A TRIBUTE TO MY FRIEND MANDELA!!!

Hi everyone,

Last Saturday I woke up with terrible news. My friend Mandela had died. I knew that he was really ill and I also knew his age however, it is really hard to understand this world without his sight, his feelings, his heart...some people like him will never die in our world and in our thoughts because of his wisdom, his way of living, his compassion and his passion with humankind...Could you tell me what Mandela means to you???

This picture is taken in New York City when Mandela attended  an important meeting there. He was very kind and nice to me and I noticed that he was a humble person.

He made amazing statements that changed the world, that avoided wars and differences between people of colour and non-colour. He always focused on human beings no matter their colour, their religion, their ideology...so many things to learn from him

I definitely encourage you all to share your thoughts about this relevant man: NELSON MANDELA. if you also want to share some of his quotations, feel free to do it ok??

BFN!!

DO YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE AND TO WIN A TRIP TO NEW YORK???

Hi guys!!!

Here you are a link for you to read and to decide if you want to participate. It is a photography contest about a topic titled: CURIOSITY

From my point of view you have awesome prizes and no difficulties to participate in it. I encourage you to do it. So will I!!!

Check this web page and if you have any doubts, let me know ok??

www.curiosipics.org 

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT: OUR C.V.

Curriculum Vitae / Resume Outline

Contact Information

·    Name, address and phone number

·   NOT COMPULSORY to write your birth date as it is considered to be discrimination. You can if you wish.

Resume Statement

·         Resume Objective (that is related to the job you are applying for)

**This is your first opportunity to catch the hiring manager's attention. This is where you tell the employer what job you want or what career field you want to work in. Be very specific. A vague statement will get your resume redirected to the rubbish.

• Career and personal summary

Work Experience

·         Where?

·         What?

·         When?

Education

·         Include school, university or other tertiary education, training and courses

Optional Sections

• Skills
• Certificates (include here things like drivers license, first aid etc)
• Accomplishments
• Honors and Awards
• Professional Associations/Volunteer Experience
• Interests/hobbies

Referees (minimum of 2)

TIPS:

• Keep your sentences short
• Avoid first person pronoun (do not use ‘I’)
• Go from general to specific – use a logical order
• Use plain English

NEW PROJECT: MY C.V & A JOB INTERVIEW

Hi everyone!!!!

As you all know, we have started a new unit related to jobs. In different sessions with Kristie you have learnt enough vocabulary to display in our new projects. Now it is your turn to show your skills facing the competitive labour market.

This time we are going to deal with two projects: 

The individual one: MY C.V. ( We will deal with this one later in class).

 The other one: A JOB INTERVIEW  (in pairs) I will explain this one deeply:

1) You are going to work in pairs. Each person has a job. With your partner you have to choose one of the jobs to work with.

2) Once you have decided the job to work with then, one of you two is going to be the boss (interviewer) and the other one the person who applies for the job (interviewee)

3) You have to make up a dialogue in the context that fits with the job you have choosen (10 minutes minimum) in which the person that wants the job has to sell herself/himself.

4) Speaking fluently, pronunciation, accurate vocabulary will be required to pass this project. You will have an extra mark if you use your sense of humour or even if you dress up according to the context. 

5) You will be recorded and the deadline for this activity is going to be 2nd December.

GOOK LUCK GUYS!!!!

NEW PROJECT: KNOWING YOUR ECOLOGICAL SIDE!!!!

Hi again guys!!!

We would like to know how ecological you are in your real life that is why you are going to follow these instructions to share this information with your classmates.

1) You are going to record a tiny film in which you are the main character so, take your video camera or your mobile and try to show us your habits from the morning till night underlining those habits that are right or wrong in terms of ecology. Of course you are your own narrator in the story.

2) Create a slogan for you to remember these habits and write it down on your blog-portfolio

3) Upload your video below your slogan on your blog-portfolio

This project is going to be marked as the other ones. GOOD LUCK!!!!

That´s all folks!!!

BFN!!!

