Estamos em plena campanha eleitoral pela Associação de Estudantes do Externato. Segunda-feira (e não só) procedeu-se à habitual distribuição de panfletos eleitorais, por parte das várias Listas que este ano concorrem à liderança da A.E.

Muitos procederam à também habitual leitura das medidas/objectivos/ideias a desenvolver presentes nos panfletos. Eu próprio o fiz, com uma diferença, no entanto, para a leitura dos anos anteriores. Desta vez, tomei algumas notas, há medida que fui lendo as propostas das várias Listas. São estas notas que acho importante aqui deixar para que as possam ler se quiserem.

Quero adiantar que aquilo que aqui escrever não tem como objectivo lesar a campanha de qualquer uma das Listas, ou mesmo todas, mas sim tentar que as Listas tornem as suas propostas mais claras aos olhos daqueles a que essas propostas possam interessar; e tentar também que todos adoptem uma atitude mais crítica face às opções de votação que têm: deixo perguntas relativas a certas propostas (a que as Listas devem procurar responder), mas também algumas sugestões.

Sinto que devo deixar uma crítica introdutória referente a um comportamento que sei que pelo menos uma das Listas adoptou: sei de dois casos de alunos que foram inseridos na secção de colaboradores de uma Lista, ainda que tenham expressamente afirmado que não queriam que tal acontecesse. Afirmo com bastante segurança que estes casos não deverão ser exclusivos.

Permito-me ainda escrever que há propostas bastante boas e que seria muito interessante ver desenvolvidas.

Escrito isto, passemos às propostas e às respectivas anotações que escrevi:

Lista XL

- Realização de concertos de bandas de estudantes do E.M.L

- Abertura de uma sala própria para a associação, facilitando assim a interacção de todos os alunos com a A.E., e para o funcionamento da mesma

     estarão membros da A.E. nessa sala para receber quem lhes eventualmente queira falar?

- Dinamização do placard da associação de estudantes

- Criação e dinamização de um site (se possível) / blog destinado à associação

     com que objectivo(s)?

- Actualizações culturais semanais (cinema, teatro, museus, concertos e festas)

- Reabertura do bar da associação

- Palestras de ex-alunos Maristas sobre o seu curso e a vida universitária (para o secundário)

     porque não também para o 9º ano?

- Palestras de aluno do secundário sobre o seu agrupamento e a vida no liceu (para o 3º ciclo)

- Colaboração com o E.M.L. para sermos de novo uma eco-escola, com a realização de campanhas de sensibilização de causas para ajudar o ambiente. E, se possível, a implantação de ecopontos na escola.

- Apoio às actividades extra-curriculares, nomeadamente futsal, volleyall e ginástica – com a exposição de calendários de jogos, tabelas classificativas, fotografias e resultados.

- Realização de duas 24 Horas Maristas (1º e 2º período), para o secundário, ex-alunos e professores.

     porque não alargá-las a outros anos/ciclos?

- Organização de torneios de basketball, volleyball, matraquilhos, ténis de mesa, PES 2010 e FIFA 10 ao longo do ano.

     para que anos/ciclos serão esses torneios?

- Funcionamento da rádio Marista nos intervalos e melhoramento do sistema de som da mesma.

- Palestras de educação sexual.

- Festas da associação em conhecidas discotecas de Lisboa, com apoio das suas respectivas produtoras

     “festas da associação”. Como assim “da associação”?

- Balizas em devidas condições para a área coberta do 2º ciclo

     a baliza que lá está parece ser bastante boa. Poderiam apenas obter uma para o outro lado do campo, mas há que ter em atenção eventuais problemas de espaço.

- Debates com os delegados de turma (2º ciclo, 3º ciclo e secundário) para uma melhoria da Associação

- Colocação de uma televisão no bar da associação

- Dinamização da parede de escalada

     qual é, concretamente, o plano de dinamização?

- Chuveiros novos nos balneários do ginásio

     não será antes preferível garantir um abastecimento constante de água quente?

- Realização da Maratona Marista

- Organização da Taça Marista em conjunto com o Colégio Marista de Carcavelos (masculino / feminino)

     o que é a Taça Marista? Não é uma simples repetição das Olimpíadas Maristas?

- Organização de fins-de-semana Marista

     que são…

- Descontos em alguns estabelecimentos na zona do Externato (Bonfim, Celeiro do Calhariz (4 e meio)

- Organização da Sumol Snow Trip

- Organização de churrascos Maristas

     em que circunstâncias?

- Caixa de sugestões

- Organização de aulas para iniciantes de surf e bodyboard

     em que locais? Regulares ou periódicas?

