So Much to Learn...So Little Time: September 2008

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September 2008

Monday, 29 September 2008

Amazing Etre

OMG. If you thought "Avoir - A very Important Verb" was bad this takes the biscuit. One evening whilst searching for my muse it hit me that Etre could be conjugated to the tune of Amazing Grace. So I tried it. OH dear.

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European Day of Languages at The Gordon Schools

Last Friday we took part in EDL for the first time. Since 2001 we have held specialised days in October to celebrate "Languages Work!" and indeed in 2004 we won a CILT award for our project...I wasn't there at the time.
But as happens in life we often need to turn over a new leaf, so rather than do a Languages Work! event we decided to join in the fun of EDL.

We decided to concentrate on our new S1's, mainly because in this their first term at TGS we have been concentrating on highlighting the cultural aspects of language learning rather than the language itself; along with a bit of basic grammar (English and TL) thrown in for good measure.
My classes are putting finishing touches to presentations about some aspect of life in Germany, which will be soon available for Rating on Rate My Mates.

Anyhow, our focus for EDL was to have the pupils try to understand how much of an influence the entity of Europe has on their lives and as a consequence how important it is to be able to communicate in another language. So we had a couple of our senior students talk about why they still learn a language. We had a sketch by some more seniors which highlighted the "plight" of the typical Brit abroad and we also had a parade of nations. This started out merely as an exercise in class to see who had relations in places other than Scotland. In the end it turned out that throughout S1 there are over 20 countries with which pupils have direct familial links worldwide. Pretty amazing we thought, considering the size and location of our wee town.

Ok enough is enough, I've whet your appetite. Here's EDL08@TGS

edl08 edl langauges learning

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Saturday, 27 September 2008

Giving the Boot to Poverty

Just before we broke up for the summer the Citizenship group at school organised and hosted a special event at school.
It was essentially a potted sports event, with a wellie theme, mixed with poverty awareness raising tasks and it involved TGS plus two feeder primaries (Rhynie and Gordon primaries.) The event's aims were many-fold:

to raise awareness of issues related to poverty both here in Scotland and in developing nations
to highlight the importance of physical activity and healthy diet
to act as a way for the new S1 intake to interact with there peers already in secondary.

Give Poverty the Boot involved a huge amout of cross cluster co-operation and a great deal of help from TGS senior pupils.
AND here's the result.

The picture credits are:

Namibie_Namib_Welwitschia_Mirabilis_01
Make Poverty History
Wellies

a special mention to James Davidson for his photo of Poverty at the end.

Music is taken from garageband.com. or jamendo.com
Africa Unite - The Golden Fists of Fury
Africa One Two - Wallahi
Spice of Africa -Lawonline

Hope you enjoy it.

Fancy doing something similar? Let me know and I'll get the info to you.

britishcouncil poverty globaleducation globalclassroom

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Friday, 26 September 2008

My Question to the Cabinet Secretary

SETT - Media centre - Video and audio

I really don't know what came over me on Wednesday. Starstruck maybe! But if you go to minute 68 you get to my question, which I kind of fluffed, but recovered in the end.
Typical politicians answer though.

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Wednesday, 24 September 2008

Gaming is Glowing

Thanks to ab for letting us in on the Glow Gaming phenomenon.

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SLF 2008

Well my first visit to SLF is well underway. My delegates bag is chock full of giveaways and my brain is fizzing. God knows what it'll be like by the time I get to my first TeachMeet.

I attended the Cabinet Minister's address which was interesting and am now about to listen to Richard Teese.

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