Welcome to MrKirrage.com
by Paul James KIRRAGE
British born teacher of English in Lyon, France since 2001.
Consultant for the DFIE
French Education Department : Training, innovation and experimentation
Professional profile : https://fr.linkedin.com/in/paulkirrage
Qualifications & Educational Background
Linguistics, Cognitive Sciences and Media Theory + Teaching of English as a Foreign Language
Post-Graduate Certificat of Education : Teaching of English Language and Literature
Ecole Supérieure du professorat et de l'éducation (Lyon) :
Certificat d’Aptitude au Professorat de l’Enseignement du Second degré
Professional background
For the British Education Department
Before moving to France I was a high school English teacher in the United Kingdom in Essex, east of London.
- 2000 Clacton County High School (Essex, UK)
- 1999 Tendring Technology College (Essex, UK)
- 1999 Harwich & Dovercourt High School (Essex, UK)
Previous teaching positions in French higher education
Since 2001 I have designed and delivered English language courses in a number of prestigious higher education institutions in France and briefly in Monte Carlo.
- IUM (International University of Monaco)
- EM Lyon (Business School)
- L'Ecole Centrale (Lyon)
- ENSP (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Police)
- ESSA (Military Medical School)
- Institut Paul Bocuse (Degree/Masters/PhD in Hospitality Management)
- CPE (Chemistry, Physics & Electronics)
- ENTPE (Architecture & Infrastructure)
- IDRAC Lyon (Business School)
- INSA Lyon (Faculty of Sciences)
- Ecole3A (Business/ International Development)
- University Lyon I, II and III
- University of Glamorgan (Wales, UK)
Teaching and coaching in the corporate and state sectors
From 2001 to 2010 I worked with the Lyon Chamber of Commerce and with individual clients as an English trainer and translator working also in parallel on webdesign projects for the luxury hotel sector.
- Directeur Général de la Fondation pour l'Université de Lyon
- Directeur Général des Services de la Chambre de Commerce et de l'Industrie de Lyon
- Directrice des Hospices Civils de Lyon
- Directeur ERDF (Rhône) - Chef du projet 'Linky'
- Président du Club des Partenaires : Fête des Lumières de Lyon
- PDG du Groupe Zannier
- Directeur Operations Clients, DHL international
- Directrice: Cité de la Création
Chambre de Commerce de Lyon - Group Bocuse - Philipps - DHL - TNT - April Insurance - Renault - Bayer - Merial - JTEKT - CCI de Lyon - Aderly - Grand Lyon - CEGID
Head of Languages and Talent Placement Officer at the Institut Paul Bocuse and in international luxury hospitality
My work at the Institut Paul Bocuse during four years as head of languages and International Internships Manager lead me to work with Human Resources directors across a number of luxury hotel brands.
My later work with the American International Trainee Network and with the Journal Des Palaces allowed me to continue to match young French talent from the best hospitality schools with the
2012 until present : Collège Maria Casarès (REP+), Rillieux-la-pape (Lyon, France)
Teacher of English
At the collège Maria Casarès in Rillieux-la-pape I teach 20 hours of English to 6 classes aged from 11 to 14 years old in one of France's REP+ priority education zones.
My other roles at the collège Maria Casarès
- Group tutor
- In charge of business partnerships (InnovAvenir, Entreprises Pour La Cité, JAE, Entre Les Lignes... see below)
- In charge of our exchange and bi-annual school trip to New Delhi and the Himalayas (planning, legalities, recruitment, sponsorship etc... see below)
- School webmaster : www.CMCtv.live
CLICK ON EACH CLASS TO SEE WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO SO FAR THIS YEAR
My role as group tutor
I am group tutor to 26 students in their second year.
Dr Ross Green : LivesInTheBalance.org
As a group tutor I base a lot of my work on the three components of Dr Ross Green's Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) model.
Dr Ross Greene’s 4 Developmental Delays
flexibility adaptability ‘frustration-tolerance’ problem solving
Dr Green's books Lost at School and Lost & Found explain the model in detail and his work has dramatically reduced discipline referrals, detentions, and suspensions in lots of schools by giving all students practice at some very important life skills.
"Un Mot, Un Bravo"
As a group tutor I designed the "Un Mot, Un Bravo" model to help students better manage the "micro-decisions" and "micro-choices" that enable to manage their behaviour one minute, one lesson and one day at a time.
When introduced alongside personalised tutorials and a "positive follow up sheet" students are able to measure and share their success at making better choices.
