Dinner for One

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...

How Les Choristes saves my end of term every time

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!

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

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

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

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

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....

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

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

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

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...

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

A very busy week

I think the the next few days will be full of blog posts from me, as I seem to have done so much in a very short space of time. I've done so much, met so many people and had such a great time that I really don't know where to begin. I think maybe, I'll just go for it and apologise in advance for poor spelling and typing (no surprises there, then) and some rather mixed up time-lines. In no particular order I'm intending to blog about:

• my all new Ning that I set up last Wednesday and changed the name of yesterday
• the Isle of Wight Conference (of course)...hopefully individual posts about various aspects and how much I learnt etc..
• a chance encounter with a trainee life coach (aahhh...bet no-one expected that one - least of all me!)
• going to train MFL PGCE students at Durham University last week and the hazards that brought with it.

So, I'm now going to go and get busy...I even have emails to answer, somewhere!

We're back!

We had a long, tiring week but I'm happy to say that we all made it back safely from Terneuzen without too many disasters on the way. I'm always fascinated to visit schools in other countries and see how much of a "better deal" they seem to get in comparison to those of us who teach in England. I find it interesting that teachers abroad are treated as professionals whose judgements and abilities are trusted by everyone and they are just able to do what they actually love doing - which is teach!
We began out visit with a trip to Brugges. I'd never been before so jumped at the idea of taking up the bus transfer from Zeebrugge that P&O put on for ferry passangers (at quite a resonable cost). What was even more wonderful was that our host school in Terneuzen has a link with a school in Brugges and their pupils were allowed out of lessons for the afternoon to give our pupils personalised tours of this beautiful city - an ideal opportunity for them to practice their English (I can't imagine that happening in many places in England). We had the odd drama, a lost jacket, I almost lost my passport by leaving it, along with other important stuff of mine in the station at Brugges (happily the lovely people at the station had found it and kept it for when I realised that I'd left it!) and striking public workers in Belgium but, eventually we made it to Terneuzen. We visited out partner school and went into some lessons and did a treasure hunt around the town. We also had our day trip to Ypres which tired us all out and of course our pupils worked together with their partners on a newspaper about life during the First World War.
We thoroughly enjoyed the whole trip and even began to learn some Dutch...the pupils, of course can now all say lots of rude words, meanwhile the teachers are well versed in understanding menus and fine Belgian beers. I have to say the we teachers were very well fed throughout the whole visit and have probably gained a fair few pounds!!!!!
Naturally, I will be blogging for the pupils about the trip once I have the photos available...we had our own official photographer with us in the shape of my colleague who is a fab photographer. There are great photos of kids and great "arty" ones of things like sunset from the Pride of Bruges as we began our journey home from Zeebrugge. Our History project blog is here (although currently there is only stuff about the Victorian leg of the project).

It's here

Well, here we are...our Netherlands project has finally arrived. As I have blogged about previously, we are working, for the first time, with a school in Terneuzen in the Netherlands on a joint History project. In April, they came over to us to work on a project about Victorians etc... and it proved a great success. I can't believe it, but here we are in October and we are to go to Terneuzen for the return visit. On Sunday we head off to the Netherlands. Whilst looking forward to actually being there, I am concerned about leaving my husband with 2 small children for 6 days whilst I take care of 15 other children!
We are to take the ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge on Sunday evening. I think that is probably my biggest concern...12 hours on the North Sea in October, hmmmm! At least we have cabins - bed time at 10.30 pm. The preparations haven't been without hitches, mainly that one girl dropped out last week, which was a shame and then yesterday, another girl fractured her foot so that means that she can't come either. Oh well, at least it means there are less children to lose! It must be said, that with 15 of the most delightful children one could imagine (without them being your own), I don't think that looking after them will be the most onerous task!
So, Sunday is D-day and I'll be haveing a week off-line (as I got a BIG shock when I got my mobile phone bill after our summer holidays). I don't know whether I'll survive!

