TALKING HEADS - November

DON'T MISS THE FIRST SHOW BY NEW COMPANY

WORDS + VOICES!

 

Julie Davies, Jim Trainor and Thisbe Burns are delighted to announce their brand new theatre project.

Three of Alan Bennett's classic TALKING HEADS monologues: A Lady of Letters, A Chip in the Sugar and Bed Among the Lentils.

 

TALKING HEADS

by Alan Bennett

at Teatro Liberarte in November!

 

FOUR SHOWS ONLY! (for now...)

 

 

For more information on the monologues and where to see them, visit our blog:

www.talkingheadsmadrid.blogspot.com or email 3talkingheads@gmail.com

 

Meet the Authors

Well, after all, one does not get photographed with one of the masters and monsters of English Grammar everyday, so, I'll take a little (very little :) pride and re-post here.


Oxford's Meet the Authors

Manuel (with a now-autographed, almost-first-edition of Practical English Usage) was there too, along with other teachers from Moratalaz and Vallecas.

Nuevas Instrucciones de Educación Secundaria

Confunde y se equivoca

A juzgar por las reacciones que hemos visto en las pasadas semanas, y por las que están por venir, parece indiscutible que las medidas de recorte incluidas en las Instrucciones de Comienzo de Curso dictadas este año por la Comunidad de Madrid lanzan un mensaje bastante contundente a la comunidad educativa y al conjunto de la sociedad. Para entender este mensaje, puede que resulte esclarecedor pensar tanto en el fondo como en la forma, y tanto en lo que se dice de ellas como en lo que no se dice.

Recorte de plantilla
El recorte dado por las Instrucciones se concreta en una reducción de la plantilla de docentes de aproximadamente el 15%. Como siempre, los números varían según quién los haga. El mínimo está en los 1700 profesores interinos citados por la Consejería, y el máximo en los 3000 docentes citados por los sindicatos, donde incluyen ya reducciones menos bruscas hechas el año pasado, a través de otros mecanismos, como el retraso de las suplencias por baja médica. Para conseguir este ajuste, las Instrucciones aumentan el número de horas lectivas de cada profesor, de 18 a 20 horas semanales. Este dato, por si solo, es el mayor ejemplo de desinformación y confunsión, voluntaria o involuntaria. Para entender la repercusión de esta medida es necesario aclarar dos conceptos: ¿qué es un profesor interino?, ¿cómo se estructura el horario de un profesor?

A few last videos to top off

Hi guys,

Some of you have been asking for links to the videos we saw in class  these last few days, so here you go. We didn't see all the videos in every class, so for sure there's something interesting for you to pick.

Derek Sivers' How to Start a Movement can be enjoyed by anyone (language is accessible and it runs for less than 5 minutes)

As long as you look at the pictures and their transformations, it's difficult not to enjoy Ursus Wehrli's Tiding Up Art. It's a blast, but language is more demanding though.

RSA Animate - Language as a Window into Human Nature. Personally, I love it. But it's actually just for the more linguistic-minded of you.

And at last, some vice and consequences, I mean, some poetry. Actually, a very powerful poetry reading by Felix Dennis.

Our buggy moral code

Hi guys,

Just a link to a very compelling TED talk we saw (only at some of the classes, though) about irracionalities... and on cheating while saving face :)

The English is pretty clear and understandable, and subtitles are available. Have a go!!!

New Year Resolutions

Hi Guys,

Just the links to the show we watched about gadgets to help you stick with your resolutions: Solutions to Resolutions

and a humorous song about the attitudes towards resolutions: Resolutions song

English Central - Pronunciation Tutor

Hi guys,

Here is the link to the pronunciation training website I was showing you a few days ago: http://www.englishcentral.com

There are plenty of videos, at several levels of difficulty, that you can watch and read along, with subtitles and a voice recording option. The tutor then highlights the faulty bits in your pronunciation and let´s you compare it to the native model (full words, or even sound by sound, if you click on any particular word).

Also, there are other working modes like quizzes and so on, that you should explore. In all, This is a very useful kind of work that unfortunately we cannot really do at class.

My suggestion is that you spend some 20-30 minutes a week with this. And, of course, to keep on listening to at least 2 hours of other materials like movies, news, podcasts...

Happy talking!