Week 29: May 17th- Our last day

 

- On our last day we worked on a questionnaire that revisited many of the activities we had done during the year and had a coffee and a little something to eat together.

Some of us hope to see each other next year if we can offer the course, I'll keep you posted.

 

Thanks very much for your wonderful attitude and work, I wish you a wonderful summer!!

Week 28: May 10th, 2023- Coronation, Big Lunches, Eden Project and Future Learn. And a visual poem!!!

Coronation quiche

 - We saw the wonderful visual poem you have done with your short video and you explained what each video was.

- We also saw the video Vampiros, featuring Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro because Sarai had told us about bar Marsella, that appears in it.

- You told each other about your weekend and we saw something that had happened in Britain on Sunday with a CNN video and exercise.

- We checked on the coronation quiche. And we read and told each other about information on Big Lunches from Eden Project Communities.

- We saw a video on the original Eden Project and a second one on the specific work they do.

- We also saw a learning platform with lots of ideas to read and study in English: Future Learn. 

Week 27: May 3rd, 2023- Presentation and Artificial Intelligence

 

- We started the class with the presentation of our classmate Toñi, a very interesting talk about her job and the company she works for. This a descriptive video in English.

- We discussed what we knew of AI and saw a short video of an interview to Gerffrey Hinton, the so-called godfather of AI, expressing his worries about this technology. We identified the main ideas.

- We completed an exercise on a second video on AI up to minute 3'57'' Smart, seductive, dangerous AI robots.

Week 26: April 27th, 2023- World Book Day Celebrations!

 

- We told each other about books we had read.

- We listened to Roberto's presentation about visiting Portugal.

- We saw the video Why Should You Read Every Day. Benefits of Reading and did an exercise on it.

- We saw a little bit of Shakespeare's poetry by reading and listening to the original version of Sonnet 18.

Week 25: April 19th, 2023- More music!

 

- We started talking about the scientific information you had read about and discussing a piece of news from Euronews.

- We did a reading exercise witn an article divided in three you had to tell each other and we did two vocabulary exercises.

- We listened to Vivaldi's Spring and described it with a bank of words.

- We did the same with Ludovico Enaudi's Spring.

We finished the class listening to birds in spring from Carlos de Hita's website. This is the birds' recording. 

Homework:

For our next class you have to prepare a little presentation about a favourite book or author, as we'll be discussing books and working on literary ideas ;-))

Week 24: April 12th, 2023- Nacho's presentation, science and music!

 

- We listened to a very interesting presentation on traditional dance and music delivered by Nacho.

- We exchanged information about the photocopy with scientific facts about our planet that Gema had distributed.

- We saw and did a vocabulary exercise about a video on The Benefits of Music.

- We did an exercise while listening to Four Seasons in One Day, a song by Crowded House.

- Words to describe music. 

Homework:

Those of you who didn't share the scientific information on your photocopy can prepare it for next class.

For those of you who already shared that, you can have a look at this website and choose a piece of news you find interesting and you want to tell us about. This is a news site with news from a European point of view.

Week 23: March 29th, 2023- Easter, Alba's presentation and people in trouble

 

- We exchanged our plans and Easter traditions we had read about.

- We listened to our classmate Alba Hita and her interesting presentation about her job.

- We read and worked with some people writing to The Guardian Weekly and their problems.

- Homework: 

I gave you two pages from the book 100 Things to Know About Planet Earth for you to read and tell us after Easter break.

Week 22: March 22nd, 2023- Poetry and Easter

Poet Maya Angelou

- We told each other about the poems and poets we had read about.

- María Luisa liked her poem by Maya Angelou so much that we saw the very Ms Angelou reading it.

- We saw a video about World Poetry Day and

- We wrote a poem together with lines from the poems I gave you and this is our poem.

- We saw the video of the contest Seconds of Beauty and an example of Seconds of Beauty from students.

- We saw the video Bloom and commented it.

- We told each other about Easter traditions in Mexico and Poland with a reading activity.

Homework:

- We are recording 3,4 5 seconds of something beautiful to send to your teacher so that we can create our visual poem. Besides, you are going to prepare to be able to tell us about either the Easter celebration of a place you know well or your Easter plans. 

Week 21: 15th March, 2023- Happy to chat benches and Academy Awards

 

- We started with your short presentations about the women scientists that I had given you.

- We saw a short video about Happy to Chat Benches in Cardiff, and discussed about the idea.

- We saw about another bench in Canada, in Richmond Hill.

- We saw a little bit of the song winner of the Academy Awards for this year.

- As we can't work with this song, we did an exercise on Shallow, the winner of 2018.

