Artists for Haiti: new version of We are the world

Marina Ramos from 1ºESO B told me about this song that some artists have recorded to remember Haiti after the terrible earthquake which destroyed the country some months ago. It was recorded on February 1st in the same studio where the original version of "We are the world" was sung by Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and all their friends 25 years earlier.
I'm sure you know many of the artists singing in this video. Enjoy it, the song is so beautiful!

Song of the week: Michael Jackson's We are the world

Some students from 5ºB have asked me to teach you this song, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie 25 years ago. They knew that they wanted a song which would be easy to sing and memorable, and the result was one of the greatest hits of all times.The song asks the world to remember the poorest people on the Earth making it a better place to live.
It has been described as "an appeal to human compassion". The first lines in the song's repetitive chorus proclaim, "We are the world, we are the children, we are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving

Beware of online predators!!

Children, during the last days we have discussed a very important subject: the dangers of the internet.Julie, the victim of an online predator when she was 13, tells us in a video that the internet is a tool that must be used properly, since it is like a knife: it can be very helpful, but it can also cut you. SO BE VERY RESPONSIBLE WHEN SURFING THE WEB AND FOLLOW MY ADVICE:
- never talk to people you don't know. Online predators always lie about their age, sex or identity and will try to manipulate you.
- don't look for information which is not appropriate for people your age. You know what I mean.
- never trust anybody you meet on the internet more than your parents, family or friends.It can be very dangerous and you can be harmed.
- anyone can see what you post on the web: family, friends, and not so friendly people, so THINK BEFORE YOU POST.

Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius: searching for their tombs

During the last weeks we have talked a lot about the love story between Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra. Egyptian archaeologists have recently found a tomb which could be that of the couple. You know that they both committed suicide when they lost a battle against the Roman emperor Octavian.

Song of the week: Stand by me

We sing this song most Fridays and I know you love it, but, have you ever listened to the original version by Ben E.King?

Benjamin Earl King(born September 28, 1938), better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me," a U.S. top 10 hit in both 1961 and 1987 and a #1 hit in the UK in 1987, and as one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group The Drifters.

School trip to Almedinilla (Córdoba)

Last Wednesday, 2ºESO went to Almedinilla (Córdoba) to visit its Roman villa, along with an ancient Iberic village and the Archaeological Museum in which all the objects found there are kept.

First, we visited the Roman villa, which dates from centuries I to VII a.d. and counts on one of the most complete surfaces of the Iberian Peninsula. It emphasises the greatness of its walls and the wealth of its elements: mosaics, paintings and pavements.
Later we went to the Iberic village, one of the few excavated towns of Low Iberian Time in Andalusia dating from centuries II to III a.c.The buildings have a stone skirting board and an adobe brick wall.

Finally we visited the Archaelogical Museum, where we could see interesting statues and sculptures from the Roman period, including the famous representation of the Roman god Somnus (Hypnos in Greek mythology). This bronze sculpture is the only one which has been found complete all over the world. Emilio, the guide,told us some fascinating stories of myths and legends and we had a very nice time listening to him.
To conclude, the students became craftmen for 2 hours, since they were given a frame and little pieces of local materials to make mosaics after the ones of the Roman Villa.

It was a great day and we definitely recommend it to everyone.

Earny gets veeeeery thirsty

Hi children, this morning we enjoyed a lot this funny video about Earny being thirsty and how poor Bert goes to the kitchen so many times in order to fetch tree glasses of water.
I think I'm going to drink some coke. Just watching the video I'm getting sooo thirsty!!

Song of the week: Pocahontas's Colours of the Wind

After having watched Oceans, and since we are quite concerned about reducing the impact of human behaviour on nature, I think the best song to hear and think about the lyrics is Pocahontas's Colours of the wind.

The Earth

Dear students:
this morning we enjoyed the film Oceans about sea nature and how we have to take care of it. Looking for a trailer from the film I found this beautiful video called Earth. It does not have any words, just music, but the latter makes you enjoy it very much and feel overwhelmed.
I hope you like it.

