Class Dojo in The Indonesian Classroom

22 Dec 201426 Dec 20143 Comments

I have been using Class Dojo in my room for about 2 years now and while the program has had some bad press lately ( see here) I have loved it.
If you are not familiar with Class Dojo, here is a brief outline:
1. It is an online behaviour management tool which can be either accessed through your pc or by tablet/phone through an app. The app syncs constantly with the pc, so it is cool walking around with your ipad giving verbal feedback while simultaneously giving points. The points immediately are added or subtracted to the students score with an audible noise and are visible when projected up onto the smart board. The noise isn’t intrusive, just enough to prod those students who need that gentle reminder to return to task!
2. The student point tallies can either displayed with the positive tallies separate from the negative tallies or both can be combined. I prefer the latter, to reinforce that behaviour can be turned around.

3. Each student has an avatar which previously could tweaked (to change the colour, body features etc) but now the only option available is a completely new avatar. Still, this feature is incredibly popular with all ages.
4. Access codes are available for parents so that they can access their childs data if they wish and just as importantly, all behaviour data is stored and would be useful data for parent interviews.
5. The teacher decides on the behaviours to be included (how great would that fit in with discussions about class rules at the beginning of each school year). I love this feature because I can use either Indonesian or English!
6. Class Dojo is completely free!

There, I think that is a basic explanation. More details can be found on their website https://www.classdojo.com
At first, I found using class dojo time distracting; familiarising oneself with anything new is incredibly time consuming! It was clunky and seemed at first to distract both students and myself from our focus, but as we all got used to it, the benefits far outweighed the negatives. It is particularly useful for the really young students as it is a short sweet behaviour management tool. In the past, I would have to stop and address the negative behaviour, now I just give that student a negative and keep going. The ding/dong sound generally is enough to put a hasty stop to the behaviour especially considering it is usually accompanied by disapproving looks from peers!
One of the best features of class dojo for me is that it helps me focus on the ‘good’ behaviour instead of the negative. I give points for participating, using Indonesian, helping others etc, and for some students this really gives them the opportunity to shine. One quiet student loves asking, “Boleh saya pinjam pensil/penyerut/penghapus?” and at times she must have up to a dozen pencils on her table!! Usually this use of Indonesian is unrecorded. The result has been a huge increase in students using these phrases repeatedly and appropriately in the Indonesian classroom!
At the start of term 4, 2014, I began using class dojo for students to call the roll. In the past, I have called the roll at the beginning of each class to instill “Apa kabar?” (How are you?), a phrase I believe every student learning Indonesian needs to know and be able to respond to automatically. However, I realised recently that I needed to hand over this routine to students (middle and upper primary) if they are to successfully and completely internalise this specific phrase. Being able to answer “Apa kabar?” is only half of the interaction.
To ensure this part of the lesson did not go any longer than it absolutely needed to and also to really push for an automatic response, I added the complexity of a timer. Students would call the roll very quickly and the rest of the class would be encouraged to answer instantly. I recorded the scores for each student and then dangled the best scores in front of other classes to encourage them to achieve an even faster result. The record score by week 8 was 27 seconds! Not bad considering initial scores were well over a minute! Out of all the MP & UP students, I only had 2 students who flatly refused to call the roll! Both had very good reasons, so I didn’t push them. One of my other students, a real struggler in Indonesian, dug deeply and gave it her best shot and was the first student in the school to get a score in the 20’s!! That result gave her such a huge boost that her confidence in all other aspects of language learning totally backflipped for the rest of the year. It was awesome!
Towards the end of the year, I gave roll caller the option of being timed and what I really enjoyed seeing was that responses remained short and sweet even when the timer wasn’t being used. It will be interesting to see if that continues after the summer holidays!
With my use of TPRS/CI in the classroom, I want to encourage students to stay in Indonesian as much as possible, I am planning to investigate using the timer on Class Dojo to again harness the competitive nature of my students in 2015. Senor Howard’s blog and video (see here) shows how this is done and I am looking forward to investigating this using the class dojo timer this way.
Telling stories and using class dojo, for me, are tricky to combine, so now in each lesson, I have a designated helper. Whoever called the roll is asked first and to be honest, this person has yet to refuse! Their task is to record any positive behaviour (i.e. participation). (I record negative behaviour separately with the warning that 3 strikes and that student is ‘out’ – off to buddy class.) The best thing about having a recorder is that it ensures I SLOW down so they can keep up and it also tells me at a glance who I need to do a comprehension check on. Students love having their input recorded and at times it can be a bit hectic if someone’s input was over looked. Hey wouldn’t that be a perfect mini story to start with next year to ensure students can fix this without lapsing into English.
Have you discovered Class Dojo yet and if so, how do you use it in the Languages classroom?

