Wednesday 25 March 2020

Free books for your quarantine

Well-known publishing houses have announced that some of their works are now posted for free on their website! 

Here's a list of free books you can access online to enrich your mind and take away your Coronavirus worries.

Digital library Scribd is giving free 30-day access to its wide collection of eBooks and audiobooks.

Alberto Alonso's This Book Is The Meal
A book in Spanish about the English you don't know you know. Good Fun!

Paulo Coelho's novels are now posted for free on his blog.

Click here to access this online library with almost 60,000 free eBooks and educational materials.

Audible Stories
A collection of audible stories, including titles across six different languages. Mainly for kids though it also includes literary classics. Click here to learn how to use the site.

Lit2Go 
Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in mp3 format.

Open Culture
This site includes hundreds of free audiobooks in mp3!

OUP offers free access to Resources for students and teachers.

Cambridge University Press has made higher education textbooks free to access in HTML format

Over 20 publishers on Project Muse have decided to make their contents freely available.

Scholastic                                                
Do you have kids? The editors of Scholastic Classroom Magazines have also launched a collection of kid-friendly resources for learning about coronavirus.

Stay safe!

Saturday 21 March 2020

World Poetry Day

March 21 marks World Poetry Day (WPD)Created by UNESCO in 1999, WPD encourages us to return to the tradition of poetry readings and to place poetry within other literary genres such as novels, short stories and theatre plays. Poetry shouldn't be considered an outdated form of art, but "one which enables society as a whole to regain and assert its identity". Poetry, in other words, has been one of the most powerful forms of expression to convey our most profound feelings and to inspire social change and progress.


To celebrate the greatness of poetry, watch this stimulating talk by Stephen Hurt on why we need poetry.

Poetry, you will see, has many great uses yet one that hasn't been mentioned by Stephen Hurt is its potential to help us perfect a skill that ESL learners find quite challenging: pronunciation. Carla Dechant, one of our English teachers, has very kindly shared with us a Crazy English Pronunciation Poem and some related activities that will help you practice the pronunciation of some of the most difficult spellings in English. Click here to download the worksheet.
Thanks a million, Carla!
Happy Poetry Day to all!

Wednesday 18 March 2020

#StayAtHome with To Kill A Mockingbird

Dear bookworms,
I hope this post finds you well.
As you all know, classes are cancelled for the next two weeks but that does not mean that your reading has to be put on hold. Quite the contrary, we hope that you spend this time reading in English, learning new things and, of course, taking care of yourselves.


Fourteen days can feel like a very long time when stuck in quarantine so why don't you give To Kill A Mockingbird a chance?
There are many websites from which you can legally download the full text for free (here) or where you can read it online (here)
You may also want to listen to the author's only recorded interview about the novel:


Our next book club meeting will probably have to be postponed but we'll figure out a way to share our reading of Harper Lee's novel!
Take care of yourselves!

Tuesday 10 March 2020

Mini sagas "Amigas": A creative writing project with students from EOI Pamplona

Good news!
We are taking part in "Escuelas Amigas" a very inspiring initiative of Laura Escribano, the head of studies of EOI Pamplona, aiming at fostering collaboration among Escuelas de Idiomas.
Our school is collaborating with an English teacher from EOI Pamplona, Carol Sáez,  and her C2 students in a creative writing project titled MINI SAGAS AMIGAS, whose end product can be found on this Padlet.

Hecho con Padlet

 Thanks for your amazing mini sagas!
The next step is to read the mini sagas written by Carol's students and vote for your favourite here


CORRUPTED PRINCIPLES
The road was slippy with rain. From his window he had a good view of the down hill road. He saw the rearless child on a bycicle approaching at higher speed than needed for such a steep downhill. His mouth watering in anticipation... his camera was ready!!

THE IMPORTANCE OF WEARING GLASSES
Overcrowded underground
-Keep away from me, please!
-What's the matter?
-You are a giant coronavirus, bad times for you!
-No, I'm not. I'm Li Kequiang... Your glasses are under your chin.
Sorry, I'll put them on... Nice to meet you, Mr Li Kequiang
- Likewise, Mr Trump.

CHANGES IN VISION
Schoolgrounds, cold and dangerous.
Pestie has arrived.
He looked specially green and yellowish. HE TOUCHED ME!!! I was scared, so I insulted him. Everybody laughed. He took my dad's tie from me - I could breath- Then, he gave me his glasses, I could finally see!
I WAS THE SICK ONE!

WILL YOU?
That day I felt really anxious because I was waiting for it and started thinking it was never going to happen.
My boyfriend got extrimely nervous. Suddenly, he reached out his hand holding a small box.
I opened it and was astonished by what I saw.!
VAT is not included!!!

BONDS OF INNOCENCE
Different cultures, separate ethnic groups. However, best friends at school.
No sooner did they grow than prejudices were meekly assumed. Years of distrust and misconceptions followed.
Then S has a pram.
Now, jump off the barriers.
Go, M, go!
An accomplice smile over the innocence stirred their lost friendship.

SPANISH PICARESQUE
During the Barcelona Olympics, next to the "Sagrada Familia", an Italian car had been fined for improper parking.
The Italian never understood why he had two identical fines at home when back from vacation.
A Spanish driver also parked imprperly and simply put the first Italian fine on his windshield.

SILENCE
He woke up surrounded by darkness.
Silence.
He had some battery left on the phone but no signal at all.
Midnight.
His chest was burning, his clothes were stained.
Blood.
He felt anxious and trapped.
"Let me out!"
A scream was heard from six feet under the ground.
Then, silence.

HOW "YOU CAN NEVER TELL A BOOK BY ITS COVER" HAS STILL THINGS TO SAY
The phone was almost running out of battery yet I wasn't able to find out what I was seeking. Amongst the photo philters something was missing, they didn't reflect what my heart was singing.
For though I close my eyes, all I see is la vie en rose.

GAME OF CROWNS
Everyone in the Seven Kingdoms witnessed the death of every single one of the candidates to sit on the Iron Throne.
But in the end, Queen Daenerys Targaryen was able to reach her goal, only to end up dead.
It was a pity that Coronavirus also got to her.

THE DENTIST
I needed to see a dentist. I saw her name and I remembered her. We were schoolmates.
With this physical appearence, she could not be the same appealing girl I remembered. When she finished, I told her she was in my classroom.
She asked me: What did you teach me?

PRIORITATION
The virus has been finally cornered. It has been an intense fight and even though it was not a landslide win, after 2 billion deaths this fatal disease has been completely eradicated.
The victims are mainly concentrated in Afruca and South America where the population was more vulnerable.
RIP Famine

WE ARE ALL NOISE ANIMALS. OR ARE WE?
First, the screeching tyres, then the breathtaking scream and finally the thump.
We heard the bones cracking and the body hitting the asphalt. And then again the engine roaring, the raging multitude dragging the driver through the window, the lynching...
And the end: the rope creaoking over the dog's corpse.

Voting will be enabled until March 22nd and the winners will be announced on March 24th. Thanks in advance!
Enjoy!