SUMMER HOLIDAYS! HURRAY!!!

   The school year is coming to an end, which means that the well-deserved holidays are about to start.

   Before our blog also has a summer break I, as the coordinator of the English Club, would like to present my sincere thanks to all the excellent teachers of the English Department for their commitment to this project, which implied dedicating many long hours of their private life to it, in order to garantee the success of all the activities planned at the beginning of the year.

   Hadn't they embraced this project with so much enthusiasm, very little would have been accomplished ; the English Club, it goes without saying, did make a difference in the life of our School.

   So, once again, thank you my dear colleagues for having so willingly accepted to participate in this journey!

   I would also like to thank the students who have collaborated with the English Club, either as members of the staff, organising the different activities, or as contributors to the blog, producing texts, videos , roleplays and interviews. You were fundamental to the growth of our blog, which, having started on 16th October 2010, has already had more than 20 000 visits!!!

   

  Summer holidays mean a break from work. They also mean sunshine, beaches, summer sports and lots of outside fun! 

   So, before "Shake your English!" also goes on holiday, the English Club Team would like to challenge you with some puzzles and quizzes for those days when  the weather is not so warm and sunny and you feel like staying at home. 

HAVE FUN AND SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER!

Adelaide Sá

 

in BusyTeacher.org

in BusyTeacher.org 

in  activity village.co.uk

Today is Adelaide's birthday

CONGRATULATIONS, ADELAIDE!

Today marks the day someone special was born. That special person is our beloved colleague and friend Adelaide Sá whose hard work, knowledge, wisdom, determination and creativity have greatly contributed to the success of the English Club in our school and to the growing importance of this blog in particular.

Adelaide’s professionalism and commitment to her job as a teacher of English and as the English Club Coordinator have been vital to the remarkable success of so many different activities that have been accomplished this school year.

Adelaide has also managed to keep a contagious sense of doing well in our English Department and English Club even during difficult times and periods of intense work. We all admire her for that.

Adelaide, we want you to know that we deeply appreciate your commitment to setting and trying to achieve high standards for all the activities that we organize for our students. It’s a pleasure to work with you and have you as a Coordinator of the English Club, always pushing us up to be great!

Dear colleague and friend, congratulations on your birthday. May this day bring you all that you wish for!

Big hugs and lots of love

from your workmates,

Alice, Aurélia, Branca, Clarisse, Conceição, Eduarda, Graça, Helena, Isabel, Margarida, Maria José, Natália,Teresa.

Karaoke final contest

             Here's a remake of the film about the karaoke final 

  contest, now with more photos and the voices of our Stars.

             It portrays what happened before, during and after  

  the contest as well as everyone that made it possible.

             I hope you'll enjoy it.

Survey about the English Club activity and its blog

   The school year is coming to an end together with 9 months of work of the English Club and eight months of life of our blog "Shake your English!".
   In order to be able to meet the expectations of the whole school community about the role the English Club should play as well as to improve the quality of the blog in the coming year,  we decided to ask some students and teachers about their opinion concerning the English Club activity and the blog.
  Here is what they said:

                                Reporter: José Cardoso (8th grade student)

Reporters: Mariana, Mafalda and Priscila 

                                        (11th grade students)

  Reporter: João Veloso (8th grade student)

                 Reporters: Viviana  Szczurek and Rita Terroso 

(11th grade students) 

Interviewing Daniel ( 9th grade student) and 

Joaquim (7th grade student)

  Reporter:Filipa (7th grade student)

 

Reporters:Yamine and André 

(11th grade students)

Students from 8th B express their opinions on the blog: 

The blog is interesting, complete and the games are well done.

By Afonso Pinheiro

"I like the whole blogue a lot. There are good news, videos and games. I specially liked the videos about our school. I would like to see a video of a contest where students played Gear. I think the blogue is interesting. Through the games and the quizzes I learnt new words and so I improved my English. " 

By Miguel Ângelo Pinto

"We like the blogue, specially the games: the interactive quizzes and the quiz shows. We enjoyed to learn more about general culture in English. The blogue itself is very well-organised. We will visit it more often." 

