Oxford or Cambridge?

http://theboatrace.org

We all know that these are the two most famous universities in England, very near one to the other and very beautiful both of them. Not only Oxford, but also Cambridge are not more than an hour and twenty minutes far from London, the capital city of the United Kingdom.

But today I'm not talking about these two wonderful British cities but of the legendary rowing race that takes place each year and that two crews from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford compete in since 1829, it is one of the oldest sports competition in the world. Many famous people have participated in the race, such as the well-known Dr House (Hugh Laurie) or the Winklevoss twins, who were the beginners of the idea of Facebook together with Zuckerberg.

This boat race is held on the river Thames in London every year (except for the first one) and there is a great excitement around it. Oxford has won 76 times and Cambridge 80. Many of my friends have rowed for many years, some of them are Spanish champions of their cattegories and I hope they like this post.

Which crew do you think will win today?
Leave your comments and tell me!!!


UPDATE:
Finally, after a disturbed race with a person in the river and a broken blade in the Oxford boat, too much for only 6.8 km!! Cambridge has won the 158th boat race!!!

What if...?

What if...? on Prezi

Next week we are going to start working on the three types of conditional clauses. In this presentation we have almost every possibility, nevertheless we will focus on the most used and needed at our level.

We are going to work a lot on them so that you can see and produce the differences in use; we will be doing the exercises in our textbooks, but you can also use several pages in internet like this one or this one, which is easier.

Remember, if you have any problems, doubts, or whatever need, you can always leave your comments!!!

April Fool's Day

Spaghetti harvest, 1957
projectbritain.com

April Fool's Day is celebrated in many countries in the world on the 1st of April every year. It is not a bank holiday but people are used to making jokes to relatives and friends. Also, the television and radio take part in this festivity making jokes to their audience. In 1957, the BBC explained how families in Switzerland picked spaghetti from the trees as you can see in the photo. If you want to see the complete video, you can.

What is its origin?
 The origin of this festivity is not really clear but it has its oringins in Roman times. Nevertheless, the closest to truth that we know may be related to the changing from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar which started in the 16th century but which, due to the bad communications system of the time, wasn't accepted in England until 1752. In the Julian calendar, New Year was celebrated on the 1st of April and in the Gregorian on the 1st of January. It seems that people who started celebrating it on the 1st of January laughed and played tricks on people who celebrated it on the 1st of April on this same day. Even though all of this, there are references to this celebration in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales which dates back to the 14th Century!!!

If you want to learn more about this celebration, you can go here. Do we celebrate April Fool's Day in Spain? What date do we celebrate something similar? Leave your comments!!!

Eating disorders

(taken by Ana Gª)

We have started a unit related with eating disorders; in this unit, we are going to be dealing with anorexia and bulimia from a positive point of view, that is, we are going to keep in mind not only waht we should do to avoid these problems, but also to help people who may be suffering them.

These illnesses are related to self-image and self-esteem; they are relatively new illnesses and, even though they were only women patients at the beginning, more and more men are becoming ill of anorexia and bulimia.

Here is some information in English and in Spanish about how to have a healthy relationship with food and with our body. If you want to live well, you have to take care of your body, it's the only one we've got!!!

I hope this can help someone who needs it. If you want to, you can send a comment.

International Day of Theatre

John Malkovich

Today is the 50th anniversary of the celebration of the International Day of Theatre. Theatre is one of the oldest forms of literature and one that gets easily to the audience and may help to get people nearer to literature. This day started to be celebrated 50 years ago as a way to acknowledge theatre's importance and promoted by the International Theatre Institute (belonging to the UNESCO).

Every year an important theatre person gives a speech about theatre;  this year, it has been said by the well-known actor John Malkovich. You can have a look at his speech.

In Spain, there have also been celebrations, and also, all around the world!!!

Do you like theatre? What is the last play that you have seen?

Tell me about it and leave your comments!!!

End of term

James Blunt

In these days in which students are preparing their final exams, but also, what to do during the holidays; teachers are correcting exams full time and preparing the evaluation; in addition to parents, who are expectantly waiting their children's marks, I wanted to post a song which always cheers me up.

This song is by the British singer and songwriter James Blunt who has got a very special voice, especially live.
For those of my students who want to practise their listening, I recommend you hear it once or twice and try to write down 5 to 10 words, then have a look at the lyrics and listen to it at the same time.

Sorry for the adverts!!!

Soccer or Football?

http://carrie-persichini.blogspot.com.es 

From the 15th century onwards many games involving a ball and different parts of the body were played in England, they were all called "football"; these have evolved into different modern sports. The most famous one in Europe is called "Association Football", more commonly named as "football" or "footy". "American Football", also called "gridiron football" or just "football" in the USA, comes from the football that started to be played at the Rugby School and later on took its name, that is, from rugby.

