Week 24: March 11th, 2020- Coronavirus class cancellation

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- Dearest students,
I hope you're doing well.
   At this incredibly strange and defying hour we can maybe open a space of some quiet learning of English together. Let's see.
   I really hope you can be safely at home all the time it's possible and that you and your loved ones are also doing well. Let's also hope the coronavirus is feeling as baffled as the image shows on the left and thinking about surrender, let's hope for the best.
   As for the school, all the courses are following in distance learning and all administrative work can also be done remotely from the safety of all the staff's homes. The telephone is working in the mornings and administrative emails are going to be answered too.
   Each teacher started to organise work last Thursday. It took me some more time because the school was told to keep open on Thursday and Friday and there was some organising work to do, sorry for that.
   We've decided to design some work for every in-person class that we were having. That work is going to be set and sent to students in the form each teacher prefers and we are also going to receive productions and give you feedback.
   Of course I want to use our blog to set our work, as we already know it well, but I'm also thinking about other platforms that may be useful to offer some better interaction. I need some time to check but I hope to have something ready for Wednesday morning. The idea is to try to be connected together during the time of our class, that is Wednesdays 18.30 to 20.30, for which a more flexible platform could be of great use. I don't want to confuse you (and me! ;-)) with many or complicated ideas, I want to find one that gives some flexibility and stick to it.

Until Wednesday morning, let me go on only with our blog, resuming from the last class we had last March 4th, that now seems like a year ago. This is more or less the class belonging to last Wednesday, March 11th, the day classes were cancelled to try to stop the rapid spread of the virus in Comunidad de Madrid

- You were going to read something about nuclear power (have a look at the previous entry). This was because we were having discussions on the two most extraordinary feats human beings had achieved, the landing on the moon and the development of an energy, the nuclear one, that could wipe us out from the planet. We had already done the first part. This is my adaptation of the class:

1. After reading about your favourite among the topics on nuclear energy I gave you, organise a short recording (three or four minutes) about what you've read and send it to me. Tip! Pick up interesting vocabulary you'd like to adopt and try to adopt it in the recording you send me. That is, try to use new structures and vocab there. I'll give you feedback on it.

2. As interesting as it may be, nuclear energy is now completely outdated, compared to coronavirus, and I think we should be prepared to speak and listen about it in English too.
Most interestingly, Bill Gates started a TED Talk, back in 2015, about infectious viruses talking about nuclear disasters. This talk is very interesting, only 8 minutes long and I'd like you to see it and write down the different proposals Bill Gates makes. Also please decide on TEN interesting words from the talk.

3. After that, we could have had a very good conversation together in class. We may be able to have it next day over the platform, but let's get some specific vocabulary about coronavirus itself. Last Wednesday, an American specialist, Alanna Shaikh, gave a very clear and interesting TED Talk on the coronavirus outbreak. I've planned the following questions for you to try to answer:
     1. Is Alanna Shaikh a good source of information on coronavirus? Why?
     2. What is a coronavirus and where does the name come from?
     3. What are its symptoms?
     4. What examples of evasions and dishonesty does she mention?
     5. Why does she mention Chad of the Democratic Republic of Congo?
     6. Why does she mention the supply system?

4. We were also going to practice pronunciation. I've been checking some websites and I think we could start with this one. I've picked an exercise about Intonation and Stress. I think it's very well explained and it gives you some practice. I'd like you to have a look at it and do the exercises. You can tell me about how it works for you on Wednesday.