A Chance Encounter

13 Dec 201415 Dec 2014Leave a comment

About 3/4 of my students have only ever been to one school – PEPS – since reception (first year of school/prep). These students have only experienced language teaching with me and are thus very familiar and comfortable with my routines and expectations in the Indonesian classroom. Consequently I also know these students very well, I know their family history, their siblings, their strengths and weaknesses, their hobbies etc. By the time they get to year 7, I have been their Indonesian teacher for 8 of their 12-13 years of life! This relationship has taken years to build and with my recent explorations into TPRS, I am beginning to realise just how important these relationships are.
The other quarter of my students consists of a group of children, some of whom have been to many primary schools and unfortunately for a few, PEPS will not be their last either. This group of students have moved either internationally, interstate, intrastate or even locally from one of our nearby local primary schools for a variety of reasons and whatever the distance they have travelled to move to our school, starting at a new school can be overwhelming. The older the student, the more complicated it can be. One of the complications involves adjusting to new teachers and often very different teaching styles and pedagogies.
This last group of students, for me, contains some of the hardest students to engage with. I am just one more new teacher they have to get to know and for most of these students, the language they learned at their previous school was not Indonesian and unfortunately too, for most of these students they do not bring with them positive memories of learning that language. Quite a lot for me to overcome and for one or two older students, unfortunately, this ingrained negativity remains. So disheartening. The mixture of hormones, peer acceptance and being ‘cool’ together with the knowledge that high school is just around the corner is too much for them.
In one of my older classes, I have 2 boys, Kane and Jack (not their real names). Both are very quiet and reluctantly participate in class discussions. Both come from tough city neighbourhoods and dysfunctional family backgrounds. Both boys started at our school at the beginning of this school year. Both have learned that to survive, you need to keep your head down and stay under the radar. Insisting on eye contact with them both during lessons is exhausting and to be honest, something I give up on early in the lesson to ensure I don’t loose momentum &/or student focus. Neither boy is my “barometer student” because it is rare to have eye contact or to gain a response from them. If I ask them a question, (eg. Billy mau beli apa?) based on the PQA we are doing, a very simple question that has the rest of the class busting to catch my attention to answer it, both boys will hang their head or look at me vaguely. My assumption from this was that that firstly neither had been 100% focused and therefore had missed so much either due to day dreaming (Jack) or being hyper-vigilant of the movement near him (Kane) or secondly that I had gone too fast and 100% comprehension had not been achieved.
Then a chance encounter helped me understand what was actually happening with these boys. Kane’s older sister wanted to talk to me about a personal matter, so we arranged to meet for a dog walk at the beach. She arrived with Kane!! We walked along the beach with Kane having a ball playing in the waves with the dogs. It was just lovely having the opportunity to interact with Kane out of the classroom and watch him enjoy his new life down here in our beautiful part of the world. At the end of our walk, we sat down and chatted while Kane brushed the sand off his feet and put his shoes back on. The conversation turned to Indonesian and Kane’s sister asked him what he could say in Indonesian. He then proceeded to demonstrate that he had remembered all the vocabulary we had covered that week from the 2 movietalk trial lessons I had done. In class, Kane had said that he was having difficulty comprehending our discussion about the pasar burung in Jakarta. So this demonstration of Indonesian left me dumbstruck!! And then the penny dropped.
Both Kane & Jack have much in common. TPRS pedagogy actually suits their style of learning perfectly because both are passive learners and definitely not yet risk takers. They enjoy TPRS pedagogy where they can sit down and just listen- it’s a pedagogy that allows them to stay right in their comfort zone until they are ready to venture out. A pedagogy that allows them to participate on their terms and still be highly included in the lesson. Both prefer not to contribute to discussions at this point, largely because they lack the confidence to ‘have a go’. Neither wants to make a mistake in front of their peers, even after 12 months. Yet, the most exciting thing is that TPRS allows them to do this; with or without a conscious decision on their part! They love the high focus on input rather than traditional pedagogies which focus heavily on output.
How lucky am I to live and work in a small community where such an encounter could happen. This opportunity not only gave me insight into that group of students who have concerned me previously, but has also made me even more determined to continue with my TPRS learning journey in 2015.

