¡Vámonos!

This video speaks for itself.

Very thought provoking as a parent and an educator. I'm taking it as a challenge at the start of a new academic year.

Posted by lisibo at 20:17 0 comments    

Labels: education, lisibo, opinion, primary

Long time no blog, eh? Life's been rather hectic over the last week or so - and I really should blog about it!! However, thought I'd flag up this opportunity as it has just arrived in my inbox and looks great!

The Consejería de Educación, in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes Londres, has arranged a full day of activities for teachers of Spanish in primary schools. Taking place on Friday March 27th at The Instituto Cervantes, the day looks packed like 'una lata de sardinas' with fun and examples of good practice, with workshops on things like storytelling, food, CLIL, .. showcases and a performance of a play written and produced for children who are learning Spanish in KS1 and KS2. And all for £25!

It doesn't matter if your Spanish isn't brilliant as the email stated -

'The whole event will be friendly to teachers with a limited competence in Spanish.'

You can download details of the day, the programme and abstracts of the sessions here on the Consejeria site.

Despite living in Birmingham, I'm seriously considering going, as the sessions on storytelling, extending writing, five minute activities and starters for the Spanish classroom all look very interesting - and that's just from a curspry glance. Added to which, I'd love to see El viaje de Matilde presented by A cuerpo as I blogged about it a while back and, now that we have a new Head at school, now might be the time to plant my suggestion...

Closing date for applications to attend is March 16th so if you fancy it, why not ask your manager if you can attend?

Posted by lisibo at 16:51 2 comments    

Labels: courses workshops spanish consejeria primarylanguages, education, storytelling, theatre

I have now officially been up for 12 hours (it’s 4.45pm!) and could do with a snooze, but I can’t because a) I might sleep past by stop, b)my contact lenses will stick to my eyes and c) my mind is buzzing!

I’ve spent the day at Fernhill School and Language College in Farnborough, Hampshire at the invitation of Steph Hopkins. Having met at Joe Dale’s Isle of Wight Conference 2007 where I did a couple of sessions on Primary Language Learning and eTwinning, Steph had asked me to speak at her conference entitled Creating a compelling curriculum. Although it’s a long way from Sutton Coldfield to Farnborough, I readily accepted as it’s flattering to be asked and I do like a day out :o)

My session was entitled Keeping it compelling (more of that later!)

The day consisted of sessions led by Steph in the morning about the new Secondary Curriculum, the SLNs and then a session on phonics rhythm and song, followed by workshops in the afternoon

CLIL led by Louise Wornell from Ringwood

Podcasting with Steph

Blogging and wikis with Alex Blagona from Northgate High School and

Keeping it compelling with me.

Once more, I would’ve liked to attend all the other sessions, and am hopeful that I’ll be able to catch some of them – sure Joe Dale had all his iRivers in action ;o)

Steph’s sessions were really interesting for me. As an ex-Secondary MFL teacher it was good to see how the curriculum has changed in the few years since I taught it, moving towards a more creative approach and less proscriptive content. Almost made me miss it – I did say nearly! I’m sure it would be very different. We considered how MFL can contribute to the whole curriculum dimensions of the Big Picture such as Enterprise, Creativity, Community and Healthy lifestyles. My group were considering Technology – nice one! Managed to mention EdTechRoundup, various blogs (including those of Joe, José 2 and MarieFrance) and things other people are doing with Google, Twitter, Facebook ..as well as my own blog. In fact I could’ve gone on for ever but reined back so the rest of the group could have a say!

It was also good to see how things have changed from the point of view of informing what happens at KS2. It makes sense to me that KS2 practitioners need to have an understanding of what is happening at KS3 just as KS3 need to be aware of the KS2 Framework for their work to make sense. It’s all about being ‘joined up’ or ‘pulling together the threads’ of language learning.

There were some very interesting snapshots offered from various members of the SLNs represented at the event. They have chosen to focus on boys’ attainment and use of TL, and I really enjoyed hearing about the creative ways in which schools were addressing these aspects. One group of lads at Fernhill have been split into two teams competing in a Bundesliga to win points for their team – Bayern Munchen or Werder Bremen – with points awarded for use of TL and against for poor teamwork such as calling out. Another school were using the pupils’ interests as the focus for work on healthy lifestyles, having a lesson lead by a group of pupils on an aspect of the topic such as sport, diet etc. And Wavell School are rewarding pupils bringing in items from their travels etc related to MFL with house points, valuing pupils showing initiative and interest in the wider aspects of language learning. I particularly like the way that they had asked pupils what they’d like to do in terms of content and activity in MFL and then acted on it with a carrot and stick approach – give them what they want, and remind them they asked for it when they complain they think it’s boring. Genius!

Steph’s session on Phonics, Rhythm and Song deserves a post of its own – so it shall get one!

Posted by lisibo at 19:00 4 comments    

Labels: Alex Blagona, creative curriculum, education, new technologies, Steph_Hopkins, transition

Checking my Google reader I came across the latest post by Jeff Utecht on his blog, The Thinking Stick.
In it, he relates how he has spent today teaching 9th graders about blogging -

The classes were each 80 minutes long…plenty of time to setup a blog, write a short blog post, learn about posts vs. pages, walk through how to manage comments, change themes, update options, change password, and have a discussion on the use of the blog.

