February Exams

Hi!

I just wanted to remind you of our February exams. NI1 students from Monday and Wednesday Group will do their written test on February 21 and 23rd, Speaking test on March 4th. (Sorry it's March 11th)

Tuesday and Thursday Group on February 22nd and 24th, Speaking test on February 18th.

NB1 will do their written test on Monday 21st. The Speaking test on Wednesday 23rd at 17:30.

I'll be posting info about pairs and the time of the speaking tests in the following days.

Fireworks by Katy Perry

This is a nice song about believing in ourselves and the inner power that each one of you has. You can follow the lyrics in this video. Listen to it and have fun!

Tiger Mums

Dear NI1 students,

Have you heard of the new controversy in the USA? The book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua has caused a stir among parents and psychologists. Mrs Chua is a mother of Chinese origins who taught her two children to be the best by means of a very tough education.
This video shows different opinions about raising kids. Listen to it and answer, Why is this way of educating critisized? What are the benefits? And how about you? What do you think it is the best way? The Western way or the Chinese way? Give your opinion!

Google Art Project

For those interested in art, a schoolmate, César, has passed me this wonderful link to Google Art Project.
You can explore great museums, go from room to room and get a very close look at invaluable pieces of art. What else? Why don't you start on the National Gallery in London and look at Holbein's The Ambassadors in honour of our school street?
Where are the Ambassadors from? What do the symbols represent? What's the relation among them?

Past Simple

Dear NB1,

You can practice the past simple of verbs in the Englich Hilfen site. Have fun!
- Crossword
- Was or were 1
- Was or were 2
- Sentences in the past (Regular Verbs)
- Simple past (all verbs)

Did you find them useful?

British vs Canadian English

Watch Rapconteur Baba Brinkman versus hip hop emcee Professor Elemental in a rap battle ’tween British and Canadian English. The video from MacMillan has been put together by Tommy Nagle; you’ll need to do some pausing and rewinding to get the most out of it.

The king's speech

We are going to watch "The King's Speech", join us!!!
That will be Wednesday, February 2nd at 20:30 at Cine Renoir Princesa
Buy your ticket and meet us at the pop corn stand inside the cinema!

Princesa, 3 - 28008 MADRID
Buses: 1, 2, 44, 74, 133 y 138
Metro: Plaza de España o Ventura Rodríguez

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

TOPICS FOR THE NB1 MONOLOGUE
February 23rd, 2011

1. Your typical day
2. Your weekends
3. Describe your house
4. Your favorite room in your house
5. A famous person
6. Think of 2 relatives and talk about them
7. Your friends
8. Three important dates in your life
9. Yesterday

A special day

Dear NB1 students,

As we said in class, why don't you write down about a special celebration? Where is it celebrated? What is a special day for you like? When is it? What do you do that day? Tell us!

How to get your kids to do housework

In this video from Videojug you can see how to teach your children to clean the house. Isn't it useful?

VOCABULARY:
chore /tʃɔ:r / (tarea)
have a go (intertarlo)
challenge (desafío)

hide (ocultar) > hiding
treats (recompensas)

rewarding (gratificante)
tidy = untidy (ordenado)
If you want to read the script, click here

Come fly with me

Little Britain, a British sketch comedy show, is back again with a new hilarious movie, Come fly with me. Ready for a good laugh? Click here

Tenses

Dear NI1,

In these links from the New English File (Intermediate) web site, you can practice the different tenses we've seen so far:

- Present Simple/present continuous 1
- Present Simple/Present Continuous 2
- Past Simple/ Past Continuous
- Present Perfect
- Time expressions
- Modal Verbs
- Have to/ be allowed to
- Modal verbs of probability (Past)
- Modal verbs of probability (Present)
- Questions with "like"

Vocabulary: Prefixes and suffixes

Reviewing Grammar

Dear NB1 students,

Why don't you practice some grammar?
Check up these activities in New English File's web page:

Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Prepositions of time 1
Prepositions of time 2
Adjectives 1
Adjectives 2
Questions in the present 1
Questions in the present 2
Object Pronouns 1
Object pronouns 2
Vocabulary
Adverbs of Frequency 1
Adverbs of Frequency 2

Water surges leave death, destruction

Dear NI1 students, listen to the news in Australia in English. Australia continues to grapple with its worst flooding in decades, as the number of missing climbs. This video from the CNN was published on Monday 11th, but apparently floods today are going to get worse today!!!

Answer the following questions. Write down your answer in the comentario, please!

1. Answer the following questions:
A. How many people have died?
B. Has the weather improved recently.
C. What happened to the house in the video?
D. What happened to the three people on top of the car roof?
2. Listen again and complete the gaps.

1. A scene of _________________ devastation at least 4 people died here.
2. Thousands of people spent the night _____________.
3. This family ______________ in desperation.
4. What this bad weather is doing is ___________ our search and rescue efforts.
5. The river is called Sunday Creek. It’s an ______________ sea.
6. Emergency chiefs went much further: this could be called ______________ .
7. We have a _____________ and ________________ situation.
8. Given the circumstances, we hold great concerns for many of those people who are ___________________ for in this region.
9. The rain isn’t _____________ up.

A book review

Have you read any interesting books recently? For this weekend we are going to work on a Book Review. You can leave your compositions in the comentarios or give it to me in class next week.

For some guidelines, click here, and read p 76-77 from your workbook.

London

In these activities you can practice giving directions a bit more:

- Exercise on Giving Directions (postoffice)

- Exercise on Giving Directions (cinema)

- Listen to the following dates

How about travelling to London? Look at this interactive map of the city. You can click on important sites in the map, and on the top you'll see a 360º panoramic view of it.

What's your favorite place in London?

Giving Directions

Happy New Year to all NB1 students as well!

Why don't we watch this video on giving directions? We'll study how to give directions after the vacation. Do you understand the question the journalist makes? Do you understand any other expressions?

Key to Othello

Happy New Year to you all!

May the new year bring you all you wish. Hope you are having a good time as well!

And back to work, how are you doing with Othello? Have you finished reading it? Did you have problems understanding anything? I'm posting here the key to the exercises from chapter 4 to chapter 10.

BTW, do you know who those two ladies in the picture might be? and what about the two men in the key? How do you know?

Christmas Holiday!

Dear all,

I'd like you to finish reading "Othello" at Christmas. Try to do the exercises on every chapter as well, I'll post the key to the remaining ones in January. When coming back from holiday, we'll read the last chapter, number 10, in class.

In this video from vimeo.com, you can see how the Joffrey Balley in Chicago talks about their interpretation of Othello and Desdemona. They render the meaning of the play into movement and it might help you understand the text.

I wish you all Merry Christmas!

For a sample of their beautiful ballet, click here.

Thanks!

Thank you all for sharing your time yesterday. I think it was a great success thanks to your participation. Did you attend? Did you participate? How? Did you like it? Tell us your experiences!

Congratulations to Esther, from NI1, who had the lucky number to win (321) the netbook. What are you going to do with it, Esther?

I specially congratulate Manuela from NB1 for being the most voted writer in the basic level. Her minisaga is the one below. Read the shortlisted minisagas of all levels as well!

When I watch the news on TV in the evening, I watch people in the streets of Haiti dead by cholera.
I think never again.

I watch people in Korea run away from the bombs.
I think never again.

I watch women mistreated by their husbands.
I think never again.

I watch children dead by famine.
I think never again.

Can everybody say together "Never Again" someday?

You can also follow the day in pictures.