lunes, 29 de octubre de 2012

Hahaha...Halloween!!!

All Famouse Wallpapers
Halloween has its origin in Ireland, it was a Celtic celebration of the end of the harvest time and the beginning of the winter, it was also thought to be the Day of the Dead, so people used to dress up to scare the ghosts and spirits. Nowadays, it has more to do with a children's holiday. Children and youngsters dress up in creepy, scary ways and go from home to home saying the famous "Trick-or-treat" and getting candies from strangers and neighbours. It used to be a celtic, then British and mostly American tradition, in these days, it has almost overcome the Catholic tradition of All Saints Day, even in the rest of the world.
 If  you want to learn more about this celebration, you can do so at History. If you want to practice some games or vocabulary, you have a great collection at the blog Think in English, and also at the British Council for kids page.

I want to thank my mate Carmen for all the information on Halloween she gave me. Thanks Carmen!!

Do you like Halloween? What do you do to celebrate?
Tell us!! Leave your comments!!

viernes, 26 de octubre de 2012

MODEL COMPOSITION: Describing a place - SEVILLA

sevilla.org
We are starting to make compositions in 1st of Bachillerato classes and, one of  the first things we do, is organising the information into paragraphs. In order to write a composition describing a place, we have said that we are going to use three paragraphs: introduction, body and conclusion. 

In the introduction, we are going to include the information related to the name of the place, its location and its population, besides from saying why we have chosen to write about that place if we have been given the opportunity to choose. In the body, we can write about many things, mainly the history of its people, their way of life, sightseeing highlights, activities that can be done  particularly in that place and any other thing that we would like to write about. In the last paragraph, we should write about our personal opinion and we could also add a recommendation to visit the place with the reasons to do so.

An example composition about Seville, our city:

Seville is one of the biggest cities in Andalucia, the south of Spain. Its population is of about 700,000 inhabitants.

Seville has been a city for a long time, and many different peoples have lived here, such as the Phoenicians, the Romans and the Moors among others. All these peoples have left many remains of their living here, so we have a great historic city centre with the Cathedral and  the Alcázar, which are part of UNESCO's World Heritage.  Seville is also famous for its impressive Holy Week processions and fantastic April's Fair. Sevillians are people who are used to enjoying life and love doing so in the streets of their magnificent city.

Seville is a great city to visit and walk all year long except for the summer, come and enjoy it.

This composition has got 133 words, which is 13 words more than what we usually ask for (100-120 words); this can be used as a model for you (both students and teachers). Try to get some information about the place before writing and do not copy directly from the source (internet, books...), allow yourself a little time between the reading and the actual writing.

I hope this is helpful for you. Please write comments if it is!!!

martes, 23 de octubre de 2012

LEAVE A COMMENT!!


Some of my students do stop by and use this blog as a tool, it is useful for them to learn English, which is the main idea of this blog. I also know that some of my acquaintances and friends do like it and also give it a look every now and then and also leave their comments.

This post is for those of my students, friends or any other person who passes by who like the blog but do not leave comments:  Writing a blog is a hard but rewarding task, I love to have comments in my entries (if you read this blog, you already know this). So, please leave a comment and say hello!!!

If you do not remember how to do it, have a look at this old entry: How to post a comment in this blog.
If you want to make me really happy, make yourself a follower of the blog!!:))

Thanks!!!

sábado, 20 de octubre de 2012

BEAUTY FEVER

Gema Herrerías from A5Farmacia.
Today I had a great day, a fantastic day!! I have to say thank you to Irene Romero from Mi Universo de Belleza because she has organised a fantastic meeting for Beauty Bloggers  called Beauty Fever in its second edition this year. I had an appointment with three friends to spend the day attending to talks related to beauty and visiting stands of different dermopharmaceutical companies.

In the photo, you can see my friend Gema giving a talk on the combination of social media and beauty; Gema is a great expert on social media, she has a great, very informative blog (linked above) and has her own chemist here in Sevilla. You should read her blog because it shows you how important it is to look after our skin.

We did  not have the time to visit all the stands, but we did go to those of Apivita, they work with natural ingredients mainly taken from what the bees produce, great scents!!; Bioderma, in which they explained their best product called Matricium to us; the Carebell one, with fantastic eyebrow make-up and the fantastic Caudalie one with its marvellous frangance which they take from grapes and wine.

In the afternoon, we attended a talk on the concept of beauty, about how it is imposed on us or what is it that makes us feel beautiful and sense beauty around us, really interesting!! After that, we were offered some water and a flat cake with orange and chocolate flavour by Chocolate y limón.

What do you think of my Saturday?
Tell me about your Saturday in the comments!!

miércoles, 17 de octubre de 2012

PRESENT SIMPLE OR PRESENT CONTINUOUS?

Grammar Goddess
My 1st of Bachillerato students have asked me to do a chart on the differences of use between the present simple and the present continuous, so, browsing through the internet I found  this wonderful mindmap in a blog called Grammar Goddess (fantastic way to remember grammar issues!!). In this picture, we find the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms of the verbs in the present simple, plus the verb to be and the different uses; we have also seen in class the use of present simple for timetables and schedules.

