ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS!

Video CHRISTMAS FLASMOB:

REMEMBERING MARIE FREDRIKSSON FROM ROXETTE

Marie Fredriksson, Swedish singer & composer & half of the duo Roxette, has died at the age of 61. The group had great success in the late 80s and 90s all over the world selling more than 75 million records. Their career had a first stop when in 2002 Marie was diagnosed with brain cancer. She recovered after lots of treatments and even had to learn to talk and read again. But in 2005 she came back to music recording several solo albums and officially back to Roxette in 2011, recording albums and performing in concerts until in 2016 when she had to give it all up definitely.

Let's remember -or maybe discover her- with some of her songs.

RIP, Marie.

- "SPENDING MY TIME"

- "LISTEN TO YOUR HEART"



"IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE"



"THE LOOK"



- "JOYRIDE"



- "HOW DO YOU DO?"

WHICH FILM TO SEE BEFORE CHRISTMAS?

Searching for a film to watch in English with English subtitles in class before Christmas holidays. Here are the four films proposed:

- They all have something to do with Christmas, as they take place totally in or around the Christmas season. 
- You're not intended to understand everything, but to see how English is used in "real" everyday life situations. Context will help you understand, and you'll be able to check or learn new vocabulary, pronunciation and entonation.

Read the synopsis to each film and watch each of the trailers first and later choose which one you'd like to watch. The explanation of how to vote for the film is explained at the end of this post.

Stepmom is a 1998 comedy-drama directed by Chris Columbus and starring Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, and Ed Harris.

Jackie and Luke Harrison (Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris) are a divorced New York couple that are struggling to help their children Anna and Ben be happy with this sudden change of lifestyle. This is far from easy, as Luke, an attorney, is living with his new girlfriend, Isabel Kelly (Julia Roberts), an NYU alumna and a successful fashion photographer several years his junior. Isabel tries very hard to make Anna and Ben feel comfortable and happy with her, but Anna repeatedly rejects her overtures while Ben, who loves Isabel (not as much as his actual mother), adds extra complication with his mischievous nature. Isabel behaves with contempt tempered by caution around Jackie, believing she overcompensates for her divorce by spoiling her children.

- Video trailer for "STEPMOM":

Peter's Friends (1992) is a British comedy-drama film. Starring Hugh Laurie, Alphonsia Emmanuel, Imelda Staunton, Stephen Fry, Rita Rudner, Tony Slattery, Phyllida Law, Alex Lowe, Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh.

It's New Year's weekend and Peter's friends gather at his newly inherited country house. 10 years ago, they all acted together in a Cambridge University student comedy troupe, but it's less clear how much they have in common now. Peter's friends are Andrew, now a writer in Hollywood; married jingle writers Roger and Mary; glamorous costume designer Sarah; and eccentric Maggie, who works in publishing.
Although the film is primarily a comedy, serious overtones are present from the beginning. Peter's father has died, and Peter plans to sell the house after this last party. While Andrew and Carol's troubled marriage is played mainly for laughs, Roger and Mary are recovering from a devastating personal tragedy only slowly revealed to the audience. A lonely Maggie arrives determined to persuade Peter they should be more than just friends and Sarah's not as happy with her life as she appears.
The film deals with themes of friendship, marriage, fidelity, materialism, and coping with death and loss.

- Video trailer for "PETER'S FRIENDS":

Love Actually (2004) is a British romantic comedy film, written and directed by Richard Curtis. The screenplay sees into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress. The ensemble cast is composed of predominantly British actors.
The film begins five weeks before Christmas and is played out during a week-by-week countdown until the holiday, with an epilogue that takes place one month later.

The film begins with a voiceover from David (Hugh Grant) commenting that whenever he gets gloomy with the state of the world he thinks about the arrivals terminal at Heathrow Airport, and the pure uncomplicated love felt as friends and families welcome their arriving loved ones. David's voiceover also relates that all the known messages left by the people who died on the 9/11 planes were messages of love and not hate. 

- Video trailer for "LOVE ACTUALLY":

The Holiday is a 2006 American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Nancy Meyers. Starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet as two lovelorn women from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, who temporarily exchange homes to escape heartbreak during the holiday season. Jude Law and Jack Black co-star.

The story is about two women who trade homes "only to find that a change of address can change their lives." Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) is a workaholic who owns a company that produces movie trailers in Los Angeles. Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) is a society column editor for The Daily Telegraph in London.

- Video trailer for "THE HOLIDAY":



How to vote for the film you would like to watch. 

Which one do you prefer to watch?

Vote by leaving a comment below:

1- Your complete name

2- class-group 

3- film you prefer to watch & give a reason why in English.

