Month: October 2009

On Saturday I’ll be in London at The Language Show. So excited!

I’ve been having a little look at Youtube resources again, and, inspired by the session last week on teaching Infants languages, I’ve found some sweet little videos featuring Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too! Now, Winnie is always a winner in my books – I just love that bear of very little brain! – but talking Spanish is even better.

The words are:

Then there’s this clip called Es la hora de pensar and is a little song to signal thinking time. I think it would be a lovely cue to send children to their desks to work on whatever they are doing, or as a signal to change activity. And not just in language lessons but as one of those ’embedded’ ways of making language an everyday, incidental thing.

Hope you like them!

I’ve spent some time over the weekend doing something that I find rather uncomfortable – listening to my own voice! Whilst it is much better than watching myself on video, I find myself cringeing at the sound of my accent and speech habits. In my head I don’t sound like that – my ‘self-image voice’ speaks much more ‘properly’ and sounds less Brummie!

So why do it? Well, I was catching up with editing the audio from my presentations at two recent conferences – in Hull and in Basingstoke, Hampshire – before adding it to my podcast. I kept reminding myself that I wouldn’t have to listen again once I’d finished, and then remembered that I’d have to listen one more time to synch the audio to my Slideshares to make Slidecasts.

So – I’m pleased to announce three new episodes of my podcast Lisibo talks! But does it make sense?

¡Vámonos! hit another milestone at some time between 10am and 2pm when it received its 25,000th hit. That is to say, my blog has been accessed more than 25,000 times- my previous counter mysteriously disappeared and, as I had no idea exactly how many hits I’d had when it went, I reset it to the last milestone I recalled.

So thank you for your continuing readership and support. It’s really exciting when people meet me and say ‘I read your blog!’ or ‘I used that idea you blogged’ or ‘thank you for your inspiration.’ It is so encouraging and keeps me going when things get on top of me.

Here’s one for your older ‘pop’ loving pupils. The Jonas Brothers of Disney Channel fame learning a (devilishly tricky it has to be said!) song – and not doing badly!

And here’s Vanessa Hudgens from High School Musical singing When there was you and me including a Spanish section in the middle – subtitled.

Very sweet – love the graphics. And it’s short too.

Further to my previous post about the wonderful STORYBIRD site, I’ve got good news and bad news!

I’m on a blog writing roll this week aren’t I?

And being an inquisitive gal, I went and had a look.

Another highlight of the Hampshire Language Conference was Oscar Stringer‘s session on Animation. So popular it was put on twice, and had to move rooms to accommodate the number of people wishing to attend, from the conversations I heard, Oscar and his ideas were a hit!

Using I Can Animate and a Hue webcam, Oscar guided the assembled throng through how to animate using fuzzy felts before adding voiceover using iMovie – bet he had no shortage of volunteers!

You can see the finished movies – made in 20 minutes!- on Oscar’s blog, along with other examples of animation using languages such as the ones from Wednesday in Gloucestershire, and the lovely animations made with a Reception class last year. You’ll also find plenty of tips and guidance on how animation can be used right across the curriculum and beyond.

As Jo Rhys-Jones kindly pointed out last night, in all my blogging I have failed to post my own presentation!