Languages and Learning

15TH MFL FLASHMEETING

2011-11-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

http://prezi.com/a81jjsnnnjiu/using-screen-capture-tools-in-the-classroom/

http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2010/08/gregory-hill-on-giving-video-feedback-with-screencasting-tool-jing-to-improve-writing.html

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/

http://isabellejones.blogspot.com/

2011-11-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

The inaugural ICT and Languages Conference held in Southampton last February was easily one of the highlights of my year. There were so many facets to this, it is hard to explain.
It was difficult to choose which sessions to go to, there were so many choices, although many people blogged about the event which made it easier to find out about sessions you missed.Here is my blogpost. There was also a live Twitterstream with the #ililc hashtag which made it easy to see what was happening.
Aside from the vast amount of new information I learnt, the social side was a joyous bonus. Many delegates stayed in the same hotel, so the networking happened from the pre-event dinner on the Friday night, through the breakfasts and also with the all-important Show and Tell on the Saturday night.

I left ililc last year enthused, brimming over with ideas and notes on new resources, and buzzing with the feelgood factor of making new friends as well as meeting old ones, and with a desire to do it all over again. In fact, those feelings are flooding back just blogging about it now.

And so, it is happening. This year the plenary speakers will be Joe Dale and José Picardo and the workshop speakers are: Annalise Adam, Wendy Adeniji, Alex Blagona, Vanessa Burns, Joe Dale, Catherine Elliott, Stuart Gorse, Esther Hardman, Isabelle Jones, Helen Myers, Carole Nicoll, Juliet Park, Bertram Richter, Jo Rhys-Jones, Clare Seccombe, Lisa Stevens, Jenny Turner, Sara Vaughan and myself.

The great news is that the deadline for the Early Bird rate has been extended until 11th November. Register now for a place at
http://www.languagessoutheast.ac.uk/events/ict-and-languages-conference-ililc-2012

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. ~William A. Ward

2011-10-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

The title of this blogpost is a small nod of recognition once again to the wonderfully generous spirit that is Rachel Hawkes Today Form 4 and I had a brilliant lesson and the resources were all directly adapted from Rachel's many powerpoints available on her website.

We started with the "What's the question?" slide, after going through all the Spanish question words. This is an area which I think we often neglect as language teachers, focusing instead on the answers. It makes sense to ensure that pupils not only are familiar with question words but are comfortable using them.

This game is so simple yet brilliant for learning vocabulary. Pupils work in pairs, each with a sheet. They choose their options secretly then take it in turns to try to guess the options their partner has chosen. If they guess right, they continue. IF they get it wrong, play passes to their partner, and they must start at the beginning again.

As suggested by Rachel, pupils used post-its to write down as much vocabulary as possible on the chosen topic for 2 minutes and then swapped with a partner to see if they could add any in a different colour. They then had 1 minute to memorise as many words as possible from their list before sticking the post-it to the back of their chair and taking 1 minute to write down as much vocabulary as possible. This was a brilliant way of showing pupils how much they knew as well as working on developing memory skills.

We used this slide to ask questions in advance of viewing the next slide with the photo, again useful if only to get pupils comfortable asking questions in Spanish.

We finished with this slide, where pupils again worked in pairs, one speaking and the other listening. This activity is called 'Spend the words' with the idea that the speaker is focused on raising the level of Spanish spoken, as pupils hand over the words/phrases as they use them, ideally ending with none left.
This was a brilliant lesson, with lots of spontaneous Spanish being spoken, and a real buzz of enthusiasm for the tasks. And the best thing is, there's plenty left...

TRIPTICO

2011-10-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

I know that there is a danger of me sounding like a sponsor, but since @bellaale talked about Triptico at the Show and Tell event at Cramlington Learning Village in September, I have been using it a lot in class, and thought I would share some of the ideas I have used.

The tiresome bit is typing up the class names, but once this is done, you can save the lists to load time and again.
CLASS TIMER
Self-explanatory and worth its weight in gold in terms of focusing the class. This week, if working in groups, I have told them to appoint a time monitor to keep half an eye on the timer
CLASS SORT
Pupils love the novelty of the sound and visual aspect of this tool which allows you to choose the number of groups and also to remove any pupils who are absent from the list
SCOREBOARD
This is a simple yet effective tool which adds a whole new level of competitiveness to group work
SPINNER
I use this for many different things
- when a group wins a task, they spin to see how many ballot tickets they have won, for the prize draw at Christmas
- I put irregular verbs on the spinner, and the pupils then had to write the 6 parts of the verb out on the mini whiteboards
- Put 6 different topics for AS Spanish and they talk for 1 minute on the topic, optionally recording themselves on the digital voice recorders
- For A2 literature, the six main characters are on the spinner, and pupils will talk to their partner for 1 minute about the selected character
RANDOM TASK GENERATOR
I used this to great effect with both Form 3 and Upper 6 this week. Use the group selector to sort the class into groups, then open the Random Task Generator with tasks you have typed up before the lesson, setting how many groups you want. Once each group has finished one task, they come up and click the board to see what the next task is. All classes were totally focused and worked with energy and independently for the whole lesson.
FIND 10
Pupils had to select the ten irregular verbs, from a total of 15, similar to the TV programme Total Wipeout
WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
Like 'Deal or no deal', this will appeal to the pupils although it does take a little more time to prepare
This is just a selection of the tools available, and doubtless you can think of many many other ways to use them. If so, please share.

TARSIA AND TWITTER

2011-10-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

Those who know me know just how important Twitter is in my teaching life. The MFL Twitterati are always on hand to share advice and resources, and last night was no exception.
This year, our department is trying to use more 'real' resources and trying to encourage higher order thinking and more active learning. We all, pupils and staff alike, are enjoying it immensely but the preparation required is intense. I tweeted to ask if anyone had any kind of 'thinking skills' activity for KS4 jobs and @zaragozalass kindly obliged with an activity she had made using the maths software Formulator Tarsia
We started the lesson by recalling as many jobs as possible in Spanish. I then split the class into groups of 3 or 4 and gave them the sheets and scissors. They merrily cut the mini triangles out before settling quickly to the task at hand ie building a large triangle where touching sides linked information eg 'I like science and animals' linked to 'I want to be a vet'
I was amazed with how engaged the pupils were with this task, and how focused they remained, even when other groups had finished. This is definitely one idea I will be repeating.
NB you can download Marie's worksheets here entitled 'El mundo de trabajo'triangle puzzle.

SOME GOOD WEBSITES

2011-10-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd do a very quick blogpost just to share some recent websites wih you:
www.rtve.es/television/espanoles-en-el-mundo This section of the website has lots of videos of Spanish people living in different parts of the world
www.espanish.org.uk This site is bright and eyecatching to look at and has some very impressive resources to download
www.triptico.co.uk This site has over 20 interactive tools which are quick and easy to use
http://taitcoles.wordpress.com This is an excellent blog, and this article is of particular interest to those who heard Chris Harte speak at Language World

Enjoy!

#MFLSAT ALEX BELLARS - A trio of Os

2011-09-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

Alex (finally) decided to talk to us about a trio of toolhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs. He started with ClassDojo for rewarding pupils in real time, which he feels has increased engagement dramatically. Teachers create a class, with each pupil getting an individual avatar. There are awards for participation,creativity etc. The sanctions not really used as the positive are so good. You can also edit the positive and negative rewards. There is an end of class button for collective performance, with the possibility of a % performance download as pdf, and send to the form teacher, parents etc. There are Apps forms for Apple and Android phones. Alex suggests you make it a peer assessment tool as the next step.

The next tool, Lingro, turns any webpage into clickable dictionary resource. You simply paste the link into the box, choose thelanguage, then you go to the website and hover on the word.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Finally Triptico is a suite of tools for use in the language classroom eg word magnets, class timer, random group creator – you put the names in, it creates the groups, with scoreboards showing the results of up to 4 teams . Another option is answer boards, whereby pupils guess the question.

This was a brilliant session and the perfect way to end the perfect day.

#MFLSAT RENÉ KOGLBAUER Social Networks in MFL teaching

2011-09-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

René talked to us about the use of social networks such as Facebook with pupils in the language classroom. The aim of the project was to improve boys’ writing. Initially email was used to exchange work and to create a dialogue for AfL.German Groups were then set up and used for feedback by staff and students on texts. Unfortunately Facebook was banned in school and the project had to end. It will be interesting to see how schools and education authorities approach the issue of social networking in the forthcoming months and years.

#MFLSAT ISABELLE JONES BY SKYPE Creative Partnerships with Art and Music

2011-09-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately Isabelle was unable to join us in person but she was still keen to participate and joined us via Skype. She talked to us about a project she had done to enthuse and engage boys in her class who were anti-French. They brought a graffiti artist in to help the pupils create a 3 panel mural. In terms of the music, they worked on cognates, for the rap. Isabelle played us a snippet of a rap the pupils produced, which was very impressive.
Isabelle said that this project was great for raising the profile of French in collaboration with other departments. She pointed out that there could be other departments who want to collaborate, and we just don’t know it yet.

#MFLSAT SUZI BEWELL Speaking for homework in MFL using www.vocaroo.com

2011-09-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

Suzie Bewell talked about focusing on oral skills using www.vocaroo.com Vocaroo offers the possibilty of creating audio recordings without having to log on or install software on your computer. Once the pupil has recorded, they should select the 'Send to my friend' option to email their teacher,then the teacher clicks on the link to go to the website. At this stage, the teacher can save it as a wav file (option at the bottom of the page)
Suzie also highlighted the site www.mailvu.com to record video in a similar way.
With such time pressure in the language classroom, anything which allows the pupils to record themselves speaking has to be a bonus, and something I look forward to trialling in the coming months.

#MFLSAT JOE DALE Exploring the educational potential of QR codes

2011-09-30T11:43:00.002-07:00

Joe talked about using QR codes for language teaching. He started with a definition of QR codes, which can be scanned with a mobile device to get a link to an URL, video, audio files, texts or google forms, amongst othershttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Joe suggested that Google form can be used as a form of questionnaire.
In order to use QR codes, first of all you need a QR code maker such as Sparqcode. The excellent Russel Tarr has created a QR treasure hunt generator, where the website creates the code immediately
Once you have created your QR codes, pupils will need a QR code reader such as i-nigma

In terms of other uses, Joe directed us to Dr Sarah Elaine Eaton who has written a blogpost with accompanying manual and webinar training on "How to Use Google Forms: A Step-b-Step Guide" Also, Kath Holton has used QR codes successfully with her pupils to play Zondle games. Some teachers have used a QR poster to display the results of favourite websites, others have used QR codes for marking homeworks, where kids write the homework and get it marked and then it is uploaded to blog. At this stage, the QR code of the blogpost stuck into the exercise book.

It remains to be seen whether QR codes are a flash in the pan, or the way forward in education. I personally am excited at the potential but schools will need to reevaluate their internet and phone use policies if we are to use them to their full potential.

#MFLSAT ALEX BLAGONA – GETTING STUDENTS TO ‘MARK’ OUR LESSONS

2011-09-30T11:43:00.001-07:00

Alex’s talk was inspired by teaching a somewhat unmotivated class. He decided to get them to ask themselves “What do I need to do to get better at French?” He took the brave step of asking the pupils to judge him at the end of each lesson, in terms of what they thought. He asked them to not be personal, but to look at the teaching and learning that had taken place. They did this by completing the sentence “I thought this lesson was... “at the back of their exercise book. How was this beneficial? Well as Alex explained, he was establishing a dialogue with the pupils by writing a comment back. In this way, he personalises the kids’ experiences of lessons, actively engaging them with their own learning. It is important to give them feedback vocabulary and ideas to a certain extent at the start to guide them, rather than just saying ‘it was funny’ etc
Doing this ensures that you can differentiate lessons according to the understanding that has taken place. You can give better feedback to parents at interviews and the pupils have more ownership of their own learning. This obviously adds value to their work. This was a really enjoyable talk, and one which I think I will adopt as we review the teaching and learning within our department.

#MFLSAT DOMINIC McGLADDERY - 10 IDEAS IN 10 MINUTES

2011-09-30T11:40:00.002-07:00

This much-anticipated slot was not a disappointment, as Dominic whizzed through a series of tools that can make our lives easier whilst enthusing the pupils.
• Wallwisher – superb for pupil voice as well as genuine language in action
• Fakebook on classtools.net -a safe way of harnessing the ever-popular social media tool
• Twister Fake tweets on classtools.net – an excellent resource, I could use this with younger pupils for many different topics including Daily Routine and Personalia, as well as with A level pupils whereby they take on the persona of a character from our literature text
• Random name generator / ppt - to choose names or questions in class
• Random letter sequence generator
• Wiki
• Blog
• clea.nr This cleans up Youtube pages, taking links off etc. NB It only works with Chrome and Firefox
• Puppets – popular with pupils and a great way of encouraging the shyer pupils to participate
• MOM or POP – the Mug of Misery / Pot of Participation with lolly sticks to choose pupils

#MFLSAT TERRI DUNN @misstdunne BLOCKBUSTERS - NOT JUST A ONE TRICK PONY!

2011-09-30T11:40:00.001-07:00

Terri talked about Blockbusters, and how she uses it in many different ways within the classroom. She uses it once she has introduced vocabulary, as well as to build language as pupils start to get more vocabulary and can add opinions and tenses, and was enthusiastic in her promotion of it as an excellent classroom tool.

