BEST OF LUCK ON YOUR EXAMS!!!!

Dear students & readers of this blog,

Believe it or not, we've come to the end. It seems like yesterday when we started our classes, and when we met for the first time. Now we've been together for eight months, and the time is come to show what you can do.

This is just a short message to wish you the best of luck on your exams. I know it is easy to say, but you have to do your best to keep cool and try to show what you have learnt and what you can do. I'm sure you'll do it.

As far as I am concerned, and in spite of what it might have seemed at times, I'm really happy to have had you as my students, this year or in the past. I hope to have contributed to your understanding and command of the beautiful English language.

See you soon!

Class Diary week 29 (20-23 May 2013)

Dear students & readers of this blog,

This is what we did last week in class:

2º NB

Contents:

- Grammar: 'Be going to' for predictions

- Grammar: Introduction to the present perfect tense.

- Talking about experiences in the past: have you ever...?

Students' book:

- pp. 142-143: 'Be going to' for predictions

- p. 93, ex. 3 a, d; ex. 4 a, b, & c

Homework:

- Watch short film on i-tutor: The history of the sandwich

Photocopies:

None

Videos/games/listening:

- p. 83: Can you understand these people?

- Listening practice

2º NA

Contents:

- Word building: prefixes

- Talking about education

Student's book:

- p. 70 ex. 4 a, b & c.; ex. 5 a, b.

- p. 71 ex. 5 c & d

 

Homework:

- Search QI's website

Videos & interactive games:

- Listening practice: The five-second rule (gap-filling)

Photocopies:
None

NA Listening Practice - BBC Podcasts: The five-second rule

Dear students & readers of this blog,

As listening practice for the exam, last week we watched a podcast from the BBC on the so-called 'Five-second rule'. But what is it about?

According to the wikipedia, 'the five-second rule' states that food dropped on the ground will not be significantly contaminated with bacteria if it is picked up within five seconds of being dropped.'

A BBC correspondent gets to work to show how this is a myth. Here's the video. You'll find its corresponding exercise for practice below:

Listening practice. Fill in the gaps:

• We all have been there. You _______    _________late, you are cooking a meal, your child is hungry.
• The five second rule is if they ___________their food I think you’ve got about five seconds  to sort of ________it __________
• I’m gonna ______________the five second rule
• We are gonna drop them on different ___________and see what different types of _________ we can actually detect
• Back on the lab we’ve got three ___________ ready to put them under the microscope
• It’s covered in bacteria and some are __________ bacteria and some of them are not. I _____________ wouldn't eat it.
• Nice fresh fruit no real ___________ surface but still picks up lots of bacteria
• So the moral of the story is if you drop it, __________  it
• So no matter how quickly you pick it up, still going to be ______________

Deeply grateful to my colleague and friend Laura Parrilla, an English teacher at the EOI Constantina (Sevilla), for passing this on to me. Cheers!

Class Diary Week 28 (13-16 May 2013)

Dear students & readers of this blog,

This is what we did last week in class:

2º NB

Contents:

- Grammar: to be going to for future plans 

- Making suggestions

- Advice: should

- Revision of superlatives

Students' book:

- p. 78 ex. 1 a, b & c, ex. 2 a, b, c & e + pp. 142-143

- p. 79, ex. 5 a, b

- pp. 105-110 (making plans) 

- p. 79, ex.4, a, b & c; ex. 5 a & b + making suggestions + should

Homework:

- Writing: an informal email

Photocopies:

- Listening practice

- What do you know about the UK? Photocopies

Videos/games:

None

2º NA

Contents:

- Talking about addictions and obsessions

- Grammar: expressing permission, obligation and necessity

- Talking about laws and regulations

Student's book:

- p. 63, ex. 6a, b & c (speaking)

- p. 68, ex. 1a, b & c 

- p. 69, ex. 1 e, f , ex. 2a, ex. 3

- p. 70, ex. 4b, c., ex. 5a, b

Homework:

- Check the website www.dumblaws.com

- Look for info on the BBC TV programme QI

Videos & interactive games:

None

Photocopies:
None

NEW!!! Check this link if you're studying the irregular verbs

Dear students & readers of this blog,

Recently, a student of one of my Basic level groups, Mª José González, sent me this link to ask for my opinion. Mª José, I think this link is great! Thank you for sending it!!

I have taken the liberty to post it here for everybody to use, and it's going to be permanently linked to our blog. Please check on the sidebar under the heading "Vocabulary & grammar", and look for "irregular verbs + conjugations". Yes, you read well. You can also check the correct conjugation of irregular verbs.

For a taste, have a look. Click here.

THANK YOU, Mª JOSÉ!!!

