Merry Christmas!!!

Picmonkey.com

With all my heart, I want to wish you all happy days no matter what you are celebrating, maybe it be Hanukkah, Kwanzaa,  Christmas itself or any other celebration I don't know about. The new year will bring for me new challenges and I hope it does for you too. I wish especially to my students at #Iestartessos because they are my biggest fans.

White Christmas

There is only a few days for Christmas and my students of 1st ESO have been working a lot, so in these two last classes, I want to enjoy Christmas time with them. We will be learning the carol White Christmas sung by the young artist Taylor Swift.

We will also try to learn what is a Christmas cracker and how to make them. 

Do you know what it is? Tell us!

Roar by Katy Perry

"Roar" by Katy Perry

I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath

Scared to rock the boat and make a mess

So I sat quietly, agreed politely

I guess that I forgot I had a choice

I let you push me past the breaking point

I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything

You held me down, but I got up (HEY!)

Already brushing off the dust

You hear my voice, you hear that sound

Like thunder gonna shake the ground

You held me down, but I got up (HEY!)

Get ready 'cause I’ve had enough

I see it all, I see it now

CHORUS I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire 'Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar Louder, louder than a lion 'Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar Oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh oh oh You’re gonna hear me roar

Now I'm floating like a butterfly
Stinging like a bee I earned my stripes
I went from zero, to my own heroYou held me down, but I got up (HEY!)

Already brushing off the dust

You hear my voice, you hear that sound

Like thunder gonna shake the ground

You held me down, but I got up (HEY!)

Get ready ’cause I’ve had enough

I see it all, I see it now

CHORUS

I really like this song because  its lyrics talk about a woman who turns from being a passive individual to taking control of the situations, I also like the video very much. I hope you enjoy it too.

Hallowe'en

This is a very good video to watch at Halloween, first because of its beautiful images and music, besides, it has the lyrics written on. It is about "The Kingdom of Witches" and it is a large poem that you can read on the screen or if you want to use it, you have a copy of it in this blog: Lestobada Secondary English Blog.

I wish you a spooky Halloween...HAHAHAHAHHAHA

I need a break!

Wikimedia

Girl suffering form anxiety

I am really sorry, but I need a break. I am doing so many things at the same time that I am really at the end of my limit. I am taking two online courses, giving private lessons to an old student, trying to keep up with all the work a teacher who cares has to do... Besides, I also have a family and friends. I am  sorry but I am taking a break from this blog. It seems that not many people are visiting it and, those who do, do not leave any comments.

 It is getting difficult for me to write about topics that my students will profit of and if I do, I do not have much time. I will continue to write the homework in the blog so that everyone can follow that and I will try also to be active on Twitter, but I am not going to write for a time, how long? I do not know, I hope not much, maybe at Christmas?

For those of you who usually read me, excuse me. I really need this break!

Xscape in Glasgow

This summer I went to Scotland, as many of you already know. It is a very special city, one of those in which you may think: "I would like to live here". It was a highly industrialized city and now it is changing its path. The town centre is really like a big shopping centre where you may find all of the main shops.

Problems in Blogger with the text gadget.

Homework 2nd October 2013 1ºA: p. 7 nº 10. 3ºA: p. 11 nºs 3 y 4, p. 12 nº2. #iestartessos
— Ana García Álvarez d (@AnaGarciaTeacha) October 2, 2013

I'm having problems with the gadget of text in which I usually wrote the Homework, it doesn't save the new information, so I have decided to take it out. This happened to me on Monday and I have been trying to fix it since then, I even tried to make a photo of the homework but the image gadget is not working me either. So I have decided to tweet the homework every day on Twitter, in that way, it will appear on your right as usual, just that it will do on the Twitter widget. I hope this gets fixed so we can get back to the blog; I do not want my Twitter account do this : ( , but if it helps...
If there is anybody who knows how to fix it, please tell me!
I would appreciate any comments on this.

Mens sana in corpore sano

Couch-to-5K

I decided a few months ago that I had to take more care of my own body because it will be "my home" for all of my life. As I get older; I realize how important it is to be healthy and to have a toned body that is able to do whatever I want it to do.

I have taken up running and I want to participate in a race in the near future. That is the reason why I downloaded this app, it is called Couch to 5K (1.51€) and that is literally what it tries to do: take a person from the sofa to running 5 kilometers in nine weeks of controlled training. At the beginning of the training you walk more than run and this is the opposite at the end of the nine weeks.

It is completely in English (very simple and clear vocabulary) and you can also listen to music from playlists that you can create or import. So, I strongly recommend it to my students, they can listen to English songs and improve their listening skills while running, a healthy mind in a healthy body.

What do you think of making exercise?

Do you think using apps for training sports is a good idea?

Thank you!!!

The insides of my blog.