European Day of Languages

Today has been a busy day for some of us at school, with our annual EDL activities.
As usuul, we hosted an LEA event for Y8 G&T pupils. Fortunately, unlike last year, I was not involved in the organisation of the event this year.
We had 3 schools and ours involved this morning and then another 4 schools came along this afternoon. Each group took part in 3 activities, a European Awareness quiz, hosted by yours truely, learning Dutch with our Dutch teacher and an activity using Swedish to find out how good they were at language learning. Once the activities were over, pupils added up the points that they gained throughout their activities to find out who won. Prizes were issued (these of course were chocolate!).
Whilst I was busy sorting things out and quizzing ,I left my classes a postcard competition. They had to create a postcard with the motto "Learning a language is..." (completing the sentence). Some were hilarious-"Learning a Language is a right lark" and "Learning a Language is like have an extra member of your family" were my favourites probably because these two pupils are clearly as crazy as I am!
Time to relax for the weekend now...busy week ahead with a PD Day, an eTwinning Workshop to help run, cover work to set for the week after next when I'm in the Netherlands, Open Evening and Blood Brothers (just have to be mentally prepared for that, the tears have already started to flow just thinking about the opening scene!).

First visit to Primary - I survived!

I was delighted at the end of the last academic year when I learnt that I was to be let loose on one of our feeder Primary schools. It's something I've always wanted to do but somehow, never managed to get the opportunity. All I knew was that I would be teaching Spanish (estupendo - one of my 2 words of praise in Spanish - fenominal being the other) to various year groups.
After a meeting with the MFL co-ordinator of the school I'm going to, I learned more details...25 mins to 2 Yr6 classes and 20 mins to 2 Yr4 classes, every fortnight - my colleague would be doing the other week. Oh my! 4 lessons in 2 hours, would I have the stamina?
Yesterday, I discovered whether I could handle the pressure! As the day approached I got more and more nervous, worried I'd be too boring/not game playing enough/just generally rubbish and by 12.30 was shaking as I left school to eat my lunch in the car since I had to be at the school to teach at 1.00. Well, I survived..just.
The main trauma was getting used to a new computer system and ActivPrimary rather than our ActivStudio 3 and finding my way around the school! I was very worried also that I might damage something with the throwing of my Haribo cuddly toy around the room. However, nothing too dreadful happened, I didn't make any small children cry (shame) and everyone seemed to enjoy my lessons.
My tasks for next time (which will be in about a month, as I'm going to the Netherlands in a little over a week) will be to not be as scared (!), to relax, to find out the names of the class teachers I'm working with and also to raise a smile from one of them!

Sock puppets

There was a time when, if someone had said "sock puppets" to me, I would have recoiled in horror, thinking that "that kind of stuff" was for primary schools only. However, I 've come a long way since then and having seen a post by Lisa Stevens about Puppets a while ago it got me wondering about their potential for me.
I am currently blessed to have been given a well-balanced timetable and amongst my well-balanced classes, I am very lucky to have a gorgeous Yr8 class of 12 (with absences on a regular basis). We have French 4 times one week and twice the other, so I imagine that by period 4 on a Friday they're pretty tired of my voice droning on at them. Well, I hit upon an idea this week...sock puppets! We would spend some Friday afternoons creating our puppets and scenery and them write a script to perform to camera. This would be good for their French in the long run when they got to doing the speech and also it meant that I could put the film on my blog with no fear of worrying about getting permissions to use said children's faces etc...
So today we began. Last night on my daily visit to a local supermarket I bought socks (OK, 14 too many as I forgot in my fervour that socks were sold in PAIRS, so bought 14 PAIRS of socks) and googly eyes, felt, glue etc... and tok them all to work today. I explained what we were going to do...basically get very messy and expected a cry of how babyish but no...their faces were a glow with anticipation. It was fab!!! I flet like the perfect mother that I can never be. Of course it was all done in a very controlling fashion with me not letting the glue out of my hands and not allowing too much creativity with the darling socks. However, by the end of the lesson we had beautiful puppets, all now drying on one of my tables in my room (hope they didn't scare the cleaners too much.) What remains now? Well in 2 weeks, scenery and beginning scripts. Once filming is done I think they will also do a profile of their puppets...name, age, hobbies etc. So...not much French achieved today but I often feel with classes who find language learning a challenge, enjoyment in worth 10 times more than achievement. They will remember these puppets for a long time. The lovliest thing was, as small boy saying "Thank you Miss for making the puppets today" (I nearly wept) and another small boy who went straight to his tutor to tell her all about the lesson. Priceless!