- Realização de uma Caça ao Tesouro todos os períodos para o 2º Ciclo

- Apoio aos alunos das turmas de arte com a exposição dos seus trabalhos

- Concursos literários, de textos livres, onde os melhores trabalhos serão expostos

- Criação de um projecto de ajuda a alunos mais fracos (ou não), onde todos se podem inscrever para ajudarem e serem ajudados

- Participação activa em todos os eventos organizados pelo Externato

    participação activa por parte de quem?

- Organização de uma “Feira Reciclável” onde poderás vender (caso se encontrem em devidas condições) /comprar manuais escolares e outros bens que necessites mais.

- Organização de uma festa final para o 2º ciclo de final de ano

Lista MF

- Organizar diversas festas e eventos temáticos;

- Particiar no projecto Rock in Rio – “Salvar o Planeta”;

- Organizar uma palestra sobre o risco das doenças sexualmente transmissíveis;

- Desenvolver projectos inovadores de solidariedade;

    inovadores em que medida?

- Organizar campeonatos de matraquilhos para o 2º e 3º ciclos;

    sem benefício para o secundário.

- Organizar campeonatos de xadrez para o 2º e 3º ciclos;

    sem benefício para o secundário.

- Disponibilizar uma playstation destinada ao entretenimento dos alunos nos tempos livres;

    aparentemente incomportável.

- Organizar um campeonato do jogo Guitar Hero;

- Reabrir a Rádio Marista nos intervalos;

- Realizar o momento do Bom-Dia, em cada Ciclo, uma vez por período com o objectivo de aproximar alunos e professores reforçando os valores Maristas;

    o que será o “momento do Bom-Dia” ?

- Melhorar as condições dos balneários do ginásio;

    a velha proposta…

- Reunir a Associação com os representantes de cada ano, uma vez por período, para auscultar as suas ideias e levá-las junto da Direcção do Externato;

    que representantes?

- Organizar um concerto no espaço do externato;

    concerto de quem e para quem?

- Reactivar o bar da associação de estudantes;

- Realizar o campeonato inter-turmas (e inter-escolas) disponibilizando alunos para arbitrar os jogos;

    disponibilizar que alunos? Inter-escolas entre que escolas?

- Implantar novas actividades extracurriculares (capoeira, badmington, basketball, etc);

    badmington já existe desde que haja número suficiente de alunos inscritos

- Substituir as mesas de matraquilhos;

    será isso realmente necessário?

- Disponibilizar a internet wireless no espaço escolar;

- Organizar sessões de Cinema;

- Criar um blog da associação de estudantes;

    com que objectivo(s)?

- Organizar seminários de diversas actividades (Krav Maga, Capoeira, entre outros);

Lista βeta

1. Concursos de “Sing Star” e de “Guitar Hero”;

2. Semanas temáticas (uma por mês, onde se desenvolverão várias actividades didácticas, palestras, apresentações entre outros, dedicadas a todos os anos escolares);

3. Desenvolvimento do projecto “Rádio Marista” (com o objectivo de para além de passagem de música, divulgação de eventos e informações da AE);

4. Promover a participação dos alunos do 2ºciclo na Rádio Marista;

5. Criação de esplanada de apoio ao bar, junto deste, dentro da área coberta do secundário;

    que apoio ao bar daria essa esplanada?

6. Organização de festas temáticas no final de cada período;

7. Baile de máscaras no Carnaval e de Festa alusiva ao dia do Halloween;

8. Jantar de natal com troca de prendas entre todos os anos (género de encontro do Magusto);

    não parece justificável a existência de mais festas de Natal. Porque não antes incorporar essa troca de prendas no Magusto?

9. Tardes de dança na área coberta, coordenadas por profissionais;

    regulares ou esporádicas? Para que alunos?

10. Torneio de matraquilhos e ténis de mesa de forma a dar mais uso às condições lúdicas que o externato oferece nas áreas cobertas;

    torneios para que anos/ciclos?

11. Dinamizar inter-turmas com outras modalidades, tais como voleibol, basquetebol, natação, entre outros;

12. Promover o bar da AE (com comida saudável e preços acessíveis) e abertura do mesmo durante jogos, treinos desportivos e outros eventos a serem realizados no ginásio;

13. Realização de torneios de PES com prémios para os vencedores;

    para que anos/ciclos serão esses torneios?

14. Divulgação das apresentações dos alunos das actividades extracurriculares (futsal, voleibol, ginástica, ballet, judo, fitness) através de anúncios e rádio marista;

15. Inquéritos frequentes para que os alunos manifestem as suas opiniões e sugestões sobre as condições do externato, de forma a estabelecer uma comunicação mais fácil entre alunos e a comunidade educativa;

16. Exposições de trabalhos em várias áreas do externato;

    exposição de que trabalhos?

