I just published / I’ve just published my notes to help advanced students learn to learn to become independent and resourcesful lifelong learners!
Check it all out on talkingpeople.net!
Archive for the ‘Fixing the World’ Category
free ebook! Stories from My Teacher… (at last!, we made it!)
February 2, 2015Our first ebook, in case you are into stories told by teachers in class! 🙂 ❤
Stories from My Teacher. On the English Language, Lifelong Learning & Our r.evoL.ution!
http://www.talkingpeople.net/tp/ebooks.htm
On nonviolent struggle (2)
December 19, 2013Interviewing Howard Clark – video 2
by Mujer Palabra (June 2013)
Why did I become a pacifist? + On nonviolent struggle in the world (1)
December 19, 2013Interviewing Howard Clark (Mujer Palabra June 2013)
Howard died last Dec 5, 2013
❤
Another suggested reading for this coming learning year…
September 1, 2013
One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia, three girls travel to meet their mother and deal successfully with complex questions related to love, individual and collective.
One Crazy Summer at talkingpeople.net, with info on a 2011 documentary by a Norwegian director, on Black Power in the 60s & 70s.
Books. Rosa Parks: My Story (edited)
August 31, 2013
In our next 2013-14 school year one of my Reading proposals (in state-run adult language learning) will be this autobiography by Rosa Parks, the US American Civil Rights activist. I hope you can relate this to the 15M movement and all the (pragmatic, meaning non–religious) nonviolent struggle happening today in the world. I have created three webpages on talkingpeople.net for this book.
- The first one includes links to the other two and a listening activity, where you will hear Rosa Parks’s voice, and find a little thought about nonviolence and violence, among other things. I should include links to a few places and some videos, and I will. Check the homepage out.
- Then I have selected some excerpts so students get a feel of the English used in the book, and the stories told in it! But I have also written an introduction aimed at helping students notice things they might miss. Please, let me know what you think. As you know, I’m very much into dialog and critical thinking! 🙂 Check out the excerpts.
- The third webpage is a Glossary of Legal Terms in Context: English/Spanish. Check the Glossary out. I have to say I have just brainstormed a bit for the other Glossary I would like to include (see page 1), which is one on social/nonviolent struggle, perhaps even beyond the historic events depicted in this book.
Anyway, here are the links. Hope it’s useful and enjoyable!
Cars & wars (& who’s the idiot?) (or the criminal, really)
June 28, 2013
I’m watching The Colbert Report, episode 103, Season 3 (wonder about the date), and I hear North Carolina is planning to tax?? electric car users because people using ordinary cars (whose petrol costs us all Wars, pollutions, traffic deaths and worse) pay more for petrol??????
Oh, yes! People getting electric cars are a threat to the species! Trying to save money and save the planet!!! How asocial!!!! They should be jailed! Tortured! Burned at the stake!
In Spain, a Minister (Industry, whatever) said “Don’t worry, the car industry will recover, we’re helping”. Like you help banks and The Market instead of the people who create wealth on the planet — and I’m not thinking of the rich, those just INVEST and take far more than their share, I mean, rob and exploit. I’m thinking of the people who do the work.
Shame on you! Why should they help the car industry? Wow! We feel much better now! We KNOW about the amazing benefits OIL/PETROL brings for people and peace and the preservation of the environment… ¡! We know we can’t create Jobs anywhere else, can we?!
They’re also spreading the word that sustainable sources of energy are not working, meaning of course, not profitable — the only world they can imagine (profit)! Of course, if you do not create policies supporting sustainable development and keep sustaining instead things that destroy us… Why don’t you make it cheaper for people to get electric cars? Those are also cars and they also create jobs. Perhaps because you wouldn’t be able to promise high speed, the Macho On the Road dream so many of us are absolutely uninterested in.
These people, the soldiers of the rich in democracy, now they don’t even pretend. They are convinced we’re idiots!!!
A most precious gift!
June 23, 2013My colleague Asun has given me a most precious present which I’ll carry inside me from now on.
It’s not that usual that you get most precious presents, is it?
It’ll be included in the ebook we would like to prepare this summer for next year! Stories from My Teacher.
This means, yes, that at least she’ll be there as a Guest Teacher. She’s written another story, too, and I do hope she’ll write more!!
A FAIRY TALE
by Asun … (June 2013)
I love stories!! Far-away kingdoms, dragons and princesses, wizards and teachers… Teachers! Who is the most magical creature of all, who can turn emptiness into wisdom, or make Spanish students pronounce “vegetables” or say “people are”? Of course, teachers… So this is the story of one of those teachers.
Once upon a time there was a princess who lived in a castle. She went to balls, rode her beautiful white horse… One day, after a big party at the castle, she met a hadsome prince and immediately fell in love. They got married and lived happily ever after…
Oops, oh no, I got it all wrong… Let me start again…
Once upon a time there was a woman who decided to make her world better. She fought to improve women’s rights, people’s lives, and particularly, English students’ lives.
One day, after getting over an illness, she arrived at a school where people were impressed by her knowledge and her experience. Both students and teachers gaped at her storytelling and always asked for more. That was when she decided to write a book. And from that day on she lived happily in her town by the sea…
Aghrr… yes, this is the story but… Ok, my last chance.
Once upon a time there was a fairy-woman who inspired people and tried to defend what was right, putting her heart and soul into it. You might agree or disagree with her, but she always turned your world a little bit upside down. Her spells reached further that she probably knew, because a hardworker full of enthusiasm is the strongest potion to heal the world.
And that’s the end of the story, or… is it?
Still today, making women invisible?! Women Rock Science
June 16, 2013
Let’s read about it and spread the word!
News on Turkey – join a group for info
June 16, 2013Mainstream media are not reporting properly. Find relevant info posted by people on Facebook and Twitter. H.D.
Dear friends,
this is my personal call to join the group below.
As you may or may not be aware, the situation in Turkey is spiraling out of control. There is now an undeclared state of emergency in Istanbul. The crackdown is continuing in several cities.
