Catalan crisis

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41475770

Jimmy Kimmel on Mass Shooting in Las Vegas

COLEGIOS DEL MUNDO- BECAS BACHILLERATO INTERNACIONAL

La Fundación Comité Español de los Colegios del Mundo Unido abre todos los años en el mes de septiembre la convocatoria de plazas (con beca total o parcial, o sin beca) para estudiar los dos cursos del Bachillerato Internacional en los centros de esta organización.

El número de becas convocadas podrá variar en función de los patrocinadores conseguidos al cierre de la convocatoria, que -junto con las aportaciones familiares- permiten que los alumnos españoles puedan ir a los Colegios del Mundo Unido. De la totalidad de las plazas con beca ofertadas, una de ellas se destinará a, como mínimo, un estudiante con discapacidad.

Todo el proceso de selección es idéntico con independencia de que se solicite Plaza con Beca o Plaza de Pago. Dicho proceso es anónimo, no pudiendo acceder el Comité de Selección a ningún dato de carácter personal. Una vez que se opte por el camino de Plaza de Pago no podrá cambiarse a la opción de Plaza con Beca, ni a la inversa. Lo mismo ocurre con la beca destinada a un estudiante con discapacidad; en el momento en que se elige esa opción no se puede cambiar a la beca del cupo general.

En la selección de los candidatos/as se valoran especialmente criterios como la madurez personal, el compromiso social, el interés y respeto por otras culturas, la iniciativa y creatividad, junto con la capacidad para convivir y entablar amistad con alumnos de todo el mundo.

• Posesión de nacionalidad española en el momento de la convocatoria o haber vivido en España los últimos 8 años.
• Haber nacido en los años 2001 o entre el 1 de enero y el 31 de agosto del 2002 (es obligatorio que los estudiantes hayan cumplido los 16 años en el momento de empezar el curso en un Colegio del Mundo Unido).
• Estar cursando 4º de la ESO o 1º de Bachillerato y, en ambos casos, tener aprobado el año anterior (si el alumno quedase seleccionado en la fase final no podrá tener ningún suspenso a final de curso).
• Tener buen expediente académico y conocimientos básicos de inglés.

http://www.colegiosmundounido.es/convocatorias/

Becas Fundación Amancio Ortega

El programa de Becas de la Fundación Amancio Ortega tiene el objetivo de facilitar el aprendizaje del inglés y la inmersión en la cultura extranjera a jóvenes de institutos y colegios españoles durante un año académico. Los alumnos seleccionados convivirán con una familia de acogida y cursarán Grado 11 (equivalente a 1º de Bachillerato). La beca cubre el 100% de los servicios necesarios para realizar un curso escolar en el extranjero: viaje, tasa de escolarización, convalidación de estudios, alojamiento y manutención en una familia de acogida, seguro médico y de accidentes, y apoyo continuado durante los diez meses de estancia; en ningún caso la beca supone la aportación económica del valor de estos servicios al beneficiario.

El Programa convoca 500 becas dirigidas a estudiantes de 4º de ESO de centros españoles, para estudiar Primero de Bachillerato en un High School en Canadá o Estados Unidos el próximo curso escolar 2018-2019.

80 becas dirigidas a estudiantes de centros de Galicia para estudiar Primero de Bachillerato en Canadá y Estados Unidos.

420 becas dirigidas a estudiantes de centros del resto de las Comunidades Autónomas para estudiar Primero de Bachillerato en Canadá y Estados Unidos.

El plazo de inscripciones está abierto desde el 2 de octubre hasta el 20 de octubre del 2017 (apertura y cierre a las 13:00 horas, horario peninsular)

Toda a información no seguinte link:

https://becas.faortega.org/#requisitos

GOOD LUCK!!!

Everything, everything by Nicola Yoon

So Monday 2nd October will be the first day to dedicate a period for reading time. 

My first lesson on Monday will be with 3 ESO bilingual so this is what we will start reading.

The White Room

I’VE read many more books than you. It doesn’t matter how many you’ve read. I’ve read more. Believe me. I’ve had the time.

In my white room, against my white walls, on my glistening white bookshelves, book spines provide the only color. The books are all brand-new hardcovers—no germy secondhand softcovers for me. They come to me from Outside, decontaminated and vacuum-sealed in plastic wrap. I would like to see the machine that does this. I imagine each book traveling on a white conveyor belt toward rectangular white stations where robotic white arms dust, scrape, spray, and otherwise sterilize it until it’s finally deemed clean enough to come to me. When a new book arrives, my first task is to remove the wrapping, a process that involves scissors and more than one broken nail. My second task is to write my name on the inside front cover.

