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.