CAN HOMEWORK HELP STUDENTS TO SUCEED IN SCHOOL?-by Diego Barrenechea

Diego Barrenechea-Arando   3B

Can homework help students to succeed in school?

First of all, I wanted to say that I've been studying in Jesus-maria since I was three years old and I've also studied in England for one year so I am quite used to doing homework but, has homework helped me? Yes, homework has helped me to get better marks on my tests, but I am one hundred percent sure that homework has not helped me as much as it could have, and why is that? That is because sometimes we don't have enough time to practice at school because we have so many things to study and teachers have a lot of things to teach so at the end, teachers just give us homework so we can understand and practice that subject by ourselves which means that we have lot of things to study and lot of homework to do.  And this, happens a lot at Jesus-maria or any other Spanish school, but could this problem be solved? Of course. Back when I was in England, we didn´t have as much homework as we have now and that´s because we didn´t have to study all the things we usually study in Spain, for example when I was in England we studied only one subject each term for each class. Which means that we had plenty of time to practice that subject at school where the teacher could help us and also that at the end of the term we would be really good at that subject instead of doing one test for each subject and after that, forget about it.

So my final opinion is that yes, homework is useful, but teachers depend to much on it instead of making a better use of their time to make sure that the students really understand what they are supposed to study.

SHARKS-by Eduardo Ramos

Sharks are the most fascinating creatures in the world for me. There are lots of types of sharks, like the Hammer Shark, Tiger Shark, or Whale Shark, which is the biggest one and only eats plankton. However, my favorite of all is the Great White Shark. It takes out its jaw every time that it needs to bite big prey. There is another shark that I really like. It's the Mako Shark. I like it because it’s the fastest of all the sharks. The Great White Shark can swim at 40 km/h but the Mako Shark is faster : Its top speed is 80 km/h. There is one thing I like about The Great White and it is its enormous size; it can be 6 metres long! The Mako Shark is smaller its length and is between 2 and 3 metres and its weight is only 450kg compared with the 3,000kg of The Great White. For me, every shark has its special feature that makes it interesting.    

Eduardo R.

My Two October trips

Hello, my name is Rafa and I want to talk about my experiece on the two trips that I made in October. The first trip was to Koblenza, Germany. That trip was very special because it was the first trip that I made by bus. Yes, by bus, the duration of the trip was 30 hours with stops of 30 minutes every four hours. I went to Germany with some friends and more people of my age for the 100th anniversary  of Schoensttat (my parish). It was one of the funnest trip I have ever done. Then, I went on a trip to Rome, which was with my family, but it was also great. I visited a lot of parts of Rome and I also visited Vatican city, where the Pope is. It was also a very great trip.

-Rafa Vargas-Z.

Ed Sheeran

The other day was one of the best days of my life. I went to Ed Sheeran's concert in El Palacio de Los  Deportes, in Madrid. It was incredible because I really like his music and the way he plays the guitar is completly amazing. He is an English songwriter; he became well-known when he made a guest appearance with Taylor Swift in her famous album: Red. He has written some popular songs like "Little Things" by One Direction and "I See Fire" that appears in the Hobbit. He is only 23. While I was listening to him, I had the feeling that i was in front of one of the biggest musicians at the moment.The thing that I like the most about him is the lyrics of his songs because he talks about his own experience and sometimes I feel like him. I will always remember that day .

Iria

Los Angeles

It's a large area in the state of California, on the west coast of the USA. It includes Hollywood, and Beverly Hills. It is, of course, the home of American film, but film-making isn't Los Angeles' only industry. It's also the busiest port in the USA.

Every year, L.A. welcomes about 24 millions sightseers. The ‘tourist trail’ usually includes the famous Hollywood sign, the Chinese Theatre (the place where celebrities leave their hand and footprints in the pavement), and the Kodak Theatre (the home of the Oscar ceremonies). Tourists can visit Universal Studios and see the sets of many famous films, old and new. Tourists also love the theme parks, and the wonderful beaches.

California is an earthquake zone and in 1994 there was a very big earthquake in L.A. Many buildings, bridges, and roads were not strong enough, and they collapsed. About sixty people died. Scientists predict another earthquake soon.

Sometimes in the autumn California experiences extremely strong  winds. These can spread terrible fires because the ground is very dry after the long hot summer. This happened in 2007 and many people in L.A. lost their homes. 

-Juan V.

Scones

The following recipe is for scones. Scones are one of the most popular desserts in England. People love having them with tea or coffee. If you serve scones, your friends will certainly enjoy them.

This recipe will take ten minutes to prepare and fifteen minutes to bake.

You need these ingredients:
3 cups of flour.
1/2 cup sugar.
5 teaspoons of baking power. 1/2 teaspoons salt.
3/4 cups butter.
1 egg, beaten.
1 cup milk.