#MFLSAT THOMAS SNELL LANGUAGE LEARNING RESOURCES AVAILABLE FROM NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

2011-09-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

Thomas works for the Language Resource Centre in Newcastle University and was keen to talk to us about the many resources available through the university. These include:
• http://linguacast.ncl.ac.uk Podcasting for language learning
• http://www.universed.co.uk LOADS of videos on the site, all checked for content
• http://www.teacherstoolkit.org
• http://routesintolanguages.a.uk/northeast

SIMON McLAUGHLIN @simcloughlin 'JE M'APPELLE CLAUDE' - A QUICK INTRO TO AUDIOBOO.FM

2011-09-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Simon‘s talk was hilarious and informative – most unfair, given his own admittance of a lack of preparation, but brilliant to listen to. He started with a clip of Joey from Friends ‘speaking’ French to illustrate how what we say and what pupils hear are often two completely different things. Simon suggests that audioboo.fm is an excellent way of getting around this, whereby pupils can record themselves and hear how they are pronouncing it. He uses the Audioboo app on his phone and immediately uploads recordings to the website.

#MFLSAT EMMA BAINS @bains_1 SMALL CHANGES TO CURRICULUM TO IMPROVE MOTIVATION

2011-09-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

Despite the title of her talk, Emma has made more than a few small changes to overthrow the curriculum in order to do interesting stuff. We were blown away by the variety of topics that her pupils cover in KS3, and the novel approach she has taken to some of the more traditional topics.
• Sat Nav navigation using PPT and Audacity to navigate from their house to school, rather than straightforward learning of directionshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
• Feedback sheet with sentence starters to help pupils articulate what they have learnt
• Cognates text (quite long)then extended writing
• Cluedo game whereby pupils keep guessing who committed the crime, with what and where, until they have the whole sentence correct
• UNICEF video derecho/reponsabilidad sentences
• What am I? Pupils create a series of sentences eg I have a long tail etc for others to guess who or what they are
• Questions before listening activity
Despite Emma’s protestations of extreme nervousness, this was a superb presentation which ties in closely to Rachel Hawkes’ ideas on teaching at KS3, and which we are trying to adopt ourselves in Grosvenor.

#MFL SAT CLAIRE SECCOMBE @valleseco Reading books in KS1 and KS2

2011-09-30T11:32:00.002-07:00

Claire is a passionate advocate of primary languages, and this session was no different, looking at ways that you can read with primary pupils. Many of the ideas are adaptable for KS3 and above too, of course.
• Originals or translations from English
• Vamos a cazar un oso, La oruga muy hambrienta
• Storyjumper.com
• Storybird.com

#MFLSAT LYNN SMITH @titchlynn THINKING SKILLS

2011-09-30T11:32:00.001-07:00

Lynn talked to us about using Thinking Skills in the languages classroom. Examples included:
• Odd One Out – making connections between words and languages
• Am I fit? Categorise sentences for Fit/Not fit category
• Words scattered round 3 columns without headings, pupils group the words and then give categories their name
• Map from Memory – pupils build/draw the house according to the sentences
• De Bono’s hats – pupils categorise sentences as positive, negative, facts or creative
• Photo of a famous Spaniard – use facts/positive/negative/creative to describe
• Plenary – pupils draw round their hand, fill in fingers what learned in language, write the skills they have used on their palm
I am a big fan of Thinking Skills and whilst I had used some of what Lynn talked about, most of it was new, and an excellent way of getting pupils to extend their thinking and improve their learning.

#MFLSAT SAMANTHA LUNN @spanishsam ROUTINES IN THE MFL CLASSROOM

2011-09-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation by Samantha, not least because it is so easily ready to be used in the classroom. She starts each lesson with the Pasar lista song, with one pupil then calling the roll and a second pupil timing them. You can then follow this up with the rest of the class:
• ¿Cuánto tiempo tardó? Creo que tardó 29 segundos
• ¿Cómo fue? Fue + adjetivos
• ¿Por qué? Fue interesante/aburrido
• ¿Quién no está? ¿Por qué? List of reasons
As Sam explained, this routine expands the pupils’ spontaneous language re opinions, whilst the benefit of routine means that they are comfortable with what is happening. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to look at other options such as the Forfeit routine, but we were left with great ideas for making the ordinary administration much more interesting and appealing to pupils.

#MFLSAT MARK PURVES @markpurves - SINGING TRIBES

2011-09-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

This was an active start to the SAT, with Mark demonstrating how he uses music to lift the mood and engage pupils, as a warm-up at the start of the lesson. Mark told us that it is all about the breathing, so we should get the pupils to pull in their stomachs and open the throat. Singing engages the pupils quickly and gets their attention, as they listen to you and repeat what you say.
Mark recommended that we read “The Element How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything” by Ken Robinson. We must look at teaching a curriculum which enthuses the pupils, where they are motivated by creativity. The benefits of singing are that it builds a class community, giving pupils a sense of a shared identity and the obvious benefits of this are that pupils who are comfortable with each other are happy to participate and contribute orally to a language lesson.
Mark ended his slot with Singing Praises. He makes up gestures to accompany the words for heaping praise on pupils’ heads, eg magnífico etc and then the whole class does it adding the person’s name with gestures too. This is probably easier to demonstrate through video, so if we adopt it in class, as I intend to do, then I will post the video here.

MFL SHOW AND TELL, SEPTEMBER 2012

2011-09-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

So the long-awaited MFL Show and Tell in Cramlington Learning Village was upon us. I had said farewell to my long-suffering family the night before, arisen at 5am (yes, seriously) and arrived safely at the school thanks to @wizenedcrone.
The idea of a Show and Tell is that people sign up in advance to talk about any topic of interest to them, for a maximum of 10 minutes. This time, there was also a Genius Bar, whereby a series of people talked to smaller groups about topics such as Twitter, Dropbox, Storybird, and Solo Taxonomy. Chris Harte did a sterling job of organising the whole thing, helped by his lovely wife, and the whole day went seamlessly, from the scrumptious food (with thanks to the sponsors) to the talks and Genius Bar.
The talks can be seen here http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net/fm/fmm.php?pwd=5650f2-13973

EDMODO BADGES

2011-07-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of Edmodo and there have been many innovations on the site of late. Many thanks to Simon Haughton who first brought my attention to Edmodo's latest feature, using badges, when he blogged about them here
I started making some badges tonight, to reward pupils either for using Spanish or for being proactive in their use and uploading of web 2.0 creations.

In a new academic year where the school as a whole is focusing on independent learning, I am interested to see where our learning leads us, and am interested to see how much the bribe of a badge will push the pupils, reluctant or proactive, along the way.

#LW2011 Chris Fuller Creative technologies for creative contexts

2011-07-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

Inevitably, there are talks that you would love to see, but the timetabling of the conference means that you have to make very difficult choices. Here is Chris Fuller's presentation which I so wish I could have seen:

Creative technologies for creative contexts

View more presentations from Chris Fuller

#LW2011 concluding remarks

2011-07-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

So that's it, all the sessions I attended blogged about. I feel at a bit of a loss now - oh no, that's right, I now need to decide what to incorporate into our schemes of work, where and who with, which projects and activities should be piloted this coming academic year and which I should push to the 'slightly ambitious at the mo, so let's think about it for a while' pile. The problem is that I'm an 'everything now' kinda gal...

There has been quite a lot of chat on Twitter and the MFL Resources forum about the conference, both from delegates and those who couldn't make it. Whilst I hope that my tweets and blogposts help those who couldn't make those sessions, or couldn't come fullstop, it definitely won't be the same. The dinner was great craic, and the social gathering afterwards a personal highlight for me.

In the same way as we all felt after the #ililc conference in Southampton earlier this year, there is a definite buzz about attending these events, a joy in meeting people off the forum and especially the MFL Twitterati peeps who have become true friends over the past months and years. We revelled in meeting up again, and I felt emotionally overwrought at leaving them all again late Saturday afternoon. As I said on MFL Resources, at the risk of sounding cheesy, they gladden my heart.

I hope I don't leave anyone out, but here is a shoutout to those true friends I saw again or met for the first time - follow them on Twitter if you don't already:
@lisibo @charte @ChrisFullerisms @blagona @wizenedcrone @icpjones @joedale @mrshampson @thwartedmum @sylviaduckworth @RachelHawkes60 @zenahilton @Chapeluser @HelenMyers and to new friends @IssacGreaves @StuartThomas3(and the Oscar dude, when he gets on Twitter!)

#LW2011 Vincent Everett & Kate Shepheard-Walwyn Snow, Chocolate cake & model aeroplanes

2011-07-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

Vincent and Kate's talk was about their departmental approach to teaching languages. I had already read many of Vincent's contributions to the MFL Resources forum with interest, so I was keen to hear what was said.

Kate started this session, talking about the following:
• Flat Stanley, the character from children's books. Take pictures of Flat Stanley around town, then send them to penpals in the TL country.
• Using the green screen, with authentic backgrounds then added to the dialogue created by pupils
• Story/Picture books

Kate talked about the tasks set being big and authentic. Pupils at their school get a copy of 'The fridge shee't, which covers basic core grammar and vocabulary for the whole year. Other ideas included:
o Being Ben sheet where Person A says phrases in English and Person B translates into TL. As demonstrated, saying the TL is fine, it is the pupil’s ability to come up with content which is problematic.
o Scribble Talk = whilst their partner talks, the other person scribbles. When they stop talking, their partner stops scribbling
o Speed Dating
o Connectives dice (example below in Spanish) where pupils roll the dice to continue the story/speaking
1 y 2 porque 3 sobre todo si
4 por ejemplo 5 entonces 6 pero

Ski Slope

This is a simple yet brilliant idea which really took off on the MFL Resources forum and on Twitter when Vincent first mentioned it. The idea is that pupils start with a very short sentence and then write increasingly longer sentences as they 'ski' down the slope
Here is an exemplar ski slope, with thanks to Claire Parker from the forum:

Add to your kit
Vincent and Kate talked about a working kit for speaking and writing in the TL, and then encouraging pupils to take it to the next level
o Speech
o Imperfect
o Other people
o I should have
• Pimp my Spanish

Main Messages
o It is not the TL that is hard, it’s thinking up what to say
o You don’t need to learn more TL, you just need to get better at using it
o You don’t need to get better, just learn to use the helpsheet less

All in all, there were loads of great ideas in this presentation, and once again, we will look at our schemes of work to see what we can incorporate where.

#LW2011 Alex Blagona and Oscar Stewart Going global – Suffolk Enrichment Project

2011-07-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

Alex and Oscar talked about a project that has been running successfully in their school with gifted KS4 pupils. The reasons for starting the project were:
• A need to raise the profile of languages and the project that they came up with.
• Opportunity to be more creative
• Raise awareness of global issues
• Promote language uptake at A level
• Real purpose rather than the exam

So what was it?
• 50 best language students in Suffolk (from 18 different schools)
• Apply for the opportunity to take part in project
• Away from GCSE topics, develop ICT skills
• Work effectively with other pupils from other schools in small teams
• Produce a product for other learners

TIMESCALE
• Letters to schools in September
• Application letters in TL by mid-November, endorsed by their own teacher
• Twilight workshop in December, one Saturday in February and one in March
• Project finished by the end of March

Organisation
o Project coordinators and 6 tutors (2 per language) as facilitators
o FLAs help
o Cost £4000 (which was recouped)
• In the first session twilight session, pupils go into their language groups
o Introduction to the actual project. Give them a free choice in terms of their final product, or a choice of topic areas
o Within their groups, pupils have to research and produce a resource for other pupils based around a global topic of their choice
o Use new language which extends their knowledge
o Be creative, imaginative and productive
o Work collaboratively

Saturday workshops
o Imperative that they have chosen their projects
o Choice and range of projects
o Guiding and not teaching the students
o Use of ICT – camcorders, laptops, etc
o Creativity /imagination vs accuracy
o Internet, dictionaries, A level textbooks
o FLAs warned not to translate all

Topics
Pupils need to have an interest and enthusiasm for the topic; they need to be keen and motivated. Possible topics include:
o Racism and discrimination
o Fashion
o Role of the media
o Recycling
o Alternative energy
o Terrorism
o Child labour
o Cyberbullying
Vehicles
o Newspaper articles
o Video – documentary, drama, party political broadcast, soap opera, news broadcasts
o Radio play
o Interactive ppts/prezis
o Magazines
o Fashion show
o Websites

The gap between the twilight session and workshops 1 and 2 is to allow them to communicate and make stuff if they want to.

Role of the tutors
o Support the students
o Monitor the online element between sessions
o Offer linguistic advice and guidance – Oscar explained that this can be the trickiest bit, as you need to not spoon-feed. Steer them towards topics where they can find the language themselves.

