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Déjeuner du matin

Posted on March 6th, 2010 Langwitch View Comments

Yesterday we had a borough-wide CPD Day. I was lucky enough to be able to choose what I wanted to do, rather than have a day of workshops thrust upon me, so I chose to go to our local CLC for a day of creativity on Apples.

We were given the task of making a film, using iMovie and we had to include a flashback. So, we got into groups of 4 – we were 3 linguists and an ICT teacher (unfortunately for the ICT teacher!). We quickly decided to go all French and arty, planning to use Déjeuner du matin by Jacques Prévert. The final result can be seen below and we were all very pleased with the outcome. We would have liked to have added some piano music in the background for that true arty feel but, unfortunately we ran out of time!

I’m now buzzing with ideas as to how I can use what I learnt with my pupils – just need the time to be able to do it…

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LinkedUp

Posted on January 2nd, 2010 Langwitch View Comments

At the end of September I was approached by Zahida Hammond to work with her on an application for one of the new LinkedUp grants that are being funded around the UK, to promote language learning. The idea was to continue to build on work that local 14-19 MFL Networks had begun last year, creating resources and activities for KS4 and KS5 that use new technologies and develop pupils independence.

After much hard work from Zahida, we learnt in November that the application had been successful and now it’s full steam ahead. We have 3 14-19 Networks working together on the project-Stockton, Middlesbrough and Whitley Bay with about 10 members across the network. We will all work on different aspects of the resources and they will all be shared together at the end. The idea is that we will use some technologies that will be new to some colleagues in the groups and also develop activities that encourage pupils to become independent language learners.

I’m very excited about this project and am looking forward to being able to use the resources created through the Networks and also to adapting the activities we create to being used in other topic areas and in other year groups too.

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Eurovision

Posted on May 19th, 2009 Langwitch View Comments

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!)

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Das Hokey Kokey

Posted on March 23rd, 2009 Langwitch View Comments

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?

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Spanish Mike is back

Posted on March 15th, 2009 Langwitch View Comments

I was really pleased to notice last week that Spanish Mike, of “One Semester of Spanish, Spanish Love Song” fame is back with a new Spanish video. Called “Second Semester of Spanish, Spanish Love Song” and featuring a special guest, it lives up to the standards of the first song very well. I’m hoping to nake my Spanish classes laugh with it in the coming week (it will give them something other than my lack of Spanish to laugh at!!!)

Here it is…

ps. Please note the lack of “odd” exclamation marks in this post!!!!!!!!!

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Has my teaching gone viral?

Posted on February 25th, 2009 Langwitch View Comments

I just had to share this event that happened in the penultimate snowy lesson of last half term.

In a previous post, I wrote about the BBC Learning Zone Broadband Class Clips that are available at Primary and Secondary level for just about every subject. Back in November time, I used a particularly corny clip where a boy spoke about how he helped at home and then there was a wonderfully awful song and dance, with my top Year 9 German set (who gave the exact reaction that I’d expected!). Well, one of the girls in my lesson came and asked my where she could find the clip so she could watch it again – and of course, I had to explain that, since educational videos are evil, nasty things, they can’t be viewed by individual pupils just by teachers – but then she told me how after the lesson in November she had found it at home and had sent it to her friends to watch, who all found it hilarious as well! So that means not only did she watch the GERMAN video again but also many of her friends who weren’t in my German class ALSO watched the GERMAN video too! So there we have GERMAN reaching the pupils in their own time, them enjoying it AND doing it volutarily. Who would have thought it, pupils doing something relating to MFL in their own time and of their own free will…and proabably without even realising it.

For me, it’s the way forward, I love the idea that my pupils want to seek out the language that they learn at school and enjoy it just for fun. After all, isn’t enjoyment the reason we speak different languages? I refer you once again to the magnificent quote from the last post about Prague!

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How Les Choristes saves my end of term every time

Posted on December 20th, 2008 admin View Comments

Each year as the end of the Autumn and Summer Terms approach, we are reminded to keep the pupils working until the last day of term and are “discouraged” from showing “recreational” DVDs. We in the MFL Department, however have a cunning ruse, showing films in the target language (not necessarily originally in that language) with subtitles to aid listening skills and pronunciation, thus making them “educational”.
My friend and colleague, Pauline, discovered “Les Choristes” a few years ago and it never fails to captivate the imagination of even the most unenthusiastic French-learner.
For anyone who doesn’t know the story, it’s the tale of Clément Mathieu, a failed musician who goes to work at a school for naughty boys. It follows his time there as he he discovers that, through music he can reach the boys and begins to turn them around.
Although rather tame in comparison to the high drama of many Hollywood films it still manages to “pull in the audiences” every time. This term I even had my boisterous Yr9s request “Les Choristes” over “A Night at the Museum” how amazing is that? And one of the boys even admitting to the film being “mint” plus others saying how they cry at the end when Pépinot leaves with Mathieu. I don’t know what it is about the film that captivates them too much, maybe it the fact they’re gaining tips on how to be naughty, maybe it’s the rude words that seem so much ruder than normal because they’re written down in the subtitles rather then just heard as they normally are. However, I like to pretend that it’s actually hearing the French spoken properly and that it is in some small way helping them on their journeys to become better language learners. (The music’s pretty fab too)
Here’s a flavour of the film I found on YouTube..

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Sock puppets finally done

Posted on November 20th, 2008 admin View Comments

I have finally managed to get the Yr 8 sock puppets videos completed and uploaded. We made our puppets, made the scenery and finally recorded the video last week. Unfortunately we couldn’t get our hands on the digital video camera so had to just use a digital camera which actually worked OK.
This was our (their’s and mine) first attempt at making a real live video and am very proud of the pupils’ efforts they worked really hard and feel that they have achieved something fantastic (which they have).
Here is the final product…

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Get Animated! with Mark Pentleton

Posted on November 2nd, 2008 admin View Comments

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.

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What a nice video!

Posted on July 2nd, 2008 admin View Comments

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…

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