IES Roquetes: Young Europeans, Alike but Different

News...news...news...news...

2010-04-07T05:05:00.000-07:00

Blog Navigation

For some reason our blog has got stuck. Before you could see all the posts in one long list. Now you can only see the first one, why this has happened I have no idea. If you want to see the other posts on the blog please use the menu on the right hand side to navigate around the blog or the list at the bottom of this post.

YEAD on the radio

We were invited to appear on the local radio station again. Antena Caro is our local radio and we have been on it before, you can hear both interviews by visiting our section on publicity here.

The interview is, of course, in Catalan, but at least you get the chance to practise your Catalan a little and to see Abraham, Norbert, Salomé and Huw in the video of the interview.

Catalans in the Kitchen

We have also completed our work on the Comenius day and all the cooking that was done. One of our groups totally failed to record their hard work, there was some sort of technical problem with the camera and neither the photos or the video survived, but the other two groups have now posted pictures and video of their efforts. Of course you can also look at what we the teachers did too.

Ten famous Catalans

We have made our choice of the ten famous Catalans that we think people ought to know about. They are a curious mixture of people who are still alive and figures from the past. Some people wanted to include Leo Messi, but he is of course from Argentina even though he plays for Barcelona FC. If you want to see our list please go here.

Painting our logo

A group of students at our school are currently involved in painting the logo of our project on one of the school's walls. It isn't finished yet but is looking good, if you want to see how it is going click here.

Blog Homepage
The teachers
You Tube Channel
Pen pal network participants
An introduction to us, Catalans or Spanish
Where we live, location
The Catalan national Anthem
The Catalan and Spanish coats of arms
Catalan demographics
Spanish demographics
Catalunya's National day
The Catalan flag
Comenius day
Exchange boxes
The word bank
Personal blogs
Video presentation of our school
Festivals and Traditions
Catalans in the kitchen, comenius day
Ten famous Catalans
Painting our logo

A blog for IES Roquetes

2008-09-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

This is the blog that has been created for IES Roquetes. On this blog we are posting all the work that we do related to the Comenius Project that we are doing together with our partner schools.

The program for the project is set out here. An essential part of the project is the publicity we can get for it, you can see what we have achieved here, in the section publicity

You can see the people who are participating from Spain here.
You can see the teachers involved in our project here.

If you would like to see all the photos that have been taken during our meetings, the videos and the out takes then you can go the the YEAD Gallery and see them all (my students will kill me for this).

There is always a lighter side to any project and so for some fun we have created this section, The Funny Side please leave your comments there.

We have just completed the first of the four trips that make up the mobilities of our Comenius project. This trip was only for the teachers participating and was to Poland. The reason for the trip was to prepare the other mobilities in the project in Greece and then Germany. If you would like to know more about what happened on the trip and see photos please click here.

We have completed are the Comenius Day, this was a great success and has helped a lot so that people know about the project here in Roquetes, the word bank and the video about our school.

IES Roquetes Pen Pal Network

2008-09-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the list of the students participating in the Comenius Project for our school. Here you can see a photo, or three, of each person plus a small biography. All the students of Roquetes participating in the project have signed up for an e-mail address with g-mail. Plus all of them have the letters "roq" in the name of their mail so they are easy to identify. No one should use any other mail address. If anyone has a problem with any of the people from Roquetes please contact me immediately at my address below.

Huw
huwproferoq@gmail.com

Here are the students

Cristian Ortega
cristianroq@gmail.com

My name is Cristian . I'm from Roquetes. I am 16 years old. I live with my parents. I have a sister but she lives in her own house.

My hobby is playing football. I like going out with my friends. I also like listening to musisc and talking to my friends online. My favourite music is ska, reggae and punk . My favourite singer is Bob Marley. I like going to the cinema too.

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Norbert
bertoroq@gmail.com

Hi, my name is Norbert but people call me Berto or Potter, I prefer Berto... -,-. I have lived in Xerta all of my live, I am sixteen years old. I have one brother, he is twelve years old, his name is Arnau, but I call him "Mofletudo" because he has a big cheeks, jejeje... JA JA!!!.
I'm very funny with my friends.

I study at IES Roquetes, I'm doing sciences. I want to be a paleaontologist.

I like rock music, my favourite group is Mägo de Oz. I like videogames like Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 and Fable, Fable 2 and Metroid Prime 1,2,3... I also like reading books and doing GamesWorkshop (The Lord of the Rings). Oh, and go fishing with my cousin Pol (Paolo jeje).
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Carmina Beltran Sabatè
karmiinaroq@gmail.com

I am afraid that Carmina has now left the school to study something different in another centre. If you would like to continue writing to her I am sure she will be happy to answer you but she is not longer officially part of the Comenius Project.

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Mariona Arnal Lizana
arnalaroq@gmail.com

Hi^^!! I'm Mariona Arnal and I live in Xerta :D with my family. I'm 17 years old and I was born on the 28th of January 1991 in Barcelona.
I study in IES.Roquetes it's a little town near my village, Xerta, but 4 years ago I lived in Barcelona.

My hobbies are going to the cinema, going out with my friends, going shopping, eating out in diferents kinds of restaurants (mexican, chinese, turkish...) In my free time I like watching tv progams such as Family dad, American dad , Friends , Dexter... And I like painting too.

Now I'm listening the new song of Katy Parry,I'm yours by Jason mraz and I listen to music groups like The Cure, Fall out boy , Metro Station, Miranda...

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Ferran Pallarés Carreres
ferranpallaresroq@gmail.com

My name is Ferran Pallarés, I'm 16 years old, I was born on October 2nd, 1992. I live in Roquetes and I go to IES Roquetes. I practise ballroom dancing and I go running in the afternoons.

