Final reflection

Compare your first written post and your last composition. Any differences?
Actually, a lot of differences. Since first batxillerat, my english got way more fluid and formal, considering that back then, sometimes to write an essay or a writting I had to spend like 10 minutes or so thinking, so I could get a coherent structure, but know, ideas come along as I read and write. Of course, the vocabulary got better too, and know the lexicon mistakes are pretty much missing.
Compare your first oral presentation with your final. Any differnce?
Mention content, structure, maturity arguments but linguistic arguments too: fluency, communication, pronunciation.
It is different too, but not as much as the written posts. Power point structure and content were always regular because I never spent too much time working on the visual matters, thus it was always power points so they were pretty simple. Individually, in one hand, fluency got better because everyday I try to speak a minimum of english so I don't get rusty, and  in the other hand, communication always depended on the nervousness because when I get nervous, I tend to not look at anyone, and to communicate something you have to look at the people's eyes, and try to convince them that you know  about what you're talking. Body language is the other side of communication, where I used to be a statue but know I feel free to move my hands to explain, walk around...

What's your best oral production? Justify and link post.
Link is not available but I remember that my best oral presentation was in first batxillerat when I had to expose a power point with Michel and Aaron about religious rituals. Fluency was pretty nice because I studied a lot my 3 topics, although we prepared almost everything the night before. I can recall a couple of things like ancient greek people used to put a coin under the dead one's tongue so gods could accept him/her in the other world. I used great vocabulary linked with the rituals topic and I don't know why but I wasn't nervious at all!
What's your best written production? Justify and link post
I'm stuck between 2 of them. I don't know if wether http://poeticjusticeym.blogspot.com.es/2016/03/resident-evil-4.html?m=1( Resident evil 4 post )is better or http://poeticjusticeym.blogspot.com.es/2015/03/8-mile_8.html?m=1 ( 8 Mile post ) gets the prize. I really enjoyed to do these your says, just because I talk about something of my interest. I love horror videogames just as I love rap, and the vocabulary is quite decent in both of them, so I'll call it a draw.

Formal letter

                                                                                                                     15 Port Alegre
                                                                                                                      Empuriabrava
                                                                                                                     Girona
                                                                                                                     28th April 2016

Principal
INS Castelló d'Empùries
C/ del Rentador

To whom it may concern

I am writting to complain about some of the teachers whose job is to do their best so students can pass all the subjects but seem to do quite the contrary.
The problem began the same day I was treated with bad manners for no reason by a teacher who does not seem to enjoy her job. To make matters worse, I witnessed other classmates being punished by the same teacher, when we all know that punishment warns you about what you do not have to do, but not about what you actually have to do.
I would appreciate a change of attitude by whom I mentioned earlier. I suggest some sort of warning before reporting to the public education center.

I am looking forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely

Maurice Yuri.

US election: Trump in apparent reverse on taxes for rich

Summarizing:
Trump said on his programme: "I'm allowed to change"
Mr Trump's tax plan says the wealthiest individuals would get a tax break. But he told ABC his "optimum plan" would be negotiated with Democrats, but not be approved as such.His top priorities would be lowering taxes on businesses and the middle class, not helping the rich.On the minimum wage, Mr Trump said: "I haven't decided in terms of numbers. But I think people have to get more." He has previously said he is against increasing the minimum wage.

When asked about the change of position, the New York billionaire said: "I'm allowed to change. You need flexibility."

Opinion:
Of course everyone's allowed to change, but not if you're almost finishing your campaign to be the president of one of the countries with more potential in the earth. In other words, how are people supposed to vote Trump if he doesn't even have his ideas clear? You could sneak something relatively not important, but changing taxes is a huge impact, speacially for rich people in this case. I'm still questioning his position as US's president.

