Christmas Around the World

AUSTRALIA

Christmas time is Austrialia is often very hot. The traditional meal might consist of a turkey dinner with ham and pork. Mince pies and a flaming Christmas plum pudding are frequently part of the dessert. During the gold rush, the pudding would sometimes contain a gold nugget. Today, a small favor is baked inside. Whoever finds this trinket is believed to be blessed with good luck. Some Australians (and tourists) have their Christmas dinner on the beach. Bondi Beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs in particular attracts thousands of people on Christmas Day. "Carols by Candelight" is an Australian trdition which began in 1937. It takes place every year on Christmas Eve, when tens of thousands of people gather in the City of Melbourne to sing their favorite songs while holding candles. A favorite Christmas decoration is the Christmas Bush, a native plant which sports tiny red-flowered leaves.

 CHINA

For the small percentage of Chinese people who are Christians and who celebrate Christmas, the observed customs are similar to those practiced in the United States. Most erect artificial trees decorated with spangles, paper chains, flowers and lanterns. Chinese Christmas trees are known as "Trees of Light" and their Santa Claus goes by the name of Dun Che Lao Ren, which means "Christmas Old Man."

FRANCE

Children put shoes on the doorstep or by the fireplace on Christmas Eve, in order that Petit Noel (the "Christ Child") or Pere Noel ("Father Christmas") might fill them with gifts. The houses are decorated with misteltoe, considered to be a symbol of good luck, and the French gift-giver has been known to leave sweets, fruit, nuts and small toys hanging on the Christmas tree. In cathedral squares, the story of Christ's birth is reenacted by both living players and puppets. In Provence, an area of southeastern France, the entire family helps bring in the Yule Log, which must be large enough to burn from Christmas Eve until New Year's Day. Many years ago, part of this log was used to make the wedge for the plough as good luck for the coming harvest. French families often set up a small Nativity scenes in their homes and, for their Christmas meal, will frequently serve Strasbourg (liver) pie and black pudding.

THE USA

Santa Claus was born in US in the 1860's he was named this as he had a white beard and a belly, so he was named Santa Claus as this was the Dutch word for St Nicholas, Sintaklaas. In 1863 He was given the name Santa Claus and bore the red suit, pipe, and his reindeer and sleigh. In America the traditional Christmas dinner is roast turkey with vegetables and sauces. For dessert it is rich, fruity Christmas pudding with brandy sauce. Mince pies, pastry cases filled with a mixture of chopped dried fruit. The majority of Americans celebrate Christmas with the exchange of gifts and greetings and with family visits. For many, the day begins on Christmas Eve with the Midnight Mass. At Christmas it snows in many states, so dinner is usually eaten indoors. Dinner usually is roast turkey, goose, duck or ham served with cranberry sauce, then plum pudding or pumpkin pie followed by nuts and fruit. American homes are decorated with holly, mistletoe and branches of trees, most have a Christmas tree hung with electric lights, tinsel, baubles, and strings of popcorn and candy canes.

BRAZIL

One Brazilian tradition is to create a nativity scene or Presépio, which originates from the Hebrew word "presepium" which means the bed of straw upon which Jesus first slept in Bethlehem. Papai Noel, who lives in Greenland, is the gift-bringer. A huge Christmas dinner includes turkey, ham, colored rice, and wonderful vegetables and fruit dishes. Devout Catholics often attend Missa do Galo. Its name is because the rooster announces the coming day and the Missa do Galo finishes at 1 AM on Christmas morning! On December 25th, Catholics go to church, but the masses are mostly late afternoon, because people enjoy sleeping late after the dinner called Ceia de Natal or going to the beach. Fireworks go off in the skies over the cities and huge Christmas "trees" of electric lights. The festivities go on until January 6th, which the Brazilians refer to as Three Kings Day. January 6th is supposed to be the day when three wise men visited Jesus to bring him gifts.

Eager to know about other countries?! 

Check Christmas Around The World

The Influence of Media

My MYP1 students were asked to make a presentation in which the topic was "The influence of media in our lives". Thus, they were divided in pairs and received different kinds of media so that they developed their presentations. The medias were TV, Internet, Radio, Newspaper, and Billboards. I transformed some of their presentation into a video and asked them to write the summary of what they presented.

Give a look:

NEWSPAPERS                               

The newspaper was the first and the main way of communication for a long time. Even with the development of new technologies, the newspaper still has a large importance in daily life of people.

The newspapers have to adapt to readers along the history and share space with others kinds of media like radio, magazines, internet and television. The newspaper informs the people about news in Brazil and in the world.

The main characteristic of this type of media is it influence on public opinion of the people. 

However, many times the newspaper can take different approaches in news.

By Marina Furlan & Juliana Furlan

TV                                                  

Most people I know watch TV every day. We watch the news from the whole world; we have our favorite serial movies, talk-shows and other programs. TV enables us to get to know about people from every part of the world. We are informed, how different people live, how they dress and what are their habits. Television plays and important role in creating new trends. It makes us want to follow the examples of other people. Moreover, the advertisements make people want to buy certain products. Even if we avoid watching them, we are constantly influenced by them.

