Our national symbol

Drinking mate with friends or family is Argentina's oldest and most famous social practice. You can drink it during breakfast, lunch, tea or dinner time, no matter how old you are. For me, chatting to someone while drinking some mates is a unique opportunity to share a special moment with that person. This is the symbolical aspect of mate, and I think this is the main reason why this custom has survived over and over the years in our society. But of course you can drink mate on your own! I got used to doing this while studying at Teacher Training. Mate has become a really pleasant company to me during these years.
As most of us as Argentinians should know, this infusion is prepared by steeping dry leaves (and twigs) of yerba mate in hot water, rather than in boiling water-the flavour becomes really bitter if it is prepared with boling water, the water temperature should be between 71–82 °C-.
Even though I knew that mate was also typical from Uruguay, I have to admit I didn't know people in Paraguay, Chile, eastern Bolivia and southern and western Brazil also drank mate. But now I realize that yerba mate is original from this area in South America-the North of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Southern Brazil-.
Also in Paraguay, Brazil and of course in Argentina, when the temperature is 30ºC or higher in summer, we drink tereré, a cold beverage that we usually prepare with cold fruit juice-because it's sweeter than just using cold water-and which I personally enjoy drinking near the swimming pool with friends while sunbathing.
As you can see, mate is with us everywhere at any time, no matter the season of the year or the moment of the day!
And you can accompany it with either sweet or savoury food-delicious facturas, cake or cookies or some salame, cheese and ham in a wonderful "picadita".

So near the end...

Today, as I have finished with my practice period in the workshop, I'd like to share with you a personal and critical reflection I wrote about this subject, which also applies to all practical subjects in our curriculum.
First of all, I think both the practice period and the topic of assessment were really useful to us as teachers-to-be. Even though most of us may have some teaching experience in institutes or as private teachers, facing thirty students in a big classroom in a public school is definitely another story. I profited from this opportunity a lot, and now I feel I am more prepared to work in a school than I was at the beginning of the year, even though this is my third year working in a private institute with different age groups. Designing an integrative test bearing in mind the characteristics of a certain group of students and preparing activities to evaluate everything we had done during the practice keeping the same context was totally new for me, and therefore has been a practical as well as a valuable experience.
As regards the lessons we observed during the first part of the year, I believe this can be an enriching experience as well as a waste of time. Some form teachers were really helpful and taught wonderful lessons but some others did not like the idea of being observed- I do not blame them for that- and after the class finished I had the feeling that we were a burden for her and for her students and that they were not working in their usual way.
Finally, I would like to make a comment on the plans. In my view, they are the best way to learn how to organize a lesson, in spite of the fact that when we become teachers we no longer plan our classes in such a detailed way. However, during this year I felt that some of the activities we had planned were wrong for the teacher or needed improvement and, in some cases, I really disagreed with the corrections, sometimes because I couldn’t see what was wrong or sometimes because I thought the corrections were unnecessary.
Girls, to tell you the truth, I tried to be as honest as I could and also to include most of the aspects and topics we had dealt with during this year. I believe this kind of subjects has give to most of us all those practical details and pieces of advice that so many theoretical subjects sometimes fail to give.

Keeping a pet-would you recommend it?

Do you sometimes feel lonely or bored? Are you planning to leave your parental home and need some company? Or has your roommate just moved out and you want to share your life with someone? A possible solution could be getting a pet. But be careful, this can be a pleasant as well as a nerve-racking experience.
Having a pet at home definitely has its positive side. “Learning to look after an animal teaches children to be patient and responsible,” states Doctor Howard Penny in a popular TV show. It is also a well-known fact that pets are pleasant company, especially for elderly people or for those who live alone. Or you can even form new acquaintances when walking your dog in the park! This is my eldest sister's case and she's getting married on December 4th!!!
Still, watch out! Do you think that raising these defenceless little creatures is an easy task? You may be mistaken. Take, for instance, the case of exotic animals such as iguanas or alligators, which are rather hard to care for and as a consequence may end up living in unsuitable conditions.
So is it advisable to buy a pet or not? Well, for the above reasons, it cannot be denied that keeping pets at home is a double-edged sword: you might be embarking on an exciting adventure that may turn into your worst nightmare. Then, may be you should think about it twice, don’t you think?

What about you, girls, have you got a pet at home? I have two dogs-one is twelve and the other one is five- and I love them, but I admit that at the very beginning, when they were puppies, we had to take care of them as if they were babies. Hope I can find a picture of them to share with you! They are cute!

The death of a "leader"?

Wednesday October 27th, we Argentinians had to stay at home to wait for the person who was carrying out the census in our neighbourhood (I couldn't find an equivalent to the word "censista"). For me it was a holiday so I woke up at about 10 a.m, not that late, and when I turned on the TV-I am a TV addict as you can see- I learnt the tragic news. Former president Néstor Kirchner was dead! He suffered a heart attack, the presidency later confirmed.