Doctors are detained for treating people. Gendarmes joined the ranks of riot police. Hundreds of detained people are in hidden somewhere. 10.000’s marched towards Taksim from four different directions all night long, leaving behind distances of 20-30 km, despite police and army interventions.
We are at a very critical point right now. We need every little bit of support and publicity we can. The Turkish media is almost completely worthless right now.
So please, join the group International Solidarity with Occupy Gezi, read, pass the news on, contact journalists, organizations, MPs, whoever you think might be helpful.
Thank you and warmest regards,
O.M.
- We, the citizens of the world, are here to show solidarity with our friends, brothers & sisters in Turkey who have been subject to immense police brutality by the Erdogan/AKP administration as a react…
Women not getting justice ever, not even in mythology! and the water problem and…
June 15, 2013Please, watch. “Dancing for a better world” by Mallika Sarabhai. Against violence!!!
HERE IS THE ENDING:
So, why is it, that if we think that we all agree that we need a better world, we need a more just world, why is it that we are not using the one language that has consistently showed us that we can break down barriers, that we can reach people? What I need to say to the planners of the world, the governments, the strategists is, “You have treated the arts as the cherry on the cake. It needs to be the yeast.” Because, any future planning, if 2048 is when we want to get there, unless the arts are put with the scientists, with the economists, with all those who prepare for the future, badly, we’re not going to get there. And unless this is actually internalized, it won’t happen.
So, what is it that we require? What is it that we need? We need to break down our vision of what planners are, of what the correct way of a path is. And to say all these years of trying to make a better world, and we have failed. There are more people being raped. There are more wars. There are more people dying of simple things. So, something has got to give. And that is what I want. Can I have my last audio track please?
Once there was a princess who whistled beautifully. (Whistling) Her father the king said, “Don’t whistle.” Her mother the queen said, “Hai, don’t whistle.” But the princess continued whistling. (Whistling)
The years went by and the princess grew up into a beautiful young woman, who whistled even more beautifully. (Whistling) Her father the king said, “Who will marry a whistling princess?” Her mother the queen said, “Who will marry a whistling princess?”
But the king had an idea. He announced a Swayamvara. He invited all the princes to come and defeat his daughter at whistling. “Whoever defeats my daughter shall have half my kingdom and her hand in marriage!” Soon the palace filled with princes whistling. (Whistling) Some whistled badly. Some whistled well. But nobody could defeat the princess.
“Now what shall we do?” said the king. “Now what shall we do?” said the queen. But the princess said, “Father, Mother, don’t worry. I have an idea. I am going to go to each of these young men and I am going to ask them if they defeated correctly. And if somebody answers, that shall be my wish.”
So she went up to each and said, “Do you accept that I have defeated you?” And they said, “Me? Defeated by a woman? No way, that’s impossible! No no no no no! That’s not possible.” Till finally one prince said, “Princess, I accept, you have defeated me.” “Uh-huh …” she said. “Father, mother, this man shall be my wife.” (Whistling)
In support of Turkish people. In your language!
June 10, 2013Spread the word!
More: http://world.time.com/2013/06/08/women-on-the-front-lines-of-turkey-protests/
What Turkey Reminds Us about Tear Gas
June 9, 2013Some thoughts on learning (edited)
June 8, 2013Learning should be like a journey, an event where exploration and discovery take place, this is, where limits dissolve and we move more freely and also beyond.
A learning year should never leave you untouched, as a person, as a Some One. It should allow you to be better, both as an individual and as a social being.
Exams turn out to be a thin slice of this cake. The least meaningful part. The red tape. ADDED LATER: Though, as you can see from my notes on talkingpeople.net and here, I use exams as excuses for some meaningful learning too! 🙂
Language learning is about communicating. Communicating is about learning about oneself and others, it’s about learning to live with oneself and with others, it’s about building realities (living, life) together. Whether we like it or not, whether we have such purpose or not, the fact is that through communication we build our society, the social mechanisms that have an impact on our lives. We should acknowledge such power and use it for the general good and also to improve the quality of our daily lives.
What do you think? What’s your experience? How do you relate to learning? How much learning do you think you do in life?
Turkey – people are doing stuff whether reported or not
June 7, 2013Let’s protect the internet! It’s the only place reporting what they seldom report on the media
Repression is still going on – as usual, against the people who demand a better world.
Gezi’de her yer kütüphane.
Bus turned into library by resisters on Taksim Square (from Fb Diren Gezi Parkı)
Bus turned into library by resisters on Taksim Square (from Fb Diren Gezi Parkı)
What the fuck is “forbid”?
News: Hurray for Turkish people!
June 3, 2013News
June 3, 2013Got a very bad back, but hopefully my PT will put me in shape again. The earn-a-living-week is about to start and I need my body!!!!
From our adult language school in public education, got still a few Writings to publish and a few videos to edit, with Students’ work, but it’s Exam Month, and we’re all day at the School wasting time (and me hurting my back with all the not-possible-to-lie-down-a-bit every 5 hours) and doing the most horrible thing on the planet (in the educational context) which is Murdering a Love of Learning, sorry, I mean, giving and checking exams.
Away from paid work…
My friend Hilal from Turkey is here, so I’ve videoshot an interview to her on her activism (feminist antimilitarist) and events in Turkey. It’s about 100 minutes! So I might not be able to edit it as fast as I’d like to. This week I’m also interviewing Howard, the chairperson at War Resisters’ International, in English, too. I’ll be able to use this video in my future English courses, so it’s exciting. Once I videoshot a (pragmatic) pacifist friend of mine from London, and here is what we came up to! He came to my groups at the state-run school where I worked to tell adult learners about this all: http://www.eoigetafe.es/ingles/pages/activities/culture/london/cockney.html
More… it’s spring. People are popping up everywhere, like mushrooms after the rain.
