4º British: Recommended books about II World War

There are many books about the II World War and The Cold War... This is just a selection of the last updates or some different approaches to it, in case you are really interesting into this topic (This article was updated on March, 2018).

Antony Beevor: The Second World War (about 1200 pages). A complete and update revision of the full war (from the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 to the final surrender of the Axis in 1945). This British historian has also some other books about specifical events and battles of the IIWW.

English edition: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2012

Spanish edition: Pasado & Presente, 2012.

Art Spiegelman: Maus, a survivor's tale. A real contemporany classic, the Pulitzer Price-winning tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, father of this comic book author, and how he survived the Nazis.

Originally published in chapters (1973, 1980 and 1991) there is one full edition in Spanish: Reservoir Books, 2007.

Laurent Binet: HHhH. The debut novel of this French author reccounts "Operation Anthropoid" (the assasination of Nazi leader Reynhard Heydrich in Prague) but it's also interlaced with the author's account of the process of researching and writting the book.

Spanish edition: Booket, 2011.

Timothy Snyder: Bloodlands, Europe between Hitler and Stalin. Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. 

English edition: Basic Books (2010)

Spanish edition: Galaxia Gutenberg (2011)

Götz Aly: Los que sobraban (Historia de la Eutanasia Social en la Alemania Nazi, 1939-45). One of the most unknown crimes of Nazism was the murder of 200.000 German people, victims of euthanasia because mental illnesses or dissabilities, which made them an “unnecessary” burden for the Nazi present and a risk for the maintenance of racial purity. The purpose of Götz Aly has not been to offer one more denunciation of the crimes of Nazism, but the facts in the collective responsibility of the German society, from which the doctors who caused the deaths to the families that accepted them.

Spanish Edition: Crítica (2014)

Keith Lowe: Savage Continent (Europe after the II World War). In this book Lowe describes a continent still shaken by violence, where much of the population had not yet accepted that the war was over. He underlines the lack of morality and the thirst for revenge of the five years following the war. He also describe ethnic clashes and the establishment of a new order that finally brought a difficult stability to a continent devastated. Based on original documents, interviews and academic studies in eight different languages, "Wild continent" radically changing the way that until now was the WWII and helps to understand the Europe of today, heir to those conflicts.

English edition: Penguin Books, 2012

Spanish edition: Galaxia Gutemberg, 2012

Martin Davidson: The perfect Nazi (Uncovering my grandfather's secret past and how Hitler seduced a generation). As a child growing up in Scotland, the journalist Martin Davidson thought that his maternal grandfather Bruno Langbehn was merely a retired German dentist. But after his death in 1992 Davidson discovered the truth.

English edition: Viking, 2010

Spanish edition: Anagrama, 2012

Robert Gellately: Stalin's curse, battling for Communism in war and Cold War. Based on newly released Russian documentation, this book explains the real obstacle to the World's development and collaboration. 
English edition: Oxford University Press (2013)
Spanish edition: Pasado&Presente (2016)

Enjoy the reading!

3º British: Ruapehu's volcanic eruption

As you know, it is quite usual to have an activity about Earthquakes and Volcanoes as a part of the IGCSE exam. The usual questions of that activity are:

• What type of plate boundary passes through (place)?
• Explain why plate movements occurs.
• Explain why earthquakes and eruptions occur close to plate boundaries.
• Why do people live in volcanic areas? (Benefits from volcanoes)
• Explain what to do in case of a volcanic eruption (How can deaths and injures be reduced?)
• Explain why hazards of same magnitude are likely to cause more deaths and injuries in a LEDC than a MEDC.
• For a named example of a volcanic eruption you have studied, describe its effects on people and natural environment.

We have talked about different cases in class but in case you need some more examples for answering those questions, read the links provided above and the following information about Ruapehu (1996 eruption), one of the most famous New Zealand's volcanoes:

New Zealand is a unique place on the Earth’s surface. It is positioned along the collision zone of two of the Earth’s major tectonic plates, the Pacific plate and the Australian plate. The forces which have created their dramatic and beautiful landscapes also make New Zealand extremely prone to natural hazards such as volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and landslides.

Most New Zealand volcanism in the last 1.6 million years has occurred in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) in the Northern island. The Taupo Volcanic Zone is extremely active on a world scale: it includes 3 frequently active cone volcanoes (Ruapehu, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, White Island), and two of the most productive calderas in the world (Okataina and Taupo).

The area is a massive complex of volcanic cones and craters. GNS Science monitors Tongariro with 4 seismographs, a microphone, chemical analysis of water and gases, 3 continuous GPS stations, and 3 web cameras.

4º British: Filming an historical movie

Your new task this year will be: filming an historical short movie! Today, with the daily-use technology is quite easy to became a film director, and that could be the origin of a great educational activity, don’t you think so? J

You can do it individually, in pairs or in groups. These are the basic requirements:

• The main issue must be one of the topics from this year’s syllabus.
• The story should be historically correct: you can be creative about secondary things (locations, music, clothes, etc.) but the characters must do real historical facts (maybe you should check for primary sources before preparing the dialogues and speeches...).
• The final product should last between 5 and 10 minutes
• After the film, you should include the author’s credits
• The video must be in .avi or .mp4 format (compatible with Windows)

Let’s start with some help... In the following document you can learn about the steps of filming a movie and its technical aspects, such as types of shoots (planos) and camera’s angles.

When finish, send the video (and any extra material that you have created) to blogeducativo08@gmail.com. The deadline will be Sunday 15 May. This activity is mandatory; remember that, as usual, if you don’t do it, or you do it out of time, the mark for this activity will be 0.

Be creative and enjoy the activity. Good luck!

1º British: Weekly Works (Geography)

¡Here we are again! During this third term, we will study Geography. Here you have the activities you will have to solve:

Activity for class: Maps and chartography

Weekly Work 1: The Earth's relief

Weekly Work 2: Climate and landscapes

Remember also that you can also download and print the notes from the tag "Apuntes". Let's go!