Blog Session 6

The human brain

I’ve always been interested in how the human body works. One of the reasons to be interested is that I practice sports, so why we sweat, stretch and how we can work out our muscles are intriguing facts about our bodies. Those, among other incredible facts like gestating as to have new generations. Sleeping, dancing, walking and reading are just some of the activities that have to do with the brain.

Biology and Education are closely related if we analyse the brain activity. As a teacher, when we study the way human beings learn, we study Psychology but unfortunately we didn’t study Neuroscience. Therefore, as this science has always caught my attention I wanted to learn more about it. A couple of years ago, because of the Masters programme I was studying, I had the chance to read lots of interesting papers about how the brain works when we read and how the way we stimulate the brain affects our learning process.

The human brain is a complex organ and as human beings we are supposed to be the only ones to know something about the way the brain works. With that skill, Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1880), a French pioneer doctor was able to draw a map of the brain and consequently, he discovered a small area in the left hemisphere, which controls the production of language. And, I guess that 100 billion neurons in our brains* are responsible for language, communication and many other aspects of our lives.

*http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/sciencetech/facts-about-your-brain/7038?image=2

Blog Session 6 Instructions

Dear Class,

Today, it's time for a free post. That means you are in charge of finding what to blog about.

Here you have a very complete link you can use to organise your ideas, once you have chosen your topic:

http://www.writingforward.com/news-announcements/guest-posts/three-writing-tips-for-building-an-outline

Remember to leave comments on at least 3 of your classmates' posts and this time you need to write 230 words minimum.

Good luck,

Belén

Blog Session 5 Instructions

Dear Class,

Today I'll offer you some tips on summarising so you can post without using google translator.
For today's post you have to use your own words. In academic writing there are some things we need to bear in mind. Apart from using our own words, we need to include the main points and avoid interpretations.

Visit this link in case you want to read more:
http://www.library.dmu.ac.uk/Support/Heat/index.php?page=489

Please go to: www.guardian.co.uk and

a) Select a piece of news connected to your field and/or your future career.
b) Write a summary of it on 220 words minimum 250 maximum
c) Provide the link to your piece of news
d) Remember to leave comments on at least three of your classmates' posts.

Good luck,


Belén

Blog Session 4

Documentaries

I really enjoy watching films as well as documentaries and documentaries unlike films are meant to document some aspects of reality. A couple of friends have created their own documentaries so I’ve seen what it takes to actually complete one. I like documentaries because I think we can learn a lot about so many different things in a more dynamic way. Also, I like documentaries because, as a translator, I could work subtitling a film and that’s an interesting job to have.

I do remember “Nanook of the North” (1922) even though it’s not my favourite one, it’s an interesting documentary considering the year it was filmed and also, it’s considered to be the first anthropological documentary film ever. There you can see the life of Inuit Eskimos, Nannok and his family.

What I really like about documentaries is that they’re non-fictional motion pictures so we should see real life and real experiences. I don’t have one single favourite documentary but here I left you the trailer of the latest I watched:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnOArGfIR0c

If interested in Chilean documentaries, please watch “La batalla de Chile” by Patricio Guzmán and you can also check this blog if you want more information:

http://documentaleschilenos.wordpress.com/

Blog Session 4 Instructions

Themed post

Dear Class,

Today you can choose the topic to post in your blogs. This is the first out of three themed posts so, hope you can find an interesting topic!
This time you must write 200 words minimum and remember to make comments on at least three of your classmates' posts.

As we need to organise what we're going to say, think about what you want to say about the topic. Some people find useful the Writer's 5 Ws (and sometimes H for "How"), which corresponds to:
What, why, when, where and who, and sometimes how.

For example, if you want to write about your favourite film, you can write three paragraphs to say a) what is the film about, b) why you like it and c) when and where it was filmed.

If you have problems finding a theme, check this out:

http://www.thewritesource.com/writing_topics/


Good luck,

Belén