French Speech Competition 2009

Pourquoi ne pas les frapper tant qu’on y est ??!!!

Yesterday was a very good day. It was again French Competition day at Waikato University (thanks to the Alliance Française).

I took 3 year 12 and 3 year 11 students. Off we go in the van with Mrs Lyons behind the driving wheel. After few “ OMG we are going to die!!!”, we arrived safely at Uni.

We were warmly welcomed by Ruth Bourchier and Dr. Jennings, like always and everything went smoothly. I had to judge 24 students of Year 11 with the help of another French teacher from Hamilton.

Students had to produce a speech of roughly one minute and had to answer 2 questions (all in French of course).
Teachers had to pick the 3 best students of each year. It was very hard as all the kids made immense efforts, but we finally managed to pick three.

So far so good.

When I went to my 6 students who had already done their speech, they asked if they won. I had to tell then no (unfortunately!) but what hurt me the most it is when they wanted to know their grade. After checking their grade on a sheet, I realised that monsters teachers had given grades like 7/20 or 8/20.

Let’s be clear here. It was not an exam at all, it was not NCEA, it was a competition for students to meet other kids from other schools who study French, it was a day where students can be proud of their achievements, it was a perfect day for students to have their confidence boosted. Instead I have to tell my students now that they got crap grades!! I am so angry as I don’t understand why a teacher with a heart would do that.

My colleague and I (both judges of year 11) gave 20/20 to the first winner, 19/20 to the second and 18/20 to the third. As for the other 21 students in our group they all have been given between 15 and 17.

When a child that I had judged asked what was her grade I told her 16/20. She was so happy !!! She said to me “ wouah!! It is only 2 points from the third”. She couldn’t see that almost all the students had similar grades. For her, yesterday was a positive and wonderful experience and she can not wait next year to enter again the competition.

I don’t understand why teachers would do that to students! Kids have been very hurt… actually they haven’t because I lied to them and told them they got 15 !!!!

news podcasting

So simple so effective

My year 9 French are learning how to describe people (physical appearance and clothes). And I have to admit they have never been very excited to be tested on it because they don’t find it very relevant I suppose.

Because this year, the Board of Trustees bought us 16 notebooks,I decided the kids could start podcasting. I wasn’t sure if they would like the activity…..suspense..very intense……



I put the students in a front of a virtual newspaper article using fodey where they could read in French that a teacher from our school had disappeared and that everybody was looking for him/her everywhere.

Their task was to produce a radio announcement describing the teacher of their choice.

I was amazed by the amount of work the students tackled. They were very engaged, excited, they wanted to know more vocabulary of a year 11’s level. I was so happy!!!!

We had some News Jingles to the podcast and Voilà !!!!

Mission accomplished!!! Kids produced some work of a very good quality and enjoyed working hard

another dollar

I am going to scream!!!



If I hear one more time in the staff room “mmmmh!!! Another day another dollar” I am going to scream or strangle a teacher.

Ok in New Zealand our terms are roughly 10 weeks long and we have 2 weeks off. So I don’t know why teachers are still teaching if it is so painful for them to come back to school. I hear the same phrase every Monday morning !!!

Don’t take me wrong, I LOVE my week-ends and my holidays and I (be careful here, I might shock you here) don’t miss the kids. Why would I miss my students? I am a normal human being with a life. I actually always find a bit creepy when teachers tell you that they miss their students. I want to show the students that you can be happy with your life, and so can they. And my life does not stop at 3 pm!!

Because I love my week-ends, I love coming back to school on Monday morning. I have chosen my job very carefully and to be honest I would not have another job. I hear other teachers saying exactly the same thing but still complain on Monday morning.

Voila! I feel much better now, merci :-)

Franseme 2009

Franseme 24 juillet 2009


Ruth Bourchier, French National Advisor, asked me to present a little thing at Franseme this year. What an honour!!!!

The setting was so nice, Ferndale House in Mount Albert. Well, if I were a bit organised I would have read the program properly and realised that Ruth told us that it was very cold in the house. Of course I came half naked and I froze all day….note to myself: next time read what people send you!!!

I am going to jump to the last intervention. Simon Curnow, French teacher at Kings College, presented some videos made by his students after reading Candide, Voltaire and L’Etranger of Camus. First of all I couldn’t believe that some students in an English native speaker country could study these books as they are so hard ( I studied Candide when I was 16 in France!!!). And then I was amazed by the high quality of their own interpretation of the books.

First, I felt very bad as I don’t do this type of literature in my classes, but then I felt quite inspired. His presentation was very good ( short, I love short presentations!!!!) and straight to the point.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t assist to Anne-Lise Perrier’s workshop as hers was at the same time than mine. She presented the last songs and artists in France. She was kind enough to give me the booklet she gave to the other participants. It is where I have learnt about Grand Corps Malade. So on the following Monday I used his song about Saint-Denis with my year 12/13. They loved it and thought I was very cool ( quite easy to fool teenagers!!).

