Teacher's Handbook
This handbook is designed to provide you with helpful information on your Interaction Festival trip to Ambleteuse.
The handbook will guide you through the different aspects of your trip, including the organisation of the trip itself, the communication procedure on the school-to-school interaction, instructions on how to use our Interaction website and a range of Interaction projects for BEFORE, DURING and AFTER your trip.
Student Workbooks
Participating schools receive a student workbook for every pupil attending. The workbook is designed to support students during their trip. Its contents correspond with some of the activities outlined in the teacher’s handbook, plus it contains a number of language exercises based on the forthcoming trip, a diary and some important keywords. Of course, it is up to each individual teacher how much or how little they use the workbook, but we strongly suggest students read through the workbook before the trip.
The Interaction Website
As soon as you confirm your booking, our French office will send you contact details of your partner schools and login details to your own dedicated area of the Interaction website. Your group can use the website to send and receive messages, photos and video communication with the partner schools. A Skype access is also available for schools who wish to speak and see each other. The website is a vital component of your pre and post Festival ‘Interaction’. The website also contains useful teacher resources to support the projects and activities outlined in the teacher handbook, including Music lyrics, backing tracks, bingo cards and other Game cards, plus a variety of instructions.
Pre and post Festival Interaction
We strongly recommend you contact your partner schools as soon as possible to touch base, to discuss ideas and projects and to formulate a teaching plan which suits both schools. Voyager have created a range of projects to encourage communication between schools PRIOR, DURING and AFTER the festival, so all you need to do is pick a project(s). They vary in difficulty and some have support pages in the Pupil’s Workbook.
Sample pre and post visit projects
Bonjour a tous! A simple and easy project to establish a first contact with your partner school. With the aid of the Workbook, the class will create an introduction and description of your group to be posted on the website. This is also a great project for teachers who are exchanging with a French school for the first time.
- Chantons Ensemble! Both schools pick a song in the target language and learn it to sing to the partner schools in person at the festival or via Skype before the festival.
- Le Collage. Schools pick a common subject (their town, their school, etc) and prepare a text in the target language describing details of the subject with the aid of the workbook. Once the texts are prepared, the schools exchange them via the website. If this project is too easy, you can offer students a range of topics which they have to research, including contacting their French counterparts to gather information. From the text, each group prepares a collage to be exchanged via the website or in person at the festival.
- A Table! Each party leader prepares a list of 5-10 traditional food items, unique to their country. After exchanging the lists and teaching the class relevant vocabulary, students communicate with their partner schools to find out more about what each item is.
Your dedicated area on the Interaction website will be the key vehicle for groups to communicate and interact before and after the trip. We recommend at least one communication every 4 to 6 weeks, but the frequency of contact is of course up to you.
The Voyager Team
Voyager Interaction has its very own dedicated team based round the corner from Ambleteuse in Calais. Every member of the team is bi-lingual and all have teaching backgrounds. The Interaction team will organise your Festival programme, deal with any enquiries and support you during your stay. Voyager Interaction representatives will also be based at Ambleteuse throughout the festival to facilitate and organise activities.
Ambleteuse Centre
