The frightening power of teachers

"I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It’s my personal approach that creates the climate.
It’s my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized."
Haim G. Ginott
So, treat us well!

The pleasures of reading

"My Pastime

When someone asks you what you like doing in your free time [Reported Speech question] you can answer that you love going out with friends or talking about a sport which you practise and you really like. In my case, I am not a very sportive person, my pastime is reading.
When you are reading a book, you have to remember that the world you are reading comes from the mind of a person who [relative] creates the story you are living [ommited relative] at that moment. For me reading is a very good way to relax and forget my problems because you don´t have to [modal verb] solve the character´s problems, this is the work of the book author. By reading [gerund after preposition], you can travel to fantastic and imaginary places, live a romance or extraordinary adventures in your own sofa. if someone asked me what my favourite book is, I would answer [Second Conditional] that I can´t choose only one. Some of my favourite books are "La Sombra del viento", "El último Catón", all the books about Harry Potter, etc.
The last book I have read [Present Perfect Simple] is "Wuthering Heights". This book was written [Past Simple Passive] by Emily Brontë, and it´s very special for me. When my mother was sixteen, like me now, her mother asked her if she wanted to read that book [Reported Speech questions]. She answered that it could be a good idea [Reported Speech], and she read it. Since that moment, it became her favourite book. Few days ago, she asked me the same question. I have just read [Present Perfect] the book and I really love it. The story is very complicated, and it isn´t easy to read. But the characters, the romance between Catherine and Heathcliff and her daughter´s problems make this book an amazing story.
Maybe, in the future, if I have a daughter, I will ask her [First Conditional] to read "Wuthering Heights".

Alba R., 1ºD Bachillerato

The future

What will your future be like? Will you be rich? Will you marry? Will you have five children? While you think of it, let´s do some practice on the future in English:

1.Do these exercises on the will future: Click here.
2.More on will, now in question form here.
3.Now, going to: click here!
4.Clear now? Just in case, click here for more.
5.Now, work them in contrast. A bit more difficult, but you can do it! Click here!

England and Ireland on the net!

Search in google and write the answers in the worksheet.

1. What is the capital of Scotland? What is its population?

2.Where are these British flags from?
a)


b)


c)


d)


3.What is the name of Wales in Gaelic?

4.Indicate in the blank map the following islands: isle of Man, isle of Wight, Skye, Jura.

5.What is the name of the language that was spoken in the Isle of Man? When did it disappear?

6. You want to spend two nights in London. Choose a hotel you like and write its name, its address and the cost per night of the room.

7. What is the Leadenhall building?

8. Write the name of four football players of the Manchester United Football Club.


9. What is the Ring of Kerry? Where is it?

10. Find a picture of the Millenium Bridge of London. When was it finished? Who built it?

11. Santiago Calatrava, the Spanish architect, has built two bridges in Dublin. What are their names? Find pictures. Which one do you like most?

12.What is Cornwall? What is it famous for?

"Tragedy in the Bathroom" activity (1º Bachillerato)

You´ll hopefully remember this composition I gave you back corrected, won´t you? With the sheet in front of you (you´ll need the picture with the person lying in he bathroom apparently dead to understand it better), read how this very creative classmate of yours has made hypotheses in the past about how this murder (or accident) may have happened. I´ve just corrected a few mistakes!

"When I arrived at my hotel room this scene is what I saw. First of all I let the person in charge of the hotel know what had happened there. I was very nervous but while the police were coming, the man and me tried to know why this woman was dead.

'She may have been having (or may have had) a shower and when she finished someone might have aimed at her with a gun. Then, she could have run but she she might have tried to defend herself with the toothbrush. The murderer must have shot her in her dead. At that moment she may have fallen and the small bottle of cologne too', said Jim, the man in the hotel.

I think she may have been arguing (may have argued) with her boyfriend and then he may have taken a shower. While he was in the shower, she must have been brushing her teeth. When he finished, he might have taken the small bottle and may have thrown it at her. Then, she might have covered the dead body with the towel.

These are some hypotheses but anyway the woman may have also died because of the soap (she may have slipped with it) or because she may have seen how much she weighed in the scales and she might have fainted. I don´t really think so, it must have been another person: Can you see the footprints?".

(Alba M. 1ºD)

First Conditional

Let´s practice with Conditionals! Click on the links:
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4

TV commercials

Watch these TV commercials (click on the link below) and do the following:
-Explain what is going on there, what´s the story in the ad.
-Say what product, concept, etc they are advertising in them.
-Is the commercial effective in your opinion? Why? Did you like it? Why?

COMMERCIAL #1
COMMERCIAL #2
COMMERCIAL #3
COMMERCIAL #4
COMMERCIAL #5

The Should game

Click on this link , then click on the link Giving advice -Board Game to practice using Should and find the solutions for all these problems. Remember to use should!

