Before we say "good bye"

Hello people,

here we`re at last, almost about to finish our course. It's been a long and hard year, but I'm happy because I've seen significant changes in your performance. Now, here's a final task. I'd like you to leave a message for the students attending English Language and Expression III next year.
Anyway, I expect you to continue visiting this blog and contribute to its development by writing comments on future postings.
Farewell, dear students.
Anahí

An artist’s haven in the harsh shadows of the docks by Joan Scobey (The Herald)

Joan Scobey in his article tells us about a place called “La Boca” in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He provides us its general characteristics, colourful description of the people and main activities. To this port arrived immigrants from all over the world, but mainly Calabrian and Sicilian who founded La Boca; named for the mouth of the Riachuelo River. Due to the old port so near the city residents are called “Porteños”.
La Boca is characterized by people who are painting, playing the accordion, dancing the tango and just café sitting.
The poor old wooden houses are painted in bright colours, and decorated by papier-mâché figures and cartoon portraits hanging from their balconies; examples of these are Eva, Juan Peron and Maradona.
Another picturesque view is “Caminito”, a short pedestrian cobblestone alley with a riot of coloured houses.
The most relevant activities in La Boca are playing and dancing tango. In the mid 20 century the vulgar version of the tango war refined and introduced into upscale dance clubs, or tanguerias.
The “Centro Cultural de los Artistas” in the Conventillo is an example of a Conventillo; a former house where multiple immigrants’ families live in.
Boca Juniors is the most famous football team as well as Diego Maradona who is well known all over the world.
For all this, the poet and journalist Orlando Barone , native of La Boca and descendant of Italian immigrants called this place “Republica de la Boca” for its myth and mystery.

Dolphins. Social Behaviour. ( Wikipedia)

Dolphins are very social. they live in pods of about dozen individuals. In addition, they live in places where there is abundance of food. Dolphins can communicate by using a variety of clicks, whistles and different vocalizations. Besides, dolphins make ultrasonic sounds for echolocation. Being a member in a pod, is not rigid, thus there is interchange in common. These marine mammals can establish strong social bonds. Dolphins may stay with injured or individuals, so that they can even help them breathing by bringing them to the surface whenever needed. Dolphins in Moko and New Zealand have been seen swimming in circles so as to protect swimmers from the attack of sharks. Dolphins leap above the water surface, performing acrobatic figures. Although Scientists are not certain about the purpose of the acrobatics, they think the possibilities may be to locate schools of fish by looking at above-water some signs such as feeding birds, communicating with different dolphins, simple amusement or dislodging parasites. Playing is very important for dolphins. Moreover, dolphins play with marine algae and play fight with other dolphins. Besides, these beautiful animals enjoy riding waves.

Angels

What do you think about social sites?

What do you think about social sites such as Facebook? Do you think they are dangerous for children or for society in general? I think, they are dangerous. I was watching the news and I heard that a 17 year-old English girl was killed by a man, who pretended to be 16 in this social site, but in fact he was 32.
She arranged the meeting through this site, facebook. The night of the meeting, she told her mum she was going to stay in a friend’s house. As she didn’t reply her mum calls, this woman decided to call the police, and unfortunately they found that the girl was killed by this man who pretended to be a good person.
In some cases, these social sites are a good way to socialize, to establish new relationships, but in some other this is a really dangerous thing to do.What do you think about these social sites? Are you in favor or against them?

Anush

Eve and the fire horse.

From my point of view, Eve and the fire horse is a really good movie. If you haven’t watched it yet, I recommend it. Why do I recommend it? I think, it’s a good movie and it contains important aspects of Chinese traits.
This story is set in Canada, it shows how a Chinese family tries to get used to live in a different society a bit far from its country, having different ways of living, chasing new opportunities, believing in a different God.
One of the two little girls of the movie, Eve, was born in the year of the fire horse. This event influences in the fortune or unfortunate that a family can have. Some sad events happen during the film, which are connected to the believes of Chinese people. I’m not going to add more details of the film, because maybe you are interested in the cultural aspects of this society and as a result you will try to discover them by your own. I hope you like it.

Anush

McDonald's Pulls Out of Iceland

Looking for breaking news to write about on the blog I found a Breaking News English Lesson which deals with the fact that the big giant McDonald has to sell his last restaurant in Iceland. This lesson plan provides great activities to deal with in our classes. I think every student will find this piece of news really interesting because they are fan of Mc Donalds’ hamburgers and surely, it is very far from their expectation to listen that they can have financial problems.
The wide range of activities provided by this webpage includes, predicting the content of the article, reading and listening comprehension, vocabulary excercises, working with dictionaries, a debate about fast food, a survey and a writing excercise about Mc Donald. The activities are meant to recycle vocabulary and structures and to allow students to learn the language while using it. Maybe some of the activities seem to be a bit difficult, but a motivated student will do his best to work them out,
Click HERE to access the page.
You can see why McDonald was pulled out of Iceland and all the activities you can use in your classes. Surely students will be motivated by the topic and the activities. Enjoy it and tell me what do you thimk about it.

Cheeps

Youth in danger

The news on the web is nowadays full of violence; in fact, many articles are based on violence at school or between youngsters. Moreover, teenagers fighting at the streets are easily found not only in digital newspapers, but also in videos that are uploaded in different pages by themselves. In other words, some young people enjoy sharing their own violent reactions, and they feel proud of them. As a result, teachers have to face this kind of behaviour at schools, and it does more difficult their daily work. However, we have to think about why and how adolescents start reacting this way for any problem or misunderstanding. In my opinion, they are not guilty; on the contrary, they are victims of a cruel society that excludes them, and never hears them. They feel that they are alone in this world, and many times they are right. So, they look for shelter and knock many doors, and when nobody answers they go into hiding behind drugs, alcohol, and violence. We, as society, have to learn to listen to them, understand them, love them, and help them. They need us, they need you, don’t leave them alone!!!

Atlantis

Plan for the class

"Any plan for your class? All classes would work things out the same way?" Click HERE and find out new ideas for your plan

Emma

“Quantum success. The astounding science of wealth and happiness”. By Sandra Anne Taylor.

If you have read or watched the movie called “The secret” by Rhonda Byrne, you are prepared to receive this detailed information about how to use the universal law of attraction to get whatever you want in life. In other words, in this book you will find step by step what you have to do using only your mind to get abundance in any aspect of your life, such as love, money, professional success, or anything you really want. Furthermore, it includes easy tasks that help you organise and decide what you are going to ask; and consequently, what you are going to reach through positive thinking. You can also find in this very recommendable book, good strategies to avoid negative thoughts, and to connect yourself with spiritual beings, such as masters and angels. To sum up, you will discover that the power is inside yourself, and that you only need to learn how to use it and focus your mind positively on what you really want to get. Finally, don’t forget to visit an interesting review about “The secret” published in this blog by Pedro in August, which includes a link to the official web site.

Atlantis