je ss malad dps IR

 

Excellent! Our foreign language assistant, Jessica, kindly wrote out a text in text speak which students in 9PU and 9RE French translated into French, having studied the text in detail the lesson prior. We then used the activity 'Sending Messages' on MYLO to reinforce this. They are now asking for a text speak test at the end of the unit. Oh language teaching JOY!!! A+!!

Here in the MFL department we are excited about the continuation of the development of the FROG VLE. We are currently designing our MFL information pages for students to access during snow or on absence days. Watch this space!

AS français, Lundi 5 mars 2012

Chers étudiants de français,

Malheureusement ce n'est pas possible pour ni étudiants, ni professeurs, d'accéder au Wifi du lycée. Donc, pour le moment, on ne va pas les utiliser pendent notre cours lundi 5 mars.

Merci et à lundi,

Mlle Hardman

Communications Friday 02 March 2012

Dear 6th Form "Communication" students,

If you are reading this you will be aware that I am not in on Friday 2nd March. My apologies for the lack of notice. This was not a planned absence. We will postpone the celebration lesson to NEXT WEDNESDAY 7th MARCH.

HUGE apologies to the two students who were due to deliver their speeches today. We look forward to hearing them NEXT WEDNESDAY 7th instead.

Cover work for this lesson, however, is as follows:

1) Find a picture online that best sums up "Communication" to you - be it modern / old / tatemodern-esque / 3D / 2D / obvious / coded etc...

2) It might be that you want to take your own photo. If you take your own photo upload it to a website/blog/photosharing site for us to see (making the image public for easy access).

3) Find out how to make your own QR code for link to the site where we can see your image.

4) Please print your QR code out onto an A4 piece of paper with the title: "What Communication is to Me" and your name underneath the title, and bring to next lesson. We may use these for display.

5) Please also email me the A4 document with the QR code on it. I'd like a digital copy for digital display purposes.

That's it! We will look at these next lesson Wed 7th March if time.

Bytes and jpegs,

Miss Hardman

ICT in French project

I am very pleased with my two year 9 French classes who have today demonstrated the final pieces from their ICT in French projects. See below for one example of a news broadcast and a radio broadcast. Others include E-Safety videos and Murder Mystery stories. More to come...

Mlle Hardman

Here is a radio broadcast created and presented by the year 9 French class. They worked hard on the project and the results show!



News broadcast:

Vocabexpress Trials - Year 10

We trialled www.vocabexpress.com again today but with some of our year 10's this time. The girls were so engrossed I had trouble getting their attention to give me some feedback as to what they thought of the site!

They liked the fact that you have to repeat the tests until you get it right. In our 20 min session one student thought that she had learned 15 new words. It makes you learn it as you cannot just skip past any stage that you are finding difficult.

Les Langues et La Technologie

We have a great opportunity to do an ICT project in this term with our year 9 French students. Projects so far include: an animation, a video, a French radio broadcast, an e-safety video, and a murder mystery themed www.voki.com project! I am really looking forward the results. More updates as we go along.

Miss Hardman

8S Spanish Invitation Dialogue Medley

¡Hola!

Today we recorded some dialogues in Spanish using our Easi-Speak microphones. The sound files were then combined into a medley using Audacity software and then uploaded to our Podcast. Listen to the podcast entry for today's date and leave some comments below.

What do you think the students did well (WWW) and what could they improve on (EBI)?

Señorita Hardman

Languages Laboratory - Teacher review

I loved our lessons in our languages laboratory today. My year 10 pupils had the opportunity to record a conversation complaining about a campsite that they had stayed at. This followed on from a written homework of the same nature. Each pupil then listened to another pupil's recording. They were provided with the Edexcel speaking criteria and a peer assessment sheet where they could comment on their partner's achievements within this speaking activity. Well done to all of them for their hard work today.

Miss Hardman

Blogtastic!

Here at Weald we see the value of blogs a source of information to the wider community. Hence the launch of our WoK to Weald MFL Transition blog! Do take a visit to check out our virtual tour which our year 10 "Les Langues et la Technologie" students put together in July 2009. See also the student reviews on the making of the virtual tour earlier in this blog.