We’ve Written a Great Class Story; Now What?

28 Nov 201428 Nov 2014Leave a comment

This was my question last week and now I am despairing because I don’t have enough time left this year to get my teeth into any more of the many ideas I have discovered. I would like to begin to list ones that I have tried which have been successful.

Popcorn Reading: Give a copy of the story to each student. In pairs, they make a double circle. For a given time limit (1 minute worked well for middle primary) the student in the inside circle would read aloud the first sentence to their partner who would then translate it. They continue on doing this until time is called. The outside circle then moves one person to the right and in the time it takes for me to reset the timer, the new pair should be working out where they each got up to and then be ready to start again from the sentence that was closest to the beginning of the story. This continues until you as the teacher feel that enough repetitions have been completed.

Word Chunk Game– Divide the class into small groups and have each group choose an Indonesian name for themselves and a gesture which will become their war cry. Write the group names up on the board. Read out a sentence from their story (or sentences similar to their story but tweaked slightly eg the who/what/where) and as a group they have to translate the sentence. When they are sure that everyone in their group can translate the sentence, they all put up their hands. The group that did this first, must then do their war cry. If any members do not participate in the war cry, then move to the next group. This is important because it helps develop group solidarity. It is also lots of fun! Then it is up to the teacher to choose one group member to give the translation who can not be assisted in any way by anyone else. If the translation is correct, the team gets a point and then they can boost their points with each group member having a bonus ball toss from a free throw line into a bin (I used my paper recycling bin).

Running Dictation– Divide the students into teams. Put copies of the story out the front. Students take it in turns to run out to the front of the room to read and memorise a sentence which they then run back to their team and tell their team, one of whom will write it down.

Class Books – make the stories into class books and create a class library. Students from other classes will also enjoy reading the stories.

Bring on 2015……

22 Nov 201422 Nov 20141 Comment

I am so fortunate to ‘work’ with such a wonderful group of Indonesian teachers. “Work” is in inverted commas because as Senorfernie puts it, we are largely “departments of 1″and work at different school sites. Fortunately the primary Indonesian teachers down here in our neck of the woods are just as passionate about teaching Indonesian as I am. All the more impressive as they also manage family commitments and businesses on top of their teaching load! I salute them.
Our hub group meets every holiday to plan upcoming units of work, to share ideas and resources and for Australian Curriculum training & development. We have noticed how our sharing has changed significantly over the past few years. Originally we would come to our meetings laden with text books, worksheets and video/DVD’s. Now we bring laptops and/or iPads and everything we swap is digital! Sharon introduced us all to the beauty of hard drives and now we can’t imagine how we coped previously without one!
We met yesterday (mid term!) for ACARA T & D. Our mission was to plan a unit of work that aligns with our new curriculum for term 1 2015, so that we can collect work samples from our students for moderation. When Annie first raised the plan, I had misgivings because I was unsure how it would fit in with my TPRS plans for 2015. I was worried that I would have to choose between collaborating and TPRS. Then I changed my mind and considered the possibility and benefits of being able to collect data to compare TPRS methodology with traditional non-TPRS methodology.
Imagine my surprise and delight when all teachers present at the hub group meeting yesterday expressed interest in learning more about TPRS and are really keen to start incorporating it into their teaching in 2015!! A fellow teacher who has also recently discovered TPRS has described our passion for TPRS as bordering on obsessive and that we are more like evangelists. Even though I was severely sleep deprived yesterday, advocating TPRS proved to be an instant antidote!
Together we planned an 8 lesson unit which will lend itself beautifully to a TPRS introduction as well as consolidating the language students will need for introducing themselves during skype sessions with our sister school that we are hoping to participate in ahead of their visit in September. The assessable task we have planned is for students to create a dialogue using specific targeted language and then in groups of 3 make an iMovie which will be assessed by their peers.
It aligned beautifully with the Indonesian Curriculum and the discussion we had finalising this was useful as it helped us all refresh our knowledge of the new curriculum terminology as well as sharing pointers we have picked up recently at either conferences or from school based training.
The day flew by and when Sharon mentioned she would have to leave soon to do the school pick up run, we all were amazed to realise that except for a very brief lunch interlude (thank you Annie for the delicious chickpea salad) we had been working solidly for 5 hours!

