31st OCTOBER: SOME HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES

It's 31st October again, that means it's Halloween again!

In Halloween children and some adults usually disguise themselves in costumes.

Houses are decorated with Jack-O-Lanterns, lots of spiders, cobwebs, witches and ghosts.

On Halloween evening in the USA, groups of children are seen walking round the neighbourhood dressed up in costumes, visiting houses to get sweets.

Typical Halloween festive activities are:

- Trick or treat (going round houses to receive sweets).

- Going to costume parties.

- Decorating places. Carving pumpkins to make Jack-O-Lanterns.

- Lighting bonfires.

- Apple bobbing: The game is played by filling a tub or a large basin with water and putting apples in the water. Because apples are less dense than water, they will float at the surface. Players then try to catch one with their teeth. Use of arms is not allowed, and often are tied behind the back to prevent cheating.

- Visiting haunted houses.

- Telling scary stories.

- Watching terror films.

All the info about Halloween in ClickOnEnglish: HERE

HALLOWEEN 2017 @ "RAFAEL DIESTE"

It's Halloween once again, and as usual Bibliodieste, the library of our school, together with the English Department have organized some talks in English for 1st-ESO students to learn about the origins and traditions of the typical American Halloween celebrations.

This year's language asistant, Ben Davidson, from New Jersey, told our students how he has usually celebrated this American festivity, after checking on basic Halloween concepts and vocabulary.

Things we've learnt from his talk:

- It's celebrated on October 31st. It's not a holiday in the USA.

- Children disguise themselves, but not only with scary or terror features, some also disguise with pretty or funny costumes. There's no Carnival celebrations in the USA, so this is their way of celebrating something similar.

- In towns and villages, kids usually go round the neighbourhood homes with the "Trick or treat" game.

- When you get older and go to university, youngsters usually celebrate it in costume parties.

Galician version of this post @ ArquivosDoTrasno.

And our school has been completely decorated for the occasion once again:

ONLINE FALSE FRIENDS DICTIONARY

There's always a group of words you must be careful with at the time of working out meanings, they are FALSE FRIENDS. That is, word that look similar to other words in your own language, but don't mean what they seem to.

Here's a link to an ONLINE FALSE FRIENDS DICTIONARY. 

You can also find the same link at the ENGLISH DICTIONARIES & VOCABULARY HELP section on the right hand column of this blog.

LEARNING ENGLISH BY YOURSELF

You can't learn English with just the 3 weekly classes at school. Learning languages needs a lot of self motivation to improve. Here's a link where you can find 5 ways to learn a language by yourself. Take a look:

Five ways to improve your English by yourself

[9thCW] "GASTRONOMY", OUR 2018'S CULTURAL WEEK TOPIC

The topic of our 9th Cultural Week has already been officially decided and announced. This year it will be devoted to GASTRONOMY, which is the practice or art of choosing, cooking and eating good food.

So the English Department has to start brainstorming ideas of which aspect we'll be working on.

We're open to suggestions...

So you can propose... for example:

Recipes in English? 

British, American, Canadian, Australian... dishes?

Ways of cooking?
Best worldwide restaurant ranking?

You can already find lots of information in this blog under labels: COOKING, FOOD

So what do you fancy to eat?

Galician version of this post @ ArquivosDoTrasno

ADDICTED TO THE MOBILE?

[Based on info from "The Travelling Teachers" blog. "Are you a cell phone addict?"]

A new form of addiction has appeared in the last decade with the development of technologies and the great variety of mobile phones available: it's the mobile phone addiction. It's a widespread problem but especially among the younger generations.
Youngsters are using their mobile phones when they're bored, tired, lazy, angry or lonely...

Symptoms:

- Constant use of the mobile phone (even in situations which aren't considered acceptable).

- Loss of the sense of time while surfing online.

- Prefer spending time with the mobile phone than with family & friends.

- Feeling restless when the mobile phone can't be used.

- Wishing to have the latest model in the market or apps.

Physical side-effects:

- Finger, neck and back tension.

- Itchy eyes.

- Insomnia.

- Weight & diet changes.

- Fatigue.