NEW UNIT IS COMING!!!! ECOLOGY!!!!

Hi guys!!!

We start a new and quite interesting unit related to ECOLOGY in our daily life. To introduce this topic you are going to watch the videos I´m uploading below and you have to make a comment telling us how ecological you are in your everyday life and the things you like most about these videos. Ask yourself a few questions:

1. Do I respect the environment?
2. Do I put in practise the three "R"?
3. Do I have ecological habits?

THANKS A LOT TO EVA HERRERO & VEGA MARTÍN, ELISABETH DOPAZO & ALBA MONTIEL & LUCÍA VILLORIA

Thanks a lot to Eva, Vega, Elisabeth, Alba M for your awesome muffins and for sharing them with all the class. Very kind of you. Above all, I really appreciate your effort trying to put in practise everything we have learnt in class.Go on this way!!!.

Here you are some picts for you to remember:

I also want to say thank you to Lucía Villoria for allowing us to listen to One Direction group in a song titled Diana related to the topic we are dealing with : FOOD DISORDERS and SELF- ESTEEM

Here you are the link if you want to enjoy the song once more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_eFDTzxHLtQ

BYE GUYS!!! I´M CHECKING YOUR PORTFOLIOS RIGHT NOW!!!

NEW PROJECT: A DEBATE

TOPIC: THE IDEAL BODY EXISTS FOR EVERYONE

Guidelines for the debate:

1)   In your groups:

-         define the topic,

-         what does it mean to you?

-         give your opinions

USE: IDEAS FROM THE QUESTIONS LAST WEEK, QUOTES, IDIOMS, PHRASES YOU HAVE LEARNT, NEW VOCABULARY

(15 minutes)

2)   All groups share their information from 1) with the class

(10 minutes)

3)   Groups will argue for and against the ideas and opinions of other groups

USE: The debating vocabulary from the blog link

(10-15 minutes)

4)   Questions to all groups from the chair people (Ascen and kristie)

(5 minutes)

GOOD LUCK J

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD!!!

Hi all!!!

Have you ever heard about Genetically Modified food?? Have you ever tried it?? Probably you have but you are not really aware of it

To make you understand about this issue we are going to deal with a funny video which illustrates quite well what GMF is. If you like the movie "Star Wars" you are going to enjoy the "Store Wars" vídeo with modified food. We will work with it in class, just click the link:

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=1301


That´s all folks!!!

ARE YOU GOOD AT COOKING????

Heyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

Do you like cooking?? Do you want to impress someone in your family with a delicious recipe??? Here you are the instructions and the way to do it. Pay attention to this video we are going to watch in class in our lesson focus on food and put it into practice at home.

Click the link to watch it.

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=297

IF  YOU FINALLY DECIDE TO DO THIS RECIPE AT HOME, PLEASE TAKE A PICTURE AND SEND ME BACK TO UPLOAD IT ON THE BLOG.!!! GOOD LUCK!!!

DEBATE!!!!!

Hey everyone!

I'm really impressed with your comments and your INSIGHT (the capacity to perceive the true nature of a situation / problem)!! Well done!!

1) You will now be working in your groups to have a debate about a topic relating to the body, food disorders and self esteem. The debate will be in class next Thursday 3rd October. You decided your topic in the seventh hour (I hope!)
Here is a link to some phrases you can use in a debate... This page comes from the United Nations, therefore very diplomatic and a bit posh...!

http://silvia-nulle.com/resources/Debating+-+Useful+Phrases.pdf

2) In Australia there is a day called RU OK? Day. It's a day to remember to care for the people around you!  Here is the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/ruokday?ref=profile

And here are some quotes to inspire you to be positive and to believe in yourself and to care for others.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=692845457411048&set=a.692845367411057.1073741837.158084124220520&type=1&theater

These quotes can help you to form an argument in your debate. You can also use ideas from the questions in class today.
Please respond on the blog with a short comment about a quote you liked and why. If you want to choose a quote from somewhere else, you can of course!!

Good luck and I look forward to hearing your opinions!!!

