¡Vámonos!

This is the final post to appear on ¡Vámonos! 1.0 as I have a new website – lisibo.co.uk

I like Blogger for many reasons, not least that it’s free and it was my first blog, and http://lisibo.blogspot.com will always be special.

However, the time has come to have my own domain and take another step up the ‘web ladder’.

Hopefully you, my loyal readers will soon get used to the less vibrant surroundings over at ¡Vámonos! version 2.0 and new readers will appreciate the mellow pinky lilac tones!

Click here to enter the brave new world of http://lisibo.co.uk

Posted by lisibo at 21:32 0 comments    

Labels: goodbye, lisibo

Just realised that I hadn't blogged the Wallwisher made by Year 5 just before Language World.

Posted by lisibo at 22:15 0 comments    

Labels: ICT, online, primarylanguages, spanish, Wallwisher, wcps

Embedding languages was also the theme of the last session I attended at Language World.

In Unlocking potential Liz Black talked about a project, or as she prefers to call them ‘series of work in context’ inspired by Le Grand Parc - Puy de fou, a demonstration of community problem solving - in an area of poverty but with lots of land, the community got together to solve it by building a theme park. All the materials she used can be downloaded from Liz’s school website - www.stokesleyschool.com

Her school has a cross curricular day each Wednesday duirng which departments work together, and this project covered history, drama, literacy, French, PSHE, enterprise and finances and more. She shared some brilliant ideas including using Latin roots to provoke pupils to think of words in English with those roots, and gladiator drama to encourage reluctant boys to speak French.

Feedback from staff and pupils was very positive with one child saying ‘I like it when teachers work together’.

I have to say that the website itself for Puy de Fou is absolutely beautiful to look at, with lots of things to click and see. Certainly makes you want to go there !

Posted by lisibo at 18:16 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, embedding, french, Language World 2010, languages

I made friends with Claire on Facebook just before Language World - what a great decision that was! She's as mad and lively as me!

Her session was on Embedding Languages in the Curriculum and gave plenty of ideas for doing just that!

Highlights including dancing to www.genkigerman.com (just tried it out again with Isaac - a big hit!) and learning a song in Italian about food! It went to the tune of La Cucharacha and I think the words were

Then Claire asked me if I'd contribute some French / Spanish which I happily did! I shared www.UptoTen.com and the duck song - Peux-tu marcher comme un canard? and then demonstrated the 'animal symphony' activity I used to link Spanish, music and literacy. Materials and instructions to replicate it can be found here.

Molto bene Claire!

Posted by lisibo at 15:56 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, french, german, italian, Language World 2010, primarylanguages, spanish

The Keynote on Saturday morning at Language World was delivered by Cynthia Martin, President of ALL this year, and was report on research that she and others have carried out into Primary languages. Rather than try to write it all down, I took lots of pictures of the slides and made a movie. And here are a few comments that I hope will shed light on the slides.

Posted by lisibo at 22:47 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, Language World 2010, primary languages, research

Posted by lisibo at 19:47 0 comments    

Labels: festivals, Spain, video, Youtube

Rachel Hawkes is an absolute genius who I’m certain rarely sleeps or else has her own TARDIS as she can’t possibly have the hours in the day to teach and do all the things she does!

Her ‘Major talk’ was all about speaking - the most undeveloped but most important skill in terms of motivation as our perception of being good at languages hangs on our ability to speak.

If you want to experience the presentation, you will no doubt soon see it on Rachel’s blog, but some key points were-

Key strategies -

sound-written pattern

building a framework for spontaneous talk

providing opps for planned and unplanned talk

focusing on key structures

providing a range of stimulus materials to respond to

using tech to enhance interactions

Teaching phonics is very important - the first thing that happens in year 7 at Comberton. The phonics aare linked to a gesture and once learned, the pupils are given words to pronounce - it could be people’s names or shopping lists.

Other ideas for geting pupils talking were

1. using a Morph clip and asking What are they saying? Can you give Morph and Chas some words? Or to give pupils the words and ask them to put them in order.
2. an iPhone clip that practiced ‘Puedo.......’ and could be used to reinforce ‘¿se puede....?
3. the Obama reggaeton rap
4. posing a question eg ¿Tienes hermanos o hermanas? and stipulating ‘tu respuesta debe tener 7 palabras‘ then ¿Cómo puedes contestar con más de 10 palabras
5. Odd one out connecting triangles
6. pilla al intruso ; and, one of my favourites,
7. what isn’t going to happen??? What didn’t happen?

