Louise Gorse, daughter of Stuart Gorse the producer of the excellent one stop animation Gorseville has made her own feature called Les animaux helped by members of her family. It includes questions and answers suitable for pupils learning French in their first year.
Brilliant work Louise. Well done.
As reported by John Bald in The Guardian in January, The Isle of Wight Conference 2008 takes place this year on 25th-26th October at Nodehill Middle School in Newport and will cost £100 to attend. As in previous years, the event will feature a host of practical sessions delivered by inspirational speakers from around the UK on topics such as:
or as Wordle would say:
Speakers include:
There will also be promotional sessions run by our sponsors Podium, Televic, Sanako, ConnectED and Babelzone and other publishers such as Heinemann, Oxford University Press and Espresso will have stands in the exhibition.
A free MFL Show and Tell session will take place in The Function Room of The Bargeman's Rest on Saturday 25th October and like last year, delegates will be able to sign up on the conference wiki if they would like to speak or just watch.
In the next month or so, I will publish a delegate pack including details of how to book, session titles, biographies, travel arrangements, where to stay etc on my blog which will give you plenty of time to persuade your school to let you come to this exciting opportunity for continuing professional development!
Here are some pictures and quotes from 2007 to whet your appetite:
So see you in October and spread the word.
When I discovered that my colleague Gill Bushell was planning a Chinese Day for Year 6 pupils at Nodehill, I got in contact with Jess McCulloch to see if she and her pupils could help. Well Jess came up trumps by producing three short video lessons to help our pupils learn how to say "Hello", "Goodbye", "What is your name?" and My name is ..." in Chinese.
As you'll see, the video is excellent and I'm indebted to Jess for her time and effort in doing such a lovely job. Our pupils really enjoyed the instructions too and you can hear their appreciation below. The local paper even turned up and took some pictures (you can hear the sound of the camera flashing on the recording!)
So thank you Jess again for making this such a memorable day or Xiè Xiè as you'd say in Chinese.
Download Feedback_on_learning_Chinese.mp3
Here is the story again in full:
Bitey and Bear
This is the story of Bitey and Bear.
Not a likely pair, you would see anywhere.
Someone suggested they learnt some Chinese
and their answer was
"Oh, oh ... yes please!"
So here we are for our lesson today.
we'd better get started right away
Bitey already knew how to say "Ni hao"
and Bear thought he was pretty good at "Wo jiao"
But neither of them knew how to say "How are you?"
And they thought they might need a lesson or two.
They were told by their teacher whose name is Miss Hua
to say "How are you?" you just say Ni hao ma?"
"Ma" means it's a question and add it to the end of "Ni Hao" and then you say to a friend
"Ni hao ma?", "How are you?". I hope you are well
"Wo hen hao xie xie", I'm feeling just swell
"Wo hen hao?" means I'm very good and you already know "Wo" and "Hao" and so it should be easy to add "hen" in the middle
It all sounds a bit funny so it's OK to giggle.
"Xie xie" is what you say when you want to say "Thank you"
and it goes on the end when someone has asked you.
"How are you? by saying "Ni hao ma?"
"Wo hen hao xie xie". Now try for a gold star.
So Bear thought he would give it the first go
"Ni hao ma?" he said to Bitey and wouldn't you know that
Bitey knew just what to say in return
"Wo hen hao xie xie". Check out what I've just learnt!
It was then up to Bitey to see how Bear was.
So he asked him "Ni hao ma?" and really because
he said it so well Bear knew just what to say
to tell Bitey he'd felt he'd had a good day
"Wo hen hao xie xie". I'm so very good.
But thank you for asking though I knew you would.
Bitey and Bear knew they had to try to say it again and then say goodbye.
"Ni hao ma?" said one friend to the other.
"Wo hen hao xie xie" and just for another
quick practice at saying something in Chinese again.