By Nuno Silva and Pedro Leite

" We loved the mob dance Gotta Keep Reading. It was an unusual and very interesting activity. We hope it will happen again in our school." 

By Ana Sofia Silva and Francisca Moura

" We are not alone in this school, we can get together in one place, in a single location and that is a good meeting point." 

By Daniela Moreira and Filipa Magalhães

" The games are really cool and interesting!"

By Maria Miguel Ribeiro and Teresa Aguiar

English Refresher Course

"Refresh your knowledge of the English language!" 
This was a challenge some teachers of Maia Secondary School decided to meet. And, how well they did that! After a five month course here they are receiving the diploma that certifies their success. Congratulations to them all and to their teacher as well. Well done!

Karaoke - final contest

Yes, the karaoke final contest took place last Friday and it was a success! Before you listen to the performances of the singers , take a look at this short film to get a glimpse of what happened during the show.

And the winner of the contest is .......
Mariana Domingues!!!
 Listen to her!

... and here's another excellent voice of our school. 

It's Ana Raquel Sousa's!

and now our invited guest, Inês Matias!

Would you like to listen to the other contestants?

On the right side of this page, under PAGES, click on:
" karaoke contest - final (more performances)" and you'll be able to listen to them.

Love Letter to my class

"Biodiversity plays a major role in the balance of our planet. What about diversity among people?

One of our classmates decided to use such a shallow festivity as Valentine's Day to pay us all a compliment as a class. Now, after all these months, we use this tribute as a "see you soon".

The 12 J  English class

Sing It For Japan, a new song by My Chemical Romance

A beautiful song by My Chemical Romance spreading hope for Japan and for the world...

Applying for a job - roleplays

Some eleventh form classes have been challenged to imagine a situation, related with the topic - the world of work, and roleplay it.  Here is what the creativity and commitment of two groups of students of classes 11thA and 11thB have accomplished. Watch and enjoy the plays!

 performed by Eunice, Mariana and Priscila

performed by Brenda Lima, Helena Branco and Inês Matias

It's the final countdown!

H
O
L
I
D
A
Y

Yes, we 're going on summer holidays!
This schoolar year was just great! We loved being here writing and publishing interesting posts for YOU. We are sure you liked them. Thank you for commenting and participating in our/your activities!

Don't forget to visit us! There will be some more surprises coming up the next days!

Yes, the Karaoke Final is approaching and it will take place on the 17th June, at about 11.30 a.m. in Polivalente.

Join us and enjoy the performances of the seven finalists!

June 1st, INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S DAY

To celebrate this day here's a small video you'll certainly enjoy, 'cause whether you're a child or not, we're all children somehow.

British English Versus American English - Quiz

How much do you know about this topic? 

Test your knowledge! 
You can also solve the quiz online in the following site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quizzes/quiznet/quiz120.shtml

                         Check your answers in the site :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quizzes/quiznet/quiz120.shtml

May 31st 1859 - BIG BEN struck for the very first time!

Aren't they eccentric?

Yeah! British most eccentric traditions!

British English versus American English

Just have some fun watching this video. British and American English are really, really different.

International Museum Day

Would you like to take a trip around the most famous museums and discover the masters?

 GoogleArtProject can help you with that. Just take a look at the two videos below!

Learn some more idioms with THE TEACHER!

Celebrating Coca Cola 125th birthday

Like it or not Coca Cola is part of our life...
Have a look at Coca Cola's site on the UK and learn something more about this trademark, its history, its environmental policies, health questions and much more.

http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/

Teachers...just a thought!

Friendship

FRIENDSHIP

There are many things that can change our lives, a word, a gesture, a story and even a song, but meeting you was the biggest turning point in my life so far and probably for the rest of my life. Before, I only saw a grey world, a sad world. I could not believe in happiness, all my days were monotonous and I didn’t enjoy them at all. I was just waiting for my life to pass by, back then I was only a corpse with no soul, a robot trained to do the necessary and the necessary only, I didn’t dream, I didn’t want to fly, I didn’t believe, it was like someone had taken the childhood away from me. But one day it all changed. It wasn’t an accident that we met, it was fate. Your bright smile your positive attitude was like the sun finally risen after all those years.

