alice’s posterous

There was a time in France during the summer holidays when children would have a "cahier de vacances" which was an exercise book to revise the curriculum covered during the year and to start the new school year in September well prepared! I can clearly remember myself, my brother and sister and my cousins working on the dining table in the morning  in Arcachon so that we could then go to beach in the afternoon! We would often see some "poorer" children studying their "cahiers de vacances" on their beach towels being watched over by their sadistic parents or even grand-parents!



Well... Times have changed as this year the French government has realized it is the 21st century and is providing resources and exercises online for free (I forgot to mention that our parents had to pay for these "cahiers de vacances")! YES, believe it or not, they have created this online academy. You can access the resources either by subject or by level. I had a look at the exercises and they look fun and engaging although the explanations at the start are a bit tedious! There are lots of resources that might be useful for French teachers and also Spanish teachers.
If you are teaching French phonics to help your students improve their speaking skills, follow this link, there are lots of activities related to sounds. I played them with my 3 years old son and he enjoyed them.
If you cannot find the activities, make sure you scroll down the page and click on "Accéder aux activités".

What about you? did you have to carry on working during holidays when you were a child?

You can join groups on Flickr where you can share similar interests for photos.
I joined two groups:

• Images4Education part of the EVO course I attended in January
  
  
• Great quotes about Learning and Change. Look at some of the photos I already favorited, they prove useful as a display or to explain a post on a blog, a slideshow or a document...

I follow http://www.boxoftricks.net/ in my Google Reader and I really liked this post:

In it, I explore my own understanding of what it means to teach and learn today and I invite those who watch it to share their thoughts and opinions.I teach, therefore you learn… or do you?, Feb 2009

You should read the whole article and watch the movie:

This is the first time I participate to a free online course, and I am
so excited about it I thought I would share the experience.
First of all, if after reading my post, you feel the excitement and
want to join this course, it is never too late as the course only
started today (12th Jan)! Also it is worth mentioning it is free
(yeah!).
All you need to do is to join the NING group http://images4education.ning.com
 
So, what is it about?
It is a 6 weeks set of online courses organised by EVO (Electronic
Village Online). EVO's goal is to allow learning anywhere, anytime,
with as little expense as possible for a global audience. Thus EVO
moderators and trainers are all volunteers, and participants need only
provide their own Internet access to take part in activities. Sessions
include a range from simple discussions to hands-on workshops. EVO
provides an invaluable service to teachers all over the globe, for it
brings the convention to those who cannot travel. They had over 1100
participants in 2007 and again reaching more than a thousand in 2008.
 
Over these 6 weeks, I am going to explore images in the 21st Century Classroom.
How can adding images to my in-class and online activities raise
student interest? How can I help learners develop 21st century
multiliteracy skills through active learning?
By the end of the workshop, I should have the chance to develop a plan
to begin incorporating digital production into their lesson plans.
 
For me personally (as a mum of 2 little boys), it is great to be able
to do a course from home. It means that as soon as the children are in
bed, I can log on and go through my weekly tasks! I just need to click
on http://images4education.pbwiki.com
All materials are kept opened for public access. This means I can
always get back to all our online resources at my convenience, even
when the session is over .
 
This first week starting is to get to know other educators in the
group, to join interesting discussions and to explore Fickr.
 
I have already created my account on Flickr http://flickr.com/people/aliceayel/
and watched Flickr in Plain English:

 
So, why not join in? it's never too late ;)