Vocabulary:
-Wealthiest: Más rico
-Wage: Salario

News Link 
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-36239546

Afghanistan fuel tanker crash kills 73 in Ghazni province

Summarizing: 
More than 50 people was taken to the nearest hospital, severely injured and 73 died in the accident.
All 3 vehicles got set on fire right after the collision in the highway linking Kabul to Kandahar.
It's said that accidents like this one often happen mainly because the roads are in a poor state, although the provincial traffic department tried to blame the reckless driving.
Health ministry spokesman said that almost every person who died, was completely burned.

Opinion:
Poor people. It's a shame how you can lose your life in a matter of second at any moment, I mean, none of them was expecting to crash into each other and turn everything in a fireball. Traffic department should try to fix the roads first, and then, blame people for driving too fast if accidents still hapenning.

Vocabulary: 
Linking: juntando
Injured: lesionado
Reckless: temerario

News Link:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36241002

Human Rights

The Human Rights are the rights you have simply because you are a human being. Briefly it is the right to food, shelter, freedom of speech and education, but they were never fully respected, didn't they?

They were invented in 1945, by the United Nations in New York after WW2 to promote peace, prevent future wars and enforce inalienable rights to every human being previously mentioned. 

There are a total of 30 human rights nowadays, and every single one of them are very important.

Checking the list, I realized I was not very familiar with a lot of them, obviously, but the one who got my attention was the No Torture right. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
First things first. To critizice human rights is an easy task, and if you think the contrary, try to have every world's corners under watch 24/7. Difficult ins't it? Well, that could justify some of the violations we've witnessed against these laws, but some of these violations are done pretty much by the government. " No one shall be subjected to torture" ; I know that there are plenty of terrorist being tortured by corporations per example, even though it's for the greater cause and I aprove it, this right should've been written with some specifications, because terrorists are humans afterall. Details, they are important.
Secondly, "Inhuman or degrading treatment". Tell this to the starving families in Africa, or to the homeless people who have to eat from the trash. What's the point of having written all of that if it's not going to be accomplished?
Human rights have never been fully respected, not even one of the thirty existent rights, but they still exist, for creating a good image of us I guess.

Educational system effectiveness

Buildind the perfect educational system is an impossible task  as perfection normally is an unreachable form. Nevertheless, we can always inspire ourselves to accomplish it or at least get close to the concept.
An utopian education would be a class where both teacher and students participate, teaching in a way that improves the capacity to think by themselves, and not only memorizing concepts to later barf them in the exam and past a few days ask what were they. Educational system will always be unfair, no matter what high charges do, because there are people who excel in more important tasks who are never required to pass studies, and then, someday you'll get to see those people frustrated, because they never succeeded against library rats who stayed the whole day before the exam, locked at home memorizing things to get a good mark, which should never be considered as a future decider. It's all about adapting and taking advantage of opportunities.

It's upseting how accurate this is.

Does new generations abuse of the cellphone use?

Our generation is fully dependent on cellphones. This might happen because this device incoporates a number of indispensable apps such as gps, calculator, flashlight, whatsapp and many others. The main use of cellphones declines to everything related to comunication and social media.
As we can see, we have sustained reasons of why do we need our phones,although we are crossing the thin line of overuse. The purpose of this device, as I have said is to improve comunication but it seems like it has done quite the opposite, and it's ironic, because wherever you go, everyone will be with their eyes fixed on the screens and as a consequence, we all may lack of face to face comunication. Let images do words job.

Future role of computers in education

Schools are debating wether the use of computer in class would be beneficial for students or a simple distraction. I'll try to analyse it from 3 different points of view: in the classroom, for teachers and towards learning,
One computer and a projector in every classroom is essencial, as in one hand, every school now use their own websites to control attendance and on the other hand, teachers can make more interactive and dynamic classes with videos and power points. This leads teachers, who thanks to the computering, to have a small part of their job simplified and it can help to engage students to follow the class and maintain their constant attention. For learning, computers can have a bright side or a dark side. They can be a really useful tool despite the fact that any device with internet is a easy way of distraction.
In my opinion, there's no doubt that there should be one computer on every class for teacher's use to improve classes. Students, however, should keep the traditional way of learning.

Is being a Youtuber rentable?

