3º British: Searching a job in Europe

Before looking for a job oportunity abroad, we must begin with a basic rule: INFORMATION about the country, about its market and labor legislation and, of course, its language.

To facilitate this process, the European Union has an online application for jobs searching (EURES) and a curriculum template, called EUROPASS, which can be completed online and is accepted throughout the European Union (there are two different versions: for University students and for workers). The EURES website also offers information about life in the country of destination and on the labor market (for example, what areas need new workers, etc.).

Also, keep in mind that job interviews can change slightly from one country to another (eg.: interviewers in Germany greatly appreciate a digital or video CV; or if applying as designer or publicist, they will love something catchy and creative).

As students of British Council in a globalise world, you will probably study or work abroad in any moment. Therefore, it would be a good idea to get used to Eures, isn't it? Here is the new double-task activity you have to do:

Task 1. Choose a job offer from this EURES list that is attractive for you. and use the Europass template to create a CV, a Language Passport and a letter to suit the job. Keep in mind all the tips and advices to create a good CV. When done, turn them into PDF format and send all those pdfs to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es. 

Task 2. Performance a job interview in class! Of course, balance share of roles, cooperation and the use of appropiate vocabulary will be also keep in mind.  

As usual, this work is mandatory. If you failed to do it, it will mean a 0 on your score. 

Good luck! :)

Youtube channels for learning History

Another academic year is almost finished. Here you have then, as usual, several recomendations for learning History while having fun:

 

AcademiaPlay: a “classic” on youtube, in Spanish.

Historias de la Historia & La cuna de Halicarnaso: two Spaniards teachers on your screen

British Pathé: original TV footage, commented

ArqueoDidat: do you like Prehistory? This is your channel!

TEDx Talks: several options with animated videos

Crash Course Black America History: Crash Course is a well-known channel with tons of information. But did you know about this specifical issue?

La moda en la historia: curious stories about fashion & beauty on History.

Enjoy your summer holidays! 

1º British: Shackleton and the exploration of the Antarctica (II_ArtBook)

Breaking news! On March, 2022 a group of scientists discovered into the deep blue the Endurance, the legendary ship that famous British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton lost in his last and tragic expedition, more than a century ago.

As you can imagine by this introduction, your new task this year is to do a work about it but… in a quite special and different way. Are you prepare for a bit of DIY? J

What do you have to do?

Your duty is to CREATE AN ART BOOK. And what is that? An artbook is a special book edition about a topic or concept, generally interactive, portable and easily shared; these special, unique editions are Works of Art by themshelves (not just a conventional book for reading) and can be made from a variety of materials, even become sculptural objects. These photo-collage will show you some inspirational examples:

Your new task (individual or in groups of maximum 4 people) is to create an artbook about the explorations on Antarctica. Of course, proper explanations about the topic will be provided at class and so you them put all that information in an artistical book-shape.

It is not necessary to write by your own all the information (exceptionally, this time you can copy&paste from internet, but  of course it would be necessary to do a previous good selection of the information and a good choice of typography and format!) because this work is about information management, edition technology and creativity, so… enjoy! J

 

Contents that MUST appear on your artbook (of course you MUST include images and maps):

• Phisical map of Antarctica
• Antarctica natural enviroment: climate (do not forget to include a climate graph), landscapes and animals.
• Predecessors: Scott and Amundsen expeditions (brief biographies, portraits, basic info about their expeditions and comparative map)
• Shackleton (short biography, portrait)
• Shackleton’s team
• Shackleton’s ship (Endurance). Photos, itinery and map.
• Antarctica today, a brief summary (Questions that you have to answer here: What is the Treaty of Anstarctica? What are the basic rules for international cooperation there? What are the Spanish projects?)
• Your opinión about the explorers and the activity.
• Colophon (What is a colophon?)

 

Extra ITC’s tip! You can also add web links or… even convert them into QR codes by using free online apps such as monkey or bitly generator! After the conversion, just print and add the QR image into your artbook J

When finish, give handly your artbook to your teacher. As usual, this work is mandatory and you will receive a mark for it; if you do not do it, or do it out of time, your mark will be 0.

