The Blood Moon Eclipse

      What a great event we will be able to see tomorrow! Eclipses have been fascinated people through all the years. Since the moment that human beings looked to sky and observed how beautiful the stars and the heavenly bodies are, their movements have intrigued scientists, astronomers and just curious to learn more about them and to have the opportunity we are going to have now - to see it with naked eyes!

       The name is very suggestive, "Blood Moon", but it's not related to violence or something like that. To understand it better, there is a video here (it's in Portuguese) that explains that the red color is just associated to the very border light that reaches the Moon, due to the shadow of our planet because it will be exactly between the Sun and the Moon.

Elizabeth Weise wrote an interesting article for the USA Today about the eclipse (it's very interesting for us because it can help us with the vocabulary used to talk about an eclipse - pay attentio to it).  According to her, the April 15 eclipse marks the start of a lunar tetrad. That event occurs when there are four successive total lunar eclipses, with no partial lunar eclipses in between, each of which is separated from the other by six full moons. Absolutely amazing!

These events together,  called "the lunar tetrad", are also on the same period of some traditional Jewish celebrations. Some people say it is a prophecy that is going to be fulfilled and others say it just an astronomical event. Whatever the meaning of it is, one thing is certain, celestial phenomena will continue to enchant humans because they are a very beautiful, magical and mysterious spectacle that nature is offering to us.
Let's enjoy it...while we can!

  

Post Question: Have you ever seen an eclipse? When and where? Are you going to see any of the Blood Moon Tetrad eclipses? Do you believe that the Blood Moon Tetrad has any special meaning? What does it means to you?

Tip: To read the complete article written by Elizabeth Weise, just click here. There is an interesting video about the eclipse and she mentioned the prophecy, as well.

EDUCATION

This post is about one of the most beautiful texts I have read so far. It's a very simple text, with very simple grammatical structures, but its message is unquestionable. I couldn't agree more! I hope one day we can really have the nation that is mentioned in the text.      

 

“When a man dies, it’s as if a whole library burns down.”

(old African Proverb)

 

If you have read so far, keep reading. For education. Because education is the only road we can all take to get ahead. Education is everything in life.

          When you say “good morning”, it’s education. When you learn to read or to fly, it’s education. When you plant a tree or stop polluting rivers and seas, it’s education. When you pass by a museum, a theater, a church or historic place and realize what they mean, it’s education. Education is the most important heritage you can have.

          For education is not just learning how to read and write. It is when you learn about your own country and about the world. And as you do, you also learn about yourself.

          It’s much more than that: education is when everybody learns about everybody.

          Education is when 165 million people ask who we are and where we are going. And when we discover the magic and power of the answers. With education we have much more than a country. We have a nation.

          And when a human being is born, it’s as if a whole library began to be built. It’s a never-ending process. A process called future.

          Education is everything.  

                             
(original text published in Portuguese in O Globo, April 2, 2000)

Post Question: In your opinion, are you an educated person? And according to the text, are you? What do you do (or don't do) to be considered an educated person? Are there uneducated people in your classroom (don't mention names, please)? Why do you think they aren't educated?

Tip: What can we expected about the Education process for the XXI century? Click here and check what UNESCO's educational objectives are. 

The Babel Tower test

          Where could you see Spanish, Albanian, English, Portuguese and Japanese language all together? The answer is very simple - in the English test! The students from the last year of high school went through a distinct experience - to complete a test with texts in many different languages, but focused in the abilities that are necessary to achieve comprehension when reading any text that is not written in your mother tongue. These abilities are also involved wish perception, and in this case, attention is an important ally. That is the reason the texts were used as a test and not as an activity. In fact, it could be as simple as an activity, but let's speak the truth: I want to have some fun too!!! But unfortunately, due to a health problem, I couldn't make it, so I missed an important part of the process (and I am not referring to my own fun). I missed the opportunity of observing my students' reaction when they received the test, when they were working on it and their comments at the end of the test. It may sound something quite unimportant (or even silly) not being there during the test, but during all these years, teaching for different grades, I've learned a lot with the messages that come to me by a non-verbal language and when we (my students and I) are talking in a very informal way, without any kind of pressure.          
          I know it is not the same thing, we are not "in the heat of the moment" anymore, but even though I would like to ask the students to write down comments (suggestions, critics, opinion, complaints) about the test.

