Pilgrims Summer 2017

Charlotte Bastert, the Netherlands

Charlotte Bastert is a 51 year old enthusiastic kindergarten teacher from the Netherlands. She teaches English to children age 4-8. In the summer of 2017 she visited Pilgrims in Canterbury and found out that she liked making videos for her pupils and decided to create a You Tube channel. The subjects vary from British sightseeing to daily life. E-mail: charlotte.bastert@salomoscholen.nl

In summer 2017 I had the opportunity to go to Canterbury for a course at the Pilgrims. My school, de Nicolaas Beetsschool in Heemstede The Netherlands, had not broken up for the summer holidays yet. I’m the English teacher for groups 1-4, that means for children aged 4-8 years. The week before I took off for the UK I told the children I was going to a school for teachers in England. I told them about my journey, the house I would live in and about other nationalities. All the children were guessing were all the other teachers would come from. Most of the time they mentioned countries they had visit.

Then I came to the idea of sending the children little movies about my week in Canterbury. Not just for fun but because they were extremely interested in my course. Children are curious little sponges and in this way I had the opportunity to show them what I was doing, how I was traveling, who I met, where I stayed, what I explored, where I went etc. Children are part of the world, they are world citizens and they just like to know.

As soon as I arrived in Dover I made a little, really short movie about the boat and the White Cliffs of Dover. I told about traveling by boat and about the typical Cliffs. It was fun to do and it was a nice document and souvenir for me. Then I saw an old fashioned red double-decker bus, and lucky me, I was permitted to sit behind the steering wheel. So I showed the children and said something about the bus.

I sent every single group of my children at school a postcard. The card is important, what I wrote was important, the picture was important, even the stamp with the Queen was important. Then I found a nice place to make another movie…….guess what- a telephone booth and a postbox next to each other. I had made a little movie pretending calling to school, asking whether my postcard had already arrived. I showed where I had put the card.

Then I made some more movies in the same way.

• my house on the campus,
• traffic in England: driving on the left hand site,
• a day in the park,
• my class with my teacher Katy and the other students.

The children back home were extremely enthusiastic, involved in my fantastic week in England and I enjoyed creating this material. So I decided to create a You Tube Channel. I started all over making new videos and I really learned a lot about editing, my camera and other digital things. This project is hugely interesting and I’m enjoying doing it!

The videos I made until now are:

• Autumn
• A puppy dog (about Pets)
• Traffic in England
• The ZOO
• 2 Little ladybirds. Kati, my teacher, inspired me for making this video. Thank you Kati😊

Below you find the link of my channel called: English Adventures for Children.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCkOwUhI3fey65psy1euhdBw?view_as=subscriber

But there are more videos to come, of course related to seasons and holidays like, summer and Christmas, but also subject as, the Queen and changing of the guard, going to the library, birds in the winter, the London Eye etc. I hope these videos are tremendously useful for all of you.

So please subscribe to make sure you don’t miss a video!

Please check the Methodology and Language for Kindergarten course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Practical uses of Technology in the English Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Practical uses of Mobile Technology in the English Classroom course at Pilgrims website.