The Dog Ate my Homework! I'm so Lucky!

Thursday23 ^rd October, 2014

Hello! How are things?

You seem to be very busy because it is the second week you don’t do homework!

I know you have exams but the homework I give you isn’t big deal! Well, at least you didn’t use the excuse that the dog ate your homework…

…and no, you can’t outsource your homework to India, either!!!

It’s vital, essential, crucial, indispensable a must …and compulsory (obligatory) that you do your homework!!! Because next week we are having a “Flipped Class”. Next week, after the break we are going to change classes and positions! You are going to be the teachers of other students. So, you have to prepare the class for them. As next week is Halloween, you have to focus the class on Halloween.  No, Paco and company, you cannot play a film or an episode of the Simpsons for the whole hour! Work a little! Come on! You gave some ideas like: playing games related to Halloween. Teaching vocabulary. Telling horror stories. Making masks or decorations. Doing crosswords and quizzes with questions and answers.

But don’t forget to look for the material. You can print out a copy and I’ll print out the rest in the academy during the break. DO NOT FORGET!!!

Pilar, although you didn’t come to class, you too, have to prepare this class.

I’m sorry but our Skype sessions have been cancelled for the moment.

It seems that the Turkish students would prefer to talk to older people with a higher level of English.

We did in class the task that you were supposed to have done for homework. We started a story using the third conditional and the rest of the classmates had to continue it.

Third conditional.

      If + past pefect ------------------ would / wouldn’t + have + Infinitive

  (had +participle)                        (past conditional)

     If she hadn’t been ill, she would have attended the concert.

And we finished the test to check how lucky we are! You are quite lucky but you could be luckier. Look back at situations where you were lucky or unlucky and analyze why. Try to learn from the past! But the luckiest was Óscar.

That’s why I asked him to tell me the lottery numbers! If I don’t come to class next Thursday, it’ll mean I‘ve won the lottery!

Óscar & Jorge won the “Stop” game, so they got 5 points. The other two teams got a second place, so they got 4 points. Player 2 spoke a lot in Spanish, so he got -1 Players 4 & 7 participated a lot in class and got extra points. Any doubts? Ask me!

GAME 4

Player 1	4
Player 2	3
Player 3	5
Player 4	8
Player 5	4
Player 6	---
Player 7	8

Have a nice week!

See you on Thursday!

Do homework!!!!

Skype & Third Conditional," if the Connection Had Been Better,..."

Thursday 16^th October, 2014

Hello everybody!

So, we were looking forward to our Skype sessions but …

It is true that we started with some technical problems. The connection was cut off (interrupted) at times what made difficult to follow the conversation. Our teacher Oksana suggested turning the video off in order to get better sound quality. And we did… And that disappointed you because most of the fun was to see what the other people were like, wasn’t it?

These are my views:

It was difficult to follow the conversation, not only because of the problems with the sound but also because you didn’t stop giggling (continuous laughter) and talking. That made difficult for the person speaking to understand the other person. Next time, please try to be quiet and respect your classmates. I told you to be polite and I could hear a not very nice word; and the worst part is that they could hear it too…

There was also a positive side to it. Some of you were able to improvise when you ran out of questions (the questions finished).  When one of the Turkish students said that it was difficult for her to pronounce the name Jorge, it was very clever of you to tell her to call you George.

The objective of these chats is learning about the other people’s culture and lifestyle, as well as practising our English. What did you learn about our Turkish friends?

In a conversation we have to listen to the things the others tell us. We have to interact, that is, asking questions, giving time to answer them, listen to what they tell us, asking to repeat if we don’t understand, etc.

I’m sure next time it’ll be much better!

I’d like to know your opinions. What do you think about it?

This took up the first part of our class.

In the second half, we listened to a couple (two) of stories about good and /or bad luck.

 We used the third conditional, also called impossible conditional.

The first story was about a British guy who went to work to Australia. After six months there he decided to pay a visit to his girlfriend in England. The thing was that she had the same idea. She decided to visit him in Australia. As it was a surprise, nobody said anything. Problem was that both made the journey on exactly the same day so they missed each other! Bad luck? Lack of planning? This is why I don’t like surprises!

Ian, the Englishman, said, “If one of us had been at home, we would have met.”

In the second story, a lady was flying to the USA with her daughter. They were going to her daughter’s wedding. On the plane, the lady started to feel bad. She didn’t say anything. But when she got worse, she realized that she was having a heart attack. The flight attendant asked if there was a doctor on the plane and… there were 12! All of them cardiologists! They were going to the USA to a conference. Good luck? Coincidence?

The lady got over the attack (recuperated) and said, “If those doctors hadn’t been on the plane, I would have died!”

And we practiced pronunciation. In spoken English, we pronounce it like this:

If those doctors hadn’t been on the plane, I would’ve died.