I have to admit that I was greatly shocked. I wasn't fond of him because I totally disagree with his and her wife's (the current President) ideas but still he was a young person, only 60 years old. I knew he suffered from a heart disease and that he had been operated on two times this year but I think nobody expected him to die!

I feel sorry for him and for his family. In spite of the fact that I do not sympathize very much with the President, I feel pity for her as she has lost not only her beloved husband but, above all, an expert political adviser. This is precisely the main reason why, as many people claim, our President is likely to face many new threats to her leadership.

Having said all this, I want to say I am still filled with indignation over some journalists, especially those belonging to Clarin group, who highly criticized and obviously opposed Kirchner during his political career, and now mourn him and behave as if they were sorry or hurt for his loss. They must habe literally jumped for joy when they confirmed the news!!! And while the President was standing near her husband's coffin-she was really moved, it showed- these journalists were publishing pieces of news on the net saying how Kirchner had fought for his ideas and how he had risen to power. I honestly couldn't believe my eyes when I read that. For the love of God, do they think we are idiots or something of the sort?

Finally, I'd like to tell you why I chose this title for the post, and it is because I have read in many, specially foreign, newspapers or websites that, with Kirchner's death, Argentinians had lost one of the most important leaders of our history or something like that. I didn't feel like that at all! I believe Kirchner was the leader of a political party, even though he was our President for four years and he may have done several good things, even though I believe the bad things he did outnumber the good ones.
I am not trying to start a political debate over this topic, I only wanted to voice my opinion on such an important event. We had to watch the funeral and everything the President did afterwars for two running days! The country was paralyzed, for Christ's sake!
How did you feel about this? If I have to choose a word, it would be overwhelmed. I wanted to come back to reality, specially because of television!!! ;)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Today, October 17th, we celebrate here in Argentina Mother's Day. This is a day of reunion, in which we try to share with our mums as much time as we can, as well as making her feel happy. In our country we generally honour our mums by giving them presents. Besides, we often organize a family gathering to celebrate this special day.

In many countries, such as Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, USA, Spain and Switzerland, Mother's Day is celebrated in May, whereas in the UK and Ireland, it is celebrated in March or April.

As regards the origin of this celebration, each country follows its own tradition. In the UK, Mothering Sunday celebrations are part of the liturgical calendar in several Christian denominations, including Anglicans. In the Catholic calendar is marked as Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent to honour the Virgin Mary and your "mother" church. Children and young people who were "in service" (servants in richer households) were given a day off on that date so they could visit their families. The children would pick wild flowers along the way to place them in the church or to give them to their mothers as gifts.

In some countries Mother's Day was changed to dates that were significant to the majority religion, like the Virgin Mary day in Catholic countries, or the birthday of the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic countries. Other countries changed it to historical dates, like Bolivia using the date of a certain battle where women participated or Paraguay celebrating it the same day as "Día de la Patria", on May 15th.

In Argentina, we celebrate Mother's Day on the third Sunday in October, apparently because as we are in the South Hemisphere in October we are in spring. Precisely in Lebanon Mother's Day is celebrated on Spring's day. Don't you usually give flowers to you mum in this day??

Hope you enjoyed a fantastic day with your mums and families!!!

My Pecha Kucha presentation

For my Pecha Kucha presentation I chose to talk about 'women in history, who shaped our destiny and helped us be what we are today'. And by this I refer to those brave women who, all of them experts in their chosen field, contributed to breaking the myth of the ‘weaker sex’.
I provided some information about eight women I myself admire and consider role models, as they passed into History for their intelligence, determination and courage; and who challenged stereotypes about the role of women in traditional societies. These are the chosen ones:

Joan of Arc was born in France in 1412. At the early age of 13 she began to hear voices from the saints that told her her mission was to save France. She then went to the Dauphin Charles of France and was sent with an army to Orleans, succeeding in raising the English seige. She won many more battles against the English and even escorted the Dauphin to be crowned king, something that would never have happened if not for her.
However, in 1430, she was captured during a battle and sold to an Englishman. Then, she was put on trial for sorcery and heresy. The Dauphin made no attempt to save her. Instead, she was convicted by the Inquisition and burned at the stake in1431, being less than twenty years old.

Elizabeth I was born in England in 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. When she was three years old, her mother was accused of treason and beheaded. So she was pronounced as illegitimate and put last in order of the throne. Her father's sixth wife, Catherine Parr, educated her in rhetoric, history, theology (being Protestant), moral philosophy, and the languages of Greek, Latin, French, English, and Italian.
She took the throne after ‘ Queen Bloody Mary’, her half-sister, died. She never got married. As a queen, she declared herself the head of the church, extended England overseas, reduced her council's size, removed the debased currency in the monetary system and created treaties with Scotland and France. She died in 1603.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born in the 1750's, a major protester for women's rights. She started protesting at an early age because of her father's abuse of her mother and favouritism towards her brother. At age 21, she stated she would never marry because marriage gave the husband ownership of all the property, including herself.
She is the author of the essay A Vindication of the Rights of Men that focused on the French Revolution's humanitarian ideals. Then she followed it up with a study: A Vindication of the Rights of Women. In 1796, she had a relationship with the philosopher and novelist William Godwin. They married and had a child together, Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein). However, she got an infection after giving birth, and sadly died.

