Maternelle to Moliere

ICT and Languages Conference 2012

2012-02-25T17:19:00.002Z

It has been a fabulous day at Ililc 2 and I shall blog about it in more detail when I've got a bit more time. Here is the presentation I did today, ICT for the terrified, part one.

Ict for the terrified part 1

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Year 12 Study Day, University of Southampton

2012-01-28T15:35:00.002Z

On Tuesday 24th January I took a group of Year 12 students to the Spring study day for A Level linguists at the University of Southampton and organised by Routes into Languages.
The day started with an introduction by Zena Hilton, who introduced three university students. They talked about their positive experiences of doing a degree combining a language with another subject, for example German and Philosophy, Spanish and History, and German and Music. Southampton are particularly strong in encouraging students on other degree courses to study a language alongside, greatly enhancing their job prospects when they leave.
The students were then split into groups for the day and they attended three sessions in their chosen language. I followed a French group and attended two language sessions on gender equality in household chores - a fascinating topic, which was explored in two very different ways. One session was based around reading skills and I was impressed by the way a series of structured, group-based activities led to comprehension of the text. The other session was discussion based, again with a series of structured activities. At the start, the students were all given a card and told to move around and find a partner with the same card - it had a picture of a household job on it - then they discussed who does which jobs in the house, before moving on to a more advanced activity putting a cartoon strip in order and then discussing the stereotyping of household jobs. It gave students the confidence to realise that they would be able to cope with the language at university level and that they would be studying interesting and relevant topics.
A third session was a formal lecture on a cultural topic: perspectives on Paris. I found this session really interesting - a far cry from the lectures at my university, which we either slept through, or skipped. It started with a PowerPoint presentation about Paris and its suburbs, with some interesting and informative visuals, but it really came to life when the lecturer showed the students a documentary about the Paris riots of 2007 and gave them a worksheet to answer.
The final session was a taster in a choice of languages: Bulgarian, Italian, Swedish or Portuguese and the university had also provided a special Japanese session for some of my students who take Japanese GCSE in one year. I went to the Swedish taster - what an eye-opener! When you speak a language fluently, you just take it for granted and it was quite surprisingly difficult to be back at the beginning! But it was a great way of showing students how fascinating it is to pick up another language ab initio at university and making them aware that there is a wide variety of languages available for them.
The plenary was really useful, with facts and figures about the employability of language graduates and case studies of real students who had gone on to get fantastic jobs because of their languages - for example the graduate who applied for a job at Amazon, got picked up by the legal department there because of his language skills, and was trained in international company law.
For further information about studying languages at university, see: www.studyinglanguages.ac.uk.
All in all it was a very worthwhile day which my students and I really enjoyed.

Busy Times

2012-01-21T18:51:00.003Z

I know a few of my beloved #mfltwitterati have commented on my recent absence from Twitter, so here's a brief summary of what's been going on:

An opportunity came up for me to move to a sixth form college and work a bit more flexibly, so I took it. This is the first time I've been in A level since 1996. I absolutely love it, although the preparation and marking is substantial, not to mention aquainting myself with the syllabus.
As this job is part time, I'm also tutoring a couple of candidates at a small college where they do a different exam board. The two specifications are very different, so there's a lot more to prepare!
I'm also taking on tutoring - this is so varied, with children as young as 11, right up to business people! But it allows me free time during the day to plan lessons and it fits well around the family.
In addition to this, I've taken out a franchise and have set up my own little business teaching French to adults. This involved putting 2,000 leaflets through front doors over the Christmas holidays, assisted by my teenage son! I also advertised in the local paper, and was delighted when people started making enquiries. My first classes took place this week, with a beginners class at lunchtime and one in the evening.
There's been a lot of training and networking, both via the sixth form college (exam board training, NVQ training) and with training days in London for the business. Along with setting up tax and banking arrangements. And keeping my CPD going by attending a recent MFL twilight at a local school.
As I'm now teaching Spanish again, I've been getting a friend to tutor me, to get my language back up to a reasonable level, and have applied to go on a course, spending a mammoth six hours one evening on the application.
And as if that isn't enough, I'm hoping to do a spot of marking.
Madness, some might say and yes, I am extremely tired! But I'm loving every minute of it.
Anyway, I have been putting together a little blog of resources for my students at different colleges to use for their research - feel free to have a look: http://les-petites-infos.posterous.com/
So if I'm a bit quiet on the blogging and twitter front, that's why!

#ililc 2012

2011-11-13T22:23:00.003Z

One of my highlights of this year was the ICT Links into Languages Conference at Southampton University in February. It's hard to explain what exactly made it so special - there was a tangible buzz in the air all weekend as like-minded enthusiasts met and shared ideas. It was clear that there was a change taking place within the MFL world - this conference was led by grassroots classroom practice, where teachers had swapped ideas, using social media, to "flip" their classrooms. Blogging had become the norm for many teachers and practice was moving on so that teachers were not only producing their own blogs, but were getting whole classes involved in blogging - taking their classrooms to the world and bringing the world into their classrooms.

It was clear that technology had become an absolute necessity for many MFL teachers, with Flashmeetings being used to connect classrooms across the world, activities being filmed and collaborative work taking place on wikis. No longer the isolated individuals of a few years ago, teachers were constantly connected, largely through Twitter, and a whole online community was buzzing with shared discoveries and ideas.

So the forthcoming ICT Links into Languages Conference, at the University of Southampton on 25th and 26th February, will be an opportunity to connect again. One of the joys of last year's events was meeting friends from Twitter face to face for the first time and this will be an opportunity to reconnect.

But this conference is not just for the well-versed technological MFL teacher. I have a feeling that there are plenty of people out there who are desperate to try a bit of ICT in their classrooms but just don't know where to start, for any number of reasons. Maybe you are one of those teachers - perhaps you don't have the ICT support in your establishment, or you lack the time and confidence to get started, or maybe you are returning to work after a break. So I am running a couple of sessions called "ICT for the terrified", aimed at those teachers who really want to get into the ICT in MFL thing and need a bit of help with the basics.

There are a whole host of expert speakers presenting at #ililc 2: 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, Amanda Salt, Clare Seccombe, Lisa Stevens, Jenny Turner and Sara Vaughan.

So come along and join us - technophile or technophobe, you will be most welcome. Register now for a place at
www.languagessoutheast.ac.uk/events/ict-and-languages-conference-ililc-2012

The Language Show 2011

2011-10-19T17:09:00.003+01:00

I'm hoping to go to the Language Show 2011 at Kensington Olympia this weekend. I go every year if I can; it's a great opportunity to get some free CPD, catch up with friends and see what's out and about in the world of languages.

European Day of Languages

2011-10-19T16:52:00.007+01:00

Our school open evening coincided with European Day of Languages and I was delighted with the projects my Year 9 students made. There were some fantastic posters and PowerPoints and one of the boys made a short film.

For the open evening, the students brought in European food and I transformed my room into a Euro Cafe - we were busy all evening! I was delighted by the amazing European Day of Languages cakes some of the students had made - look how beautiful they are!

QR Codes to print out

2011-09-18T15:53:00.005+01:00

The wall display of QR codes has been popular with the kids, although we have found that only the iPhones seem to be able to read them. Most of the kids have Blackberry and we haven't yet found any reader that works satisfactorily. They've tried i-nigma but it doesn't seem to work for them, so we're going to have a look at Neo Reader, which works a treat on iPhone, Barcode Assistant, which has had mixed reviews, and Scanlife - hopefully one of these will work.
The students wanted a printout version of the QR codes so I've generated one for them and it's available for download here if anyone wants a copy of it.

