Inner-city children are learning Latin through postcards, which they write ’to’ children living in ancient Rome.
Class organiser Lorna Robinson has even devised special words – such as ‘pedifolle’ for football and ‘campus lusorius’ for playground – for nine- and 10-year-olds at Benthal Primary School to use.
Read the full article on the BBC website.
From Ewan Mcintosh’s edu.blogs this morning comes this post following his presentation in Slovenia:
I was presenting a keynote this morning in a Slovenian school to about 100 eTwinning teachers, ambassadors and European Commission-y people, a Slovenian school where Skype is on and available, where the connection speed is rapid and the welcome one of the warmest you can hope to get.
Download ewan-mcintosh-dlft-keynote.mp3
The talk was based on the one I delivered to Modern Languages teachers in Oxford a few weeks ago and the notes over there are perfect for those wanting to get stuck into some new technologies for language teaching and collaboration. The notes from Congres Frans should be fairly comprehensive for those wishing to read more about les nouvelles technologies pour l’apprentissage des langues instead of the English version. The MFLE ICT links should help a lot, too.
I’ll be doing three workshops next taking what I did en francais about tools back in Holland and turning it into a workshop in the fullest sense of the word. Instead of presenting more stuff and potentially blanking them I want them to discover something new and think about how they could apply it in a collaborative project – and maybe even start a new international project there and then.
The bouquet of technologies and pedagogical starting points will probably include:
and does not carry any advertising if you’re a teacher. The education region East Lothian Council uses a wiki for both designing safety policy with all the teachers and students affected as well as for providing a support community – everyone with some expertise can share what they know. Your ideas are invited here if you have time. There are some videos showing how others have used it: Link to http://educators.pbwiki.com/PBwiki-educator-videosMore to come very soon with those interesting comparisons hopefully and some solutions for teachers in these different and sometimes difficult situations.
A PC from Norfolk constabulary has been voted Lithuania’s personality of the year for his work with immigrants.
This Education Guardian article describes how PC Pettengell has become an icon overseas for work which has been honoured only locally in Britain.
Anyone thinking of doing the same may find these ‘Baltic Bobby’ phrases useful:
Hello, hello, hello - Labas, labas, labas
Move along there, please – Vijeok deasi prasau
Let’s be having you – Kliosek minas
Evening all – Labanakt
Read the full article in the Education Guardian.
The Times reports that name-calling, ostracism and bigotry are making lives miserable in thousands of schools. But this time, it’s not the pupils who are complaining. It’s the teachers. Members of the NASUWT (National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers) teaching union have long debated the best ways of eradicating bullying from the playground, but they will also discuss how to combat it in the staff room at their annual conference in Belfast.
Read the full story in the Times Online.
A correspondent to the Scotsman writes:
‘For most of us, speaking a second language is neither a hobby nor a passion. We speak more than one language only if we have to. There are a variety of reasons for having to speak more than one language.
‘We need a second language if: we live in communities where we simply have to talk with neighbours who do not know our language; if we want to climb a social ladder that uses a language other than our own; and if we want to sell things to people who do not know our language. We learn a second language if we are told a god has chosen to use only a language other than our own, or if we are subject to colonial masters who do not use our language. This list is not exhaustive…’
Read the full letter on the Scotsman website.
Pupils at a school in East Lothian are set to start a link-up with a school in Rwanda.
Knox Academy in Haddington is looking at establishing a link with the Ruhanaga school in the poverty stricken African nation, which may see youngsters from the Scottish school travel over to visit the country.
Read the full article on the Scotsman website, and visit the new International Education website from LTS to find more information on study visits and school exchanges.
The MFLE also has useful information on making links abroad with your languages class.
We’re a bit late with some of the blogging about Communicate.07, the MFLE’s ICT Conference earlier in March. Adam Sutcliffe sums up the plenary from Anderson High with some great information for those unable to attend themselves. Joe Dale, from the Isle of Wight, has done the heavy-lifting and summarised the whole event from the blogosphere’s perspective.
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