Internional zooming!

This was a different and special session because we heard the experience of  Wilson Moreno who is a Costa Rican teacher working in the United States. 
He teaches Spanish to young people there and shares everything about our culture.

In order to apply for that job, he told us that before moving there he had to take many online and some face-to-face interviews.

Professor Wilson talked about interesting facts about the educational system in the USA. For example, they have a specific school for trouble students called "Turning point". When students are very problematic they send them to this particular school for 1 week or more depending on their actions.
He said that one of the expressions there that got his attention and is very common for American people was "Bless your heart", it was an interesting fact. 

Generally, he explained to us about the stages that he went through when he just arrived at his new home and work. It is very obvious that Professor Wilson loves what he does.

 

 

We met someone📚

This day we had a long conversation with Mr Wilson Moreno, a Costa Rican teachear in the US.

Mr. Moreno walked us through the experience of moving abroad to seek opportunities and encouraged us to get out of our confort zone. When you are the most confortable is the time to go and find something else.

We learned about the stages of cultural shock and learned about how there will be hard times in this experience.

He talked about a memeber of the program that sadly suffered from racisim, which is one of the things that "americans" do the best. 

Also discussed how english is another whole thing there! There are lots of accents and he lives in a southern area, where the accent is pretty strong and understanding took him a while. 

Hopefully, I'll have an experience like this one day. 

Not soon tho, cause Im s-c-a-r-e-d 😂

But, yeah.

                                                        

Special guest

In this class we heard about the experience of  Wilson Moreno who is a Costa Rican teacher working in United States as a Spanish teacher. He shared with us some anecdotes of his journey, for example he told us that it was hard at the beginning, he experienced a cultural shock and that he passed through an adaptation period. Also, he shared the steps that he did to get the job, he had to pass through different interviews and the most important was with the principal of his possible new school. He mentioned the name of the program, Participate.

On the other hand, my classmates asked him some questions and he was so nice because he always tried that the answer was as clear as possible. 

This class was so interesting because I knew things that I did not know before, for example that the students must take languages lessons to go to college. Also, now I am curious to know more about these programs because I want to live new experiences when I finally obtain my degree.    

Future time 😎

The classes started at 8 am!!
It was a very long day. 😪
During this class, the professor explained deeper the virtual stand assignment that we are working on and the future tenses.

We studied 3 types of future:

Future perfect



Future progressive



Future perfect progressive

Future tenses

We had zoom meeting this day, the professor talked about the future tenses and explained the virtual stand activity that we have to present in June 10.

Future perfect

• To say that something will be finished before a particular time in the future.

                          

Future continuos

• An activity which is in progress in the future at a future point in time.  

                                                         

                                 

                                  
Future perfect continuos

• To talk about the duration of an activity which started in the past and extends to a future point in the time. 

                       

It was easy to understand the ideas so it was clear for me the differences between these tenses. It was the first time that I understand the tenses without any other explanation.

I guess I aint a morning person

Zooming at 8am.

That was 𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓭.

So, essay for that day. 

This essay was easier than the previous one, honestly do not know if it was because of external factors but the first one was hell.

This class the teacher explained the stand project, we're working on that.

What is it? I would describe it as ideas for the future with a  sprinkle of theory. 

Guess what?

💣🍒🎇👹💥👽🌛More tenses🌜✨♍🌟🧚🔮🥀

Allow me to introduce you to the future.

Future Perfect.

Future Progressive/Continuous

Future Perfect Progressive/Continuous

¡Tadá!

Tenses attack! 😓

This class was asynchronous because the professor had problems with his internet connection. It does not mean that we lost the day, he left a bunch of material on the platform about grammar topics. The videos of these topics were explained by native speakers and it is always awesome for me to listen to them.

The topics to review were: 
-Simple past.
-Past progressive.
-Present perfect.
-Past perfect.
-Past perfect progressive.

We also had to watch 2 videos about the future tenses.

Tenses

We had asynchronous classes this day because the professor had problems with his internet connection. He posted some videos of another teacher explaining the past perfect, the past perfect progressive, the present perfect, the simple past and the past progressive. Also, 2 videos about the future tenses.