“If one of us had been at home, we would’ve met.”

We’ll continue practising this!

 Listening: Third Conditional

For homework: write a story of good or bad luck using 3^rd conditional. For example:

“Last Saturday I was invited to a party but I didn’t go. If I had been to the party, I would have met a famous American actor. If I had met that actor,  …”

As we didn’t have for our games, I’ve decided to give you a general mark of 6 for your attempt at Skype!

GAME 3

Player 1	6
Player 2	6
Player 3	6
Player 4	6
Player 5	6
Player 6	6
Player 7	6

Have a nice week!

See you on Thursday!

Pilar, Óscar, enjoy your school trip! See you in two weeks’ time!

Landslides : Possible Causes and Terrible Consequences

Thursday 9^th October, 2014

Here we are again!!!

 It was a bit disappointing not having our Skype conversation last week. It seems we are having it this Thursday! At last!

I was also disappointed because your homework wasn’t very good, except David’s! You didn’t make the least of the efforts! Come on guys!!! You are grown –ups!! I’m sure you can think of questions about the culture or lifestyles of a country and not only ask: “What’s your favourite music? Do you have What’sApp?

Anyway, let’s see what the future holds…

In class, we rehearsed (practised) your dialogues and made a list of possible questions to ask about the country. They referred to typical food, languages, religions, traditions, landmarks …

After that, we watched a video on “Landslides” in which we could see the devastating effects of this natural disaster. Then we had a series of comprehension questions in a quiz format. We answered the quiz in teams.

 For homework, you have to play the video again and focus on the questions: “odd one out; which word is different”. Write down these words (there are about 28) and look up the meaning of the ones you don’t know. You’ll get 3 points for doing homework.

Landslides - Video

Our competition was related to the quiz. This is your score, plus 2 points for homework except to those who didn’t do it!

GAME 2

Player 1	5
Player 2	8
Player 3	5
Player 4	7
Player 5	5
Player 6	8
Player 7	7

In our next class we’ll listen to a person telling us what he would do if he were the mayor of the city. You can listen to it on this link. Listening on Second Conditional

See you on Thursday!

Remember: be punctual, be polite and get your questions ready !!!

A Review on Conditional Sentences

Thursday 2^nd October, 2014

Hi guys! How’s your week going?

I hope you are rehearsing the questions for our Skype talk next Thursday. Remember you have to introduce yourselves telling your names, of course! The place where you live (don’t just say the name, explain where Leganés is), about your school, family and hobbies. And also, don’t forget to prepare two questions about Turkey.

Be polite. Listen carefully to them and answer their questions.

And for homework, I expect you to have done some research (find information about) on Turkey. If not, go ahead! Find out (look for) information about the country.

What did we do in our last class apart from giving details about our next Thursday Skype connection?

·         We talked about natural disasters, but I can say you didn’t really make an effort (didn’t work hard) to learn the vocabulary or preparing the talk.

·         We reviewed conditional clauses through games and examples. We introduced the 3^rd conditional or unreal, which is the one we’re going to see in wider detail in our next class.

Zero conditional. (Real situation/ facts)

We use if + present simple                                   present simple

If you begin the sentence with “if”, you have to use a comma.

Conditional sentences – video

http://www.englishvideolesson.com/4101-zero-conditionals-video-lesson-english-with-jo.html

First conditional.

·        Possible and very probable situation

We use if + present simple                                     will / won’t + infinitive

If it doesn’t rain on Saturday, we’ll go for a walk.

·        Instructions

We use if + present simple                                     imperative

If you can’t attend to the meeting, email us in advance.

http://www.englishvideolesson.com/2721-esl-conditionals-first-type-conditionals-type-1.html

Second conditional.

·        Unreal situation

If + past simple ------------------ would / wouldn’t + infinitive

(present conditional)

If I were you, I wouldn’t wear these shoes with that suit.

(You can use ‘were’ with all person of verb ‘to be’ in 2^nd conditional clauses)

·        Possible but very improbable situation

If + past simple ------------------ would / wouldn’t + infinitive

                                                  (present conditional)

If I won £5,000,000 on the lottery, I wouldn’t tell anyone, except my family.

…and that is exactly what you did!

Second Conditional

More exercises on second conditional

Listening on Second conditional

Third conditional.

·         Past conditional or impossible.  It refers to something that didn’t happen in the past, that’s why it’s called impossible conditional.

      If + past pefect ------------------ would / wouldn’t + have + Infinitive

  (had +participle)                        (past conditional)

     If she hadn’t been ill, she would have attended the concert.

We started our games!

GAME 1

Player 1	3
Player 2	9
Player 3	5
Player 4	7
Player 5	5
Player 6	5
Player 7	7

   See you on Thursday!