2º British: Europe in the 17th century - Absolutism

Last task before your well deserved Eastern holidays! Watch the following video by Crash Course European History (13 minutes, in English) and answer the following questions (not necessary to explain anything, most part of them are solved with a singgle name):

1. What was Absolutism? (definition)

2. Who was the most famous example of Absolutist king?

3. What was his nickname?

4. Who defended the Absolutism?

5. Who was the most prominent of all Louis's officials?

6. What was the name of the economical theory in that century?

That's all! Send me your answers by email (last day Thursday, 2 April) and then... enjoy your holidays! :) Hopefully, we'll meet again in our classroom after that!

Take care.

1 British: Intro to Geography

The next step in our syllabus is Geography so here you have a DOUBLE TASK FOR THIS WEEK.

Task 1. Introduction to Geography. With the help of a dictionary and these two videos (4 minutes each, in English) by National Geographic you will have to answer the questions below as completely as possible:

Video 1: What is Geo-literacy

Video 2: Why is Geo-literacy important

Question 1. What is Geography?

Question 2. What is Geo-literacy?

Question 3. What are the 3 components of Geo-literacy?

Question 4. Why Geo-literacy is important for the future?

Question 5. Name at least 5 examples of jobs that need Geography

Question 6. What is "GIS specialist"?

Task 2. The Solar System and the Planet Earth. This second task is easy as it is a topic that you already studied in the subject of Biology&Geology and today is only a quick revision. Again, with the help of my classroom notes and the watch the following videos, answer the following questions as completely as possible:

Video 3. The Milky way

Video 4. The Sun

Video 5. The Solar system

Video 6. The Earth

Question 7. What is the Milky way? Why that name?

Question 8. What kind of star is the Sun?

Question 9. What are the 2 main gases that form the Sun?

Question 10. What is the temperature in the surface of the Sun?

Question 11. How long does it take to Sun's light to reach the Earth?

Question 12. What is the asteroid belt?

Question 13. What are the inner planets? and the outter planets?

Question 14. What are the 2 movements of the Earth

Question 15. Name the different layers of the Planet Earth

Send ALL your answers by email to blogeducativo08@gmail.com (last day: Thursday, 2 April).

Keep calm and listen to the videos...

3º and 4º British: your IGCSE exams

The quarantine situation due to Covid-19 will probably also impact the scheduled examination plan (EBAU, IGCSE, etc.). 

For those of my students that are taking this year IGCSE the lattest news are that nothing has changed and you are expected to get your exams as planned in May-June (hopefully, everything will be back to normal by then): "We currently plan to deliver the June 2020 series where schools are open or exams can be held safely elsewhere".

You can read here the full message to Cambridge Schools from Chief Executive Christine Özden.

4º British: Homework

Your MANDATORY task during these days is doing the Monthly Work nº6 (Spain in the 19th and 20th centuries) which includes, what a coincidence!, an activity about the Balmis expedition against a global disease: the smallpox (viruela) in 1803. Doctor Balmis was in charge of that expedition, helped by nurse Isabel Zendal. You can watch a very interesting and useful video (15 minutes, in Spanish) about it. There is also a deep activity about the Civil War.

Send your answers, well explained and fully developed, by email to blogeducativo08@gmail.com. LAST DAY: Monday 23, March. 

EXTRA! Those who are considering to do the Volunteer Monthly Work nº 8 (Yes, nº 8) for adding an extra mark in the final score of this acadmic year, can do it also now. Again, write the answers, as complete as possible, in a word document and send it as attached file by email (LAST DAY: Monday 30, March). 

That volunteer task is about The Cold War. Besides my classroom notes, you can also do some online research. For example, for the Deep Studies section (Nelson Mandela and the aparthedid): watch this 15 minutes video by teacher Hughes from Global History Review.

Of course, any question or doubt about any of both activities, just email me and I will answer you back a.s.a.p.

Keep calm and stay at home :)

3º British: Flipped class - Review for natural environment

People usually think that teaching is easy: you just stand up in front of students and talk. But is it really so simple? Do you think YOU could become good teachers? Let’s have a try!

