The IWB Challenge Week 1

As mentionned in a previous post, I (somewhat foolishly, I fear) decided to take up the IWB Challenge as set up by Jess McCulloch and also take up by me (of course) and Isabelle Jones from My Languages.
What a week to start off with! I think I was actually in my classroom, fully focused, for a day last week, I therefore have to admit to not being very adventurous at all. I did mage a few things, all of which were newish to me:

• On Monday I introduced clothing to my Yr7 bottom set. I used Powerpoint to introduce the clothes with their colours, like flashcards (not new) and then, as a plenary to see how much they had learnt I created another, more flashy Powerpoint. The slide transitions were all timed and there was music the started with the first slide and continued to the end, whilst on each slide there was a picture and a multiple choice of the correct sentence for them to pick. I know that to some this may be nothing new, but I only recently learnt how to do it (after having been taught by a wonderful colleague). The pupils seemed to like it too, the music seemed to keep them more focused on what they were doing, somehow!
• With the same class, the next lesson I used a flashcard powerpoint where puils had to click on a number, a picture appeared, told me what theyn thought the French work for it was and then they "flipped" the slide to see if it was correct - could have been quite effective, if somehow things hadn't got out of sync a bit in transfer from my lap to to my classroom computer :o(
• The only other thing I can think of is not very exciting, or new really. To revise European Countries with my Yr9 Set 3 German class, I got them to come and draw links from the German name of the country to where it was on the map. It was very interesting to see their knowledge of European geography (and lack of it), so they learnt where some European countries were (see, I even got in some cross-curricular links!)
  

The rest of the week was spent either in the computer suite or learning Japanese Calligraphy with Noriko, our Japanese Assistant.

I have some rather ambitious plans for using placeSpotting.com and MyStudiyo that Joe Dale blogged about earlier this week for next week. We shall see how it goes...

Ian Ramsey went Dutch

As I sit here, exhausted, I finally have time to reflect upon one of the most hectic weeks of my teaching career - the first leg of our eTwinning project with a school in the Netherlands (doing a History project, but why I was involved is a whole other story!).
There were times when I thought it would never happen and there were definitely times when I hoped it wouldn't happen!
Anyway, on Sunday all 20 pupils arrived, without a hitch. I had images of a poor Dutch child being left at school with no partner but everything worked OK, apart from my appalling pronunciation of the kids' names. We had a great few days with trips to Beamish and Preston Park Museum, pupils working in the LRC on their projects and evening activities of bowling and a social evening at school where we were able to show parents a great slideshow of the activities.
The whole few days were fantastic, if not exhausting. These things are always such fun but so tiring at the same time. It was amazing the amount of support I got from colleagues throughout the school and the confidence it has given me in general. It was a bit of come-down to have to teach normal lessons on Thursday (we had a CPD Day today).
The tell tale signe of the success of the project were the tears at the end of the trip. Several of the pupils were hoping to stow away on the coach with their partners as they left.
For me, as a linguist, the most mortifying thing of the whole few days was that I couldn't (and till can't) speak a word of Dutch. I will certainly be rectifying that before I go over there in a few weeks time to plan the return trip :oP

Alternative Eurovision Song Contest

Earlier this week, I was invited by Jess McCulloch to join the Alternative Eurovision Song Contest Ning Network. The idea - a fanatstic idea of Jo Rhys-Jones of Talkabout Primary MFL - being to attempt to do better than the real Eurovision Contestants in May. Each person has to choose a country to reperesent in the "alternative" contest (although I am assured that we don't have to sing in that country's language).
So, having nothing better to do with my time, having Dutch pupils in school on an eTwinning project, a trip to Cologne to plan and a podcasting competition to enter and that's not even counting the IWB challenge and Animoto Challenge, I decided that this would be the ideal opportunity to get the Yr 7 pupils involved in. I'm going to work with our G&T Yr 7s and we're going to represent the Netherlands (surprise, surprise). I'm actually going to get a teacher who actually is Dutch and works at our school to help us to learn a song in Dutch. I'm hoping that this will also provoke interest in Dutch, ready for recruitment to the Project with Zeldenrust Steelantcollege next year.

The Dutch have arrived!

