We learned a few things about the life of Ellen MacArthur.

She is an excellent example of a woman to admire! I really admire her strength and tenacity.

Following is a brief biography:

"Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur, DBE (born 8 July 1976) is an English sailor, up until 2009, from Whatstandwell near Matlock in Derbyshire, now based in West Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. She is best known as a solo long-distance yachtswoman. On 7 February 2005 she broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe, a feat which gained her international renown.^[1] Francis Joyon, the Frenchman who had held the record before MacArthur, recovered the record again in early 2008, besting MacArthur's record by nearly two weeks.Following her retirement from professional sailing on 2 September 2010, Ellen announced the launch of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity set up to inspire people to re-think, re-design and build a sustainable future." (wikipédia)

Here is the 2011's trailer:

Jane Eyre - Trailer

Plot :

Jane Eyre is an orphan, adopted by her aunt, mrs Reed. Jane's cousins taunt and abuse her, and Jane is looked upon with disdain by everyone in the house. After reaching her breaking point and attacking her cousin, she is sent to Lowood School where dozens of girls are forced to live a meager and miserable life and are frequently beaten. Years later, 18-year-old Jane becomes a teacher at Lowood. She finally leaves when she finds employment as a governess to a little girl living at Thornfield Hall, a large estate miles away. Upon her arrival, Jane is greeted by the housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax who explains to her that the owner of Thornfield Hall, Edward Fairfax Rochesteris rarely at home and has a somewhat gruff demeanor, but is a good-hearted man. Jane begins lessons with her pupil, Adele Varensa French girl who's late mother was affiliated with Rochester. Jane is happy to be living with good people in a comfortable home at last.

Watch the movie to know the rest !!

This opens our new sequence: Women and rebellion.

We had a debate on the death penalty. Everyone expressed his opinion.

Personally, I find this subjectvery delicate, but I agree with it. I think the justice of our country is sometimes too laxist. Some people commit horrible crimes, go to jail, but come out after a few years. And even if the sentence is for life, now prisons are much better than some years ago, I think. Prisoners may have access to internet, television, eat all days ... Maybe it gives them some things they would not even have access to, outside ...

We watched a video about the end of the world, starring the panic following the announcement of Orson Welles radio.

"George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, writer and producer who worked extensively in theater, radio and film. He is best remembered for his innovative work in all three media, most notably Caesar (1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaption of Julius Caesar and the debut of the Mercury Theatre; The War of the Worlds (1938), the most famous broadcast in the history of radio; and Citizen Kane (1941), which many critics and scholars name as the best film of all time." (wikipédia)

The recording features a family of 50 years came home. Turning the radio on, everyone can hear the panic. There is an alien invasion! But in reality it is a hoax. 

The Road is a novel by Cormac McCarthy. It relates the adventure of a father and his son, traveling the road after the end of the world. We read an extract and saw the movie trailer.

The Road - Trailer

This introduces a new sequence: the end of the world.

We then watched another video on the survivors. This enabled us to learn new vocabulary words :

To stockpile things = to store supplies for the future

A shelter = a secret hideout (usually deep underground)

To use perishable/non perishable food

To design sthg after sthg = to find inspiration for a design in sthg

“If the worst comes to worse”

“The have and the have-nots”

“First come, first served”

Luxury : sthg very expensive and that usually calls the attention (a jewel, a furniture…)

We also have had to answer following quiz:

Where is the secret bunker located ?

1. In Los Angeles
2. In a desert  not far from Los Angeles
3. On the border next to Canada
4. In a desert of Mexico

This bunker dates back to:

1. The ancient Maya empire
2. The Second World War
3. The Cold War
4. The Civil War

The developer will design the bunker after

1. a luxury boat
2. a luxury house
3. the White House
4. an ecological house

The amenities that will be available are

1. A dental clinic
2. A hospital
3. A school
4. A movie theater

This type of bunker costs

1. 25,000 per adult
2. 50,000 per adult
3. 25,000 per child
4. 50,000 per child

To prepare for such a catastrophe as the End of World, people

1. Stockpile food and other things
2. Rob the stores
3. Cook a lot
4. buy non perishable food

We compared a text and a video:
The video featured an ideal family, while the text presented the life of a poor family.

Clever TV Land Promo for "Leave it to Beaver"!!

We also watched the trailer of Pleasantville.
Here is a summary:

"A brother and sister from the 1990s are sucked into their television set and suddenly find themselves trapped in a 1950s style television show. Here they have loving parents, old fashioned values, and an overwhelming amount of innocence and naivete. Not sure how to get home, they integrate themselves into this "backwards" society and slowly bring some color to this black and white world. But as innocence fades, the two teens begin to wonder if their 90s outlook is really to be preferred."

1998 - Pleasantville - Gary Ross

All work is currently turned around the 50s. We need to create a play putting in scene life in the 1950s.

Pop art is a very famous 50s.

Definition: (source wikipedia)

"Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. In Pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, and/or combined with unrelated material.The concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it.

Pop art employs aspects of mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. It is widely interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism, as well as an expansion upon them. And due to its utilization of found objects and images it is similar to Dada. Pop art is aimed to employ images of popular as opposed to elitist culture in art, emphasizing the banal or kitschy elements of any given culture, most often through the use of irony.It is also associated with the artists' use of mechanical means of reproduction or rendering techniques.

Much of pop art is considered incongruent, as the conceptual practices that are often used make it difficult for some to readily comprehend. Pop art and minimalism are considered to be art movements that precede postmodern art, or are some of the earliest examples of Postmodern Art themselves.

Pop art often takes as its imagery that which is currently in use in advertising.Product labeling and logos figure prominently in the imagery chosen by pop artists, like in the Campbell's Soup Cans labels, by Andy Warhol. Even the labeling on the shipping carton containing retail items has been used as subject matter in pop art, for example in Warhol's Campbell's Tomato Juice Box 1964, (pictured below), or his Brillo Soap Box sculptures."

 On January 24, we have made a webquest about the 50's

 We had to find several items from this period:

  Women's roles                                                    
  Events and Technology

  Education

  Art and Architecture

  Clothes

  Fashion and Fads

  Theater, Film and TV ...

Sports

  Music and Idols

Here is a song by the most famous singer from the 50's.

Elvis Presley - If i can dream

January 19, we studied the time capsule. We compared our different visions of the TIME. We have had to choose what we would put in the capsule among several categories like technology, for example.

In my time capsule, I would like to put a CD, mobile phone, a computer to show how we live, our technology etc ...

The 10th of january, we've made a recording about the Minimum wage and salary cap.

In the first podcast, the two men have different opinions. Indeed, the first man thinks that the minimum wage is an important thing. He takes for example the countries where children have to work because there is no law protecting them.

No rules to protect workers = slavery ?

The other man thinks that the minimum wage is a bad thing because if it is too low, people will not do the job.

From my perspective, the minimum wage is a very good thing! I think that it is necessary in all countries. Even if the salary is not high, it still brings some income.

In the second podcast the subject is the salary cap. This time, the two men agree on the fact that there should be a salary caps. 

I agree with it too because some people work hard and are underpaid and some other are "grossly overpaid". That is just not fair.