oceane18

Reflection post on the blogging experience

2005-10-17T15:13:00.000-02:00

During this school year, I liked the english class because we have been doing many varied things! In fact, we worked in blogs, we worked in class, we drawn and we go out for a museum. Than I would thank the teacher for this enrichising year.
I think the work on blogs was a real advantage for the students because we had to talk in english. It seems to be a basic and normal point for some people, but there are students who don't participate in class. We had to make efforts because the subject we were commenting in the blogs were really diverse and it was in relation with the book. But I also think that some subject were not really interresting as "St George". But I liked "Stereotypes" and "Henry Moore exhibition". I think the teacher should ask some times on which subjects the students would work, subject they pay a special attention to, because sometimes, the inspiration failled (missed).
I prefered the blog flickr. I think people in general worked more on this blog. It's funny and interesting to see pictures of the other and the comments.
That's what I have to say about the experience on the blogs who have many advantages and few inconvenients! Thank you one more time for everything!
byebye

2005-08-22T15:21:00.000-03:00

hello hon! so... the teacher asked we comment on one of the worlds of everybody's brainstorming about work. i agree with most of the things that you said... but "tolerance" is not one of them. actually, i think it's one of the big problems of working together, there's not enough tolerance... it should have, but in my opinion there'a a lack of it.But of course that it should have tolerance in the office, without it the job gets really dull right?kissesssss....
I don't say that trere is ta]olerance, I just thought at this word because, as you said, I think it should have tolerance in the world of work... Sure it exist, but it ought "ressortir plus". Some persons are intolerant and we shouldn't accept it, but we didn't find a way... That's it! Kisses hon!

I don't think that a Hobby is considered like "work".. a Hobby is a pleasure.
But work can be a pleasure... In general, when you start to work, you have choice a "branche", than it's a hobby. Once again, I am not talking of all the cases that it exist, just some particular cases.

Pleasure’ got all my attention… It remembers me that my Mum really LIKES working! She’s crazy about writing, most of times it is about something she’s keen on. She is an art critic so she writes about other people’s art for a living. She enjoys passing all her morning typing, although it is exhaustive… So I guess if someone chooses working on something he likes, yes, work can be associated with ‘pleasure’, even if it sounds controversial!
I simply agree!

Hey Océane!!! I agree when you say pleasure, because to work well you should choose something you like ^_^""
Yeh, if you read Dahlia' s article, you will see that you're right because she gave us a particulary case: his mother. I hope you'll do something you like later!

WORK

2005-08-15T15:47:00.000-03:00

Relations, concurrence, job, responsability, occupation, sociability, effort, volonty, world, destiny, past, trip, past-time, hobby, vacations, meeting, novelty, salary, production, time, determination, passi0n, place, city, country, room, material, personal, pleasure, colleague, friends, nature, construction, imagination, money, teacher, students, headmaster, suumer job, bonus, mistakes, results, congratulation, equipe, respect, tolerance, help, patience, easy, hard, difficult, relaxing, boring, stress, tired, beginning, end...

"Is the zoo for you?"

2005-06-05T16:01:00.000-03:00

I choose the text about zoos because we all have already been there, so we can explain easier our point of view.
I think zoos are, at first sight, places fantastic! In fact, as explained Aaron Campbell, zoos give us a chance to observe animals we wouldn't see in other circumstances (in majority). All this variety, the different colour, size(...), all these species of animals are exiting and give a real spectacle for our eyes; it's really impressive!
When I was younger, I loved to go in zoos but now, I don't hate it, but nearly... I love animals and I'm always delighted with discover new one's but I became aware of the situation in which they were. Well, normally they're treating correctly... But they aren't in there natural habitat. We can reproduce it but we can't neither offer them the size nor the weather they would have in the real habitat. I will not develop it because I'm sure you have already seen strange behaviour of animals.
Animals are feeling emotions, there are not just toys or objects which ones you would do whatever you want with them.
The problem is that we made the animals dependant of humans so it's not a good thing. Imagine (just imagine because it would not happen in the reality) we would give them the freedom, what will they do? They couldn't survive because they never hunt, they have always been feed.
I don't like zoos anymore except when I see animals that are not "half crazy"...
I don't want only comment the post about zoos but the 2 comments too. I think gigi is right when she said that it's better to close the zoos when they don't care of the animals or when it's not clean...

Amanda Lee's dream: the candies

2005-06-05T14:54:00.000-03:00

Amanda Lee, an EFL student from Taiwan, shares with us colorful dream she had a few days ago and I decided to coment it because I think it's an interesting dream:
I think the world would never be the same if these candies were developed. First, it would be like a drug, the persons would be using whenever they wanted to feel different. Second, the people would not be the same, they would be faking an emotion. I want a real world with real people. Does it exist? Maybe your dream can come true this way, but I hope it does not happen.