Kristie

TEENS AND FOOD!!!

Hi guys!!!

We are going to deal with different and interesting topics throughout this year and we start right now. The first one is related to food. I¨d like to know if you love food in general and if you have a balanced diet or if you eat just what you want...as you can see...so many questions in a brief paragraph....then, let´s start from the beginning...In this unit we will discover how a healthy diet is, we will learn english phrases related to food and we will talk about food disorders.

Here you are two videos of  girls who suffer food disorders. Wacth the videos carefully and make a comment on the blog giving your opinion about this situation and telling us if you know people around you with the same problem.

We will deal with these videos on our Thursday sessions where we will maintain a debate.

BFN!!!

STUDY SKILLS FOR THIS YEAR!!!

Hi all!!!

You should bear in mind at least four rules to achieve your goals in terms of studying for this year:

1. REVIEW: 
Review the weekly study tips provided each week in this blog and incorporate these tips into your daily routine. Establish your goals and priorities for the school year. Write them down and create a plan to achieve your goals.

Examples:

1. study two hours every day
2. hand in all homework on-time
3. ask more questions in class

2. CREATE:

Create a designated study area. Your study area should be quiet and comfortable. You should only study in this area and when you take breaks, leave your study area.

3 MANAGE:

Learn to manage your time. Make time schedules and stick to them. Always do the highest priorities first.

4.BE POSITIVE.

Develop a positive attitude towards your schoolwork. School is important for yur long-term goals. Find practical applications in what you are learning. Get to know your teachers, they will help keep you engaged.

BEAR IN MIND FOR THIS YEAR THE FOLLOWING ITEMS THAT ARE GOING TO BE ASSESSED:

1. COMMENTS ON THE BLOG: As you all know, last year these comments were taken into consideration in terms of positive and negative...to increase or dicrease your final mark..however, this year they are going to be graded considering your correctness when you write so, accuracy, spelling, vocabulary and appropriate grammar are going to be considered to get your final mark at this section.
2. EXAMS: This year you will have an exam every two units and a global exam at the end of the trimester as usual but you are going to have a vocabulary exam and translation exam every two weeks at the end of the week to test your daily study on the subject.
3. PROJECTS AND COMPOSITIONS: you will have to introduce a project and a composition once a month.
4. E-PORTFOLIO: We will create and e-portolio in google sites where you can design your pages with the sections I will show you. In this portofolio you will include your MONOLINGUAL GLOSSARY. It is forbidden to write in your native language: Spanish. You are obliged to write definitions, synonims or examples of the new words we are dealing with.
5. ATTENTION AND PARTICIPATION IN THE CLASSROOM: Apart from the things I have mentioned above, attention and ACTIVE participation in all the activities will make the difference to get a better or worse mark.

I´m sure you will do your best. Good luck and good year to everybody!!!!

NEW SCHOOL YEAR, NEW GOALS, NEW CHALLENGES...MORE AND BETTER ENGLISH!!!!

Dear Students,

A new academic school year is starting...before telling you how we are going to work this year, just a few thoughts and just a few words to remind you what is really important for you as students and as citizens at 3rd year of Compulsory Secondary Education, where you should really know what is basic and important in your life.... WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES PEOPLE TRULY GREAT???

It´s not the jobs you have, nor the grades you get. It´s not athletics, musical talent, whether you are famous, nor even how intelligent you are. All excepcional people have certain qualities in common. These unique qualities are called CHARACTER TRAITS. A person may be the fastest runner in the world, but someone who doesn´t show RESPECT for other people is merely a great athlete, which is altogether different from being a great person. Someone else may have the best grades in school, but without HONESTY that student is simply a person with an impressive report card.

People are great if their thoughts and actions are: HONEST, RESPECTFUL, COURAGEOUS, CARING, DILIGENT, LOYAL, FAIR, TRUSTWORTHY, RESPONSIBLE and TOLERANT. Additionally, great people possess INTEGRITY and are good CITIZENS in their communities.

