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!