise the dinner that your aunt made for you with love just to make her happy, even if not so tasty.

   Lies have always been present in human's life but nowadays people usually feel more comfortable to lie on Internet. The others can't see you or they can't properly check the information you have given. There is this hope that when the truth comes up, they will be involved a lot to care about the "details". 

        But we must take care, lying can also bring lots of confusion and sometimes even pain. What can be a simple lie for you, may be something more complex for others. When in doubt, always tell the truth ...because sooner or later, the lie will be revealed.

Post Question: What was the last "white lie" you have said lately? Have you ever lied on Internet? Do you agree to the idiom: "All's fair in love and war" (No amor e na guerra, vale tudo)

Tip: Do you know what the most common "white lies" are? Check this website and find out.

Back to school and the challenge of a creative period!

      Back to school! The second semester has just begun and for some of you will be the last one here in our school.

      Let's do the best we can to really make the most of it! This period is a little bit shorter than the first semester, so it demands us more efforts to do the same things (or sometimes even more things) with less time than we had before. And if it sounds kind of scared for some ones, I'm sure that for others it's a pretty good challenge.

      Challenges can be very motivating. Instead of being complaining about the lack of time and the great amount of work to be done, we can use all our creativity to develop strategies which will help us facing this period without so many worries and stress.

     Planning our day, asking for help when it's necessary and when we don't know exactly what to do, exchange your ideas with our friends, getting up a little bit earlier and have an agenda to take note about all the homework, activities, tests and excursions you will participate, are also good tips to keep things on track.

     All your dedication and hard work will be rewarded later, for sure! Study now and on the first week of December you will be in our school just to start celebrating all the festivities of the end of the year, wishing Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas to your friends and teachers.

     Many resources are available at school to help and mainly inspire you to do your best, so there is no excuse for a sloppy work! Dare to be creative! Use your creativity and don't be afraid of being wrong! "NOW" is the time and "HERE (the school)" is the place where you can be wrong and make mistakes because you are here exactly to learn. And we can learn a lot through our trials and errors; we just need to have the good will of keep on learning, always!

Post Question: How do you study? Do you have any strategy to improve your performance? What subject do you like to study? If you could, what would you like to change in our school that you think it would help students to study more?

Tip: Read the post (click here) written here some months ago. You will find a link to some very good tips from the ACE (Academic Center of Excellence) of the University of Illinois, at Chicago, to help you to study better and better! 

Project: 365-day Vacation

     Our vacation is coming to an end... and I do hope you have had a great time. If your "great time" was really so "great", maybe the thought on the left is exactly for you! After being in a let's-to-do-all-in-three-day trip in Brasília, after working in the winter festival in Campos do Jordão and after being in a one-week congress in São Luís, in Maranhão...I think this thought could be perfectly mine! I do need a vacation from my vacation! But as this option is totally off the table, I'll try to do the better I can to recover myself. A good night of sleeping, a massage and some time with my family will do the trick!

But there is something that will really make a difference this year. I got a very nice tip and I'll pass it on to you. Would you like to be on a 365-day vacation? I know this sounds good, although you could get a little bit bored, but...

So, if you think it's a good idea, you could do it! And please, again, don't get me wrong...I'm not telling you to be absent from school...not at all. It just means that during the period that you are not on vacation, you could do something you would do if you were on vacation, even if you do it for just some minutes. You could walk barefoot, drink some typical beverage, listen to some local music from where you have been (on vacation), eat special food (try to cook something), dance a different rhythm (even if you do it alone...in fact I think that's better) or do some activity that brings you joy. Doing it, no matter that it will be for just some minutes, it will be the "vacation" from your day. You will have a feeling that the vacation period may have come to an end, but it will be with you every day...just waiting to be all day again!

Post Question: What did you really enjoy doing this vacation? Do you think you could do it again, even not being on vacation anymore? Could you adapt it to be done again while you are studying at school? What do you think you could do during your day to feel that vacation is still around here?

Tip: Talk to your friends or family about it. You will be surprised with some curious and creative suggestions they will give you!

64ª SBPC - a ciência como ferramenta contra a pobreza

      "Teve início na noite deste domingo (22), em São Luiz do Maranhão, a 64ª Reunião Anual da Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência (SBPC). No momento em que o Brasil celebra a última década com 28 milhões de pessoas fora da margem da miséria, o mais importante encontro científico da América Latina tem como proposta para o debate, a ciência como ferramenta contra pobreza que, no país, ainda acomete 16 milhões de habitantes". (Por Daiane Souza).

