Tenses

Hello!
I leave these videos here with a good and thorough explanation of the tenses we have been revising this week: present simple vs present continuous and present perfect simple and present perfect continuous. I hope they are useful.

London

Only some days to start the trip... I bet you are nervous!
Here I include a link to a doc with the programme of our trip, including the surprise I told you about on Tuesday.
Useful links
The National Gallery
The British Museum
The Natural History Museum
Channing School
The weather

Spot the difference

24 years separate these two videos. I brought them here because I thought it might be a good exercise to try and spot the differences -and similarities.

Robert Palmer. Simply Irresistible (lyrics)

Please focus on the stereotypical gender roles and how these videos reflect an evolution in these 24 years. I hope you enjoy!!!

Ingrid Michaelson. Girls Chase Boys (lyrics)

Questions to prepare for the oral exam

A positive attitude may be the key to living longer

This week we have been reading about how important it is to have a positive attitude in order to live longer. This is not just a text to read and learn new words: Enjoying life could be the key to living longer, according to new research. 

...and a couple of days ago, Pharrell Williams was announced to be contending for the 86th annual Academy Awards. His song Happy has been nominated for the category of Best Original Song.
 This gives us a reason to enjoy these uplifting videos (with and without lyrics) and wish him good luck next March 2nd!

Human Rights

December 10th. Human Rights Day 

The UN General Assembly proclaimed 10 December as Human Rights Day in 1950. The High Commissioner for the promotion and protection of all Human Rights was created in 1993. Therefore, we are celebrating their 20th anniversary.

Take a look at this video,  which is immpressing summary of the story of Human Rights, from the time of Cyrus the Great until today. It will surely provide you with interesting reflections about this 'hot topic' and ideas to use in your oral exam.

For a list of terms used in the video click here 

(remember you can turn on the subtitles, they may help)

Use the following links to see the complete list of Rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to prepare for the oral test.

List of the 30 rights in the Universal Declaration

Video. The 30 Articles of Human Rights  

Instructions and resources

Why learn English?

In my first lessons I always advise my students to try and find their own personal reason for learning English... if they haven't done it yet.  It is always easier to learn when you have an objective, a motivation. You may decide you want to learn because you will get a better job in the future, or because you want to understand your favourite songs. I thought the infographic below might provide you with some interesting facts and figures about the English language and help you find your reason for learning English!

           
           

                Learn about infographics software.
           

           
           
           
       

Globalization? Only 4.74 degrees separate any two people in the world.

There used to be a theory saying that anyone in the world was, on average, six steps away from any other person on Earth. This means that a chain of 'a friend of a friend' can be made to connect any two people in six steps.
There was a play and even a film about this.
But globalization has changed this too: Facebook and the University of Milan have carried out a new research that proves the new distance is now only 4.74. The results were published on Facebook site last Monday.
To calculate this, they used the 721 million active users of FB (one tenth of the world's population) and the relationships between them (69 billion).
It's a small small world... and getting smaller!

Science Valentine

Romance isn't necessarily red roses and poems, it can also be seen from a more 'logical' or 'scientific' way. Do you know who all these people are?
Ada Lovelace, one of the two women in the group, was the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron (with Anne Isabella Milbanke) and is considered the world's first computer programmer. Alan Turing, mathematician and cryptanalyst, played an important role in the development of computer science. Tesla, who was Serbian, contributed significantly to the birth of commercial electricity.
Heisenberg, a German theoretical physicist, made essential contributions to quantum mechanics. Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, well known for being a science communicator and for making space and natural sciences popular.
Brian Cox, the youngest in this group (born in 1968) is a particle physicist who works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN, near Geneva.
I have not written anything about Stephen Hawking or Marie Curie, but you know all about them, don't you?

You can buy the cards here

Assange and Zuckenberg

Read more

THE DIGITAL STORY OF NATIVITY - ( or Christmas 2.0 )

Merry 2.0 Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
(Our Secretary P.F. has sent me this video. Thanks)

Radio Jandula: Singing, Raindrops and Umbrellas

Radio Jandula: Singing, Raindrops and Umbrellas

Singing, Raindrops and Umbrellas

Rain will be here any minute now. Anticipating the rainy days to come, here are three well-known songs...
First Raindrops keep falling on my head, Oscar winning song written by Burt Bacharach for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In the video you'll see a very young Paul Newman (it was back in 1969) trying to impress Katherine Ross. Click for lyrics here




Now the classical video from the American music comedy film 'Singing in the Rain' with Gene Kelly singing -and dancing in the rain. Lyrics here



Finally, a recent revision of this recurrent theme. Here is a vid that the boys will love... Rihanna's Umbrella. Lyrics

Space Oddity (Ground Control to Major Tom)

You may have not heard a word about David Bowie, but he is one of the most influential musicians the British Isles have produced lately. This is "Space Oddity", David Bowie's first big hit back in 1969. Major Tom is a fictional character Bowie created. He is an astronaut, his departure from Earth is successful and everything goes according to plan, but he then cuts off contact with Ground Control. His last transmission is "Tell my wife I love her very much" and the response is that "she knows"...

Space Oddity lyrics found at elyricsworld.com

After some archaeogogical search, I have found Space Oddity original video, with the very Bowie playing Major Tom. Or if you click here you will get to see an interesting vid too... Enjoy!

