Routes into Languages New Ambassadors' Training

Yesterday I felt extremely lucky to invited to take part in the Routes into Languages New Ambassadors' training even at UCL.  For those who don't know who Routes into Languages are, they are a fantastic organisation who work via various regional universities to promote languages is schools.  In particular they have Student Ambassadors who go into schools to promote languages or run workshops at their universities, all with the aim of increasing uptake at all levels of language learning.

After an early start with a 6.08 am train from Yarm (who knew that time existed on a Saturday) I arrived in a wet London and took part in my first activity for the day.  Alongside 4 other fellow linguists, I was part of an employability panel.  Each of us spoke about our passion for languages and where that has taken us in our careers.  I have to say I did feel a little uneasy as "just a teacher", following a business consultant who had loads of experience in lecturing and working all over the world using her languages and someone who worked as a translator with the European Commission and had worked as GCHQ and being followed by a journalist who worked for the BBC World Service.  However I managed to make them laugh and, I think, convince them that teaching wasn't full of lazy, good-for-nothings who are only in the job for the holidays, as some would have people believe and that actually teaching is a great profession to be in. So, I survived the employability panel (which, just for the record was 100% better than having a lesson observation!) and we moved to the afternoon session.

I ran a workshop on Social Media and ICT in MFL.  I wanted the session to be as interactive as possible so spoke for very little of it and created a wiki with all of the information for the session on it.  The wiki can be found here and you can find presentation and everything else from the afternoon there.

All in all, it was a fantastic day.  I met some brilliant people and it was nice to be in the company of so many people with such a passion for languages and all of the opportunities that they can open up for you.

Active Learning - Clouds

I've also heard this activity called trap doors or otra vez and am sure that others call it by many other things - and my pupils probably call it something entirely different (!)
Some people have asked what it is so, although I know that many use this already, I thought I'd do a blog anyway.
The first thing to know about clouds is that it cover loads of different skills such as Speaking and Listening (literacy), Reading (literacy), active learning and lots more. It gets pupils talking in the target language straight away and I love it that as soon as I set my classes off doing this activity the classroom is buzzing with the sound of French/German and the sound of happy pupils!
So, this is how it works. You have a text and every so often you have a little cloud image / square with a choice of 3 words in it. Partner one chooses what their text will be, choosing one of the three words in the cloud/box whenever they get there. (They should not tell their partner what they have chosen). Partner 2 then tries to work out what their partner's text says by reading it aloud to their partner. When they get to a cloud/box they say 1 of the words in it. If they are correct, their partner says oui/ja/etc... and they can continue, however if they are wrong their partner says non/nein/etc... and they have to go right back to the beginning again. The best thing is when a pair really want to test each other and they get right to the end and quite deliberately say it's wrong so that the whole thing has to be read out again!
 Below is a simple screenshot of what one of my cloud activities looks like, incase you're struggling to envisage what it would look like...

Active Learning - Infinite Scrabble

Here's another one I've just recently started using again and I really like it for Key Stage 4.

This one is really simple and takes next to no preparation, another reason that I love it!

Give out a grid like the one above to pairs or trios of pupils, depending on how they're sat. The grid should be empty apart from random number in some of the squares, just like the one above. Pupils play against each other in a scrabble-like game.

Allocate a topic (this week mine have been descriptions and holidays-not at the same time, combined with connectives/opinions) and it works like this; pupil 1 starts in the middle of the square by writing a word in the TL, pupil 2 then writes another word that has to connect in some way to the first word and so on. Points are scored when a word goes through one of the squares with a number in it and that square can earn points every time a word goes through it.  You can make is as easy or hard as you want by allowing words horizontally, vertically, diagonally and sometimes backwards. I then had double point scores for letters that had accents on. The games could have lasted the whole lesson, if I'd allowed it!

I didn't know how competitive my pupils could get!

My next task is to work out how it can be less wasteful on paper, maybe laminate grids and use mini whiteboard pens...

Little update on how I'm using Infinite Scrabble to ensure more engagement (although there's already lots there!). I give rewards not only to the winner in each pair / trio and have also started to reward the highest scoring team a reward as well, so not only are they playing against each other but also against the others in the class. Who know that there could be scores of over 100! I also no longer need to explain, just hand out and the buzz starts straights away.

Active Learning - Quiz, Quiz, Trade

Since I'm on a roll, I thought I'd put together another little Active Learning post on one of my favourites.

