ANIMALS, ANIMALS

You can explore the animal kingdom at this BBC website. Learn new vocabulary while you find out interesting facts about your favourite (or not) animals. Unfortunately the videos do not work outside the UK.
Guess the animal:
1.- They are elusive, nocturnal, pig-like creatures that live on a diet of ants and termites. They have long extensible tongues and flexible tubular snouts - perfect tools for sucking up over 50,000 insects in one sitting, which they then swallow whole.
2.- They are insects which glow.
3.- They are nocturnal birds of prey. They hoot.
4.- They are cold-blooded reptiles which come in many shapes and sizes. Some change body colours, other can lose body parts and grow them again and there's one which can even walk on water.
5.- They are in the same great ape family as the chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans - with which they share a common ancestor. A behaviourally, socially and culturally diverse species, they are the only known species to build fires, cook food and clothe themselves.

Here's just the beginning of the film the Ant and the Aardvark. You can watch the rest on Youtube.com if you like this. Enjoy!



Other interesting links:
Animal Diversity Web
Natural Perspective

MY STUDENTS page update

I've finally posted your tongue twisters. Please, have a look! You can leave your comments here.

Carnivals around the world

On today's Guardian there's a travel piece on the best parties before Lent and they mention Cadiz. Check it out here!

Please check out my new page, My Students, where you can read what my amazing students write. I'll be updating it regularly (hopefully)

LOVE POEM 5

Sir Edward Burne-Jones

 Variation on the Word Sleep  by Margaret Atwood

I would like to watch you sleeping.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun and three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
and that necessary 

Margaret Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. While she may be best known for her work as a novelist, she is also a great poet. In 2008 She received the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature.

LOVE POEM 4

Sylvia Plath Self Portrait 1951

 Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932–February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Her haunting and personal poems and her tragic life story have placed her in the pantheon of contemporary American poets.

LOVE POEM 3

"A Very Short Song"

Dorothy Parker

Once, when I was young and true,

Someone left me sad-

Broke my brittle heart in two;

And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,

Love is but a curse.

Once there was a heart I broke;

And that, I think, is worse.

 Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) represented one of the most accomplished feminist and successful literary writers in women’s history. She became known as one of the most brilliant writers from the early 1900s. As a woman before her time, she represented a select few women who became independently successful with her witty and satirical writings. Her works paved the way for other realist writings by intellectuals, and other writers, which transformed American thought.

LOVE POEM 2

A Little Love Poem by Andy Weaver

Someone who hates scrabble. Someone who sleeps on her back near an open window in winter, her breath rolling like a river into night.
Someone who wants me to wake her in the morning by reading ee cummings' love poems, giving a small candle-flicker of a smile just before opening her eyes.
Someone who appreciates the architecture of churches, but refuses to step inside.
Someone who has hands fit to hold hurt sparrows and robins.
Someone who threw out an her Alice Cooper records when she found out he loves to golf.
Someone who would swerve a new car into the ditch to avoid a frog crossing the road.
Someone who would tattoo my name on her arm in writing the same colour as her skin, so it would appear slowly from nowhere when she suntanned, people thinking her blood was telling secrets to the world of its own accord.
Someone who learned Spanish to read Marquez, or Lorca, or Neruda.
Someone whose hips whisper their own stories of the serpent and the garden of Eden.
Someone who bites the back of my neck like a leopardess carrying her kitten to safety.
Someone who'll make me wait for her to come out of the shower.
Someone whose smallest movements amaze me: her hair falling over her eyes, the soft swell of her hips when she ties down, a deep sigh when she sleeps.
Someone who maps every ticklish part of my body and then uses her knowledge strictly for evil.
Someone who paints our bodies black and makes love with me under the stars.
Someone who burns through my chest like that first shot of scotch.
Someone whose tongue, if we're kept apart too long, would nervously trace my face into the roof of her mouth.
Someone who practises her signature with her wrong hand, in case of accidents or a sudden arrest.
Someone whose fingrnails smell faintly of her hair.
Someone who reminds me of the soft tickle of fog.
Someone who would rush outside in the middle of the night, setting a spider onto the lawn, never admitting it's because she hates rain.
Someone who understands the unforgivable importance of ravens.
Someone wholl flicker into my lips with the ferocity of a dragonfly.
Someone who will open, thick, pungent and vital, like a Mapplethorpe flower.
Someone who has searched for me like a near-sighted woman groping for her glasses, stubbing her toes and swearing in Yiddish.
Someone who would understand why Steve and Dave and Paul and I sat in a bar staring at the mirror behind us for twenty minutes because somebody had asked what would happen if you looked at yourself in a mirror using a pair of binoculars unti1 we had to admit the question was too big for us, and we turned back to the safe optics of the beer bottle.
Someone who would just happen to cut my wrist shortly after reading Ondaatje's "The Time Around Scars. "
Someone who'll stare softly but straight at me, smiling reassuringly when I tell her how my 73 year old Medieval lit prof looked up from Chaucer, stared blankly over the class's heads and said that even the happiest marriage will end in death.
Someone who understands the efficiency inherent in suicide.
Someone who knows that love can be the thickest slice of hell we’ll ever taste.
Someone who would dance with me by the sides of highways.