Class Weeks 26 & 27 (29 Apr - 9 May 2013)

Dear students & readers of this blog,

This is what we've done in the last two weeks:

2º NB

Contents:

- Comparative adjectives

- Practical English: at a restaurant (ordering a meal)

- Vocabulary: a menu

- Vocabulary: places and buildings

- Grammar: the superlative

- Grammar: to be going to for plans in the future

Students' book:

- p. 72, ex. 2 a, b, c & d, ex. 6 a, b, c & d

- Speaking: Quiz night (pp. 105-110)

- p. 76, ex. 1 a & b + p. 164 (places & buildings), ex. 2 a, b, c + p. 142-143

- p. 77, ex. 4 a (reading), ex. 5 (speaking & writing)

- p. 78, ex. 1 a, b, c, d

 

Homework:

- Practical English: at a restaurant - pp. 74-75 (student's itutor)

- Write a short text advertising your city. Use superlatives (px 77, ex 5 b)

Photocopies:

- Practising comparatives

Videos/games:

- Practical English: at a restaurant - pp. 74-75

2º NA

Contents:

- Speaking about self-help books

- Vocabulary: compound adjectives

- Vocabulary: phone vocab.

- Talking about addictions

- Grammar: adjectives + prepositions

Student's book:

- p. 58, ex. 4 a, b, c & d

- p. 59, ex. 4 e, ex. 5 a & c

- p. 60, ex. 1 a, b

- p. 61, ex 2 c, d, e & f; ex. 3 (conditional sentences), a & b + p. 147 , d (speaking)

- p. 62, ex. 4a & b

- p. 63, ex. 4 c & d

 

Homework:

- Writing: discursive essay pp. 64-65 (see instructions there)

Videos & interactive games:

None

Photocopies:
- Dependent prepositions

I, too, sing Poetry...

Dear students & readers of this blog,

Not very long ago, we celebrated the World Book Day. We celebrated our passion for reading in all forms: we have talked about book covers, about our favourite books...and about poetry.

Most people read novels, so that's what we can find in libraries and bookshops more easily. But what about the many poetry lovers that are hidden in the vast crowd? 

Here are the poems we discussed in class, for you to read and listen. Enjoy!!

 1.

"I, Too, Sing America" (Langston Hughes)

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

2.
"What every woman should carry" and "The Elevator" (Maura Dooley)

What every woman should carry
My mother gave me the prayer to Saint Theresa.
I added a used tube ticket, Kleenex,
several Polo mints (furry), a tampon, pesetas,
a florin. Not wishing to be presumptuous,
not trusting you either, a pack of 3.
I have a pen. There is space for my guardian
angel, she has to fold her wings. Passport.
A key. Anguish, at what I said/didn’t say
when once you needed/didn’t need me. Anadin.
A credit card. His face the last time,
my impatience, my useless youth.
That empty sack, my heart. A box of matches.


The Elevator
As an oyster opens,
wondrous, and through mud
lets glitter that translucent
promise, so the lift doors
close and I am inside
alone with Leonard Cohen.
Vertigo, fear, desire.
I could unpeel myself here,
not just down to honest
freckled skin but through
the sticky layers of a past.
Surely he’d know me anywhere?
Remember that time in the Colston Hall,
how you sang only to me?
The Albert Hall, when I blagged
a press seat and you never once
took your eyes from my shining face?
Here, now, today, in Toronto,
how did you find me?
How did you know I’d be here?
He looks to where I stand
in the radiant silence,

the earth falling away beneath us,
till the silvery gates slide open
to release him. He steps out.
He steps out and I stand still.
‘D’you know where you’re going?’
he asks.
‘Is this where you wanted to be?’






3.
"Those Winter Sundays" (Robert Hayden)

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?






4.
"In Paris with you" (James Fenton)

Don't talk to me of love. I've had an earful
And I get tearful when I've downed a drink or two.
I'm one of your talking wounded.
I'm a hostage. I'm maroonded.
But I'm in Paris with you.
Yes I'm angry at the way I've been bamboozled
And resentful at the mess I've been through.
I admit I'm on the rebound
And I don't care where are we bound.
I'm in Paris with you.
Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre
If we say sod off to sodding Notre Dame,
If we skip the Champs Elysées
And remain here in this sleazy
Old hotel room
Doing this and that
To what and whom
Learning who you are,
Learning what I am.
Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris,
The little bit of Paris in our view.
There's that crack across the ceiling
And the hotel walls are peeling
And I'm in Paris with you.
Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris.
I'm in Paris with the slightest thing you do.
I'm in Paris with your eyes, your mouth,
I'm in Paris with... all points south.
Am I embarrassing you?
I'm in Paris with you.






5.
"For Women who are difficult to love" (Warsan Shire)

you are a horse running alone
and he tries to tame you
compares you to an impossible highway
to a burning house
says you are blinding him
that he could never leave you
forget you
want anything but you
you dizzy him, you are unbearable
every woman before or after you
is doused in your name
you fill his mouth
his teeth ache with memory of taste
his body just a long shadow seeking yours
but you are always too intense
frightening in the way you want him
unashamed and sacrificial
he tells you that no man can live up to the one who
lives in your head
and you tried to change didn't you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can't make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.



Warsan Shire - "For Women Who Are Difficult To Love" from MovingOn & StereoOpticon on Vimeo.