OUR ETWINNING CHRISTMAS CARD

CHRISTMAS!!! 

Both my students from 2nd Bachillerato and I were looking forward to Christmas, or, more precisely, time to relax for a little bit and recover energy to start working harder again. 

As I have said on many occasions, There is time for everything. The key is knowing how to organise it!

Since this school year, 27 teachers and more than 50 students from first and second bachillerato are involved in an eTwinning project called in English THE POWER OF READING. A cosy and wonderful photocall has been made for this special occasion, some pics were taken and used as our Christmas Card for the project.

EBAU: SOME EXAMPLES

Over the years at high school, students are taught to write different types of essays, read and think critically about texts. In their last year of bachillerato, students are asked to do exams similar to the one called EBAU they need to do in Extremadura before going to university.

In the text, after reading a text, students are asked to write a composition in the first question. On 20 December my students had to choose between two options: an opinion essay or a narrative.
Here you can see some examples written by the students:

OPINION ESSAY:  Do you think all company names should be very original? Why or why not?

Example 1: 

   Nowadays there are lots of companies around the world and each one has a different name. From my point of view the name of a company is very important and it must be original.

   Firstly, the name of the company is the first thing you see and hear from it. So, if it is original, you will remember easily. Secondly, when the people hear an original name want to know more about it and that is really good for the company.

   To sum up, the name of a company has to be original because it helps to create audience and people will remember the company thanks to its name.

Lucía Banda Nieto-Guerrero  2º BHA

Example 2: 

   Companies should look for names that identify them in order to be known worldwide. In my opinion, if companies have an original name, they will be well-know all around the world.
   To start, companies have a lot of enemies so the have to comete in order to sell their products. Moreover, with a great and original name, people would remmber them and recommend  them to other people. Secondly, a mature name is more formal than a childish one. This would show how smart a company is and how their workers work. Finallly, a company with an original name would win against a company with an old-fashioned name.
   To sum up, I think that the name of a company is a very important feature of them because it's like its identity card and they will be known worldwide by their names.

Juan Romero Torres  2ºBC

Example 3: 

   Nowadays company names are pretty weird, there are typical names but also names that aren't related to the company. From my point of view, all company names should be original.
   First of all, what would happen if you know two different companies with the same name? That would be a problem, one of them isn't as original as the other and maybe the consumers and company members would think is not the best company for the product they sell and that probably won't help the company, it will actually makes them lose members.
   Original and well-sound names will attract people even faster. Names sometimes say a lot about someone or something, imagine the name of the company is a strange word, most people would be curious and will look for that company and see what they sell and maybe even try their products. It will also make a good image of the company and llike I said before it would probably help them sell their product.
   To conclude, I think ti's very clear, companies should have very original names, that's my opinion, maybe others don't think the same, This is just a question of personality.

Marina Suárez Blázquez  2ºBC

A STORY beginningwith this sentence: "Inventing a name for her music band was the hacest job Carmen had ever had"

Example 1: 

   Inventing a name for her music band was the hardest job Carmen had ever had. It all started last year when a group of friends made of 4 people started to play their own songs during the break at high school. It was formed by Ana, Carme, David and Carlos. Their music teacher noticed about their talente so she told them to take part in a music contest. They agreed but first they needed a name. Carmen was the most creative one so they all decided that she should invent a name. She had been thinking about a name several days and, finally, she got it. "ACDC" was going to be the name of the group but when they told the name to their teacher, she laughed. It was the name of an old rock band!! As they were too young they didn't know anything about this group!

Fátima Calcerón Gómez  2ºBC

Example 2: 

   Inventing a name for her music band was the hardest job Carmen had ever had because she couldn't find the correct one. One day, while she was relaxing at home, she realized that her band needed a new name because the one it had was old-fashioned. She started thinking but she didn't come up with a good name sho she decided to ask for herlp. Thinking about whom she was going to ask for help, someone knocked at the door so she went to open it. She was impressed, it was her best friend and they hadn't seen each other for two years! While they were talking about their lives, discussing different topics, suddenly Camen came up with an idea. It consisted of asking her friend for the name of her band, because she trusted her a lot so she was sure that if her friend told her a name, it would be the correct one and also it was a way to have her friend always with her. Her friend was surprised about the question and at the geginning she didn't want to answe it because she sait that "It was a big responsability", but Carmen convinced her and she finally accepted. When Carmen heard the name, she loved it and although they had to do some changes to improve it, she chose the one her friend said. So, finally, after she had been thinking about it for so long, she decided that her band was going to be called "The New ITC".