How does this help the students?
o Working with pupils of similar ability
o Above GCSE level language
o Dealing with the unknown – language and people
o Teaches deadlines, working with others, etc

Online element
o Messageboard
o Wikis
o Blogs
o Facebook group – to meet online before they meet in real life

Evaluation
o A large majority go on to A level
o Dual linguist uptake increased
o Raised school profile

How to run it
o In school as an enrichment project
o Locally with partner and local schools
o Potentially expensive but costs are recouped through increased numbers coming to school for A level
o PGCE students as tutors

This was a brilliant session, superbly presented in a comfortable style and in a logical manner, making it all seem very manageable as a potential project for any school. Check out Alex's blog here

#LW2011 Isabelle Jones Olympic values & intercultural understanding

2011-07-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

Isabelle talked about how we can use the fast-approaching Olympics to infuse our language teaching with the Olympic values and SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning)
Olympic values
o Respect – accepting people’s differences, preserve human dignity
o Excellence – always try your best. Encourage language learners to be more resilient
o Friendship – getting to know other people, other cultures
o Inspiration – looking at others to find out who you really are
o Determination – not giving up
o Equality – accepting inter-dependency
o Courage
Check out the official site http://www.olympic.org As Isabelle pointed out, there are loads of cognates in the values, which is good for getting pupils to talk about complex things in the TL

http://getset.london2012.com/
• The Know your values quiz could be adapted
• Fact file – teacher or pupils could design quizzes
• Picture story – match the values with the pictures
• Match the sound to the picture, we could get them to write the sport in the TL
• Soundtrack game – pupils take on the commentator’s role
• Image bank
• Posters available in Spanish
• Link with cooking around the world website http://letsgetcooking.org.uk/CookingAroundtheWorld

Other ideas
• Isabelle was keen to stress that we should teach the values with creativity and challenge ourselves. We are going to do an Olympic unit and I am keen to hear what others are doing
• Look at the Olympic symbols, talk about symbolism of the rings
• Motto “Plus vite, plus haut, plus fort” - use this to teach comparatives
• Design motto and poster for favourite sport.
• Describe mascots, then design own
• Numbers, countries, colours, foods, exercises
• Differences: names, handwriting, food, clothes, houses, school, music, traditions
• The Intercultural Understanding Toolkit• http://www.guiainfantil.com/servicios/nombres/indice.htm for Spanish names
• Use the song “Tout le monde il est beau” by Zazie
• Whilst you point out differences, show them the similarities “We have more in common than what divides us”
• Do a handwriting lesson (preferably with the squared paper)
• Give them a list of food, get them to google image them
• Clothes – match the national costume to the name of the country
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/national-costumes-world (numbers at end)
• Pictures of contrasting houses
• Gulliveria website about Spanish festivals• http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/resources/item/748-step-into-her-trainers
• http://taggalaxy.de
• UNICEF respect RRS scheme Right respecting scheme

Thanks to Isabelle who came up with this plethora of great ideas with regards to the Olympics, I look forward to integrating them into my teaching next year. Isabelle has loads of great ideas on her blog

#LW2011 Chris Harte Languages Reboot

2011-07-11T05:14:00.000-07:00

I had already seen Chris Harte do the Languages: Reboot talk and previously mentioned it here but when he promised us a Jerry Maguire version, I knew it wasn't to be missed. It is nearly better second time round, when you know the content but have had time to think about it all, and even put some of it into practice. The talk can be found at Chris' blog although to hear it live is mesmerising. There was a buzz in the room. Chris is off to Australia shortly, and his gain is our loss. The only upside is that with the wonders of modern technology, there will still be the opportunity to engage with one of the most inspiring practitioners of the MFL Twitterati. I'm going to stop now before his head gets too big to fit in the plane...

#LW2011 Greg Horton Active learning and Raising achievement

2011-07-11T03:28:00.000-07:00

This was a more active session than I had anticipated, yet I should have guessed from the title, and from what I had heard about Greg in advance. We started with PE warm ups, with instructions in the target language. Greg suggested that pupils adapt their own model and lead future warm-up sessions. He also said that he uses this at any time to re-engage pupils in a lesson eg he walks round the room and will randomly shout an instruction to anyone not paying attention.

Kagan Timed Pair Share
Greg had a slide with pictures of different coloured eyes and the Spanish beside it: Tienes los ojos.. with colours. Put the music on, pupils circulate, having agreed in advance who talks first when the music stops eg the person with the biggest right hand, highest playing card, tallest person. Another option is to either do word lists when the music stops or person B gives feedback in TL to what person A says eg A gives personal details, B repeats it back to them in the 'you' form.

Greg's approach is making a physical response a routine part of the learning in his classroom. In this sense, it ties in closely with Rachel Hawkes' approach to teaching phonics, subject pronouns and verbs. Greg talked about levels of active learning:
o Word level (fun but..)
o Sentence level (manipulation and creativity)
o Conceptual (tense and grammar)

He teaches connectives with gestures in Form 1/Year 7, early on. Anytime anyone uses one, the whole class has to do the action. If you teach with gestures then read a text, they should do the actions.

Human word chains
These are particularly effective for a starter or a plenary. Give teams pieces of paper, so that each pupil has one word. Pupils can repeat their word but not show it, and the teams have to organise themselves into a sentence which makes sense. This activity reinforces basic sentence structure. If you wish to repeat the activity in the next lesson, make pupils guardians of their word, so that they need to remember their word and where they were in the line. At a higher level, the tecaher can add detail such as "I’d like the two adjectives to sit down” Then you can have runners run down the back of the line and shout the missing word(s) out in the appropriate gap in the sentence as the remaining 'sentence' pupils shout out their word in order. To take this to a higher lecel, construct, deconstruct, adapt and extend – invite the rest of the class to be extra words or punctuation. Kids can also choose the words they want to be.
Add gestures to this activity to make it more active; eg someone acting a connective or sequencing word does windmill action. The last person needs to be punctuation, eg the full stop sits on the floor, whilst the first person stands on a chair to illustrate that they are a capital letter.

PRONOUNS
Greg teaches his pupils Subject pronouns gestures, eg ointing to himself with one hand for I, pointing with two hands in front for You plural. To add to this, he suggests you use these with We Will Rock You music, where the teacher says the word on one beat and the pupils then do the gestures. Once pupils have got this, you can mime the pronoun and the verb, adding past or future once advanced, and pupils shout out the answer.

The clock times ballet
This is done to classical music, where Greg says the time, then pupils use their arms to represent the time on the second beat. This proved quite hilarious for our group, some of whom lacked the coordination to become a prima ballerina.

All in all, this was a really really useful session in terms of practical, immediate methodology which you could do at any time with little or no preparation, but which I think will prove to have a maasive impact on learning in the classroom.

#LW2011 GIVING LANGUAGES THE X FACTOR

2011-07-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

This session was led by Rachel Hawkes, Jane Driver and Sarah Schechter and gave me so many ideas, my head was buzzing.
Routes into Languages promotes universities working with schools to enthuse and encourage young people to study languages from KS3 onwards.Sarah talked about the Supporter to reporter scheme, where the university has trained up journalists for the Olympics in the 3 languages. This made me think about doing something similar but on a much smaller scale, with our own Media Studies department.

We also learnt about Student language ambassadors and Language Leader awards within Rachel and Jane's school, Comberton Village College. Pupils learn how to teach primary pupils over the course of the academic year, although you could do it with younger pupils within your own school. This is something that we are definitely going to look at within our department in Septemberm most likely with Fifth Years and Sixth Years. As Rachel pointed out, the scheme is practical, it rewards language learning, it develops general communication and leadership skills and it teaches pupils empathy, self-esteem and confidence. The pupils practise their skills in peer groups in weekly lessons, develop lessons, create resources, trialling them with peers then they teach finally. At CVC, there are 3 visits – Autumn, Spring, Summer. Pupils plan in pairs or trios for a 1 hour lesson in the primary school, divided into 3 x 20mins, each pupil teaching their own 20 minute slot.
The following are the practicalities:
o Launch assembly
o Parent letter
o Completion/submission of application form
o Selection for September
o Carousel activity for younger LLs
o http://rilanguageleaderaward.wikispaces.com

Foreign Language Spelling Beeo www.flspellingbee.co.uk
Jane talked us through the phenomenon that is the Foreign Language Spelling Bee, with the following as the basics:
o 1 minute competition
o Stage 1- Class competition
o Stage 2- School competition
o Stage 3 Regional competition
o Stage 4 National competition

The benefits of the the spelling bee are in terms of memory, phonics, pronunciation, alphabet and awareness of articles. In terms of the actual format on the day, the pupil stands with their back to the board, where the words are displayed. The teacher says the word in English, the pupil says it in the TL and then spells it in the TL alphabet. They spell as many possible in 1 minute. CVC's ML department runs it weekly with language student leaders (Year 9 pupils). They run training sessions, help organise the event and produce and manage the website.

Language on Film/Language from Film
This film-making project is another extra-curricular activity that the staff run for pupils at CVC. Expertise is brought in from the university with a group of teachers being trained up. Pupils need to approach this task exactly as the professionals would:
o Proposal and pitch
o Pre-production
o Production
o Post production
o Exhibition
In terms of other schools adapting this, it was suggested that it could take many different formats, eg collapsed curriculum, exchange day (in one language with subtitles in other language, making it periods 1-4 then watch them after lunch), with a lower ability group. I wonder if we could tie in to the Belfast Film Festival, maybe ask the A level Media Studies pupils to mentor re the technical side. Sarah has a DVD to show how to do it all and was happy to share with all.

This was one of the most inspiring yet most exhausting sessions I attended over the course of the two days. There were so many ideas here, yet it would be difficult to run them on a large scale without the support of an organisation such as Routes into Languages. I already knew how hard-working Rachel was, but to spend time in the company of these three ladies, as I had the opportunity to do on Friday, was to be awed, inspired and a little bit overcome. I asked Jane when she ate lunch, and she laughed..

I am unsure what we will take on board, I so want to do it all, yet bear in mind that my head was already buzzing from Rachel's previous talks and how we want to change our schemes of work. And there are other changes I want to make too, from other inspirational speakers. I'll keep you posted...

#LW2011 CPD: teachers working collaboratively

2011-07-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

The first talk I went to was by Rachel Hawkes who recently came to Belfast to deliver a highly successful training day in conjunction with NICILT. Rachel covers so much ground in her talks that it was good to hear her again so soon after the last talk and process her many great ideas again.
Through LinkedUp , Northgate High School (Vincent Everett) and Comberton Village College trialled a scheme of mixed age language learning. Amongst the many advantages, Rachel commented that adults ask higher order questions, have high literacy levels, spot links and gently prompt younger learners to the right answer.Their pronunciation is better in that they try harder. By their presence, adults send a powerful message about language learning as they are giving up their own time. In terms of ICT they are behind the pupils, generally, but they generated competition and gave excellent feedback re clarity of teaching. Given their appetite for learning, Rachel and the CVC staff observed more learning outside the classroom.

Spontaneous Talk
This is where speaking in the language classroom is unplanned, where there is no script, where the questions and answers are unknown. Whilst as teachers we may worry about scaring the pupils, the CVC pupils commented that it‘shows what we really know’, and that they can talk ‘off the top of our heads’ There are many ways to promote Spontaneous Talk, according to Rachel, including:
o question routines
o 20 questions (Have you..? Do you like..? How..? Where..? Is..?)
o What are the questions? (give pupils a ppt with a series of answers, and they suggest the questions)
o Find someone who (great for practising the familiar 'you' form)
o using Piensas que…? for any statement, where their partner has to answer
o Elaborating
o Say something else
o Pimp my language! (eg Juego al tenis – what can you do to soup it up?)
o Have I got news for you (blankfill) NB Personalising it makes it work better
o CLIL
Pure or impure (impure CLIL = still has the focus on the linguistic aim, language, but using new and interesting topics)
o Focus on ‘new knowledge’
o Authentic materials
o Challenging texts
o High use of TL

There are a vast quantity of resources available on Rachel's website, including her CLIL water module in Spanish, with resources from the Western Sahara. She suggests using BBC Clips which has loads of clips on different themes which you can use to make T/F and gapfills.

As always, this was an inspiring journey through ideas and resources which are immediately available to use in the language classroom. Since Rachel's talk in Belfast, we have already overhauled our KS3 Scheme of Work, but looking at her website would encourage me to go even further.

LANGUAGES AND THE 2012 OLYMPICS

2011-07-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

OPENING PLENARY OLYMPICS

Anna Turney opened proceedings telling us of her journey; a Paralympic Alpine Ski Racer, Anna Turney, finished 6th in the Vancouver Paralympics only 4 years after becoming paralysed whilst snowboard racing.
Nick Fuller, Head of Education, LOCOG, then went on to speak about the values of the Olympics and how we can bring them into our classrooms in the runup to the London 2012 Olympics. has free resources, including opportunities for blogging, cross-curricular language use re cooking, communication, enterprise etc, information about competing teams and the pre-games training camps available.
As a department, we had already decided to include a unit on the Olympics and this gives us the impetus to gather ideas and resources, as well as Jo Rhys-Jones' brilliant site

LANGUAGE WORLD 2011

2011-07-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

Tsk, tsk, I have just noticed that it has been too long since I last blogged here, though I did start up a Posterous blog for our school trip to Spain However, excuses over, many blogposts coming up soon, including a flurry to match the lovely Lisa's There is nothing like a language conference for that rush of blood to your head, with all the inspirational talks, and the ultimate feel-good factor of meeting the MFL Twitterati again for blogging again.

GOING SOLO AT PRIMARY LEVEL

2011-05-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

After hearing Chris Harte talking about Solo taxonomy at ILILC in Southampton earlier this year, , I have been trying to get pupils to think more about language, its formation and the patterns they can see.

Having already done a similar exercise with Lower 6 a while ago, I decided to experiment today with my two Primary 6 classes in the local primary school. They have been doing half an hour Spanish a week with me since Christmas.

I divided the class into pairs or groups of 3, and distributed the sheets to the pupils. After a frenzied 5 minutes of cutting, the pupils were ready to go. I told them I wanted them to group the hexagons into honeycombs by putting linking words together. The bigger the honeycomb, the more links they would have found.

It was particularly interesting to see the difference in the two classes, in terms of those who found most links. The pupils chose their groups and the majority were same sex. In one class, two groups of girls 'got it' best whilst in the second class, it was two groups of boys. Perhaps obviously, it was those who generally contribute most verbally in Spanish class who made the most links, but oleasingly the activity drew in others who have not been so vocal or engaged.

