Hey guys!
Today Tatjana (the German assistant) and I had a training day at St. Ivo school, in St. Ives, which is a small but cute town in Cambridgeshire. We took the bus for a two-hour journey. It was freaking cold brrrr. October, and winter is already here, knocking at the door. It's going to be a really cold winter.
Anyway. We had this meeting with about ten other assistants from Cambridgeshire. We had some tea, coffee and cake and then we started the training. A retired French teacher introduced us to some nice games, which, I think, will be useful for Year 9, 10 and 11. Maybe. Some of the games are made for younger pupils, who I will not teach. That was ok, really, but I'm not really sure that playing games all the time is such a good idea. But hey, that's my opinion. And I still think that some of those games are great.
The teacher also said something interesting about the use of the target language - i.e., French. She said we should use French ALL THE TIME and NEVER use ANY English. Well, yeah, I've tried that, but honestly, I think it's impossible. I can talk in French with my A-level students, but with the younger ones, I find it really difficult. Some of them don't even know how to say "my name is" in French and don't understand basic questions such as "what's your name?" and "how old are you?". How do you want them to understand other things? What is more, I only deal with two or three (sometimes four) students at a time, for five or ten minutes. If I have to use French all the time, and mime things and repeat things fifty times, I'll never get there! So yeah, sure, I think trying in French first is important. Rephrasing once. Maybe twice. But then, I feel I HAVE to use English, otherwise, it's just a waste of time.
After that theoretical part, we had to create a dialogue and then record it, in order to provide some oral resources for schools in Cambridgeshire. That was fun. We had to work in groups of two or three. We first wrote a dialogue about holidays and then recorded it. I wonder if anyone is going to notice my Swiss accent?
After the training, we went to the town centre to walk around and do a bit of sightseeing. I took some pictures of pretty St. Ives! Here they are:
That's all for now! I'm going to another training on the 4th of November, in Cambridge. This one is only for the French assistants. And I have another training in Huntingdon on the 18th of November. That's going to be fun! Or not... Nah. I'll take some pictures too. Hope you enjoyed these!
Today Tatjana (the German assistant) and I had a training day at St. Ivo school, in St. Ives, which is a small but cute town in Cambridgeshire. We took the bus for a two-hour journey. It was freaking cold brrrr. October, and winter is already here, knocking at the door. It's going to be a really cold winter.
Anyway. We had this meeting with about ten other assistants from Cambridgeshire. We had some tea, coffee and cake and then we started the training. A retired French teacher introduced us to some nice games, which, I think, will be useful for Year 9, 10 and 11. Maybe. Some of the games are made for younger pupils, who I will not teach. That was ok, really, but I'm not really sure that playing games all the time is such a good idea. But hey, that's my opinion. And I still think that some of those games are great.
The teacher also said something interesting about the use of the target language - i.e., French. She said we should use French ALL THE TIME and NEVER use ANY English. Well, yeah, I've tried that, but honestly, I think it's impossible. I can talk in French with my A-level students, but with the younger ones, I find it really difficult. Some of them don't even know how to say "my name is" in French and don't understand basic questions such as "what's your name?" and "how old are you?". How do you want them to understand other things? What is more, I only deal with two or three (sometimes four) students at a time, for five or ten minutes. If I have to use French all the time, and mime things and repeat things fifty times, I'll never get there! So yeah, sure, I think trying in French first is important. Rephrasing once. Maybe twice. But then, I feel I HAVE to use English, otherwise, it's just a waste of time.
After that theoretical part, we had to create a dialogue and then record it, in order to provide some oral resources for schools in Cambridgeshire. That was fun. We had to work in groups of two or three. We first wrote a dialogue about holidays and then recorded it. I wonder if anyone is going to notice my Swiss accent?
After the training, we went to the town centre to walk around and do a bit of sightseeing. I took some pictures of pretty St. Ives! Here they are:
That's all for now! I'm going to another training on the 4th of November, in Cambridge. This one is only for the French assistants. And I have another training in Huntingdon on the 18th of November. That's going to be fun! Or not... Nah. I'll take some pictures too. Hope you enjoyed these!
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