The Machine Age

Modern Times is a movie directed and acted by Charles Chaplin. In 1936, he tried to show us the industrial society and how the machinery had changed people’s life.

This movie starts when Chaplin is working at a factory and shows how people are treated as a number instead of a person. You can see the critique inside the images selection: the importance of the final product, people’s quality of living and the differences of social classes.

The movie continues showing some routines workers need to follow, presenting those elements that combine the comedy of the movie with the difficult times people have to live.

Then, the movie turned into a love story when Chaplin met this young girl stealing food from a delivery car. The story continues showing how the destiny gathered them together. At the end, you will see how this love story ends and how they are going to face the social situation presented at the beginning of the movie.

He is an amazing actor. What is more, you can appreciate his performance as one ahead for this time. More than this, his body language is the secret of his success, without saying a word he captures people’s attention.

The quality of the sound is better than the one from the image. Most of characters play a secondary place on it, leaving the important parts for Chaplin and Paulette Goddard who interpreted the young girl.

In my opinion, this movie shows through comedy the difficult moments in this period of the history. Chaplin is the master of the silent movies; however, this movie takes too long to develop, getting monotonous at some parts.

Tudor Dynasty and Teaching

If this family changed the history of England, do you imagine what we can do as future teachers with our students? The purpose of this essay is to compare these family historical events with the elements needed to teach our future students.
First of all, talking about history and classrooms, the background is always important to understand the main issues. The Tudor dynasty started with Henry VII after he won the Battle of Bosworth and finishing the well known War of Roses. This main issue made him king and set the basis for his family to make history in England. Henry VII did not know that his family will change England in more ways than only being part of the royalty, his family will establish the basics of the England that we know.
Along with this, teachers understand the classroom as the place where learning occurs. To approach the objectives of learning, teachers need to understand all the factors involved in the classroom: especially students' personality and social factors, as well as the classroom’s environment. This important information will help us to discover our students' learning styles and new ways of teaching the content. What is more, if we include new elements in the classroom based on theories and experience, we will approach to learning in many different ways. As Henry VII, we are the ones who will set the rules and main characteristics of learning in our classroom, the ones that are going to influence the way we teach our students without knowing how they will use the abilities they have learnt.
Furthermore, another idea has to do with how a king has to rule a country in the same way a teacher needs to establish rules in his or her classroom. First, both of them need to be strong and be coherent with their own ideas. Henry VIII was mostly known because the split with Rome. In 1534 he made the English government to split the relationship with Rome because he wanted to remarry, something that was not allow by that time, but he was looking forward to have a son as a heir.
If we take this idea into our classroom, it must be said that a teacher needs to take some decision following his or her beliefs and personal values. In some cases, some of them are not always according to what students need, but they needed to be taken in order to incorporate some elements that our students do not know about the world.
I believe teachers need to be different than Henry VIII. They need to take all their decision thinking in the students’ benefits of the learning process; having in mind context, personal situations and the purpose of teaching. Obviously, some of these decisions will not be seen as the best in the students' point of view; however, teachers need to be well prepared to take responsible decision according to what they think is the best way our students need to accomplish their learning processes.
Henry VIII took some decisions without knowing what will happen in the future. He died without realizing that one of his daughters, Elizabeth I, was going to become the most successful queen in history. In the same way, teachers do not know about their students’ future so we need to give them all the tools to become the best they can.
It seems to me that this is one of the main points of being a teacher. We need to understand the context in which our students are living; we have to make an effort to provide them with all the skills they need to become successful. I believe a successful person is the one who knows what he wants, knows how to use their abilities to accomplish his or her goals and knows and considers people around him to get further than the rest.
If you go through any document about England history you will see how the Tudor dynasty started with a king who changed a country based on his own beliefs about life. Then, as time pass by, you could see that this changed. Elizabeth I was the last Tudor in power; however, she put her nation over her own life. This idea has to be included in our practice every time we face a classroom and a group of students willing to learn. We do not know how they will behave in the future or what they want to do in their lives, but we can do our best to provide them of values and tools. We will never know how our teaching will influence our students' lives; although, we need to keep in mind we can change what students' know about the world, at least a little bit.

What did industrialism bring?

Changes are part of our history. Those remembered were the most important ones for the author of the books or movies. However, behind every historical issue there are stories of people who suffered or got benefits from these situations. In this period we could see the new reforms in terms of education, public institutions and complex topics as working conditions and slavery. Although, the question about this is the following:

Was the machine age a blessing or a curse?

