A Future in Our Hands

Our world keeps changing. Can you imagine how life was 100 years ago? May inventions have changed our lifes in a way that we sometimes cannot imagine. Watch the following video...

Which are the top ten inventions that changed the world? Have a look to see if the video mentions your ideas.

Back in the 80's, some people imagined the furture as a place where cars would fly...
Have you ever heard of the film Back to the Future? Investigate it's wiki! It depicted life in... 2015! They got some things right.... curious? Read this  CNN article and watch the videos.

"He was never in time for his classes... He wasn't in time for his dinner... Then one day... he wasn't in his time at all."17-year-old Marty McFly got home early last night. 30 years early."
—Tagline for the film  Back to the Future.

And we keep talking about films... or shall I say TV series and even novels? Many have imagined our future with not very positive views.... Distopias are the opposite to Utopias: an imaginary world were life is not as we would wish... 

Some examples of distopian stories are The Divergent Series, The Hunger Games, The Handmaid's Tale, Blade Runner, 1984 and it's "Big Brother", The War of the Worlds (featured in The Simpsons), Black Mirror... Do you know them? Let's investigate a little! You'll share your information with the class. 

One of the most prolific distopian authors was Isaac Asimov, and the film adaptation of I, Robot offers a lot to talk about (here). 

But... how is life going to be in the future? Click here to see the homes of the future, and here to listen about innovations in Great Britain. 

In order to speak about the future, sometimes we use Time Clauses. Revise their form and use with this slide, and then do these interactive activities (and some more on this link).

Future time clauses de Michael Lord

You may also want to revise future tenses, including future continuous and future perfect. Activities on this link, and slide next. 

Future perfect and continuous de Ana Mena

Amazing lifes: people who changed the world.

Would you like to change the world? How does it need to be improved? Can little actions make a different? Listen to Michael Jackson's opinion.

Go through the activities in these wikis in order to find out more about what needs to be changed.

Do you know people who changed the world for good?

Which was Martin Luther King's dream? What did he fight for? (Whatch full speech here).

If you want to see again our language assistant's presentation, click here.

The Power of Education

What is Education for? From my point of view,

So... why is school important? What about the Educational System? Do you know about homeschooling, or any other systems or types of school? Theres a lot to talk about... watch these videos, read the article about technology in education, and discuss. 

"I just sued the school system" 

Steve Jobs at University: 

Ten most unusual schools in the world:

10 weird school rules around the world: 

Finally... what about technology in the classroom? Will teachers be replaced by Instagram? 

But then... what is intelligence? What is important in order to learn? 

Are you still gritty about watching more on education and learning, there is a set of Ted Talks here. 

Why learn languages? 

Read this article and watch the video, The benefits of a bilingual brain. 

The importance of speaking properly: Word Crimes. 

Please, check this padlet created to celebrate The European Day of Languages, and add your favourite word in three languages (one should be English, please!).

Reflecting on our learning and learning a bit more with jokes.

Are you good at learning languages? Have you already found your best strategies? Take the following quiz (the  same one in this new link) in order to know yourself a bit more, or find more quizes and tips in this blog entry. You can also have a look here for tips on learning a language.

One of the best ways of learning is by having fun! So, why don't you visit the following page, with jokes in English? Moreover, you can try to learn some riddles or tounge-twisters, they're great to practice pronunciation and vocabulary!!!

Why don't you check these videos with tips in order to think in Enlglish: 1 and 2. You can also watch the tips by this youtuber:

By the way... have you heard about multiple intelligences? Check this link to watch a video and find your strong points! It comes from the website Best Carreer Match, which helps you find the career that suits you. Why don't you take this test for advice?

After such an intense debate... let's have a laugh with "Taking Exams"!

Please, share your findings in this Padlet about Education. 

What makes you happy?

What is happines? What makes you happy? This is one of the most discussed questions, right?

Let's Google read some quotes about it, choose yours and then post it here, in our Padlet.

   

Listen to this touching, beautiful song. I hope you love it: I lived, by One Republic. (short version here) 

Let's laugh together! I'm sure you'll move with Pharrel Williams' Happy. 

After discussing about the meaning of happiness, why don't we go through this webquest to deepen on it? 

The Magic of Idioms

Idiomatic expressions show how a society thinks, am I right? That's the reason why they're so important: they show you different perceptions of reallity. Check the following article about idioms in different languages that cannot be translated.

Look for some idioms in your mother tounge, for example... do you believe they can be understood if you translate them literally? Which message would be lost? This article analyzes why Spaniards "shit in the sea", and the following one shows us the corresponding idioms in English and Spanish.
The entry "las mejores peores traducciones del español al inglés" is a must-read, too. Yet undoubtedly, my definite favourite translators of Spanish idioms are "Súper Británico" and the creators of "From Lost to the River".

In order to learn idioms and metaphorical expressions, it is sometimes useful to visualize the literal image, which might be hilarious! and, therefore, useful in order to remember. Check this article with some English expressions illustrated.

And finally... why don´t you try to learn a few of the top 100 idioms in English?

Magic Words: Phrasal Verbs with Game of Thrones, prepositions, collocations...

Terrific Phrasal Verbs. 

Wether you are a GOT fan or not, you are going to love this entry! Check it!! You'll also enjoy the funny combinations with animals... have a look, don't chiken out!

Are you willing to check your knowledge on Phrasal Verbs? Take these quizzes! 1, 2, 3.

Prepositions and collocations. 

If you're queen o quizzes, why don't you keep testing prepositions? 1, 2, 3, 4.. and Advanced!

All the quizzes are from the website ESLBuzz, where you can also find an extensive list of common preposition collocations.

Words created by Literature. 

Shakespeare alone coined thousands of words that we still use today (many of them, awesome insults XD). But, do you know where the word "Yahoo" comes from? Have a look at the following article. 

Idioms and expressions. 

For the magic of idioms and expressions, check my entry on the topic. But just a bite to light you up... here.

Conditional Sentences

Conditional Sentences de IES Rosario de Acuña

Conditionals presentation from douxsara

Practice the Second Conditional and your listening skills by learning Beyonce's If I Were a Boy,  a really interesting song about sexism, so further discussion is advised. You can also try the awesome Lyricstraining verision here.

You can also work with some activities on What If, by Coldplay, here.

Speaking activities: