Monday 15th Wednesday 17th December

Hello class!! We're on holiday!! I really hope you enjoy these special days with family and friends and have only the best.

I have not much to say... just I want you to know that I'm very happy with your hard work of these weeks... And of course, congratulations for your Christmas project. It has been a very nice experience and I have enjoyed a lot with all the things I've lernt from you. Thank you very much!!!

And in the end, as we couldn't listen to many Christmas songs, here you have the "number one" of this course. I hope you like:

I really wish you happy holidays, merry Christmas, and a wonderful 2015.

Monday 8th Wednesday 10th December

Hi class!! How are you? I think you're very tired since these days not all of you are coming because you're workingreally hard... Oh, I'm sure you'll enjoy our Christmas break.

What about your projects? I trust you, you know, but at this moment I've seen only Marta's information, but the others?? Please, it's next week and time's running out! It's going to be a surprise...

These days we've worked with voc reated to crime. You have practised lots of speaking activities and that's make me happy. And although this week we've had just one session it has been really nice. I've enjoyed a lot with your participation.

Next day we'll work with a piece of filmcrime-related, too since you have all the material with you. Then we will continue with more listening activities and so on.

Anyway, to go into our Christmas project here you have an interesting video which tells us about the origin of some traditions, I hope you like:

Next day you can tell me your impression.

That's all today

Be good, have fun, see you in class!!

Monday 1st Wednesday 3rd December

Hi class! How's it going? Ready to relax this great weekend I guess. Me too.

First of all thanx for your contribution to our blog; I know this can be tiring but I'm glad to trust you.

These days we introduced all types of conditionals although we spent lots of time speaking and in the end we didn't work very much. But it's great your willingness to speak, believe me, it's hard to get so talkative students!! Next week we'll work harder with conditionals.

And we'll see the video that was ready last class, now that you've got all materials. Anyway, it'll be really interesting and we can comment on many topics related to crime. We'll learn (or revise) voc and we'll practise more listening activities too. Apart from the novel... that's coming to its end.

I really hope you enjoy this long weekend and don't forget to enter your project info, ok? Thank you!

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye

Christmas Traditions - Yugoslavia

A little bit of history…

Yugoslavia was a country in the Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918 under the name of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. 

Renamed Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded  by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance. In 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946, when a communist government was established. 

The constituent six Socialist Republics that made up the country were SR Bosnia Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro SR Slovenia and SR Serbia. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics' borders, at first into five countries, leading to the Yugoslav War.

After the breakup, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro formed a reduced federation, the Federal Republic of Yugosñavia (FRY), Serbia and Montenegro accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. Serbia and Montenegro themselves broke up in 2006 and became independent states, while Kosovo proclaimed independence in 2008.

An estrange Christmas tradition…

In Yugoslavia, children celebrated the second Sunday before Christmas as Mother's Day. The children creeped in and tied her feet to a chair and shout, "Mother's Day, Mother's Day, what will you pay to get away?" She then gave them presents. Children played the same trick on their father the week after.

Those Yugoslavs who lived in the country fear bad luck if their Christmas log burnt out and so someone had to stand over the log all Christmas night to ensure it stayed lit up.

A Christmas cake called chestnitsa, contains a gold or silver coin and is said that whomever got it could expect lots of good luck.

The Yugoslavs ate roast pig as their Christmas dish and it must be carved a particular way, according to old customs.

Every household had a Christmas crib. According to old customs they went on an expedition to the forests to gather moss with which to line the crib. Also families would have an old-fashioned music box that plays Christmas carols.

MARTA GONZALO

Monday 24th Wednesday 26th November

Hi class!How are you? I'm fine, I hope you too. These days we were working with voc and suffixes. But the most interesting thing was all the speaking you did. You're doing more and more and better and better, I'm really happy, and we're always having fun. You're really a nice group!

Also we had a look to this video because of Thanksgiving. It tells the story of the Puritans, but not the whole (true) story. We have discussed many many times about these things and once we start...  you know. Anyway, the story is interesting just to know about the origin of this celebration. As you know, sometimes we know about something that is celebrated but we don't know anything about the origin, the reason... and things like that. I hope you enjoyed the topic.