All the clips Rachel used are bookmarked in her account there - RachelHawkes60.

Posted by lisibo at 21:52 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, creativity, Language World 2010, Rachel Hawkes, speaking

The first session I attended was Helen L. Walker presenting Raising global awareness in a second language and speaking from her experience as an early years teacher in the immersion programme in Canada.Helen asserted that we still tend to live within our own cultural bubble despite the immediacy of internet etc, and that global awareness, that is, an understanding and appreciation of other cultures, is something on which we still need to work. She talke dof how we can do this using books, experiences and contcts as well as global focus weeks such as thos edetailed on the SWgfl.

Whilst living in an English speaking part of Canada (Calgary), Helen taught a class under the immersion programme of pupils aged 5 who had no or very little French. they began their journey using the topic L’Afrique, and applying an enquiry based method of learning. They looked at elephants, had an Africa day and did lots of art activities. Questions were posed and the children looked for the answers with teacher help where needed.

One such question was ‘Does it rain in Africa?’ to which the children immediately answered ‘no’. Reading What the animals were waiting for, a book about the rains in Africa, challenged this view and shaped their understanding of what it might be like to live in Africa.

Another book Beatrice’s Goat had wide reaching effects on the pupils.

Beatrice lives in Uganda and wants to go to school but has no uniform as she can’t afford it. Then she’s sent a goat from a charity. The pupils empathised with Beatrice - and wanted to send a goat to her. Helen explained that Beatrice now had a goat, but that perhaps they could buy a goat for another child. The class discussed how to raise money to send the goat, and settled on creating items to auction off including the journal of Françoise the class teddy bear, booklets made in computer time in french about numbers, colours, animals and Africa. On an art trip they made a quilt with each child contributing a square - this too was auctioned . All in all, they raised sufficient money to buy a barn full of animals. Not only had they raised funds but also the awareness; the pupils were so proud of themselves and had a great joy in giving.

Helen offered a list of some of the resources she used, and of sites that were useful for this type of thing, and others shared ideas from their classes including a boys’ school where the pupils raised money by doing the staff’s ironing!

As a postscript to this, I overhead a conversation today about an article saying that by teaching ICU, we are producing racist pupils as we are presenting a ‘stock view’ of countries. This rang bells as I had had a similar experience in Liverpool at the PLS where someone had been challenged for portraying a very narrow view of life in Martinique. Good point i guess. How can we make sure we’re not reinforcing unhelpful stereotypes?

Posted by lisibo at 21:39 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, global awareness, intercultural understanding, Language World 2010, primary languages

I’ve had the privilege over the last two days to be in York - a beautiful city - for the annual ALL conference Language World.

Between dodging goose poo and trying to work out which bridge to cross, blowing bubbles and answering burning questions about the attractiveness of back hair and the point of mixed peel, we’ve been treated to many thought provoking and practical sessions on language teaching and learning. I’ll try and blog a few over the next few days.

Good to see friends, especially ones who have up until now been virtual, and make new ones. Already looking forward to next year!

Posted by lisibo at 21:36 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, Language World 2010

Lisibo Voki has a message for you!

Posted by lisibo at 14:56 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, Language World 2010, voki

Come to the Language World Exhibition!

University of York

Friday 26 and Saturday 27 March 2010

· It’s free, it’s big, it’s full of the best in languages resources – from books to IT solutions, from national support agencies to courses abroad. There’s something for every language teacher!

· The Language World exhibition is open on Friday 26 March from 09.00 until 18.00 and on Saturday 27 March from 09.00 until 14.00. You’ll find it in Exhibition Centre, University of York and there’s parking close by. Call us if you need further details (0116 229 7454).

· On Friday evening at 5pm we’d like to invite you ALL to join us in the Exhibition to celebrate ALL’s 20^thbirthday this year – with a glass of fizz and a birthday cake!