PROPERTY OF: Madeline Whittier

I don’t know why I do this. There’s no one else here except my mother, who never reads, and my nurse, Carla, who has no time to read because she spends all her time watching me breathe. I rarely have visitors, and so there’s no one to lend my books to. There’s no one who needs reminding that the forgotten book on his or her shelf belongs to me.

REWARD IF FOUND (Check all that apply):

This is the section that takes me the longest time, and I vary it with each book. Sometimes the rewards are fanciful:

⁰ Picnic with me (Madeline) in a pollen-filled field of poppies, lilies, and endless man-in-the-moon marigolds under a clear blue summer sky.

⁰ Tea with me (Madeline) in a lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a hurricane.

⁰ Snorkel with me (Madeline) off Molokini to spot the Hawaiian state fish—the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a.

Sometimes the rewards are not so fanciful:

⁰ A visit with me (Madeline) to a used bookstore.

⁰ A walk outside with me (Madeline) just down the block and back.

⁰ A short conversation with me (Madeline) discussing anything you want, on my white couch, in my white bedroom.

Sometimes the reward is just:

⁰ Me (Madeline).

SCID Row

My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but you know it as “bubble baby disease.”

Basically, I’m allergic to the world. Anything can trigger a bout of sickness. It could be the chemicals in the cleaner used to wipe the table that I just touched. It could be someone’s perfume. It could be the exotic spice in the food I just ate. It could be one, or all, or none of these things, or something else entirely. No one knows the triggers, but everyone knows the consequences. According to my mom I almost died as an infant. And so I stay on SCID row. I don’t leave my house, have never left my house.

Brthdae Uish

“Movie Night or Honor Pictionary or Book Club?” my mom asks while inflating a blood pressure cuff around my arm. She doesn’t mention her favorite of all our post-dinner activities—Phonetic Scrabble. I look up to see that her eyes are already laughing at me.

“Phonetic,” I say.

She stops inflating the cuff. Ordinarily Carla, my full-time nurse, would be taking my blood pressure and filling out my daily health log, but my mom’s given her the day off. It’s my birthday and we always spend the day together, just the two of us.

She puts on her stethoscope so that she can listen to my heartbeat. Her smile fades and is replaced by her more serious doctor’s face. This is the face her patients most often see—slightly distant, professional, and concerned. I wonder if they find it comforting.

Impulsively I give her a quick kiss on the forehead to remind her that it’s just me, her favorite patient, her daughter.

She opens her eyes, smiles, and caresses my cheek. I guess if you’re going to be born with an illness that requires constant care, then it’s good to have your mom as your doctor.

A few seconds later she gives me her best I’m-the-doctor-and-I’m-afraid-I-have-some-bad-news-for-you face. “It’s your big day. Why don’t we play something you have an actual chance of winning? Honor Pictionary?”

Since regular Pictionary can’t really be played with two people, we invented Honor Pictionary. One person draws and the other person is on her honor to make her best guess. If you guess correctly, the other person scores.

I narrow my eyes at her. “We’re playing Phonetic, and I’m winning this time,” I say confidently, though I have no chance of winning. In all our years of playing Phonetic Scrabble, or Fonetik Skrabbl, I’ve never beaten her at it. The last time we played I came close. But then she devastated me on the final word, playing JEENZ on a triple word score.

“OK.” She shakes her head with mock pity. “Anything you want.” She closes her laughing eyes to listen to the stethoscope.

We spend the rest of the morning baking my traditional birthday cake of vanilla sponge with vanilla cream frosting. After it’s cooled, I apply an unreasonably thin layer of frosting, just enough to cover the cake. We are, both of us, cake people, not frosting people. For decoration, I draw eighteen frosted daisies with white petals and a white center across the top. On the sides I fashion draped white curtains.

“Perfect.” My mom peers over my shoulders as I finish up. “Just like you.”

I turn to face her. She’s smiling a wide, proud smile at me, but her eyes are bright with tears.

“You. Are. Tragic,” I say, and squirt a dollop of frosting on her nose, which only makes her laugh and cry some more. Really, she’s not usually this emotional, but something about my birthday always makes her both weepy and joyful at the same time. And if she’s weepy and joyful, then I’m weepy and joyful, too.

