Class Activity: COOKING

The student from Cuarto Medio, made an excellent demonstration of cooking abilities.

They chose the dish they wanted to prepared, Then they organized their speech and materials, and finally they prepared their dishes for the camera.

A great moment and an excellent work. Congratulations.



The Final Results



Recipe Igredients


The Lost Video


If you thought I had forgotten the funny and embarasing pictures... well, I didn't!!

Flatulence??


Inside the TV studio.


The last details.


Humm... It seems to be that Marion was very hungry.


Ready to start boys!


Well, who goes first?




Ups... you see? Healthy food is much better!

THOUGHTS: "Loosing someone who close to you" (terceros y cuartos medios)

To think of loosing someone close to us is something that we tries to avoid. Sometimes we cheat ourselves thinking that those people who we loved will be close to us forever. But one and the last step of every human being is to die.

This exercise want to take you out all those feelings about the death, about loosing someone close to us.

In few words explain your ideas about how you'd react, how you'd feel, what you'd do if we lose someone close. Try to be sincere and honest in your answers.

As an example you have a song below about this topic. It's a Eric Clapton's sad song about loosing a very close person to him. I invite you to research about this song, about the motivations that Eric had to write it and about who is dedicated this song to and why. The results of your research will be shared in classes.

Ok. Bye

Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven

DEADLINE: August 18th, 2007

DEBATE 2 "Uniforms at school" (Terceros y Cuartos Medios)

The question of whether children should wear a uniform to school always makes for a lively debate, and not only among students! In some countries school uniform is normal and most schools make their students wear one.

Britain is the most obvious example of this, but in many other countries with strong links to Britain uniform often has to be worn to school - examples include Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa and many other African countries. Uniform is also required at almost all schools in Japan.

In other countries, particularly in continental Europe, the USA and Canada, uniform is very rare in state-funded schools, although private schools may have one.

Debates about school uniform have been going on for decades in different countries and districts, but during the 1990s state schools in the USA began to adopt uniforms.

At first uniform rules were seen as a way of stopping children dressing in gang colours in troubled urban areas. Later, claims that introducing uniform leads to better discipline and educational results encouraged other school districts and schools to make a change. Both the Clinton and Bush administrations have been in favour of school uniforms. Other countries have picked up on this trend - for example, there has been talk of making German children wear uniforms.

This topic looks at a very large number of arguments about uniforms. Not all of these will apply in every country or school, so take care only to select the ones that are relevant to debate. The proposition (affirmative or government) side here is arguing for uniforms to be scrapped, but the case could easily be reversed if your debate is about introducing uniforms instead.

What do you think about the obligation of wearing uniform at the most of schools in Chile? Do you have an opinion about that? Agree or disagree?

This is an example of how, in other countries, sees and feel the issue of wearing uniforms at school. (note: this is just an example, a point of view, anything else)

After reading the text post an specific opinion based only in one point of agreement or disagreement.

DEADLINE: Wednesday, July 8th, 2007.

FIRST ENGLISH DEBATE: Tercero Medio versus Cuarto Medio

Toronto Police and Chilean Soccer Players Brawl

TORONTO (Reuters) - World soccer body FIFA said on Friday it was launching an investigation into a clash between Chile's Under-20 soccer team and Canadian police, while Chile's president called the police action "unjustified aggression."

The brawl took place Thursday night, shortly after Chile suffered a bitter 3-0 defeat to Argentina in a semifinal game at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Toronto, in which two Chilean players were ejected.

"This incident is definitely regrettable and I can only apologize in the name of FIFA," organization president, Sepp Blatter told reporters at a press conference in Toronto on Friday.

"We have given the responsibility ... to the Canadian Soccer Association to deal with this matter with the relevant authorities and then to report in detail to FIFA," he said.

Toronto police briefly detained all 21 Chilean players after an altercation with the athletes as they headed toward their bus amid a throng of fans.

Witnesses reported police used electric-shock guns and pepper spray against the athletes, prompting Santiago to file a formal complaint through diplomatic channels.

"The incident is especially serious because, in our opinion, the Chilean delegation suffered unjustified aggression," President Michelle Bachelet said.

The incident came just two days after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met in Santiago with Bachelet to bolster political and economic ties.

"These international matches are hotly contested and often become very emotional," Harper told CTV News on Friday during a visit to Haiti.

"There are provisions in Canada (under) which the authorities review these kinds of things and I don't intend to comment any further."

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair defended his officers, who he said stepped in when a Chilean team member began to argue with a rival fan. He said the Chileans then turned their aggression toward police.

Tensions were running high at the end of the game when several Chilean players angrily confronted the referee over his officiating. Police escorted the officials off the field.