IWB Challenge: Task 1

The week was my opportunity to complete the Seven Wonders of the Whiteboard Challenge's first task. Set by Jess McCulloch it was all about using mp3 files and voice recording etc...
"How on earth" I wondered to myself, "do I get that into my first week of the new school year"and a little voice inside my head said "you can do it"...I will go to the doctor's about these voices very soon, I promise!
I have a gorgeous Yr 7 German class and decided that, since by today I would have seen them twice already and they would know about some of my little "nuances"by now, that last lesson on a Friday afternoon was the perfect time to use them as guinea pigs. Having had an induction lesson last term when they came to visit, I thought it was a pretty safe bet that they would have learnt greetings and saying their names, so I decided to launch them in at the not-so-quite deep-end. I found some pictures of celebreties (see above) and recorded myself saying hello, saying their name, asking "What is your name?" and then saying "bye". The class then had to listen to the sound-bite and drag the picture of the appropriate celebrety to the symbol of the speaker. They worked really well and they responded very positivly to this (although, I think in the future I need to stick to Simpsons characters) then moved on. We then practices a roleplay along the same lines and then I asked for volunteers to be recorded. Using my new USB microphone, I got 5 conversations recorded (some from the other side of the classroom...I was well impressed-much to the class's amusement) which they actually really enjoyed. It was really great to hear them leaving the room telling their friends that they had been recorded. I think, in the long run, that being able to hear themselves speaking will really help them improve their spoken German as they'll be able to hear their pronunciation for themselves and therefore hear when they need to make changes.
I'm hoping to be a bit more ambitious with my next stage of the challenge, as I'll have been back a work for a bit longer and will know my classes better (I hope).

We've only just begun...

Well the first week is over and done with and all of the plans for organisation have gone out of the window, as predicted. Well...actually, they're not doing too badly at the moment and I was actually able to leave my desk(s) tidy over the weekend for a change. I'm sure it can't last.
I have got the term off to a flying start and found that I like all of my classes so far...and what's more they seem to like me (although I do think they think I'm a little strange-can't imagine why!).
Everyone was more than pleased with our excellent exam results in the summer and can't wait to get back to the real task of educating our future generations. There are some exciting plans afoot, I believe, but will blog about them at a later date if anything happens. (That's actually just to get people to keep coming back on a regular basis to find out what they are!!!!)
I don't think that I've had any amazing ICT-ish stuff done this week...the pupils were only in for 3 days...but I am working on it and there is "great potential" for some fantastic work this year. Of course I got underway with, and completed, the first Whiteboard Challenge today but will blog about that in my next post.
I began work with my Yr9 class on my Langwitch blog, just asking them to introduce themselves in German in 40-50 words. I was amazed, I set the homework yesterday and by the time I'd got in from work, several of them had already completed it. They all seemed really keen to be doing stuff online plus, they liked the fact that they got immediate feedback from me at the bottom of their comment. They seemed really pleased when I saw them today in the corridor that I had already seen their work and commented on it...wow, what a motivator (for them and me).
So, there we are, a very upbeat Langwitch, with high hopes for the rest of the year :o)

New term, new challenges

As the summer holidays draw to an end and the weather begins to improve it's time to think once again about what lies ahead. The beginning of a new academic year is like January when I makes new resolutions, but this time about my teaching. As usual I'm going to work hard to be the best teacher ever (although I have heard that it's OK not to be perfect and just be "good enough"), be the most organised ever etc, etc, etc... On a serious note, however I will strive to make improvements on last year even if that means saying "no" once in a while so as to do my best in other areas.
Plans I already have in place to work on right at the start of term are varied. Naturally I have my Langwitch Blog to work on with my pupils and my Langwitch Wiki which I hope to use more often. In addition as mentioned in an earlier post, I have signed up to the all new IWB Challenge and hope to teach myself some new tricks with the ActivStudio.
In a new venture, I was asked to develop ICT-based projects for the Yr7 SOW - one per chapter of Metro / Logo, which I have done. In order to "show off" the work created by our Yr7 pupils and also to encourage some AfL I was also asked to created a French Blog and a German Blog so that staff can add work to them. (No links yet as there's nothing to see). This venture should be extremely interesting as it will involve me a) training staff in the MFL Area how to do the projects (no.1 make a Voki) and b) ensuring that I am not the one doing all of the work. Part B I think maybe the hardest, as I introduced the Heads of French and German to the new (Edu)blogs in July and told them that they needed to register so that I could make them administrators and so far neither of them has.
Keeping on the theme of training I am to go to a local university in October and do some work with their PGCE students, quite a daunting prospect for someone who sometimes struggles to talk to 16 yr olds but one that I am relishing none the less. On a similar topic I will continue to add to the Teacher's Corner of my Wiki so that my colleagues and anyone else who chooses can use it as a reference for doing some of the activities I have suggested to them. I will of course continue to direct them to Joe Dale's wonderful blog for a more detailed view of how to use ICT effectively in their teaching.
There are at least 2 eTwinning projects that I'm to work on, both with Yr 9 pupils (but not the same ones). A German project entitled "Reisen in Europa", a virtual travel guide to our regions, with a school in German, one in Poland and one in Hungary and and English project with my tutor group entitled "How Green in your World" with a school in Poland and a school in France. For this we will be working together on a Wiki where our pupils will add their work as they complete the half-termly tasks.
Finally I'm supposed to be involved in developing our all new Moodle VLE. Quite what this will involve I don't know.
In addition to all this, I'm supposed to go back to choir (Monday), go to the gym 3 times a week (Tuesday, Friday and Sunday) plus swimming with the kids (Sunday) and play badminton with my husband (Thursday).
If I manage to do it all I will be amazed!

