Lynne Horn

After helping S1/2 a bit with their Nativity last week S4 wanted to film it themselves.  Working in 2 groups half headed to the Maths room to film their version (which I haven’t seen yet, but did spot a pair of glittery wings heading down the corridor) whilst the others decided to go on location.  Their self appointed director had worked out the locations and ticked them off as they filmed.  I had suggested they do it seriously and not a parody of “primary 1 does the Nativity in French” and they did this quite well. 

As always the dressing up box proved a useful resource - there is a pink hat (very “Mrs Mack”) all my boys are very fond off - it has appeared in a variety of role plays and films, today it was worn by one of the wise men along with a sari - and surprisingly this combination actually looked good.  Changing into a purple shirt and a “bush hat” he became a shepherd.  Joseph did a similar hat swap to become a shepherd, Mary looked very good in a blue sari and our Angel draped herself in burgundy and silver - a couple of scarves bundled up became the baby Jesus.  With the entrance hall as the stable, the Secret Garden in the primary playground as the desert, the shepherds and angel played out their scene on grass above the car park.

Two things struck me as I watched this - apart from some advice on filming everything came from themselves - the creativity, the enterprising attitudes and the  collaboration.

I was also struck by the relevant confidence with which they spoke the lines, understanding that it would look silly if they had the scripts in front of them - now I need to work out how to transfer this to their conversations.

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Lots of useful bits and pieces at www.classtools.com - looking forward to using some of the games.

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To help S4 get to grips with their school conversation Mrs MacKinnon (learning support teacher who was a French teacher in a previous life) and our French Assistant Aude modelled some of the conversation that S4 could expect to have.  Listening to S4 coach their juniors in the Nativity and also listening to their own podcasts on school I think they let nerves overtake them when it comes to doing French conversations for themselves, it’s not that they don’t know it.  I think a little voice coaching might help them next term too!

Tobermory Language Podcasts

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In Tobermory RME in S1/2 is done as a series of conferences with a rolling programme of themes.  Last Wednesday the topic was Christmas and as always covered many areas of the curriculum not just RME - in fact the day involved Art, Music, English, Gaelic and French.

My little group came to me for the last 20 minutes before lunch - as I had S4 at the time I got them to practise the script for the Nativity so they could read it to the group - S1/2 then divided up the parts and had 10 minutes coaching from their S4 counterparts (ie S4 Mary with S1/2 Mary, S4 Wise Men with S1/2 Wise Men etc).  After lunch the S1/2 group had around 20 minutes to record the Nativity and get back to the rest of the year group to share what they had done.  I could have added music at the time, but managed to delete some as I was doing it in a hurry, so finised it off today.

S1/2 are proud of their efforts - if we’d had more time in class this week we could easily have edited it a bit more so they could have given their best performances, but at the end of the day they all volunteered to read the parts they did and were keen to divide up the narration so some of them could have more to say.

Some of this group are in the process of recording “le petit chaperon rouge” and will be getting a bit of acting advice next week from the Education Officer of Mull Little Theatre, so listen out for the howling of wolves coming your way soon!

Tobermory Language Podcasts

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Two thoughts on old silent movies - firstly my Higher class had never heard of Charlie Chaplin - a clip one of his films appears in Louis Malle’s “Au revoir les enfants” - they thought Charlie Chaplin was Hitler (and it wasn’t even a clip of the film where he plays Hitler).

With S1 over the last week or so we have been doing a bit of inter-disciplinary work (or whatever we are currently calling it!).  In languages we’ve been working on some old tales - in French looking at the work of Charles Perrault, in particular “le petit chaperon rouge, “Barbe bleue”and “Cendrillon”.  We’re doing a lot of work on “le petit chaperon rouge” and are going to record it as a podcasts (many podcasts actually!).  I was sent a wonderful Tex Avery version of Red Riding Hood, in which Granny turns the tables on the wolf.  For Blue Beard however I found this wonderful version made in 1901 which has had a narration put on.  I wasn’t sure how S1 would react to this 106 year old film - I was concerned that they were too used to modern day special effects but they loved it and really appreciated it.

I hadn’t heard of Georges Méliès but having looked him up felt I had to go back and look at the film with the class again today - have a look at it for yourself and appreciate the genius of one of the pioneers of film.

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I’ve seen three good uses of Comic Life this week.  At the end of Enterprise Week , our PT Enterprise put together photos of the week using Comic Life to show what had gone on.  In English she also used it to make Certificates of S1’s “Book Idol” event, so that the class could take them home to parents to show what they had done.