I started in a nursey school at the age of four. I behaved very well. When I was five years old I began at the primary school. I finished it at twelve. Then I started ESO for four years. Now, I'm studying 1st batxillerat.

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Iris Vallespí Ferré
iris92roq@gmail.com

Hi! I’m Iris. I was born on 13th of April 1992 and so I’m sixteen. I live in Benifallet, a little village next to the famous river Ebre. It’s a fantastic town! In the summer there are a lots of tourists…too many :S .
I have got a brother, called Jonàs. He is seven years older than me. Sometimes we argue, but I love him too much to get angry with him.

I love pets! I have a dog; her name is Broseta, that means small, because she’s a little dog. I have a cat, Mixi and a bird, Marujito, too. Ahh! I have a horse too, I love to ride him. He’s brown and white and he is very docile.
I like learning languages, now I’m learning French. When I’m older I would like to do English philology because of this I have chosen to do this project.
My favorite music is house, I love it! I listen to other music too… like pop, dance…
I like meeting my friends and going out with them. We go to the village pub on Saturday nights.
About my hobbies, I don’t have important hobbies , but I like dancing.
I’m 1’66 meters tall, I’m brunette, and I have brown eyes too. I weigh 56kg.
Well, see you! We’ll speak to each other soon!

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Mireia Blanch Borràs
mireia92roq@gmail.com

My name is Mireia. I’m 16 years old. I was born the 8th august of 1992. I live in Els Reguers, a village near Roquetes and Tortosa. I live there with my parents. I don’t have any brothers or sisters.

I’m studying first of batxillerat in IES Roquetes. I’m doing the humanistic modality because I want to study english filology at the university. My favourite subjects are english (of course), greek, french and latin. I love languages. In my free time I usually surf the net and chat with my friends; I love listening to music too, I love all types of music. I also love reading some books when I have time. Actually I’m reading "metamorpohsis" of Franz Kafka.

I love watching football, my favourite team is FCBarcelona, and my favourite players are Messi (L) and Bojan. They are the best! At the weekend I usually go out with my friends, we go to the cinema, shopping, etc.

I love travelling arround the world. I have been on two cruises, one by the mediterranean sea and another one by the adriatic; I had been in Paris two times too. My last trip was last month. I went to Argentina with my parents. We stayed there for 22 days. I visited Brazil too. I loved it. I want to go back when it is possible!

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Jessica Lleixà Daga
jessicallroq@gmail.com

My name is Jessica. I'm fifteen years old and I'm going to be sixteen on the 9th of December. I live in Jesús, a small town, near Roquetes and Tortosa.
My parents names are José and Estrella.I have two sisters, my older sister is 19 years old and she's studying second year of medicine in Barcelona and my younger sister is 12 and she is doing first of ESO. I'm studying first of batxillerat in IES Roquetes and my favourites subjects are biology, physics and chemistry.

The things that I often do in my free time are try to play well my guitar, listen to music, go out with friends, read interesting books like "
The Pillars of the Earth" of Ken Follet and chat in the messenger.
My favoruites groups of music are: System of a down, Slipknot, Saratoga, Apocalyptica... But I like all types of music, except hardcore and flamenco.

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Mayte Targa Curto
mayteroq@gmail.com

Hi! I'm Mayte. I am 17 years old. I am very young. I live in Aldover. It's a small village next to Tortosa, 5 minutes in car. I live with my parents and my sister, who is older than me, Noemi. I have three small fish of differents colours, very exotic, and two dogs, Chispa and Linda.

I haven't got any important hobbies. I simple person but I like meet new people and going to parties with my friends.
In my photos you can see me. I'm blond, brown eyes, 1,60 meters tall, thin and I like wearing moderns clothes.
When I am older I want to be a photograophic model and vet.
I hope to hear from you all soon.

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Francesc Barberà Mayor
franbroq@gmail.com

My name is Fran and my surname is Barberà, I'm 16 years old, I live in Roquetes (Catalunya), I was born in the Tortosa, the capital of the Baix Ebre . I've got one brother, he's 21 years old and his name is Marc.

I want to study "Traduction and Interpretation", so I need to get a 7 of "bachillerat" and then I want to be an English teacher in a secondary ESO school.
About my hobbies, I love dancing and I like basketball, but I hate rugby. I dance in a dance academy since I was 7 years old. Now I'm dancing with a girl who lives in Amposta and we dance 5 times a week 2 hours each day, we have been dancing together since 4th January 2008.

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Abraham Arasa Barberà
abrahamarasa16@gmail.com

My name is abraham and surname is Arasa Barberà, i'm 16 years old, I live in Roquetes (Catalunya). I was born in Tortosa too. I've got one sister, she's 16 years old
and his name is Esperança.

About my hobbies, I love dancing and I like basketball, but I hate ballet.
I have danced in a dance academy since I was 6 years old.
I normally go to the gym two or three times a week.

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Marcel Cases Ribera
marcelxertaroq@gmail.com

My name is Marcel , I'm 16 years old, I live in Xerta, which is near Roquetes (Catalunya)

I've got a brother, he is 10 years old.

My hobbies are playing basketball, riding with my mountain bike, going out with my friends and many other things.

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Gemma Martinez Alegria
gemma67roq@gmail.com

My name is Gemma. I live in Roquetes. I am 16 years old. I have got a brother, his name is Marcel, he is 24 years old.
My father's job is driving a train and my mother is a civil servant in the local council. I have a dog, his name is puxy.

I like going out with my friends, of course, and going to parties on saturday night.
I am studying batxillerat, when I'molder I want to be a teacher of special children.

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Aïda Andreu Solà
aida92roq@gmail.com

My name is Aïda Andreu Solà. I was born 20th april 1992, I'm 16.
I live in Jesús with my parents and my brother who is 22, his name is Sergi, he is an engineer.
I have a dog too, it is a husky and his name is Turk.