Return of the IWB Challenge

Whilst away on my eventful holidays the IWB Challenge was resurrected. I couldn't wait to get home (I know but have you read about my holidays!) and get myself signed up for it.
As a previous participant of the IWB Challenge, set up bu Jess McCulloch in April / May I discovered that there is so much more that the IWB can do other than show Powerpoints, I figured that taking part in this new, longer and more challenging (to me) challenge could only do me (and my pupils) good.
I'm really looking forward to learning what more the board can do for my teaching and my pupils.
For me, it's really important to get them involved and have them come to the front to participate. I know that others in my department disagree, feeling that it demotives other pupils when only a few get to come up and do things. My answer to that is that I am sure there are severaly members of each class who would be mortified if they had to do anything in front of the class (as I would have been as a pupil)...however this kind of activity can build their confidence and also if the pupils know that everyone who wants a turn will get a turn in the course of time they won'd mind not being chosen straight away. During the last IWB Challenge, some of my best lessons were with a class of 31, most of whom were boys. They were so well motivated I couldn't believe it (although it was chaotic and very loud)...the main thing was though that they were engaging with the lesson and with the language (something I struggled to get them to do during activities involving textbooks).
I will be blogging about by successes (and failures) as the term progresses.

Kahlilla Blyss Donahoo

People will probably think I'm odd for writing a second post on this theme, but here it is and I'm drawing a line under this kind of thing from now on!
Some people may have read my previous post about a beautiful little girl called Samatha Hughes who died in April, aged 5, from a rare childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma. Less than 100 children are diagnosed with it in the UK in a year and the survival rate past 5 years is about 20% ,I think - awful!
Anyway you couldn't follow Samantha's story without also following the story of Kahlilla Blyss Donahoo, her "twin", a girl from Phillip Island, Victoria who shared the same birthday as Samantha and was diagnosed with the same horrible illness around the same time as her. I read with great sadness on Monday that she too had joined Samantha and become and Angel. It's heartbreaking to think about this but it does make me value my own 2 children all the more...especially when they're making a mess and fighting over the Magnetix toys!