The Big Challenge contest 2010

Dear students:
I would like to congratulate Ms Adela and all the students who have taken part in the contest this morning on their effort and eagerness to participate. As you know, the Big Challenge is the first European English Contest for Schools.
During the last weeks, some of our students have surfed the web looking for a lot of information about English language and English-speaking countries culture.
Well, now we have to wait for the results, good luck !!

Oceans

Tomorrow morning 1º and 2º ESO are going to watch the documentary-film Oceans at Cinema 2000(Neptuno).

Oceans is a 2010 French-American nature documentary film by Jacques Perrin.The film explores Earth's five oceans. It is Disneynature's second release following Earth in 2009.
Budgeted at 50 million Euros, it was filmed in over 50 different places and took four years to film.The film has received positive reviews from critics.
I think that it is very important that we think about the consequences of our actions on nature and the film is a good opportunity to do it, since it reflects the need to respect nature and demonstrates the negative aspects of human activity on animals.

On the origin of music notes

This morning in 1ºESO A we held an interesting conversation about the origin of music notes. As I told you, they come from an hymn called Ut queant laxis.

Ut queant laxis or Hymnus in Ioannem is a plainchant hymn to John the Baptist written by Paulus Diaconus, the eighth century Lombard historian.

It is notable in that each of the first six musical phrases of the first stanza of the hymn begins on a successively higher note of the hexachord. The first syllable of each hemistich (half line of verse) has given its name to a successive note, since these syllables coincide with the ascending note pattern. The last line, Sancte Ioannes, breaks the ascending pattern (for musical rather than pedagogic reasons) and begins with the note previously sung to "sol".

Ut is now mostly replaced by Do in solfège due to the latter's open sound, probably inspired by the word Dominus (Lord). The seventh note was not part of the medieval hexachord and does not occur in this melody, and it was originally called "si" from Sancte Ioannes, but was later renamed "ti" to allow each name to start with a different letter. The use of Ut queant laxis to name the tones is usually attributed to Guido of Arezzo in the eleventh century.

You can find more information about this topic in the wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ut_Queant_Laxis

Isn't this interesting? I consider it is really fascinating.

Song: You've got a friend (Carole King)

As I told my 1ºESO students this morning, this song is one of the most important ones on friendship and it tells us how even when we may think that we are alone in the world and nobody understands us, there is a helping hand from a friend to give us some loving care.
The song was written en 1971 by the American song writer Carole King for his good friend James Taylor, who was also a songwriter. James Taylor was living a bad time and Carole King wrote this song to tell him that she would always be there, because she was his friend.
I leave here three versions of You've got a friend: the first one by its composer, Carole King; the second one by James Taylor, who really made it famous all over the world. The third version is sung by Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Gloria Stefan, Maria Careyh, Aretha Franklin and Carole King at the VH1 Divas Live concert on April 14, 1998.
I hope you like them as much as I do!

Sesame Stret videos

Here you have the videos we watched this morning. I love Brad, Bert's nephew. Isn't he cute?

Song of the week: ABBA's Thank you for the music

This week I would like you to listen to this beautiful song.There is something so special about music. When I feel blue, music can make me cry and then feel better. When I am happy and want to show people my feelings, I need to sing all the time. It is the magic of music, and I share this passion with many of you. This is the reason why I want you to hear Abba's Thank you for the music, because, in some way, it describes perfectly what people like you and me feel when we listen to music.
Enjoy it!
PS: when looking for it on the internet, I have discovered that the song was composed the year I was born. That means something!



I'm nothing special, in fact I'm a bit of a bore
If I tell a joke, you've probably heard it before
But I have a talent, a wonderful thing
'Cause everyone listens when I start to sing
I'm so grateful and proud
All I want is to sing it out loud

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk
She says I began to sing long before I could talk
And I've often wondered, how did it all start?
Who found out that nothing can capture a heart
Like a melody can?
Well, whoever it was, I'm a fan

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

I've been so lucky, I am the girl with golden hair
I wanna sing it out to everybody
What a joy, what a life, what a chance!

