How Les Choristes saves my end of term every time

Each year as the end of the Autumn and Summer Terms approach, we are reminded to keep the pupils working until the last day of term and are "discouraged" from showing "recreational" DVDs. We in the MFL Department, however have a cunning ruse, showing films in the target language (not necessarily originally in that language) with subtitles to aid listening skills and pronunciation, thus making them "educational".
My friend and colleague, Pauline, discovered "Les Choristes" a few years ago and it never fails to captivate the imagination of even the most unenthusiastic French-learner.
For anyone who doesn't know the story, it's the tale of Clément Mathieu, a failed musician who goes to work at a school for naughty boys. It follows his time there as he he discovers that, through music he can reach the boys and begins to turn them around.
Although rather tame in comparison to the high drama of many Hollywood films it still manages to "pull in the audiences" every time. This term I even had my boisterous Yr9s request "Les Choristes" over "A Night at the Museum" how amazing is that? And one of the boys even admitting to the film being "mint" plus others saying how they cry at the end when Pépinot leaves with Mathieu. I don't know what it is about the film that captivates them too much, maybe it the fact they're gaining tips on how to be naughty, maybe it's the rude words that seem so much ruder than normal because they're written down in the subtitles rather then just heard as they normally are. However, I like to pretend that it's actually hearing the French spoken properly and that it is in some small way helping them on their journeys to become better language learners. (The music's pretty fab too)
Here's a flavour of the film I found on YouTube..

Blocked, blacklisted, access denied!

I appreciate and understand the need for filters on school computers, I really, really do BUT it still proves to be one of the most frustrating things about my job and winds me up no end. It's not so much actual filters that bother me, it's the "wise person" who, somewhere (probably in an office), has taken it upon themselves to decide what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable for me to use with my pupils and also the, apparent randomness with which this is done.
I'm writing this after a number of weeks discovering how randomly our blacklisted and none blacklisted seem to have been set. After the Isle of Wight Conference, I decided to rediscover my love of Voicethread. As I blogged about in a previous post, I used it earlier this year with a groups of Gifted and Talented pupils as an experiment, and I thought that after Jo Rhys-Jones' session at the Show and Tell I'd have another go at it. WRONG! Suddenly, with no warning, this site has been blacklisted! Why? How? Why is it so evil that it's going to corrupt the minds of my pupils? (After is didn't, previously!) It also seems that it's been put on that list that the technicians seem unable to unblock (that's the one labelled "numpty nonentity wants unblocking so unimportant", in case anyone was unsure), as I've requested that it be unblocked several times to no avail :o(
It therefore seems unbelievable to me that Facebook is available (but then a member of SLT wanted that unblocking, so that went onto a different list entitled "important person wants unblocking so must do it immediately").
In addition to this, the blocking seems to be done in such a haphazard way! Thinking about venturing more into video, I signed up for a 12 second TV and wondered about investigating Seesmic. Of course, I naturally pressumed that they too would be blacklisted (as they are in other schools I know of) but decided to try it out, just the same. Imagine my surprise when they weren't!!! I just don't get it!
Next I discovered the BBC Learning Zone Broadband Class Clips...great resource, ideal for use in a computer suite. Put the kids on, get them to watch and listen and answer questions, using it for Listening but a bit more interesting. Great idea but...WRONG. Kids could get onto the page where the video was BUT couldn't view the evil, malicious video about a German day at school...heaven forbid that pupils learning MFL could do something that might stir up some enthusiasm for the subject.
How do "they" decided what is to be blacklisted and what isn't? Why aren't those awful translation websites blocked that they all go on and think will be their ticket to perfect French / German / Spanish etc...? Why can they still get onto music sites / game sites etc, etc...but I can't let them use websites that are of real educational value?
As I said at the beginning of this post, I understand the need for filters, I really do but what I don't understand is the haphazard way that websites are filtered. Is this a local phenomenan or is it more widespread? All I want to know is either that it's going to be blocked because it's a certain type of site or it's not going to be blocked. I don't want to feel that I'm playing some kind of guessing game trying to work out what to put my energy into investigating at home on an evening, before going into to work to try it and find I've wasted my time (with 44 teaching hrs out of 50 a fortnight, I don't really ave the time to "play" at work). It's the kind of thing which is beginning to sap my enthusiasm at the moment...but heyho, it's nearly Christmas and maybe Santa will bring me a whole load of unblocked websites for Christmas this year.

Blogaversary

Thinking back over the year today, I realised that this blog had just had it's first blogaversary. I felt it warrented a mention. I have really enjoyed my year of blogging on this blog (although I don't think my husband has). It's really nice to write and have people comment on what I've written. I learnt a lot on my journey over the last year and hope to learn even more in the years to come.
Thank you to those of you who read, you've helped to make this blog what it is today :o)

Wie hilfst du im Haushalt with Learning Zone Broadband Class Clips

As a keen member of the MFL Resources group, which is a "must join" for all MFL teachers, I regularly find several extremely useful tips and resources to use with my classes. The other day whilst checking some of the back posts, I came across a message from Helen Meyers who is Assistant Head at the Ashcomb School in Surrey, linking to the BBC Learning Zone's Broadband Class Clips. They're available for Primary and Secondary levels and for most subject areas. I was really pleased to find something a bit different that I could use in the classroom. What I particularly like is that next to the video, you get a brief synopsis of the clip (most of which last 3-5 mins) plus key language so that you know which class would be most suited for their use. I also like the ideas given for use (always helpful when lacking motivation!) .

