Giving an oral presentation may be a problem

In the subject of writing we learned how to write a proposal. We had to write one about the problems that students have at the time of giving an oral presentation and make recommendation to improve them.

INTRODUCTION

The principal aim of this proposal is to talk about the problems that students have at the time of giving an oral presentation in front of their partners. The final section provides some recommendations for students to follow.

CURRENT SITUATION

Many students suggest that giving an oral presentation as part of their final exam is tense and uncomfortable. Following a survey among families and young children, the results showed that most of them prefer a written exam to an oral one.

MAIN FACTORS AMONG THE DIFFICULTIES

As regards the problems that students face at the time of giving an oral presentation, there are many factors that they take into consideration. Remembering the information is such a great problem as they remember it mainly by heart without understanding the topic. Taking the speech into consideration, they often get stuck or they stammer, creating a horrible situation in all of them. Having in mind organization of the speech and distribution of the topaz among the grip is also a great problem.

RECCOMENDATIONS

There are many ways to solve those problems. I will make the following recommendations.

• Understand and know the topic in order to explain it easier and clearer.
• Recording yourself will help you no to stammer or getting stuck.
• Having notes with key words is extremely useful to remember the content.
• Do not look at people while talking

This final recommendation will help the ones who are shy or tend to turn nervous. Looking at an imaginary dot in the wall is a great idea.

Información genética

En el área de biología estuvimos trabajando con la evolución y luego nos enfocamos en una de las pruebas de la evolución que es el ADN, a partir de lo que leímos teníamos que escribir un texto relacionando genes, ADN, proteínas y evolución.

Todas las células tienen núcleo, dentro de ese núcleo hay moléculas de ADN, que son nuestros cromosomas. Los humanos tenemos 46 cromosomas y cada cromosoma está formado por una única molécula de ADN que esta enrollada alrededor de proteínas. La estructura de la molécula de ADN es siempre la misma en cada persona. El ADN está formado por nucleótidos que a su vez están formados por un grupo fosfato, un azúcar y una base nitrogenada. La información genética permite relacionar a restos fósiles con individuos vivos actuales. Dando evidencia de evolución. 

Roosevelt success in 1932

In history we had to write an essay based on the following question. How important were Republican reactions to the Wall Street crash as causes of Roosevelt's success in the presidential election of 1932?

In 1932 there were presidential elections in the USA, Roosevelt and Hoover were the two candidates, Roosevelt won. There were many reactions for his success such as the republican reaction to the Wall Street crash and his campaign among others.

On one hand, some people believe republican measures in connection to the Wall Street crash were the cause of Roosevelt’s victory. Hoover, a republican, was seen as a “do nothing” president. Republicans believed the Depression had happened because of economic problems in Europe. Moreover, they refused to interfere with the economy and business, which could have helped. Hoover became very unpopular specially due to the fact that he did not try to help people who were suffering because of the Depression. As a result, during the election people were more likely to vote for Roosevelt as they thought this change could improve the economy.

On the other hand, many people argue that Roosevelt became president because of his own strengths. As a candidate, Roosevelt said he believed in “active government” to improve the economy, he had plans to spend public money on getting people back to work and he asked for advice from experts. In addition he did a really strong campaign which promised a New Deal, action was the only thing people expected and he promised that. Roosevelt won the elections by seven million votes and he was entirely sure that he could get USA out of the depression.

On balance, it should be said that republican reactions to the Wall Street crash were important to Roosevelt success as they did nothing and people did not agree. However it was not the only reason why he won the elections, his thoughts, actions and his strong campaign were also vital for his success. 

Un viaje del que nos se vuelve

En el área de literatura estuvimos trabajando con relatos espaciales. A partir de leer una serie de relatos, tuvimos que crear el nuestro junto a un compañero. La consigna era escribir un relato que involucrara un viaje espacial utilizando a Lodge y la focalización.

Escribiendo este relato entendí cómo utilizar tanto la focalización y las formas en que Lodge presenta un personaje. La idea inicial con mi compañera era de una mujer psicópata que fue enviada a Marte por la NASA para ver si el planeta era habitable o no, después de escribir casi toda la historia, nos dimos cuenta de que no tenía sentido que la NASA enviara una loca porque no era una fuente confiable. Por lo tanto cambiamos el relato y decidimos hacerlo sobre esta mujer que estaba loca y la enviaban a un manicomio en Marte. 

En cuanto a la focalización, la hicimos con nivel interna porque el personaje principal es el narrador y está dentro de la historia, la visión es fija porque es siempre desde el punto de vista del personaje y este nunca cambia. Teniendo en cuenta las modalidades, la psicológica es con emoción subjetiva y esto se ve claramente cuando describe a los juguetes del hijo, en el conocimiento sabe lo mismo que el personaje. Tiene ideologías dominantes, esto se ve cuando habla del Dr Brown, la visión espacial es limitada porque solamente sabe lo que esta pasando en ese lugar, la nave y la visión temporal es sincrónica porque va contando los hechos a medida que van pasando.