Ruth Bourchier showed us how an oldie can become a fantastic activity. Her workshop was about how you can make a Dictée become a communicative activity by simply guiding the students through some vocabulary to speak about their work. After having done the dictation itself you present the students with a sheet full of sentences they can use to speak about their work and their peer’s work. Before marking the work, each student compares his work with his partner and then they both compare their work with 2 other partners. It is using one task to make students speak in French in class.
As soon as I could I create my own dictation and tried it on with my students. Although it was very challenging, they loved it and it increased their vocabulary in French. I have heard students using sentences from the “dictation sheet” in class.


Overall it was a fantastic day. And most important it gave me a bit of a boost in the middle of winter and filled my head with new ideas ( I also got a beautiful present to present a workshop there !!! ). What more to ask ?? :-)

Why do we all need to be life long learners

I am reading an article by Bruce Hammonds, “ Why do we all need to be life long learners”, that makes me think, especially one thing. When Bruce Hammonds write “For students to remain positive towards learning our classrooms learning communities need to provide students with the following vital elements.Students need to be given choice about what it is they are to learn...”, it actually makes me feel good.

I explain. Last week, I asked my year 9 students what they want me to teach them. I have enough of teaching them what I HAVE to teach them. So I asked my students. Some boys want me to teach them about cars, well I felt embarrassed at first because I know nothing about cars at all, and then I said to myself “ you know what that could be a good thing for me as I would learn something”. But what actually surprised me is that my students want me to teach them about what I am supposed to teach, I mean they asked to be taught about “giving directions in French, shapes, animals etc…”, exactly what I will teach them soon.

I am thinking that next year instead of teaching the curriculum, I am going to ask the students at the beginning of the year what they want to learn, knowing anyway that they would ask for the topics from the curriculum. If I start that way they will feel more enthusiastic and will feel that they are in control of their own learning. I hope by doing that they stay happy learners.

I will write another post about that in a year time to say if it works :-)

French immersion week-end 04-05/07/09

Last year Ruth Bourchier, French National advisor, organised a French immersion week-end in Wellington at the beginning of our winter holiday (July) just before the NZALT meeting. This week-end was very interesting for both Kiwis wanting to ameliorate their French and the Francophone presenting workshops. We all learnt heaps during these 2 days.

Due to the success of that week-end, Ruth has been begged by several people to organise another one this year.

And here we are it is the French immersion week-end and once again it is grandiose!!!

The venue was Kings College in Auckland. I had obviously heard about it, who hasn’t?, but I had never seen any picture of it ( Yes I know I live like a yokel in my country house with the cows!!). OMG!, I thought I was in a Harry Potter movie (with better actors though). The buildings were stunning and the grounds were incredible. Mr Simon Curnow (French teacher at Kings College) was a fantastic host and we felt like diplomates.

I have to admit that I enjoyed terribly Saturday during which we played divers games, I think I haven’t laughed like that in years.

There were teachers from all the country and heaps of francophones. 6 of them presented workshops, among them myself. I was very happy to attend others workshops as it gave “un coup de fouet” after a hard and long winter term. I feel now very refreshed and enthusiastic. I came back home with my head full of ideas and I have already started to work on new activities. I am so existed about what I have learnt during that week-end.

I really can’t wait the next one :-)

Powerpoint is not dead

Powerpoint is not dead!!

Funny that I read heaps of people saying that Powerpoint is not a 21st century tool in ICT. Well I disagree.

With my first computer I used Powerpoint like a Overhead transparent, of course like every body did, but now I make my presentation so interactive and so engaging that students are very enthusiastic in their French class ( especially in a country where languages are not valued at all). And I have to admit that my imagination is my only limit regarding presentations.

I don’t want to sound French ( you know complaining and arrogant) but I have seen a lot of powerpoint online that look very dated although they have been produced last Monday. Powerpoint is not about little animation that fly on your screen ( things like that do not make students interested, they are not mentally retarded, at least not all of them).

The best tool for me in Powerpoint is the trigger button - you know this word will appear when I click on this picture ( or something like that). This is where the presentation becomes interactive, and not because you have chosen a pretty background.

As you know (because of course you read my post regularly waiting for the next one with impatience!!) I have a Mac (yes a Mac with a capital letter) since ...I think May or something like that. I was so excited when the school gave it to me, I almost made the wheel. (because I am very flexible). But then I realised that in the Powerpoint which is supported by the Mac, there is no Trigger!!!! Catastrophe. I cried and I almost gave the computer back because for me Powerpoint is so powerful that I could not live without the trigger thing. (later we found a solution and now I have Virtualbox installed).

For me Powerpoint is not to be used as a slideshow. Do you use your computer only for word? Have you spend your school budget buying a data projector or an interactive whiteboard and you use them only to project Word?? For me it is exactly the same thing for Powerpoint. If you use PPt as a slideshow (I mean pictures move, slide change and youpi students should be excited) no wonder that you think that PPt is not a 21st century tool.

Ps: I don’t get paid by Windows to promote PPT (unfortunately!!)

Pps: If Mr Gates is reading this post ( I know he does coz he is very interested in what we do at Matamata College’s French department!!) I would not mind to be paid to promote your products :-)