The Last Laugh: The origin of this crisis

This is one of the most famous videos that went around the world right after the first subprime crisis, back in August 2007... A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, huh? Well, over four years have gone by, and they couldn't be more right! And thanks Ramón for your talk on where money comes from... very educational!

A bit of literature for your holidays

Holidays are here! Just the perfect time for some relaxing reading, right? Here's my proposal for you guys: A short story from one of the greatest Canadian writers: Gravel, by Alice Munro. Gravel is a story recently published in the literary magazine The New Yorker, and I'm sure you're gonna enjoy it. Check out the glossary too, with vocabulary you may need to know while reading. And once you're finished reading, you will have to start thinking about the discussion questions below, since we're gonna have a literary debate during the first week of class!

Gravel, a short story by Alice Munro

Glossary from Munro's Gravel
Discussion questions

In case you feel like listening to more stories by Munro during the holidays, here are a couple of audio files containing two stories from Munro's last collection, Too Much Happiness:

Free Radicals

Some Women

Ooops! And happy new year!

Another ad: The Soccer World Cup in Africa

Last Wednesday Ainhoa told us about this ad in class, and, as I can see, she made a pretty good description of what's going on in it. Click on play if you wanna check it out, and thanks Ainhoa for sending the video!

More on Ads: Be Stupid by Diesel

Yesterday we discussed the different emotional appeals that ads may have, and we saw that most of them have a target, and a specific point. Here follows an advertisement by Diesel from last year. Please, watch it and think of the emotional appeal(s) involved, the target, and the point of it. Maybe you would like to start developing your thoughts by actually noting how it makes you feel. Does it have a covert message? You're welcome to express your ideas by commenting this post, or sharing your opinion in class.

Latest news on the Amazon Rainforest

We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. 
The Brazilian Senate passed a bill that weakens Amazon protection just a week ago, with probably far-reaching consequences. To find out more about governments', environmentalists' and scientists' stance, take a look at this article from Nature magazine.

Seasonal Forests

Remember the motto Think global, act local we were talking about in class the other day? Well, now we're gonna go from the local to the global: Here follows an awesome documentary on Seasonal Forests all over the world, by BBC Planet Earth. Please, enjoy the scenery, the images are just stunning . But, of course -and  not to forget what we're here for, before watching the video, complete the worsheet below:

Seasonal Forests: Students' worksheet

Work on the new vocabulary, and read the listening comprehension questions, you should be able to answer these as you watch the video, or once you've watched it.
And now, enjoy the documentary:

Planet Earth: Seasonal Forests

(NOTE: If you want to have English subtitles on it, download this file Seasonal Forests_English subtitles, and save it in the same folder as the .avi file above. Then use theVLC media player to reproduce the .avi file.)

Have a beautiful and relaxing week!

SOS Public Education: We will survive!

Recorded by fellow teachers in a Valdemoro secondary school. You rock guys! Keep it up!