Homework:

- In preparation for next week's session, I'd like you to do two things: on the one hand, you could write an entry on this older virtual wall I opened two years ago on women scientists and inventors. It could be about the scientists you read or researched a bit. I'll read and give you the feedback on your production.

On the other hand, I'd like to celebrate both the coming of spring and Poetry's Day, which is celebrated on March 21st, and I invite you to have a look at these two websites with poems to find one you'd like to read and tell us about next day. Check out Poetry Foundation and Lithub to see if you find something interesting.

Week 20: March 8th, 2023- London and Women's Day

 

Elephant sculpture outside Spittafileds Market

- We warmed up having a look at the document with ten London photos to discuss where they came from.

- We did a reading and speaking exercise on the Memorial Bench Squeme in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in small groups.

- We saw a video on famous women inventors and did a UN questionnaire. We got 4 out of 10 ;-))

Homework:

You have one copy of a scientist to read about and tell us next day from this comic. 

Week 19: March 1st, 2023- Our first presentation and London!

This is a London mew, these back streets I told you about.

- We started the class with the very interesting talk about social media and children by our classmate Tomás. It stirred quite a few questions! Thanks Tomás for breaking the ice!

- We went through a few notices from last weekend in London and we tried to guess where the photos had been taken and what they were meant for.

- We saw a video on the 15 Most interesting tourist attractions in London and completed an exercise.

Homework:

I have put together ten different notices from London and my suggestion is that you go through them and tell me in a recording where you image I took the photo and what the notice means and wants people to do.

Week 18: February 22nd, 2023- Carnival and friends

 

Carnival celebration in La Palma

- Yesterday we started talking a little bit about the Carnival in different places.-

- We saw a video about friendship and talked about the subject while revising some vocabulary related.

- We interviewed each other about a Friendship questionnaire.

- We did an exercise on Somebody I Used to Know, by Gotye and Kimbra.

Homework:

- You can write about the woman scientists you read on this virtual wall and I'll give you feedback on it.

- I have the calendar for you to choose the day you want to give your presentation.

- Read about somehing interesting about foreign news and we'll start the class talking about that next day... all but Tomás!!! who will give his presentation next March 1st!! on the topic of his choice.

Week 17: February 15th, 2023- Women scientists and your questions for the video.

 

- We told each other about the woman scientist we had chosen and explained a little bit about her life and work. I talked about Elisabeth Blackburn and her work with telomeres connected to CNIO.

- We completed the exercise we had started last week with Laura Trice's TED Talk. You saw the video again to revise your questions and to answer your classmates' questions.

- You got the copy for the video on friendship we're going to work with next week.

- You also got a blind date from the library.

Homework:

- For homework I suggest we can read about carnival celebrations around the world. You can pick up any place in Spain or abroad and read a little bit about it so you can tell us in class. Here you have a link, but you can use any!!

Week 16: February 8th, 2023- Love songs and Remember to say thank you

- We started the class with all your love songs and the stories behind them that you told us. It was really great that ALL OF YOU had prepared yours. I want to thank you with a little present: this is the playlist of all your songs in the order you presented them in class. I'm sorry Spotify does not have Hey in English Toñi! I leave it here.

- We corrected exercises A and B of our handout on modal verbs and explained all the first page.

- We saw a video by Dr Laura Trice, Remember to Say Thank You. We did the first three questions and you thought of two more questions for your classmates.

Homework: 

On 11 February we celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.  For homework I'd like you to read about one woman scientist and tell us about her work and contribution. Remember: read and take notes so that you tell us about it with your own words, avoiding reading aloud. 

You can read about any scientist you want or check the UN website on Women scientists or the CNIO webpage (website with English version) which is an extraordinary Spanish research centre with a special care for female contributions and a woman director, María Blasco, who is a leading resercher in her field herself.

Week 15: February 1st, 2023- Future perfect and continuous and songs!!

 

This is a photo by Isabel Muñoz, the Spanish photographer whose exhibition I saw a few years ago, the one I told you I liked so much. Just for you to know. If you follow the link, you can see more photos of that project.

- We started the class with your little presentations about the research you had done on the scientific topics I had given you.

- We revised the use of the future perfect and the future continuous with the two diaries of our exercise. We also talked about ourselves at the end of the year, for practice.

- We discussed the follwing questions with two songs by two different artists: Sesión 53 by Shakira and BZRP and Flowers by Miley Cyrus. We discussed these questions, plus other aspects you brought up: 

1. What's the story behind the song?
2. What is the singer complaining about?
3. What other people are mentioned in it?
4. In your opinion, why did the artist write this particular song?

