THANKSGIVING

For all that God in mercy sends:

For health and strength, for home and friends,

For comfort in the time of need,

For every kindly word and deed,

For happy thought and pleasant talk,

For guidance in our daily walk,

For all these things give thanks.

For beauty in this world of ours,

For verdant grass and lovely flowers,

For song of birds, for hum of bees,

For the refreshing summer breeze,

For hill and plain, for streams and wood,

For the great ocean mighty flood,

For all these things give thanks.

For all the sweet sleep that comes with night,

For the returning morning light,

For the bright sun that shines on high,

For stars that glitter in the sky,

For these and everything we see,

O Lord, our hearts we lift to thee,

And give thee hearty thanks.

                             Ellen Isabella Tupper

Post 7 HOW GREEN ARE YOU?

Post 7    HOW GREEN ARE YOU?

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• Where do people learn about environmentally friendly practices?
• Have you incorporated recycling into your habits? Describe.
• Do you use a bike or your legs instead of a car?
•  Have you joined or supported any eco-organizations? Why / Why not?
• What else have you done /would you like to do?
• What have you done to reduce your carbon footprint? 
• What's missing in our society/Santiago regarding this issue?

Number of words: 240

Don't forget to make comments on at least 3 of your classmates posts.

Nowadays humanity is facing one of the biggest challenges: saving our planet. That is why we should start by the most important point: to educate our children. Obviously we should educate them with our examples and daily practices.

I have incorporated the three Rs to my daily life and I will never forget that I learned that in Canada.  Canadians have organized their lives around Recycling, Reducing and Reusing.

For example, they read the newspaper and immediately after reading they deposit it in the recycling bin for paper. I thought that they are acting intelligently. Therefore, in my daily life,  I recycle as much paper as I can and I also reduce the paper I use.  I wrote to my bank authorities asking them not to send me bills in paper. This practice has made my life easier, and I feel happier to be helping the planet.

In order to reduce my carbon footprint I use my bike as much as I can, or walk to nearby places and take public transport.

I haven’t become a member of any eco-organizations because I do not have much free time, but also I think we do not need to belong to an organization in order to help. Luckily, we have a lot of information around and we need to follow our intuition.

I think we should all visit this website and encourage other members of our society to change their lifestyles.

http://www.carbonfund.org/reduce

Now, how much are you doing to save our planet?   Think about it and let us know.

Post 6   Motivation to study psychology

http://addicted2success.com/motivation/43-of-the-most-popular-motivation-picture-quotes/

·        

•   What motivated you to study psychology
•   To what extent  you feel you have met your expectations
•  Theoretical psychology
•  Practical applications of psychology

Write at least 220 words.
Leave comments on 3 of your classmates blogs.

My dear students,

It is great to meet again to talk about such an interesting topic as your area of studies and your motivation to do so.

I am really motivated to discuss this fascinating issue with you because I have to confess that I love psychology, but at the same time I see the task as a great challenge because human beings are extremely complex, and psychology deals with one of the most controversial points of society: the individual .

Also we have to discuss an even more difficult area that is motivation. In this sense I like to refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which I agree with and I think it is a way to guide us to understand this mysterious area of the human mind. I found useful information in this website that I attach:

 

 

 

http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm

 

 

A more difficult and specialized area is theoretical psychology, in which I find myself at a great disadvantage with you, and the advantage is that you can demonstrate your expertise and the area where  you want to work. But I did my homework and I found this:

 

 

 

  Another successful ISTP conference was held in Santiago, Chile from May 3 to 7, 2013.

Did you know about it? Did you attend it?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoretical_psychology

 

 

Finally, the area where I feel I belong:  the practical applications of psychology . I definitely think psychology is a very useful tool for teachers. Some interesting points for me are to know how students learn most effectively, how they improve, how they can be  motivated  to study English.

Here is another useful link:

http://psychology23.blogspot.com/2008/11/iv-practical-applications-of-psychology.html

POST 5 (WEEK 7) >> SUMMARY FROM A CAREER-RELATED ARTICLE FROM THE GUARDIAN (ONLINE NEWSPAPER)

  

Go to:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/

> Select a piece of news connected to your area of studies / future career.
> Write a summary of it.
> Provide the link to your piece of news.
> Leave a comment on 3 of their partners' posts.
> 220 words

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3_tH506HxU  SUMMARY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVVqqq1Sbi0     MUSIC     SUMMARY

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/nov/14/career-in-languages-hiv-charity

The article is about  a Slovakian woman who has had to learn many languages  because of her background.  In addition to experience,  she reflects on  her ability to learn different languages and how this ability has helped her.

She explains how she learned German, and English and Portuguese and how she has succeeded  by using different strategies.

 The author describes how she learned English in Canada, where she had to emigrate after a revolution in her country.  She describes  how this was a process of complete immersion and  how she decided  to overcome embarrassment and push her through in order to break the language barrier.

After this experience the author describes her experience in Brazil learning Portuguese.  In this case she became fluent in a few months.

In her summary she states that attitude is extremely important to learn a new language.

Finally she narrates how the possibility to speak many languages has helped her to work  with refugees   at an east London charity, Doctors of the World. When she refers to this experience she says, “it was brilliant, because you could see instantly the difference it made and the rapport that was being built.”

One more rewarding experience is that she has helped people overcome the language barrier and encourage other people to do so.

Blog 4 Holiday activities

You should say:

• why holidays are important
• what your favorite activities and places are 
• where and why you will go next holidays 
• who you would like to travel with

Write at least 200  words and leave comments on 3 of your classmates blogs

Work and studies make us follow a daily routine that does not allow us to think and relax as much as we would like to.  Therefore, holidays are extremely  important moments that we have to share with our loved ones or significant others.  These  are special moments to reflect, express love,  and do whatever gives us pleasure and relaxation.

My favorite holiday activities are so varied that it is difficult to mention   all of them, but if I have to choose, I would say that the ones  I enjoy the most are   reading,  going to the movies and visiting natural places.

Although I read all the year round because I think it is part of my lifestyle, when I read on vacations, I do it differently because I read  for pleasure.  So I sit for hours with a selection of the  books that I have put aside all year round.  Then I sometimes read a book  per day and I have the opportunity to taste and digest  the book  without any rush or deadline.

The second activit that I do is  going to the movies.  I do it  on weekdays because it is cheaper, and I can select more movies than during the rest of the year. I also think that during the summer we have more choices.

Finally,  I like to visit natural places, such as the beaches in my native country. Obviously, I go there with all my family and I enjoy swimming and making sand castles.  In February I will go to Cuba and Miami because my children and grandchildren live there. I am sure that I will have a great time!