Term 4 Teachmeet

14 Nov 20146 Comments

I can’t believe we thought holding our second Teachmeet in term 4 was a good idea! Not only that, but in week 5!! I had 4 teachers RSVP to say they would be able to attend and I also had a few RSVP to say that couldn’t due to teaching commitments. Those of us that did turn up agreed that we are all exhausted and while it is valuable to meet and share, we all had to dig deep to do so. Consequently, we agreed that once a semester is enough and our next Teachmeet will be week 5, term 1 in 2015 and the final one for 2015 will be week 5, term 3.
While the topic was; bring along something you have used successfully in your classroom, our focus mostly centred on using iPads in the classroom.

Sharon shared the following apps:
Languages Online – very large app but useful because you can track student progress.

https://appsto.re/au/U2RO0.i

Sharon also mentioned that she had noticed that there were recent Indonesian story apps available. Kris immediately searched and found:

if you search cerita anak, the number is very impressive and most are free!! Just need to download them and assess their suitability now…… Definitely a summer holiday job!!

Other apps Sharon recommended include
Cari kata and Indonesian word search:

Moji Jam

TeacherTools

Buzz Monster – made by the same people who made Futaba, so guaranteed to be worth the cost.

Kris shared next:
Three ring – good for collecting and storing student assessment data.

Pass the parcel- looks like a fun game-

Kris also reminded us about the Web2 for Language Teachers wikispace she developed and now maintains. If you have any suggestions (apps etc) that could be included, don’t hesitate to contact her. http://web2-4languageteachers.wikispaces.com

Sharon next shared a few resources she found on her recent visit to Bali. First she shared a book she’d found which has great illustrations about significant cultural events from all over Indonesia.

And also a DVD called Didi Tikus. We watched part of the first episode which would definitely appeal to young students. The videos have very little language, are slap stick and reminded us all of Mr Bean.

I shared how I use class dojo in my classroom. Up until recently, I called the roll myself asking every student, “Apa kabar?”. Previously in term 4 of every year, students would be invited to call the roll, but it was agonising as it took so long. So I came up with the idea of timing students and having each class work together to achieve the school record. It has worked very well. So, now individual students call the roll using class dojo; one student asks everyone in their class, “Apa kabar?” while I time and record their answers. The fastest time is held by the year 7’s with 32 seconds! The student then completes the absences, lateness and assists me during the lesson recording points.

Week 4 Reflections

9 Nov 20149 Nov 20141 Comment

For various reasons, I wasn’t able to pre-read my scripts before each of the TPRS lessons last week. Usually, I sit in my classroom over lunch and refresh in my mind both my pre written scripts (see last weeks post) and watch TPRS YouTube videos which both helps me focus on the TPRS skill I will be targeting as well as confirming for me the benefits of TPRS. However last week, the year 6/7 classes were cooking (klepon) and while this only involved 2 classes, the running around ensured I clocked up well over 10,000 steps those days!
Facing year 5’s and 6’s holding my script in one hand while furiously trying to remember the gist of it so I didn’t have to keep looking at it and at the same time keeping the momentum going was very challenging. In fact so challenging, I felt very flat after both lessons (which were back to back lessons). On review, I realised I had failed everyone with my total dependence on my scripts ; both myself and the students. It had been a hodgepodge.
So for their next lessons, I ditched my scripts and followed my gut. I like to think I have a reasonable feel for the basic (VERY BASIC) concepts of PQA, so instead of focusing on my script, in both lessons, I was confident enough to build a dialogue using student input. My first request was to give our actor a name. Suggestions included many names I have never heard before. I went with one because I liked the sound of it; Stampy Longnose. Apparently he is a well known YouTuber! With the structure being ‘mau beli’ (wants to buy), we decided where Stampy Longnose wanted to go and what he wanted to buy. It was loads of fun and lots of laughs. I found that lesson so much more enjoyable.
With my second class, I tried something very different. After reviewing together the language structure (same as first class), I asked them to pair up and create a shopping dialogue. I gave them some planning and rehearsal time and then we listened to those who wanted to share. I gave no other information and interestingly not one pair used paper to create their dialogue. I was blown away by their grasp of all the language we have covered this term. One student, who has previously consistently struggled in Indonesian lessons, excelled. She worked with a partner who was absent last week, so their dialogue reflected mainly her learning and it was brilliant. She even used ‘terlalu mahal’ (too expensive) appropriately and with no prompting!! When I consider students like E, who are blossoming with TPRS pedagogy, it reinforces to me the huge positives of teaching a language this way.

