WEB QUEST 2: ARE YOU GREEN?

Today's blog activity is about finding some information related to the environment. You have to visit some websites and answer the questions below.

Part 1- Calculate your carbon footprint!

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

·        Don’t forget to select English before starting the activity.

Questions:

Ø What’s your carbon footprint?

Ø What’s the average carbon footprint of a person?

Part 2 - Take these Recycling Quizzes

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/quiz-going-green/

http://www.quizmoz.com/quizzes/Science-Quizzes/r/Recycling-Quiz.asp

Questions:

Ø Hand washing dishes can use up to ______ % more of water than using an efficient dishwasher.

Ø Only about _________ % of global energy comes from renewables.

Ø True or false? Appliances that are turned off don’t use any electricity.

Ø Can you make paper out of hemp?

Part 3- Video >> Top ten tips for recycling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjbSEIOUp4w

Watch the video and choose the best 3 tips in your opinion.

1.

2.

3.

POST 8: ART

This week you have decided to write about art. So as to narrow down this broad topic, you should  focus into one form of visual arts. Please, read my sample post below.

Here you are some bullet questions you can choose from to start writing.

Introduction:

Why is art important?

Why do you enjoy art?

Were you interested in art when you were a kid?

Do you like to visit art museums?

Body:

Your skills.

What are your best artistic abilities? Have you ever participated in any art competitions?

Have you ever been jealous of someone else's artwork?

Your personal views.

Do you like modern art?

What are your favourite visual art expressions?

Do you consider graffiti a form of art or vandalism?

What do you think of art creations made of human flesh, blood and bones?

Your favourites

Who is your favorite artist?

Do you have a favourite work of art? If so, what is it?  Why do you like it?

Make sure you write at least  180 words and remember to leave a comment on 3 of your classmates' posts.

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I was fond of drawing and painting when I was a kid, but it wasn’t until the day that I went to Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes for the first time, when I was around 16, that I really became interested in painting. From that day on I have been visiting art exhibitions on a regular basis.

Considering that I’m not an artist, I would say that I’m pretty good at drawing and I enjoy doing sketches from time to time, and this is more than just a simple pastime, It’s a necessity I should say.  But painting is another story, I mean, mixing colours, getting a certain effect, etc, is not an easy task, that’s why I’m thinking of taking some painting lessons because painting is something that really makes me tick.

I love contemporary painting, especially impressionism, expressionism, cubism, and surrealist art, but conceptual art is definitely not my cup of tea, so I usually find installations boring. Maybe Hugo Marin’s installations are the exception.  I´ve been very fortunate to have seen very famous works of art in some Latin American and European museums and I suggest you visit The Rally Museum in Vitacura, Santiago,  if you want to see good quality Latin American art. They even have some works by Salvador Dali!!!  Now, (sorry graffiti artists) I find most of the grafitti  I’ve seen rather ugly and aggressive, so when I see a graffiti that I like I take a picture before someone paints over it.

The list of artists I like is too long, but Macke is one of my favourites -that´s why I named this blog after him, I like the way he used colours and the fact that his works seem to have been painted “alla prima”, but very successfully.  And among my favourite Chilean artists I should mention Gonzalo Cienfuegos, Eva Lefever, Camilo Mori and Claudio Bravo.

POST 7 Career-Related Website or An Expert on your Field

Since in order to write today’s post you can choose ONE of two options, I have written two sample posts to guide your writing (See below).

Post 1 (Instructions).
Write about a career-related website that you enjoy visiting.

You should:
- provide a link
- describe the website (sections, features,etc)
- say how often you visit the site
- explain why you like the site.

Make sure you add comments to at least 3 of your classmates’ blogs.
-Word Count: 170

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Post 2 (Instructions)
Who is a person/expert on your field that you admire?

Say:
-Who she/he is.(short biography)
-What she/he has done. (examples of their work)
-Why you like her/him.
-Include his/her image

> About 170 words
Remember to add comments to at least 3 of your classmates’ blogs

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The BBC English learning website.

Whether you’re a student or a teacher, you should visit BBC Learning English. To me,  it’s one of the best sites to look for different kinds of information related to teaching and learning English as a second language.

But it’s not only about learning, it also has lots of articles related to culture. It’s a great site where students can do exercises, read pieces of current news, practice their listening skills, improve their pronunciation, and even have fun playing games, watching videos  or chatting with people from all over the world.

If you are a teacher, you also have lots of options, for example you can download up to date material for your classes, that you can adopt or adapt,  get new ideas to improve your lessons or exchange information with other teachers.

Some of its regular features that Ilike include, among others,: “Words in the News”, which contains written and video stories; “Express English”, in which people are asked about their opinions on different things -Each week there’s a new topic and the interesting thing is that you can also join the conversation; “Quiznet”, which gives you the chance to increase your vocabulary on different topics; and I also like “6 Minute English”, a short radio programme that helps you improve both your listening comprehension skills and your vocabulary while you learn about an interesting issue.

I like this site because everything in it has been carefully done by very professional people, it’s very user-friendly, so you can find things easily, and everything is interesting and down-to-earth, I mean , it is related to real life.  For all these reasons I visit this site on a regular basis and I strongly reccomend it to you. The address to this website is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

An expert that I admire

“What a great activity! It’s interesting and fun to do”. This is what I usually say when I see English text books that have been written by Penny Ur.  But Penny is more than an experienced  text book writer, she´s a remarkable English Language Teaching author who has helped teachers develop their teachingt skills, that is to say, she teaches teachers to teach.

 I don’t know much about her personal life, all I know is that she is Israeli or American and that she studied at Oxford and Cambridge  Universities.  I also know that she has travelled extensively giving conferences worldwide and has written lots of papers, which are very teacher-friendly, I mean, it’s very easy to understand what she is trying to communicate and her tips are really helpful.

Some of her most prominent books, among others,  are: Five Minute Activities, A Course in Language Teaching , and  Grammar Practice Activities. When I was studying in London I used one of her books, which was called Proficiency in English, if I remember well.

Although her books are more concerned with the teaching of grammar than on improving your communicative  skills, I like her because she is able to teach structures in an interesting and meaningful fashion, which is something that not many writers are able to do. Finally, there are writers concerned with Teaching English as a Foreign Language who have written long, boring and hard to understand papers. Instead, she has written short and clear documents that say more than a million pages.