Language Perfect World Championships

2011-09-12T11:55:00.003+01:00

My students are taking part in the Language Perfect World Championships this week. Last year's Language Olympics had a great motivating effect on my students last year when I was new at the school. It was brilliant to meet Craig from Language Perfect and Language World 2011. I'm really looking forward to this year's competition and so are my students!

Intercultural Understanding - why bother?

2011-09-11T09:14:00.008+01:00

One of the fantastic things about running a tiny department in a small school is that I can pretty much do what I like as regards the curriculum. Imagine how boring it would be to deliver the same lessons, year in, year out, based on a 20-year old text book. Following on from the events I attended in the summer term, I'm starting to embed intercultural understanding. It is so much more interesting. Last night I did some research about Le Havre, our twin town, for a series of lessons on transport within the module of town. How fascinating to discover that a tramway is being planned and to find a promotional video with animation of the planned route. How interesting to look at cycling in Le Havre and discover the Quadrathlon. And how fabulous to look at the funicular railway and watch a video taken on board. If I'm enthused by this, the kids are going to be. Think of the discussions and comparisons we can develop in target language, even at a simple level. Why bother? Because technology is changing the way our students learn. It's like moving from black and white to colour.

Le havre

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My Favourite QR Codes for Modern Languages

2011-09-08T17:21:00.008+01:00

I've spent the last couple of evenings making a slideshow of QR links to my favourite websites for MFL. It's for a wall display in the classroom - I've printed it out and put it on my wall, but as it's not exactly portable for the students, I'm going to give them some handouts of the slideshow as well as well as posting it on my teaching blog. Please feel free to download and use it if you find it useful. There's a photo of the wall display underneath.

Favourite QRs for modern languages

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Prezi

2011-09-04T15:34:00.008+01:00

Still messing about with last-minute stuff, I'm starting on some ideas for European Day of Languages, as I'm going to get my Year 9s to make some resources. So I've been playing around with Prezi for the first time. It looks a bit complicated when you first sign up, but it's surprisingly easy to use. There's an online tutorial which helps you get started with no trouble. One of the things I like about it is the "undo" arrow at the top of the user page. To my great delight, it takes two clicks to embed a Youtube video. It took me hours to embed a Youtube clip into Powerpoint the other day. Here's the link to my Prezi - it's only a little presentation but I think it's so much more attractive than PowerPoint.

Back to School

2011-09-03T20:35:00.001+01:00

Well, it's the last couple of days before the start of term and, despite having spent half the holiday working, I've still got a lot of last-minute stuff to do. Here's a link to a vocab mat I've made for the topic of En Ville with Year 8. It's adapted from a template I downloaded from MFL Resources.

Click here to download the vocab mat.

More QR codes

2011-08-20T18:33:00.005+01:00

This QR code is a link to my teaching blog. I've been experimenting with adding Zondle games to it for the start of next term. I''m amazed by how quick and easy the whole process was, although it's a bit disappointing that the games won't load on my iPhone; I'll have to find a way round that.

Starting with QR Codes

2011-08-19T11:52:00.008+01:00

There has been a lot of talk on Twitter this summer about the work people are doing with QR codes. Unable to bear the thought of being left behind, I have had a little look at them myself this morning and generated the QR code in the sidebar to the right. It was so easy that anyone could do it.

What are QR codes? Here is a quick guide from Wikipedia:

Put simply, a QR code is a 2-dimensional bar code into which you can embed links such as website URLs.

How can QR codes be used in the classroom? At a simple level, you can embed a link to a resource for homework into a QR code and display it at the end of your lesson. Students can take a photo of it on their mobile device and use the link for their work when they get home.

How do you read QR codes? I downloaded a free App called NeoReader onto my iPhone. Once it's installed, you simply point your camera at the QR code you want to read. It is scanned in and your phone will open the embedded content.

How do you generate QR codes? I used a website called qrcode.kaywa. To generate your code, you simply copy and paste the URL you wish to use and click "generate". It couldn't be easier.

All I had to do to embed my QR code into this blog was copy the code from underneath the image and paste it into the sidebar. So easy! If I can do it, anyone can.

New Schemes of Work

2011-08-04T21:19:00.002+01:00

I've spent the past few days writing next year's Schemes of Work for Key Stage 3. I've completely changed things, so that each half term, each year group is given a task which involves producing a resource, usually ICT-based. I've got two colleagues teaching Years 7 and 8 now and I will need to train them to use some Web 2.0 applications; it's all very exciting. Each topic has intercultural understanding and assessment for learning embedded. All the ideas I've used have come from the recent conferences I've been to and, although there are still four weeks of holiday left, I'm starting to look forward to next term already.

Social media find place in classroom - USATODAY.com | Diigo

2011-08-03T09:38:00.000+01:00

I found this interesting article on Diigo today; it makes a very convincing case for using social media in the classroom.
Social media find place in classroom - USATODAY.com | Diigo

#LanguageWorld2011 - What next?

2011-07-14T22:42:00.002+01:00

So, where next? It has certainly been a busy couple of weeks and I'm so enthused that I can't wait to write my new Schemes of Work, much to the disbelief of those around me, who think it's bonkers to spend holiday time on planning. But enthusiasm isn't something you can just put on a shelf and pick up in September and I'm really keen to get going with some of the brilliant stuff I've been lucky enough to see.

Needless to say, the MFL Twitterati are a massive part of my motivation to keep things going. It was fabulous to meet so many tweeps at the events I've been to. I'm not going to list anyone because I'll be bound to leave someone out, but suffice to say that meeting people in real life who you've got to know on Twitter is amazing. I've had so much stick in the past for not liking the text book and it is such a huge relief to know I'm not the only one.

Monday night's Flashmeeting was a great way to recap some of the ideas from recent days and catch up with other people's views and ideas.

There are a number of events planned for the next academic year:
-Next Flashmeeting - 26th September to coincide with European Day of Languages
-The Language Show at Kensington Olympia from 21st to 23rd October
#Ililc2 - University of Southampton, 25th - 26th February - details to be announced on Twitter and usual sources.

Right, that's me all said and done. Time for bed, where I can dream about Google Plus!

#LanguageWorld2011 - Martine Pillette

2011-07-14T21:58:00.003+01:00

In this session, Martine Pillette took us through a number of resources which address the Ofsted criticism: "Teachers made insufficient use of authentic resources".

- The film "Bonobos". Martine has transcribed the film trailer. The first time, students watch it and recognise any words they know. Then they decode new meanings. You read the text out; when you pause, the students have to guess how to pronounce the next word.

- The song "Aux arbres citoyens" by Yannick Noah, from Dailymotion. Using the meaning of the clip, not the lyrics (too complicated), pupils can put cards in order. They are given a slide of vocab to build phrases (on devrait, on pourrait, pourquoi) - they can construct phrases with advice on how to solve environmental problems.

- Using an authentic book. Martine has produced some lovely modules with the publisher Golden Daffodils. She showed us some ideas for using their books: -
- listen, looking at the text. Raise hand whenever what you hear is different from what you read
-look at a slide of 5 sentences - which sentence is not on the page in the book? Then put the sentences in the right order
- watch a video clip from the website linked to the book, look up a grid of key vocab in a dictionary, fill in the gaps to complete the words
- use this same vocab as a gap fill in a listening
- using cards, reconstitute sentences from the clip or text as a match-up, then listen and check, then put in chronological order.

