Hi mates!!

Yesterday we started correcting the homwork: on page 57 exercises 1 and 3 about phrasal verbs.
Then we move to the page 58 and we did the speaking and vocabulary exercises 1, 2 and 3 related with body collocations.
Filally we did the listening on the same page (58).

Some interesting vocabulary we learnt:
- sprain: esguince.                        
- filling: empaste.
- rotten: podrido.
- rinse: enjuague.
- dental floss: hilo dental.
- to faint: desmayarse.

Our homework: Page 60, reading exercise number 3. Vocabulary exercises numer 1 and 2.
Remember that we have the mock exam next week. On Tuesday we'll do the listening and the reading part and on Thursday the writing.

Have a nice weekend!!
Simón

Poem

Enjoy this poem, written and read by Richard Blanco (born in Madrid!), on the occasion of Obama's inauguration.

Give it a try! It's a beautiful poem about a day in the life of normal people, from morning to evening.

Will we have anything similar in our next president's inauguration?

Winter's Bone, by Daniel Woodrell

Hi mates!

I’m going to tell you about one of the books I chose to read. Its name is “Winter’s Bone”, and it’s written by Daniel Woodrell. I chose it because a friend recommended a film based on this novel to me, and when I went to the library and I saw the book I thought that that was a good opportunity to know the story in a different way. 

The action takes place in the Ozarks (a highland region in the United States, which covers much of the southern half of Missouri). There, Ree Dolly (a 17-year-old girl), looks after her 12-year-old brother Sonny, her 6-year-old brother Harold and her mother, who is mentally ill. They have not seen their father for a long time and they don’t know where he is. He used to run a crystal methamphetamine lab and when he was caught and processed, he was supposed to go the court regularly because the judge ordered that. They imposed a condition: a bond; so, in case Jessup didn’t show up for his court date, the family will lose the house.
Sadly, this day arrives and the sheriff goes to tell Ree the situation. She sets out to find her father, immersing herself in a world plenty of drugs, violence, chauvinism and people bound by ties of loyalty. She visits everybody related to his father, sometimes putting herself in danger (some women beat her up in a passage of the book). 

She is convinced that Jessup is dead so finally she ends urging them to tell her where he is in order to offer evidences of the Jessup’s death to the sheriff. If she gets that point, her family will have the house.
One night, three woman come to her house and offer themselves to take her to see her daddy’s bones. They drive her to a pond, where they row to the place where the body is submerged. Ree reaches into the cold water and cut her father’s hands (the evidences for the authorities).


Would I recommend this book? No? Yes, I would do to those who are looking for a different and difficult book. I liked it, it is a kind of dark book, written in a slangy language. Maybe it was this what has made this book different to me. It was also the atmosphere, the whole feeling of being immerse in a very cold winter in the Ozarks trying to solve the problem of my life!

SUMMARY CLASS

Hi everybody,

What did we do yesterday in class?
- we corrected the photocopy about science topics
- we started with exercises and the text on page 51 (If I remember well!)
- we had a long discussion about the role of man and women in housework and the importance of marriage in society nowadays.

Homework for tomorrow:
- Another photocopy (I'm sorry I'm not going to scan it... :S)

See you!

FREE online courses in English

Hi mates!
I would like to share something with you.
Recently, I found this web page where different universities are offering 212 FREE online courses in english about differents topics such as:

Biology & Life Sciences

Business & Management

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Vision

Computer Science: Programming & Software Engineering

Computer Science: Systems, Security, Networking

Computer Science: Theory

Economics & Finance

Education

Electrical and Materials Engineering

Food and Nutrition

Health and Society & Medical Ethics

Humanities

Information, Technology, and Design

Law

Mathematics

Medicine

Music, Film, and Audio Engineering

Physical & Earth Sciences

Social Sciences

Statistics, Data Analysis, and Scientific Computing

NO background is required, all teachers are speaking for people with a basic knowledge.
You only have to attend to a 8-12 minutes video conference once a week during around 4-6 weeks and make some homework/tests if you want to get a certificate.
I found this opportunity as a great challenge and as a good thing to put in the CV. 