As ever, I though "everyone" knew about Quiz, Quiz, Trade (a lovely activity taken from Kagan Structures) and I was late to jump on the band wagon. So, last Tuesday during our Active Learning INSET I mentioned it and actually found myself explaining how it works at several tables .  Anyway, I thought I'd explain it here too...it's a good way to avoid real work.

Give each child in the class a card with the TL at the top and English meaning at the bottom. Ideally, each child should have a different phrase which can prove quite difficult in a big class, I know.

Pupils stand up hand up pair up and work their partner, asking them to tell them what the TL phrase means.  If one partner can't do it, the other partner should support and coach them to help them. Once done, the other partner does the same and then they swap the cards and put their hands back up to move on to work with someone else.  This means that pupils work with a wide variety of language and also reinforce their language learning skills, whilst listening to, reading, and speaking in the TL.

For extension more able pupils could be asked to say the phrase in the TL rather than English and even...particularly if you're struggling to find enough phrases with a big class...give out a few blank cards for more able pupils to make up their own. You could also have differentiated cards of different colours and ask pupils to work with people who have the same coloured cards as them.

Instead of "stand up hand up pair up" you could play music and ask them to pair up with the nearest person when the music stops, or even have and inside and outside circle, the inside circle moves and stops when told to, then works with the person opposite them. This would work particularly well if you want to avoid certain pairings ;)

I have it on good authority that Quiz, Quiz, Trade can work in just about any subject area which is always good news.

Active Learning - Follow Me Cards

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This is a hot topic at our school at the moment, since Ofsted told us that there were too many "passive learners".  In fact, Active Learning was the topic of our INSET on Tuesday.

Fortunately, I am a huge fan of Active Learning. I hate that feeling (and I have it way too often) when I'm doing an activity and I'm aware that only about 5 of the class are actually working hard, whilst the rest just sit back and let them.  I try to build in as much active learning as I can (although I'm sure some of my pupils would disagree) and luckily, Languages has loads of activities that we do as a matter of course, which are classes as "active learning".

Going back to the INSET on Tuesday, I think you can measure the success of any training session by what you can take away and use immediately.  Tuesday was one of those occasions.

I am an enormous fan of the TARSIA software, which I was introduced to by Clare Seccombe who has blogged about it here for example, and often use it for creating Dominoes and Jigsaws to introduce new language and to get pupils acquiring and using new language independently. I've also created "Human Dominoes"  sets, although both times have been a disaster (I think I must be doing something wrong).  I'd never, however, used the Follow Me cards as they *should* have been used, preferring instead to use them to create sets of dominoes or questions and answers.  On Tuesday our AHT responsible for Teaching and Learning explained how she used the Follow Me cards in Maths and I decided to have a go on Wednesday morning as follows:

I created a set of (larger than normal) dominoes as normal, with French phrases to match to English, with a variety of known language, cognate rich text and new structures.

Instead of asking pupils to to match them together on table, pupils had to stand up and read out their French phrase, then the person with the corresponding English phrase on it would stand up and say their English meaning, followed by their French phrase and so on...

It worked really well! All pupils spoke some French, all listening to and read some French and they all had to concentrate to make sure that they stood up for the correct phrases. What's more, they wanted to do it again and beat their original time...and wanted to make sure I did it with my other class to see who was the quickest!! AND they want to do it again another lesson!

I've done it with 3 different classes so far and it has been successful...it took me an age to think up 20+ phrases that were on topic, but it was worth it and I've got them now for other years!

ps. You can download Tarsia here (go on, it's great!)

Experimenting with Google Apps for Education

This half-term I am experimenting.  For some time now my school has had Google Apps for Education which we use for email and document sharing between staff and also between staff and pupils.  I have to say that, despite a few little inconveniences, I like the system. I like that I can be sent work from pupils and correct it there and then without having to download it, correct it, do a new email and upload it again. I also like the ease with which I can contact staff and pupils alike both on my computer and from my beloved smart phone - not everyone's cup of tea I know but I do turn if off in the holidays and if I'm away at weekends (because that happens all the time!). I love that me and my team can use it for storing our mark books and we can access it at work and at home very easily.  I don't like that I can't make my writing go vertical in a spreadsheet - not essential, I know but nonetheless I would like to be able to do that. I also don't like that formatting documents is sometimes a bit hit and miss. Again, not huge but a niggle even so.

However, all that aside I recently became curious about Google Sites.  A recent addition to the Google Apps for Education suite, I believe.

So, like I said, this half term I will experiment. I like experimenting. Education is all about learning and I believe that doesn't just apply to to the pupils, I enjoy learning how to do new things, it's all part of the fun. I, like many others I am sure, am working on an Olympics project.  I have been particularly inspired by Eleanor Abrahams and her project which can be found here and is amazing. Therefore my Y9 class will work on that over the next 5 weeks and be encouraged to take responsibility for some of their own learning.  I've created a Google Site, nothing flash, just based on a template provided by Google (always important to use whatever help you can get when starting out on something) but I do like it. I've been able to integrate a specially created Google Calendar so that my pupils know when everything is due.  I've also been able to integrate a medal table, using a Google spreadsheet bar chart (I was particularly proud of that achievement, teaching ICT for a year did teach me something after all!) which I update weekly, according to how each group are working and then for each part of the project there is a page with the task instructions and links that pupils can use for research as homework.

None of this is rocket science I know and I also know that wikis and blogs can do similar things, however for specific projects with specific classes I think this could really help bring on independence.  I shall report back later in the term on how well (or badly) it's going!

European eTwinning Conference Berlin 2012

Berlin 2012, a set on Flickr.

I had a wonderful time at the European eTwinning Conference in Berlin this weekend.

When I received the invitation to Berlin 2012 I was overjoyed, as Berlin is my most favourite place ever, so I awaited the conference with great excitement. As ever, eTwinning did not disappoint.The theme of the conference was "eTwinning Teams" focusing on the importance of working with others both near and far to have successful collaborations.

Inspirational speeches and workshops, combined with great company of old friends and new  meant that conference will stay in my memory for a long time.  I particularly enjoyed being able to exercise my linguistic skills, listening to speeches in French, German and Spanish and also going to a workshop in German on the role of SLT in international projects which I truly enjoyed.

I really enjoyed Anne Looney's Keynote Speech which was fun and interactive with a serious message at the same time. The eTwinning Prizes provided much needed inspiration for me, leaving me with many ideas for future projects.  Saturday was filled with workshops giving me ideas on how to involve more people in my school in eTwinning and how to overcome obstacles that could be in the way of getting more people involved, getting SLT on board with international projects in terms of support and involvement and finally a nice workshop where various eTwinning shared their experiences and projects.  This was really nice to see the what other people across Europe were doing in terms of eTwinning.

Other highlights of the weekend included a coach tour of Berlin with the most brilliant tour guide, who was as hilariously funny as he was knowledgeable, as visit to the Irish Pub in the Europa Center, a visit to the Havana Salsa club and of course to top it all off arriving at Berlin Schoenefeld Airport just after Jedward!

All in all a great time was had by everyone.  Thank you, eTwinning.

ps I'm even starting to learn how to use Flickr after all this time!

For a more detailed look at the speeches and workshops, along with links to resources you can read the UK eTwinning NSS blog about the conference here

A bear named Michel...or Michael, maybe!

Some of you may remember Michel le Voyageur who had many adventures around Europe though an eTwinning project last year. He was French and had a wiki that was updated as he travelled round Europe. Upon arrival back home in Billingham, he sat in my classroom and was admired by all who gazed upon him.

I feared that Michael was getting bored by February as my classroom isn't always the most stimulating place to be all day everyday, as the worksheets come out :)

One day, my lovely Year 10s gave me an idea. Some of them were heading to Iceland on a Science trip at half term. They asked whether Michel could accompany them. He did and had a great time going to glaciers, causing trouble and even gaining a companion in the shape of a (cuddly) puffin! Upon his return from Iceland, Michel seemed restless and told me he needed a change so, I kindly obliged.

He has had a (small) name change and is now known as Michael der Reisende and he has a blog.  This blog, however is not written by me, it is written by members of my Y8 German class.  Each week, one of them will take Michael home and blog about what he has done.  I hope that this will help improve their writing skills and also keep them interested in German.  It also gives them the opportunity to have a real audience for their writing in German - normally only I get to see it...and SLT when they do work scrutiny.

Posterous is brilliant for class blogging, as you can set up the account so that anyone can email a post in and you just have to approve it.  No logging in,  no passwords to forget, just an email address to send to. The class seem really interested in the project and he has already had one blog post written, with many comments.  I'm looking forward to reading about what else he does.

What's also nice is that he seems to be gaining a network of other cuddly travellers along the way as well.

Do you have a mascot that blogs in a foreign language or goes home with pupils? If so let me know and I'll share with Y8, they would love to see what other classes are doing.