The Langwitch Chronicles

The Langwitch Chronicles has moved

2009-02-20T08:40:00.002+00:00

The Langwitch Chronicles has moved and can now be found at:
http://helenabutterfield.net
I hope to see you there soon :o)

7 things you may or may not know about me!

2009-02-07T11:34:00.003+00:00

I love a challenge (:o$) and earlier this week, Lisa Stevens gave me a huge one by tagging me in this meme. Curiously I was also tagged for a "25 random things about me" thingie on Facebook this week too and I found that rather easier than this to do! Anyway, if you've read that, then you may find that I'm repeating myself is some place, but really I'm not interesting to enough to have over 30 things that are random or that people might not know about me! So here we go:

I always start with this one, I'm deaf in my right ear after having had meningitis 3 years ago. At least that's the worst thing that happened as a result of that.
I'm a control freak and hate not being in charge of things. I really dislike that fact that at work I'm always at the mercy of other people's decisions.
I have absolutely no will power at all, which is why just about every diet I try fails.
I find it really hard to say "no" and therefore end up taking far too much on and rushing to get things finished.
My favourite colour is wine red (hmmm, curious that!)
I hate doing the housework and would have a cleaner if my husband would let me! (I even thought of getting a secret one but he'd probably figure it out when the house was clean and tidiy for a change!)
It really, really, really frustrates me that most of the kids I teach see no value in the subject that I teach and that , despite working at a Language College, other subjects have a much higher profile within my school that MFL. I can't understand that people don't see the importance of being able to communicate with others and that learning a language can add so much value to one's life. There are so many things in my life that I could not have done and so many people I would not know, if I couldn't speak French and German (oh and a little bit of Spanish!).

OK, so now I need to tag some people...maybe they've been tagged before, maybe they haven't. So here goes, Amanda Salt, José Picardo, Marie-France Perkins, Isabelle Jones,

Turning into a naughty school girl?

2009-01-23T21:02:00.006+00:00

Yesterday, I was privileged enough to attend the ISA briefing at Regent's College, to help schools who are hoping to gain the International School Award understand how to compile their portfolios of evidence. This blogpost is not about that! So, why mention it now? Well, one of the speakers (whose name escapes me at the moment) had a quote "dead fish can only float down stream, live fish can swim upstream". I've no idea what it means but felt that it was quite apt fo me at this moment in time. I've recently been feeling like I was stood still and could go no further with my ventures into new technologies, in the situation that I'm in, upon thinking about this quote I felt like maybe there was something I could offer others after all and that maybe I could re-awake my enthusiasm.

Upon my arrival back at work today I had a look at what I was going to be doing...obviously using those well-prepared 3 part lesson plans that I create for every lesson that I teach...and it occured to me I could do a section of a lesson involving using the sound recorders on mobile phones (I'd been thinking about mobiles ever since watching Chris Fuller's presentation at the IOWconference about use of mobile phones in the classroom). At my school mobiles are banned, as such, but pupils shouldn't have them turned on in class. I fore-warned a couple of collegues at break who all said "go for it", so I did.

It was my Yr10 NVQ Spanish class...so anything to avoid me having to teach/speak Spanish is a blessing...and we were learning how to understand/make phone messages about dates and rooms booked in hotels. We looked at some models, researched some vocabulary and did a listening exercise then wrote our own messages. Then I asked who had a mobile with them (halting hands rose) and then I asked who had a voice recorder on their phones (again, all hands half-way up, as they started to worry about what I was going to ask them to do!), so, I asked them to get their phones out and record their messages. Of course there was hysteria "wouldn't dare", "can't do that" etc...but then a cool girl just got on and did it and played it back...and then of course they all did it, realising that no-one was going to criticise what they said. I then asked them to play their recording to someone near them for their friend to note what they'd said...and there we had a listening comprehesion created by them. They were clearly impressed and I could see the lights going on in some heads as they realised they could do this was all of their language work to improve their speaking and listening skills.

Of course we had the looking through photos, listening to music (someone said "can I set mine to music?"...of course you can!), comparing of phones (I was jealous of some of them!). It was only to be expected but that, of course will disappear with more regular use. Although, naturally the use of the phones will lose its appeal if they are used too often.

I was very pleased with the activity and am now planning my next venture into breaking the rules, don't know what it will be yet...maybe I'll not take my register folder up to registration...since it's done on the computer! As for the phones I'm trying to come up with something with a more able class that involves speaking for longer and bluetoothing it to me for me to do something with.