I love doing ballet, I do three types of ballet: comtemporanean, classic and modern.
I like going out with my friends, of course, and go to parties on saturday nights.I like reading and listening to music like house or Nelly Furtado.

I like learning languages so when I'll be older I want to study english translation or something about economy like Business Administration.

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Llorenç Solé Boldo
llsoleroq@gmail.com

My name is Llorenç. I'm 16 years old. I live in a house in El Canalet, this is near EMD Jesús. I live with my parents and I haven't got brothers or sisters.
I have a dog, his name is Jack and he is 9 years old. He is a bit crazy and he loves running and playing with my parents and me.. My hobby is playing the clarinet, I have played it since I was a child.

I like going out with my friends and talk to them online. I also like listening to music and watching TV series and films. My favourite music is rock but I like pop, house and this kind of music too. I hate reggaeton, flamenco and hardcore. Sometimes, I play computer games at the weekend. I like reading, too. The last book I have read is "El niño con el pijama de rayas", I liked it and now I want to see the film at the cinema.

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Mari Pau Medina Garcia
maripau.medina.roq@gmail.com

My name is MªPau Medina Garcia. I'm 16 years old. I live in a house in Roquetes with my family , I have 2 brothers and 1 sister. Sergi is 14 years old, Gemma is 12 years old and Miquel is 5 years old. I play the cello and I sing to the Tortosa's Conservatory, my brothers too. Sergi plays the cello and the oboe, my sister, Gemma, plays the flute and my small brother is too small to play an instrument at the moment.

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Laia Fontanet Ferré
laiaffroq@gmail.com

My name is Laia, I'm 16 years old. I live in Roquetes with my mother and my cat (mixu), and at the weekend I live in a house near Roquetes, with my father and my sister. My sister name's is Neus, she's 19 years old. She's studying and working. In my house I have two dogs, Urus is a 9 months and Onis is 4 months, he is a boxer.
I like music, this is my hobby. I play the piano and flute. I go to the Concervatory on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday and Friday I play flute in the band. I go swimming and I go to the gym on tuesdays and thursdays with two friends because we like it. I like going out with my friends and talking with them. I like going to the cinema and I like reading.

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Alba Pobes Panisello
16albaroq@gmail.com

My name is Alba, I’m 16 and I live in Jesús, a small town near of Tortosa (capital of Baix Ebre). I lvie with my parents, I’ve got a brother that now’s living in Barcelona, he’s studying Fisic, he’s 19. he comes some weekends.
I like listen music, I think that there are songs that expressed a good thing. I like: ska, punk, rock punk, rock, sings author, something of Oi, rumba… (more or less) ;).
Too I like, read, watch films, surf the internet…
During the week I swimming, I go English, I play music (I play the trumpet), and I do the homework I think that I’ve got a little stress on the week, but when arrive de weekend I relax, I meet with my friends, we do a long talks, a lot of laughter, we go to the pubs, at the local… I like stay with them!
Now I’m cursing high school, I do the technologic. When I finish it I think that I do some engineering.

An introduction to us, Catalans or Spanish

2008-09-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

One of the big points of argument that appears where we live is whether we are Catalans or Spanish.

Catalunya is an autonomous region within Spain. It has its own government and administration. There are often political problems between the government in Madrid and our government in Barcelona. We live in Catalunya. It's different ffrom Spain. Some of us here want an independent Catalunya because the Catalan people have a different hymn, differents costums and traditions,

different festivals (11th of september the day of Catalunya) and so on. But the most important reason is our history and language.

Historically Catalunya has always been an independent country, one of the oldest in Europe, now we celebrate our national day on the 11th of september because we mark the date 300 years ago when Felip V conquered Catalunya.

For all these reasons when we giveh the basic facts about our country we are going to give the facts about both Spain and Catalunaya.

MªPau and Laia

Basic facts about where we live, Location

2008-09-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

Location

Our school is in Roquetes in Spain

Roquetes is in Tarragona’s province and it’s approximately 200 km from Catalonia’s capital, Barcelona.

Roquetes is a town located near Tortosa city which is the capital of Baix Ebre.

The most emblematic places of the town are the Natural Park of “Els Ports” and Ebre river, which is the longest in Spain.

Mireia Blanch and Jessica Lleixà

The Catalan and Spanish coats of arms

2008-08-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

The Catalan coat of arms is the heraldic symbol of Catalan territory whose origin is in the hereditary arms of the monarchs of the crown of Aragon and those of the Counts of Barcelona. The coat of arms however is not official. In this Catalunya is perhaps one of the only modern states that does not have an official coat of arms. It is certainly the only autonomous region in Spain that does not have one.

The former royal arms of Catalunya

The Catalan generalitat is often represented by two different coats of arms, one of them royal and the other that of St George, the Catalan patron saint. Seeing that this representation coincides with that of the capital of Catalunya, Barcelona, during the XVI and XVII centuries territorial symbols appear which came to mean that this symbol came to represent Catalunya altogether.

The arms of the Generalitat of Catalunya, the Catalan government

During the Spanish war of succession the generalitat adopted the symbol of the royal crown as its own. However after the loss of its authority and institutions the use of this symbol was lost.

The Renaissance revived the symbols of Catalunya and the royal arms were adjudicated to the territory and remained the symbol of Catalanya's independent government.

The Spanish coat of arms is the result of a series of modifications on the first coat of arms according to if Spain added or lost diverse territories from the Spanish crown. The first coat of arms that was considered to be official for the country was that chosen by the Catholic kings of Spain (1469-1516).

After a few years the Austrian royal house (1516-1700) modified it by adding new coats of arms to it. With the Borbon dynasty (1700-1759) the arms maintained their earlier elements but changed their distribution. During years after this period the arms were under constant change, it wasn't until 1874 with the restoration of the Borbons that the version of the arms with the roman columns was finally recovered.

