Using Google Apps for Education #ililc3

At the weekend I was extremely lucky to have been a speaker at the ICT and Languages conference 2013.  Having attended as a delegate last year, I bit the bullet and submitted proposals to present 2 sessions this year and was over the moon when my submissions were accepted.

Session 1 was my first talk of the day about GoogleApps for Education.We have this in our school and it's used extensively between staff for sharing information, good practice and general communication, and also it can be used with pupils.

Over the last year I have tried a variety of activities using Google Docs to help my pupils communicate and collaborate more easily and thought that others deserved to know how totally amazing it is.  We have a Google Edu account so we have greater security settings and we can share from outside of or to that account from elsewhere.  If you have a similar set up, you may not be able to see the presentations made by the delegates if you are logged into your school Google Apps account at the moment.

My presentation (made in Google Docs) is below, together with a link the wikipage where delegates could access presentation documents to collaborate on.  Please look at them - I found the innovative ways that their schools were using ICT fantastic and also gained lots of ideas from them...including mobile learning envy!!

Additional notes are below the presentation...

Firstly, here is the link to original google doc presentation

Now here is a copy of the presentation, as I had problems embedding the original presentation for some reason...

Google apps for pupil collaboration from Helena Butterfield

For the pupils, one of the best things about using Google Docs is that they don't have to keep saving their work. Once it's created a document is automatically saved every few minutes, no "Miss, I forgot to save my work" at the end of the lesson!

Diagnostic marking is also very easy via Google Doc as you can give general feedback through the "comments" at the top right of a document AND highlight individual words so that pupils can see where corrections can be made.  Furthermore through the threaded comments a dialogue can be established between teacher and pupil, as a document is edited.

However, for me the most powerful thing about Google Docs is that you can have groups of pupils working on the same document at the same time and it updates in realtime.  Therefore pupils on opposite sides of the classroom can collaborate...in fact pupils on different sides of the world can collaborate at the same time, without having to attach, download, upload (and forget to do all of that as well!!!)

My top tip; if pupils are creating a resource themselves, get them to create, give it atitle then share immediately to me (otherwise they forget to share!!)

We didn't get onto Google Forms as I had hope but suffice to say that they are brilliant for pupil voice and extremely versatile and easy to use!

Here is a link to the Wiki where the presentations can be found and I think you'll agree that the delegates did a wonderful job of collaborating - in fact I think that two of the groups didn't even physically speak about their presentation at all, it was all done via the comments (you'll have to sneak a look at the comments as well!)

Oh I almost forgot...I'd also set up a Google Spreadsheet for the delegates to suggest uses for Google Apps in their (or anyone else's classrooms) but we also didn't get round to the plenary (I hope Mr Wilshaw or anyone else from Ofsted doesn't see this!!!). There's a link on the wiki and now here as well. Please feel free to share your ideas.  Again, if you are a school Google Docs user, you may have to log out of that account in order to view or contribute.

What will 2013 bring for Langwitch?

I was going to do a reflective post on 2012 but figured with family deaths, pet deaths and an Ofsted that is best left forgotten, it would be better to look forward rather than back.

Professionally, 2013 is looking quite exciting already. Most importantly I am going to be speaking a ililc3 in February. This is a fantastic opportunity that I am really looking forward to.  If you are a linguist and have never been but are looking for excellent CPD which doesn't cost a fortune, I can't recommend it enough.  You can book by following the link here.  Looking at the people who are speaking and themes for the weekend it should be fantastic. I'm talking about using Google Apps for Education and International Links. So I better get on and use them / do some before February!

Secondly, we have our first ever French exchange taking place in March.  I am really looking forward to that happening, as it can only help move our pupils forward in their language learning.

I will also be very sad to see my tutor group leave this year, as they are in Y11...but at least it means we have the Prom to look forward to :)

On a personal level, cycling is going to be my thing this year, something which I'm really looking forward to, I am also aiming to give the 365 photos a go again. Let's hope it lasts for longer than last year's!

Happy New Year, I hope that 2013 is a successful year for you all.

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!)