Friday was a busy day, starting off in London with an animation course run by Oscar Stringer at Institute of Education.

Working in two groups, we spent the day developing our animation skills, producing two short animations from initial idea to finished film complete with transitions, titles, sound and music. We used ICanAnimate to capture the animation then exported the film to iMovie to ‘finish’ it. My group used my Macbook and a Hue webcam – and it was lovely to meet the man behind Hue in the UK during the day as well (mine’s on order from Amazon – went for the blue one in the end!) whilst the other group used an iMac and a driverless webcam.

James, Carolyn and I took our inspiration from the Mr Men. Firstly, our models followed the principles of Mr Men (which are also important principles for plasticine animation – big features, bold shapes and simple designs) and secondly, we made an animation with a message – suitable for PSHE and based on friendship in the playground – a lonely girl on a bench wanting to join in with a game of ball.

The day reinforced all that I already knew about animating – the importance of keeping things simple, of planning well before you start, of working in collaboration and of how much fun it is!
We laughed so much making the animations – my group’s is posted below. This is the English version. We recorded three different ending – with the bench saying THE END in English, French and Spanish – so that we can use it in our classrooms and dub it in different languages.

If you want to find out more about animating, I can’t recommend Oscar’s courses enough. He has a real gift for making it all seem very simple (and it is) and conveys the great potential that animation has as a tool for creativity, collaboration, innovation and progression. Check out his website and his blog to find out more.

Amazing what you can do with a carpet tile, some plasticine and an idea!

I was really touched to read the latest post on Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom in which Joe Dale talks about my podcast Lisibo talks!
His opening sentence – ‘Primary language teacher and MFL blogger Lisa Stevens is an inspiration to many thanks to her indefatigable enthusiasm and willingness to experiment with new technologies’ – made me blush furiously as did many of the other kind things Joe said. However, I really do hope that those who read the post choose to watch the video clip from Teachmeet at BETT09 as I really want to encourage people to have a go and experiment with technology and new ideas. And I’ve added the video here too.

[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/Ae74ZJO3Pw]

PS Just posted a new episode of Lisibo talks! from the eTwinning Spanish links meeting in Manchester last Tuesday.

I’m very excited to pass on the news from Val Thornber of Little Tales of the Unexpected and Beelingua fame.

Her message reads –

I am delighted to inform you that a unique collection of GrowstoryGrow’s wonderful stories has just been published by Beelingua Products Ltd (makers of Little Tails of the Unexpected).

The stories are all designed to help primary school children effectively learn a foreign language.

Each story has sentence-building tasks, games, fun lesson plans and many other useful resources.

All of these stories are currently available “Free of Charge” for a trial period.

COMING SOON – over 100 extra stories will be available in many languages including German, Italian, Urdu, Russian, Hindi, Portuguese, Arabic and Polish.

Over the course of the next few months we will be regularly publishing these new stories. If you would like us to tell you about these new publications you need to subscribe to our newsletter.

Please forward tell parents, teachers and friends who you think may find GrowStoryGrow stories useful. Why not try out the stories with your children TODAY and please let us have any feedback by sending an email to Valerie Thornber (creator of GSG): val@growstorygrow.com

To access the stories you will need to log-in to the website www.growstorygrow.com

There you will receive a trial login and be able to try out the product for a while.

I love Les sacs en plastique – ver
y simple but with an important message; and Le monstre de la musique is very amusing too – if only it were in Spanish, I could use it wth Year 5 in their current unit of work!

Can’t wait for more languages and more stories to be added.

If yu check out the site in detail, you’ll find details of the methodology behind the resource, how the Scheme of work will be comprised and also details of pricing for September.

Well done Val and keep up the hard work!

Getting into the Eurovision spirit ….

Here’s the Andorran entry La teva decisió sung partly in Catalan (disappointed that it switches to English for the chorus but I guess that’s so more people understand it!)

And the Spanish entry by Soraya called La noche es para mi (again has English in the chorus!)

Here are the words in case you feel the need to join in!
Vuelvo a mirar, tus ojos son un volcán
No escaparás, tu fuego dirá la verdad
No importa si quieres o no, porque hoy mando yo

Come on and take me, come on and shake me
Quiero saber lo que sientes por mí
Come on and take me, come on and shake me
¿Que no lo ves que estoy loca por ti?
Come set me free, just you and me
La noche es para mí

No puedo más, juro que mío serás
Ven a bailar, ya no podrás escapar
No importa si quieres o no, porque hoy mando yo

Come on and take me, come on and shake me
Quiero saber lo que sientes por mí
Come on and take me, come on and shake me
¿Que no lo ves que estoy loca por ti?
Come set me free, just you and me
La noche es para mí

Ah…
Take me, shake me, take me

Brilla la luz, mi mágica noche eres tu
Ya no hay tabús
Quiero clavarte mi cruz

Come on and take me, come on and shake me
Quiero saber lo que sientes por mí
Come on and take me, come on and shake me
¿Que no lo ves que estoy loca por ti?
La noche es para mí
La noche es para mí
Come set me free, just you and me
La noche es para mí

Wonder who’ll win? Could it be Jade and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber? Or Soraya? Who knows with the way the voting works at times!

I spent this afternoon taking part in an eTwinning event at the British Council in Manchester, delivering a case study and explaining a bit about eTwinning.

Below is my presentation (soon to have sound added to it so you can listen and look!):

Currently listening to Paz from the Consejeria de Educación talking about all the wonderful things that they do to promote Spanish within the UK and Ireland.

• Courses for Primary teachers to improve their language skills,
• Arsenal Double Club,
• classes for Spanish children in the UK,
• Ruta Quetzal,
• resources held at Manchester University School of Language and Linguistics that you can borrow,
• awards for Spanish Primary and Secondary School of the year
• facilitating links between Local Authorities in UK and Ireland, and Consejerías de Educación of autonomous regions in Spain,
• training British Council language assistants,
• Spanish workshops
• publications for Primary and Secondary including TECLA and Acti/España – published online

Check out their website for more information of the great work they do!

I love musicals and thought I’d share this clip from Los Miserables with you as I love it!

Fed up at going back to work after the Bank Holiday? Here’s a quick guide to How to celebrate Cinco de mayo!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcwW6wQGyVQ&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1]

Hope you’re all having a lovely Bank Holiday. A little clip to amuse you all on this, Star Wars Day! You can’t go wrong with the Muppets!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJVIx95LyLk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca&border=1]

Language teacher? Fancy finding meeting up with other language teachers for an hour or so without leaving your own home? Why not join in the Bank Holiday MFL Flashmeeting at 9pm GMT tomorrow (Monday). All you need to join in is a computer with speakers although a microphone and a webcam will allow you to get more involved.

The brainchild of Joe Dale, you can read all about it on his blog here including instructions on how to join in by signing the wiki, and how to make sure you’re prepared.

The suggested agenda is –

• what is your favourite technology at the moment and how is it enhancing language learning?
• the Rose Review and the proposals that technology be at the core of the primary curriculum
• the value of creating your personal learning network and does the microblogging tool have a place in the classroom?
• Web 2.0 CPD opportunities for next academic year – anyone like to organise a conference for language teachers interested in using ICT?

NB – the wiki is looking very full so if you find you can’t get in, please don’t despair. Master of technology Mr Dale will make sure that you can see the replay as soon as the meeting is over and will no doubt blog it too – unless I get there first ;o)