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. In 1891, she went to Paris and worked at a laboratory, where she met Pierre Curie. They got married soon and together discovered the element Polonium. A few months later, they also discovered Radium. In 1903, she won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with her husband and another scientist. She became the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 1934, she died of leukemia, probably caused by her exposure to radiation. In 1995, her ashes were enshrined under the dome of the Pantheon in Paris, the first woman to be laid there for her own merits. Marie has two craters named after her as well as a NASA rover with her name.

Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908. She attended Sorbonne for an education and in 1929 passed agregation in philosophy. Most of her works included her opinions of existentialism, the belief in individuality as well as her feministic beliefs. Probably one of her most famous works was an essay called "The Second Sex". This dealt with the abolition of what she called the "eternal feminine", equality between the male and female sexes, and woman's role in society.
Through her writings, Simone de Beauvoir became a forerunner of the feminist movement. Her private life came to be admired nearly as much as her work. She chose to never marry and did not set up a joint household with Jean Paul Sartre. She never had children. (This gave her time to earn an advanced academic degree, to join political causes and to travel, write, teach, and to have (male and female) lovers). Simone died in 1986 in Paris.

María Eva Duarte de Perón was born in Los Toldos in 1919 and had to work since an early age in order to survive. She went to Buenos Aires to find acting jobs, and worked there as a model and as an actress. She met Colonel Juan Domingo Peron, then the secretary of the United Offices Group at a party. He soon became the vice president to the new president.
Eva and Juan were soon married. He then ran for president and was highly supported by the poor. He was elected, and as First Lady, she organized the Peronista party's women's branch, showing her support of women's rights. She also created the Eva Peron Foundation, which helped poor people get money, housing, and clothing. In 1951 she run for vice president but had to resign because she was seriously ill. Sadly, she died of cancer at a fairly young age in 1952.

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in Skopje, now the capital of Macedonia. When she was 18, she became part of Ireland's Order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto. She trained in Dublin, Ireland and India. She worked as a principal at a high school in Kolkota, but the sight of the sick and dying in the streets made her change her mind of what to do.
So in 1950, she and her helpers formed the Missionaries of Charity and she became the leader. In 1952, she established in Kolkota the Pure Heart Home for Dying Destitutes and in 1979, she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her accomplishments. In 1990, a book of her quotations and anecdotes ‘Mother Theresa: In My Own Words’ was published. She died in1997.

Lady Diana Spencer was born in England in 1961. Her parents divorce when she was a child, and she worked as a kindergarten teacher before marrying Prince Charles, heir to the throne of Britain, in 1981. Her beauty and youthful charisma quickly earned Diana the nickname of "the people's princess." Her unprecedented popularity as a member of the royal family attracted intense press attention, and she became one of the most photographed women in the world.
However, the marriage was troubled almost from the start, and its breakdown was daily fodder for tabloids during the 1990s. Diana and Charles were divorced in 1996 and she devoted her life to her two sons, William and Harry, and to worldwide charities. She and her boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed, were killed in 1997 in a high-speed car crash while being followed by paparazzi in Paris.

And to finish my presentation I chose eight quotations by these women to reflect upon the contributions they made to our modern societies:

'One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.' –Joan of Arc
'I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.' -Elizabeth I
'If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of women, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test.' –Mary Wollstonecraft
'Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.' -Marie Curie
'Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.' -Simone de Beauvoir
'I demanded more rights for women because I know what women had to put up with.' -Eva Perón
'Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.' -Mother Theresa
'Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.' –Princess Diana

Getting rid of exams- a better choice?

Do you always shiver with fear or feel like fainting before sitting for an exam as I usually do? Or do you learn your lessons by heart and then walk in the street repeating everything parrot fashion? Well, just chill out for a second, people! A viable solution could be to get rid of examinations and evaluate students through continuous assessment and with project work. But is this a good or a bad idea?
It is wise to say that exams can sometimes be unfair, as their results do not always show clearly what students have studied or actually know. This might be because many people get very nervous when they find themselves in such a stressful situation and are therefore not able to perform successfully.
If we analyse the situation from another perspective, tests are beneficial to some students who are a bit lazy and, when they see an exam coming, are forced to study so as to be able to at least pass the exam.
On balance, it seems to me that continuous assessment is a better option. Teachers should evaluate their students progressively instead of just summing up marks from different tests to obtain an average that does not reflect what the student has learnt. Besides, project work also gives students the choice to work with their classmates, thus making the process of education a valuable and memorable experience.

What is your opinion? You may disagree with me, but I think that introducing new ways of assessing our students is something we as teachers to be should start considering.