Goethe Institute Virtual Work Experience

 Apparently, I do requests now 😊.

I was asked to blog about the virtual work experience that the Goethe Institute offer, as one of my Year 12 students took part and got a lot out of it.

Last year, one of my Year 12 students signed up to the Work Experience that the Goethe Institute offer. Sadly, as with most things over the last year and a half, if couldn't have in real life, so it became a virtual event. This was in the form of making a podcast. Students were put into groups to work together on a podcast, learning how to make it and then creating questions for an interview with someone who worked with languages, finally completing the interview and then the podcast was published on the Goethe Institute website.

Here is the link to the podcast page (my student did the Deutsch und Sport interview with Nik Brumsack)

Podcast page

It seems that this was a really valuable experience for my students and she has said that she thoroughly recommends for other students. It is fabulous that the Goethe Institute has been able to still create the opportunity to complete work experience despite the difficult circumstances in which we have all found ourselves in recent times.

You can find information about the virtual work experience here:

Virtual work experience information

Students can register their interest for the next academic year 's projects here:

Register interest

International Week

A year ago, I had a crazy idea of having an International Week. Originally, it was planned for the start of March. However, with lockdown we decided to postpone until the week of 21st June which meant that everyone was in school and the weather was good, should we want to do something outside.

I don't know what I originally imagined...assemblies, lots of flags, a quiz or two and a wine and cheese evening for parents. In reality some of them happened, so didn't and some couldn't happen. This was the first time we'd done this so it was probably lower key that I imagined it being but it's definitely something we can build on and, fingers crossed, next year we will be able to invite parents into school for some activity as well.

The most important thing to remember when planning whole school events is that "Teamwork makes the dream work" and most certainly we could not have run the week without all members of the MFL department pitching in a working together. Each of us took and activity and organised that and this meant that the jobs didn't seem as huge.

So, what did we do?

Staff

Each room was allocated a country and our Year 12 prefects created signs for each one (some are below). Staff were encouraged to greet students in the language of that country and even do a starter about something that linked their subject to that country. It was wonderful hearing a range of different languages ringing out across the school as the week went on. 

    

   

Assembly and Form Time

Naturally, any event needs a whole school assembly (hooray!). I didn't want to focus solely on languages, as this was "international" rather than languages but inevitably there was a strong language focus. I thought it would be a nice idea to make a video (less for me to do) of pupils saying "hello, how are you?" in various languages. I had intended to use different groups of my classes to say the words however, when I was telling one of my classes about it, a student said "I speak Persian, I can say that" and this started me on a voyage of discovery into the wide variety of languages that our students speak. In the end, we had 14 different languages from Lower Prep singing "Hallo Felix, Hallo Franzi" from the Goethe Institute primary scheme of work, through Hindi, Urdu, Thai, Russian, BSL, Spanish and Japanese (with lots in between) to even SLT saying "goodbye" in French and German. I even managed to persuade one of my Y7 form group to assist with editing the video! I talked a little about how communication and language is essential for international relations, and finished with Ton Christ est juif. 

          

Students then went off to form time for an international quiz, which included rounds on "hello" in different languages, fun with flags, foreign songs in the UK charts (which went down very well, especially the Macarena), foreign art and architecture and where in the world. We give prizes to the winning team in each form group. 

   

Quizzes

We had 2 treasure hunt quizzes. One based on French and German-speaking football players and the other based on French and German-speaking musicians and actors. Students seemed to really enjoy themselves quizzing around the school, finding out about a range of celebrities for other countries.

                                                     

Display

We have also had form groups contribute to a display. All students have drawn round their hands, written a greeting in a foreign language and decorated. Now, my task is to turn all 200+ hands into something creative!

All in all, I think the week has been a success. We have started small(ish) and something on which to base things in the future. Next year, I would like to be able to invite parents into school to view the art project that our Y7s did earlier in the year and also the see the Superheroes project that Y8s did, combined with something other creative ideas we have in store for next year. 

Watcht this space...

Remote Teaching

I suspect there may be a number of posts around on this and that this won't be the only post I write on this topic.

So, we are living in unprecedented times and as a result need to help our pupils to continue to learn but more importantly need to make sure our pupils are OK, providing them with support where and when needed. This brings new challenges and requires us to think and work in different ways.

Initial observations, no matter what platform you use, it's important to have consistency so the pupils don't get mixed up. 

We use Google Classroom, which I find really easy to use both in terms of setting work and getting it back in and marked...as long as it's done within an assignment. I'm finding shared / attached in emails harder to keep track of. Any hints welcome (I use assignments but some pupils are still sharing/attaching instead). 

I'm trying to encourage pupils to put thumbs up in the stream to show that they have read posts so that I don't feel I'm just talking into the void! This is working well. I've also started to share a meme a day in German with my KS4 and KS5 classes. I thought it would annoy them, having me sending them daft things each day at random times, however when I suggested scaling back on them they said please don't, we look forward to them. So now I have friends and even my daughter sourcing new memes for  me! If one positive comes of it this, hopefully it will mean pupils will have had some fun learning German.

We have been encouraged to use Google Meets for some live teaching and I've jumped on board with this too. I personally don't think a full lesson would be appropriate, so I've been doing about 15 minutes with classes to introduce or talk through work, it also gives pupils the opportunity to ask questions about the work. This has worked well with KS3. KS5 I did some speaking with as well last week which was also good. I've been a little more adventurous with y10 and y11 with Quizlets Live, which have been brilliant and hilarious in equal measure. They just get so excited! I also tried a scavenger hunt with y11; a slide with 10 items in German to find in their homes and bring back to show me. That was totally hilarious and they really enjoyed it. To be fair I just want to do some fun things with y11 in particular as my heart breaks for them with the sad ending they've had to their schooling and I don't want them to feel cut off and abandoned. Fun ideas for after Easter (2 weeks) welcome, same for y13....thinking of a project on how Germany has handled COVID-19 for them (great fun)

Positives from this experience for me are....

Google Classroom: since starting my new job I wanted to get back to using it properly. This has forcesd me to do that

Quizlet: similar to above, I used to use it loads and now will continued to develop its use

I've remembered about Learning Apps, which is a lovely site for creating activities to practise language, for matching to sorting and beyond.
I've also started to create very professional (cough) grammar videos for my pupils, so am anticipating making my millions as a YouTuber now.

Plus, how many amazing resources will I have ready made for next year!!

The most important thing for me is to see this as a learning experience, there is no right or wrong in this situation, we just have to make the best of whatever we do. 

All I want is for my pupils to know that I'm still there for them, even if not in the classroom and also that they know I worry about them, when I email asking them if they're OK, I'm not bothered about the work (shhhh don't tell them that!), I just want to know that they're OK. 

Making a comeback

I can't believe it's 4 years nearly since I last blogged!
Maybe this down time could be the ideal place to start. I may blog about teaching remotely, German meme of the day or even just a load of nonsense (plus ça change....)

In the days, weeks and years since I last blogged I have had an interesting journey. I worked as a supply teacher for a year which gave me a fascinating insight to how schools treat cover staff...even if they know them. I worked for a large  MAT which I hated and now I am contentedly working in the job of my dreams as Head of MFL at a local private school.

This could be the start of a new blogging journey....

New Beginnings

As you can see, I've been absent for sometime.
It's been a difficult few months which I'm going to try not to dwell on.

September is a great opportunity for new beginnings and that's just what this September is about. It's starting with me looking to supply teaching nitially, trying to get fit and maybe even getting a dog (although the final one still needs confirming by "him in doors")

Anyway the good news  (or bad, depending on how you look at it) is that I will hopefully have more time for blogging and will have time and possibilities for trying out new ideas and sharing them.

Routes Live - Routes into Language Teaching

Last Friday, I was asked to take part in a Routes into Languages live webinar about Routes into Languages, along with wit Dr. Elizabeth Anderson, Director of Routes into Languages North East, René Kogelbauer, Acting Head of the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences and Director of the North Leadership Centre and President of ALL and Karl Reid, a current trainee teacher. 
It was a fantastic experience, not least because I was able to use Google Hangouts from the computer in my classroom and all of the technology worked!
Here is a link to the webinar, I hope that it proves useful to prospective MFL teachers.

Routes Live - Routes into language teaching

Promoting Independent Learning in MFL

A few months ago I was contacted by Eva Lamb about running a session during the ALL Yorkshire winter series on independent learning. On Thursday therefore, I headed down the A1 and M1 to Sheffield to do my session.

Over the course of 90 minutes I covered a range of activities that I use with my classes in the hope of getting them to be more independent language learning. Below is a copy of the presentation and also I have linked below that to posts that I've written in the past on this blog that describe how they work. Whilst all of my examples are MFL specific, most of these activities can be adapted to any subject area.

Promoting independent learning in mfl all from Helena Butterfield

Quiz Quiz Trade  description
Read Clare Seccombe's guide to using Tarsia here
Follow me description
Show down description
Infinite scrabble description
Download a template for infinite scrabble here
Lingo bingo description
Haiku blog post

Fan n pick 
You can quite easily use your QQT cards for this activity.
You will need:
- cards
- your "manage mat" (it helps keep the pupils focused) Download my French / German versions here
-  groups of 3 or 4

How it works:
Person 1 fans out the cards, face down
Person 2 picks a card and reads / shows it to person 3 (just the question or the English / TL phrase to translate) and passes the card to person 4.
Person 3 answers the question, with coaching and praise from person 4.
When complete the card is returned to the pack, manage mat is moved round to next person and this time Person 2 does the fanning.
The best way to work out how this works it to try it as it all becomes clear then.
I've also tried this with open ended questions for speaking practice and where I used that, person 4 gave WWW/EBI feedback and praise.  This also worked really well.

Jot write
You will need lots of small bits of scrap paper for this activity.

Give each group a collection of paper / post its / scrap paper

Give pupils a topic or theme

Pupils all write their words at the same time AND say the words out loud and place their pieces of paper in the centre. The key is they all work at the same time, individually but by saying their words out loud they ensure that no one repeats the words and you get a variety in the centre to work from.

From this they could then categorise the words / peer assess – proof read / find the odd ones out / find meanings / create sentences / etc…

It you wanted to add an element of competition (not strictly cooperative learning, I know) you could give out achievement points for most words / the groups with words that no one else came up with  / etc...

Rally Robin (Talking Tennis) 

Ask a question, give 5-7 seconds thinking time, pupils take it in turns to give their answers

Round Robin 

Same as above but in a group of 4

In both of the above pupils have their go either by turn taking or by allocating time – use a timer on your board  and give 10/20/30 to talk– you could do this for speaking practice / spontaneous talk

All write round robin 

The same as above but what each person says, the whole group write down at the same time, so they have a record, probably in the back of their book…

I hope that I've covered everything here and that you find it useful.