Easter Failure "Fail Toys"!

Easter Word Origins!

Hello everyone,

Yesterday morning my litlle cousin (Yasmin, 5 years old) made many questions about EASTER and i tought i knew what that exactly mean, BUT  Irealized that I didnt know a lot about it! 

It was actually really funny to see my little cousin asking me questions like: "What is EASTER? " 

"Why can rabitts put chocolate eggs just on EASTER time? ". That reminded me a text (The text is in portuguese :) ) i read on the web, I will post a link here where you can find it and i´m sure you will like.

Anyways, after many question my cousin did, I got pretty much confused about the meaning of easter and so i decide to make a little research about it and than ii could clear up hers and my doubts! So here are the results of my esater research:

What is Easter?

Easter celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus. That morning, according to the Gospel of Luke, Mary Magdalene and some companions visited the cave where He was buried, but they found the tomb empty. An Angel of the Lord appeared and told them that Jesus had risen. In the following days, Jesus appeared to His disciples and explained the meaning of His death (for the sins of mankind) and His victory over death, which offered the promise of rebirth for those who believe in Him. The word Easter may come from Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of Spring and fertility, whose festival was celebrated at the vernal equinox.

What is Holy Week?

Shrove Tuesday is a time for confession and absolution, Ash Wednesday derives its name from the custom of marking the foreheads of penitents with ashes on that day, and Maundy Thursday (or Holy Thursday) developed from maunde, Christ's injunction to love one another and the day celebrates the Last Supper and the ceremony of the washing of the feet. Good Friday illustrates good in the sense of "holy; observed as a holy day" and may be the oldest Christian celebration, its name possibly a corruption of "God's Friday." Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem where he was covered with palms by the multitudes.

What is Self-denial?

Self-denial during a period of religious devotion is a long-standing tradition in both Eastern and Western churches. The season of Lent was fixed at 40 days during the ninth century (with Sundays omitted). Lent comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "spring" or "lengthening days." It is a period of preparation for Easter and a time to strengthen one's faith through repentance and prayer. Lent has been observed with periods of fasting, abstinence from meat, dairy products, wine, etc.; and other penitential activities. It is a modern custom for Christians to "give up something for Lent" such as a favorite food, pleasure, or activity.

Why Rabits?

Rabbits were part of pre-Christian fertility lore and symbolized the abundance of new life associated with Spring. The ancient German goddess Ostara (called Eostre in Anglo-Saxon) was accompanied by a hare, which may have been the precursor of the modern Easter Bunny. (Hares are the European cousins of rabbits and have shorter ears and longer hind legs than rabbits.) In Germany, the Easter Bunny lays red eggs on Maundy Thursday and eggs of other colors on Easter Eve. The Easter Bunny came to America from German settlers who called him "Oschter Haws." The Pennsylvania Dutch prepared nests for the creature and on Easter Eve, the rabbit would lay colored eggs in these nests or in caps or bonnets left out for him. No one has come up with a good explanation of why a rabbit would lay eggs, though. The word bunny was first a term of endearment for a child or woman, perhaps formed from Scottish bun, "tail of a hare."

Why Eggs?

Easter eggs are a symbol of fertility and immortality and the egg is an important part of mythology, from the ancient Egyptians onward. In Christianity, the egg is associated with the rock tomb from which Christ emerged to begin His new life. Because the celebration of Easter is preceded by the 40 days of Lent, during which eggs and other dairy products are forbidden among Orthodox Christians, it is traditional to begin the Easter meal in Russia and eastern Europe by cutting up an egg that has been blessed and distributing it to each family member and guest. The custom of dyeing Easter eggs probably began with medieval travelers to Egypt and Persia, where people colored eggs for their Spring festivals. According to German folklore, the Easter Bunny lays the eggs and hides them in the garden — although other creatures have also been given credit for the laying of the Easter eggs. The term Easter egg came into English c 1825 and was earlier called pace egg or paste-egg. Chocolate Easter eggs were introduced around 1880.

We hope it had also helped you clearing up your doubts!!! 

