Funny! "100 Acts of Minor Dissent" by Mark Thomas (courtesy of classmate Iluminada)

Hi there again! One of the things I love about this job is that the learning process herein involved is ALWAYS bidirectional, that is, I end up learning from my students as much as they may learn from me! Wow, I feel so privileged for being paid for something like this! Thank you, Regional Ministry of Education!😆😆😆

Well, this time, a classmate mentioned in one of our sessions of the "Urban Sprawl, Urban Decay" topic a comedian/activist who had carried out some peculiar acts of protest/community activisim that are much more than mere, silly vandalism, but with profound serious convictions underlying.

You can watch some of said acts here:

100 Acts of Minor Dissent, pt. 1

 

100 Acts of Minor Dissent pt 2

 

Interview with Mark Thomas: on his peculiar campaign

 

In case you feel curious enough so as to buy the book, here it is!

"100 acts of minor dissent"

"Home" by Warsan Shire (Gorgeous Poem, courtesy of your classmate Iluminada)

During our venture throughout Unit 2 ("Urban Sprawl, Urban Decay") we dealt with different issues such as life in the cities, gentrification, urban art, community activism and volunteering. The topic of Refugees was also somehow addressed and that was when one of your classmates sent me this gorgeous poem about that very topic by Kenian-born, Somali-raised, London-based Warsan Shire. Her words on what moves refugees to flee their beloved country should be heard and seen by everyone.

Find the poem here:

Enjoy!

Declining Students' Resilience (INCREDIBLY INTERESTING article, courtesy of classmate Luis!)

One of your classmates sent me an article by email which I thought I just had to share with you.

You know? I was totally baffled a couple of weeks ago when I became aware that the number # 1 cause of death in Spain (and many developed countries) is SUICIDE. Not cardiac arrests, lung cancer or any other, but SUICIDE. Thinking about that breaks my heart, to be honest; how someone could be that desperate, to the point of taking their own life is downright disheartening. I just cannot imagine what a person must be feeling to make such a drastic and extreme choice. I don't think that generically blaming things on society helps at all. I think in many cases, that attitude is a shortcut to not hold oneself accountable for things we do and avoid facing the consequences of our actions. However, today's age of "dopamine on demand" (as Mike Matthews puts it) is not helping at all.

Find here the link to the article and make sure you read it and understand it. Really, really riveting insights:

Declining Students' Resilience, by Peter Gray

Recommended Watching!

Hi there again! 

This is the first installment of the Recommended Watching series on the present blog (basically expanding on whatever topic we may be dealing with through different sociocultural contents, movies/series in this case), and today we're presenting not one nor two, but three films related to the topic "Education/Life Stages"

The first one is a pretty obvious choice, just if you- like me- were a child in the 80's. John Hughes' The Breakfast Club's plot revolves around the one-day detention five High School students are given and how five very different individuals (a beauty contest princess, a rebellious thug, an athlete, a brainy nerd and a strange outcast) end up, against all odds, becoming insparable friends at the end of that day. Beautifully shot and really well acted along with its unforgettable soundtrack, "The Breakfast Club" is a movie without great pretentions, but which can be easily enjoyed by most. And that's what matters at the end of the day, innit?

The second flick, 1998 Rushmore, is way more pretentious than the former one, but a pretty great film nonetheless. Director Wes Anderson's quirky and über-Indie style usually does very little for me. Some of his most acclaimed movies (Moonrise Kingdom, Grand Budapest Hotel...) are just as hipster as growing a thick beard, wearing horn-rimmed glasses and walk into a Starbucks' coffee bar to attend some stupid talk on banal stuff with the place full of snobbish dullards. Well, THAT is not my kind of thing, to be honest. But I kind of enjoyed two of his films: The Royal Tenenbaums and this very movie. So, just give it a go, you may enjoy it even more than I did!

I'm closing today's post with one of, in my humble opinion, the greatest films of the 90's: Todd Solonz's Welcome to the Dollhouse. Solonz became a household name with his next film, 1998 super-disturbing Happiness, but that one can be just too much for most, too impenetrable, maybe.

Here, the brutality of the facts (basically how the different, the ugly, the quirky are treated with extreme callousness during adolescence) is counterbalanced with a humorous tone, which means that even though you feel sorry for the main character (poor, constantly misunderstood Dawn Wiener), you will find yourself laughing at many times or simply enjoying the film.

One quote which I guess summarizes the whole movie story :"High school is better than Junior High. They'll call you names, but not as much"

Enjoy!

Listening links of the past!

Hey! 

I'm aware there have been a couple of listening exercises so far, some of which you didn't have access to. Now you can find the links to those videos (most of them available on YouTube), with fancy subtitles in the majority of them, so you can follow all shades of meaning and subtleties you may have missed in class.

Unit 1

Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential by Carol Dweck

 

Patriotism: English and Proud. Garry Bushell

  Unit 2

 

Gentrification of Harlem

 

 

 

Unit 3

 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (not the actual listening we did in class- that one is edited- but pretty interesting, nonetheless)

 

Unit 4

Should emotional intelligence be part of education?

Defining Emotional Intelligence