Thursday, 31 December 2009

What a way to end the year! 30,000 hits!


When I checked my counter this morning, it read 29,927. That set me wondering if I could possibly reach 30,000 by midnight to end the year off on a 'round number'!


I tweeted at one o'clock-

and then again (after prompting for a URL!) at 2 o'clock by which time I'd had another 30 hits!




I then went out to play in the park with my kids - resulting in 'más morados en el culo' - and was alerted by @wizenedcrone to my achievement :
Thanks to Fiona for taking the screenshot at the top and for alerting the world to my mishaps!



But joking aside, as the year draws to a close, I want to thank you for travelling with me through 2009 which has been quite a year - exciting, scary, inspiring, stressful, successful and unforgettable.

Gracias amigos xx

PS to my reader in Kazakstan - are you Borat?? To my Icelandic reader - can I come and visit? And to my reader in he Aland Islands - welcome - I must find out where they are!!

Lisa xxx

PS as I publish this, my counter stands at 30,087. Thanks for enthusiastically hitting me xx

Posted by lisibo at 22:05 0 comments  

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A photo for the New Year - Sebastian 18#365


Sebastian 18#365, originally uploaded by Camino Z.

"In Spain, on New Year Eve, we eat 12 grapes at the sound of the 12 last strokes of the year… one stroke, one grape, one stroke, one grape…
HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Thanks Camino Z for this!

Posted by lisibo at 17:24 2 comments  

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Posters to promote language learning. 8

Here's another gem - this time brought to my attention by Richard Mayor at Holy Cross Primary in Walmley.

If you have any favourites, perhaps you'd like to share them in the comments below? I'm getting quite into this poster making malarky! ;o)



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Posters to promote language learning. 7


Thanks to @simonhowells for this suggestion. And thanks to @josepicardo as I understand Simon saw it on José's website!

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Posters to promote language learning. 6

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Wednesday, 30 December 2009

Posters to promote language learning. 5

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Posters to promote language learning. 4

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Tuesday, 29 December 2009

Posters to promote language learning. 3

This is one of my favourite comments on language learning.



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Posters to promote language learning. 2

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Monday, 28 December 2009

Posters to promote language learning.

Over the next few days I'll be posting some 'posters' featuring quotations responding to the question Why learn languages?


Here's the first, featuring a quotation from Wittgenstein.



Posted by lisibo at 21:29 0 comments  

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Friday, 25 December 2009

Feliz Navidad 2009




Abrazos y besos,
Lisa xx

Posted by lisibo at 23:14 0 comments  

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Thursday, 24 December 2009

Navidades Wallwisher

Had a little play around again with Wallwisher and made a wall of Christmas songs in Spanish and Catalan.


Feel free to add your own! Comments, information, ideas etc also welcome!

PS - I know the subtitle says 'Spanish speaking Christmas' and a few Catalan carols popped in - I do know!!!

Posted by lisibo at 14:03 0 comments  

Feliz Navidad

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Tuesday, 22 December 2009

Navidad en la tierra y el mar.

A lovely Christmas song, written by José Luis Perales and performed here by Los Toribianitos, and today brought to my attention by one of my online friends, Francisco Meza in Perú.

The lyrics are below (courtesy of musica.com) if you'd like to sing along.


NAVIDAD NAVIDAD EN LA NIEVE Y LA ARENA 
NAVIDAD NAVIDAD EN LA TIERRA Y EL MAR (BIS)
 
Mientras haya en la tierra un niño feliz 
mientras haya una hoguera para compartir 
mientras haya unas manos que trabajen en paz 
mientras haya una estrella, habrá Navidad.  

Mientras haya unos labios que hablen de amor 
mientras haya unas manos cuidando una flor 
mientras haya un futuro hacia donde ir, 
mientras haya ternura, habrá Navidad  

Mientras haya un vencido, dispuesto a olvidar 
mientras haya un caído a quien levantar 
mientras haya una guerra y se duerma un cañón 
mientras cure un herido, habrá Navidad
Fuente: musica.comLetra añadida por el bruno

José Luis Perales


Posted by lisibo at 19:07 0 comments  

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Saturday, 19 December 2009

Yo ♥ Pocoyo

Given my love of Pocoyo and the imminent festivities, I just had to share this clip with you.


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Thursday, 17 December 2009

La Marimorena - un villancico

Here's a lovely Spanish carol I've found on Teachertube. it's originally from the LCF site Babelzone which is a (very reasonably priced I have to say) subscription site, but there are a number of their resources shared on Teachertube too.





and for the French teachers amongst you, here's an alternative version of the Twelve Days of Christmas in French.

Posted by lisibo at 14:15 0 comments  

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Monday, 14 December 2009

Your chance to influence the BBC's PMFL content!


