Wow!  Just discovered that there are starter clips in Spanish too!

This time they’re set in Mexico.  They cover similar themes – traditions as well as daily life.

One particularly caught my eye – La cultura folclorica de Veracruz .  This short clip is about music and musicians, and a story telling festival.  This links with Unit 14 of the QCDA scheme – and I happen to be doing that at the moment with year5!

Hopefully this will help them understand what ‘la música folclórica’ is all about!

TeachersTV is, I think, an increasing useful source of clips and materials, not just for CPD but also for classroom use.

Here they present some lovely lessons starters set in Martinique, set around preparations for carnival, the school and the local area.  Not only good for the language – for example, Une chasse au tresor  looks at vocabulary of directions – but also for ICU as the setting of Martinique allows comment to be made on the surroundings, comparing and contrasting, and also raises awareness of the Francophone world.

Another episode focuses on the preparations for Carnaval and the Carnaval itself – always fascinating to pupils in the UK where such festivities are unusual!

And another looks at the route Matis takes to school – an eyeopener in terms of what the route is like!

At about 2-5 minutes long, they’re a great way to open a lesson, or for those 10 minutes activities that can spread out over the week.

Thanks to @joedale, I picked up the news yesterday that Voki has a new service.  I’ve never made any secret of my passion for these talking avatars and their uses for a variety of purposes, especially in the classroom.

The good news – classroom friendly, ad-free Voki

The bad news – you have to pay ‘ a small license fee’ per year

On balance, I’m not convinced of the benefits of paying $199 (which seems rather a lot to me) when I can use it perfectly adequately now for free.

However, I will await further details!

However, this news was accompanied by the realisation  that there is a ‘featured Voki educator’ section on the Voki home page.  And guess who features a the moment?

Oh yes – it’s me! If you want to see me in action, click here!
Very flattered! And wandering if they need a Voki poster girl…..? ;o)