Spanish Essay Competition

Our Spanish GCSE students were invited to enter an essay competition organised by the Instituto Cervantes, in collaboration with the Consejería de Educación on the occasion of the International Book Day. The theme of the essay was the Don Quijote in your life.

Amy, in Year 11, entered this competition and her essay has been published in the Instituto Cervantes blog. Congratulations!!! This is the link

Flashmeeting Overcomes Volcano Hurdle

How exciting! As our Swiss German language assistant has been unable to return to the UK for the new term, due to the volcanic ash from Iceland cancelling her flight, many of our 6th formers have been left without the specific 1-to-1 input in the target language. However, to overcome this we have set up a test Flashmeeting videoconference today between Swiss German and the Weald of Kent students that were scheduled to meet with her today. Trouble shooting issues were over come, (sending out the Flashmeeting booking link to students and languages assistant alike, testing available headphones, and ensuring students were familiar with how to work the software) and a successful videoconference is taking place as we type...!



UPDATE: Feedback from the students suggests that Flashmeeting is an effective videoconferencing tool as the assistant could use the "Chat" function (instant messaging) to type any words that the students found difficult to understand from listening to the spoken word.

It definately created a buzz in the corridor as other students waiting for the next lesson could see the videoconference taking place.

We will be setting up a schedule of Flashmeeting videoconferences for the remaining time that our assistant will be away.

Successful Videoconference with France!

On the 31/03/10 we held a successful videoconference between the French and English sides of our French work experience exchange. We set up 15 web cams on our side, with the students sharing in pairs, whilst the French side used one web cam interchanging the students as they took their place to speak. Time was tight given the only mutually convenient time was 8.30 am to 9.00am that morning. However, 10 of the students from the Weald of Kent Grammar School held conversations in French with their corresponding partners in France. The English students used the time to ask questions in French to the French students about their on coming stay in France in June. At first the students were nervous to take part and speak on camera, however, they were eventually encouraging us to use as much of the time as possible to allow as many students to take part. All in all a successful videoconference which we hope to follow up with another before June so the French side can practise their English.

This has been a very successful use of our recent purchase of 15 web cams for the MFL department and we hope to integrate their use into other exchanges across the department. Videoconferences provide authentic language experiences for our students to develop their confidence with languages.