Third week in and all is well!

I seem to have been playing catch up since the start of term, despite being super prepared with all my resources and new ideas that I wanted to implement this year, so my regular blogging has slowed down a bit!

Right then, what to tell you...

Routines
I have introduced a team point system (as I have already mentioned), so from this, they can now ask for points:

Darf ich ... Punkte haben?

they can ask to do the points too:

Darf ich die Punkte zählen?

and they can state whether the allocation of points is fair:

Das ist (nicht) fair!

We have started the register routine too, so added to:

Ich bin hier

Nicht hier

they can also say:

Darf ich die Namensliste machen?

Darf ich die Zeit stoppen?

They ask to time the register which then leads to the next piece of language which my Year 7 class are starting to say:

Das war langsam

Das war schnell

In our school, pupils can wear jumpers or blazers and they can only remove them if they have permission, so here is another brilliant way of introducing some lovely language:

Darf ich meinen Blazer/Pulli ausziehen? 

A lot of phrases start with 'Darf ich'.  Similarly in my French classes: 'Est-ce que je peux ...'.  This is a great one to build on and is extremely useful to know.

Soon, I will be asking them to give their opinions on what they thought of the register.  For example:

Ich denke das war gut...

and building up to:

Ich denke das war gut, weil das schnell war

This will set them up for when we introduce 'weil' and it should make it easier for them to pick it up, having heard and used it before.

The mats are helping a little.  However, we are not yet at the stage where pupils are using them to talk to me spontaneously in German.  Little steps.

Chapeau!

If you're going to teach in the TL, you need every trick in the book, including a 'routine' for those times when you absolutely cannot speak in the TL and only English will do.  For these such moments I have one of these:

They become readily available when we have things like World Cups and Euros etc!  This is how I use it:

Child desperately needs to speak to you in English.  You will only allow them to if they ask in the TL if they can (and sometimes, I make them state a reason why, like 'because it is too difficult' etc).  When they have asked in beautiful French or German (language given to them on the language mats on a previous post), they then wear the above hat.  Whilst the hat is on and ONLY whilst the hat is on you are both allowed to speak to each other in English.  The SECOND it comes off, you are back in the TL.  This can work for you too.  YOU must ask for permission to speak in English (Sometimes they refuse you permission!) and on their approval, you wear the hat and the same situation applies.  Simple, but effective.

I love my hat!