I´m really into psychology so I will attend to:
A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior and maybe to Modern European Mysticism and Psychological Thought or to Basic Behavioral Neurology
I don´t know! I would like to do them all!

Here is the link to all kind of courses
https://www.coursera.org/#courses
If you have any doubt, don´t hesitate to ask me!
See you in class ;)

Flashmob: "Here comes the Sun"

You see: you can practise your English everywhere...

Pictures of our party in December

Here are the pictures of those who will get extra points in the exam for courageously participating in the December contest either as cooks or simple eaters ;)

SUMMARY CLASS

Dear classmates,

Today it's my turn to tell you what we did in class yesterday and the homework we have to do for tomorrow.

Firstly, I'm going to summarize the class:
             -  We spoke about what we did at Christmas holidays
             -  We corrected homework
             -  We started lesson 5A Entrepreneurs. Ex. 1 Speaking & Listening, and Reading  Ex. 1 and 2

And now homework:
             -  Pag. 46 Ex. 3
             -  Pag. 47  Grammar: relatives clauses and Ex. 1 and 2

Our teacher recommended us a tv series really amusing "The Big Bang Theory"

And finally a very important thing. We have to do a mock exam and the dates are
              -  29th January, Tusday, Reading and Listening
              -  31th January, Thursday, Writing.
We'll do Speaking little by little.

See you tomorrow.
Pilar

            

Happy New Year everybody,

We are already finishing Christmas holidays.
I recommend you to start working this Web page to check many English listening activities.
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/

You will find lots of new listening activities and video content in Listen & Watch. We also have a new Grammar section and new IELTS exam practice materials.

Enjoy them.

See you on Tuesday.

Adela

LINKS TO RADIO/TV PROGRAM

Hi, there!

Sorry to barge in the middle of your holidays, but in order to get things a bit better organized, answer this post with the link to the radio or TV program that is part of your Christmas homework

Best wishes for 2013

Recommended link

Hi there!

This is an interesting web that I often visit: The Huffington Post (Spanish version).

www.huffingtonpost.es

It’s an on-line newspaper which, as well as offering coverage of the latest world news, also includes blogs, entertainment, style, technology, comedy and original content (specially from the social network).

So, as John Lennon said, this is Christmas… Then, here is a funny example of the assorted stuff you can find into the HuffPo.

www.huffingtonpost.es/2012/12/23/fotos-de-familia-en-navid_n_2331231.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009#slide=more270884

I hope you enjoy it.

Merry Christmas for everybody!

Eva

Links: Piece of news

NASA NEWS
Hi mates,
There is an interenting link that I use to read: Nasa News. Here you can find interesting discoveries about science and technology.What is NASA?. Also, you can find answer to common topics, such as: Is the life in the earth finishing?, Why does Pandora know if a music will like us? . It is amazing to discover the images all around the universe....

Enjoy it!
Best Regards,
Isabel Salmerón
Nasa News

You must add your entry adding a comment to the link "Piece of News"

Christmas Homework

Hi mates,
-We started our class correcting Mistakes (5) ,Fom 1 to 13.
-After that we practiced reading , page 40 "In the Time light". We did the reading exercises: 1, 2, 3 and 4.
-Also we had speaking , page 40 , 1 and 2.
-There were a lot of interestering words:
   ."LOL" in text messages , it means: Laughing at loud.
   . LOUSY. Informal, it´s something disgusting.
   . REAL ESTATE. Inmobiliaria.
 
-We talked about Vocabulary: Emotional reactions ,  on page 41. We did exercises 1, 2 and 3.

-Finally we had our favourite activity: Listenening, on page 42 .

     Now I must inform you about the Homework:

      1- Remember you must read a book. Also include in the Blogg the book that you have chosen and say why. Introduce a link where we can find a reference about the book.