The Catalan national anthem

2008-08-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

Els Segadors, the national anthem of Catalunya, has its origins in a traditional Catalan song of the XVII century. It emerges from the war between the Catalans, commanded by Pau Claris the President of the Generalitat, against the king Felip IV and the Count Duque d'Olivares.

In 1892 the musician Francesc Alió with the help of the entity "La Jove Catalunya" composed the anthem from the melody of a traditional tavern song and the lyrics of "Els Segadors". At the end of each line he added the sentence "Bon cop de falç!" (a good blow with a sickle) The song became more famous and you could often hear it at Catalan demonstrations but the lyrics were really too long.

In 1899 the "Unió Catalinista" convened a contest to decide upon a less extensive set of lyrics. The winner was the poet Emili Guanyavents.

During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-1930), "Els Segadors" was absolutely forbidden but in reality the Catalans substituted it for other traditional songs.

In 1931 after the dictatorship "Els Segadors" was consecrated as the national anthem of Catalunya.

During the dictatorship of Franco (1939-1975) Catalan culture, the Catalan national anthem and the Catalan language were all forbidden again.

It wasn't till the end of the dictatorship in 1975 that Catalunya recovered its culture, its language and its national anthem.

Catalan demographics

2008-08-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

Its privileged place on the mediterranean Sea has made Catalunya a place to visit, to exchange ideas, customs and an attraction for people all of which has then formed the Catalan culture and traditions. Catalan society, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, has now passed seven million inhabitants and this has happened because of a long history of migrations and commercial transactions with another cultures and nations.

In Catalonia several migratory waves have happened. In 1900, there were about two million inhabitants and between 1950s and 1970s there were about five million inhabitants who came from several places of Spain (especially Andalucia, Murcia and Extremadura).
The second migratory wave was in the early 1990s and in the beginning of the new century the migratory wave was stronger, so that the population increased to over seven million inhabitants from 1992 to 2006.

About 60 % of the population of Catalunya live in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. We can find the most unpopulated areas in the Pyrenees. The birth rate was 11% in 2003 and the mortality rate was 9,1%.On the other hand, the natural growth rate (the difference between birth and death) is 2%. As for the age pyramid of the Catala people, the most numerous group is between the ages of 20 and 50, now we can also observe a certain aging in the population and a growth of life expectancy which reaches eighty years old (it is one of the highest in the world).

Spanish demographics

2008-08-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

Spain has 46,063,000 inhabitants according to the 2008 census. Its population density, at 91.4/km² (229/sq. mile), is lower than that of most Western European countries. With the exception of the capital, Madrid, the most populated regions lie around the coast.

The population of Spain doubled during the twentieth century, but the pattern of growth was extremely uneven due to large-scale internal migration from the rural interior to the industrial cities, a phenomenon which happened later than in other Western European countries. No fewer than eleven of Spain's fifty provinces saw an absolute decline in population over the century.
The last quarter of the century saw a dramatic fall in birth rates. Spain's fertility rate of 1.37 (the number of children the average woman will have during her lifetime) is lower than the EU average, but has climbed every year since the end nineties of the last century. The birth rate has climbed in 10 years from 9.10 births per 1000 people per year in 1996 to 10.9 in 2006.

Spain has no official religion. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 abolished the Roman Catholic Church as the official state religion, while recognizing the role it plays in Spanish society. About 80% of the population define themselves as Catholic, but 63% assert they almost never go to any religious service.

Immigration and Demographic Issues
The population of Spain doubled during the twentieth century, due to the spectacular demographic boom by the 60s and early 70s. Then, the birth rate dropped by the 80s and Spain's population became stalled, it showed one of the lowest birth rates in the world, only second to Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine and Japan. Many people link this to the lack of child support in Spain. A graphic illustration of the enormous social gulf between Spain and the rest of Europe in this field is the fact that a Spanish family would need to have 57 children to enjoy the same financial support as a family with 3 children in Luxembourg.

In emigration/immigration terms, after centuries of net emigration, Spain, has recently experienced large-scale immigration for the first time in modern history. According to the Spanish government there were 5,220,000 foreign residents in Spain in January 2008. Of these more than 700,000 were Romanian, and well over half a million were Moroccan while the number of Ecuadorians was around half a million as well. Colombian population amounted to around 300,000. There are also a significant number of British (350,000 as of 2008, but more than one million are estimated to live permanently in Spain) and German (133,588) citizens, mainly in Alicante, Málaga provinces, Balearic Islands and Canary Islands. Chinese are estimated to number over 110,000. Immigrants from several sub-Saharan African countries have also settled in Spain as contract workers, although they represent only 4.08% of all the foreign residents in the country.

Now in 2005 alone, the immigrant population of Spain increased by 700,000 people.
Allegedly, the growing immigrant population is the main reason for the slight increase in Spain's fertility rate. From 2002 through 2008 the Spanish population grew an 8%, from which 6% were foreign.

Other information
Net migration rate: 15 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)
Religions: Roman Catholic 80.4%, atheistics or agnostics 17.2%, other 2.3. According to a December 2006 study, 41% of the population described themselves as atheist or agnostic, while 48% believed in a God or supreme being.

Languages:
· Spanish (official) 100% (89% mother tongue)
· Catalan 16% (9% mother tongue) (co-official in Catalonia, Balearic Islands, and Valencia — see Valencian)
· Galician 7% (5% mother tongue) (co-official in Galicia)
· Basque 1.6% (1% mother tongue) (co-official in Basque Country and designated areas in Navarre).
· Aranese (a variant of Gascon Occitan) is co-official in Val d'Aran, a small valley in the Pyreenes.

