7 July / San Fermín and some comments on today's discussion

Hi everybody! Today is San Fermin's Day. Let's sing together... A San fermín venimos... lalalala.

Jokes apart, I'm writing these lines only to say what I think about today's lessons at R.U. The activity we've done with the bubbles hasn't make sense for me. Most of us have been talking and not paying too much attention. On the contrary, I've found much more interesting the debate afterwards. We have exchanged opinions, which is always good.

To conclude, I would like to share with you the suggestions that I've written on the Post-It pannels that have been stuck on the wall:

- I would like to have discussions like this, but in smaller groups so that everybody has the opportunity to participate.

- We should work on classroom & scientific vocabulary.

- I would like that our lessons were focused on a bilingual teaching context, where neither the teacher nor the student's have English as a mother language.

I'm looking forward to read your comments tomorrow. Good night!

6 July / Baseball understanding

 Hi everybody,

As my baseball knowledge was nule, I can say that my understanding of this sport has changed substantially within the last 24 hours. Now I have an idea of what the rules are, how the field is organized, etc. However, there are many more things that I have doubts about. I feel prepared to understand (a bit) tomorrow's match, and to concrete what things I should clear up after it.

Apart from that, I have a doubt about this sentence that Milly wrote as a journal prompt: Remember this week we are focusing on the language goals of: transition words, and subject/verb agreement. :) Did anybody knew that was our main language focus this week?

I also wanna share this video and picture of the Sox match with you:

Just before the match

Baseball players on the playing field

Bye guys, see you tomorrow!

5 July / Free Journal

No much to write about, tonight. Today Group 3 was supposed to start tutoring, but they finaly didn't. Tomorrow will be my turn (I'm in Group 2). So today I have a free writing homework.

I would like to take this opportunity to make some brief comments ("critics") on the march of our course at Roosevelt University. I think that so far, we've been doing amusing activities, but I don't think we are taking a good profit of them. In the mornings, we spend too much time doing activities by ourselves, instead of discussing them, learning different teaching methods, etc. In the afternoons we only write our journal or collect information to do it, while speaking activities are much more needed in my opinion, in order to improve our communication skills. Writing is also important, but we are not getting corrections, therefore we can hardly improve by the way.

I would like to exchange opinions with the teachers, and also with my collegues, with the intention to achieve  more profitable lessons.

Good night everybody!

July 2-4 / Fourth of July weekend

Hi everybody! Back at Roosevelt Univ. after a loooooooooong weekend.

I've done a lot of things these days although I've also rested. Friday afternoon, after the Center for Green Technology, I went to the Shedd Aquarium with several other teachers and then we went for some beers to Clarke street. On saturday my host gave me a ride around Evanston, the suburb where I live. She sowed me the most important beaches in the area, and we also visited the Baha'i Temple in Northern Evanston. In the evening some of us went to the Green Mill Jazz Club because we wanted to listen to jazz music, but I finally didn't enter because there was a very big queue, and went for a beer to Addison. On Sunday I went to the beach in the morning and to a BBQ in the evening.

BBQ on July 3rd

But the most remarkable event of this weekend was also  the America's Independence Celebration. In the morning I went to Evanston's Parade, that I found very interesting. In the evening I could see the fireworks from a 18 floors height balcony at Alejandro's host's flat. His host was so nice to invite all us and our hosts to a big BBQ on the 4th of July evening. I found no words to thank him for all the shopping, the cooking and the cleaning.

Fourth of July - Evanston's Parade in Central St.

Finally, I would like to say that I've practised more English this weekend than I've done during all week days before, as I've been interacting with "real" people in everyday situations.

I stop writing now, because we must start preparing our baseball research.

Bye!

July 1 / Chicago Center for Green Technology

Today morning, we've been to the Chicago Center for Green Technology. This center uses a great combination of techniques to reduce both air and water pollution, and to save water and energy. Although I didn't find any of their strategies very innovative, I think it is a good model of a comprehensive approach to sustainable building.

Anyway I got inspiring ideas for my lessons. Syllabus of different levels include contents related to sustainability in different ways and depth, so I'll focus my writing on the oldest students. This is a short summary of what I'd do.

1) First of all I would discuss with them the meaning of some concepts such as sustainability, efficiency, etc.

2) After that, I'd give them a case study: I would show them what the main ecological problems are in a specific city / town /area and I would ask them to think about the probable causes for it.

3) Now, we would go into a more creative and reflexive phase. They should design a building twith the purpose to reach sustainability, to increase energy efficiency and to reduce air and water pollution. They should list as many ideas as they could.

4) It would be a kind of a competition. I (the teacher) would choose the best design and the author/s should make a presentation of it.

5) To conclude,  I would make my own presentation about my trip to the Chicago Center for GT, so that they could see an example of how we can be sustainable only by means of a good planning that includes many simple ideas. I took several photos and a brochure for good information.

Permeable pavement allows rainwater to be absorbed into the ground.

Solar panels that convert the sun's light into electricity for the building.

My purpose in doing this activity would be to make the students aware that being sustainable is not a difficult target, but that requires a previous planning and to be willing to it. I would also want them to reflect about sustainable buildings.

June 30 / Interacting with real students

I almost forget to post about our visit to a group of students at the science laboratory this morning. It's been great to talk to real U.S. students and help them with their frog disection. Here are some pictures I've taken.

June 30 / Millenium Park as a sustainable resource to Chicago

"Sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions."

Sustainability can be reached through different tools such as environmental management, management of human consumption of resources and human production of waste, territory planning... In any ecosystem, and that includes urban ecosystems, sustainability must be approached as a whole. Some parts of the city can be considered as unsustainability sources; others can be considered as sustainability sources. This is the case of Millenium Park.

As mentioned in the definition above, sustainability contains three different dimensions: environmental, economic and social. I would like to give some examples to illustrate each for Millenium Park. I haven't chosen concrete physical elements but general aspects of the park.

1. ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSION

 - Park as a carbon sink for the city: Millenium park is a quite big vegetation patch in the city. As it photosythesizes, vegetation absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits. On the contrary, the rest of the city acts as a very important carbon source, since cars, heatings, air-conditioned systems, etc. are continuously emitting carbon dioxide. So, in this sense, Millenium park can balance carbon emission and absortion in Chicago.

- Park as a habitat island for fauna: whoever went for a 15 minutes walk around Millenium Park would be able to see many different species of birds, mammals, insects and other types of animals. This is important as vast paved surfaces erase big amounts of habitat for fauna. Besides animals, we can also observe a high diversity of plants, including over 900 trees, shrubs, groundcovers, perennials, annuals...

2. ECONOMIC DIMENSION

From the economic point of view, Millenium Park gives Chicago many opportunities to get money inputs: concerts, food stands, festivals, etc. It also provides a relaxation area for those who go working or shopping downtown. 

3. SOCIAL  DIMENSION

People who live in urban areas have many different needs that public services must meet. They need job, they need stores, they need transportation, they need residential areas... but they also need recreation places, green areas, places where they can do sports... In this sense a good urban planning should consider spaces for each different use. That is essential to build a sustainable city.