Numerous people consider television a good escape from all difficulties of everyday life. On TV you can learn, that everyone can become rich, beautiful and popular. In the movies we watch pretty actresses and actors, who easily solve all difficult problems, making careers, having much money. Very popular nowadays are fantasy and science-fiction films. They show us the imaginations about the future of the world. It tells the untrue stories, which take place in the future or in other worlds and spaces.

By Athilio Marangoni & José Renato Guedes

BILLBOARDS                                

The billboard, also called hoarding in other places in the world, is a big panel that is very used for making comercial of many things like new cars new schools and these stuff affect our lives a lot because when you see a hot woman driving a car you will think "Wow! With this car I can be like her". Then you go there and buy the car. On the other hand, the visual pollution is very big. Imagine a city with a lot of billboards everywhere it Will be a visual polluted city.But the big interprises use it a lot to make a good image for her brand. And it is important to say that the billboards are used to help enterprises earn more money. And that's why billboards are important not only for us but for the enterprises too.

By Heitor Inácio & Adauto Gramático

RADIO                                           

The arrival of the radio was an important change in our lives. Without it the globalization process would take more time to happen. We would be living without instant communication, and we would never be able to have a lot of signal that help us, like wireless, GPS, 3G, and others; It’s all based in radio waves. Radio also changed the advertising business, allowing it to not just see, but listen to advertisement. Political ads would never be the same without radio, because everybody would hear the ads on it, in simple pamphlets or outdoors people had a choice to see it or not, but listen to it is more difficult to prevent. 

By Henrique Gonçalves & Giovana Telles

From Degrading to De-Grading

By Alfie Kohn

You can tell a lot about a teacher’s values and personality just by asking how he or she feels about giving grades. Some defend the practice, claiming that grades are necessary to “motivate” students. Many of these teachers actually seem to enjoy keeping intricate records of students’ marks. Such teachers periodically warn students that they’re “going to have to know this for the test” as a way of compelling them to pay attention or do the assigned readings – and they may even use surprise quizzes for that purpose, keeping their grade books at the ready.

Frankly, we ought to be worried for these teachers’ students. In my experience, the most impressive teachers are those who despise the whole process of giving grades. Their aversion, as it turns out, is supported by solid evidence that raises questions about the very idea of traditional grading.

Three Main Effects of Grading

Researchers have found three consistent effects of using – and especially, emphasizing the importance of – letter or number grades:

1. Grades tend to reduce students’ interest in the learning itself. One of the most well-researched findings in the field of motivational psychology is that the more people are rewarded for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward (Kohn, 1993). Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising that when students are told they’ll need to know something for a test – or, more generally, that something they’re about to do will count for a grade – they are likely to come to view that task (or book or idea) as a chore.

While it’s not impossible for a student to be concerned about getting high marks and also to like what he or she is doing, the practical reality is that these two ways of thinking generally pull in opposite directions. 

2. Grades tend to reduce students’ preference for challenging tasks. Students of all ages who have been led to concentrate on getting a good grade are likely to pick the easiest possible assignment if given a choice (Harter, 1978; Harter and Guzman, 1986; Kage, 1991; Milton et al., 1986). The more pressure to get an A, the less inclination to truly challenge oneself. Thus, students who cut corners may not be lazy so much as rational; they are adapting to an environment where good grades, not intellectual exploration, are what count. They might well say to us, “Hey, you told me the point here is to bring up my GPA, to get on the honor roll. Well, I’m not stupid: the easier the assignment, the more likely that I can give you what you want. So don’t blame me when I try to find the easiest thing to do and end up not learning anything.”

3. Grades tend to reduce the quality of students’ thinking. Given that students may lose interest in what they’re learning as a result of grades, it makes sense that they’re also apt to think less deeply. 

More Reasons to Just Say No to Grades

The preceding three results should be enough to cause any conscientious educator to rethink the practice of giving students grades. But wait – there’s more.

4. Grades aren’t valid, reliable, or objective. 

5. Grades distort the curriculum. 

6. Grades waste a lot of time that could be spent on learning. 

7. Grades encourage cheating. 

8. Grades spoil teachers’ relationships with students. 

9. Grades spoil students’ relationships with each other. 

The most destructive form of grading by far is that which is done “on a curve,” such that the number of top grades is artificially limited: no matter how well all the students do, not all of them can get an A. (...)

Sadly, even teachers who don’t explicitly grade on a curve may assume, perhaps unconsciously, that the final grades “ought to” come out looking more or less this way: a few very good grades, a few very bad grades, and the majority somewhere in the middle. But as one group of researchers pointed out, "It is not a symbol of rigor to have grades fall into a 'normal' distribution; rather, it is a symbol of failure -- failure to teach well, failure to test well, and failure to have any influence at all on the intellectual lives of students” (Milton et al., 1986, p. 225).

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