COLOURS

Do you think colours are important in our life?

HALLOWEEN QUIZ

October 31st is Halloween.

 How much do you know about this old festival? Take the quiz!

BLOG ACTION DAY

HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH?

 By the way, this was one of my favourite songs this summer
Can you understand it?

WELCOME BACK !

• Hi students ! 
• Did you have a good summer ? 
• What did you do ?  
• Where did you go ?
• What about starting this year by learning English with the help of some hip hop ?

HAPPY SUMMER HOLIDAYS!

YES!   Here again,  It seems time flies!

We teachers and students are now celebrating all the hard work we have done as another school year comes to an end.

After months of Edmodo assignments, studying, reading, doing integrated tasks, written tests, homework , oral presentations, singing, dancing,  and speaking tests, most of you are looking forward to forgetting about your school books and are obviously excited about your summer holidays ahead.

For all that , I think we all need some relax, so ...

BUT.... summer and reading have gone hand in hand, for me at least, as long as I can remember. For this reason , no more compulsory reading, but just reading for the pleasure of it. Besides, there are a wide range of benefits gained from reading for pleasure: It increases a sense of achievement, confidence and self-steem. It encourages your imagination. It prevents boredom. And you can do it anywhere.

 Find out here how to be a better reader and the importance of reading when learning a language. 

 And now click on these pictures and enjoy.

      

 

 Keep in touch, please!

MANY KISSES !!!

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY AT PORTADA ALTA SCHOOL

World Environment Day ('WED') is celebrated every year on 5 June to raise global awareness of the need to take positive environmental action. It is run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It was the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began. 

 This year we have been celebrating this day by means of an exhibition of a photo contest and compositions in different languages .This was part of an initial collaborative project based on tasks where some students and teachers have been very concerned learning about WATER PROBLEMS.

A NICE WAY TO REVISE CONDITIONALS

OUR LANGUAGE ASSISTANT ´S SUMMARY OF THE YEAR.

There were a lot of good times had at Portada Alta with both the students and the staff.

The bilingual section is fun, talented, generally well behaved and full of memorable personalities  The staff are all very kind, funny, and interesting, and I enjoyed our collaborations inside the classroom as well as our exchanges outside of the classroom.

Here is a brief list of my favorite memories with each group along with an explanation of why they are special to me:

1) Science lessons in the laboratory with 1A, 1A is a very large group, and getting to work with them in the smaller space of the laboratory allowed me to interact with them and get to know them more easily. No particular moments stand out, but these lessons would have a special atmosphere that combined the relaxation and playfulness with attentiveness and effort.

 2) Music with 2A--2A is group that has a lot of chemistry, and this was most visible in music classes. Rehearsing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" for the Christmas concert is one of my favorite memories, as well as singing "YMCA", by the Village People, with the boys at the end of the year.

3) Biology with 3A--3A is a group with a high level of curiosity, and, as such, I enjoyed myself with the group a lot in biology and social sciences. Biology comes to mind because, in explaining the biological definitions of words, we would oftentimes go on interesting tangents on the broader concept of the words, as well as any colloquial usage they might have. They were classes that combined the academic with the everyday.

 4) English/Spanish exchanges with the teachers--Everybody on the bilingual staff was highly interested in honing their English, both formal and informal. My favorite moments were exchanging informal expressions in English and Spanish.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING TIPS FOR SPEAKING TESTS

And here a funny example of the importance of understanding and speaking good English. Can you notice and copy down some of the big mistakes made by foreign students here?

RUSS - A STRANGE NORWEGIAN TRADITION

In Norway, high school students in their last year before University participate in a tradition called the russefeiring ("russ celebration"). Basically, everyone who is about to graduate has to participate in this three weeks long event.  They all wear a pair of overall or dungarees; the colour is dependent on their stream at school, although most of them are red for academic; they are not supposed to take off these overalls for the entire three weeks!  These three weeks are officially from the first of May (although some started earlier) until the Norwegian National Day (May 17)

There is a list of about 100 tasks printed in the local newspapers every year and the Russ students are supposed to complete as many as possible.  When they finish a task they are given an item, a knot (?) or just the pride of having accomplished this task.

 Here you can see this video about  some creative tasks they had to do such as decorating buses, performing  songs, , or other much funnier activities as in example dyeing their hair in the colour of their  russ (black, red or blue), spending a night in a tree (earns a stick from the tree), crawling  along Karl Johans ( Oslo´s Main Street ) to Slottet (the Royal Palace)  as it is showed in some of the photos I took while I was  in Oslo. 

SHORT STORIES FOR EXTRA READINGS

HERE  you can find a lot of short stories.

WEBQUEST ABOUT WATER

LEARN MORE ABOUT WATER BY FOLLOWING MY WEBQUEST

WORLD WATER DAY 2013

The solution to the water crisis is not simple. It is a big problem that needs a big answer. The water crisis is only going to end when we all work together to help those in need. 

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 Watch these  videos  and then copy some parts of the message on your notebooks:

World Water Day 2013 from Water to Thrive on Vimeo.

THE HISTORY OF SAINT PATRICK