Tents, tyres, toothache and Twenty20 cricket

The title of this blog post just about sums up my summer really. A couple of people have asked me recenly how the holidays have been and I have replied "interesting" as I think that this is the word that best fits how they have been.
It's funny how we break up for the summer holidays in July, seeing a wonderful 6 (or 5 1/2 this year) weeks' holiday ahead of us and high hope for the perfect holiday and, for me they never quite live up to their expectations, somehow! This year was definately no exception, it seemed to be "one of those years" where we were destined to have our plans changed and where I was to have my French tested.
Our plans for the acutal "holiday" were as follows-spend 3 nights in our tent in Honfleur then drive down to St. Hilaire de Riez in the Vendee to spend a week in a mobile home, before returning home after nearly two weeks in the sun and on the beach. Things got off to a good start, Honfleur was beautiful as ever, and the campsite we stayed on was great (I can thoroughly recommend it - Domaine de la Catinière it's callsed). Alice and Dan both loved the pool (Mum and Dad thought it was a bit cold, though) and the food was OK - don't believe in cooking too much on a camping stove!. We did have a bit of rain but the worst of it happened when we packed the tent up...why is always mad hot when we put the tent up and raining when we put it down?
Then the trouble started...we headed of to the Vendee on the 2nd of August...I know, I know, silly me I should have know better...it took us 8 hours to do a 3-4 hour journey! We finally arrived in St. Hilaire and I know immediately by the look on Graeme's face that he hated it. Tents and caravans squashed into tiny pitches, too many people and a funny smell (although to be fair I think that was just damp sand as it had rained all day!). We got to our mobile home more or less right on the dunes and Graeme remarked that it reminded him of Seaton Carew. To top it off, the flush on the toilet broke late that evening...we discussed leaving but decided to give the place a chance. The next morning we awoke to find we had a flat tyre (and it was Sunday), anyway we got the toilet fixed and Graeme managed to put the spare wheel onto the care and we got the tent dried out. The pool was over-crowded and the beach was dirty we made plans... On Monday we got the tyre fixed(15 Euros, well impressed) and I used some great GCSE-level French to achieve that and ...the toilet broke again, I got on the phone to my mum and told her to book us a pitch on the campsite they had just arrived on in the Loire Valley (we went there last year in mobile home so know it was a nice site). Next day we packed up and left Seaton Carew in France behind, losing quite a bit of money in the process but by that stage we didn't care!
Once again, we errected the tent in the blistering midday heat but the pitch was wonderful, really private and just enough shade for us to cook and eat in. Even better my parents looked after the children whilst we were busy. The pool was fantastic and even the campsite owner remembered us from last year. Things were great, we even managed to head to Saumur in the opposite direction to the thousands of cyclists who had descended upon the town for the annual meet and have our Croque Monsieurs in our favourite bar (a tradition when we are in the Loire Valley). The Graeme's toothache struck...he had to get up a 4 in the morning and wander round until the morning due to his pain! Once he got some painkillers things were a bit better and we got to go to Angers and look round the castle and Tapestry of the Apocalypse, much to the displeasure of my parents (Mum because she's desperate to go and Dad because he isn't...they only ever visit the outside of castles!!). That was the end of the holiday. A very rough sea crossing with a seasick Graeme and a stay in the Travel Inn at Dover and we were home!
Once home, Graeme had to seek out a dentist who would see an emergency patient (we don't have a dentist at the moment as we don't agree with paying for something that we already pay for on the NHS). He found one and got his tooth sorted (root filing, eek)
Since then things haven't really improved...bad weather, warring children and the Twenty20 International between England and South Africa, that I'd bought Graeme tickets for at Christmas, was cancelled because of the weather.
Surely the last week of the holidays well be successful!

A year of full-time work!