It was fascinating to see pupils with a fairly limited amount of Spanish talk through reasons for their groupings, and see connections in language. It has enthused me to start using this activity more with my own pupils.

FOR THE LOVE OF LEARNING?

2011-05-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

Today our Head of Department turned the tables on us, delivering a 10 minute slot in Japanese entirely in the target language. The lesson included a handout, IWB and miniwhiteboards, with whole class and group work included.

It proved to be a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, he was happy to point out that we had coped with some fairly in-depth grammar including tenses, althouhg of course we are all linguists. Yet the discussion after the 'lesson' raised some interesting points about what it must be like to be a pupil in the language classroom, especially when we use target language.

I have no Japanese, and found the whole-class intro stressful, particularly when some others appeared to know a lot or 'get it' quicker than me. I was far happier and indeed quite enjoyed the challenge when presented with key vocab and a sentence to translate.

The reaction from the department was mixed in terms of how we felt as pupils, with some really enjoying it (including those who had a little previous experience of Japanese) and others sharing my feelings of stress. We all agreed that having some knowledge of pronunciation and basic vocabulary would have aided our comprehension and learnig.

Would I like to be a pupil in my classroom? I'm not sure, actually. I think I may be one of those who prefers to take things at their own pace, and process systems and patterns for myself. But at the very least, today's experiment has reminded me of the range of emotions felt by my pupils, and to tailor my teaching accordingly.

A LEVEL SPANISH IMMERSION EXPERIENCE

2011-04-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

The end of term also saw the advent of what has now become an annual A level Spanish Immersion 'Weekend' albeit not always at the weekend. This year, 21 Grosvenor pupils, along with 3 teachers, our assistants Vicent and Cristina, our student and a past pupil all spent 2 idyllic days at the residential centre in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Cultra, Holywood.

A LEVEL SPANISH IMMERSION WEEKEND from Amanda Salt on Vimeo.

Activities included a series of workshops focusing on listening, reading and speaking, as well as activities such as Dragon's Den, a treasure hunt, a quiz, DVDs and songs. The Dragon's Den activity this year was by far the best yet, with very imaginative ideas from all groups.

Group 1

LA GUARIDA DEL DRAGÓN 1 from Amanda Salt on Vimeo.

Group 3

LA GUARIDA DEL DRAGÓN 3 from Amanda Salt on Vimeo.

Here is the winning group with their product 'Ele-fuente'

LA GUARIDA DEL DRAGÓN 4 from Amanda Salt on Vimeo.

Some new activities included a group discussion of survival items after their boat sinking in the ocean, as well as a quiz where pupils had to pair up the teachers with the unknown facts which included a diverse range of topics from an all-Ireland rower to two false teeeth!

Pupils embraced the Spanish as never before, and all staff were delighted by efforts and enthusiasm. To give up 2 days' holiday as staff was part of the job, but for pupils to do the same was a big ask, yet those who came were a joy to work with and left us all energised for what remains of the academic year as well as being a good preparation for the pupils for the looming oral examination.

Here are some photos from the residential

Popplet, a new way of thinking

2011-03-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

On his blog Box of Tricks José Picardo assured us that "Popplet is a fun and intuitive web application that allows you and your students to create galleries, mind maps and diagrams quickly an incredibly easily. I mean it. Ridiculously easily." So I thought I would put it to the test..

Signing up was extremely straightforward, with immediate access to the account and the chance to launch straight in. Today I used Popplet with Form 4 (14-15 yr olds) as a whole class activity to change holiday activities from the infinitive into the preterite tense, in advance of their Controlled Assessment.

With Form 5, I put 3 bubbles, or Popples, onto the IWB and they worked in groups to prepare vocabulary for each one, before coming together as a class to build a set of vocabulary on Media.

Popplet is very intuitive in its functions, and appealed greatly to the pupils as a revision aid for independent study, as well as a useful class tool for collating ideas and vocabulary.

LOW TECH + NO PREPARATION = GREAT FUN

2011-03-09T11:51:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I am guilty of feeling that if a lesson hasn't taken me a long time to prepare and doesn't involve some sort of ICT, then it couldn't possibly be a good lesson.
Today I wanted to revise some basic vocabulary in our local primary before moving on to a new topic, so I grabbed my bomb and Rhoda as I dashed out the door. GGS pupils will be familiar with both, but this was the first time that I had used either with the primary pupils. We moved the desks to the side of the room and put our chairs in a circle.
I used the bomb (from the Pass the Bomb game) to revise the numbers 1-20 as a starter. If the bomb 'exploded' they had to tell us something about themselves in Spanish. Normally at GGS it is a harsher penalty, either asking someone on a date or mooing like a cow in a neighbouring class, but P6 aren't that used to me and I feared tears!

Pupils then moved to the floor when I brought out Rhoda, my sheet with different coloured squares. Each pupil had a marker and knew which square to aim for depending on the word I said eg. numbers were pink, etc.. The golden rule was that they weren't allowed to change their mind and move their marker. We started with 3 max per square and then cut it down as more pupils were put out. As pupils were disqualified, they then became my judges.

Pupils veered between terrified and thrilled in Pass the Bomb, and they all adored Rhoda. This was a lesson with no preparation and was low tech, yet all were engaged and learning tok place. Do the sums...

High tech, low tech, let's get them talking

2011-02-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

Further to my earlier post about encouraging speaking, there has been a lot of talk on Twitter about @dominic_mcg's Mug of Misery to pull pupils' names out in order to answer a question on the board. Despite my prowess as a near-professional shopper, I failed to find a mug that I liked. However I did stumble upon the following: LA MALETA MANDONA (The Bossy Suitcase)

The plastic pots contain lollypop sticks with the names of pupils in the various classes I teach. I intend to use them in conjunction with the fruit machine from http://classtools.net generating oral questions or with images in a powerpoint. Let's see how the Maleta Mandona is welcomed to Grosvenor.

WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER...

2011-02-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

Our SMT rightly believes that the some of best training comes from within, and so today we had another staff day where peers talked to groups about what is going on inside their classrooms. Why am I blogging about it? Well, the notetaking session from our Psychology teacher tied in so perfectly with all that had been said at #ililc at Southampton in terms of independent learning, teaching and honing the skills so that the content falls into place. Stephen talked about building risk-taking and creativity in KS3 so that it happens more naturally on up the school. He gave us a series of useful frameworks and handouts, but the thing that stuck with me most was his statement that pupils are most creative when they are emotionally engaged. To do this, we need to enthuse the pupils, act as Devil's advocate at times, and push them to want to learn more.
Time to bring these ideas into the classroom...

#ililc Inspiration in a hashtag

2011-02-15T14:05:00.000-08:00

The ability to bottle the ambience from the weekend's ICT Links into Languages conference in Southampton could have made someone a large amount of money. To say that delegates were left enthused and inspired is an understatement.

It was such a pleasure to meet some of the MFL Twitterati for the first time, and it felt like meeting old friends for many of the others. It is the curse of the Northern Irish to constantly feel inadequate, but who could fail to be humbled in the presence of the demi-gods that are Joe Dale and Rachel Hawkes? Their keynote speeches were the perfect bookends to an excellent conference.

There were several noteworthy things about the weekend. Firstly, all the delegates seemed to be singing from the same hymnsheet. Aside from Joe and Rachel, Wendy Adeniji had so many excellent ideas on how to turn language teaching and topics on their head, Clare Seccombe made me want to pass her the contents of my netbook, as well as giving us loads of excellent sites to check out, Dale Hardy's G&T talk was truely thought-provoking and from Chris Harte came the superb 'Languages:Reboot' (yes, I know this post is all superlatives, but what can you do?!) which left us ready to throw out the textbooks and the SOWs, and embrace all that is postive about spontaneous language and pupil independence. Oh, and then there was the Show and Tell, the socialising and all the injokes that have left other non-attending Twitterati a little bemused.

On a personal note, I owe Joe Dale a debt of gratitude, for without his coaxing, reassuring and general cheerleading, I would not have presented, and would have missed out on the opportunity. Yes, despite the stress and the lack of sleep worrying, it was worth it. Though note to self, 'footery' is a Norn Irish word that has no meaning for anyone not from the wee isle, and no matter how slowly I think I am speaking, there will still be those who will fail to understand me.

Returning home from such a weekend can bring you down to earth with a bump, but the power of Twitter is such that #ililc must surely still be trending. People have been tweeting lessons they have taught using ideas from the conference, as well as tweeting and teasing online acquaintances who are now considered friends.

Stealing @charte's idea from his blogpost, a whole lotta MFL Twitterati love to the following: @bootleian @chrisfullerisms @charte @bellaale @blagona @lwelsh @lisibo @icpjones @suzibewell @joedale @froggyval @reesiepie @smaguire777 @sghani @wendadeniji @mariefrance @JulietDPark @purer_ethics @kath52 @mrshampson @estherhardman and those I have missed. I only wish I wasn't a plane ride away...

INTEGRATING ICT INTO AN MFL DEPARTMENT

View more presentations from Amanda Salt.

LET'S TALK

2011-01-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

AS Spanish pupils worked in pairs to practise speaking on a variety of topics. One pupil spoke for a minute whilst the other assessed them, using the bingo card. With thanks to Rachel Hawkes for the bingo card idea and the person on the MFL Resources forum for the original plenary squares powerpoint

Let's talk

View more presentations from Amanda">http://www.slideshare.net/asalt518">Amanda Salt.

PGCE TALK

2010-11-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

Today Grosvenor hosted a group of Modern Languages PGCE students as part of our link with Queen's University, Belfast. As well as my talk on an A-Z of ICT in Modern Languages and Julie's talk on Fun and Games in Modern Languages, the students had the opportunity to talk to some members of our languages department about the realities of teaching and teaching practice, as well as time in the computer lab checking out some of the web 2.0 tools mentioned in the earlier talk.
The feedback was very positive, but equally I feel that I got a lot out of the day. Firstly, upon delivering my talk, I was able to reflect on how much of the web 2.0 stuff is now second nature to me, although there were many tools that I haven't used for a while, and this has inspired me to revisit them. Also, the enthusiasm the students displayed in the hands-on session really was very pleasing; I hope that they get as much out of the websites and tools as I do.
Secondly, both my talk and Julie's reaffirmed just how strong and forward-thinking our department is. And yes, Iam blowing our own trumpet a little here, but it is a joy to work in a department that is so willing to run with new ideas and embrace change.
Lastly, the Q&A session hopefully proved useful to the students.I well remember the feeling as my first teaching practice approached, and it wasn't always a good feeling. The dread, nervous anticipation and excitement all jostled for supremacy. It is always a good thing to stop and take stock as a teacher, and today was a day that I value for allowing me to do just that.

MINI-WHITEBOARDS

2010-10-31T15:24:00.001-07:00

Sometimes it's about the low-tech stuff as much as the whistles and bells of web 2.0 and its associated benefits. Our department are all great fans of mini-whiteboards, and use them for a variety of activities.

Put the pupils into groups, each with a mini-whiteboard, then say a sentence in English. The first group to all write it out correctly gets the point. It will amaze you how long it takes them to all have the same thing written on their whiteboards
Do the same activity on an individual basis - possibly better for A level pupils
Practise verb conjugations, adjectival agreement, whatever grammar point you wish to reinforce
For vocabulary practice, say the word in the TL and the pupils need to draw something which represents the word
To practise numbers, call out a sum and the pupils write down the answer
Use the mini-whiteboards in carousel activities for Hangman or Pictionary
If you can afford it, invest in class sets of magnetic letters, and use them with magnetic mini-whiteboards - most of the games above can be played with the magnetic letters

In terms of practicalities, I would do the following:

ensure that you have enough mini-whiteboards for at least one between two
invest in a class set of whiteboard markers
Get board erasers. A cheaper version is to cut up sponges or dishcloths.
set ground rules, such as no writing messages to each other, or silly answers. Be firm the first few times, and they will soon learn that one moment's attention from the class is not worth doing exercises from a text book for the rest of the activity
Have a box to store the boards in, and get pupils in the habit of collecting and returning them quickly and without fuss

Playing with magnetic letters, my classes and I have evolved a set of rules which work well for us:

letters cannot be set out in alphabetical order or in groups of the same letter
they can be set out according to colour (apparently this helps the brain?)
First 3 individuals/groups to get the answer, win the point (points equal stars for the star chart in my classes)
If you win one go, you sit out the next (so winners don't discourage others)

Investing in mini-whiteboards and magnetic letters was one of the best decisions I ever made, and an investment which will stand me in good stead for years to come.

TEACHING LITERATURE

2010-10-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Someone posted a query this evening on the MFL Resources forum about teaching literature at A level. Here are my thoughts, for what they are worth:
I am really interested in this, as our ML dept seems to vary greatly in their approach. I tend to get the pupils to copy chapter notes into the book plus any of their own insight in advance, then spend the double period discussing the chapter in terms of why we have picked things out. I have a workbook of exercises they then do. I also give them a set of mindmap sheets, each with a topic the exam board has listed to cover, and they keep these updated with info as we meet in in the course of the novel, using colours for different types of info eg quotes.