To watch a film in class, half+1 of the class must vote.

Votes must be in BEFORE Sunday December 15th at 20:00h for 1ºBac-A 
& BEFORE Tuesday December 18th at 20:00h for my group of 1ºBac-B

1ºBAC-A final update 16th-Dec: 19 votes. A film has won with 8 votes.
1ºBAC-B Update 16th-Dec: 5 votes so far. Not half the class+1 have voted yet.

E.T. REVISTS ELLIOT 37 YEARS LATER FOR CHRISTMAS

An American TV advertisement has brought together E.T. and Elliot 37 years after the iconic film was a great success at the cinemas. The voyager from outer space revists Elliot's home and meets his family for Christmas.

Video:

THE HISTORY OF 'BLACK FRIDAY'

Black Friday, USA's marketing invention after Thanksgiving, is now a common feature in other parts of the world, this video tells you the history of this event.

Video:



Previous posts about 'Black Friday' on this blog HERE.

25th NOV'19: INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN @ RAFAEL DIESTE

25th November 2019, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

To commemorate this day, we had a protest gathering with students and teachers at 12:00 at the central hall to hear an announcement made by 1st Bac students.

Photos of the protest gathering and the wall banner poster prepared by 'BiblioDieste' below.

Galician version @ ArquivosDoTrasno

NOT ONLY... BUT ALSO...

BACK FROM THE 'ENGLISH WEEK' AT OS PEARES

Today the 25 students from 'Rafael Dieste' have already come back from their lingustic immersion "English Week" at Os Peares.

During their last day yesterday, they presented the projects they had been working on throughout the week on the topic of the environment and the 3R (reduce, reuse & recycle).

The last thing we've got to say is congratulate all the students that have taken part in this activity for their good attitude and involvement during the whole week and our thanks to the attending teacher (Leticia Ogando) and the staff at the residence.

Galician version @ RafaelDiesteBlog

CONFUSING GET & ARRIVE

CONFUSING: THERE / THEIR / THEY'RE

WHAT'S YOUR LOOK?

Teenagers like to express their identity they do this by choosing 'a look'

They are free to do this, they don't like to be the same as everyone else.

They often grow out of this phase and dress more conventional.

HANDY EXPRESSIONS

25 'RAFAEL DIESTE' STUDENTS OFF TO AN 'ENGLISH WEEK' AT OS PEARES & ENJOYING IT

Our school has been selected to take part in the "ENGLISH WEEK", a language immersion activity for 3rd ESO students to practice and improve their oral skills in English with the help of native teachers.

The activity organized by the Consellería de Educación, takes place between the 10th and the 16th of November at the residential area in Os Peares (Ourense). 25 of our 3rd ESO students will be  off today, accompanied by one of our Physical Education teachers, Leticia Ogando.

Update Wednesday 13th: today we've received the photo above in which we can see our 25 students enjoying the "English Week" at Os Peares.


Galician version of this post @ RafaelDiesteBlog

A STORY WITH PHRASAL VERBS

Here's a narrative full with phrasal verbs. Can you explain the meanings of all of them in English?

-SET OFF

-BREAK DOWN

-END UP

-GET OFF

-BUMP INTO

-BRING UP

-FIND OUT

-COME INTO

-SET UP

-SORT OUT

-TAKE ON

-TURN DOWN

-CLOCK IN

-HAVE A GO AT

-TELL OFF

-GET OVER

-MAKE UP FOR

-TURN OUT

-BLOW UP

-FALL THROUGH

-PULL OUT OF

-GET AWAY WITH

-LET DOWN

-GO ON

-RUN OUT OF

-ANSWER BACK

-PUT UP WITH

-LAY OFF

-GO AHEAD

-STORM OUT

-PUT THROUGH

-TAKE UP

-WORK OUT

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2019!

Photo: Torange.biz

Enjoy the long scary weekend of Halloween! 

Vocabulary & activities in English on Halloween on previous post in this blog CLICK HERE

NOUN SUFFIXES

24th-OCT: LIBRARIES DAY

October 24th is Library Day in Spain. This year our school library has celebrated it with several exhibitions, which you can see on a post on our library blog clicking HERE.

- An exhibition of photos of the best world's libraries, and as you can see not of them are in  luxurious buildings. Some libraries are in the strangest places: a beach, a donkey's back... or, as in the UK, in old telephone boxes, which have been recycled into mini-libraries where bookcrossing is practiced. In this video you can see an example:

Video:

DAYS OF THE WEEK & MONTHS OF THE YEAR

LISTS OF ADJECTIVE SYNONYMS

AMERICAN SLANG

SALMAN KHAN, THE 2019 PRINCESS OF ASTURIAS AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Today October 18th 2019, Salman Khan receives in Oviedo the 2019 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation. Salman Khan appears on our current 1ºBAC textbook  in an interview about his online education project The Khan Academy (page 89, unit on Education).