Catalunya's national day

2008-08-26T05:32:00.000-07:00

L'onze de setembre

The 11th of September

The first law approved by the Parliament of Catalunya when it was constituted in 1980 was that which declared the 11th of September to be a national holiday, it was set out in the following terms; "The people of Catalunya in times of strife appealed for a national day, the eleventh of September of 1714, and their resistance in the face of oppresion also symbolised their hope for the recovery of their nationhood. Now that Catalunya has returned to its way of liberty the representatives of the people believe that the Chamber of representatives has to endorse what the people have already declared. For this reason the people of Catalunya establish through the power of their parliament the following law:

Article one: That the national day of Catalunya shall be the eleventh of September:

Artivle two: That this law comes into force on the same day as the publication of the first Diari Oficial de Catalunya.

And so I order that all the citizens of Catalunya follow the implementation of the law and that they cooperate in its fulfillment and that the courts and authorities pertinents enforce it."

"La Diada", as it is knows, is a national holiday in Catalunya when the people of Catalunya celebrate that the country exists within Spain. There are many popular activities, festivals, cencerts and other things. Catalunya's politicians normally go to the important national monuments and statues and leave flowere there to remember the people that died in the past for Catalunya.

A poster representing the "Diada"

People in public celebrations for the "Diada".

Pascual Maragall, the ex-president of Catalunya in a public ceremony.

The Catalan flag

2008-08-25T05:31:00.000-07:00

The Catalan flag has a name and a history. It is one of the so called heraldic flags that come out of the creation of a cloth from the arms of the Counts of Barcelona. Though it is possible that the flag, or the pennant, is in fact before the time of the arms themselves. There is no historical reference until documents of the XIII century, but we know it is one of the most ancient ones of Europe.

Perhaps one of the oldest pennants in Europe this is from 1306

At first the bars of the arm were represented vertically and then horizontally. Finally it was
the horizontal form that became its final form and the official flag of the Catalan nation. A flag with five yellow bars and four red ones, all of the same size. It was made official in the Estatut d'autonomia de Catalunya of 1979.

The popular legend about the origin of the flag says that it was Guifré el Pelós in the IX century who created it. He started the glorious house of Barcelona that then reigned for more than 500 years over Catalunya.

In one particular battle, a victory over the Normandos, his prize at the end of the battle was a shield, with a gold background, from the king Carles el Calb. The legend says that the king Carles, with his own hands, painted the shield with his fingers still covered in blood from the Count of Barcelona's wounds, with the four red bars it has now.

Modern historical investigations have shown that this is not true, but most people prefer the legend.

An enormous senyera at the start of one of Barcelona FC's football matches.

Comenius Day

2008-08-24T03:38:00.000-07:00

We celebrated our Comenius day, late yes but we got there, and in fact it was a tremendous success. We had a presentation of the project for the students, their parents and local authorities in the evening. We were lucky in that a lot of people came and made it a good evening.

We counted with most of the parents of the students participating and the students themselves. Quite a few fellow teachers from our school also came and in addition we had some teachers from nearby schools who had come to find out about the project with a view to starting their own one. Of the local authorities we were lucky to be able to count with the prescence of the Mayor of Roquetes and with the councillor for education. From our local education authority.

Our director, Francesc, introduced the project said a bit about his view of its importance and then introduced me. I gave the official presentation which was an explanation of what the project consists of, a resume of what we have done up till now and then details of the work that we still have to do. The students participated as they had to explain what the pen pal exchange was and who they were writing to etc. Then another student told everyone about the exchange box, the ones we had received and what we sent to our partners.

One of the parts that, obviously, enthused people most was the part about the trips. With Poland as the example and using some photos from that trip I explained about what the students will have to do on the trips to Greece and Germany.

In total the evening lasted about 45 minutes. Afterwards everyone was invited to enjoy the reception that we had prepared with sandwiches, pizza, wine etc.

It was a great success and has done a lot to make the project more well known. When I can obtain some photos I will post them here.

Word Bank

2008-08-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the word bank prepared for all of you here in IES Roquetes. You can see the videos here or go directly to the YEAD2008 page on YouTube.

We had a lot of fun making this, and you can see the bits where people laughed too much in the gallery.

Our word bank is in English, Catalan and Castellano (Spanish).

Part One

English: Hello, Good Morning, Goodbye
Catalan: Hola, Bon dia, Adeu
Spanish: Hola, Buenos dias, Adios

Part Two

English: How are you? - I'm fine thanks... and you?
Catalan: Com estas? - Estic bè gracies... i tu?
Spanish: ¿Como estas? - Estoy bien gracias... ¿ y tu?

Part Three

English: My name is...
Catalan: El meu nom és...
Spanish: Mi nombre es...

Part Four

English: What's your name?
Catalan: Com et dius?
Spanish: ¿Como te llamas?

Part Five

English: Thank you
Catalan: Gracies
Spanish: Gracias

Part Six

English: Please
Catalan: Per favor
Spanish: Por favor

Part Seven

English: Sorry
Catalan: Perdona
Spanish: Perdona

Part Eight

English: I love you
Catalan: T'estimo
Spanish: Te amo (Te quiero)

Part Nine

English: I like you
Catalan: M'agrades
Spanish: Me gustas

Part Ten

English: Yes / no
Catalan: Si / no
Spanish: Si / no

Part Eleven

English: Let's go
Catalan: N'em on
Spanish: Vamonos

Part Twelve

English: Let's have a drink
Catalan: Anem a prendre alguna cosa
Spanish: Vamos a tomar algo

Part Thirteen

English: I'll have a beer
Catalan: Prendre una birra
Spanish: Tomare una cerveza

Part Fourteen

English: Cheers!
Catalan: Salut i força
Spanish: Salut

Part Fifteen

English: Wanna dance?
Catalan: Vols ballar?
Spanish: Quieres bailar?

