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Hull Regional Support Group |
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The first session of the year was well attended with colleagues enthusiastic and eager to participate. It began with details of all the courses that will be available locally this year for PMFL. The first presentation was "Suggestions for activities to do on the European Day of Languages on 26 September". We looked at the CILT website and the resources that are available. The presenter also delivered powerpoints that could be adapted in the classroom for next week. Participants were then encouraged to participate in the presentation entitled "What is Language?" The presenter gave examples from a series of lessons which encouraged children to think about communication and how language acquisition comes about. The last workshop "Getting Started" was presented by two of our leading teachers, who gave lots of practical examples of activities in both French and Spanish. Colleagues left the sessions with lots of materials and ideas. A demonstration of the use of Easiteach began the session. Colleagues were shown how to make PowerPoints and how to improve on the performance by adding other appliances. Paul Wright (ICT consultant) and Dorothy Sainty (Leading teacher) led this part of the session. This was a good opportunity for colleagues to ask about various functions and to practise these later on in the session. In the second part of the session, colleagues looked at various ICT packages such as Boardworks, Linguascope, Early Start big books and LCP, which were on the school's main server. Colleagues were very positive about the opportunity to network and to view various packages. They would like to have had more time to be able to produce their own materials on Easiteach and to learn how to add sound files when producing PowerPoints. Date: 30/01/2008 The presenter, Ray Kirtley, who works for the International Resource Centre for Schools and Colleges (based at Hull university), outlined the work of the YHGSA (Yorkshire & Humber Global Schools Association) and opportunities for further training by the British Council. He talked about how international links can contribute to teaching about independence, human rights, diversity, citizenship and conflict resolution and how the global dimension can be incorporated into the school curriculum. Ray explored various ways of doing this through eTwinning and eLanguages. The professional development grants were explained. A number of primary colleagues who had been on courses abroad were then invited to talk about their own experiences of the courses they had attended in Lyon and Besancon. Colleagues were intrigued to hear of all the activities and enjoyment that these courses offered. Ray then explained the role of Comenius assistants and Foreign Language Assistants and finished his presentation by looking at the International School Award. 20 teachers and TAs attended and all agreed that this session had only touched upon all the opportunities that are available, particularly for training abroad. The evening was such a success that we have asked Ray to do a full day's training for us in Hull next term. Date: 08/04/2008 *CANCELLED* Date: 22/05/2008 This session was really well received by all participants. The evening was divided up into 4 workshops which were delivered by the team of PMFL leading teachers from Hull. 35 teachers and TAs enjoyed participating in very active workshops with activities such as warm-up games, alphabet with actions, parachute games, fruit salad, Activ8 in MFL, jumping through hoops activities to mention a few. Participants were really fired-up throughout the sessions and much fun was enjoyed by all. Colleagues had a go on the disco mat as well as disco mats made by pupils from Hull. Everyone went away with lots of ideas to incorporate into their PE and Activ8 sessions. They were also very motivated by the fact that giving instructions in the foreign language - examples were either in Spanish or French - was very straight-forward. The feedback? More of the same! Date: 17/06/2008 This was the last RSG of the year and involved lots of physical exercise. Our visiting speaker, Yannick Minvielle-Debat, certainly put us through our paces as we danced around the hall in a snake or in rows. The music to accompany these wonderful dances was provided by Robin who played either on the fiddle or on the accordeon. The evening was very enjoyable with lots of explanations given about the origins of the dances. Yannick made the instructions very simple in French for colleagues to follow. Her lively and entertaining approach made the time fly by. 25 teachers and TAs were again put through their paces as they danced to songs such as Jean Petit. Yannick ended the session by encouraging us to sing in French whilst dancing with our eyes closed. Sounds difficult? Not a bit of it. Participants commented on how relaxing the whole experience was. Yannick left us with instructions of the dances she had taught us along with the lyrics to the songs. Great night. Un grand merci!
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Coordinator: Diana Collins