Henry Moore' exhibition

2005-06-05T12:25:00.000-03:00

On friday 20th, we (1LES' class) visited the Henry Moore's exhibition at the Pinacoteca. We leaved the school 11 and gone in the Pinacoteca park to have a lunch. Then we took for a walk and took photos with the statues in the park.
The exhibition was composed with varied abstract works on paper, bronze...
We had a guided tour then we could visite by ourself and continued taking amusing's photographies. Then we watched a film during 1 hour. In my opinion, it was not a good film because it was not entertainent. I know, it's not to make fun but it was always the same thing. The picture have always been took with bad weather. But it was interresting because I had never heard about this artist and I really like art.
In my opinion, The Henry Moore's works are very special. I loved some of them because we could imagine wathever we wanted ! That was funny. But there were not all very beautiful. But what is beautiful? I can't give a definition of the beauty because it's different for everyone but it's just in this case that I didn't find something who appeal to my attention. Many time we can see a human figure or body, but more especially eyes. It's the detail we can find in almost all his works.
I wanted to thank the english teacher Mme Dieu for this visit who changed of our school's routine!

Henry Moore's biography

2005-06-05T12:22:00.000-03:00

Henry Moore was born in 1898 in Yorkshire, his father was a miner. In spite of these humble beginnings, Moore decided to be an artist, and pursued his art education in Leeds and in London. At age 18, Moore enlisted, serving in the First World War, then continuing his studies in London when he returned from the war.
In the 1920's and 1930's, Moore's work seemed firmly rooted in the figurative traditions of Western classicism, Africa and Pre-Columbian America, which he saw at the British Museum. He was especially interested in the ancient art of the Americans, for his famous reclining nudes from the late 1920's are based on figures from the Toltec civilization. It is in these sculptures that Moore opened up the mass, making a space within the figure. With family groups and figures studies, Moore established the basic themes that would inspire him for the rest of his life. Throughout the 1930's, Moore participated in Surrealist activities. He signed the Surrealist Manifesto and was part of the organizing committee for "The First International Surrealist Exhibition," held in London in 1936.
By the 1940's, Moore's international reputation grew, and his work was in great demand, especially in the United States. During World War II, Moore produced a series of drawings, the so-called 'Shelter Drawings,' that depict Londoners seeking refuge in the subways during the long nights of bombing. Working predominantly in cast bronze, his large reclining figures became familiar throughout Europe and the United States. Public recognition continued to grow throughout the rest of his life, as he received countless commissions around the world, received many honors, and had numerous exhibitions.

My holidays

2005-05-31T21:02:00.000-03:00

For this four days of rest, I've been on the island of Comandatuba. I woke up ten to five because I had to be in the airport of Congonhas at at six o'clock and took off at ten past seven (but I could slept two hours during the flight because I was really tired and you can understand it. Normally I wake up ten to six during the week, and it's already too early! But that's ok...). As you can imagine, the beginning was hard but then we past pleasant holidays. I was with my family (my parents, my sister Charline and my brothers Benjamin and Baptiste).
These holidays were very laid-back because everything had been organized since the moment we took off to the arrival in the hotel, so we didn't wait. The organisation was so punctual that at eleven o'clock I was in the swimming-pool!
There were many activities si I didn't loose time. I just could work later in the day when it was the night.
The food was plentiful and varied so I couldn't resist pleasure to eat as much as desired! (The only problem is that in the swimming-pool, you could perceive my carefree attitude...lol but in reality it's absolutly not funny because I have to get thinner...)
The only disappointing thing is that it rained during two days and it won't stop for a second!
When I think about these holidays, I just think about the next ones because it's was very good to have a breack with the school! (but for the moment, I'm thinking in the baccalaureat...!)
I hope everyone past good and pleasante holidays! Bye

