MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

In this loviest of seasons, I just wanted to wish you all a time of blessings and love. May the melody and spirit of the holidays fill your heart with peace and joy! 

Happy Christmas! May this new year bring happiness and new goals and achievements!

A COFFEE AND A CHAT EXPERIENCE: POLITICS AT THE LIBRARY

Our library has opened its doors to our traditional "Café con Letras", which has become a classic speaking activity at school that both teachers and students love. I took advantage of this wonderful opportunity that the school library team gives us every year to move my students forward and get them talk about politics over a coffee and a nice snack.

It seems obvious that the issue was tough, so we tried to analyse the results of the elections in Andalusia by making some optimistic predictions on the future of the region. Some even dared to speculate about the future in Spain!

I would like to thank my students for their passion and motivation when doing this activity. It was really rewarding to find them going on with their discussions even once the class had already come to an end! This is what really makes teaching worth it! Arousing my students' interest and curiosity at the library tables has been a pleasure. That is why I keep going every year. In fact, I am already looking forward to our next "Café con Letras" experience!  

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Our students' association is back and they are already organizing amazing events at school. Next Wednesday, right after the dessert competition, they are holding a concert. Come and join us for some music fun before the holiday season!

 

CHRISTMAS AT SCHOOL

Our school is getting ready for Christmas. We have already put up our Christmas tree at the entrance hall to welcome Santa!! That is why next 19 December we will be holding our traditional "Dessert Competition". Students may participate with their best recipes and the desserts will be paper judged. Winners will be notified on the sport! Then, all visitors may try the fabulous dishes as an anticipation of our long hoped for Christmas holiday.

Visit the school website to have a look at the competition terms and join us for a Christmas celebration at school!

ITip of December

Voicepods is a service that makes it super simple for anyone to create realistic text to speech in 8 voices (male, female and different accents). It even allows you to take real control of what your voice will sound like, adding pauses, spelling out how great things are or creating emphasis. 

It is as easy as taking any written work and converting it to human-like audio. Using the handy voice control features will add the final touch!

I have already started using it in my classes. But it might also be a great tool for students to read-along and practice pronunciation and story telling. 

Give it a try! You´ll love it!

LET'S GET INTO TRIATHLON!

The school is joining in the action in May 2019 as triathlon returns to the heart of Pontevedra. With the blue carpet set to be rolled once again for the finish line, the World Championship is our opportunity to take part and get involved in city life. We are looking for volunteers at school who might be interested in joining! So, stay tuned for more news! Coming up soon!

ITip OF NOVEMBER

Hi everyone,

It might be a bit too late in the month, but I didn't want to finish November without posting a new ITip. Time for pronunciation! Now that I'm teaching C1.2, I've noticed that many of my students have a good knowledge of grammar and even vocabulary, but when it comes to pronunciation they keep making mistakes that I wouldn't expect at this level. So, my new ITip is for those who are really worried about pronouncing correctly and let vowels follow their own way!

YouGlish uses the daddy of all video sites, YouTube, to let students practise pronunciation. It provides students with answers as it shows how English is spoken all around the world by real speakers and in a real context. It is simple and quite easy to use. Just have to type the word or even expression you want to learn and click on "Say it!"... and there it goes, hundreds or even thousands!!! of videos where you can hear both native and non native speakers in a wide variety of situations will pop up. Don't you think it is great?

I use it a lot in class to practise the pronunciation of difficult vocabulary and it works. It's fun, enjoyable and pretty practical!

ENGLISH CONVERSATION CLASSES WITH ROSS

If you are a B1 or B2.1 student at school, this information is vital for you. Are you keen on learning? Looking forward to enhance your speaking skills? Willing to make new friends? Join conversation classes at school starting november 13. Hope to see you all there! 

HALLOWEEN READING TIME

Halloween is coming up. Why don't you enjoy it reading a good creepy book?

If you love chilling mysteries and psychological thrillers, have a look at the spooky selection of books our school library team has prepared for you all at the school entrance. They will make your hair stand on end and won´t allow you to sleep at night!

VOLUNTEER PROGRAMME AT SCHOOL: SUPPORT OUR LIBRARY

As usual at this time of the year, the school library is opening up its volunteer programme. Would you like to join and support our school? We need you!! Take part in this rewarding experience and assist others in your community by volunteering now.

For more information about the programme at the library have a look at the school website.

By becoming a volunteer you are making a valuable contribution to school!

JOIN THE BOOK CLUBS AT SCHOOL!

