To All Groups: Grades not published on CSIM web until June 21st

Because I knew that our Actas had to be handed on on the 10th, I thought that the grades would be on the CSIM website that afternoon or the next day. But I am wrong as you can see from this email I received today.

If anyone wants to know his/her grade privately, you can write me at kate@kseley.jazztel.es 

Good luck!

E-mail below is from CSIM:

____________________________________________________________

- Actas must be returned by Monday, June 10^th.  

- Students can see their grades after June 21^st. by entering matrícula online on the CSIM website: www.ucm.es/info/idiomas

- Students can collect certificates (including credit certificates) from the Donoso Cortes office after July 18^th. Certificates will not be sent by email.

B1.3 Friday Progress Test 6 and assurances about the exam

I am publishing the PT 6 as Susana asked me to, in case you want to do it.

I have looked at the exam again and, in general, it emphasizes the things that we have emphasized in class just as I told you last Friday!  :)  Kate

Conv. B2 M -W Play scripts

GREAT presentations today. As you asked me to, I'm publishing the play scripts on the blog so that you can read what you saw. 2 are links but the "Odd Couple" is the pages scanned, so I can post the image of the pages. Again, wonderful job, EVERYBODY.
What are you Looking For : click here

Arsenic and Old Lace : click here

The Odd Couple:

Conversation B2 and all groups

Josefina's presentation made me think of this impressive short documentary on "The Life of the Plastic Bag," narrated in the lovely voice of Jeremy Irons. This is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw

B1.3 Friday Can-do objectives review

Last last day  we will review the "Can -do" bojectives for each unit. I gave them to you at the beginning of the course, but just in case, I'm publishing it here for you to print.

To print please click here

Con B2 Wednesday

Reminder to print the docs. for Con B1 dated Sunday May 19. Also, this is the link to the exercise on English Intonation Patterns that we will finally(!) look at tomorrow.

Click here

Con B2 M- W

This is the link to the Students' Guide for Steel Magnolias as condensed as I can get it.

I hope going over the questions and vocabulary hoped you understand the play better and get more form having seen it.

Click here

Don't froget to do Steve Jobs Youtube and exercises for Monday.  Date posted: 1/7 /12 Good week!

B1.3 Fridays

Wonderful summary by Juan Aparicio.

Summary’s 10 th April

Hello classmates! Last Friday, we started unit 6: “Codes of  conduct” and improve our vocabulary with expressions like “takes for granted” or “take responsibility”.

We had read reading of pages 46-47 (old face to face student’s book edition) and we were talking about exercise 1 and answer the true/false  sentences about exercise 2 and exercise 3.

Later, we were talking in a little groups about exercise 6: expressions with a verb+ing. We had to thought different sentences about ourselves like  “I think football is…interesting” or “I really enjoy sleeping”.

After, we had started part 6-B, page 48(old face to face student’s book edition) and vocabulary about adjectives describing character in exercise 1 like “strongwilled” or “selfcentred”

The class was finished earlier because, Kate and many classmates have enjoyed of Kate’s theatre play “Steel magnolias”. I hope they have passed a very good time and enjoy the play.

Like an important extra information: Kate mentioned that the redaction or the course had to be 300 words.

Homework:

-We have to think five people you know (relatives, friends, neightbours  etc) and three famous people and make sentences about their different characters and conduct manners.

-Next class 17^th, April it’ll be the beginning of the oral project presentations. It’ll be important for the different groups or people who make the presentations send kate the “project organiser “ document(you can find it at the kate’s blog)  before your presentation because kate would help you about possible future grammar mistakes or anything else.

Con B2 Tu - Th

We will discuss the I Love Lucy scene. The video youtube link is 25 april ( great and funny video clip) with the questions on 2 May.

Then we will look at some transparencies I still have pending about the relationship between written and spoken English that go with the video.

Finally there was a very short video clip I wanted you to see about unemployment in Spain but I was too busy to post the link. I wanted to now, and I can't : it says the video is "unavailable in my area". I think you should know this as it is censorship - and actually part of it I thought was rather defensive towards the government. One Spanish man with very good English said that the figure of 27% unemployment was not real because of the underground economy and I wanted to know if you agreed.

