T2A goes Sussex!

Why not watch our movie? http://vimeo.com/4366028

Barefoot on basalt: outdoor lessons are 'cool'!

During a combined outdoor lesson of geography and P.E. (sport) the Hofstad Lyceum students of T2A discovered basalt on the beach. A long time ago boiling hot, molten volcanic rocks, today the cover of ice cold piers, protecting our vulnerable sandy coast against strong, eroding sea currents. The subject of the ‘indoor lessons’ was volcanism and as these erupting mountains in Holland don’t exist, their teacher of geography, Hans Smit walked with them half an hour to the shore in order to experience the basalt boulders. The lovely sunny weather contributed to make, apart from the more formal assignment, also a photo documentary for their bilingual email- and Blogger friends in Cudillero (Asturias, Spain). The idea is to supply them with impressions of the surrounding of Hofstad Lyceum. And then in particular the dunes, the beach and the North Sea. They hope that their Selgas friends in Asturias will make a similar photo session. Both documentaries are going to be presented during a video-conference, that will be organized within short. As this outdoor lesson was realized together with Mrs. Inge Stet, the T2A-tutor and teacher of P.E., all kinds of sport were integrated in the mini- excursion. Like, apart from the long walk, a cross-country race in the dunes, playing football and frisbee on the beach. With these last activities the students continued enthusiastically, even long after the official school day (Friday!!) had finished. A real proof, that those lessons outside the school are considered to be very ‘cool’

Armin's Day At School

Well, at first I wake up at 7:00. Then I do my daily morning ritual. That’s washing, putt my clothes on, having breakfast etc. When I say goodbye to my mom, I leave and go to the bus stop. When the bus arrives, it brings me to a hospital, where I‘m waiting for the next bus to arrive. In that bus are many other children from my school. It stops almost directly in front of the school. Then I’ve to walk for 2 minutes and then I’m at school. The journey to school is approximately 20 minutes.
Once at school, the day at school begins. Mostly I arrive 5 to 10 minutes before the bell rings, so I talk with friends in the corridor. Before the first lesson begins, there are two bells. The first one is to warn that you actually have to go to the classroom and the second one is the sign that the lesson really begins.
One example of a lesson, take geography for instance, the subject which is Mr. Smit teaching and which is one of my favorite subjects:
We come in classroom, sit down on our places and mostly Mr. Smit tells us the rules. We take out our books while Mr. Smit is writing down what we’re going to do that lesson. Last lesson we began with some pictures from you when Mr. Smit was visiting you. After that Mr. Smit gave us a puzzle to solve, we made it, checked it, and the plan was then to do some reading but we were running out of time. Mr. Smit gave us an assignment about searching videos on the internet about earthquakes, floods or volcanoes. We packed our bags and went to the computer room, were we did the assignment. When the bell rang, we handed the assignment in and went to the next lesson.
Normally we have 5 lessons a day. One lesson is of 70 minutes duration. We also have 2 breaks. One of 15 minutes and one of 30 minutes. After the first 2 lessons we have the short break. After the third lesson we have the 30 minutes break. In the breaks I’m just relaxing, chatting, and eating and drinking at a place where my friends and I spend our breaks. Then 2 more lessons and the day at school is finished.

Photo: Armin in front of T2A in the canteen

Hans in Cudillero

Here you´ve some pictures in which you can see a Dutch teacher working hard in a high-school in the North of Spain: http://web.educastur.princast.es/ies/selgas/album_de_fotos/Visita%20Hans%202/index.html

A Day at School

I am going to tell you about my school day. I always get up at 7:30 in weekdays and I have breakfast at 8:00. I brush my teeth and go to school. Classes start at 8:30. I have three classes until break from 11:15 to 11:45; later I have three more classes. I finish school at 2:30 but on Mondays I have to be in the school until 3:30.

Every week we have 31 classes. These are my subjects: Spanish Language, Maths, English, Science, Geography and History, P.E., Art, Music, French and Religion. My favourite subject is French and my least favourite subject is Geography and History (it’s the same subject).

I have lunch with my family at 3:00. At 5:00 I do my homework and at 6:00 all the children play in my street. I play with them too. Then, at 20:30 I have dinner. Finally I go to bed at about ten.