     2- Students Book, on page 43 . Grammar: modal verbs 1. Exercises 1 and 2.
 
     3- Composition: "The recent Shooting in Conecticut"
          Write a letter of opinion to the Editor of the New York Times.:
                            - Describe the situation (Problem). 
                            - Give reasons about it.
                            - Write which could be a solution for it.
    4- Post an entry to the blogg through the link "Piece of News"
                         Post a link to a TV or Radio station related to "Piece of news, a program, a documentary,.."Which you enjoy listen to and explain why to us.
    5 - Finish the corrections on "Mistakes 5" : sentences 15 to20.

That´s all.
 Have a Merry Christmas!
See you on 8TH January 2013.
Isabel Salmerón.

Speak out in favour of the EOIs

Have a look at this beautiful video promoting public education, and particularly public language training, as provided by the EOIs. You'll hear people who dare defend our system. 

Do the same.

Speak out.

"Due" and books to read

Hi Mates,

First of all find here an example of "due":

This was in a bus stop in Cambridge yesterday, in fact the bus B arrived in less than one minute, British punctuality.

Regarding to the book I have started to read, it is "A  briefer story of time" by Steven Hopkins. I'm sure that most of you know what it is about, let's say that it is like "A brief history of time" but more understandable.
You have a nice explanation on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Briefer_History_of_Time_(Hawking_and_Mlodinow_book)

When I finish it I will start with: "The story of English: how an obscure dialect became the world's most spoken language" from J. Piercy.
Nice tittle, isn't it?
Reference in:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15956004-the-story-of-english

I wish you a merry Christmas and all the best for this new year!!!
Roberto

Hi mates,
That´s only  a note for all of you.

Today 20TH December 2012, we have our last class.

Remember that you can go to the EOI  and bring some Christmas´s cake or the special cake or drink that you cook.
The time table is from 17 Pm to 20 PM.

Come here and have fun!

Best Regards,
Isabel Salmerón

Summary, homework and more

Hi mates!

So much happened yesterday in class that I can’t begin to tell you…

Firstly we corrected the homework (the reading and the last part of the worksheet of mistakes). After that we were working with reported speech. We were having a look at the grammar box in pg. 39 and then we did exercise nº1.

In the middle of an interesting discussion about grammar we learnt a new expression which is going to change our lives: “No way, José” (take a glance at Juan Ramon’s post to know more about it).

We followed with a listening (from a worksheet) about a mummified forest.

Homework for Tuesday:
- Page 40 Reading, exercises 2 & 3
- Page 41 Vocabulary, exercises 1 & 2

And, finally, don’t forget:

-       To answer Juan Ramon’s post saying the books you’ve chosen to read

-       To have a look at EOI website to learn more about the logo’s contest

-       To have another look at EOI website to find a recipe for our fantastic Christmas party, which is going to take place next Thursday

I think that's all. Enjoy the weekend and see you on Tuesday.

I'm Adela .
I'm reading the books:

"Under the Greenwood Tree" by Thomas Hardy (Wordsworth Classics). It's a book recommended by my English mate at school. I hope I liked it.

The second one is:
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Atlantic Books).This book is from one English books list I had. Now, I thik I can read it.

You can look at those links to see about its summaries. www.bookdepository.co.uk

www.amazon.es

See you on Tuesday.
Regards

As you looked at me with faces of disbelief, here you are...

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/no-way-jose.html


Even a short video...

What else do you need???

Ah, yes, the Queen of England... I'll find it!

HOMEWORK FOR THURSDAY

Hi everyone,

Last class we checked homework and we continued with unit 4A and 4B related with complaints. We did vocabulary exercises and the listening from page 38.

Homework for next day:

Worksheet "HOLIDAYS WITH A CONSCIENCE"

And REMEMBER to bring your FORMAL LETTER OF COMPLAINT

Have a day day and see you tomorrow!

María