Celebrating Christmas

One more year we have celebrated the traditional Christmas Party. In my case, every year in a different school but with the same spirit. The predictions were fulfilled; you, my dear pupils, participated enthusiastically and we all had fun.

Your short stories invaded our classroom walls. We read and voted them. Being “The Wings” and “Life Itself” the two awarded ones. You will have the opportunity to re-read every story after the holidays since they will be displayed on the school walls again.

The slideshow Daniel had prepared with more than forty photos was viewed by all of you. It was exciting to see you all moving from one room to another deciding on the photos or the stories to vote. After counting the votes and due to the rules of the contest, only three of your stunning photos could be given a prize -a photo frame with the winning photo!!!

Some of your tasty dishes

Surprisingly enough, we had to wait for a few minutes -although it seemed hours to some of us, to taste the delicious dishes you had warmly prepared for the cookery contest. Everything was really tasty … Christmas biscuits, chocolate cookies, scrumptious cakes (white chocolate, yoghurt, lemon, …) and brownies, apple crumble, trifle, … Not only did we eat sweets but also tuna pie, macaroni, Spanish omelette, “quesada” or two typical dishes from Colombia. The jury had a really difficult task in choosing the winning dishes.

The Trifle, the Brownie and The Coconut Biscuits were the winning dishes

In the end, and after the award ceremony full of clapping, cheering, hugs and kisses, we sang and danced memorable Christmas songs as in any celebration worth its salt.

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Well, it’s time to finish this entry but before that, I would like to congratulate every participant, even you got a prize or a small gift or not, you did the most important part of this Christmas party, you made it possible. Thanks a lot.

Many thanks to the rest of pupils who joined us and had a great time together. I’m sure it was worth spending the evening at school. And thanks to Daniel, Eva and Carmen for being patient with me and all my fussy questions and last-minute suggestions.

To all of you …

Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is coming again!!! It's incredible how fast time goes by and maybe you have started thinking about what presents you would like to ask for to Santa. If you have been good pupils, I'm sure you'll get loads of extraordinary gifts. But we will reflect on that later.

Here you can listen to two children telling his dad what they want for Christmas. Check that you understand them by clicking on this link.

As this term is nearly over, let's review what you did.

Were you good pupils this term? Did you do your homework every day? Did you participate in your English class a lot or do you think you could have done more than you did? ;-) 

Leave your comments!!!

My Kind of Job

 Hi there,

At last, a new entry ... but this one is not like the rest of entries this academic year. This entry has been created by one of your classmates in 1NI, Erma. She has a unique job. Definitely, it's worth having a look at what she has to tell us about it.

"I have a rewarding job. I’m an international judge of Artistic Gymnastics for women. It’s a very nice and difficult job. I need to be concentrated on the gymnasts' performances for a lot of hours, I have to judge a lot of aspects and parameters in a very short amount of time, such as execution, style, difficulty of the exercise, balance, ... Although it's hard, I love it.

Balance Beam

There are several different judges in a competition. Difficulty panel judges that is formed by two judges; Execution panel formed by five judges and two Reference judges apart from Line and Time judges. The difficulty judges give the exercise value. The Execution judges give the penalization.

I have taken part in many international events as World Cups, European Championships and World Championships. I was in the World Championship, which took place in Antwerpen (Belgium) last October.

Here's a photo of our extraordinary Spanish gymnast, Roxana Popa. She got a really good position in her last championship.

Uneven Bars

In Antwerpen, we were around eighty judges, from all over the world, to judge three competitions; classification, all around and apparatus final. After a draw, I had to judge the vault exercise in all around competition as well as uneven bars in apparatus final.

Floor Exercise

 All judges must pass difficult exams after each Olympic Games so that they can maintain the category they have or get a better or worse category. They range from four to one categories. Only category one and two are allowed to judge in the Olympic Games. I am category two although I’ve never judged in the Olympic Games. I hope to be part of the next board of judges in the next Games which will be taking place in Rio de Janeiro in 2016."

Thanks a lot for this enlightening entry on the topic, Erma. We all want to wish you the best of luck and we really hope to hear from you in the next Olympic Games 2016. :-))

OK, dear pupils, it's your turn to join and participate in this entry with your comments. What do you think of Erma's job? Do you find it interesting? Have you ever stopped and thought of the role judges have in competitions?