 

Ok, now we know what to do but… what about the theory? Read HERE!

1º British: Shackleton and the exploration of the Antarctica (I_Theory)

Let’s start! What do you know about Antarctica? Antarctica is the continent surrounding the South Pole, almost entirely covered by an ice sheet. Here you have a detailed phisical map of it:

 

Antarctica is the coldest, highest, windiest, driest continent on Earth, as you can discover in this link about its environment and it is home of animals such as penguins, seals, whales… as you can watch in this Nationalgeographic video.

Antarctica was always an atractive dream for explorers, adventurers and scientists. Among History, there have been many travels, starting as soon as  the 18th century! On January 1774 James Cook (UK) crossed the Antarctica Polar Sea Circle but could not even see the continente due to the bad weather conditions (he was just 75 miles away from it!).

On November, 1820 Andrés MacFarlane (Chile) was the first person that disembarked in Antarctica (Expedition “Dragón de Valparaíso”).

Nevertheless, the most famous and hazardous Antarctica stories were the explorations of Scott (UK), Amundsen (Norway) and Shackleton (UK), al lof them at the beginning of the 20th century. These are their portraits:

Captain Scott and Roald Amundsen both aimed to be the first to reach the South Pole in 1911. That was nicknamed “The race to the South Pole” (Link to video and map).

Who won? Amundsen! On 14 December, 1911 he reached the center of the continent; When Scott arrived few weeks later, on 17 January 1912, the Norwegian flag was already there…

The journey back (on foot!) was not only sad for Scott and his men, but also terrible due to heavy snow storms and lack of food: they died before reaching back their ship in the coast. A posterior expedition managed to reach their last refugee, buried their bodies and recovered their diaries, that were published when back in London and become best-sellers.

But let’s focus on Shackleton’s last atempt: the Endurance voyage; although the expedition failed and the ship sunked, the adventure of the Endurance was probably one of the most remarckable historical hits in Geographical expeditions. And, spoiler, despite the difficulties all members of the team survived and went back to UK thanks to the determination and effort of the captain, Sir Ernest Shackleton!

Thanks to the NOVAproject website you would find a lot of information and visual resources for your work, such as the timeline and the team. Additionally, you can revise the National Geographic summary.

A real adventure, isn’t it? But what about now a days situation? Currently, Antarctica is a continente for international cooperation in science, where Spain is also collaborating.

3º British: Globalization - Planet Money makes a T-Shirt

Good news! This is the very last topic/task for this academic year!

What is Globalization?

Globalisation is the process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of massively increased trade and cultural exchange.

Globalisation is not a new phenomena. On the contrary, it has been taking place for hundreds of years thanks to trade, but has speeded up enormously over the last half-century. Globalisation can be both positive or negative (read page 3 on my theoretical topic).

Let’s study a specifical example: Planet Money makes a T-shirt.

Planet Money is a USA radio show to learn the basics of economy, broadcasting by NPR. One year, the Planet Money team decided to do a special T-shirt with its logo... and follow the whole creation process.

The simplest shirt is touched by people and machines all over the planet, from highly paid researchers in seed laboratories to factory workers who earn a few dollars a day. By making our own T-shirt, we figured, we would discover this massive, interconnected, largely hidden world. Follow its journey: http://planetmoney.com/shirt 

Do you know how much water is need to create a simple t-shirt and a pair of jeans? Look at the image:

  

As seen, one of the negative impacts is the huge amount of residues and waste produced. Do you know how to correctly manage YOUR waste? Do you know if we are doing our best in the recycling system? Have a look to this website:

To make sure globalisation will brings more positive to negative things, specially to LEDCs, there are some concept to keep in mind (all of them, again, explained on my theoretical topic):

• Sustanaible development
• Appropiate technology
• Fair trade

Back to the previous example: the creation of that T-shirt is industrial or “fast-fashion”, activity with a huge impact in the environment and, therefore, in human life itself! Recycling fashion (the town turning waste into clothes, BBC 4 minutes video) has become a major need. Recently, a new model appears: Slow-fashion.

