CLASSWORK Tuesday 22nd January

1) We did the GRAMMAR WORK (Reported Speech) on p. 94 (the whole page).


. I suggested doing some hw. for Thursday.


. I suggested that they should do some tiny little bit of hw.


. I suggested they should use the page "Splendid Speaking" on the blog (where else?)


. I suggested they buy the book which is waiting for them in the bookshop (ha ha ha)


. I didn´t suggest them to do anything because THIS SENTENCE IS WRONG!





2) We revised the word building flashcards of UNIT 7. I was AMAZED, FLABBERGASTED, OVER THE MOON to find that they had learnt ALL OF THEM! Wow!

3) We learnt some more word building flashcards from UNIT 1.



4) We watched an episode from Friends: "Ross gets a fake tan". Hilarious! We laughed our heads off!

5) This time I didn´t give in: homework: Reported Speech, workbook pp. 55 and 56.

Hey there Delilah

I just love this song. To listen to Hey there Delilah, click here.

CLASSWORK Thursday 17th January

. We revised the WORD FORMATION flashcards.

.Pilar started to feel a bit desperate when she saw that ONLY TWO STUDENTS had done the homework!! (The reading on p. 52/53 of the Workbook, plus the Vocabulary on pages 54/55).

. Pilar felt desolate when she was told that the students found it absolutely impossible to do any homework at all for the following Tuesday!!

. We read a text on "The London plague of 1665" which made us happy to be living in the 21st century.

.We did and corrected the reading and vocabulary mentioned above.

. We matched some proverbs using flashcards.

.The students left straight for home, ready to spend 4 whole days studying non-stop!

CLASSWORK Thursday 15th January

. We revised the flashcards about HEALTH.
. We did the Vocabulary exercises on pages 54/55 in the Workbook.
. We did the WORD FORMATION section on page 95 of the Student´s book. We used flashcards to learn the spelling.
. We had a photo taken as it was a day to remember : the 11 of us were in class! There was a full house!
. We went home feeling tired but happy.

EXAM TASK, XMAS TERM: CHARACTER REFERENCE

To whom it may concern:

Alice Watson

Alice and I have been working for five years for a local humanitarian help organization, and she has also helped in Africa with an organization named “Help in Action”.

During the time we have worked together, she has proved herself to be a patient person, rarely losing her temper even when she is under strain.She is never daunted when things go wrong, remaining self-possessed. She is a friendly and polite young person, who is always at hand to help.

When dealing with customers, her polite and tactful manner is vital, she is so friendly that it is a pleasure to work with her.

I have to say that she is not a very punctual person, but she is rarely absent from work. She also has a tendency to worry over detail; however, this is because she wants things to be done perfectly.

It is undeniable that Alice has a talent for foreign languages, and she is fluent in English, French and Spanish. She is also doing a course in German and Chinese. Despite being such an intelligent person, she keeps a low profile.

Naturally, she has outstanding communication skills; what is more, the experience she has in working with different charity organizations in her free time is one of her greater strengths.

For all these reasons, I strongly believe that Alice would have much to contribute to your company and therefore I have no hesitation in supporting her application.

PILAR READING

I´m having a whale of a time!

CLASSWORK Thursday 10th January

1) We read each other´s compositions, and everybody had to guess who´d written what.

2) LISTENING: coursebook p. 93. It´s about the use of botox.I posted an article about it on the blog ("Botox:not my cup of tea"). I´ll try to upload the audio so that you can listen to it (but you´ll have to wait till next Monday).

3) VOCABULARY: HEALTH. We revised the flashcards.

CLASSWORK Tuesday 8th January

1) WRITING: we wrote a short paragraph about the best and worst moments of the Xmas holidays. They are posted on the blog ("Improving our speaking skills by leaps and bounds"). We talked about the importance of using plenty of adjectives to improve the quality of our writing and, at the same time, trying to minimize the use of words such as "good", "very", "a lot", "nice".A Collocations dictionary is essential here.

