Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Groundhog Day 2018

Groundhog Day is an annual holiday celebrated on February 2nd in the United States and Canada. A groundhog (Marmota monax) is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels.

According to folklore, if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day fails to see its shadow, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will supposedly retreat into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks. 

The holiday, which began as a Pennsylvania German custom in southeastern and central Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, has its origins in ancient European weather folklore, wherein a badger or sacred bearis the prognosticator as opposed to a groundhog.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

The School Day of Non-Violence and Peace 2018

The School Day of Non-Violence and Peace is an observance founded by the Spanish poet Llorenc Vidal in Majorca in 1964 as a starting point and support for a pacifying and non-violent education of a permanent character.



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Monday, January 29, 2018

(Sunday) Bloody Sunday 2018

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has apologised for the actions of British soldiers after the "Saville Inquiry" found that 14 civil rights demonstrators and bystanders were killed without justification.
Describing the actions of soldier as "unjustified and unjustifiable", the Prime Minister told the Commons: "What happened should never ever have happened. I am deeply, deeply sorry."
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry report found that all those killed were unarmed and that paratroopers had lost control and opened fire without warning. Some had been trying to flee when they were hit and soldiers had made up false accounts in a bid to cover up their actions, the report found.
A total of 13 unarmed civilians, seven of them teenagers, died in Londonderry when soldiers from 1st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment opened fire during clashes after the banned march was stopped from entering the city centre on January 30 1972. A 14th man died some time later from his injuries.
Lord Saville concluded: “What happened on Bloody Sunday strengthened the Provisional IRA, increased nationalist resentment and hostility towards the Army and exacerbated the violent conflict of the years that followed. Bloody Sunday was a tragedy for the bereaved and the wounded, and a catastrophe for the people of Northern Ireland.”
The inquiry found that the soldiers of the support company who went into the Bogside, where the march was taking place, did so "as a result of an order which should not have been given" by their commander.
It concluded that "on balance" the first shot in the vicinity of the march was fired by British soldiers.
None of the casualties was carrying a firearm and while there was some shooting by republican paramilitaries, "none of this firing provided any justification for the shooting of civilian casualties".
In no case was any warning given by the soldiers before opening fire and the support company "reacted by losing their self-control ... forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training".
The result was a "serious and widespread loss of fire discipline".
Afterwards, many of the soldiers involved "knowingly put forward false accounts in order to seek to justify their firing".
After a night of anxious expectation in Londonderry, bereaved relatives celebrated the report's conclusions at the Guildhall, giving thumbs up to crowds outside.
The £191 million Saville report included 30 million words of testimony and took 12 years to complete.
Lord Saville has been criticised for the length of his inquiry, which was expected to last two years when it was ordered by Tony Blair in 1998.
Nearly 1,000 witnesses gave evidence, including soldiers, civilians, police, politicians, forensic experts, journalists, civilians, priests and members of the IRA, including Martin McGuinness, the Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister.

Sunday Bloody Sunday is the opening track from U2's 1983 album, War.  "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is noted for its militaristic drumbeat, harsh guitar, and melodic harmonies. One of U2's most overtly political songs, its lyrics describe the horror felt by an observer of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, mainly focusing on the Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British troops shot and killed civil rights marchers. Along with "New Year's Day", the song helped U2 reach a wider listening audience. 
The song has remained a staple of U2's live concerts. During its earliest performances, the song created controversy. Bono reasserted the song's anti-hate, anti-sectarian-violence message to his audience for many years. Today, it is considered one of U2's signature songs, being one of the band's most performed songs. Critics rate it among the best political protest songs, and it has been covered by over a dozen artists. It was named the 268th greatest song by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
U2's drummer, Larry Mullen Jr said of the song in 1983:
"We're into the politics of people, we're not into politics. Like you talk about Northern Ireland, 'Sunday Bloody Sunday,' people sort of think, 'Oh, that time when 13 Catholics were shot by British soldiers'; that's not what the song is about. That's an incident, the most famous incident in Northern Ireland and it's the strongest way of saying, 'How long? How long do we have to put up with this?' I don't care who's who - Catholics, Protestants, whatever. You know people are dying every single day through bitterness and hate, and we're saying why? What's the point? And you can move that into places like El Salvador and other similar situations - people dying. Let's forget the politics, let's stop shooting each other and sit around the table and talk about it... There are a lot of bands taking sides saying politics is crap, etc. Well, so what! The real battle is people dying, that's the real battle."



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Sunday, January 21, 2018

And the answer was...

And the answer to the quiz posted on Sunday 10th December was...

A team of allied prisoners of war (POWs), coached and led by English Captain John Colby (Michael Caine), in the 1981 film Escape to Victory:


No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Blue Monday 2018


Hi there, Labor Students.

Today is Monday, but not just any Monday. Today is... Blue Monday!

Blue Monday is a name given to the Monday of the last full week of January, thought to be the most depressing day of the year as part of a 2005 publicity campaign by Sky Travel.

The concept is considered pseudoscience with its formula derided by scientists as nonsensical.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Strength. No weakness!


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Monday, January 15, 2018

Labor Walk of Fame 6.1

Dear LEZ followers, the saying goes 'better late than never', so, as usual, we want to praise our best students of English during the 1st Term with a special mention on this blog:



ESO 1A: Diego Monroy Fariña (9.72)




ESO 1B: Juan Paredes Collazo (8.64)

2nd Term PBL Assignment



Dear Students,

This is your PBL assignment for the 2017-18 2nd term. Your task is to translate and adapt this inspirational poster (The Art of the Side Hustle) with words by Chris Ghillebeau and illustrations by artist Gavin Aung Than into the language of your choice: Galician or Spanish.

