The other day, out of sheer luck, I happened across a post in one of the many French teacher Facebook groups to which I belong, where a teacher shared her incredibly extensive YouTube playlist of "Pauses actives en classe". I felt like I had hit the jackpot! Of the videos I have perused, there were a few that became instant favourites and they just so happened to be from the Jeunes en santé YouTube channel. These videos are absolutely fantastic because, not only do they have the instructions for each of the steps in French, but many of their videos use French songs. 

Google Slides Hack

Did you know that you can easily by-pass ads by inserting YouTube videos into Google Slides? You can do so by selecting Insert > Video and then either searching for the YouTube video or pasting the direct link. For my favourite Jeunes en santé videos, I prefaced each one with the list of steps to review before each video. Have a look here:

I also set up each video to play automatically once I advance to those slides while in presentation mode. The other benefit of inserting videos directly into Google Slides is that you can publish the slide deck and then embed it into your Google Site (or blog!) so that students can watch from home without being bombarded by ads or distracted by any unrelate videos that may appear under suggested videos on the right panel.

If you'd like to grab a copy of this French DPA slide deck, click here to have a copy made for you.

Don't forget to check out these popular blog posts:

Keyboard Shortcuts for Adding Accents and Other International Characters

How to Maximize Google Slides in Edit Mode

Video Tutorials on How to Take a Screenshot

New! Interactive French Calendar and Weather Board

French Word Search: Find the Opposites - Google Jamboard

Give Your Virtual Classroom an Instant Makeover

My Virtual French Classroom in Google Slides

Interactive French Activities for Distance Learning

Click on the image above to access additional resources, tips and tutorials.

After you make a copy of the Flippity template, you can easily customize it. I love that you can add as many words as you like, although if you add more than 30 it gets too crowded, and that you can colour each tile, which is handy to identify parts of speech. If you don't specify a colour, it defaults to white.

Under the Backgrounds tab, you can add links to different background images such as the blackboard image I used. The manipulatives template on Flippity.net has a variety of backgrounds, such as columns,  rows, grids and a venn diagram, which are great for sorting words, and other textures. If you want a specific background set as the default, you need to list it at the top on the spreadsheet. Students can also select whichever background they want by clicking on the settings gear icon at the bottom right.

Under the Options tab, you can have the word times appear randomly every time students access the link or appear in the order in which you listed it on the Terms tab. Then, after you publish the Google Sheet to the web, you would go to the "Get the link here" tab and copy the Flippity url generated for you to share with students directly, or you could embed it into your Google Site, like I did here:

Click on the image above to access additional resources, tips and tutorials.

Create multiple classroom backgrounds
 using layouts in the slide master!

Click on the image above to access additional resources, tips and tutorials.

Useful Tips for Creating Video with Screencastify

1. If you want to create a screencast of a Google Slides presentation in presentation mode, which is useful if you want to take advantage of animation or slide transitions, change the part of the URL that says "edit" to "present". It will open in presentation mode within your browser tab so that you can access the Screencastify extension and begin, pause or stop the recording. 
2. Use a headset or earphones with a built-in microphone. I use my old Beats Solo headphones (which I got for free one year during a back-to-school promotion when I purchased a new MacBook Air at my local Apple Store!). I find the sound quality is better than the built-in mic on my computer, especially because it doesn't pick up much background noise or the annoying clicking sound each time I press a key to advance through the slides.
3. Wait a few seconds after the recording begins before talking so you can close the toolbar that pops up at the bottom left. Then you can you trim the video once it loads in a new Screencastify tab by adjusting the scissors. You can also crop the video, too, if you open the file in the Screencastify Editor.

Click on the image above to access additional resources, tips and tutorials.

How to Customize Your Own Flippity Scavenger Hunt

1. Find the Scavenger Hunt template at Flippity.net and click on the Template option.
2. When prompted, select "Make a copy." If you aren't already, make sure you as signed in to you Google account. Then rename the file.
3. Under the Demo tab, replace the demo questions and answers but also take note of how they coded the hints should you wish to embed images, videos or hyperlinks. I copy and pasted the demo hints elsewhere for reference. If you look at my hints below, I have changed the font colour to blue to show you what part of the code you would replace with the URL for either the image, YouTube video or the website. 
   
4. Customize the settings under the Options tab.
5. Once complete, you will need to publish the Google Sheet by going to File - Publish to the web and the click on Publish.
6. Then go to the Get the Link Here tab to find the link that you would share with your students.

If you'd like a copy of the French Easter Egg Hunt above, just click on the Share icon at the bottom and click on the Google Sheet icon to access the file in View Only mode. From there, you can select File - Make a copy.

Click on the image above to access additional resources, tips and tutorials.

Benefits of Embedding Quizlet Flashcards

• My students can access the flashcards without having to leave my Google site.
• The embedded study set defaults to full screen mode, which I find is more user-friendly.
• Students can easily switch between study modes via the drop-down menu at the bottom right.
• It by-passes the pop-up that prompts students visiting the Quizlet site to sign up for an account. (I know there are great analytics that Quizlet can provide and insights regarding individual student results but I want to maintain student privacy as much as possible and prefer to create assessments using Google Forms.)

How to Embed Quizlet Flashcards

If you have an account on Quizlet, you can embed any study set even if you are not the owner. Once you are logged on and have selected a Quizlet study set that you'd like to embed, follow these steps:

Step 1:
Click on the "more" icon (the three horizontal dots sometimes referred to as the "kebab menu") and select the "Embed" option.

. 

Step 2:
Select "Flashcards" from the dropdown menu and then copy the HTML code.

Step 3:
Paste the HTML code on the site where you'd like to embed the study set. For example, in Google Sites, you would select Insert and select Embed. Then select Embed code, paste the HTML in the box, and click on Next.

If you're using a Blogger blog, you would have to work in the HTML mode and paste the code there.

Click on the image above to access additional resources, tips and tutorials.

Click on the image above to download a copy to your Google Drive.

Sample Grade 4 French Activities - Week 1

Embed Audio Files

Click on the image above to access additional resources, tips and tutorials.

1. Always speak French. This one is obvious but so often overlooked. Students won't learn French if the teacher speaks English all the time. But if they are immersed in it, they will have very little choice in learning it in order to express their needs. My mistake? Speaking at a level that was way beyond what they could comprehend. This is why I love AIM so much, since students quickly learn basic pared down language full of high frequency words with which they can express themselves and understand others. I also make a point of communicating with other staff members and visitors en français in front of the students, even outside of class and during recess.
2. Exaggerate facial expressions and tone of voice. This helps students to understand what you are saying, especially when introducing new words or to differentiate between questions, exclamatory and declarative statements. I tend to liken it to miming, where a mime relies heavily on facial expressions to convey meaning. 
3. Ask questions containing the answer. When students are given possible choices within a question totale, they feel more confident to answer because they know one of the options will be correct and they will have less of a chance of getting it wrong. Vicky Mercier, a wonderful FSL teacher here in Toronto who uses the AIM methodology, shared an additional tip with me: If you ask a total question such as, "Est-ce que le ciel est jaune ou bleu?" where the correct answer is the last option, students will have a greater chance at getting it right because they tend to select the last option they hear. For beginning learners who worry about making a mistake, this is a great way to boost their confidence and thereby encourages them to take risks later on.
4. Model and scaffold in abundance. I am fairly confident that many FSL teachers do this already and do it well. But what I would like to emphasize is that, when scaffolding, we need to meet the needs of the individual student where they are and provide the necessary supports regardless of ability. So often I would expect students to, more or else, keep up the pace and do each activity as assigned. For students who struggled to do so, I would adjust the activity to lessen the complexity or difficulty. But what about the students who finish early because they find it too easy? In the past, I couldn't possibly fathom having students move ahead to the next lesson without my teaching the whole class how to do it first. With AIM, the activities are structured in such a way that scaffolding is almost effortless and I feel confident that students who need more of a challenge can continue at their own pace. 
5. Give plenty of time to practice. The way AIM lessons are structured, students are given time during each class to work with a partner or within their group to complete an activity and practice their oral French skills. This is great way for students to consolidate their learning based on the lesson(s) of the day since they love talking with their friends.
6. Emphasize verbs and teach them horizontally. We all know that a sentence is not a sentence if it doesn't have a verb and yet, when I used to teach using a more thematic approach, I would give students vocabulary lists full of nouns. When students have a repertoire of verbs and know how to use them in context, they can pretty much talk their way around any nouns they may not yet have learned. (See tip #9.) For example, if they forget the word for "pen", students can say, "Je cherche une chose qu'on utilise pour écrire." The teacher can then reply with, "Est-ce que tu veux un crayon ou un stylo?" What is meant by teaching 'horizontally?" Well, before I would teach verbs vertically ie. Je parle, tu parles, il parle. Teaching them horizontally is like teaching them within context, within a passage. You can then work on changing perspectives (ie 3rd person to 1st person) to teach/practice conjugations.
7. Use choral response as often as possible. With AIM, the teacher often gestures while the whole class speaks in unison. While it tends to get loud, the benefit is that it greatly maximizes the amount of time students are speaking the target language and gives them plenty of modelling before they are sent off to practice with their peers. Even if one student asks a question during the lesson, the expectation is that the whole class responds while the teacher supports with gestures, giving the beginning sound or using visual aids. Another benefit is that students who are worried about mispronouncing words or who don't know a certain word won't feel isolated or embarrassed since the whole class is engaged and too busy to notice.
8. Teach students how to ask questions. My youngest students are among the most inquisitive of all so it only makes sense to empower them to be able to ask questions. Very early on, they learn how to use "est-ce que" in front of a statement to turn it into a question. But asking questions quickly becomes a part of the daily routine, from "Comment ça va?" and "Est-ce je peux aller aux toilettes?" to asking "Où est (student's name)?" when student volunteers hand out French folders and "Combien de cartes est-ce que tu as?" when counting how many cards they earned in French class at the end of each month.
9. Teach and practice circumlocution. When students have a repertoire of essential vocabulary and high frequency words, they can rely on circumlocution strategies to "talk around" vocabulary that they have either forgotten or have not yet learned. While using a dictionary could work, it isn't always practical. Instead, students can keep the conversation flowing by using words they already know to find a different way to express themselves, describe the object in more general terms or, my favourite, using opposite words. It's kind of like what they do on The $25,000 $100,000 Pyramid game show!
10. Use gestures and visual aids. I can't even begin to tell you how much using gestures in my classes has improved my students' comprehension levels. While gestures are not the be all and end all of the AIM methodology, it plays a huge role in ensuring that students are focussed and engaged, and are acquiring the target language. How many times do we wave to a baby and say "hi" repeatedly? It is within our nature to communicate with gestures and a baby who is first learning to talk relies heavily on gestures and other aids such as picture books to help understand the meaning of new words. Interestingly enough, there is even talk about how gestures could be used in Math class, too. At any rate, I have drastically cut down on the amount of flash cards I need. My hands are my flash cards now!

1. Sign up for the Apple Teacher program at appleteacher.apple.com using your personal Apple ID. If you do not have one, click here to create an Apple ID. And yes, it's free!
2. Create a profile by completing the required information, such as your school and school board.
3. Choose either Badges for iPad or Badges for Mac. You must earn all eight badges by successfully completing quizzes in either one or the other to receive your Apple Teacher recognition. It cannot be a combination of both. However, you can always complete both collections should you feel so inclined. Badges for iPad include: iPad - Pages for iPad -Keynote for iPad - Numbers for iPad - iMovie for iPad - GarageBand for iPad - Productivity with iPad - Creativity with iPad. Badges for Mac are similar to Badges for iPad.
4. Select a badge and click on "View" in the pop-up window. You can then either download the corresponding Apple Teacher guide into iBooks, refer to the online help pages or attend in-store workshops to become more familiar with the content. 
5. Once you are ready, you can complete the quiz at the bottom of the badge page. There are typically five questions that are either fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, or re-order sequence questions. You must receive 80% to receive the badge, which means you can get by if you make one mistake. The good news is you can always review the content and restart the quiz again if you need to. 
6. After completing all eight badges, you will earn your Apple Teacher recognition. You will receive an email with information on how to download the signature and guidelines on how to use it.