As we approach the final 3 days of this academic year at our school, I'm thinking about the successes (and failures) of my first year back at work full-time.
Back in September I set out on my first full year of work in 3 1/2 years after a maternity leave of 8 months, followed by 2 years of working 2 days a week. It must be said that I was starting with very little confidence in my abilities as a teacher due to a number of things that had happened in the previous 3 years. However, I had high hopes and high expectations with blogging and eTwinning projects to work on and trips to organise.
On reflection - and I've said this to several people along the way - this has been the hardest year of my teaching career! I think I had forgotten how little time main-scale teachers get for preparation having been on management points since 1998, therefore I took on too many other things to do at the same time as get back into teaching. My "wonderful" timetable also didn't help matters it must be said, however really I want to focus mainly on the positives rather than the negatives.
The year began well, with a Yr 9 class who couldn't remain in their seats for longer that 3 minutes without fighting / shouting etc... Now this might make our school sound a bit like a zoo, I'd like to poing out that it most certainly is not, this class had just had a very poor experience the previous year due to staff absence and therefore had become extremely disaffected (not surprisingly). Things didn't get much better, when in October it was announced that OfSted were coming and I seem to remember going home in tears that night, telling my husband that I might as well give up there and then, if they came to see this particular class!!! However, I persevered, only complaining a little bit about them and never demanding extra help (in fact I lost the classroom assistant when one boy left to go to another school) and trying to make my lessons as kinaesthetic and interactive as possible (also having happy and sad faces on the board to put names under...sad= detention, happy= merit) and I think I emerged victorious. The class can now talk about what they're going to do on holiday and where they're going to go...even better they listen to me in silence and I can even allow myself to let my guard down a little and have a bit of "banter". I think they have actually become my favourite class (but, sshh don't tell anyone...specially not them!)
OfSted did arrive and (fortunately) didn't come to see my Yr 9 class, the lovely man came to see me with my lovely Yr 7 class. I'd planned something quite normal really and the class fussed as only Yr 7s could. He stayed for 30 mins and left telling that it was excellent. I was amazed and even more astounded when my Headteacher told me the next day that he'd heard that my lesson was "exemplary" (unheard of in Langwitch land). Suddenly I began to wonder whether I could really teach after all!
In addition I ran a workshop on a CPD Day on Podcasting that staff enjoyed and also went to my husband's school to do the same thing and they loved it too. I never believed I could have done that in September!
I made it to Christmas and, after a disasterous Christmas party where everyone I arranged to go with didn't turn up and I was left with a goup of people I hardly knew, the first term was over.
The New Year arrived with no dramas, except we did get a new Head of Area which was a big change and it took us all (or maybe just me) a while to get used to a new regime. In February we had our LEA CPD Day where I was enthused by plans for the new KS3 Curriculum. In additition I ran a workshop on eTwinning which was received well. Our eTwinning project with France went from strength to strength with use gaining National Quality Awards in France and the UK and our History Project loomed upon the horizon with concerns of a lack of interest from certain quarters! It was around this time I had my "melt-down" and since then things have generally gone up hill.
Easter came and went and the Dutch finally arrived. I think it was actually one of the high points of the year. It was exhausting but fantastic to see how much the pupils got out of it. We can't wait to go there in October! I think the time from the middle of April until 3 weeks ago has bee the busiest time at work I've had with even weekends taken up with school stuff. I did, however get a lovely trip to the Netherlands minus pupils to plan for the Dutch leg of the project that we're doing. Orals came and went then of course the IWB challenge that really stretched my abilities with the ActivStudio but really developped my skills and contributed to making my lessons better.
Next came the Cologne trip which, despite several reservations, went well and I think all thoroughly enjoyed it. I know I certainly get to know some colleagues much better and that's always nice on a trip. Of course we were also short-listed for the National eTwinning Award, which me being me, wasn't enough but I am trying to feel proud of the achievement.
Well, there we are that just about covers it. I'm going to gloss over the last 5 weeks because to be perfectly honest I've been having a nightmare! I think the adrenalin drop and sheer exhaustion of the end of the school year have just got to me and I've been on an all time low. I think my colleagues (and friends) think I've gone mad! All I've done for the whole time is whinge and moan, complain and cry (at work and at home). Nothing anyone has said or done has help improve my state of mind and I feel like a right misery guts. All, I am sure down to lack of energy! I know that I am ususally a valued member of the MFL Area...but try telling me that at the moment and I would laugh loudly and tell you not to be so stupid! I look forward to a good rest a great holiday and starting all over in September with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.
Challenges for next year? Plenty: developing blogs in French and German to be (hopefully) administered by Heads of those Languages, working on eTwinning Projects with Germany (and Poland and Hungary) and with another Polish school (and French and Swedish) to hopefully lead to a Comenius Project plus something in the pipeline in French too. In addition, doing some digital video, video-conferencing and developing the MFL area of our VLE...and of course doing some Primary Spanish plus a much improved timetable.
I didn't know one could pack so much into a year of work but there we go. I do have much more confidence in my teaching abilities and I'm still standing (just) but don't know how many friends I still have after my 5 weeks of tantrums!

The end of the diet!

I haven't updated on my diet recently...as was pointed out to me whilst doing the weekly shop at Tesco's! Maybe that's an indication of how things have been going.
Well, I'm at the end of the 6 week diet period and I've actually lost a stone:o) This is better than I hoped for...aimed for 12 lbs so I can't complain...except that being me, I would have like it to be more (of course).
It's so nice being able to wear clothes that I haven't been able to wear for the last year and I'm actually starting to re-gain a little more confidence so all in all it's been a good experience. I still have about 2 stones to go but at least it's a start!
I've faltered a little over the last few weeks, mainly due to my mood...brought on by my previously mentioned Facebook addiction. I think I've drunk a little bit too much too...and not just in diet terms! I find tiredness is always a good excuse to eat and drink...so is feeling fed up...and happy...and sad...oh alright then, just about any occasion is excuse enough for me! I have found though, that I can survive without rice and pasta and that, it would seem has been the key to my success. I've discovered some foods that I would never have considered eating and found them delicious too.
Now begins the hard work of keeping it off and even harder, losing more...

"My name's Helena and I'm addicted to Facebook"...