In the following days you will have to prepare a FULL LESSON. Not a simple power point or 10 minutes oral speech... a full real class, 45 minutes explaing a topic, giving examples and solving doubts. Wow! That’s a real challenge! :)

This activity will also help you and your partners to revise the natural environment topics for your IGCSE exams so take it seriously.

Task 1: Prepare a complete lesson plan (in groups of maximun 4 people) about ONE of the following topics:

1. Earthquakes and volcanoes
2. Rivers
3. Coast
4. Weather
5. Equatorial climate
6. Hot desert climate

When finished, send all the materials created to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es  (remember that you can freely and easily use wetransfer.com).

Of course, you can also include materials that help or illustrate the explanation (those materials can be based on both my notes or the BBC website. You can also try revision world altough it is quite hazy and old-fashion web). In case you decide to use short videos (in English) the maximun total lenght would be 10 minutes. You can also prepare some photocopies for your “students” if you like. Remember that you HAVE TO include one case study as example.

Remember not to wait until the very last day, and send me from time to time your materials, in order to revise them and offer you orientations and advices. 

Task 2: Turn yourself into teachers! After the deadline, you will do your masterclass. As usual ALL members of the team MUST speak (and it will be NOT just reading from the screen but to be self-confident enough to TEACH).

This activity is mandatory and you will receive a mark for it; collaboration between menbers and teamwork would be also taken into consideration. If you fail to do it, do it out of time or just copy&paste from internet, you will receive a 0.

Ready? Steady?... GO! 

2º BRITISH: Artists from the Renaissance

Your new task during the following days will bean INDIVIDUAL research about ONE artist from the Renaissance. You can choose the format that you like the most (power point, prezi, video, infographic...) as now you know many digital tools :) 

The research must be as complete as possible (and of course has to include photos. Remember that you can also add some "extra" material such as the link to a short video): 

• Brief biography of the artist (between 10 and 15 lines).
• Three masterpieces by the artist, with a full explanation (the title, the “mecenas” or art collector, what does it mean, what is it important for, when was it done, where is it now...).
• Conclusions: opinion about the artist.
• Webgraphy (links to websites consulted). 

Here is the list of Renaissance’s artist you can choose from:

Painters: Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana (two women!), Miguel Angel, Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael Sanzio, El Greco, Luis de Morales, Alonso Sánchez Coello, Botticelli, Giotto, Durero, Fra Angelico, Uccello, Filippo Lippi.

Sculptors: Miguel Angel, Donatello, Ghiberti, Vasco de la Zarza, Diego de Siloé, Felipe Vigarny, Alonso de Berruguete, Juan de Juni, Cellini, Jacoppo Della Quercia, Lucca Della Robbia.

Architects: Miguel Angel, Brunelleschi, Bramante, Juan de Herrera, Pedro Machuca, Michelozzo, Alberti.

Besides my theoretical notes, here there are some links for starting:

·                     Renaissance Art & Artists

·                     Interactive Renaissance

·                     Renaissance Art in History Channel

When finish, sent the work as an attached file to blogeducativo08@gmail.com. LAST DAY: Tuesday 24, March). As usual, this work is mandatory and will be part of the score at the end of the term. If you fail to finish it, do it out of date (10 March), or just copy, the mark will be a 0 for this work.

The following week you should focus on the Monthly Work nº5, which you will also deliver it by email (LAST DAY: Tuesday 31, March).

Of course, if you have any doubt during these days about any of both tasks, just send me an email and I will answer you back as soon as possible. 

Keep calm and go on! J

4º British: Guernica, why is this painting so shocking?

Discover the history and symbolism of Pablo Picasso’s powerful anti-war mural, “Guernica,” in this video.

In 1937, in one of the worst civilian casualties of the Spanish Civil War, Fascist forces bombed the village of Guernica in Northern Spain. For Pablo Picasso, the tragedy sparked a frenzied period of work in which he produced a massive anti-war mural, titled “Guernica.” How can we make sense of this overwhelming image, and what makes it a masterpiece of anti-war art? Iseult Gillespie investigates.

2º British: Magellan & Elcano (Stage VI): New Zealand, a Spanish discovery?

