Place Spotting has got me too!

placeSpotting.com
The things you do when you're off work ill.
Here is my offering for placeSpotting. Can anyone find it?

An odd experience

I had an "odd" experience the other evening and meant to blog about it then but due to my cold I forgot because I was drowning in tissues ( a lovely image, I know).
Maybe this only happens to me but...my husband decided to read this blog (can't remember why now) and all of a sudden, I felt a bit squermy (???). I don't know why but it felt strange that someone so close to me was reading my thoughts! Odd, I know...I think I was worried that he was going to criticise my spelling or grammar (he used to be an English teacher), or maybe I thought he was going to exclaim "you can't write that!". Anyway, I don't think he'll do it again - I think he thought it was a bit boring (and is probably right).
But there we go, just an odd post, mainly because I can't think of anything else blog at the moment about...apart for Dutch project stress and we're all tired of that old chestnut :os
Oh, and did I mention my cold (sneeze)

Great Language Learning Site

Many people are probably already aware of this site but I only became aware of it recently through a post on mfl resources. This is Languages Online...but not the English one that I have been using frequently and with great effect. This one is an Australian site and it's really nice that the kids can go onto it, revise their language, learn new things and enjoy it! I had a (usually very noisey) Yr 9 class and once they got going it was almost silent! They loved all of the songs and the different activities.

Definitely a hit with me :D

The URL of this site is:

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/default.htm

Exchange projects finally coming together

I feel I've had a pretty good week as far as work with abroad goes so far.
After a chat in our eTwinning portal, Sylvie and I have a come a long way with plans for our French exchange. We're going to work on a project called "biographies", where our kids find out about Alain-Fournier and his book "le Grand Meaulnes" (great read if anyone hasn't read it) while in Bourges (of course!) and produce a resource (or two) about his life. When they come here, our project will be on Captain Cook..how could it not be with Whitby not far away, the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum in Stewart's Park, 20 mins away and of course the Endeavour Replica right here in Stockton (for some reason)! We thought that it compares the "Ländlich" (no decent English word for it) of Bourges and the seafaring tradition of this area of England.
In addition to this, we now have homes for all of our Dutch children and have the full programme in place. Now we just have to hope that our partners don't change their minds about what they want to do, or when they want to arrive! We had the parents' meeting for our kids this evening and everyone seems quite happy with arrangements. It was nice to meet the parents of these lovely kids who are so keen to support the school in this venture. Also lovely to chat with the mum of a wonderful boy in my tutor group, who is invloved in the group who have done a lot on the Je blogue, tu, blogues...let's blog project and have her comment how nice it is to be able to let her parents and other relatives in Canada see what her son's doing with his online work. Just another example of the value of all this blogging / podcasting malarky.

SLanguages 2008

I read on the Lingu@net Forum recently and again today on Adam Sutcliffe's blog So much to learn...so little time about the above event SLanguages 2008 on the 23rd/24th May. I've decided that since I want to learn so much more about Second Life I'm going to attend so have registered on the SLanguages.net site. I don't really know what to expect, as I never do when I do anything that involves Second Life, however I'm sure that I will learn a lot and end up even more enthusiastic about it than I already am.
Like many others, I am keen to be involved in some way in a Second Life project, particularly involving languages and am "in discussion" with our CLC about possibilities but, as ever there are the inevitable problems of Firewalls etc...
Maybe this conference will be able to answer many of the unanswered questions that I have about Second Life, languages and the metaverse!

Dictation!

It's that time of year again when Yr 11 have had enough of GCSEs already and they haven't even started them yet (or is that just mine). I seem to have them come in every lesson and sigh when I remind them that there are only another 2 weeks of term left, then another week and then it's the orals...I must admit that I groan too!
So, today, I took a "new" approach and showed them how things used to be! We did dictation both with my Set 4 French set and Set 1 German set and I must say it worked quite well. My French "skater boys" (as my colleague so aptley described my loud, hairy, trousers-round-the-tops-of-thighs-rather-than-waist wearning Yr 11s) actually engaged with it for about 30 seconds and my top set suffering from "last lesson of the day-itus" also did well. All I did was dictate a "model" C type answer about school that they had to write out, then they came out and wrote their version a line at a time. After that they had to translate it into English and the German class then had to make the answer and A* answer instead of C/B. I think looking backwards could be the way forward :o) They all seemed to enjoy it!
And whilst thinking about GCSEs, does anyone else find it a very long and boring process, getting the conversation question answers prepared and marked? With a top set, marking them so that the answers are A/A* level can take an age...of course, I've only heard this on the grapevine, I would never dream of getting my pupils to pre-prepare their answers, our conversations are all spontaneous and "off the cuff" in our Speaking Exams(cough) :D

