First Adobe Connect Session

On Wednesday I have been given a grade by my Year 11 French for our first synchronous lesson using Adobe Connect. My grade was not very good but the kids were very encouraging. So here we are!!! they gave me a 4 out of 10.

To be honest I thought that 4 was very good as I would not have given myself a 4, I would have given me a 0 or a 1. So 4 is quite good, and as I see it next week I only can be better :-) In 6 weeks I will be a 10/10 !!!!

So what happened?

I set up my class in groups of 2 or 3. I know it would have been better teaching practice if I had asked the students to put themselves into groups instead of me being bossy and group them. Why have I been bossy? I was afraid that kids would go with their mates, I thought it was better to pair them up with someone who knew how to use a computer. Thus they could collaborate and help each other. None of the kids complained about me creating those groups anyway.

Then I left the kids with notebooks (with webcam and microphone) and the URL they needed to access the meeting. I went into a conference room while the students stayed into our French room. When I saw them entering the meeting room, I started to feel relieved. At least they could use the URL.

So we started the lesson. The students complained about the delay between my voice and what I was showing on my screen. I think (I am only assuming here!) that the speed of the school connection could have been responsible for the delay. They also complained about the echo with the microphones.
I was very proud that they took the initiative of splitting the class. Some stayed in the room, some went in the classroom next door, some in an empty office while others went outside sitting in front of the Wharenui. As soon as they all went their ways, the problem of the echoing was resolved :-)

Twice I have been disconnected and so wasted time reconnecting. Although I had planned a full hour lesson, we only managed to do ⅓ of it.

At the end of the lesson I felt quite embarrassed but the kids were smiling and they said that for our first lesson it was fine. One student even offered me to meet again during the week-end in order for me to practice more using Adobe connect. This was very touching :-)

RECAP: I was bad, but next time I will be better !!!

Collaboation in education

Collaboration is key.


In any sector it is vital to collaborate in order to create work of a better quality. Who would not want to produce better work?

It is thus essential as educators that we show the right example, that we model good practice for our students to ameliorate their achievement and help them enter a world where collaboration is now common practice.

One of the tool I use for collaboration, among others, is Twitter, like a lot of teachers nowadays. I will not explain here how Twitter works as others have done it before me and have done it perfectly. I would like to point out here what was the process of collaboration I followed.

Let’s go back maybe 2 years ago. On Twitter I started to follow Marielle Lange, aka @widged, a francophone (someone who speaks French like me) Flex Developer who is extremely interested in education in general. We met once in true life :-) in Auckland during the Educamp2010 organised by Fiona grant. (wonderful event which will be held again this year again in Auckland, Wellington and Tauranga). During our non-virtual meeting, we shared our views on education and what we are capable of doing.

Here is I think an important step. Around a cup of coffee, or tea if you prefer, it is pivotal to discuss what each person is bringing to the collaboration. I am a teacher of French, so I know the students (or at least I think I know- another post needs to follow this one I reckon), what they want, how they learn and of course what they should learn (as in content- e.g. to prepare them for NCEA). As for Marielle, she brings in her knowledge of encoding (e.g. CSS, HTML etc…) which is a foreign language for me and she also brings an extensive understanding of how one learns and of education in general.

During numerous times, Marielle has helped me during the last two years, so many times that there is not enough space on the web to cite them all !!! But she has particularly helped me this year. Let me explain why and especially how.

I have always wanted to create an online course for a Year 11 French class. In this course I wanted the students to be able to find resources which could help them to gain good grades at NCEA independently and activities monitored, or not, by a teacher. This year I have decided to take the big step and put my fear aside and start the course.

Once again Marielle has been of a wonderful help. She has helped by creating activities well suited to the needs of my students. Marielle has kindly shared the codes in her wiki that teachers (or any educators) can reuse and use on their platform of choice. However, you need to keep in mind that her Wiki is only at a early stage and more activities will be added regularly. I have also chosen a Wikispace for platform and you can see Marielle’s activities in action within a language environment. The course I have created is far away to be finished and once again you need a bit of patience as I work full time, so I create the course at night :-) What is funny anyway is that our job as a teacher is never finished. Since the beginning of my career I have never known a moment where I could think “ah I have finished, my product is as good as it could be”. When one is a teacher there is always room for improvement.

So here you have it true collaboration in true context !

Which platform for online course

This year I am creating an online course for my Year 11 French class and I am hoping to see the course happen in the whole New Zealand.

The course itself is on its way, so I am very happy :-)

But I have a huge concern and I need your help to solve it.

I would love to see the students taking part in this course to use a platform to discuss and/or solve their problems/questions. I know there are zillion of great platforms and I have a giant choice, but my concern is about accessibility.

Let’s say that I create a Facebook group for the course. The platform is free and user friendly and most of the kids in NZ have access to Facebook. The issue is that most of the school block the access to Facebook to their students. So if I chose Facebook, the students will not be able to access it when they are at school. They will be able to access it only when they are at home if their parents let them access Facebook (some of my students are not allowed by their parents to have a Facebook account). One other good point about Facebook is that if the students have a NZ Telecom Mobile phone they can access it for free, but most of the schools do not let their pupils use their mobile phone during school hours.


So I would like to use a platform that it is free, most likely not blocked by schools and user friendly !!!!

I need your help !!!!! Can you give me any suggestions ??? What do you use and why??


Thanks heaps



source photo:http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/14/25/1142515_f2701c10.jpg

VLN French Year 11

Last week I took a decision, a very important one. I have decided to set up a French course for year 11 students who are learning French. I have never done that before and I have to admit that I feel a bit nervous.

My head is spinning with ideas going in every directions. Thus, it is going to be hard for me to write down my reflections as my head is going very fast.

First I need to explain why I have this picture as symbol of my course. This painting was actually in colour, not black and white, but I have played around a little bit with the colours.

The children dancing on the painting represent for me the collaboration between the students, and the collaboration between the teacher and the students. It is very important for me that during the course the students work together in a collaborative manner. I need also to always keep in mind as the teacher that I am part of the scene as an active member of the class. I need to be present for my students if they need any help and I need to keep in mind the needs and wants of my students when I plan each unit .

I kept the children coloured on the painting because for me people are the important part of a course, not the background, not the technology. Although the choice of technology is pivotal to create the right course, it is here to serve the only purpose to enable students to be successful in their learning, to engage them in their learning and to help them blossom their learning. As you have understood what is important is the learning not the technology.

I also liked very much this painting as there is no sign at all of technology, none...just the people.