State exam charts (or league tables...)

According to POSTIMEES Stone City High ranks FIFTEENTH in overall national state exam results table!
I'd say three hurrahs to that!
Math result is 2nd in the entire Republic of Estonia and the English results are in 39th place with 72p average which might seem a little low BUT you have to take into account that 151 students took that exam in our school this year. I'll add the average for English-based classes as soon as I'll get it...
Anyway. I am proud of my former students.

... and work even harder with my fresh ones starting this autumn :)

Thank you ever so much...

The three years...
have been one of the best three years of my life :D
Thank you for that!

ordinary world... perfect days

I just noticed - there are just too many cool pictures of life at Stone City ... I'll better sort them first and upload them somewhere else and post a link :P

tips for role-play

The first question should be an indirect question.
Could you tell me if you..
I wonder if / when/ why etc. etc.

Role play questions that you should form with the following key words.

Reason. => why?
Time. => when?
Place. => where (is it located) / how big
Duration. => how long?
Frequency => how often?
Type of => what kind of ...
Accommodation. => Where shall we stay? Will we stay at a hotel etc
Cost. => how much does it cost? How much do I have to pay for it?
History. => When was it established?
Origin. => Does it have a long history?
Where does it come from? It goes a way back, doesn't it?

Opening times. => when is it open?
Aim => what is the purpose of ...? Is it meant for...? Why do they have...?
Availability. => Can I get/buy it here in Estonia? Where can one buy/get it? etc etc


hope it helps a bit

vocabulary, oral exam

http://silo.pri.ee/wordlists

Analysis of state exam 2006

Look at the reports and letters part...
http://www.kivilinn.tartu.ee/~ttea/kogumik_koos.pdf

To increase your vocabulary...

I've uploaded some pages from Exam Dictionary to help you compile your own vocabulary lists (Thank you Gerli for scanning these for me!).

The pages can be found HERE.

Any new materials that I'll come up with before the exam will also be uploaded on the same address and you can also check the DEL.ICIO.US/TKIG_ENGLISH page for some grammar and vocabulary exercises you can do online and also several writing links etc. etc.

Also good luck to you for the report you have to write on Saturday in Estonian language!

vocabulary lists for exam preparation

Here is where the scanned files with vocabulary on social and global issues as well as work and environment can be found.

I'll post a page of useful tips very soon.

Topics to be mastered

The following topics have been taken (and translated) from "Riigi Teataja" and that is what you are supposed to have mastered in a foreign language by the end of your high school studies.
1. ALL about ME: I as a personality among others; special features, abilities, preferences, strengths/weaknesses
2. FAMILY/HOME: marriage and family; roles in family; rights and obligations, home and upbringing; family budget
3. FRIENDS: relationships between friends; social issues/problems
4. ENVIRONMENT: nature, nature protection, natural resources, climate, country/town, urbanization
ESTONIA: http://www.einst.ee/ government, economy, traditions, international relations
WORLD: international relations
5. ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES (UK, USA, NZ, Australia etc): government, economy, traditions, international relations
6. HABITUAL ACTIONS: healthy lifestyle, nutrition, communication in service sector, accidents (giving aid)
7. EDUCATION / WORK: education system and study possibilities in Estonia and English-speaking countries, learning skills, exam skills; employment/unemployment; development in technology
8. HOBBIES, CULTURE: sports, art, music, theatre, important cultural figures; advertising and its role; Information society and its problems

You should have sufficient vocabulary to speak on all of these topics at the oral examination.
One possible solution to tackle this task is to make a short 20-30-word vocabulary lists on all of the topics.

Prepositional phrases

Here is the prepositional phrases list that I have promised for a couple of months (or so it seems).
Great thanks to Sirli for the translations!

You actually know most of the phrases (I am sure), so concentrate on the ones you don't know.
The list is taken from GrammarWay 4 appendix 3 and everybody can feel free to modify it in their own computer. Perhaps it would be better to learn if you made 2 columns with translations or even 3 columns with the word, preposition and translation in different columns.
If you spot any mistakes (nobody is infallible), please leave comments to this post and I'll modify the file.

Christmas show 2007 - in colour...

Above are some links to the pictures taken on 20.12 Christmas Show
Risto's pictures
Anni's pictures
Helena's pictures (of filming the video clips of 12D show)
Kaisa-Madli's pictures of 12A
Here's the performance of 12D on youtube. Some live action!
The programme of our school TV = KIGU of the whole Christmas period but also a couple of minutes of your show...
Feel free to post any links to the pictures of Christmas Show 2007 in the comments or send the links to ttea@kivilinn.tartu.ee and I'll add these to the present blog.

Christmas Show 10-12 kl. from kivilinn on Vimeo.

Christmas Show 2007

The Christmas Show of 2007 will take place at Kaunase pst 70 hall.
TIME: 14.00
You can buy a programme and win something.

1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s

Words of the week

blamestorming
(verb) : Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.


squabble (noun): quarrel noisily over petty matters

Homereading expressions and questions 12B

Test is on Friday (about 15 min - maximum)
Expressions and questions can be found IN THIS FILE.

People who haven't sent their expressions - please post them here or send them as soon as possible.

Lesson on prepositions

In exercises 1-3 you will see one question at a time.
You will have to click on "the next question" tab to continue with the exercise
1. exercise:
http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_prepphrase1.htm
20 questions
2. exercise: http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_prepphrase2.htm
20 questions
3. exercise:
http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_prepphrase3.htm
20 questions
Next exercise has 20 questions on one page -> check yourself after each sentence.
4. exercise:
http://www.world-english.org/prepositionalphrases.htm
The following 2 exercises are from BBC Quiz pages - 6 questions with answers at the end of the page.
5. exercise: BBC Quizzes
6 questions - check at the end of the exercise
6. exercise: BBC quiz
Copy the page into word and fill in the gaps - then save the file in format Your_Name_prepositions.doc in your class folder of English.
7. exercise: http://www.esl-lounge.com/level3/lev3prepsgapfill.shtml - printable exercise

KIGU

Our school TV is written about in the Postimees

Grammar task for Exam course 12B

Here is the task that you have to complete by Tuesday. (Tuesday 2nd lesson is Exam lesson).

Anyone who hasn't yet submitted their self-analysis - the absolute deadline is also Tuesday.

Have a nice weekend!
And thank you for the very nice Tea party that we had today in celebration of the 3rd anniversary of our school's Language Centre!

European Day of Languages

I have been promising to upload the pictures of the "Most British" competition of the European Language Day for some time now but here they finally are.
LINK TO THE PICTURES
The competitors were 12th-graders and the panel consisted of 11th-graders. 10th grade made English cookies and all in all it was a rather enjoyable day!

Now let's all look forward to Christmas Show again.

This year's topic is decades of song and style with an emphasis on historic figures.
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and noughties (2000)

expressions for 12A

Here is the file with the home reading expressions.
The test will be on October 24.

Homereading 2007/2008

The requirements of home-reading are almost the same as last year.
12th grade is to read 15-20 pages on the topic (can be several articles - doesn't have to be just one)
write out 25 expressions and 15 words with derivations (and translation - for your own benefit).

The home reading topic for B and D classes can be chosen from the list of topics that Units 1 and 2 cover (full list page 6 (listen, read, talk about...) of TB):
e.g. success, celebrations, happiness, successful people/successful businesses, achievements, quality of life, getting a job, relaxing, escaping, books/reading etc.

The topic for C class is education = different education systems etc.

The topic for A class is employment = also social issues concerning employment, unemployment, searching for work etc.

see E-school for deadlines!