...and finally!

English: What's up (Wazzup!)
Catalan: Què passa?
Spanish: ¿Que pasa?

Here you have an example of the Spanish students practising their German.

Personal blogs

2008-08-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

Many of the students have been working on their personal blogs.Some of them are ready and can be seen at the links below. Please read and enjoy them and please leave comments or send them a mail if you would like to comment on anything.

Alba

Mireia

Gemma

Mayte

Ferran

Norbert

Marcel

Francesc

Jessica

Llorenç

Laia

Abraham

Cristian

Mariona

Aïda

Iris

You can also go to her normal blog here.

A video presentation of our school

2008-08-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

This is the video... the marvellous Hollywood production, filmed by the students to show you our school.

The original was about four hours long, here you have the reduced version with none of the stupid bits. Have fun.

Festivals and traditions

2008-08-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here we present the festivals and traditions of the Terres de l'Ebre.

The Day of Saint Joan

Saint Joan is the saint whose day is celebrated at the time of midsummer. The celebration of Saint Joan is a very popular festival in Catalunya and Spain especially among young people coming, as it does, at the height of summer.

The Day of Saint Jordi

Saint Jordi, saint George, is the patron saint of Catalunya. The day of Saint Jordi is a very popular one which is marked in Catalunya in a very typical way. It is also now recognised by the UNESCO as the international day of the book, a costum which Catalunya has exported to the world.

Village "Festes"

Festes is the word here for the festivals that each village has in honour of their virgin, these are the days when the village celebrates with different activities and everyone has a great time. Festes are really popular here and everyone is involved normally.

Easter

Easter is also a very traditional time in Spain. Here in this video we don't explain the actual Easter celebrations but the recipe for how to make one of the traditional cakes that are eaten at this time.

Kings' Day

This is the traditional day for the giving and receiving of presents in Spain. It is the day when the three kings visited the baby Jesus and is marked in most places in Spain with a parade and the kings themselves handing our presents.

Typical Catalan recipes

2008-01-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

Pa amb tomàquet (Bread with Tomatoe)

This is a very easy and typical starter here in Catalunya.

Ingredients

One loaf of bread (a round loaf)

Ripe tomatoes

Olive oil

Garlic cloves

Salt

How to make it

This is very very simple and perhaps will sound a little silly but it is very popular here.

First take a couple of cloves of garlic and peel them. Take a slice of bread, you can toast it if you want to, rub the clove on one side of the bread. Then cut a tomatoe in half and rub that on the same side of the bread. Dribble a little olive oil onto the bread and finally add a sprinkle of salt.

This is very traditional and is often eaten with cured ham or other cured meats.

Truita de Patata (Potatoe Omelette)

Ingredients for four people

Three or four medium sized potatoes

Four or five eggs

Olive oil

Salt

How to make it

Wash and peel the potatoes, cut them in cubes or you can slice them thinly. Heat the olive oil in a deep pan and fry the sliced potatoes slowly. When they are a golden colour take them out of the oil and keep them in a bowl separately. Break the eggs into a different bowl and beat them until they are uniformly yellow. Then add them to the fried potatoes and stir well. Season the mixture with a pinch of salt. Then pour the whole mixture into the same pan, but make sure that there is still some oil left. Cook the mixture slowly for about two minutes, enough for it to be like the picture. Then you have to turn the omelette over and cook the other side as well. Remember the second side will take less to cook.

Serve hot and enjoy.

Ingredients

1/2 kg of Almond flour (fresh ground almonds are better)
1/2 kg sugar (this can be caster sugar)
One boiled potatoe
The white of an egg
A pinch of salt for the potatoe
Half a spoon of
The ingredients for decoration, this can be nescage, chocolate, pine nuts etc.
A little sugar for the work surface when we are kneading the mixture

How to make them

Peel the potatoe and then mix it in a deep bowl with the salt and the white of one egg that you have beaten beforehand. Then add the sugar, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. Then slowly add the almond flour, don't stop stirring, until you have a smooth dough.

To form the round shape of the panallets take a small amount and roll in on a surface which has been dusted with sugar. If this is difficult use your hands to m ake a small ball in your palm.

When you add the extra ingredients if the marzipan is a little hard you can add some water to soften it. For panallets with nescafe or chocolate powder simple mix these ingredients into the dough. To cover the outside of the panallets with an extra ingredient, such as small pieces of chocolate, pine nuts, chopped almonds etc. Make sure the dough is not too wet and simply roll the panallets in the extra ingredient.

For cooking them you need to heat the oven to about 200 degrees, quite high, and then put them in the oven on a baking tray covered with sugar. Leave them in the oven until the outside is crunchy but the interior is soft. The time depends on the ingredients used.

Pastissets de les Terres de l'Ebre

Ingredients for 12 people

Group one
1kg of flour
125g of moscatell
125g of anis
10g of salt
450-500g of olive oil according to the type of flour

Group two
400g or sugared pumpkin (this we can buy in tins here or make ourselves)
400g of sugar

Elaboration

1) Knead the first group of ingredients until they are mixed properly
2) Weigh out 50g portions of the mixt ure and make small balls
3) Mix together the pumpkin and sugar in a bowl
4) Roll out the balls with a rolling pin into circles and fill half of it with a spoonful of the pumpkin and sugar mixture
5) Fold the other half of the dough over to form a half circle
6) Press the edges of the dough to seal the pastisset
7) Put them on a tray and then into the oven at 200º for 10-20 minutes
8) Take them out and whilst they are still warm sprinkle sugar over them

Els Panallets

Ingredients

1/2 kg of Almond flour (fresh ground almonds are better)
1/2 kg sugar (this can be caster sugar)
One boiled potatoe
The white of an egg
A pinch of salt for the potatoe
Half a spoon of
The ingredients for decoration, this can be nescage, chocolate, pine nuts etc.
A little sugar for the work surface when we are kneading the mixture

How to make them

Peel the potatoe and then mix it in a deep bowl with the salt and the white of one egg that you have beaten beforehand. Then add the sugar, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. Then slowly add the almond flour, don't stop stirring, until you have a smooth dough.

