Here are the updated presentation from my CCCU workshop on 8th December. I added links to Facebook and Twitter groups for MFL teachers and also a slide about Vocal Recall.
Thanks so much for attending and contributing during the session. I hope some of you will be registering on eTwinning once you join a new school and use of the tools I showed you to enhance teaching and help you create great resources for your eTwinning projects.
Good luck to all of you.
Ipad and ict tools to use in MFL
Here are my two presentations from this afternoon in Tower Hamlets. Hope you all enjoyed the workshops and don’t hesitate to contact me if you want.
Twitter: @aurelagazel
or fill in the form below and I will be happy to help.
When in Malta at the eTwinning conference, I was given a VR viewer and this got me thinking that I would like to develop some resources for MFL and EAL teachers.
I have started a new website where I am sharing my journey with VR. You can check it out here.
If you are an MFL teacher and want to start with eTwinning, then have a look at this competition run by eTwinning UK. If you have any question, feel free to send them a tweet or email.
Until 7 December 2017, UK teachers who register an eTwinning project can choose to be posted a travelling eTwinning teddy bear or a virtual reality headset. We will also post an eTwinning wall map, homework and a passport challenge.
The pack that we will send to you contains pre-prepared, cross-curricular homework challenges spanning key stages one to five, all designed to help you kick-start your first international project with eTwinning.
COMPETITION
Share your project images and videos with us on Twitter @eTwinningUK via #eTmaps and we will award the class with the most retweeted post with £500 worth of Amazon vouchers on 8 December.
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
- If you haven’t done so already – register for free to eTwinning. *Please note that you will be emailed a link from info@etwinning.net following your registration, which is to verify your email address. This email can sometimes default to your junkmail, so please check there if the email hasn’t arrived.
- Download the eTwinning teddy bear or a virtual reality headset ready-made project templates. The activities are designed to get you kick-started on eTwinning, so you are welcome to copy and paste them with a view to starting a future project which is designed by you and your partner.
- Please note that when you register your project that you need to include either ‘Teddy’ or ‘VR’ in the project title or description so that we know what to include in your resource pack.
- If you have any questions or need any support, please contact one of the eTwinning UK team at the British Council via eTwinning@britishcouncil.org.
I had the privilege to attend the annual eTwinning conference which this year was in Malta. I had never been to Malta until the conference and it was nice to be away for some Autumnal sun and meet up with some old friends met through eTwinning.
The conference was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Paceville and would gather around 650 teachers and leaders from
all over Europe under one roof. The theme of the conference was INCLUSION.
The conference started with a few welcome speeches from Malta and eTwinning officials before a keynote by Mark Penfold about how he sees Inclusion. He was passionate, enthusiastic and sometimes provocative but I was hooked after only two minutes of listening to him. The sentence I remember the most is: Access to the classroom IS NOT inclusion…
The next day, I attended two workshops. The first one was about BBC Micro:Bit. Though I knew what Micro:Bit is, I never had a chance to use one. I have a few Raspberry Pi devices at home and I have used Scratch before. Here is what it says about Micro:Bit on the website: Micro:Bit is a tiny programmable computer, designed to make learning and teaching easy and fun! After a few connections and a long download (The hotel wifi did not cope really well with the sheer volume of people using the network), I was able to programme my Micro:Bit to say hello and to display different smileys. There is quite a lot of potential with Micro:Bit there are a few sensors available on the device: light, sound, temperature, movement… Here is my creation on YouTube.
In between workshops, after some coffee, I had a chance to try out the VR glasses provided in our welcome pack. This is something I want to explore further and in particular how to use Google Expeditions in the MFL classroom and with EAL students. I will have to write another post about this… 
My second workshop was a TeachMeet led by Bart Verswijvel from Belgium. You can find all the presentations on this link. I particularly liked the Students conference idea and Interacteen, a magazine created and curated by students from all over Europe. You can read the latest issue here.
On Saturday, I attended the workshop by Anne Gilleran, who introduced the new eTwinning school. I really like this idea and it replicates what the ISA does for schools in the UK but for every school around Europe. I hope to see many UK schools apply for the new award. The application seems less complicated than for the International School Award as well.