2) VOCABULARY: multiple choice.(Photocopy)

3) FLASHCARDS: HEALTH. I presented them on the feltboard. I did some mimic and the class had to guess which word I meant. I´ll give everybody the photocopy next Tuesday.

IMPROVING OUR WRITING SKILLS BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS!

CHRISTMAS IS OVER! WELCOME BACK TO REALITY…
Tuesday, 8th January 2008

My Christmas has been very boring because I only had five days off and I spent three of them at home because of a very inconvenient cold.
My son´s marks were so bad that I had to study with him. Fortunately, I was able to remember my math knowledge, I mean square or cube roots, quadratic equations and things like that.
Despite this, the fact of focusing my attention on other things quite different from my current work has given me a breath of fresh air.
However, I would prefer to forget my daily problems doing anything more interesting.

Christmas has been wonderful! I had a fantastic time. It is difficult for me to choose the best moment. Of course, I had many presents and opening them was fascinating; as was giving my parents and my sister the presents I had bought for them. But maybe the most amazing thing about Christmas was New Year´s Eve. After having eaten the 12 grapes in family I went out with my friends and had a fantastic time! As for the worst moment, it was after all the celebrations had finished and I realized how much homework I had!


The best moments of these holidays have been those I have spent with my friends. Christmas Day or New Year´s Day were fantastic, I had a delicious lunch with my family, and we had presents too. But being able to go out at night with my friends was just better. I had the opportunity to go to different pubs and meet people I hadn´t seen for ages. I had a whale of a time on New Year´s Eve.
However, despite the good moments, there were some which weren´t so nice. I hated it when I had to do my homework or study. Those moments didn´t seem to be holidays. But, without doubt, the worst moment was the night of the last day, when I realised everything had finished!

When it comes to checking out what we have done these last holidays, I realise that I am not able to choose the best thing. It´s really hard to choose just one moment. On the one hand, Christmas holidays are special for most people, not only because of the free time or the gifts. I´m talking about the family and all those people who you can´t see during the year.
On the other hand, I also have to mention the best and last party of the year. It was fantastic!
However, as everything, holidays also have their bad things. I am completely convinced of what has been the worst thing of these days: studying for the next exams! They are so close, just two weeks left. That´s why I haven´t been able to make the most of Christmas days, because I didn´t have so much free time as I would have liked to.

One of the best moments of my holidays was when all my nephews, my 3-year-old niece and my son stood in line before unwrapping all the presents brought from far away by the Three Wise Men. It´s a really exciting moment, and it makes me go back to my childhood and the feeling of thrill and expectation I had the night before, when I could hardly go to sleep.
What I don´t like about this time of year is having to rush to the shops, which are always packed with late shoppers like me, to buy the latest game which is usually out of stock. I hate the crowds, and I feel silly for not having bought the presents earlier. Procrastinating is no good thing, you know …

BOTOX: NOT MY CUP OF TEA!

Click here if you want to know about the SIDE EFFECTS of BOTOX.

A POLITICALLY CORRECT CHRISTMAS

Christmas in Britain: what´s going on? Find out here!

INTO THE WILD: A FILM REVIEW

INTO THE WILD: A FILM REVIEW

WRITING A FILM REVIEW: EXAMPLES

Click here for more examples on WRITING A FILM REVIEW.

CHRISTMAS IN BRITAIN

Christmas in Britain.

The 10 top songs of 2007 according to TIME magazine

The 10 Best Songs
Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007 By JOSH TYRANGIEL


Rehab, Amy Winehouse
1234, Feist
Umbrella, Rihanna
All My Friends, LCD Soundsystem
Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Radiohead
I Get Money, 50 Cent
Hey There Delilah, Plain White T's
Me Llaman Calle, Manu Chao
Potential Breakup Song, Aly & AJ
Baby Fratelli, The Fratellis
To hear all 10 singles, go to time.com/toptens

Do you agree with this list? Which is your favourite one?