From USA Today.com

...and he quietly left...

Most of us know who Steve Jobs was, especially those who have a Macintosh computer or an IPod or anything with the symbol of an apple on it. In the year 2004 he was diagnosed with a pancreatic cancer, and he finally passed away today, after a long and tough fight against the ilness. Of course, he was not the kind of person to surrender easily, and he went on working almost until the end. Many people remember his famous and inspiring speech delivered at the Comencement ceremony at Standford University. Many of those people I've just mentioned would like to pay homage to him somehow. May this blog be the means to do so for those who don't have another way to do it.

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American computer entrepreneur and inventor. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer.

In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula and others designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011.

In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1 percent until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006. Consequently Jobs became Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7 percent and a member of Disney's Board of Directors. On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO.

On October 5, 2011, Apple announced that Jobs had died at age 56 due to pancreatic cancer.

Source: Wikipedia

Please take a few minutes to watch and listen to his Standford speech. Worth watching! (with subtitles in Spanish):

Read about the news on:

• The Telegraph


• CTV Canada


• BBC News


• Time (CNN blog)


• USA Today
  

Apple, the company he co-founded, has lost one of its "fathers". Click here if you want to read about their reaction to the sad news. If you should wish to leave your condolences, write an email to rememberingsteve@apple.com

May he rest in peace.

2º NA - Quotes, quotes...

Dear students & readers of this blog,

Our first lesson in the student's book starts with a quote by G.K. Chesterton (photo) that reads:

"I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite."

Don't forget to click on Chesterton's name to read a little bit about his life and works!

Let me tell you some of my favourite quotes in English. One I really like is:

"I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul"

This quote belongs to a poem called "Invictus", by William Ernest Henley. The poem goes like this:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Watch now Sir Alan Bates, famous (and sadly deceased) British actor, recite the poem:

But why did Henley write this poem? What does it mean? This is what wikipedia.com says about the background of the poem:

"At the age of 12, Henley fell victim to tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later, the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. It was amputated when he was 17. Stoicism inspired him to write this poem. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until his death at the age of 53."

And now, THE HOMEWORK! :D Please write a comment giving your favourite quote IN ENGLISH and briefly explaining who said it and its background.

2º NB - Of coats of arms

Dear students and readers of this blog,

It's the beginning of the year and now we are getting to know one another. And as a means of doing it, we are designing our own personal COAT OF ARMS (thanks to my wonderful teacher from Lake School, Oxford, Jane Barden, for the idea)

Ok, first things first. What exactly is a coat of arms? A piece of clothing? A part of one's body? Both? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! In fact, it is...

"An arrangement of bearings, or symbols, usually depicted on and around a shield, which indicates ancestry and distinctions." (source: www.texastech.edu/identityguidelines/glossary.php)

A Coat of Arms should look somewhat like this:

Now, in class, I showed you the Coat of Arms of the beautiful city of Oxford. Here you have it:

The coat of arms of Oxford shows an OX FORDing the River Thames. The Latin motto "Fortis est Veritas" means "The truth is strong."

... Ok, what's the meaning of "Ford"?

ford
n.
1- A shallow place in a body of water, such as a river, where one can cross by walking or riding on an animal or in a vehicle.

tr.v. ford·ed, ford·ing, fords
2- To cross (a body of water) at a ford.

(source: thefreedictionary.com)

After this, I'm sure you want to make your own online Coat of Arms. Click here and enjoy!!

REMEMBER: I asked you to draw your personal coat of arms in class, and to explain it to the rest of the classroom. Please click on the word "comments" to write a description of the coat of arms you designed.

Here are some coats of arms designed by students of the school in Mairena del Aljarafe (Seville):

By: Javier Clavijo, David Moreno, Juan Antonio Martín and Yolanda López. Thanks for your contributions!!

Click on COMMENTS and write the descriptions of your own coats of arms.

Materials for the year 2011-2010

Dear students and readers of this blog,

Welcome to my blog! I hope you find it useful and entertaining. First things come first, and we just have started our classes, so here you have some information on the materials we will be using along the year:

2º Nivel Básico


New English File Elementary. Clive Oxenden & Kristina Latham-Koenig. Oxford University Press.

2º Nivel Avanzado

New English File Advanced. Clive Oxenden & Christina Latham-Koenig. Oxford University Press.

Remember! In class, we will only use the students' book, together with handouts and other materials that might be interesting. But it is important for you to work AT HOME too. For that, you can use the WORKBOOK that comes with the students' book, that includes the key to the exercises. You can also use the CD-ROM you will find inside the students' book. Take some time to check its contents!

Click here for the New English File Elementary online, and here for the New English File Advanced online. There are lots of interesting activities to practice your grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation...You will find a permanent link to these websites on the sidebar of this blog, under the label STUDENTS WEBSITES.

Enjoy!!!

Thank you, Andalucía. I'm going to miss you!!!

Dearest students and readers of this blog,

This is a special post. The last post of the year. As you know, I traditionally wish you a happy summer and that's all. But this time, apart from that, I'd like to say goodbye and thank you, because this will be my last post as a teacher of the Official Language School of Mairena del Aljarafe.

Next year I am going to work in a city in the north of the province of Cáceres called Plasencia. As you know, I'm from Extremadura, and, much as I've been welcomed and happy in Andalucía, I've always been homesick, somehow. So we could say that I'm going back home.

Here you have a video of the city, in case you don't know what it's like:

That doesn't mean that I'm going to disappear, of course not!!! I will still keep this blog, and I'd love it if you continued to use it, and to comment on my posts. I'd also love to know how you are doing!!

And I'd love to say a big THANK YOU, to my fellow teachers and my students, in Huelva, Jaén and Mairena. You have all made me feel passion for my job. And I feel privileged because I've felt welcomed and loved in Andalucía.

I wish you the best of luck. Don't forget me! And keep it up with English. It's a beautiful language, the living image of an extremely rich culture. It just takes hard work, perseverance and a belief in your capacities. It all will be worth your while!

HAPPY SUMMER HOLIDAYS!!

1º NB (A1) Of houses and furniture - There is/are

Dear students and readers of this blog,

Unit 6 deals with the vocabulary of the house, its rooms and its furniture. Why don't you take some time to have a look at this? You will surely find it useful.




First of all, we need to practise THERE IS/ARE a little bit, don't we?

• Grammar of THERE IS/ARE


• Practice 1


• Practice 2


• Practice 3


• Practice 4

Now read the description a 10-year old English boy makes of his house:

1. The kitchen
2. The living room
3. The bathroom
4. The bedroom
5. The garden

Why don't you visit our VIRTUAL HOUSE ?

NI (B1) - Rumour has it...REPORTED SPEECH

Dear students & readers of this blog,

As you know, there are two ways we can transmit what someone said: by quoting the exact words (DIRECT SPEECH) and by giving an approximate version of them, with some changes (INDIRECT & REPORTED SPEECH).

Right now we are studying the reported speech in class, and we could use some extra help, couldn't we?

So click here to learn about the grammar of the reported speech.

Or here...

Now, some practice:

• Exercise 1
• Exercise 2
• Exercise 3
• Exercise 4
• Practice from Intermediate Language Practice (MacMillan). With key
• Reported speech gapfill
• Reported speech reverse transformation exercise

Do you like gossiping? Do you usually believe what people say? Read the lyrics of the song we are going to listen to in class. RUMOURS, GOSSIP... As soon as I learn how to upload the audio file of the song to this blog, I'll do it. Promise!

And to finish this post, the last sensation of British music: RUMOUR HAS IT, by Adele.