FINAL EVALUATION.

Final evaluation of first of Batxillerat answering these questions:

Observing your portfolio, can you see an improvement on your level on English since September 2007? Where, for example?
I think that I get better during this year, overcoat, in writing.
I can see a little bit improvement in news, for example, but I think that I can see a higher advance if I observe the blog, there, I do 30 enters, and each one it’s better than the other.

Which activity best shows your level of English?
There are a lot of activities which shows well my English level, for instance, the oral presentation’s video, or the summaries from the news, and films…
But, how I said before, where you can really see how I redact, and all of my knows is in the blog.

Which activities were really USEFUL for you to improve your English? Why?
I think that we do a lot of activities, and we spend a lot of time, but I have to say that it’s true that I learn a lot doing blog and orals presentations.
The oral presentation, for instance, is a funny form to learn English, and for me, the most important part from the English, the speaking.
Oh, I forget to say a really important thing, I believe, that talking with Anika, is one of the best forms to improve our English, and really funny too.

Which activities did you not find useful to learn English? Why not?
I’m not really happy with some activities from the portfolio, I don’t like to evaluate my partners, or, do three news summaries…
I know that maybe I am learning when I do these things, but on the one hand, the improvement is really slow, and on the other hand we spend a lot of time, and you know that we have a lot of exams, works…
I think that if you say, for example, you must do 5 blogs enters, and one new summary in the portfolio… we will be happier to do the work, but in my opinion, nowadays there are so much occupation.

Mr and Ms Smith.

The other day, Anna and I watched a really nice movie in the language room: Mr and Ms Smith.
I never wanted to watch this film, because I think that it will be really boring, but my friend insists me and she had the reason, the film is so good.

This is a little summary about the film:

Jane and John Smith is an ordinary, unhappy married couple. They met in Bogota 5 or 6 years ago. They both used each other to stay out of suspicion from the government authorities looking for tourists traveling by themselves.
Mr. Smith leaves the house each morning, supposedly heading for his job as a big-money contractor; he's actually off to work as a secret agent. And, when Mrs. Smith claims to be heading for her job on Wall Street, she's actually off to work as, also, like a secret agent…Before discover their other half's secret, the pair go on to banter and quip their way through countless explosions, punch-ups and shoot-outs. Sometimes both are trying to kill the same person, and at other times they're simply trying to kill each other. At the last moment they wanted to kill each other, but they finished making love.

New words:
suspicionà sospita.
Shootà disparo.

EXAMS. opinion essay from the exam.

Too much importance is given to taking exams at school. Do you agree?

Nowadays, at schools, pupils have to do a lot of exams during the year, overcoat during the end of each term. Normally, we say that this is a really bad and boring thing, because we must study a lot and we haven’t time for our hobbies… but if I think well, I believe that doing exams is really important so, I agree with the first sentence.
On the one hand, if we don’t do exams there will be so many people, who study so much, and others, the lazy ones, who don’t study anything, and we can prove this without tests.
Somebody who doesn’t do anything can have the same mark than someone who works a lot, so, this isn’t fair, but, on the other hand, life without exams can improve our responsibility, if no one controls our work we have to do things for ourselves.
We also must do exams because it makes that everybody who is really interested in achieving a good future, feels more satisfied if every each time he is evaluated.
Another important thing to do exams is that if we should learn things to achieve a good mark, the lessons will be, more or less, compulsory, if not, there will be a lot of people who don’t come to class.
In conclusion, in my opinion, if we don’t do exams the school will be really disorder.

informal dialogue.

Dialogue between Anna and me.

- Hello, Ann!

- Hello! How are you dear?

- I'm a little bit nervous...

- Why?

- Well, beacuse I have a lot of exams this week and I have to work really hard.

- Oh, yes! Me too, and time runs really fast

.- Sure! The biggest problem is that I need a really high mark to get to University.

- What mark do you need to get?

- An 8,5! I want to be a doctor!

- Oh, you want to study medicine? It's a nice degree!

- Sure, and what do you want to do?

- I want to study journalism.

- Oh, this is also nice, and what mark do you need?

- I need a 7,5!

- Oh, this is really high too!

- Yes... I know, if I can't get this mark I'll study languages, I love them too!

- Oh, I believe you, I remember that some years ago you were the best in English classes.

- Oh Claudia, I wasn't...! ;p

- Yes, you were! By the way, where do you want to study?

- In Barcelona, of course, I don't like Girona very much.

- Me neither. I want to go to Barcelona too! We can live together in the same flat!

- Oh yes, it's true. It will be really funny!

- Sure! How do you imagine life in Barcelona? :)

- Oh, it has to be fantastic... We'll have to study really hard but we can also go out to a lot of places, like "Up and Down", "Costa Breve", "The Sutton", ... and all of these exiting discos! :D

- Oh my God! But you are forgeting a really important thing: THE SHOOPS!

- It's trueeee! It will be fantastic!

partner's orals presentations.

First, I want to say that all of us have done a really good work.

- ORIOL OLIVA:
He talked about water.

Facts I’ve learnt:
Water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen.
It doesn’t smell, it’s transparent and, of course, essential for survive.
In the world there is a lot of water, but only a 3% is fresh water, the other 97% is salty water which we can’t use.
Nowadays never rain because the cycle of the water, which Oriol also explain with a power point, is irregular, so we are having a lot of problems with this necessary element.
Ideas for my oral presentation: He put a lot of pictures behind the texts to help him.
Do I have any question: Do you use a lot of water? No I don’t.
General Impression: I think he did a good oral presentation, although he read a little bit and the topic wasn’t really interesting.

- BERNARDO SANTOS AND IÑAKI FERNANDEZ:
They talked about "Crimes in United Stated of America" USA: a very dangerous country.