To form the round shape of the panallets take a small amount and roll in on a surface which has been dusted w ith sugar. If this is difficult use your hands to m ake a small ball in your palm.

When you add the extra ingredients if the marzipan is a little hard you can add some water to soften it. For panallets with nescafe or chocolate powder simple mix these ingredients into the dough. To cover the outside of the panallets with an extra ingredient, such as small pieces of chocolate, pine nuts, chopped almonds etc. Make sure the dough is not too wet and simply roll the panallets in the extra ingredient.

For cooking them you need to heat the oven to about 200 degrees, quite high, and then put them in the oven on a baking tray covered with sugar. Leave them in the oven until the outside is crunchy but the interior is soft. The time depends on the ingredients used.

Cuban Rice

Ingredients

- Rice
- Fried Tomatoe
- Egg
- Banana

Preparation

The first pass is to boil the rice in a pot.
When the rice is boiled you must drain it and then put the rice in a little recipient.
Then you have to turn the recipient and the rice must be in the form of it, like a flam.
After that, put a bit of fried tomato on the rice.
On the tomato, put a fried egg.

Arros a banda

Ingredients

1,5 kgs of varied fish
300g of sepia
6 normal potatoes
2 tomatoes and 4 normal onions
Olive oil
Saffron for colour
A red pepper
Two cloves of garlic
Salt and Pepper
Two litres of water
One cup of rice per person

Method

Fish stock
Clean the fish and the sepia. Cut it all into small pieces.
Cleans and chop the potatoes and the onions
Grate the tomatoes, finely chop the garlic.
Fry the potatoes and the onion in the oil until they are golden
Add the red pepper and the water
Sprinkle some salt on it and let it simmer for about 30 minutes
When the potatoes are almost completely cooked add the fish and keep
cooking on a low heat for fifteen minutes more

Cut up and lightly fry the sepia with some garlic and tomatoe. Then add a litre and a half of the fish stock. Add saffron to give it a strong yellow colour. Add the rice and cook it on a high heat for ten minutes then ten minutes more on a low heat. When the rice is completely cooked remove it from the heat and let it sit for five minutes.

Ten famous Catalans

2008-01-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

Here we present ten famous Catalans that we think people ought to know about. They are a mix of older people and current famous people.

Pep Guardiola

Josep Guardiola i Salas is normally known as Pep. He was born in 1971 in Santpedor in Barcelona. As a footballer he played in midfield for Barcelona FC and was part of Johan Cruyff's famous "dream team". He is famous for his part in this team already.
Today he is now also famous as the current trainer of Barcelona FC. In the club's last season they won the famous triple, the league title, the King's cup and the European Championship. This incredible triumph has made Pep and Barcelona still more famous.
The other reason for Pep's fame in Catalunya is that his management of Barça is based on an ethic of hard work and modesty. All of the team work hard and there are no superstars. This policy of success from effort is very popular with Barcelona's fans and Catalan society in general.

Montserrat Caballé i Folc

Montserrat Caballé was born in Barcelona in 1933. She studied in the Superior Conservatory of Music for twelve years and won the gold medal in 1954. She sang in the Basilea theatre and then in Bremen. Her debut in El Liceu, the most import concert hall in Catalunya, was in 1962.
She became famous outside Catalunya when she substituted for Marilyn Horne at Carnegie hall in New York in 1965.
Her most famous moment for most people was when she sang with Freddie Mercury at the opening of the Olympic games in Barcelona in 1992.

Pau Casals

Pau Casals has been one of the best Cellists in the world. He is recognised around the world as one of the best players and orchestra directors of the twentieth century.
He was born in El Vendrell in 1876 and from when he was a child he showed a great feeling for music. His father was also a musician and he encouraged him to study first in Barcelona and then in Madrid.
He started his professional career when he was 23, he bacame famous for his innovative interpretations as a musician and for the depth of his direction. His career was interrupted by the Spanish civil war and he was exiled first in france and then in Puerto Rico.
In addition to his musical abilities he was also famous for his defence of peace and freedom. He gave many concerts for voluntary organisations and for the United Nations.
He died in 1973 in Puerto Rico and was buried in his own town of El Vendrell.

Anton Gaudi

Anton Gaudí i Cornet was born in Reus, quite near Roquetes, in 1852. He is a world famous architect, famous for his wonderful buildings in Barcelona and for his very individual style.
He studied in Barcelona and qualified as an architect in 1878, when he graduated the director of his school said, "today we have given the title of architect to a madman and a genius."
Gaudí soon deserved this reputation. He made friends with Eusebi Güell and with him created many famous works, the most famous is la Casa Güell 1888.

When he was 30 years old he was given his most famous commission, the construction of the church Sagrada Familia. He worked on this church for 43 years until his death. The church was never finished in his lifetime and in fact is still being built now.

Josep Taradelles i Joan

He was born in Cervelló in 1899 and was famous as the Catalan president in exile from 1954 to 1980. He had to be in exile in France during this time because the government of General France didn't accept the existence of a Catalan government. His exile ended with the death of Franco in 1974 and he came back to Catalunya to prepare the first free Catalan elections in 1980. His arrival in Barcelona became very famous when he appeared in front of a massive crowd and said, "Ciutadans de Catalunya, ja sóc aqui." (citizens of Catalunya, now I am here.)