I'm helping the producers of the BBC schools website a bit this week, giving them some suggestions about their Primary French and Spanish pages.


If you haven't seen them, there are animated characters to help you speak the language, games to practice the vocabulary in each section, and some interesting fact files about the countries, traditions, festivals etc. The sites are quite different in layout and content. for examples, the French site has two sections, 1 and 2 and is hosted by Roller. The Spanish site looks more minimal at first glance but has some interesting sections, not just on vocabulary.

Have a look and let me know what you think -

Which do you prefer?
Do you like the site(s)?
What is your favourite bit?
Wat doesn't work for you?
What would you like added?
what would be most helpful to you?
which resources are most appealing to you - games, activities, worksheets, quizzes, songs, factfiles, sound files, flashcards, grammar notes, video clips, world language clips??

Leave a comment below or tweet me @lisibo or contact me directly via my email.
Don;t miss your chance - if you dont ask, you don't get!

Posted by lisibo at 11:23 0 comments  

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Sunday, 13 December 2009

Ideas for Christmas

It's that time of year again!


I thought I'd remind you of a couple of posts from last Christmas that are still relevant now - Firstly, some ideas of resources for Christmas.

Secondly, I'd like to reintroduce you to my friend, El pequeño petirrojo and introduce his French cousin, Le petit gorge rouge (see below)



Thirdly, some wonderful ideas about using The Snowman

And to highlight some ideas from elsewhere -


Alice Ayel has instructions on making a homemade nativity scene

Mark Purves has put together a quiz using Smartboard for French cultural information.

The BBC Primary Spanish site has a slideshow about events over the Christmas period in Spain.

A few ideas in this thread on the TES Forum and you can always check out resources in the TES Connect Resources area.

That should keep you going!

And a video to finish!

Posted by lisibo at 23:07 0 comments  

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Abrazos


Earlier today on Yahoo MFL Resources, Jane shared a Powerpoint presentation under the subject - Helping pupils be nice?


So I decided to do just that! I've made a couple of alterations and made it into an Animoto video by saving the slides as .jpg files, uploading them to Animoto as images, choosing some suitable music and leaving the rest to Animoto.

Hope you enjoy it and like the message xx


Posted by lisibo at 17:49 0 comments  

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Monday, 7 December 2009

Working for the Beeb.


Sadly not as a Blue Peter presenter, but I have recently been involved in some work for the BBC World Class site.


As their website says -
BBC World Class is an initiative bringing the benefits of international school linking to schools across the UK.
World Class also encourages children and schools to get their stories on air and on line across the BBC.

Thanks to a recommendation from Liz Hitchcock of the British Council, I was asked to work with BBC World Class to come up with some resources to link a reading by Michael Morpurgo of his book, This morning I met a whale, to the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit via a 'Share a story' activity. The idea was that two (or more) partner schools read the book and complete some activities that they can share with one another.

You can download a PDF of the activities and enjoy the beautiful pictures of the Thames and the whale.

I thoroughly enjoyed Michael Morpurgo's beautifully written story, based on real events in January 2006 when a 15 ft northern bottle nosed whale was found swimming past the Houses of Parliament before getting stranded at Battersea Bridge and sadly dying before it could be returned to open water. In the story, the whale comes with a message for the children (because adults are hard hearted) to pass on the message that we need to look after the planet. A simple story with a powerful message.

Even if you haven't got a partner school or even a class with whom to do the activities, I'd recommend the book as a good (very quick) read - for children and adults alike. And if you use the activities, well, let me know what you think. They're not all my work - I just gave ideas, some of which haven't been used - but I'm obviously interested in views as they have my name on them!!

Perhaps Blue Peter might come calling next.....

Posted by lisibo at 15:55 0 comments  

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#TMETRU09 - catch up!

If you missed last night's Teachmeet EdTechRoundup, never fear! You can catch up by watching the archived stream.


The stream has been split into 12 parts - my bit is mostly at the end of episode 3 with a short bit (sadly cut short by being camelled) and follow on in episode 4 . I've embedded those episodes below - the rest can be found here. Well worth watching - loads of interesting presentations; something for everyone :o)




Twitter feed is here.
And Flickr photos of participants are here.

Posted by lisibo at 15:10 0 comments  

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Sunday, 6 December 2009

#TMETRU09 - stream on Justin.TV

Watch live video from tmetru09 on Justin.tv

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Using Sound recording in the (PLL) classroom - #TMETRU09


This evening I will presenting at Teachmeet EdTechRoundup on the above subject, sharing how I use sound recording in my classroom and suggesting why it is such a valuable tool.


Here are some references / notes that go with what I will (might?) say!
Easispeak microphones - from TTS - also other speaking and listening tools such a
s talking postcards and talking photoalbums.

