Today's Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a US Federal Holiday. It commemorates civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. It is celebrated on the third Monday in January and is one of only four United States Federal holidays to honor an individual person.

BIOGRAPHY
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a civil rights activist in the 1950s and 1960s. He led non-violent protests to fight for the rights of all people including African Americans. He hoped that America and the world could become a colorblind society where race would not impact a person's civil rights. He is considered one of the great orators of modern times, and his speeches still inspire many to this day. 

CHILDHOOD
 Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15, 1929. He went to Booker T. Washington High School. He was so smart that he skipped two grades in high school. He started his college education at Morehouse College at the young age of fifteen. After getting his degree in sociology from Morehouse, Martin got a divinity degree from Crozer Seminary and then got his doctor's degree in theology from Boston University. Martin's dad was a preacher which inspired Martin to pursue the ministry. He had a younger brother and an older sister. In 1953 he married Coretta Scott. Later, they would have four children including Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, and Bernice. 

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST
In his first major civil rights action, Martin Luther King, Jr. led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. She was arrested and spent the night in jail. As a result, Martin helped to organize a boycott of the public transportation system in Montgomery. The boycott lasted for over a year. It was very tense at times. Martin was arrested and his house was bombed. In the end, however, Martin prevailed and segregation on the Montgomery buses came to an end. 

'I HAVE A DREAM' SPEECH
In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. helped to organize the famous "March on Washington". Over 250,000 people attended this march in an effort to show the importance of civil rights legislation. Some of the issues the march hoped to accomplish included an end to segregation in public schools, protection from police abuse, and to get laws passed that would prevent discrimination in employment. It was at this march where Martin gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. This speech has become one of the most famous speeches in history. The March on Washington was a great success. The Civil Rights Act was passed a year later in 1964. 

ASSASSINATION
 Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4. 1968 in Memphis, TN. While standing on the balcony of his hotel, he was shot by James Earl Ray. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C. Photo by Ducksters 

INTERESTING FACTS

• King was the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a national holiday. 
• At the Atlanta premier of the movie Gone with the Wind, Martin sang with his church choir. 
• There are over 730 streets in the United States named after Martin Luther King, Jr. 
• One of his main influences was Mohandas Gandhi who taught people to protest in a non-violent manner. 
• He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 
• The name on his original birth certificate is Michael King. This was a mistake, however. He was supposed to be named after his father who was named for Martin Luther, the leader of the Christian reformation movement. 
• He is often referred to by his initials MLK. 

Read more at: http://www.ducksters.com/biography/martin_luther_king_jr.php

Christmas trivia

Christmas 2016 from Ana Arias Castro

USA elections

Next Tuesday, the 8th of November is election day in the USA. This is the basic information to understand the whole process:

Introduction

In the USA there are two main parties. Every president since 1852 has been either a Republican or a Democrat.

This is a "single-member district" system. The candidate who is elected is the one who gets the highest number of votes in their respective state. Then presidents are elected indirectly. The voters are really voting for electors in each state.

In all states, the candidate who wins a plurality, receives all of that state's electoral votes. All together there are 538 electors (in the "Electoral College"). It is very important to win in populous states and certain states are known to be the key to presidency. To win the presidential election, a candidate must earn an absolute majority at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes cast nationwide.

Candidates

Donald Trump
image from Wikipedia

HIllary Clinton
image from Wikipedia

He/she must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years of age, and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years.

Candidates in each party are usually chosen in primary elections within the year before the election. These can be closed and semiclosed (as in Arizona), open (as in Missouri) or blanket primaries (as in Louisiana).
The two candidates for this year's election are Hillary Clinton (Democrat) and Donald Trump (Republican).

Length of term

The president is in office for 4 years and can be reelected only once so he/she can be in office for 8 years.

Voters

Anyone who is 18 years of age can vote. There is no national list of eligible voters, so a citizen must first qualify by becoming registered. Citizens register to vote in conjunction with the place they live so if they move to a new location, they typically have to register again.

How is the president elected?

Voters don't choose the president directly. They vote for electors who are members of a party.

Dates

The election day is on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.  In December the 538 electors meet in each states’s capitol to formally elect the President.
The congress meets in joint session to count the electoral votes January 6 and the elected candidate will become president on the 20th of January.

Interesting links if you need more information:

• Elections in the USA
• List of USA presidents
• Declaration of Independence

Clinton vs. Trump

Usa elections 2016 from Ana Arias Castro

#TeamClinton vs. #TeamTrump #Election2016 from Empowered Presentations

2016 Halloween trivia

Halloween trivia 2016 from Ana Arias Castro

Blowin' in the wind by Bob Dylan

LYRICS

How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, and how many times must the cannon balls fly

Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist

Before it's washed to the sea?