Les Languages et La Technologie - UPDATE

At the end of last term we had a successful videoconference with Mascalls Secondary School. The pupils presented their schools in French and played buzz word bingo on the topic of Careers and Work Experience. This was a timely topic as both sides of students were about to embark, or had just embarked upon their work experience placements. Students also learned about Videoconference etiquette and presentation skills.

A successful videoconference needs careful preparation and organisation, and the students demonstrated professionalism and teamwork throughout. We look forward to holding more in the future.

Mr Oakley checking the webcam...









...and Miss Sheehan helping to test the equipment prior to the videoconference.

Project 1: Avatars - 2D

We have been researching the use of Avatars to allow students to have a virtual presence on our blog. Vokis is one way, however we wanted to find a more immediate solution for pupils to add their identity to any text or other work input on the blog. We discovered
Laura Yr 10

Suzi Yr 10













In fact the MFL department went Avatar mad and many a hilarious moment was spent as the staff created their own...

Miss D Schulz - Voki Fever!

Miss Schulz, one of our German teachers, was so impressed by our year 10's Voki project that she couldn't wait to have a go herself. Check out the results below:

Project 1: Avatars - Student Reviews

By using the avatar Voki to create a person who speaks French and is set at my school helped me learn new skills in ICT. I now know how to set up my own avatar on a website quickly and easily. I have also learnt how to record my own voice into a small sound clip and upload it to a computer, and then upload that file onto my website as well as a photo of the school too.

The Voki website is useful for students, as you learn new ICT skills for avatars, and can listen to your accent and learn how to pronounce the words correctly.

Becky Yr 10



We created voki’s about our school by using photos of its surroundings such as the foyer, the canteen and the school field, so that they can be used by year 6 pupils to enable an understanding of the feel of the school. As with any new technology we had our issues, for example whilst trying to upload photos to set as our background, it took a while and would not always work.

By using avatars it created a fun tool for learning and incorporated the use of ICT, blogs etc, safely. By creating voki’s it can allow students to become more confident whilst speaking.

Katrina Yr 10

I had never created an Avatar before this and so was unsure what to expect, however I soon found creating Voki’s fun and a good way to improve my French- especially speaking as I could record myself and hear my fluency and pronunciation.

Sometimes the software was difficult to use as it did not always log on or upload backgrounds/sound files correctly. I found this tool useful for student learning as we had never done anything like this before, however it was prone to software difficulties. It was useful for the teacher as they can hear pupil’s pronunciation in the language and how they are in ICT. The software would be useful in other subjects – mainly languages as it would improve the pupils’ language skills.

Laura Yr10



I have never used Voki.com before so was a new experience for me, which I enjoyed greatly. It was useful for student learning because recording my French paragraph helped me improve and practise my French and it also helped me recap the school topic. It is also useful for the teacher because they can listen to my French accent and can watch the progess in my accent. This site would also be useful in art because you could upload your painting/work and talk about it etc It would also be helpful in ICT to help with your IT skills.

Helen Yr 10



Before using Voki.com I did not have an account before. I found using Voki very safe and friendly to use and also fairly easy. Using Voki is useful for student learning because you had the opportunity to speak French after the exam. It is a useful tool for the teacher as it involves the pupils to speak French. For languages Voki is useful and people got to improve the pronunciation of the French words. This website would be useful in other subject, such as Spanish and Japanese. Overall I enjoyed using Voki.

Suzi Yr 10




Using the Web 2.0 tool was user friendly because it was fairly easy to use.
Using the Easy Speak microphones were good because we could record our voices and then the teacher could say on what we could improve on with our accents, and the microphones were easy and effective to use. The teacher can monitor the progress that is being made too. We can practice our accents and our writing skills using the Voki’s and it was quite fun making them into avatars of ourselves. It can be useful for learning in other subjects such as ICT – to practice with technology, Humanities – for research into the subject.

Lucia Yr 10



Using the web tools was easy but it helped that other people already had experience with them. It is useful for what we used it for but I don’t see how vokis could be incorporated into everyday lessons, but something similar would be useful for the other departments too. Another way in which they could be used is in ICT lessons to learn about blogs and avatars. They helped improve our accents and French writing, and would be useful for language teachers to use for this purpose.

