2s.2 Eurovision Song Contest 2011: Azerbaijan wins

Last Saturday, the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 took place. As we learned in class, the show was held in Düsseldorf because Germany won last year. After the very exciting voting, Azerbaijan won with the song Running Scared. Italy and Sweden were also very close to winning - they came 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Unfortunately, Spain only came 23rd out of 25 countries. No wonder - the song was crap!

Have a look at the top three performances and answer the following questions on the blog:

1. What do you think about the top three songs?
2. What performance do you like best? Why?
3. In your opinion, which is the catchiest song?
4. Who do you think is the best artist?
5. What do you think about the different song presentations (staging, lighting, camera shots, etc.)? Describe your favourite presentation (number of people on the stage, clothes, choreography, musical instruments, props, etc.)

1st place: Azerbaijan
Artist: Ell and Nikki
Song: Running Scared
Points: 221

2nd place: Italy
Artist: Raphael Gualazzi
Song: Madness of Love
Points: 189

3rd place: Sweden
Artist: Eric Saade
Song: Popular
Points: 185

One of my favourite songs was Finland. It only came 21st out of 25 but it is a very pleasant ballad about a topic you know a lot about: the environment. Watch the video, read the lyrics and answer these questions:

1. Who is Peter? Why is he worried?
2. Why does Peter visit the King and parliament?
3. Why won't people listen to him?
4. The title of the song, Da da dam, is a metaphor - it's got a secret meaning. Peter doesn't want to be da da dam. What do you think it means?

Peter is smart, he knows each European country by heart -
He likes to sit under an apple tree on his yard
And wait for an apple to fall.

When Peter is nine,
His teacher tells him that this planet is dying,
That someone needs to put an end to it all
And so when Peter comes home
He tells his mom:

CHORUS
'I’m going out in the world to save our planet
And I ain’t coming back until she’s saved;
I’ll walk my way to see the King and parliament
If they don’t help I’ll do it by myself...
I don’t wanna be
Da da dam, da da dam
Da da da da da da, da da dam.'

Peter is young
He tries to talk but no one listens to him -
Everybody’s busy living and dying,
Not thinking about what they’re doing.

But look at the boy who...
Went out in the world to save our planet
And he ain’t coming back until she’s saved
He walked his way to see the King and parliament
But they all turned their heads and walked away,
Singing
Da da dam, da da dam
Da da da da da da, da da dam.

And now I’m going out in the world to save our planet
And I ain’t coming back until she’s saved;
I’m walking in the footsteps that young Peter made
And everybody is welcome to join
And sing with me
Da da dam, da da dam
Da da da da da da, da da dam...

2s.1 Portfolio project 2010-11: "Natural disasters"

The following news stories and videos are part of our portfolio project in English about natural disasters. The special correspondents in these videos are 2nd ESO students from IES S'Arenal in Majorca (Balearic Islands, Spain). We hope you enjoy the videos and give us feedback! We invite you to write your comments at the bottom of this post.

NEWS STORY #1 TSUNAMI DEVASTATES PACIFIC RIM

Special correspondents / Nuria Heres and Amanda Carbonell
On 26th of December 2004 there was a big tsunami in the Pacific Rim. Tsunamis are giant waves and they can destroy costal regions in minutes. This one killed 220.000 people. The International Community sent money and food. The army rebuilt the people's houses and the police helped when the tsunami finished.

NEWS STORY #2 HURRICANE KATRINA REACHES THE US

Special correspondents / Andrea Fernández and Ana Paula Lugo

Hurricane Katrina was the most expensive and deadliest natural disaster in the United States. It happened in 2005 and affected the Gulf Coast from central Florida to Texas. The hurricane caused severe destruction. 1.836 people lost their lives. People lost $81 billion in the natural disaster. The army studied the affected area and they found a solution: they didn't rebuild the dangerous areas and elevated many buildings.

NEWS STORY #3 EARTHQUAKE HITS HAITÍ

Special correspondents / Paula Gual and Nerea Capellà

On 12th January 2010 at 9:52 p.m. there was an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 on the Ritcher scale in Haití. This was the country's strongest earthquake in 200 years. It was near the capital city of Haití, Puerto Príncipe. The death toll was about 300.000 people. The first and second floors of the Presidential Palace collapsed. Later, the Goverment rebuilt its new headquarters about 20 km. away from the city.

NEWS STORY #4 THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT PELÉE

Special correspondents / Jerónimo Rojo and Carlos Sastre

On 12th April 1902, the big Pelée volcano erupted in the rural and beautiful island of Martinique. It killed a lot of people. 30.000 died in this disaster and approximately 100.000 also left their houses and their animals when they escaped. Charities helped these people and sent food and water. People from Martinique asked other countries to help them rebuild the island. Now its inhabitants live farther from the volcano.

 

2x.2 Portfolio project 2010-11: "Green earth"

"Green earth" is the topic for the Portfolio project our school is carrying out this year. Some of your other teachers may be dealing with this topic also in their classes. In English, we are going to learn more about a very interesting problem of far-reaching consequences which global warming has brought about: the relocation of precipitation. With this project I aim to help you improve your scientific literacy (i.e. the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes), which is a competence you are also developing in other subjects. You will:

1. Practise selecting and assessing different sources of information.
2. Speculate on the available data if they are not informative enough to draw conclusions.

3. Explain facts that affect the natural world and predict their potential future development.

4. Analyse existing scientific evidence to evaluate alternative perspectives and their implications.

5. Communicate coherent and reasoned conclusions.

Hopefully, this project will also represent a sensitisation campaign for you and lay the foundations for a more responsible attitude towards climate change.

Before we get into the topic in greater depth, I would like you to answer questions 1 and 2 on the blog:

1. Have you ever heard about the relocation of precipitation before? What do you think this problem is about?
2. Have a look at the map below.


The red area shows the village where I come from, Beniarbeig (Alacant). It's a very small village of barely 2.000 inhabitants very near the coast of Dénia. In October 2007, something very shocking happened that made my village hit the headlines. All of a sudden, my village was on the front page of the most important Spanish newspapers! The set of three photographs below shows snaps of the events. Can you guess what happened? Imagine you are a journalist. Write a short news story of about 80 words for your newspaper.









3. Try to guess the meaning of the underlined words on this post from their context. Then use them in a sentence which is different from the one in this text and translate them into Catalan or Spanish. Use a dictionary only if necessary. We'll correct this exercise in class, so don't post this on the blog.

2x.1 Welcome

Dear 2nd Batxillerat students, welcome to The Flying Beetle!

To start off, I'd like to explain how we're going to use this blog as a learning tool. Unfortunately, you don't have regular English classes in the computer rooms, so we'll use the blog as a tool for distance learning. In the "Useful links" section I have listed different websites which I consider to be of your interest. This section also contains the websites that I recommend you visiting in class. It's constantly being updated, so check for updates from time to time. I hope you have started using some of these links to enhance your learning and complement your classes at school.


Moreover, I will start posting entries very soon. As you know, we're going to participate in the Portfolio project that our school is carrying out. This year's topic is "Green earth" and you're going to deal with that topic in different subjects from different perspectives. Your first task on this blog will consist of learning about your Portfolio topic. I am currently working with Vicent from the Biology department on a couple of sessions about the topic which I have chosen for you: "The relocation of precipitation as a consequence of global warming." I hope you enjoy working online and learn a lot from this digital experience.