I’m also in touch these days with old friends from Blue Gate (the only anarchist-working social place I’ve ever been in, and I tell you, it was all about nonviolence, freedom, respect and cooperation) in Greenham Common Wimmin’s Peace Camp. We’re working on this project: http://www.mujerpalabra.net/activismo/greehamcommon/greenham.htm
(to leave a track of its existence, because History is full of omission of good things we humans did, and very especially women)
Apparently, the peace movement is being “colonized” or “infiltrated” by “spiritual/religious” people who have the mission to spread the word that feminism is evil and we should stop raising issues because everything is all right. The bad thing about this is not that they think so. It’s that they try to defame, hurt adorable nonviolent critical thinkers like feminists, who have never in their lives tortured, killed or abused anyone, but just posed their criticism, and decided to live the life they wanted to live.
As a species we’ve always been into ignoring or murdering people with great ideas for us all, so it’s not new. But since the 20th century we’ve realized we can be much better, and that our past gods were far too violent to follow. Anyway,
Will they wipe us out as usual, or will rational empathy survive and turn us into the cooperative peoples we should be, instead of the violent peoples the exploiters push us into being for their own benefit? It’s scary. Why can’t people keep living their own chosen lifestyle and allow the rest of us to lead our own? Why are those believers so hostile and aggressive to non-believers? Supposing they’re right, they’ve just got it all on their side to win and we to burn in hell for not not believing…? I really think that if there is a god of some kind, it can’t possibly be this cruel.
Tax Resistance (to military spending, for social needs instead) in Spain
June 2, 2013Hola, Buen día.
En la asociación educar en la Noviolencia seguimos trabajando a tope, con ilusión y buenos resultados tanto aquí como en América Latina. Sin embargo tenemos una dificultad que hace años no conseguimos superar. Y es que nadie nos paga por nuestro trabajo ni tenemos ninguna subvención.
En estos momentos en que hay que hacer la Declaración de la Renta algunas personas hacen Objeción Fiscal a los gastos Militares.
Aquí tienes información sencilla y detallada sobre le tema. Estaría bien que revises esta posibilidad antes de entregar tu declaración de la renta. Parece difícil pero es menos de lo que imaginas. Si tienes alguna duda nos puedes preguntar.
Te informamos que si decides hacer Objeción Fiscal a los Gastos militares, puedes hacernos el ingreso de esa cantidad a nuestro grupo. Lo puedes ingresar en la cuenta 2038-1095-78-3001298231.
Si no haces Objeción Fiscal, igualmente nos puedes ingresar una ayuda pues tenemos serias dificultades para dar continuidad a nuestro trabajo.
Un abrazo grande.
Emilio.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
May 31, 2013
I’ve been looking for the sheet I wrote answering this question by women artists, thinkers and activists. At that time, the 90s, it was not that funny because people did not know these women… Still today, most people don’t know those women writers.. Sigh! Anyway… I haven’t found it in my computer, so I suppose I should start looking through my papers! But they’re all scattered in various houses where I lived, so I suppose that’ll be something I won’t manage to do!
Oh, poor women! It’s so hard to get you into most people’s minds! But that doesn’t mean they did not exist, in spite of all the injustice and obliteration…
I do remember one I wrote. It’s what GERTRUDE STEIN would say: “A chicken crossing the road is handsome and convincing.” 😀 Hey, found one on the Net: VIRGINIA WOOLF, “She wanted a room of her own.” 😀 She did, she did!!!
In the comments below I’m posting some answers I’ve found on the Net – by valuable men AND women. You can also post some if you like. Hope you enjoy them!
Campaign by a university in Zaragoza
May 25, 2013
Why people should include women when they name human beings. For unconscious sexist behaviors, mostly. (Conscious sexists simply do it on purpose!) In case ideological conditioning doesn’t allow to read or listen to feminists, here is a Spanish university transmitting the same ideas:
In Spanish (click on the banner)
En defensa de las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas (EOI, EEOOII)
May 25, 2013I’m pasting a message a student has sent me. Tere is asking you all, people using EOIs, to sign if you agree with the petition. It’s about the fact that course fees in Madrid are about 300 euros a year when in other Autonomous Communities they are around 50 euros because it’s still PUBLIC EDUCATION! Public education is not a business. It’s contribution is CULTURE not MONEY.
People, please, spread the word among people living in Madrid or using EOIs. The more signatures you get, the more chances there’ll be of achieving CHANGE!
¡Hola!
He generado y firmado una petición dirigida a la Comunidad de Madrid para que los precios por estudiar idiomas en nuestra comunidad no sea 4 veces mas caro que en la comunidad Andaluza, por ejemplo, en Charge.org
Me parece un tema muy importante, y me gustaría que tú también lo apoyases. Aquí está el enlace:
Por favor, si es posible, extiende a traves de tus contactos esta petición para ver si es posible conseguirlo.
¡Muchas gracias!
Tere
An open letter to facebook
May 22, 2013Improved version of the World Book Day video!
May 22, 2013Please, spread the word. The more visits the video gets, the more people will want to see it, and the more we’ll be spreading good ideas for the classroom experience, linking academic learning with LiFE!! I included the pics of Cake Days!
If anyone appearing in the pics did not sign the permission, and doesn’t want to appear, I will downloaded and blur his or her face, OK? No problem!
Interesting article
May 20, 2013It’s
Occupy Wall Street protest PDF
Robert Matthews
And it’s here:
http://www.praxissociologica.es/index.php/numeros-publicados/33
Language Misperceptions in Spain. The language problem in monolingual communities
May 18, 2013by michelle (talkingpeople.net)
Because for 40 years we were told that in Spain people should speak Spanish, and people who belonged to bilingual cultural backgrounds were persecuted and banned from speaking their other language (which terrified everybody all the same), there is a Spanish-nationalism tradition in monolingual communities in Spain that exhibits (and exposes) this fact: those people’s very-aggressive hostility to bilingual communities. Why should they feel like that? Why such self-justified bellicose outrage? And what if there is resent among people’s whose language was banned? (Obviously, those who feel that need to overcome it, after decades of language revitalization policies and the end of past persecution.) What’s the big deal their heart warms more when they speak the language that was once persecuted? (If you were forced to stop speaking your family’s language, how would you feel?) Why should their heart necessarily love more Spanish than their community’s language? (I don’t mean to justify intolerance on anyone’s side, of course. I’m a free thinker and as such, I’m critical of all nationalisms, because nationalism is not — in my view — about collective identities but about collective impositions.)