You should translate EVERY SINGLE WORD IN ENGLISH YOU SEE IN THE COMIC STRIP, create a new jpg or png file and once it is polished and finished you will have to forward it to our mail.

Keep the poster as it is: do not change any of the images. Just keep the same layout, fonts and colours as in the original, and substitute the English words (and only the English words, not the words in other languages, e.g., French) with your Galician or Spanish version.

The deadline is Sunday 18th February at precisely 23.59.59. No files will be admitted after the deadline ends.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Martin Luther King Jr. Anniversary - 2018

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15th 1929. Following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps, he was ordained as a minister in 1948. Dr. King became one of the most important leaders of the civil rights movement in the U.S., advocating a nonviolent approach to fighting for equal rights. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.



Listen to his famous speech I have a dream or read it:
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history asthe greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.Five score years ago, a great... (click to read the full transcript)

If you want to know more:
Wikipedia article on M. Luther King
No copyright infringement intended. For educational purposes only

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

NBA London Game 2018


(Reblogged from the Sunday Express, by Stuart Ballard)

The NBA is growing rapidly in popularity in the UK with more fans than ever tuning in during the early hours of the morning to watch their favourite stars in action.

But for one week of the regular season since 2011 NBA fans in the UK get the chance to see the sport up close and personal as the biggest basketball stars cross the Atlantic to play at The 02 Arena in London.
 

Monday, January 8, 2018

Welcome Back! 2018

Yeah, we know, the X-mas holiday is over, but follow the advice of Monty Python from The life of Brian and always look on the bright side of life,:



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Saturday, January 6, 2018

Who Brings Gifts to Europe? 2018


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Friday, January 5, 2018

The 3 Wise Men Didn't Have a GPS 2018

There is no historical evidence, but we can be quite sure that the 3 Magi did not use a GPS to find the stable in Bethlehem...
Life of Brian


Scene 2: Three Wise Men with Bad Senses of Direction

The sketch:

holy music

BABY BRIAN COHEN: crying
WISE MAN #1: Ahem.
MANDY COHEN: Ohhh!
whump
Who are you?
WISE MAN #1: We are three wise men.


Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Best 2017 Graduation Speech, by Izan González.


This year's best graduation speech is by 4 ESO B student Izan González, who has not only written a nice farewell address, but he delivered it by heart in style and graciously, with fine pronunciation, entonation and stance, and with remarkable composure and serenity.

As usual, this student is the chosen one to speak on behalf of his classmates at the 4 ESO graduation ceremony to be held at 1 pm on Wednesday 21st June. 

Good afternoon! Parents, classmates, friends... and even teachers. I am here today because I just have graduated, that is why I am a little nervous, not everyone graduates. Thank you everybody for coming and listening to my speech. Today is the moment to say goodbye. Goodbye school, goodbye classmates, goodbye teachers...

I remember when I arrived at this school, it was in primary school, third grade. I was scared about coming here because I didn't know anyone at the school, but this fear disappeared when I met my new classmates. They gave me a lovely welcome and they made me feel at home. When I arrived, I was only eight years old, and today, at fifteen, I am saying goodbye. Not only to the school, but also to the teachers, those teachers who taught me very useful things in my life such as solving cube roots without a calculator, or the operation of the DNA inside the  nucleus. As I usually say, very useful things for our daily life. Since my arrival at this school, I have met a lot of teachers and classmates from whom I have learnt those things that have made me be here today, and I want to thank them.

First of all, I want to thank my parents, who support me every day and help me with everything related to school. Also to my friends, who help me through difficult times, to the Hispa Crew, who made me feel I belong to a group;, also to those teachers such as Leo who was my role model; and finally to the Wikipedia, which helped me in most of the PBLs that I had to do. To all these people I am saying goodbye today.

In the future I won't be able to remember all of them until the day Facebook will remind me of their existence. When I'll see them again, I want to see them as the biologists, doctors or lawyers that they are determined to become. I wish them all luck in their choices. But such as all the lives and all the speeches reach the end, this won't be an exception, and I want to end this speech saying goodbye. Goodbye to all of you and to my classmates: have a nice end of school trip!

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Three Wise Men 2018


In Christian tradition the Magi (pronounced /ˈmeɪdʒaɪ/; from the Greek: μάγοι, magoi, usually translated as "wise men", although it probably meant "astronomer" or "astrologer"... that is why they were following a star), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men, (Three) Kings, or Kings from the East, are said to have visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts.Traditions identify a variety of different names for the Magi. In the Western Christian church they have been commonly known since the 8th century as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. In the Gospel of Matthew, the only one to describe the visit of the Magi, it states that they came "from the east" to worship the Christ, "born King of the Jews". Although Matthew does not mention their number, because three gifts are recorded as having been given to the Christ Child, traditionally there are thought to have been three Magi. The Magi, as the "Three Kings" or "Three Wise Men" are regular figures in traditional accounts of the nativity and in celebrations of Christmas.

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

New Year Resolutions 2018


A New Year's resolution is a commitment an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. The name comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Year’s Day and remain until fulfilled or abandoned.

Labor students: Are you making any New Year's Resolutions for 2014? Maybe working harder at school? Spending less time on Tuenti? Leave your comments and tell everybody what your resolutions for the New Year are!


Monday, January 1, 2018

New Year's Day 2018


"New Year's Day" is a song by rock band U2. It is on their 1983 album War and it was released as the album's lead single in January 1983. Written about the Polish Solidarity movement, "New Year's Day" is driven by Adam Clayton's distinctive bassline and The Edge's keyboard playing. It was the band's first UK hit single, peaking at #10 on the singles chart, #11 on the Dutch Top 40 and charting on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in their career. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed the single at #427 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

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