But this is a short article

 Madrid - Recent data has shown that almost five million Spaniards were registered as unemployed in April.

The data cast a dark shadow for the millions who seek employment in the country.

The number of registered jobless fell by 0.91% or 46,050 people.

However, those gains were mainly down to restaurants and hotels gearing up for the holiday season, and in seasonally adjusted terms the number rose by 17,663 from March.

"The figure shows the continued weakness of the labour market and of the Spanish economy," said Citi strategist Jose Luis Martinez.

"It's not compatible with the (government's forecast) of a stronger economy in the second quarter of the year."

Last month's quarterly National Statistics Institute survey -- which polls registered and non-registered unemployed -- showed that 27% or 6.2 million people were out of work in the first quarter.

Spain's jobless rate -- the second highest in the EU behind Greece -- has risen every quarter since mid-2011 as the economy struggles to exit its second recession since the end of 2009.

April's figures show the biggest falls in registered unemployed were in the services sector and in construction, from which millions have already lost their jobs after the bubble burst in 2008.

The labour ministry figures also do not include the long-term unemployed who no longer register as out of work.

According to official data, almost two million people have been out of work for more than two years.

The government expects the unemployment rate to remain above 24% until 2016. 

For Thursday, I'd like you to see another video clip: Henry Kravis and the War on Greed posted on 27/11/12. See it at home if possible and print the document for Thursday.

Con B1

This is what we did in class: First we talked about the youtube of the “I Love Lucy” program, which everyone agreed was very funny. The date of the post is with the link to the youtube clip is Thursday 25 April and the exercise we did about this clip is the post for May 2. Then we saw some transparencies about the different pronunciations for the English vowels and the correspondence between written and spoken pronunciations. Everyone agreed that it was a little boring but very useful! Finally, we did a role play about people with typical life problems and a psychologist.

For Wednesday, please go to the post for 28 October 2012 about the film Ghost and interesting related questions ( on the 2nd page). It has the label "movie scene or series." We will do this on Wednesday, first discussing and debating the questions and personal stories and then seeing the scene. It is relatively easy if you study the vocabulary, especially since after the first par,t the Ghost ( Patrick Swayze or "Sam") has to tell the medium everything she has to say to the girlfriend, and she repeats it - so much of the dialog is said twice!

B1.3 Fridays

Hi Class,

I need to know who and how many are coming to the play. I have at least 2 Spanish friends who I can add to the list of "students" so we can; I think, make a group of 10. For a group of 10 students, the ticket price is 7 €, which is the price of a movie and a nice reduction. BUT PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE COMING SO I CAN LEAVE A LIST OF NAMES WITH THE RESERVATION OF "KATE'S CLASS".  Getting a bit nervous about the play!  Kate

Con B2 recipes (both groups)

New recipe from Josefina!

Meat PieIngredientsGround beef (1/2 gr.)Potatoes (1 kilo)Onions (1 or 2)Raisin (200 gr)NutmegPaprikaBay leafOilEgg (1)Butter (250 gr)Water (1 l)How to do itPut the butter in a skillet. Cut the onions into long thin strips and put them in the skillet until they are browned. Then, put the ground beef and stir very slowly. When the ground beef is browned put the raisings, nutmeg, paprika, bay leaf and stir again.Put the water in a pot and when it boils, put the potatoes (but dont peel them yet!) and cook them until they are soft.When they are ready, peel them and make a purée. Put a yolk and milk and stir until you see the purée is creamy.When the ground beef and all the ingredients are ready put them in a roasting pan and then put the purée on the top. Wait 10 minutes and enjoy it!A tip from argetinian food: you can enjoy it with a pinch of sugar (yes, sugar). You’ll love it!