In monolingual communities we are confronting a problem and people consistently refuse to tackle it: we need to consider, at least in Madrid, the kind of monolingual people who are always accusing bilingual people of intolerance are not aware that they are perpetuating a tradition which we should have already long overcome — the Spanish democracy re-started in 1976 and the 1978 Constitution included the acknowledgement that Spain was a multilingual country, a country where different cultures coexisted with the Spanish culture.
The 1978 Spanish Constitution recognizes the linguistic diversity in Spain in Article 3.3 where it states: “The richness of the linguistic varieties in Spain is a cultural heritage that will receive special respect and protection”. Co-official languages in Spain: Aranese (in danger of extinction), Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician. Other languages in Spain
Since the 1990s I’ve been bringing up this issue in my lessons, especially when I had Advanced level English students. I’ve tried to make people think critically about the biased opinions monolingual people help spread, distorting in this way the educational process of language and cultural respect to diversity in Spain. To this day (2013), I’m still shocked at the strength of people’s misperceptions, at how they defend these biased opinions as if this was a fundamental ideological issue in their lives, yes, a question of patriotism… Why should someone living in Madrid, an Autonomous Community in Spain, have a say about whether a Catalan person should not prefer to speak Catalan in Catalonia, another Autonomous Community in Spain? Why should they feel they can actually say / they have a “right” (!) to say that Catalans have to speak Spanish in Catalonia, when we’ve had Autonomous Communities – protecting cultural diversity – since the 1970s and 80s? From a democratic or linguistic stand, there is no way language and cultural diversity can be seen as threatening or negative for any community or any part of a community.
By-default-mentality people (“ordinary” people) in monolingual communities in Spain say things as false, unfair and openly impolite as this — and it makes me feel so ashamed and overwhelmed that I can’t even react properly in spite of my knowledge and my role as a language teacher: “Galicians don’t know how to speak / write Spanish” (!! against ALL evidence!), “Catalans / Basques have to speak Spanish whether they like it or not because we are in Spain” (!! Francoist mentality!). Just two grotesque examples (grotesque, if we consider it from an informed and democratic standpoint). The fact is that monolingual communities speak only one language, and bilingual communities speak two, and they do. Why should monolingual people be unable to understand that there exists bilingualism in Spain? And that speaking your mother language or languages is a human right? And that languages that have been banned (!!) have needed language revitalization policies – which we have fortunately had since democracy started? Shockingly enough, in Madrid the educational authorities are pursuing bilingualism – not Quality Foreign Language Education, bilingualism they call it — with… English!, a language which is not in people’s cultural background, except people like myself, children from culturally-mixed marriages at the time when Franco, the dictator who isolated Spain from being in touch with the world (with the social movements in the 1960s for instance) welcomed US American airbases in the country. Except minority cases like my own, English is and will be a Foreign Language in Madrid (which doesn’t mean people can’t learn it well and also in the public education system, where we have qualified teachers like myself!)
People in monolingual communities in Spain like the Autonomous Community of Madrid should stop making the ignorant “jokes” and comments on bilingual people we hear every day. This shames us all. This speaks of people’s ignorance and prejudice, it does not “defend” any legitimate Cause. When we tackle the language issue we should exert some minimum respect, and express our questions and comments as such, rationally and with empathy (tactfully at least), because in our past there has existed a terrifying language reality that has made a lot of people suffer and we should not pretend Nothing happened. We should not use our questions and ideas as weapons for showing despise for a different language community. We should question our own perceptions and feelings (in monolingual communities), too, admitting we also have a trauma, the trauma of believing there are languages which are more important than others and should be imposed, if necessary.
RIOS MONTT, WAR CRIMINAL FINALLY SENTENCED!
May 11, 2013RÍOS MONTT CONDENADO POR CRÍMENES CONTRA LA HUMANIDAD
¡Podemos! ¡Podemos! ¡A seguir luchando! ¡Hay que forzar a los “líderes” a respetar pero no como nos enseñaron, siempre con más destrucción, sufrimiento y violencia! ¡Con razón empática, pura inteligencia! ¡Hay que cambiar el mundo! ¡A seguir aprendiendo a comprender y convivir!
FELICIDADES A TODAS ESAS PERSONAS VITALES PARA LA ESPECIE QUE JUGÁNDOSE LA VIDA LITERALMENTE Y LA VIDA COTIDIANA HAN LUCHADO Y LUCHADO HASTA CONSEGUIR ESTA JUSTICIA, QUE TANTO NECESITAMOS EN EL MUNDO PORQUE TENEMOS QUE CAMBIARLO A MEJOR.
NINGUNA CREENCIA RELIGIOSA NINGUNA IDEOLOGÍA NINGÚN BIEN MATERIAL ES MÁS IMPORTANTE QUE LA GENTE – OPTEMOS DE UNA VEZ POR TODAS POR LA GENTE! APOYEMOS A LA GENTE! DEFENDAMOS A LA GENTE!
La justicia es mi amor: http://www.mujerpalabra.net/blog/?p=741
No soy un grano de anís: http://www.mujerpalabra.net/creadoras/michelle/pages/poemas_cuadros/poemas/nosoyungranodeanis.htm
RÍOS MONTT INTRODUJO LA LLAMADA GUERRA DE BAJA INTENSIDAD EN LA REGIÓN Y EL REINADO DEL HORROR
http://palabrademujer.wordpress.com/tag/indigenas-violadas/
Noticias:
Condena: http://hilodirecto.com.mx/80-anos-de-prision-a-rios-montt/
Podría iniciarse la reconciliación (Comunicarte): http://noticiascomunicarte.blogspot.com.es/2013/02/la-condena-al-exdictador-rios-montt.html
—
In English (sorry, I am too emotional right now to post just in English!) 🙂
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22490408
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/5/10/live_verdict_expected_soon_in_guatemalan_genocide_trial
—
The Shock Doctrine
May 9, 2013If you have an hour to spare, here you can learn about our recent history in terms of the lack of scruples world leaders and business people have been showing: Freeman * the USA, Pinochet in Chile, Thatcher in the UK (notice how rich she made the rich in relation to ordinary people through her economic policies, and see if there are any connections with what is happening here), the fall of the Berlin Wall, Yeltsin… Iraq… learn about the why’s of violence and their connection to money and power.
