Here is your 2011 summer remedial assignment. You should copy the activities of the 9 'Test' sections that you will find on the last page of every unit:
Use an A-4 sized notebook to copy the formulation or wording of every activity and underline their key words. Then, translate that wording into Galician/Spanish and solve the activities.
This assignment is NOT COMPULSORY. You do not need to hand in your homework as it will NOT add any points at all to your September mark. However, we would like to advise you to prepare these activities if you want to be successful in your September remedial exams.
No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.
Our best students of English during the 3rd Term have been:
1 ESO A - Antía Junqueira Leis (8.8)
1 ESO B - Santiago Pascual (8.1)
2 ESO A - Jorge Amoedo Reyero (8.1)
2 ESO B - Candela Rguez. Bernárdez (9)
3 ESO A - Iago Borrago Rguez. (8.8)
3 ESO B - Miguel Romero Zapatero (9.5) Best ESO student of English during the 3rd Term!
4 ESO A - Lucía Oitabén Figueiras (9.2)
4 ESO B - Yale-Yalo Dong Liu (7.9)
Very often the students who get the highest grades are not the most talented ones, but those who try harder, show a positive attitude and have praiseworthy work ethics.
Congratulations!
No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.
Here is Alberto Ponce's graduation speech. It is the best speech in ESO 4 this year, not only because of its contents, but also because he learnt it by heart, he delivered it with a fairly good pronunciation, rhythm and fluency and his stance, posture and eye-contact with the audience were remarkable. Congratulations, Alberto! And you have earned yourself 2 extra points for volunteering to deliver your speech at the ESO 4 Graduation event to be held next June 23rd.
Good afternoon, everybody,
Thank you very much for coming to our graduation today. I am feeling really excited for our graduation and a little nervous because of this speech.
Time flies, doesn’t it? I remember when I first came to Labor school to take 4th year of Primary. The rest of the children in that class had been together since they were 3 years old, but I was the new kid, and was quite scared for my first day at school. But only one week after that, I received my first invitation to a birthday party. Since then, I haven’t been scared again and everything has been just fine.
I recall now all those years we have been together, all those exams, all those projects and PBL assignments… but now, all that is over… or not quite yet… We still have to study harder and harder at high school. I would have preferred to stay at Labor for another two years, though.
I would not be here today without the support and encouragement of my classmates and friends, teachers and parents. I would like to thank my parents for their support and for being the way they are. I would like to thank my teachers for all their help and their patience with my handwriting. I could not mention only one teacher because all of them have been very helpful and I have learnt a lot from them. And I would also like to thank my friends for their help and support in bad times.
Time flies, doesn’t it? In the future I intend to take Power Engineering at university. I hope I will do fine there, but I am sure that here, at Labor, we got started down the road to success because everybody has helped us a lot.
Before I finish my speech, I would like to wish my classmates all the very best for their future. I hope you will achieve all your goals in life and that you will be happy, very happy. I would also like to wish you a safe, happy end-of-year school-trip to Asturias.
Well, I don’t mean to bug you with my speech so thank you everybody again for being here. Enjoy the snacks and drinks served outside.
So long, my friends!!
No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.
Next Wednesday at 21.00, RC Celta are playing the 1st playoff match against Granada CF to win promotion to 1st Division. At Labor School we are proud of our club and we would like to show our support joining the #colocatubanderaceleste campaign. That is why we have placed a flag on the 1st floor of our ESO building, outside the library.
At Labor School we have always supported RC Celta and every sportspersons and teams from Vigo. No matter what the outcome of these playoff games will be, we will remain faithful supporters of RC Celta.
We would also like to invite every member of our community (teachers, students and parents) to go to Balaidos stadium next Wednesday and support our club non-stop during the whole match at the top of your voices:
We are celebrating at Labor School. On Friday 3rd we are holding our traditional open-doors festival day and theme celebration: The Universe this year!
Everybody is welcome. Have fun!
No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.
We would like to recommend a very useful resource, the online visual dictionary by Merriam Webster. It is structured in 15 major themes to access over 6,000 images. In our opinion it is one of the few linguistic online tools which rivals Google Images.
The Visual Dictionary is designed to help you find the right word at a glance. Filled with stunning illustrations labelled with accurate terminology in up to six languages, it is the ideal language-learning and vocabulary dictionary for use at school, at home or at work.