My biggest nightmare of the past 9 months has been our Dutch eTwinning project. Maybe it's because I don't speak Dutch, or maybe it's because I'm not a History teacher but I've really struggled to get a handle on this. However, after the nightmares of having to increase numbers from 15 to 20 hosts and telling parents arrival and departure dates had changed they arrived this evening without a hitch! All day I had images of being left with 2 Dutch children too many, or them having decided not to bother due to our disorganisation and us all standing at school waiting for people who weren't going to arrive. The only fly in the ointment now is the Head of History is ill and will probably not be able to go to Beamish tomorrow - I think we have a backup now! My only role now is to get us all bowling tomorrow evening and arrange a "social event" on Tuesday.
I must admit, I'll be relieved on Wednesday evening!
I'll be blogging with the kids on Our Victorian Adventure all week.

Samantha Hughes

I first came across Samantha Hughes whilst I was recovering from Meningitis about two and a half years ago, through an article in my mum's newspaper(she had to come and look after the children until I was well enough to do so). She was a little girl (aged 2 at the time I think) from Derbyshire suffering from a rare childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma. I found her website and, curiously it was from there that I found the first ever blog I read regularly Support for Christi Thomas written by the inspirational Angela Thomas (Christi's mum). Since then I have been a regular reader, so it was with enormous sadness that I read today that she had died, aged 5 after a recent relapse. I can't believe how upset I am and just count myself very lucky that I have 2 gorgeous, healthy children.

My IWB Challenge

Having read on Jess McCulloch's excellent Technolote blog a couple of weeks ago about her Interactive Whiteboard Challenge and then seen Isabelle Jones' commitment to take up the challenge too in the comments on that post and in her own later post, I decided that since my own IWB lies dorment in my classroom much of the time that now was the ideal opportunity to improve upon my IWB skills.
The idea is to use the IWB in 2 new ways every week and then blog about it at the end of that week. Hopefully, I can keep the ideas rolling and find 2 new ways to use it each week!!! I have some ideas for next week's lessons anyway, so that's a start.
So from next week, when we return from our 2 week break I will begin and I intend to write a blog post about my ventures on a Friday evening (with the aid of Grolsch or Stella, depending on Tesco's best offers that week!)

Dan starts full time nursery

Today was a bit of a milestone, since Dan has now started "propper" full-time nursery, rather than his previous 3 days a week day nursery.
Naturally, he has begun Red House where Graeme works as Network Manager and where Alice is already in Yr1 and having a ball. He was so excited all day yesterday he never shut up! This morning was lovley as he got on his little uniform (including cap!) and kept telling me to sort out his bag etc... Even better was that I got to take him on his first day due to our Easter breaks not matching this year so I got to meet his new teacher (a man!...Quite unusual for a nursery, I think). He was pleased as punch to be able to go in with me and Graeme and begin banging things together etc...
I must admit to always feeling a little "poor" on having any dealings with Red House and it's parents, since they're all so extremely well off (Alice is in awell know Dragon's son's class), so I was a little "star-struck" when I well know Austrian Boro player taking his daughter into the nursery talking in German to her (naturally)...I wanted to start talking in German too...will have to get Dan talking in German to her.
Of course all this means, very few of Dan's and Alice's friends will ever be able to come to our house for a visit, as we don't have gates or our own grounds!

Facebook - eek!

