Eurovision

Saturday night was one of my favourite nights of the year-The Eurovision Song Contest. I've always loved it ever since I was very young, I think even back then I was fascinated to listen to all of the different langauages.

Over the years it has gone in and out of fashion, leaving me feeling sometimes "dead cool" and other times "a bit odd" (no surprises there then!). All of a sudden it seems to be back "in", I don't know whether this is because of Lord Lloyd Webber himself wrote this year's ditty for the UK, whether it is the change of host - although I did find some of Graham Norton's comments quite similar to the whit of Terry Wogan in previous years!. Whatever the reasons, I sat down last night, with several fellow Twitterers (virtually, of course) feeling not quite so "odd" as in other years, looking forward to a night of cultural diversity and linguistic delight.

The event itself offered up its usual oddities with Gladiators in the Ukrainian set and opera singers from Sweden and, as ever I was able to learn some new languages. I was, however very disappointed in several entries who sang in English. How can we ever encourage our pupils that it's important to be able to speak different languages if all they see is speakers of foreign languages singing in and speaking in English? It just adds to the arrogant English attitude of  "everyone speaks English, so why should I learn a new language". Even at an event which celebrates cultural diversity! Why can't they celebrate linguistic diversity too?

That said, the competition was won by an English Language song...however, I didn't like the entry for the song, it has to be said.

I don't seem to be able to embed the video so you'll have to follow the link below to see why I like the song!

Alexander Rybak

 

(I also annoy me husband by getting cross with the news for dubbing over foreigners speaking their own languages, instead of giving subtitles!)

Snail Mail

Sometimes it doesn't have to be all about the technology...

There's a lot to be said for hearing the post plop through the letter box at 2pm and finding you've got a lovely letter to open...and then opening it to find some beautiful letter that has been thoughtfully and carefully crafted just for you.

Well, this is how I and my top set Yr 7 French class feel when we receive our letters. We've set up an exchange of class letters with our partner school in France. It's such a simple idea and hundreds of people have done it before but this is the first year I've ever set up a letter exchange as a class. It's easy, we just do our extended writing tasks at the end of units as proper, real letters for proper, real people and then we get replies. The great thing is that doing it in class time means no-one's penfriend trails of and is never heard of again and everybody sends something and receives something. The excitement that goes round the room when I arrive with a package fresh from France is amazing! And the pupils acutally WANT to write in French and make it right etc, etc... Which is what it's all about at the end of the day, isn't it? Using languages for real communication.

Now I know that there are some who might say "can't this be done via email? It's quicker" etc...but, personally I have to admit that nothing beats a real letter in real handwriting with lovely drawings and pictures etc..., yes , I'm sure that, in time we will graduate to some emails and even the odd video-conference but for now we are still enjoying our lovely old-fashioned letters and keeping them safe to look at in years to come and remember our French penfriends by!

Comenius Northeast Good Practice Guide

Sadly, on the 31st March the Comenius Network officially but to go out on a high, the Northeast Good Practice Guide has been published for the last time. It's a great place to find out about all of the great projects going on in the Northeast of the England in MFL. There is a lot of great stuff in there with loads of Primary and Secondary projects featured.

Oh and I'm in it of course...

ALL Language World

This year I was lucky enough to be able to attend part of the Language World event "Grasping the Nettle" run by ALL. The event took place in Leicester, so at 6.00 am on Saturday morning I got into my husband's car (how posh) and headed off down the M1. Three hours later I arrived in at a sunny Leicester University after following some rather dubious directions!

I was really good to see familiar faces and attend some inspiring workshops. However, I must apologise to those who I did see, due to the events mentioned in my last post, I was not in the most communicative of moods and was actually wondering why on earth I was there and not at some "how to be a better teacher" course!

I was really curious about CLIL. I'd seen the intials but had no idea what it was about, so I chose to attend two workshops covering this topic. CLIL stands for "Content and Language Integrated Learning", which is basically teaching other subjects in French / German etc... I have always been fascinated by this idea and thought it a fantastic opportunity to get pupils using TL in real contexts. I am also aware of several school in other parts of Europe that have a bilingual section so listened and made notes intently.