Suddenly the world had bright colors, and I could hear birds singing and what amazed me the most was that I smiled and laughed for the first time, it almost felt like I had reborn into a new human being. A girl who believes, a girl who wishes she could fly, a girl that now dreams excessively, for the first time I don’t think “what if it goes wrong?” anymore but “what if I make it?”!

If there is a person I need to thank to, is you! You gave me a soul, you sheltered me in your arms, you gave me your shoulder and saved a spot for me in your heart!

You could have been anything but still, you chose to be my friend!

By Rita Nanim

A Portuguese in the USA

As you could have noticed sometimes we post reflections of a Portuguese living in the USA. She is a doctoral student at Georgia Southern University and she sent us a small message thanking us for giving her the chance to participate in our blog and informing us that she has already written an assignment on our blog for her Curriculum Studies.

"I was accepted March 21, 2011 in the Curriculum Studies, Ed.D. program at Georgia Southern University. GSU is in Statesboro, one hour driving from Savannah and located in the state of Georgia. I am a doctoral student ;0)
I decided in one of my pre-requisite course to write about your fabulous blog. Here go my reflections, posted on March 23:

http://clubedeinglesesmaia.blogspot.com/
“Vygotsky’s curriculum offered open spaces for spontaneous learning and encouragement for students to use their newly acquired tools for their own purposes, thereby contributing to relevance and generalization” (McNeil, 2006, p.37). This type of Website is a web log, the usual term used is Blog. Maintained by the English Club of Maia Secondary School, Porto- Portugal, this Club exists since 1996 and has more than two hundred members each year. Students, teachers and collaborators (e.g., myself) provide regular entries of commentaries (Thanksgiving Day), descriptions of events (St. Patrick’s Day, St. Patrick’s Symbols, Quizzes, 4th of March School Day of Languages…) or other material such as graphics or videos ("Where there's a will there's a way", Discovery Ireland…). Entries are displayed in reverse-chronological order. This blog is interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments. This interactivity distinguishes them from other static websites.

The reaction of my peers was great. The ones who decided to visit it enjoy it very much. Thanks for helping, without knowing, in this assignment.

Promise to keep in touch,
Elisabete Carvalho"

The British Royals through TIME

The royal wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, took place on April 29, 2011, in London, England. 

Watch the tour of TIME's couverage of all things royal from 1923 to today!

Mother's Day

Mother's day is celebrated all around the globe but not at the same time.
In the Uk they celebrated it on the 3rd April (the fourth Sunday of Lent) and in USA they are going to celebrate it on the 8th May (the second Sunday in May).
In Portugal, we celebrate it on the first Sunday in May. This year it's the 1st of May.
So, don't forget to give your mother a tight hug and a warm kiss!

Easter in the USA by Elisabete Carvalho

American Plastic Easter Eggs

In Savannah the weather was GREAT! We went to the beach twice, Saturday and Sunday.
In USA only the schools stop….. Everyone works…… the shops were closed on Sunday.
The most peculiar thing was seeing the way people dress to go to church on Sunday. White, blue and pink were the predominant colors; children carried vases with white flowers and the priest was out saying hello to everyone.
Saturday was the day for children to find the “plastic” eggs on the gardens. You can buy a big bag of them for $1 on WalMart.

Earth Day 2011

And here's the video those 11th form students have made to offer JP Taylor as a Christmas present:

Would you like to listen to JP? Well, here's a video of one of his songs from his latest album- "Living on a peaceful planet". Enjoy it!

23rd April - The National Day of England - St. George's Day

St George's Day is celebrated in England on 23 April, in honour of St. George, the patron saint of England.

This is the flag of St George. It is also the flag of England and part of the British flag. St George's emblem was adopted by Richard The Lion Heart and brought to England in the 12th century. The king's soldiers wore it on their tunics to avoid confusion in battle.

St George was a brave Roman soldier who protested against the Romans' torture of Christians and died for his beliefs. The popularity of St George in England stems from the time of the early Crusades when it is said that the Normans saw him in a vision and were victorious.