Sophie Yr 10



I have never used an account like this before but now that I have I found it very fun. It was use friendly as it was clearly set out with clear instructions. I think it is a good idea for student learning as it can let students from other schools or primary schools look at what are school looks like through the backgrounds and they can hear our opinions on the school. It is useful for teachers as it is a fun way to engage students with talking about the school. I think it is useful for languages because it’s a fun way to speak and present different languages. It could also be used in many other subjects such as English where people could talk about recent books that they have read in class with a picture of the book in the background. It could also be used to show other students what they have been doing in Drama.

Sasha Yr 10



[Read Harri's review on the previous post below...]

Harri Yr 10



I have enjoyed using the Voki’s, as they are fun to use and was a different way to use our knowledge of French. I think that they would be useful for younger students who have just started learning the language, as it is an interesting way to learn and it encourages them to use what they are learning.

Vickie Yr 10

I have enjoyed learning about the Voki’s and new forms of ICT I hadn’t heard about it, because they were a fun way of learning and allowed us to continue to use our French even after the exam. I think the Blog and Voki’s will be useful for year 6 students wanting to learn about Weald of Kent languages. It also presents interesting ways in which we learn and work within school.

Alexandra Yr 10

I found the Voki project very enjoyable and useful for our language and confidence skills. Recording our own scripts and characters gave us freedom and helped us with useful French school vocabulary. I really liked using this software as it was easy to use and good for student learning. This was also easy for teachers as it kept us busy and was not complicated. However, I think that this software is best used for languages as it may be too easy to create Vokis in other subjects.

Maddy Yr 10

Les Langues et La Technologie - Student Review

Technology Project – Harri Yr10

Throughout the past couple of weeks we as a class have been trying, exploring and experimenting with different technology to see how it could improve learning languages at the school.

We started off trying out our language laptops which took a long time to start up. By the time we had logged onto the various web-sites half the lesson had gone and soon after we had to take them back. So the laptops aren’t really a safe bet but once up and running there wonderfully easy to use and very light and portable.

[Note from Miss Hardman: we have discovered a weak link in the wireless connections in the corridor outside this room – we are looking into it over the summer]

After the laptop trial we had a look at “Voki’s” the wonderful animated characters with voices and background pictures! We spent time playing with our various Voki’s first getting to grips with the various faces, cloths and features available. Then we moved onto the more technical aspect… uploading the background and sound. We used photos of the school to upload as our Voki backgrounds. For some students the uploading process happened immediately, for others it took a long time which was a downside to the technology. Finally we wrote French scripts and recorded them using two hand-held easy to use microphones! The voki’s were defiantly fun to use and most of the class had good fun creating rats and elves as well as our final characters.

Year 10 Voki Practise

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by wok20mfl | Upload your own presentation

Now we have moved onto looking at 2D characters called wee-mee’s however due to firewalls at school and various web-site bans we are having problems getting onto the relevant web-site so for now we are just experimenting with Kar2ouche.

Note from Miss Hardman: This is a shame re www.wee-mee.com as this would enable each student to have a 2D virtual identity on this blog without having to use photos. We will investigate further options]

Thank you Harri for a balanced critique of the project so far.

Miss Hardman

Les Langues et La Technologie Project 1: Avatars

Project 1: Avatars

Hypothesis:
Avatar’s can be used to promote MFL at Weald of Kent.

Aims:
• To provide year 10 post GCSE students with a purposeful context in which they can use their knowledge of French.
• To provide year 6 / primary level pupils with a window into Weald of Kent via visuals, target language audio and humour.

Miss Hardman's example:



Year 10 pupil examples to follow...

Inspiration for this project came from Nodehill Middle School, Newport, Isle of Wight: http://www.nodehillfrench.typepad.com/

Post GCSE French Projects

We are very excited to be embarking on our Post GCSE Projects with our year 10 French students. Students were allowed to choose between three different projects: "Les Languages et la Technologie", "Le Cinéma Français" et "La Culture Française". We will post up some results of these projects as they evolve...

Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé?

Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé? (What's happened?). I'm setting my year 8D class a challenge: use www.toondoo.com to practise and reinforce some of the problems and accidents language that we have been using in class. I'll publish the results below mine entitled "L'Accident".

Note to teachers: www.toondoo.com was a good website visually, motivated the students and allowed them to practise using language in context via the medium of a Web 2.0 tool, but we did encounter some gremlins in the system with it's use.

Miss Hardman

Emma Cushen

Emma Rumgay

Sarah Fisher

Melissa Hudson

Sofia Phillips