WHEN TO USE?

Past progressive

• To describe actions that were in progress at a specific time in the past.
• To explain what was in progress before an interruption.

Simple past

• To describe actions finished in the past.

Present perfect

• To explain an action that started in the past and continues to the present/future.
• To describe finished action in the past with an indefinite time. 

Past perfect

• To show that something happened (a finished action) before something else in the past.

Past perfect progressive

• To express the past action already started an continue up to another action or time in the past.

I really enjoyed the videos because it was easy to understand what the teacher said. Now, the tenses are more clear but I need to practice them.

Tick tock on the clock, but the party don't stop😩

The party is the semester

Im the piñata

This time we had an asynchronous session. The topics were the verb tenses again because they are THAT important (4real); taught by a native speakers on youtube, it was v cool because I really like having contact with natives asmap!

That is quite funny cause I have never talk with a native speaker:(

Anyway, the topics: 

1. Past progressive/continuous.
2. Past perfect.
3. Simple past.
4. Present perfect.
5. Past perfect progressive/continuous.

Quick chart summarizing

 

Second essay!! 📄🤓

This time we studied the comparison and contrast essay. The professor explained the structure and characteristics of this specific type of essay and the difference between contrasting and comparing.

-Contrast: differences
-Compare: similarities

We talked about the 2 different methods that can be used to write this type of essay; block and alternating style. Actually, he recommended using the second method. 

He also emphasizes the importance of the Venn diagram at the beginning of a comparison and contrast essay. 

Obviously, the assignment was to write a compare or contrast essay for the next week. I chose the contrast side and to use the alternating style. At first, it was kind of stressful to decided the 2 aspects to talk about and the specific differences between them. Anyway, I think that it was not so difficult.

Zoom meeting

We started classes at 10 am this time. We learned about what a comparison and contrast essay is. The professor talked about the structure of this type of essay, also, he said that is difficult to contrast and compare at the same time, so you need to be careful of not lose the way. If we want to combine both we can do it but as a beginners it is better to choose just one, compare or contrast. We also talked about the importance of Venn diagram. 

This type of essay is not difficult to understand so I hope that this essay don't give us headaches.

Another essay!😞

The comparison and contrast essay.
That was the topic for this week, we saw the two main methods to write this type of essay. Also, we talked about how is a little advance to write a comparison and contrast essay at the same time so the teachers suggested us to pick a side. 

The following video helped me to understand the methods:

For this week I challenged myself to try and write the essay the hard way. I wanted it to be alternating method and compare/contrast with an interesting topic. 

Of course I couldnt do it.

There were tests and a lots of homerwork from other courses that I couldnt handle and the time to each assigment was incredible reduced.

Either way, we did the darn essay!

Madness of tenses 🤯

In this class, we did not have a zoom meeting like all the sessions, but obviously, it does not mean that we were free. The professor left us some material on the platform to do a deep review of specific grammar topics. 

The topics to study were: Present perfect, Present perfect progressive, Past perfect, Past perfect progressive.

To be honest, I do not like so much these topics, but they are really important. 


We also did a small quiz about it to practice more the mentioned tenses. It was a little bit confusing at first, but later I perfectly got it.

Oh lord, more tenses!

We didn't have zoom meeting this week but the professor let us the material in the platform again. This week was about tenses, such as present perfect progressive, present perfect, past perfect and past perfect progressive. The videos were about how to use these tenses, also, we learned about some time expressions. We had a small quiz to practice the tenses

                     

As I said before, tenses is not my strength 💀 so I'm working on it. I need to practice a lot these topics. 

Tenses tenses💀

Foro

This time the class was asynchronous.

We don't like those, they are basically lots of homework but I do understand why we are having them.

We had deep material of 4 tenses.

1. Present perfect
2. Present perfect progressive
3. Past perfect
4. Past perfect progressive

A quick recap: 

Present

Past 

We also did a little quiz about it. I got a B; it could have been better tho.

No matter how often I see the tenses I always find hard to remember which one is which.

Let's get to work!

This time the session was not by zoom, it was an asynchronous class. The professor uploaded in the platform some videos to review the present perfect and study the problem-solution essay.

