TeachMeetNE09-02

On Wednesday 2nd December Chris Harte and team organised the second TeachMeetNE of the year at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle.
After a hectic journey up the A19 (with a huge delay due to a broken down car!!!) we arrived in good time for the start of proceedings.
Then event was extremely well attended and, as ever the Tyneside Cinema proved to be an excellent location, with wine flowing freely throughout the evening.
There were some amazing presentations by some very amusing and knowledgeable colleagues from the local area and we also had colleagues join us from around the world via Flashmeeting.
I spoke about my top tools to get pupils talking and the presentation is below. Underneath the presentation you will also find links to examples of the tools that I spoke about. It's so important for we linguists to get our pupils talking and improving their foereign accents but it was really interesting to see that non-linguists were also interested in how they could use some of these tools with their pupils.

Voki: from our eTwinning Project

Voicethread: Very basic-I'm sure you could come up with something much better!

Songsmith: Haben chants

Slideshare: My French Jolly Phoniques Slidecast

Podcasts: Langwitch Radio (German) Radio Langwitch (French)

More information about the TeachMeet09-02 event can be found on the Ning.

Finally I'd like to say thank you to Rosemary for giving me a lift, thus making sure I didn't need to drive into central Newcastle!

Songsmith

Whilst at the MFL Show and Tell, Joe Dale told us about Songsmith (I'd read his blogpost about it before but I'm an Auditory / Kinaesthetic learner...) and was filled with possibilities and ideas. I couldn't wait to find the opportunity to use it. Fortunately that opportunity showed itself soon than I'd imagined.

My Year 8 German class had been making "Haben" raps the week before and hadn't got very far with them at all so I felt that the injection of Songsmith would be really beneficial.

As Songsmith is on my laptop and downloading anything onto a school computer is difficult as I don't have administrator rights (and rightly so!) I decided we'd have a carousel-type activity. I split the class into groups of 3 and set up my laptop with a microphone in my office, gave a quick tutorial and we were away!

After they were recorded I popped them onto the Levelator and made podcasts out of them. They can all be found on my Langwitch school blog but I really liked this one best from "RP, BW, BS":

RP, BW, BS

Langwitch Radio

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!!!

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!!!)

Nine Readings and Carols

As Christmas approaches the trips the Church become more frequent and those of us with small children spend our time a) breaking up fights between over-tired and over-excited siblings and b) seeing how many times we can see Santa. Today was one of those days.
Lunchtime saw us at my parents' for lunch, followed by carols round the Christmas Tree in Carlton (or rather carol) and a visit from Santa who gave out presents (to all children whose parents / grandchildren had handed presents in at the village Post Office the week before!). It was very nice despite the cold and mud and Santa arriving a carol or 3 too early :o)
This evening involved more Christmassy things. I had been invited to sing at Redmarshall's carol service. They have a lovely Saxon (I think) Church so, I took Alice and the two of us plus Mum, Dad and Grandma squashed into the old-style pew that have a gate on the end to lock us in and I sang the beautiful "Stille Nacht" unaccompanied during the service. Everyone seemed happy with my performance. The service was followed by mince pies and wine (a concept I find difficult to come to terms with, being a good Methodist girl myself).
The funniest part of the evening came when I went to drop Dad off at their house, while Mum took Grandma home and he didn't have any house keys with him :o) He came back to ours, as I wouldn't let him go in the shed until Mum got back. (Secretly, I think he wanted to have a quick trip to the pub!)
Graeme's now at the gym and I'm enjoying watching the gorgeous Heath Ledger in "A Knight's Tale" before I have to get up to go to work tomorrow while everyone else in the family is on holiday :o(