The Industrial Revolution made a change in the population of the big cities because of the substitution of machines for hand labour. This made important changes in terms of economical and social aspects; besides, these new people in town were the ones who support this new way of creating things called Industrialism. So they moved from their hometowns to the cities to find a job and be part of this change.

This period could have been a progress in terms of economical changes; however, the decline of human dignity was lead to the bottom of what we are as human beings, we didn’t belong to ourselves, we belonged to a number which was productive inside an industry. Working 24/7; wages lower than ever and leaving conditions were part of what most people had to face, especially woman and children.

Nevertheless, there are always people who can provide a ray of sunshine. After the middle of the eighteen hundred we could see how laws were created to abolish injustice. A new movement was created to press the government to deal with the new problems this period had brought. After all, we need help from the powerful man and woman who can make a difference in history, without forgetting that each of our stories is part of the written world history.

How much do you need to be a queen?

Are you born to be a queen?

Elizabeth I is one of these people who had in their family blood the royal power to be a queen herself. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn; she was born with the personality to be the queen of England. After her half-sister Mary died, she took the power of the country and initiated one of the most important periods in history, an era called Golden Age.

The movie showed the ideal picture of Elizabeth. You could see her strong personality and dictatorial manner of treating people, the same that made her accused her cousin Mary Queen of Scots of conspiracy; joined the war against the Spanish Armada and took England through an era that every book of English history highlights.

Elizabeth was cleaver enough to take the right decisions about religion. She established a strong opposition to the Catholic religion which by that time was represented by the Pope and her cousin Mary, queen of Scots. You could see this part though the whole movie, being represented by all the people who were in favor or against the queen.

Also, she fought against the Spanish Armada convinced that she was going to save England; she took this responsibility as if she were the mother of the country. England was the heir she never gave birth, but she raised it.

The movie showed Elizabeth in all her glory as the queen she was that many stories talk about. In front of people she had the image of a gifted person blessed by God; however, she was like any human being, who felt love and hate each time she met new views of the world or was betrayed. This is Elizabeth I, Queen of England in the movie “The Golden Age”.

The Norman Conquest 1066 AD

The Norman Conquest period is the one that I feel is the first to establish in some way England as the one we know these days. So, this is why I chose it because it gives you the proper background to understand what the power can do in places and on people.

This period started with the Battle of Hastings which took place in 1066. William the Normandy from France took the power and established the new period in England history.

Bringing new elements to a new country was something that set this part of the history. In addition, linguistics changes were seen as an important part of this evolution, taking the best from this mixture and finding the way to the English that we know nowadays. The influence of Latin helped us to have some words in common in Spanish, the influence of French made English looked like a more organized language and after all, both of them helped it to become a less Germanic language.

As in any part of the world, history gives you a pictures of what the important events are, however, it is always important to keep in mind that powerful men are the ones who write history.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge may be considered one of the most important monuments that you can still see and relate with the European history. Even though experts are not sure about the date of its creation, it tells you something about their past.

In this sense, I agree with Wainwright about the origin of this stones. Stonehenge could have been used as a holy monument where you could find a special place; a place that would change your life, being considered as a healing location or spiritual place.

Moreover, maybe this place was built with the purpose of unifying the different cultures that where appearing at that time.

Having the form of a circle is significant in terms of a metaphorical circle of life. Many cultures were part of this construction and they put some of their own into these stones, putting their names in the history of Great Britain and the world.

This monument shows the part humans play in history. There are some people who have the privileges to write it down, nevertheless, we as a whole, form part of every event, known or unknown, in the world history.

Ways of Seeing

The way we see is affected by what we know and believe. We look to one thing and in that act it is reflected our inner thoughts.

We say in Spanish “una imagen vale más que mil palabras”. It is the same case in this text, where an image can represent something that someone wants us to see.

The way we see something has a relation with their position in space and time. These days images or pictures represent more than what they mean: in the past people didn't have the chance to see what now they are allow to see. Camera has made these changes possible. Images are not longer unique and exclusive, there have been used for different purposes and they have changed the meaning of what they used to represent.

These new representations are going to affect the way all of us create our identity in relation to the past, present and future. Some people believe their future is better than their past; I have to say that the only way to understand our future is seeing and learning from our past, the context and interpretations that we have done through our lives.