All Blog Posts (415)

Found this site today, with some lovely short songs and animations in French. Good to hear a lower register male voice too. Free resources, and includes lyrics, some karaoke versions and colouring pages. 

Enjoy!

http://www.stephyprod.com/

Should we have a new Scheme of Work to go with the draft NC? Or should it stand on its own, leaving people a free choice of materials? There's a lot of discussion about this at the moment.

As my tuppence worth, I've revised my primary French toolkit and posted it here http://johnbald.typepad.com/language/2013/06/french-toolkit-for-primary-national-curriculum.html.…

I'm just trying to return to work after having my 2 little ones and very keen to get  back into teaching - I have an interview next week teaching year 6 at a local primary school.

I have been trying to prepare a really nice lesson (30 mins). What I'm finding really tricky is to actually choose a topic to teach. I find that any subject can me made fun, but other teachers with more experience, have suggested that I really need to take into account  year 6 girls level of development, and…

El Camaleon

Hope it's worked this time!

Hi all,

Does anyone know if a date for the next conference has been set? I know this seems super-keen and organised but I missed it last year due to other commitments so want to get the date in my diary early!!

Thanks,

Marnie

Have just finished adapting the Eric Carle book - think it's "The Mixed Up Chamaleon" in English! Have simplified the text to make it easier. Am going to use it to introduce some animals. Hope it's useful to someone.El camaleon powerpoint

I've just written a very long post on my website about making links between Spanish learning and the Egyptians, a popular theme/topic in primary schools. 

I won't copy it all here - click the image on the left to take you there and feel free to leave comments!

However, below is an extract!

Ideas from other…

Hi everybody,

I teach Year 1, and have recently set up a link with a school in Wales. Obviously I want for my Language Teaching and the childrens' learning to be "meaningful" however, I cannot speak any Welsh and can't seem to find any suitable, preferably free interactive resources. I am hoping to teach basic greetings, numbers and a few songs that we can share in a video conference.

I am very much a French/Spanish person so this is a whole new ball game for…

We are having a snow day today - so for teachers and children who may find themselves in similar situations  perhaps you might want to consider some of the following?



There is an abundance of online sites that any child with Internet access can use from home,  so here are some of my favourites - please do…

The Universities of Antwerp, Coimbra and their partners in the EU projects iTILT and NIFLAR are offering summer courses in 2013. 

These Comenius courses, targeted at teachers of modern languages,  aim to promote:

a) effective use of Interactive Whiteboards

and

b) oral competences  using ICT & WEB 2.0 applications, respectively.

Find more info here: …

Not easy to get time off for a conf these days, but BLEN may well be worth it. Not for profit, and a lot of practising teachers, including the estimable John Connor, Joe Dale with the latest on ipads, St Paul's School, Brighton on setting up bilingual education without a pot of money, assessment based on Devon's excellent and manageable system, and some thoughts from me on the new draft NC, which should be published by then. Here is the poster:…

Free Inset Sessions to find out more about EU Funded Opportunities for educators:

29th November, London

1st December, Newcastle (part of the ALL NE Primary/Secondary Languages Day)

12th December, …

Have just returned from a fully funded immersion course in Malaga, organised by Language Education and Partnerships, and had the time of my life! A week speaking Spanish at (almost) all times, sharing teaching ideas, visiting some amazing places (Picasso museum, a local bodega, and even a local Primary School) and sharing good food and great company.

It was an amazing opportunity from which I've returned buzzing with ideas! There are still loads of courses you can do with funding from…

I last posted at the end of March to say that my book was being published in April. Well, there was a delay but it is finally out. It was available for the first time on 6th Nov. I have waited such a long time for this to be published and am so relieved that it is finally here. I just hope someone buys it now :) 

A simple song from Youtube to which I've added subtitles using Amara(previously known as Universal Subtitles)

Unfortunately NING doesn't like the embed code so click on the image to play the video!…

I've re-discovered Storybird this weekend after a tweet announcing some new features. Whilst they included the ability to write in non Latin scripts like Greek and Mandarin, it did not include the ability to publish Storybirds in languages other than English to the public gallery on Storybird :o( This is…

 This post is to say a very belated thank you to the ALL's Steven Fawkes, who once ran a keynote speech at the Primary Languages Show, where he taught us the names of…

I have been using the Key Stage 2 MFL pupil self-assessment sheets created by Jo Rhys-Jones. Thank you Jo. I have been asked to devise a way of putting the KS2 Framework Learning Objectives into an excel document so that I can enter each pupils attainment and then generate a numerical score regarding the cohort's achievement. I currently teach 360 children in Years 3 -6. I would be really grateful for advice from anyone that already does this.
Thank you
Jo