Sandfields School Online Resources Revisited.

Back in 2009 I wrote a blogpost about the sandfields telling the time clock which I still use and which is still, in my opinion, fantastic for teaching students to tell the time in any language.

It was my second ever blogpost and the first one I wrote which was slightly educational.

It has been seen by 28 people which is seven more than read my post about mfl sunderland's resources (now lightbulb languages).

Since then, my blog has really taken off and gets many hits per day, so I thought I'd re-share the amazing Sandfields site.

The teaching clock is still there and still amazing - I've used it successfully for years.

I also love and use the countdown timer a lot. It has preloaded tunes from the Countdown  theme which lasts 30 seconds to the 40 minutes of Baroque. My students love the 1 minute and 5 seconds of the Benny Hill Show Theme (although they have no idea who Benny Hill was!) and also the 1 minute and 44 seconds of the James Bond theme. 

These are ideal for quick 1 or 2 minute tasks. Although some of my students just want to dance rather than work....

There are plenty of other tunes to choose, too, from Danger Mouse to The Banana Splits and Doctor Who. 

There is also Dictionary Duel. A Countdown style game where you pick random consonants and vowels to see who can find the longest word. Ideal for practising vocabulary in any language (although there are no accents).

Fridge Magnets is a great resource, too. This one does have accented letters and on an interactive whiteboard you can move the letters around to create words.Again, a fantastic resource for learning and practising spellings.

There are also 2 customisable games: Word Web

and Darts.

These games need to be downloaded. You can then use them to create games for your students to play. You could also get the students to create their own games.

This site has proved very useful to me over the last 5 years and I would definitely recommend it to ever teacher, not just MFL teachers.

No more tears? New GCSE exams in MFL.

If you are in the UK, you'll know that GCSEs in all subjects will soon be changing.

Those nice people at Ofqual have issued a press release confirming the assessment procedures for the new GCSE exams in MFL.

This is how the new GCSE in MFL will look:

• 25 per cent of marks to be allocated to each of listening, speaking, reading and writing

I think this is a good idea

• Reading, writing and listening skills to be assessed by exam

I even like this. I was never a fan of controlled assessments or coursework. Too many opportunities for shenanigans in my opinion. 

• Speaking to be assessed by non-exam assessment

I think this means that speaking may continue to be assessed in the same way.

• Where a qualification is tiered, students must take all their assessments in one tier, not across a combination of both.

This the one I'm not too sure about. 

In the past, I have come across many students who are better in one skill than in the others. 

Many of my weaker students who have just achieved a C grade at GCSE, have done so because they've achieved incredibly well in the Higher tier reading exam. 

Sadly, it seems that these new arrangements will penalise weaker students.

Perhaps that's the whole idea...

Le sac des filles - revisited

I love the blog, Le sac des filles.

It's a webpage which posts photos of the contents of girls' bags (and boys' pockets) and lists the items in French.

I have blogged about this before here.

One reason I like it is because it is constantly updated. Unlike most resources the mobile phones, and other gadgets, are the current models.

Le sac des filles provides a cultural, as well as a linguistic, insight into the lives of young French people.

For example, most of the bags contain a cigarette lighter. 

This week I'm teaching personal characteristics to my Year 10 (14-15 year old) students and thought that this would be a great way to get students to describe someone's personality by looking at the contents of their bag and or pockets.

Using this page will also provide students with the opportunity to learn some vocabulary which the average text book probably won't contain.

dw.de - a germanist's paradise

One of my favourite German websites is dw.de.

It's the site of Germany's international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle and is a cornucopia of anything a Teutophile could possibly need to know. It is, I suppose, the German equivalent of the BBC World Service or Voice of America.

On the site you can watch live TV, listen to German radio, and read the news from a German perspective.

The parts of the site which interest me the most are the language learning and culture pages.

The teaching and learning sections offer a variety of interactive German courses for learners of all levels and resources for teachers, too.

The culture section is an invaluable tool for any Germanist. I particularly like the podcasts and something I've blogged about before, German word of the week.

It is impossible to do this site justice in one blogpost but I really would recommend that any teacher of student of German takes some time to have a look at how good it is.

Did I mention that using the site is totally free?

There is also a weekly quiz where one lucky participant can win an ipod.

What more could you want?