- Distracted attention, difficulties to focus.

- Problem and study failures.

- Loss of interest in hobbies, sports and outdoor activities, which implies social loneliness, loss of friends and isolation.

Video "HOW IS YOUR PHONE CHANGING YOU?":

Rules for a better usage of the mobile phone:

+ info: Cell-phone etiquette

MAKING AND REFUSING SUGGESTIONS

In these charts you can find different ways of expressing suggestions and refusing them.

CONFUSING: LOSE vs MISS

Confusing verbs MISS & LOSE compared.

SUFFIX SUMMARY CHART

Here's a suffix summary chart. 

For complete information on suffixation, check previous post about SUFFIXES HERE.

CONNECTOR & LINKING WORD SUMMARY

INTRODUCING ONESELF EFFECTIVELY

TYPES OF HOUSES/BUILDINGS

A picture chart with the different vocabulary related to types of houses and buildings.

WORLD TEACHER'S DAY 2017

CLASSROOM LANGUAGE: ACTIVITIES & OBJECTS

WELCOME RECEPTION TO FULBRIGHT CONVERSATION ASSISTANTS AT CIDADE DA CULTURA IN SANTIAGO, TODAY

[Foto: Presentation Fulbright assistants 2017, Xunta de Galicia.]

Today classes will be starting at IES Plurilingüe "Rafael Dieste". Unfortunately, I won't be at school today, as the welcome reception to Fulbright Conversation Assistants will be held at Cidade da Cultura in Santiago de Compostela during the morning. That's where I'll be together with this year's conversation assistant, Ben Davidson, from New Jersey, the USA. 

This year's Conversation Assistant will be starting school from this week and continue all up to the end of the school year with more hours devoted to our timetable. We're very lucky!

So don't worry, because you'll soon be meeting him!

+ info in Galician.

 IES Plurilingües Eusebio da Guarda, Rafael Dieste, Elviña, Adormideras e o Rafael Puga Ramón na Coruña cidade.

BACK TO SCHOOL 2017-18

It's September once again and so we're back at school starting our classes today.

Hope you're all back with your batteries charged ready to learn lots of things...

ClickOnEnglish is open for another school year, but here you'll still find lots of posts from previous courses. This will start the ninth school year together with our students.

So, ready... from ClickOnEnglish:

EIGHT YEARS OF 'CLICK ON ENGLISH'

Today, this blog becomes 8 years old. On September 13th 2009, we started with it. 

Eight years after,... 

- we've published 1032 posts, 

- we've collected 74 comments, 

- we've got 24 followers, 

- the counter says that more than 1.353.000 people have visited us, 

- the most visited post is still the same on prepositions (with more than 51.000 visits), 

- the top visiting countries are USA (259 thousand), Rusia (109 thousand) & Spain (101 thousand).

These are our updated statistics of these years. On Friday, we'll be presenting the new school year and on Monday, classes will begin. Here we'll continue...

WELCOME BACK! WHAT'S NEW FOR THE 2017-2018 SCHOOL YEAR?

- We'll have a new conversation assistant. This year, it's a man.
- This year, there are also new English teachers in our school.
- Our school has got a new blog and Facebook page, apart from the official webpage to keep in touch with all members of the school's community.
                                                            
We'll be updating with more...

SURVIVING THE 2016-17 SCHOOL YEAR...

... and so we're closing down this blog for the summer break. Hope to be back in September, meanwhile may you all have a great summer holiday!

THANKS, PAUL!

Some of you will still remember an old friend of our school, Paul Behrend, who was conversation assistant at our school between 2011 and 2013. He has recently gone back to his country, the United States, after a 7-year stay in Spain,  but he got to send us a box full of material for our school with some games and books.
One of those books is very special because it comes with his own handwritten dedication as a donation to the Rafael Dieste School Library. 

So from here, we'd like to thank him for remembering us and pay a tribute to one of the most devoted conversation assistants we've ever had with the school, the students and the teachers and wish him the best for his new life back home.

You know where we are!

Good luck, Paul! Thanks!

Here are photos of the book and his dedications:

Galician version of this post @ ArquivosDoTrasno.