The ending of the documentary and Naomi Klein’s talk is inspiring, because the truth is, we CAN do something about it and we are doing it, all over the world! Populations have information at hand, and are using it. Moreover, people are discussing what our “leaders” are doing and realizing there ARE easy answers to the problems. The people who created the crisis want us in shock, so they can squeeze it all from us, privatize it all, have us so anxious and depressed that we can only be slaves, like in the Middle Ages.
The fact that we might choose to ignore what people in power do to our societies doesn’t make them stop doing it. We need to reclaim democracy.
In Spanish TV2: http://youtu.be/Nt44ivcC9rg
Shame on the “authorities”! 0_0
May 9, 2013The ethically unauthorized “authorities” lie in terms of how many people have followed the strike. But there’s a turn of the screw: because of what they’re doing thousands of teachers have been left out of work because of all the changes they’ve introduced in public schools from primary to university, so of course, the “authorities” won’t be counting them — they were at the demos too!
“Los sindicatos han calificado de éxito el paro y la Plataforma Estatal por la Escuela Pública ha cifrado el seguimiento medio entre docentes y personal administrativo en un 72%. El Sindicato de Estudiantes asegura que el seguimiento ha sido de un 90%. Por el contrario, el Ministerio de Educación ha informado de que menos de un 20% ha secundado la huelga.”
Leer más: http://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20130509/54373937388/huelga-de-educacion-estudiantes-profesores-padres-manifiestan-lomce-recortes.html#ixzz2SpFqGNJJ
Síguenos en: https://twitter.com/@LaVanguardia | http://facebook.com/LaVanguardia
LATEST NEWS!!!! The Government says they’ll postpone taking the law to Parliament for approval. HOW CAN THAT BE IF ONLY A 20% OF THE PEOPLE FOLLOWED THE STRIKE? Let’s keep our efforts up!! People’s solidarity and pressure are achieving quite a few things of late!
http://www.publico.es/455081/el-gobierno-aplaza-finalmente-la-aprobacion-de-la-reforma-educativa
For the connection between crises and privatization, see The Shock Doctrine
ON STRIKE! / ¡EN HUELGA! * HUELGA GENERAL…
May 9, 2013IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIC / STATE-RUN ADULT LANGUAGE EDUCATION
EN DEFENSA DE LA EDUCACIÓN PÚBLICA INCLUIDAS LAS ESCUELAS OFICIALES DE IDIOMAS (EEOOII)
9 de Mayo: Huelga General de estudiantes, profes, madres y padres contra la LOMCE y los recortes (y todo el cúmulo de cosas pendientes, precarias, que razones, ¡nos sobran!)
Texto del Sindicato de Estudiantes, que sirve a todo el mundo:
“La Comunidad Educativa (profesoras y profesores, padres y madres, estudiantes, personal de servicios y administración, Movimientos de Renovación Pedagógica) de todo el Estado, desde la Educación Infantil hasta la Universidad, estamos en HUELGA GENERAL el día 9 de mayo, y te llamamos a apoyarla, como ciudadan@ y vecin@.
Nos manifestaremos por la tarde, a las 18,30h desde Neptuno al MEC, en Madrid, para decir a este gobierno que no le va a ser fácil sacar este engendro de ley adelante.”
No nos mires, ¡únete!, que los derechos conseguidos por la lucha social, si no se defienden, ¡nos los quitan!
Protect girls from the Princess industry!
May 3, 2013Mighty Girl Book Clubs: download the info on how to set one up! Avoiding fairy tales that educate girls in having the sole ambition of looking pretty and being saved by a prince!
Books for mighty girls and mighty teenagers!
Books banned, guns allowed!
May 3, 2013This is not about being politically correct. Political correctness relates to respecting somebody’s human rights. This is an example of the madness in patriarchal societies.
Moms demand action: One child’s holding something that has been banned in the USA to protect them. What is it?
12 books banned in the USA (so you see why Red Riding Hood was banned)
15M – Málaga, March 2013 & August 2012 videos
May 1, 2013
Honesty is key. Kindness is key.
On the street we can communicate and think together. That’s what 15m means. Better thinking, collective thinking.
Culture is based on values (not on the market): the value of freedom, of justice, of solidarity.
If something is inmoral, it doesn’t matter it’s legal. We have to fight for improvements.
About May 9 – for Avanzado 2
April 30, 2013Last week I found out in class that trade unions are calling for a strike on May 9. For the past 15 years I’ve supported them all, but the other day in class, because we had scheduled taking a C1 Practice Test on that day and it’s my last strike in Madrid, I thought I might just forget about it.
But I can’t. It’s my last chance to formally protest, and I should stick to that! I wish I could take it differently. I did try. But I can’t.
🙂
Tomorrow I’ll tell the people coming to class. The good news: I’ve found a way for Avanzado 2 Martes students to take the test on that day anyway! Can you guess?!
April 26: Lesbian Visibility Day
April 26, 2013We’d like to celebrate Lesbian Visibility Day with a song by Buika, a Spanish singer and song writer who performs all kinds of interesting music!
- Empty Closets: Stages in Coming Out
- 2013 COGAM in Madrid will be celebrating different events
- 2013 Cristianxs Gays: políticas?, presentadoras?
MisUsing Democracy
April 23, 2013LEY DE PROTECCIÓN DE DATOS DE LAS PERSONAS!!
ES ILEGAL
SACAR FOTOS DE INFORMACIÓN CON DATOS DE OTRAS PERSONAS
HAY QUE RESPETAR LAS LEYES QUE NOS PROTEGEN (no sólo las que protegen la propiedad…)
ES RESPETAR A LAS PERSONAS
Si no, al final los centros van a tener que publicar las convocatorias con códigos y no con nombres.
La comodidad de no molestarse en anotar algo no debería tener un precio tan alto.