The story of Molly Pitcher

2005-05-31T18:38:00.000-03:00

Molly Pitcher is a famous heroine of the American Revolution, born near Trenton in 1754 and dead in 1832. In 1769 she married John Hays. She came to be called Molly Pitcher after carrying pitchers of water to her husband and other soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth. In fact, because of the heat, she had to cool the hot guns and bathe parched throats with water. According to some accounts, when her husband was overcome by heat, she fought in his place for the duration of the battle. In 1822, in recognition of her heroism, she was given a pension by the Pennsylvania legislature.
Many works have been done about this couragous women, for exemple: painting, sculpure, tamps...all representing the action of Molly Pitcher; for example the painting in our book on english that I'll describe right now:
This document is a detail from a painting by Dennis Malone called ''Molly Pitcher at the battle of Monmouth'' (1854). It represent the battle of Monmouth. This battle was for the independence of USA against the English domination. The scene took place in New Jersey in 1778.
In the foreground we can see Molly carrying ammunitions and helping the soldier (her husband John) who deal with the cannon. There is a dead soldier too standing on the floor. We can see Molly's pitch of water on the floor, what confirm her nickname.
In the background, we can see soldiers, someones riding on horses and others walking.
We can imagine the violence of this scene because of the smoke and the american soldiers's faces.
Molly and her husband embody the colours of the American flag: red, white and blue. They're the predominant's colour.
Molly Pitcher is the main character of that painting, she has a revolutionary's expression.

Heroes and heroines

2005-05-06T14:57:00.000-03:00

A hero is a person who is admired for having done something very brave or having achieved something great.
A hero can be too the main character in a book, film or play. But in my opinion, it’s not a real hero, maybe because it can’t represent the real life. Many of these heroes have super powers (for example superman, spiderman, batman...). It’s just fiction.
But a hero is especially someone admired for his good qualities. For example, as we have seen in class: sacrifice, determination, loyaty, courage, gallantry, perseverance, bravery... In general, these qualities are those that define a hero.
I think I can’t choose a favourite hero because there are too much and I don’t prefer one more than the other. Each hero has his qualities, which are his own special characteristic. I’ll just give an example, maybe different then the other heroes.
I choose a heroine: Helen Keller.
Since her youth (two years old), she was deaf, blind and dumb/mute because of a fever.
We can think that without the three senses more importants, we can’t have a “normal life”. But after intensifs studies, a lot of courage and will, she found a way to comunicate and gets a normal life.
It have been very dificult for her but for his parents and the “teacher” Anne Sullivan too. Helen didn’t understand. I know that the other children don’t understand too but we can explain them their faults. It was more dificult to explain for Helen.
Later, she learned to speak and deliver speeches. She could feel the vibrations of music, of radio, of movement of lips. She also got interested in social life, she wanted to participe. She was a tireless activist for racial and sexual equality.
For me, Helen Keller is a heroine because she had a normal life inspite of their problems.
Their best qualities are the courage, the perseverance and the will.
(H.K. is not my favourite heroine, I just wanted show you that there are not just hero who save other persons. I'll understand if you don't consider Helen like a heroine, it's my opinion.)

Oral presentation (picture p.14)

2005-05-06T14:55:00.000-03:00

This is a cartoon by Gray Joliffe, which introduces (illustrates) how the American view the British.
The scene takes place in an office in a big American city. The view from the window gives us the impression this office is at the top of a very high builduing as we can see the other skycrapers below.
The characters depicted are a businessman and his secretary. He his wearing a suit and looking through the window with his arm crossed behind his back. The secretary is right behind him. She is holding a notebook and seems to be taking down notes of what he is ordering her.
The bubble above the businessman tells us he is planing to fly to the England the following Friday.
What surprises us is what he asks to his secretary to remind him of turn back his watch 500 years. His remark leads (suggest) us to think the Americans view the British as being a conservative and traditional society, which has not evolued in time.

Stereotypes

2005-04-19T19:16:00.000-03:00

We started a new chapter about stereotypes. We did groups of 4 students and we had to define what "STEREOTYPES" were. With our group, we gave the following definition: "a stereotype is when we define a person or a group of persons by it way they dress, the nationality, the color of the skin, the age, the physical appearance...". All groups gave similar definitions.
Then, we list adjectives in two columns:
-positive: appetizing, polite, honest, ardent, organized, friendly, tidy, passionate, tender, refined, tasty, reliable, romantic, sophisticated and disciplined.
-negative: aloof, mean, bland, tedious, sloppy, chaotic, unpleasant, nasty, uninterested, cruel, cold, negligent, untidy, insipid, flavorless, careless, unstable, uninteresting, dull, unresponsive and messy.
There are 3 words we didn't define because they could be in both columns: solid, methodical and systematic.
Next, we found adjectives to define the French and the Brazilian stereotype:
-French: romantic, appetizing, cold, hairy, lazy, unsociable, good-looking, stinky, rude, methodical, fashionable, stressed, refined, perfumed, arrogant, grumpy, mean and xenophobic.
-Brazilians: attractive, lazy, easygoing, friendly, warm, party-loving, body-conscious, beautiful, nice, late, talkative, sociable, expert football-player, kind, happy, open-minded, sport-loving, careless and generous.
We can see that Brazilians have more qualities post-war the class but there were more Brazilians than French, so it's normal. But all people are not like that, we have qualities and faults, here it's just a generalization.