Only 2 weeks away so here is my list of free resources for Easter activities:
French
Lightbulblanguages has some lovely Easter minibooks in the primary resources section
TES still has some free Easter resources. For now.
(*Dom thinks to himself* I wonder what would happen if the people who owned the image copyrights had a look at the paid resources on TES?)
Lancs NGFL has some nice Easter resources in French and Gierman.
The grid has some primary resources in word documents here.
BCC has a powerpoint in English about Easter in France.
FrenchToday has a page of Easter related vocabulary.
ielanguages has an mp3 file and some text to go with it about Easter.
Frenchabout has a page all about Easter in France.
Talkabout PrimaryMFL has some Easter links and resources in the March section of its Days to Celebrate page.
New 20/03/2016 Who killed the Easter bunny (cluedo type game) on TES
German
Goethe Institut has some resources here.
Lots of free German Easter resources on TES (for now)
kidsweb.de has some practical projects here.
Some Easter puzzles from kinder malvorlagen
Spanish
Lots of (mostly free) TES semana santa and pascua resources
Lightbulblanguages has some Easter resources in Spanish.
Languagesresources has a Spanish Easter ppt here.
spanish-resources.com has a couple of reading and listening online activities.
Tio Spanish has this youtube clip for advanced learners:
That should keep you quiet for an hour or so....
If you know of any others please let me know and I'll add them to the list.
Sunday, 13 March 2016
Sunday, 6 March 2016
Time Management 2 - Carpe Diem
Since I talked about time management in this blog and at various Teachmeet and Show and Tell events last year I have had quite a lot of people contact me telling me that they couldn't possibly do what I do for various reasons.
I understand and respect this, I have no kids so I can work whenever I want, but many of these people seem to be putting in a lot of time and effort on things which are not really, in my opinion, that important.
So, I've had a think about what I've been doing recently to make the most of my time:
I wrote the schemes of learning for the French department so I pretty much know what I'm doing with all my classes until the end of the year. I don't plan "in bulk" on a Sunday afternoon/evening/night. I don't get paid for giving up my weekends and neither do you. I do what we tell our students to do, little and often.
Due to my terrible memory I constantly make notes and "to do " lists. I have a lot of spiral bound notebooks where I write down important things.
This my current one which I got from The Works:
My pockets are also always full of slips of paper with cryptic messages to myself on them, Columbo style.
Prioritise.
Which jobs are the most important?
What do you spend most of your time doing?
What do you do that someone else could do? (If you're a manager)
What do you do that you could just not do or stop doing?
I keep marking to a minimum. Obviously, I mark the important stuff, assessments and so on, but if the students can mark their own or each other's work, then I let them do it.
I find that 99% of my students can be trusted to mark their own work especially for listening and reading activities. It gives them instant feedback. They can then immediately write what they need to do/learn/revise to improve for next time.
I try to make sure that photocopying is done the day before I need it.
How much time do colleagues spend waiting to use the photocopier or looking for paper?
Resources.
Cutting stuff out - get a guillotine/paper trimmer.
Get a volunteer/detainee to cut out Tarsias, Task Magic dominoes, Solo Hexagons, etc
Saving time in class.
I have 5 clusters of tables in my classroom. With a marker, I've written the number of the table where each child sits on their book. It takes seconds to give out the whole set.
I have these boxes which my boss got from ikea
There is one on each set of tables. They are small but big enough to contain 2 glue sticks, green pens for feedback, a set of highlighters, a pair of scissors and a couple of black ballpoint pens for the students who never bring their own pen.
This saves a lot of time, hassle and possible confrontation in lessons.
There's no point reprimanding a student for not having a pen - you're wasting the time the class could be working.
Life's too short!
Coffee.
I bought one of these:
It was £40 pounds or thereabouts in the sale at Argos.
It takes a minute to make a cup of coffee so I'm not wasting time queuing at Starbucks each morning like I used to. It saves me money, too. It had paid for itself after the first half term this year.
Travel.
I used to leave for work at 7:30 and arrive at 8:00. Unfortunately, everybody else leaves at 7:30 too.
I started leaving at 7:25 and I arrive at 7:50 generally. It's much quieter on the roads.
OK, it's only an extra 5 minutes but it's enough time to check emails, the cover list, switch on computers, etc...
I also leave after most people, so avoiding the school run traffic, but not late enough to get stuck in the rush hour traffic.
I pack my school bag and put out my clothes (and shave most days) the night before, too. This stops me forgetting something and also means I don't have to get up too early.
Finally, I don't leave school on a Friday until I have everything ready for Monday's classes. That way, I don't have to work much at the weekend.
I understand and respect this, I have no kids so I can work whenever I want, but many of these people seem to be putting in a lot of time and effort on things which are not really, in my opinion, that important.
