AND THE OSCAR GOES TO....

OSCARS 2012: 84th  ACADEMY AWARDS


Silent movie "The Artist" triumphs at the Oscars, winning five awards including best picture, best director and best actor.
                                                                                                                        Meryl Streep won best actress for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady - her 17th Oscar nomination and third Oscar win.  Click on the photo and summarize her words when she thanked the Academy for the prize.

STORYTELLING

 Next month, on November 7th, there will be storytelling at school.

 Tim Bowley is a great storyteller. He is from Britain and he has charmed people from Europe and America with his stories. He will come with Charo Pita, also a fabulous narrator. 

Together they will tell us stories from the oral tradition of different cultures of the world: Arabs, Zen, Indian American stories....

Their voices and their way of telling the stories go from magic to humorous. Two languages, two voices woven to create a great atmosphere where everybody will get trapped.

LIBRARY DAY

Author Patrick Winstanley is a well-known poet, and he is famous for his funny school poems especially regarding children’s poetry. His inspiration is based on students’ experience during their time inside an educational institution. One of Winstanley’s poems is entitled ‘Library Rules,’ which depicts and lists things that are not allowed in the library. Inspired from the rules commonly seen in swimming pools, the poem is presented in 24 lines, a long poem, but written in very short lines with lots of rhymes. The poem is presented below:

Library Rules

No Eating
No Drinking
No Talking
Or Shouting

No Swearing
No Spitting
No Hopping
Or Skipping

No Smoking
No Smirking
No Pushing
Or Shoving

No Coughing
No Sneezing
No Sniffling
Or Wheezing

No Pets and
No Petting
No Singing
Or Dancing

No Doodling
Canoodling
Or Fooling
Around

And The Last
Golden Rule
No Reading Aloud.

After reading the poem, draw pictures to illustrate some of the actions in the poem.

LIBRARY DAY. ARE YOU A GOOD READER?

Today it´s Library day. Let´s celebrate it by watching this funny commercial. Why is it important that the girl is blond? We´ll talk about it in the class.

The music is Mozart,  the Piano Concerto #21 in C, 2nd movement.

WE ARE THE 99 PERCENT. OCCUPPY TOGETHER.

This  is the voice of the global movement : Occupy Together. Let´s read some of their reflections (that we make ours too).
We are the 99 percent. We are kicked out of our homes.We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care.We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights,if we are working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1per cent is getting everything.We are the 99 percent.
It is a "branch" of the global movement, spread throughout the world.
Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colours, genders and political persuations. The one thing they all have in common is that they are the 99 percent that we no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent. They are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve their ends and the safety of the participants.
Read some of their letters posted on their blog.

OCCUPY WALL STREET. OCCUPY TOGETHER

Police arrest more than 700 hundred from the Occupy Wall Street protest who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon. The police said it was "the marchers´choice" that led to the enforcement action. Protesters banged drums and chanted "The whole world is watching" as the police moved in. Read more here.
A video on the You Tube page of a group called We are Change shows some of the arrests.


The protest campaign (It uses the hashtag #occupywallstreet on the microblogging site Twitter) began in July with the launch of a simple campaign website calling for a march and a sit-in at the New York Stock Exchange. Over the past two weeks, demonstrations have addressed various issues, including police brutality, union busting and the economy, the group said.
Some photos and more info here.

BEST WISHES

This year is about to finish. I hope you´ve enjoyed the English lessons and you´ve learnt a lot. I also hope you use it in the future. My intention was for you to realize how many things you can have access to through languages. That's the reason why I created this blog.


Thanks a lot for being so wonderful students. Thanks for your attention in class and for your smiles and for your involvement in the activities I proposed along the year. And thank you for making me want to be a better teacher.


It was a pleasure to be your teacher this year and I wish you to remember this class. You meant much to me. 
I´ll keep you in my heart.

THE BILINGUAL ADVANTAGE

A cognitive neuroscientist, Ellen Bialystok has spent almost 40 years learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind. Her good news: Among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. Dr. Bialystok, 62, a distinguished research professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, was awarded a $100,000 Killam Prize last year for her contributions to social science. We spoke for two hours in a Washington hotel room in February and again, more recently, by telephone. You can read an edited version of the two conversations by clicking here.

SUMMER CAMP

Are you studying 1st year of ESO?

Would you like to have a great Summer?

Meet new people this Summer

Participate in the Linguistic Inmersion Program

* 2 weeks.

*11 different locations all over Spain.

You can do a lot of activities:

• Meet new people and make friends.
• Practice sports
• Play games
• And... learn English, of course.

Deadline to submit your application: 7 March

BOE:Jueves 10 de Febrero de 2011 (Resolución de 27 de Enero de 2011).

Enjoy yourself!

LEANDRO'S TESTIMONY:

"Hi guys, I´m Leandro from 2º ESO.

I want to tell you something about the camps. At first time, you can feel a little embarrassed, but them, you will like it very much. The activities in the camp aren´t only English classes and things related to the studies. After the morning classes, you will go to the swimming pool, or make a trip to many interesting places. Last year I went to an English camp and I really liked it, because I made a lot of friends. I really recommend it, because you learn a lot and you make a lot of friends. And that´s all, because if I continue writing about the camp, I will never finish, hahaha!

Goodbye, and remember, take advantage of this opportunity".

FEBRUARY 21: INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY

Languages are essential to the identity of groups and individuals and to their peaceful coexistence. Only if multilingualism is fully accepted can all languages find their place in our globalized world. However, within the space of a few generations, more than 50% of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world may disappear. We must act now as a matter of urgency.

Did you know that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages in the world? Actually, there used to be more, but unfortunately, they have disappeared. We celebrate their day on February 21. The aim of this day is to promote linguistic diversity and multicultural education. In fact, many of the languages that are spoken today are in danger of extinction.

Here you can read about UNESCO's concern in either English, French, or Spanish. Pay attention to the last part, where you can see how the following sentence is said in the languages of the world:

IN THE GALAXY OF LANGUAGES, EVERY WORD IS A STAR

What can you do to take care of this galaxy? How many stars are there in your own sky?

What can you do for your own language? Write a list of things you can do to keep your mother tongue alive.

ENGLISH ALL AROUND THE WORLD

English is an official language in 52 countries as well as many small colonies and territories.

In this map you can see all the speaking countries around the world.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG

It´s more than a game. It´s your life.

ON SCREEN: ALICE IN WONDERLAND

The lastest film directed by the imaginative Tim Burton is on screen. This fantasy adventure film tells the story of a nineteen year- old girl called Alice who accidentaly returns to Underland, a place she visited thirteen years previously. There she will meet a fantasy world populated by peculiar creatures.. As you know, the film is based on the novel Alice's adventures in Wonderland written by the English Lewis Carroll in 1865. The film is starring by Mia Wasikowska and Johnny Depp.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA

This is the theatrical trailer of the third installment of "The chronicles of Narnia: The voyage of the Dawn Treader". The film is directed by Michael Apted and stars Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley. The book was written by the British novelist C.S. Lewis.