THE WORLD IS FLAT

 I have always been taught that  "The world is round". And the the assumption that it would turn to be flat was far too far from my understanding. However, Thomas Friedman's lecture proved to be quite promising.

The World is really flat meaning  that there are no walls, no boundaries. New technological flattenners such as: the Berlin Wall,The Netscape, Workflow, Outsourcing, Fiber-optics and many others contributed to the creation of  the  completely new Universal World which is an open platform where people can collaborate and  work in manyfold ways connecting each others' applications.
Do you imagine what it means to be a TEFL professional at this New technologically developed age with such advanced geniuses as Cameron,Dylan, Dana, Nafiza and Olivia.What struck me most is that those children use their technological skills to do useful jobs: animal protection, movie making, helping peers and professors with their problems etc.

Children,children.....

They really deserve great attention. I am sure that all the children are skillful enough only to  be given the right tools to use. In my turn  I shall encourage  my own children and students  to sit in front of the computer,why not help me with my problems as those children's professors did.  We future teachers should make our classes technologically biased, our students should be guided through the Flat World where technological knowledge is the key core.

ADDICTION

In one of my previous blogposts I was speaking about emotions in general. Now I would like to speak about addiction which is one of the secondary emotions.

Why do people keep doing these damaging things to themselves?  Why  do they lose their dignity and body? What makes the drug so important?

To give answer to this question let’s look at the drugs.They  contain opiets, which kill both physical and emotional sufferings.

                                                    

In our brains we all have receptors for drugs. As we have natural opietes which are called endorphines. Endorphins are necessary to reduceb overjoy, thrilling, reward. If one hag flood of endorphins in his brain, he would be addicted to drugs and many other dangerous activities.Endorphins connect infant to parent. When a baby is looking into his mother’s eyes, endorphins move in his brain. Endorphins are molecules of love.If they are knocked out, the baby wouldn’t get upset if separated from his mother. There swould be no feelings.

Dopamine is another chemical which is involved in addiction. It is also necessary for human life. It makes us curious of something. It makes us explore, it gives us motivation and excitement.looking for food increases dopamine level  for 50%.

The drugs are not addictive in themselves just like a pack of cards.

 One can try but not get addicted. When a person is destressed easily, he then can easily be addicted. It is a means to relieve stress.

It’s also important to control impulse. Impulses are motivations to do something. There is something in the brain that says”ah, not a good idea to do it.”

When a person is addicted, he doesn’t have impulse control in himself.

Therefore, there are four essential brain cicuits: opients, which are  love, connection, reward, pain, relief, dopamine: motivation, curiosity, sense of being alive, impulse control and stress control.

 They should neither be limited not to be emotionless, nor overloaded not to get addicted! 

Always BE HAPPY and in a GOOD MIND STATE!

Sickle Cell Trait

                                                                               

I want to represent a podcast  entitled “Athletics trainers warn about dangers of sickle cell trait”  Gary Mihoces speaks on sickle cell trait which  describes a condition in which a person has one abnormal allele of the hemoglobin beta gene. Sickle cell trait prevalence is highest in West Africa (25% of the population). However, it also very infrequently appears in Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Greece, and Spain, where it most likely expanded via the selective pressure of malaria, a disease that was endemic to the region. It  It says that two twin  sportsmen brothers Devard  and his brother Devaughn Darlings suffered from this blood condition.One of the brothers died and the other wants to save lives of thousands of people including himself.Devard advises to take precautions. It said that sicke cell trait is a benign condition outside of an intense, sustained physical activity.The sickle cell gene is inherited, it is so common in people originating from malarial regions especially in West Africa. During exertion[igzysyn]sickle cells can change red blood cells from round to sicke- shaped creating a “logjam’in blood vessels and kill. Nine athletes died in during the previous seven years, including 5 colledge football players during their participation.  

Heat, dehydration, altitude and asthma can increase the risk of sickling.It trecommends cessation of activity when there are symptoms such as cramping, pain, swelling and shortness of breath.

Devard says that his brother died during the training. The teammates say, that at that time Devaughn couldn’t see and was  blacking out. Clearly, there were signs for him to stop.He advises young athletes to know their limitations. It’s important to stay hydrated. They need a little rest.

They say that out of 10-12 Africans carry sickle cell trait.

My advice to all the athletes in the world: Be Attentive. Train a lot but find time to relax when you start to feel exhausted.