In the past few years youtubers have become very popular and influential items for our society, mainly to the youngest. That's the reason why more and more people are trying to fit in this world of entertainment.
The majority doesn't think that being a youtuber is a serious job although this industry should not be underestimated. A perfect example to support this argument is "Pewdiepie", the most subscribed youtuber. He has over 40 million subscribers and thanks to his gaming videos, he gains over 12 million dollars per year. In addition, recording videos is not their only source of income, knowing that they usually take into the market their own books.
To conclude with, being a youtuber is undoubtedly a rentable job, however we need to understand that it isn't an easy job and not until you don't achieve an important sum of viewers, you won't produce any benefits.

Some questions for next year

1.  Can you see an improvement on your level of English in the past year/s?  Where, for example?

Yes. Because 2 years ago, i dind't feel confident when it comes to speak to someone in english, and my grammar got better to.

2. Which activity best shows your level of English?

Listening.

3. Which activities were really USEFUL for you to improve your English? Why?

Skills. Because when you do a sort of exam without studying and pass it, you know your real level and not something your going to forget a few days later, and that's when you see improvement.

4. Which activities did you NOT find useful to learn English? Why not?

Each one of the activities made me improve. None of them were useless.

5. Which activities would like to do again next year to keep on improving your English? ( They're in red)

Oral presentations

Listening and evaluating to other presentations

Recording and evaluating your oral presentation

Official Exam preparation

Podcasts

Watching films

Class Songs

Videos

Blog yoursays

Blog news

Composition writing in class

Correcting compositions

Grammar Book exercises

Vocabulary extension dossier

Reading 3 books

Grammar & vocabulary Exams, Skills exams

Oral exams

Extra points activities (...)

6. Open Comments (...More ideas, suggestions for activities, suggestion for new topics...)

Pranks in the hood

Seeing the title, you can get a quick idea of how things go, but it's more than doing "pranks in the hood". Explaining it with little details, a couple of guys go to the most poor cities, or how we call it, "Ghettos" of US and practically, do pranks against mostly black people, waiting to see how's the reaction, like a social experiment. Usually they ask people things using wordsplay like: Do you want to get popped? It has a double meaning. One of them is to get shot and the other one is to have a drink and as soon as the black guys hear it, they run agressvily against the guy and starts knocking the shit out of him. Meanwhile, they do the same with white people and get completly different reactions. I leave this here for you to judge. Black people is more agressive than white people? What do you think?

Dead Lock by Sara Paretsky

The main character of this story is a private investigator, called Vic Warshawsky. Most of the plot follow her in her attempt to reveal who killed her cousin whose nickname is Boom Boom and why. As a professional private investigator, she goes around asking people questions, mainly at the docks or to people who had something to with his hockey team. Knowing that  he died because he slipped at the port and fell under the boat, where the engine killed him, some of the people from the docks will try to prevent her from investigating because this could represent trouble for them.

I'm not used to read books about murders and investigation or something linked to it, but I think the book is good. Not very entertaining because at some moments, the story develops real slowly and some dialogues are unnecessary, but it wasn't bad neither.
The investigation and the way she links the information she has to discover new things, and the fact that these "high charges" men follow her killing witnesses and people who would have useful information make it interesting at some points.
I would recommend it to people who at the top of all, have a medium-high english level because ofthe vocabulary, and after that, people who have patience and like to read suspense and drama.

US PayPal users face marketing robot cold calls

PayPal is changing its terms and conditions to state users must accept automated marketing calls, emails and text messages.

The changes - which come into force in July - will only apply to its US customers.The eBay-owned company told the BBC that it "would honour any customers' requests to decline marketing outreach".But no such opt-out is included in the terms and conditions.Instead customers are invited to either accept or decline.If you do not agree to the amended user agreement, privacy policy or acceptable use policy, you may close your account before July 1, 2015 and you will not be bound by the amended terms the document states.

The US's Federal Communications Commission is working to crack down on robocalls and spam email.It plans to legalise technology that blocks such calls and wants telephone companies to offer the tools to their customers.

