First Presentations (3ºB,C)

We´ll draw lots to know the order of performances.

3ºB

PAIR No.	NAMES	TOPIC No.
1	Jaime+Raúl	16
2	Sarai+Patricia E.	5
3	Beatrice+Daniela	6
4	Patricia A.+Alexandra	13
5	Paula+Pedro	15
6	Óscar+Rubén	17
7	Álvaro+Laurentiu	19
8	Paula H.+Paula F.	4
9	Álvaro C.+Pilar	21
10	David M.+Alberto	12
11	Emil+Andrei	10
12	Raquel+Cristina	18
13	Nacho+David C.	?
14	Larisa+Irene	11
15	George+Iulian	14

3ºC

PAIR No.	NAMES	TOPIC No.
1	Daniel+Cristian	17
2	Jorge+Carlos	15
3	Marta+Lucía	6
4	José Luis (x2)	18
5	Óscar+Alejandro J.	13
6	Gabriel+David	14
7	Cristina+Alejandro C.	2
8	Andrea+Carolina	21
9	Ioan+Reyes	16

 

The Lady or The Tiger: your endings (3ºB,C)

Let´s have a look at some of your alternative endings for Frank Stockton´s The Lady or The Tiger?

 "Behind the door was the tiger. (...) Suddenly the king remembered when he was a young man and fell in love with the queen. He didn´t belong to a high social class but he loved her, and she also loved him. They got married and had the princess. When the queen was almost dying she made him promise that he would let the princess marry the boy she loved. Waking up of his thoughts by the shoutings people made, she saw the tiger was ready to jump on the young man. He started shouting the soldiers to close the door to save the man, but it was too late. The tiger was devouring the young man. The princess couldn´t stand seeing how her lover was dying. Because of that suffering she had a heart attack. The king, staying next to the dead body of his daughter, said: 'I betrayed your mother. Poor of me, poor of me, poor of me...'". (Patricia E.)

"The lover went to the right door because the princess told him but nobody saw it. When the lover saw the furious tiger he started shouting 'Help!, Help!', but no one helped him. The princess closed her eyes not to see what was happening there, she thought that his death and a happy memory would be better than suffering when seeing him with another woman for the rest of her life". (Lucía B.)

"He opened the door and sighed in relief when  he saw the maiden. The crowd cheered happily that the boy was still alive.(...) But the princess was very jealous and she had decided that if she couldn´t be with him, then no one would. She got up from her throne and ran to the arena, she then opened the other door releasing the tiger. The princess quickly ran away from the arena leaving the lady and her lover alone with the tiger. The crowd stopped cheering and stared in horror as the tiger attacked the lover and the lady". (Patricia A.)

"From inside the door a tiger sprang and killed the lover. Horrified, the princess couldn´t stop watching the scene. Even though she was jealous, she had told him the door with the maiden behind. When she looked at her father, asking for an answer to what had just happened, he said that there was a tiger behind each door because he knew the lover was guilty".(Álvaro C.)

"(...)The tiger leaped on the man throwing him to the ground, but he was able to avoid him. Then, the man could immobilise the tiger. Everyone was amazed and started clapping and shouting at him. As the king was as amazed as the rest of the people, he called him and told him to be the new king of the kingdom. He also allowed him to marry his daughter. One week later everybody was having fun at their wedding and they lived happily ever after". (Sarai L.)

"The lover opened the two doors at the same time. The tiger ate the lady and the lover ran through the lady´s door and escaped. Then the king told the princess to go with him, and the princess ran to her lover´s arms. The young man said: "I have chosen the best door, the door of your love". (Alejandro J.)

"(....) Suddenly a huge and hungry tiger appeared, jumping really near the peasant. The peasant kept his cool and opened the other door, thinking he was going to find the beautiful lady, but instead, another tiger appeared. He realized it was a trap planned by the semi-barbaric king. He was surrounded by these two hungry beasts, but the tigers, instead of killing the peasant began a bloody fight between each other. While the king and the people were looking at the fight, the peasant and the princess escaped". (Nacho C.)


"The lover opened the right door and the lady came out. The lady smiled at him and the princess watched them full of jealousy. Suddenly, the lover turned around and ran to the princess and told her he would never leave her. The king, furious, tried to kill him, but the lady opened the tiger´s door and the wild animal killed the king. The tiger and the lady disappeared and the princess and the lover got married". (Alexandra D.)