This is going to be my last entry in a few days because where I am going there is no wi-fi!! Can you believe it? But I did not want to leave without saying thank you to all of you who have been there. As you can see in the picture, there are already more than 50,000 visits in total (not bad for an educative blog in a year and a half).
I also wanted to give you the list of the top ten, that is, the most visited so you can visit them too. I am going to present them backwards, the last one is the most visited:

• World's Teacher's Day. (includes a funny cartoon about teachers)
• Simple Past Irregular Verbs. (you can find a very interesting mindmap -not done by me, this is homework for next course!!)
• Modal verbs for 2nd of ESO (the glogster is mine, I think it is interesting)
• THE WANTED "Glad you Came" (lots of people like this song and this group, I found it interesting because of the use of anadiplosis in the song)
• Love English Awards at MacMillan Dictionary Blog ( I presented myself this year to this Blog Award and we ended up in the third place, I also have to say thank you to all of my students who supported me)
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton (Burlington Books)
• Cervantes Meets Shakespeare by Ramón Ybarra Rubio (Ed. Burlington Books)
• A Sense of Danger by Tracy Simmons (Ed. Burlington Books) (These last three are short summaries and links of some of the readers we have used in our high school)
• Model composition: What did you do last weekend? (A composition model using the past and other resources)
• How to post a comment in this blog? The winner!! Many people have visited this post and I am happy to think that it has helped some of them to learn how to leave comments, not only in this blog but also in many others.

So, what are your favourite posts?

A joke to laugh a little during the holidays...

Uldis Liepkalns

I don't mean to get into politics now, not at all, but it made me fun how Obama looks back to the child.

I am taking a little rest these days because the end of the course was exhausting for me and I have been ill for a while; now I am feeling better but I still need some days to rest myself.

I will probably get back to tell you all about my trip in a few weeks. Do you know where I will be going this year? In a few days I will tell you.

Have a nice holidays meanwhile!!

Singing in the rain...

I know it is reeeally hot, at least here in Spain, but as I now have much more free time, I came across this old video which is very well subtittled and is one of my favourite pieces of a musical. It is also very optimistic and talks about partying at that time.
I hope you enjoy it!

Holidays at last!!!

Dear Students,
At last you are on holidays, after a few months of hard work, we have two months and a few days to recover ourselves and enjoy life. Some of you will have to study still because you did not get good results, not many in English, because this year many of my students have passed.

In the month of August I will be visiting the United Kingdom and I will probably be telling it to you here in the blog.

I wanted to say thank you to all of you who read this blog and follow me on Twitter. I always have you in mind when writing these posts and most of the times when twitting. I know I said in class I would follow you when holidays come, but I changed my mind: I will look at your timelines and decide, but probably, will wait until you go out of school, that is, until you are ex-students. I tell you this just to make things clear and also to let you know that I completely understand if you want to unfollow me.

It has been a pleasure teaching you this year and I wish you a great holidays full of experiences. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

William Shakespeare

Idyllically

William Shakespeare is one of the best-known, if not the best, writer of the whole world. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in the year 1564 and died in 1616. He moved to London and became an actor and playwright, that is, he wrote the plays in which he acted. If you want to know more about his life, you can watch a series of videos at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

At that time, theatre, or drama, was person-based and some scenes were based on monologues or speeches of certain characters which have become very famous ("to be or not to be, that is the question" from Hamlet), another anecdote is that there were no women on stage; the clothes, tapestries and curtains were splendid and there were machines to move up or down things. We can see this is The Globe, the theatre were he played most of his plays.

Why is Shakespeare so important?
For me, he is so important because he was an expert in creating plays that treated many different topics (love, war, betrayal, foolishness ... and many more) and he did so in a way that he achieved to address to the inner emotions of people and they are as up-to-date now as they were when he created them.
He also wrote a lot of poetry (great sonnets), and invented many words of the English language.

Have you read anything by Shakespeare or attended to any of his plays? Do you know the names of his most famous plays?

International Day Against Homophobia

"Flowers" by Lucía R.B. to whom I talk about homophobia

On the 17th May 1990, the World Health Organization took out homosexuality from the list of illnesses, that is the reason why today we celebrate today the International Day Against Homophobia.  There are still some countries in which it is a crime to have homosexual relationships and in many others, they feel bullied or discriminated.

I am a bit fed up of listening to people saying that everything should be treated in schools, but I think this topic should and this is why:

 I see them everyday, 

even though they are a minority, they do exist.

 Most of them, both boys and girls, 

do not want the rest of the people to know, 

so,

 while the rest of their mates are experiencing their first intimate relationships,

 they cannot.

 Even if they are brave enough to have a relationship during their high school years,

 they do not kiss each other, 

they do not hug each other,

 they do not hold hands in public.

One day they will.

We won't even look back.

They will kiss,

they will hug,

they will hold hands...

And I will love to teach in that high school.

We have to acknowledge them in high schools, give them our support as teachers so that they are as free as the rest.