PRACTISING COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVE WITH "THE GREAT GATSBY"

This activity was taken from Claudio Acevedo's blog. I have used it before and I think it is great to practise comparatives and superlatives.
Complete the worksheet given with the right adjective in the comparative or superlative.

LOOSE - BROAD - HOPEFUL - IN TUNE - YOUNG - VULNERABLE - WE DRANK - BIG - HIGH - CHEAP

1) In my _________________ and _________________ years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had. 

2) The ________________  with the time  we were, the _________________.

3) He was the single _____________________  person I have ever met;

4) The parties were _________________________.

5) The shows were ____________________________.

6) The buildings were ________________________.

7) The morals were _____________________ and the ban on alcohol had backfired, making the liquor __________________.

http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com.es/search/label/comparatives%20-%20double%20comparatives

There are also some very interesting topics for discussion. Let's talk about them in our first lesson with Jamaal next week.

Spain to the Oscars again!

Catalan-language film chosen to represent Spain at upcoming Oscars
 Biographical drama from first-time director Carla Simón to compete for Academy Award

What makes you special? | Mariana Atencio | TEDx University of Nevada

Across the Universe

Watching DETROIT this weekend I remembered the riots also present in Across the Universe 

Across The Universe is a fictional love story set in the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, the struggle for free speech and civil rights, mind exploration and rock and roll. At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, the story moves from high schools and universities in Massachusetts, Princeton and Ohio to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Detroit riots, Vietnam and the dockyards of Liverpool. A combination of live action and animation, the film is paired with many songs by The Beatles that defined the time. 

gritty:tough
whimsical:extravagant

It is not a great movie but it has great songs
I quite agrree with the review below but we are just going to enjoy some of the songs.

http://www.imdb.com/user/ur2678635/comments?ref_=tt_urv


A very short dictation for end the lesson.

Nancy Mulligan by Ed Sheeran.

Edward Christopher Sheeran, MBE (born 17 February 1991)^[ is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk.Their parents, John and Imogen, are London-born. His paternal grandparents are Irish,^[ and Sheeran has stated his father hailed from a "very large" Catholic family.

John is an art curator and lecturer, and Imogen is a culture publicist turned jewellery designerHis parents ran Sheeran Lock, an independent art consultancy, from 1990 to 2010. Their work usually took them to London, and they spent their weekends travelling with their children, while playing music. Sheeran's early childhood memories include listening to the records of Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. According to Sheeran, the album that first introduced him to music was Van Morrison's Irish Heartbeat. During his childhood, John took him to a number of live concerts that would later inspire his musical creations. These included seeing Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall, Paul McCartney in Birmingham, and Bob Dylan.

Sheeran sang in a local church choir from the age of four, learned to play the guitar at a very young age... 

What influence can you find in this song?

Most of the blanks are verbs. Can you get them all?

Lyrics

I .......... twenty-four years old
When I ............ the woman I would call my own
Twenty-two grand kids now .................... old
In that house that your brother bought ya

On the summer day when I proposed
I made that wedding ring from dentist gold
And I asked her father, but her daddy said, "No
You can't .............. my daughter"

She and I went on the run
Don't care about religion
I'm gonna marry the woman I love
Down by the Wexford ..................

She was Nancy Mulligan
And I was William Sheeran
She took my name and then we were one
Down by the Wexford border

Well, met her at Guy's in the second world war
And she .......  ..................... on a soldier's ward
Never had I seen such beauty before
The moment that I .......... her

Nancy was my yellow rose
And we got married wearing borrowed clothes
We got eight children now growing old
Five sons and three daughters

She and I went on the run
Don't care about religion
I'm gonna ................. the woman I love
Down by the Wexford border

She was Nancy Mulligan
And I was William Sheeran
She .................. my name and then we were one
Down by the Wexford border

From her snow white streak in her jet black hair
Over sixty years I've been loving her
Now we're sat by the fire in our old armchairs
You know Nancy, I adore ya

From a farm boy born near Belfast town
I never worried about the king and crown
'Cause I ................. my heart upon the southern ground
There's no difference, I assure ya

She and I went on the run
Don't care about religion
I'm gonna ............... the woman I love
Down by the Wexford border

She was Nancy Mulligan
And I was William Sheeran
She .............. my name and then we were one
Down by the Wexford border

https://youtu.be/VFlZXlfda6Y