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International Women's Day

In an essay to mark International Women's Day, Dee Dee Myers, author of Why Women Should Rule the World is the former White House Press Secretary to Bill Clinton. She gives us her personal take on women and power. She also takes a wide-ranging view on the status, responsibilities and realities of women in power around the world.

Listen to the following podcast by the BBC you are going to find the point of view of different women like Christine Lagarde (the managing director of the International Monetary Fund), Janet Napolitano (the US Secretary of Homeland Security), Mary Robinson (the former president of Ireland), Nancy Pelosi (the first woman to serve as Speaker of the US House of Representatives) and Condoleezza Rice (Former US Secretary of State).

Animation réalisée sur le site http://www.komcitiz.com

The Olympic Games

During this year the Olympics have been held in London. But to learn a bit more about the history of the Olympic Games have a look at this site and search for the information to answer the following questions on the different sections you will find on the left:

• When and where did the modern Olympics begin?
• Why was important the 'sacred truce'?
• What was the price for the winner?
• How did the Games end?
• What was the punishment if anyone was caught cheating?
• What was the Heraia?

Do you know which sports have been included in the 2012 Games? Find out in the following sites:
London 2012 Olympics
London 2012 Paralympics
Click on the different sports to learn more about it, participants, results, etc.

To have some fun play the following game. You have to listen to the commenataries and match them with the pictures.

Now answer the following questions:

1. Do you do any sport at school? Which one?

2. Which sports are you good at? Which ones are you not good at?

3. Which Olympic events did you watch?

4. Which events would you like to compete in?

5. In your opinion, what is the most exciting Olympic event? What is the most interesting?

6. Do you have any sports heroes? Who are they?

Fair Trade

What's fair trade? On the 12th May the World Fairtrade Day is celebrated. Watch the following video of the campaign.

Do you have any fair trade product at home? which one?

Make an advertisement campaign for one of these products (remember to include a logo, a slogan and a description of the product).

One of the tools to improve poor countries situation is microfinace. To learn more about it watch the following videos.

  

Look at me

This video is an adaptation from Todd Alcott's poem. Can you imagine a title for it?

Then watch the video again and pay attention to the images you see, are they familiar to you? Make a list of the items you see.

Are you supersticious?

Have you realized that yesterday it was Friday 13th? Has anything special happened to you?

Does this date fill you with fear, anxiety and foreboding - or is it simply another day on the calendar? Whether you're superstitious or not, try to find out why Friday the 13th is such an infamous date.

Listen to this audio and answer the questions you will find in this website. Then try to learn the useful words and expressions that you will find here to talk about superstitions and Friday the 13th and do this quiz.

Finally, learn about some other superstitons with this slideshow by The Independent.

International Women's Day

On March 8th we celebrate the International Women's Day.

Watch these videos and prepare a brief speech expressing your own point of view. You can use the following questions to think of some ideas.

• Why women's day?
• But is there really inequality between men and women? (access to education, health care, working conditions...)
• Why is it that women's equality is said to be important for all peoples and not just an issue for women?
• Is the head of state/government in your country a man or a woman?
• Has a woman ever been the head of state/government in your country?
• What is the highest office held by a woman in your country?
• Can you name a woman head of state currently in office?
• Why do you think there are and there have been so few women in positions of power?
• As heads of state, would women take different decisions than men?
• Would it make a difference in the world -- in the poverty, violence and inequality that afflict the world -- if there were more women in parliaments and other national and international bodies?

Leap Day

On the 29th February we had a leap day. An extra day in life. Do you know why? Follow this link to learn about leap day traditions.

Now listen to this audio by the BBC about what special things people do on days like this.

What would you do on a leap day?

Technology

Let's see how new technologies have changed our lives...




I've seen it in partner's blog and I decided to share with you. Thank you Mercedes.
Have fun!

Maewyn Succat

Do you know who was Maewyn Succat? Watch the following video and answer the questions.

1. When do we celebrate Saint Patrick's day?
2. What happened to him when he was a child?
3. What did the pirates do when they arrived in Ireland?
4. Which religion did Druids practice? What did it consist of?
5. What were Maewyn tasks as a slave?
6. How many days were the men walking after landing in France?
7. What did Maewyn dream about after going back to England?
8. What did it mean for him to become a bishop?
9. What does the shamrock represent?
10. When did he die? How old was he?

Why green?

 Then see how do we celebrate this day around the world.

Pronunciation

Here you have the link to a very useful tool: a Phonemic chart to improve your pronunciation or become familiar with difficult sounds. If you click on the different symbols you will hear the sound and by clicking on the top right hand corner you will get the pronunciation of sample words containing this sound. You can download it to use on your PC or iPad. Try it, listen and repeat each example, then record yourself saying them. You can try it as many times as you want.

Once you are familiar with the different sounds try to find more examples for each of them. You can use your dictionary or an online dictionary like wordreference.