Are you doing your homework?

I guess you are already enjoying yourselves and have completely forgotten about your homework, haven't you? Well, this post is here to remind you that you should be reading "Holes". You won't regret it! It's a great read!

Here is a trailer of the film that will reveal just a few more things...

Homer Simpson for President!

Wouldn't he make a great president?!

Children see, children do...

Reading Comprehension and Test Preparation Interactive activities to help you understand written English and to prepare you for reading exams.

Surfing the web I found these very interesting pages that will help you review for your Reading Comprehension exercises for the PET exam. The author, Skip Reske, has done an excellent job. Thanks Skip! Enjoy and do not try to do all of them in one session!!! There are 19 sets with exercises on Signs, Details, Matching, Gist and Gaps.

Set 1, Set 2, Set 3, Set 4, Set 5, Set 6, Set 7, Set 8, Set 9, Set 10, Set 11, Set 12, Set 13, Set 14, Set 15, Set 16, Set 17, Set 18, Set 19

If you want to visit Skip's Website click here.

Football (or soccer)

Just take a look at these websites for more information about football or soccer.

 

BBC Newsround has a huge number of short articles on the subject of football. To see a list of articles, with the most recent first, just do a search with the word ‘football’. 

 

A section of the BBC sport website on the recent Women’s World Cup in China. Numerous 

articles and reports, but difficult for pre-intermediate level. 

  

‘Laws and Equipment’, from the football section of the BBC website. It's a bit difficult for pre- 

intermediate level, but contains lots of vocabulary for football fans.  

Barack Obama

I hope you enjoyed the activity about the Democratic candidate, Mr. Barack Obama. If you want to know about this politician visit these websites:

A BBC Newsround article from June 2008, asking "What's the big deal about Obama?"

A recent Newsround article on the role of Obama and his family in the Democratic Party's recent national covention.

The official website of Obama's presidential election campaign.

Epals are back!

Dear students,

As I told you today, Mr Yearger, one of our language assistants from the States last year, would like to start an email exchange. This will start this week. Do you remember your login and your password? Well, if you don't, ask me as soon as possible. Remember the website is www.epals.com More news from Mr Yeager soon.

See you tomorrow.

Welcome back!

Dear students in 2º ESO B, I guess we are stuck together again! I hope you enjoyed your long summer holiday. This was perhaps one of my best summers so far!

Well, back to school , then. This year we will continue with the same timetable and do things in a similar way. We will devote our time to different things every day of the week. We will have oral practice with our new teaching assistants from the States, Veronica and Sydney. We will also visit the language lab on Thursdays or Fridays. One day a week we will use our school textbook and the alternative textbook (PET to revise for our exams) and finally we will also do Britlit kits to know more about literature and modern writers.

Today I want to give you a little further info on Mary Seacole. We are learning about biographies and their features. It is interesting to see what facts are included in brief biographies and if biographers have made the same selection of facts. Here are links to different biograpies of Mary Seacole on the Internet. Click on them and check if they are similar or different.

1. Official website with lots of information about Mary Seacole.
2. BBC's webpage with a brief biography
3. BBC's version for schools. Play the memory game at the end of the biography. It's fun!

See you tomorrow. Enjoy your first day at school!

Party Time

Hi again,

Just a short message to show you some of the photos I took yesterday during the "surprise" party. Did they know? I think they did. :-(

Anyway, we all had a great time. We will always miss you Mr Shafto & Mr Yearger! Come visit us sometime when you are back in Spain.

See you soon!!!

Field trip to Aranjuez

Hi everyone,

It's been a long time since I last posted a message to the blog. I just wanted to show you this photo of our last field trip to Aranjuez. If you want the file, send me an email.

See you tomorrow,

Beach or mountain holidays?

This is what you can do with Voicethread. You can type a message, record a voice message or a video. Shortly you will be invited to join me in Voicethread and record your own message.

Bye for now. 

Voicethread

Hi again,

I may have written about this Web2. application before but I like it so much that I can't help doing it again! 

Click here to see  an example of how we can use this in our class to practise our oral skills.

You can talk about a video, a photo or any file you want to post. Anything!

I am sure you will love using it.

See you tomorrow!

KET and PET exams

Hi there,

Would you like to practise your reading and writing skills for these exams? What about Grammar and Vocabulary? Remember KET tests are for 1º ESO Bilingüe and PET for 2º ESO Bilingüe.