Next week we'll start a new topic with more voc and revision and practice. And also we'll start with the project. As I told you,  let's try to upload here kind of info we find, ok? This way you don't need to print or download music or videos... stuff like that. First let's try and then we'll see.

I think that's all.

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye!

Monday 17th Wednesday 19th November

Hi class! How are you? I'm sure fine but a bit tired... probably you're thinking of your holidays, of the presents... and many other thins like that, even more after our long chat on the topic last class, aren't you? Well, I think it was ok; although we didn't finish the "lesson plan" for Wed. you were talking for a long time, that in the end, it 's what matters, don't you think?

First we worked with an article based on managing time; as we said, nowadays out concept of time is changing faster and faster and it's very important for us to manage it well. We read some tips in order to be more productive and we shared opinions.

During this class we also revised frequent suffixes in order to get more words, we will see some more soon and we'll practise a bit more, too. Anyway, here you have some of them for you to have a look.

After this we went into  our project. Still we have to decide the country (some of you) but in general I think you're doing very well, I mean, most of you have clear ideas, although still you can change if you want. Let's see if next week everything's fixed, ok?

And to finish remember to answer the questions on P20 (activity 2.D) .The ones based on the article we read. Read again and try to understand the words you don't know through context instead of translating, ok? As you know... I find this "compulsive" translation completely useless!

That's all.

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye

Monday 10th Wednesday 12th November

Hi class!! How are you? I'm fine, but sorry for not writing before, however, as I told you, these days I've been a bit busy and as you're not in a hurry... once in a lifetime... never again, ok?

Right. These days we worked with BE USED TO, GET USED TO, we completeed some activities and I can say that we can finish with this structure (when checking your HW) Also we had a look to some adjectives followed by specific prepositions (terrified of/by, impressed by, aware of, famous for...) You were speaking for a long time about your habits now and 5 years ago and we continued with our listening-novel as well.

We mentioned the new idea for our project, do you remember? I'll say again this week. It's about kind of "investigation" based on Christmas traditions around the world. You will choose a country and look into some information about traditions and the way Christmas is celebrated in different places. The idea is also to bring a special dish from the chosen country and have a kind of party before we go on holidays. Anyway, we will speak about this and we will plan, ok?

Well, that's all by now.

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye!

Monday 3rd Wednesday 5th November

Hello dear class, how's it going? Well, I guess you're trying to relax for a while after the whole week working and studying non-stop, aren't you? Fortunately you don't have to do lots of homework. You just (please) have to take notes on 4 of the topics you have on page 17 in order to comment next day and finish talking about our (bad) habits. It was hard to find good habits... But I'm very happy with your effort, you're always trying to use only English, you're doing better and better and that's a great satisfaction.

These days we have been talking about habits in both our present and our past. For this reason we had a look to the expressions USED TO, BE USED TO, GET USED TO. We will revise a bit more next Monday with some reading and listening activities.We also worked with some other structures to talk about our daily life. Read carefully in case you have some questions or doubts.

On Wednesday we spent  some time deciding what kind of habits are more difficult to acquire and what habits are the most difficult to get rid of... I think we couldn't come to any conclusion.

Also we continued with our listening-novel-project and again I must admit I'm really impressed with your skills.Very good!!

That's all tonight.

Be good, have fun, see you in class.

Bye

Monday 27th Wednesady 29th October

Hi class, how is it going? Are you thinking about your Halloween costume? We had a very interesting chat on this topic last class. What I liked the most was the way you expressed your ideas, they sounded really "true"

On Monday we continued with the topic on studies. We read an article based on a kind of experiment about separating students at school. After speaking about this article (and your ideas) we moved into pronunciation practice through some listening activities, We worked with silent letters. We will practise more throughout the course.

On Wednesday  the main focus of the class was on Halloween. We watched a short video about the history of this celebration and how it has changed through the centuries. We talked about this and learn new things about this celebration in different countries. We're lucky!

We were also working with question-response activities and then we completed a wordsearch about Halloween; then we listened to chapter 3 of Frankenstein (at last!) and as I told you... I'm impressed with your skill. Very happy!