This was a lovely presentation with so many ideas to make it easy for students to access authentic resources, building up key vocabulary without being swamped. Martine's ideas look easy to use and would engage and challenge learners - another source of inspiration for next year's planning.

#LanguageWorld2011 - Vincent Everett and Kate Shepheard-Walwyn

2011-07-14T21:38:00.006+01:00

I found this session very interesting because it linked language learning to tangible outcomes which Vincent and Kate had tried in their own school.

The link to Vincent's website and the notes on his presentation are here.

Some of the ideas Kate and Vincent talked about are outlined here:-

- perform something you have learnt - Francovision song contest
- use language in a real context - students at the end of Year 7 put on a French cafe for staff, serving French food, and a waiter from outside comes in to train them
- make a stamper trail/ quiz for French visitors to a local activity farm
- Flat Stanley penpal project - make a Flat Stanley each, take photos of them around town, send picture and letter to penpal (see picture above)
- Greenscreen filming
- making storybooks and radio jingles

Vincent gives his students a basic kit in the form of a fridgesheet, with enough grammar at once to fly. His fridgesheets can be found on his website.

There was a lot of really useful, evidence-based stuff here and it's given me plenty to think about in preparation for next year.

#LanguageWorld2011 - Chris Harte

2011-07-14T21:11:00.003+01:00

I have wanted to see Chris Harte with "Languages Reboot" for ages and ages but it hadn't worked out, so I was delighted to attend this session. The presentation itself is on his blog here, but what the blog can't show is the enthusiasm and energy in the room when Chris speaks.

Chris outlined 3 preconditions to learning:
- Ganas - what's in it for me? - catch students' enthusiasm
- Belief - I can't do it YET - change their mindset - you can improve
- Do something differently

Learning is: social, about making connections, a lifelong process.

He has a licence plate on his wall: C3B4me - to get students to engage with each other and develop independence instead of relying on the teacher.

Chris talked about Solo taxonomy - look at www.hooked-on-thinking.com. Basically, students go from understanding individual words to linking ideas and concepts and seeing the big picture of language and ideas.

Chris always starts off with big texts, from Year 7 upwards, to get students thinking about the langauge as a whole. They break the text down - this develops their skills of teamwork, analysis, evaluation and PLTS.

Coming as the first session of the day, this was a very hard act for anyone to follow; Chris is brilliant and I wish him every happiness in his move to Australia.

#LanguageWorld2011 - Language Perfect

2011-07-14T20:56:00.003+01:00

Last weekend I went up to London to ALL Language World 2011, at Imperial College. Despite being almost "literally" beside myself with excitement about meeting up with some of the MFL Twitterati again, I headed straight for Craig of Language Perfect when I got there, as we had arranged an 8.40 meeting. I signed up for September's Language Perfect World Championships a few weeks ago and wanted to catch up with Craig so he could give me a demo.

It was great to meet Craig and his mother, who he had brought with him all the way from New Zealand. He is full of enthusiasm and he is an excellent ambassador for his company. Here's a photo of us:

Routes into Languages Spelling Bee final, 6th July 2011

2011-07-14T20:22:00.009+01:00

On Wednesday 6th July, I took two of my Year 7 girls to Cambridge for the Routes into Languages Spelling Bee final, accompanied by their mothers.

If you don't know what the Spelling Bee is, I really recommend it. The event is a competetion organised by Routes into Languages. This year's competition was launched in September; to enter, you had to sign up on their website. The competition was open to Year 7 students of French, German or Spanish. There were 4 stages - class, year group, regional and national - and at each stage, students had to learn 50 words from a downloadable list, so the final was based on 200 words. My pupils learnt the German list. I particularly liked the theme of the stage 4 words, which was Olympics. My girls attended the regional finals in Brighton in the spring term and both went through to the national finals, so I was very proud of them.

Although the journey from Southampton to Cambridge was fraught and difficult, with train cancellations and delays, once we arrived at the venue, Homerton College, we were ushered straight into the German final, where Rachel Hawkes was about to start. She put the candidates at ease and the quality of the contestants was impressive to say the least. Candidates had one minute each to spell out as many words as they could. The words were generated randomly by a PowerPoint and projected onto a screen behind them which they couldn't see. They were given the words in English and they had to translate them into German, then spell them out using the German alphabet.

My girls didn't make it into the last 4 - the competition was fierce - but we went to watch and we really were amazed by the speed at which the finalists spelled out their words. The auditorium was packed with students, teachers and parents and I think this event has done a huge amount to raise the profile of languages overall. The mothers who came with me thought the whole event was really well organised and they both said their children had benefitted in many ways from the Spelling Bee. They had enjoyed learning the words and competing and it had also improved their overall confidence as well as giving them the opportunity to see a real Cambridge College. The girls themselves said they had had a lot of fun and learning the vocabulary had improved their overall memory skills.

I've asked Routes into Languages if there will be another Spelling Bee next year and I think details may be released in the autumn term. I can safely say that I will definitely be entering again!

Linguascope Conference - Lesley Welsh

2011-07-14T19:35:00.005+01:00

Lesley Welsh's session focused on websites to engage young learners. It's often hard to find the time to look for good websites for classroom use and it was really interesting to be guided through some great ideas. Here are a few of the sites Lesley showed us:
* Dynamite - a model agency with a French section - click on a thumbnail of the model to get a description. Ideal to engage students studying personal appearance, the website is easy to use and the vocabulary caters for all levels.
* MTV.fr - up-to-date, appealing and cool. Show students the pages about the artists - there are so many learning opportunities here.
* Pubs.tv.com - advert clips. Use as lesson starters to get students talking - ask them "de quoi s'agit-il?" Make cultural comparisons, look at global advertising, discuss why English companies have made French adverts.
* visite.net - estate agency in Quebec - look at French-speaking Canada, see what kind of houses people live in. Brilliant for all sorts of discussion and activities, intercultural understanding etc.
* meilleursprenoms.com - look at the origins of names, discuss les fetes, another great activity for intercultural understanding.
There is so much opportunity for making learning engaging, relevant and fun with these websites. Think how interesting it is for pupils to look at real models on a website instead of an outdated photo in a text book, or to look at houses in Canada instead of a diagram. There is so much potential for discussion and comparison and for students to explore other cultures. This was a really inspiring session and I'm definitely going to plan these websites into next year's schemes of work.

Linguascope Conference - Russell Stannard

2011-07-13T18:38:00.005+01:00

Russell Stannard's presentation, "Tools that get students talking", outlined some Web 2.0 tools which we can use for spoken work. He has all the details and links on his own website, Teacher Training Videos. Russell has used these applications in TEFL but they are extremely interesting within the context of MFL teaching.

* Mailvu.com - a video recording website. Students record themselves speaking and email it to the teacher. This is an ideal homework activity. As a teacher, you can then record your feedback on the activity and email it back to the student. The website is really user-friendly - the 3 steps of click/ record/ send couldn't be easier. This would be an easy application for students who are getting used to the demands of controlled assessment.