One of the best-known stories about Saint George is his fight with a dragon. But it is highly unlikely that he ever fought a dragon, and even more unlikely that he ever actually visited England. Despite this, St George is known throughout the world as the dragon-slaying patron saint of England.

By tradition, 23 April is the day for a red rose in the button hole. The rose is the national emblem of England. The flower has been adopted as England’s emblem since the time of the Wars of the Roses - civil wars (1455-1485) between the royal house of Lancaster (whose emblem was a red rose) and the royal house of York (whose emblem was a white rose).

Happy Easter

Easter in the UK

In the UK Easter is one of the major Christian festivals of the year. It is full of customs, folklore and traditional food. However, Easter in Britain has its beginnings long before the arrival of Christianity. Many theologians believe Easter itself is named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn and spring - Eostre.

Symbols of Easter- Many of the symbols and traditions of Easter are connected with renewal, birth, good luck and fertility.

The Cross- Of course as it is a Christian festival one of the main symbols is a cross, often on a hill. When Jesus was crucified, the cross became a symbol of suffering. Then with the resurrection, Christians saw it as a symbol of victory over death.

Palms- The week of Easter begins on Palm Sunday. Why Palm Sunday? Well, in Roman times it was customary to welcome royalty by waving palm branches, a bit like a ticker-tape parade. So, when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on what is now known as Palm Sunday, people welcomed him with palm branches carpeting the streets and waving them. Today, on Palm Sunday, Christians carry palm branches in parades, and make them into crosses and garlands to decorate the Church.

Easter Eggs- Easter eggs are a very old tradition going to a time before Christianity. Eggs after all are a symbol of spring and new life. Exchanging and eating Easter eggs is a popular custom in many countries. In the UK before they were replaced by chocolate Easter eggs real eggs were used, in most cases, chicken eggs. The eggs were hard-boiled and dyed in various colors and patterns. The traditionally bright colours represented spring and light. An older more traditional game is one in which real eggs are rolled against one another or down a hill. The owner of the egg that stayed uncracked the longest won. Even today in the north of England, for example as at Preston in Lancashire, they still carry out the custom of egg rolling. Hard boiled eggs are rolled down slopes to see whose egg goes furthest. In other places another game is played. You hold an egg in the palm of the hand and bang against your opponent's egg. The loser is the one whose egg breaks first. Nowadays people give each other Easter eggs made of chocolate, usually hollow and filled with sweets. ritain children hunt for (chocolate) Easter eggs hidden about the home or garden by the Easter bunny.

The Easter Bunny- Rabbits, due to their fecund nature, have always been a symbol of fertility.The Easter bunny (rabbit) however may actually be an Easter hare. The hare was allegedly a companion of the ancient Moon goddess and of Eostre. Strangely the bunny as an Easter symbol seems to have its origins in Germany, where it was first mentioned in German writings in the 16th Century. The first edible Easter bunnies appeared in Germany during the early 1800s, they were made of pastry and sugar.In the UK children believe that if they are good the "Easter Bunny " will leave (chocolate) eggs for them.

Hot Cross Buns- Hot cross buns, now eaten throughout the Easter season, were first baked in England to be served on Good Friday. These small, lightly sweet yeast buns contain raisins or currants and sometimes chopped candied fruit. Before baking, a cross is slashed in the top of the bun. After baking, a confectioners' sugar icing is used to fill the cross.

2nd Karaoke Casting Results

2nd KARAOKE CASTING

For the 2nd time the English Club organised a karaoke casting and, for the 2nd time, new talents showed up!

Look at them in the photos below:

The singers who got the second and third places in the first karaoke casting also sang for us. Look at them!

And now, you can appreciate Mariana's performance, the winner of the first casting. Listen to her!

And last but not least, the English Club would like to thank  Mr. Lopes, our "audio technician" and  Miguel Caetano, our highly skilled presenter, for their commitment and professionalism.

 

Assassination of Martin Luther King

A funny lesson

On the 23rd March, Anna, a teacher from Brighton, came to our school. She met classes 8º A, 9ºA, 10º A and 10ºD and for about an hour she carried out some funny activities. These students are now more able "to twist their tongues".