Marina Gallardo Chamizo  2ºBC

Example 3: 

   Inventing a name for her music band was the hardest job Carmen had ever had. It all began one day, when Carmen thought, "Wouldn't it be cook if I had a band?" But she didn't know yet what was going to become her nightmare: naming the band.
   Carmen decided that the name should be the first thing she came up with. So she started thinking, and thinking. But nothing came out of it. "Oh, I know. I can put some papers with random words on them in a hat and I can select two", she thought, and she considered herself a genius for having such a brilliant idea.
   It was the decisive moment. She pulled out the first paper: "Orange". She was so excited, she could finally taste victory. The second paper: "Caramel". That was it! She had her name ... for a short time. Because she seached it on Google and she found out something sad. "Oh, no! There's already a K-pop band called Orange Caramel.". "Well, I'll try again!" This time, the words "Girls" and "Generation" came out. But sadly, that one was also used by a Korean band. "Ha ... ha... ha... what a funny coincidence ...", she thought really sad. The next time, the word "Twice" came out, and she decided that maybe one word would be enough. So she searched, and, in a not really surprising turn of events, it was also a K-pop band. Carmen let out a crazed laughter, "Is that So? Well, guess what. I have come up with a name so good, none of you, stupid Korean girls wil have it", she screamed as she was looking at her math homework. "f(x)! Ha ha! who could ever think a name as stupid as a math equation?!" apparently, the koreans did, because she searched and they were. "WHY?"
In the end, she decided to go with the fastest thing she could come up with: "Carmen's Band". But this was only the star of something bigger: she forgot to decide the members of the band. Carmen didn't have anyone to play with. She was alone. It was all for nothing. Carmen cried and cried. Because her dreams were shattered.

Daniel González Aparicio  2ºBHA

First Term Speaking School year 2018/19

This term students were taught how to write a biography, then they had to make a presentation about the biography they wrote in front of their classmates. They were also asked to grade their classmates'  presentations.

The best ones in both groups of bachillerato were:

HALLOWEEN 2018

On 31st October 2018, our highschool once again succeeded in surprising everybody to its spooky decorations relating to Halloween. 

The English Department with the collaboration of the ACE Department proposed the following contest in order to encourage students to make icons alluding to this celebration. All the icons were used to decorate the front garden at school.

 

Count Dracula and his coffin was placed in the school foyer. It was used as the setting for many photos of the entire School Community:

2ºBHA

2ºBC

In this video, you will see how our highschool was specially decorated for this occasion.

Best English Students (School Year 2017/18)

This is the first time students from Bachillerato get stickers if they get a mark between 9 and 10 in the different tests done during the school year. I am used to doing this during Secondary Education but this year my bachillerato students were asked if they wanted to have a sticker album and collect stickers like the two school years before and they agreed. So this morning a prize-winning ceremony was held during the English lesson. Some awards, diplomas, medals and handmade presents in recognition of their hard work were given to three students:

The winners

Marina Gallardo Chamizo: 15 stickers

Juan Romero Torres: 13 stickers

Fátima Calderón Gómez: 15 stickers

 After the ceremony, we went to the main faÇade of the school and asked a boy who was there to take a photo of us. During the break, we found that the boy was the Magician Tomas from the Spanish Got Talent. His great performance will be unforgettable for all of us.

HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON!!!!!

Third Term Speaking: Short Movie

For the third term, my students were asked to record a short movie. I was so impressed by the huge effort made by the students to carry out the stunning and magnificent team work. Once more, I took into account the following criteria: English skills, perfomance, real life-settings, video editing and, of course, creativity. Enjoy them: 

GROUP 1:

GROUP 2:

                     

How to write A Film Review

This time, my students of First Year Bachillerato were asked to do a project: write a review about a film they had seen recently, organizing the ideas into paragraphs according to the model given and trying to use as much as possible, some connectors they had learnt along the school year.

All of them did a great job 

but the three best are shown below: 

by Marina Gallardo, Rosa Mª Gamero,
Paloma García and Marina Suárez

by Fátima Calderón and Juan Romero

by  Nicolás Díaz and Celia Palomares

EBAU: three Examples of An Opinion Essay

Over the years at high school level, students learn to write different types of essays, read and think critically about texts. When they finish their last year of bachillerato, they need to sit a test called EBAU, in Extremadura, to be able to go to university.