* Vocaroo.com - also has a webcam facility and the interface is even simpler than that of mailvu.com - you simply click to record and, again, it can be emailed.
Russell has done extensive research on feedback and all of the applications he showed us can be used to provide oral feedback to students - this takes personalised learning to a whole new level. The recordings are so easy to make that you can give individual feedback to a whole class-full of students with no difficulty. Think of the benefits to the students of having a running commentary of their work as opposed to a couple of written comments.

*Jing - I have used this a lot myself to make screenshots of pictures, but I was unaware that it could be used to make video recordings. For example, you can make have a clip, say from YouTube, running on your desktop, and record it on Jing with your own commentary of it, then save it and email it. Again, this has far-reaching uses, such as getting students to commentate on clips or make their own voiceovers. It can also be used by the teacher to record training videos - how brilliant if you are showing students how to use a new application, such as Glogster. For feedback purposes, you can scan in a piece of written work and have it on the desktop whilst you talk through the issues arising, highlighting relevant bits. Genius! There are a couple of downsides with Jing - you can't edit it, and you are limited to 5 minutes per recording.
I found Russell's presentation really inspiring; the technology is so simple but the potential for educators is enormous.

Linguascope Conference - José Picardo

2011-07-13T16:40:00.004+01:00

José Picardo's presentation, "ICT - Innovative and Creative Technologies", took us through eight Web 2.0 applications.
* Voki - José talked through some of the problems we experience in schools with Voki (it doesn't run or is blocked on a lot of networks) and suggested setting it as a speaking homework.
He puts pupils' Vokis on his blog and gets students to peer-assess each other with two stars and a wish.
He suggested showing them an example Voki at the outset, made by previous students, so that they can see what they can achieve with the application.
* Storybird - José showed us some lovely examples of Storybirds made by his students. Again, he has put the work on his blog and students have peer-assessed each other. This has worked really well and the comments the students have left for each other show a good grasp of the skills and language they have used, for example this comment by a Year 9 student: "it had many verbs in the imperfect tense and a lot of good vocab as well".
* Glogster - I've used Glogster a lot myself, as a result of José's enthusiasm for it at last year's event and it is an application which students absolutely love. You can see examples of his students' work here. They were given the brief: "find out about 2 Spanish-speaking celebrities and write about them" - look at the research and creativity that went into their glogs.

He also briefly showed us some more applications, all of which I have tried apart from Prezi, which is now on my To Do list!
* Wordle - word clouds - try putting a whole text in and getting students to spot key language, for example past participles.
* Prezi - to make a refreshing change from PowerPoint for presentations.
* Diigo - social bookmarking, allows you to highlight texts, annotate, and create class accounts for authentic activities.
* Goanimate - here are some examples from José's blog.
* Edmodo - one of my best-loved applications - try it if you haven't already done so.

Linguascope Conference 2011

2011-07-13T15:36:00.002+01:00

It's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks for me, not least because I took part in the British 10K London Run on Sunday 10th July, raising £200 for Diabetes UK. All the running around I've done over recent days certainly helped with the training and I was pleased with my finishing time of one hour eight minutes, especially as it was my first ever 10K event.

This is the first in a series of blogposts catching up with what's been going on. First up was the Linguascope Conference, at the Thistle Hotel, Brighton, which I attended on Saturday 2nd July. This is such a lovely location for an event, with its views over the sea front and a back door opening onto the famous Lanes. There was a good choice of speakers and I felt that this conference represented good value for money.

ALL Language World, Imperial College London, 7-9 July

2011-06-23T22:21:00.004+01:00

I am proud to be attending ALL Language World at Imperial College, London, on Saturday 9th July. This major event in the world of language teaching and learning will bring together a whole mix of language professionals, from well-known speakers to new teachers and everyone in between.

Language World is a fantastic opportunity to attend workshops and talks to inspire our ideas and practice. It is equally important as a chance to network with other language enthusiasts, share ideas and swap stories.

I feel very lucky to be attending this event and my message to anyone reading this is "hope to see you there!"

An inspirational day

2011-06-19T16:00:00.007+01:00

Last Saturday, I went up to London to the ALL June event, held at the French Institute. It was a inspirational day and, for a cost of only £10, worth its weight in gold. Hosted by Helen Myers, the talks were held in the Institute's cinema. The afternoon featured a series of short films but sadly I had to be elsewhere and had to miss that part.

The two key talks were given by Rachel Hawkes and Neil Jones. It is always such an amazing experience to attend one of Rachel's presentations; she is right at the forefront of excellent practice and her examples are firmly based on successful classroom experience. In "a medley of memorable materials", Rachel outlined some effective ideas for spontaneous talk and followed this with some incredible examples of CLIL, linked to Art and Music and a module about bread in Spanish. It was a real eye-opener to see how a simple topic like bread can be linked to cultural traditions like el Dia de los Muertos.

Continuing with the cultural theme, Neil Jones' talk on the use of authentic resources and cultural understanding gave some inspirational examples of how inter-cultural understanding can be firmly embedded into the modern languages curriculum at every level. He showed us examples of teaching colours by comparing British taxis and phone boxes with those in Spain. He had used statistics from the Internet to compare where Spanish people and British people go on holiday and linked this with PLTS by getting the pupils to complete a Venn diagram.

It really gave me a lot to think about as I begin to plan the curriculum for next year. Having almost finished my first year of running the department, I am ready to start making some proper changes next year.

The ALL event was also a great chance to meet some of the MFL Twitterati who live in other parts of the country, like Isabelle Jones, whose work I admire so much, and Stuart Gorse, creator of the fabulous Gorseville.

Housekeeping

2011-06-09T10:06:00.004+01:00

I'm taking advantage of a quiet week to do a bit of electronic housekeeping, but it has turned into an all-consuming activity!! It's so tricky finding time to read email properly and I realised there were a thousand emails in my inbox - I'd glanced at them but not done anything with them. So I've spent some time sorting them out. The first thing I did was to sort out the junk emails - it is amazing how quickly they accumulate from companies you might buy something from online once. I've gradually deleted them and unsubscribed myself. I find it very irritating that these companies add you to their mailing lists, often without making you aware that they are doing that. It's such a waste of time.

Then I looked through useful emails from ALL, mflresources and forums. I'm a bit ashamed to day a lot of these ended up being deleted because it's so long since they arrived. However, I looked at the more recent ones, read any useful links and bookmarked them on Diigo. I still don't really understand how Diigo works, but it's on my never-ending "to do" list!

Finally, and I really must congratulate mayself on this, I looked through some of the "favourites" I'd highlighted on Tweetdeck and added some of them to Diigo as well. I've read a lot of interesting stuff!!

This week I have also reorganised my documents on my computer and tried to put them into a system which enables me to actually find them, as well as backing them up on Dropbox again so I can access them from home. And I've cleaned up my school and home computers with C Cleaner and Defraggler.

So it's been a very busy week in the end, but I do feel a bit more organised and a bit less overwhelmed! Now all I've got to do is read all the updates on my Google reader .....

Happy Holidays

2011-05-27T14:07:00.004+01:00

I can't believe it's half term already. Things have been so busy lately that I just haven't had any time to blog. Having finally got all the controlled assessments out of the way at the start of this month, there has been so little time to do everything else. We've got summer exams looming at school and Year 10 are doing their first proper round of controlled assessment for me but it's been quite challenging fitting it in, as they are taking a number of their GCSEs early.