First Steam Machines on sale

The first Steam Machines - an attempt to bring PC gaming to a wider audience - are available to pre-order.

PC makers Alienware and Cyberpower have both announced machines that will be sent out to buyers in October.Several Steam Machines will be out this year, an attempt by games publisher Valve to compete with consoles such as the Xbox and PlayStation.Many analysts are not convinced it poses a threat to those well-established brands.Steam is a hugely popular gaming platform and shop for the PC market. In September 2013, owner Valve announced it was to work with manufacturers to develop Steam Machines in the hope it would encourage PC gaming in the living room.The controller has been designed as an alternative to the typical PC gaming set-up of keyboard and mouse.Both machines can be souped-up to offer more hardware power.

Never used steam though, but I heard a lot of friends talk good stuff about it. I would use it if I had a better computer, unfortunately, i'll stick with the consoles. About the steam machines, I think sony and microsoft should really wake up, or they'll have a really competitive opponent.

Several: Muchas

Attempts: Intentos

Warming

US researchers say new evidence casts doubt on the idea that global warming has "slowed" in recent years.

A US government laboratory says the much talked about "pause" is an illusion caused by inaccurate data.Updated observations show temperatures did not plateau, say National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) scientists.The warming rate over the past 15 years is "virtually identical" to the last century, they report in Science.Dr Thomas Karl of NOAA, who led the new analysis, said: "We would hope that it would inform the general public that the temperature today really is continuing to warm."

Various explanations have been put forward, including changes in volcanic and solar activity, and ocean currents.

The new analysis corrects for ocean observations made using different methods as well as including new data on surface temperatures.

I got to recognize they've been a long time warning us about the climate change, but most part of the population did nothing to prevent it, including me. Now we got to deal with the consequences, and one of these are the continue warming of the planet.

Inaccurate: Inexacto

Currents: Corrientes

Get rich or die tryin'

Rappers got a whole lot of thigs to say about their life, normally how much they struggled until they arrived at the top. This movie stars 50cent, whose name in the movie is Marcus. He lives in NY and as a big part of the black population there, he is usually involved in a constant drug dealing environment, because even his own mother sells crack and he knows it, but the only purpose for her to do so is to raise her little boy like the way it's supposed to be. Unfortunately at the age of 8, his mother, Katrina gets killed ( burned alive) by a close friend, Majestic, because she's bringing a lot of trouble for his gang about selling stuff at others territories.

After that, Marcus gets to live at his grandparents house and secretly, he keeps up with his mother's business on the streets. He starts to get expensive clothes, a new car, a gun, and buy a house on his own, until he gets arrested for a couple of months because of selling dope. During these months, he starts to work with his lyrics at the jail, to become a new rap star the day he gets out, and after that, he'll try to deal with some important enemies, including his mom's murderer.

As all of those biographical movies about my favourite artists, I really liked it. I really like to watch these kind of movies that talk about how people overcome in their lifes. The original soundtrack is priceless, with one of my favourites tracks by him, Window Shopper the technical material in the movie is decent.

I just think that the movie got a bit longer than it should've been and the end wasn't what I was expecting, but it's ok.

Essay/ Chaos in an inmature mind

More than a month ago, 4/20/15 to be more exact, in a Barcelona highschool. a thirteen-year-old boy shot 2 teachers with a crossbow and used a knife against some classmates. Highschool was evacuated. A teacher died and there were 4 wounded.

In my point of view, safety is something which lacks in some highschools in the world. A boy wouldn't be able to walk inside those buildings with a crossbow, a molotov and a knife if they had enough security. But security is not the key for everything. We could rely on the education that has been given to this boy at home or at school.

There's something that disgusts me a lot about this story, and it's the fact that he's not going to be judged because of his age.
Our laws are just going to let him go after killing an innocent person. I think that, at the age of thirteen. you're already mature enough to know the consequences of doing so. I really hope that after this mess, they have something in mind to solve this issue or maybe it's the parents fault. Who knows. But I still think he should be punished in a severe way.