Salvador Dalí i Domènech

Born in Figueres 1904 Dalí is one of the most famous Catalan/Spanish painters, a sculptor, graphic artist, and designer. After passing through phases of Cubism, Futurism and Metaphysical painting, he joined the Surrealists in 1929 and his talent for self-publicity rapidly made him the most famous representative of the movement. Throughout his life he cultivated eccentricity and exhibitionism (one of his most famous acts was appearing in a diving suit at the opening of the London Surrealist exhibition in 1936), claiming that this was the source of his creative energy. He took over the Surrealist theory of automatism but transformed it into a more positive method which he named `critical paranoia'. According to this theory one should cultivate genuine delusion as in clinical paranoia while remaining residually aware at the back of one's mind that the control of the reason and will has been deliberately suspended. He claimed that this method should be used not only in artistic and poetical creation but also in the affairs of daily life. His paintings employed a meticulous academic technique that was contradicted by the unreal `dream' space he depicted and by the strangely hallucinatory characters of his imagery. He described his pictures as `hand-painted dream photographs' and had certain favorite and recurring images, such as the human figure with half-open drawers protruding from it, burning giraffes, and watches bent and flowing as if made from melting wax.

Joan Manel Serrat

Born in Barcelona in 1943 and usually known as just Serrat, he is one of Catalunya's most famous singer songwriters. He grew up in Barcelona in the time just after the Spanish civil war and his earliest songs reflect this time. He studied agriculture at university in Tarragona and finished the top of his class.

His first songs he sung on Radio Barcelona and in 1965 he produced his first record. He originally sang in Catalan but in 1968 he produced his first versions in Castella. This led to him being chosed to represent Spain in Eurovision with the song La la la, he was widely criticised for singing in Castella and not in Catalan and in the end worried that he would lost his Catalan audience he told the authorities he wanted to sing the song in Catalan not Castella. This led to him being dropped and Massiel sang the Spanish version of the song in Eurovision and won.

The content of Serrat's songs had a definite political message in these years of the dictatorship in Spain and during the time of the transition, from dictatorship to democracy, Serrat's popularity and importance grew.

Now he has become one of Catalunya's and Spain's favourite singers. He has now retired but still continues to sing in many different concerts.

El Tricicle

El Tricicle, the tricycle, is a Catalan comedy group whose shows are all based on gestures and mime. The group is formed by Carles Sans, Joan Gràcia and Paco Mir. Founded in 1979 for the last 28 years they have now become famous internationally as one of the best mime groups in the world.

This is a part of that show, the tennis game, one of my favourites.

The group started in 1979 but didn't have their first professional show till 1982. Their show was a great succes and in that same year they received a prize in the Sitges Theatre Festival. In 1986 they produced their third and perhaps most famous show Slastic. Then in 1989 they produced their first television show with the title Tres Estrelles, three stars.

After the success of Slastic they didn't produce another show till 1992. Then they created Terrífic. Several other shows followed and the group is now very popular across Catalunya, Spain and internationally. The group are still working now and have a show touring Spain at the moment.

Llol Beltran

Catalans in the Kitchen

2008-01-17T01:50:00.000-08:00

Here you have the results of our cooking experiences on the last Comenius Day.

We divided into groups to do the cooking and the photos and videos that we did were of the experience of cooking itself. The actual food we ate ourselves as we weren't allowed to offer the food to the rest of the school in the corridors or during the morning break.

First of all the teachers. Anyone recognise these two dishes?

We were having so much fun that all my neighbors turned up for a chat and to laugh at us cooking.

Guillem took the photos and was feeling camera shy so he doesn't appear in any of these.

Students in the kitchen

Here you have the students in the kitchen. The first group are all at Fran's house. His mother is a professional cook but you can see that he has no interest in it at all. He doesn't even know where anything is!

They also took photos but they didn't survive, I don't know why not. So I have taken some stills from the video to post here.

I wanted them to edit these videos and they have promised they will, but if I have to wait for them... you will never see them.

In this video you can see how prepared they are, Fran's Mother's Cake shop (Sabina) and how he destroys the magnets on the fridge.

In this video we can see them tasting the results of all their hard work. Abraham has a hard time cutting it with a knife but in the end... delicious!

I am not terribly sure what Abraham is doing here.

Here is the other group of Catalans in the Kitchen

Thier video has been on facebook for quite a while already and is really very popular. Finally I managed to convince them to let me have it to put it here.

Everyone always asks why does she throw it out of the window at the end of the video? The answer is that she doesn't mean to but that it was so hot that she burnt herself.

This is an excellent video that has been presented really well, congratulation to all of you.

Painting our logo at school

2008-01-16T04:59:00.000-08:00

Outside the cafeteria of our school there is an open area with some trees between the main school and the gym. Where this area meets the road there is a high cement wall. We already have a couple of murals on this wall so it seemed logical to ask if we could paint the comenius logo on it too.

After we got permission the question was who could paint it. The Comenius group doesn't have much free time this time of year and so I asked the students of a first year group, 1F, if they would like to paint the mural. They were delighted. The other essential person was Raquel Palomar, she is one of the teachers from our plastic arts department and she took charge of setting out the drawing and preparing the materials.

We originally wanted to paint it higher up but we were told that Health and Safety regulations meant we couldn't work more than one metre off the ground. So Raquel chose another area and set out the frame of the mural. The students painted a white square as the base and to seal the cement surface of the wall. Next they painted the blue background with rollers. Raquel then drew out the basic design and in my next class the students completed the first three figures.

In our last class we were painting the figures at the back, the black frame for the mural and retouching some of the parts that needed a little more work.

The artists involved are Aaron, Michaela, Esther, Joanna, Ali, Dana, Benjamí, Ayoub, Michael and Abel.

When it is finally finished I will post some more photos. This is what it looked like when we finished our last class.