None of this is wildly exciting, but I do do some activities such as Random Name Generator (RNG) where they need to talk or write for a minute about whatever topic/character the RNG throws up. You can also do activities such as cutting up a sheet with a lost of events and then placing said events into chronological order, or where you read a statement and they need to write the character it refers to on a mini whiteboard. With Como Agua Para Chocolate, I get the pupils to take a character each and do a MySpace page in Spanish, writing the blog as if they were the character. You can also do group work where one lies on the floor and others draw a body outline round them, then they write all the pertinent information on the shape for that character, quotes in one colour, adjectives in another, facts/events in another. Finally, tools such as Goanimate and Toondoo are useful for showing storylines and character development

PLAYING HOST TO THE 8th MFL FLASHMEETING

2010-09-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Monday past saw the 8th MFL flashmeeting. These flashmeetings are a form of online conference where a group of like-minded MFL teachers from the UK and beyond gather together virtually to discuss the latest in teaching and learning within the field of Modern Languages. Many of us 'know' each other through Twitter, and it is a pleasure for the MFL Twitterati to join togther regularlyand with enthusiasm to talk through issues and ideas, as well as to share best practice. This time, it was my dubious honour to chair the meeting, and it was with an unfamiliar nervousness that I signed in, yet once proceedings were up and running, I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. Catch the FM here:
http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net/fm/fmm.php?pwd=ad0103-10733

You and Yours

2010-09-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

For those who missed it, here is the You and Yours programme on learning languages
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00thxg0/You_and_Yours_31_08_2010/

2010-09-12T14:24:00.000-07:00

It's been too long! Still, a new term and a look anew at stuff going on in the classroom is always worth a post..
This year, our results across the department were pleasing at the top end, but as usual, it is the pupils who failed to make the grade who stick with you on Results Day. Why, as teachers, do we take the blame, if only partially, when we don't then take the credit for the top grades too? Some pupils failed because they didn't work hard enough, but others worked hard, and still didn't pull it off. Time for some new strategies..
And this tied in nicely with two things. Firstly, our trip to Barcelona and Salou with 39 12-15 year olds in June, where the pupils had a ball but many showed a lack of confidence in speaking in Spanish (or Castilian, should I say) And secondly, a lively thread on the yahoo group forum for MFL Resources http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mflresources/ about the concept of Group Talk, with Greg Horton. People have really seized on Greg's strategies for motivating pupils to talk in the foreign language. There is a video on Teacher Tube at http://www.teachers.tv/videos/mfl-implementing-the-group-talk-initiative-and-other-strategies
I have been chatting on the forum as well as with the MFL Twitterati and have decided to give this a go. An intiative that encourages pupils to talk fluently and with confidence in the target language is something that we all surely aspire to; I will keep you posted...

A LEVEL SPANISH IMMERSION WEEKEND

2010-04-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

This year, we nearly didn't run our annual A Level Spanish Immersion Weekend, due to various factors, not least a lack of available accommodation and a move to our new school building. However, an unprecedented show of enthusiasm from my beloved Upper Sixth spurred me on, and last Monday and Tuesday saw a group of 24 pupils, 2 staff and 3 past pupils join together to speak Spanish for the 2 day event. Talking in English is punishable by singing in Spanish in front of the group.

As always, the itinerary was built around the series of workshops which the pupils moved around in small groups over the course of the 2 days. This year, we decided to take a different approach to our standard thematic workshops, and each workshop focused on a skill area (listening, speaking, reading, connectives and grammar) I found it much easier to deliver and felt that it allowed for greater differentiation within the groups.

As well as the workshops, pupils watched 2 Spanish DVDs, listened to Spanish songs with activities such as reordering and blank fill, played Spanish board games and competed in teams in a quiz. Their favourite was a Spanish clapping game called Presi Presi, and it was played time and again, to the great enjoyment of all involved.

Another activity which proved very successful was a mix between Dragon's Den and The Apprentice. Pupils worked in the same group as for their workshops, and were given a box each and told to imagine it was any product. They needed to style the box, create a TV advert and a slogan. Pupils worked with enthusisam and creativity for over two hours on this project, and then used the FLIP cameras to record their ads before returning together to view the ads on the data projector.

All in all, the residential seemed to be very successful from a pupil point of view, and all the staff involved left on a real high. A personal moment of pride for me is that the 3 past pupils delivering two of the workshops are only in their second year at uni, and are a constant source of help and support to our department. I thoroughly recommend this immersion experience- once again, it has proved to be one of the highlights of our academic year.

Learning from others

2010-03-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

I first heard Chris Fuller talk at Joe Dale's Isle of Wight conference 2008, and he inspired me hugely. His enthusiasm for teaching and passion for Spanish was so much in evidence, and led to me incorporating many of his ideas into my own teaching and department. He has kindly uploaded some of his presentations to Slideshare Here is one on creativity and A level, an area where I personally feel it is too easy to get swept along with the whole exam preparation, and forget about the more interesting approaches to language learning.

Creative post-16 MFL ideas

View more presentations from Chris Fuller.

SPEED DATING IN THE MFL CLASSROOM

2010-02-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

In a never-ending quest to help my pupils learn their answers to the conversation exam, I have trialled speed dating, whereby half the pupils remain at their desk as questioners, and the other half rotate round the room, answering questions for the duration of a minute, before moving on to their next 'date'. Halfway through the lesson, questioners become answerers, and vice versa.

Pupils had previously been filling in a feedback sheet with all interviewees listed, but after a clever suggestion from one of my Upper Sixth on Monday, today pupils carried their own notebook around with them, and each person questioning them filled it in at the end of the round. They are given a tally of how many questions they were asked, as well as a comment and a score out of 10. I find the pupils are excellent at giving feedback, generous in their praise and constructive in their criticism. We discuss what we should look for: a low tally (as this shows excellent expansion) as well as tenses, opinions, fabby phrases and connectors. I always make time for a quick feedback session at the end of the lesson, where they shout out names for each of the questions I ask e.g. 'Who was good at giving opinions?' The value of the notebook is that pupils now have a record of peer evaluation, as well as hopefully seeing progress over the coming weeks and months.

Reflecting on sharing

2010-02-23T14:43:00.000-08:00

On Monday, I shared my ideas for using ICT in the MFL classroom with a group of PGCE students. On the same day, Ken Royal, a senior editor with Scholastic Professional Media, wrote a post about "Twitter, Twitter ICT Stars"http://blogs.scholastic.com/royaltreatment/ I was extremely flattered, if somewhat gobsmacked, to be included in Ken's list of 5. I follow so many people on Twitter whom I consider to be so much more proficient than me. During the past week, José Picardo also published the collection of blogposts written by my fellow MFL Twitterati (as coined by @simonhowell) at http://http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=1736 These are colleagues that now form part of my PLN (Personal Learnign Network) and upon whom I now rely at least as much as my own beloved department in school; they are a constant source of support, advice and humour when needed.

Events like those of the past week let me appreciate just how much I have come on since the summer of 2008. The A-Z presentation was fairly easy to produce, as most of it is software I have used either to teach the pupils, or for them to work creatively in Spanish. I was confortable presenting the ideas to the PGCE students, firstly because I use them regularly and secondly because I totally see their value in my own teaching and the pupils' learning. The same for the Box of Tricks blogpost, as Edmodo is a valuable tool in my day-to-day teaching.

I blog this not to blow my own trumpet, but to say that if I have progressed this far over the course of the past 18 months, then it is within the grasp of any enthusiatic teacher. There are so many advantages to harnessing the free technology that is out there, and it is easily accessed through the power of your PLN.

A-Z of ICT in Modern Languages

2010-02-21T10:09:00.000-08:00

I have the honour of presenting to the Modern Language PGCE students tomorrow at Queen's University in Belfast. I spoke to the same group last term about the use of games in the modern language classroom, so this time I thought I would go a little more high tech, stealing Alex Blagona's theme from the London Languages Show, and do an A-Z presentation of ICT in the ML classroom.

A Z Of Ict In Modern Languages

View more presentations from Amanda Salt.

I have uploaded the presentation to Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/asalt518/a-z-of-ict-in-modern-languages

Making the most of your PLN

2010-01-24T14:27:00.001-08:00

How much do I love my Personal Learning Network or PLN? Quite a lot, actually, to put it mildly. They are a constant source of friendship and support, as much as my 'real' friends, if not moreso in my teaching career, given that they are facing the same challenges and issues as me, day in, day out. But also, they push my boundaries and move me willingly outside my comfort zone in terms of the practical application of ICT to my teaching and the pupils' learning.
A small yet hopefully hugely benficial example is the idea of using Audacity to record questions and then get pupils to record their answers and upload them to our wiki http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com I read about this on the forum of the MFL Resources yahoo group, and also on Joe Dale's blog This should prove especially beneficial to KS4 pupils studying for their GCSE, but is equally applicable both down and up the school. I particularly like the impact it should have on pronunciation, which should help with the new GCSE.

Answering Questions Using Audacity

View more presentations from Amanda Salt.

A final thought on this area is to also bring our new digital voice recorders into the classroom if we can't make it to a computer room. I am going to trial using the fruit machine from classtools.net to bring up a random series of questions which pupils will then answer in one minute on the DVRs. This will be a long-term plan, and I am interested to see what rewards we reap.
Another idea I picked up from one of my Twitter friends is to condense your life down to 50 words, either orally or as in this tweet, written.

Mi Vida En 50 Palabras

View more presentations from Amanda Salt.

BETT 2010

2010-01-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I didn't make it over to BETT so I tuned in via Twitter's live streaming twitcam

IMAGE CHEF

2009-11-08T13:29:00.001-08:00

I saw Suzi Bewell's ImageChef heart on her blog http://allsaintslanguagesblog.typepad.co.uk/all_saints_languages_blog/ and I couldn't resist. Alex Blagona had mentioned this last week in his A-Z of ICT presentation at the London Language Show (See http://alexblagona.blogspot.com/ for the full presentation) and I was keen to try it out, so I pasted a list of vocabulary for KS3 Spanish classroom objects, to see how it looked. I can see a lot of potential in this, for introducing vocabulary, where pupils look up the vocabulary within the shape that they don't know, as well as producing revision mind maps.

FLIP lessons and mindmapping - a new approach to learning

2009-11-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

As a Specialist Language School, the spotlight is well and truely on our results at both GCSE and A level. That, combined with a deep-rooted desire that has always been prevalent in our department to constantly self-assess and improve, has led us to re-evaluate our approach to GCSE Spanish for Form 4 and 5.

We have never relied on textbooks, but this year we have brought in elements of from our KS3 booklets, such as breaking our booklet for each year down into smaller, more manageable topic booklets, listing that topic's GCSE vocabulary list at the front and including oral questions at the back of each booklet. The pupils have already commented that they much prefer this approach.

I am now dipping into each booklet, rather than laboriously ploughing through each worksheet. By doing this, stronger pupils are left with a series of worksheets for revision, avoiding that age-old lament " I don't know what to revise for the exam", whilst weaker pupils are not put off by the sheer volume of work facing them. I also want to work more actively with the vocabulary, bringing in some ideas again from KS3, as well as ideas I am picking up from others.

To that end, I decided this week to incorporate some ideas that I had heard at the London Language Show 09. We had already targeted some pupils in Form 5 who would benefit from smaller class numbers on occasion, and decided to split the two classes which run simultaneously into one larger and one smaller group once a week. The smaller group, of around 10, would look at approaches to grammar, writing and oral work in an environment which should encourage support and requests for help. The larger group will therefore work with me on a weekly basis, as well as a group of mentors, formed by 4 Upper Sixth pupils and 2 undergraduate past pupils who are volunteering in the school once a week. We are very fortunate to have access to a new laptop room, with 48 wireless laptops, and this has been booked for the purpose.

Listening to Chris Harte's excellent presentation at the Language Show, I discovered that he already had a name for the idea I was toying with, although he has taken it much further and with an integrated approach throughout the school. Read more at http://chrisharte.typepad.com/learner_evolution_chris_h/2009/10/flip-a-model-for-developing-independent-language-learners.html

My idea, strengthened by the inspiration Chris has provided me with, is that the learning is turned back to the student. ~They identify strengths and target weaknesses / areas for improvement. They can use the lesson to catch up with work they have missed through absence, go over something they didn't understand, focus on grammar, work their way throughRichard Hamilton's vocabulary drills, use some of the many online interactive websites available to them, record themselves using our new digital voice recorders, etc. Pupils will be encouraged to sign up for workshops on grammar, as well as work on an individual basis with the mentors on their pronunciation and oral answers.

The first lesson took place this week, and there was a surprising lack of chaos, given the large numbers in the room; 38 pupils, 6 mentors and myself. I had presented the idea to the pupils using a powerpoint presentation the day before, and they had taken the time to fill in a FLIP sheet detailing strengths, actions and success criteria. This definitely helped the flow of the lesson, and pupils settled quickly to work.

Lessons to draw from Day 1 would be that whilst we want to empower the pupils with choosing their own learning, I think that I will give some gentle encouragement to use the mentors more - pupils were reluctant to come and speak on a one-to-one basis, yet this obviously would greatly benefit their spoken Spanish and confidence levels in the long-term.

The second thing I did differently this week was to get my three KS4 classes to produce mindmaps of their topics (Region and Leisure) in advance of getting access to the vocabulary lists. I had really enjoyed Tony Buzan's talk at the Language Show, and was determined to start looking at language learning and memory. I asked them to produce separate mindmaps; for Region, they looked at geographical vocabulary, places, adjectives and opinions. For Leisure, they produced them for sports, pastimes and associated verbs. Pupils in all three classes really enjoyed the lesson, although the weaker class struggled more to put the vocabulary down on paper initially. It was a really beneficial exercise and one I will definitely repeat.

I look forward to continuing on this path, and to see how this impacts on the pupils and their progress in Spanish.

2009-11-04T13:26:00.001-08:00

A Z Of Ict

View more presentations from Alex Blagona.