Slow-fashion advocates for manufacturing in respect to people, environment and animals. Eg.: There are, nowadays, several alternatives more respectful with the environment, with the animals and much less water-consumer. Have you heard about the "vegan-leather"? Shoes, bags of jackets than with special materials than totally reproduce the visual appearance and texture but vegetable-done. For example, from pineapple or cactus!

As such, contrary to industrial fashion practices, slow fashion involves local artisans and the use of eco-friendly materials, with the goal of preserving crafts and the environment. Some elements of the slow fashion philosophy include: buying vintage clothes, redesigning old clothes, shopping from smaller producers, making clothes and accessories at home and buying garments that last longer.

And when the garments can not be reuse anymore, they can be transformed into something completely different, such as kitchen tiles (1 minute BBC video) or kindergarten pavement! Did you know it? Sure not...

Have you ever try to customize your own clothes? For example, an old pair of jeans. What can you do with them? The usual answer is to cut them into shorts for summer time but, with some sewing skills and a bit of patience (there are a lot of tutorials on internet) you can transform them into a skirt, a backpack or a cushion: 

After watching carefully the videos by Planet Money (they are very short, 3 minutes the longest one!) and reading the topic, answer all the following questions as complete as possible (as usual, send your answers to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es):

  

Task 1: about the videos:

• Video III: People. Why do you think the t-shirts were made in Bangladesh and Colombia and not the USA?
• Video V: You. Identify something else (not a t-shirt) from your daily life that is the result of globalization and explain why you think it is a product of globalization.

Task 2: general synthesis:

• What technological innovations do you think have made globalization possible?
• Identify two positive effects and two negative effects of globalization and explain why each is positive or negative.
• Do the economic benefits of globalization outweigh the costs? Why?
• Do the social and cultural benefits of globalization outweigh the costs? Why?

Task 3: recycling and slow fashion

• What do you think about the concept of slow-fashion and the customize of clothes? Are you in favour or against? Why?
• Look at the image below: it’s a XL man-size shirt. What would to do to customize or transform it? Give at least 2 ideas.

And that's all this year! I promise! :)

4º British: American Revolution on Twitter

You are about to start the 8th edition of your favourite historical activity... twitter in class! This year it will be all about the American Revolution, a topic that we have never performanced before.

The Revolutionary War, otherwise known as the American Revolution, was a battle for independence fought between the United States (then the Continental Colonies) and Great Britain that spanned the years of 1775 to 1783. The conflict was the result of mounting tension between the colonists and the colonial government, which was an extension of the British crown’s authority. Throughout the war, a number of individuals played essential roles for their respective parties...

 

How does it work? You must create a special twitter account as you were one American character, that can be a famous or an anonymous one (choose your character from this document). With this “historical account” you become follower of @auladeadriana.

 

The application period will start THIS WEDNESDAY (25th November), at 15:00. Just send me an email with your chosen character (even better, send me the list of your three favourite characters) and I will answer you back with the confirmation. Once that you have the confirmation (but not before), you can start making your character back to life :) You will have some time for creating the twitter account; the more “realistic” that you do it (portrait, biographic info, etc.), the better for your final mark.

The debate will start Friday 27^th November and finish Friday 4th, December.  You have to create a minimum of 20 tweets (12 of them base on real primary sources: texts, photos...) in the name of your chosen character. Try not to be independent, but “talk” with the others. I will help you with some clues for the timeline (eg. this "major battles" web), so you will not be lost in the process.

 

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&paste from a webpage, the mark will be a 0 for this work.

 

Be creative and enjoy it! 

4º British: BBC History Reporters

As promised, today we have a new task: turn yourselves into BBC-History channel reporters! :)  Besides funny, it could be a great educational activity, don’t you think so?