Next week I want to focus on:
1. Teaching to the eyes
2. Determining the ‘Barometer Student’ in each class &
3. Speaking sllllooooowwwwlllllyyy…….

How was your week?

A Brief Introduction to the Guru, Stephen Krashen……

9 Nov 20149 Nov 2014Leave a comment

Last week, in my step 9 review meeting with my principal, we discussed my use of TPRS/CI in my Indonesian Language classroom and my desire to further develop TPRS proficiency in 2015.

He alikened TPRS with immersion, which was a light bulb moment for me. I suddenly realised that so far in my blogging, I haven’t introduced you to Stephen Krashen or his theories which underpin every aspect of TPRS.

Who is Stephen Krashen?
Stephen Krashen is professor emeritus at the University of Southern California, who moved from the linguistics department to the faculty of the School of Education in 1994. He is a linguist, educational researcher, and activist.
Source: Wikipedia

Watch this short clip taken from a lecture Stephen Krashen gave university students demonstrating the difference between ‘immersion’ and ‘TPRS/CI’.

Krashen’s theory of Language Acquisition is based on the following five hypotheses:
1. The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis
2. The Monitor hypothesis
3. The Input hypothesis
4. The Natural Order hypothesis
5. The Affective Filter hypothesis.

Across the Internet, many people quote Krashen:

Source: http://thelanguagedojo.com/2012/09/7-awesome-dr-stephen-krashen-quotes/

I hope you have found this post interesting. Hopefully this major jigsaw puzzle piece contributes to your understanding of TPRS and also helps clarify the big difference between ‘immersion’ and TPRS/CI; two entirely different pedagogies.

If you are interested in learning more about Stephen Krashen, I highly recommend this article:
http://www.teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl/article/viewFile/951/770

Using Chatterboxes In Indonesian Lessons

6 Nov 2014Leave a comment

What a great idea this is! Imagine the questions that could be written under the flaps and also the range of possibilities for the top 2 flaps. The possibilities are endless and have so much potential.
I now want to make my own YouTube video with a native Indonesian speaker making a chatterbox and giving the instructions in Indonesian. Great for a focus on language structures such as lipat, menulis dan potong,.

Most of us remember these from our childhood. But how many of us remember what they are called. I asked my facebook followers what names they used for this in English or Spanish. Here’s what we got:

http://spanishplans.org/2014/11/04/making-a-fortune-teller/

PQA, Point & Pause, Circling – Weeks 1-3

31 Oct 20143 Nov 2014Leave a comment

This term I have been exploring the TPRS/CI pedagogy with my year 5’s and the year 5/6’s- basing it all around Ben Slavic’s book, “TPRS in a Year”. I read somewhere, probably in his book, a good way to start is to focus on new aspect/skills, one by one, and in doing so, one hopefully can develop a basic level of proficiency within a year.
My first week’s focus was PQA – Personalised Questions and Answers. This skill is important for getting to know the students personally and is especially valuable at the start of a new school year with brand new students. Interestingly, even though I have been teaching most of my students all of their primary years, there is still a lot I don’t know about each of the three hundred and thirty five students I teach. This understanding of PQA only gelled recently and thus instead of PQA in my first week, I mistakenly focused on circling. Last week my focus was ‘point and pause’. When pointing to new structures or the important question word posters, give students the time to grasp the word and its meaning by not speaking for at least 4-5 seconds. I could actually hear the ‘kerthunk’ Ben Slavic talks about when pointing and pausing for students. This week, I will be focusing on circling again however this time I have added a few extra pointers to help develop it even further.
Each weekend in preparation for the upcoming weeks lessons, I write a mini script for my TPRS lessons based on a segment of the master dialogue that I wrote in the holidays. The master is a work in progress and goes roughly like this:
S (Seller)- Good morning
C (Customer) – Good morning
S How are you
C good thanks
S What would you like to buy?
C I would like to buy fried rice
S OK
C How much is fried rice?
S ten dollars
C OMG. That is too expensive.
S How much?
C five dollars.
S OK. How many would you like?
C two please. How much is that?
S ten dollars.
C Ok, Thank you
S You’re welcome
C/S Goodbye