Audacity - free and downloadable from here
Garageband (for Macs)

Podomatic - a free place to create and listen to podcasts
My school Podomatic podcast - WCPS Spanish
My own Podomatic podcast - Lisibo talks!
And we're on iTunes too!
Voki - we love Voki at WCPS!
Voicethread - another great tool for using sound recording in learning.
Here's one I made to give people an idea of how they work!

Our school wikispace- WCPS.wikispaces.com - giving examples of use in other areas of the curriculum eg RE, Literacy.

Relevant blogposts on ¡Vámonos!






WHY?
  • motivation
  • assessment
  • AfL
  • peer support
  • confidence
  • independence
  • relevance
  • fun

You can watch it live here and learn from a vast array of people who will be sharing what goes on in the classroom.

Posted by lisibo at 16:55 1 comments  

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Friday, 4 December 2009

Cool Earth - Javier from Peru

I'm currently watching a live Twittercam stream from Saltash School.


They have visitors from Cool Earth with them today, and are broadcasting live an interview with Javier from Peru who will be talking about living in the Amazon and the effect of climate change on his life and surroundings. Read more about it here.

Fascinating!!

Posted by lisibo at 12:40 0 comments  

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Tuesday, 1 December 2009

Spanish online quiz

ALL Spanish Committee in collaboration with the

Consejería de Educación, Embajada de España




pastedGraphic.pdfPRESENTS pastedGraphic.pdf




SPANISH ONLINE QUIZ 2009

A language and cultural quiz about Spain and Latin America



Prizes donated by:

Consejería De Educación, Embajada De España, BBC Active Languages, AQA, Taylor & Francis



  • The quiz will be open for 24 hours from 17.00 on Thursday 3 December


  • To enter go to the ALL or Consejería de Educación website:


www.all-languages.org.uk

www.educacion.es/exterior/uk

  • Individuals may enter at one level only, either;

KS4 – GCSE

Or

KS5 – AS/A2


  • Deadline for entries is 17.00 on Friday 4 December.


Please see Conditions of Entry on websites for full entry details


PRIZES:

Individual prizes and whole school prizes for best participating schools.




SPANISH ONLINE QUIZ 2009


Conditions of entry



  1. Entry is by email only. Please email your answer form to: spanishquiz2009@all-languages.org.uk


  1. The quiz is open to students only (school prizes are allocated on the basis of the school which has the most number of participants, or the most number of correct winners).


  1. Individuals may enter at one level only, KS4 (GCSE) or KS5 (AS/A2).


  1. Entries are accepted on condition that it is the student’s own work. This must be verified by the class teacher.


  1. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Posted by lisibo at 18:40 0 comments  

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Monday, 30 November 2009

Animoto - Barcelona meets Birmingham

I've Animotoed the photos from last week - the Civic Reception, lunch at Chez Jules and our night out at The Jamhouse.


Posted by lisibo at 11:29 0 comments  

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Barcelona meets Birmingham


Comenius Reggio visitors, originally uploaded by lisibo.

Last week was a whirlwind of activity as 8 educators from Barcelona visited Birmingham as part of a Comenius Reggio project linking Birmingham Local Authority, Newman College, Dorrington Primary and Whitehouse Common Primary with El Consorci, a part of Barcelona University that works with Newman, CEIP Els Pins and CEIP Barrufet.

Here are the visitors (plus Rona Heald from the LA, and me!) at the Civic Reception with the Lord Mayor of Birmingham and the Lady Mayoress.

More news about the project to follow when I've fully recovered!!

Posted by lisibo at 10:36 0 comments  

Saturday, 21 November 2009

Seasonal activities - Bham ELL LSG

On Tuesday I took part in an LSG entitled Seasonal Activities at the Martineau Centre in Birmingham.

As promised, here is my story El pequeño petirrojo, and the translation into French Le petit rouge gorge






Here's a previous presentation about Christmas activities that you might find useful as well.

Posted by lisibo at 22:10 0 comments  

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Wednesday, 11 November 2009

Spanish online course for teachers.


Received an exciting email from the Consejería de Educación today about courses for teachers of Spanish.


Spanish online courses for teachers
Dates: January / May 2010
Spanish Ab Initio
This course runs for 60 hours over a 20 week period and will give you the skills you need to be able to speak and understand simple Spanish in everyday situations. The course is designed to give maximum flexibility. Teachers will have unlimited 24/7 access to the on-line material for the duration of the course to do their weekly work and to assess their progress by checking the answers and by doing the self-evaluation tests. Aimed at primary school teachers with no knowledge of Spanish that intend to teach Spanish next school year. Places available: 100
Elementary Spanish
This course runs for 60 hours over a 20 week period and will help you improve your command of the Spanish language. Teachers will have unlimited access to the on-line material for the duration of the course to do their weekly work and to assess their progress. It includes 9 online tutorials. Designed for primary and secondary school teachers with little knowledge of Spanish that are already teaching Spanish or intend to do so the next school year. Your level of Spanish will be determined by Instituto Cervantes. Tutors: From Instituto Cervantes in London and Manchester Places available: 120
What's most amazing is the cost - £10 for ab initio ; £20 for elementary!