Are you keen on reading? Would you also like to improve your speaking skills? The CHAPTER CHAT SOCIETY invites you to join "Working out with the English Book Club". Enjoy a wide variety of books and relax in the perfect atmosphere! 

Click here for more information on registration and meetings! 

Best of all... You can also bring in friends or relatives with you, because book clubs at school are open to everybody who is fond of reading!

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS TODAY!

ITip of October

I'm afraid I´m getting old because I have totally forgotten whether I have already shared this wonderful site with you. Anyway, it's great, it can be fun and I love it so, here I am again posting it as the ITip for October: Vocaroo. It is a quick online voice recording app where you can record voice messages and, afterwards, share them with others via email, social media or a personal webpage. You can record and share messages online with no restrictions at all and it allows you to preview your own recording before sending it. 

I am encouraging my students to use it at home to share their recordings with me. So, I will soon post some of their works! 

OUR SCHOOL LIBRARY IS OPENING UP SOON

Our school is opening up 15 October. 

Click on the image for more info. Come and have a look!

WELCOME TO OUR BRAND-NEW C1.2!!

Here we go! It´s time for a new beginning. Time for a new challenge. And for it I would like to welcome all my C1.2 students this year. We are embarking on a new adventure and I´m really looking forward to it. Just for a start, here is the presentation we are going to discuss in class and the document that tells everything we need to know about the brand-new level. Can you meet the challenge?

SEPTEMBER... I AM COMING!

This is going to be a year of new beginnings at school. Our plan of studies is about to change and I myself am going to embark on a new adventure teaching C1.

Stay tuned for more information on dates and times for the beginning of the course. Check the school website and join us for the magic of a new beginning!

ITip of MAY: KAIZENA

I know it's a bit too late in the month but I'm sure you're all aware how busy we have been these days!. However, late is better than never!! Here is the ITip for the month of May: Kaizena. So far, you know how it works. It helps both students and teachers improve writing skills in class by making corrections and comments on tasks using a colour code. Whenever you send me a writing, share it on google drive and activate your Kaizena Add on. Magic will start then!

EOI PONTEVEDRA: NOVIDADES CURSO 18-19

Next 31 May at 13.00 and 19.30 there´ll be a meeting at school to inform students about the new upcoming study system for school year 2018-2019. Don´t miss it!!

EOI PONTEVEDRA: NOVIDADES CURSO 18-19 from paulokagomez

LANGUAGE FESTIVAL AT SCHOOL

Come and join us for the LANGUAGE FESTIVAL at school. Lots of literature, music and fun!! Galician, German and English students are paying tribute to Mª Victora Moreno on Wednesday 9 May. Don´t miss it!

FESTIVAL DA LINGUA 2018

OUR WEBWHITEBOARD: PROHIBITION, OBLIGATION, NECESSITY AND PERMISSION

Hi everybody!

learning the modals of prohibition, obligation, necessity and permission can be lots of fun, can't it? We discovered it in class today with our INTERACTIVE WEBWHITEBOARD. Now you can have a look at all your drawings and even draw some more signs to let your mates guess what they mean. 

Are you very artistic? Do you have a gift with drawing? If so, click on the link above and try your own design. Then, write what the other signs mean on the comment section below.

Remember that the board expires in 21 days.... so hurry up! If you need to check your grammar, go to UNIT 6A above!

SCHOOL TRIP

You can join the Portuguese Department on the trip to Portugal. Do you feel like sharing new experencies, meeting new friends and learning about a different culture? This is the right thing to do, then! Talk to the teachers and take part in the adventure.

BOOK DAY

As you all know, next Monday is Book Day and it will be time to celebrate authors, illustrators, books and, most of all, reading. I would like all of you to come together and share your favourite book with us. Don´t miss this wonderful opportunity to encourage our school community to explore the pleasure of books. Go to our school facebook or Twitter and share a picture with your best smile!!!

 

#comparte_o_teu_libro_favorito

Thanks for sharing!!!

ITip OF APRIL

Phonetics Focus is a site powered by Cambridge English online. It has been designed for both teachers and students to use technology in order to practise and improve their phonetics knowledge. After so many months, it is still easy to find new resources for you to learn online!!!

On Phonetics Focus you can enjoy a wide range of fun resources designed to improve your phonetics and pronunciation. Different buttons will lead you to a great variety of activities to practise and enhance phonetics as a tool to improve your English speaking skills.

This is the perfect app to help you with your English pronunciation and it is also available for iOS on your App Store, where you can record your own voice and enjoy over 20 practice activities.

