Animation is now available

Here is a link to where our famous animation can be found.
The title is "El fantasma, el blobbo y la palmera" and, with the music, it's really quite scarey (lol)

El fantasma, el blobbo y la palmera

Links to the other creations from the animation workshop at the IoW Conference can be found on Joe Dale's blog here.

I had great fun and look forward to being able to do some with pupils in the near future.

Still not getting it right...

Apparently, I've been instructed that I should call the "new Nings" after some kind of shape...looking at the map, I don't know what kind of shape this should be...

More Nings!

Ooopps!
I've just been prompted to mention 3 other new nings that are in their fledgeling states...

Oldham SLN
Belfast MFL
Birmingham Primary Languages

Don't forget to join them if you are even vaguely connected with these areas! (They have all been created by some of the DTV honourary members!)

Durham Tees Valley MFL Ning

I've always been fascinated by Nings...just the name is enough to make one wonder what they're all about. The first ning I joined was the eTwinning Amabassadors Ning, shortly followed by several others. Then of course, upon learning of my impending Primary Languages teaching how could I not join the Talkabout Primary MFL Ning? You can see some of the other, varied Nings, of which I'm a member by looking at the badges in my sidebar. I am a very enthusiastic convert to the idea of a social network, where one can share ideas and resources.
It was with great enthusiasm that nearly 2 weeks ago, I launch the Stockton MFL Ning, aimed at connecting anyone invloved in teaching MFL in the Stockton area. I invited my colleagues in the MFL department to join and some did. Then I went to the IOW Conference and met Lesley Welsh an SSAT Lead Practitioner from Hartlepool and spoke about the Ning with her and how it could be more far reaching than just Stockton. It therefore underwent some changes upon my return and is now names Durham Tees Valley MFL. We've got quite a few members from around the area already (and some honourary Teessiders!) and I'm hoping that this will become a place where Linguists from around the area can connect, share and learn from one another on a rather informal basis...I'm even wondering about a virtual wine tasting! (If Twittermoms can do it then anyone can...might bring in some new members!)
Anyway, if you are involved in Languages in any way, shape or form in the Durham Tees Valley Area (ie, Northeast of England and beyond!), please feel free to join, tell us about yourself and share...we won't bite!

Get Animated! with Mark Pentleton

My final session of the day was a "hands on" workshop with Mark Pentleton of Radio Lingua fame learning how to do some stop motion animation. I have been longing to learn how to do this since watching Stuart Gorse's Gorseville animations that he creates so excellently with his pupils. Here was my opportunity to gain some small insight into how I might use animation with some of my classes.
The workshop was fascinating, if not only because I got to work with the talented José Picardo and Sam Downe (who both seemed to know a great deal more about this kind of thing than I did). We used a programme that can be downloaded free of charge from the internet called Stop Motion Animator from Clay Animator. It was really simple to use. We just made out characters and grabbed the shots. Apparently 12 shots per second(?). Our film had to last 30 seconds, so lots of shots needed (although I think we cheated a bit!).
As Halloween was approaching, we decided to create a film with a ghostly theme: "El fantasmo, el blobbo y la palmera". It was a spooky number that included a ghost who was lost and blob who knew the way and a palm tree. To create our characters we used plasticine (it's more rigid, apparently!!!). We took the shots and then moved them into Windows Moviemaker to add sound and loops (look at me being all technical!). Since we only had 10 seconds of film we decided to add some spooky music and lengthy credits. I have to admit that the music bit was a bit lost on me as is involved transfering everything to José's MacBook doing some magic, hocus, pocussy things and then transfering it back!!!! Anyway it looked and sounded great at the end!
How do I plan to use animation with my pupils?
I think that this kind of thing (for me, anyway) is best done as an enrichment activity in a club or as a day's activity. I can see how I could maybe do this with G&T linguists for a day long project..planning the script, making the storyboard, creating the characters, learning how to use the software and then finally getting to grips with creating their animation. I think, that after lots of practise I might be able to think about doing this kind of thing in a class setting but again, it's all about starting small and gaining confindence.

