ACHES AND PAINS

3rd year students are practising vocabulary about aches and pains in P.E. First, they have to listen to a podcast. Then they have to write sentences using the new vocabulary. Go to Antonio Salas' blog to see the results.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

HAPPY 2012!!!







Have you heard about New Year's Resolutions?

A New Year's resolution is a commitment that a person makes to one or more personal goals, projects, or the reforming of a habit. People committing themselves to a New Year's resolution generally plan to do so for the whole following year. This lifestyle change is generally interpreted as advantageous.



Here you have some of the most common resolutions:

-Quit smoking
-Get in shape
-Save more, spend less
-Dedicate more time to family
-Read more
-Learn a musical instrument
-Get in to a relationship
-Learn a new language
-Control temper:
-Keep up with the resolutions



Other lists include:

■Keeping in touch with friends more
■Exercising more
■Eating a more healthy diet
■Relaxing more
■Helping family more
■Learning something new
■Saving more money
■Reducing loans and debts.
■Becoming a volunteer for a local organization or charity
■Making regular contributions to a world wide charity
■Being more environmentally aware
■Recycling more products
■Helping a neighbour or a friend in need



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year's_resolution
http://www.wishafriend.com/newyear/new-year-resolutions.php
http://www.rachaelwestdesigns.com/new-years-resolution-ideas-for-2011

Two tales by Oscar Wilde

We have just finished our first term exams and Christmas is here. In coordination with the Spanish Language and Literature teachers, we are going to read two famous short stories by Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince and The Selfish giant.

Merry Christmas!

A poem by Santos Domínguez

Santos Domínguez is a Spanish and Literature teacher at Norba school. He has recently been awarded the important Villa de Aoíz Prize in its XXXV edition for his poem "Ayer no te vi en Babilonia".




Rick Hite, Professor Emeritus at Virginia Wesleyan College, has kindly translated this beautiful poem for our blog.


We offer the original version in Spanish followed by its English version.

Thank you, Rick. Congratulations, Santos.



AYER NO TE VI EN BABILONIA
(Tabla de arcilla, 3000 a. C)



Cinco mil años pesan sobre esta arcilla viva
en la que un hombre hablaba una lengua de barro.

Como la nieve al lobo, sus palabras delatan
su extrañeza de siglos, sus tiempos estelares
y el espacio incesante y fluvial, el latido
de un corazón ausente.

Miles de años después, otra lengua diría
-y era una voz de sombra-: “Te veré en Babilonia.”
Era una voz de sombra que anunciaba la muerte
y la pira encendida para un héroe sin tiempo.

Pasaron cazadores de serpientes,
se callaron los gallos del arrabal y el viento
fue bajando a los ríos y apagando las velas.

Tiempo, espacio y el nombre de una ciudad sin sueño.

Con música insondable,
cae la sombra del hielo en el desierto y lejos,
en arroyos secretos,
beberán los caballos lentamente en la orilla.

Las cúpulas de cuarzo brillan bajo la luna.
Bajo esa misma luna sigue temblando aún
-no te vi en Babilonia-
la voz de arcilla frágil que escribió su temblor
con un tallo sumerio, con un punzón de ausencia.
Con un punzón de angustia esas palabras lentas
y urgentes; no te vi en Babilonia.

Simples como una herida de escarcha en los planetas,
un pájaro de nieve sigue latiendo en ellas.




I MISSED YOU YESTERDAY IN BABYLON

(Clay Tablet, 3000 B.C.)


Five thousand years weigh heavy on this vibrant piece of clay

whereupon a man was speaking a language made of mud.


Like the wolf’s tracks in the snow, his very words give away

his century’s old strangeness, that so stellar age of his,

and all the space unceasing, ever flowing, the beating

of a heart now so absent.


Thousands of years afterwards, and another tongue would say

-- And it was a shadow’s voice -- : “I’ll meet you in Babylon.”

Yes, it was a shadow’s voice that was foretelling the death

and the pyre already ablaze for some timeless hero.


The hunters of serpents passed by on their way,

and the cocks in the slums of town fell silent, and the wind

went sweeping down to the rivers blowing out the candles.


Time and space and the name of a city always sleepless.


With music unsoundable,

the shadow of ice falls across the desert, and far off,

along hidden arroyos,

the horses will be drinking slowly at every bank side.



The cupolas of quartz are shinning bright beneath the moon.

And beneath that very moon still trembles even today

-- I missed you, in Babylon –

the voice in clay, so fragile which wrote down its own trembling

with some Sumerian reed, with indentions of absence.

With indentions of anguish, those words impressed so slowly,

so urgently: I missed you, in Babylon.


Words as simple as a wounding frostbite on the planets,

some bird with snowy feathers keeps beating deep inside them.

NO MORE VIOLENCE

Today we celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Read this beautiful poem about the strengh women have. The author is Maya Angelou, an American poet.





Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.


Maya Angelou

Thanksgiving day in the United States

Today is the fourth Thursday of November and American people celebrate Thanksgiving day. The celebration often extends to the weekend that falls closest to the day it is celebrated. In Canada Thanksgiving day is on the second Monday of October, probably due to the earlier onset of winter in the north. Do you fancy cooking a typical Thanksgiving dinner? Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, sweet potatoe pie, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie... Why not...

To learn about the history of the first Thanksgiving, watch this video our English teacher Emilia Gutiérrez found for us:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFDSobNnfQs

And here you have another one:

http://www.history.com/videos/history-of-the-thanksgiving-holiday#history-of-the-thanksgiving-holiday

Spanish omelettes with special tips

3rd year students show us how to prepare delicious Spanish omelette. Click here.