When you know what something looks like but not what it’s called, or when you know the word but can’t picture the object, The Visual Dictionary has the answer. In a quick look, you can match the word to the image.
The Visual Dictionary is more than a reliable resource of meticulously labelled images—it innovates by combining dictionary-scale definitions with exceptional illustrations, making it the most complete dictionary.
The Visual Dictionary is an indispensable visual reference that goes beyond object identification to answer questions about function, significance and purpose. Ideal for teachers, parents, writers, translators and students of all skill levels, it helps the user understand a phenomenon and quickly grasp the meaning of a term, the characteristics of an object or simply learn something new.
No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only
This is your 2nd PBL assignment for the 3rd term. All of you have to WRITE and DELIVER your GRADUATION SPEECH. You have to imagine you are going to stand in the school Assembly Hall before your teachers, classmates, parents and guests at your ESO graduation ceremony (to be held on June 23rd or 24th) and deliver your speech, which must be at least 350 WORDS LONG.
As of today, this is just an idea, but the best student will be offered the chance to deliver his or her speech at your graduation ceremony... in English!! Of course, he or she will get extra points in the final mark for that effort.
Delivering a speech requires previous work. First, you have to put together basic ideas and thoughts. Then, you have to draft, revise and polish your text up. Finally, you have to practise your oral presentation. It is a good idea to do this in front of some relatives or friends, in front a mirror or even to shoot an informal video of yourself using your phone or a webcam. Pay attention to both your "sound" and your "image". If you do this you will be able to find out your weak points and can try to fix them.
Points will be deducted not only for poor content, but also for bad spelling, punctuation and/or formatting in your written work. As you will have to do an oral presentation, points will also be deducted for bad pronunciation, poor fluency and rhythm. Clear, well-structured ideas, catching the audience interest, good pronunciation and a clear, loud voice and a little humour will boost your mark.
IMPORTANT: You must follow the same formatting rules as for the rest of school projects: The font must be 'Century Gothic', size 12; 1.5 line spacing, justified text, page numbers at the bottom centre of each page
This is your work schedule:
Monday 23rd May - Print this post at home and bring it to school to start working on it.
Tuesday 24th May to Friday 3rd June - You have to write and practise your speech. Each student MUST bring their own dictionary to class for those 5 sessions (electronic dictionaries, laptops, etc. are allowed; mobile phones, iphones or blackberries are not). It is also a good idea to print and bring to class some or all of the information contained in the links at the end of this post as well as any other information or help you may find useful.
Before 23:59:59 on Friday 3rd June your speech in a PDF file has to reach my e-mail. Your file name MUST be as follows:
Monday 6th to Friday 17th June - You will have to stand before your class and deliver your speeches.
Here is an example outline of how your graduation speech should be. At the end of this post you can also find links with useful advice, hints and ideas:
1. Introduction (Present)
1.1 Greet the audience.
1.2 Thank them for coming.
1.3 Make some remarks about your feelings and how excited you are to be graduating.
1.4 Present an idea or motto connected with the school, education, life, etc.
2. About You (Past)
2.1 Tell a few short, important or funny childhood stories or anecdotes about yourself.
2.2 Talk about your role model(s) and how they influenced your life.
2.3 Tell how you could "not have got where you are without ____".
3. Thank You (Past)
3.1 Say you would like to thank a few people specifically for all of their help:
3.1.2 Thank your mother, your father and family... maybe some friends...
3.1.3 Thank and acknowledge whatever mentor or teacher influenced you the most (in a good way).
3.1.4 Acknowledge your classmates' influence on you or even congratulate other students' for their performance/behaviour/personality.
4. Conclusion (Future)
4.1 Tell the audience about your expectations for the future.
4.2 Go back to your introduction and repeat your initial idea or motto.
4.3 Wish your classmates a happy and safe end-of-school trip.
4.4 Express your good wishes for everybody's future... and especially your classmates'.
4.5 Tell everyone to enjoy the snacks and drinks served on the schoolyard.
4.6 Thank everybody once again for being there and for their attention.
Free Graduation Speeches (be careful with this one: it will be really easy to find out if you have copied something; it is worth visiting this site, though, in order to get some 'inspiration')
And now, a short video of a graduation speech that you will like, from the Twilight Eclipse movie, to get some inspiration:
This is the transcription:
"When we were five, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our answers were things like astronaut, president, or in my case… princess.
When we were ten, they asked again and we answered – rock star, cowboy, or in my case, gold medallist. But now that we’ve grown up, they want a serious answer.
Well, how ’bout this: who the hell knows?!
This isn’t the time to make hard and fast decisions, its time to make mistakes.
Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere chill.
Fall in love – a lot.
Major in philosophy ’cause there’s no way to make a career out of that.
Change your mind.
Then change it again, because nothing is permanent.
So make as many mistakes as you can.
That way, someday, when they ask again what we want to be… we won’t have to guess.
We’ll know."
No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.
We would like to give you and your parents this article by Pam Platt published on Courier-Journal.com. We hope it will make you all think. By the way, this article is in direct connection with this other published on Sunday 24th October 2010including a video by Taylor Mali which you will find, again, at the end of this post.
Last fall, I went to Florida for a few days, to a place where my sisters and brother and I had grown up, and where my parents had worked hard to provide for our presents and our futures. Dad retired from his pilot duties in the Air Force, earned his master's degree in education and became an ROTC instructor at a private school. Mom taught sixth grade at the same public school for 24 years.
On my trip back there, I spent a few hours in a museum dedicated to sunken treasure that had been lost and found along the coast over hundreds of years. I decided to buy a couple of books on the subject and gave my debit card to the park ranger, a guy who looked to be about my age, maybe a little younger, who also staffed the gift shop (everyone is multi-tasking these days). He looked at my name on the card and then asked if my mom was Mrs. Platt, who had been his teacher in a school not far away more than three decades ago.
When I said yes, it was as if the sun decided to shine directly from his face. He beamed. He instantly summoned memories of my mom in the classroom, what kind of teacher she had been, and how she made learning so much fun. I got a little choked up, to tell you the truth.
This chance meeting at a museum reminded me of the living legacy of a teacher. After I left, I couldn't get to my cellphone quickly enough to tell my mom that there was nothing retired about the impact she continued to have on her students, no matter how many years she had been out of the classroom. (And thank you again, and still, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Truex, the teachers from whom I still learn, almost 40 years after I sat in their classrooms.)
I've thought about that encounter recently, and the powerful truth it tells about teachers, especially as I've listened to the rants against public education, and school teachers, and their mission in communities throughout our country.
A month ago, The New York Times ran a piece titled, “Teachers wonder, why the scorn?” I wondered that, too.
“Around the country, many teachers see demands to cut their income, benefits and say in how schools are run through collective bargaining as attacks not just on their livelihoods, but on their value to society,” the article stated. “Education experts say teachers have rarely been the targets of such scorn from politicians and voters.”
The story noted the pitch of battle around the stewards of our children's public education: attempts to roll back tenure and seniority protections in some states, threatened layoffs in major cities and throughout the country (in its most recent survey, the National Education Association says nine of 10 superintendents expect to lay off school personnel in the fall), slings and arrows at unions and union efforts, accountability measures and test scores measuring student achievements, top-down remedies with little teacher input, character impunities. Is it any wonder that the article also mentions the high attrition rate in the profession?
No one gets rich off being a teacher. I know. I grew up in a home headed by two of them. I also watched how they worked in the evenings and on weekends. They didn't have the kind of job you could leave at the office. They also didn't earn the salaries commensurate with other professions that carry similar responsibilities. That's why I don't get the scorn that has been heaped upon teachers in recent days, and I don't feel like any of us should be putting up with it anymore.
There are more than 3 million public school teachers for more than 49 million public school students. The average teacher salary in the U.S. is about $55,000. According to the NEA, the average salary of public school teachers is almost $50,000 in Indiana, and more than $49,000 in Kentucky. Over the past 10 years, average salaries for teachers increased about 3.5 percent.
Most teachers have one or more advanced degrees — almost half hold at least a master's degree. Most of the nation's elementary and secondary teachers have an average of 13 years in the classroom. Most of them participate in professional development programs each year. Their average age is 42. The overwhelming majority are women.
