Welcome Back to School ;))

Hi there everybody!

Here we are again for a brand new school year and a new "blog year"!

Holidays are already past - unfortunately :(

So, it's time to start working!

We wish you a wonderful school year, full of joys and happiness and don't forget that this blog is for you, so let's work together on it!

Bob's Story - Extra Credit Work 9th grade

“Let me tell you my story. Five years ago I was a successful executive. I earned a lot of money and I had never had any problems at work. I had expensive tastes and hobbies. I also had a lot of friends… at least that’s what I thought. Suddenly my life was turned upside down: I lost my job and felt miserable.
I was so ashamed of my situation that I didn’t tell anyone about it. I stayed at home and did nothing. Losing a job is like losing a part of yourself. Your lifestyle changes dramatically. You wake up and you don’t have anywhere to go, anything to do, anyone to meet.
I felt desperate and frightened. However, after sometime I decided to start job hunting. I phoned some friends to ask for help but they didn’t care about me anymore. I wrote countless letters of application, went to lots of interviews, phoned lots of companies, went to lots of job agencies but I still didn’t manage to get any work. I felt so desperate that I got severe depression and gave up looking for a job. As a result I lost everything I had worked for: my flat, my car, my personal belongings…
Finally I became homeless and that’s what I was until last month. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was having a nap on a bench in the railway station when I heard someone say:” Bob, is that you?” I looked at the person who said this and saw my old friend Karen. I hadn’t seen her since high school but our parents are still friends and I knew she was a very successful lawyer.
She proved to be a good friend. She took me to her parents’ flat and convinced me that I was still useful. She made feel self-confident again. I’ve been looking for a job for three weeks and I have a very positive attitude because with Karen’s help I know that I’ll overcome this problem sooner or later.”

I like to move it, it... my trip around the world...

- Hey guys, you’re not going to believe what I just dreamed about last night!
- What kind of dream did you have?
- A dream about us in a global trip!
- A what?!
- I dreamed that we went on a trip all around the world! We parted from here in Famalicão and then we visited some Greek islands in the Mediterranean Sea! It was awesome, the sea, the heat, the people, we just loved it! Then, we went to Africa.
- Which countries did we visit?
- Well… While we were travelling along the Nile, we saw a lot of countries but we only stayed in Tanzania, the mysterious land. And guess what! After that we went to: MADAGASCAR! And of course we sang…
- I like to move it, move it!
- He likes to move it, move it!
- We like to: MOVE IT!
- The next place we visited was in Asia: India! There, we had an adventure: we were lost in the middle of the city and we didn’t know what to do! But we made it. Next stop: Singapore!
- I have an old friend there!
- But we didn’t stay there too long. It was a shame, but the trip had to go on. So, we parted to the lands of Australia, oh my god there were so many kangaroos! Our global trip also took us to New Zeeland! Afterwards, we dove in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean, with the USA as a destiny. The American world “infected” us all along the territory until Boston. We quickly caught a boat to England, right to lands of Her Royal Highness, the Queen! Then, the English Channel drove us into Brittany; from there we went to La Coruna. We arrived home a few time later, tired but happy with our greatest and probably only global trip! I wish it wasn’t only a dream…

Ana Margarida, nº 2; André, nº5; Inês, nº15; Rita, nº25 - 801

Summer Jobs

Summer is not just fun. Obviously, for those who work the entire year is quite possible that they only think about it, however, for students or unemployed, there are a multitude of temporary work that appears in summer season.

If you are a student, you are unemployed or have a child who wants to make some change in the heating season, there are many options. Between working in restaurants, which normally during the summer are open until later, bars, terraces, cafes, walking the neighbours’ pets, get a van and take kids to the beach, gardens or swimming pools, working in the fast-food restaurants, etc, etc, etc, the options are limitless.

Of course that this work is temporary and as such it has its advantages and disadvantages, but if your idea is only to spend some time, and add this small change, working in summer is an excellent choice.

Advantages:

-If you have free time and do not want to waste, you can use it doing something useful and you will earn some money;

-You will have the opportunity to meet new people and make good contacts;

-If you still have no professional experience, summer jobs are a good opportunity to start, even if the job has nothing to do with what you want to do in the future the experience is always enriching.

Disadvantages:

- One of the problems is that summer jobs are not very well paid;

- While most people are on holiday, you are busy working.

Diogo Mourão, 902

More info on TV

In my opinion TV is a very important “thing” in our life. It brings us many happy moments. It is a company for people who are alone all day. TV is the box that changed the world. We can see what happens in another place of the world at the time it happens. TV is a good way to broadcast messages and sell things, advertising. But like everything it also has disadvantages: children can be negatively influenced by TV. It can teach them bad examples and shock them with violence. Adults should be careful and accompany what children watch on TV. Many times TV brings communication to an end in family lives. When the TV is on, the family doesn’t communicate. To me TV is a good thing when used in a correct from.