(Additional reporting by Rodrigo Martinez in Santiago)





SOURCE: http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSN2030958920070720?sp=true

DEBATE: Read the first post and then follow the instructions.

Waking up of a long long nap

Hello dear boys and girls.

During the first semester I decided not to work with the blog focusing in other stuff inside the classroom. But it was just enough. It's time to read and to learn how to give opinions.

Just imagine, you are the top students, relating to English, from the whole school (I mean, more than 3.000 students). You need to show that.

I have already chosen some texts and articles that you'll have to read and then give some comments.

For 2007 I was asigned to give lessons to the Elective Classes of Terceros and Cuartos Medios. For that reason I'll separate the texts and articles in these two levels. In the titles will appear if that will belong to 3º or 4º Medio.

Well boys, Welcome to the net.

May the force be with you... always.. (or at least for this year)

See ya.

English Culture Icons I

This Wedenesday, November 29th we started with the first speeches and adresses session. The students get a more than expected performance with clear pronounciation and a good sense of rythm. I appreciate to those who worked hard to take their best english out.

We'll wait for the other group of students next wednesday when it will be also our final class.

See ya!

Martin Luther King's Speech: "I have a dream"

PowerPoint

British National Anthem: "God save the Queen"

PowerPoint

John Lennon's "Imagine"

PowerPoint

John Kennedy's "Inaugural Address"

PowerPoint

United States of America's National Anthem
PowerPoint

"God Bless America"
PowerPoint

Ensayo al aire libre

On Wednesday 22nd the group went to the beach to have one of the last practice sessions before the presentation day, that will be on Wednesdays, November 29th and December 6th.

The idea of going to the Chinchorro beach was to find a personal place to practice aloud the text asigned. To read a text is not that difficult than to read it aloud, in front of an audience and with a speech format.
I hope the activity is at the level that the students shows class by class.
Good Luck!

WebPage where you can... no, you must... no you have to STUDY!

This is the link to the webpage you can practice with several exercises.

http://club.telepolis.com/phonetics/

go to exercises 1 or exercises 2 for practicing.

NOTE: focus on the phonetic vowel exercises

Good luck

Speeches, adresses, songs and poems

In case you don't have yet your material I've uploaded the different text you have to speech soon. - In some of them there's a MP3 version fi you want to download-

Kennedy's address
Nixon's resignation speech
Martin Luther King's speech: "I have a Dream"
Star Spangled Banner
God bless America
God Save the Queen
Whitman's O Captain my Captain MP3
Lennon's Imagine
Beatles' Yesterday
Denver's Conutry Road Take me Home
The Eagles' Hotel California

Chilean National Anthem (in Spanish)

Study hard. I want your best effort in this final activity.
See ya.

Some interesting sites

Dear students,
If you are interested in the web page about phonetics... this is the address:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

Others:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/english.htm
http://club.telepolis.com/phonetics/
http://www.learnenglish.de/Level1/Pronunciation/phoneticpage.htm
http://www.unibuc.ro/eBooks/filologie/mateescu/cuprins.htm

Bye

Photo Session

These are some of the pictures I took in classes.

Enjoy or suffer!

Task 11: 'Jokes in English'

A Birthday Cake

A man wanted to celebrate his wife's birthday by throwing a party. So he went to order a birthday cake. The baker asked him what message to put on the cake. He thought for a while and said, "Let's put, 'You are not getting older, you are getting better' on the cake".
The baker then asked, "How do you want me to arrange it?" The man replied, "Well, put 'You are not getting older', at the top and 'you are getting better' at the bottom.
The real fun didn't start until the cake was opened and everyone at the party saw the message on the cake: "You are not getting older at the top, you are getting better at the bottom"!

Geography Class

An elementary school teacher was trying to encourage her students to be active in class. While teaching geography, she looked at one student and said, "Stanley, go to the map and find North America". Stanley stood up, went to the front of the room where a world map was hanging, and pointed to North America. "Correct!", the teacher exclaimed. "Now class, can anyone tell me who discovered America?". The whole class shouted together, "Stanley"!

A Big Decision

A six-year-old boy walked up to his father one day and announced, 'Daddy, I'd like to get married.'
His father replied hesitantly, 'Sure, son, do you have anyone special in mind?'
'Yes,' answered the boy. 'I want to marry Grandma.'
'Now, wait a minute,' said his father. 'You don't think I'd let you get married with my mother, do you?'
'Why not?' the boy asked. 'You married mine.'

Jokes taken from http://teacherjoe.us/Jokes.html

Tasks:

1. Tell a joke in English.

2. Write the underlined words and find its meaning related to the context. Deliver the meanings next class, on Wednesday, June 25th, written in a sheet of paper.

These are the last tasks for this semester so let's make your best effort and enjoy your winter holidays.

See ya!