Que “todo el mundo lo haga” no es razón racional! Que no haya dinero para infos en internet protegidas no implica que debamos pagar ningún precio respecto a nuestra información personal. Y el desconocimiento de la ley no exime de su cumplimiento!
Lesson Plans! Getting ready for an orgasmic end of course!
April 19, 2013Hiya! Just now I updated the Pages here for Avanzado, Intermedio, Learn2Learn and Topics, but I might’ve forgotten to link some posts. You can post them there if you like!
We have next week and two days of the following week to finish UNIT 6, OK? Select what you are most interested in! We won’t be able to do it all in class. I will also pick some exercises. 
Then, there’s a holiday (May 1, 2) and when we’re back it’ll be May 6 and 7. We’ll use these lessons to finish up UNIT 6 and raffle the books we have in class, because… May 7 is World Book Day, a very special date!! You are all welcome to bring books (in English) to give away! Reading is like travel(l)ing and like space voyaging! In Avanzado 2 we’ll take our Practice C1 Test in May 8 and 9. We’ll do the listening in the second part of the lesson so that people who are always late can get the chance to do those, but we need to take the break a bit earlier.
Over THIS WEEKEND you could try to do the unit writing assignment and practice speaking on the topics we worked on. And then if you love English and want to do some more, do all you think we’ll probably skip in class of UNIT 6! We’ll only have two weeks for unit 7!!
Come on! Cheer up! Enjoy your English! You’re LEARNING something complex and amazing! Have a pleasurable weekend! Hurray for orgasms! 😀
Cruelty to Animals – read, listen, speak!
April 17, 2013Our societies are incapable of living together with other animals, of respecting animal rights. Although I am an omnivore (and do not feel guilty or ashamed for that) I believe that vegans are raising very important issues we should all consider, meditate, discuss. It’s true it’s annoying when they resort to guilt-tripping, like religious leaders did in the past to keep people obedient and quiet. Vegans shouldn’t resort to that because their reasoned points are powerful. On the other hand, I think “ordinary citizens”, this is, the majority that understands things in the exact same way, should stop insulting and making fun of vegans — they’re fighting for a world where the rest of the animals are on an equal footing with humans, they’re not fighting to abuse anyone. (I’m not linking to the most famous animal right group in the USA because in my view their campaigns do not respect women’s rights and they refuse to overcome their sexism. I would like to see the men in those groups playing the part the women in those groups play in their poster campaigns. They — the men — are animals, too.)
- The Listening activities on Animals at talkingpeople.net (from Speaking of Pets and The 60-second Naturalist podcasts)
- A monolog on Bullfighting: Art or Cruelty?
Some vocabulary:
- I’m a vegetarian: I don’t eat any kind of meat (beef, chicken, fish, seafood…, jamón serrano or Spanish ham). I have dairy products (vegetarian cheese, milk, butter), honey, this is, food coming from animals that remain alive, and then all the things a vegan eats.
- I’m a vegan /vígn/: I don’t eat anything from animals, whether dead or alive. Furthermore, I don’t use products that have been tested on animals, I don’t use clothing and footwear made from animals. I consider myself an animal, like the rest of the animals on the planet, so I don’t feel I have the right to mistreat them, exploit them, or kill them.
What do vegetarians and vegans eat?
- I’m an omnivore: I eat anything, everything. Still, I don’t agree with cruelty against animals, and our food production system is extremely cruel to animals. To make matters worse, we kill to throw away, and this is immoral towards animals and other human beings who are starving in the world. The meat industry is also a main cause of damage to the environment.
- And what’s a ‘freegan‘?!
More informed definitions: What do ‘vegetarian’ and ‘vegan’ mean?
A blog with informative articles on Animal Topics
Animal rights vegans raise important issues in society, about our relationship to (other) animals:
- Don’t kill animals for food. We can choose our diet, and we can be healthy without having to eat animals.
- The environmental consequences of human food choices
- Don’t exploit animals: vegans are against animal testing, and this relates to different areas of our lives, from cosmetics to medicine. Beauty without cruelty cosmetics. What are alternatives to animal testing?
Videos:
- Why Vegan?! – 10 minutes – you will learn to pronounce a lot of words, like speciesism
- Why Vegan Is Important – 6 minutes – Friends not Food
- Vegetarian to Vegan (Hawai) – a 1-hour lecture on the topic.
Outing for this weekend: The Vagina Mons in Madrid!
April 11, 2013and in a squat in Lavapiés, Centro Social Ocupado (squat, huge, an old tobacco factory you can tour before or after the show!) La Tabacalera, so it’s free! and a very special place to be in! (they’re just asking for a small donation each, it can be 1 euro, to a women’s health group). I can’t go! Shucks!!!
Come on, people, go!!! It’s a rare (excepcional) chance! And tell us all about it in class! (Link at Talking People on the Vagina Monologues) – It’s the same author, Eve Ensler, who we read when reading the stories from I Am an Emotional Creature. The Secret Life of Girls around the World!
♥
Come see the Vagina Monologues!
Friday, April 12 at 9:00pm
Saturday, April 13 at 8:30 pm
Sunday, April 14 at 7:30 pm
at CSA La Tabacalera (C/Embajadores 53, Metro Embajadores)
*The play will be presented half in Spanish and half in English, yet there will be scripts available in both languages.*
Suggested donation: 5 euro
(90% of our profits will be donated to the Madrid-based NGO Mujeres para La Salud (www.mujeresparalasalud.org) and the remaining 10% to V-Day International Movement, that seeks to stop violence against women).
For more information, visit our website: http://vdaymadrid2013.wordpress.com/
A poem to keep you good company!
April 11, 2013For María (a colleague of mine), who is sad these days, and for people who might be feeling low, sad, confused, overwhelmed, displaced… so you can breathe in deep, relocate yourself in space, find a sense of belonging and some peace and quiet and beauty!
Learning a poem (by ear), with its music, is like learning how to sing a lullaby to yourself, which is comforting, soothing and liberating! Visualize the words: it’s like being there, in nature! And nature is a source of strength for us animals on the planet!!
Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver (written and audio texts)
Some people were inspired to create this…
In Madrid…
April 3, 2013In Madrid, the PP (Spanish right-wing political party) government has attacked the public healthcare system and workers’ rights, for instance, by making pensioners pay for their meds, and discounting money from the salary of workers who are on a sick leave!! It’s all about the cuts. However, how can this be explained?! the Treasure/Department of Treasure — the tax department, so to say — will allow “discounts” if you have gambling debts!!! — which means, that it’s more important to protect people losing money in gambling than to protect people’s health and people’s labor rights.
What does this have to do with a democracy? The people who have amassed fortunes their families would never in a million years be able to spend are consistently protected by our political leaders, in spite of the fact that they are destroying people, culture, civilization and the planet. It’s like back to Medieval Ages!
How is this going to solve the crisis? Madrid will be EuroVegas, a place, as we know, that won’t be about offering jobs respecting human rights and labor rights, but about creating that kind of underworld which has also attracked all kinds of crimes and exploitation of human beings. This is their idea of measures to overcome the crisis. I feel sick, with such lack of ethics and commitment to human beings.
Let people be evicted from their homes, go without healthcare, let public education become a place where teachers are objects voicing a same textbook at the same time (good for publishing houses, again, bad for connecting education to life outside because it’s impossible to develop projects!), and protect the decent abusers. Shame on them!
This is the new war — no weapons, no battlefields, but all about sheer violence.
http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2013/04/01/agencias/1364797814_363149.html
:(
April 3, 2013Women have human minds
March 31, 2013So here’s the poster in English. We need to stop this nonsense explaining human intelligence in terms of our sexual organs! 0_0 How can this have been so popular? It’s a crime against humanity, some profound damage to human intelligence.
womenhavehumanminds_poster (1 doc page)
Recommended reading: Delusions of Gender, by Cordelia Fine but just looking around in societies where women are free to develop their minds and lives can do.
And in case you want to repost and stuff, here’s the text — the “wimmin” is to help EFL students to remember how to pronounce the plural of “woman” /woomn/, but it’san actual alternative spelling of th word too:
WIMMIN HAVE HUMAN MINDS
STOP IT: THE PENIS & THE VAGINA
are reproductive and sexual organs
unfit to measure our intelligence
establish our emotional & social functions
or our dreams & ambitions
(WHY) HAVEN’T WE MISSED
women thinkers, artists, activists, explorers, inventors, adventurers…
in the history of HUMANKIND?
The history of Man is not the history of Humankind
Patriarchy to court
for Crimes against Humanity
BACK!!!! (bye bye spring hols! ♥)
March 31, 2013Hiya, dear all! Just back from being locked up in nature due to non-stop rain! I couldn’t even go for a quick stroll!!!
BUT — I’ve been reading a bit: ghost stories by women writers (I’ll bring a few copies of this one for the end-of-course goodbye raffle! because they are GREAT and the weeny presentations of the authors are like pebbles shining in crystal clear river waters! 😀 !) and about the Spanish painter and revolutionary (!) Maruja Mallo and the Avant Garde in Spain (you’ve got to get a copy of her bio by this US American woman. In Spanish it’s published by Circe but it costs about 30 euros!! It’s originally in English, yes! BUT IT COSTS 70 EUROS!!!). Then I’ve done a bit of translating for social activism: on Feminist Curiosity (bits of the intro) by Cynthia Enloe (it’ll get published on Mujer Palabra, in Activismo – Pacifismo feminista). Finally, I’ve been doing some writing (a poem on friendship lost, which turned out to be feminist as an accident, 😀 , well, when you develop a feminist intelligence it’s like when you understand something: you cannot stop using that understanding!) and a new feminist postcard (you can color it: 1 pdf page: cartel_colorear. I’ll do it in English soon-ish) which I think will help humanity to overcome all the hurt patriarchal values have done to human intelligence!).
Yes! Yes! And done a bit of work for you! I’ve written 1,000 words on Mainstream or Alternative Medicine so that Avanzado 2 people can listen to an example of a monolog on that (I need to record the audio now). Then, I’ve prepared two special speaking activities. (Btw, remember to bring the handout with Three Proposals.) Here’s one: Next Tuesday, when we’re back to school (eek!!!!!!!!) I’ll order 50 copies of this one-page handout for a Timed Speaking Activitiy in the Avanzado 2 groups! I’ll give it to people in our first lesson together and you’ll do the looking up stuff before the lesson when you’ll actually “improvise the interaction.”
I hope you’ll enjoy it, and I also FUCKING HOPE YOU WILL FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS!!! 😀
TIMEDSPEAKINGACTIVITYFORAVANZADO2 (FIXED LINK) – traveling to Greece ♥, Iceland ♥♥ or Cyprus
Hope you all enjoy your Sunday and hope it’s not a Rainday! Next Monday I’ll try to send my feedback on the recordings I did not manage to finish working on last week!
March 21: Celebrating Poetry Day & Fighting Racism Day
March 22, 2013♥ Joy Harjo
Learn about this amazing Muskoke (Creek) American musician, writer and activist! ♥
Should I dream you afraid so that you are forced to save yourself? Or should you ride colored horses into the cutting edge of the sky to know that we’re alive we are alive.
Read/Listen to her poem Strange Fruit
♥
Here is a poem I wrote in 2012 dedicated to the Palestinian people. I wrote it after watching a documentary about a Music School they were trying to create or hold together in the Gaza region (a densely populated area on the planet where you can get killed very easily, apart from having to endure war-like hardship). Olive trees are also connected to the origin of the worldwide movement called Women in Black. Israeli and Palestinian women did something which patriarchal politics abhors, which was plant olive tree together in a shared land. Olive trees are also about our connection as part of the Mediterranean cultures. I’ve translated it into English.
Los olivos (michelle renyé, 2012)
La piel oliva es dorada y verde.
Los ojos y el pelo negro noche lluvia
y profundos,
como el verano en los jazmines.
Las hojas son verde ceniza por abajo
y se vuelven al cielo abierto,
tantas veces
con tanto esfuerzo, con dolor,
y levemente brillantes
por encima, como un recuerdo
de aceites y manos, de cuando
podían plantar olivos, verlos crecer.
