Card from London

Several days ago I've got a card from Mary, who is also interested in Postcrossing. She's sent me a nice cards with London places of interest.

She's written on the card “Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, and often extended to refer to the Clock and the Clock Tower. The Clock has become a symbol of the United Kingdom, particularly in visual media. When television or a film-maker wish to indicate a generic location in the country a popular way to do it is to show an image of the Tower,  often with a red double-decker bus or a black cab in the fore ground”
It's a pleasure to get unusual card with interesting information.

Thank you, Mary!

Salad Party

Unusual lessons are always very interesting. Pupils feel free and they can remember the material better. So, recently we threw “Salad Party”. The party was given at Form 6, there were also some teachers invited. Pupils cooked salads at home and brought them to school. At the lesson they told the guests how to make the salads. The most responsible pupil Natasha together with her mum cooked draniki. Draniki is a traditional Belarusian dish made of potato. We had many salads at our party. One of the tastiest salads, which everyone liked, was “Fern Flower”. This salad is easily prepared, so this is the recipe.

Ingredients:

200g ham

200g boiled beef

200g sausage

2 pickled cucumbers

2 tomatoes

2 sweet onions

greens

vinegar

mayo

The recipe:

Cut onions into shreds and marinate for half an hour.  Cut meat, cucumbers and tomatoes into shreds. Add marinated onion without liquid. Mix ingredients together in a bowl and then add greens. Serve with mayo.

Enjoy your meal!  

Ambition. Discovery. Success

“Ambition. Discovery. Success” is the title of the Conference, which has taken place today at the gymnasium of Pogranichnyj agritown. The aim of the fifth Scientific and Practical Conference is to find out gifted pupils and develop their abilities.

The conference focuses on the following aspects: the humanities (History, Geography, Regional Study), Mathematics and Physics, Biology and Chemistry, The Russian language and Literature, The Belarusian language and Literature, Foreign languages, and Primary Education, which was held for the first time.

Anna Pugachevskaya, the 7 form pupil, took part in this conference. Our work is titled “Speech Models of Greeting in the Project of Postcrossing”. (Anna is also a postcrosser).

In this work we studied peculiarities of English speech etiquette and distinctive features of levels of politeness in the English language.  We also made a research – we found out the most popular variants of greeting. So, we examined 120 postcards received from different English-speaking countries and concluded that “Hello, (Name)!” is the most popular model which is used 67 times (or 56%). It’s very important to know how to greet unknown people.

Anna defended her research work and was given the 1^st place. Congratulations! 

British Food, or How to make marmalade

On February 19, 2014 we had an open class in English. At this lesson there were some guests – young teachers of English from the schools of our district. The topic of the lesson was “British Food”. The lesson was given in the form 6, where there were four pupils – one girl and three boys. At this lesson we spoke about national British cuisine. We watched video and discussed how British people make marmalade. We also played a board game at the blackboard. Pupils did a lot of exercises, described British meals, expressed their opinion and got good marks.

Seminar in Germany and France

February is the shortest month of the year and this year it was the busiest. I took part in occupational mobility program “Modern models of career guidance for students on the example of Germany and France”.

During this program with the group of teachers we visited some European countries and examined career guidance at the establishments of education.

In Berlin we were informed about  Germany's Dual System of vocational education  and training at Senate Department for Education, Youth and Science. 

A dual education system combines training in a company and vocational education at a vocational school in one course. Dual system of education means building career education into the curriculum and linking it to students’ overall development.

Elizabeth Tower vs. Big Ben

If you ask someone to name London´s places of interest, the most popular answer will be Big Ben. But it is a common mistake. A lot of people think that popular London´s tower is called Big Ben. It is not correct. 

Big Ben is a name for the biggest of six bells within the Tower. The Tower is officially called the Elizabeth Tower, after being renamed in 2012 from "Clock Tower" to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of the Elizabeth II. 

Yesterday we discussed this question with my pupils and made a model of Elizabeth Tower. Now I hope everyone knows for sure the difference between Big Ben and Elizabeth Tower.

Postcrossing

     Hobby plays a very important role in our lives. It`s impossible to imagine our life without hobby J  I`d like to tell you about my new hobby. I like travelling, reading, communication with interesting people, foreign languages. And I´ve found a hobby which includes all my wishes. I can describe all these activities just with one word – postcrossing.

     Postcrossing is a project which allows to send and receive cards from people all over the world. I mean paper postcards by mail, not e-mail! The main idea is to exchange cards with random person somewhere in the world.

CHRISTMAS BANK HOLIDAY

     Christmas is wonderful time! The most popular winter holidays are Christmas Day and Boxing Day. That´s why people usually wish each other „Happy Holidays!“ People celebrate these fantastic holidays with family and friends. Before Christmas holidays people decorate their houses, buy gifts and prepare delicious food.

     But there´s one more special holiday. It´s Christmas Bank Holiday, which is always celebrated on December, 27. At this day people stay at home, they sleep a lot and have rest after merry holidays.

BOXING DAY

Boxing Day is traditionally the day following Christmas Day, that is celebrated on 26 December, which is also St. Stephen's Day, a religious holiday.

The origin of this holiday's name is not clear. It is known Boxing Day was started in the UK about 800 years ago, during the Middle Age. It was the day when the alms boxes for the poor often kept in churches were opened and their contents could be given to poor people. Some churches still open these boxes on Boxing Day.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

On December, 25 people in Britain, Germany, the USA and some other countries celebrate Christmas. Christmas is the most important holiday of the year. People decorate their houses with Christmas tree, small colored fairy lights, leaves and berries from holly trees and mistletoe bushes, tinsel and ornaments. They usually put an angel at the top of the Christmas tree.

PER ASPERA AD ASTRA

      Движение - это жизнь... Движение вперед, к цели - вот то, что заставляет нас работать над собой, бороться с трудностями и преодолевать препятствия, какими непосильными они бы не казались. Так сказать, движение per aspera ad astra (лат.) - сквозь тернии к звездам...         
    Желание развивать свои способности и открывать новые горизонты сподвигло меня завести свой блог. Надеюсь, он принесет пользу любителям английского языка и станет для меня очередной "звездой"...