7 de enero de 2014

The Punk Movement - Free Post

The punk emerged as a mockery to the rigidity of the conventionalisms that concealed forms of social and cultural oppression. At the ending of the 60s, many young people thought in the United Kingdom and in the United States that the rock music passed to be a media of expression to the youth to be a way of earning lots of money and a showcase of new music groups.

The world looks to punk ideology and criticism considering deeply corrupt and wrong. The original form of punk was to express marginalized social classes, with their own concepts and thinking usually expressed through music. But over time, this has become a way of identifying social beings who share the same goal. What will you do when it takes human being dominated by this phenomenon? It is well known that the punk hosts a wide range of music, art, youth, neighbourhood, and socio-political environments, networks and mechanisms of inspiration and exchange of ideas and information movement. Over time, it became a socio-political movement for the majority of those who identify themselves as punks. This spirit is still active today in the punk music but has moderated, it has not lost followers.

First of all, we have to define the punk term to know what we are talking about. As we can see in the Wikipedia web (www.wikipedia.es) “the English term ‘punk’ has a derogatory meaning, applying to objects (meaning ‘trash’, ‘waste’) or persons (meaning ‘lazy’, ‘despicable’, ‘dirty’ or also ‘junk’ and ‘scum’ )”. Due to the nature of this meaning, the punk has often been associated with attitudes of self-neglect, it has been used as a means of expressing feelings of unease and hatred, and it has also given to neurotic or self-destructive behaviours.

In 1976, in New York, was founded "Punk" magazine by John Holmstrom, Legs McNeil, and Ged Dunn. They wanted a magazine that talked about all the things they liked: “reruns on television, drinking beer, sex, cheeseburgers, comics, B-movies and rock n 'roll playing in the dirtiest places in the city like Velvet Underground, Stooges and New York Dolls” (McNeill; McCain, 2006).

Punks want to break with the stereotypes existing with the clothes that were ‘correct’ and ‘appropriate’ to wear. For this reason, they decided to mix colours like red and black or purple and green and even wearing ripped jeans, pins, spikes and dog – collars. These were the characteristic clothes that wore the punks at the beginning.

Musically, punk is defined by simple songs; it uses letters with political and social orientations without great pretensions or orchestrations. It uses a fast and aggressive rhythm suitable for a dance called pogo. It is based on pushing and blows between all the people that are dancing, creating a chaotic environment.

We must thank to Malcolm McLaren (Sex Pistols’ manager) because, after many years without the confidence of the major record labels, small groups became increasingly known. In 1977, the Sex Pistols released their song "Anarchy in the UK". The success of the song was so great and big (becoming the punk anthem) that EMI noticed them and signed a contract to continue recording more albums.

In the United States, during those years, emerged a band known like "The Ramones" that create a new style, having it a big influence on young people from New York. They didn’t look like the British punks with Mohican hair, they had long hair with bangs and they wore tight pants and leather jackets (Strongman, 2008).

Looking to all of these groups, many others began to emerge, they followed their style and this way of wearing punk clothes passed to be fashion and it was taken to the young people all over the world. Over time, the anarchist message and the punk movement began to disappear and it passed to be only a type of music and a way of wearing rebel clothing, being part of the teen consumerism. It became everything that originally rejected this movement.

We can conclude that "punk" refers not only to a style of music; it also refers to a way of life for people who want to show some rejection to the system. Punks originated in United Kingdom and in United States when the rock was not a way of expression, rebellion and denunciation, and it was becoming a product of the big records companies.

Regarding on the type of clothes, it also has changed the way that they wore. At the beginning they were more striking with the colours and the accessories, but nowadays they wear like the rest of the people, the only thing they are keeping is using the black colour for everything.

Another thing that distinguishes the punks from other people is that they disagree in the way that the society it is built. For example, they reject the consumerism and how is the riches distribute all over the world. They believe also that there is not possible that only few people has the power and the riches and many other people can not have food to survive, a house where they can live and go to school for having a good education.

All these thinking went all over the world and nowadays, young people has taking these into account for making a new society built on the convictions of freedom, cooperation and equality between all the human beings.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MCNEILL, L.; MCCAIN, G. (2006) Please kill me: The uncensored oral history of the Punk. New York: Grove Press.

STRONGMAN, P. (2008) La historia del Punk: El movimiento juvenil que transformó la escena musical y social en el mundo. Barcelona: Ediciones Robinbook.

http://www.wikipedia.es

http://www.bbc.com/culture

4 de enero de 2013

Teaching reading (Mice)


Create activities for reading skills.

1. Skimming:

- What is the story about? Write in one or two lines.

2. Scanning:

- Write a characteristic from each mouse (only one).

3. Reading between the lines:

- Where does the third mouse live?

4. Predicting:

- Try to guess: weight, the size, how long they life and what they eat.

5. Intensive reading:

- Answer the questions: How long dos it live?
                                                Which/what high does it reach, for each jump?
                                                Which kind of food can it eat?
                                                Where does it live?
                                                What is the biggest size that Dormous has?

6. Guessing meaning from the context:

Guess the meaning from the context of: grams, months, cables and eggs.


Art in class.


The teacher will show these paintings to the children, in which the topic is traditional games. It is a good way to show them how culture was in their country in the past. That will help the, to be aware of the changes that have happened in their country. Making a comparison between hoe the came was in the past and how is it nowadays.

Now, all the children will play to “Gallinita Ciega” and “Cinquillo”. In the first game, one child will cover his/her eyes with a blinker and all the kids have to move around in order to be catch. If the “hen” grabs on of his/her classmates, he/she would have to figure out who that person is. In the second game, the children will have to put the card number five on the table, and then they will have to follow the numbers up and down. The winner is the one that runs out of cards first.

La Gallina Ciega
Francisco Goya, 1789

Los Jugadores de Naipes
Francisco Goya, 1789

30 de diciembre de 2012

The song "I can't hear you"


After listening to the song “I can’t hear you” that it is about different routines, the teacher will give to the students a worksheet with some routines’ pictures that appears on the song and the children will have to colour only the ones that they usually do. For example: brush their teeth, have a shower…



         

29 de diciembre de 2012

Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? (Storytelling)


This story is called “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” written by Bill Martin, Jr.

I had chosen this story because it is a simple way to teach the different types of animals that the students can see on their lives and we can use it to learn the colours.

It has simple vocabulary so this will make the kids understand the story better. And it has too, repetitive sentences that the children can learn it and help the teacher telling the story.