The assignment for this week was to write a problem-solution essay in pairs.

                                                                                             It was kind of complicated at first because of the lack of ideas to start writing and obviously, we were not used to writing essays, so it was very hard. But once the topic was chosen the ideas were just appearing and making sense.

Welcome to Zoom University

This class we didn't have a zoom meeting as usual but the professor left us the material in the platform. We reviewed about the present perfect tense and the problem solution essay. The material was some videos of the teacher explaining the topics. Finally, the homework of that session was to write a problem-solution essay for the next week. 

I had some troubles with the present perfect tense because tenses is not particularly my strength but I'm trying my best to understand them. 

First real essay👉👈

5 types of essays were introduced prior.

1. Descriptive
2. Process
3. Comparison
4. Cause/Effect
5. Problem/Solution

The homework for this session was to write in pairs a Problem/Solution Essay. 

Problem /Solution: Essay that states a problem(s) and different solutions.

 

The experience. 

As always, starting to write was an odyssey. Stablishig a detailed outline and a clear thesis statment helped a lot. Previously, we chose procastination as our topic and after being confortable and close to the topic the ideas were coming easier. 

The professor also uploaded a video about the Present Perfect from the previous class.

Working hard on the topic😵

                                             

In this class, we study one of the most harder and important part of an essay: the Thesis statement 

A thesis statement has 3 main parts: 

 - Topic

- Focusing idea

- The main points                                      

The 3 main points of the thesis are based on the focusing idea and they can be included or not, but the professor recommended to add them.

In this specific session, I realized the importance of writing a really good thesis statement because the whole essay depends on it. 😓

Diving in

This time we saw the Present Perfect and the Present Perfect Progressive.

The Present Perfect: 

The Present Perfect Progressive: 

Then, we went deep with the parts of the eassy and understading which I consider the most important part. 

THE THESIS STATMENT.

Zoom class

For this second class, we reviewed about the essay structure again but this time concentrating in the most important part, the thesis statement. In the power point presentation we saw different examples of essays and practiced with it, we had to read them and analyze each part. 

Our second week with online classes and I'm still worried about the semester. I prefer my normal classes but Covid-19 is not going anywhere. I realized that write a thesis statement is not easy at all, you need to be careful and think a lot about it because all your essay depends of it. 😧

First Virtual Class 💻📝

The main objective of the course is to learn how to write an essay. 
That's why the professor started the class with a PowerPoint presentation about the essay and its basics.




In my senior year of high school, the reading and writing professor left us a diagnostic homework that was to write a little essay, but besides that, I have never written essays.

We also review the past and past progressive tenses.


Finally, he assigned us a lecture about the epidemy called Sars; we wrote an essay about it. The topic was not so pleasant because of the situation that the world is currently going through. 

Actually, to start writing was hard and a little stressful. 💆

First day 2.0

In our first day of online classes we did a review  about what an essay is and their parts. The structure of an essay contains the introduction, where the thesis statement is, the body paragraphs that develop the argument and the conclusion that sums up everything. Also, we did a review about some tenses: the simple past and the past progressive. At the end of the class the teacher assigned us our first homework, a reading about Covid-19.

That was our first week with online classes and I was anxious thinking about what to expect in this semester. Personally, I didn't like the reading; Covid-19 is a huge topic and it was not pleasant to read about it. We had a lot of information in social media or in television that is enough to put us under a lot of pressure. Online classes are stressful 😭😟

Online class😫

We all started with the essay and its basics.

From the thesis statment and its components to the conclusion. This semester the principal topic is "ESSAYS" and how to properly write them. 

I have seen paragraphs over and over since seventh grade but essays are completely new. 

Hopefully learning how to write will not be tedious. 

We also saw the Simple Past 

And the Past progressive 

These topics have been studied before but a refresher is always needed.

   The assigment for this week was to read a medical/scientific article about SARS and the outbreak; then write an essay about the lecture.This was not pleasant at all, it was confusing and stressful. Because of covid-19 classes were suspended worldwide and everyone had to adapt to the online life. 

As a student, learning without the educational environment its hard because of all the distractions. Everyone is trying their best to pull this off.  🍀