Having blogged about Facebook before I didn't know whether to dedicate another post to it, however since it's on my mind here it is.
Up until about a month ago, Facebook was something I did to pass the time and maybe send fun things to people who sent me things etc... I also had my share of friends from University who I had on my list of friends but who really just lurked there. All this began to change about 4 weeks ago when, suddenly close friends and colleagues began to join and since then I seem to have become completely addicted. I have begun updating my status several times a day (unnecessary) sending bizarre things to people I only saw a couple of hours ago, returning far too many times in an evening to feel down-hearted when my so-called real "friends" haven't sent me anything, not even a gummi-bear! What it going on? I ask myself, have I become completely addicted or is it just that I have too much time on my hands and am so bored with the TV that it's just my form entertainment. Is it unhealthy, I ask myself, to be exchanging messages about work etc...at 10.30 on a Friday evening with colleagues, when I and they should be relaxing in front of the TV or, even better out in Yarm?
In addition to this I have let ex-pupils become friends (well, I said I would) and now don't know if I was right (don't know why though). I don't know if they really "get it" anyway as all they do is join groups with rude names!
My greatest concern is that my adiction could begin to affect my relationships with these people whom I see on a daily basis...maybe they don't want polar bears, octapi (is that the plural of octapus?) and other such things flung at them every evening and they are really not interested in my attempts at whitty updates.
So, where do I go from here? Do I delete my account? I came close to that last night! Or do I just stop worrying, come to the conclusion that I'm paranoid and try to return to where I was a month ago...sending l'il green patch requests, throwing things to Lisa Stevens and just generally getting on with my life?
I do hope that normal service will be resumed soon, because it's driving me crazy at the moment!!! I also quite liked messing on with Facebook before and I don't really enjoy it anymore at all - it all seems to have got too serious!

ps...I'd also like to apologise to anyone I have sent stuff to over the past month, if it wasn't appreciated :o(

Feeling enthusiastic and motivated!

Well it's not often I can say that!
I was very pleased today to find out that service can be great if you order from the right places. My USB microphone and web-cam arrived this afternoon and I was very impressed, as they had only been ordered on Friday! I collected them and eagerly took them upstairs to show them off to my waiting Year 9 class. I decided that, rather than wait for our over-worked technician to intall them, I'd plug them in and see what happened. Imagine my (and my class's) delight when they worked. We had great fun with me recording them making too much noise and filming them doing no work! I then started to tell them the sad tale of my wireless keyboard and mouse, puchased at Christmas and still sitting sad and unloved in a dusty office. They suggested that I might be able to just plug them in too. So I dispatched one of them to get said keyboard and mouse and what do you know it worked! How chuffed am I? (I know it's really sad but I actually feel a bit like a naughty school-girl not waiting to have them intalled - but that would take until sometime next year). The web-cam does have some features that do need installing via the CD but they can wait...the important thing is that I can now video-conference from the comfort of my own desk and also get classes involved too (you can just about make out the class it you put the camera at the front of the room)!!
In addition to this, I'm beginning to think about new eTwinning projects for the coming year. We're apparently going to launch head-long into planning a Comenius Project and I have been charged with finding a Polish school to work with...all very well and good but how do I turn down the other 3 Polish schools, 2 Romanian schools, Spanish school and Swedish school who also want to work with us? (I'm not good at saying "no") ...although Sweden sounds interesting. In addition, a very interesting German project was being advertised and I couldn't help myself...oh and of course there's the French school that would like to blog with us too... The more the merrier I say! I wouldn't be put off at the thought of having a different project for every class I teach it's so important for kids to see that what they're learning can have a real and immediate impact on their lives.
No wonder my Head of Area made the comment that I'm "up for anything" (in the nicest possible way, of course).

More Wordle

Have just read a post from Jess McCulloch about Wordle, I felt compelled to go back there again this evening!
I don't know if I missed this feature before but I discovered that you can put any URL for it to make into a beautiful cloud. Unable to resist, I put in this website's URL and it seems that this is what The Langwitch Chronicles is all about...
...no mention of bizarre, odd, mental or crazy 8-)

What a nice video!

I discovered this very cute German video from an unusual source. That's not important, it's great and I'm going to use it with mt Yr7 class tomorrow...I've even found the words just to make it a bit more educational. Enjoy...

Money spent at last

After learning we'd been short-listed for the National eTwinning Award and that it brought with it £50, I have been consumed with the desire to spend it. I had several ideas on how to dispose of the money, the most popular one was of course the USB Wine from the Vineyards that Isabelle Jone brought to my attention through her delicious links (5 to be distributed round the MFL department as I saw fit...one for me and the others could fight it out for the other 4).

However, on reflection, I decided that this could be a little frivolous and also didn't know how it could contribute to our eTwinning experience (well, actually...) so today I decided upto a USB microphone and a webcam. My room is ear-marked to become the video-conferencing centre of the school so I thought with those and Skype among other things it would be a good start. We plan to use Elluminate really but I thought that we could use Skype to record interviews with schools abroad and then create podcasts from them. Whether we have the technology or knowledge to do that, I do not know. We are somewhere back in 1960 as far as technology is concerned at our school!