17. Orientações e apoio nas decisões a nível de estudos futuros académicos – afixação de trabalhos académicos e visita de antigos alunos;

18. Tardes de cinema com venda de pipocas e gomas;

19. Personalização das Paredes dos campos e cacifos;

    que tipo(s) de personalização?

20. Restauração das redes de voleibol dos campos;

21. Sugestão de melhoria do pavimento do ginásio – linhas que delimitam os campos;

22. Ofertas e correio de Dia de São Valentim;

23. Criação e dinamização de um espaço de convívio, próprio da AE;

    espaço destinado apenas a alunos da A.E?

24. Promover a criação de padrinhos (alunos do secundário) para os alunos mais novos, com o objectivo de os integrar no ambiente do externato, dando-lhes uma referência, orientação e apoio quer a nível pessoal, quer pedagógico;

25. Dinamizar os recreios do 2ºciclo;

    como assim, “dinamizar” ?

26. Organização de passeios de bicicleta em Monsanto, promovendo o contacto com a natureza e o convívio Marista;

27. Novos equipamentos, através do contacto com patrocinadores para as equipas federadas do Externato;

28. Organização de campanhas de voluntariado;

29. Realização de Fins de semana Radicais com actividades como skate, surf, rappel, slide, etc;

30. Criação de um site onde possas dar a tua opinião e de um blog onde serão publicadas as notícias da AE;

31. Realização de um concurso de fotografia;

    quem poderá concorrer?

32. III Edição das 24 horas Maristas;

    quem poderá participar?

 Download da versão PDF deste artigo

Continuing my “First Week” post:

I did take an anti-inflammatory for about three days after that reckless jump. One week and a day after the day of the jump, I went to hospital to know exactly how I was and to get some advice. I spent about four hours there; and my feet were submitted to a total of six x-ray shots, each. My coccyx was not analyzed, for nothing but rest can be done about a coccyx fracture; and as a way to prevent my gonads to be submitted to x-ray radiation.

The orthopaedist eventually declared that I had a fracture on each heel and that it should take about three weeks to heal. Therefore I’m not taking part on Physical Education classes until, at least, next week. I asked the orthopaedist to let me take a look mywself at the x-ray images. He turned the computer screen to me and I could see the fractures. It makes my heel resemble a horseshoe, though it has no empty space in the middle.

Next Wednesday, I’m returning to the hospital for the orthopaedist to see my progress. I feel much better now, but my heel continues to hurt a little. My coccyx almost does not bother me.

I can’t remember any more details to add to this issue right now, but there are some more hot subjects I may write about later.

Hi, all. Here’s a poem I wrote from 29th to 30th of September. The first sentence of the poem had been on my mind for about a week; the 29th of September I woke and the entire first strophe poped out of my head. I immediately wrote it down on my graphics diary. That day, the poem structure and content continued to develop on my mind and I wrote it bit by bit until I finished what I had in mind.

Lately, many spontaneous strophes have been oozing out of my head and I’ve been writing some of them down. You can also read and comment this and other poems of mine on DeviantArt. I hope you like it.

If only you could see the things I have done,
You’d understand
Why I am now lost in sorrow

If only the moon would stop,
To never move again
And never to show that full face glimmer of hers

If only my limbs would not move
Responding to my feelings,
They’d hurt no one

If, at least, my legs were broken
Lest I could not dodge the blows from the ones who strive for killing me,
Others would not be hurt instead

If only the dawn of the morrow would be everlasting,
With all its tones of pink, orange and red,
I’d be free forever

If only I had no sense of smell
And could not scent blood drips in the distance,
Maybe I’d not prey

If only my mouth was shut
And my canines were not sharp,
I would not bite

If only I was not blind and had no claws,
I would not cut through flesh
And tear hearts in two

At least,
I am not deaf
And I can hear the cries from the ones harmed

If only I was not one of God’s mistakes…
If only I was not…
Hybrid…

This was this year’s first class week. As to celebrate, I had to do something really stupid in the middle of the week.

It was Wednesday. That day we had the official overture of this school year. It basically consists on a presentation of the most important theachers on school; and, since last year, diplomas for the Board of Honor students and medals for the Futsal Interclasses Championship winners are handed.