The other two uses have come from pupils themselves.  An S4 RME class have been challenged to come up with something to demonstrate Christian morals in a modern context - some have asked if they can use Comic Life to show their modern day parable.

In S2 English they have been studying the Border Ballads - some innovative story boarding is leading to some interesting presentations.  One group have drawn their own illustrations which they have scanned so they can do a powerpoint of the ballad using their own drawings.  Another group are illustrating “The Gosford Hawk” using Comic Life - all their planning etc demonstrates the 4 capacities and is cooperative and enterprising, and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Why the picture of the crow ? - no ordinary crow, Flappy usually resides on top of the shelves in my room, where he is much in demand in S2 role plays etc.  Having come to borrow a camera and iBook from my room for their comic they took Flappy too, to star as “the Gosford Hawk”.  I’m expecting Oscars to follow.

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I’ve been concerned for a long time that I don’t Smart Notebook on the  interactive board as interactively as I could, so over the last few weeks I’ve made more of an effort to make up lessons in advance on the board and then add to them as I go along.  I’ve used the shapes a lot to cover up words so I can reveal them and then had phrases which can easily be matched as we go along.

I started to explore the Gallery further and discovered that there is an interactive dice on there - I spent a long time one night searching for one to download (couldn’t find one) and it turns out that I had one at my fingertips all this time - not only that it says the numbers in French as it rolls.  Still a lot more to discover I think!

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If your pupils were given mp4 players how would you use them in your subject.  All our Seniors have the opportunity to get an mp4 player which will store files, as well as although them to view photos and video and record sound.  They also have radios.

Some staff and pupils are unsure of how they would use these in their subject, so no matter what subject you teach please send me some ideas.  PE teacher and myself can think of many across subjects, but it would be good to get concrete examples from subject experts.

Thank you in advance!

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Our 4th Equal Futures Day took place this year on St Andrew’s Day.  As always the day started with an Assembly lead by S6 - I do international issues with them as part of their PSE programme, in theory we were supposed to have more planning time, but due to the way things worked out they had one period with me to talk through some of the issues and then had to plan on their own.  So although my hair is a little greyer than it was, and I was thinking about Assembly at 5.15am on Friday I of course need not have worried - they carried it off with a bit of aplomb and could actually be heard at the back of the gym (no easy task).

 After that everyone went off to their chosen workshops.  Pupils and staff choose 3 from a wide variety.  I started the day with the British Red Cross talking about some of the issues Asylum Seekers face when they come to Scotland.

 My second workshop was my favourite - called “Talking with Hands”, it is an session on British Sign Language with George McGowan.  As a language teacher this is a fantastic workshop to watch and take part in.  I did this last year too and was pleased to see how many pupils chose to do it for a second time.  George took this into account and after going over name, where you live and family, introduced likes and dislikes in school and how pupils travelled to school.  The silence in this session is incredible, everything is signed - it really is immersion learning.  George’s partner had come with him for the day and at lunchtime went to meet some of the students who had taken part so they could sign to her.  We were keen to take BSL forward last year, but had problems getting the CDs we needed.  However many of the staff and pupils who took part are keen so we are going to investigate further so we can do it as a lunchtime club.  I’m quite pleased with how much I remembered and how much of a conversation I was able to hold with George and Emma over lunch and I was really pleased to see some S1 pupils signing to each other at the closing Assembly.

My last session was with Tariq, who is a poet living in Dunoon.  He read from his book “The Punjabi Wedding” - although the group I was with were slow to get started, once they got into it they asked lots of questions about Islam and Punjabi culture, covering everything from the controversy surrounding the teddy in the Sudan to fasting at Ramadan to the importance of Mecca.

Other workshops included writing a song reflecting on the issues, looking at the issues through dance and drama and looking at how others see us.  Three popular workshops were run by Billy Kay, on The Mither Tongue and the history of “Black” Scotland.  Although I couldn’t go to this session I was pleased to hear that he emphasised the importance of language learning speaking to the group in a variety of languages.

Finally an ever popular workshop was drumming with Chief Suleman whose energy lights up the room even without the drumming!  I saw a bit of a session he did with primary 1/2 a couple of years ago, where they were all gathered round him beating out a rhythm on the drums and shouting, “who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” at the top of their voices.  Our secondary pupils are equally impressed and love it when he comes to visit.

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