Two things keep me cheery though. The first is that, having built up a repertoire of Web 2.0 tools, I can take any group into the ICT room and they can have fun working independently. My most used Web 2.0 tools at the moment are Glogster and Popplet; certain groups also love using Edmodo and Wikispaces. During the year different applications have been popular, such as Wordle and Wallwisher, although I found that certain groups just couldn't be trusted with Wallwisher and I couldn't publish any of their comments! Students seem to try out various applications and then feel they have had enough, so I have to keep finding new ways of capturing their enthusiasm.

Another thing which cheers me up is Twitter - although I have less and less time to contribute, I still read it through all the time and make a note of new ideas. It is such a great learning resource. It has been great to meet up with some of the local MFL Twitterati a couple of times - this is something I really value, as being a department of one person sometimes feels like I am actually going crazy!

Ivory Towers

2011-05-08T19:40:00.002+01:00

One of the problems with being a one-person department is that it is very easy to become isolated. My classroom is up at the top of the school and away from the main hustle and bustle, which can add to that feeling. At the moment, the Internet connection to my classroom is not working and is not likely to be repaired for a few weeks, so that is also adding to the sense of isolation - I can't even catch up with emails at the start of the working day. Added to this, I've spent so much time over the last few weeks finishing off Controlled Assessment with Year 11 and dealing with the admin involved in getting it ready to send off, that I've hardly had time to follow anything that's going on in the MFL world.

However, thanks to my phone, I've still got Twitter, which is my lifeline of course, and even just popping in for a few minutes here and there is enough to remind me that everyone else is in the same boat with regard to CA, and plenty of other people are not finding time to keep up with other things at the moment. One of the really positive aspects of Twitter is that it is so easy to pop in and exchange a few words, catch up with people, catch up on what's going on, and pop out again.

Why bother with stressing about missing out on developments in the MFL world? Why not just shut the classroom door, forget about the Internet and shut the world out? Because languages are about communication. What's the point of teaching students langauge if they'll never use it in real life? What's the point of teaching students the same old thing, for an easy life, if they're not being equipped to deal with the 21st Century?

It's not always easy to stay connected when things conspire against us, but I'm so glad to have the contact with MFL Twitterati. If you're reading this and you're in a one-person department like me, with unreliable ICT access, like me, just sign up to Twitter and read a little bit about what's going on - you don't even have to contribute anything - but it makes you realise that we are all part of a much bigger picture.

What makes teachers reluctant to use Web 2.0?

2011-04-12T21:03:00.008+01:00

Since #ililc, I've been thinking about how to encourage more teachers to start using ICT creatively in their lessons. I think there are a lot of teachers who still don't understand what Web 2.0 tools are or where to start.

Yesterday, I did a quick bit of research on Twitter, by asking other MFL tweeters what they think makes some teachers reluctant to use the Internet/ Web 2.0. One of the things I love about Twitter is that you can get instant feedback from people who are properly informed. I've made this Wordle of their findings:

The biggest words are the ones which came up most in the replies. Lack of time, training, confidence and support were common themes. Another key factor was fear of the unknown. The Internet was frequently unreliable in schools, with filters either blocking everything or allowing too much and enabling students to wander onto other sites. The content and truthfulness of sites was questionable and textbooks were felt to be of higher value. Some of the replies stated that teachers were unaware of the possibilities that using Web 2.0 could open up. I'd like to encourage reluctant teachers to have a go at using ICT in their lessons.

Since changing my job in September, I've been working at a tiny school and am a one-person MFL department. Access to textbooks is limited by budget and the content is often uninspiring. If I didn't have the Internet I'd be living in a bubble, so it's an essential tool for me all the time. I still consider myself a novice and still have a long way to go before my classroom becomes properly connected to the outside world, but I'm entirely self-taught and the majority of my CPD comes from the Internet. Here is a Popplet which shows some of the ways in which the Internet has helped me in my teaching:

Learning how to use Web 2.0 effectively is far easier than it might seem - most of the websites shown above are very user-friendly and there are always teachers around online who can help out if it gets tricky. So if you're reluctant to use Web 2.0 and you're reading this post, just try one new idea and see how it works.

Happy Birthday, dear Blog

2011-04-03T12:43:00.002+01:00

This little blog is one year old today. I'm amazed that I've kept it going this long, given that I rarely feel I have anything useful to say. But it's such a great way of keeping a record of the stuff I've been trying out in my classroom.
It's been an eventful year, with changing back to secondary. Although it's not always been easy, it's been a lot of fun and it was definitely a move for the best. I'm doing a job I love and, one by one, the students are coming round to my way of thinking. Learning and fun can go together, they don't have to be bored to death in lessons but neither should they think that enjoying class means they can get away with not learning. I overheard someone the other daying saying there was too much use of the computer room going on and it was "like a bloody youth club". Well, good. The world has changed. The age of information has arrived and today's students have got to be able to make judgements and ask questions that we never had to deal with. So I will keep doing my little bit to get them connected and I look forward to my next year of blogging.

Tagxedo

2011-03-12T18:02:00.003Z

I'm starting the topic of Saying where we live with Year 10 this week and my students are going to use this Tagxedo image to generate sentences.

Glogster and other things

2011-03-08T20:46:00.007Z

Some of the other MFL Twitterati made some amazing Wordles of their blog pages last night. So as not to be left out, I've done one of my own:

I've become obsessed with Glogster and have spent the last few days playing around with it and seeing how it works. I think it's amazing and am sure my students will think so too. Year 10 German are going to be working with Glogster later this week. Here's an example I made for them.

From Generation X to the XBOX generation

2011-03-02T21:51:00.018Z

It's been a couple of weeks since the amazing #ililc event at Southampton, but the buzz is still going and it's taken me this amount of time to develop an overview of what I want to say about it.

I see myself as a typical Generation X-er. Born in the late 60s just before the first Moon landing, I grew up accepting that barriers are only there to be challenged. The so-called establishment of the Thatcher years, with its stultifying lack of imagination, made a student demonstrator of me and everyone else I knew. Our musical tastes reflected our mind-set; the more obscure, the better. Blandness was the enemy. Teaching, for me, was an opportunity to make a difference, to open people's eyes to the wonderful otherness of the unfamiliar in both language and culture.

So what a let-down it has been for me, time after time, to go into schools where the kids have been bored stupid by unimaginative teaching and unwillingness to relate to learners. Today's kids are the XBOX generation, they play games online against each other - a far cry from Space Invaders. Social networking is revolutionising our world even as I write this and if we don't tap into that, we might as well be using slate and chalk. The kids I know use their Facebook accounts to show their favourite video and film clips and to showcase their own websites.

Our role as teachers has changed. It's no longer enough to carry out role plays at the cafe. Today's learners know how to search for information; what we need to do is show them how to analyse and interpret that information and use it to communicate purposefully and creatively. And because we're only one step ahead of the kids, if that, we need to guide each other along this voyage of discovery.

For me, #ililc had three clear strands:
1. Sharing ideas about the thinking skills our pupils need;
2. Giving us hands-on experience with web-based skills;
3. The social networking we as teachers use to share our enthusiasm and ideas.

1. Thinking skills

Isabelle Jones is such an inspiration and I'm fairly sure she never gets any sleep. Her presentations on developing the use of ICT and using personal learning and thinking skills gave some outstanding examples of excellent practice, both in terms of using web-based resources and of how to challenge learners far beyond acquisition of language into analysis and creativity. Isabelle has uploaded her presentations onto her blog so I'm not posting them here. If you're reading this and weren't at #ililc, have a look.
Esther Hardman took us through her school's experiences with ICT and she showed us how wikis, avatars and videoconferences had motivated her students. Coming from an environment not so long ago, where I was criticised for abandoning the text book, it was such a relief to see how Esther's pupils had benefited from collaborative learning and using their language in meaningful situations.