Rich Hall

Graeme and I had a rare treat last night, a night out at the theatre!
We were in Stockton on Saturday morning (a depressing activity at the best of times) when we saw an advert for Rich Hall (well known from QI, among other things here in the UK), a comedian who we both like. So Graeme phoned the box office at the theatre and managed to get tickets and even got his parents to babysit (but not during the call to the box office!)
I was a little nervous...had never been to see a comedian before...but fortunately we were sat far enough away to be anonymous and not to be engaged in any conversations with the performer! However, it was great. I didn't expect to laugh out loud, but I was very impressed at his ability to make a joke from anything that he picked up about members of the audience. In the second half he came out as the character Otis Lee Crenshaw, a country music singer, and managed to create songs that wove all of the information about the audience members he had spoken to in the first half into them! Particular favourites included a song about the "crap towns" he had visited on his tour (many of which were in Wales!) but it all made us laugh.
What a pleasant, funny evening, just a shame we had to return home and go to work this morning, as we felt it would have been nice to have gone out in Middlesbrough and returned home in the early hours of the morning. Oh well, we can do that when we go to Redworth Hall on Saturday for our neighbours' wedding :o)

Considering the Future

It's been quite an unsettling weekend.
I am currently on a 2 day a week permanent contract but also a 3 day a week temporary 1 year contract, to make up a full time contract for a year. This came about at the end of the last academic year when a member of department got a new job at the very end of May and we couldn't recruit, so I offered to return to work full time. So, due to a number of changes in the department our Head said that he could only make it for a year, initially. Well obviously, time is passing and jobs are coming up and I (and my colleague who is doing the 3 days I would have been doing) are wondering what is happening with our jobs. We have been assured by our (great) Head of Area that hours are the same if not more that this year, so he can see no reason as to why we shouldn't have our posts made permanent BUT (and there's always a but...). We are about to have a 2nd AST post available (I'm not even going to go there) so that will mean either our Head of German or Head of Spanish becoming an AST and them needing to be replaced and the (newish) AST will therefore take on some of the hours that I or my other temporary colleague are doing which, surely means that someone will be out of a job / have to reduce their hours-n'est-ce pas? Our latest news is that the Head will let us know when he's looked at the budget for next year...rather unsettling when I am at least £15,000 a year more expensive than an NQT. This all leaves me feeling rather under-valued, and very unsettled to the point of thinking about this all weekend instead of enjoying valuable time with my wonderful family.
In the meantime a job as Head of MFL has be re-advertised at a school about 45 mins drive away from here and I'm seriously considering taking myself out of the equation at my current school and applying for this job...despite the obvious draw back of distance. I keep being assured by my HoA that everything will be fine but I am not too sure. Of course, they could always just make me AST (ha-ha) or Head of German and that would solve all problems :D
Maybe all of my worrying is due to the fact that I'm a control freak and can't be in control of this situation . I also can't help feeling that I'm being "played with" and led a bit of a merry dance.
Roll on Rich Hall at Middlesbrough Theatre tomorrow night, is all I can say at the moment :o)

Voicethread!

I experimented with Voicethread today and was very impressed with the results. Unlike me, I decided to start small, so worked at lunctime today with my goregeous Yr8 G&Ts who come faithfully week in week out to do extra fun/ICT French things. We just focused on, firstly getting them registered and choosing their "image" and secondly on getting "somthing" recorded...about 3 sentences. However, I was VERY pleased with the results and can really see the potential for using this in several ways in MFL teaching.
In addition, the kids themselves thought it was great that they could instantly record their thoughts and are keen to set one up on out Je blogue, tu blogues...let's blog (will have to discuss with Sylvie).
The one downside, despite choosing the embed a small version on by blog, only half of the Voicethread can be seen and that means that not all speaker's icons can be seen. Does anyone know how to rectify this?
Don't know what it will look like on here, but here it is anyway...please go to my Langwitch blog and leave comments for the kids...you know how they ADORE that kind of thing :D

An experiment tomorrow

I've seen many people tweet and blog about Voicethread and thought it an absolutely fantastic idea for MFL teaching so have decided to jump in and experiment with my G&T group in Yr8 at lunchtime tomorrow.
It's dead boring, just a picture of a house with the idea that they will talk about where they think it is, who lives there, what's it like inside, but it's a start nevertheless. The possibilites are endless to encourage creative use of language and actually SPEAKING, not just typing. As ever, the ideas are flowing thick and fast, just hope that my body can keep up :o)
I'll post again tomorrow (hopfully) with the results of my experiment!

The rest of the day tomorrow will be spend moderating and finalising coursework marks to send them off ready for Friday...WJEC deadline.

Feeling much more positive!