Here is what I found on the website about eligibility and application:
“eTwinning is broadening its scope from teachers to schools: become the first European eTwinning schools!
One of the main recommendations of the 2015 eTwinning monitoring report[1], which aimed for schools to be involved in a wider sense, is “to target the involvement of school heads and senior school management (also in order to) heighten the chances that eTwinning practices will influence school policy and be mainstreamed.”
From October 2017, your school will have the opportunity to gain the official title “eTwinning school”!
Why should you apply?
- To give your school a European presence and greater visibility at local, regional and national level;
- To receive recognition for the work done in your school by all staff involved in eTwinning related activities;
- To influence policies: your school will become a model for other schools, and for regional and national authorities
Are you ready?
- Has your school been registered on eTwinning for 2 years?
- Is your Head teacher or someone from school management registered on eTwinning?
- Are at least two teachers registered on eTwinning in your school?
- Have you taken part in at least one European project this year, which has been awarded a National Quality Label?
If you answered yes to all of these questions, you are eligible! If not, you still have a few months to take action, such as applying for a National Quality Label. In October 2017 all schools who meet the above-mentioned criteria will be invited to apply for the title of “eTwinning school”!”
Attending workshops and keynote is one aspect of eTwinning conferences, the other aspects are the many friendships that you build with teachers from the UK and from Europe. I only see some these people once a year and maybe less but yet, when we find each other, we have a lot to talk about. I met some of my eTwinning friends 10 years ago or more
when I started with eTwinning and we are still friends now, chatting on Facebook every day, messaging in the Whatsapp group, exchanging ideas on Twitter or meeting up for a drink or two at eTwinning conferences. I do feel privileged to have met some amazing people during these events and this year again, it was a pleasure to get to know new eTwinners: Naz, Markella, Derek, Nicola, Ruth, Nat, Trish, Faye, Bea, Tracy, Anne Marie, Maria to name only a few, to meet up again with the UK NSS, Karen, Isabelle, Alan, Hugh and Susan as well sharing great moments with other UK eTwinning ambassadors, Drew, George and Balazs.
Thank you eTwinning!
As I mentioned before, I have been using GAFE for a while and I had done the old Google exams in 2016.
Finally this year, I had time and space to study for the new certification. The main difference with the old exam is that it is more hands-on and relate to classroom scenarios. The exams are 3 hours long but it took me 1h30 for Level 1 and 2h for Level 2. I really enjoyed the challenge from both exams and learnt quite a lot whilst studying and sitting the exams.
Now I hope to work towards becoming a Google Trainer by the end of 2018.
Here is some previous work I had done with Google Apps for Education
I have been using GAFE for over a year at Longfield Academy and I have added a page to my blog.
Do have a look at the new page as I am learning more and more everyday about GAFE.
In April 2015 I took (and passed) the exams to become a Google Educator.
A new assessment was then released later that year and I hope to take the new exams in 2016.
Thirty years ago I chose to become a teacher. I was 5, living on my parents’ farm in Brittany, West of France. I made my own worksheets and taught my little sister and my dolls everything I had learnt in school that day….
Read the rest on ShowMyHomework guest blog.
Hi everyone,
I added a few resources on my projects pages, especially Challenge based learning, as I gave two presentations on this at the Leigh Trust Day with my colleague, Andriy and at ILILC 5 in Southampton.
You can also check my posts on Appsmashing which I wrote in November. I will add some more examples very soon.
I am currently writing a guest blog post which will be published on ShowMyHomework blog next week. I will share as soon as it is available. Does this make me a rock star yet? Can I ask for a tick next to my Twitter name? 🙂
Until next time. I want to write about Take Away Homework very soon.
Wow! It has been a year since my last post! The recent 7 week term has been so busy and challenging that I had no time to add any update on my blog on what I have been working on.
So this week, I am adding ideas to my project page: Appsmashing, Challenge-based learning, Flip learning, and other iPad use.
I will also try to add a post about Flash Sticks as I am about to try them out with year 7 and 8.
Aurelie Charles 