It's independent learning AND it's snot.

On a rare visit to another school yesterday I discovered a different way of getting students to think for themselves and collaborate with their peers.

It's the same as the 4 Bs: Brain, Book, Buddy, Boss but much more memorable and the students love it.

Especially the boys.

It's called SNOT.

It stands for:

SELF

Students ask themselves: Have we done this before? When did we do this? What do I know about this? Is it in my book, folder, etc?

NEIGHBOUR

If they can't find the information they require students ask the student nearest to them.

OTHER

Student asks another student for help.

TEACHER

If no other student can help then, and only then, is the student allowed to ask the teacher.

I came across SNOT when I visited a music lesson.

A pupil approached the teacher with a question. 

The teacher asked the pupil, "Have you snotted?"

He then explained to me that that is the system the school uses to try to get the students to take more responsibility for their own learning.

I loved it.

I've already started to use it with my own classes.

Let's not parler franglais.

From the early 1980s until it closed in 1992 I used to read Punch magazine.

 

One of my favourite features was Miles Kington's Franglais column.

Miles was a bit of a brainbox and a hero of mine. He was regularly heard on BBC radio and this quotation is frequently attributed to him: 

"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing that a tomato doesn't belong in a fruit salad."

 

As a keen student of French I always thought his franglais column and books were very funny and, to Miles (and me) franglais was a joke - playing with the two languages and having fun. 

To many of the French (and my Canadian friend, Sylvie) le franglais n'est pas un joke du tout - c'est très serious indeed. 

It seems the French are so worried that their language is being taken over by techno-English that they have decided that the only way to protect themselves is to invent new words.

So, in future they won't have to put up with the abomination that is le hashtag from Twitter or Facebook's Je like and Je ne like pas.

You can read all about it in Metro's article from last week.

Personally, I love it when the French "adopt" English words.

My current favourites are:

les people (those who are famous for being famous)

and

les oh my gods (a term for "typical" young american ladies)

I think the Academie Française might be fighting a battle it can't win...