Special offers for all visitors to the Language World exhibition from:

BBC Active: BBC Active is offering 30% off all orders placed at Language World. CME Books Europe: 10% discount off all products purchased / orders placed at the conference. PLUS Free prize draw to win Mandarin textbook and work book of your choice from ‘Chinese Made Easy for Kids’, ‘Chinese Made Easy’ or ‘Easy Steps to Chinese’ series OR Set of “Celebrating Chinese Festival Series”. ConnectED Education FREE PRIZE DRAW. Tell us how you would use CONNECTED BROADCAST in your school, college or university for a chance to win a FREE Broadcast for your establishment. European Schoolbooks Ltd: European Schoolbooks Ltd is offering a 15% discount on all orders taken during the Language World Conference. EuroTalk: Any EuroTalk title on an unlimited school network for £99 (from £220) Stand 46 Heinemann: Heinemann will be giving away some very special STUDIO mouse mats, a must for every language teacher and pupil so make sure you visit our stand to claim yours! Hodder Education: Hodder Education is offering 25% discount on all Languages resources and 50 % off dictionaries. Language Networks for Excellence: Special 15% discount on all orders placed through the ALL Language World show by quoting a discount code valid up until 01 June 2010. Lexus Ltd: Lexus is offering half price for all books bought during the Show. Links into Languages: Sign up to the Links into Languages mailing list to be entered into a prize draw for a free place on a Links Core Course of your choice and get your supply cover for this course paid. Return your mailing list card to the Links into Languages Stand (30) at Language World to be in with a chance to win! Sanako UK Ltd: Sanako will provide a single user license of its popular Media Assistant Solo free of charge to all delegates who register at stand 50. This can be used for creating digital exercises and recording oral assessments.

See the ALL website for the full list of exhibitors

Posted by lisibo at 14:36 0 comments    

Another find today on Youtube.

Posted by lisibo at 08:03 0 comments    

Labels: spanish, stories, videos, Youtube

I've been looking for resources about healthy lifestyles and food today, and came across this song on my travels around Youtube.

Another useful video on the same theme, and with the same 'quirk' is the one below. This time it's a rap that could easily be adapted to include other items of food, or other vocabulary too.

Posted by lisibo at 17:06 0 comments    

Labels: food, primarylanguages, songs, spanish, Youtube

I loved the official song of the FIFA World Cup 2010 when i heard it for the first time today. And now I've found this bi-lingual version too with K'Naan, the original artist, singing with David Bisbal.

The lyrics are below!

Waving Flag de K´naan y David Bisbal
Give me freedom
Give me fire
give me reason
Take me higher
see the champions
take the field now
youll be fighters
make us feel proud
En las calles muchas manos
levantadas, celebrando
una fiesta sin descanzo
los paises como hermanos
Canta y une tu voz
grita fuerte que te escuche el sol
el partido ya va a comenzar
todos juntos vamos a ganar
Unidos!
Seremos grandes,
seremos fuertes
somos un pueblo
bandera de libertad
que viene y que va (x3)
when i get older
i will be stronger
theyll call me freedom
just like a wavin flag
Now wave your flag (x3)
ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh
Danos vida
danos fuego
que nos lleve a lo alto
campeones o vencidos
pero unidos a internarlos
In the streets
are exalted people
as we lose our inhibitions
celebretion is around us
every nation all around us
Singing forever young, singins
songs underneath the sun
lets rejoice to the beatuful game
and together at the end of day
Seremos grandes,
seremos fuertes
somos un pueblo
bandera de la libertad
que viene y que va (x3)
when i get older
i will be stronger
theyll call me freedom
just like a wavin flag
Now wave your flag (x3)
ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh
Unidos!
Seremos grandes,
seremos fuertes
somos un pueblo
bandera de la libertad
when i get older
i will be stronger
theyll call me freedom
just like a wavin flag
Now wave your flag (x3)
ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh
And everybody
will be singing

The Youtube page also explains -

El español David Bisbal y el somalí K´Naan interpretan la versión latina del tema Waving Flag, elegido para la Copa del Mundo FIFA Sudáfrica 2010.
La canción fue estrenada ayer, como parte de las celebraciones rumbo al Mundial.
"La música y el futbol unen al mundo, y a través de esta canción queremos contagiar el sentimiento de alegría que nos provoca este evento mundialista", explicó el artista español, al referirse a la canción inspirada en costumbres africanas referentes a la fiesta, y que aborda temas como el amor, la unión y el optimismo.
El tema presenta pasajes en español e ingles y un video en el que se pueden ver las pocas habilidades futbolistas de Bisbal, quien lucha sin éxito dominar un balón.
La canción de la Copa del Mundo, Waving flag, fue compuesta por el rapero Knaan Mogasishu, quien nació en Somalia aunque es ciudadano canadiense.
La canción es el tercer single de su álbum Troubador y meses atrás fue elegida por la organización del Mundial como su himno oficial.