      Com esse tema, não é à toa que o estado escolhido foi o Maranhão. O Nordeste brasileiro tem a maior concentração de pobreza extrema, sendo que o estado com o maior índice de pobreza é Alagoas, seguido de perto pelo Maranhão. Os dois se alternam na primeira posição. Mais da metade dos habitantes de ambos os estados sobrevivem com menos de 12,5% do salário mínimo por mês. Levando-se em consideração que nesse país, "tudo o que se planta dá", trabalho e comida deveriam ser fatores mais que presente diariamente na vida do povo brasileiro. E é claro, tudo isso acompanhado de uma boa educação, para conduzir a população a um crescimento contínuo e duradouro. Quem sabe um dia... Por isso a importância desse encontro e tantos outros que já foram realizados e que ainda realizar-se-ão. Esperamos que as ideias possam sair do papel e das apresentações e beneficiar de fato quem tanto precisa delas.

     Mas nem só de discussão sobre ciência, tecnologia e combate a pobreza será feita a SBPC de São Luís. O conhecimento cultural também está em pauta! Visita a lugares históricos, música regional, dança e teatro fazem parte de muitas das atrações que serão apresentadas no UFMA.

       Entre uma palestra e outra, uma mesa redonda e outra, nós conseguimos um tempinho para visitar o centro histórico da cidade mais francesa do Brasil e conhecer suas famosas casas com as fachadas feitas de azulejos portugueses. De fato é muito interessante porque não estamos acostumados a ver azulejos em fachadas e sim nos banheiros das casas. Diferente, porém bonito e harmonioso. Graças a sua história, importância e beleza, em 1997, São Luís foi tombada pela Organização das Nações Unidas para a Educação, a Ciência e a Cultura como Patrimônio cultural da Humanidade. 

Porém não é só o lugar que se torna um patrimônio, as pessoas que compõe o lugar exercem uma grande influência também! São elas que determinam as cores, os cheiros e os sabores do lugar, dando vida à cidade e chamando nossa atenção para detalhes que se tornam relevantes em nossa memória. Aqui experimentamos o "abricó" (o nome me lembrou de damasco em inglês - apricot) mas definitivamente não era damasco. Acredito que ambas as frutas sejam da mesma família. O sabor é gostoso e nem foi preciso insistir muito. Foi só provar e eu já comprei algumas para levar. O sabor doce da fruta se misturava com o amargo causado por perceber um certo descaso do poder público para com uma cidade tão importante. No caminho de volta pra casa, fica a esperança de que de fato a ciência e a tecnologia possam colaborar para trazer o cuidado e a atenção que São Luís merece!

Computer X Vacation

     Do you shut down your computer when you go on vacation or you are the ones who believe that computers don't go on vacation?

      Some people go to travel and they can freak out if there isn't a Wi-Fi available at the hotel or if the service is available but it doesn't work very well. 

      In fact, it is one of the decisive factors to choose a hotel for them. Going on vacation without your cell phone is absolutely unthinkable! (how could people go on vacation later...it is a mystery!)  And I know your mother maybe is keep saying to you to turn down your computer and go out to have some sun. And don't get me wrong...I totally agree to her. But just for a while, read this excerpt of the article that was published in The New York Times in 1982 (yes, in 1982...this topic is as old as computer invention).

"WHAT did you do on your summer vacation? It's the sort of question most of us still ask each other despite its banality in the hope that we will receive an interesting reply. It rarely happens.

On the other hand, there are summers like that of David Bolocan and Raymond King, both 18 years old. They were graduated from high school in June - Mr. King from the Bronx High School of Science, Mr. Bolocan from Hunter College High School - and it would not have been amiss (inappropriate) for them to swim, loaf, take trips and prepare lazily for college, Mr. Bolocan for Harvard and Mr. King for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

What they did instead was create, promote and operate computer training courses, earning $6,000 in about six weeks. As for the money, Mr. Bolocan said, ''Some of it we'll use for school, but the rest we'll put back into the business.''

Their summer plans developed in late May and early June, according to Mr. King. ''We began thinking about what we wanted to do when we left school,'' he said. ''We had taken computer courses, and we knew enough about them to know that we could develop something.'' Both young men had Apple II computers, a total of four between them, in their homes."

So, you can read the complete article here and tell the story to your mother...perhaps it will not convince her, but it's a starting point, isn't it?

Post Question: What have you done so far in your vacation? Could you be able of spending your vacation without being connected to your computer or internet? How would you feel if you have travelled to a place where there wasn't a remote possibility to access internet?

Tip: Remember to take all the necessary components to keep your computer working. The battery can not last for all your vacation... if you will take it on vacation too!!!