It's not often that I feel stongly enough to express an opinion (usually incase someone disagrees with me and I hate conflict) but anyway, this is something I feel very strongly about so here goes (sorry if I uspet anyone!)
Having pupils as friends on Facebook - Why???
I've just "befriended" a colleague of mine from work and on perusing their friends, discovered several of our pupils as friends. Now, I'm afraid I feel very strongly that pupils and Facebook don't mix. From my point of view, Facebook is a place for me (and my friends) to share things we find funny / interesting etc and just to hang out and exchange silly messages in our status updates. It's also somewhere I and can share my family photos and play Scramble - badly (although I wouldn't say that I was in anyway addicted to this particular game). It's something personal, and (to me) having pupils as friends on Facebook is almost as bad as them knocking on my door and asking to come in for a coffee / watch TV / come to the pub with me. It would mean that they were encroaching on my "me-time" and also that I couldn't be "me" in my exchanges with real friends. Aside from all of this, one could lay oneself open to all kinds of problems by allowing pupils to be friends on Facebook...what if parents were aware and thought exchanges with friends / sending drinks or cocktails and such like were inappropriate and then complained to their child's Headteacher, thus opening up a whole new can of worms? I don't even want to go there!
Of course, now I'm in a bit of a difficult position, firstly do I mention my concerns to my colleague? Secondly, now I'm (innocently) semi-visible to pupils am I going to bombarded with friend requests...all of which I would refuse, of course? It's a difficult one for someone who doesn't like conflict, but, quite by accident, I've fallen into what could be a hornets' nest!
The odd thing is, many of these friends are Yr11 (but not all) and of any of them were to request to be "friends" in September, when they're safely out of our school I'd happily say "yes" because then I wouldn't be dealing with them day to day on a professional basis and it's nice to see how former pupils get on once they leave school.
Anyway, there's my rant, maybe you agree with me, maybe you don't...I'd love to hear other peoples' opinions...(Oh and if anyone wants a quick gave of Scrambe, I do really like to get new - grown up - friends...I've lost 3 recently - not sure how that happened!)

Meme: Passion Quilt

Today I discovered that I had been tagged by José Picardo to continue with this Meme, originally thought up by Miguel Guhlin of a passion quilt made of pictures that show what we are most passionate about in education.

My initial thought was "aarrrggg"...can't think about what I'm passionate about (I'm on holiday, come on now) and secondly I need to tag 5 other people and quite frankly...I don't know 5 other people (who haven't already been tagged). My husband suggested that I was passionate about the holidays (true, true) but I must admit it got me to thinking. In addition, I think I might have to break the 5 people rule and struggle to 3, maybe 4!

My picture, so professionally taken by me, using a (very small) globe, taken in our spare room (the only place where I could fine no clutter for the background) represents what I see as my passion as language teacher. Giving the pupils I teach the tools with which th communicate with untold numbers of people around the globe. The arrows depict just a few of the possibilities available to them at our school for global communication and the rich and diverse experiences to be gained from this (I have a display very similar to this in my classroom). I believe that learning a language is one of the most amazing things anyone can do, as it opens up a whole world of experiences and adventures (quite literally). When I think of the great things I have been able to do through learning a language, I can't help but want to pass on those possibities to my pupils, for whom communicating with others around the world has never been easier, with all of the technologies available to them.
So there we go, I hope I've done it right!

I'd like to tag four (sorry) more people to continue with the Passion Quilt:

1. Jess McCulloch

2. Lisa Stevens

3. Karine Richardson

4. Sylvie Marc

Rules:

• Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
• Post a picture from a source like Flickr CC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to Miguel Guhlin’s original blog entry.
• Include links to 5 people in your professional learning network or blogroll or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Is it always wrong to laugh at "Christians "at your door?

I know, a rather bizarre thought, however I just had a bizarre experience of this nature...
There we were, watching "The Magic Roundabout" (bizarre enough at the best of times) on Nick Junior 2 before bedtime (the kids', not ours') and there was a knock on the door. Graeme, naturally, sent me to answer, as he thought it would be my mum (she and my dad often drop round just before bedtime, just to wind the kids up before they go to bed). As I lurched towards the front door I noticed it wasn't either of my parents, rather 2 tall men in black, waterproof style jackets. Upon opening the door, I took them to be policemen so was rather taken aback when one started to talk in an American accent about being from the "Church of Christ...." I'm afraid I began to laugh (cross with myself at being taken aback and therefore not prepared with my usual "I'm a Methodist, my husband's a Catholic and the kids are baptised Church of Enlgand spiel). I just blurted out something about not having time and needing to put kids to bed!!! Amazingly they then offered to help out in anyway they could...they'd have been mighty shocked if I'd said "OK then you come on in and babysit while me and my hubby head of for a night on the town".
I felt very guilty about laughing and now want to go and find them to explain that I wasn't laughing at them, rather at the fact that I thought they were policemen and the shock when they weren't...
ps. I'd just like to point out that we do not have policemen calling at our house on a regular basis but I wondered if there had been some "incident" whilst I was away with one of our dodgy neighbours :o)

Permanent?