Exchange Disappointment

We've had some disppointing news this week about our exchange plans. We had planned to develop our extremely successful eTwinning project into an actual exchange during the next academic year, so I was very disppointed to learn that we aren't going to be able to do anything with it due to illness in the family of my contact there. She had hoped that other members of staff at her school would take on the organisation of the exchange but unfortunately no-one is wiling to do that. This is quite a blow after the huge success that we've had this year.
However, onward and upward...we're looking into other possibilities and may even venture into a Comenious Project instead. Of course being the big fan of eTwinning that I am, I'm already searching for a new project for the coming year. Something in German but with non-German speaking countries...and of course my ever faithful Year 8s (who will be Yr 9) are on the hunt for "something big" that involves podcasting.
Watch this space...

Singing all weekend!

I've done quite a few non-MFL related posts recently and here comes another one. I must apologise and will try harder in future (but am not feeling particularly inspired at the moment, as the summer holidays approach).
This weekend I've been persuing one of my other hobbies - yes I do do something outside of the classroom from time to time.
The singing group I am a member of (Kellephony) have a Masterclass with Wynford Evans, a well known tenor, every 6 months or so. We had a one day event in November and this weekend is our "biggie". Two days of singing and listening to one another sing with help, hints and praise from Wyn. It's a very pleasant way to spend a weekend really but does take a lot of work. We each prepare 3 solo pieces and also do some ensemble work aswell. This weekend I am singing "Fac ut portem" a lovely piece from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, "Hans und Grethe" a (surprisingly fun) piece by Mahler (for which I need a Dirndl to sing properly) and the beautiful "Sleep" by Ivor Gurney. All of the pieces are taken from my ABRSM Diploma repertoire that I will do sometime in the dim and distant future when I get time to brush them all up properly, write show notes and learn "The Monk and His Cat" from Barber's "Hermitage Songs". We also sung the "Benedictus" quartet from Mozart's "Requiem" today. Incase anyone is interested, I'm a contralto / mezzo-soprano.
I must admit that these Masterclass weekends are always a great ego-boost for me and Wyn is a great help, with oodles of advice but he's also very complimentary. Maybe, if I ever get tired of teaching, I could become a singer (too old!!). I also find these weekends rather stressful at the same time, having to mix with grown-ups who all take their hobby very seriously. I, on the other hand, as a defence mechanism make great efforts not to take anything too seriously, so that if told I'm rubbish I can always say "wasn't doing it properly anyway!" and as for being grown-up I certainly don't intend to be that until I'm at least 70, it's too much fun pretending I'm still 21!
It was so relaxing today, listening to one or two of my fellow club-members' classes that I must admit to having fallen asleep (but, shhh don't tell anyone, I'm sure no-one noticed). I also took my trusty notepad so that I could keep the creativity flowing and not down all my ideas that I get while listening to people sing. Look out colleagues on Monday, I nearly filled my notepad ! (It's only a small one, with a cute picture of a dog on the front!).
So am I off to spend the evening in preparation for thr rigours of tomorrow's singing? Of course not, that would mean I was taking this all too seriously...Graeme's out so it's a night of Pinot Grigio, Facebook and mindless TV for me (all in preparation for supporting Germany tomorrow evening!!!)

Back on the up again and weight loss too!

After faltering last week, I feel like I'm back on an upward journey.

I almost wrote another "meltdown" post but refrained and glad I did! I think I was suffering from "post-trip adrenalin come-down" and ended the week feeling undervalued, wondering where my career was going and also like a terrible mother and wife to boot! I did, however realise that this was due to lack of adrenalin, lack of weight-loss and general malaise of other colleagues being picked-up by my over-active empathy streak! After a nice relax and fun hour or so on Facebook (and alcohol) on Friday evening I felt much better and the Race for Life got my adrenalin levels back up to somewhere near normal!
Feeling much more positive today and ready for most things.
The best moment of the day was standing on the scales this morning to find that I had lost a further 6lbs to make a grand total of 11lbs in 3 weeks!!! Not bad, considering that my overall target for the full 6 week diet was to lose 12 lbs! If I keep this up I might have completely disappeared by October!

Why blogging with pupils is so great!

I just had to write this post!
I just got a comment on the blog I created for our Dutch eTwinning Project from one of the English pupils involved. He wanted to know if we're travelling by ferry or plane and thought plane would be better even if a bit more expensive!
Priceless - I don't think he would have said that to me face to face, and so nice to get an opinion. (Unfortunately flying is A LOT more expensive!!! - and far too traumatic for Mrs. Butterfield who wouldn't have anyone's hand to hold!)