And you? What do you think about Easter!?

Research source

By Lorenzo Menezes

About exchange!

Sue Clarke and her daughter Amy from Orange, NSW have had a fantastic experience with their host daughter, Tiffany, from France:

What motivated you and your family to volunteer to host?
It was Amy's idea to become a host family ourselves and after some thought I agreed. Amy had been interested in knowing more about exchange programs and when an opportunity came up to become a coordinator nearly two years ago I jumped at the chance so that we could learn more first hand. We thought that 6 months would be quite long enough but now that the time for Tiffany to leave is getting closer we wish she could stay longer. Tiffany has become a member of our family, a second daughter and a sister, and we love having her with us.

Did you have any reservations?

Amy was very excited once we had made the decision to take on our student but I did have a few reservations. I was concerned about the reaction that a student and her family might have about having a single parent host family. Also, my working full time means that our day to day lives are very busy and I was concerned that it may be difficult to spend enough time with our new family member. Because Amy is an only child, I did wonder how I would cope if our student and Amy did not get on or had totally different interests. Silly me! None of my concerns have caused a major problem. Life is still busy, and I am still a single parent but our student has fitted right in and copes with our family life as if she has been with us for ever.

Any major challenges or difficulties?

There really haven't been many. I think my role as coordinator had provided me with a good understanding of what to expect. Ensuring that I had some support systems in place was important. Planning ahead was the key I believe. For Tiff, the biggest challenge has been getting used to school because the system is so different here.

What benefits have you gained from hosting? Tell us about the good stuff!

The benefits...where do I begin? I am sure every host family would talk about the benefits of exposure to another culture but we did not realise how much we would enjoy sharing our lives with an overseas student. The benefits have not just been for Amy and me, but for everyone around us. Amy is an only child so the obvious benefit for her has been that she has enjoyed having a sister at last and they have become very close. They talk about visiting one another in the future and Tiff has indicated that she wants to come back to Australia to live for a while. Tiff's father has even invited Amy to come and work with him in France for several months. It seems that our relationship with Tiff will not end when her stay with us is over and I look forward to meeting her parents at some time and visiting her home in France. I think she will always be part of our family now.

By Lourenço Menezes

What do you think about exchange?

The use of technology in the formation of future teachers!

Nowadays the technology is arround us, and living without it became "impossible", specially in an informatic age. A reflex of this is the use of technology in teachers formation classes, this use became essential to the development of students. There is no better way to get the students involved than dive with them into their universe, but to get it rightlly we need at least to know how to use the computer and its fuctions, a good strategy are the websites like, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and such well know websites. Thinkning about it teachers in UERN (UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DO RIO GRANDE DO NORTE) encourage students to work side by side with technology, and this blog is a perfect example that this method really works. The students from 5th period of English  created trough team work this blog showing what and  how we are studying the subject of Reading and Writing with Professor Léodecio Martins.

"I think this is a really nice way for students learn english and the best thing is that we learn it in a really fun way!"
  

"In future I will definitely use internet and technology in my classes, because I think the students get more excited and it makes the classes easier like this the students learn faster!"

By Erivânia Cunha

What do you think about the use of technology in the formation of future teachers?

About Bullying!

Recently the Brazil had a massacre at a high school of the Realengo, Rio de Janeiro. The gunman called Wellington Menezes de Oliveira went into the school with two firearms and opened fire killing 12 children before kill himself. The Brazilian media and some persons describe the killer as a “cruel psychopath” and a “lunatic man”. But the policemen found a video about his reasons to kill the students. The killer talk in the video about his childhood, he suffered bullying in high school for often and guarded sorrows of this time. This sorrow made he choose the worst option. Read more about it!

The bullying is an ignored problem for a lot of school in the world. This problem can bring about dangerous emotional disturbances. Around the world have a lot of children victim of abasement and ignored in the schools because of a different personality or physical features. If this trauma not treated properly in the schools of the world, we’ll have more case like of the Rio de Janeiro.

And about it, what do you think?

What is stupid?

source: Explosm