Instructions:

1.You must preheat the oven to 200 Celsius. Also, you need to grease a baking tray with butter.

2.You need to mix the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking, powder, salt.
3.Next, you must cut up the butter.
4.Then, you blend the egg and the milk in a small separate bowl. After that, pour it into the flour mixture and combine.
5.Now, you have dough. Take the dough and put it on a floured surface and knead briefly.
6.After kneading, roll out the dough until it is 1'5cm thick.
7.Now you can take round scone cutters and cut the scones.

8.Put the scones on the greased tray and bake for fifteen minutes or unit they are golden brown.
9.When the scones are not hot anymore,

only warm, cut them in half and fill them with your favorite jam or cream.
Try them! You'll love them!! 
-Elena Velasco J.

Equatorial Guinea

I would like to talk about my country, Equatorial Guinea. First of all, I would like to say that most of the people don't even know about this country. They ask me if there are monkeys, if people are poor, what it's like... stuff like that. Sometimes it's kind of funny, but sometimes it's kind of offensive. Anyway it's a very beautiful country with a lot of natural resources.

EG is governed by a military dictatorial government lead by the dictator Obiang Nguema. I really hope this changes soon, because I think a democratic government would be better for Equatorial Guinea.

This small, central-african country has a population of about 2 million people. It's capital is Malabo, but Bata is the most populated city. It's also the third richest country in Africa because of a very basic natural resource, petrol, but it won't last.

My real dream is to change my beloved little country; creating companies and industries that would definetly make EG prosper its citizens. 

Fidel Obama

My Experience in Boston by Emilia

The first time I went to Boston I was really little, I was 2-3 years old. I went there because of my father's work. My family and I stayed there for 6 months. We lived at the top of a building in Cambridge from where we could see the centre Boston.     

                                                                                                                           

During that period of time there I didn't learn a lot of English because I was too little. At that time USA was going through a really hard time because 1 year before the terrorist attack in New York, the 9/11 took place. 

As I said before I lived in Cambridge, where Harvard University is situated. Harvard is one of the most famous universities all around the world. It was established in 1636.

             The second time I went to Boston it was during the summer when I was ten years old. I stayed there for two months and I went to different summer camps. One of them was in the MIT University that is really well known for being the best university concerning Technology. The other summer camp was in the Charles River. I had sailing classes with a group of other girls, I had a lot of fun.

During that time I stayed in Somerville that is really close to Boston even though it is a different city. When I was there, Spain won the Soccer World Cup so my family and I went out for dinner to celebrate the victory. Being there for that short time helped me a lot with my English.

The last time I've been to Boston was in 2012. This time I also went there for my father's job and we stayed there for a year so I improved my English a lot. We rented a house in Brookline that is next to Boston. I lived in front of my school's park so I only had to walk for three minutes and I was already there. My school's name was Pierce. I really liked the education system there, it was more fun than here in Spain. One thing that caught my attention was the school in the inside, it was really really open, it didn't have walls that separated the classrooms, they were separated by lockers and in the middle of the school there was a huge library. Everything was painted in a different color and there were pipes all over the ceiling. Outside the school, to go from the inside of the school to the outside you had to go through a yellow bridge that went above the road. This is a picture of the library.

During that year I travelled a lot to different states with my family and I learned a lot of English. During the summer I went to three summer camps and I enjoyed them so much. It was an amazing experience and if I could go back I would love to go.

Now, Boston for me it's a really special city. I learned thousands of new things there and I fell in love with that fantastic city.

Emilia

CHOCOLATE CAKE by Gabriela

1 yogur

-1 glass of flour

-1 cup OF oil

-2 glasses of sugar

-1 royal yeast

-3 eggs

1 chocolate bar

Mix in a bowl the 3 eggs, then you have to take two glasses of sugar.After that you will have to take the 3 cups of flour.

Having missed this the last thing left is to add the yeast to the mass  to take the desired shape.

To make this cake taste like chocolate now you have to take the chocolate and let it get melted. When the chocolate is completely melted add it to the dough.

And once you have everything mixed put it in a container of the desired shape and  place it in the oven at 200ºC for 3 min.

AN AUTHENTICALLY CUPCAKE DECORATOR by Celia

Christmas is a time of gathering with loved ones, gifts, snow and, of course, long evenings at home baking cakes, cookies, cupcakes and muffins with cocoa, cinnamon, ginger aromas, etc. ...
Today I'm going to surprise you with a recipe that I have prepared for you for these upcoming celebrations so endearing: Christmas Tree Cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS:

Recipe for 12 cupcakes

Cupcakes:

• 80 g. butter

• 135 g. flour for cakes

• 110 g. sugar

• 1 egg

• 80 ml. milk

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Buttercream:• 80 g of butter
• 125g icing sugar
• green food coloring

Decoration:
• Sugar stars, silver balls and golden glitter (edible)

PREPARATION:

Cupcakes:Preheat oven to 160ºC

Soften the butter in the microwave and beat using a whisk until creamy. Add the egg and continue beating.

