Here we will post about cultural traditions, food recipes and happenings in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and other English speaking countries. We will also post projects from PAL English classes.
Anyone can contribute to the PAL English blog, let us know if you'd like to write a post or share an event!
On June 15th and 16th, the French and English language assistants came together to host the first PAL fun day for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ESO. The day started with a splash as the students tossed water balloons and played "drip, drip, drop" with the English assistants. This was a nice cool down after wheelbarrow and three legged races! (More pictures below)
After, students embraced their inner artist with the French assistants as they created statues and fixtures made from environmental elements such as sticks, leaves, and twine. Then, they preformed a theater performance for each other after a bit of practice.
The sound of laughter remains ringing in our ears as the question, "When can we do this again?" is on all our minds...
The French and English Language Assistants
Natural art!
Drip, drip, DROP
English Assistants Brigid and Michaela
On April 20, 2022 the 3ESO Students took a field trip to see a Beat Boxing performance at the Tres Cantos Cultural Center. The students really enjoyed the alternative experience and were asked to write about their impressions on the performances. Three of the articles were chosen for their creativity and well-written thoughts. To the left you have Angela Chase's article, from 3 ESO A. And below you can read Lucía Vicente's and Nuria Tejero's, also from 3 ESO A.
“Dear Ukraine” project has been carried out by 4th ESO students. After talking about the Ukraine invasion and going through lexicon related to this topic, the students wrote a letter dedicated to Ukraine, either to a specific person, group of people, organization or even an abstract term like “peace”. In these letters they had to use some of the words previously taught. The result has been quite emotional and very supportive of the struggles of Ukraine.
On Monday, the 3rd ESO Advanced students celebrated some well accomplished women in science. During the second term, they worked on a research project in English and Biology classes where they chose a female scientist to research. Then the students voted on the most well-researched scientists and had to record an interview in pairs. Four scientists won an award for the best in their category: Ecology and Geography, Medicine, Biology, and Chemistry. To see their research, you can look at their research journals for each scientific category. See the journals below.
Honoring and celebrating women all over the world, English classes 4A and 4B have selected various women from athletes like Serena Williams, to politicans like Kamala Harris, and to actors like Zendaya. With the help of the English Lanuage assistants, these women are featured in a large poster at the main entrance of PAL. Go have a look!
The 3ESO sección inglesa students at PAL competed in the 2022 Global Classrooms Madrid-wide conference on Thursday, February 10th. All delegations performed very well and some even recieved an award for their exceptional performance.
The topic discussed during the 2022 Global Classrooms Conference was Protecting the Rights of Elderly Persons. There were over 130 schools participating in the 2 week long conference. At the conclusion of the conference on Friday, February 11th, 50 delegations were chosen to move on the the second round. Congratulations to Alan and Inés, delegation of Ireland, who will be moving on to the second round.
Thank you to Ana, our Global Classrooms participant and official journalist for keeping a report of the days' happenings and for taking photographs and videos of the students.
This week, the students in 2º bachillierato sold over 200 flowers for Valentine's Day! With some help from the Language Assistants and the English department, the senior students made an unforgettable Valentine's Day celebration at PAL. Dedicated flowers were passed out during 3rd and 4th period.
In the spirit of celebrating self love, the English Language Assistants created a "Take What Your Need" interactive poster in the main entrance. All week students from every class have been feeling the love from the kind words written inside each envelope.
Welcome back to the PAL Book Club! This year we will be meeting on Thursday's. Our last meeting will be on Thursday, June 2nd in room 001 during the break. We kicked off the first meeting by reading a short story. The two books we are reading this year are Holes by Louis Sachar and The Witches by Roald Dahl.
On December 20th, 2021 the 3rd ESO sección inglesa students participated in the annual Global Classrooms Mock Conference. The topic was Protecting the Rights of Elderly Persons. In Global Classrooms, the students are assigned a country and act as delegates and representatives for that country at a UN "mock" assembly. All the students had to prepare a position paper on the topic representing one of the assigned countries: Ireland, Philippines, South Africa, Czech Republic and México. They also had to open the conference with an opening speech summarizing how their country has collaborated internationally to help this issue. 12 of the students were chosen to continue with Global Classrooms and will be debating with other high schools in Madrid through a virtual conference on Thursday, February 10th.
This year the students participated in a pumpkin carving contest, classroom door decorations, and some outdoor activities with the TSEAS 2nd year students. Scroll through the pictures to see the winners of the pumpkin carving contest, some of the decorated doors around the school, and some of the spooky costumes!🎃👻
Scroll to see some of the Diversity Week project by 4ESO students. Diversity was in April to celebrate equality and diversity in education.
To celebrate Earth Day on Thursday, April 22nd, go check out these herbariums created by the 1ESO A&B classes. The journals contain various printed flowers and plants that you can find in this region of Spain. They will be on display until Friday the 23rd. Click through some pictures of the display to the right.
How important is it for us to develop sustainable cities and communities to ensure a healthy, green, viable future for everyone? Extremely important! That is why at PAL, we will be learning about goal #11 from the UN's Sustainable Development Goals during the whole month of April. Topics such as overpopulation, the effect on cities due to climate change, food waste, garbage disposal and waste management, renewable energies and clean alternatives will be covered in all classes. It is up to us to choose a sustainable and clean future!
For the month of March, we are learning about SDG #5: Gender Equality. We are also celebrating Women's History Month and International Women's Day (March 8th). In class we have talked about Kamala Harris, the first female vice-president of the United States; Emma Watson, an actress, feminist and advocate for women's rights, and a UN global ambassador who started the campaign called HeForShe to promote gender equality; Amanda Gorman and her poem "The Hill We Climb" and the reasons for why SDG goal #5 is so important. Click on the links to learn more.
A student from 2nd Bachillerato, Julia Vallés Ruescas, shared her project on renewable energy for the school with some of the ESO classes. The main focus of her project is to reduce PAL's carbon emissions by replacing the diesel broiler which heats up the school, with solar panels. Due to Spain's sunny location, it has the greatest potential for solar powered energy, which you can see in her map of Europe. Compared to Germany, which is completely green on the map, and has 10x the amount of solar panels!
Continuing with our focus on the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals, for the months of January and February, we learned about goal #7 - Affordable and Clean Energy. In January, we learned about our carbon footprints and calculated them by adding up our water usage, transportation use, the diet we eat, electronic usage, and the things we buy and who we buy them from. This is something we should all be conscious of!
During the month of November, we learned about goal #3: Good Health and Well-Being, which is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) from the United Nations. The students, teachers and parents participated in an anonomous survey where they answered questions about their physical and mental health. With almost 200 responses, we were able to have a general idea of the overall physical health and mental stress across most levels. Click on the picture to the left to see the results from all participants.
Here are Brigid's suggestions
My favorite part about having a break from school, is reading for fun! Here are some book reccomendations if you are looking for an enjoyable read:
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (one of my favorite series growing up, if you like adventure, you will love this!)
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson