On Saturday I was once more at InstitutoVicente Cañada Blanch in London for the annual Talleres de español run by the Consejería de Educacción. It had only been 9 months since I was last there as the 2021 edition was postponed thanks to the C word and I was once more privileged to be asked to speak. More of that later!

The day started with a keynote to get you thinking by Crista Hazell who talked about The Joy of Language Learning.

My tweets at the time summarise the bits I particularly liked:

Following this, I attended a marvellously active and fun session led by Eva Rodríguez Moya entitled «JugaÑol: el poder del juego como herramienta de aprendizaje» during which she shared a number of ideas and techniques that are used in her classroom to enable learners to recall and use Spanish as the language of communication. I loved the energy and pace of the delivery as well as the great ideas, and it was good to see that others use gesture as a key way of embedding vocabulary and structures. I will certainly be using “Hola Año x” with my classes – a simple way to keep the class on their toes. I recommend you check out Eva’s presentation when it’s available!

My presentation was entitled A few of our favourite things and highlighted as many of the things that my pupils say they enjoy as I could fit into my time slot! As is often the case, I had far more to say than there was time to share, and below you can find my slides (minus a couple that can’t be shared which unfortunately means you can’t see the videos of my class retelling El Nabo Enorme or reciting Doña Pito Piturra)

I did manage to share that I see myself not a Spanish teacher but as a languages teacher and that whilst the language in which my pupils should have made ‘substantial progress’ by the end of Y6 is Spanish, I am also teaching them how to be language learners which is just as important if not more so. What i ran out of time to share was the range of things that we do to celebrate languages as well as our amazing Erasmus+ project that is just coming to an end. Perhaps I can share that next time… hint hint 😉 You can see the slides anyway.

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment. I’d be happy to answer!

Thanks to the rail strike I couldn’t stay for the afternoon sessions but I did enjoy a lovely lunch and a good chat with lots of enthusiastic joyful people. at the end of the day, I shared the tweet below which I feel summed up my experience. Here’s to the rainbow unicorns! 🌈🦄

Early in October I took part in the Talleres de español at Instituto Español Vicente Cañada Blanch in Portobello, London. It was quite a treat to attend and participate in a face to face conference, and I thoroughly enjoyed the day in spite of the pouring rain and general exhaustion!

My presentation was entitled Take One Book, considering how one book can be used as the inspiration and impetus for a wide variety of activities in the primary language classroom. You can read a little about it and view my slides in a previous post.

When I was asked to speak, the organisers asked if I would be willing to write up my talk for publication in a special edition of TECLA, the Consejería magazine. I agreed and the magazine has just been published. I am really proud to be part of such a prestigious publication, and hope that it is well received and useful to readers.

Below is the first page and you can download the whole article below that.

Other contributions include an interview with Baroness Coussins, an article on using important artists as the vehicle for Spanish learning, and a report on using MFL projects to build bridges at QKA in Peterborough where 52 languages are spoken by the school community. The full list of articles is below. I’m looking forward to reading through the articles over the holidays when I have time to digest.

The programme will begin with Baroness Coussins speaking about the importance of languages for the future of the UK which will be followed by presentations (predominantly in Spanish) in three strands – primary, secondary and general interest – on a variety of themes including gamification, ICT, culture, history, literature, motivation and projects. Lunch is always delicious and an integral part of the experience, and the day will end with dancing or wine and jamón!

I’ll be presenting straight after Baroness Coussins (no pressure!) and sharing my ideas entitled Take One Book.

The programme is below and you can find details of how to sign up here . I’m looking forward to it; please say ¡hola! if you’re attending!

One of the books I bought in Bilbao was Un bicho extraño by Mon Daporta, a book which first came to my attention at Language World last year during the Show and Tell when Jesús from the Consejería shared it.

It’s a charming book that fits in well with the work we’re currently doing in Y4 about describing our faces and body parts. I love the video below of the story being told using a picture onto which body parts are stuck/removed as the story develops. And the wonderful thing is, the Consejería have produced a series of activities to use the book as well, including activities for pre and post reading. Some lovely ideas, and the instructions are bilingual too so no need to worry if you’re not fluent in Spanish!

I’ve also found this Slideshare that discusses ideas for using the story, and culminates with making your own version of the book using felt, buttons, ribbons etc.

Today I attended the Talleres de español at Instituto Cañada Blanch in Portobello, having been asked to facilitate a couple of Show and Tell sessions as part of the Primary strand in the morning. Having got up very early and had several mishaps and an emergency phone call on the way, I have to admit to being a little frazzled by the time I arrived and then there were technical issues, fortunately resolved fairly promptly and well before my session.

I opened proceedings sharing a ‘super lesson’ on colours that I delivered to Y3. Below is my presentation from today.

You can find the poem in Clare Seccombe’s anthology along with many other rhymes songs and poems.

As well as this, I mentioned various other ideas and links:

Rachel Hawkes’ website – advice resources and more!

LightbulbLanguages resources – not just Primary Spanish either!

Languages in Primary Schools Facebook group – if the link doesn’t work, when on Facebook search for ‘Languages in Primary Schools’ and it will appear. Then all you have to do is request to join. (A tip – if like many teachers, you have very high privacy settings, you’ll be asked to confirm that you’re a teacher so check your ‘other’ folder in Messages a day after your request!)

I shared Erzsi’s ‘phonic balloons’ picture (see right) and here’s her blog

Link to La Roja Baila

And then others shared their ideas! Here’s a summary of them:

1. A activity using handkerchiefs to review colours with younger children.
2. Using the clothes that children are wearing to review colours – of course, easier if they don’t wear uniform but not impossible even if they do…
3. Using the works of Miró to talk about colour, shape and prepositions. Rachel Hawkes (see above) and Helen Stanistreet (link) have produced some brilliant resources for this.
4. ‘La manzana envenada’ ( a game where there are a number of words/phrases on the board, one of which is declared ‘la manzana envenenada’ whilst one pupil is out the room. The object of the game is not to eat/say the word/phrase that is poisoned as the game will end. Erzsi explains how she plays it here. We also talked about how it’s good to get pupils asking questions as they’re much more skilled at answering them than posing them!
5. I loved ‘dictado chillado’ although it was very noisy! In pairs, learners write a sentence or phrase in Spanish on a post it. It could be anything to do with a topic, or you could say it must include a certain phoneme. Ours were very random! The teacher then muddles up the phrases and hands one to each pair. Everyone then stands against the wall on two sides of the classroom (left/right or back/front) opposite another pair. The idea is to shout your phrase to your partner pair who write it down. I thought my partner pair were yelling ‘Vivo lejos de José’ but they in fact saying Mi conejo se llama José. Either I yelled better than them or it was pair work that won the day as they got ‘Me gusta mucho Gerard Pique’ straight away!

I do feel bad that I’ve failed to sketchnote a session today, especially after my sketch noting was mentioned in by both of the people who introduced me,  but I’ll try and make up for it later with one of the whole day perhaps! In the meantime, you can see some of them in my Flickr album.

I thoroughly enjoyed the session I attended run by Canela Fina, and I think that all conferences should end with an educational wine tasting!

¡Muchas gracias a la Consejería de Educación y la Junta de Castilla y León para un muy buen día!

Lisibo will be very busy over the next two weeks with three talks in the space of 8 days. Bit like buses 😉

Following on from Language World and the success of the Show and Tell, Jesús from the Consejería de Educación asked if I could facilitate one at the annual Talleres de Español. Unfortunately my partner in crime Clare is unavailable so I’m going it alone. However, I hope that there will be participants who want to share their ideas, celebrate their successes and suggest suitable resources during the session so I don’t end up talking for the entire 50 minutes.

The programme offers sessions in the morning tailored specifically to Primary and Secondary colleagues followed by general sessions and cultural workshops after lunch (which is always very special!) I’m speaking at both of the morning sessions which means I can’t attend the parallel Primary sessions (hoping someone will take notes for me – any volunteers?) but am spoilt for choice in the afternoon.

Click to download the programme

I spoke at the Talleres in 2011 – you can read all about it here and it will be wonderful to return to Instituto Español Vicente Cañada Blanch. And I always enjoy meeting others and discovering new ideas! Why not join me?

Above is the flyer and below are the details of each session and the presenter bios.

And here’s how to register:

La Consejería de Educacción en el Reino Unido e Irlanda has just sent me the following invitation that I’d like to share as I know it will be a wonderful day!

Spanish Seminar
En español, ¿por qué no?, Delivering the curriculum through Spanish
30th November 2012

Arena and Convention Centre (Hall 12), Kings Dock, Liverpool Waterfront

The Seminar will review and debate the integrated learning of Spanish through curriculum content.
The seminar is free of charge, funded by the Consejería.
Please fill in and send us the enclosed application form before November 22nd.

……………………..

Seminario del español
En español, ¿por qué no?, Delivering the curriculum through Spanish
30 de noviembre 2012

Arena and Convention Centre (Hall 12), Kings Dock, Liverpool Waterfront

El Seminario tratará sobre el aprendizaje de español a través de contenidos, con ejemplos recientes en el Reino Unido.
Es gratuito, subvencionado por la Consejería.
Para inscribirse, rellene y envíe a este correo el formulario adjunto, antes del 22 de noviembre.

The ‘enclosed form’ is here – Formulario. The programme for the conference is below.

It looks a great day with a mixture of research and theory about, and classroom experiences of CLIL and bilingual learning. And it’s free, plus not in London!

I’m pleased to say that before I leave these shores, I will be speaking for one last time (for now!) on October 1st in London.  Details are below, including the programme and the application form to complete. Great value for money at £25!

Talleres de formación de la Consejería de Educación

Sábado 1 de octubre de 2011: talleres para profesores de primaria
Sábado 8 de octubre de 2011: talleres para profesorado de secundaria
Lugar: Colegio Español Vicente Cañada Blanch, 317 Portobello Road, London W105SZ
Los programas y hojas de inscripción están publicados en nuestra página WEB:
http://www.educacion.gob.es/reinounido/convocatorias-programas/formacion-profesorado.html
Plazo de inscripción: hasta el 26 de septiembre.
Coste de la inscripción, incluido almuerzo y materiales: 25 libras por persona
Os esperamos.

Spanish workshops

The Consejería de Educación are organizing their Spanish Workshops.
Saturday October 1st: Spanish workshops for Primary teachers
Saturday October 8th: Spanish workshops for Secondary teachers
Venue: Colegio Español Vicente Cañada Blanch, 317 Portobello road, London W105SZ
Programmes and application forms are available at: http://www.educacion.gob.es/reinounido/convocatorias-programas/formacion-profesorado.html
Registration will take place until September 26th
Cost: 25 pounds, including lunch and materials
We look forward to welcoming you

Application Form Primary

Primary Workshops

Application Form Secondary

Secondary Workshops

Another little gem I found on the Consejería site last night was a resource aimed at language awareness.

Entitled Languages all around you, it was developed by

• Consejería de Educación
• Consolato Generale d’Italia Edinburgo, Ufficio Scolastico
• Goethe-Institut Glasgow
• Institut Français d’Écosse

This is a collection of activities showing how modern languages are part of everyday life. The idea is to make pupils more aware of the importance of languages, the role they play in many aspects of young people’s experience and how languages can be learned while having fun and playing.

This booklet is aimed at children of Primary six and seven (that’s our Year 5 and 6 I think) although I reckon it would be good as a transition project between Primary and Secondary to get know pupils and find out about their experiences.

In the six units pupils explore the following topics:

1. Family & Home

2. Friends & School

3. Languages in Public Places

4. Languages & Travel

5. Languages & Food

6. Languages & Sports

And the best bit? It’s freely downloadable from the publications tab under material didáctica.

I particularly like section 2 where it asks pupils to talk about languages spoken by their family as well as their peers. And I discovered something about Haribo too!

I recommend you explore the site if you haven’t already – there are other resources (some paid) that are well worth considering including PDFs of resources that are now out of print.

Having posted my presentation on the QCA unit El Carnaval de los animales earlier today, it seemed rather appropriate that I should find a free resource that goes with the unit this evening!

I knew that the Consejería de Educacción had a wonderful poster to illustrate this unit, but until now didn’t know that they had a downloadable animation that features the same wonderful illustrations. With files that are compatible with Mac or PC, the animation presents the vocabulary if you press the musical notes, then asks you to drag the correct word to the correct picture. If you make a mistake, there’s a lovely chorus of children saying ‘no’. Only does one thing but fun nonetheless.

There’s also an animation for Christmas featuring a Christmas decorated with baubles from the Spanish speaking world and the villancico Campana sobre Campana which is lovely, and an animated alphabet which is only downloadable on a PC :O(

Lots of other great stuff on the site for the primary classroom too. More at a future date!