Facts I've learnt: I learn a lot of things with this oral presentation.
Russia and USA are the places where are more homicides, and, why there are a lot of homicides in USA? The answer is really simple: because they can take really easy a gun.
Black people, there, do more crimes than white people to survive, there are a lot of differences between rich and poor ones.
The most dangerous cities are Baltimore, Detroit, Dc…
Ideas for my oral presentation: Choose an original topic like their!
General Impression: I think that the topic is really interesting and they do really a really good oral. Bernardo, normally, talks English really good.

- CHAINEZ SELLOUM:
She talked about "The famine"

Facts I’ve learnt:
She explained to us some sad things, like:
One child dies every five second a day for famine.
The causes for famine are:
Expensive aliments, there are a lot of people in poor countries, and some epidemic diseases.
To resolve this problem, there are some organizations like:
“Food and agriculture organization of United States” or "World Food" (the biggest humanitarian organization of the world).
Ideas for my oral presentation: She is very expressive, and this is a positive point ;)
General Impression: I always say the same, her English is so good, but, this time, I don’t enjoy with the topic so much, I have to say that she explained a lot of interesting things but it was so long.

- ELISENDA LLADÓ AND LAIA SALÓ:
They talked about "Helpless dogs"

Facts I’ve learnt:
Each year there are more or less, 200.000 animal abandonment, which is a lot.
Sometimes, for example, people go on holidays and they can’t take care of their animals, so they leave behind them.
There are some solutions, like associations… but not so much.
This problem has some consequences, of course, bad consequences, for instance, there are more traffic accidents, germs and diseases…
Ideas for my oral presentation: They did an emotive power point, so nice.
General Impression: They did a good oral presentation, I think that their level is standard, they didn’t do a lot of mistakes but they didn’t do an impressive show.

- MARINA SARQUELLA:
She talked about "Natural disasters".

Facts I've learnt:
She explained to us water and weather disasters, she did a nice power point with some pictures which exciting a lot.
I also learned some vocabulary: Flods = inundacions, hailstorms: granissada.
Ideas for my oral presentation: She showed us a lot of impacted photos!
General Impression: I think that Marina always choose nice topics, I enjoy her orals presentations. I think that she did a good work.

- ADRIÀ ALFARO:
He talked about "Skinheads"

Facts I've learnt:
I didn't know that Skinheads appeared too many years ago in England and Jamaica.
There are a lot of different groups of this type of people, and there are also really diverse between them.
RASH is the most radical Skinhead's group.
Ideas for my oral presentation: He always do a long oral presentation and he gives us a lot of information, I don’t like so much the topics which he choose, so I don’t enjoy a lot, but I have to say that his orals always are good.
General Impression: He did a good oral presentation, like I said before, but I think that he must be more expressive.

- NEUS PAGÈS AND MARINA JULIÀ:
They talked about "diseases" like Bulimia, AIDS...

Facts I've learnt: I knew a lot of things about this topic because I always find information about illness, and all of this things, but I learn some new things, like:
Each day, die 2 persons about anorexia o bulimia, and every day this illness is improving.
Ideas for my oral presentation: A good power-point!
General Impression: They did a good presentation, the topic wasn’t really original but I love this kind of topics, so I enjoy.

- ADRIÀ CARMONA AND ALEJANDRO PEÑA:
They talked about "The waste".

Facts I've learnt:
They explained us the waste, the rubbish in the streets (plastic bags, cigarettes, batteries, condoms, glass, etc.) Isn’t a difficult topic, and nowadays you can hear about it in news… so, I don’t learn so much things.
Ideas for my oral presentation: Bring objects to explain more things about the topic. General Impression: They did a good oral.

- BALDIRI GIRONELLA:
He talked about "Hooliganism".
I wasn’t surprise about he chose this topic because he loves football and, in general, the sports world.

Facts I've learnt:
The word "Hooliganism" is from Patrick Hooligan.
I think that I learn a lot of things in this oral, because I don’t know anything about football, and hooliganism, etc, but I’m not really interesting about it.
Ideas for my oral presentation: He always does a good oral presentation and not really complicated, he didn’t look nervous.
General Impression: Good!

- Ariadnca Comas.
She talked about Ill-treated animals

Facts I’ve learnt:
Every year thousand of animal are used to different experiments. There are a lot of people who consider the animals only like a form to make money.
Do I have any question: Do you have animals? Yes, I have cats.
Ideas for my presentation: She gave us a lot of information.
General impression: good!

- Miriam and Anna Genís
They talked about “poverty & podronage”

Facts I’ve learnt.
They act as a good father since 2001.
Anna for example, started this “work” when she saw in a television program, Operación triunfo, some “offers” of different child.
There is an organization really popular about this, which is: Vicenç Ferrer, and it started his work six years ago.
I learned some vocabulary: act as a good father and patronage are synonymous, they mean: apadrinar. Vicenç Ferrer ONG started 6 years ago
Do I have any question? Anna, do you five presents to your girl like Miriam? Yes, I gave her a t-shirt and a skirt.
And, How much money do you pay every month?
We don’t know, but more or less twenty Euros.
Ideas for my presentation:
They talked about personal things which make the oral more affecting.
General impression:They do a good oral presentation, and the power point also was nice and original.
I think that Miriam was so much nervous, she could do a better work, because I know that her English is good.

OUR ORAL PRESENTATION.

I always do the oral presentation with the same partner, Carles, and in my opinion I think that we improve a lot.
I remember when we did our first oral presentation that we must work really hard and the result wasn't really good, and nowadays, our last oral presentation, for example, in my opinion it's really good and, we have worked a lot, but not like some orals before.
I think that I improve in different things:
I improve my pronunciation
I can do the orals without nervous.
I improve my vocabulary...

we have done a really good work! :D