JAVIER REVERTE'S SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Javier Reverte is a Spanish journalist and writer. He loves travelling and his travel books have given him fame and good reviews but he also writes novels, poems, scripts for TV and short essays.

He was born in Madrid in 1944. He studied journalism and philosophy. He has worked as a journalist and newspaper correspondent for over 20 years.

He considers himself as a writer who travels. He loves travelling as a passion and he has travelled widely and deeply all over the world. In his books  he describes his experiences as a traveller together with a careful analysis of the history of the places he visits. He also gives the readers information about the lives of unforgettable travellers and explorers. His narrative is fresh and vivid. The reader can feel the heat of Africa, the cold of the North Pole, the sound of the sea from a ship. Among his travel books we can  highlight Trilogía de Africa (El sueño de Africa, Vagabundo en Africa and Los caminos perdidos de Africa), El corazón de Ulises ( a trip to Greece, Turkey and Egypt), La Aventura de viajar, El río de la desolación (a trip on the Amazon river), El río de la luz ( a trip in Alaska and Canada rafting the Yukon river), En mares salvajes ( a trip to the Artic Ocean crossing the Northwest Passage). Colinas que arden, lagos de fuego (Africa, again), which I have enjoyed too.
His last travel book that has been published is Canta Irlanda, which is a book that reflects the personality and the poetry of Ireland wonderfully. I think that we both have in common the love for Ireland.

He has also written novels such as the Trilogía de Centroamérica, Muerte a destiempo, La noche detenida, Todos los sueños del mundo, Venga a nosotros tu reino, Barrio Cero (superb!), La canción de Mbama (magical). He has been awarded with several literature prizes.

If I had another life, I'd like to be a travel writer like him with his skill for getting the reader in the place and make us travel with our imagination, which is an interesting way of travelling, too.

ENRIQUE URQUIJO'S SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Activity for all my students: the use of Simple Past Tense

Enrique Urquijo  has always been one of my favourite musicians. I still listen to his songs very often and they bring me good memories. His voice, his lyrics, his deep eyes, his sadness, his shy smile, his life are somewhere in my heart and will always be there.

Enrique Urquijo was born in Madrid on the 15th February 1960. He started loving & playing music at school. He started a band with his brothers Javier and Alvaro as well as his friend Canito, who played the drums. They founded the band Tos in 1978. On the night of New Year's Eve 1979 Canito died in a car accident. Later a concert as a homage to him called: "Concierto Homenaje a Canito" in February 1980 was considered the beginning of La Movida madrileña. Then the band changed their name as well as some members and were called Los Secretos. They published 15 records. They had a successful career. Enrique was a composer, singer, bass player and guitar player. He wrote songs which are essential in the history the Spanish pop music such as  Déjame, Sobre un vidrio mojado, No me imagino, Volver a ser un niño, Quiero beber hasta perder el control, Buena chica, Ojos de gata, Y no amanece, Por la calle del olvido, Adios tristeza, Agárrate fuerte a mí María, A tu lado.

He started an alternative band to experiment with versions of songs of La Movida and include rancheras, fados and other types of music. This band was called Los Problemas and they published two lovely records in 1993 and 1998.

Enrique was a very sensitive man. He suffered from depression and took drugs. He died dramatically in Madrid on the 17th November 1999. All his fans were absolutely shocked and terribly sad.

I saw him in lots of concerts from the 80s to almost his death. He played in big concerts halls with Los Secretos and in small pubs with Los Problemas. I met him once in a pub in Moncloa. There were very few people in the pub. I was with my cousins and a friend. He was alone. Los Secretos had launched their LP Continuará. We were talking  for a while about his new record and music. He was so polite and down to earth. He signed an autograph for me with a drawing that I lost later!!! "It is only a piece of paper" as Santiago Auserón told me in another occasion. I won't ever forget that night where I could talk to my idol as a nornal person. Maybe that's the reason why he wrote "Pero cómo explicar que me vuelvo vulgar al bajarme de cada escenario". He was not vulgar at all. He was a normal guy, not a star, although he was a genius.