The reaction of my Head of Area? "I'm all for this blootoothy thing. Keep developing this H. It WILL catch on"...and we're back to that dead fish again...(oh didn't mean that HOA is a dead fish!!!!!)

Training at Carmel

2009-01-22T07:32:00.005+00:00

I was lucky enough to be invited to Carmel RC Technology College on Tuesday to speak to the MFL department about blogging and using Audcity. It was really nice to be asked by our PGCE student from last year who is have a very successful NQT year there now.

I always get very nervous before going to speak anywhere so it was really calming to be greeted by such a friendly team of teachers.

I spoke briefly about blogging and how it can be used with pupils to improve motivation, to show off their work, to communicate with them outside of school and even for that new "buzz" phrase of AfL. They all responded really positively and were keen to find out more.

We looked at several blogs that are used by MFL teachers with their classes such as:

Langwitch

Edgehill Spanish

Sans Problèmes

Moving on we then looked at some blogs written by Modern Linguists that give an insight into using technology in our teaching and generally give us motivation to be adventurous and creative with our classes. In particular we looked at:

this blog

Integrating ICT into the MFL Classroom (of course)

My Languages

Box of Tricks

Vámanos

Languages and Learning

I also pointed out to them that there are several other excellent blogs out there that they can read and get great ideas from.

We discussed how to set up a blog, including blogging platforms, what the purpose of a blog could be and how simple and straight forward it can be to set up a blog and create the contect. I pointed out that if I can do it, then anyone can!

We also spent a little time looking at how to create posts and how to embed a You Tube video into your blog...all this in 1hr!

Next we moved to their computers and learnt how to use Audacity and create Vokis and talked about how Vokis could be used to do speaking assessments and, following José Picardo's

example how they could be used in AfL, with pupils assessing one anothers' work via the comments in a blog.

By the end of the session, it was obvious that there was the usual "information over load" but also that many members of the department were keen to go away and consider how they could used a blog with their pupils and also how they can move into creating soundfiles with pupils and makeing Voki with them.

It was definitely time well spent and I felt that the session was a great success.

Here is the slideshow that I used:

A Beginners’ Guide To Using Ict Creatively

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: cpd mfl)

New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-02T20:04:00.003+00:00

Does anybody else find that New Year's Resolutions can be quite depressing by the middle of February whey they find that they've not managed to keep up their demanding list of Resolutions made on the 1st January? I think I remember last year hearing that some date in February is the most depressing day of the year for several reasons, one of which is that fact that by that date most people have usually given up on the New Year's Resolutions.

This time last year, I remember writing a blog post about my resolutions for 2008 and feeling really positive about the fact that, having them written down here it would make it easier to keep...ha, ha, ha.

What were they? I can't remember, something about weight no doubt, and something else about confidence, oh and a new job I believe. Well, I suppose I lost a bit of weight and gained a little more confidence and as for the job, well...let's just I have a "new perspective" now.

What about this year? Well, I decided that, in order to avoid being too disappointed in myself by February, I'm not having any this year. I'm just going to take each new challenge as is comes, which is currently being able to to see properly with both eyes.

Have you made any New Year's Resolutions? Where will you be at the end of 2009? (Hopefully I'll be lying on a beach somewhere not having to think about work, as I will have won the lottery...)

Dinner for One

2008-12-31T07:37:00.005+00:00

I didn't blog much about Christmas this year so I decided I'd add this little post about a German New Year tradition instead.
Each year on New Year's Eve (Silvester) in Germany there is a rather odd (in my opinion) of showing a very old English film called "Dinner for One". It's about an old lady, Miss Sophie, who, each year on her birthday, invites all of her friends for dinner. James, the butler, is to serve them and do the same as he does every year..."the same procedure as last year?". The sad thing is though, as Miss Sophie has got older her friends have all died off. James, not wanting to upset his mistress pretends that they are all still there (she's a bit batty, so doesn't realise) and as the evening wears on he drinks more and more as he must eat and drink all of the guests' meals. All of this has "hilarious" consquences...anyway have a watch and see how it ends up...