MFL Flashmeeting 4

2009-11-04T12:58:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are with the fourth MFL flashmeeting under our belts, and what a meeting of minds it was. Many 'old' friends were there, as well as some intrepid new souls who were warmly welcomed. Esther Hardman http://twitter.com/estherhardman chaired the meeting and a variety of topics were covered.
Of course, first on the agenda was the London Languages Show which took place from Friday 30th October to Sunday 1st November, with a Show and Tell event on the Saturday night. This was the first year that I had attended the event, and I was truely impressed by the seminars on offer to me as an MFL teacher. I intend to blog about the sessions that inspired me over the next few weeks, but it was great to have an opportunity to discuss all that I had seen on Monday night, with others who had been there as well as with others who hadn't made it and were keen to learn more.
It was an excellent meeting, with the two hours quickly filled with animated discussion and simultaneous speed typing. The full flashmeeting can be viewed at http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net/fm/fmm.php?pwd=eb8137-7333

Fun & Games in MFL

2009-10-27T13:22:00.001-07:00

Check out my SlideShare Presentation of my talk to the PGCE students:

Fun & Games in MFL

View more presentations from Amanda Salt.

GUEST LECTURER

2009-10-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

I was invited to speak to the MFL PGCE students at Queen's yesterday on the topic of games in MFL. In a department genuinely addicted to playing games to enhance motivation and improve learning, this was a fairly easy and straightforward task for me. As I started the talk, I thought back to sitting in those same seats, and how much I have learnt and progressed since then.
The list of games we play at Grosvenor is long and varied, and I intend to upload the powerpoint to share with others, but once again, this was an enjoyable experience in my teaching career, as well as a useful self-assessment exercise.

FLASHMEETING #3 AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

2009-10-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well, we had our third MFL flashmeeting last Monday and whilst I participated less, with a blinder of a headache, it was still a stimulating and enjoyable experience, as well as being extremely benficial for my teaching.

Flashmeetings serve to remind me how much I have come to rely on the support of my online friends whom I have met through Twitter primarily, as well as at Joe Dale's IOW conference. They are a constant source of support and inspiration, and this flashmeeting was no exception.

The two areas I have decided to focus on, arising out of the meeting, are Spanish phonics and Edmodo. I still have a lot of work to do in terms of phonics and pronunciation, but José Picardo has inspired me to set up an account on Edmodo (www.edmodo.com) I have created course areas for each of my classes and have already posted some polls in Spanish and set some assignments.

When I was showing the setup page to the pupils, many commented on its similarity to Facebook, and the trendy look of the site. Several have already posted comments and queries on their course area.

I look forward to using Edmodo and will post soon on the progress we are making.

Guest posting and my year of web 2.0

2009-06-24T12:32:00.001-07:00

I was genuinely flattered to be asked by Ken Royal to be a guest author for his blog http://www.educatorsroyaltreatment.com, although I asked him what he felt I had to offer as I really feel like a complete novice at this whole malarkey! It is true that I have a great enthusiasm for all that I use in my classroom, but I would never profess to be any kind of expert. I work on the theory that if I want to do something, it is surely possible, so it is just a matter of working out how So I settled down to it, and here is my post for Ken's site.

LANGUAGES AND LEARNING - THE PATH I HAVE FOLLOWED
Today I led a whole-day event on ICT & MFL teaching and learning, which included my own department as well as 12 members of staff from several other schools. I have never led such an event before and therefore wanted to keep the numbers manageable.
Why did I even want to run such an event? Believe me, I was asking myself the same question last night, as I prepared the last of the handouts. But yet I am so glad that I did, for it has benefited me as well hopefully as those who attended. As teachers, we are told that we should be reflective practitioners, and yet it is rare that we have time to take stock and really evaluate what we have learnt over a given period of time. The aim of running this day was to show people some of the new stuff I have learnt over the past year, and let them have a go too. It was only when I started to map out the agenda that I realised just how much I have learnt since last July, when I had the extreme good fortune to be sent to BLC 08, in Boston. The November Learning conference was mind-blowing and I came home enthused, armed with a list of of sites to visit and web 2.0 tools to check out.
I followed the instructions of David Truss (http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com) and Ewan McIntosh (http://edu.blogs.com/) who both said that if we did nothing else, we should start a blog when we went home. This I did, with my "Languages and Learning" blog at http://amandasalt.blogspot.com I also joined Twitter, although I found it a lonely and pointless activity initially. I now find it to be one of my main sources of CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and also a place where people are generous with their praise and genuine in their concern.
A visit to the Isle of Wight for a languages and ICT conference, organised by the amazing Joe Dale (www.joedale.typepad.com), added to my enthusiasm, and as I approach the end of this academic year, I have created a wiki for my pupils (http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com) and also dabbled with Audacity, Goanimate, Voki, ToonDoo, Animoto and Voice Thread, amongst others.Today I ran workshops on all of these as well as an overview of blogging, Twitter and Diigo.
The format seemed to work well, with a very hands-on approach by the participants, and a vast quantity of helpsheets to take home. They were amazed that I did none of this before last summer, ut in a way, I think that reassured them. I do not profess to be an expert at any of these, yet I find my approach to teaching re-energised and my pupils highly motivated. I too have much to learn, and it is a true pleasure to show others all that this brave 2.0 world has to offer us.

MFL Flashmeeting

2009-06-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that I have not posted since the Flashmeeting, and apologies for not blogging about the meeting itself. It was amazing and a fabulous experience, and I am so glad that I took the plunge. I was very nervous beforehand yet once it started, I really enjoyed it. A few technical difficulties arose as I tried to log in, and I fear that I need to read my instruction book for the webcam, as I was in extreme closeup with no idea how to fix it, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The format is brilliant, although it took me a while to get used to listening to whoever was speaking whilst reading the comments at the bottom, and I had a headache after, from concentrating for so long on both!
The ideas were great and it was good to hear people explain things, pulling up websites for us as they talked. I contributed, although I don't know if what I said made much sense and I look forward to the next one. Joe Dale blogged about the flashmeeting with lots of notes, on http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2009/05/mfl-flashmeeting.html, whilst Isabelle Jones is promoting the next one on
http://isabellejones.blogspot.com/2009/06/mfl-flashmeeting2-monday-6th-july-830pm.html Sign up here http://lmhtob.wikispaces.com/MFL+Flashmeeting+2

FLASHMEETING

2009-05-03T14:20:00.001-07:00

My Twitter friends and I were 'chatting' last week and someone asked about Flashmeetings. Quite a few of us were in the dark and so those kind souls who are experienced in these things have set up a flashmeeting for us tomorrow night, Monday 4th MAy 2009 at 9pm. Yes, I know it's a bank holiday and we have school the next day but who cares? This is a first and I am very excited..
Well yes, actually I'm a little scared and freaked out too, but I guess that's part of the learning curve and it does me no harm to experience emotions similar to those my pupils must experience, and much more frequently. My head is buzzing with questions:
Have I book-marked the site? Check - http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net/fm/cc3112-6211
Do I have the necessary equipment? Check - bought fancy webcam with mic yesterday (much fancier than I probably need, but any excuse for a bit of retail therapy, even teaching-related)
Do I have the right software? Check - webcam installed and Flash downloaded thanks to @joedale
Do I know what I'm doing? No, but sure that's exactly why we are doing it!
Will i brush my hair and touch up my lippy at 8.55pm? Check and see!

Speed-dating

2009-04-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

A colleague came up with this brilliant idea, and I have been quick to adopt it. Pupils are put into pairs, and sit at tables numbered 1-11. One is the questioner, and the other answers. Each questioner has a set of conversation questions for their forthcomign GCSE, as well as a feedback sheet with columns for name, number of questions asked, comments and score.
Today my Fifth Year and I had a go at 'Multicitas'. They did rounds of 90 seconds, and I rang the bell each time to move the answerer on to their next 'date'. Halfway through the lesson, the questioners and answerers changed roles.
In feedback at the end, using the attached feedback sheet, pupils were quick to realise that the less questions you were asked the better you were at expanding. They were really generous in their praise of each other, and were the most engaged I have ever seen them.
As much as I love using all kinds of Web 2.0 tools, it is nice to remember that good old-fashioned oral communication is sometimes best of all.

Using Wikis in MFL - Language World 2009

2009-04-05T14:33:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Using Wikis in MFL - Language World 2009

View more presentations from Alex Blagona.

Creating a buzz

2009-03-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

Pupils in various year groups have been using ICT in a variety of ways over the course of this year, and there is definitely a bit of a buzz about the place. They have been given the option for several homeworks of choosing to create a Voki, Toondoo, Goanimate or voice recording. Some of the results can be seen at http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com, on the various class pages, as well as the Voki page.
What are the benefits to the pupil and to me? Well, there is the enjoyment factor, which can never be overrated, in my opinion. Pupils are enthused and are charging off home to do homeworks which they then email to me or embed directly into the wiki. Many of these homeworks come in early, and there is a definite improvement in terms of getting the homework done, and on time.. One of the great success stories of my year has to be the boy who showed an open dislike for Spanish last year yet has sent me the last two homeworks (created on Goanimate) early, and is visibly more relaxed in class.
The latest ICT project has been through the Virtual Voices programme we are engaging in, with podcasting being the focus of the Spanish department. In Second and Third Year (ages 12-14) pupils have been working in pairs or threes to create podcasts at the cafe, with an accompanying worksheet. Form 4 have recorded dialogues 'At the tourist information office' and again, have made worksheets to go with them. In all three year groups, we have then gone to the computer room for a period and worked individually listening to the various podcasts and doing the associated worksheet. Pupils have been engaged both at the creation stage and in the final process, which is a form of peer evaluation.
I am delighted with the efforts that have been made, both recording and creating the worksheet. The benfits are that every pupil has their turn in the spotlight without the pressure of performing tlive to their peers, and they are much more focused on pronunciation and grammar than they would be ordinarily.

40 Ict Ideas In 40 Minutes

2009-03-10T14:41:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

40 Ict Ideas In 40 Minutes

View more presentations from EffectiveICT.

PGCE Presentation

2009-02-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

Today I had the privilege of doing a presentation about blogging and social networking, with some extras such as the MFL Resources forum and diigo, to a group of MFL PGCE students. It doesn't seem like all that long ago that I was in the very same room and about to go out on my second placement, although it also seems like a lifetime ago, when I stop and think about all that I have experienced since then. Not only in terms of the wonderful schools that I have taught in, but also re how much my teaching has evolved over the years. I look back and wonder at all that I do now compared to what I did then. And yet at the time, you were still forward-thinking and innovative.
In particular, my teaching and the pupils' learning has moved on rapidly in this academic year. Yes, there is still room for 'chalk and talk' and getting back to basics, but it is the combination of that with the web 2.0 tools that I adore that makes it such a pleasure to be a teacher.

PODCASTING AT DIFFERENT LEVELS

2009-02-10T13:31:00.000-08:00

We had a staff training day today, and I came away with two definite visions of how we are going to take podcasting forward in our department.
Firstly we are going to use podcasting with Form 2 (aged 12-13) to create role plays with a partner 'En el café'. With the new reporting coming in at Key Stage 3, pupils be assessed on Communication, Maths and ICT spread over a variety of subjects. Spanish is being used to assess Form 2 (Year 9 in Northern Ireland) in ICT. To that end, we are keen to introduce a variety of Common Assessment Tasks (CATs)over the course of Second Year Spanish, including Goanimate and podcasting.
Secondly, a meeting today with outside agents sees us signed up to an initiative in MFL and ICT, whereby we do tasks with pupils, reflecting on each stage, and evaluate at the end. Again, podcasting is the area I have chosen to focus on. I had already set my Lower 6 the task of creating revision podcasts, each taking a different grammatical point. They can also work in pairs, but must then cover two topics. I now intend to get them to also create podcasts for KS3 and KS4, in terms of vocabulary, grammar and study skills.
Let's see how we get on..

Animoto

2009-02-03T14:13:00.001-08:00

First play!

Self help guides

2009-01-15T13:09:00.000-08:00

After a mixed bag of results in the Christmas exams, my first year Spanish class and I sat down to look at where some of them went wrong, and how they could learn from their mistakes. They ended up making some excellent contributions and we compiled a series of advice sheets which 3 pupils then typed up and we posted them to our wiki, http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com
I enjoyed the input from the pupils, and the fact that they were so keen to learn from their mistakes and improve. What started as a sponatneous feedback of the exam papers, ended up as a very worthwhile exercise and a perfect example of the Revised Curriculum in action!

BLC 08 "PODCASTING WITH A PURPOSE" BOB SPRANKLE

2009-01-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

Blogging about Adam Sutcliffe made me think back to Bob Sprankle who first introduced me to the idea of doing my own podcasts in the summer, with his website www.spranklepodcastblc.wikispaces.com. Bob has a lot of practical advice to give, and I have summarised it below:
• Podcast = living portfolio, archived, shows growth over time, available 24
• VERY Revised Curriculum with peer evaluation, group work and it's real life!
• Subscribe to podcasts you like through itunes rather than the sound file on a website
• Use the microphone on your laptop or mobile - you don't need fancy equipment.
• Use a blog to leave comments and engage your pupils.
• Set questions, which the pupils answer through the podcast
• Communication to parents
• Pupils become Global citizens/learners
• Constantly reflecting with larger community
• Self-directed learners
• Ask questions e.g. “How are you self-directed learners when you podcast?”
Reflecting on learning
• Who should be working hardest in your classroom? Reward students who really own the work/outcomes. Democratise your classroom - give power to the pupils!

