The great news is that my Head of Department and colleagues have “bought in” to the idea of the French blog and we’re all working on ideas.
The lastest and most urgent project is podcasting for the Y11s so that they can practise for their orals. Hopefully they’ll be up and running soon. See link to Portland Place School (under Blogroll) for latest details!
This was my weekend’s pet project (apart from going to Chinese yesterday). Not yet viewed by colleagues, let alone students, but hopefully it will flourish - even if in an altered form. Will keep you posted! Susan Kambalu (see link on right hand side) has written a piece about it on her site (which has been inspirational and instructive for me as a novice).
The blog can be viewed by clicking on the Portland Place School link on the right hand side.
Well, I’ve just gone back to my fantastic Chinese classes at City Lit which run every Saturday afternoon. Having not studied Chinese for a year it was a relief to discover that I have not forgotten everything (just a lot!).
It also made me reflect on the pupils’ perspective again. Much of what the teacher said went over my head - however, he’s an excellent teacher and manages to keep everybody on board, by repeating simple language (forget about cognates) and by focussing on what each student DOES know. He manages to get a contribution from everybody - but grades his questions to the ability of the students. Something we all strive to do, but Ian is a master.
Anyway, I now have homework to complete for Saturday too!
This blog has been a bit quiet lately because I haven’t been in school, but I thought it was worth drawing attention to Susan’s latest comment about blogging. Note that when the pupils weren’t obliged to submit their email address to comment, some abused the system!
Lately, with colleagues from the IoE we were thinking about the use of film in the MFL classroom, and some great ideas and resources were produced - some people even made their own films. It’s also worth visiting sites like You Tube (search “Gratte Papier” on You Tube, for example, if you teach French), or www.pubstv.com to view and download adverts from all over the world. A few weeks ago I also showed my students the Simpsons in Spanish - visit www.mundofox.com - which worked very well as an end-of-lesson treat for good work.
Finally, many thanks to all visitors to this site - it’s great to see more and more visitors from all over the world. Keep the comments coming in!
I had wondered how to go about familiarising students with blogs and how to use them, but having attended an RE lesson last Friday at my old placement school I was given lots of good ideas. For Susan’s account of her lesson, go to the Transformation Teachers link on blogroll.
She based her class in the ICT suite which was ideal, and had set very clear, straightforward tasks on the blog which the students enjoyed. One of these tasks was the extremely useful “Thinkuknow” link about blogging safety. I was quite surprised how unfamiliar most of the students were about the concept of blogging - a reality quite far from my preconceptions that most young people are extremely familiar with it. They aren’t, yet.
I shall certainly be replicating this lesson (in the context of MFL) next year - imitation being the sincerest form of flattery! With the benefit of this experience, would I do anything differently? The lesson was very well planned and structured so I wouldn’t change much in my own lesson. Particularly nice were the clear, manageable tasks outlined on the blog. Perhaps I’d ask them to start with the web safety link because it was so useful, and perhaps before I got them working individually I would “post a comment” that they could all see, using the IWB at the front of the room, so that they all knew how to successfully submit comments.
Once again, Susan, thank you for an inspirational lesson - for your pupils and for me - which I am sure will be of benefit to my future students too.
Many thanks to our group today, especially Michelle. As a result of her ideas see SPANISH link on right hand side underneath Blogroll - espanol-extra. (Also I found a reliable Spanish dictionary site which you’ll see). Thanks for reminding me how fantastic You Tube can be. Copy and paste the following for the French trailer link for Spiderman, as well as a really sweet 10-minute trailer for Les Parapluies de Cherbourg… which might just be the first film I get on my LoveFilm subscription. Finally, I found the gazpacho man too, Michelle.
You Tube Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu5zBdSJurI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyNMcrXqe4g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5hqwl_BVvg&mode=related&search=
And don’t forget to pop round Tesco or other large supermarkets to look out for games like Michelle’s Bingo & lovely animal Snap cards (79p).
I have also just subscribed to www.mflresources.org.uk
Thanks to Ana for telling me about this site for free music downloads. I’ve downloaded some nice stuff (Bananarama amongst others!) … as far as I can tell, though, the choice isn’t massive. I was looking for French/Spanish speaking artists but haven’t found those yet. I could be missing something though, so if anybody else explores this please let me know how you get on.
There is an event at the Italian Cultural Institute on the morning of Saturday 16 June which promises to be interesting. I’ve signed up - anyone else going?
Also I see an October event at the Lycée Français which looks worth putting in the diaries.
In the throes of writing my final assignment I am interested to try out http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main
to help me plan it. This is a free mindmapping programme which could be of use in our classrooms. I’ll let you know how I get on. Thanks to Susan of Transformation Teachers who told me about the package. She has successfully used Openmind with her students which is similar, though not, I understand, free.
We had a wonderful Year 8 lesson yesterday where a small group went round school with two video cameras, taking footage of school buildings, classroom, uniform etc and commenting in Spanish. I have spent most of today splicing it all together with Windows Moviemaker, but of course what I’d do in future is make this a half-term long project - first they’d learn the language required, then they’d script the film, then they’d shoot it, and as an on-going project they would create their own movie at regular intervals - perhaps also using ICT lessons to do so.
I have had loads of help, support and advice from my colleague Susan - please visit her blog (see link entitled Transformation Teachers at St Thomas More on the right hand side). Many thanks for the write up, Susan!
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