A new blog

2008-12-30T09:39:00.004+00:00

I've started a new blog!
It's about my laser eye surgery and how things go from now on.
Here it is New Vision

How Les Choristes saves my end of term every time

2008-12-20T20:05:00.002+00:00

Each year as the end of the Autumn and Summer Terms approach, we are reminded to keep the pupils working until the last day of term and are "discouraged" from showing "recreational" DVDs. We in the MFL Department, however have a cunning ruse, showing films in the target language (not necessarily originally in that language) with subtitles to aid listening skills and pronunciation, thus making them "educational".
My friend and colleague, Pauline, discovered "Les Choristes" a few years ago and it never fails to captivate the imagination of even the most unenthusiastic French-learner.
For anyone who doesn't know the story, it's the tale of Clément Mathieu, a failed musician who goes to work at a school for naughty boys. It follows his time there as he he discovers that, through music he can reach the boys and begins to turn them around.
Although rather tame in comparison to the high drama of many Hollywood films it still manages to "pull in the audiences" every time. This term I even had my boisterous Yr9s request "Les Choristes" over "A Night at the Museum" how amazing is that? And one of the boys even admitting to the film being "mint" plus others saying how they cry at the end when Pépinot leaves with Mathieu. I don't know what it is about the film that captivates them too much, maybe it the fact they're gaining tips on how to be naughty, maybe it's the rude words that seem so much ruder than normal because they're written down in the subtitles rather then just heard as they normally are. However, I like to pretend that it's actually hearing the French spoken properly and that it is in some small way helping them on their journeys to become better language learners. (The music's pretty fab too)
Here's a flavour of the film I found on YouTube..

Blocked, blacklisted, access denied!

2008-12-09T20:10:00.002+00:00

I appreciate and understand the need for filters on school computers, I really, really do BUT it still proves to be one of the most frustrating things about my job and winds me up no end. It's not so much actual filters that bother me, it's the "wise person" who, somewhere (probably in an office), has taken it upon themselves to decide what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable for me to use with my pupils and also the, apparent randomness with which this is done.
I'm writing this after a number of weeks discovering how randomly our blacklisted and none blacklisted seem to have been set. After the Isle of Wight Conference, I decided to rediscover my love of Voicethread. As I blogged about in a previous post, I used it earlier this year with a groups of Gifted and Talented pupils as an experiment, and I thought that after Jo Rhys-Jones' session at the Show and Tell I'd have another go at it. WRONG! Suddenly, with no warning, this site has been blacklisted! Why? How? Why is it so evil that it's going to corrupt the minds of my pupils? (After is didn't, previously!) It also seems that it's been put on that list that the technicians seem unable to unblock (that's the one labelled "numpty nonentity wants unblocking so unimportant", in case anyone was unsure), as I've requested that it be unblocked several times to no avail :o(
It therefore seems unbelievable to me that Facebook is available (but then a member of SLT wanted that unblocking, so that went onto a different list entitled "important person wants unblocking so must do it immediately").
In addition to this, the blocking seems to be done in such a haphazard way! Thinking about venturing more into video, I signed up for a 12 second TV and wondered about investigating Seesmic. Of course, I naturally pressumed that they too would be blacklisted (as they are in other schools I know of) but decided to try it out, just the same. Imagine my surprise when they weren't!!! I just don't get it!
Next I discovered the BBC Learning Zone Broadband Class Clips...great resource, ideal for use in a computer suite. Put the kids on, get them to watch and listen and answer questions, using it for Listening but a bit more interesting. Great idea but...WRONG. Kids could get onto the page where the video was BUT couldn't view the evil, malicious video about a German day at school...heaven forbid that pupils learning MFL could do something that might stir up some enthusiasm for the subject.
How do "they" decided what is to be blacklisted and what isn't? Why aren't those awful translation websites blocked that they all go on and think will be their ticket to perfect French / German / Spanish etc...? Why can they still get onto music sites / game sites etc, etc...but I can't let them use websites that are of real educational value?
As I said at the beginning of this post, I understand the need for filters, I really do but what I don't understand is the haphazard way that websites are filtered. Is this a local phenomenan or is it more widespread? All I want to know is either that it's going to be blocked because it's a certain type of site or it's not going to be blocked. I don't want to feel that I'm playing some kind of guessing game trying to work out what to put my energy into investigating at home on an evening, before going into to work to try it and find I've wasted my time (with 44 teaching hrs out of 50 a fortnight, I don't really ave the time to "play" at work). It's the kind of thing which is beginning to sap my enthusiasm at the moment...but heyho, it's nearly Christmas and maybe Santa will bring me a whole load of unblocked websites for Christmas this year.