Homework:

For homework you have to look for one love song, it doesn't have to be about break-up, with a story behind and read about it so that you're able to tell us about it at the beginning of next day's class.

Week 14: January 25th, 2023- Centenarians, regrets and a resignation

- We reviewed the course together and explained how you found it so that our new classmate could form an idea.

- We discussed the questions I had set for homework, the ones related to the video on centenarian people. 

- We practised the most usual grammar structure for regrets, should have, in a speaking exercise.

- We did a listening exercise about New Zealand's prime minister Lucinda Arden.

Homework:

For homework I'd like you to do some more research about some striking scientific discoveries that are hitting the headlines these days. 

As usual, the way I suggest you prepare for this is to read extensively about the topic while taking notes from which you'd be able to tell the rest of the class about it. It's always very interesting and useful for improvement that you pick up structures or vocabulary you are familiar with but you never use and try to use it when you tell us. Avoid reading from your notes, you only check them.

The topics and people are the following:

• Nacho, Alba B and Gema: Earth's core appears to have reversed its spin and could have consequences.
• Sarai, Jaqueline and Toñi: Humans seem to be able to understand apes better than thought.
• Sonia, Rosa and Alba H: Newly found asteroid, 2023BU, is passing very close to the Earth
• Mario, Fernando and Azucena: Doomsday clock is at 90 seconds to midnight.
• Roberto, María Luisa and Tomás: What is Chat GPT and the controversy about it.

For your reading, you can check these sites or any other you rely on: The Guardian science,  New York Times

Week 13: January 18th, 2023- Year 2022 in a quizz and the future perfect and continuous

 

- We warmed up writing up post-its with the best of last year and wishes for 2023 that we're going to have in a poster.

- We did the quizz of news from 2022 in two groups and both got 12 correct answers!!

- We did a listening about Blue Monday.

- We revised the use of Future Perfect and Future Continuous and practised with an activity with a conversation between a photographer and a manager.

Homework:

- Watch this video about three centenarians. The topic connects to our exercise on advice from old people from last week. Write down notes on the following, to start speaking next day:

1- What are the reasons they give for their long lives?
2. What regrets do they have?
3. What advice do they give?

From your personal opinion, what are the reasons these three people have had such a long life?

Week 12: January 11th, 2023- Happy New Year and New Year's Resolutions

 

- We wished each other a very happy new year and told the class about the good news we had read about over the holidays.

- We shared our New Year's Resolutions in a Mentimeter exercise.

- We read about Resolutions and how to stick to them.

- We saw New Year Resolutions in a Friends' episode.

- We read and discussed about life advice from very old people, taken from a Sahil Bloom's tweet.

Homework:

- Choose one of the ideas on the handout I gave you to organise a short presentation and record it for me. Try to use some of the vocabulary and phrases from the text we revised together:

A: Think back to a successful resolution you made. What was it? What steps did you take to achieve it?

B: Make a resolution for 2023. What steps will you take to successfully achieve it?

Week 11: December 21st, 2022- Good environmental news and Christmas!

 

- We exchanged our sentences connected to the film Don't Look Up and our present reality using speculative language.

- We saw a piece of good  news on biodiversity with the video How wolves change rivers.

- We moved on to a more Christmassy activity and we saw two different videos that we had to describe to the classmate that hadn'r seen them: Coca Cola Christmas Commercial and Mog's Christmas Calamity Sainsbury's Ad.

- We didn't have time for our Christmas Carol Deck the Halls.

Homework: 

- We're going to look for a piece of good environmental news (here you have a site you may want to check) or any other kind of news you find interesting. Remember: read or watch about it, get notes with the main facts and ideas you want to transmit and be ready to tell us on the first day after holidays.

- You can also prepare a presentation about the dangerous situation you have been into, paying attention to the use of narrative tenses and about the film we saw.

- You also have the grammar worksheet on future perfect and continuous with two exercises.

Very happy holidays and merry Christmas for all of you. Have a very happy New Year and receive my best wishes

Week 10: December 14th, 2022- Speculation with the film Don't Look Up

 

- We warmed up explaining our long weekend and the plans we have for the holidays.

- We saw the second vocabulary worksheet of the film Don't Look Up, with extracts from the script.

- We revised the grammar to speculate with some grammar explanation and exercises.

- We completed a gapped text of a video with Leonardo DiCaprio explainig the film.

Homework:

- I want you to use speculation modals (will, may, might, won't) and other language: bound to, probably... to talk about: comet, life on Earth, Bronteroes, the new planet (connected to the film) and temperatures, water, food production, energy use and pollution (connected to our reality)