2. Hands-on experience
Amongst the many session on offer, I went to MYLO with Suzi Bewell, Making language games for your VLE/blog with Jo Rhys-Jones and How wikis can transform learning in MFL with Alex Blagona. This carried on from the valuable hands-on experience we had at the Isle of Wight conferences, where Joe Dale taught us to podcast. All three sessions were really useful because it gave us the opportunity to try things out. Since #ililc, I have set up a wiki with my Year 10 German group, signed up for MYLO and tried to get my head around making some new games.

3. Social networking for teachers
What made this conference so special was the fact that so many of us already knew each other on Twitter. Twitter has transformed the way we work. The online MFL staffroom which is open 24 hours a day, if you've got a question there's always someone who knows the answer and if you've tried something that worked well, everyone else shares your enthusiasm. Meeting up with people in real life for the first time was like meeting long lost friends. The Twitterfeed which was played throughout was fascinating, giving us constant information about what was going on in all the sessions. And those of us who weren't acquainted on Twitter have started following each other, and so the network widens. I could go on and on about the MFL Twitterati, what an amazing, enthusiastic, positive and open-minded group of people. I'm not going to name anyone because I'm bound to leave someone out, but it is so fantastic that we all share a common purpose.

So, finally, #ililc was such a huge event that it will spark a wider change in MFL teaching, because more and more teachers are going to cotton on to the idea that lessons need to be fun, relevant and challenging. But none of this would have been possible without Joe Dale, who has worked tirelessly to bring ICT into our classrooms. His fascinating keynote address took us through the whole history of the ICT in MFL movement and I hope that he's proud of the role he has played in that.
This Monday's MFL Flashmeeting gave us an opportunity to reflect on what we learned at #ililc and discuss how to take it forward. The work has only just begun...

ICT Links into Languages Conference, 12-13 February

2011-02-12T15:36:00.003Z

I'm buzzing with ideas after this weekend's conference. It was amazing to meet up with so many people from Twitter and share ideas. One of the comments which a few people have made about the conference is that it was refreshing and inspirational to take part in a CPD event delivered by classroom teachers who are so excellent at communicating their ideas and experience of things that have actually worked in their lessons.

Predicatably enough, I'm snowed under with work and also very tired today! So I'll update properly when I've got time to do it justice.

There's a link to a few photos on Flickr here.

Preparing for Ililic

2011-02-11T17:08:00.002Z

I'm really looking forward to the ICT Links into Languages conference tomorrow at Southampton University. I'm hoping to pluck up the courage to speak at the Show and Tell in the evening and am planning to talk about how Twitter has transformed my teaching. Here is the presentation I've made.

Ililc presentation

View more presentations from Annalise Adam.

Exasperation and creativity

2011-02-10T09:00:00.020Z

I've tried out a number of new ideas over the past two weeks. One of my favourites is the Mug of Misery, pictured above. I can't take any credit for this at all; I got the idea from Dominic McGladdery on Twitter. It's filled with lolly sticks with the pupils' names on them and when you want them to answer a question you pull out a stick at random. I got the lolly sticks from eBay. The kids love it. Another couple of ideas which have worked really well are the Hat and the fruit machine from classtools.net, both of which are random name generators. It takes the pressure off me and the kids find it very entertaining to see who'll be picked next.

I've had success in engaging these groups in the ICT room before now; they loved the Language Olympics and they were really motivated. So I've been trying to find something else which would be fun. I tried out Quia and have found that works well. It's very easy to upload vocabulary and create games and it keeps track of their scores, which helps to keep them on target.
But their favourite by far is Fling the Teacher from Contentgenerator.net.They love this game and I've tried to devise quizzes which will really test them out.

>
The next thing I'm going to try out is Zondle. I love the look of this website; the games look as if they will really engage my learners. I just need to find a bit of time to input some vocabulary, which I hope to do in the next couple of weeks.

All of my teaching resources can be seen on my teaching blog, http://languagesmc.typepad.com

Keeping Focus

2011-01-29T16:58:00.005Z

I'm trying to find something to keep a particular class focused. They're preparing for controlled assessment so I need activities to generate or revise vocabulary and phrases. So far today I've come up with four ideas thanks to my fabulous PLN on Twitter. The Wordle above will be a lesson starter to create phrases. The fruit machine below is another lesson starter which is slightly more challenging because they have to build a whole sentence around one item of vocabulary. I'm also going to work on diamond 9s to develop their thinking skills by ranking health problems in order of seriousness and I've generated some quizzes on Quia. Fingers crossed!

Fruit machine link

La Forme Quia activities

Language Trends

2011-01-27T08:59:00.003Z

According to the Guardian, results of the CiLT Language Trends survey, released today, show that just 36% of state schools are now teaching a foreign language to the majority of pupils aged 14 or 15, whereas in private schools the figure is 94%. This worrying discrepancy shows a gap which will lead to serious difficulty for today's cohort when they apply to universities or for jobs. The article can be read here.

Year 9: Einkaufen

2011-01-26T17:47:00.001Z

I set my Year 9 German group the task of making a poster of shops. Look at this beautiful Monopoly board one of the pupils made! It's so rewarding when pupils come up with great ideas like this.

Making the Case for Languages

2011-01-25T14:51:00.009Z

I have been reading the Ofsted report Modern Languages: Achievement and Challenge 2007 - 2010.There is plenty for MFL teachers to be proud of and there are examples in the document of teachers using target language successfully in the classroom, leading to pupils having increased confidence in their ability to express themselves. There is evidence of schools developing pupils' intercultural understanding through KS3, with an awareness that this is a strand of the KS2 Framework. However, there is, in my opinion, far too much criticism of MFL teaching although this is partly attributed to the constraints of the GCSE.

Despite the limitations and headaches caused by the GCSE, the Government's new EBacc puts MFL firmly back on the agenda, with schools to be judged by 5 A*-C including English, Maths, Science, MFL and a humanity. But this has led to accusations of elitism and a return to outdated modes of assessment in a world where there is an ever-increasing demand for vocational qualifications.

However, in the national curriculum review, launched last week, Michael Gove announced that the list of subjects guaranteed to remain compulsory will be cut to English, Maths, Science and PE. So where does that leave schools with regard to the EBacc? Apparently he is "leaving the door open" to making MFL compulsory at GCSE. I have mixed feelings about this. One the one hand, it will certainly raise the perceived value of MFL again. On the other, I can't really see how it will work, given the numbers of MFL departments which have been cut the numbers of pupils for whom alternative accreditaion is real and achievable at the moment.

I also note that University College, London has now said that a Language GCSE will be a requirement for all undergraduate entries. If students don't have this, they will have to take a language module in the first year of their degree course.

Reading about Speak to the future - the Campaign for langauges, I am greatly cheered by this brave campaign to equip learners at every level with understanding and qualifications in languages. It is vital that we change British attitudes to foreign languages if this country is to remain a key player in the global economy.

I was therefore saddened to learn that the government has cut funding for Links into Languages from 31st March and I hope that alternative funding can be found so that we do not lose this vital service.