HELP WITH PODCASTING

2009-01-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

I have been toying with the idea of podcasting for a while but as yet had not done anything. Then came the push I needed through the MFL Resources forum, with a post by the fabulous Adam Sutcliffe. He has created a series of videos on podcasting for the Learning and Teaching Scotland site http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/sharingpractice/p/podcasting/introduction.asp For those of you who are unfamiliar with this site, it is an excellent site full of great ideas for enriching the curriculum and your teaching.
Adam's videos talk about the reasons behind podcasting, as well as giving specific advice and practical help.
The most helpful section for me was the video on ideas and practical examples for podcasting. Here they are listed below:
Vocabulary lists
Verb drills
Pronunciation practice
Grammar explanations , whereby you get pupils to produce explanations of the grammar point in their own words
Songs & poems created by the pupils
Exam practice – record model questions (& answers) or even an actual exam
Guided tour – use a site for text to speech such as readthewords.com for pupil scripts
Radio show on a topic pupils are studying e.g. Leisure
Conversations with/by FLA
School news in the target language
Cross-curricular collaboration

With the suggestions made in "Podcasting 3 - Ideas and examples" I now have the inspiration I needed, so off to Audacity I go. I will keep you updated with mine and pupils' creations.

BLC 08 DAVID TRUSS "THIS MY BLOG HAS TAUGHT ME"

2009-01-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

WED 16TH JULY SESSION 2
“THIS MY BLOG HAS TAUGHT ME”
DAVID TRUSS www.pairadimes.davidtruss.com

David's talk included how you should consider the following when you have a blog:
• Leadership
• Audience
• Podcasts
• Learning
• Blogrules – what pupils are expected to do
• Web 2.Oh yeah – students sharing ideas and thoughts with the teacher coming in. Bear in mind that the teacher intervening in a dialogue can sometimes stop conversation, but that they should be there to ask a question in order to steer the dialogue in the right direction, or to intervene if necessary

What did David learn in the first year or so of having his blog? He made the blog a private and sheltered environment. He created Wikispaces – http://sciencealive.wikispaces.com, where the kids like to see cluster maps of visitors from around the world.

If we consider Bloom’s taxonomy, whereby
Higher order 6 Create
5 Evaluate
4 Analyse
3 Apply
2 Understand
Lower order 1 Remember
then using a blog and a wiki are excelllent tools for creation and experiment by the pupils.

Other ideas to arise out of David's excellent talk included:
• One pupil’s idea may trigger someone else’s e.g. blogging about science experiments
• Eduspaces – forum for social networking for teachers
• TakingITGlobal – online community for youth to get involved in local and global community
• Encourage contributors – check profile. Allow them to do assignment on paper if they want

Why blog? It is where we do most of our learning, connect with other educators, challenge ourselves to improve and link with other people

It is BLC 08 and in particular these 2 talks by Ewan McIntosh and David Truss, that I credit with the creation of this blog and my Spanish wiki http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com
Here's to connecting with others and pushing ourselves further in 2009!

BLC 08 EWAN MCINTOSH KEYNOTE ADDRESS

2009-01-02T14:12:00.000-08:00

It was my privilege to attend the Building Learning Communities 08 conference in Boston this past summer. My New Year's Resolution (amongst others) is to blog about my experiences there. I start with the first keynote address to the whole conference..
WED 16TH JULY KEYNOTE ADDRESS
“NOT ALL NATIVE WIT: FROM CREATIVITY TO INGENUITY”
EWAN MCINTOSH

Ewan's blog can be found at edu.blogs.com. His talk included references to Twitter, del.icio.us, Flickr and Facebook, of which the only one I had experience was the latter.

Why should we use web 2.0 tools? Ewan stated that in the UK, kids spend 60 mins/week in school on computers, and 400 mins/week at home on their computer. When a pupil takes more pride in setting up their Bebo page than in doing their coursework, we need to take a look at how we are teaching these pupils. What we do with technology is key in the classroom. Of course, we can try to move forward, for example by setting up a school blog. The problem with setting up a blog in school is that their Bebo page more important to them. It causes them no stress, there are no deadlines, and they are publishing to and interacting with a large group of friends. We also need to look at the use of mobile phones in the classroom as the way forward for the future.

What did I take away from Ewan's talk? We need to have a “shared awareness” i.e. seeing things the same way as our pupils. Use the interests, knowledge and skills that they have to engage them and advance learning.

Brilliant website

2008-12-28T12:02:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this website through Twitter (where I am @amandasalt)
http://www.c4lpt.co.uk
Amongst many many useful things, the site includes a list of 25 tools that every learning professional should have in their toolbox, as well as an impressive Twitter Directory. Check it out!

Creating video resources for Learning and Teaching

2008-12-27T12:39:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Creating video resources for Learning and Teaching

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: video)

my animation

2008-11-28T13:49:00.000-08:00

GOANIMATE

2008-11-28T13:28:00.000-08:00

The wonderful yahoo group that I am a member of, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mflresources/, is a great source of both actual resources and links to brilliant websites. One of the recent emails caused a bit of a frenzy within the group, when we were given a link to a video created using goanimate http://goanimate.com/go/movie/0NnfTGpxHT5c/1 on the passé composé. It was truely inspirational and I immediately signed up to have a play. It is very much a work in progress but the site is proving very easy to use and I think it has great potential in the languages classroom.

nings and wikis

2008-11-20T06:19:00.000-08:00

Well, if ever proof was needed that pupils are happier and quicker to embrace new technologies than adults, the proof is before my eyes. I set up a ning for fellow teachers www.belfastmfl.ning.com with an associated wiki http://belfastmfl.wikispaces.com/ to share best practice and resources. Uptake has been slightly disappointing and use has been limited so far, although I still have great hopes for it. I then set up a wiki for my pupils http://spanishingrosvenor.wikispaces.com and already we have 74 members! Let's see how contributions come in for this..

FUNKY FLIPCHARTS AND INTERESTING INTERACTIVITY BY LESLEY WELSH (IOW CONFERENCE 08)

2008-11-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

My final session at the Isle of Wight conference appropriately was with Lesley Welsh, a new friend I had met over the course of the weekend. Of all the areas of ICT and new curriculum, the interactive whiteboard is the area I am most comfortable with, and most proficient at using, but I was keen to see what ideas Lesley came up with and any tips she was able to pass on. (Thanks to Lesley for her electronic copy of a lot of the ideas below!)

TIPS FOR USING YOUR IWB
-Drag some pictures out of the resource library or import them from another application, revise them with pupils then move them around and get them to guess what it is under the spotlight. -Use the Primary resources in the resource library for MFL teaching
-Use the camera tool for importing images, thereby ensuring that you can enlarge the photo without losing the pixel qualities. -Make a team game using pictures of vocabulary, for example. Use the reveal tool and encourage two teams to shout out what they are seeing – the first team wins the point.
-Rub out to reveal. Put blocks of colour over certain words in a text, perhaps choosing those which relate to a certain grammar point you’re studying e.g. adjective endings. Pupils predict, then rub out to reveal the answer.
-Type a number of words onto a flipchart page. Pupils come to the front and rearrange them -Create a focus circle – give pupils some words around a circle and they need to come up with as many combination sentences as possible in a time limit (thanks to Ros Walker for this idea).
-Copy and highlight texts from the Internet. Use the fill tool to highlight certain words and use these with your classes. This can illustrate grammar points and keep pupils up-to-date on current affairs. -Use recordings from native speakers to liven up your presentations.
-Link to Internet sites with the latest news clips and music sites to show your pupils the real France/Spain, etc. -Use songs and lyrics to create a lively gap-fill exercise and do the feedback on the IWB. This will again help pupils focus on grammar points
-Use a voting system to ensure full participation and encourage shyer pupils to interact
-Use a variety of question types – test spelling, grammar, comprehension.. Use pictures and target language text to ensure that tests don’t become a simple translation exercises.
-Use the tickertape facility to play a memory game

Some of these ideas I use frequently, some I have used and had forgotten and some I never knew in the first place. The interactive whiteboard is a valuable teaching tool in the classroom, providing that the activities are varied and the teacher is guiding.

SHARON BALCH AfL IN PRACTICE (IOW CONFERENCE 08)

2008-11-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

As our Vice-Principal pointed out today, in Northern Ireland it is no longer the Revised Curriculum, it is the curriculum that we are teaching in First and Second Year at KS3. Whilst I believe that Modern Languages are and always have been very much 'Revised Curriculum', my colleagues and I sometimes struggle with the whole 'no marking' idea that forms part and parcel of Assessment for Learning. It was therefore with great interest that I went to Sharon Balch's session on 'AfL in Practice'. She covered the topic in great detail, and here are some of the points that she made:-

Clear objectives lead to better engagement and more effective learning which in turn leads to improved standards.
Lessons are objective-led, and a team (including pupils) meets weekly to see what is working and what needs further work
Learning Intentions should be pupil-friendly
A consistent approach across the school will see the greatest benefit
It is vital to recognise the importance of success criteria, and to develop strategies for effective plenary

EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR INCORPORATING AfL

Display visuals for WALT and WILF, including in pupils' books
Include the 4 key skills for MFL in WALT and WILF
Create ruler guides ie strips of paper to stick onto the back of a ruler with key vocabulary
Create a learning mat for each year group with an emphasis on evidence of each key skill, plus generic vocabulary
Provide extension activities to improve listening and writing skills on the back of the learning mats
Use target sheets and stickers to give feedback, or get pupils to use them and say why they think they are working at a certain level
Use traffic light stickers and statement banks for self- and peer assessment, so that pupils know that a green sticker means excellent work, etc
Use very structured task sheets for writing tasks, with detailed lists of what to include in each paragraph. Pupils can then tick off as they cover the point in their essay
Share success criteria with pupils for speaking tasks, and then use "2 stars and a wish" for peer assessment
Use a 'learning journey' sheet with pupils to gain feedback in a plenary
Type all the learning journeys up together to make an excellent revision guide for the pupils

Sharon has found the measurable impact of all of the above easy to see in results, with a huge impact on boys' writing in particular

CRITICAL SKILLS PROGRAMME

This is a series of tools allowing pupils to engage with learning as never before, and with the teacher moving from being the lead to being a guide and support. It incorporates the idea of collaborative learning communities, with standards-driven and problem-based learning.The pupils start to set their own targets and to recognise quality learning.

In order to set CSP challenges, pupils should be given task roles, such as Facilitator, Recorder, Time Keeper, Resources Manager and Quality Checker. After the task, it is vital that pupils reflect back on their own work, with questions or a statement as guidance for what they did do as well as what they would do differently next time.

Sharon's presentation was excellent, crammed full of brilliant ideas and practical support. She is the first to acknowledge the vast amount of work that has gone into her fabulous resources but her talk has certainly given me plenty to aim for within my own department for AfL and CSP.

MOODLE BY DREW BUDDIE (IOW CONFERENCE 08)

2008-11-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

How many of us have a VLE in school? More and more, I guess, though it is not by any means standard, and even if you do, it can be dramatically underused. I went to this session prepared to be convinced about the benefits of Moodle and was blown away. Drew Buddie's use of this VLE appears to be as energetic and hands-on as the man himself, and as he led us through the various areas and applications, I was increasingly impressed. Here are some of Drew's tips and ideas..

Give your Moodle site a cool name. This gives it a personality and makes it much less clinical. www.anagramgenius.com is a website which can be useful here.
If your Moodle site is not an official school site, there is no need for a crest etc. The kids may be more likely to use it.
The calendar is hyperlinked so that if work is set, it is linked into the pupils' calendar.
You can start a course with closed eye, and only open it up once the pupils are in the room, then save and close the eye at the end of the lesson. This is useful for tests and for those subjects in new GCSE where they have to guarantee that the work is only done in that lesson
Alter the administration for permissions, to allow people to view
You only see courses you are enrolled for as a pupil
Turn editing on = how you add things
You can pack up your course leaving out pupil contribution and then reuse it the next year
Put past paper questions onto Moodle for that course.
Show parents the submitted assignments (or that the pupils haven’t submitted at all!)
You can mark on the document or give feedback and let them try again
If being strict with deadlines, then close the course for submissions at a given time
Export the submissions data for each pupil and you will have table with results for each answer
Sandbox area is a work in progress area and then move it once finished
You can store content on a memory stick and show people what you have done at courses or at 'Show and Tell' sessions
The course name can be too long so giev it a short name for the breadcrumb trail
Use an agreed code for the school Moodle e.g. MFL for all our courses
Students when log in see next ten things that affect them in school
Hot Potatoes tells you how many clicks it takes the pupils to get the answer right
Chat facility - ‘Next chat time’ sets when they can chat. This is good e.g. for the day before their A level exam. It is safe because only course members are on, plus there is a permanent record of what you chatted about, to protect the teacher. Also, pupils can cut and paste into a Word doc and then search for key words to find discussions they have missed
Choices are good for AfL e.g. ‘Have you enjoyed this weekend?’ Set options and then save and return to course. Once voted, select ‘Choices’ then select ‘View responses’
The forum can be used for example with G&T pupils, given pseudonyms, and Year 7 pupils discuss with Year 13 anonymously
I think that Moodle has tremendous potential, although like anything Web 2.0, you only get out what you put in!