Relative practice (1ºBachillerato)

More practice on relative clauses (for your eyes only). Click on the links and do the drills on line. The exercises are self-corrected so you won´t need me: -Theory. (you can skip it if you feel you know it already) -Drill 1 -Drill 2 -Drill 3 -Drill 4 -Drill 6

Comparatives & Superlatives

Let´s compare!
Click on these links:
#1
#2
#3
#4

Funny restaurant commercials (Ampliación)

As a warming-up activity for your restaurant commercial project, check out this commercial and comment on it.

Countable/Uncountable

-Much or Many? That´s the question! Do these drills! Clear now? Do these ones just in case!!
-Some or any? Check it out here!
-(A) little or (a) few? Link. What about trying this one too?
-The last exercise for today: go here.

Frightening stories

Have a look at these spine-chilling stories written by students of 1ºD (Bachillerato):

Dream or Reality? (by Jesús M.)
Do you believe in ghosts? I don´t, but if you had been that night in the same place as me, you would change your opinion. It was a very hot summer day and as you can imagine I was on holidays. This year my family and me went to my uncle´s house in Ibiza, a nice house 5 km from the beach. That day we came home at night, we were tired after enjoying a lot. When we went to bed, my father and me slept on my uncle Abel´s couch, few minutes later I fell asleep. Until then everything seemed normal, but the horrible thing happens right now. I don´t know why, I opened my eyes in the middle of the night and there was the scariest thing that I had ever seen in my life. A girl with her face hidden by hair and a doll in her hands was right in front of my father looking at him. I remember very well this, I couldn´t scream or move and I felt very cold but all happened very quickly, in 20 seconds the girl disappeared. You can think that I was dreaming and I thought so too but the worst was that the next morning when I got up the doll was at my feet.

Eyes (by Joaquín R.)
Once upon a time there was a very beautiful girl called Susan. Everybody liked her but nobody had tried to talk to her. She was tall and thin, and she always wore sunglasses. One day Paul was going for a walk when he saw her, he couldn´t stop staring at her. Paul fell in love with Susan and he felt he had to meet her. Then he decided to go and talk to Susan. They were talking for a few minutes when she took off her sunglasses. Paul could see that she hadn´t got eyes. He was very frightened and started to run. It was too late because she caught him and then she took out his eyes and put them in her eye holes. The street seemed a flood of blood. Hours later, a person went to help Paul, but he killed him quickly and caught his eyes. The dead person came back to life and went home. Paul then warned everybody about the curse. It is a "string of death" and now the people live with terror because somebody has the "eye curse" and can kill you for your eyes...

So beware of people with sunglasses...

The Past Simple

Past Simple practice (affirmative): Click here.
Past Simple in the negative: Practice it here.
Questions in the Past Simple: Click here
Irregular verb practice: Click here
Irregular verb crosswords: Click here

Biography practice (1ºD)

Biography of Fernando Alonso (by Marcos Muñoz):

"What do you feel when you are driving at 372 km/h? If you know the anwer of this question maybe you have been fined. But F1 drivers like Fernando Alonso know that feeling very well.

When he was young he loved cars. He was competing in kart championships until 1997, when he won the main Spanish kart championship. He has raced since then. While he was living in Asturias, he started to compete in F3. He achieved the first position in Belgium in this category. Fernando has competed in F1 since 2001, his first F1 team was Minardi, he signed for them in 2001. By 2006 he had signed with Renault, had won the F1 championship and had won the Principe de Asturias award. After he had won his second championship in 2006, he signed for the McLaren team. But that year was the worst in his career because he lost the championship after a lot of conflicts with his team partner, Hamilton. By 2009 he had signed for Renault again. He has been with Ferrari for seeral months. In 2010 he was living in Madrid when he married a well-known singer. Now he is competing with Ferrari but he hasn´t achieved his third F1 championship yet.
In conclusion, he is a great driver and a great person, I will cheer him for the rest of his career".


Biography of Angeline Jolie (by Alba Martínez):

"She has performed for 29 years, since she was 7. In 2000 she performed in "Tomb Raider", "Lara Croft" and since then, she has been famous. Soon after she started to be interested in charity activities. That year she joined ACNUR and later she was considered an important person in that organization. In 2002, Angelina met Afghan refugees in Pakistan and she donated 1 million dollars for their country.

While she was filming "Mr and Mrs Smith" her relationship with Brad Pitt started. By 2009 she had already filmed "Kung-Fu Panda" and she was working for a new film, "The Tourist", with J.Depp. Angelina had married twice before he relationship with Brad Pitt.

This year she hasn´t received any awards yet, but she has received one Acadmy Award and 3 Golden Globe awards since her career began. Now she´s filming her first movie as a director in Hungary".