This is a demonstration video of how you can use Kapwing in the language classroom. Thank you to Melissa Gould-Drakeley for her collaboration and enthusiasm on this project.
Kapwing is a great tool which enables a number of people to collaborate on editing and producing a video from different places at different times. In the language classroom, this is ideal for students to work on video assessments without needing to be free at the same time or in the same place.
​It could also be used to create videos with students at other schools for example, other target language speakers overseas or in rural areas. This could be a great way for schools or classes that have students who are the only background speaker to connect with background speakers at other schools to work on projects together.
Kapwing is a very easy to navigate tool where you can add audio, subtitles, edit and share your project. In addition to the language demonstration video, here are some handy informational videos too.
How to edit videos with Kapwing and how to add subtitles to Kapwing videos.
We hope you and your students enjoy Kapwing as much as we did!

Melissa Gould-Drakeley, Inspector Languages at NESA, will be presenting a free webinar on "Remote teaching and assessment – shifting towards blended models of delivery” for the Association of Language Learning London (this is the UK version of our AFMLTA).

If you are interested in joining, register here.

Date: Saturday 25 July, 7-8pm Sydney time
​Duration: 1 hour

New learning sequences and student workbooks for Early Stage 1 to Stage 3 are now available on the Learning from home page. These resources are samples that teachers may adapt to their language specific area to meet the needs of their students and local contexts.
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Early Stage 1 – my favourite toy
· Learning sequence - my favourite toy Early Stage 1 (DOCX 78KB)
· Student workbook - my favourite toy Early Stage 1 (DOCX 152KB)
Stage 1 – my dream home 2
· Learning sequence – my dream home 2 Stage 1 (DOCX 48KB)
· Student workbook –my dream home 2 Stage 1 (DOCX 1.8MB)
Stage 2 – about me
· Learning sequence – about me Stage 2 (DOCX 73KB)
· Student workbook – about me Stage 2 (DOCX 110KB)
Stage 3 – caring for the environment 2
· Learning sequence – caring for the environment Stage 3 (DOCX 50.7KB)
· Student workbook – caring for the environment Stage 3 (DOCX 484KB)

We have collated your responses to our back to school thread, and we have never seen greater evidence of how amazing you all are, what good hands our students are in, and how totally across every situation you are, even some of the crazy ones thrown at you over the last 2 months.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and thank you for being utterly amazing. It's a heartwarming read.

Due to yesterday's announcement that students will be returning full time from Monday 25 May, we are cancelling the virtual staff meeting we had planned for Monday afternoon, 25 May 2020.

We are still planning ongoing support for you – we are currently developing advice on assessment FOR learning, and we're also liaising with Google experts to run a Google version of the session Megan Townes ran for us recently on Microsoft tools. Watch this space for details.

Just like you – we're rolling with the punches and responding to current needs. Please let us know if there's something else you need – we're here to help.

With yesterday’s announcement that students will return full-time from Monday, things are going to be interesting. What are your plans for Monday and beyond? We’d like to start a thread here, so you can all see what other schools are planning.

We don't want it to be onerous - we just thought it would be a good idea to check in with each other and see what your colleagues are feeling and planning.

Considerations for the thread:

• - How are you feeling about students returning full time?
• - What are you most looking forward to?
• - Do you have any strategies to share about how to manage change?
• - Are there new strategies and/or resources that you implemented during learning from home that you will continue with in your teaching and learning programs?
• - With Stages 4-5, will you start afresh with a new unit? Or will you continue on with finishing the unit students were working on at home?
• - How will you assess where students are up to in their learning?
• - Will you consider a stronger focus on assessment FOR learning activities?
• - Are your Stage 6 students on track?

You can reply in our virtual statewide staffroom or you can reply by leaving a comment here. If you're receiving this via email, click on the link at the top of this post, and it will take you to our blog, where you can leave a comment. 

The Languages and Culture team is holding an extraordinary statewide staff meeting on Monday 25 May 2020.

Please join us on Microsoft Teams for a registered professional learning afternoon for language teachers. The focus will be on adapting existing Stage 4 tasks for online assessment. At the end of the presentation, we will also be available to answer any questions you may have on assessment and reporting.
 
Date: Monday 25 May 2020

• Time: 3:30-4pm
• Online platform: MS Teams
• Enrolment details: MyPL 
• Course code: RG19123

For further questions, please contact Evia Kyriacou.
We look forward to seeing you there. 

In response to your queries about preparing students for the upcoming oral examinations, we have developed advice, covering:
- approaches to answering effectively
- you in the role of the examiner
- how to prepare your students in a blended classroom
​- different styles of feedback.

We have compiled a list of websites and apps to enhance language teaching and learning. We have also included your suggestions and recommendations, so we would like to thank you for your contribution and your sharing spirit.