So, I've had a think about what I've been doing recently to make the most of my time:
I wrote the schemes of learning for the French department so I pretty much know what I'm doing with all my classes until the end of the year. I don't plan "in bulk" on a Sunday afternoon/evening/night. I don't get paid for giving up my weekends and neither do you. I do what we tell our students to do, little and often.
Due to my terrible memory I constantly make notes and "to do " lists. I have a lot of spiral bound notebooks where I write down important things.
This my current one which I got from The Works:
Prioritise.
Which jobs are the most important?
What do you spend most of your time doing?
What do you do that someone else could do? (If you're a manager)
What do you do that you could just not do or stop doing?
I keep marking to a minimum. Obviously, I mark the important stuff, assessments and so on, but if the students can mark their own or each other's work, then I let them do it.
I find that 99% of my students can be trusted to mark their own work especially for listening and reading activities. It gives them instant feedback. They can then immediately write what they need to do/learn/revise to improve for next time.
I try to make sure that photocopying is done the day before I need it.
How much time do colleagues spend waiting to use the photocopier or looking for paper?
Resources.
Cutting stuff out - get a guillotine/paper trimmer.
Get a volunteer/detainee to cut out Tarsias, Task Magic dominoes, Solo Hexagons, etc
Saving time in class.
I have 5 clusters of tables in my classroom. With a marker, I've written the number of the table where each child sits on their book. It takes seconds to give out the whole set.
I have these boxes which my boss got from ikea
There is one on each set of tables. They are small but big enough to contain 2 glue sticks, green pens for feedback, a set of highlighters, a pair of scissors and a couple of black ballpoint pens for the students who never bring their own pen.
This saves a lot of time, hassle and possible confrontation in lessons.
There's no point reprimanding a student for not having a pen - you're wasting the time the class could be working.
Life's too short!
Coffee.
I bought one of these:
It was £40 pounds or thereabouts in the sale at Argos.
It takes a minute to make a cup of coffee so I'm not wasting time queuing at Starbucks each morning like I used to. It saves me money, too. It had paid for itself after the first half term this year.
Travel.
I used to leave for work at 7:30 and arrive at 8:00. Unfortunately, everybody else leaves at 7:30 too.
I started leaving at 7:25 and I arrive at 7:50 generally. It's much quieter on the roads.
OK, it's only an extra 5 minutes but it's enough time to check emails, the cover list, switch on computers, etc...
I also leave after most people, so avoiding the school run traffic, but not late enough to get stuck in the rush hour traffic.
I pack my school bag and put out my clothes (and shave most days) the night before, too. This stops me forgetting something and also means I don't have to get up too early.
Finally, I don't leave school on a Friday until I have everything ready for Monday's classes. That way, I don't have to work much at the weekend.
Monday, 29 February 2016
Cootie Catchers revisited
A few years ago I shared my cootie catchers (snap dragons, chatterboxes, fortune tellers) blogpost with you.
Today I found Gail Lovely's website which has a cootie catcher template in Powerpoint which you can customise and print out.
So, my German class made these:
Very useful for getting year 10 to speak German to each other.
I'm doing the same thing tomorrow in French.
One tip - print them A3 size.
Today I found Gail Lovely's website which has a cootie catcher template in Powerpoint which you can customise and print out.
So, my German class made these:
Very useful for getting year 10 to speak German to each other.
I'm doing the same thing tomorrow in French.
One tip - print them A3 size.
Sunday, 21 February 2016
GCSE French Revision sites
As I'm teaching GCSE French this year I've put together a list of free sites our students can use to revise by themselves.
In no particular order, they are:
BBC Bitesize: no longer up dated but still useful
Revision World: includes core vocab and tips on how to revise
S-cool: topics and tips
Fun with Languages: interactive games for students of all levels from beginner to A2 level
Memrise: free but you need to sign up to this (or login via Facebook or Twitter)
Zut: this site is free after 4pm - lots of interactive games, good fun
Gordano School's French Revision page
Revision Centre French page
If you can think of any more let me know in the comments section.
In no particular order, they are:
BBC Bitesize: no longer up dated but still useful
Revision World: includes core vocab and tips on how to revise
S-cool: topics and tips
Fun with Languages: interactive games for students of all levels from beginner to A2 level
Memrise: free but you need to sign up to this (or login via Facebook or Twitter)
Zut: this site is free after 4pm - lots of interactive games, good fun
Gordano School's French Revision page
Revision Centre French page
If you can think of any more let me know in the comments section.
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Holocaust rememberance resources
Last week was Holocaust Memorial Day.
I wanted to put together a list of resources in French (because I mainly teach French this year) which could be used in the classroom with students.
However, I was incredibly busy and never got around to it.
I decided I'd write the post anyway and keep the links for next year but it turns out I could use them before then because Yom HaShoah 2016 (Holocaust Rememberance Day) is commemorated this year from the evening of the 4th to the evening of the 5th of May.