Blogaversary

2008-12-07T20:41:00.002+00:00

Thinking back over the year today, I realised that this blog had just had it's first blogaversary. I felt it warrented a mention. I have really enjoyed my year of blogging on this blog (although I don't think my husband has). It's really nice to write and have people comment on what I've written. I learnt a lot on my journey over the last year and hope to learn even more in the years to come.
Thank you to those of you who read, you've helped to make this blog what it is today :o)

Wie hilfst du im Haushalt with Learning Zone Broadband Class Clips

2008-11-28T18:32:00.004+00:00

As a keen member of the MFL Resources group, which is a "must join" for all MFL teachers, I regularly find several extremely useful tips and resources to use with my classes. The other day whilst checking some of the back posts, I came across a message from Helen Meyers who is Assistant Head at the Ashcomb School in Surrey, linking to the BBC Learning Zone's Broadband Class Clips. They're available for Primary and Secondary levels and for most subject areas. I was really pleased to find something a bit different that I could use in the classroom. What I particularly like is that next to the video, you get a brief synopsis of the clip (most of which last 3-5 mins) plus key language so that you know which class would be most suited for their use. I also like the ideas given for use (always helpful when lacking motivation!) .

Wanting to try it out straight away I thought about classes and topics that I was doing and came across this clip about household tasks.

It was ideal to introduce the topic of jobs around the home to my top set, without doing a Powerpoint or using some of my great drawings etc...

I showed the clip (pointing out how naff it was with the hair and the dancing and music etc, etc....) and class had to note down the new vocabulary that appears on the screen, adding the English. I also warned them about the song and asked them to just note down the family members and pets (just for an extra bit of listening, really)

It has to be said that they really liked it...specially the dancing for some reason! It was great for them to able to hear real German spoken whilst also getting the new words at a slower pace.

I will definitely be using these Broadband Class Clips again.

If you're not a member of MFL Resources why not join now - it's free!!

Click to join mflresources

Stockton Music Festival

2008-11-24T20:29:00.002+00:00

Well, this blog's title mentions "singer and other stuff besides" so here is a bit about those aspects of my life.
Every year on the third weekend in November I decided to (willingly) put myself through the torture of taking part in my one singing competition of the year. I used to enter 2 others but one is in Ryton in February (A1 Western Bypass at 6pm on my birthday...no thankyou) and the other seems to a fizzled out so I'm left with this one.
Each year I happily fill out my entry form in September and then have major traumas actually posting the form through the letter box of the lady who is the vocal secretary AND sorting out copies of the music for the accompanists. I then get to November and remember why I probably put so many obstacles in the way of entering myself...TERROR.
This year was no different...in fact getting in entries and music was probably worse as I was trying to sort on the Netherlands at the time the music et al had to be handed in. Things didn't improve any when I realised about 3 weeks ago that one of the set pieces I was due sing (as a mezzo-soprano in the mezzo-soprano class) had actually been written in the syllabus to be sung in the soprano key...well that meant unless I wanted to be disqualified I'd have to sing it higher...no way was that happening! I therefore had to withdraw from that class (but didn't get round to telling them until Saturday!!!!)...oh also did I mention I had a cup to return that I'd forgotten about so had to return that on Saturday too....had to be back beginning of Ocotber!
So, having entered myself for a competition it might have been a good idea to DO SOME PRACTICE...oh no, not me...far too busy blogging and having Facebook dramas to practice doing my hobby! Having to chosen to sing one of the most difficult songs in the history of difficult songs (my teacher pointed out that even most professionals don't sing it and if they do they only do a couple of times) this could have been a good choice to make...practicing!
So, I got to Saturday, hoping that by some small miracle I might have lost my voice (didn't want to just pull out for no reason as unfair on the accompanist who had to learn my beast of a programme and couldn't afford to waste the entrance money) but heyho, I was fighting fit (almost) so I prepared for battle!
In total I sang in 3 classes...Lieder (German song) "die Soldatenbraut" by Schumann, Oratorio "Fac ut portem" from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, and the Recital (3 songs together) "The Monk and his Cat" from Barber's Hermit songs (the beast), "Song to the Seals" by Bantock and "Hans und Grethe" by Mahler. Surprisingly I won all 3 classes...AND even won another cup because of getting the highest marks in the festival in one of my classes.
So there we go, I just wanted to share with everyone since I was ill today and couldn't tell everyone at work! I don't often "blow my own trumpet" about my talents but sometimes it's necessary!!!

