3º and 4º British: IGCSE 2019

If your are thinking about your options for taking the IGCSE exams (International General Certificate of Secondary Education), in THIS LINK you will find all the information needed for May 2019 (dates, syllabus, percentages, etc.). 

It is an important decission, so take your time...

1º British: Who was Fu Hao?

Find out more about this fascinating woman of the Shang Dinasty in Ancient China, via BBC-Bitesize and enjoy! 

2º British: Photos from your medieval performance

This week we have learnt at class what was a homage ceremony during the Medieval Age. Despite the lack of costumes, you did quite good performances :) Here you have the zip file with your photos. As usual, you can download it but it will required a password for opening it. 

Enjoy!

4º British: Graphic novels for learning History

As usual, here you have a list of recommendations for your holidays. This year is about graphic novels!. It is only a selection but it includes a wide range of different historical moments and perspectives. Enjoy the reading!

Women

Persépolis, by Marjane Satrapi. Autobiography of a teenager in Teherán, during the difficult years of the Islamic Revolution.

Sally Heathcote, Suffragette, by Mary M. Talbot & Kate Charlesworth. As the growing hunger for change grows within a culture of rigid social mores and class barriers, Sally and thousands like her rise up to break the bonds of oppression at the risk of ostracization and violence. 

Leonor, the Black legend, by Delalande, Mogavino & Gómez. Biography of the brave and powerful Leonor of Aquitania (1122-1204), who brokes the medieval stereotypes fom women and changed History.

Red Rosa, by Kate Evans. A graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg, a central figure in the early twentieth century socialist movement in Europe, shows how an independent, passionate woman stood fast for her beliefs. 

I World War

¡F***ing War!, by Jacques Tardi. A classic graphic novel about life in the trenches.

Gravrilo Princip, by Henrik Rehr. The story of the man that change the 20th century.

The Harlem Hellfighters, by Max Brooks & Caanan White. It is a fictionalized account of the experiences of the African-American 369th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the "Hell-fighters" by German soldiers.

II World War

Berlin: City of Stones, by Jason Lutes. A good inter-war novel set in the later years of the Weimar Republic. It covers the lives of several people in Berlin in 1928-1929, with as a backdrop the rise of Nazism. 

Normandy, a graphic novel of the D-Day, by Wayne Vansant.

Maus, by Art Spiegelman. The story of a survivor from the concentration camps.

Los surcos del azar, by Paco Roca. The Story of “La Nueve”, the international Regiment, mainly formed by Spanish Republicans, that first enter in Paris,  on the 24th August 1944.

History of Spain

La balada del Norte, by Alfonso Zapico. The story of several characters Turing the difficult times of the II Republic and the rebellion in Asturias.

La guerra civil española, by José Pablo García & Paul Preston

El otro mar, by Alfonso Zapico. Biography of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, one of the explorers/conquerors of America, around the year 1500.

1212. Las Navas de Tolosa, by Jesús Cano de la Iglesia

Las Meninas, by Javier Olivares & Santiago García

Pablo Picasso, by Birmant & Oubrerie

El Cid, by Antonio Hernández Palacios

Post-War conflicts

CHE: a revolutionary life, by Jon Lee Anderson & José Hernández

Pyongyang, by Guy Deslise. The author had the opportunity of visiting North Korea. Altough controlled and chaperoned by his translator and a guide, among the statues and propaganda of Korean leaders (the world's only Communist dynasty), Delisle was able to observe more than was intended of the culture and lives of the few North Koreans he encountered. 

A Chinese Life, by Philippe Otie & Li Kunwu. The creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the rise and reign of Chairman Mao Zedong, and his sweeping, often cataclysmic vision for the most populated country on the planet.

Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War, by Ari Folman.

Best enemies, by Jean-Pierre Filiu & David B. A story of USA & Middle East relationships (1783-1953)

Such a lovely little war: Saigon 1961-1963, by Marcelino Truong. This Franco-Vietnamese author recounts his childhood in Saigon (now Ho Chi Mihn City). It is a gentle introduction to the beginning of the Vietnam War seen by a child of a bi-cultural marriage.

The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert & Didier Lefèvre. It recounts the journey of a reporter through Afghanistan while accompanying Doctors Without Borders in a country torn apart by a war pitting Russians against an Afghan resistance supported by the US and other countries.

Safe Area Gorazde, by Joe Sacco. The author, a master of graphic reportage, managed to convey the nuances of politics combined with a deep understanding of what Bosnians were going through in The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-95. Other main titles of Joe Sacco are Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza, both about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Gaza strip.

Miscelánea

Democracy, by Alecos Papadatos, Abraham Kawa & Annii Donna. The story of how democracy started in Ancient Athens, from the perspective of one of its citizens.