In week one, the target structures were:
1.mau beli apa? – What do you want to buy?
2. Saya mau beli ….. – I want to buy …….
3. penjual – seller/shop keeper

In week two, the target structures were:
1. berapa – how many
2. katanya – he/she said

And in week three the target structures will be:
1.terlalu mahal – too expensive
2.berapa satu? – how much for one?

Student progress has been very slow so far but I only have two fifty minute lessons with each class per week and one of those lessons clashes with choir which affects a handful of students. At the beginning of the term, I explained that any work missed due to choir, was not going to be revised in any great depth during the following lessons and if students thought this was going to be too difficult then they would need to think very carefully before deciding to continue with choir. Several of them wisely made the decision to drop choir, but there are still about four from one class and two from the other. I also have to keep reminding myself that my students are only ten years old and that going slowly is VERY important. It is far more important to have comprehensible input than rush to meet the looming deadline of having the entire script completed by the end of term.
My weekly scripts take a small section of the above dialogue and focus on just that part. Here is my teacher script for next week to give you an idea of what I am talking about.
Lesson # seven
Focus Structures: Berapa satu – how much for one (fried rice)
Astaga. Terlalu mahal – OMG, that is too expensive

Good morning students.
I want to go to market. oooh
Who wants to go to market?
That’s right, Bu Cathy wants to go to market.
Where do I want to go?
That’s right, Bu Cathy want to go to market.
At the market, I want to buy fried rice. ooooh
What do I want to buy?
That’s right students, Bu Cathy wants to buy fried rice.
Do I want to buy fried rice or yellow rice?
That’s right students. Bu Cathy wants to buy fried rice.
Why do I want to buy fried rice?
Ss to suggest a reason to which I will rephrase in a complete sentence eg That’s right, I am hungry.
Ask the students, How much for one fried rice? Choose the most ridiculous answer.
One fried rice is one hundred dollars. oooh
How much is the fried rice students?
That’s right, The fried rice is one hundred dollars.
What do you think, is that good or not?
That’s right students, one hundred dollars is too expensive
OMG, that is too expensive.
Where is the rice seller? Choose a student to be the seller and call them to the front.
repeat dialogue:
C Good morning Mrs/Mr
S Good morning. What would you like to buy?
C I would like to buy fried rice. How much for one fried rice?
S one hundred dollars.
C OMG That is too expensive. How about (5) dollars?
S OK. gives fried rice to customer and receives money
C Thank you
S You’re welcome
C/S Goodbye

Repeat this dialogue using hands as puppets a la Senor Howard.

~~~~~~~~*******~~~~~~~~~*******~~~~~~~~*******~~~~~~~~~~~*****

I have found that I need my script to be extremely detailed and also close to hand for when I reach a point and forget what comes next because my mind has gone blank. I learned that the hard way. I also read through the script just before the lessons which luckily are back to back, to have it fresh in my mind as well. If during class, I walk off without my script and backtrack for it, not one student has made a comment. They understand that I am a learner too and need my notes which is lovely.

In the very first lesson, I planned a brain break activity to get students up and moving after sitting and listening for so long and it turned out to be a huge winner. It is so incredibly popular that it is now requested at the start of every lesson by both classes. I wrote on paddle pop sticks either penjual …….. or mau beli ………… ensuring that there is a pair for each item.

The vocabulary for the items is lifted straight from the pasar stalls that classes are each organising for the end of the term. The paddle pop sticks are in a jar and students choose a random stick.

If they are a penjual they sit at a table and wait for a customer and if a customer, sit on the floor and wait till everyone is ready. Customers then have to move around to converse with each seller until they find the seller selling the item they are looking for. Students converse using the dialogue covered earlier in the lesson repetitively. When they find their pair, they complete the dialogue and then the customer chooses either sits on the floor waiting for the others to finish or continues asking other sellers to practise further the structures.
So easy to organise and so much fun. I usually join in if there are left over pop sticks which gives me the perfect way to assess the language of individual students.