Sock puppets finally done

2008-11-20T21:11:00.003+00:00

I have finally managed to get the Yr 8 sock puppets videos completed and uploaded. We made our puppets, made the scenery and finally recorded the video last week. Unfortunately we couldn't get our hands on the digital video camera so had to just use a digital camera which actually worked OK.
This was our (their's and mine) first attempt at making a real live video and am very proud of the pupils' efforts they worked really hard and feel that they have achieved something fantastic (which they have).
Here is the final product...

If at first you don't succeed....

2008-11-15T08:28:00.002+00:00

It's always very easy to reflect upon things that have gone well but it's also useful to think about things that didn't necessarily go according to plan. This was certainly the case yesterday with our first attempt at video-conferencing.
We had our German and Spanish exchanges pupils in school all week and we decided that it would be a nice idea for our Spanish exchange pupils to video-conference with one of our feeder Primary Schools. The idea was to have the pupils at both our school and at the Primary School got to the computer in pairs of threes and exchange information about Spain and England and also maybe talk a little bit of Spanish. We tested out the technology and got the webcams sorted out, however for some reason we just could not get our images and video working together at all. I was at the Primary School (as "Spanish specialist-lol- and technician - rofl) and a couple of colleagues were at our school and try as we might we couldn't get is working properly at all. Eventually wat we did was just do audio and a small group of the Yr 6 pupils managed to ask questions of the Spanish pupils and also talk and undersand some Spanish. They absolutely loved it and the were so keen it was pleasure to be involved. It was just such a shame that I had to spend the best part of an hour "faffing" to get it sorted out. The children in the class were amazingly patient (as was I). Again it goes to prove that one can never rely entirely on technology working every time but it's important to keep trying, as the benefits are so worthwhile for everyone. The pupils gained something from the session and we now know that, even with technical hitches things still can be done. At least we did it and now know that there are a few things we need to tweek for future endeavours. We haven't been put off though!
Lessons learned:

Have a test conference before hand (which we were unable to do this time)
Make sure that there can be someone technical at both ends
Try no to have to set up in a classroom where there are 30 children waiting to take part in the activity
Be prepared to change your planned activity if things don't work
Don't let yourself be put off if things don't go according to plan the first time.

Progression and fun in Primary Languages

2008-11-09T07:40:00.003+00:00

This was the final session that I attended at the Isle of Wight Conference and unfortnately I actually had to leave a little early so missed some of it. Nevertheless I gained a real insight into what I should be doing when I go to teach my Primary Spanish lessons every fortnight.
This, inspiring session, was lead by Jo Rys-Jones and Lisa Stevens, both Primary MFL teachers.
They used as their basis how to teach the book "Dear Zoo" (those with small children will probably be familiar with this pop up book about a small child who writes to the zoo for them to send a pet and they send various unsuitable animals until the perfect one arrives).
To me it was a revelation, I'd never have thought about doing that and also, they didn't even look at the book with pupils until well down the path of teaching animals, phonemes and having lots of cross-curricular links. The whole session made me re-evaluate what I am doing in my Primary school and also I felt sad that I am going to teach languages in Primary schools without knowing what being a Primary School teacher involves and therefore doesn't it mean that I'm "selling my Primary pupils short" by going in and teaching like Secondary school teachers? I feel it's a real shame that some Primary School pupils are being taught Languages by properly trained Primary teachers like Jo and Lisa while others are being taught by "any old" Secondary teacher (like me). It somehow doesn't seem fair.
Anyway now, maybe at least my Primary pupils might have a flavour of what their language teaching should really be like...it's also led me to attempt a brave move with my Yr 9 top set and use a topic on teaching household chores to work on the story of Cinderella..
You can find the slideshow and other resources on the Talkabout Primary MFL Ning here

