Souffler - a breath of fresh air

This video clip explains how to simply update the lesson activity toolkits for Smartboard. The Ning blog that hosts it is a useful repository of all things Smartboard for those that use it.

 

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Making the case for Languages

I just came across this site and thought the quotes would make an interesting inventory of points to make when fighting the MFL corner with pupils and colleagues.

creativelanguages.com

I really liked this one, purportedly from Charlemagne.

To have another language is to possess a second soul.

Smartboard Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple of videos explaining how to exploit some features of the Interactive Whiteboard. These used Smartboard Notebook 10 software but the principles would apply to other products. You will be able to see use for subjects other than language teaching as well.

If you would like the notebook files they can be downloaded for free via www.souffler.co.uk

Creating a template of linked pages

Adding sound and animations to add impact

A Hide & Reveal techniques

Online Childrens' books

I have been pointed to this site by my Primary School. You can see or download a pdf version of the books in various languages including French, Spanish, and German. 

http://www.childrensbooksforever.com/

French Gypsy Manouche - Les yeux noirs & Thomas Dutronc

I have just begun to listen to this music. In France they call it Manouche, the gypsy swing guitar made famous by Django Reinhardt. This video is a fantastic showcase of some the best players of this genre and the track is "les yeux noirs". 

In a more current context, here are some other tracks in this style whose lyrics might be useable in classwork by Thomas Dutronc, son of Jacques Dutronc.

Lyrics: Comme un manouche sans guitare   Video

You could follow it up with work on other similes using

 "Comme un / une ..... sans ..."

Lyrics: Au cafe du temps perdu

Language focus: perfect, imperfect, pluperfect, past continuous tenses

Lyrics: J'aime plus Paris

The language focus here is more to do with the topic as the song lists all the reasons he wants to escape city life.

Lyrics : Jeune je ne savais rien   Video

Language Focus: perfect , imperfect tenses

Create your own Jigsaw Puzzles

I like this site jigsawplanet. You can take any picture and turn it into a jigsaw. You can control the level of difficulty and it offers a way of taking any topic and providing a bit of a fun. 

I can see a potential for using this as a 'team' directed game where each team has to direct the teacher to move the pieces to recreate the picture: one puzzle piece is selected either by the team or the teacher: the team has to instruct the teacher in the target language to move the piece to the correct place on the board. eg: 

à gauche  à droite  plus haut  plus bas 

au bord  à droite / à gauche etc. 

For example I searched for an image of the Nativity for Christmas, found this:

and changed it into this puzzle:

Try the puzzle here. Click on the image to try

35452

You can do exactly the same thing with text. Here is a very simple text:

As the puzzle software can only cope with jpg images, I had to 'capture' the text as an image. With a Mac you can do this with the 'Grab' utility provided in the Applications/Utilities folder. With windows you can use a program such as MWSnap. a free program. Once uploaded to the site you can 'chop' up the text and make a puzzle. Here is a version using the above text. Click on the image to try.

text2

You can embed the whole puzzle into your own websites.

Downloading web video Mac Users with Safari

If you use a Mac and the Safari browser then a simple way to download web video from Youtube is to use the activity window. This video shows you how.

To recap then the keyboard shortcuts to briing up the activity window are 

Command alt  and the letter 'a'

Thanks to Mac OS X hints  for this

French Autumn poems

I have uploaded a free Smartboard file of French poems on the theme of Autumn for subscribers to my other site at www.souffler.co.uk.

Thanks to http://lafarandoledesassmat.free.fr/ for the graphics and text. I have simply put them onto a format that is easier to see in the classroom. There are a lot of other materials on this site suitable for Primary children or lower KS3. 

For anyone without Notebook software, there is a pdf version available.