Dubliner, by Alfonso Zapico. The tumultuous life of James Joyce, one of the most famous writers of the 20th century.

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, by Guy Delisle. Travelogue about life in the Holy City that serves as a cultural roadmap of the city's complexities and relevance while offering insight into the human impact of conflicts on both sides of the wall.

1º British: Diorama pictures

You can now download the ZIP file with the low-resolution photos of your worderful model making creations. Congratulations for your imagination and effort! 

Cover photo: Neolithic settlement

Playmobil exhibition at Castillo de Santa Bárbara, Alicante (2013)

4º British: Photos from the Film Festival

Finally, here you have the photos (low resolution) from the successful I Film Festival. The pictures are available in this ZIP file and you can also download the stand-up comedian video (be patient, it is almost 2 GB... Despite the odd format, it can be opened with the Windows Media Player).

It was a really interesting experience! Great films / performances. Congratulations to the participants! :)

See you next academic year, as members of the "Great Jury"...

3º British: Clouds

Clouds are categorised according to height and shape. The different categories of clouds are then given names based on Latin words, eg.: nimbus clouds bring rain, stratus clouds appear as layers... You can read the different types and characteristics in this information sheet. 

Knowledge about cloud formation and typology is very important for reading the synoptic chart symbols.

A synoptic chart is any map that summarises atmospheric conditions over a wide area at a given time. It displays information on temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure and cloud coverage.

In this link, you can do a quick revision of  British climates. And now... let's practice! 

3º British: Climates in UK

These are the main factors affecting the climatic conditions: 

British: e-learning or how to use Moodle

Moodle is a "Virtual Learning Environment", the platform or tool used to provide online courses (in universities, businesses, government ...). It's like bringing class home with Professor inside. Communication is easy, because it has different tools (forums and chat), and different ways of organizing content area (lessons, web, wikis ...), and even activities (surveys, tests ...). And it's free!

Some of the advantages is that the students can work together to resolve questions and solve problems and also can keep improving the content of study and completing the matter according to current needs.

Probably, you are now familiar with this environment thanks to our own IES but... would you like to go deeper inside? That's your new task... and you shall be responsible to upload the contents to the "course", turning you into your own teachers! But obviously, I will be the webmaster and I will decide the final markt... ;-)

How? I created a special course called:

• 3º British: Case study

These courses are "closed", meaning only accessible if you are registered with your user name and your password (be carefull not lossing data!). So, nobody outside the class is allowed to participate.

We will completing this "academic course" gradually. As you see, the index and instrucctions are yet organized, and also include the short version of Moodle Manual for Teachers (Read all of these things carefully!). From now on you who will have to go to them completing sections "content and activities". We will use several class sessions to work in the computer lab, but you can also do some work from home.

Go on! Good luck!

You can see more information on this presentation of Moodle in Mª Jesús Camino’s blog.

1ºBritish: Photos from Metalica Vetona

After visiting the Museum, here you have a zip file with your pictures. Remember that you will nedd a password for opening the file.

Have a nice day! 

Cover photo

Illustration by JR Almedida: Blog the arqueología virtual

4º British: YOUR Historical newspaper

As promised, here you have the zip file with your wonderful historical newspapers from 1851. They look even better than the original ones! Enjoy the reading! :)

1º British: YOUR Historical comics

As promised, here you have the ZIP file with all your comics. As usual, you will need a password for opening it... Enjoy the reading! :)

4º British: First World War on Twitter

You are about to start the new edition of your favourite historical activity... twitter in class! 

You must create a special twitter account as you were one of the participants in the Great War (a militar commander? A politician? A soldier? A war journalist?... there are many possibilities and several useful links in THIS DOC). With this “historical account” you become follower of @auladeadriana

You will have this weekend for having a look and decide. The application period will start on Monday at 15:30. Just send an email to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es with your chosen character and I will answer you back with the confirmation. Once that you have it, you can start making your character back to life :) You will have a couple of days for creating the twitter account; the more “realistic” that you do it (portrait, biographic info, etc.), the better for your final mark.

You have to create a minimum of 20 tweets (12 of them base on real primary sources: texts, maps, photos...) in the name of your chosen character. Try not to be independent, but “talk” with the others (a soldier complaining to his superiors? Soldiers talking about their life in the trenches? Politicians exchanging messages and speeches?...)

I would also recommend you to use the hastag #HistoryatVasco in your tweets, to facilitate its reading.

The previous years, this experiment was a total success and your partners really did good performances, so you will have to work hard for leading them...

This work is individual and 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, or just copy from a webpage, the mark will be a 0 for this work.

Be creative and enjoy it! J