So, here is the chart you were asking me for:

Present simple

Present continuous
  •             Habits or routines (with frequency adverbs and expressions)
  •             General truths or facts
  •          With timetables and schedules.
  •             With state verbs  (feelings, opinions, mental processes, states, posession, senses and measures)
  •         At the moment of speaking.
  •           Ongoing activities.
  •        Temporary situations.
  •            Fixed plans of the near future.
  •              Annoying habits (usually with “always”)
























 
If you need some more practice, go here:
I have done what you wanted, now I'm asking you something: Can you do a mindmap with the present continuous? Please!! If you can, hand it in and we will publish it here. 
As always, leave your comments!!

domingo, 14 de octubre de 2012

Tom Sharpe's Wilt

Lope de Vega's theatre in Seville
Yesterday I went to the theatre to watch Wilt, the crime of the inflatable doll, an adaptation on a novel by Tom Sharpe. Tom Sharpe happens to be one of the most humorous and funny British novelists. He is well-known for writing a series of novels whose protagonist is a burnt out teacher in his forties, Wilt, who is long-married to a woman, Eva, who is always scolding him. The turning point of the play, adapted from his novel by José Antonio Vitoria and Garbi Losada, is the fact that his wife meets a fake rich woman who makes her rethink her life with her husband, so she leaves with them for a few days. Meanwhile, Wilt, who is a bit fed up with his wife, decides to plan his wife murder and rehearses it with a life-size sex doll, someone sees him and he is accused of the killing of his wife. It is a hilarious comedy, we had three or four great guffaws and kept smiling throughout. There is even a film based on it.

I guess it also touched me how he is a teacher who is not happy with his job, I felt sadness for him and wished he learnt a way to enjoy his profession, even though his students did not care about the literature he was trying to teach them.

The actors and actresses were great; as you can see, we saw on stage: Ana Milán, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Ángel de Andrés, Koldo Losada and Aitziber Garmendia, the last two play four roles each.

Have you read anything about this author?
Do you like going to the theatre?
Please leave your comments!!!

jueves, 11 de octubre de 2012

Learning vocabulary: diagrams

Diagrams are symbolic representations of information, they are a mixture of pictures and letters organized in a way that they  visualize  information. We usually use diagrams in science classes, but they are a great way to study vocabulary, especially if they are our students' own creations. The one above, which I created for my 2nd year classes, makes it easier for them to remember the contents: verbs that express likes and dislikes have to be followed by the verbs in the gerund (v+ing)

You can practise this structure at English Exercises or at The English Corner by Eva Casals.

We usually use diagrams for vocabulary, like that of the parts of the body or the house, but we should encourage our students to use them for vocabulary and grammar purposes, it is a good way to make their brains work and this will help them to remember the contents more easily.

Do you like diagrams? Do you use them in your classes?
Leave your comments and tell us!!

lunes, 8 de octubre de 2012

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

 

- Trainer: "Why are you smiling?"
- Timothy: "I can only get better"

To tell the truth, I haven't seen the film, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, but I  saw the commercial spot and it really hit me how this is the right attitude to show those that say: "I don't know any English", as to make the teacher aware that we should leave them alone... those who are afraid to learn English.

I have used this short video after correcting in class the diagnostic test we  make at the beginning of the course as part of the initial evaluation to get to know better where our students are. It makes them feel better and I make a statement to my class: "I am here to teach you, I don't care what your level is, we'll try to get it higher"

What do you think? Do you use something similar? Have you seen the film?
Leave your comments and tell us!!

viernes, 5 de octubre de 2012

World Teacher's Day.




Today, the 5th October, is the day that the UNESCO has set to pay homage and to claim for better conditions for teachers all over the world. I really think that we should take care of teachers and specially of the educative systems of our countries; so that all our children are able to receive a good education, an education that will help them be the best person possible in the future. 

These days, in which education is being looked at from economical points of view rather than pedagogical or teaching ones, we as teachers have to stand for ourselves and make people trust us, because we really do know what is the best way to teach students and how the educative system should work.

As a teacher, I like to be optimistic, so I'm going to leave you a picture of a teacher so that we can laugh a little:
Pen with a Voice


What do you have to say to take a stand for teachers??
Leave your comments and celebrate with us!!!

I want to dedicate this post to all my mates, but specially to a great teacher, my friend Carlos.

martes, 2 de octubre de 2012

Quantifiers for 1st Bachillerato


Affirmative
Both
Negative & Interrogative
Some


No

A good many
A great many
So many
As many
Too many

So much
As much
Too much
Very much

Any
(some for offerings in questions)

Many





Much


A lot of/lots of
Several
Enough
A few
A little
Plenty of


My students are getting quite messed up with quantifiers, so I have decided to make up two charts so that they get things clearer, the first one (above) tells you  which quantifiers are used in affirmative sentences or negative and interrogative sentences; also those which can be used in the three circumstances.
The other one (below) tells you which quantifiers can be used with plural countable nouns and which ones are used with uncount nouns. ( I will only write about the ones in our textbook, but if you have any questions, just leave a comment!!)


Countable plural
Both
Uncountable

Many
Several
A few

Some
Any
No
A lot of/lots of
Enough
Plenty of



Much
A little


You can do some more exercises here:

I hope this clarifies you!! If it doesn't you know you can always leave a comment!!

Ever Never Just For Since Still Already Yet

Helpdesk2den My first of bachillerato students have asked me for a chart to have a clear view of the time expressions used with the present ...