BackToSchool (cont.)

No matter how hard you think going back to school is, it would be just 'a piece of cake' (a very easy task) if you compared it with Elizabeth Eckford's experience 53 years ago.

Elizabeth Eckford, Of The Little Rock Nine, Tells Her Life Story

by The Huffington Post News Editors

It was a school night, and Elizabeth Eckford was too excited to sleep. The next morning, September 4, 1957, was her first day of classes, and one last time she ironed the pleated white skirt she’d made for the occasion. It was made of pique cotton; when she’d run out of material, she’d trimmed it with navy-blue-and-white gingham. Then she put aside her new bobby socks and white buck loafers. Around 7:30 a.m. the following day, she boarded a bus bound for Little Rock Central High School.

Other black schoolchildren were due at Central that historic day, but Elizabeth would be the first to arrive. The world would soon know all about the Little Rock Nine. But when Elizabeth Eckford tried to enter Central, and thereby become the first black student to integrate a major southern high school, she was really the Little Rock One. The painfully shy 15-year-old daughter of a hyper-protective mother reluctant to challenge age-old racial mores, she was the unlikeliest trailblazer of all. But as dramatic as the moment was, it really mattered only because Elizabeth wandered into the path of Will Counts’s camera.

You can read more about the history here.

photo by Will Counts/Arkansas History Commission

Back to School

A new school year is about to begin! Aren't you excited about it? Well, I know, going back to routines is hard after the summer, but looking at the bright side of it, these days also mean cooler weather, meeting new friends -and new teachers too, learning lots of interesting things... and after all, there is no way around it (resistance is futile), so we'd better keep a positive attitude!

Imagine how happy your parents will be once your start school, your mum will surely feel like dancing!

Believe it or not, we, teachers also feel a bit anxious about the beginning of each new school year, but it's our job and we are ready.

MY BEST WISHES FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR ABOUT TO BEGIN...

(Thanks to my dear friend Rosa http://inglesiesollosgrandes.blogspot.com/ for the ideas and images in this post)

Your Europe Your Say: What a weekend!

Last february, Radio Jandula informed about the selection of our school to participate in this European event organised be the EESC.

Time passed, the three lucky students were selected, paperwork done, their amendments sent... and last Thursday, the day to fly to Brussels finally came!

Unfortunately for me, I couldn't accompany the students because of an unlucky accident, but our great DOS (=Director of Studies) volunteered and off they headed for Brussels. Little did they know about Icelandic volcanoes of un-spellable name, about how mean airline ground staff can be, or about what kind of eventful experience they where about to go through...

Now that everything is over, I believe the thousands of kilometres driven on European roads, the people they met and the enthusiasm and help from the EESC people will add value to this intense and unforgettable experience.

Congratulations and make sure you spread the news!

A very special THANK YOU to our DOS, who volunteered to go at very short notice, accompanied, guided and drove our students up and down Europe, took them to Brussels in time for the event and then brought them back home safe and sound, and another big THANK YOU to Ms Irini Pari for having this wonderful idea and making it all happen

Humbled by a volcano

Sometimes our planet reminds us we are not so powerful as we think we are. Look at how the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in such a remote part of Europe has provoked air travel chaos and will have unexpected consequences...

Our school has also been directly affected. Last Thursday, three of our students and our DOS (=Director of Studies) were on their way to attend an event in Brussels. They had to land in Paris and continue their journey from Paris to Brussels by car. And today they are returning by car too!
A bigger group of students is now in Paris...

If you want to know more about the eruption, watch the video below, it comes from Newsy. Go to their page (by clicking here), you will be able to read the text, just click on 'transcript'.

For some images, you can visit the Reuter's website.

And if you want to read the article which inspired the title of this post, go to the digital edition of The Guardian.

Your Europe Your Say

Our school has been selected to attend a special plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee next April.
If you want to know more about it you can visit their website
Three students have already been selected to go to Brussels accompanied by a teacher. The goal of this session is to learn about the Committee, get to debate a specific topic with the Committee's other "extraordinary members" – young people of the same age from all the 27 EU countries – and work with them to hammer out a consensus. We'll all be working together in a multicultural environment. The students will get to discuss Europe and a host of other issues. There will be opportunities to find out about other cultures. And the lucky students who attend the session will come back home with some unforgettable memories.
In order to prepare for this visit, next Monday 22nd, our sc)cC and 1BacD students and will inform them about the Committee and about this special session.
We will need the cooperation of all of the students in these two groups to discuss the suggested topic and propose amendments to it. The topic is the prevention of the damage alcohol may cause.
We will make three groups representing the three sectors in the EESC.
Keep checking this blog. We will inform about everything here!

If you want to read the text we will be discussing, click here! (It's about a strategy to support Member States in reducing alcohol-related harm)
Or here (to read the document in Spanish)

I Gotta Feeling.The Black-Eyed Peas

Flash mob in Chicago

Lyrics | Black Eyed Peas lyrics - I Gotta Feeling lyrics

Flash Mob in Chicago. The Black-Eyed Peas

This is a good example of a flash mob. It happened in Chicago last September. How would you translate 'flash mob' into Spanish?