So, what is "football"? 

In Europe, we call "football" to the game played by two teams of eleven agile and quick players who try to put a spherical ball into the rival's goal without touching it with the arms or hands.The game lasts for 90 minutes with a 15 minutes rest in the middle. In 1863 the Football Association was created. It is nowadays an Olympic Sport.

In the USA, we call "football" to the game played by two teams of eleven really strong players with lots of protective equipment who try to get an  ellipsoid ball into the opponents' end zone, they can run with it in their hands or kick it, they normally protect it with their own bodies so that the opponents don't get the ball. The game normally lasts for four 15 minutes quarters with a rest of 10 to 20 minutes after the second quarter. The first records of an official game dates back to 1869. It is not an Olympic Sport.

Americans, but also Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders, refer to"Association Football" as  "Soccer".

A fun way to learn football vocabulary at the British Council's web.
So, do you like football, or should I say "soccer"...? Leave your comments and tell me!!!

Saint Patrick's Day

Irish Shamrock

When is it celebrated?

Today, the 17th of March, is the day when Irish people around the world celebrate their culture.

Who was Saint Patrick?
Saint Patrick is Ireland's patron because in the 5th century AD, he christianised Ireland. Before that, he had been kidnapped and taken to Ireland where he achieved to escape from his captors; nevertheless, he returned to Ireland when he said he heard he was called to end up with former polytheist religions in Ireland.

How do Irish people celebrate it?
Today is a holiday in Ireland and Northern Ireland, it is also widely celebrated in places where the Irish moved to along history such as Britain, USA, Canada and Australia among others.
Irish people usually celebrate it going to church, wearing green clothes and shamrocks. Also, even though it is during Lent, they can drink alcohol which is forbidden the rest of the time in Lent.

Shamrocks, these little plants that abound in Ireland, were used by Saint Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity and has become a symbol of Ireland too.

There is a Festival in Dublin city, the capital of Ireland which lasts from the 16th to the 19th of March and even buildings wear green colours, have a look.

What do you think of these celebrations? Do you celebrate Saint Patrick at school?
Leave a comment and tell us!!

ADELE: Someone like you.

Adele is a great British singer and song-writer.Born in Tottenham (north of London) lived with her young mother alone. She had a talented voice since she was very young and, even though her economic circunstances were not very good, she went to the Brit School for Performing Arts & Technology. She was discovered by a record company because a friend of her posted a demo by her on MySpace.

I like this song very much and I think that this video is perfect for class use. First, the lyrics can be seen paying attention to the tenses or even filling gaps to use the different tenses (present simple, past simple, past perfect, "will"  future, and also, the imperative or conditional); there are many different tenses and also time lines can be used to explain time referencies and how they are organised in a text. As the video also has the lyrics on, we can enjoy a karaoke version with the whole class or even have the class divided and make competitions between the two groups!!

If you want to know more about Adele, visit her official website.

What do you think? Do you have any other ideas?

Please, leave your comments!!!

Relative clauses

Relative clauses on Prezi

My students of 1st of Bachillerato asked me if we could use the PDI (Pizarra Digital Interactiva) they have in class now because one of their mates has an injured foot, and they are now in a 2nd of ESO class. Therefore, tomorrow I am going to explain the relative clauses though a Prezi with the help of the PDI.

When we finish, we are going to do some exercises in the book, but also in the PDI, in different pages:

• English for you online.
• English Exercises.org.
• Agenda web.

I hope they enjoy it and appreciate my hard work. 

I also hope they work a lot on relatives and send me a comment to tell me how they have done or ask me any doubts!!

International Women's Day 2012

Public Local  Clothes Sink at Belalcázar, Córdoba (Spain)
photo taken by Ana García.

I wish...

I wish we did not have to celebrate this day, that is,

 I wish it wasn't necessary. 

Unfortunately, and I see it every day, 

there are many people who still think that women should do certain things and men other certain things; 

these ideas push society backwards, 

they make  it continue the same,

follow in the same mood.

I saw these sinks and thought how hard it was to be a woman not so long ago...

I wish society will move forward,

I wish we don't need to celebrate this day.

What are your wishes?

Leave them in a comment!!

If you want to know more about International Women's Day, why it is celebrated today and so on, have a look at the Wikipedia.

Modal verbs for 2nd of ESO

We are learning some modals and I like this way of presenting them with a new tool I found on the internet called glogster to make nice digital posters which I am learning to use:

The first column gives the meanings; the second, the affirmative form of the modal used; and the third, the negative form. As you can see, there are some blank squares, that is because they cannot be used in the affirmative or negative form.

You can do some exercises on the modal CAN and MUST  at The Yellow Pencil website among others.

I hope it helps you. LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS AND TELL ME!!