Andy Weaver is a Canadian poet. His poetry has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. He lives in Toronto, where he teaches Poetry at York University.

LOVE POEM 1

To continue with poetry and because Valentine's Day is nearly here, this time I'm starting our Love Poetry Week.

As Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate,  said:

“Poetry is what love speaks in. Longing, desire, delirium, fulfilment, fidelity, betrayal, absence, estrangement, regret, loss, despair, remembrance – every aspect of love has been celebrated or mourned, praised and preserved in poetry.

“As readers, we are most likely to turn to poetry when we are in love, or troubled by love, or wish to mark its anniversaries, or its private significances. And many of our greatest poets have produced their finest work when writing love poems.” (source: The Telegraph)

I'll be posting a love poem a day. As always, the poems I'll post are among my favourites. I hope you like them too. Here's the first, a poem I particularly identify with:

Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

It promises light

like the careful undressing of love.

Here.

It will blind you with tears

like a lover.

It will make your reflection

a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.

Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,

possessive and faithful

as we are,

for as long as we are.

Take it.

Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,

if you like.

Lethal.

Its scent will cling to your fingers,

cling to your knife.

Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at the Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's poet laureate in May 2009. She is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly bisexual person to hold the position, as well as the first laureate to be chosen in the 21st century.

Her poems address issues such as oppression, gender, and violence, in an accessible language that has made them popular in schools.

Super Bowl Sunday

Today is Super Bowl Sunday.
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League in the United States.The day on which the Super Bowl is played is now considered an unofficial American national holiday, called "Super Bowl Sunday". It is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. In most years, the Super Bowl is the most-watched American television broadcast. The Super Bowl is among the most watched sporting events in the world, primarily due to mostly North American audiences, and is second to soccer's UEFA Champions League final as the most watched annual sporting event worldwide. It is for this reason that advertising during the Super Bowl is the most expensive of the year and watching and discussing the broadcast's commercials has become a significant aspect of the event.

Save Our Libraries campaign in the UK

Yesterday was Save Our Libraries Day in the UK, Why? Because the government has threatened to close down more than 450 libraries across the country due to budget cuts.
So many people took part in mass read-ins, author events and more. Lots of authors, including Philip Pullman, Kate Mosse and Mark Haddon took part in author events at libraries yesterday. Other authors around the world (like Margaret Atwwod and Neil Gaiman) are supporting this campaign as well.
Unfortunately, not only libraries are in danger but museums and theatres as well: whether it is the government or the Arts Council or local authorities, arts organisations, university departments, libraries and more are facing cutbacks not seen for a generation.

Keren David is a British author who wrote this beautiful poem on her blog and I hope she doesn't mind my sharing it with you. Enjoy!

Who uses libraries?

People who are poor.

People who are rich
and lots in the middle, squeezed or not

People without computers, who don't know what the internet is,
People with laptops and wiis and Playstations and ipods.
People without homes.
People with second homes.
People without many books.
People with shelves overspilling.
People with lots of time and
too little time
with not much quiet
or too much quiet.
People whose homes are chilly
and lonely
and dull.
People.

Parents and carers and babies and toddlers.
Children who don't know what books are.
Children, magically turning letters into words and words into stories.
Children who want to read every book a particular author ever wrote. Because she wrote it just for them.
Or there's just one book they read again and again and again.
(I still remember my special book, the one that I read week after week after week, till it became part of who I am now and then and forever)

Children and adults who don't find it easy to learn by jumping
from website to website.
Children who want to find out what and why and how and when and who.
And read the ideas of others for real...
not bite-sized and  bullet-pointed on websites and worksheets.
Teenagers with homework to do
Teenagers with nothing to do
Teenagers whose home is empty
Teenagers with no home at all

People who like to browse among books
People who like to discover new writers. Even if those writers were new years ago.
People who want the latest must-read best-selling hit.
Dan Brown, Jacqueline Wilson, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
People who want something else
Something obscure and unpopular and - gasp - uncommercial.
People who don't like Horrid Henry
or horror
or Horowitz, and who don't find much else
 in WH Smith.

People who hate vampires, werewolves and angels
People who dream
of a dark, dangerous stranger
with a loving, tortured soul
a strange, sweet scent
and gleaming, pointed, uncontrollable
fangs.