You are our 10 000 visitor!

April Fools' Day

April Fools' Day is celebrated in the western world on the 1st of April of every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1st is not a legal holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day which tolerates practical jokes and general foolishness. The day is marked by good humoured or funny jokes, hoaxes and other practical pranks on friends, family members, teachers, neighbours...

Unlike most of the other nonfoolish holidays, the history of April Fool's Day is not totally clear. The closest point in time that can be identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in France. Prior to that year, the new year was celebrated for eight days, beginning on March 25th. The celebration culminated on April 1st. With the reform of the calendar under Charles IX, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved to January 1st. Some of Charles' subjects refused to adopt the new calendar, and continued to observe the new year around April 1st. Naturally, these individuals were the butt of many jokes and taunting, and earned the name "Poisson d'Avril" (April Fish) because at that time of year the sun was in the zodiac sign of Pisces, the fish. This harassment evolved, over time, into a tradition of prank-playing on the first day of April. The tradition eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the English and French.

April Fool's Day thus developed into an international fun fest, so to speak, with different nationalities specializing in their own brand of humor at the expense of their friends and families. In Scotland, for example, April Fool's Day is actually celebrated for two days. The second day is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. It is called Taily Day.

Traditionally, in some countries such as New Zealand, the UK, Australia, and South Africa, the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool". It is for this reason that newspapers in the U.K. that run a front page April fool only do so on the first (morning) edition. Elsewhere, such as in France, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S., the jokes last all day long.

Gotta Keep Reading at Maia Secondary School

Last Wednesday, March 23rd, inspired by the Ocoee Middle School, USA, the English and Dance Clubs of our school celebrated the School Reading Week with a dancing performance. The Dance Club students, with the help of their teacher, started a coreography and some teachers and students joined them in the public performance. Mariana, the winner of the 1st Karaoke contest organised by the English Club, sang "You gotta keep reading!", an  adapted version of Black Eyed Peas' "I gotta feeling" .

by Helena Lobo

Creating the atmosphere

                                         Just starting ...

                                         School  is rocking

Dance, dance, dance, ... 

                     "Read, read, read..."

"Cause this book's gonna be a good book"

               

                  and now, let's watch the video! 

(sorry for some sound problems ...)

Somewhere over the rainbow

St. Patrick's Day at Maia Secondary School

    For the very first time St. Patrick's Day was celebrated at Maia Secondary School and it was a huge success! 
  Green invaded our school and shamrocks grew everywhere. A colourful  rainbow  showed up and the golden pot was there as well.

   Celtic music, playing all day long, contributed to the atmosphere of joy and happiness felt by all those who embraced this Irish festivity.

   Golden coins( made of chocolate, of course!) and many other sweets awaited the lucky ones or, in case of misfortune,  solving puzzles and quizzes about this Irish holiday was another way of getting hold of the sweet contents of the pot.

   Irish blessings were also given in the shape of bookmarks and  an exhibition of the work done by students on this celebration together with videos and slide-shows of Ireland completed the whole picture.

   Appreciate the photo gallery below, which, somehow, tries to illustrate the spirit of this gorgeous day at our school!

 

        We'd like to express our warmest thanks 

      to everybody that contributed  to the success of

     this unforgettable day.

My first Saint Patrick's Day in the USA

St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, Savannah.

As you probably know there are lots of Irish immigrants and people of Irish ancestry in the USA, so Saint Patick's Day is feasted here as if it was an American festivity, with huge and colourful parades, and green everywhere!
In Savannah, Georgia, the parade began at 10h00 and lasted until 2h00 p.m. I really enjoyed every moment. Lots of music, family picnic in every park of the city, people giving kisses and more people :0) The dress code was respected. All you could see was GREEN! What a great day!!!!!!!!!

(Text and photos by Elisabete Carvalho, a Portuguese living in the USA)

Today is the National Day of Ireland

Dress Green, Bring Good Luck to You!

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day. So, Don't forget to wear something GREEN!