Thanksgiving Day

Last Thursday, it was Thanksgiving Day in the USA. You have probably heard a lot about this holiday in films and TV shows, but do you know why it's celebrated or what people do on this day? Thanksgiving is a very important celebration for Americans, coming from their first days as pilgrims. If you want to know more about the origins of Thanksgiving and how people celebrate it today, click on this link:

http://www.holidays.net/thanksgiving/

Thanksgiving Day is mainly a family celebration, a time when all family members get together to have a special dinner and tell each other the things they're thankful for. Watch these TV commercials if you'd like to see several American families having a typical Thanksgiving dinner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXQsXhBZbmk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVLOydduvqg

And who's the king in every Thanksgiving dinner? The turkey, of course! There's no Thanksgiving without a big roast stuffed turkey. But, what can happen if your turkey is too big? Watch this funny TV commercial if you want to find out:

Thanksgiving Day is also a recurrent topic in American TV shows. These are two funny Thanksgiving moments from The Simpsons and Friends.

Enjoy them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhvgqSyWZA0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx5Wpqf4-OM&feature=related

Before finishing this post, I'd like you to think about something:
What are you thankful for? We can talk about this in our next class.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

First Aid

Hi students!

We've been learning some tips about first aid these days and I think this is good for everybody, don't you agree? You never know when you're going to need to use your first aid skills and, in some cases, they might even help us to save someone's life.

One of the first things you learn in any first aid course is how to perform to CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation). We watched a video on how to do so in our last class, with a clear explanation given by the British Red Cross:

If you'd like to know more first aid advice from the British Red Cross, follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7TZ_KZCrSc

Have a nice weekend and see you in class next week!

Star signs and palmistry

Hi students!

Do you remember the "Speed Psychics" activity we did in class last week? I hope you enjoyed it! As I said, here is some information you for you to check about some of the topics you could learn about in that class: palm lines and star signs. Whether you believe in them or not, I'd advise you just to give these websites a look just for curiosity and, of course, to practise your reading skills and learn some more vocabulary :)

Palm Lines: http://www.fatelines.com/palm-reading/palm-lines.htm

Star Signs: http://www.psychicguild.com/horoscopes_explained.php

See you in class!

So do I, Neither do I

Hi students!

This is the video we watched in class the other day. You can have a look at it to practise the structures for agreeing with "so" and "neither" a little bit more.

Have a nice weekend!

Javier

Halloween in The Simpsons

Hi students,

Did you like the special Haloween episode from The Simpsons we watch yesterday in class?

In case you'd like to watch it again, here it is!

Enjoy it and happy Halloween...again!

Thriller

Hi y'all!

Did you have a good (and scary) time in class today? We learnt some new things about Halloween, didn't we? I know the exercise about Thriller was hard, but you all did quite a good job, so congratulations on that! As a reward, I'll post the full video and lyrics, so you can enjoy it and sing along if you like. As someone said in class today, it's probably one of the best, if not the best, music videos of all time, don't you think? Even though some time has passed, I still find its quality really good, it almost looks like a real horror movie!

This is my Halloween present, so whether you celebrate Halloween tonight or not, have fun and enjoy tomorrow's holiday!

See you Wednesday

Music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA&ob=av2n

Full lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/michael+jackson/thriller_20092727.html

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a worldwide famous holiday and I'm sure you all know a lot about it, but, do you know what its origins were? Here's a link where you can find out all about this tradition:

http://www.halloween-website.com/history.htm

Pretty interesting, don't you think? How about watching a video in which we can see how Americans actually celebrate Halloween? Do you know the TV show Friends?

Follow this link if you want to watch a clip from a Halloween episode of this TV show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9w66c21a9k&feature=related

Quite funny, isn't it?

I wish you a happy (and scary) Halloween!

Psychics

Hi students!

As you know, we've been speaking quite a lot about psychics in class these past days. The other day, we watched a video showing the truth about psychic hotlines and how dangerous calling them can be. I'd like you to watch the video again as many times as you like and, the next day, we can comment it in class.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/truth-psychic-hotlines-10591847

After watching the video, have you changed your opinion about psychics in some way?

You gotta be

Hi students!

Do you remember the song we listened to the other day in class? It had a lot of positive advice about how to live a better a life, so I thought this would be a good video to spend the weekend with. If you feel like singing, you can use your lyrics on the photocopy and sing along!

Enjoy it!

Opinion Essay

Hi students!

Are you enjoying your weekend? I hope so! Do you remember we talked about opinion essays the other day in class and I asked you to write one about psyhics? Well, I'm going to post a document with more information about this type of essays and an example of what I'd like you to take into account when you give your opinion about a certain topic. The more information you have about opinion essays, the clearer your idea about how to write them will be!

Here's the link:

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/69856026?access_key=key-17ztck3pe4kd7mtvwzk4

See you in class!

Phonetics Board

Hi students!

Did you enjoy the activity about phonetics symbols we did the other day in class? You all did quite well, so congratulations for that! As some of you asked me, I'm posting the board game, so you can all have it. If you want to download the document, you need to register on Scribd. It's very easy, you just need to follow the instructions they give you. Scribd is a website where you can upload documents and other people can dowload them, it's great! I think we're going to use a lot this year. You can click on this link to download the phonetics board:

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/69853791?access_key=key-866hb9ygtmgcvpuwog4

Oh! And don't forget to keep checking the phonetic alphabet from time to time, alright? It can help to make your pronunciation more accurate.

See you in class!

A Tribute to Steve Jobs

As you've probably heard on the news this week, Steve Jobs, one of the most succesful techonology geniuses of our time, has passed away. As a tribute to him, I've decided to post the presentation of his latest great invention, the iPad. Have you heard about this device? Do you have one? What do you think of it? We'll talk about this in class, so I'd like you to watch the video. Enjoy it!

Speed Dating

Do you remember what we read about in class today? Speed dating is becoming more and more popular, as people are too busy with work and have less time for longer dates.

Click on these links if you want to find out about people who have experience in speed dating:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/lifestyle/2003/09/speed_date.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2004/07/29/speed_date_feature.shtml

Would you like to watch some videos about this phenomenon? Some of them are quite funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfUPCrFr7PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k5MlbgHavM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHQ-LBdLA0Y&feature=fvsr

See you in class!