More Wordle
Hear You Me
Turns out I was wrong about the song S4 chose for their memorial ceremony at Tynecot - it wasn’t Cold Play but a group called Jimmy Eat World and the song was called “Hear You Me”, here is a little extract of the words, no wonder I was an emotional wreck by the time they’d finished!
There’s no one in town I know
You gave us some place to go.
I never said thank you for that.
I thought I might get one more chance.
What would you think of me now,
so lucky, so strong, so proud?
I never said thank you for that,
now I’ll never have a chance.
May angels lead you in.
Hear you me my friends.
On sleepless roads the sleepless go.
May angels lead you in.
So what would you think of me now,
so lucky, so strong, so proud?
I never said thank you for that,
now I’ll never have a chance.
May angels lead you in.
Hear you me my friends.
On sleepless roads the sleepless go.
May angels lead you in.
May angels lead you in.
May angels lead you in.
And if you were with me tonight,
I’d sing to you just one more time.
A song for a heart so big,
god wouldn’t let it live.
May angels lead you in.
Blogging the Queen Live
I have been thinking on and off today about how I started blogging thanks to Neil and Karen and will get round to writing my experience at some point. However I was looking for pictures of the Queen in Liverpool today as I know someone who was there and came across this live blog from the Liverpool Post - they blogged the visit live updating with where she was and who she was meeting adding photos and videos, people could add in comments or ask questions as the day went on, however someone has added a comment questioning the value of the live blog and what it added to journalism. I quite enjoyed reading bits of it just now and think for those interested who couldn’t be there it gives quite a good account of the day. When you can’t actually be at an event and can’t access tv or indeed live internet streaming media it’s quite a good way to find out what’s going on.
New Revision ppts on YouTube
I’ve been getting senior pupils to think about how they could use their mp4 players to revise for exams - some of the ppts they have made have been converted to film and are now on my YouTube channel, along with French videos and news clips I thought they might enjoy (or at least find useful to get into French mode!)
Je t’aime un peu beaucoup passionnément à la folie pas du tout!
This little French poem - the more interesting equivalent of “he loves, he loves me not” could pretty well sum my feelings about technology sometimes!
Today I’ve loved hearing S1 record their love poems and watched as two pupils took responsibility for the recordings, allowing everyone a little practice time before they recorded. I loved even more the recordings of Edith Piaf singing “La vie en rose” and “Hymne à l’amour” which I played to S3 and S5/6. S3 just listened to it and read the words and translation - in fact they want to hear her sing “Je ne regrette rien” without the distraction of the Specsavers ad. S5/6 used “L’hymne à l’amour to practise translation” In a rash moment I said I would teach S1/2 Hava Nagila - not that I’m fluent in Hebrew, but I learned it at school and it’s my language input to the Judaism day taking place in a couple of week’s time! - as always YouTube turned up trumps and I found a very fast version played by a full orchestra.
However any relationship with technology is a bit of a love/hate affair - this was the second attempt at recording the poems, I discovered yesterday that there is a tiny little button on the mics which needs to be pointing to “mic” and not “line” - hence the reason why nothing recorded yesterday had any sound. Some of the stuff recorded this morning sounded fine in iTunes but imported into Garageband at high speed and I still haven’t worked out why. In the middle of S2 the computer decided it couldn’t read my memory stick which had last period’s work saved onto it (fortunately they had copies in their jotters). And of course there are the frustrations of “access denied”… I came home to find that the computer had decided it couldn’t read my aol stuff so had to reinstall it - infact it has now installed some toolbar I don’t want and can’t get rid off.
On the whole I am normally in love with technology - S3 today decided to go out and try the little poem on real daisies - like them I sometimes have to try more than one daisy before I decide how much in love with technology I am.
Recording from Smart Notebook(2)
I managed to upload my practice run to blip.tv (thanks again Adam!) Here is the link
Free Flash Games
Lots of useful bits and pieces at www.classtools.com - looking forward to using some of the games.
Silent but so effective…
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.
The Good (Comic) Life
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.
