Finally I am pleased to announce that the latest version of LanguagesResources.co.uk is now live!
Please head on over and have a look. The structure of the site hasn’t changed very much, just the look and formatting.
If you have any issues with the site or wish to contribute please just tweet or email me.
Today I attended a session on observations. We began the session by deciding key elements of an outstanding lesson. These are the things we came up with that needed to be good:
-significant gains in learning
-all students engaged
-pace
-enjoyment
-personalised learning
-subject knowledge
-good questions
-challenging
-use of TAs
This is what we came up with for great assessment:
-summative
-diagnostic: formative/evaluative
-success criteria
-feedback
-feedforward
-purposeful and relevant to pupils and staff
-time to reflect on answers
-learner response
We felt that graded observations weren’t as helpful as observations that help you develop and move on eg. Coaching, paired observations, reviewing feedback of a lesson.
For a while I have been wanting to redesign languagesresources.co.uk as I know that it could look much more modern. I made the site myself using first Front Page and, then a few years ago, Dreamweaver and now we are moving over to WordPress.
My amazing fiancé is a bit of a dab hand at web design so I am proud to announce a new version of the site (coming soon) made by him and his business partner.
The new design will follow a similar structure to the current version of the site but I will also pull in the German resources from version 1 of the site and I will be able to upload resources and edit the site from anywhere, making it more flexible and up-to-date. This year I have been teaching GCSE French fully so I have lots of new resources to add in there too.
Google Adsense will continue to be on the site, as this pays for the hosting and day-to-day running of the site, and I will continue to develop games as and when I can.
The new version should be ready very soon, so watch this space!
It is that time of year again when secondary school teachers’ minds turn to the looming examinations and what we can do to help our pupils get the best possible grades that they can.
My Year 12 Spanish class are quite good at speaking spontaneously (as they proved to me in a recent mock exam), but they struggle to do it in lessons, unless it is 1-1. To help this, and to encourage them to speak to each other, I have created a set of board game questions, which you can find on the TES here. I already have some laminated board games (snakes and ladders), with different coloured squares (so that I can use them in a variety of different classes), so all pupils need is a die and a counter. For this they could use a pen lid, a paperclip, a coin…anything.
They roll the die, land on a coloured square, and in order to move forwards that have to answer the question that corresponds to that colour square. The PowerPoint to go with the game that is on the TES is hyperlinked to take you directly to a set of questions for each sub-topic of the AQA AS Spanish exam. Clearly, these questions are not the only ones they could get in the exam, but they are ones that I have been using throughout the course to encourage revision, and you can find them in my Topic Revision Booklet.
I have been looking at a variety of different tools to use in the classroom over the last few weeks, with a bit of a focus on using my iPad and the one app that I really want to try more of is Socrative.
All you and the pupils need is a device with internet (so a tablet, a phone, a laptop etc). If you are using a smart phone then there are 2 apps: the student one and the teacher one. If you are using a laptop then go to http://socrative.com/ and sign up as a teacher. Once you have signed up you can create a variety of types of tests such as ones with multiple choice questions or the option to give short written answers. In order for a pupil to access them they just need to open the Socrative student app or go to m.socrative.com and they enter the room number that is linked to your quiz.
Pupils can answer the questions at their own pace or you can set it to move on when you decide. The nice thing about this tool is that you can end the test at any time, and the results re collated immediately and available as a report is email, highlighting pupils’ knowledge (or lack of!). It also has an ‘exit ticket’ feature where students can give you a short summary of their learning before leaving the room at the end of the lesson.
A similar questioning tool that you might also like which I found out about today is infuselearning.
Those of you that know me, know that I love using technology in the classroom, and I have dabbled a bit with iPads that I have borrowed from the local learning centre, however now I have my own!
Being an iPhone user there are some key apps that i already know are essential for any (MFL) teacher and these have gone onto my iPad straight away, but what else do I need? What else is essential?
So far I have:
Dropbox
Google (drive, email and search)
Word reference
Various foreign news apps
Wordpress
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Socrative
Edmodo
Quizlet
Classdojo
Edexcel past papers
Evernote
Croakit
YouTube
There’s a few others that I love that aren’t anything to do with teaching, so I haven’t listed those. So, tell me, what else do I need guys?
Here are some of the ideas from Lisa’s session today on getting pupils out of the classroom, see wiki as well:
-practise numbers by asking children to have x amount of body parts touching the ground (so 2=2 feet, 3=2 feet and a finger etc)
-abuelito-see BBC video clip: like what’s the time mr wolf but with animals so walking like an ant would be teeny tiny steps
-line up in order of height/age/birthday months without falling off the bench
-charades: mime a sentence to communicate its meaning
-UNICEF games document
-do games outside if possible eg. Running dictation, human sentences, human words ie. use extra large dominoes, use a more complicated text
-use chalk and draw on the floor: hopscotch (linear or spiral)
-bounce a ball on a chalk ‘keypad’ to send a message
-maths hopscotch: hop on the sum as you use it
-use an assault course for prepositions (can do blindfolded)
-QR codes: visualead let’s you put a picture behind the QR code: link the QR code to a hunt of some sort such as animals, culture quiz etc
-scavenger hunts: stuff a matchbox with as much as possible, find out the vocab, make a story using the words, find something in the room that begins with a letter, search for something of a particular colour
-rebus-o-matic.com: gives pictures to make a word
-Huntzz app to get a treasure trail
-make a video to show prepositions using pupils
-get out of the classroom virtually: international links, webcams, websites and other authentic resources e.g. Newsmap
-use google maps: prevent a murder in France mystery, safeguard a spy
-placespotting: create clues to find a specific place
-create a QR code tour of your school or local area