María Álvarez ha dejado un nuevo comentario en su entrada "Con B2 Both groups - Next Monday and Tuesday": 

GALICIAN OCTOPUS

Ingredients:

-1 octopus (3 kg)
-5 l. water
-salt
-cayenne pepper
-4 potatoes
-garlic
-olive oil

Way of cooking it:

1. Boil the water in a pot.
2. Put the octopus three times in the pot and then drop into the pot. You have to cook it 20 minutes per kilo.
3. After that, turn off the burner and leave it resting.
4. Peel the potatoes, cut them, and boil the potatoes in another pot.
5. Then put the potatoes in a big plate, and chap the octopus over it with scissors.
6. Finally, add the garlic, salt, the cayenne pepper and the olive oil.
7. Now, enjoy it! 

MARÍA MORENO25 de abril de 2013 03:03

Hi Kate, here is my recipe:

SEA LASAGNA

Ingredients for 6-8 people:

- 2 packets of quick lasagna (no need to boil, just to soak).
- For the filling, we need 500 grams of peeled shrimps, 3 slices of hake, 300 gr. of scallops, 200 gr. of surimi, salt, pepper and olive oil.
- For the stir-fry, we need 2 medium onions, 2 small cucumbers, 8 cherry tomatoes, 1 leek, olive oil, salt and pepper.
- For the white sauce, what we need is 1,5 litres of full-cream  WHOLE milk, 3 big spoonfuls of flour, 60 gr. of butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- For the tomato sauce, we need tomatoes, olive oil, sugar and salt.

How to do it:

I’m not going to explain thoroughly how to do the white sauce and the tomato sauce, because if I do that this recipe would be very long. I will focus on the filling, on the stir-fry and on the proper lasagna.

When the stir-fry is ready on the frying pan, we have to add a couple of spoonfuls of tomato sauce, and pour the contents of the frying pan (stir-fry + tomato sauce) into the glass of the mixer just to mince it.

On the other hand, we have to melt in another frying pan two big spoonfuls of butter and fry 3 spoonfuls of flour lightly until it is toast, stirring constantly. Then we add the full-cream milk gradually until getting a white sauce with medium densitiy.

For the filling, we have to chop the shrimps, the scallops, the surimi and the hake in similar sized pieces, and sauté them just a bit, so they are not raw (they will finish their cook in the oven). Then, we add 2 spoonfuls of white sauce in the filling and we pour the stir-fry into a sieve over the filling, so that the cream falls on our filling.

Now, we have to make the proper lasagna. We keep it soak for 10 minutes and then we put a coating of lasagna in a dish. After that, we put a coating of white sauce, then a coating of stuffing, then another coating of lasagna and so on. Finally, we cover it with tomato sauce, sprinkle the surface with grated cheese and place the dish in the oven, after preheating it. The lasagna should be in the oven for 15 minutes at 190ºC, and then we have to broil it for 3 or 4 minutes at 220ºC. After that, the sea lasagna will be perfect and ready to be served.

Lucía de Lucas ha dejado un nuevo comentario en su entrada "Con B2 Both groups - Next Monday and Tuesday": 

BACON & ONION QUICHE RECIPE 

Hi everyone, 
I will share with you my recipe for doing french quiche. 
You need the following ingredients: 
-Brown pepper
-Nutmeg
-Salt
-Butter
-2 eggs
-250 ml of liquid cream (it means a normal water glass)
-2 medium onions
-100 gr of bacon
-dough (you can buy it)

Instructions

-You must spread with butter a round oven pan. Over it, you extend the dough and put in the oven for ten minuts, in order to give it a crispier consistency. 
Now you must prepare the filling. Chop the onions and cook them slowly in a normal pan with a little bit of oil. They must get transparent, never crispy. Do the same with the bacon (it can be crispy if you like it). 
Mix the onions and the bacon and leave them aside. 
Now you have to stir the eggs with the cream. This mixture needs a pinch of salt, a dash of pepper and bit of nutmeg (be careful with the salt, as you are using bacon). 
You also add to this mixture the bacon and the onion; stir it well, and you already have your filling. Pour it on the dough and finish by covering everything with good cheese (it can be grated or in slices). 
Put in the oven for 20-30 minuts or till it is golden. 
Now enjoy!! 

Lucía 

_______________________________________________________________

Con B2 Mon. and Wed.