Giving students wings by building content in a VLE

2008-11-09T06:36:00.005+00:00

When I saw that Drew Buddie, ICT Co-ordinator at the Royal Masonic School for Girls, was to give a workshop on how to use a VLE (particularly Moodle) I had to add it to my list of sessions to go to at the IoW Conference. This year we are due to get a Moodle VLE and, although I've added a podcast to a VLE at my husband's school when I ran a podcasting session there last year and have been added as a creator of courses on the VLE of one of our partner schools, I actually had no idea of what really do with one. Therefore, it was with great excitement that I headed of to this, the penultimate workshop of my Isle of Wight Conference.
We learnt about setting up a VLE and getting pupils to visit and use it. It seems that the key is to make it seem that it's not an extension of school and that the look should and be fun ((while at the same time getting pupils to do work on it that really helps them improve). It was really interesting to see a VLE like this one, as the other VLEs I've seen in action have all been very much fitting to the image of the school it belongs to. I suppose that it all depends on the requirements of each school...I know that my husband was asked to make their VLE specifically in keeping with the school colours and crest etc...
For me, the main part of this session was fantastic, as Drew showed us how to add content to a specific part of his school's VLE. We were all designated as creators for a week and he talked us through how to create a course and then how to add files and links to that course and also how to create a quiz. It amazed me how versatile this Moodle VLE, which is FREE, can be. I hadn't realised that one could have courses or activities that were available for a certain amount of time...ensuring that pupils hand their work in on time. In addition you can track who works on which activities (brilliant for parents at parents' evening to show how much or how little work their child is doing). I also hadn't realised that pupils only see the courses for which they are registered when they log onto a VLE (I know, common sense really). I was really interested to see also that there is a Hot Potatoes module available to add to the Moodle VLE, as that is something else that we are developing our use of. One of the other useful features of Moodle that Drew showed us was the chat module. This can also only be opened for specific times, for example, he gave us the example that he used this the night before an A Level exam so that pupils could ask any last minute questions. All of the chat is recorded which meant that pupils who couldn't take part in the chat could still access it later on to see what had been discussed.

In the name of fairness, I should point out that there are several other VLEs available but this particular session focused on Moodle and was of particular interest to me because we are to use this type of VLE, ourselves.

Animation is now available

2008-11-07T17:50:00.004+00:00

Here is a link to where our famous animation can be found.
The title is "El fantasma, el blobbo y la palmera" and, with the music, it's really quite scarey (lol)

El fantasma, el blobbo y la palmera

Links to the other creations from the animation workshop at the IoW Conference can be found on Joe Dale's blog here.

I had great fun and look forward to being able to do some with pupils in the near future.

Still not getting it right...

2008-11-02T22:06:00.001+00:00

Apparently, I've been instructed that I should call the "new Nings" after some kind of shape...looking at the map, I don't know what kind of shape this should be...

More Nings!

2008-11-02T21:41:00.002+00:00

Ooopps!
I've just been prompted to mention 3 other new nings that are in their fledgeling states...

Oldham SLN
Belfast MFL
Birmingham Primary Languages

Don't forget to join them if you are even vaguely connected with these areas! (They have all been created by some of the DTV honourary members!)

Durham Tees Valley MFL Ning

2008-11-02T20:36:00.002+00:00

I've always been fascinated by Nings...just the name is enough to make one wonder what they're all about. The first ning I joined was the eTwinning Amabassadors Ning, shortly followed by several others. Then of course, upon learning of my impending Primary Languages teaching how could I not join the Talkabout Primary MFL Ning? You can see some of the other, varied Nings, of which I'm a member by looking at the badges in my sidebar. I am a very enthusiastic convert to the idea of a social network, where one can share ideas and resources.
It was with great enthusiasm that nearly 2 weeks ago, I launch the Stockton MFL Ning, aimed at connecting anyone invloved in teaching MFL in the Stockton area. I invited my colleagues in the MFL department to join and some did. Then I went to the IOW Conference and met Lesley Welsh an SSAT Lead Practitioner from Hartlepool and spoke about the Ning with her and how it could be more far reaching than just Stockton. It therefore underwent some changes upon my return and is now names Durham Tees Valley MFL. We've got quite a few members from around the area already (and some honourary Teessiders!) and I'm hoping that this will become a place where Linguists from around the area can connect, share and learn from one another on a rather informal basis...I'm even wondering about a virtual wine tasting! (If Twittermoms can do it then anyone can...might bring in some new members!)
Anyway, if you are involved in Languages in any way, shape or form in the Durham Tees Valley Area (ie, Northeast of England and beyond!), please feel free to join, tell us about yourself and share...we won't bite!