When the ceremony finished we were given half the Physics & Chemistry to be on the playgrounds. That was when it happened. Me and a friend of mine suddenly decided to o chase a student that’s always running inside our school. We started running after him and, some time after, he stopped; he talked with a friend and then he restarted his run. This time he noticed us (we had no intention in not being noticed) and some secs. later he started sprinting as to escape. I was about three and a half metres away from him when I started sprinting too. We eventually reached full speed, and then I realized I was faster. Eventually, we had no more place to run to, and so, we entered a corridor. We stopped, (exchanged two words?) and started running once again, downstairs. Then, we ran through the 3rd cycle covered area and, eventually, we rushed down some stairs that lead to the fields. Those stairs make an L shape and, instead of running both the L’s segments, the guy we were chasing jumped of the stairs at the corner of the L, in a Parkour-fashioned way. I half-expected he’d do that, and, as he did, I followed.

The thing is: he has done that more than once before; I had never done it, meaning I did not have the experience to jump from that high (about one and a half of myself). Also, someone was passing by on the moment I was to jump, and I feared to hurt him/her.

But now, you’re asking yourself what happened after the jump. Well… I landed with both my heels and flexed my legs, and, in result of landing with the hells, I lost my balance and fell back, smashing my coccyx against the ground. I started running immediately after that to continue the chase, knowing that that fall had not been good for sure. I found the chased guy resting and preparing to drink some water.

I sat down, starting to feel dizzy, and some friends came to see me. About two minutes later I has clambering some stairs in order to get to my classroom. There, I sat once again. When the Physics class started I felt so dizzy that, during some secs., I saw people as black stains against the white light coming through the windows. One friend insisted I should go to the infirmary; I refused, not wanting to lose the class. My face must have looked pretty pale, for the teacher understood I was not right. My concentration certainly fell about 60%, because I found it impossible to sit in a manner that made my coccyx not to hurt.

Because that afternoon I was class-free, I came home; or, should I write, I was driven home by the parents of one friend. At home I lay in bed all afternoon, with ice on my heels, my coccyx always hurting.

I have some more details here.

Today, I had to go to school to get my schedule and get some informations from my Class Director. The swine flu was the finnishing theme of the presentation; we were told some measures we should take as to prevent the flu from spredding inside the school, and from the school to its outside.

I left school having a lift from a friend of mine; I stayed at his home until 3 o’clock playing a Stratego (my first time). When still at his home another friend texted me suggesting I’d join her and others at school. After leaving my friend’s home at 3 p.m., I came home, edited my schedule on the pc, and, afterwards I went school to meet my friends. I stayed there until 6.25, after which I returned home once again.

I won’t write in detail, because I’d have to write a bit of my heart here. Bye.

Hi, all. It’s 8:22 in the morning an it’s a completly crazy storm outside. Today I have plans of going to a swimming pool with some friends, but now it really seems we have to change or cancel our plans. The thing is: it seems everyone’s still asleep, meaning it is a bit more difficult to make plans changes. The swimming pool we planed to go to is uncovered, obviously meaning it is a bit insane to go there with a thunderstorm outside and a hail fall.
This is how the weather is right now:

It is now “light rain” but it is still cloudy and thundering.
The good news, right now, are I’ve just been able to contact one of my friends through texting and suggested that we’d go to C. Colombo instead; she said she was going to contact the others.

More texting: it seems we’re not going anywhere after all. Anyway, tomorrow I have to go to school to get info on my schedule. It seems some of my friends were already planning to go to Colombo, tomorrow before going to school; therefore, they don’t feel like going there today. They say tomorrow I can go with them too.

My friend Catarina stated the following about this stormy rain:

Isto é um sinal divino que diz: “Chavalos, amanhã já tem aulas, logo vistam-se de preto e acendam uma vela em vez de irem curtir para as piscinas”

translated:

This is a divine signal saying: “Kids, tomorrow you have classes already; therefore, dress in black and light a candle, instead of going tan in the pools.

That is all I have to say for now. See ya ‘ll.

Today, in the morning, I went to my school in order to get my books for this year. I came back home by bus, and, I must say, the plastic sack in which I brought the books home was so heavy that I nearly have lost my precious fingers. Once at home, I removed the books from the sack and took a look at them, not unwrapping them from the plastics they are wrapped in.

Sometime later, I came to my computer and I found that a friend of who, collaborated with me in our last school year’s blog development, was online. We had already made some plans about developing a blog for our class this year, but, this time, unlike the last year’s blog, this one shall be creating from nothing at all. I mean, this time we create not only insert information into the blog, but, first, we have to create HTML model pages and articles and CSS stylesheets. I had already created both an article and a page model, when classes finished; but, although I really liked the article model I did no like the page model. What I did today was fully recreating a page model.