To finish you started a crossword which couldn't be finished. It's really challenging becausse it's a bit difficult, so I hope you take some time to complete at home, ok?

And please, don't forget to prepare your homework. You just have to talk about your favourite horror film for some minutes, basing your talk on the ideas we wrote in class:

- director, year
- main actors
- where the action takes place
- and a brief summary

I hope you do your best!

Be good (and a bit naughty, it's Halloween) have fun, see you in class!

Bye!

Monday 20th, Wednesday 22nd, October

Hi class, how are you? I hope you're ok, although last day you weren't here...except one student. I hope everything's ok.

These days we talked about studies, subjects, school, university... and stuff like that. It was very good because everybody took part in the conversation. We revised a lot of voc and structures related to auxiliary verbs. Also we practised listening activities related to this topic and you did very good job.

On Wednesday just one student attended to class... so I had to change the lesson plan... We watched a video and commented on the lyrics of a song, suggested by the student who was in class. Then we had a long long chat about many topics, most of them related to the main one showed in the song. I enjoyed a lot; it was "different" but we cannot do like this very often.

Let's see if next week we can continue with the lesson plan, finish this topic and start something new, ok?

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye!

Monday 13th, Wednesday 15th October

Hello class! How are you? I hope fine and fine with the weekend so near.

These days we have been working with lots of vocabulary related to family. Also we continued listening chapter 2 of our novel, Frankenstein... it's becoming interesting!! Last Monday we worked with many speaking activities and had a look to the use of common expressions to say our opinion.

Last Wednesday  however, we had more listening activities. We completed this topic about family listening to four people talking about different situations. You did very good work. Also you did your best with the family tree activity. Remember that you will do something similar for homework for next week, ok? You don't need to be so creative as you can see in the photo above. You can choose the pattern you prefer

what about this one? Well, do as you like, but do it. Then you will show your work to the class and comment on some details as we did with the activity in class. So please, take a little time to do it and be careful when presenting, use appropriate voc and expressions as studied and notice your pronunciation, tone and intonation, ok? Rehease at home if you need!

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Monday 6th - Wednesday, 8th, October

Hi class! How are you? Waiting for the weekend to disconnect a bit, I guess... That's right, me too... but preparing our next class.

These days we have been working with phonetics, you're doing a good job taking into account that this is almost your first time. We revise pronunciation day after day in order to get a better one and we practise lots of speaking and listening. I really like this time.

We were working with vocabulary related to family and different kinds of families. We read about birth order and we learnt new ways to agree and disagree with new structures and so on. Also we worked with the differences between ANY and EVERY and now it seems clearer.

In our last session we started this "project" of listening-reading to improve listening skill in context. It was just the first chapter but I hope you enjoy this activity. By the end you will get an adapted novel in your hands you can read whenever you want. As I say, I hope you like and we can comment on the novel and the time it was written and all the contents involved.

Well, that's all. Have a nice week.

Be good, have fun, see you in class!

Bye

Monday 29th September, Wednesday 1st October

Hello class!!How are you? I hope you're fine enjoying these days with this great weather! We will miss this hot very soon...

I have included this video since the last class we were working with the pronunciation of the -ed ending. Although you did ok you still have to practise a bit more, probably it sounds a bit hard at the beginning because until now you haven't paid too much attention, but from now on it will be easier, believe me. So have a look to this video in order to get an idea about this topic, right?

We were also working with phonetics and pronunciation first with an activity (very difficult to begin with, I know) and then filling the gaps in a song with the phonetic transcription of the missing words. It was "different", wasn't it? We had a good time.

Then, to finish the last class (and to go on working with speaking) we were playing this kind of "Who am I?" game having lots of fun. You gave very ineresting descriptions of your characters and we laughed a lot.

I hope you like the classes every week, I really try not to be boring. Remember that you can suggest different kinds of activities or topics to have useful lessons for your everyday life.

And remember: do your homework. You have to practise with phonetics so complete transcriptions 2, 3 and 4, ok?

Be good, have fun, see you in class.

Bye