People who don't trust the internet
Who don't have a kindle, an iphone, an ipad.
Who like the feel and smell of a book, the print on the page, the pages turning
the pictures glowing.
People who want help
and advice
and recommendations from experts
(not volunteers, however well-meaning)
and company,
information
and education
and someone to notice that they're alive that day. Everyday.
Writing groups and
reading groups and
story-telling sessions and
slimming clubs and
visiting authors and
community noticeboards offering music and cleaning and clubs and anything you need.

Writers who can't work in a cafe, even though J K Rowling did.
Writers without a Room of their Own.
People who like to think.

Labour voters and
Conservative voters
Liberal Democrats
and people who don't know who the hell to vote for
 because they're all as bad as each other.


People with a sense
of history
and the future,
of community
of a shared culture
of equality and opportunity hand in hand
of a Big-hearted Society -
where a homeless kid has the same access
to books and warmth, internet  and silence as they do at
Eton
(just a random comparison there).
People who complain and mutter and might write a letter or two,
but don't riot.
Not about libraries.
Not about books.


But then there are
Government ministers who won't protect libraries
and local councillors trying to cut budgets
Because budgets are easier to cut than bankers' bonuses. And it's getting a bit fuzzy, isn't it? About who was to blame. For the mess we're all in together.
That's all of us.
But especially some of us.


And those who think that libraries are a soft target
and out-dated
and unpopular
and could easily be run by volunteers
 - because, after all, there will be lots of people with time on their hands -
 - not to mention the workshy -
 -  and the fake disabled, don't forget them.

And  after all, libraries don't need to buy more books
because everything's available on the internet
and books are so cheap nowadays
and  how much do you have to pay to rent books from a library anyway?
and where is the local library?
and why isn't it open when I need it to be open?
and why are there so few books?
and isn't it disgraceful how children leave school unable to read?
What they need are Phonics and Literacy and Extracts and
testing testing testing
testing testing testing
because the economy demands literate workers
who've studied relevant subjects
so they can earn money and pay
graduate taxes
because that's what  Britain needs
Isn't it?

This is happening now.
Libraries are being closed and cut
Librarians are being sacked
In shires and cities and towns
Now.

If we allow it.

IESTINRTENG FCAT

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, YEAR OF THE RABBIT!!

February 3rd is the first day of the Chinese New Year 2011.
Chinese New Year will be here soon and so with it comes the start of the “Year of the Rabbit”.
The Chinese New Year is a time to welcome longevity, wealth and prosperity and to eliminate any negative chi from the past.
The Chinese New Year includes several traditions that date back thousands of years. The first day of Chinese New Year is the first day of the month, but most traditions don’t begin until the evening of the first day. The tradition of cleaning the home thoroughly, to sweep away any bad luck, being several days before the New Year, and many also begin to paint their doors and windows red.
The color red is important during Chinese New Year, since it symbolizes fire, which is the element that is thought to reduce bad luck. Giving red envelopes to friends and family is a common tradition during Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year traditions are found in many places, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Chine and Singapore. Countries with a large Chinese population celebrate the New Year by following these ancient traditions. You will often find windows and doors decorated with paper decorations considered to bring luck and fortune to the family, feasts that begin on the eve of the New Year and fireworks.
The New Year is also a time when most who follow these traditions work to let go of past conflicts. The Year of the Rabbit is a great time to let go of old grudges and ill feelings, since this happy-go-lucky character is so relaxed and carefree.

Happy Chinese New Year!

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!

Groundhog Day is February 2nd. It is said that if the groundhog, whose name apparently is Phil, sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of bad weather, and if he doesn't, that spring will be here soon.
The Prognosticator of Prognosticators, Punxsutawney Phil, once again appeared at sunrise at Gobbler's Knob in the Pennsylvania Wilds to make his annual prediction.
Phil surveyed his surroundings and found no shadow, so an early spring it will be!  You can watch it here.

What does a sleepy, furry marmot have to do with seasonal change? According to fans of Punxsutawney Phil, everything! But why?
The story of Groundhog Day begins with Candlemas, an early Christian holiday where candles were blessed and distributed. Celebrators of the holiday eventually declared clear skies on Candlemas meant a longer winter. The Roman legions, during the conquest of the northern country, brought this tradition to the Germans, who concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, a hedgehog would cast a shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of bad weather or "Second Winter." German immigrants brought the tradition to Pennsylvania, but how did Punxsutawney Phil emerge?
In 1887, a spirited group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney dubbed themselves "The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club." One member was an editor of Punxsutawney's newspaper. Using his ink, he proclaimed Punxsutawney Phil, the local groundhog, to be the one and only weather prognosticating groundhog. He issued this proclamation on Candlemas, and yes, Groundhog Day. Phil's fame spread, and newspapers from around the globe began to report his Gobbler's Knob prediction.
For more information, visit Punxsutawney's official Groundhog site.