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

Origin of Spanish Surnames

Last Thursday in 4ºESO we held an interesting conversation on the origin of Spanish surnames and then continued talking about the etymology of some English ones.


As it is explained in the website tusapellidos.com Surnames, or family names, may be of several types that in view of the nickname origin of a lot of surnames sometimes interlace: patronymics, that are last names derived from the father's first name, such as Rodríguez (son of Rodrigo, Roderick); surnames of geographical origin, coming from the name of the region or town of origin or manor, such as Navarro (Navarrese, the name of the inhabitants of Navarre, Spain) ; occupational surnames, such as Herrero (Smith); nickname surnames in the strict sense, originating in by-names such as Gros (big in Catalan, a Spanish language), etc. There are also multipart surnames, for example composed of patronymic and toponymic, such as Ruiz de Castilla (Roderiks of Castile, an Aragonese name), or of patronymic and job, such as the Catalan name Gruartmoner (the union of two lineages, Gruart, a Germanic name, and Moner, miller).

23rd APRIL: WORLD BOOK DAY

The connection between 23 April and books was first made in 1923 by booksellers in Spain as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes who died on that day. This became a part of the celebrations of the Saint George's Day (also 23 April) in Catalonia, where it has been traditional since the medieval era for men to give roses to their lovers and since 1925 for the woman to give a book in exchange. Half the yearly sales of books in Catalonia are at this time with over 400,000 sold and exchanged for over 4 million roses.
In 1995, UNESCO decided that the World Book and Copyright Day would be celebrated on this date because this date is also the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare, the death of Miguel de Cervantes and Garcilaso de la Vega.
23 April is often stated as the anniversary of the deaths of both Shakespeare and Cervantes,

To celebrate this day Cervantes' Don Quixote is read during a two-day "readathon" and the Miguel de Cervantes Prize is presented by the King in Alcalá de Henares.
[edit] UK and Ireland

In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, World Book Day is held annually on the first Thursday in March. Although it might be argued that this makes it more a 'UK and Ireland Book Day' than a World Book Day as such, it was decided to avoid the established international 23 April date due to clashes with Easter school holidays. In 2010 it will be held on Thursday 4 March.[1]

The Tortoise and the Hare

I hope you enjoyed the class this morning when I told you my own version of the fable The Tortoise and the Hare. For those who want to watch the real story again, here you have the video. I would like you to think about the moral of the story, I definitely think that it is more important to be clever and constant than fast but silly!! If you work hard and always plan your work, you can accomplish anything!!

For 1ºESO B

Dear pupils:
last week we talked about the Beatles and the parody of "Let it be" (a great song, by the way)by Sesame Street puppets. I think the way they sing is really cute, isn't it?

I told you about this great spot on National Geographic channel about how the human mind is reading words. Very fascinating. Can you put the letters in order? I'm sure you can!

For my 1ºESO students

Since we have just studied the simple past in English I leave you here a great song by the best band ever: The Beatles.
Next Friday we will sing it with the guitar.
Enjoy the song, "yesterday" is one of the most famous and important songs in the history of music!

Song of the week: Beyonce's halo

News on Poland's president death in airplane crash

Dear students of 4º de ESO.
As I told you here you have the news we are going to watch and comment tomorrow in the English classroom. I am quite excited about using this classroom for the first time. You will see how big the screen is and how useful the proyector can be.
Try to take advantage of the news to improve your listening skills!

Esta tarde de lluvia en el curso de Macmillan

Hi everyone!!!
Here we are, Maria José and I thinking about what we can write in our new blog. I have to admit it is a quite exciting experience, sharing our will of getting the most out of the web and its teaching resources. Maria José is really interested in how you can link a blog with podcasts and information in wikis. I am quite excited about using the podcasts in Sean Banville's blog, since they are really useful (you have the audio, the transcript and lots of activites to do with them).
I am also impressed about how easy creating a blog is.
We think it is enough for today.
Bye!
Maria José and Angela