Beyond the Pier

@spanishsam has collected together Wordle word cloud ideas for MFL in this post:

An online MFL meeting to discuss the following:

1. Post election Languages update
2. How are the MYLO trials going?
3. Reflections on The Linguascope Conference
4. Have you heard about the ICT Links into Languages Conference?
5. Hard to Teach Teachers TV Programme – Secondary Modern Foreign Languages Using ICT
6. MFL Show and Tell developments – Devon, Nottingham, London and beyond!
7. European Day of Languages – How’s your planning going?
8. A.O.B

Attendees already confirmed:

1. Joe Dale, Independent ICT/MFL Consultant Integrating ICT into the MFL Classroom
2. Dominic McGladdery , 2nd in MFL, English Martyrs School, Hartlepool.
3. José Picardo Head of MFL at Nottingham High School (@josepicardo ) (be nice to me, it’s my birthday!)
4. Alejandra Puerto , NQT.
5. Rosemary Hicks , Head of MFL Northfield School (MHA) Billingham.
6. James Padvis, Foxford School, Coventry
7. Valerie McIntyre, Wells Blue School,
8. Alice Ayel, Thuringia International School, Weimar, Germany
9. Helena Butterfield , International Co-ordinator, Ian Ramsey C of E School, Stockton (@langwitch – might be late s)
10. Isabelle Jones, Head of Languages, The Radclyffe School, Oldham, @icpjones My Languages: http://isabellejones.blogspot.com
11. Teresa MacKinnon @tmack63 Language Centre University of Warwick
12. Clare Seccombe @valleseco Sunderland LA Primary Languages bod
13. Samantha Lunn @spanishsam Head of MFL, Arnold School, Blackpool, LanguagesResources.co.uk

Here is a link to an excellent, comprehensive list of useful online language learning sites compiled by Graham Davies and distributed through the Linguanet email forum:

http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/websites.htm

The following document is full to the brim of innovative uses of ICT in MFL.  Great to see so many contributors sharing their good practice, successes and ideas.

Technology in Modern Foreign Languages – A Practitioner’s Perspective

I have been using the extremely useful Google Maps service personally for some time now and recently had success in integrating it into teaching French.  During a Year 10 (14-15 year olds) topic on describing cities and making your way around town, I projected maps.google.fr (use .fr for extra exposure to French in the Google menus and directions) and Google Streetview screendumps to complement and add some interest to the work we had already done on giving directions and using prepositions of place to describe the layout of the town.

By using the local London area, the students were keen to spot our school/landmarks/shops etc that they were familiar with and even argue about how to get where and best.  This also let students consolidate shops/places having only the English on screen as it won’t say “supermarché” on shop signs, which would be a giveaway had we gone directly to France.  Admittedly, going to France would add an excellent cultural element and this could be developed in future lessons.

Using screendumps from Streetview of a nearby shopping street gave a chance to practise the prepositions of place in a more engaging and familiar context: Utilisez les prépositions de lieu pour décrire les images: e.g. la pharmacie est à côté de la banque

View Larger Map

In another activity, the newly added Google Maps functionality of viewing Streetview and the traditional aerial map view simultaneously came in very useful.  I pretended I was a tourist standing in front of the school and students had to give me directions - Excusez-moi, pour aller à la bibliothèque s’il vous plaît?.  I then followed their instructions accurately in real time on Streetview and Google Maps to check if I would end up where I’m meant to.  The map view allowed phrases like “deuxième rue à gauche” to be produced while the streetview allowed prepositions to be exploited (et c’est au coin, à côté de la pharmacie) This forced students to flesh out their directions and be much more precise with prepositions etc.

View Larger Map

Simon Howells has taken the use of Google Maps a step further, intergating it into an ICT based project.  See his excellent video below and finished product for details and ideas.

Typical story: a blog starts of well with enthusiasm and then life (more specifically a busy PGCE schedule) gets in the way.  A bit of a re-think means I’ll plan to post shorter posts and focus especially on useful resources and links.

With this in mind, I’d like to draw attention to the fact that free tickets are available for the Languages Show 2009 in London’s Olympia on the 30th Oct – 1st Nov.  Simply register for free via their website and print out your tickets.

The show is ” For language learners,l anguage teachers, linguists and everyone who loves language”and features seminars,  exhibitors, intensive and taster language courses and much more besides.  It is sure to be a valuable and inspirational event for anyone with a passion for, or working with language.

Another useful organisation for language teachers, and a sponsor of The Language Show, is ALL – The Assossciation for Language Learning.  Check out their program for lots of interesting and useful events.

My Postgraduate Certificate in Education with the London Institute of Education (IOE) finally kicked off this week with a series of induction lectures and tutorial groups.  Lots of information, lots of housekeeping and lots of educational acronyms (FSM, QCA, DCFS, SEN etc. to name but a few) to get your head around, but more excitingly, lots of knowledgeable and inspiring professors, tutors and fellow students.

The Institute seems by all accounts a rich and diverse forum for learning, discussion and leading research.  The old saying “those who can do, those who can’t teach”, seems to be put firmly to rest given the qualifications and backgrounds of the other training teachers I have met.  With the credit crunch driving people to look for better job security in the public sector, PGCE courses are heavily over subscribed.  This has led to increased competition for places and consequently bumped up the qualification and quality of the intake.

Situated in Bloomsbury, the IOE finds itself  surrounded by iconic places like The British Museum, The British Library and The Wellcome Trust.  In all, a very inspiring place to be – steeped in history and tradition, yet looking to the future through learning, research, events, talks and discussions.  Indeed, this evening, with every intention of going to the library, I found myself in the audience of a conversation between the famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and The Times editor James Harding about Dawkin’s new book The Greatest Show on Earth.  I never imagined that ticket touts would loiter around outside such events, but I’m glad one did this evening. Read more…

La Jetée - a work of genius

With a bit of time to go before I get started on teacher training and edublogging proper, I’ve decided to post a bit of an aside which is nevertheless is still somewhat related to languages and learning.

So, why Beyond the Pier as a blog name? A somewhat convoluted story involving World War III, a personal love of French and photography, Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys ,  the joys of translation and not finding the domain name I really wanted.

While studying French at university I happened across La Jetée while looking for some films to watch as an easy and painless way to improve my French.  In a nutshell, it is the story of time travel in Paris  in the aftermath of apocalyptic World War III.  Survivors carry out time travel experiments as a way to try and save the human race.  Sound vaguely familiar?  That’s probably because Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys subsequent film was based upon Chris Marker’s 1962 short film.  I fell in love with the film and after seeing it had a few moments of genuinely stunned silence.  What captivated me, besides the intelligent and thought provoking storyline, was the format: a 28 minutes long, dialogue free, narrated photomontage of exquisite black and white stills. Read more…