Click here to revise for the reading part of the PET test. (True false exercise)

Click here to revise for the reading part of the KET test. (Cloze test, Gap fill, etc)

A little more practice on the vocabulary and grammar exercises for the KET test.

A little more practice on the reading and writing part of the PET test.

Pink Bow Tie by Paul Jennings

Hi everyone,

As you all know, this week we will be reading a short story called "Pink Bow Tie" by the famous Australian writer Paul Jennings. I am sure you will enjoy reading this story. Do you remember "The Copy", the story we read about a cazy inventor and his teenage friend at the end of January? Well, both stories are by the same author. If you want to know more about Paul Jennings and his biography click here.

Here is a link to his personal webpage. Lots of stuff to read about his latest books, TV series, etc.

Many of his short stories, published between 1985 and 1991 were also adapted into the first and second series of the popular Australian television show Round the Twist. Watch the first part of the episode callled Pink Bow Tie. By the way, the accent is Australian. Another great chance to listen to another variety of English.

The Hobbit

Hi again!

This is the trailer for the movie "The Hobbit". If you haven't read the book or seen the film, this is a pretty good idea of what the plot is about. Remember there are a few copies of this book in the library! Fantastic story!



Here is a link with hints for a good presentation. Ready for Friday?

The Pied Piper story

Hi there,

Here's a YouTube video I found about the story of the Pied Piper we're now reading in class. Of course, the story has changed a little bit, but I thought you might like it. Kermit has always been one of my favourite puppets!



Click here for the whole version of the poem.

Text speak

If you enjoyed the activity today, here are a few more links where you will find more information about text speak.

An online dictionary of text speak.

Two pages from the BBC Newsround website (2005) on the mobile phone service that offered to summarise famous pieces of literature in text language. The second page has examples of famous stories reduced to a couple of lines of text speak – be sure to point out that most of the language is not standard English! Challenging for pre-intermediate level.

An article from the BBC website about the rise of text and email language, and the way in which traditional greetings like ‘hello’ are apparently being replaced. Intermediate level and above.

PowerPoint presentations

Here is the video I found in YouTube that may help you improve your PowerPoint skills. You will also find a useful link here for a great Website where you will learn more about this useful software program.

More Harry Potter videos!!!

I just want to remind you that you must memorize your playscript for the recording on Friday. If you are in 1º ESO B remember to do exercises 1, 2 and 3. See you tomorrow! Enjoy the rest of the evening!!!



Remember four-letter words are forbidden in class or anywhere in the school!!! Ha, ha, ha, but I guess it's okay if you use these swearwords... Ha, ha, ha.

"Caldrun bum. son of a banshee. swish and flicker. voldermorts nipple. dragon bogies. expecto patronads. rabble rousers. jiggery pokery. blast ended skank. broom head. hagrid's but quack. leprechaun ???? unicorn turds. mother f******* troll s*** snape. flobby wanded dementor boggerer. dobby's sock."

Final grades uploaded to www.mrgutierrez.es

Dear all,

Here we are again. Your final grades have been uploaded to our website. You can now check if everything is correct. Remember to memorize your playscripts for the recording on Friday. We will surely enjoy ourselves with your great skits. Watch this great video from Youtube. Someday we will be able to do even better...

Long busy weekend!

It's been a long busy weekend. Check our website. It is full of new material for you to use: vocabulary, grammar, webquests, podcasts and dictionaries.

Your personal webpages have also been updated with your grades.

I also found this interesting blog about World War I. It is a fascinating history lesson. Read cronologically. Start from the oldest post to the most recent. This blog is made up of transcripts of Harry Lamin's letters from the first World War. The letters will be posted exactly 90 years after they were written.

To find out Harry's fate, follow the blog!

See you on Tuesday. Enjoy tomorrow's holiday!

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I last posted a message to the blog. Lots of work! Hope you enjoyed your holidays! I surely did.

New term, new life. This is what Oscar (1º ESO B) says all the time. In a way it is true because this term we will be doing many different activities new to all of you.

Theatre will be introduced in the classroom shortly. Podcasts, webquests and pronunciation games will start next week.

By the way, did you know that Bart's voice is a lady? Well, listen to Bart's famous telephone pranks. The lady is Bart's voice and the man is Moe. Excellent!