Having been "prompted", I thought I'd better show that I am a lot more positive today...and I really am.
Several good things happened today.
Firstly due to "friendship photos" my Yr 11 top set turned up in dribs and drabs so didn't feel the pressure to drive them to work...must admit I felt very sorry for the 3 who were there from the beginning as they mustn't have had anyone who wanted them in a group (could sympathise though)
Next, our wonderful student, Lisa is taking my Yr 10 class so it meant a bonus free :D
I had to "nack" my form again because of rowdiness which, in turn lead to my Y11 French class coming into the room in sombre mood!
I got my Y11 French class to do some work (a great achievement- although I do actually love them to bits, despite their lack of "focus"...but don't tell anyone!)
I got locked out of my room (that's on a yale lock) and couldn't for the life of me get back in so the caretaker had to break the door open! A talking point at least, specially since it's the second time it happened.
I managed to "sell" the last 2 seats on the Cologne trip
I've now got 20 hosts for 20 Dutch pupils (hurrah!)
The Head came and spoke to me at Parents' Evening and told me not to say "yes" to anything else (in a fatherly-type fashion)...I think someone had had a word!
My Head of Area asked me to work on a new VLE with him...v. excited
...and finally I managed to con all of the parents at Parents' Evening that can actually teach German (and French and Spanish) and that their children are delightful and are learning something.

What a difference a day makes :o)

Thank you for reading and kind messages.

Meltdown

What a day today has been..don't really know if one is supposed to blog about silly things like this but red wine and whiskey dictate that one should!
I had a complete "meltdown" at lunch time today. It was awful, I just couldn't stop crying due to a number of factors:
1. the deputy head gave me some coursework to moderate and I couldn't find it (although I know it was there somewhere...I found it after work when I was calmer)
2. my Y10 bottom set (oh what a surprises, me with a bottom set!) were awkward about coursework
3. I teach 19 (nineteen) lessons in a row in week A and those classes are mainly "behaviouraly challenged)
4. I run a club for GT linguists on the lunchtime where I have a full day AND duty
5. I had detentions for Y10 non-coursework doers
6. I have a trip to Cologne to run (not by choice)
7. I am involved in a Dutch/History eTwinning exchange thing
8. I have moderation to complete by Tuesday before marks go to WJEC
9. I have Speaking tests to perpare for
10. I have a "top set" most of whom should be getting A*/A and won't

Eventually it all got to me and I just panicked and didn't know where to go!
Fortunately my new Head of Area came and sorted me out (probably thinking "what a silly girl over-reacting like this"- or similar with more swear words) and helped me "off-load" (and pointed out that my timetable is absolutely apalling and have been dumped on) and realise what a daft girl I am not being able to say "no"

To make matters worse, I got through 2 difficult Y11 lessons to get to my singing lesson late with no money and couldn't relax enough to sing well anyway.

Then I got home to have my mum phone to tell me that my dad's best friend's son (who is my age and who I knew when I was younger) had died yesterday with a brain haemorrage.

All I can say is that heavens for red wine, single malt whiskey (Graeme's new hobby, apparently), friends and blogging!

I'm sure I'll feel much better tomorrow at Y9 Parents' Evening! I've even promised not to cry :o)

It's amazing that one can trundle along quite happily for quite some time and then, over a period of a couple of weeks it can feel that your world is caving in around you...bonnet of car, car driving into the back of me, crap timetable, too many "other" project, friend's son dying etc...

I know that there are lots of people A LOT worse off than me, but sometimes one has to feel sorry for oneself!

Aplogies again, will try to be much more positive tomorrow...oh just remember a plus...I can now talk to 9qF5 with them in silence and the want to win "medals" and "sweets" for their ideal school projects...did not expect that in September (the silence or the motivation!)

Another car accident

I thought things were going pretty well again, until yesterday evening.
I was going out for a meal with one of my friends in Yarm and had another car accident...this time I can't blame Renault!
To get to my friend's, I have to drive down a (small) hill called Level Bank. Currently at the bottome of Leven Bank, just before a narrow humped back bridge there are some building works going on. Due to the extremely high winds we've been having recently one of the red and white plastic barrier type things had blown right in to the centre of the road...so, obviously as I appoached I could see that either I would have to move out onto the other side of the road to avoid it or slow right down to try to drive over it without damaging the car. Well, as there was a car coming in the other direction, I had to slow down considerably and quickly. The car behind me, travelling too fast and too close drove straight into the back of me!!! Shaken, (obviously) I pulled over on the the pavement and expected the other driver to do the same thing, specially since I'd heard glass smashing but oh no...the b****** just drove on, clearly aware that the whole thing was his fault and either not being insured / not wanting to have a claim on his insurance / having had a drink and not wanting to be breathalised, if the police became involved!!!!! Amazingly my car was fine after a quick check so at least he myst have damaged his car and broken his headlights (quite pleased about that, actually). Eventually I got back in the car and continued to Pauline's where lots of Kir Royal was needed before heading of for a lovely meal at The Brasserie in Yarm. (Do you think they'll pay me for the free advertising).
I still can't believe that a) the driver of the other car didn't stop and b) no one else stopped...dark night, woman on her own clearly distressed and shocked. What kind of a society do we live in?