New Zealand was the last land on Earth in being inhabitated by humans. It did not happen until 1250, when several groups of Polinesian people reached the northern island and developed the Maori culture (whose maybe more famous symbols are the tribal tattoos and the haka or warrior’s dance). You can learn more in this NZMedia video (5 minutes).

Traditionally, it is though the first European people (Pakeha in Maori) to have confirmed encounter with the Maori was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642...

...but what if Tasman was not the first white man in reaching New Zealand? According to the historians Ross Wiseman and Winston Cowie a “lost” Spanish or Portuguese ship may have reached New Zealand a century earlier that the official reccordings!.

There are three hypothesis:

1. The Loaísa expedition (1525-27). García de Loaísa and Elcano started a new expedition to settle and colonise the Molucas islands. The travel was quite disastreous: most part of the staff (including both captains) died and the only remaining vessel (Caravel San Lesmes) got lost and sinked in an unknown place which could be identified with NZ.

2. Captain Juan Fernández, a very skilled sailor, could reached NZ by navigating West from Chile in 1576.

3. The lost expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña de Neyra in 1595.

Which one do you think is the most historically plausible?

2º British: Magellan & Elcano (Stage V): Back home

It would be very useful too this very short video (2 minutes, in Spanish) from Desperta Ferro summarising the complete travel and its hotspots.

And if you are curious about the survivors of that long, exhausted travel you can check this conmemorative web. You can also read some excerpts from Elcano’s testament.

You are almost there, keep calm and carry on! J  

2ºBritish: Magellan & Elcano (Stage IV): Molucas, the land of spices

Let’s read Pigafetta’s diary after crossing the strait and how they met the inhabitants of the Molucas islands (later called Philippines after the King Philip II):

“Durante este lapso de tres meses y veinte días, recorrimos más o menos cuatro mil leguas en este mar, que llamamos Pacífico porque durante todo el curso de nuestra travesía no experimentamos tormenta alguna. […]

El lunes, dieciocho del mes de marzo avistamos unas islas desconocidas y después de la comida, vimos venir hacia nosotros una embarcación con nueve hombres […], el jefe de ellos se dirigió al comandante, manifestándole por ademanes el placer que experimentaba en vernos.

El comandante, viéndolos tan tranquilos, les hizo dar de comer, ofreciéndoles al mismo tiempo algunos bonetes rojos, pequeños espejos, peines, cascabeles, algunas telas, objetos de marfil y otras bagatelas semejantes. Los isleños, encantados de la acogida del capitán, le regalaron pescado, un vaso lleno de vino de palma, que llaman uroca, plátanos de más de un palmo de largo y frutos del cocotero”

Apparently, they had finally arrived to the land of the spices (with its repercussion of the gastronomy) and the relationship with the local population was friendly so... how did Magellan died several days later? The answer on this documentary video (8 minutes) or, if you prefer something funnier, this recreational film about the Battle of Mactán (2'20 minutes).

2º British: Magellan & Elcano (Stage III): Patagonia

When reaching the Patagonia the expedition started the real adventure. Patagonia was an unexplored region in Southern Argentina/Chile, extending from the Andes to the Atlantic, where Magellan met “giant people”. This is the description done by Pigafetta:

“Estos pueblos se visten, como lo he indicado ya, de la piel de un animal, y con la misma cubren sus cabañas, que transportan donde más les conviene, careciendo de morada fija, pero yendo, como los bohemios, a establecerse ya en un sitio ya en otro. Se alimentan de ordinario de carne cruda y de una raíz dulce que llaman capac. Son grandes comedores: los dos que habíamos cogido se comían cada uno en el día una cesta llena de bizcochos y se bebían de un resuello un medio cubo de agua. Nuestro capitán dio a este pueblo el nombre de patagones. En este puerto, el cual pusimos el nombre de San Julián, gastamos cinco meses, durante los cuales no nos acontecieron más accidentes”.

Or if you prefer, you can watch this Robert Sepehr’s video (5’30 minutes) and checked the Museo Chileno web. 

Pigafetta also wrote about rare black birds that could not fly: the penguins! But after those 5 interesting months Magellan and his sailors must cross a the strait and discover a new ocean: the Pacific. And it was not an easy task, actually. Not only because of the relief but also the bad weather...