Good work!

First presentation topics

Presentation topics for the 1.30 min speaking activity (in pairs) to take place on October 6 (next Tuesday). Choose one, and choose it quickly (topics can´t be repeated, they´ll be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis!).

1. The best thing that has ever happened to me
2. The worst thing that has ever happened to me
3. A surprise I had
4. A memory from childhood I´ll always remember
5. What is friendship?
6. Bilingual education: pros and cons
7. A problem I have 
8. Your most embarrassing moment.
9. What would you like to change and why?
10. Things I can't understand
11. Your most curious dream.
12. High school is the best time in your life. Or not…
13. Things you would change in our high-school
14. Your favourite book
15. Should mobiles be used at school?
16. Your dream job
17. Will robots replace humans?  Will robots take our jobs?
18. Would you want to live on another planet?
19. Social networking sites: pros and cons.
20. What will future houses look like?
21. Sex roles

Chicago exchange video

Juan Carlos Cortés, one of the Nicholas Senn high school teachers who came to visit us with his students, has made a fantastic video with the experience. Don´t miss it (click here).

Frankenstein topics: your ideas

"Playing God":

"Overreaching can damage yourself and you could pay a deadly price like Frankenstein. An example of overreaching was in the World War II when Hitler wanted to create the Aryan race by killing millions of people. An example of overreaching nowadays could be the bodybuilders. They want to achieve a good and healthy body but they go too far when they start eating those pills and steroids that can harm their health". (Gonzalo P., 3ºA)


"We can reach the possibility of being immortal, but I don´t think that is a good idea. I mean, living for millions of years is boring, all the time the same, and if people don´t die, we will have overpopulation and the natural resources will be consumed". (Ismael F., 3ºA)

"Nowadays there are illnesses that can be cured because some scientists played God in a way. But at the same time, it can also be very negative. I wouldn´t have perfect children, because if they are mine, I want them to look like me not like the perfect model society builds". (Lucía F., 3ºA)

"For me perfection is a myth, but for others is a line that they must cross before they die. The reason I think perfection is a myth is because no one is going to get it or that it is necessary for living because if it was like that we would not be where we are now". (María M., 3ºD)

"I think Frankenstein should have thought more about this before creating the monster. Despite the fact he thought it would be a great scientific innovation, things went horribly bad for him and finally dies".  (Adrián M., 3ºA)

 "The obsession for knowledge":
"In the novel, Victor is keen  on creating life in order to go beyond the limits of life itself. His only occupation is finishing the creature without caring about the price he has to pay for it. He goes so deeply into his work that he is not aware of the things which are happening around him. he is not aware he is going too far and afterwards he is going to regret having created the creature. His obsession makes him lose the people he loves most because the monster he creates kills them. Victor played God, and he was backfired". (Alejandro Z., 3ºA)


"I think you can have dreams and fight for them, but you must know how to fight for your ambitions. You can´t devote all your time to a dream and leave your friends and family bacause sometimes you won´t have anything else". (Selma R., 3ºD)

"I think that being eager to learn is great, but just to a certain extent, not excessively. Furthermore, sometimes being too perfectionist, apart from leading you to possible stress and burden, drives you to do things worse. To conclude, I would say that obsession, as Plato once stated, usually backfires". (Inés A., 3ºD)

"Nowadays some scientists are obsessed with achieving unbelivable things. For example, there are scientists who are interested in carrying out a head transplant. This could be a great improvement for modern medicine, but it could have terrible consequences. What if it changes your personality and makes you cruel and violent?" (Daniel V., 3ºA)

"I think humans, in fact, were created to dedicate their lives to finding the way their world, their lives, everything came to be and as I have previoulsy commented, the only way we can satisfy our needs is by being "obsessed" and being determined. I know we will NEVER know everything, it is impossible, but we still try and try, and that makes us become obsessed and even mad. So I would say  that knowledge is fantastic but people must know that we will never know everything and that we can try to increase our knowledge but always with control. I guess I should start doing it too." (Ángela A., 3ºD)

"Frankenstein´s friend Walton is also obsessed with something, he wants to discover a way to go through the North Pole, not caring about what happens to his crew, just wanting to fulfill his dreams to be remembered in History. At least, he ends up noticing how obsessed he is, and when he sees what his friend Victor has done, he decides to go back home with his family and forget about all those crazy thoughts that could have killed him". (Laura G., 3ºD).