In the English exam, after reading a text, students are asked to write a composition in the first question. They have two options: an opinion essay or a narrative.

On 20 April, some of my students chose to write their opinions aswering the following question:

                                         Is laughter the best medicine?

1.

It is well-known that happy people tend  to live more. Many different scientists and researchers from all around the world claim that this statement is completely true. Personally, I firmly trust scientistic procedures, so I agree with them. But is laughter the best medicine?

To start with, there’s no doubt that laughter is the cure for moody people. The more they laugh, the less highs and lows they will have. Laughter may also be a solution for depressive people unless they suffer from a serious brain problem. If laughter is helpful for this sort of people, why wouldn’t it be positive for anyone?

As a matter of fact, researchers have found that laughter activates more than six hundred muscles - most of them facial-. I wish laughter were the solution for those who don’t want to go to the gym! Anyway, we have to take into account the benefits it has. Apart from the muscles, it makes our heart and our brain work better.

In conclusion, laughter might not be the cure for every illnesses, but its huge amount of benefits make me think that it is certainly a good way to improve our state of mind.

Jaime Bohoyo Barrado 2º BCB

April 2018

2.

If there is something, we, the humans, have been doing forever, that is laughing. And we’ll continue to do so. Why? Because, in my opinion, it’s one of the best things we can do.

It doesn’t matter if it is a quiet or a loud laugh, or even a nervous giggle, it releases tension and makes us feel better. It is said that laughing for at least fifteen minutes every day will ensure you a long life. Furthermore, it makes us feel happy because we usually relate laughing and happiness, so even fake laughing will be beneficial for our mood. Last but not least, just remember that laughing is a natural response in many situations, don’t try to avoid it! Just enjoy life and laugh out loud as much as possible, you’ll notice more positivity in your life.

To sum up, we could say that laughter is the best medicine, ver advisable to everyone, wherever and whenever.

Íñigo López Mulet 2º BCB

                 April 2018

3.

In our days, many people say that laughing and having fun is just a waste of time, that you must investing that time in being serious and doing productive things. But there are other people who think that laughter has great effects, where I’m included.

First of all, doctors and experts say that laughter can have great effects, not only physical but also psychological, and it could make us feel much better if we are ill helping us to recover quicker than in normal conditions.  Moreover, laughter is a really useful tool in social life because it helps you to connect and communicate easier and faster with new people.

On the other hand, we have probably the fact that many used to say that laughter can also be hurting, when you laugh, you usually laugh at someone, what can make that person feel really bad and not included in the group. Furthermore, many people say that laughing is not something for a serious and older person. They also say that if you are a strong person, you mustn’t laugh at all, it often happens in the northern countries such as Germany or England.

In conclusion, I can’t say if laughing is or is not the best medicine, but what I’m sure about is that laughing is one of the best ones.

Juan Carlos Villa Rodríguez 2º BCB

      April 2018

BRILLIANT!!!

Second Term Speaking: Everyday Situations

For the second term, my students were asked to record everyday situations: A JOB INTERVIEW, GETTING DIRECTIONS and MAKING PLANS. Once more, the students did such a great job but only the following videos were the best, taking into account the following criteria: English skills, perfomance, real life-settings, video editing and, of course, creativity: 

1ºBC:             

                     

                     

                     

                     
2ºBCB:

                     

                     

School Day of Non-Violence and Peace, 30th January

January 30 marks the death of the national and spiritual leader of India, Mahatma Gandhi, who was born in Porbandar, India, on 2 October 1869. After studying in England, he settled in South Africa and fought there against the discrimination suffered by Indians. In 1937 as the leader of the movement of millions for independence, he was able to mobilize for peace or stop the violence. On January 30, 1948, he was assassinated.

It is necessary to start learning values of peace (solidarity, equality, coexistence in diversity, justices and freedom) in an early age not only at home, but also at school. This year, the whole community has taken part in building our Peace Tree. Hands made of colored papers were given so that everybody could write a peace message. All of them were used to decorate our tree trunk located in a big poster in the foyer.

Once more, thanks to my students for taking part in this activity. Here you can see our own tree and the PEACE TREE built by all the Cuatro Caminos Community.