Besides doing some pronunciation and talking about the "Lucy" episode, we are going to do some preparation for seeing "Steel Magnolias" on Wednesday. So please print the Teachers' Guide to Steel Magnolias, dated March 22 ONLY pages 3 through 9, the interview with the author, the characters and the basic plot summary.

Look for answers to these questions:

Who is the author and what is his special relationship with the play?

Why does he say that the play's appeal is universal?

Where does the whole play take place?

Who are the 6 characters, their ages and strongest personality traits.

What are the most important things that happen in each of the 4 scenes?

All Conversation classes B1 and B2

Please see the funny video a few posts down dated April 25, about Lucy and Ricky and his troubles with English. I have made a little exercise with questions and also (I think) the link to the episode.

Click here

Con B1 : Here are your recipes! Great!

Maria Luisa ha dejado un nuevo comentario en su entrada "Con B1 : Here are your recipes! Great!": 

This is my recipe:
HAKE WITH POTATOES (for four people)
Ingredients:
-A green pepper
-Half an onion
-Five potatoes
-A tomato
-A teaspoon of paprika
-Water
-4 pieces of hake
-A pinch of salt
-A teaspoon of oil

Instructions:
1.Chop the pepper and the onion into small pieces.
2.Peel potatoes and chop into medium pieces.
3.Grate the tomato.
4.Brown the pepper and onion with a teaspoon of oil in a pot.
5.Pour potatoes with a pinch of salt and brown.
6.Pour a teaspoon os paprika and tomato and brown.
7.Pour water to cover everything and wait 20 minutes.
8.Pour hake and wait 10 minutes.
9.Then, serve it.

1. Ana Ok25 de abril de 2013 08:09

   Hi class!! This is my recipe:
   
   STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE
   
   Ingredients for the cake base:
   
   - 150gr biscuits/cookies.
   - 75gr of soft butter.
   - 50gr of sugar.
   - The zest of one lemon.
   
   Ingredients for the filling:
   
   - 400 gr of cottage/ricotta cheese.
   - 100gr of sugar.
   - 1 strawberry yogourt.
   - 50 gr of condensed milk.
   - The juice of a lemon.
   - 1packet of strawberry gelatin.
   - 200gr of strawberries.
   
   Crush the cookies in a bowl and mix with all the other ingredients of the base, forming a shell/crust in a cake pan.
   
   Chopping 100 gr of strawberries and put ON the base.
   
   In a blender, mix the cottage/ricotta cheese, sugar, the yogourt and the condensed milk together.
   Heat the lemon juice, dilute the gelatin and add to the mixture.
   Pour the filling ON the cake base(with strawberries) and leave to set IN the fridge.
   Before serving, garnish with remaining strawberries cutted in beauty slices(remember, the presentation is very important! ;) ) and enjoy it!!!
   It's delicious!!!
   
   Ana
   
   

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   Kate Seley25 de abril de 2013 17:03
   Great Ana. Only 1 little mistake "Chop" 100 gr of strawberries. :)
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2. 
   Álvaro Molina Espinosa25 de abril de 2013 11:40

   Here is my recipe:
   
   CHICKEN WITH PINEAPPLE AND APPLESAUCE
   
   Ingredients:
   
   - Chicken pieces
   - Pinneaple
   - Half a cup of white vinager
   - Half a cup of sweet vine
   - Half a cup of white wine
   - Half a teaspoon of sugar
   - Salt and pepper
   - Chopped parsley
   - Olive oil
   - 3 cloves of garlic
   - 2 or 3 apples (for the applesauce)
   
   Instructions:
   
   - Salt the chicken and then fry it in a skillet with olive oil and the cloves of garlic.
   - Chop the pineapple, then put it with the chicken pieces in a pot with a little olive oil, the sugar and a dash of pepper. In the same pot pour vinager, sweet wine and white wine.
   - Leave to cook for 25 minutes until the gravy is produced.
   - Sprinkle the chicken with chopped parsley and serve with the gravy and applesauce.
   
   For the applesauce:
   - Peel and chop the apples.
   - Cook the apples and then blend them until you have the applesauce to your taste.
   
   In my opinion iT'S a simple recipe to make with a delicious mixture between chicken and pineapple. I hope you like and enjoy it if you try to make it.
   