More info about him and the award in these links below:

- THE KHAN ACADEMY

- THE PRINCESS OF ASTURIAS AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Videos:
LET'S TEACH FOR MASTERY

KHAN ACADEMY: THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION?

ENGLISH QUESTION PATTERN

ENGLISH QUESTION PATTERN

(Qword) + AUX.VB + subject + MAIN VERB +... ...(prep)?                                           DO (simple tenses) + infinitive                                           BE (continuous tenses) + -ing form                                           BE (passive tenses) + past participle                                           HAVE (perfect tenses) + past participle                                           HAVE (possession) + GOT                                           MODAL verbs + infinitive

Only exception, when asking for a subject. No auxiliary verb is needed: Who wrote “Hamlet”? Shakespeare did. How many people came to the party? 20 people came.

- Check you know all the question words at this previous post on this blog HERE.

ENGLISH VERB TENSE PATTERNS

SIMPLE TENSES

Affirmative Present Verb from without any change. Except 3rd person singular (HE/SHE/IT): verb form + -(E)S Past Regular verbs: verb form + -ED Irregular verbs: second column of irregular verb list.

Negative Present We need auxiliary verb: DO+NOT (DON'T) + verb form Except 3rd person singular (HE/SHE/IT): DOES+NOT (DOESN'T) + verb form Past We need auxiliary verb in the past: DID+NOT (DIDN'T) + verb form

Interrogative We need auxiliary verb: DO + subject + verb form? We need auxiliary verb in the past: DID + subject + verb form?

CONTINUOUS TENSES

Affirmative BE (in any tense) + -ING form of verb

Negative BE NOT (in any tense) + -ING form of verb

Interrogative BE (in any tense) + subject + -ING form of verb

PERFECT TENSES

Affirmative HAVE (in any tense) + PAST PARTICIPLE (reg: -ED / irreg: 3rd column verb list)

Negative HAVE NOT (in any tense) + PAST PARTICIPLE (reg: -ED / irreg: 3rd column verb list)

Interrogative HAVE (in any tense) + subject + PAST PARTICIPLE (reg: -ED / irreg: 3rd column verb list)

MODAL VERBS

Affirmative MODAL VERB + verb form in infinitive (without to)*

Negative MODAL VERB+NOT + verb form in infinitive (without to)*

Interrogative MODAL VERB + subject + verb form in infinitive (without to)*

* except OUGHT TO and some semimodals: HAVE TO / BE ABLE TO

PASSIVE TENSES

Affirmative BE (in any tense) + PAST PARTICIPLE (reg: -ED / irreg: 3rd column verb list)

Negative BE NOT (in any tense) + PAST PARTICIPLE (reg: -ED / irreg: 3rd column verb list)

Interrogative BE (in any tense) + subject + PAST PARTICIPLE (reg: -ED / irreg: 3rd column verb list)

#FRIDAYSFORFUTURE @ 'RAFAEL DIESTE'

As it had been announced, today Friday September 27th, our school gathered for @FRIDAYSFORFUTURE, together with others, following the call for a four-minute-fifteen- second protest demonstration, to show our awareness towards climate change and global warming.

Galician version of this post @ RafaelDiesteBlog & ArquivosDoTrasno.

WHO'S GRETA THUNBERG?

Greta Thunberg is a 16-year-old Swedish student who one day school striked for a week to protest against the Swedish government and its inactivity against global warming.

But how did all this start? Before August 20th last year, Thunberg went to school like most Stockholm teenagers. Some things had happened in Sweden during that summer that woke something up in her and she thought she had to do something about it. Sweden had been affected by a heat wave which had brought 50 forest fires burning 20.000 hectares.

So on August 20th, instead of going to school she stood in front of the Swedish Parliament and said she wouldn't go back until she was heard. Since then she has become known worldwide. Last Tuesday she gave a speech at the Climate Awareness Summit in the United Nations in New York.

Video: Greta Thunberg @ UN New York 23/Sept/19:

Link to more on Greta Thunberg & Climate Change @ ArquivosDoTrasno.

WELCOME BACK! SCHOOL YEAR 2019-20

Another school year of classes kicks off today... Day to meet old friends, new class mates, some known and some unknown teachers... New books, new timetable... New possibilities...

Good luck to you all!