Then add the flour (sifted with baking powder), milk, cocoa and vanilla essence. Continue beating for three minutes until the texture of a light cream.

Place 12 molds and fill it with the cream. Bake for 15 minutes at 160°C until the cupcakes have risen.

Remove from oven and let stand until completely cool.

Buttercream:Beat the softened butter using a whisk. Gradually add the icing sugar and continue beating until everything is well mixed. Then, we have to add the food coloring until the desired color.

DecorationPlace this mixture into a pastry bag with curly tip and decorate the cupcakes to form a Christmas tree. Sprinkle with a pinch gold glitter, place the balls and a star.

We have our Christmas Tree Cupcakes!.

Feminism by Lucía

In my opinion, when someone hears something about the word feminism, the main thought is that is going to be bad.

I do think lots of people don't know what feminism is and they don't know either what feminism fights for.

I think and I believe that feminism consists of the fight for equality of men and women, not puting over women, which is what most people think.

So, now I would like to write about one of the latest events related to feminism:  "he for she". He for she is a campaign that fights for equality, it's a UNO project, directed by Emma Watson who is who had the idea of the project. Emma has the title of embassador of will; that impresses me a lot, because she's only 24 years old and she has succeeded in an area in which many people think she is only a girl who doesn't deserve to be listened to.

She presented the idea in September with a speech that created much impact on the people that were listening to her (the rest of the UNO)

Emma, made a call for specially men, saying that equality campaign invites men too.

Lots of famous people have expressed that their agree with her by uploading photos on their twitters, instagrams..etc.

Here is her speech http://youtu.be/gkjW9PZBRfk

PANTANO DE SAN JUAN

PANTANO DE SAN JUAN:

Im going to talk about the “pantano de San Juan” because i have a little house there and a lot of friends too (including my best friend).

I go on all weekends and i spend the summer in the “pantano” too.

I like it in both seasons: summer and winter.

It´s like the typical lake house in the countryside, but it isn´t too far from Madrid, like one hour or less.

The “pantano” is located between Madrid, Ávila and Toledo.

In winter, it is really comfortable. I'm just happy watching a film on the sofa with the fireplace on.

In summer, it's really, really fun. I practise a lot of sports and activities with my friends: we play paddle, go swimming ,ride bicycles through the countryside, etc.

We also have a little boat where we do water skiing and use the donuts (a donut is like an airbed with some handles) and we tie it to the boat, then my father accelerates and you are just above the water!

There is also a breakwater and we jump from it to the water.

There are more activities that i don't practise, but some people usually practise them, such as fishing.

Last year, Iria, Pia, Carmen, Carlota and Maria came to my house in the “pantano”.

I couldn´t believe the fact that my mother gave us six girls permission to go for the whole weekend to our house.

We had to go in two cars, but it was the best weekend of my life: we did donuts, we jumped from the breakwater and we swam in the pool in the middle of the night. All of these activities were done with my best friends.

Here you have some videos of our weekend:        

Miss Ramirez

AVATAR

BY Perico

Avatar is an American film directed by James Cameron. It arrived to the cinema in 2009.  This film is about humans who are looking for a precious mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a habitable moon.

The humans destroy the habitat of Pandora and they find Navis, a indigenous humanoid species  who lives in Pandora.

Navis can communicate with animals and control them. With this advantage, they resist to human expansion.

The protagonist of the film is a human being called Jake. He can control one navi and through this navi, Jake is in contact with navi society. At the end, Jake grows fond of navis, in particular, of Neytiri.

At the end, Jake brings together all the clans of Navis and he fights with humans.

Relevant data: this film is one of the most important science fiction fims ever shot. Avatar second part will be at cinema in 2016.

I recommend this film because it has very impressive special effects and a fantastic 

history 

Dolphins

        

Ø  WHAT IS A DOLPHIN? Dolphins are cetacean mammals closely related to whales and porpoises.

Ø HOW MANY DOLPHINS ARE THERE? There are almost forty species of dolphins in 17 general.

Ø  WHAT IS DOLPHIN'S SIZE? From 1.2m(4ft) and 40kg(90lb) for example : Maui's dolphin,up to 9.5m(30ft) and 10 tonnes (9.8 long tons;11 short tons)(the orca).

Ø WHAT DO DOPLHINS EAT?FISH AND SQUID.

Ø WHY DO I CHOOSE THIS ANIMAL? Because, they are beautiful and pleasant. To stay with a sea animal like these ones is beautiful, because they are very loving and playful. If you want to see and play with dolphins you should go to the zoo, you can have a lot of fun!

I´m very interested in sea biology because I like sea life and animals.ANIMALS SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE PEOPLE!!!!

BY LAURA