Wow! He goes on to explain how he related blogging to Facebook, comparing their new blogs to Facebook pages, and the sidebar widgits to all the Applications you can add to your Facebook page. The language of Facebook was familiar to the students so it made perfect sense to them! That was the first thing that struck me - making things relevant.

The second was the fact that the teacher was in the room, and learning at the same time. It's a model I like - my best lessons have been when I've been learning with the kids - and particularly when they've been teaching me. I never tire of learning and hope my pupils are as eager to learn as me!

Jeff comments towards the end of his post-
'This is the reason why I love blogs, they open up a whole world of opportunities.'

I'd just read Ewan McIntosh's article in The Guardian as well in which he concludes
'The future (of using new technologies) is in teachers seeing for themselves what bounties await down this yellow brick road, before worrying about how they are going to bring Class 2C with them on Monday morning.'

I'm new to blogging and the like but I can see that the possibilities are endless. The kids need little persuading when I suggest using the latest tool I have discovered, and are learning without realising it much of the time.

For example, my 9 year old son had to do a topic on the Egyptians and decided to do half of it using Photostory3 - the quality and quantity of information he gave in his presentations was greater than he would normally have produced. And he learned how to use a new application - because he saw me doing it and it looked fun!

So, I'll keep learning and taking the advice of John Hunter quoted in Ewan's article -

Posted by lisibo at 16:02 1 comments    

Labels: blogging, education, Ewan McIntosh, Jeff Utecht., news

My BBC Online daily e-mail informed me this morning that, according to a British Council survey, 'UK children aged 11 to 16 have the lowest international awareness among their age group in 10 countries'.

The article reported that 4,170 children with Internet access were asked about language learning and international affairs and the results were scored on an index from 7 to 0 -

1. Nigeria 5.15
2. India 4.86
3. Brazil 4.53
4. Saudi Arabia 3.74
5. Spain 3.29
6. Germany 3.24
7. China 2.97
8. Czech Republic 2.51
9. USA 2.22
10. UK 2.19

When questioned, children in the UK were least likely to want to try and understand world affairs, and saw themselves as citizens of their country rather than the world. Young people in Brazil were among the most likely to agree with the statement "it is a good idea for schools in my country to have links or partnerships with schools in other countries" but the least likely to be in schools that had such links.

The article finishes with the comments of Martin Davidson, British Council chief executive
"Our school children cannot afford to fall behind the rest of the world. For the UK to compete in a global economy, it is vital that we encourage our young people to have an interest in and engagement with the world around them."

Intercultural Understanding is a key strand of the KS2 Framework for MFL (although we're supposed to use PLL (Primary Language Learning) to get away from the negative connotations that 'foreign' can have) As far as I'm concerned, opening the 'window on the world' is a vital part of learning languages. At Whitehouse Common, we're taking this seriously and I've written raising international awareness and understanding into the SIP for PLL as a specific target.

Last year we made a start on this with an eTwinning project called Somos lo que Celebramos. Working with Colegio Público César Hurtado Delicado in Valverde de Leganés, near Badajoz in Spain, we compared and contrasted festivals and celebrations in the two countries. The project not only broadened the pupils' knowledge of Spanish festivals and culture but also made them look at their own celebrations through new eyes. We won a Runners-up Prize in the National eTwinning Awards for the project too - I was very pleased - my head wanted to know why we hadn't won!
(If you want to find out more about this, have a look at the presentation I prepared for The Isle of Wight Conference where I spoke about the project, and eTwinning in general - you'll find it in my Box of Goodies. )


This year we're on a roll and are pushing the boat out into deep waters! We achieved the Intermediate International Schools Award for last year's efforts and this year, we're hoping to achieve the Full Award (fingers crossed!)

We're taking part in the Voices of the World project , have two Ted-E-Bears in North America and are about to become involved in a new Teddy based project with Silvia Tolisano. Our eTwinning project for this year is called Somos lo que comemos and hopefully will involve five countries comparing and contrasting food and healthy lifestyles in our countries (details being finalised at the mo!). Then there's Hands around the World - 480 handprints to parcel up (and cut out!!) to be sent around the world to other classes as we compare 'Holidays around the world' and, later on in the year, a postcard exchange. I'm working on email links with South America and, following on from the success of this year's European Day of Languages, I'll be starting planning for next year after Easter!

I'll tell you more about these projects over the next few weeks but just wanted to respond to the article with some examples of how we might address this - hopefully in a few years' time, children in the UK will be more globally aware and see themselves as 'global citizens', as they are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences as they appreciate those of others.

Posted by lisibo at 14:35 1 comments    

Labels: education, etwinning, global awareness, intercultural understanding, KS2 framework, news

I was interested to read this- the headline story today in the Education section of my daily news e-mail from the BBC (thanks to Joe Dale for pointing me in that direction).

The Chair of the Commons education committee, Barry Sheerman is quoted as saying "Successful schools are creative schools" and he suggests that although many schools acknowledge that creativity is key, they are afraid to really embrace it due to the pressures of academic standards.

The report urges the Government to fund creativity and make it a key part of the Every Child Matters agenda, stating "Creativity should be at the heart of the very heart of teaching and learning." Amen to that!!

Posted by lisibo at 18:27 0 comments    

Labels: creative curriculum, education, news