Nos pareció difícil implementar los métodos de Lodge para presentar al personaje (Presentarlo actuando, físicamente, descripción de la vestimenta, detalles, contar su biografía, etc) porque al estar narrado en primera persona es más complicado. Entonces lo que hicimos fue primero escribir la historia y presentar al personaje en forma literal, contando sus sentimientos y una vez terminada, implementamos los métodos describiendo su vestimenta con el traje para mostrar que estaba loca, los detalles de las rejas del manicomio en vez de decir que era un manicomio y presentamos su biografía, saneo a entender por qué esta así.

Studying tips

In writing we had to write a letter giving a friend some advice in order to study for her final exams.

Hi Valen,

  I'm really sorry not to have written for such a long time. I know that you may be nervous for your exams but you should try to relax a little. I'll give you some pieces of advice on how I remember the whole stuff.
  In the first place, in order to remember terms or words by heart, it is really useful to try to find a daily word that is similar to that one or write it in a paper and have it somewhere you see many times a day. Moreover, using colors helps you to keep that word in mind.
  As regards dealing with large topics, my advice for you is to read all the content, highlight it and then write a summary, in that way you'll have read it three times so you'll have it in your mind and I promise you that you'll remember it.
  Taking into consideration your stress, you may calm down by taking some long baths or taking some time to listen to music or even have a talk with your friends, that'll help you to think in another thing that is not study.
  I hope these tips will be useful for you,
  Why don't we try to meet up this week?

Give my love to your family,
Cami

US economy during the 1920s

In the class of history we were studying USA during the 1920s. We had to write an essay about how important were credit and hire purchase as reasons for the economic growth in the USA in the 1920s. 

During the 1920s, usa grew a lot economically speaking. There were many factors which influenced this event. Credit and hire purchase were some of the factors that helped this economic growth in the country. Borrowing money from the bank and paying in terms were very successful methods.

On the one hand, credits helped as many people that could not afford to buy a certain product such as a radio or a car, could get it through the money that the bank lent them. In this way, people spent money in the country, consequently it benefited the economic growth of USA. Furthermore, through hire purchase with the idea of “buy now, pay later”, people bought lot of things and the economy of the country grew. In addition, buying on the margin, benefited the speculators as they could buy something, earn money and then invest it. As well as, many people borrowed cash of the banks in order to buy shares, then they got profit from that shares and finally they turned into millionaires or increased their economy.

On the other hand, these were not the only reasons that benefited the economy of USA, the Republican policies played an important role too.With Laissez-faire, they let the businessman do his own job. They also introduced tariffs that made the import goods more expensive. In this way, people bought American products. As regards Low Taxation, it brought benefits to the economy as people invested their money in American goods and then reinvested in industries. There were poster advertisements and industries used sophisticated sales and marketing techniques in order to get people who buyed their goods. This also helped the growth. The state of mind that people followed at that time (spending money was right) and the production of cars (Ford) in the same way as massive production of products and selling helped the economy. At the end of the first world war, the USA had the best war chemicals and armament which stimulated the by-products that became new American industries. New products such as plastics and other new materials were produced. The WWI left the USA in most of areas of industry, new technology and electricity were developed benefiting the industry and its production.

On balance, credit and hire purchase were really important as regards the economic growth of the USA during the 1920s. Nevertheless they were not the only factors that matter, Republican policies, industries, production, new markets and improvements in technology were essential for it.

El peligro de lo desconocido

En el área de literatura estuvimos trabajando con los viajes espaciales y la ciencia ficción. Tuvimos que elegir un video o un trailer de película que presentará un viaje espacial y analizar cómo está presentado.

La película que elegí es Apollo 18, estrenada el 2 de septiembre de 2011 dirigida por Gonzalo López-Gallego y producida por Timur Bekmambetov. Es de género ciencia ficción.

La película trata de tres hombres que son enviados por la NASA a La Luna en 1972 en el programa Apollo 18 (nunca fue realizado en la realidad). En este viaje, los astronautas tuvieron contacto con vida extraterrestre y por eso nunca mostraron los documentos del mismo. Se dice que es la razón por la cual el hombre nunca volvió a La Luna.

En el trailer, el viaje se muestra peligroso porque hay contacto con seres desconocidos en la tierra y estos se introducen en el cuerpo humano produciendo infecciones transformando su naturaleza.
Desde mi punto de vista en la vida real un viaje podría llegar a ser peligroso porque uno sale de su zona de comfort, va a lugares desconocidos y realiza actividades distintas de las habituales. Esto provoca ciertos miedos. Al mismo tiempo es una aventura de las que todos deberíamos ser parte. Depende de cada uno como se tome el viaje porque este puede ser de tu casa a la verdulería sin tener que irte de tu lugar pero depende de como vos te lo tomes y como tu mente lo haga. También es peligroso el hecho de viajar en la realidad porque puede ser que te pierdas y vivas en "tu mundo", por eso es muy importante saber hasta que punto uno tiene que viajar y cuando hay que caer en la realidad.