USING DIGITAL VOICE RECORDERS IN THE CLASSROOM (IOW CONFERENCE 08)

2008-11-06T03:17:00.000-08:00

Kathleen Holton led this excellent session on using digital voice recorders (DVRs) in the classroom. Kathleen's school had got funding from CILT to do a project using the DVRs, in order to enhance performance in the speaking exam. Kathleen found that pupils didn't know how to revise for the oral element, and decided to take a more proactive and hands-on approach. The school purchased 9 Sanyo ICR DVRs, which have a good quality internal mic, as well as a battery recharging pack. The great thing about these DVRs are that they record as an mp3 file, wich makes them easy to upload and for the pupils to use.

USES & PRACTICAL POINTERS
-Upload individual conversation answers for each pupil
-DVD available from CILT Cymru, with 18 different case studies of ICT and MFL
-Record the conversation naturally, with teacher correcting mistakes. Pupils will benefit from hearing the mistakes when they revise.
-Introduce with KS3, to maximise improvement for the GCSE exam
-Practise dialogues in class then go out into corridor to record
-Start with name, so not confusing for the teacher when they upload
-When saving, change Track 1, etc, to pupils’ names
-Next lesson, start with their recordings – Excellent for AfL
-Build a positive culture for listening and evaluating – positive praise e.g. for not pronouncing stuff that shouldn’t be pronounced
-Use mistakes for AfL e.g. giggling
-Use recordings for departmental moderation e.g. ‘Is this an A? What is a variety of structures?’
-“Evidence at KS3” folder can be easily kept
-Recording dialogues = good for oracy
-Upload recordings to wiki
-Use a Voki to introduce your wiki home page
Go to voki.com Register yourself
Put a voki on your wiki and get kids to interact with the voki as a voluntary task
Send a voki back to reply
Select the ‘Text to speech’ box whereby they type and choose a French voice to read DON’T USE PHONE AS PHONING USA!! Mic or text as speech.

OTHER HANDY TIPS
-Moodle. If you use Moodle, put links to department wikis and blogs in the right-hand sidebar
-www.quizlet.com To improve vocab. Type up vocab from AQA list. Familiarise/learn/test = excellent way to learn and test. Embed into wiki for maximum exposure

This was an excellent session, full of very practical and helpful advice that we can put into practice immediately. Even if you don't have DVRs in your department, free software such as Audacity could be used to do a similar job.

BLOGS AND PODCASTS: FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR CLASS WILL FOLLOW (IOW CONFERENCE 08)

2008-11-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

The inspirational Adam Sutcliffe led this session, based on his own experiences teaching at The Gordons School. He had loads of great advice to offer about blogging and podcasting both with and for pupils, and shared with us lessons he had learnt...

If emails, etc, are included in the definition of literary texts, then we as teachers must use them.

It is good to reflect in English on what you have done over the course of the term

Safety concerns –blogs are as safe as you make them. If the settings are right, posts cannot go online till approved.

2 stars and a wish / ‘Rocks and Sucks’. Peer assessment of recordings by the pupils is very 'Revised Curriculum', and can produce great results, if prop[erly set up. Teachers should set up a comment bank to help them and provude a tick box sheet to use as they listen. Pupils can then use the tick box sheet to write a comment

PODCASTS - why use them?

Access for all, even long-term sick pupils
Production of resources
Blue tooth vocabulary guides to their phone, for example, if no Internet access at home
Excellent use of skill areas for languages. Production of podcast = listening (to it) speaking (production) reading and writing (script)
Pupil confidence - set A-level class to producing podcasts on –AR verbs for Form 1.
Transferable skills - Pupils don’t realise that the stuff they do on Bebo can be used in their classroom
Ease of use - Use podcast gadgets such as Utterli / gcast / gabcast to create a webcam or audio, then call a phone number to post to the blog. This can be excellent when used from abroad, on a school exchange, for example.
podomatic – create, find, share podcasts
VoiceThread – edvoicethread with unlimited student accounts, so that pupils can post work which can then be commented on orally by many viewers
voki.com – listen and write with a dictation facility. The big advantage of Voki is the anonymity of the speaker behind the avatar. Other uses include pronunciation of frequently mispronounced words and the spell and translate facility.
Exam practice – pre-record questions (set to music) with space for answer, or podcast conversations with the FLA (Foreign language assistant). For examples of this, see the Ashcombe School.

Thanks to Adam for an excellent insight into the work he does. See more at his site:-
http://thegordonsschools.typepad.co.uk/asu

THE NEW CURRICULUM: MAKING IT WORK FOR LANGUAGES (IOW CONFERENCE 08)

2008-11-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

Kathy Wicksteed is Subject Lead for languages for DCSF/ALL subject specific support for the new secondary curriculum. She talked about the new curriculum and how it benefits the pupils. Whilst we in Northern Ireland have the Revised Curriculum, there are many parallels between the two, and lessons to be shared.
Are we broadening pupils' horizons? The new curriculums offer excellent opportunities to give pupils skills and knowledge which will enable them to fly more than ever before. In order to do this, teachers are having to move away from structured, content-driven schemes of work, to more open topics, cross-curricular work and thematic units. This can be a big step for us as teachers, but the advantages for the pupils include the acquisition of tools for learning and the development of thinking skills and personal capabilities.
Kathy highlighted some useful websites for language teachers, which tie in with the idea of enriching experiences and teaching languages in context:
www.etwinning.net
www.in-terre-actif.com
www.elanguages.org
www.rafi.ki
www.freerice.com
www.dailymotion.com/fr

Kathy's presentation is available for download from www.all-nsc.org.uk

Belfast MFL Ning

2008-11-01T15:13:00.001-07:00

CREATING DIGITAL EXERCISES AND INTEGRATION WITHIN THE SCHOOL'S VLE (IOW CONFERENCE 08)

2008-11-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

In this workshop, Steve Whittle, the Assistant Headteacher of Hayes School, talked us through digital learning both in school and at home.

DIGITAL LEARNING WITHIN SCHOOL
The Hayes School uses a Tandberg Sanako language lab, in conjunction with an MFL ICT technician who creates resources for the department. Routines are established with classes, free software is sought, and websites are listed. Every lesson that pupils come into the language lab, they get a Digital Learning Plan( (DLP). This lists the tasks pupils should aim to do during the course of the lesson, with files held on the designated server and linked from the DLP. I LOVED this idea, as it can be easy to finish a lesson on the computers and wonder what the pupils have come away with. Also, staff who cover a class booked into the computer suite invariably complain that 'all they did was play games!' whereas this gives an excellent structure to the lesson.

Audio files were created with Sanako software, which offers the possibility of bookmarking different words in the listening to go back to. This is a useful tool which could be used by all ages and abilities.

DIGITAL LEARNING OUTSIDE SCHOOL
How can we extend the language lab outside school?
· EmbedVLE links from the main school website
· Use a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) such as Moodle, which can be customised, with courses created for specific year groups and classes
· Create online vocabulary tests using sites such as www.vokabel.com
· Create a Wiki for your class - from Moodle, chat room
· Use the VLE for exam practice -Record questions and model answers for GCSE
· Incorporate SCORMS – self-marking tests www.wondershare.com Quizmaker
· Create an exam bank of sound files, etc, of past questions by topic
· Create authentic listening materials – songs: listen on Sanako, do the exercise in Word
e.g. matching Spanish and English
· Provide links for RSS feeds

GENERAL
The danger is that the language lab becomes a testing ground rather than an area of learning. It is important to have a team approach in the department, with each leading a course in the VLE, in order to spread the workload and maximise the potential.

TEACHING THE WORLD THROUGH PODCASTING (IOW CONFERENCE 08)

2008-10-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

Mark Pentleton of Radio Lingua Ltd took us on an entertaining journey through podcasting as the experts do it..
Partners in Excellence
Mark talked of his time as Coordinator of the Partners in Excellence project. Projects included a PiE Cast with interviews and listenings as learning elements. theverbcast.com, with French verb podcasts, appealed strongly to me. Pupils were given a verb a night to learn, combined with relaxation techniques, and then were sent a text message during the day to test.

Radio Lingua Network
Mark talked us through the many and varied podcasts which are on offer through Radio Lingua, including Coffee Break Spanish and French, My Daily Phrase for Italian and German, and One Minute Languages – 10 lessons in Polish, Irish, Russian, Japanese, Catalan, etc.
Moving on from Coffee Break Spanish, now available is Show Time Spanish with Lessons 1-4 building up vocabulary to understand the soap opera each time.

Lessons learned

Ensure that content is presented in the learner’s context.
Access – if you point it out to them, then they just might use it
Learners learn most by making podcasts
Podcasts are brilliant for sharing information, e.g. collaboration for teachers
Best podcast = 4 min summary of your lesson
Consider scripted vs unscripted
echnical lessons –equipment, ‘respect the ear’ – make the recording as good as possible

IOW CONFERENCE 08 -

2008-10-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of my posts about my experiences at the Isle of Wight conference. The first workshop I attended was by the entertaining Chris Fuller, entitled “ICT- THINKING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM BOX”. Chris talked about using ICT to motivate and to enhance learning, both inside and outside of the classroom walls. He himself has several blogs, both personal and for his school.
mrfulleredgehill@yahoo.co.uk
www.chrisfuller.typepad.com
www.edgehillcollege.typepad.com
During the course of the talk, various questions were raised. One question was if the school had any issue with uploading videos / pupil work, etc, as this can be a common problem nowadays. A good suggestion to get around this if it is an issue in your school is to use puppets or masks.
The work does is very much in line with the new curriculums in Northern Ireland and England, with a strong emphasis on Assessment for Learning. Peer assessment takes place whereby pupils listen to their classmates and leave feedback in the form of 'Two Stars and a Wish'. Pupil improvement is an obvious outcome as pupils ‘steal’ the best phrases they hear when they listen to each other's work
Chris showed us the Flip Ultra camera which is easy to use, particularly given its USB port.
In fact, Chris made the whole thing look easy and it has inspired me to go back to school armed with this information to talk to the powers-that-be about our own school blog...

IOW CONFERENCE 08

2008-10-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

I returned yesterday from the Isle of Wight conference 08, exhausted and overstimulated but with a heap of inspiration, an armful of notes to blog about and loads of new friends. It was a truely amazing experience and I look forward to sharing all that I learnt with you over the next few posts. As you may also have noted, it also prompted me to create my own wee me!

2008-10-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

Here I am in my hotel room on the Isle of Wight, getting ready to go out and meet fellow enthusiasts for the Isle of Wight Conference 2008. I am fortunate that my school have funded my trip here and I am excited about all the workshops I will be attending over the next two days. I will post here as soon as I am able..

PINK FOR OCTOBER 2008

2008-10-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

My blog is going pink for October to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. See the website http://pinkforoctober.org/ for more information and to support the cause!

Whiteboard Challenge Task 3

2008-10-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

I really struggled with this task, as I found it hard to come up with a meaningful task incorporating the 'transparency' feature. Of course, I could just have used it to make a fancy background to my flipchart page, but I wanted to actually do something with it. I finally came up with the idea of using it when teaching time to my Third Years.
I created a flipchart page in ActivStudio 3 and inserted six blank clock faces, with a time written in Spanish underneath each one. Pupils came up to the board to draw the hands on the clock, according to what it said underneath. I then used the 'transparency' feature to make the text disappear, and pupils then individually wrote the times in Spanish into their classwork books, before coming together to feed back on the IWB.
I chose to make the text disappear, rather than the clock faces, as it is obviously harder to produce Spanish than to recognise it. Therefore, in this way we started with the easier task of text recognition before moving to production.
I was pleased with the task although the process to make the text transparent was somewhat laborious - possibly I have missed a shortcut? I would like it to be one of the options when I rightclick on the text.
I am interested to see what other language teachers have done with this task, given my lack of inspiration at the start.

Jing Project

2008-09-24T14:38:00.000-07:00

I have just used Jing to screencast an explanation of setting up a course on Learning NI, the VLE within Northern Irish schools. It was very straightforward to use, and easy to store and view the files. Colleagues have complained that they find it hard to follow typed instructions so I am hoping that this should be really helpful, both for staff and pupils.
It is easy to be intimidated by the amazing blogs that there are out there, with people doing wonderful things with Web 2.0 tools and ICT in general, but I have decided that this should not deter me, and I am going to chat about some of the tools that I have only recently discovered, even if others have been using them for years!

Whiteboard Challenge Task 2

2008-09-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

So I finally got to teach the lesson I prepared at the start of the week.. I decided to incorporate the use of sound files that I had learnt in Task 1 with the Infinite Cloning of Task 2. We are learning about 'En el colegio' and had previously learnt how to name the various subjects in Spanish. Today we revised the subjects , and learnt how to give opinions and reasons. We then did a listening activity, whereby the pupils listened to a series of statements I had recorded using Audacity. They then had to come up to the board and drag the appropriate symbols to reflect what had been said e.g. 'Me gusta el inglés porque es fácil' ('I like English because it is easy') Infinite cloning made the task easier for me in terms of making the flipchart, as the pupils had to use the opinions and reasons vocabulary more than once, so we used it as a 'Drag and drop' facility. I can see how I will use both these tools frequently in the production of flipcharts, although I am interested to see how others make different use of the Infinite Cloning tool

when technology lets you down..

2008-09-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

I have been trying in vain all week to complete Task 2 of the Whiteboard Challenge, but fate has been conspiring against me. The interactivity failed one lesson, then there was a fire drill and finally the cable from my data projector finally gave up the ghost! Overuse, I say.. Anyway, I am determined to complete it this week.
On a more positive note, we have accomplished a lot over the last week or so, in terms of Specialist School meetings with our community partners. Some of the primary schools are very excited at the propect of more collaboration, which is encouraging. If only we had time to carry out all the ideas we have had, we would be amazing ha ha!