Thursday 28/11

Today we did some more work on the metaphors, then discussed "living libraries", including a listening exercise. This led us to some idioms concerning opinions (U2.2). I also gave out a photocopy on conditionals.

Tues 26/11/13

Today we worked on conditionals (hard!) and started looking at metaphors (U2.1 & 2.2)

Thursday 21/11/13

Today we did some speaking practice based on certain expressions and idioms from the book. We then looked at some standard and alternative conditional forms

         Talking about the conditional

Last Thursday, after the class, I came across a sentence with an interesting use of conditional. It belongs to a novel  that I'm currently reading, In the Country of Last Things, by Paul Auster. It's a book worth reading (you can find it in the E.O.I. Library). This is the quotation:

"I had no friends, no one to talk to, no one to share a meal with. If not for the picture of Sam, I don't think I would have made it. Just knowing that he was in the city gave something to hope for."

Tues 19/11

Today we did a cloze test and some speaking to look at "false friends" in the area of Higher Education. We then started Unit 2 in the book, discussing "words of wisdom" (BTW, anybody recognise the quote?)

My profile

Hi everybody! My name is Margari. I'm from Santander and I've lived here nearly all my life. I say nearly, because in 1997 I moved to Holland where I lived for eight years. It was a great experience and I still have very good memories from that period.

As to my profession, I am an infant and primary school teacher and I love it. I got my degree in English and Spanish in 1980 and though it seems to me as it was yesterday, the truth is that thirty three years have already gone by.

At first, I was involved in vocational training, working at Decroly (a public vocational institute in Santander) for seventeen years. That is a long time so as you can imagine, most of my friends come from that period. Then life took me to Amsterdam where I worked as a free-lance teacher for various Dutch organizations, teaching Spanish.

In 2006, I was lucky enough to pass the state exams to become a civil servant. Since then, I've been working at Doctor Madrazo School in Vega de Pas, where I teach English to children from 3 to 12 years old. I would like to stay there for two or three more years and then my preference would be to find a nice school near where I live. Vega de Pas is too far away! Fortunately, I needn't drive every single day because I carpool with four other colleagues but it's still a long journey!

I'm doing this C1 course so that I can improve my oral skills. My English is a bit rusty at the moment so I hope to widen my vocabulary and get back the fluency I once had.

I'm looking forward to taking part in this course. Enjoy learning, which is also my goal!

MY PERSONAL PROFILE.

 Hello to anyone who is reading this.

My name is Mar Montes. I’m from Aguilar de Campoo, which is in Palencia, but I’ve been living in Cantabria for the last thirty years. I studied, found a job, bought a house and my children were born here.

When I was at school I studied French because everybody did that in those years, but I was always sure that English would be the language of the future so, when I started my degree to work as a teacher, I enrolled in the group studying to be an English teacher.

When I finished my studies I lived in England for a year as an au-pair girl. Once I came back, I became a civil servant after working in a private school for three months and after studying a lot to pass the usual exams.

I’m really happy teaching English but each year I experience a bigger gap between the children and me. I feel they’re used to learning in a different way. Although I try to learn to use new technologies in my lessons I find it extremely difficult because it changes faster than my capacity to learn.

In my free time I like to be with my two children, my husband, with my dogs, my relatives and my friends.  I love dancing, travelling and trekking. I try to travel abroad at least once a year and to spend as much time as I can outside my house and my village, but if I have to stay in I never feel bored because I always have many different things to do.

That’s a bit about me, thanks for paying attention to my essay.

October 2013.

Thurs 14/11

Today we looked at a whole lot of vocabulary - words , phrases and typical collocations - to talk about education.

Tues 12/11

Today we did some video and audio listening; we also did the preparation for a piece of writing for homework

Achmed

Thanks to Alejandro for this:

Tues 5/11/13

Today being Guy Fawkes night, we looked at vocab to do with fire. We then did a listening in section 1.3 and looked briefly at "vague language" and "language of speculation"

My thoughts exactly, Mr Floyd...

Thursday 31/10

Today we managed to ignore Hallowe'en completely!! Instead we analysed our personality using the supposedly-scientific Myers-Briggs Test, doing a bit of listening practice on the way.