Posted by lisibo at 16:48 0 comments    

Labels: CopaMundial, football, songs, spanish, videos, Youtube

My second presentation at the Primary Language Show this year was entitled

Posted by lisibo at 08:19 0 comments    

Labels: BritishCouncil, etwinning, international links, PLS

I was privileged to be asked to speak at the Primary Language Show once more this year. Having presented last year on El Carnaval de los Animales and You and Youtube, this year I had two new topics on which to speak.

The first of my presentations was entitled

Audaciously using Voices to make Voki!

During the session I aimed to explain how Audacity, Voki and Voicethread work, and how they can be used to enhance learning in the Primary Language Classroom. I gave examples from my classroom, made a Voki there and then and also drew ideas from others including Esther Mercier and Royds School.

Below is a Slidecast of my presentation, and here's a link to further resources to help you - a guide to making Voki, embedding on a Wiki and notes on all 3 tools - and others - including tutorials!

Hope you find them of use.

Posted by lisibo at 20:33 0 comments    

Labels: audacity, digitalvoicerecording, ICT, PLL, PLS, podcasting, voicethread, voki

Here's my second presentation from Vida Latina, offering ideas for making Spanish cross curricular. Included are ideas from my classroom and also links to other cross curricular ideas such as Mira Miró and Jumping through hoops.

I sadly forgot to press record on my iRiver so there's no audio this time I'm afraid. However, if you'd like to ask questions, please feel free to leave a comment below and I'll try and reply.

Posted by lisibo at 20:01 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, crosscurricular, links into languages, spanish, VidaLatina

Here comes the first of my presentations from Vida Latina last week at Aston University. The conference was organised jointly by Links into Languages and the ALL Spanish Committee, and focussed on Latin America.

Posted by lisibo at 18:45 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, BritishCouncil, etwinning, links into languages, VidaLatina

Here's a Voki I made yesterday in my session at the Primary Language Show, using a song I'd recorded for a non-Spanish speaker to use with her class.

Click here to comment on this Voki.
Get a Voki now!

Posted by lisibo at 17:12 0 comments    

Labels: PLS, songs, voki

I'm really aware that I have a backlog of posts awaiting publication.

Posted by lisibo at 16:02 0 comments    

Labels: Education Show, PLS, presentations, VidaLatina

Another example of the wonder of animation from Oscar Stringer.

Posted by lisibo at 12:26 0 comments    

Labels: animation, french, Oscar Stringer, vocabulary

Still not had time to do that 'proper blog post' as I've spent the afternoon editing video of the tango demonstration and workshop we had yesterday at Vida Latina.

Posted by lisibo at 19:38 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, dance, Latin America, spanish, tango, VidaLatina

A proper blog post will follow tomorrow, but here are the photos from today!

Posted by lisibo at 22:09 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, courses, photos, primarylanguages, secondary languages, slideshows, speaking

All a bit topsy turvy I guess, reporting on a course I ran on Tuesday after a presentation I did today but heigh ho!

Posted by lisibo at 17:41 0 comments    

Labels: ICT, PLL, presentations, primary languages, social networking, speaking

I had the pleasure and privilege of speaking at the Education Show today. I volunteered myself, admittedly, but I hardly thought they'd say yes! I'd attended a previous seminar there and had been rather unimpressed and thought 'I could do better!' - so I put my money where my mouth is - and hope I succeeded.

Posted by lisibo at 17:28 0 comments    

Labels: Education Show, ICT, primary languages, speaking

I did a day of ICT in PLL training today at Hillcrest School and Sixth Form Centre. More of that in another post..

Have a look at the Lingua website for more details!

Posted by lisibo at 21:45 0 comments    

Labels: classroom language, lingua, primary languages, secondary languages

Just received an exciting email from Kathy Wickstead, National Subject Lead for Languages.

A great opportunity - sadly I have a meeting and should be teaching anyway so I'll be unable to go. But if anyone does go, please be sure to share!!