Once he was playing in a pub and there was a drunk woman spoiling his concert a little. He was respectful and patient with her. He was a gentleman. I wish he would have lived longer. There were still so many beautiful songs to write. Sixteen years after his death many people still miss him...
The Bands Tos Secret & Emision Zero will make a tribute concert on the 21st Nov. in Madrid

Los Secretos: Quiero beber hasta perder el control

Enrique Urquijo y Los Problemas: Desde que no nos vemos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu4fNy7x2GI

LEARNING PRESENT CONTINUOUS THROUGH MOVIES

Activity for 4ºD  ESO
Francesca, our Teaching Assistant found this interesting seletion of movie scenes in Youtube where the Present Continuous Tense is used. Let's watch it again

INTERACTIVE ENGLISH COURSE

Another student of mine, Emilio, told me about this course. You have everything to practice Grammar:

http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar.html

This is the home page. I really recommend it to you:

http://www.learnenglish-online.com/

GRAMMAR CONTENTS FOR THE ACCESO CFGS EXAM

Activity for my ACCESO students.
You have a summary of the Grammar contents we have worked this year in this link:

https://www.box.com/s/efy2hlj1oiuhfysym37g

Thanks to my ex-students Kike and Víctor who started this task faithfully.  : )
I hope you all will be as lucky as them in the exam next June!

PROYECTO: 5. THINGS AROUND US BEFORE AND NOW

ACTIVITY FOR MY CONVERSATION GROUP
Read this text and write the verbs in the correct tense. Then think about the topic and we'll have a discussion in class:

Things around us before and now

Our lives (1)  ________ (change) a lot during the last two decades. There (2) _____(be) so many things around us that have made our lives easier and maybe more stressing, too. When I (3) _______ (be) young and I was going to be late home I used to phone my mother from a telephone box using coins, some years later, phone cards and now...Where are the telephone boxes? Well, you can see some British ones behind this text. Everybody (4) ______ (have) a mobile phone nowadays.

Teaching (5) __________ (change) very much lately. Before we used to have books, notebooks and a blackboard. English teachers (6) ______ (take)  the tape recorder to the classes and got crazy to find the exact listening we (7) _______ (need). Now there are digital boards and computer laboratories in the schools. Readers books and text books (8) _____ (have) a CD for the students to listen at home. The Internet is a fantastic tool to do plenty of activities for the English classes. Well, this is a real example!

Now you don't even have to cook!. The miraculous Termomix (9) ______ (cook) for you! That's what I (10) _______ (hear). What would our grandmothers think about this?

PROYECTO: 2. COMPARATIVE, SUPERLATIVE, TIME CONNECTORS

ACTIVITY FOR MY CONVERSATION GROUP
Unit: "Life before and life now"
You will have to compare places and things in this unit. You will also have to write and speak about people's life so the connectors of time will be useful, too.
Rememeber:

• Adjectives can have a comparative (-er...than, more...than) and a superlative form (the ...-est, the most...) depending on the number of syllables.
• Subordinate clauses of time can have different connectors: when, while, after, before, as soon as, as, as long as.

Complete these sentences with the correct comparative or superlative adjective or a connector of time.

1. My brother is _____ (tall) of my family.
2. The book The Name of the Rose is much ______ (good) than the film.
3. Madrid is ______(big) than Guadalajara.
4. He is the ______ (intelligent) person I have ever met.
5. _______ I entered the classroom, the students sat down and opened their books.
6. I had breakfast _____having a shower.
7. She was doing her homework ______ she was listening to music.
8. You can find ______ exercises on this link:

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/alle_grammar.htm

PROYECTO: 1. VERB TENSES

ACTIVITY FOR MY CONVERSATION GROUP
Unit: "Life before and life now"
The first thing we are going to do in this unit is to review verb tenses to express "life before (Past Simple, Past Continuous, used to, Past Perfect) and "life now" (Present Perfect, Present Simple, Present Continuous)
Fill in the blanks with the verb in the correct tense:

1.  I _____ (meet) my best friend yesterday.
2. When I _____ (be) a child, I _____ (play) football every day.
3. We ______ (live) in Madrid since 1999.
4. When she _____ (give) me the book as a present I _____ ( read already) some years before.
5. This year ______ (work) in the best adult school in Madrid.
6. I _____ (have) a shower when I ____ (hear) that terrible noise.

There are more exercises to practice in this link:
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html