Teachers spend more than 52 hours a week on all teaching duties and spend their own money on school supplies for their classrooms, as well as instructional materials. One survey said teachers spent more than $900 of their own money in a school year on those items.
Most teachers enter the profession because they feel called to work with young people, and most stay in the profession because that feeling never goes away. Still, about 30 percent of teachers leave the profession in the first five years.
Beyond those facts, what does it mean to be a teacher?
Nancy Esarey, a teacher for 16 years who came from a family of teachers, parent and grandparent of public school students, now teaching science at Seneca High School: “Every day, when I think about what I am doing in my room, I think back on my own children and now on my grandchildren and ask to myself — would I be happy about what they did in this class today? If my students were my own children, would I teach them any differently? Or would I do just what I am doing? So I think of the parents of my students — am I doing the job you would want me to do for your child?
“Teaching is taking students by the hand and trying to take them to a better and brighter future — to give them the chance to make it using their knowledge and confidence. It also means allowing for them to learn from stumbling. If you do not allow people to make mistakes, they can never learn from them.”
Niki Ross, a teacher for 11 years, now a kindergarten teacher at McFerran Preparatory Academy: “To be a teacher means that I have been given the responsibility to encourage, educate and motivate my students to be able to reach for the stars regardless of their race, color, nationality or backgrounds. It means that I believe that each of my students deserves a great public education so that they can be successful in their lives.”
What don't people understand about the job?
Esarey: “I feel most people think they know a whole lot about education because they all went to school. All people have also gone to the doctor during their lifetime (probably many times), but this does not mean they know a whole lot about medicine. People think inside the box when it comes to their child. They do not think about the overall picture of one teacher with classes of 30 students five periods a day. That means we (teachers) are dealing with 150 little Johnny's every single day.
“Trying to stay on top of teaching bell-to-bell, classroom management, grading, and noticing any changes from the norm in our students is challenging and exhausting. I want every child to have the same opportunity to learn, become engaged and see the importance of their education to their future. Sometimes it can be difficult because some of the 150 students are disruptive or plain just shut down. Trying to reach every student takes every bit of passion, determination and control a teacher can muster.”
Ross: “I think some people forget that a child's first educational experience should start in the home, especially when it comes to appropriate behavior in an educational or social setting. I also think people fail to realize that teachers are part of the community, they have families to support and provide for, their children are students in the same schools, and teachers work hard to be able to provide a quality public education.”
What about the difference in the way parents and students treat teachers now as opposed to five or 10 years ago?
Esarey: “When I grew up, if my parents ever got a call from school about my behavior or academics, there would be no questions about who was in trouble — it would have been me. Today, when I contact some parents, it gets turned around to being the school's fault or my fault as a teacher.
“Many students are from single parent homes. Many students that I have work 20 hours a week to help the family financially. Many students I have do not see their parents much because the parents work two or three jobs to make ends meet. And, lastly, some of my students are already parents themselves, several times over. “I do not think the difference is in the way parents and students treat teachers — it is in the way they see education as irrelevant to their child's future.”
Re-read that last sentence. Is that what the scorn for teachers is all about? Chilling thought.
I don't know about you, but I don't know that I could manage the energy, the inspiration, the idealism or the fortitude to do everything a teacher does for one day, let alone an entire school year.
We need to retire the old saying, “Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.” It's hateful, it feeds corrosive stereotypes, and it's simply not true.
And so, finally, I am reminded of a fellow pilot who retired from the Air Force along with my dad; both were war veterans. They earned their teaching credentials and did their classroom teaching internships around the same time. At the end of his assignment, the friend told my dad he was going to write a book and it was going to be titled: “I'd Rather Be a Fighter Pilot in Vietnam than Teach Junior High School.”
In other words, those who can … teach.
No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.
Your Easter homework is very, very simple. All you have to do is PRINT your 3rd Term PBL assignment (ESO 2: http://goo.gl/cXe7G; ESO 3: http://goo.gl/12lYw) and bring it to school for your FIRST ENGLISH CLASS after the Easter holiday (ESO 2: Wednesday 27th; ESO 3: Tuesday 26th) so that you can start working on it.
Please pass this piece of news around to your school schoolmates when you see them or use your mail, Tuenti, etc.
Thanks a lot. Happy holidays!
No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non commercial purposes only.