Get Animated! with Mark Pentleton

2008-11-02T20:02:00.006+00:00

My final session of the day was a "hands on" workshop with Mark Pentleton of Radio Lingua fame learning how to do some stop motion animation. I have been longing to learn how to do this since watching Stuart Gorse's Gorseville animations that he creates so excellently with his pupils. Here was my opportunity to gain some small insight into how I might use animation with some of my classes.
The workshop was fascinating, if not only because I got to work with the talented José Picardo and Sam Downe (who both seemed to know a great deal more about this kind of thing than I did). We used a programme that can be downloaded free of charge from the internet called Stop Motion Animator from Clay Animator. It was really simple to use. We just made out characters and grabbed the shots. Apparently 12 shots per second(?). Our film had to last 30 seconds, so lots of shots needed (although I think we cheated a bit!).
As Halloween was approaching, we decided to create a film with a ghostly theme: "El fantasmo, el blobbo y la palmera". It was a spooky number that included a ghost who was lost and blob who knew the way and a palm tree. To create our characters we used plasticine (it's more rigid, apparently!!!). We took the shots and then moved them into Windows Moviemaker to add sound and loops (look at me being all technical!). Since we only had 10 seconds of film we decided to add some spooky music and lengthy credits. I have to admit that the music bit was a bit lost on me as is involved transfering everything to José's MacBook doing some magic, hocus, pocussy things and then transfering it back!!!! Anyway it looked and sounded great at the end!
How do I plan to use animation with my pupils?
I think that this kind of thing (for me, anyway) is best done as an enrichment activity in a club or as a day's activity. I can see how I could maybe do this with G&T linguists for a day long project..planning the script, making the storyboard, creating the characters, learning how to use the software and then finally getting to grips with creating their animation. I think, that after lots of practise I might be able to think about doing this kind of thing in a class setting but again, it's all about starting small and gaining confindence.

Creating digital exercises and integration within the Schools VLE with Steve Whittle

2008-11-02T19:26:00.002+00:00

Steve Whittle is Assistant Head at the Hayes School in Kent. He is fortunate enough to have a dedicated language lab at his school which he and his team have worked very hard on to make a place where pupils not only practise their languages but where they learn languages too, using all 4 skill areas. The MFL department have put in years of hard work to create an enviable bank of resources to use within the language lab and now, also within the schools' VLE. While they use their digital resources in their dedicated language lab, it was easy to see how many of the activities could be done without the specialist sortware and equipment that they had, it would just need setting up in a slightly different way.
The most interesting thing for me was the fact that their language lab is provided by Sanako / Tandberg. We actually have that system in our "dedicated" language lab! Now this made the whole workshop a revelation to me...I've worked here for 6 years now, nearly and don't think it's ever been used properly!!! It meant that I was able to speak to a man who works for Sanako and discuss with him getting our stuff working properly again. It must be said that I don't think it's anyone's fault that this amazing (and expensive) equipment has gone (realtively) unused at our school, I think it has more to do with high turn-over of staff (up until about 4 years ago) which meant the people who knew how to work it moved on and also a bit of the "fear factor" from some colleagues. This workshop has, however given me the momentum to get this room working properly again and really help our pupils fulfull their true potential.
I really got a lot out of this workshop and I think that this session, in particular will be one that can transform the whole MFL department's use of ICT across the board!

Flashmeeting with John Warwick

2008-11-01T20:02:00.003+00:00

My second session of the day was about using Flashmeeting with John Warwick (one of the eTwinning Ambassadors), Deputy Head teacher of a Special Needs school in Hertfordshire. He showed us how Flashmeeting, a free video-conferencing tool could be used with our classes both abroad and in our local neighbourhood.
Flashmeeting is an extremely useful tool because, not only is it free, it is also a secure form of working online with other schools, so therefore it is safe. All your partner school needs is an internet connection and you're away, basically! They don't even need a webcam (unless the really want to see you)...it can all be done using microphones or the "chat" facility, where you type what you want to say. Unfortunately the technology let us down and we were unable to have a Flashmeeting at that time, however, I was "fortunate" enough to be able to take part in another Flashmeeting later in the weekend but felt so self-conscious about others being able to see me, was over come with hysterical laughter (although, I don't think I was the only one!). You always have to be prepared for technology to let you down when trying new things and not let it get in the way of making further developments at a later date.
There were many excellent ideas for how Flashmeeting could be used, such as to teach a traditional song to pupils in another country, maybe discuss cultural differences, teach a short session on a particular theme...the key really seemed to be "be prepared" and don't just plan to do a Flashmeeting and stand / sit at different schools staring at one another. Other ideas included having a "hot seat" where individual pupils would take this position and do their "bit" then moving on to the next person, this gets rid of the need to keep moving the webcam.
We are planning to do some online collaboration with primary schools, initally in a couple of weeks time when our Spanish exchange come to visit and then working on transition with Yr 6 pupils from feeder Primary schools chatting with Yr 7 pupils who went to their school, discussion worries that they might have have about coming up to Secondary School. However, we won't be using Flashmeeting (not because we wouldn't be happy with it), because we are fortunate enough to be able to use Elluminate, another online collaboration tool that includes video-conferencing. This, unfortunately is not free but does still only require an internet connection. Luckily, our local CLC has "bought" 100 seats within Elluminate so we are able to use that at the moment.
However, for a tool that is free and that can bring schools closer together, Flashmeeting really is excellent. If your school is considering moving into video-conferencing on any level, I would thoroughly recommend it. As with anything to do with technology thought, it's important to be well-prepared (maybe practise with another member of staff to begin with), don't be put off it the technology lets you down (try, try and try again) and start small then get bigger.