This is a useful sickle cell trait recommendation link.If You're interested you may use it.

http://www.sicklecelldisease.org/index.cfm?page=sickle-cell-trait-athletics

EMOTIONS!!!

 I've listened to Dr Phillippe Goldin's podcast where he is speaking about emotions,their origin and types.

He started with history. Darwin said that animals need emotions to survive, so do people.They need fear as a trigger to escape predators and aggression to defend their territory. So emotions are maintained from our animal past.People rely on emotions to make complex decisions.

Emotions help to direct our attention, they help to enhance our memory,it helps to organize our behaviour and our orientation towards other people,It helps to drive social approach within social avoidance.Emotions help to develop moral and ethical behaviour.When emotions function well -they bring  to  an adaptive system, when emotions fail to function and are disregulated they can bring to tragedy. 

 There are different classes of emotion and the six basic or primary ones are:happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, disgust, anger.

The sense of well-being is contrasted to malaise,sense of calmness to tension and pain to pleasure.

There are also social emotions or secondary  that deal with social interactions:embarrassment, jealousy, guilt, shame, pride.

I'm Ashamed

I'm Disgusted

I'm Embarrassed

I'm Frightened

I'm Guilty

I'm Happy

I'm proud

I'm Sad

I'm Surprised

I'm Angry

Emotions are obviously expressed.There are more than 600 words in English to describe different emotions,42 muscles in our faces to express emotions, The identification of different facial expressions is cross cultural.

Emotions are an important source of information and feedback that help to direct our behaviour and social interactions.Emotions are really contributing to cognitive processes, to decision making.Emotions can go from normal degree to the extreme.As e.g from sadness to depression,from anger to unprovoked aggression, pleasure can lead to addiction,Fear can become an anxiety, phobia, panic.And worry, being out of control can turn to anxiety disorder.

http://www.english-at-home.com/vocabulary/english-word-for-emotions/

This is a useful link to find emotion words there!!!!

Make Your Students Active Learners!

In one of my previous blogposts I was speaking about playing children, how important playng games is for them, how games make children become so creative, energetic and how games help them  direct themselves and  find their place in the world.

So it’s high time for the playng child to go to school.Is it possible to expect them to sit quietly and listen for the teacher for hours without moving, is it fair to ban them playng and say “YOU ARE  ALREADY A GROWN  UP”. I myself wouldn’t dare to do so with my own children and my pupils as well.   Think back to when you were in school.  Did you like to sit at a desk and listen to the teacher? The pasive learnig is demotivating and boring.We should have our pupils actively participate in the learniong process.

There are many ways and one of them is through“PLAYING GAMES”.If the teacher might normally ask her pupils a wordlist she’d better have them practice it through WORD GAMES.

                                                    

Playing games can help the teacher use points and competition as a motivator, but not for kids under six who may find the competition too stressful.  For them, just playing the game is motivating enough. 

Any aspect of language structure can provide the basis for a game.

The game “WORD SQUARES” is very intersting to play. The aim is to make up words of equal length which read both horizontally and vertically.The are many other types of word games:”Burried Words”,where words have to be found within sentences, in “Words Within Words”the aim is to make as many words as possible, “Grid Games” aim at building up words using letters. There are different levels of  “Word Mazes”. In the easy version a set of words is given in advance and the task is to find them. In a more difficult version the words aren’t given in advance.Here are some useful links to find various interesting word games:http://www.wordgames.com/

 http://www.wordgames.net/

 http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/

 http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/games/ 

http://www.english-4kids.com/games.html

It would also be nice to get them moving which is a vital component to motivating children. Try asking them to come to you if you need help instead of approaching them yourself, the movement can help them not to get too bored and tired sitting at the same spot.   Grouping the children for study projects and activities helps as well.  If you can, let them move the desks around or sit on the floor to change things up as well. 

Many games involve movement without the children needing to leave their seats, such as miming, moving certain body parts and passing things around as part of a game. Therefore even teachers with large classes and no space to move can use this technique, albeit to a more limited degree.  

PLAYING CHILDREN!!!!!

                                                                                 

In my podcast episode entitled “Playful inventions and explorations” I listened to the speech of developmental psychologist Edith Ackermann  who is in the opinion that with their boundless curiosity, fertile imagination, and natural mastery of the art of self-directed learning, children have much to teach adults about creativity and innovation.