La música está prohibida.
(Es ley en la democracia del genocidio.)
Las personas jóvenes no temen más
que aman, por eso cantan
en un espacio de ruinas secreto.
Sus ojos contienen al fondo cascotes
caídos sobre los olivos bajo el sol
sobre la tierra amarilla gastada agotada,
llana, terrosa, dura, persistente; hecha mirra,
y aprenden a tocar en cajas con cuerdas
y se juegan la vida cuando bailan.
Es lo que nunca cuentan las crónicas que escriben
los padres de todas las guerras.
Translation:
Olive Trees (michelle renyé, 2012)
Olive skin is gold and green.
Eyes and hair black night rain
and deep,
like summer in jasmines.
The leaves are ash green underneath
and turn and twist towards the open sky,
once and again,
with such effort, such pain,
and slightly shiny
on top, like a memory
of oils and hands, of the time
when they could plant olive trees, see them grow.
Music is banned.
(It’s law in the democracy of genocide.)
People young do not fear more
than love, that’s why they are singing
in a secret space of ruins.
The background in their eyes contains
rocks of rubble fallen on the olive trees under the sun
on the yellow soil worn out exhausted
flat terrous hard persistent; made myrrh
while they learn to play boxes with strings
and risk their lives when they dance.
This is what’s never told in the chronicles written
by the patriarchs of all wars.
A 19-year-old woman sentenced to death. Please, read and sign if possible!
March 22, 2013http://www.change.org/petitions/petitioning-tunisian-government-amina-must-be-safe
She took this pic and wrote in Arabic on her body in defence of women’s rights. She’s been sentenced to death by a religious leader. Read about it and sign if you want to help save her life!
In our patriarchal societies, women’s bodies are abused every day in the open: everywhere women’s bodies are sold and presented as rubber dolls. Real women are not dolls. And real nudes are not about patriarchal porn.
They want to kill her, like they did with us all and are still doing it with us all when we simply did not want and do not want to fit Man’s description (patriarchal society’s description) of what a woman is and what she has to do with her life. (On this, just get some notions that will help you understand what we’re facing in Cordelia Fine’s Delusions of Gender.)
About job interviews
March 21, 2013Here is some feedback for Intermedio 2 students who wrote the note to a friend on a job interview they’d had, which was one of the Sample Exam tasks.
When a job interview begins with “personal questions” is not about your life. It’s about personal details — contact info, education. So say “First, they asked me about my personal details” instead of “about my personal life.” Job interviewers — when offering good jobs, proper jobs — do not go around making personal questions. They don’t even have the right to ask you about your likes and dislikes (e.g., your hobbies). They need to check you’re qualified for the post. They check your Education and Work Experience.
Well, of course, I’m telling you this not so much for your writing test. Stick to what you can actually say in the foreign language, to avoid making mistakes.
Incidentally, when we send our CV’s/resumés, we should refuse to include a photo. There is no good reason behind that “request”. I didn’t even include my age when I was younger, in solidarity with older people! And also because I found my education and work experience were enough information, and my age irrelevant!
OK, I can hear you. “That’s not reality.” Well, but it should. One thing I know about jobs is that if they start exploiting you and treating you with no respect, that’s not going to change — and here women have by far the worst (most humiliating / hopeless) part — I decided to take State exams when I realized I was not going to take any more shit in interviews! I had had enough!! They can’t ask you if you’re single, nothing about your lover/partner!, or if you want to have a baby, they can’t make comments on your body or how nice you are, they can’t treat you like an idiot, and of course, they can’t include in the pack forced blue jokes, simpático comments or going for a drink and — if they get lucky — a fuck. Be wary.)
Read Illegal Questions on TP. Oh, and if you see how we can improve the section, send in your stuff! Thanks!
If you desperately need a job, and what you find is that bad, you might have to accept it, OK, I grant that. I’ve done that, too (though putting some limits, like the sex limit, once I even fought my way out of the office because my boss, a respectable man, tried to rape me. And it was horrible hearing him say: “Your word against mine!” He was a diplomat! Still, he never succeeded, and eventually I quit. And people said: “You’re crazy!” People just don’t care much about women, we’ve been nothing as human beings, all as slaves, servants & dolls for too long!). But let’s not turn our backs to what should be. 🙂 It’s important. You should never feel bad for “allowing” people to mistreat you or exploit you, but you should never ever refuse to see reality. Because if you do, you’ll never see any chance to change the situation, and you’ll end up feeling trapped for a lifetime! Dignity is not about what we do. We do what we can. (I’m hearing June Jordan here.) Need can make us do things we would not chose to do. (Though I’d rather join Robinhood than accept the kind of exploitation I’m not willing to accept, I should say!) Dignity is about not losing the self-respect of knowing what’s going on, plus dignity is about not victimizing oneself — which is always hard when you belong to the group which is socially & traditionally meant to be The Victim, targeted for exploitation and abuse.
In any case, my advice is you never accept being mistreated, treated with a lack of respect. They can overexploit you as a worker, say, but that should be the limit! And for women the limit should include demanding the basic human right to be named. The minimum respect is shown by naming the person. And we all know about how violent ordinary (patriarchal) men can get calling themselves the wrong name! WHAT HAS NO NAME, DOES NOT EXIST (Lo que no se nombra, no existe — this is shown now in numerous sciences) – that’s been women’s case, sure! But here’s what we have to say now: IF YOU DON’T NAME ME, YOU DON’T EXIST! (Si no me nombras, no existes)
The Story of Stuff
March 19, 2013This is a must watch for Avanzado 2 students. 20 minutes. It’ll help you with Useful Language and ideas to tackle a diversity of topics, from Consumerism to Climate change!
I downloaded it and have it in a DVD, and my plan is for us to watch it in class any day soon! But it’d be a blast if some students who watched it decided to present it in class, and prepared a kind of listening activity or discussion activity for After Watching! Just let me know.
http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/
You can also use the materials other students created for their OP on Story of Stuff! Have a look here!
Michelle Ford's Projects for English Learners (EEOOII Madrid, state-run language education, 2010-2013) 