Creating digital exercises and integration within the Schools VLE with Steve Whittle

Steve Whittle is Assistant Head at the Hayes School in Kent. He is fortunate enough to have a dedicated language lab at his school which he and his team have worked very hard on to make a place where pupils not only practise their languages but where they learn languages too, using all 4 skill areas. The MFL department have put in years of hard work to create an enviable bank of resources to use within the language lab and now, also within the schools' VLE. While they use their digital resources in their dedicated language lab, it was easy to see how many of the activities could be done without the specialist sortware and equipment that they had, it would just need setting up in a slightly different way.
The most interesting thing for me was the fact that their language lab is provided by Sanako / Tandberg. We actually have that system in our "dedicated" language lab! Now this made the whole workshop a revelation to me...I've worked here for 6 years now, nearly and don't think it's ever been used properly!!! It meant that I was able to speak to a man who works for Sanako and discuss with him getting our stuff working properly again. It must be said that I don't think it's anyone's fault that this amazing (and expensive) equipment has gone (realtively) unused at our school, I think it has more to do with high turn-over of staff (up until about 4 years ago) which meant the people who knew how to work it moved on and also a bit of the "fear factor" from some colleagues. This workshop has, however given me the momentum to get this room working properly again and really help our pupils fulfull their true potential.
I really got a lot out of this workshop and I think that this session, in particular will be one that can transform the whole MFL department's use of ICT across the board!

Flashmeeting with John Warwick

My second session of the day was about using Flashmeeting with John Warwick (one of the eTwinning Ambassadors), Deputy Head teacher of a Special Needs school in Hertfordshire. He showed us how Flashmeeting, a free video-conferencing tool could be used with our classes both abroad and in our local neighbourhood.
Flashmeeting is an extremely useful tool because, not only is it free, it is also a secure form of working online with other schools, so therefore it is safe. All your partner school needs is an internet connection and you're away, basically! They don't even need a webcam (unless the really want to see you)...it can all be done using microphones or the "chat" facility, where you type what you want to say. Unfortunately the technology let us down and we were unable to have a Flashmeeting at that time, however, I was "fortunate" enough to be able to take part in another Flashmeeting later in the weekend but felt so self-conscious about others being able to see me, was over come with hysterical laughter (although, I don't think I was the only one!). You always have to be prepared for technology to let you down when trying new things and not let it get in the way of making further developments at a later date.
There were many excellent ideas for how Flashmeeting could be used, such as to teach a traditional song to pupils in another country, maybe discuss cultural differences, teach a short session on a particular theme...the key really seemed to be "be prepared" and don't just plan to do a Flashmeeting and stand / sit at different schools staring at one another. Other ideas included having a "hot seat" where individual pupils would take this position and do their "bit" then moving on to the next person, this gets rid of the need to keep moving the webcam.
We are planning to do some online collaboration with primary schools, initally in a couple of weeks time when our Spanish exchange come to visit and then working on transition with Yr 6 pupils from feeder Primary schools chatting with Yr 7 pupils who went to their school, discussion worries that they might have have about coming up to Secondary School. However, we won't be using Flashmeeting (not because we wouldn't be happy with it), because we are fortunate enough to be able to use Elluminate, another online collaboration tool that includes video-conferencing. This, unfortunately is not free but does still only require an internet connection. Luckily, our local CLC has "bought" 100 seats within Elluminate so we are able to use that at the moment.
However, for a tool that is free and that can bring schools closer together, Flashmeeting really is excellent. If your school is considering moving into video-conferencing on any level, I would thoroughly recommend it. As with anything to do with technology thought, it's important to be well-prepared (maybe practise with another member of staff to begin with), don't be put off it the technology lets you down (try, try and try again) and start small then get bigger.