Yes, and how many years can some people exist

Before they're allowed to be free?

Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head

And pretend that he just doesn't see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

Yes, and how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'till he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind

QUESTIONS:

• What is the song about? War? Man? Humans? Nature? Peace?
• Which of the previous lines is your favorite? Why?
• Do you agree with any of these lines?

Rio by the numbers

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Goodbye to our 2016 students

We wish the best to our 4th year ESO students this year. We'll certainly miss them next year:

Orla eso 2016 from Tino Grandio

Pallares 2016

Pallares xvi 2016 06_20 from Tino Grandio

Spanish Eurovision Song

 

SAY YAY LYRICS — BAREI
Hello hello Mr. fighter
Look! there we go again…
Go-getters don´t forsake!
They never wallow in their fate.
More than a thousand miles until the end
We’re never gonna know what lies ahead.
We only got today
to learn from our yesterday!

I feel alive bringing into play
my whole life going all the way.
I’m still alive and I turn away
from broken mirrors.
I feel alive when I dare to say
I wanna fight
Won’t fix by running,running… I won’t fix by running!
Come on and raise your battle cry
You are the one who never dies!

Hurray sing it lalalala! Go on singing lalalala!
You keep on climbing over hills…
Right now you’re following your dreams!
Hurray sing it lalalala! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!

Hello Hello Mr. Danger
No need to be afraid!
I know by heart my shades
I got the light between my breaks…
More than a thousand
wounds upon my hands
of every time I fought them face to face!

We go through our mistakes
to find the way to go back straight.
I feel alive… no voy a caer
my whole life una y otra vez
I´m still alive no voy a ceder
en el intento…
I feel alive no voy a correr!

I wanna fight
Won’t fix by running, running… I won’t fix by running!
Come on and raise your battle cry
You are the one who never dies!

Hurray sing it lalalala! Go on singing lalalala!
You keep on climbing over hills…
Right now you’re following your dreams!
Hurray sing it lalalala! Hurray!

SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Come on and raise your battle cry…
SAY YAY YAY YAY…!

William Shakespeare week

William shakespeare from Ana Arias Castro

Who was William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English author who wrote 37 plays and also 2 very long poems in his lifetime. He lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, England. His plays are still performed today. He is often quoted in modern writing.
By 1594 he was an actor in The Chamberlain's Men acting company.

His plays are of different kinds, or genres. There are histories, tragedies and comedies. These plays are among the best known in English literature and are studied in schools around the world. Shakespeare wrote his works between about 1590 and 1613.

Shakespeare has been credited for adding new words and phrases to the English language and for making some words more popular. He created over 1,700 English words.
File:William Shakespeare in a nutshell.webmPlay media
William Shakespeare in a nutshell

Life
He married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years older than he was. He had three children, Susanna (married John Hall), Hamnet Shakespeare (died at the age of 11 due to unknown reasons) and Judith (married Thomas Quiney). By 1592 he had become an actor and was becoming well known as a writer of plays. At the time of his death in 1616, only some of his plays had been published in single editions. The plays were collected and published in 1623, seven years after he died. There is proof that people in Shakespeare's time thought highly of him. After his death, even his rival Ben Jonson said,

    "Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show,
    To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.
    He was not of an age, but for all time!"

He was involved in the building of the Globe Theatre in 1599.

Marriage and children
Although Shakespeare was married to a woman and fathered three children, Susanna, Hamnet and Judith, people have debated his sexuality. Some people, such as Peter Holland of the Shakespeare Institute at Birmingham University, have argued that Shakespeare was possibly bisexual because of some of the sonnets he wrote that were directed toward young men.
Who wrote "Shakespeare"?

About 150 years after Shakespeare died, some writers began to say that the work called "Shakespeare" were not really written by William Shakespeare. They had various reasons for saying this. For example, the person who wrote "Shakespeare" knew a lot about other countries (especially Italy and France), but William Shakespeare never left England. Several other writers of "Shakespeare" have been suggested, such as Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Most scholars believe that William Shakespeare did write the works that bear his name.