Alba Manzano (1º ESO)

One day at school

On weekdays I always get up at 7.15 and I have breakfast. For breakfast I usually have a cup of “Cola-Cao” with cereals. I go to the bus stop at 8.00 and I take it about five minutes later.

Classes start at 8.30. Every week I have four lessons of Maths, four of Language, four of English, three of Science, three of Geography and History, three of Technology, two of French, two of Music, two of P.E. and two of History and Culture of the Religions.

In the school there are three buildings: in the first one there are two computer rooms, one Tecnology classroom and one Music classroom. Of course, there are lots of more classrooms. In the second one there are two Art classrooms. In the third one there is only a theatre and an audiovisual class. There is a Gym too.

Classes finish at 2.30. I arrive home at 2.50 and I have lunch with my parents.

In the afternoon I do my homework, watch TV and play computer games. Three days a week I play football.

Sergio Torres (2º ESO)

Gijón

It’s a coastal industrial city and a municipality in the autonomous community of Asturias. Gijón is the most thickly populated city and finds its origins in the Roman settlement of Gigia. From those times remain the thermal baths and the surrounding wall. It is close to the other main Asturian cities, Oviedo and Avilés.
The climate is Atlantic with mild temperatures and high humidity throughout the year. The summers are very warm and winters are cold with significant rains, especially in December and March.
For much of the twentieth century the town was heavily dependent on mature heavy industries but in the 80’s tertiary sector employment began to expand quickly along with the city’s population which by 2007 stood officially at 277.897 for Gijon proper, and approximately 380.000 for the total Gijón agglomeration.

The port is at the centre of many of the local businesses. Apart from this, the economy is based on tourism, steel (Arcelor), other metallurgy, livestock rearing and fisheries.

Overlooking the city from the hill Cerro de Santa Catalina is Chillida’s sculpture Elogio del Horizonte, symbol of the city.

Going downwards the quarter of Cimadevilla, with its narrow streets and small squares invites to drink a Sidra (the typical Asturias drink).
Near here you can find Jovellanos Square where the Museum-Home of the Asturian erudite stands.

Gijón is nowadays a modern and lively city, especially in summer when it becomes the most important receptor of tourists in the region.
Come and know us!

Miriam Seivane

This is Scheveningen

Scheveningen is a former small fishing community located between the sand dunes at the west coast of The Netherlands. 700 years ago the small village was known as Sceavian which is the old English word for ‘lookout’. Nowadays a few local people still use the dialect consisting of quite a lot of words which are connected to the English language. Approximately 60.000 people live in Scheveningen and due to a collapse in the fishing industry in the seventies just a small number is still working on local fishing trawlers or in fish processing plants. The presence of beautiful sandy beaches and several attractions make Scheveningen as the biggest coastal resort with an annual average of 16 million visitors. Scheveningen is not an independent town, but part of The Hague. A local political party serve the interests of the inhabitants Scheveningen.



This contribution comes from Willem Ment Den Heijer, geography teacher of T2A (the Dutch Selhovians) and he was born in Scheveningen. He inivites his friends from Cudillero to write about their fishing harbour!! Just drop a line!!

Hans Smit of Hofstad Lyceum visited IES Selgas

Hans Smit, geography teacher of Hofstad Lyceum in The Hague (Holland) came over to Cudillero and stayed two schooldays long at IES Selgas. He both gave lessons (in English) and attended lessons (in Spanish). He had prepared an interactive presentation, not only for the bilingual students (the “Selhovians”) but also for the “bahilleratos” and the teachers who form the “speakers group” on Friday morning. His story was about The Netherlands, focusing on water management. His audience had to find out what makes The Netherlands so special. Every student got two hand-outs to be filled in, one of them being a criss cross puzzle. The pupils were very interested in the film “A closer look at The Netherlands”, which supplied them with all the information they needed for their assignments. The guest teacher from “Los Países Bajos” had also brought along some typical Dutch candies: drop and stroopwafels. Everybody seemed to appreciate that.