Three years ago, after the birth of Dan (our 2nd child), we decided that I should stop being Head of German / 2nd in Area and work 2 days a week. It was fab (except we had no money!).
Last year at the very end of May we hit a bit of a staffing crisis in the department...the Head of Area resigned and another member of staff got a new job. This meant that we couldn't get replacements for them, so I offered to return to work full-time to fill one of the holes. This was agreed on the following terms...my 0.4 permanent contract to continue and the 0.6 temporarycontract for a year. I agreed to this and arranged to send the children off the independant school where Graeme works (actually cheaper than private day nursery and srap around school care, believe it or not!), trusting that something would "come up" for next year. Anyway, after lots of to-ing and fro-ing my contract was made permanent full-time on Friday. I must admit that this was with a certain amount of relief on my part. Now I can bide my time and find something perfect for me, rather than having to jump into something miles away, or not exactly what I want. I don't like being told what to do, so am looking to be in charge of something in the future but at the moment I am happy experimenting with new ideas and just being able to teach, rather than running around trying to do a million different things for a million different people :o)

Chez le docteur comic strip

Since I discovered Comic Life about a year ago, I've been dying to use it with a class. Well, Year 8 doing about illnesses and remedies seemed like the ideal opportunity to me, so I began preparations...
I got our technician to put Comic Life for Windows onto half of the computers in our Language Lab, using the 30 day free trail that's available and we were off. I spend a lesson with my class taking photos of them in various poses to represent their illnesses...including a particularly nasty accident involving a boy with a severed head that needed repair with staples, glue and sellotape! We then headed of to the Language Lab. Each pair did 2 comic strips, one with their own pictures so that I can put them on my wall in my classroom and the other, using the cuddly toy pictures that I had taken that I can put onto Je blogue, tu blogues...let's blog, thus avoiding the photos of "children on the internet" problems.
I must say that I'm delighted with the end result and they look very professional too! The cuddly toy comic strips can be seen either here (on Je blogues, tu blogues...let's blog) or here (on Langwitch). I will definitely working on my Head of Area to get him to buy a site licence for Comic Life to use more frequently:0)
Added bonus - no kids trying to play games/listen to music as they were so engrossed in their comic strips, so although it took some preparation, it avoided hassle in the actual lesson!

Recording Speaking Test Answers

Many people have probably been doing this for a long time, but this year, for the first time, I decided to take the plunge and, rather than me recording model answers, I've had my Yr11 classes recording their answers themselves, using Audacity.
It's been an enlightening experience, as in the past, I've always found getting whole classes to record themselves rather traumatic due to technical problems etc... However, I don't know whether it was the "maturity" (and I use the term loosly) of the classes, or whether I'm now a lot more confident with the technology and know the little foibles of our multi-media suite (such as the 2 computers that WILL NOT record)...oh and have spirited away several sets of headphones for recording purposes but what ever, it's working very well. Not even too many silly recordings going on! Yay, an achievement.

Diigo vs Delicious

I've seen many blog posts recently about jumping on bandwaggons and how useful various tools are and the perceived "dangers" of blogging from a teaching professional's point of view.
All of this is certainly food for thought and made me consider a number of things.
Firstly, I decided to have a look at Diigo and transfered my bookmarks from Delicious, not really knowing why, I'm afraid.
Then I began to think about the "dangers" of having links that could provide pupils with access to "dodgey" sites (or sites seen as such by parents / colleagues etc...) and this made me think about my Delicious links which, as well as having resources for my pupils also has resources for me and others about Second Life, to my videos I like on You Tube (not always languages relatedbut also no dodgey, it must be said...mainly some Matt Redman stuff- can't get enough of his wonderful, inspirational music -, but personal to me nonetheless) and realised that Diigo could be a way round this. So I currently have my Delicious bookmarks (modified and reduced) on my pupil blog and Diigo on here. A bit cumbersome I know, but at the end of the day, what's an extra mouse click when adding something to both. My husband always tells me that I'm indecisive, well, I wouldn't know about that, but at least I'm happy (for about 30 mins anyway!)