Wanting to try it out straight away I thought about classes and topics that I was doing and came across this clip about household tasks.

It was ideal to introduce the topic of jobs around the home to my top set, without doing a Powerpoint or using some of my great drawings etc...

I showed the clip (pointing out how naff it was with the hair and the dancing and music etc, etc....) and class had to note down the new vocabulary that appears on the screen, adding the English. I also warned them about the song and asked them to just note down the family members and pets (just for an extra bit of listening, really)

It has to be said that they really liked it...specially the dancing for some reason! It was great for them to able to hear real German spoken whilst also getting the new words at a slower pace.

I will definitely be using these Broadband Class Clips again.

If you're not a member of MFL Resources why not join now - it's free!!

Click to join mflresources

Stockton Music Festival

Well, this blog's title mentions "singer and other stuff besides" so here is a bit about those aspects of my life.
Every year on the third weekend in November I decided to (willingly) put myself through the torture of taking part in my one singing competition of the year. I used to enter 2 others but one is in Ryton in February (A1 Western Bypass at 6pm on my birthday...no thankyou) and the other seems to a fizzled out so I'm left with this one.
Each year I happily fill out my entry form in September and then have major traumas actually posting the form through the letter box of the lady who is the vocal secretary AND sorting out copies of the music for the accompanists. I then get to November and remember why I probably put so many obstacles in the way of entering myself...TERROR.
This year was no different...in fact getting in entries and music was probably worse as I was trying to sort on the Netherlands at the time the music et al had to be handed in. Things didn't improve any when I realised about 3 weeks ago that one of the set pieces I was due sing (as a mezzo-soprano in the mezzo-soprano class) had actually been written in the syllabus to be sung in the soprano key...well that meant unless I wanted to be disqualified I'd have to sing it higher...no way was that happening! I therefore had to withdraw from that class (but didn't get round to telling them until Saturday!!!!)...oh also did I mention I had a cup to return that I'd forgotten about so had to return that on Saturday too....had to be back beginning of Ocotber!
So, having entered myself for a competition it might have been a good idea to DO SOME PRACTICE...oh no, not me...far too busy blogging and having Facebook dramas to practice doing my hobby! Having to chosen to sing one of the most difficult songs in the history of difficult songs (my teacher pointed out that even most professionals don't sing it and if they do they only do a couple of times) this could have been a good choice to make...practicing!
So, I got to Saturday, hoping that by some small miracle I might have lost my voice (didn't want to just pull out for no reason as unfair on the accompanist who had to learn my beast of a programme and couldn't afford to waste the entrance money) but heyho, I was fighting fit (almost) so I prepared for battle!
In total I sang in 3 classes...Lieder (German song) "die Soldatenbraut" by Schumann, Oratorio "Fac ut portem" from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, and the Recital (3 songs together) "The Monk and his Cat" from Barber's Hermit songs (the beast), "Song to the Seals" by Bantock and "Hans und Grethe" by Mahler. Surprisingly I won all 3 classes...AND even won another cup because of getting the highest marks in the festival in one of my classes.
So there we go, I just wanted to share with everyone since I was ill today and couldn't tell everyone at work! I don't often "blow my own trumpet" about my talents but sometimes it's necessary!!!

Sock puppets finally done

I have finally managed to get the Yr 8 sock puppets videos completed and uploaded. We made our puppets, made the scenery and finally recorded the video last week. Unfortunately we couldn't get our hands on the digital video camera so had to just use a digital camera which actually worked OK.
This was our (their's and mine) first attempt at making a real live video and am very proud of the pupils' efforts they worked really hard and feel that they have achieved something fantastic (which they have).
Here is the final product...

If at first you don't succeed....

It's always very easy to reflect upon things that have gone well but it's also useful to think about things that didn't necessarily go according to plan. This was certainly the case yesterday with our first attempt at video-conferencing.
We had our German and Spanish exchanges pupils in school all week and we decided that it would be a nice idea for our Spanish exchange pupils to video-conference with one of our feeder Primary Schools. The idea was to have the pupils at both our school and at the Primary School got to the computer in pairs of threes and exchange information about Spain and England and also maybe talk a little bit of Spanish. We tested out the technology and got the webcams sorted out, however for some reason we just could not get our images and video working together at all. I was at the Primary School (as "Spanish specialist-lol- and technician - rofl) and a couple of colleagues were at our school and try as we might we couldn't get is working properly at all. Eventually wat we did was just do audio and a small group of the Yr 6 pupils managed to ask questions of the Spanish pupils and also talk and undersand some Spanish. They absolutely loved it and the were so keen it was pleasure to be involved. It was just such a shame that I had to spend the best part of an hour "faffing" to get it sorted out. The children in the class were amazingly patient (as was I). Again it goes to prove that one can never rely entirely on technology working every time but it's important to keep trying, as the benefits are so worthwhile for everyone. The pupils gained something from the session and we now know that, even with technical hitches things still can be done. At least we did it and now know that there are a few things we need to tweek for future endeavours. We haven't been put off though!
Lessons learned:

• Have a test conference before hand (which we were unable to do this time)
• Make sure that there can be someone technical at both ends
• Try no to have to set up in a classroom where there are 30 children waiting to take part in the activity
• Be prepared to change your planned activity if things don't work
• Don't let yourself be put off if things don't go according to plan the first time.