Firstly I went to a workshop run by Mike Ullman of Hockerill Anglo-European College. He spoke about how the idea of teaching History in French had come about at Hockerill and the success that they had seen both in History and in French as the course developped. He commented in how attainment was not affected in History by the bilingual lessons ( something about which most Headteachers would be concerned), in fact the opposite was true and attainment actually improved! He also spoke about how it was important to start small and get bigger, quite rightly pointing out that it had taken a decade to get to the postition that they are now in. Altogether a really thought provoking workshop, which left me wanting to know more. So...

I headed to another workshop on CLIL to get a slightly different approach. This was led by Judith Woodfield of Chenderit School, who is Geography teacher. This session looked at the practicalities of CLIL and Judith took us through a typical series of lessons on Tropical Rain Forests  for Year 7. It really was amazing the level of language the pupils could understand and produce even at such an early stage in Yr7. We took part in activities that Judith uses with her classes and watched some of the videos that she and the pupils watch. What fascinates me is that Judith isn't even a Modern Linguist, yet she is still happy teaching Geography in French. Chenderit are also beginning to teach ICT in German, which really interested me, as someone who is about to embark upon teaching some ICT next year (but that's a topic for another post when things are more concrete!).

I can't see my Headteacher wanting to go right down the CLIL route at the moment but what I could see is the possiblities for cross-curricular Units of Work that couldfit right in with the new KS3 Curriculum. In fact I'm currently thinking about something on the French Revolution or similar for later on in the school year.

In addtion to my CLIL-filled day, I also attended a workshop run by Rachel Hawkes of Comberton Village College. She took us through her new Yr7 Curriculum looking at the cross-curricular features and their phonics activities. I have to say that I was thoroughly inspired by her. After my "less from hell" on Thursday, Rachel's workshop gave me renewed motivation and I really felt that I could go away and use some of her ideas to enthuse my pupils (although I'll have to translate it into German!). Rather than duplicate what Rachel talked about, here is a link to her blog post  about the conference where you can see the resources she used and read about it "straight from the horses mouth", as it were!

The conference finished on a high with a speech from Steven Fawkes. He was hilarious and inspiring at the same time. I can't even begin to describe it, as I couldn't do it justice. Needless to say, after an awful week, Steven's speech was just the tonic I needed to pick me up...and this time the tears were of laughter! (Good job my mascara was waterproof-ish!)

Das Hokey Kokey

I have a tendancy to watch too many comedy shows on Dave or GOLD or even on the BBC.  Most of the programmes are (kindly) chosen for me by my husband (if I'm REALLY lucky, he even lets me watch the cricket - and not just England losing either...Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) and he, in return, allows me to watch the occasional CSI episode.

Yesterday, as a Mothers' Day treat he picked out a Bill Bailey live show that he'd so thoughfully Sky+ ed for a special occasion (yes, we "live the dream" in our house) and I discovered a treasure!

Now I'm sure that many people have seen this before but I'm a bit slow on the uptake with these things and found it hilarious. It's Bill Bailey doing Kraftwerk doing the Hokey Kokey all in German, of course.  I think is ideal for parts of the body (if not a bit basic really) but it's good to be daft from time to time and have a bit of a laugh.  Logo 2 Unit 3 "Topfit" is where it could fit in for me, how about you?

Just one of the reasonsI love being a mum

My little girl, who is 6, must have been writing poems for Mothers' Day at school this week because this morning she wrote me this gorgeous poem before going to school.  It just goes to show how children see things through rose-coloured spectacles but here it is, it's absolutley beautiful. (Oh by the way, I've left in her versions of spellings!):

"My mum is terrific and thoughtfull

My mum is fashenebell and fantastic

My mum is beautifull and best

And thas way I love my mum"

Absolutely wonderful!

Another GMTV Diet on the horizon

Last year I blogged about the GMTV Bikini Diet that I followed for 6 weeks with great results (I lost just over a stone). Well, during my daytime TV viewing due to my my coughing fits this week, I discovered another diet is underway.  The "Get Motivated" campaign is being fronted by Mr. Motivator  - yes, he's on Twitter -  (who'd have thought it, I believed he was doing something other than motivating!) and again has recipes to follow.  So, I've decided to have another go (as I've regained some of the weight lost last year) and see how I go.  I won't update that regularly about it for fear of boring you but I will keep you informed of any success I have.

Peanut butter toastied for me for breakfast in the morning!...