List of Shakespeare's plays
Shakespearean tragedies

•     Romeo and Juliet
•     Macbeth
•     King Lear
•     Hamlet
•     Othello
•     Titus Andronicus
•     Julius Caesar
•     Antony and Cleopatra
•     Coriolanus
•     Troilus and Cressida
•     Timon of Athens

Shakespearean comedies

•     The Comedy of Errors
•     All's Well That Ends Well
•     As You Like It
•     A Midsummer Night's Dream
•     Much Ado About Nothing
•     Measure for Measure
•     The Tempest
•     Taming of the Shrew
•     Twelfth Night or What You Will
•     The Merchant of Venice
•     The Merry Wives of Windsor
•     Love's Labour's Lost
•     The Two Gentlemen of Verona
•     Pericles Prince of Tyre
•     Cymbeline
•     The Winter's Tale

Shakespearean histories

•     King John (play)
•     Richard II
•     Richard III
•     Henry IV, part 1
•     Henry IV, part 2
•     Henry V
•     Henry VI, part 1
•     Henry VI, part 2
•     Henry VI, part 3
•     Henry VIII

Lost plays

•     Love's Labour's Won
•     Cardenio

text from Simple Wikipedia

Shakespeare background info from Cliff Scrogin

English language courses - Summer 2016

Cartel axudasle 2016 from Ana Arias Castro

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is a song contest run by the European Broadcasting Union that started in 1956. Different singers representing countries in Europe compete every year.

Famous past winners include ABBA (representing their native Sweden) and Céline Dion (though Canadian, she represented Switzerland). Check Wikipedia for a full list of the previous winners.

This week the Spanish representative has been chosen: Barei, with her song Say Yay.

The Europen Final will take place on May 14th in Stockholm, as country of the last winner is in charge of organizing and hosting the following final.

LAST YEAR'S WINNER



2016 SPANISH SONG



SAY YAY LYRICS — BAREI
Hello hello Mr. fighter
Look! there we go again…
Go-getters don´t forsake!
They never wallow in their fate.
More than a thousand miles until the end
We’re never gonna know what lies ahead.
We only got today
to learn from our yesterday!

I feel alive bringing into play
my whole life going all the way.
I’m still alive and I turn away
from broken mirrors.
I feel alive when I dare to say
I wanna fight
Won’t fix by running,running… I won’t fix by running!
Come on and raise your battle cry
You are the one who never dies!

Hurray sing it lalalala! Go on singing lalalala!
You keep on climbing over hills…
Right now you’re following your dreams!
Hurray sing it lalalala! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!

Hello Hello Mr. Danger
No need to be afraid!
I know by heart my shades
I got the light between my breaks…
More than a thousand
wounds upon my hands
of every time I fought them face to face!

We go through our mistakes
to find the way to go back straight.
I feel alive… no voy a caer
my whole life una y otra vez
I´m still alive no voy a ceder
en el intento…
I feel alive no voy a correr!

I wanna fight
Won’t fix by running, running… I won’t fix by running!
Come on and raise your battle cry
You are the one who never dies!

Hurray sing it lalalala! Go on singing lalalala!
You keep on climbing over hills…
Right now you’re following your dreams!
Hurray sing it lalalala! Hurray!

SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Hurray! Hurray!
SAY YAY YAY YAY!
Come on and raise your battle cry…
SAY YAY YAY YAY…!

FAMOUS EUROVISION SONGS

1967; SANDIE SHAW: PUPPET ON A STRING (UNITED KINGDOM)



1974: ABBA-WATERLOO (SWEDEN)


1978: GALI ATARI AND MILK AND HONEY: HALLELUJAH (ISRAEL)


1988: CELINE DION: NE PARTEZ SANS MOI (SWITZERLAND)


2006:LORDI: HARD ROCK HALLELUJAH (FINLAND)


2008: DIMA BILAN: BELIEVE (RUSSIA)

New readings for our Reading Club members

 This year we have two new recommendations for those of you who belong to our Reading Club:

• The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde. This book is recommended for 1st, 2nd and 3rd year ESO students. It is about a family who move into a house haunted by a ghost.

• The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, which is recommended for 3rd and 4th year students. It is a more complex story and is considered to be one of the first mystery novels in literature.

Both are engaging stories that you will surely love. Have a good read!

Historical anniversaries for 2016

Great Fire of London - Wikipedia


• Shakespeare’s death. One of the biggest history events of 2016 will be the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare on 23 April.

• Battle of the Somme. 1 July marks 100th anniversary of the battle of the Somme. Thousands are expected to attend a service of remembrance in Thiepval in northern France, and a number of exhibitions and events will be held across France and the UK.
• The Great Fire of London. The infamous Great Fire of London swept across the city over three days in 1666. The Museum of London will mark the 350th anniversary of the disaster with a show called Fire! Fire! 
• Roald Dahl’s birth. 13 September marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of children’s author Roald Dahl.
• Norman Conquest. 14 October marks the 950th anniversary of the battle of Hastings. William the Conqueror’s invasion of England will be marked by a new contemporary arts festival.
• Pearl Harbor. December marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

information from History Extra