You have to choose ONE of the following (and already mentioned) topics:

• Irish War of Independence (1919-21) (NAM, Irish History Web & Irish War Web) and Irish Civil War (1922-23) (National Museum of Ireland, Irish War Web & BBC)
• Spaniards prisioners in Mauthaussen (trailer & newspaper article)
• Garbo, the spy (last week trailer, MI5 info & History channel)
• La Nueve and the battle of Paris (last week video & newspaper article)

Of course, you will need to do some previous research to prepare the script and the images you will use (photos or videos). It can be done individually or in groups (maximum 4 people).

These are the basic requirements:

• You should open your "TV news/reporter" with a definition of the chosen topic, explaining it as completely as possible. It is mandatory that the explanation provided includes, at least, 2 original images (eg. portraits, maps, etc.), 1 written primary source (eg. excerpt from a legal text, a speech, etc.) and 1 exterior scene. 
• It woould be also highly valorated if you also include an "interview with an historical character". Would you dare to performance one of the participants of your chosen topic? 
• The final product should last between 6 and 10 minutes
• After those minutes, you should include the author’s credits and webgraphy (sources of information you used)
• The video must be in .avi or .mp4 format 

When finish, send the file via wetransfer.com to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es. As usual, this activity is mandatory; 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: Make your own volcano at home!

As we have just studied the volcanoes, let’s finish this part with a special activity. First of all, let’s precise two important things

1. It is NOT necessary to make the volcano to erupt!

2. In case you want to run the full experiment (and make it to erupt) please ask your parents for help and supervision.

Are you good at arts&crafts? Because this week you have to do your own volcano!

You can build one out of clay, papier-mâché, plastic bags or even stiff card stock bent into a cone shape around a jar or water bottle. One of the main issues here is to see your creativity and solving-problems skills: how can you do it when you can not go to a shop to buy specifical materials? Be creative and think how you can recycle what you have at home!

Look at the following examples:

Example 1: you can use a plastic bottle. Cut it and cover it with a black pastic bag. Add some transparent film and paint it to simulate the lava. A final touch of cotton will look as the smoke:

Photo 2: A clay (plastilina, arcilla...) volcano

Photo 3: papier-mâché or old newspapers

And... what if you want to complete the experiment and make your volcano to erupt? This is a quite safe project to perform with kids (and parents). The safest way is to use baking soda and vinegar to create foamy reaction. You can add dish soap to enhance the texture and a little red food coloring or ketchup for color. If you follow the instructions of this article (a useful demostration video at the end) it is highly unlikely that your volcano will hurt anyone (unless they happen to be allergic to any of the materials used in this project!).

How can I evaluate this activity?

Make sure to take some photos (4 or 5 will be enough) during the creation process and the final video (pm4 or avi format) of yourself making the volcano to erupt (to show me that you really do it and you are not just using some picture from internet!). Then send both photos and video to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es

This activity is mandatory and you will receive a mark for it (that will cover the 20% of your final score this term). If you don’t do it, do it out of time or just copy&paste from internet, your mark here will be zero (0).

Are you ready? 3, 2, 1... enjoy!

2ºBritish: Spanish America TV News

Here we go with another special task: filming an historical TV News programme! Today, with the daily-use technology is quite easy to do, and that could be a great educational activity, don’t you think so? 

This work should be done in groups. Cooperation and the use of appropriate vocabulary would be also keep in mind.

It’s 8th June 1494. Yesterday, Queen Isabella I of Castilla and King Joao II of Portugal signed the “Treaty of Tordesillas”, with an agreement about the division of the newly discovered lands of America between both kingdoms.

News that you HAVE TO include:

• Opening with the “International News section”: explaining what is the “Treaty of Tordesillas”. Besides the theoretical explanation, you have to include a picture of the authentic document and a map with the division line. It would be also a great idea to include an image of Queen Isabella I giving a brief speech about how happy she is because this positive agreement… Even more, Pope Alexander VI Borgia awarded Isabella and Ferdinand with the official title of “Catholic Monarchs”.

• More news about America: the first European city (under the name of “La Isabella”) was created in the island of “La Española” (now a days, Dominican Republic). And Columbus discovered a new island: Jamaica (name that, in the native language means: “blessed gold”). You can mention both things, including the image of a map and a quote from Columbus.

