Leo DiCaprio on climate change

One week ago, actor Leonardo DiCaprio received the Oscar for his role in the film "The Revenant". Watch his acceptance speech in the following video:

"Thank you all so very much. Thank you to the Academy, thank you to all of you in this room. I have to congratulate the other incredible nominees this year for their unbelievable performances. The Revenant was the product of the tireless efforts of an unbelievable cast and crew I got to work alongside. First off, to my brother in this endeavor, Mr. Tom Hardy. Tom, your fierce talent on screen can only be surpassed by your friendship off screen. To Mr. Alejandro Innaritu, as the history of cinema unfolds, you have forged your way into history these past 2 years... thank you for creating a transcendent cinematic experience. Thank you to everybody at Fox and New Regency…my entire team. I have to thank everyone from the very onset of my career…to Mr. Jones for casting me in my first film to Mr. Scorsese for teaching me so much about the cinematic art form. To my parents, none of this would be possible without you. And to my friends, I love you dearly, you know who you are.

Activity: (from 2')

Listen to the speech and complete the text with the missing words.

And lastly I just want to say this: Making The Revenant was about man's relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop *procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this amazing award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted. Thank you so very much". 

*procrastinate: to defer action; delay

London, here we go!!

Once again, we are going to take part in Oxford's competition. This time, students will have to act and record a short dramatization of one of Shakespeare's works. 

We are still resolving the class and the play to be performed so keep tuned for news!! 

2nd ESO video: Homes around the world

This is the BBC video we've just viewed. 

Watch it again at home to answer the questions given in class. 

A product review (writings from 3rd ESO students)

A product review
by Cristina Zumel
 
It's a graphic tablet (WACOM). My parents gave me the tablet on my birthday because I wanted it for drawing.

On the one hand, it was easy to set up. For drawing it was really better than the mouse. It's one of the best graphic tablet at the market. Plus, it had got a very good price.

 

On the other hand for using it the first time it was necessary to connect it with the programme that you were using to draw and it was quite difficult.

 

For me, if you want to do digital drawings, this tablet is perfect.

A product review
by Nerea Rodríguez Puga

I just bought an IPhone. I'm pretty happy with it but I'll talk about some pros and cons I think you need to know before buying it.

It's really easy to set up, there is a digital guide that explains all the things you need to do to make it work. It has two cameras (one external cam and another internal) with an awesome resolution (I don't know how but I always look good in my IPhone pics). I think the software works pretty well and the phone in general works fast. The voice function and the speakers also work amazingly well.

But, althought it works really well and I'm so happy with all its functions, I have to say it's too expensive (I had to save money for almost two years to buy it). I also think everyone should know that the operating system is made to connect only with more Apple devices, so it makes you want to buy all your electronic devices in the Apple Store because, if you don't, then, to connect for example your Iphone with your Android/Windows tablet, you'll have to work double hard.

Summarizing, in my opinion, IPhone is a really good phone and I like it a lot; and I'd recommend it to people with enough money to buy all the expensive Apple devices, or to people with time that can spend 30 minutes to send a picture from their phone to their laptop.

A product review
by Lara Rodríguez Pereira

I got the new Stlein 6 Plus last week and I couldn't be more angry with it.

I was really excited to buy this "amazing" new mobile phone because I heard really nice opinions about it, but nowadays, I don't understand why.

Here a short review about it:

PROS: It was a gift -so luckyly I didn't spend any money-, it offers a good customers' service, it has a cool design, it is easy to set up and the camera has a nice resolution.

CONS: It works really slow, I can't watch films or series outside home -because without WiFi it works really badly, the voice assistant doesn't work properly and the software seems old even though I bought it not many days ago!

In conclusion, I would recomend this phone to people that don't use it very much or that just want a beautiful design; but in my case, it disappointed me a lot ad I wouldn't buy it again if I had the opportunity to.

Pronunciation Practice: the -ed ending

The simple past is used principally to describe events in the past. As you know, we can classify verbs into regular and irregular. 

What can we say about irregular verbs? They are a pain in the neck for most of you because there's other way than learning them by heart. 

Regular verbs, on the other hand, are a piece of cake. We only have to add -ed to the base form and voilà we have the past of that verb. However, it's not that simple, isn't it? Here comes the problem of pronouncing them...because -ed endings may be pronounced /d/, /t/ or /Id/ depending on the last sound of the verb in the infinitive. 

Watch the following video and classify by pronounciation all the regular verbs you can hear.

Happy new school year!

It's been two weeks since we started the new school year. 
There are new students and even new teachers but the enthusiasm and willingness hasn't changed. 

"A Whale of a Time" starts this academic year 2015-2016 with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi:

Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever.

This is for all of you, for all of us and especially addressed to my oldest students, who are learning and studying this universal icon.

CONFESSIONS OF AN IDIOM

Everyone has Skeletons in their Closet but, what happens if one day the Elephant in the Room decides to make the Skeleton in the Closet bring the truth to light? The Skeleton isn’t one to confess to his crimes so easily. Mayhem ensues in this power struggle with a world full of idioms.

This film was done by Amanda Koh and Mollie Helms at Ringling College of Art + Design. If you have any questions, feel free to visit my website at amkoh.com

Enjoy!