This is a brief "speech" guys to take into consideration along the whole academic year, that´s why I want you to choose one of the words in italics and write a comment on the blog with its definition and how you are going to put in practice that characteristic in your school life and your life in general during this year.

Before finishig to explain this task I have good news for you all....our teacher assitant KRISTIE MOYLE is going to be with us again this year!!!Lucky you guys!!! Take advantage of her and be nice and friendly with her in this new year in which she is travelling as you know, from far, far, far away!!!

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL GUYS!!! YOU WILL SEE WHAT´S GOING ON!!!

GREETINGS FROM AUSTRALIA!!!!

Hi everyone,

Thank you for welcoming us to your school! We had a great time and were impressed with your English language skills.

We loved travelling around Salamanca and are sad that we cannot find much tortilla in Adelaide.

Our flight home was good but very long! Baby Amelia slept a lot and only cried a little bit.

Amelia is nearly 6 months old now so I will soon be giving her some Vegemite to try!

Rachel

Kristie and Rachel´s grandmom with  Amelia.

G'day everyone!! I thought it would be nice to say hello on your blog. We really enjoyed our trip to Salamanca and the many beautiful historical buildings. The local food was delicious (tortilla was my favourite). We especially loved the Plaza Mayor where we enjoyed quite a few cuppas, but the highlight for me was the time we spent at your school. We received a wonderful welcome and everyone was so interested to meet and share time with us. Your presentations were excellent and we were impressed with your English language skills and the way you understood us even when we got a bit excited and spoke too fast!  

I think you are very lucky to go to school at Villamayor - it is such a lovely place and your school has a friendly atmosphere where everyone smiles and laughs a lot. It is easy to see why Kristie loves being there and working with you all. I am back at work now and have told many people about our visit. They were interested to hear about you all. They were impressed that you all tasted Vegemite and laughed that some of you were gobsmacked at the unusual and strong flavour. Well done for trying it, you can't meet an Aussie and not taste some dinky-di food!

I wish you all well with your English studies. Keep up the hard yakka and maybe you will be able to use your language skills to have a chinwag in Australia one day! 

Much happiness to you all,

Marianne xx

THE BEST VOICETHREAD PRESENTATION !!!!

Hi guys!!!

We are about to finish watching our presentations about the English Week or our Easter Holidays... however, I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to Diego Armenteros for his complete, detailed and awesome presentation. I take into consideration your great effort and how you describe, pronounce and even your fluency speaking. I consider your presentation the best one and as a prize I want to do it public for everybody to have good memories about our english adventure and I definitely encourage you, all to design your projects with the same level as your classmate Diego.

Here you are the link for you to enjoy:

https://voicethread.com/share/4465801/

BFN!!!

LAST PROJECT: KITCHEN COMPOSITION

Hi guys!!!

Our last project of this academic year is related to MUSIC. As you have told me in class, music is really important in your life. Some of you like all kind of music, others have a favourite singer or group...Anyway...have you ever thought in creating your own music?? Here you are a project quite original for you to be THE ARTIST.

You are going to compose a PIECE OF MUSIC. You are not going to use real instruments, you are doing it with APPLIANCES AT HOME such as, some forks or spoons, a blender, a vacuum cleaner,..whatever you consider available to produce music. If you need an example, watch the link below, a video related to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6MysH0Rlxs

1st) You have to title your PIECE OF MUSIC.

2nd) You have to explain your feelings, emotions and ideology of the composition.

3rd) Your piece of music should last no longer than two minutes.

Your Music Teacher is going to evaluate your music creation and I am going to evaluate your writing about the title and the ideology of your creation.

Deadline will be 7th June and you will work in three groups of eight people each. GOOD LUCK AND DO YOUR BEST IN THE LAST PROJECT FOR THIS COURSE

A SPECIAL VISIT FROM AUSTRALIA

A few weeks ago, we had special visitors in our class: Kristie´s family: her mum, her sister and her newly born niece. They came from Australia all the way to Villamayor. During the hour with our bilingual group, everyone had a great time getting to know each other.

