About Me

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Portugal
I am from Coimbra, Portugal, and am currently teaching in a school in Soure, about 30 km away from Coimbra. I have been a teacher of English for over 20 years and have already taught different levels and age groups. After all this time I can say I love working with adult groups because there are no coursebooks and I can create my own resources. I am an avid reader, a blogger and very curious about free tools and their implementation in the classroom.
Showing posts with label Martin Luther King. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Martin Luther King. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

"I Have a Dream"

50 years ago, Martin Luther King delivered the iconic speech "I Have a Dream" that we all know. I had planned to present a timeline, but History Channel has a fantastic short video that I've embedded below to share with you.
This speech with all the biblical associations, references to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and to the Emancipation Proclamation and the use of rhetoric can be used in class to approach multiculturalism, race relations, racism...



Happy Dreams, y'all!

Monday, October 31, 2011

Hallowe'en... but not only!


GOOGLE HALLOWEEN DOODLE 2011 - A fun time-lapse video of the Google doodle team & friends carving giant pumpkins in the Halloween spirit. Shot on location at Google's Headquarters

For many, Oct 31st only means Hallowe'en but this has become a very important date for many and different reasons.
Surely you are all aware through the media that the United Nations Population Fund has designated today - 31st Oct 2011 - the Day of Seven Billion, a milestone to mark the planet's population growth based on data interpolated from 5-year-period estimates. However, did you also know that...
Source: moneybox clipart
- since 1924 this day has also been celebrated as World Savings Day ? Never in recent times has this thought become so relevant...at least a day devoted to the promotion of savings all over the World!!! But cheer up anyway if you're Portuguese and desperate with so many cuts: check an online platform  for donations and reuse of what has become useless to their owners presented today at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation: dou.pt !
- on this day in 1892, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Connan Doyle was published? That's right: the first collection of the beloved British detective whose adventures the author had been publishing loose in magazines since 1887 ;)
- some centuries ago, back in 1517, Martin Luther posted the famous 95 theses? According to traditional accounts, this priest and scholar first nailed a piece of paper onto a church door containing the 95 revolutionary theses that marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
Source: Halloween clipart
As you can see, these are only some of the most important events on this day throughout history but relegated to the background (not to say to a state of oblivion) because of Hallowe'en euphoria.
As I've already posted herehere and here about Halloween for now check this: a gallery of gorgeous jack-o’-lanterns that honor literary greats like Edgar Alan Poe, William Shakespeare, and the Brothers Grimm!!!
It's getting late for those willing to face the cold and darkness for a trick or treat; as for myself, I will stay home with the family having a nice dinner. What about you?
Whatever the case...  HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Maya Angelou

Forty-three years ago, Martin Luther King, the famous civil rights leader, was assassinated but, on this day, though in 1928, another great civil rights activist and poet was born: Maya Angelou.
I'll leave you with this poem - one among many others I like - but do read this one on being born... black!

STILL I RISE
Image Credit
http://mayaangelou.com/bio/
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.


MAYA ANGELOU http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/still-i-rise/

So??? What do you think about this poem? Do you like Maya Angelou's writing? Can you suggest other poems?
If you wish to have a look or buy her books, click here.
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