So, you want to know how was my 1st ICT lesson???

I have been teaching in NZ for 5 years now, and since I have been here I have been teaching French and only French. Unfortunately this year I also have to teach ICT in order to teach a full timetable !!! :-(

Kids who take French in NZ are usually smart kids with a very opened mind ( languages are optional) and are, most of the time, very polite.

Yesterday was my first ICT lesson with a Year 9 (13 years old) and I have to admit that I hadn’t used any behaviour management strategies for the last five years. In my French classes, if students chat a bit too loudly I only have to give them a bad look and they stop! However yesterday I had to use a lot of strategies I used to use when I was teaching in England.

I was very tired at the end of the hour as I had to spend a lot of time dealing with misbehaving kids. I was also very upset to think that I had been paid during this hour to implement behaviour strategies instead of engaging ALL students.

To be honest, after lunch time when I had finally cooled down, I reflected on my lesson and realised that although 4 students were not taking advantages of whatI had to offer in the classroom, 26 students (or almost 26 ) were engaged and actually very excited about the learning and the thinking that were happening in our ICT class.

Should I be happy that I engaged 26 students out of 30?? Or should I aim to engage the whole class?? Would I be happy with 80% successful results if I had another job??

A year with Toni Twiss

Toni Twiss has spent a year with us at Matamata College, succeeding Richard Vandijk, as our ICT Facilitator.

Toni had to fit some very big shoes as Richard is a very good ICT facilitator but she managed it….very well. Toni has helped me during the whole year and actually saved me from boredom.

Before Toni arrived I was very bored and was never presented with challenges. It didn’t feel like working in a school but more like in a factory where everyday goes by and you feel you do the same things….over and over again.

Then arrived Toni !!! Thank god!!! If Toni had not come you would have found or dead in the staffroom or I would have to take drugs in order to forget I was in the staffroom!!! Toni made the staffroom a place where one can learn and discuss about good teaching practice. She shared her knowledge generously and was never crossed when I had a “thick day” ( or a thick month!!).

Toni Twiss is going to be missed a lot in our school…..I will miss her incredibly as I am very scared to be very bored again next year

Core subjects versus Option

In most schools in New Zealand, timetables are done in such a way that there are “core subjects” e.g. Maths, sciences, english etc and “option subjects” e.g. Languages, cooking, woodwork etc…

In most students’ minds and, unfortunately, most teachers’ minds, core subjects are seen as very important and option subjects are seen as unimportant, invaluable subjects where one can mack around and where work is optional.

Last week, I went to a NZALT meeting and we started to speak about the fact that, as language teachers, we do not like that senior managements speak about Core subjects versus option subjects. We thought it is time to find another word than “option”. As the meeting ended we were not able to find a right word.

I know that changing a word would not obligatory change people’s set of mind but I reckon it would help. I was speaking with a teacher from a respected private school and he said he has the same problem with his pupils not willing to do any work as his subject (French) is seen as optional, which means for the students that no work is required.

When I was at school, option had another meaning. And as I am not that old, one can not say that the word has evolved ! Latin was for example an option. An option was then available only to people who could intellectually follow such a course. An option was a subject quite elitist that not everybody could chose. Although French in NZ is still very elitist, the subject does not seem to be seen as an important subject.

I would love to see teachers to change their view on optional subjects and realise that option teachers teach a lot to the students, like literacy.

Easi Speak Microphone

Although they are very small and look like toys, I have been very impressed by the Easi Speak microphones. I have been using them to record my students NCEA speech. The sound quality is extremely good and the teacher who moderates the speeches said that she could hear/ understand words that she had been unable to hear before.

Using Easi Speak is very easy. Last week-end I recorded myself reading some articles in French. After recording I just plugged the microphone onto my computer, dragged and dropped the MP3 from the microphone onto my desktop and bingo!!! It was done. Then I could put the sound on a wikispace, blog or as I did that time, I sent the mp3 to my students via email. I know my year 13 were very happy as they could listen to a true French article only a few weeks before the exams.

Until now I have been borrowing a microphone from another teacher at school, but as today I will use my own ! Today I received 2 new microphones!!! A very happy day..

use of ICT in classroom

I am going to be nasty here, and maybe I should feel guilty…..or not.

The school bought 16 notebooks a little while ago. Fantastic!!!! We now have 16 keys to explore the world. We share these notebooks among 5 or 6 teachers.

I try to book those laptops regularly, and sometimes (most of the times) unsuccessfully. Maybe I should plan my lessons 6 weeks in advance, but that would be being organised! And then I think “well fair enough, other teachers must use the laptops effectively and they need them more than I do”

2 days ago, one of the teacher I share the laptops with was away and some relief work had been set (by her). I had to help the reliever to set up the laptops etc..

Then I had a look at the work set up. The kids had to use the internet to create crosswords. No explanation was provided at all.
The next day the same situation started again, except that the kids had to use Word to write a story.

What shocked me here was the fact that it is not because you use a computer that you re using technology effectively. What is the point of spending $16000 to create a crossword? The students engagement and their learning are not greater because you use a computer instead of a piece of paper. The question here is “what is the point of making a crossword?” What is the learning? Where is the thinking here? Where is the teaching?

French visit in my class

Last week a French lady came to spend the day with me in my class. She is thinking of becoming a teacher, maybe, perhaps….she had a bad experience at school and she is not sure if she wants to spend the next 20 years at school.

This lady spent the full day with, to see what a secondary teacher does. My first class was a year 9 French (of course French coz I am a French teacher!!!). The students had to make photos of them expressing verbs with their body. They could use a photo camera or a mobile phone. The lesson started and some kids had forgotten their mobile phone. They asked me if they could use my Chinese made mobile, which they love, to make some pix, I lent it to them and off they went outside taking some dressing up clothes on their way out.


Suddenly the lady looked at me and told me “ Oh my god but do you trust the kids with your mobile phone? Are they allowed to be outside? Don’t you want to stay with them outside to check on them?”

It was the first time she visited a school outside of France, and she never experienced a class where the kids are in charge of their learning. She was also very surprised that I was not lecturing my class.

I have not thought about my own experience at school for a long time. And it is very true that in France teachers lecture a lot, actually that is the only thing they do. This type of teaching suited me a lot when I was at school myself, but as a teacher I do not lecture, and I always make a point of making the kids responsible of their learning.

The fact that this lady was with me all day made me realise how much I have evolved in my teaching since my first class when I used to only lecture, exactly as I have been taught.

Smart enough?

I have Smartboard Software installed onto my computer, and I have had it for 2 years or so (maybe 3, time flies !!!). I have to admit that I don’t use it a lot because I use heaps Powerpoint which I find very interactive. I use it mainly when we watch a video and the students have to fill in the gaps using a air mouse. You see I don’t have a IWB and I live very well.

Feeling a bit guilty I tried during the holiday to create a presentation using smartboard software.

I made a movie to show what the activities are on the presentation. I hope you can understand my thick French accent- no hope for me to lose it ever as I have been living in an anglophone country for 9 years now!!!!!

I added this post because I would like to know if I am on the right track. Are there other tricks and tips that I am not aware of?? I actually need some help to know a bit more about IWB.




I have found a lot of inspiration here
http://www.youtube.com/user/souffleruk and http://souffler.typepad.com/home/