Happy New Year

2011-01-09T22:00:00.002Z

I am full of enthusiasm for the new year, as I have booked myself into the ICT Links into Languages event on 12-13 February at Southampton University. I can't wait to meet up with inspirational MFL colleagues and find out what they're doing in the classroom.

Christmas Activities

2010-12-02T21:00:00.007Z

Well, the season of exams and reports is upon us but I have not had much luck today, as I've been snowed in with my kids and it's been hard work keeping them busy. However, I've managed to do a bit of research whilst entertaining them and have added some Christmas resources to my school blog. There were a couple of other German websites I really liked. This one has lots of lovely Weihnachtsbasteln for children:
Grundschule Wildschwannbrook

and this one has a huge amount of Christmas activities:
Familiehauenstein

Busy Times

2010-11-20T23:14:00.003Z

Things have been very busy at school at the moment, as we have exams looming for all year groups. As it's my first year back in secondary, I have been trying to get to grips with the controlled assessments. It's quite tricky dealing with having one exam board for Year 11 and another for Year 10 (my choice) as well as getting to grips with the overall changes. I really appreciate following the debate on mflresources; there are so many knowledgeable people out there and it is invaluable for me, as the only KS4 languages teacher in my school.

Edmodo

2010-10-19T23:01:00.002+01:00

I logged onto Edmodo tonight to see what my Year 10 German class got up to during their cover lesson yesterday while I was on a course. It was pretty impressive. They've managed to insult each other quite imaginatively in German, which is one good way of encouraging creativity - although not exactly what I intended! But they have also found and uploaded lots of video clips of German songs and mini movies from YouTube, which just shows how the Internet is improving their learning all the time and inspiring them to find things out. It was also interesting to see how many of them had logged on over the weekend and chatted to each other about the homework.

They've also posted lots of relevant phrases about the media, in German, on our Wallwisher page. It's great to see that they have all had a go - it's so much more interesting for them than writing out phrases in their books.

The Language Show

2010-10-17T18:19:00.005+01:00

I went to the Language Show at Earls Court yesterday and attended a couple of really interesting sessions by Rachel Hawkes, which are available to see on her blog, http://www.rachelhawkes.typepad.com/linguacom

The Teachers' Lounge, hosted by Linguascope, was a great place to meet other teachers, including Isabelle Jones, whose blog is an inspiration to me.

The afternoon finished with a Show and Tell, organised by Joe Dale and Helen Myers. It was great to see so many innovative ways of captivating our pupils' interest and enthusiasm.

All in all it was a great day and I look forward to putting some of yesterday's ideas into practice in the classroom this week, after tomorrow's training at OCR.

New Blog

2010-10-15T13:13:00.003+01:00

Have just tried out the new blog with my Year 10 German option class and they really enjoyed it. I spent the first part of the lesson showing them the blog on the interactive whiteboard and the second part in the ICT room with them. They loved Edmodo in particular and are so much more enthusiastic about posting their homework online than handing in their books. They really liked Wallwisher too, although they were a bit confused at first, thinking it was a platform for interaction. However, they got the hang of it and posted up all sorts of German phrases about media. Unfortunately Tagxedo wouldn't run on the network, but they are going to access that from home and post their work to me on Edmodo.

It makes such a difference to have found something that really gets them interested.

Bees and Carrots

2010-10-12T21:49:00.005+01:00

We're still doing the Language Olympics, although the scoreboard has mysteriously frozen with only 2 days of the competition left. Lots of people have been emailing Language Perfect about it, but as our day is their night, I guess we won't hear anything until tomorrow. Let's hope it can be fixed easily - my pupils are really enjoying competing against each other.

I've just registered my Year 7s for the Routes into Languages National Year 7 Spelling Bee. This competition has just been launched and it runs until the end of July. Pupils are given a list of words to learn. They have to translate each word from English, then spell it back in the second language (French, Spanish or German). We're doing French and German. The class rounds are this term, with school and regional finals next term and England and Wales finals in July. Another great way of getting pupils motivated.

It's been another evening of following up links to resources on emails and the Internet and I found a brilliant Angry Olympics video tonight, which really made me laugh. What a great idea and a brilliant way to engage kids. It's from Universed at Newcastle University.

European Language Olympics

2010-10-09T22:10:00.002+01:00

This week we have been taking part in the European Language Olympics, run by Language Perfect and ALL. This online competion runs from 27th September to 14th October, the last day of the Commonwealth Games. Pupils have been battling against each other, some of them spending hours on the competion in the evenings to regain top place. It's a great way of increasing the pupils' motivation and engaging them in active language learning.

A Fresh Start

2010-09-28T21:06:00.002+01:00

Here's my room looking all bright and shiny with new displays.

Meine Schultuete

2010-09-28T20:59:00.000+01:00

New School

2010-09-28T20:43:00.002+01:00

I've been at my new school for three and a half weeks now and am finally finding time to post to my blog. It's been pretty hectic, taking over a department which needs a bit of tlc, and getting to know the kids. It's only a small school (about 180 pupils) but I teach all of them, most of them for both French and German, so it's really important for me to keep finding new ways to engage their enthusiasm.

We had our Open Evening last night and this proved to be a great way of getting the kids to take ownership of their learning. In Year 7 German, we looked at the topic of Schultueten and the pupils made some of their own, learned the names of pencil case objects and created a wall display. Year 9 pupils wrote letters about their school holidays for a German display and made posters about the topic of le film et le cinema for French. With a bit of help from the fabulous resources at CILT, I put up an EDL display - great timing - and a Languages Work display, and we were ready to open up our European cafe last night. Pupils from all year groups brought in an amazing selection of food, and we were assisted by a group of pupils who had dressed themselves up in stripy tops and berets.

It was a great way to get to know the kids, and the parents as well and a fantastic way to start to make myself at home in my new classroom.

Linguascope Conference

2010-06-26T22:39:00.003+01:00

I have just got back from the Linguascope Conference in Brighton. It was a truly amazing weekend. The speakers were fantastic and the setting, at the Thistle Hotel, was beautiful, with fabulous views of Brighton beach and the sea. It was helped by the lovely hot weather.
The first session I went to was given by the wonderful Lisa Stevens, who talked about using YouTube in the classroom. She showed us some really useful and entertaining clips and explained how to embed video into blog posts - she made it so simple that even I understood it! Her enthusiasm is catching and it was great to catch up with her again.
Rachel Hawkes gave a great presentation about using phonics and spontaneous speaking. I found her session really useful - if I'd known I was going to be a teacher, I would have done phonetics at University instead of Medieval French. I've always felt a bit ignorant about phonics, so it was great to get some ideas. Her ideas about using high frequency words and generating questions were also invaluable.
After a superb buffet lunch and a little break on the beach, I went to a session presented by Martine Pillette, who wrote the materials for the New Secondary Curriculum. She also talked about spontaneous talking and phonics - again, it was a really useful session with plenty of ideas to work on.
The afternoon finished with a session by Alex Blagona, who I was delighted to meet, after following him on Twitter. He went through his A-Z of web applications and made them look so simple that, once again, I actually understood. Pretty impressive.
The gala dinner in the evening was lovely and I was lucky enough to sit between David Noble and Jose Picardo, so the company was delightful. The after dinner speech was given by Stephen Clarke, author of A Year in the Merde. He gave a hilarious account of his dealings with the French and his experiences of trying to communicate with them.