The class began with the students welcoming Kristie´s family´s. Then each student came forward and told a little about our class, our village, Kristie, some curiosities about Spain and Australia and then, the introduction was complete. Later, It was Kristie´s family turn: we practised some interesting quizzes related to australian culture and we even tried VEGEMITE, a typical food in Australia. It was very strong however, it was tasty.

It was a great visit. Thank you Kristie for sharing your family with us and thank you guys, because you made them feel very welcome and they were impressed with all your questions and how well you speak and understand english. GREAT JOB GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOOD MEMORIES IN OUR ENGLISH WEEK!!!

Hi guys!!!

Here you are a visual portrait of our best moments together in our English Week. I feel very proud of you all. You did it very well and I hope you never forget what you learnt with your host family, your classmates, your lessons, your trips, your parties...I encourage you to live more adventures like this. You all are brave and I am impressed how you manage situations. GO AHEAD!!! Enjoy these photos and make comments on them. Bear in mind that your deadline for your voice thread presentation about your Easter holidays is 19th April.

NEW PROJECT: OUR EASTER HOLIDAYS!!!

Hi guys!!!

As I´ve promised, here you are a new tool for you to display your Easter holidays. You have to follow these steps and you will see how interesting is to share all our experiences.

1. You have to open an account on this site: www.voicethread.com

2. I will show you in class how to use this technological tool with a presentation of my trip to India. Here you are the link: voicethread.com/share/4301886/

3. You must create a presentation with at least 10 pictures of your Easter holidays in which you should describe each picture and the best memories of this experience recording your presentation in a video or microphone that "voice thread" has, to be used.

4. You have to share your presentation with your teacher and the rest of the classroom clicking "share".

5. As you will see there are different possibilites of recording your presentation, choose the one you like most and don´t forget when you finish, click on "save".

6. Before designing your presentation, make a comment on the blog about your expectations for your Easter holidays.

Good luck guys!!! I trust you all.

GIVING OPINION ABOUT THE INTERNET

Hi all!!!

How´s it going?? What about your project about the future of sports?? Don´t forget to bring your draft for our Tuesday lesson ok??

Now, Let´s move on to another topic related to something you really like: The Internet world.

I want you to give your opinion about what the Internet means in your life and how you think the future of the Internet would be in 50 years...

To express your opinion, you should bear in mind the following steps:

1. Identify the topic and state your opinion.
2. Give facts and examples to support your opinion.
3. Restate your opinion.

Just waiting for your opinions!!!

Have a nice day guys!!!

THE FUTURE OF SPORT

Hi, all!!!

An exciting project is coming. As you all know, we are working with the future and this project is related to this matter. Your PE teacher gave me a list of sports and we are going to design a   A SPORTS NEWSPAPER.

To deal with this project we are going to work in pairs and each pair is going to design two pages of our newspaper.

One pair will design the front page and the rest of pairings will choose among these list of sports:



1- TENNIS.
2- VOLLEYBALL.
3- HANDBALL.

4- BASEBALL.
5- FLOORBALL.
6- GYMNASTICS.
7- CRICKET.
8- CYCLING.
9- KAYAKING.
10- SKIING.
11- RUGBY.

Once you have chosen your sport, you have to design two pages about the sport. The first one related to the current situation of this sport and the other one related to the future of it.

Be as creative and original as you can.
You should write about the sport and you can also include pictures of it.

At the end, we are going to print the whole newspaper so, please write in the same format: TIMES NEW ROMAN 14.

Your PE teacher is going to evaluate your research and writing about the current situation of sports and I will evaluate how you write about the future of sports, taking into consideration future and conditional tenses.

GOOD LUCK AND GOOD JOB GUYS!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi guys!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year with your family and your friends. I´m sure you will all have a great break, so in your first participation of this year in our classroom blog, you should tell us about two things:

1. Your favourite part of the break or a funny story that happens to you

AND...

2. Your New Year´s resolutions.


New projects are coming during this term, so be ready, charge your battery and start enjoying English right now!!!