Thinking outside the classroom box with Chris Fuller

2008-10-31T13:40:00.003+00:00

My first workshop at the IOW Conference was "Thinking outside the classroom box" run by Chris Fuller. I must admit that I kind of gate-crashed this session, as I arrived much earlier than I expected having got on the Red Jet fast ferry rather than the slower car ferry. I got talking to someone who was going to his session and decided to tag along, not expecting to learn much new, as I blog myself. However, I went along to meet the man who left an amusing comment on here once and was certainly proved wrong about not expecting to learn anything new!
Chris runs the Edgehill College Spanish Blog and it's fab. He gave some great examples of how he has used the blog with pupils. I have already used my other blog with my pupils but nowhere near on the scale that Chris uses his. In particular, I loved the idea of getting the kids to write descriptions of themselves (without adding names), paste them into the blog and get the class to guess who was being described, adding their guesses via the comments...watch out for that idea being used when I get onto that topic with my Year 7s later this term! He also spoke about how he promoted the blog around school and made me think about how I could market mine a bit better around my school. I know that some pupils do visit and comment frequently but I'd like more to visit and get as many pupils as possible visiting and being enriched (can you say that?). So, although I sometimes struggle to talk myself up, I will be launching a huge advertising campaign around the school after half-term.
Chris also spoke about Podcasting and Moblogging using Gabcast and ShowZu both of which I'm hoping to try out with my pupils in the near future.
Next, he spoke about using mobile phones in language learning. I am really keen to get my pupils using their mobiles but have put of having the discussion with my Headteacher as I knew what the answer would be! It didn't help that a colleague, who saw Chris speak earlier in the year (I believe) went straight in to talk about pupils using them as soon as he got back to school and was (naturally) turned down. However, I'm considering the financial angle and thinking of going for the "look how much money we could save as a school if pupils used their phones instead of video recorders, voice recorders etc...". Money often talks louder than anthing else.
So, my first session of the conference was fascinating and I can thoroughly recommend going to hear Chris speak if you get the opportunity. He's really easy to listen too and has great examples of how he's using the technology he's talking about with his pupils...something that's worth it's weight in gold, in my opinion. Thank you, Chris!!!

The Isle of Wight Conference

2008-10-27T20:41:00.003+00:00

I think that I'll start with the main event then. Like many other people from around the country, I spent the weekend with a group of lovely people at Joe Dale's wonderful Isle of Wight Conference.
I had wanted to attend this event last year and was unable to, so this year I was determined to get there. For me it wasn't just the opportunity for some great CPD, it was also the chance to meet lots of people who I felt I already knew quite well, despite never having met them in person until Saturday morning.
The weekend certainly lived up to expectations. I learnt absolutely loads and was also reminded of lots of things that I knew about already but had forgotten. The weekend was organised superbly and I only wish I could have arrived on Friday evening, rather than on Saturday morning and got to know people a little sooner.
I attended sessions by:

Chris Fuller on Blogging, Podcasting and Moblogging
Steve Whittle on using Digital Resources within a Language Lab and a VLE
John Warwick on Flashmeetings
Mark Pentleton on Animation
The Show and Tell where I preferred to be "told" rather and doing any "showing" myself
Lesley Welsh on Finding as many "freebies" in the hall as possible - I got a cool USB bracelet and feely very proud!
Drew Buddie on using Moodle VLEs
Jo Rys-Jones and Lisa Stevens on Fun and Progression in Primary Languages

I was also involved in a very bizarre Flashmeeting even at lunchtime on Sunday with severalvpeople from around the world...but I think the less said about that the better
So, as you can see, I kept myself very busy and, unfortunately didn't get to see much of the Isle of Wight...specially not of the "lovely clear blue water" that my Grandma keeps going on about every time I mention it.
I intend to blog about most of the sessions that I went to in separate posts through out the week, so that people can find the bits that they might not have gone to more easily.