The first session I went to this morning was given by Jose and, again, it was really helpful. He went through his top 10 web applications and I've now got plenty of ideas for when I start my new job in September. He explained everything really clearly with plenty of examples and made it seem really simple.
Then I went to a session by Jen Sutton on collaborating with other departments. This is something I'm very interested in, having written the Year 1 scheme of work by embedding cross-curricular topics.

The conference has really inspired and motivated me. It is wonderful to listen to people who clearly know what they are doing and explain it so clearly, and it's given me the confidence to feel I can try lots of new things out over the summer holidays before starting my new job. It was also great to meet some of the people I follow on Twitter, the ladies from ALL and the Linguascope team, as well as making some great new contacts. So as I prepare to change jobs, I am very much looking forward to developing some great new projects.

Expo 2010

2010-05-04T21:27:00.002+01:00

Here is an edited version of a slideshow I used to teach intercultural understanding and opinions - the slides that were not of relevance beyond that particular lesson have been removed.

Expo2010

View more presentations from Annalise Adam.

La Chenille Qui Fait des Trous

2010-04-19T16:25:00.002+01:00

This is a slideshow of La Chenille Qui Fait des Trous (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), which I used with Year 1 for World Book Day. Please note that the slides are copied from a wonderful resource I found on TES Resources. I then used a French version of the book to provide the text.

La chenille qui fait des trous

View more presentations from Annalise Adam.

AfL

2010-04-19T14:29:00.002+01:00

This is a slideshow from a presentation I did at staff INSET in February 2006 - it's outdated now, but it's a useful reflection of where we started off at that time.

Assessment for learning in modern foreign languages2

View more presentations from Annalise Adam.

Wallwisher

2010-04-14T20:55:00.002+01:00

I've been playing around with Wallwisher and have made an example showing the five strands of the MFL KS3 Framework.

Thanks to MFL Colleagues

2010-04-13T21:49:00.002+01:00

This wordcloud from Tagxedo shows some of the themes I have learnt about over the last two weeks. It has been very interesting catching up with all the changes to the secondary curriculum since I changed age group in 2007. I couldn't have done it without help from MFL colleagues on Twitter - it really is the world's best staffroom.

Cross-curricular

2010-04-11T19:31:00.002+01:00

One of the great things about teaching another subject along with MFL is the opportunity for cross curricular work. This year, I'm teaching Year 6 both French and RS. In RS, we looked at the Epiphany in the weeks leading up to Christmas, so it was great to be able to use that prior learning when we looked at the same theme in French in January. Their display work on the Epiphany was still on the board and they used it to make some simple descriptions. The knowledge from RS also helped them to understand why it's customary in France to eat Galette des Rois on 6th January.

Using Display

2010-04-10T19:34:00.001+01:00

The display above is part of a project on the topic of "En Ville" with Year 7. Once they had learned the key vocabulary, I let them loose on my display board, using the book French on Display, by Belair/Folens, for inspiration. The pupils designed their own buildings and drew the street scene directly onto the backing paper. The finished product was a great resource which we used again and again, for example in role playing activities asking for directions, and as the basis for a written piece describing their town.

Mini-Book Project

2010-04-09T16:50:00.000+01:00

Last September, we organised a whole-school French Day to coincide with European Day of Languages. As part of this, in July, we took part in the Mini-Book Project, organised by King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford. This was a brilliant way of finishing off the summer term with an interesting project. At the end of term, the mini-books were collected in ready for display in September - a selection of them can be seen in this photo. The winner, "Gary L'Escargot", was announced on the French Day.

Other activities we did on the day itself included:
- a French assembly, with the "Our Father" sung by Years 6 and 7
- a French cafe, with Year 8 pupils as waiters
- a drama event, in which Year 6 acted out a French version of "Little Red Riding Hood"
- a French menu for lunch
- a Boules contest for Years 3, 4 and 5 at lunchtime
- a French poetry workshop for Year 7
- a performance of "Les Trois Mousquetaires" by a visiting French theatre group.

It was really exciting to get the whole school involved in this way and it was a great way to spark everyone's enthusiasm at the start of the autumn term.

Ikea puppets

2010-04-07T18:39:00.000+01:00

These are some of the puppets I use with Year 1. They're about £5 for ten, from Ikea. The children love them and even the quietest ones are able to talk via their puppets.

Le Printemps

2010-04-06T20:24:00.000+01:00

This is a slideshow for Year 1 French when we were looking at the theme of Spring. It linked in with what they were doing in their other lessons. We played games using vocabulary from the slideshow and then they had a worksheet each to colour in and put in their French folder.

Le Printemps

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Le Petit Prince Slideshow

2010-04-06T20:04:00.000+01:00

Le Petit Prince

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This is a slideshow I made for Year 1 when we did World Book Day. I got the pictures from the Internet and used a children's board book version of the story, bought in France, for the text. I showed them the presentation and read it to them first,then they joined in with key words. Then I gave them a set of pictures and key words each; they had to reconstruct the storyboard and match the right words to the pictures. Not bad for a class of five and six year olds! It was a great link with some of the skills they had been using in Literacy and we all had a happy lesson.

Copyright

2010-04-06T16:57:00.000+01:00

I am very pleased with myself for uploading the slideshow "A la Ferme". However, Number one son thinks it might get me into trouble because the images in the slideshow are from istock photo. As a newcomer to sharing slideshows, I have no idea what the situation is with copyrights. If anyone knows, please can you tell me?

A La Ferme

2010-04-06T16:53:00.001+01:00

Here is a slideshow I made for Year 1 French

A La Ferme

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2010-04-05T17:52:00.000+01:00

One of the challenges I took on when I moved from KS3/4 to KS1/2 was to redesign the French Scheme of Work for Years 1 and 2.
The SoW had to be cross-referenced with other areas of the Early Years curriculum. I began by holding a series of meetings with the Head of Early Years, in which she outlined the curriculum and we discussed areas which particularly lent themselves to cross-curricular development.
I then thought about the key language skills we could reasonably expect from children aged 5 - 7 and decided to focus on recognition of new vocabulary and sound patterns in familiar contexts, moving to linking written words to sounds, recognising individual words and copying out key words to learn spelling patterns.
The Scheme of Work which I developed for Year 1 is closely linked to the curriculum, with strands such as "Toys old and New", "Spring", "On the Farm" and "When Granny Was a Girl". I generally make and use PowerPoint presentations for whole-class work, followed up with games and matching activities.
Puppets are an absolutely essential element to these lessons. Every lesson starts with each child choosing a finger puppet, which they use for warm-up activities. These activities typically include saying "bonjour", discussing the weather, working out the date and revisiting vocabulary from the last session.
Songs are another key element and I have a variety of resources which I incorporate as often as is appropriate. One of my favourite resources is Cha Cha Cha, from www.little-linguist.co.uk - these songs can be incorporated into almost any lesson.
One of the key strands is acquiring vocabulary from a familiar context. I have worked with La Chenille qui Fait des Trous (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), making a PowerPoint resource and a big book,to replicate the experience the children get in their Literacy sessions. I also owe huge thanks to NGfL Northumberland and their excellent fairy tales for MFL.
The children really enjoy their French lessons, as do I, and they do remember vocabulary from one session to the next. Through our puppet work, they have developed confidence with high frequency words and phrases, and even the quiet ones are able to greet each other in French and describe the weather.

First Post

2010-04-03T15:54:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my new blog. I'm going to use it to share my ideas, views and resources about MFL teaching.