If you're interested, you can get more details on the website of the Consejería where you can also download a PDF advertisement and application form. Closing date is 11th December - and it's first come, first served so, get your skates on!!

Posted by lisibo at 22:15 0 comments  

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Saturday, 7 November 2009

Surviving the Primary Language Classroom


One week on from the Language Show at Kensington Olympia, here's my presentation entitled

SURVIVING THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE CLASSROOM. Not a title I would necessarily chosen as, to me, it implies that teaching languages is some sort of ordeal which is, for most of us, far from the truth.

I hope you enjoy the Slidecast - complete with kids and noisy neighbours. And if you want to listen whilst shopping, there's the podcast of my talk on Lisibo talks!

A couple of things I skipped;
Firstly, a great tip for PLL is making links via something like eTwinning - http://etwinning.net - find out more here and check out my Slidecast here.
Secondly, I mentioned Oscar Stringer's animation workshops but didn't explicitly mention his upcoming workshop in London on 13th November -

This one-day course will give you the opportunity to gain knowledge and hands on experience using the latest software and hardware. Use the course as an opportunity to get to know your own equipment, bring laptops and cameras with you if you wish.


You will learn tips and tricks for getting great results quickly in the classroom, ideas to take back and use with your class as well as teaching resources designed to kick start animation projects.


For: Teachers in KS 1,2, 3 and 4 (ICT coordinators, Art and Media Studies Teachers.)

Cost: £130.00 + VAT Includes a CD of your work with teacher’s resources and lunch.

Times: 9.30 a.m. - 3.30 p.m.


All enquiries to Oscar Stringer, Tel: 07974 764 849 or Email oscar@animationforeducation.co.uk.


And don't forget that you can download forms for ICanAnimate and Hue HD webcam from his site.

Any questions, please feel free to contact me!

Posted by lisibo at 20:19 0 comments  

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¡Feliz cumpleaños Sesame Street!

Sessame Street is 40 this year as Google reminded us yesterday when the Wallace and Gromit 20th birthday mast head was replaced with one celebrating Sesame Street. Today it's Oscar the Grouch!


So, in honour of Sesame Street's birthday, here's a very catchy song from Mexico about fruit and healthy eating.

¡Qué os disfrutéis!

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Thursday, 29 October 2009

The Language Show



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

There is so much to see and do - check it out for yourself here!

I've been asked to do a seminar this year - so if you want to know How to Survive Primary Languages, pop by to see me in room 3 at 1pm. And there are so many more too.

You can get in free by registering on the site so whatever your interest in language learning, if you can get to Olympia over the next three days, it's well worth the effort!

Of course, I'll post my presentation here straight after the show, and I'll be tweeting all day too.


Posted by lisibo at 22:40 1 comments  

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Friday, 23 October 2009

Mis amigos Pooh y Tigger

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.


A couple of ideas.

This clip is called Estrellita abrillar and is a version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (I know other words). The story seems to be that Lampi, the Heffalump can't sleep and they sing to him. However, his Mummy sings different words so he sings them to the friends then goes to sleep. A cute little story in a song in just over a minute.


The words are:

Estrellita ¿cómo estás?

me preguntas ¿qué serás?

en el cielo brillas tu

como un diamante es tu luz.

Estrellita ¿cómo estas?

me preguntas ¿qué serás?



Lindo lampi ¿cómo estás?

No te quejes; duerme ya

La noche es para soñar

Pon su trompa, descansar.

Qué se acabe mal humor

y no ronques por favor.

Lindo lampi ¿cómo estás?

Es mejor que duermas ya





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!

Any other ideas people have found?


Posted by lisibo at 17:20 2 comments  

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Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Lisibo Talks! latest


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?






You'll also find that my Slideshares in previous posts on Hull Primary Language Conference an
d Hampshire Language Conference are now Slidecasts with the audio added.

So, I hope my agony was worthwhile and that people will have a listen and perhaps learn from the presentations - even if it is how to talk Brummie ;o)

Posted by lisibo at 10:13 0 comments  

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Monday, 19 October 2009

25000 not out!



¡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.




Lisa xx

Posted by lisibo at 14:26 0 comments  

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Sunday, 18 October 2009

Teen idols sing in Spanish!

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.

Posted by lisibo at 21:19 0 comments  

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