"Are humans (some of them) born evil or are they made evil by society?":
 "Frankenstein´s monster was discriminated by society because he was different and as he had killed people they also thought he was evil but no one had told him that killing others isn´t good, so he didn´t understand why people were scared of him, all except the blind man that can´t see him and isn´t afraid because for him is like the rest of the humans". (Elisabet C., 3ºA)

"The creature is alone and isolated, when he finally finds out that it is his appearance the thing that makes him different and that he can´t change that, he decides to take revenge on mankind and specially on his creator". (Ángela C., 3ºA)

"The most noticeable moment of this theme in the novel is when Farnkenstein´s monster realizes he has been evil because he was rejected by society and decides to go North to kill himself". (Lucas S.D., 3ºD)

"The monster wants to be loved so he tells Victor to create a female monster for him. If you don´t have love in your life, you will become evil, just like the monster". (Carlos E., 3ºD)

"The creature knew he was a monster, that he wasn´t a normal person, and he felt really bad because of that. He had feelings, he could understand what was happening around him, but people just watched him as a grotesque creature that just wanted to kill people." (Verónica T., 3ºD)


"All that glitters is not gold (and viceversa)":
"We shouldn´t focus just on the appearance because it creates delusions on us. Many times, beautiful images are used to attract us and buy things that we don´t really like, we just do it because of its appearance". (Aroa M., 3ºA)

"It´s a bit sarcastic that, the moment in which the monster is created we all think that the monster is going to be the bad character in this story, when actually the bad character is Frankenstein due to the fact that his attitude looks more like the one of a monster than the one of a human, while the only thing the monster wants is to form part of society and be accepted". (Javier M., 3ºD)

"The monster is not such a bad person. He feels sad because he is rejected by everyone, also by his creator. During the book we can see strokes of humanity in him, a real monster wouldn´t have them. (...) At the end, signs of sanity come back to him. (...) Despite the fact that the creature was ugly and his behaviour was terrible, he had a good heart". (Andrea G., 3ºD).

"It is a real fact that beautiful and attractive people succeed more in life than ugly or fat people, which in my opinion is a shame for mankind. Actually a beautiful person will get old and ugly, but an intelligent, kind and good person will always be that way despite of the passing of the years". (Raquel L., 3ºD)

"Nature vs Science":
"From my point of view science is not that bad. It helps us to carry out our daily activities in an easier way, as well as helps us to fight illnesses, or at least to undergo them with less suffering. However, we should all bear in mind that nature shouldn´t be modified and we must assume that death is part of life, and nothing will ever change this. To conclude (...) we should all trust human beings a bit more... ". (Sara S., 3ºD)



Great work!!

The essay on Frankenstein

Some questions that may help you with your essay on Frankenstein:

-On the topic "Playing God":
    -Why is Victor an "overreacher"? What is the price he has to pay for that?
    -Are cloning or genetic engineering current examples of man´s overreaching?
    -Is it ethical to design human beings? If you could, would you want to have perfect children? Would a perfect human being still be human? What is perfection?

-On the topic "All that glitters is not gold (and viceversa)":
     -Who is the only person who doesn´t reject Frankenstein´s creature? Why? (think of Javier A. in his team´s film)
     -Is appearance important? Do we prejudge people just because of it?
     -Beauty is far more than skin deep. Do you agree?
   
-On the topic "Are humans (some of them) born evil or are they made evil by society?"
      -If Frankenstein´s creature hadn´t been rejected, would he have killed so many people?
      -Can education change a person for the better? Does our background determine our future completely?
      -Are you aware that you can create "monsters" when despising or bullying others?

-On the topic "Nature vs Science":
    -Is man in his quest for improving our existence on Earth going too far? Can progress mean the destruction of the Earth? When should progress stop?
    -Do we really need so many energy-consuming machines and electronic devices?
    -Why don´t we just accept life as it is and assume ageing, illness and death as natural stages in that process?
    -Would you like to live longer? Maybe forever? Why?

-On the topic "The obsession for knowledge":
     -What do Walton and Victor Frankenstein have in common?
     -"Curiosity killed the cat", they say. Do you agree?
     -What´s the point in learning so many things at school?
     -Can knowledge be fun?

(Some questions can be used in several topics)


“How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow.” (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus)