LEARNING TO GO, with Shelly Terrell
FIRST MISSION : 3, 2, 1 introduction
WHO'S THAT GIRL? QUIEN ES ESTA NINA?
Name: Cécile
Place of birth: Toulouse (Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France) aka "the pink city", because of the colour of its bricks (forget about Pink Panther or Barbie pink... the colour is more red-orange ochre)
Date of birth: 22nd July 1972
As a teenager: was a Madonna fan, hence the title of this section...
3 things you should know about that girl
- As far as she remembers, she has always wanted to become a teacher... She started teaching her dolls and soft toys in her bedroom, when she was five years old.
- A few years later, aged 12-13, she taught her American schoolfriend the language of Molière, in the schoolyard of the Lycée International Victor Hugo, where she could speak English with the sons and daughters of white collars working for Airbus Industries.
- Her career as a certified teacher began in 1998, in Toulouse, as a trainee-teacher (Lycée des Arènes). She has been teaching 12-22 year-old students, for more than fifteen years.
2 things that girl would like to learn from this course
There are so many things I would like to learn from this course!
- In French schools, mobile devices are only allowed outside classrooms (they must be switched off inside). Students start texting in corridors, as soon as a course is over. They are very quick at taking their cellphones out of their pockets, as if they were drawing their guns. Funny how they sometimes look like little high-tech Lucky Lukes or Calamity Janes! I would like to learn everything about using all these very interesting apps Shelly has already shared with us, in order to present them to my colleagues (some of them lack enthusiasm when it comes to using modern technologies in class) and try and change mentalities!
- Something I am preoccupied with is... how can you make sure every student is actually working with the app the teacher has chosen for the course, and not texting, or recording/filming the lesson? We sometimes work with groups of 24 students. I also wonder about the legal aspect of using some particular apps, as regards the increasing pressure parents put on teachers.
1 activity that girl's students enjoyed
I worked on a lip dub project a few years ago, with students aged 13, who were taking part in the English Club I was in charge of.
We used the song "We are golden" by pop-singer Mika. I filmed them.
We had imagined a scenario using different places of the school (the playground, the courtyard, the corridors, a classroom...)
For example, we had transformed the school infirmary into a teenager's bedroom.
They really loved it, and so did I!