Magda Barbosa, 802

Coldplay

Coldplay is a British band. They are doing such a successful career with their music (mostly Rock/Pop and Alternative) and concerts all over the USA and Europe.
They met each other in the September of 1996 in their first week of college (University College London). They are known by writing beautiful and simple songs that enchanted and keeps enchanting people all over the world. Only just a few months before Coldplay released their first album in 2000 (Parachutes), in England, they were hailed as the Band of the Year, at the same year. It happened at the speed of light, but it weren’t as easy as it seemed to be.
The band is constituted by the guitar playing of John Buckland, the melodic bass of Guy Berryman, the thoughtful drums of Will Champion, and the leading and tenor vocals of Chris Martin, who are the elementary answers for the bands’ soul. Although melancholy stands behind every Coldplay song, which is also steeped by an unusual and sincere optimism rarely found in English bands. Songs face an inevitable sadness and yearning (which all this could be resumed in something called being real), to get to a better place where the safe truth and pure emotion is decisive. "We just want the songs to reflect reality" said Chris Martin.
Coldplay released the single "Brothers And Sisters" on a small English label called Fierce Panda, after which the UK label Parlophone signed them in 1999. They released their first debut album “Parachutes” and then they had achieve great success with the singles “Yellow”, “Trouble”, “Spies” and “Don’t Panic”. In 2002, “A Rush Of Blood To The Head” may well be the most amazing album during, with the songs “In My Place”, “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face”, the sentimental one of “The Scientist” ,and the Grammy-Winning “Clocks”, which won multiple awards such as NME's Album of the Year. Subsequently, “X & Y” Coldplay’s career, with the songs “White Shadows”, “Talk”, “Speed Of Sound”, and “The Hardest Part”, . Finally, the last work “Viva la Vida Or Death And All His Friends” with the singles “Viva La Vida”, “Lost”, “Life In Technicolor” and “Violet Hill”, that released again to largely favorable reviews and earning several Grammy nominations and wins. All of Coldplay's albums have enjoyed commercial success.
There are also such many fantastic and pleasant songs that we should give an honoury mention, such as “Crests Of Waves”, “I Ran Away”, “Things I Don’t Understand”, “Murder”, “No More Keeping My Feet On The Ground”, “1.36”, “Proof”, “Bigger Stronger”, “Only Superstition” and “Animals”.
Chris admits that the last track on the album “X & Y”, "Everything's Not Lost" is the message of Coldplay's entire work up until 2005.

Diogo Campos, 901

Creative writing by Sofia Azevedo

The obsession to be a normal person changed him and destroyed him.
His mentality has undone him. The distance between realities is huge and he will never cross them alone. The fears that he didn’t have hunt him. His strength is gone like the sun that used to shine in his life. What people say has no meaning anymore, like the effort that he insists on doing to keep breathing. What separates him from us is just a door that someone had the audacity to close. Locked inside, crying on his knees, he meets up with his thoughts nearly poor enough to maintain the illusion that doesn’t exist. His eyes, convinced they won’t see the light again, lost their colour, and this, nobody will be able to bring back...

Sofia Azevedo, 901

The Story of a Successful Teen

Her name is Nicole Baran, she is 16 years old, she lives in Wheat Ridge, Colorado in USA and she has always dreamt of having her own business.
Her first business idea was cleaning carpets but she didn’t have success, the second idea was an on-site car cleaning service. The cars stood at the parking lot or at the costumer’s place of work. They didn’t need expensive products, they had alternative ways to clean them such as teeth brushes and duck tape for picking up dirt.
Recently she won an award: $1.000 from the young Entrepreneur Foundation.

Ana Paula; Ariana; Joana; Pedro Silva e Pedro Pereira - 902

Singing at School!

Hi everyone!

Here we are again to challenge you to Sing At School.

Para que não haja dúvidas, este post ficará em Português. Como já devem ter visto e ouvido pela escola, no próximo dia 12 de Junho, a partir das 14 horas, o Departamento de Línguas Germânicas irá dinamizar uma tarde dedicada à música e ao Inglês, no nosso Ginásio.

A Primeira Parte será dedicada às bandas da Escola que queiram dar a conhecer o seu trabalho a toda a comunidade escolar. Na Segunda, ir-se-á realizar um concurso de Karaoke. Como já sabem, o tempo disponível não nos permite abrir as inscrições a todos os interessados, pelo que teremos de limitar o número de inscritos às primeiras 5 bandas e aos primeiros 20 concorrentes/participantes. Assim, a partir de hoje poderão proceder às inscrições através do nosso blogue. É simples:

Para te inscreveres no Karaoke, basta deixares em comentário a indicação "Karaoke", seguida do nome do(s) concorrente(s) - num máximo de 4 elementos - e a(s) respectiva(s) turma(s); a música que gostariam de interpretar (não se esqueçam que terá de ser em Inglês) e um contacto.
Para inscreveres a tua Banda, em comentário escreve "School Bands", o nome da banda, o nome dos elementos da banda e as respectivas turmas, um contacto (e-mail ou telefone) e o nome das músicas (+/- 2 músicas).

O concurso de Karaoke terá um júri e será atribuído um prémio aos 1º, 2º e 3º classificados.

SEE YOU SOON!