This Town Rocks!

This month we've been working on a project called This Town Rocks! in which we organise all the pre-construction process of a Hard Rock Cafe, memorabilia and non-monetary value gathering and the rest of organisation in general.

We had to present in a dossier-format our work to a board of directors to judge and evaluate. The dossier had each name's group (of course), some research about where we are building and about Hard Rock Cafe's in other cities (in our research journal), information about each teambuilding activity, our business letters to famous musicians asking for pieces of memorabilia to be placed in the new Hard Rock Cafe. As well as our daily activity in our reflection journal.

My group is called "Riot Storm" and the components are Antonio Salmerón, Fran Alfonso and myself.

Although, the project is not over yet, and we might even do multimedia presentations!

I'll keep you updated!

MLK Pecha-Kucha!

Here is our presentation in Pecha-Kucha format about Martin Luther King. Pecha Kuchas are a presentation methodology in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (six minutes and 40 seconds in total).

I've made this with my partner Fran Alfonso, but we've had problems with the audio so it's not in the presentation. Although, under it you can find the script.



Mike:
1:
Racism was the single most destructive force in American society.
Social problems such as poverty, unemployment, urban decay, deteriorating educational opportunities, crime and violence were all elevated by the persistence of racism in our society. History reveals that we cannot legislate an end to racism.
There had to be, for example, separate bathrooms and restaurants for "coloured" people.
2:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, or natural origin (in employment practices and public accomodations).
During the same time as African Americans were being disfranchised, white Democrats imposed racial segregation by law. And violence against blacks increased.
3 & 4:
On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to boarding whites.
This brought about her arrest, conviction and fine. The buss boycott began December 5, the day of Park's trial, as a protest by African Americans for unequal treatment they received on the bus line.
Refusing to ride the buses, they maintained the boycott until the U.S. Supreme court ordered integration of public transportation one year later.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the boycott, the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement.
6:
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Albnerta Williams King.
His legal name at birth was "Michael King", but it got changed as (well as) his father's. Martin, Jr. was a middle child between an older sister, Willie Christine King and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King.
7 & 8:
He attended Booker Washington High Schol.
He skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered Morehouse College at age 15 without formally graduating from high school.
King married Coretta Scott, on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parent's house in her hometown of Heiberger, Alabama. They became parents of four children: Yolanda, Marthin Luther III, Dexter Scott and Bernice.
-  King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, when he was twenty-five years old.
He received a Ph.D. in systematic theology at Boston University on June 5, 1955.
9: 
Civil righs leader, theologian and educator Howard Thurman was an early influence on King. A classmate of King's father at Morehouse College, Thurman mentored the young king and his friends.
Thurman's missionary work had taken him abroad where he had met and conferred with Mahatma Gandhi.
10 & 11:
King, representing the SCLC, was among the leaders of the so called "Big Six" civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place on August 28, 1963.
- The march originally was conceived as an event to dramatize the desperate condition of blacks in the southern U.S. and an opportunity to place organizers' concerns and grievances squarely before the seat of power in the nation's capital.

Fran:
Becoming a Baptist minister:
Thanks to his honesty and sincerity with the people this character was awarded with the title of Baptist minister when he was only 17 years old.

MLK's speeches:
Martin Luther King gave several speeches but the most important one was in Washington on August 28, 1963, when he uttered the phrase that everyone now recognizes "I Have A Dream", and also made the pronouncements in another speech the day before he died.

MLK and Ghandi:
Gandhi was a great influece on Martin Luther King Jr. as this philosophy had as "the principle of non-violence" or resistance by force. Martin Luther King Jr. became interested in the philosophical principle of Gandhi when he performed his graduate studies at Boston University.

Takes part in the bus boycott:
It was a political and social protest that began in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, intended to oppose the policy of racial segregation in the public transport system. The struggle lasted from December 1, 1955 to December 20, 1956, and led the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses in Montgomery.

The nobel prize:
For this activity aimed at ending the American apartheid and racial discrimination through non-violent means, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Four years later, at a time when his work was based mainly on opposition to the war and the fight against poverty.

Civil rights after MLK:
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was a long struggle, and mostly non-violent, to extend full access to civil rights and equality before the law to groups that do not have them, especially black citizens.

"I have a dream":
I Have a Dream was and is one of the most popular sentences pronunciated in this world and this sentence was pronunciated in the speech of Martin Luther King that shocked thousands of people.

When and how he died:
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. He was killed by a sniper. He shot him in the head, this sniper named James Earl Ray and the same will plead guilty to avoid a trial conviction and have the death penalty and was assigned to 99 years in prison.

We're moving!

Sorry for not updating lately!
We've been trying out a platform that's been circulating through the web until it came to us.
I personally have used it before, but it has changed a lot since then.
It's called Edmodo: it's a social learning platform for teachers, students, and parents.

We're publishing our work there, but I'll keep updating this blog with some info when I get the time!

Scotland!