Mr. Smit also followed some lessons given by his IES Selgas colleagues in order to enhance his command of the Spanish language. Most interesting was a geography lesson about the Ciudad Astur, which is in many ways comparable to The Greenheart Metropolis (Randstad Holland) in The Netherlands. He was sitting next to “his” Selhovian student Ruben during the Spanish lesson, took part in a flute concert organized by music teacher Francisco and laughed a lot during a well organized debate about sex-related issues!!
During a nice meal after an inspiring school day at Selgas, Hans Smit discussed together with principal Ana and Head of Studies Francisco the future of the exchange project between IES Selgas and Hofstad Lyceum. The three of them agreed: exchanging knowledge and experiences is a real contribution to up-to-date education. ¡Viva la internacionalización! ¡Viva Europa!

Saint Valentine’s Day

On February the 14th, we celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day. As you know it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionary.
In this school, students in the Fourth course always go on a trip to celebrate they finish their Secondary Education, so they took this opportunity to earn some money to help them in their school trip.
They made some paper flowers and everybody in the school could send a flower with a note to a boy or a girl in the form of “valentines”.

There are us wearing Valentine’s symbols.

If you want to see more photos click here. We hope you like them.

Videoconference

Last week some students from Selgas School had the opportunity to share a lesson with students from Hofstad Lyceum. It was a new learning experience through videoconference with an extremely interesting presentation offered by Bjorn Klinkenberg with the title: "Racism, migration and gender". Next week, Pilar Cuello, from the Teacher's Training Center of Avilés, will give the second lesson, on "Gender" this time.

Selgas School is really involved in this project and wants to thank Hofstad Lyceum for their encouragement and support to carry it out.

Ana Peláez

Selgas Secondary School Principal

Cider

Cider is a traditional drink that is made from apples. This drink consists of fermented apple juice. It’s very popular in Asturias.
It’s made in a ‘llagar’. Apples are collected from the trees and stored until they are ripe. Then, they are crushed to get the liquid. The cider is kept in big barrels until it ferments. Then, it is bottled and sold. There are two types of cider: the acid cider has alcohol. The sweet cider hasn’t got alcohol.

It is peculiar the way it is served. In this ritual the cider must be ‘escanciada’. The taste is different when a good ‘escanciador’ (person who serves the glass of cider) works properly:He (or she) rises the bottle over his head and makes the cider fall against the edge of the glass. When it strikes the glass it becomes oxygenated. That action is called ‘escanciar’. Then, you must drink it at once. You don’t drink it all. Some dregs stay at the bottom of the glass.

That´s the way you have to "escanciar" (Villa is from Asturias and he knows it well)

It is drunk in traditional festivals in Asturias like the ‘Amagüestu’. In this festival adults and children drink cider and eat roasted chestnuts. Children drink sweet cider, of course!. Adults always take the alcoholic drink and sometimes, when the party finishes, they are not very sober.

Here is Marina showing us how to do it

Cider is popular in Asturias because we used to have a lot of apple trees and lots of apples every two years (there’s a good harvest every two years). It is drunk since the Roman period. In the nineteenth century they started to bottle it. They started to ‘escanciar’ it.

Yurena Gancedo y Marina Granda

Mirian´s family

My name is Mirian, I live in Asturias, in the north of Spain. We are a common family: my mum, my dad, my sister and me.

My mum is called Juana. She is forty-six years old. She is a cleaner and she works in a hotel near our town. My dad is called José Ramón. He is a fisherman. My sister’s name is Noelvis. She is twenty-four year old. She doesn’t work. She is a student. She is studying at University in Gijon. My aunt lives ten kilometres away from us. She has got tree children: Angel Roberto is thirty years old; Patricia is twenty-eight yeas old and Dario is twenty-five years old. I like playing football with my cousin Dario.I also have another cousin Abraham. He is five years old. My little cousin is very nice. He says that he wants to marry me. My grandfather, my mother’s father, lives alone in a house, near us, so I can spend a lot of time talking with him. He isn’t mean and he sometimes gives me some money.

Write to me soon. Kisses.

This is me, with my parents, my sister and my brother in law in the day of my First Communium

Selhovians present at Open House Hofstad Lyceum

Some five hundred pupils from primary schools, together with their parents, brothers, sisters and even grandparents visited Hofstad Lyceum today during The Open House. They were impressed by the cultural manifestations in the auditorium, the climbing wall in the sport's center, the exhibition of all subjects in classrooms and in the canteen and above all: the huge variety of possibilities the school offers for exchanging projects. Getting in contact with Europe. In the hall Mr Klinkenberg had organized all kinds of videoconferencing and a special stand was dedicated to......... the exchange with IES Selgas in Cudillero!! Selhovian student Maxime Dekkers was one of the student-guides, showing the visitors all about our project!