They both took deep breaths and said "Zai jian"
Creating a chroma key effect (blue or green screening) can be a fun way of bringing your videos to life. Vincent Everett has been experimenting with green screen technology with the 30 day trial version of Video Edit Magic and you can see the results above. Have a look too at the great videos from Windy Nook which 'seem' to have been filmed in Paris.
Although bluescreening can be expensive with some software packages, it is possible to do it for free using Windows MovieMaker. Have a look at this tutorial to find out how.
Mrs Beilke from Lincoln High School has created a step by step tutorial for making a film with Windows MovieMaker and uploading the results to TeacherTube. For more advice on how to use WMM, have a look at this previous post about the new Flip Video camera which should help get you started vodcasting too.
Podcasting Day in Microsoft UK is a roundtable discussion on the utility, value and methodology of podcasting with Dave Coplin, Pete Cogle, Tony Cocks and 'special guest' John Buckley who I met at PodCampUK in September. Much to my surprise, I even get a mention half way through!
Have a listen to John's reply to the question "What is the future for podcasting?"
Download John_Buckley_on_the_future_of_podcasting.mp3
¡Ay, caramba!
James Pearson from Helston Community College in Cornwall has recorded an excellent step by step tutorial for using the AV Video Karaoke Maker as mentioned previously here
Thanks for taking the time to make this, James. I'm sure many of us will now get the karaoke bug too!
I was a little surprised this week to read in The Independent that examination board OCR are planning to introduce new requirements for GCSE French candidates to submit audio or video recordings of themselves taking part in authentic conversations while away on educational visits to France as evidence for their final speaking exam.
Now although the idea is to encourage pupils to "interact with other French speakers, expressing and justifying opinions where appropriate" while adding "real-life relevance", I can see this being problematic in a number of ways.
Firstly, it may disadvantage pupils from poorer backgrounds who cannot afford to go on a school visit. Secondly, it could prove difficult for pupils to consistently record suitable examples for submission and thirdly, will this decision discourage pupils further from opting to take French to examination level in the first place?
What do you think? Is this a good idea or has OCR gone bananas?
The changes will come into effect by 2009.
Pupils at Windy Nook Primary School in Gateshead have been been having a wonderful time recently improving their French and ICT skills by creating podcasts and vodcasts for their truly fabulous blog Fab French.
A collaboration between staff at Windy Nook, in particular Mrs Marwood and their local CLC, the project is a wonderful example of how Web 2.0 tools can enhance language learning and engage pupils. The comments on the left hand side of the home page are a joy to read and irrefutable proof of this, showing the immediate impact of the site in just a few months.
To celebrate the official launch of Fab French, the school set up a French cafe for the day and invited Trevor Carter from Gateshead CLC to help pupils create podcast interviews with customers. As you will hear, the pupils do an impressive job and unsurprisingly, the feedback is very positive.
The responses from Mrs Wightman and Mrs Jewers from the MFL department at The Thomas Hepburn Community School where pupils will be going when they leave Windy Nook are very encouraging and as they've started blogging too thanks to Gateshead CLC, I'm sure they'll feel right at home when they do.
The Flip Video Ultra has attracted a lot of interest recently on the blogosphere thanks to its all in one solution to producing great video on the move. Described as a an idiot-proof camcorder by Claudine Beaumont from The Telegraph, it can shoot up to an hour of video, connects directly to your computer via USB (no cables required) and has all the software required for quick editing and uploading to YouTube.
Clips are saved as avi files and can therefore be imported into MovieMaker without being converted first. Have a look at this tutorial for more information.
Silvia Tolisano has comprehensively blogged about her first experience of using her Flip camera and created this useful how to guide as part of her Digital Storytelling posts. Likewise, Anne Mirtschin has been playing with her new toy helped by a jovial Jess McCulloch. Very amusing.
Available in the UK in a matter of weeks for a very attractive £99 , the Flip Video Ultra could be the ideal vlogging tool for the summer.
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