          I also would like to thank you guys for doing it and to give a huge "thank you" from the bottom of my heart to the Physics teacher Thaís. Her help was crucial and it is exactly because we have friends we can count that life becomes much more interesting and easy to go on.

          And as an example of how the beauty of languages can be combined in a very harmonious way, look at this Multi-language sequence video from Disney's Frozen movie of the Music "Let it Go".

 

Post Question for students: What is your opinion about the test? How did you like it? What was the difficulty level of the test? Write an interesting and uninteresting point of your test. 
Tip: If you got interested and curious about learning another language, there two good suggestions that can help you. On the BBC website we can learn 40 different languages, including Albanian and  there are useful information about teaching yourself foreign languages on the How To Learn Any Language website.

 

 

A test as sweet as Chocolate!

        2ºE students had what we could say "a delicious test" today. It doesn’t mean that the text where edible at all. It is just because the test where based in a very tasteful subject: Chocolate. We had already read a text about chocolate, in our booklet, some weeks ago. What was interesting is the fact that one student said it wasn't fair - so much information about chocolate and such nice pictures, that he, obviously, feels like eating chocolate. I confess...so do I. And when he said that, I thought to myself "how come I didn't think about bringing some chocolate or even ask them to bring some, so we could exchange it among us and try this delicacy while studying about it." However, it was too late. At the end of the class I still felt like eating chocolate and I drunk a hot one during the coffee break. To try to compensate it, the test (text, cartoons, and exercises) was based on chocolate and the students could eat some chocolate while during the test. It was curious to observe that some of them were comfortable about doing the text and eating their chocolate. Others were so focused on the test that barely notice the chocolate on their desk I guess they eat it after the text, during their break. Anyway, within a few days, we will be celebrating Easter and for sure, they will have the opportunity of eating lots and lots of chocolate. It is exactly during Easter that the consumption of chocolate peaks in Brazil, which is the second in the world ranking producers of chocolate eggs. (Britain is in the first position). And according to Charles M. Schulz, "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." I couldn't agree more!

Post Question: What is your opinion about the test? How did you like it? What was the difficulty level of the test? Write an interesting and uninteresting point of your test. Do you like chocolate? What's your favorite one?

Tip: Do you know when it is celebrated the Chocolate Day? To learn about it, answer a Chocolate trivia and get the Original Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, just click here.

St. Patrick's Day - no...now it's the whole week!

Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and he is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Because of his connection to the Emerald Island, Saint Patrick’s Day has come to be associated with everything Irish: the color green, pots of gold, shamrocks, leprechauns, beer and luck. Some celebrations has become an icon, such as the dyeing of the Chicago River, which has been done since 1962. Although we also have our patron saint, Our Lady of Aparecida (celebrated on October 12^th) and the Irish immigrant community here is not exactly an expressive one (comparing to Italian, Japanese and German imigrants), even we, here in Brazil, have been celebrating the Irish patron lately. However, what really caught my attention is the fact that this celebration is increasing over the years. During the last decade, St. Patrick’s celebration is getting meaningful (we can hear our priests talking about it, as father Marcelo Rossi has done in his radio program) and bigger (in 2014, instead of St. Patrick’s day, there will be a St. Patrick week festival).  Three years ago, we need to go to São Paulo to participate in any kind of celebration related to St. Patrick. Nowadays even our city pub has offered some good promotions and a special menu for this whole week. We know that the beer companies are sponsored the celebration and probably that is the reason it has become more popular over the years, but it’s very nice to have the opportunity of getting together with our friends and having some fun in an authentic Irish style.

Cheers and May the lucky of the Irish be yours!

 

 

Post Question: Have you ever celebrated St. Patrick's Day? How did you celebrate that? How would you like to celebrate it? Where would you like to celebrate it?

Tip: To get more information about St. Patrick's Week in São Paulo, just click here and to learn more about St. Patrick, see the History website.