A couple of nifty teaching resources

Over the last few weeks, I have come across 2 online resources which I feel could be really useful in my future teaching career. These have been shown to me by university lecturers, and in the spirit of sharing, I thought I would write a little post about them to hopefully inspire some of my fellow course-mates.

The first of these resources was comes from the website ‘Chrome Experiments’. This is “an online showroom of web browser based experiments… and artistic projects” (Wikipedia.) In other words, people have been creating all kinds of weird and wonderful things and uploading them to share with the world.

The particular experiment which appeals to me and that I can imagine using within the classroom, is Chrome Music Lab.

Chrome Music Lab

Within music lab, there are various different activities, all connected with music. For example, the first activity (entitled ‘Rhythm’) you can experiment with having the characters beat their drum (or ting their triangle, or knock their wooden block…) at different times according to where you place a marker. This is a great introduction to simple rhythm and patterns, it also gives children a very basic, first introduction to how music can be represented on a page.

A screen grab of Chrome Music Lab
A screen grab of Chrome Music Lab

 

Another part of Chrome Music Lab is ‘Arpeggios’ . Here you can click on any letter to hear the arpeggio played in that key. You can also adjust the speed in which the arpeggio is played. I think that this could be a great tool for looking at how music can be used to provoke feelings and emotions – for example, the arpeggio in d#, playing at a slow tempo could be perceived to sound slightly sad/ melancholy whereas playing in G, at a faster tempo may sound happy and joyful.

A screen grab of the Arpeggios activity on Chrome Music Lab
A screen grab of the Arpeggios activity on Chrome Music Lab

 

 

The second resource was introduced to me through a TDT task which was sent earlier today. Again, I’d never seen it before, but it got me quite excited and I just had to try it out.

This resource is Padlet.

Padlet

Padlet is a virtual space where you can add ‘post-it’ style notes, as well as photos, links and media from your own computer or from the web. What I really like about it is that it can be used as a collaborative space.

Each board can be set to be private (for your eyes only), public, or password protected. This means that it could easily be used for students to work together on a project – collecting their research or sharing ideas together.

HERE is my example Padlet board (pictured below). To access it you will need the password: uodedu. Feel free to add/ remove/ change things if you would like to.

A screen grab of my example Padlet board
A screen grab of my example Padlet board

 

Having this information stored in a secure online space means that pupils could continue to add work or ideas to it outside of school hours if they so desire. It is also attractive (customisable backgrounds and icons) and easy to use, which may help to engage the children.

THIS article from Education World has some more ideas about how you might use Padlet within the classroom. I particularly like the idea of having a question wall – with children perhaps adding questions about what they are currently learning and showing any gaps in their understanding, or perhaps adding questions which show what they would like to learn next.

Of course, an issue with this is that not all children have access to computers or the internet at home. Therefore I would not use a resource like Padlet for any homework tasks or compulsory work unless there is time allocated to it within the school day.

 

I always love discovering new resources and I would urge you to have a play with these. Let me know what you think of them in the comments below!

 

Thank you to Derek Robertson and Wendee White (the lecturers that inspired this post).

Quelle est le date ton anniversair

This song pretty much sums up my memory of learning a modern foreign language (MFL) at primary school. We learned it until we were blue in the face, and then sang it in an assembly to the rest of the school. I’m sure we did learn a few other basics (Bonjour, ca va, au revoir) but it is interesting to note that this learning didn’t take place until I was in year 6 (in England – the final year of Primary) and was taught by a specialist teacher.

Image from morguefile.com
Image from morguefile.com

Of course, it’s been a long time since I was at primary school (oof that makes me feel old) and approaches to education are ever changing. In Scotland, there is now the 1 + 2 approach which aims to ensure that children have the opportunity to learn a modern language from p1 (Education Scotland, Undated). This is slightly different in England, where languages are required to be taught in key stages 2-3 (ages 7-14) (Long and Bolton, 2016). The reason for beginning language studies at these earlier ages may be due to research which suggests that:

 

…an early start can result in early achievements such as improved communication skills, positive attitudes towards languages and cultures and heightened metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness… (Kirsch, 2012)

Primary teachers are expected to deliver lessons on modern languages, just as they are for all other areas of the curriculum. That being said, during my time on placement as well as the time I spent volunteering in a p2 class, I saw very little teaching in this area. This may be in part, because entry to teacher training degrees does not require a modern language qualification, and many people have not used those skills since they left school themselves. Not that I suggesting that I believe that candidates SHOULD have a higher modern language qualification (as that would mean rejecting many who could go on to be amazing teachers).

But for those of us that are perhaps a bit rusty/ lacking in confidence, we must work extra hard to undertake our own professional learning and development in order to provide the highest quality education to the children.

In order to support us in this professional development, the university is providing some MFL workshops. I am attending the French and Spanish workshops as I have studied French in the past (previously mentioned primary school and then a disastrous attempt at secondary school) and hope that this will give me a starting point to build upon.

Our first workshop session began with this video:

This grabbed my attention and immediately took me back to my time in nursery, where the children loved this song (the English version) and there were times when it was played on repeat. I really like the idea of using this as an attention grabber/ lesson starter as it is fun and a bit silly, and likely to get the children talking. They may also be able to make connections if they have heard the English version.

Throughout the workshop, Carrie demonstrated and had us participate in various active learning strategies. One of these was to watch and then repeat an action and french word (for example, Carrie would wave her hand while saying ‘Bonjour’ and then the class was expected to do the same). I felt that this activity was effective as there was lots of repetition, and the action added meaning to the word. The act of responding as a whole class, or even in table groups removed the fear of ‘getting it wrong’ and encouraged everyone to participate. There were also ways that this activity could be extended such as adding a ‘Simon Says’ competitive element.

At the end of the session, we were asked to devise an activity to reinforce talking and listening skills.

A simple activity which I feel I could use to develop these skills is to bring some simple instructional language into PE.

Image from pixabay.com

Stop/ Arrêtez

Go/ Aller

Left/ à gauche

Right/ à droite

Red/Rouge,   Yellow/Jaune,    Green/Vert  (Traffic Lights)

March/ Marchez

Jump/ Sautez

The teacher would likely begin by being the instructor, but children could also have turns to call out the words; reinforcing speaking skills. To check comprehension, the teacher could have the children shout out the meaning as they do the action. Once the children become confident, the teacher could also swap between giving the instruction in French or in English.

 

The workshop helped me to recognise that there are some big gaps in my knowledge. In order to continue to develop my own modern language skills I have begun using the website Duolingo. This teaches through various methods such as:

  • matching the picture and the meaning,
  • listening to words and phrases in the modern language and translating them into English,
  • And opportunities to test pronunciation using your computer’s microphone.

I don’t think that I will ever become a fantastically fluent French speaker, however I aim to learn enough to allow me to be confident when providing examples or modelling pronunciation to my class.

 

References

Kirch, C. (2012) Teaching Foreign Languages in the Primary School. London: Continuum. p4

Education Scotland (Undated) About the 1+2 Approach.

Long, R. and Bolton, P. Language Teaching in Schools (England) Briefing Paper.