Have fun with it!

 

PROBAS CERTIFICACIÓN 2018

 EXAM TIME IS ALMOST HERE!!

Xa está publicada na páxina web da EOI toda a información relativa ao calendario e desenvolvemento das probas de certificación de nivel básico, intermedio, avanzado e C1 que terán lugar na escola durante os meses de xuño e setembro. 

Terán que realizar as probas de nivel INTERMEDIO todolos meus alumnos.....!! Para todos eles, ahí van unhas cantas recomendacións!! Incluíndo algún que outro consello sobre como afrontar unha proba destas características:

• Consultade o calendario de xuño e setembro para as probas escritas (comprensión escrita, comprensión oral, expresión escrita), único para todas as EOI de Galicia.

• O calendario para as probas de expresión oral será fixado pola Escola, podendo ter lugar antes ou despois das probas escritas. O calendario xeral definitivo das probas orais será publicado, alén de nos taboleiros da Escola, na mesma páxina web da EOI, na categoría do departamento correspondente.

Por último, é altamente recomendable que consultedes tamén a guía do candidato de nivel Intermedio e os modelos de exames de anos anteriores que proporciona a Xunta de Galicia. 

Good luck everybody....!! and as I know that my intensive intermediate level students are really worried about these exams, I have just prepared a document with links to different language schools in Spain and mock exams to practise. Just copy the links on your navigation bar and enjoy!! 

... And don´t forget that "Practice makes perfect"!!

ITip of MARCH: My English Pages

My English Pages is an English students' website that allows you to study English from scratch online! It offers you vocabulary, grammar and speaking lessons and provides English students with exercises, tests and many other resources. If you want to learn English in a fun way, this is your site!

FILM FESTIVAL 2018: HEALTHY FILMS

The film festival at school is exclusively dedicated to English next week. WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY will be screened in its original version with subtitles. The length of the film is 1h30m and it will be on next...

Tuesday 13 March at 20.00 
Wednesday 14 18.30
Thursday 15 18.30

Friday 16 March 10.30. 

What we did on our holiday is a British comedy-drama film inspired by the BBC show Outnumbered.Let´s warm up a little by watching the trailer. I hope it makes you come to school and watch it with us!!

After watching the film next week, I would like you to share your opinion with us. Open the comment section below and write your own ideas about the film. You could include a summary of the story, mention other films that it is similar to or describe what you particularly liked or disliked about it. 

Use the "Reacciones" section below to give us your rating about the film!!

IX CERTAME DE MICRORRELATO EN GALEGO

O Equipo de Dinamización da Lingua Galega da EOI de Pontevedra, en colaboración coa Concellaría de Normalización Lingüística do Concello de Pontevedra convoca o IX Certame de Microrrelato en Galego "EOI de Pontevedra". Participa!

CONCURSO " O GALEGO TAMÉN NOUTROS MUNDOS"

Equipo Dinamización Lingua Galega EOI Pontevedra: CONCURSO " O GALEGO TAMÉN NOUTROS MUNDOS": Visita a exposición, completa o cuestionario e consegue grandes premios!!

SCHOOL EVALUATION SURVEY

The School Evaluation Survey is here!!

Most students know that this time of the year is the moment when we all look back to think about our performance as teachers. The school is really interested in knowing if its work is really relevant. That's why I would appreciate you taking a few minutes to fill in this evaluation form. The deadline is extended until Wednesday, 28 February. We are hoping to achieve full participation this year. This is your opportunity to help us work towards positive change. 

The survey remains anonymous so feel free to support the school and participate.Thank you for taking your time to complete this survey!!

PODCAST IN ENGLISH

Hi everyone!

It's been ages since I last updated my ITip section. Here is a new website for you to learn English effectively: Podcast in English. This is a podcast site for English learners which includes real English conversations with different levels of difficulty. 

All podcasts are free for language learners but if you become a member you will be able to receive worksheets, vocabulary tasks, scripts and many other highlights. 

Become a pie member and don't stop learning!

LIVE TALK AT SCHOOL: STRANGE BRITISH SPORTS AND CURIOUS COMPETITIONS

The British taste for celebrating eccentricity has been well illustrated throughout the years. British people have been keen on a wide variety of light-hearted games and sports for ages. 

Aside from the classic sports we all know and love, tennis, football, cricket, rugby..., there are some truly weird sports that we think you absolutely have to try.That's why we are helding a live talk at school next Thursday 8 March at 16.30. Join in to know about how many deeply odd sports the British are really good at.