More pics of the Open House can be find here: http://www.hofstadlyceum.nl/fotos/thumbnails.php?album=189

Lars in the newspapers!!

Today Lars Hoogelander appeared in two Dutch Newspapers: De Loosduinse Krant and HaagWestNieuws, together good for 65000 readers!! He stood eye-in-eye with a real Roman warrior, facing an enormous sword. Of course he was not afraid at all!! It was all within a project concerning The Old Rome in which Lars took part last Friday. He is one of the Hofstad Lyceum students studying Classic languages (Greek and Latin) as well as Classic culture. Now please, Lars, tell us all about your experiences with that remarkable soldier! We are most curious!

ASTURIAS

Lying in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula to the north of the Cantabrian Mountains, The Principality of Asturias covers an area of 10565 square kilometres. The Cantabrian Sea, to its north, has given shape to an irregular coastline full of estuaries, prominent capes and countless as well as varied beaches, some of them with important extensions of dunes.

The highest mountains can be found near the southern border, which also corresponds with the border of the Cantabrian hydrographic basin, with peaks surpassing 2.000 metres. The easter corner is occupied by the calcareous Picos de Europa with very famous peaks as The Naranjo de Bulnes with 2.549 metres.

The climate is Atlantic with mild or even cold winters and with a regular annual pluviosity that makes of Asturias a very fertile and green land with abundance of forests and pastureland that alternate with high mountains, sandy beaches, foggy areas, sunny places…

Rivers carry much water and there are various and important ones.

Asturias was the first nucleus of resistance against the Moorish invasion of the Peninsula and the first Christian Kingdom in year 760.

Two of the cornerstones of Asturias economy are agriculture (cereals, vegetables and fruit) and stockbreeding (mainly cows for milk production). But Asturias is, above all, an industrial region, specially after the decline of the fishing industry. It is very rich in minerals (coal, mercury, zinc, iron, manganese and copper). Nowadays these industries have been substituted by other industries such as metallurgic or chemical industries.

This is our region and we love it a lot.

Miriam Seivane, Sergio Torres

The winner of the "My bedroom assignment" in Cudillero is: Eva!!

My bedroom is green. It’s small, It is about 8 or 9 square meters, but I've got all my things in it. It has got a green and pink big bed. The curtains are white. From the window I can see Jose's chickens and a street. It is a light room.

It has a big wardrobe. I have a cushion in my bedroom. You can see over the bed, my big beautiful cat.

Next to the bed I have a bedside table with a lamp, money, my mobile phone and a box on it.

The floor is made of wood, the same to the wardrobe. I have a big white rug. I have five book shelves in the walls, with photos and books. I have a lot of books (but I don't like reading), boxes, perfumes, a CD player and a lots of CDs. I love music.

When I get up at seven o'clock I listen to music. Then I put on my clothes or I have a bath. I go to bed at half past eleven. I always put the alarm clock at night. When I don't get up on time, my teacher puts me a bad mark. I spend a lot of time in my bedroom and I like it.

Bye, bye.

The winner of the "My bedroom assignment"in Holland" is: Sandrine!!

Dear Yurena, how are you? Again a mail of me.I hope you like that!This mail is about my room!My room is quite big and the colours of the walls are apple green and blue.I have a largo desk, and a normal sized bed.My window is precisely above it (my bed).Sometimes that is very annoying because if it rains much I can hear it when I am sleeping.I also got a tv! I am his biggest fan :DAnd my computer (who is broken) is on my desk.I also got a night table.At the moment there is a mountain of tissues on because I'm ill.I have got three cupboards in my room.One for clothes, one for my books, and another one for my sport clothes, I really like sports.In my room there is on the wall a white board, you also have that at school.There are pictures and other things on it with a magnet.And the most important thing of my room....... MY MIRROR !!! ok that was a joke :D It is nice because there are some stickers on it and his form is like a wave.I also send some photos of my room! Best wishes Sandrine