As very few people will go to our school trip and its organization is a mess, we decided to build up a virtual trip to Scotland!
We split up in groups of four, each one with a role (travel agent, catering, guide and teacher) which were in charge of certain tasks. I'm the catering manager, and I have to look up where to stay and what and where to eat.
The final product is an detailed program of the trip.
I belong to an group called "Hot Tamale's", because of a song called Hot Tamale.

This is our main page, although you might need to log in with an account to be able to see what's written on it. If you have to, try to create an account on the Wiki or use the public/guest account, which you will be able to use soon.

Our daily schedules are on the left board, as well as some notes and vocabulary.

Here's our prezy!

We have a guest!

Last week... Ok, about one or two months ago (sorry, I wrote a draft but I forgot to publish it), learning how translators work and related stuff, the mother of one of our partners, Jade, came to visit us at class (they both are English). We did some kind of interview, simulating that Jade's mother (Laura) didn't know any Spanish and we didn't know any English, except one of us, playing the role of translator. So, one by one and by turns, we had to translate into Spanish what she was saying and into English the questions that we asked.

I actually already knew her, and I pretty much see her almost every day (we live pretty close), so it kinda felt like cheating.

However I learned a few things about her that I didn't know. Anyways, here is some of the information that I gathered:

Laura was born in Exeter the nineteenth of January. Exeter is an old city, in the west side of England. It shelter one very important norman cathedral and a lot of old yet beautiful buildings, so as many shops.

During her youth, it was very easy to travel, so she frequently moved to other cities, looking for jobs and just because she loved to travel. She left school at the age of sixteen, a very big mistake, as she says. But later, at the age of 33, she went to university, where she studied Spanish. She has always loved animals, that's why she now has six dogs!

She loves to read and travel, although she doesn't travel much anymore. She can speak English, Spanish and French, and she used to sail too. Her favorite Spanish's food is paella, and her English's is fish and chips.

She lived in Columbia for two years, and also Rumania. She moved to Spain when Jade was little, because of her education. They firstly lived in Majorca, where she worked as a teacher, but then they came to the south of the peninsula, because in her opinion it's a safer place in general.

Well, what do you think about her life until now? Feel free to comment!

What to read

Of course, reading is important. Free knowledge for everyone... Or not so free, but, what price is worth more than the reward of reading? Reading is within the reach of anyone, and it helps you in many ways.
Reading stimulates the neurons and keeps the brain active. It's like watching a film in your head!
It reduces stress, increases tranquility and analytical thinking, and it also enriches your vocabulary!
It even helps you improving your memory.

There are lots of kinds of books. For everyone, anyone, thousands of books that he would love.
But, what's even better than reading in another language?
In my case, as my primary language is Spanish, I'll go for English.
I already have two books that I would like to (and I'm going to) read. Whenever I can... I guess...
No, now seriously: I have actually started both some weeks ago, but I ran short of time because of my studies, so I temporarily had to stop reading. These are:

- Black Rock Prison (Volume 1): I have read this same volume already in Spanish, but since it is free, why not read it again in English? I loved it, and I ended wanting more, as the next volume isn't free and I haven't been able to get it yet. I looked up some information some time ago, and it seems that the authors firstly wrote Black Rock Prison as a TV Series, but they didn't present it and then it became a novel. They wrote it both in Spanish and English! Here's the plot (by the authors):

"What is the worst sentence that can befall a convict in Illinois? Not life in prison, not lethal injection. The worst punishment is to be sent to Black Rock Prison, a black-walled fortress whose exact location no one knows. The new warden of this unusual prison controls every dimension of each and every one of the convicts unfortunate enough to be sent there.

The inmates soon will discover that they are not normal people, nor have they been imprisoned there by chance. The sentences awaiting them will be carried out in the shadow of a sinister threat. It isn’t long before they find out that much more than their own lives is riding on solving the mystery of Black Rock."

I chose this book because I loved it's Spanish version and because it's very entertaining.

- The Tower: This one was on one of the bookshelves of my house. The plot seemed interesting, so I took a look and I liked it. Although it's an archaeological book, I've read the half of it already.
This is it's plot:
"Twenty centuries ago, a ferocious, mysterious force hidden in a solitary tower annihilated a squad of Roman soldiers advancing through the Sahara desert. There was a single survivor: the Etruscan diviner Avile Vipinas, who later described the horror of the creature in the tower, and suggested how this being could be destroyed.

But just what is the dark being that slumbers in the tower?
And who are the fierce desert-dwelling Blemmyae observed by ancient travellers : might they truly exist? 

To find the tower and solve its unutterable mystery, three men venture into the heart of the Sahara: an archaeologist following the traces of his father, a colonel from the Foreign Legion thirsting for revenge, and a priest who puts his faith to the ultimate rest."


What do you think?

Digital Reflex Photography - Manual Modes

For our BCK, I made this presentation, in which I explain the non automatic modes of a Digital Reflex camera (or DSLR).



So, what do you think?
Any doubts? Feel free to comment and ask!