Motivation: Validation by Kurt Kuenne

Validation (2007) is an optimistic short film and love story by Kurt Kuenne. It only lasts for almost 16 minutes and was released on the YouTube platform, making it clear that things are changing in the film business. I really like this story because it shows how you can focus on the nice part of life and not on the bad and the world would be better. As a teacher I try to do this with my students and I think this really helps people to feel better and more motivated to produce and create.

I recommend you to watch it, it will cheer you up!!

What do you think of it?Did you like it?

Describing photos: New image of the blog

Photo and composition by Ana García

I wanted to change the looks of the blog and I decided to use this photo I took last summer at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) Art Lab in New York. In this museum, there is a place for families in which people are allowed to touch things and, in this particular one, they had some things displayed so that you could choose and make a composition. This was my own composition in which both New York and Paris are represented, we also see shells and butterflies, which represent elements of nature that I like.

In some official oral tests, you are given a photograph you have to describe, I think this one would be a difficult one to describe. We should try to develop the skill of describing a photo with our students. There are some expressions we should use, such as "at the top, at the bottom, in the middle, on the right side, on the left side" to place our discourse of the description. Other useful expressions are: "we can see, we perceive, we distinguish..." We must always remember to use as many modifiers as possible, like adjectives, prepositional phrases, noun phrases, nouns, relative sentences and so on...Always remember to add your personal opinion in the end, if you like it or not and why.

So, do you feel like describing this one? 

Give it a try! Leave it in a comment!

Earth Day 2013

Yesterday, I watched this film on TV. It is called "Ultimátum a la Tierra" in Spanish. It is a science-fiction film in which an alien comes to the Earth to tell us that we should take better care of it because we are about to destroy it.

It is an American film, of course, but  I think we should rethink about what we are doing to our planet and I think young people have the key to make things better. So, as I am in a challenging mood, I throw you another one (this one is easier), all you have to do is finish the following sentence with possible solutions:

If I could heal the world, I would...

With all the answers here in the blog and in Twitter, I will try to make a digital poster in Glogster or any other, I admit suggestions ;-)

Earth Day 2012

Modern Classics: Paul Anka?

Have you heard the famous song My way? Well, maybe you have not heard about Paul Anka, but he is the songwriter of this famous song and many others. This Canadian artist knew since he was very young that what he wanted to be was a singer and songwriter, so he started to do so as soon as he was 13 years old. 

His first hit Diana is a very well-known song and many others followed, the first few sung by him, the rest sung by others. His most famous hits are Put your hand on my shoulder, , Lonely Boy and Hold me till the Morning Comes, great love songs. He also wrote a song together with Michael Jackson which was released after Jackson's death, it is called This is it.

If you like melodic music, you will like him, give it a try and tell me what you think!

More Modern Classics: The Beatles, Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys.

Back to school with Friends!

I was thinking wether to write about the famous British rowing competition in which Oxford and Cambridge crews fight to win (this year Oxford won) or about tomorrow's celebration of April Fool's Day in the UK (always on 1st April).
However, as I wish my readers, mostly students, to get strenght to finish the course, I decided to include this video of my favourite TV comedy show, which, as you probably know, is Friends. There are 10 series with many episodes and it would be a hard task for me to choose one or other scene, so, I choose this compilation of bloopers.
A blooper, gag reel or outtake is a part of the recorded material which is not finally included and not normally shown on TV because it includes mistakes of the acting team or any other incident which makes it not appropriate to be broadcasted. Even though it is completely in English, most of them are easy to be laughed at and understandable.
Are you a Friends' fan like me? Did you like the video? 
Would you like to watch it in class?

Holidays, at last!!!

On my way to work

This is a photo taken in a hurry from my car this morning, I had seen the rainbow as soon as I left Seville heading to the village where I work every day. As you can see, the sky was very dark, grey and brownish blue; it almost hided a beautiful rainbow. It made me smile.

Even though I was really happy to go to work because it is the last day before our little break for the Holy Week -and I reeeeeally need to rest a little, I do need this break. I am also a little sad because it seems that it is going to rain during this week. You may think it is not that awful, just a little rain, but the truth is that if it rains many of the events happening during this week in my city, Seville, cannot happen: during the Holy Week (starting on Palm Sunday, 24th March this year and finishing the next Sunday, 31st March), the life of Jesus Christ is represented  on top of beautifully carved wooden structures (pasos) held by men who carry hundreds of kilos on top of the backs of their necks. Besides, magnificently dressed Virgin Marys accompany their child on top of another structures usually surrounded by candles and flowers that fill our streets with wonderful scents. These "pasos" are accompanied by hundreds, if not thousands, of people; some of them belong to the brotherhood that takes care of the images, many other accompany them, sometimes in religious or artistic fervour, others just to enjoy the ambience and get hooked on the beauty of the images mixed with the smells and the magnificent music of the walking orchestras. 

I hope it did not rain... 

I want to seize this opportunity and invite all the people who read this blog from all parts of the world, to come and visit Seville, this is the best time of the year to do so. To my students, get a little rest too, you are going to need it to finish the course!!! Have a nice holiday!!