Very sweet – love the graphics. And it’s short too.
This looks like the Spanish version of Ten Town!
I like the repetition in this one.
¡Vámonos!
"The decision to learn a language is an act of friendship. It is an outstretched hand." John le Carré
Further to my previous post about the wonderful STORYBIRD site, I’ve got good news and bad news!
The bad news is that, as the site is still in its infancy, if your story is written in a language other than English it cannot be published (ie put in the public gallery) as it cannot be moderated. As the site grows, this will change.
The good news is that you can still write stories and save them on the site, and that these can be shared via the ‘Send to a friend’ link.
Saira Ghani has just written a story too and I’m about to write another.
Here’s the Tweet conversation I had with @storybird
So let’s keep making stories and hope that the site grows at an amazing rate!
I’m on a blog writing roll this week aren’t I?
I picked up the following earlier –
which was followed by this tweet –
And being an inquisitive gal, I went and had a look.
What a brilliant tool! You’re provided with a vast array of images from different artists that you can use to make story books. You just choose the images and write the story. SOOOOOO exciting!
I wrote a story – click below to read it!
I’ll be writing more soon too.
And I can see pupils enjoying this too – lots of scope for description, imagination and creativity! For example, there are many monsters that could be used for physical description. There are animals for stories of the jungle and savannah and quirky characters just asking to be written about.
Not only a great tool for creating though – when you write a story you can choose to keep it private or make it public – and there are many many public stories so you need never be stuck for a story again!
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.
Animation is such a brilliant way of getting kids to be creative, to collaborate and to be independent – and it’s such fun!
As Jo Rhys-Jones kindly pointed out last night, in all my blogging I have failed to post my own presentation!
My session was entitled Exciting ICT for the Language Classroom and looked at (mainly free) ICT tools that can be used to enhance and support language learning. The Internet played ball this week which is always a bonus, and I hope that everyone who attended went away with at least one idea that they could implement in their classroom.
Below is my presentation to which I’ve added the audio so you can watch and listen! Aren’t you lucky?!
CLIL is – Content and Language Integrated Learning and basically involves teaching cross-curricularly, delivering other subjects through the language. Do Coyle is the driving force behind this. The ideal is that the subject specialist delivers the lessons in the language, but it’s more likely that the MFL specialist will deliver eg history, or possibly the subject and the MFL teacher team teaching. You might also use the FLA to support the subject specialist. I’m interested in this as Whitehouse Common is involved in a project with three foci, one of which is CLIL.
Schools that use this include Hockerill Anglo-European College, Tile Hill Wood School, Ridgemeadow Community College.
Why CLIL? There has historically been a focus on grammar and the content of the exam. that they need to pass, rather than on content and interest, on creativity and relevance. The New Curriculum talks of real purposes, creativity, imagination, personal interest, intercultural understanding. CLIL is also a good potential ‘solution’ to transition as pupils will be arriving in KS3 with knowledge of languages – whichever it may be.
I’m really excited to see details of how Ringwood Junior School where they use CLIL for aspects of the curriculum eg in Year 5, the Science scheme of work is linked to the French story Mimi, le fourmi d’espace. This is the sort of thing I’m trying to do increasingly at Whitehouse Common, making language learning part of pupils’ day to day experience and not just a discrete subject. Louise Wornell, the presenter, is from Ringwood School, and shared what her school did – for example, in Yr7 they do 3 modules including Citizenship – the right person for the job
and History – Castles. In KS4, topics include climate change based of 12 French speaking countries and Paris through the yes of the Impressionists.
It seems to me that CLIL is something that is actually quite easy to start – there is already a teacher at my school who has taken on my attempts to link language learning to e.g. Science and has labelled all her displays in Spanish as well as English. Taking that further step and teaching entire lessons of the scheme in the language might need a bit more courage, but small steps are how we start to walk….
I was somewhat disappointed to discover that the Hampshire Language Conference this year was not being held at Marwell Zoo, and excited to discover that it was to be held at The Ark. So far no animals have appeared and its a lovely day so you might guess that it’s not a big boat.
Lid King has just addressed us all and we’re listening to our first seminar – I’m in a session led by David Hicks aka Monsieur X, showing us how to encourage pupils to use target language through action, rap, song and movement.
Better stop blogging and join in!
More later!
I Love You In 100 Languages by michelleoshen
Attribution License
Just caught up with an article in The Independent on Monday with the headline –
Speak a second language for money happiness….. and sex.
Apparently, in a survey commissioned by Michael Thomas,
Britons who learn a foreign language are richer, happier and are regarded as sexier than those who can only speak English, according to a new study.
An average of £145,000 more earned over a lifetime? Linguists easier to match for dating agencies as they are seen as more intelligent and sexier? Can this be true?
I don’t know but I like the sound of it!
I read the above Tweet and decided to investigate.
It took me to Building Peace, the blog of Reach364, a Captain in the US Airforce and C-17 pilot, and a post that begins with a question –
Why should American military officers learn foreign languages? For that matter, why should Foreign Service Officers or any other representatives of the American government?
And whilst the context of the article is military, considering the situation in Afghanistan and Jordan, the comments Reach makes are relevant to language learning in general, not just in volatile situations.
Acknowledging that advances in technology and translation software mean that people can ‘talk’ to one another without being able to speak the language, Reach makes the following statement –
I still believe learning human languages the old fashioned way is important. Why? This is the crux: foreign language ability is not just about converting information from one format to another. It’s about human relationships.
He talks of language as ‘a way of building relationships, of winning trust.‘ Couldn’t agree more. How many times have I been met with a beaming smile and extra special attention because I spoke in Spanish, French, Catalan, or even when I attempted to speak German in Switzerland? I see it as a mark of respect to attempt to communicate in someone’s language, even if it is a job to get your mouth around the sounds and intonation. I’ve mentioned before that some of my favourite and most rewarding teaching experiences have been when pupils have led, sharing their experiences and language with joy and pride – and been amused by my efforts!
As Nelson Mandela said –
Reach concludes –
Language is extremely hard. We need as many language solutions as we can get, and technology certainly can and should help fill the gap. But no matter how good the technology gets, no matter how prevalent English becomes, old-fashioned speaking of a foreign language still matters.
Certainly with him there.
What do you think?
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Love this poster from Andrew Jeppesen (@ajep)
Beautiful photograph – and such a true statement.
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