Posted by lisibo at 20:14 0 comments    

Labels: ALL, CPD, storytelling, thinking skills

Last Wednesday I took part in a day for Language Coaches in Birmingham. The afternoon session was given over to looking at links between Primary Language Learning, EAL and literacy, and we were fortunate to have Joe Brown from CILT to address us.

All sounds very exciting and I await the results with anticipation. You can catch Joe speaking at PLS in Liverpool in two weeks time!

Posted by lisibo at 15:26 1 comments    

Labels: BirminghamPrimaryLanguages, CILT, EAL, Joe Brown, literacy, PLL, primary languages

I subscribed to the channel belonging to Imagiers a while ago.

Originally, I saw the traditional songs below -

There are thousands of videos on the channel - some are more advanced grammar and so on, others are simpler vocabulary presentations. And some are not French at all - eg there are several clips about Helsinki!

Posted by lisibo at 21:12 0 comments    

Labels: french, primary languages, rhymes, songs, video, vocabulary, Youtube

Yesterday I took a Web Behaviour Test as part of BBC's The Virtual Revolution - investigating how 20 years of the web has changed our lives.

Posted by lisibo at 13:42 0 comments    

Labels: BBC, ICT, quiz, research

Not one for Primary language learners perhaps, but nonetheless a find, I think!

Videos are available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Dutch, and are rated easy medium and hard. You can then choose easy medium or hard tasks. Having said that, I chose easy and an easy task - and it was quite tricky as you have to type as you hear. I think if I listened to the song first I might have had a better chance. There is help - you can rewind the last line with the back space and use the tab to skip words you really can't get! At the end you're given a score based on how many words you successfully filled in and the time it took you in comparison to the actual length of the song. This is how I got on with Himno de la corazon

Posted by lisibo at 11:33 0 comments    

Labels: languages, listening, songs, writing

Technology in Modern Foreign Languages - A practitioner's perspective is a post by José Picardo in which he announces the online publication of a series of blog posts that originally appeared on his blog Box of Tricks over December/January, written by a wide variety of language practitioners about their experiences of and advice for using technology in the MFL classroom.

Posted by lisibo at 21:25 0 comments    

Labels: blogging, ICT, Jose Picardo, mfltips, new technologies

At the ELL Local Support Group (LSG) last week, we were talking about short activities that needed minimal preparation and could be used for the 'little and often' model.

One of the activities discussed was I spy...

In Spanish there is a lovely little rhyme that goes with the game - check out the East Riding site for sound files, instructions and words. A good game for playing with kids who have a wider vocabulary, but also for discrete groups of words eg food, sports, colours. You could change it to 'tengo tengo' (I have..) and play with items in a bag even.

Veo veo I see, I see,

¿Qué ves? What do you see?

Una cosita. A thing

Y ¿qué cosita es? And what thing is it?

Empieza con la ……. It begins with ………

¿Qué será? ¿Qué será? ¿Qué será? What can it be? (x 3)

I also came across this catchy sung version of the rhyme - here I've chosen the kiddies version rather than the tropical island and bikinis! Lyrics below.

Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?

empieza con la "A", ¿qué será?, ¿qué será?, ¿qué será?, alefante

no no no eso no no no eso no no no es así

con la "A" se escribe amor, con la a se escribe adiós

la alegría del amigo y un montón de cosas más

Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?

empieza con la "E", ¿qué seré?, ¿qué seré?, ¿qué seré?, eyuntamiento

no no no eso no no no eso no no no es así

con la "E" de la emoción estudiamos la expresíon

y entonando esta canción encontramos la verdad

Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?

empieza con la "I", ¿qué serí?, ¿qué serí?, ¿qué serí? invidia

no no no eso no no no eso no no no es así

con la "I" nuestra ilusión va intentando imaginar

cuan insolita inquietud una infancia sin maldad

Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?

empieza con la "O", ¿qué seró?, ¿qué seró?, ¿qué seró? oscuela

no no no eso no no no eso no no no es así

no no no eso no no no eso no no no es la hora del final

Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?

empieza con la "F", ¿qué seraf?, ¿qué seraf?, ¿qué seraf?, final

si si si eso si si si eso si si si es así

si si si eso si si si eso si si si llegó el final

cha cha cha

photo from Look Into My Eyes on Flickr

Posted by lisibo at 20:47 0 comments    

Labels: primarylanguages, rhymes, songs, spanish, videos, Youtube