She was mainly impressed by Jean Piaget.She speaks about relationships between play, imagination, creativity, innovation and design.There are so many definitions of the word play that one  just will get lost when trying to define it.

Children may not have much experience or knowledge but they are sure born” with a knack to do the right thing”.They are experts of self-directed learning.Children are always busy figuring out their place in the world as a traveller, a newcomer that has to convey needs,deciding what to bring along and what to leave behind, decide who to trust and not to trust.For travellersit’s like a reexperiencing ways of handling uncertain situations.So we are to learn lots of things from children, how to evolve in the world that is complex and unpredictable for them.

At the beginning children are very fused with their world. There is no distinction between themselves and the world. And as they grow they become both socialized and individualized simultaneously. That’s why they like to play hide and seek very much. When children play hide and seek they just  escape and are isolated but with the same time they have the hope to come back and be always happy.

As they grow older and their experience expands the concept of now enlarges, they start to draw lessons from the past to project into the future.

Children have very coherent belief systems.Their belief systems are stubborn and are nor easy to shake.It’s not to say that children do not change or are not influenced when they interact with the world, their views are evolving but they are evolving almost a logic of their own.

Teaching is always indirect. People always assimilate what we teach them accorging to their belief systems.Learners need leads and offerings but they want to discover by themselves.

Plays are invented realities. It’s very peculiar to children to invent the reality of their own. They create a world and become inhabitants of that world. Role plays are very common to plays: The child says:I’m a papa,he is  talking with his doll, puts himself in other person’s shoes.

                                                                           

PERSONAL VARIETIES

In my previous blogpost I was speaking about occupational varieties which distinguish certain group of people by their occupation. Now I’m going to speak about one of the personal varieties that distinguishes one person from all  others. So we can analyse the person by his handwriting which is called graphology.

Writing is performed as a result of a circuit between your brain and the motor reflex muscles of the hand. The darker the written piece is the more emotional energy the writer has which implies that he is energetic both physically and mentally. Writers with heavy pressure are usually highly successful.

Then  its important to pay attention to slants. A right slant (////) shows that the person responds strongly to emotional situations and that he is warm, caring and their heart rules their mind. A vertical slant  (llll)shows that the writer can keep his emotions under control.And the left slant (\\\\)shows that the writer is a very isolated person and can conceal everything.

We can also check emotional control and reliability of the person when we pay attention to baselines which are imagined lines.A person with a straight baseline is overdisciplined and tense.A very wavy baseline indicates that a person is very undisciplined. An ascending baseline means optimism. A descending baseline means pessimism, tiredness or depression. A level baseline indicates a healthy balance between optimism and pessimism.

It’s also important to check the writer’s ability to concentrate.The size of the writing can indicate it. Small handwriting shows that the person is able to concentrate on minor details.They also like to stay alone. People having large handwriting have problems in concentrating themselves.

It’s also important to pay attention to spacing between letters. Average spacing between letters points to a person who is self-confident and feels comfortable and at ease. Letters written close together or "compressed" indicate a person who feels uncomfortable about themselves, and usually has low self-esteem or is self-conscious. Irregularly spaced letters indicate that the writer is confused, uncertain, or mixed up.

Spacing between words also can help: Compressed spacing between words- needs to be close to others; likes crowds. Average spacing between words- feels comfortable contact with others.Wide spacing between words- avoids people contact; has problems dealing with others.

Intelligence and  thought processing can be determined by the letters m, n, r: if they are written with sharp pointed tops then the writer is smart and quick to retain ideas.

                                                                                    

Those who write The "m," "n," and "r" with a round top are slower methodical thinkers. These people can retain just as much knowledge as quick thinkers, but they tend to "think things over" before making decisions. They are not as likely to "jump to conclusions," and tend to be more creative. 

                                                            

The same letters written flat and thread-like point to a person who doesn't have the mental capacity to learn quickly or to be creative. These writers are usually considered "lazy" or "dumb." Flattened peaks may also indicate that the writer is deceptive, or hiding something. He or she may lack communication skills or not want to communicate for some unknown reason.

                                                       

The speed of writing also matters. Quick writers are quick thinkers, aggressive, impatient, ambitious.Average writers are creative and more organized.Slow writers lack mental capacity. Mood, drugs, preoccupation, physical illness and many other factors can affect writing.

Judging by my handwriting I can see that most of the stated analysis are true.