"A Black Thursday"

Thursday 20^th November

Hello everybody!

Yesterday was a ‘black Thursday’ I know you ended up upset (a little angry) with me because I gave you detention,(you had to remain in class longer than the usual time). Yes, you were upset with me but I was very cross, really angry with you!

I overheard player 3 saying that you are ‘at that awkward age’ (difficult teenager stage). Come on! That isn’t an excuse!

I know why you are angry with me but this is why I was angry with you:

·         Except Óscar & Pilar, nobody else did homework. The video you were supposed to watch was on the blog from the previous week, 6^th November. I told you if you couldn’t find it, you could write about any other disaster, AS PILAR DID. That showed me that you didn’t listen to me!

·         You spent the whole class speaking and most of the times in Spanish.

It’s REALLY RUDE speaking when another classmate or the teacher is speaking. Be polite and ask for permission to speak.

·         And finally, the end of term project isn’t an excuse for you to use your mobile phones in class without doing anything productive.

I’m sorry for players 4, 6 & 8 who behaved a bit better than the rest. (But just a bit).You are tired, stressed and looking forward to the holidays, (me, too!).So, come on! Let’s make a last effort and prepare a good News Programme. It’s what you chose to do!

You could watch this video. It may help!

Ok, end of this issue. We are going to work hard and behave better next week and I’m sure you are going to make a gorgeous News Programme. Get your pieces of information ready because we are going to shape it up next Thursday.

Definitely!!!

In class, we started an audition (casting is a ‘false friend’ we use it wrongly in Spanish), for A TV show called “Explorer”.

This gave us the opportunity of practising the second conditional for hypothetical situations.

The show consisted in sending people to a remote place. These people had to do different tasks. Every three days a member of the group is voted off (leaves) the show.

The possible contestants had to fill in (complete) a questionnaire.

These were some of the questions:

·         What would you do if your car broke down in a snow storm in the middle of nowhere?

·         What would  you do if you were alone in a big city in another country with no money and nowhere to stay?

·         What wouldn’t  you miss if you had to spend two months in a remote place?

·         What would you do if you were lost in a forest? Etc.

The possible candidates were given points for the following:

o   Not being afraid of wild animals or insects.

o   Like adventure

o   Being independent but also  team workers.

o   Would be able to kill an animal for food if they had to.

o   Wouldn’t panic in different situations.

o   Can live without luxury items.

After some discussion we got to the conclusion that the teams made up of Jorge & Paco and Óscar & Pilar could go to the show. Alex, David & Andrea, on the other hand, (on the contrary) are not so suitable (appropriate). They aren’t as adventurous or independent. Besides, they wouldn’t be able to live without luxury items, let alone (specially) their mobile phones!

After that, we went through exam strategies for the topic phase. We gave opinions and listened to examples.

For homework, do exercise d on the photocopy page 53. And write a composition from the section “Factual Writing” on the same page.

You have to write a report so as to persuade people to protect the environment.

·         Introduction: explain what environmental problems there are in your area and their possible consequences.

·         Central paragraphs: make suggestions: we could…, we should… why don’t we / council/ people …? etc.Speculate about what will happen if people continue to damage the environment. If we continue using our cars more than necessary, the pollution will greatly increase. (For example)

·         In the last paragraph, sum up the ideas in a couple of short sentences so as to make a conclusion.

GAME 8

Player 1	4
Player 2	4
Player 3	4
Player 4	5
Player 5	4
Player 6	10
Player 7	10

Have a nice weekend and enjoy yourselves!

See you on Thursday!