10 October 2011 / by Radmila Gurkova

Friday Meeting 07/10/2011

 

A busy start to the month but here's little update for the week. Last week we spoke about the classes at the gym and the new S1 course. Feedback has been generally good in both areas but we there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

‘Learning Capsules’ – as mentioned last week these are 30 minute learning capsules that will take place at a well-known gym in Barcelona. Several levels were taught this week (S1, P3 and P4). This precise way of teaching for s1 did not work because the S1 students are still at a level where they are learning basic vocabulary. However, the P3 and P4 class at the gym were really successful, staring off with Quick Questions (QQ), 2 structure activities and finishing off with a vocab and topic activity. Having mentioned this it is important to take into account that the Quick Questions need to be done for both 30minute capsules.

As for the S1 course, we had positive feedback mentioning that class 1 was really good, easy to follow, teacher friendly and interactive rather than repetitive. The flashcards have been updated, more pictures have been added and there is a clear guideline for the Teacher to follow. 'Building Blocks' is a work in progress...Well done guys!!

Lastly, everyone will have an extra current affairs topic for P4 starting next week. The reason for this new development is that we need to keep up-to-date with current news. We’ve decided to call this ‘breaking news’ and as this will be printed a week after, students will have the chance to read about it and have enough information to engage in the classroom.

Next week we will discuss news stories that we think would be interesting for the students.  One of the teachers will post videos related to the activities, giving students the chance to listen to news stories before the actual activity is taught.

Hope everyone has a nice week!

 

 

23

October 2012
This is the News...
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://youtu.be/aU7LYD2jNuU NEWSWEEK TO END ITS PRINT EDITION Rising costs of publishing and a fall in the number of advertisers willing to buy space in newspapers and magazines mean a move to a digital version. The number of subscribers has also HALVED from its 2001 HEYDAY of over 3 million to 1.5 million today. The transition...

23

October 2012
Molotov Cocktail for Kids
by Radmila Gurkova
Parents in Tunisia are up in arms at one of the country's most popular children's magazines. The reason for the outrage...

22

October 2012
Chinese anyone?
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcGlnoTFSWI Language lessons at school used to be about learning to count in French, or ploughing through irregular verbs in German. Now it seems growing numbers of children are moving away from European languages, and choosing Arabic or Mandarin instea...

11

October 2012
Project Stratos - Record Of A Lifetime
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02

October 2012
Ryanair - Low cost, low safety?
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_dQH1hNCsg Have you ever flown on a budget airline? Do you think they are safe? Have you heard any recent news about Ryanair? Ryanair is again being investigated by aviation authorities following accusations it put pressure on pilots to fly with minimal fuel to cut costs. The gov...

02

October 2012
Politicians saying sorry?!
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUOHtExdrdI&feature=youtube_gdata_player A spoof video where Nick Clegg appears to sing an apology about his party's tuition fees u-turn is to be released as a single on iTunes! The British deputy prime minister has given his permission for the film to be issued by satirical website thepoke aft...

28

September 2012
Chinese factories closed amid violent anti-Japan protests
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgbSutTPqAg Major electronics firms Panasonic and Canon have temporarily suspended production at factories in China after a territorial dispute over a group of UNINHABITED s...

28

September 2012
Strikes in Madrid and Barcelona
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJS9x-HhAxI A transport STRIKE has complicated the journey to work in Madrid and Barcelona. UNIONS have made a call to travellers not to pay for their ticket in a protest against what they consider to be abusive minimum services. In Madrid the Metro and the RENFE Cercanias COMMUTER lines were affe...

20

September 2012
Are you 'normal' or 'crazy'?
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOgsVdiDZ_8 So, are you CRAZY or are you NORMAL? Do you crazy things? These animals are definitely pretty crazy but read on to hear about some crazy things people do... Some crazy things people do: A man in London set his home on fire by microwaving his underwear. In India a vil...

20

September 2012
Is it 'only a video' or is it an insult to Islam?
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRucxuOcF9M&feature=plcp Have you heard about the protests in the Middle East because of a video called ''The innocence of the Muslim''? An American man made a film expressing his opinion on Islam, but unfortunately it was not a good opinion...The Muslim community in many countries took it as an...