• Interview with an historical character: one of the members of the team has to impersonate a real historical character (eg. Queen Isabella or Columbus) and answer 3 questions to a journalist

• Culture: Antonio de Nebrija, professor of University of Salamanca and author of the first “Gramática del español” published a complete dictionary of Spanish-Latin. If you want, you can also mention that the German writer Ieronimus Munzer published the first part of his book “Travel through Iberian Peninsula”

• If possible, try to film ONE exterior scene, filmed in front of Avila’s medieval wall.

• The final product should last between 4 and 8 minutes. After those minutes, you should include the author’s credits

• The video MUST be in .avi or .mp4 format.

Besides all those things, you can also include some other things (in the appropriate section), such as the result of the last Mayan ball game; the end of the Medina del Campo commercial fair (with important economical benefits this year) or the new painting of  Hieronymus Bosch for the Isabella’s royal collection (“Jardín de las Delicias”). Do you need more ideas and info? Here you have a full list of usefull links:

• Find out: Facts about the Mayans
• The Maya writting system
• Find out: Facts about the Aztecs
• The Aztec pictogramns (writting system)
• Aztec food (including chocolate & recipes!)
• Find out: Facts about the Incas

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 acarriles@educa.jcyl.es (if the file is too big, remember that you can use wetransfer.com).

As usual, this activity is mandatory; remember that 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: Historical comic!

Yes! This is your opportunity to show your creativity because the task for this term is... making an historical comic! In can be done individually or in pairs.

You can choose any historical topic related with the syllabus of this year. The story must be "original" and have at least 12 cartoon panels (viñetas). To do this there are several programs, but I recommend Comic Life.

Comic Life is a very simple program to manage: just select one of the templates (pages with cartoon panels already prepared) and start including photos. And where can you get the photos? Here there are many possibilities: you can search on the Internet images, video games or drawings that are appropriate to the subject; or you can take your own photos by using playmobil... or even dress up yourself!

Once that the photos are in, it is only necessary to insert the balloons (bocadillos) that will collect the texts of the characters: dialogues, screams, thoughts...

You can download the program from softonic, but as it is a demo version it will only be available 30 days. In case you need it, you can rewatch the youtube’s tutorial.

When finish, you must save your comic in .pdf format and send that file to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es. As usual, this work is mandatory and you will have the opportunity or earning an extra mark (1 mark) in your final score.  

After correcting and evaluating your "works of art", I will upload them to the blog so that you can all enjoy them. Ready? Steady? Go! :)

3º British: VideoScribe

Your new task this year is to create a videoscribe presentation! 

VideoScribe is a software tool quite easy and intuitive to work with; By visiting its website, you can download a 7-daysFREE version, that should be enough for your task. In case of technical issues, you can also try to download it in softonic.com or using any other similar tool, such as the ones from the following image (but remember that a free version would be enough for an educational purpose and you do not need to pay for a professional suscription):

You can read some basic instructions in this link (in Spanish). It is really easy, you only need to be a bit patient meanwhile the software compile your instructions...

You can do it individually or in groups (maximum 4 people) but in that case ALL members of the group have to speak in the video.

Your videoscribe must talk about Primary sector. Further more, you have to choose ONE of the following topics and explain it into the video. As you can see, there are some additional useful links in each case to start your research about the issue:

• Option A. Vineyard cultivation in France (Global production / map)
• Option B. Cocoa cultivation in Ghana (Sustanaible Cocoa farming / Ghana business news)
• Option C. Tulip flower cultivation in Netherlands (Tulip Festival / Video)

These are the basic technical requirements:

• The final product should last between 5 and 8 minutes.
• At the end of the video, you should include the author’s credits (your names!).
• The video must be in .avi or .mp4 format (compatible with Windows & Android). How? First option is sending the file by email by using wetransfer.com (it's free, easy and fast); the second option is to upload the file to your Youtube's channel (it will convert the file into a correct video format, slowly but automatically) and send me the link by email. 
• Remember the email: acarriles@educa.jcyl.es

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! :)