Remember, if you don't teach it, they will never know..
So here's my list:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has resources in different languages.
United Nations ressources pédagogiques
Links and resources from Projet Aladin
Shoah.de has resources and links in German
Canadian Government's holocaust resources page
Videos of interviews with survivors and witnesses in French
Enseigner l'histoire de la Shoah has a lot of information and resources for teachers
Mémoire d'Auschwitz resources, links and students work from rhone.fr
Lilly Osbert-Levy's L'évacuation d'Auschwitz
Resources from 1jour1actu here, on one Holocaust denial here, a video about Hitler and one about the Second World War
Resources and links from Café Pédagogique
dw.de's Der Holocaust im Unterricht
I wanted to put together a list of resources in French (because I mainly teach French this year) which could be used in the classroom with students.
However, I was incredibly busy and never got around to it.
I decided I'd write the post anyway and keep the links for next year but it turns out I could use them before then because Yom HaShoah 2016 (Holocaust Rememberance Day) is commemorated this year from the evening of the 4th to the evening of the 5th of May.
Remember, if you don't teach it, they will never know..
So here's my list:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has resources in different languages.
United Nations ressources pédagogiques
Links and resources from Projet Aladin
Shoah.de has resources and links in German
Canadian Government's holocaust resources page
Videos of interviews with survivors and witnesses in French
Enseigner l'histoire de la Shoah has a lot of information and resources for teachers
Mémoire d'Auschwitz resources, links and students work from rhone.fr
Lilly Osbert-Levy's L'évacuation d'Auschwitz
Resources from 1jour1actu here, on one Holocaust denial here, a video about Hitler and one about the Second World War
Resources and links from Café Pédagogique
dw.de's Der Holocaust im Unterricht
Sunday, 10 January 2016
Staying positive.
Happy New Year!
Cast your mind back 12 months.
Do you remember your new year's resolution?
Did you keep it?
My resolution for 2015 was not to work at weekends.
You can read my post about it here.
It wasn't 100% successful. I worked 4 weekends last year.
It was a little harder than I imagined, mainly because, since September, on Fridays I teach 3 classes which I also teach on Mondays.
I got around it by marking before I went home but this was not always possible.
For 2016 my resolution is similar but also includes a promise to myself to be as positive as possible.
This has meant leaving all MFL Facebook groups I'd signed up to.
Until recently I've been an avid reader of, and contributor to, these groups but things have changed.
Over the past few months these groups have changed from very supportive and collaborative fora to a place where many group members have just used them to complain, troll and breach copyright by sharing resources illegally.
My decision to leave them all was not taken lightly but rather than getting annoyed by the trolling and scrounging I just clicked "leave group".
It was easy.
So what else have I been doing?
Well, my time management is getting better all the time.
I don't leave school until the next day's work is prepared.
I mark books after every lesson. (You'd be amazed how quickly you can do this and it helps with planning!)
I'm happier and I like my job.
(I still regularly consider leaving teaching but I think everyone does that!)
Cast your mind back 12 months.
Do you remember your new year's resolution?
Did you keep it?
My resolution for 2015 was not to work at weekends.
You can read my post about it here.
It wasn't 100% successful. I worked 4 weekends last year.
It was a little harder than I imagined, mainly because, since September, on Fridays I teach 3 classes which I also teach on Mondays.
I got around it by marking before I went home but this was not always possible.
For 2016 my resolution is similar but also includes a promise to myself to be as positive as possible.
This has meant leaving all MFL Facebook groups I'd signed up to.
Until recently I've been an avid reader of, and contributor to, these groups but things have changed.
Over the past few months these groups have changed from very supportive and collaborative fora to a place where many group members have just used them to complain, troll and breach copyright by sharing resources illegally.
My decision to leave them all was not taken lightly but rather than getting annoyed by the trolling and scrounging I just clicked "leave group".
It was easy.
So what else have I been doing?
Well, my time management is getting better all the time.
I don't leave school until the next day's work is prepared.
I mark books after every lesson. (You'd be amazed how quickly you can do this and it helps with planning!)
I'm happier and I like my job.
(I still regularly consider leaving teaching but I think everyone does that!)
So, my advice to everyone for 2016 is be positive.
Nobody likes moaner!
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
200000 visits
Yesterday my blog had its 200000th hit.
When I started writing it in 2009 I didn't think anyone would be interested in anything I had to say.
In fact some of my early posts have only had a handful of hits.
One of them, about the Tools for Educators site, has had only 17 hits and is a really good resource.
Thanks to everyone who reads this rubbish.
I owe you all a pint!
When I started writing it in 2009 I didn't think anyone would be interested in anything I had to say.
In fact some of my early posts have only had a handful of hits.
One of them, about the Tools for Educators site, has had only 17 hits and is a really good resource.
Thanks to everyone who reads this rubbish.
I owe you all a pint!
image from openclipart.org
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