Calling all headlines

Our fourth and final Candango will include pictorials of the following events. If you were an attendee and can think of a clever title, please submit it as a comment. The entries will be voted on and the best will be chosen for the final issue:

1. The 5th grade Tamar Project
2. The Michael Jackson band presentation
3. The alumni soccer game

Thanks!

–The Candango Press

Headline contest

Our fourth and final Candango is going to include pictorials of the following events:

1-Projecto Tamar

2-Michael Jackson band presentation

3-The alumni soccer game

If you attended any of these events please submit a possible headline; the best will voted on and used in the final issue.

Thanks!

–The Candango Press

Using powerpoint well

Bloggers and scientists agree: the ultimate rule in giving a presentation is attention.

To increase attention using a powerpoint we’ve reached five basic principles:

(1) Powerpoint is a tool

(2) While it is a tool, it is not a hammer. Do not beat your audience with overly wordy, illegible, or busy slides

(3) Powerpoint should use the iceberg principle. It should take a body of research and reduce what is shown on slides to about 10%

(4) The 10% that is shown should be visuals, graphs, and a very few guide post words.

(5) The meaning in the presentation comes from what the presenter is saying.

The comments on this post are other helpful ideas for creating powerpoints from the Candango Press. If you have any other useful tips please add your comments to their list.

A case study in effective communication skills: Alejandra Kubitschek

The trifecta for effective communication is a knowledge of who you are as a communicator, your message, and an awareness of your audience. The latter, especially, can be a grizzly bear–especially when that audience is a tired, hungry, overheated upper school.

The following is a case study in what we thought was an effective presentation:

The setting: a library filled with 250-or-so 9^th-12^th grade students, packed as blocks of water in an oversized ice tray—slowly melting despite valiant efforts from a dripping backroom AC.

Speaker: Alejandra Kubitschek.

Purpose: To “bring us Brasília” on the eve of its semicentennial.

Audience: squirrely 9^th-12^th graders with varying levels of interest, attention spans, and experience with the city.

Through effective audience interaction, proper Powerpoint usage, original documents, and a host of other skills I (Mr R, again), feel I know a great deal more about my ½-hometown.

To help us with the next (and final school year) Candango, please leave comments, (A) about what you learned about Brasília, and/or (B) what contributed to the efficacy of her presentations (three ovations?!).

Calling all tricks, trucos, truccos, and 간계 for language learning!

Those of us who are not Korean can use Yahoo’s Babel Fish for the last word in the list–though you can probably get it by context. But as many of us have found, Babel Fish reverts back to Babel-gibberish when we try to translate longer portions of text.

We all have (or have had) language classes (this teacher/writer included). They are the groundwork for mastery; however, there are 100s of tricks, trucos, truccos, and 간계 that can help us–with a little creativity and ingenuity–build on that foundation. Here’s a few, but we want yours too!

1st Tip: choose a different country in the iTunes store, and download simple podcasts in your desired language for listening practice.

2nd Tip: When you are in a place–say a library–practice vocabulary by looking at objects and see which objects you can translate (chair = cadeira, office = escritorio), and which you cannot. Grab the dictionary in the reference section for the words you don’t know.

3rd Tip: check out both versions of classic childrens’ lit. (i.e., The Little Prince y El Principito), and read them side-by-side.

What are yours? Please use the comment box below.

What does Brasília mean to us?

When it was being built, Brasília was called the “limit of insanity” by a newspaper from Rio. We have decided to ask ourselves if Rio was right.

The Limit of Insanity?

Robert Burns’ oft quoted line, “the best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, gang aft agley,” describes how even the greatest plans of humankind–personal and corporate–are often thwarted. I (Mr R), feel that when they go “agley,” it is my job to step in look back (even 50 years after), and to move upward onto new plateaus and to achieve a broader vision.

Recently the city has been putting cement blocks along the “rabbit trails,” shortcuts, that people make around the sidewalks in Asa Sul. I think this is an apt metaphor for the idea: we can plan something perfectly, but then we have to adapt.

My 9 months pales in comparison to Brasília’s 50 years, but I am living here.  Sometimes it feels like I’ve landed on a well-furnished vale on Mars–but I think living on an airplane (or crossbow, or cross) something inspiring.

What does Brasília mean to you?

A question of visual ownership

Our staff asked ourselves the following question: “Is it wrong to use an image found on the internet, change it, and call it your own?”

We decided, very ambiguously, that yes it wrong, it depends, and no it is not wrong. Clearly this was an answer for progressive lawyers. Regardless, these were some of our ideas. Maybe you can help us straighten ourselves out?

It is wrong	It depends…	It is not wrong
It is wrong when it causes controversy The person who created an image has ownership to it, like an author has ownership of words We pay for blueprints for a house—even as a foundation, an image is a piece of property. As a people coming to terms with a “brave new world,” must be accountable for the use of imagery	It depends on whether it has copyright or not It is only wrong when not mentioning sources & changes made Creativity: how much you changed the original image—as long as the owner is credited It depends on the purpose (profit, education, etc.)	The moment you post it online it is “free game” unless copyright You idea but not actually the picture artist’s responsibility to keep work safe—if they don’t you are free to build on us The old adage: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Cell phone broadcasts

Armed with cell phone cameras, the citizen journalists from room 211 scoured EAB and took pictures of all things interesting, unique, disquieting, et al., on the physical campus. To add to last week’s “The Tower,” here are several more cell phone video reports:

Drama in the drama room

The gym

Eab’s mysterious Mona Lisa

Tower of mystery

Candango journalists Felipe Serpa, and Marco & Borja Buitrago explore the enigmatic tower behind the EAB sports field. Follow the link to see their report:

The Tower

Interview with a survivor of EAB’s Jim Crow South

For one week 10 students attempted to live under the discrimination and segregation experienced by the African American community in Jim Crow America. This journey required the 10 IB students to experience first hand the difficulties, unpleasant experiences, and humiliation that was current in the U.S. during that period. This was an experience that had never been seen before at the school. Some of the ordeals included using separate bathrooms and water fountains, being unable to engage a person in conversation if he was not addressed first, and cleaning up the lunch area. Luc Fagerberg followed up with fellow IB constituent, Sebastian Codina. 

Interview with Sebastian Codina