¡Vámonos!

I've set myself a challenge for 2010.

Posted by lisibo at 20:38 0 comments    

Labels: Flickr, offtopic, personal, trees

Happy New Year to all readers of ¡Vámonos!

Posted by lisibo at 00:00 0 comments    

Labels: festivals, personal, video, Youtube

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'!

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 :


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.

Posted by lisibo at 22:05 0 comments    

Labels: hits, lisibo, personal, Twitter

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

Posted by lisibo at 17:49 0 comments    

Labels: animoto, christmas, MFLResources, personal

¡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.

Posted by lisibo at 14:26 0 comments    

Labels: hits, lisibo, personal

Just back from 11 days in Switzerland. Had a great time with my family exploring and investigating, and have to say that I am missing the mountains and lakes already. Absolutely stunning! My photos don't really do justice to the beauty of Interlaken and the surrounding area but here are a few of my favourites.

Posted by lisibo at 18:52 0 comments    

Labels: holidays, lisibo, personal, photos, Switzerland

Not a post about S Club 7 (athough I will say that my boys are big fans of Hannah who's in Primeval now!) but about something that was reinforced in my mind last night.

The Assistant Head at school had been asked to run part of the PDM on EAL (English as an additional language) and to give some brief ideas on how to make life easier for EAL pupils at school. We don't have many but it is an important issue - and one that is relevant in general too! On a recent course she had attended, the presenter had taught them some Welsh to put the delegates in the position of an EAL learner, and Jan had asked me to emulate this - her exact request was 'you know an oscure Spanish dialect don't you? Could you teach us some?' Not sure how the Catalans would respond to hearing Catalan described as such but I took the challenge.

The idea was to teach numbers 1-12 and then do some basic maths but without using visual prompts like fingers, cards, notes, actions or mimes until about half way through the session. Thus the staff were put in the place of a learner who is capable to doing the task - all our staff can add and subtract numbers up to 12!- but don't have the vocabulary to understand the task.

What struck me was how hard I found it to teach without using actions - I literally had to put my hands in my pockets or hold them together to stop myself gesturing. I found it really uncomfortable to see the looks on my colleagues' faces as they tried to work out what I wanted them to do - and I think I caved in quicker than I should have done. My style is very much waving my arms around, pointing, miming and using any clue I can to enable the pupils to understand.

When asked how they'd felt, it was obvious that the exercise had hit the mark as the staff immediately pinpointed the difficulty of understanding the task being the biggest stumbling block, and how much easier it had been once actions had been introduced, or the list of numbers being written on the wall. One colleague said that she'd given up trying after a few minutes as she was so baffled; another that she'd felt so inadequate and small as others had caught on more quickly than her, and almost humiliated (once she'd understood it) by the simplicity of the task that she'd been unable to do.

So, despite my discomfort at teaching in a way that is alien to me, I think the exercise served to underline just how important gesture and mime are in enabling understanding.

We played a game from Digital Dialects as part of my mini-lesson. Well worth a look if you want to learn - or even just look at - some basics in a wide range of different languages!

Posted by lisibo at 10:08 1 comments    

Labels: active learning, catalan, CPD, ideas, personal, wcps

This Christmas is going to be different in my family as my Dad is not here to share it with us, and I have to say that I haven't really entered into the whole Christmas thing this year with the gusto I usually do. I've not sent any Christmas cards and don't really feel as I normally do at this time of year, a time that I usually adore. Being ill last week didn't really help I guess.

However, when it all boils down, this is what Christmas is all about for me - the celebration of the birth of Jesus (whenever it actually took place). And, because of Him, I believe I will one day see my Dad again.

Wishing you a Happy Christmas xxx

Posted by lisibo at 23:14 2 comments    

Labels: christmas, personal