   Álvaro

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   Kate Seley25 de abril de 2013 17:05
   Sounds delicious. 
3. 
   Mariaguti28 de abril de 2013 05:02

   Hi!! This is my recipe:
   QUICHE LORRAINE
   
   Ingredients:
   Pastry of crust pie
   Sliced bacon
   Cheese
   Onion
   4 eggs, beaten
   Cream
   Salt
   Sugar
   Pepper
   
   How to cook it:
   Preheat oven to 220º C. Put bacon in a large skillet, and fry over medium-high heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels, then cut it. Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onions into pastry shell.
   Beat eggs, cream, salt, sugar and pepper together. Pour mixture into pastry shell.
   Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce to heat to 150º C and bake an additional 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Allow quiche to sit 10 minutes before cutting it, and enjoy it!!
   
   María

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4. 
   Irene Velilla28 de abril de 2013 10:18

   RASPBERRY CUPCAKES
   Ingredients:
   1 egg
   175g sugar
   60 ml milk
   190ml olive oil
   210g flour
   7g yeast
   A pinch of salt
   Raspberry jam
   
   Recipe:
   On a special bowl beat egg and sugar. Then add milk and beat all. Later,adds olive oil and keep beating. Then adds flour,a pinch of salt and the yeast. Stir everything. When you have an homogeneous dough , beat on quick speed for 2 or 3 minutes.
   Top the dpugh with a cloth and leave it in the fridge during 1 hour minimun. Preheat the oven to 250ºC. Filling the cupcakes molds only to the middle . With a pastry(wich has inside the raspberry jam) put a little on the edge of every cupcake .
   Bake the cupcakes to 210ºC between 16 or 18 minutes.
   That's all!! =)
   Irene

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5. 
   let it be30 de abril de 2013 08:38

   ASPARAGUS AND RUCULA SALAD
   
   4 Serves
   Preparation time: 15 minutes
   Cooking time: 5 minutes
   
   
   INGREDIENTS
   
   
   3Tablespoons of olive oil
   500g of asparagus
   125 ml of tarragon and lemon dressing
   125 g of rucula
   2 Spring onions (finely sliced)
   Salt and pepper
   
   
   WAY OF COOKING
   
   Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the asparagus in a single layer. Cook for about 5 minutes, turning occasionally.
   Check the asparagus are tender pricking with the tip of a sharp knife.
   Remove from the pan to a shallow dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with the tarragon and lemon dressing. Leave to start for 5 minutes.
   Arrange the rucula on a serving plate. Sprinkle the spring onions over the rocket. Arrange the asparagus in a pile in the centre of the rucula.
   Garnish with herbs and lemon rind.
   
   Ceciliaa:)

Con B1 Summary for last Monday!

From Irene V. Very complete!

Conversation B1 M-W
Here’s my summary of Monday 29:
At first we did exercises about pronunciation with three different sounds:
-The first one: With the T sound. For example: sliced, placed, cooked, washed, whipped…
-The second one: With the D sound: For example: Boiled, cooled, grilled, simmered, study, chilled…
-The third one: With D’ sound. For example: Blended, roasted, decorated, separated, needed…
Then we played two games. The vocabulary from the first is this:
Goose bumps(piel de gallina) 
Improve
Roller-Skating
Gun control
On intership
Too much(negative) demasiado
Very much. Ex: I like it very much
Strike(noum)=huelga
Strike(verb)=aplastar,golpear,arrasar…Ex: I strike the lottery(coloquial phrase)
This game was a board game, with a dice and chips. You had to roll the dice and depending on the box in which hand guards respond to different types of questions. If you fell into one that has a smaller number of the age you are now, you were talking about had happened at that age, and if greater, talking to you like that happened to you at that age. And the box with star, had to answer a question cards.
The second game was about stories in a hotel. Each with a card read the problem was happening and had to represent mimicry through this problem, and the others had to find out. For example: I want to take a shower, but there are no towels in my room. Can you please call the cleaner?
And the class for example said: You look angry.
And that’s all! =) 
Have a nice day.
Irene V.