Empty Schools

Last week, I was listening to a radio show. It´s called TED.com. On the radio, people talk about different topics. After an hour-talk of of talking with an architect, a master teacher of a public school began giving her talk about the conditions of school buildings, the position of teachers who faced challenges day after day and the feelings of students who attended classes in that school.
She started her talk by telling the audience how it was her first class day and the impression she got. As she was telling this, her voice shook with anger when she said that the conditions of buildings were poor. There weren´t enough desks for students so they had to share a desk or to sit on the floor. What is more, Even worse, there wasn't enough a lack of light in every classroom.
She said that teachers who were in charge of each classroom seemed indifferent to what was happening or they might be accustomed to that situation. In addition to this, most teachers did not even know their student names. Those adults, who were in charge of teaching, go into classroom, did their job and get out of classrooms without taking their students’ feeling into account.
Apart from the lack of their parent's support at home and their teacher's indifference, in most cases, and in the face of the positions of their teachers at school, students felt that no one understood them and as a consequence they did not feel any motivation to go to school.
The master teacher concluded that the worst situation in public school weren´t wasn't the empty classrooms but the lack of empathy from teachers for their students’ feelings.  She also added that, if you, as a teacher, do not show your student how important it is the to make an effort they make doing to do their homework, the value that it will have in their future and praise them for doing classwork after each class, your students will not feel any interest or motivation in doing it.  They will not value doing homework in the future, especially if teachers are not even praising their students for doing classwork each day.

This is a big problem in the US.  Our schools have been dumbed down by two grade levels at least and the student's learning is so stalled because the teachers cannot go faster than the slowest student can learn.  Teachers are not allowed to be creative or have freedom in how they teach.  Their methods are dictated to them and I have found this has caused most teachers to lose their love of teaching early in their careers.  I have three daughters who are very smart and outgoing.  We have chosen to homeschool them because we will be able to train them to have good study habits and their desire to learn will set the pace of their studies.  Are you a teacher?  What country do you live in?  Do you find the school systems where you live to have these problems?  

My crazy and beautiful day.

Today was a crazy day.   First I try tried to get up early and that is hard for me, but I did wo-hoo!  Then I went to the hospital with my friend Andrea who is from Colombia and don't doesn't know many places in my country.  After that we were went to eat and everything was fine until finished that she went home and I went to my work.  When I was on my way to work is when I see realized that I don't didn't have cash money and I think thought "oh no! what can I do?" because I didn't have money for paid to pay for the public transportation.  so I started to call to my friends, and thanks to God one of them answered and helped me... Okay I can breathe again, but not for many time long... When I try tried to get money in an automatic cashier, I can't is I think it was broken. and I think " Well it is time to pray to God, I need cash because tomorrow morning I will travel out on town early". Then I arrived to work but only for 30 minutes because I needed to go to my English class, and just got there when my partner arrived and started to talk with me.  She talked a lot and I just only listened bla bla bla yakirisbakiri because I was just thinking "what can I do, I don't have time to go to a bank today and the others autautomatic cashiers are far away"... again I listened bla bla bla until she say said "hey take your money for the trip" (it is a work trip of work) and then she had all my attention jajajajaja... Seriously, I just can only say thanks God, you're so good.

Wow, that was a stressful day!  But God is always there for us and He has made things work out in my life, just like He did for you in your day.  Praise God!  Why is waking up in the morning so hard?!  What kind of work is your job?  Have a great trip!

I want to speaki English faster!

Hello, I've been studying English for a while and I admit I am not good for at this. My older and younger sisters learned it fast, but i díd not, so here I am.
I am in an English course right now, but the school díd not help me a lot to learn it much.  I try to see movies without subtitles to improve my pronunciation, and I began reading a book in English to improve my vocabulary.  I try to write a journal and then, I found this... I hope can learn faster whit with our your help, because I really want and need to get a better job, with a good salary to continue with my university studies.

I admit it is difficult to for me to learn grammar because I always forget how are the rules go.  In the moment I understand it, but then in the exam when I read "use present progresive" I forget how it is. There a lot of rules.... Present perfect, present continuous, present progressive, simple past, past participle..... And I have problems....How can I do to learn it and do not get confused? Then, I read that it is not good studying grammar because it is going to make it complicated when you want to speak fluently and fast, because you are going to be thinking in about the rules.... What do you think?

Get a native speaker to help you.  What is your native language?  I am looking to learn Spanish.  Maybe we can help each other.  Just remember, that it takes some time and practice and that many native speakers do not know the terms for the rules.  You just learn the tense by hearing it spoken.  Best wishes!

My feet in a new place: Mapimí desert

Two weeks ago I did took a quick travel trip by land to Mapimí.  It was a total of 1100 km from home to my destiny destination.  Surprisingly it was better than expected.  I liked the food despite it's poor ingredient diversity (it lacking ingredient diversity).  It was a hot weather (nearly 39 celsius) but it didn´t matter, it that after all, was part of the fun. after all. Finally, The landscapes were just amazing: thousands of hectares (acres?) covered by desertic desert plants, which at this time are green and blooming.  It was a real myriad of light colours and sounds produced by mountains when the wind blew through touch them. Desert is my (favorite?) place, I thought, while driving back home.

That sounds like a nice trip!  I live in a desert surrounded by mountains too.  It is beautiful.  Were you travelling for business or pleasure?  

Summer

Well, this is my last week of summer. week, Next monday I will start to go to the university again.  This will be my last year in the school and I really don't want to finish it, and I'm not sure why. I don't want to finish, It's just Maybe I'm afraid because the future is unfamiliar to me and I really like the school, studying, have reading a lot of books to read and doing my homework.  It's easy to me to do all of that those things, but now I know it has certainly come to an end.I'm certainly in the end of the way that I know.  Within a month I must to start my internship and I'm nervous. for that, I learned all about my career but I can't think in me of myself like a professional with a degree.   person.

I guess that I'm just afraid, but that is part of the life, without fear the achievements would not have value.

¡be Be brave!

If you went through the same situation tell me, ¿Is it normal to feel this stuff?

Yes, it is very normal to feel the way you do.  We have a saying "fake it until you make it."  It basically means have faith in yourself that you will figure it out as you go and that belief in yourself will inspire others to believe in you too.  You will "make it" because people will offer you opportunities because you are confident.  I am now a mom who left college almost 10 years ago.  I remember feeling the same as you and I lived in NYC, where working environments are very competitive.  Just stay positive, work hard and be open to learning from everyone.  Best wishes!

these This is me

Hello everyone I'm Stephany and I´m learning English because for me, its really important to me.  know that and I want to lern soo good learn to speak English well and I want to know more people. and I want to speak with my family to in LA; they only speak English. and I need that, I hope that you can help me for these with this and I hope to you can teach me English. and Thank you for all everything. and i think so i tell you a lot for me and i hope that you can help me to that. I think I have told you a lot about me so you can help me with that.  bye