Summer Holidays. Blogquest

Summer holidays! Don't you just love the sound of those two words? Every school year we look forward to that week long trip we will take. Summer vacation is your chance to forget about school and have fun. This summer, you can't wait to go on vacation! The trip is almost three weeks away. You and your family are so excited you can hardly wait! You and your brother decide to take a walk. As you walk out the front door you spot a note on the refrigerator. You go to read the note...

Before start, have a look at this conceptual map, it may be very useful

The Task

Dear children:

Your father and I had to leave unexpectedly for a business trip to Atlanta, Georgia. This has left us with no time to plan our family vacation. Based on our family talks, we have chosen these three cities: New York City, New York; Los Angeles, California; and Miami, Florida. We have decided to leave the final location up to you.

It is important for you to consider the following information as you make your decision. We are looking for the lowest possible airfares, hotels, and car rentals.

Process

First, you will be divided into groups of four. Two group members will be responsible for each job titles, bargain hunter and trip planner. Once you have been assigned your roles, you will then proceed to research your topic. There are three cities you will be comparing:

Los Angeles, California

New York City, New York

Miami, Florida

The two different job descriptions are given below.

Evaluation

You will be evaluated on an individual and group basis. Individually, you will be graded on how well you completed your role in the group project. As a group, you will be evaluated based on how well your group has analyzed and combined the information you have gathered.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You were given a task to accomplish and you have succeeded. You should have learned:

• How to search the Web sites to find exactly what you were looking for.
• How to navigate sites to pick out important information and translated this information into a descriptive brochure.
• How to compare three different possibilities, along with their costs and advantages.
• How to make a decision based on what you have found.

Good job! You are all going on summer holidays! Fun and laughter on your vacations! Now you can relax and just listen to this song:

What do the British read?

The British have a long standing tradition as a literary nation including a whole range of works which are internationally known: Shakespeare´s plays, novels by Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, poems by Byron and Shelley and popular fiction by writers such as Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But what do British people actually read? You might think that this strong literary heritage makes British people spend a lot of time and money on classic literature. But this is not necessarily the case. Do you wanto to find it out? Please continue reading ...

Living in London

There are a lot of words written and sad about London. It is a capital of Great Britain. It is the most crowded city in Europe. It´s history goes back to the Romans. It is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport. London has a diverse range of peoples, cultures and religions, and more than 300 languages are spoken within its boundaries.

Teaching the Brain enjos

According to the recent research improving students' working memories will help increase IQ and other cognitive abilities. Sprenger doesn't promote rote memorization, but she does note that much of the work done with working memory involves simple rehearsals, or "training" working memory, which can be done by showing students simple problems, removing the problems from their vision, and then asking them to figure out the solution. Memorizing short selections, like poems, will help them work on strategies to store and retrieve information.

The Mother´s Day

Top Secret! This Mother´s Day guide is just for kids!
Mom wants you to have nothing but the best. Why not return the favor this Mother´s Day and give her a gift she´ll adore? Just choose:

Idea Nº1: Breakfast in Bed
Idea Nº 2: Spa Retreat
Idea Nº 3: Sing a song.

The American melting pot

The people who left their homelands and came to America all had one thing in common: the hope for a new life and prosperity. Many were escaping unemployment, poor housing, overpopulation and harsh weather conditions. The only people who did not share the dream of a better life were the blacks who where brought over as slaves to work in the cotton fields of the South. They could be bought and sold whenever their masters wanted. They had no right to own property, to associate with white people or sometimes even to stay together as a family. If they tried to escape, they were severely punished or even killed.

Tools for the classroom. Google Docs.

It is true that Google is taking over everything, they are perfecting everything in the most simple way to make everything easier to access and share, and that is surely not restricting people in any way. It is an easy-to-use online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that enables you and your students to create, store and share instantly and securely, and collaborate online in real time. You can create new documents from scratch or upload existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. There's no software to download and. It’s absolutely free!

A new stage of life

Old people, older people, the elderly, pensioners, old boys or girls, retired people, senior citizens, ..., we have a variety of expressions to refer to people over 60. Some of the terms are considered more politically correct than others but, however you describe them, the majority of older people face similar problems.

In a recent survey, 45% of older people said that financial difficulties were their biggest problem. Many of them live alone, and their only source of income is the state pension. A large percentage of this income is spent on housing, food, heating and light, leaving a very small amount for clothing, transport and entertainment. In the winter, some older people worry about paying fuel bills and so economise on the cost of food. It is estimated that about two million older people have problems keeping warm and eating well in the U.K.  Do you think this situation is the same in Spain? Please, let us know your opinion.....

How Government works in The United Kingdom

The Bristish Constitution is not written down. The rules are a mixture of conventions and laws that have been developed over many years. For example, they have a prime minister because of convention. They have a general election at least every five years because of the law. At a general election, every British man and woman aged eighteen and over can vote, but it is not compulsory.

What makes the British laugh?

Modern British humour derives from the music-hall tradition which had its most popular period at the begining of the 20th century. Singers, dancers, comedians and acrobats performed in "turns" to provide light theatrical entertainment. Bristish humour today is mainly urban in character, though only specific urban areas produce comediants. People from nothern cities like Liverpool and Manchester are funny because the alternative is suicidal dispair. Rural areas do not really generate humour because the British take the countryside seriously. Just click at the following link to discover what really makes the British laugh!

Eton School

Prince Harry and Prince William went there. David Cameron (the current prime minister of the UK) and 18 other British prime ministers did too. Eton is one of England´s most famous schools.
The full name of Eton is “The King´s College for Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor”. The school was founded by King Henry VI in 1440. The boys-only school was set up as a charity to provide free education to poor boys, who would then go on to King´s College, Cambridge.

About Valentine’s Day

The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496,

declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day.

Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270. According to the legend, Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men. Claiming then bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies bat eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. Another legend says that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he was executed, he sent her a letter signed “from your Valentine". Probably the most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on passionate love but on Christian love: he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion.

Yo hablo en español

Mientras que la mitad de los ciudadanos de la Unión Europea hablan al menos otra lengua distinta de la materna, el inglés predominantemente, sólo el 27% de los españoles puede expresarse en este idioma. Estas son las conclusiones de un Eurobarómetro realizado en el año 2008.

Esta situación es muy distinta en la mayoría de los países europeos. El 89% de los suecos por ejemplo puede hablar inglés, o el 87 % de los holandeses, el 86% de los daneses, el 48% de los griegos o el 32% de los portugueses. Únicamente los húngaros y checos están por debajo de nosotros.

¿Cuáles piensas que podrían ser las causas? Tal vez la peninsularidad de nuestro territorio que nos hace estar algo más aislados del resto de Europa. O Quizá sea el tradicionalismo cultural de España...

Pueden ser múltiples las causas. ¡Expresad vuertra opinión al respecto!