That is how it now is. In that image it can seem rather simple once we’ve not put it into use yet and it lacks the links space (I haven’t done that because I’m not sure where to put them; I’m going to ask my friend where he thinks I shall put them, either on one of the side columns, on top or bottom). I think this is pretty good, considering that three months ago I knew almost nothing about HTML language and nothing at all about CSS. I’m not content with the title, though. I don’t want it to be too distant to the text but I don’t want it to be so close to the column to top, as it is now, either. In that picture a “span” tag is being used; and the distance to the text is just fine; on the other hand, it is too close to the column’s top. Using a customized “h1″ tag makes it look like this,

which my mind has been considering too away from the text (now that I look at it again, it seems just fine).

Well, I haven’t got any more time to write right now. Bye all.

I’m writing this post only to share a song some of you might know. It is called I’ll Make a Man Out of You and it is featured in Walt Disney Pictures’ Mulan animated movie, released in 1998. This is, by many, considered the best song of the movie.

In my opinion, this video perfectly shows how group strenght and motivation can be important when learning, and how you must work hard to reach some objectives. Maybe this should even be shown to high school students when starting their school year.

The song actually starts around 1:07 video time, but I think it is worth watching the rest. Here you have the lyrics.

 

Last week I enroled in a Portrait Drawing course which theme was “The Contour Drawing and the Movement”. It finished yesterday. I had two classes a week (on Mondays and Wednesdays) from 10.30 to 13.00, which sums 10 hours. It took place in Lisbon at the NextArt school.

What we learned and practised was, basically, how to quickly catch a pose and that it is possible to make really good portraits relaying almost only on contour lines. The material we needed was: 8 A2 sheets, 50 A3 sheets, a charcoal pencil (soft), a 4B graphite pencil, an art eraser (for graphite and charcoal), a wax oil pencil, a bar of charcoal and an A2 sheet with texture. We used all this material over the four classes. The first class we worked with graphite, the second with graphite and wax oil, the third with the charcoal pencil and the graphite one; the last with the charcoal bar. We started using the eraser only on the third class, if I’m not mistaken. We worked with real models every class and we used easels.

The first class was spent drawing a model without looking at what we were drawing. You had to place the tip of your pencil on some spot of the paper and then slowly draw a contour line as you sweeped that contour, on the model, with your eyes. When the line you were drawing was interrupted you could look at the paper, place the tip of the pencil in another site of the paper, look at the model again and draw it until it finished. What really mattered in this exercise was how much focused you were on doing this. The results weren’t accurate, but they were still amazing because you could understand the pose by looking at the drawing and, even most surprising, volume was perceptible on the figure. Through this we easily understood that light and shades are not solely what puts volume into a figure (even, if you close you eyes and grope what is around you, you can still feel volume even though you can’t see light). The teacher also recalled that contour is not the same as silhouette, as follows:

On the second class we were taught how we should, in about a minute, pour into a paper a pose we were seeing. The technique we used can be called “Movement Drawing”. It consists in drawing a single line which goes through all the pose we’re seeing without focusing our attention on any particular part of the body at a time. Our hand shall acquire a certain flow while doing this, I think. Ricardo, the teacher, told us we should be able to go through all the pose at least once in the first 10 secs. On this class we even drew each other’s face with movement drawing. Looking at this drawings we should be able to understand how the pose we saw was.

On the third class we basically learned and started to conjugate contour drawing with movement drawing. We learnt to start off by doing a movement drawing of what we were seeing and then starting to contour over it. On this class we used the charcoal pencil for the first time; it has much more friction compared with graphite, but it is much more interesting to use, in my opinion. It seems charcoal pencils shall not be sharpened with a pencil-sharpened but, instead and carefully, with a knife, for example. This is due to the fragility of the charcoal lead; sharpening the pencil with a a pencil-sharpner, or otherwise carelessly with a blade, may result in frequently breaking the lead. It is also possible to sharpen charcoal by rubbing it on a sandpaper.

This post is not finished. You may want to look at it, again, later.

The other day I caught a bus when returning from International House Lisbon. It was the day in which I did the Speaking part of the CAE. Our teacher wasn’t expecting the students that would take part in the exam in that afternoon to show up in the morning class. I and a friend of mine stayed there for a moment and then we headed home.

I caught the bus as usual but I sat on the seat right behind the driver, which I am not used to do. When the bus stopped, at the next bus stop, an old woman entered the bus and said “good morning” to the driver. I became quite puzzled. I realized I have never done that.

Then I started meditating about that. I started trying to figure out if we should say “good morning” to bus drivers or not. The next time the bus stopped, more people entered and did the same the old lady did.

After all… what shall we do? Shall we say or not say “Good Morning”?