Web & Application Designer
School webmaster : CMCtv.LIVE
You can find out more about my school by visiting the school website and TV channel that I run at www.CollegeMariaCasares.fr
The website is designed to showcase student achievement and staff investment in student success and well-being.
Every week I receive photos and text from students and colleagues, and I take part in school events in order to film them and edit together the videos and articles that tell the story of our school on CMCtv.
Other sites I have produced :
Having worked professionally on websites for corporate clients such as the Hotel Plaza Athenée , Luxury Attitude and the International Trainee Network and I have more recently put these skills to use in my role as a languages teacher.
www.LyonNewDelhi.com | www.DJMyClass.com | www.CMCtv.live | www.EscapeGameWorkshop.com | www.EscapeFromConspiracy.com
Room 212 : a room of possibilites !
My classroom at the collège Maria Casarès is room 212 and I have designed it to be a place of wonder and creativity that students enter knowing that hard work is desirable, success is achievable and and that structured gameplay and targeted fun are an inevitable part of any sequence or scheme of work.
Touchscreen : use your fingers !
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Smartphone / tablette: utilisez l’écran tactile pour naviguer
PC : Click on the image once then use the left/right/up/down arrows to navigate
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P.C .: Cliquez sur l’image une fois, puis utilisez les flèches gauche / droite / haut / bas pour naviguer.
VR Helmet : Click here and take a look around !
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Casque de réalité virtuelle: Cliquez ici et promenez-vous!
Other uses of virtual reality in the classroom
One of the most visited pages of MrKirrage.com is the tutorial I prepared for teachers wishing to experiment with Virtual Reality in the classroom.
The tutorial is available in English and in French. Thanks to my tutorial other students and their teachers - including M Cedric BRULE of the collège St Julien à Malestroit https://viar.live/tour/trrw8g - have been able to enjoy and exploit this technology.
Main objective : level B1
Tools and strategies for achieving the level B1
My priority is taking the 120 pupils that are in my charge each year as close as possible to a level B1 in order that they be operational for their first year of highschool.
By encouraging simple strategies that promote the use of complex sentences in a correctly accented English, students learn to produce the kind of English they should be able to understand.
Through gameplay and use of the C.O.N.R.A.D. that I invented for my students at Casarès and at the IUT, students learn to build and recognise Complex, Organised, Nuanced, Reflective, Analytical and Descriptive sentences - the basis of the level B1.
Other resources Level B1 : Achieve B1 Using the CONRAD method
Student self-assessment
During the second half of the school year, the spaced repetition that has been encouraged through gamification leaves room for more project-based work.
During these projects, students take the time to invent questionnaires and online assessments that can be shared with other students to check for understanding and generate feedback for me, the teacher who needs to check whether he has been effective.
Organisation of student self-assessment : https://sites.google.com/view/mrkirrage/tools/student-designed-assessment
A culture of production mixing crafts and IT.
Lessons, projects, experiments all online on MrKirrage.com
The lessons and projects that I have developed for use at the collège Maria Casarès can all be found on MrKirrage.com Besides our regular work on spoken and written English and B1 strategies you can also find details of my students adventures in Virtual Reality and in the use of greenscreen technology such as in our project on Mars.
Find out more about the project : #TalkingOnTheMoon
Other experiments in greenscreen
Having installed a greenscreen studio in my classroom, students now take pleasure in producing recorded oral work destined for an outside audience.
This experiment called "CMC News" (CMC = collège Maria Casarès) is to be revisited since I have redesigned our school website as a television channel : www.CollegeMariaCasares.fr
Find out more about our use of green screen technology to make a news bulletin : #TVMySchool
A historical and cultural approach to future skills
Through our work on Ruby Bridges, the works of Norman Rockwell, the collages of Richard Hamilton, the story of NASA, the cold war and the space race, in room 212 students seek to build an historical vision of the world that enables them to better define their future role in a world whose nature, whose technologies and whose job opportunities are unimaginable today.
As my teachers in the 1980s were unable to imagine that societal and technological changes that have come to define the modern world, teachers today must equip students for a society and for a professional landscape that, if difficult to imagine, will nonetheless be defined by change and will reward students that have fundamental and timeless skills and knowledge and that are therefore equipped to be adaptable and creative.
An exchange programme with India that I launched in 2017 and now manage
I run our exchange programme with schools in New Delhi, India. We exchange letters and video-conferences with our partner schools.
In 2017 20 students from New Delhi spent a week with our students and their families in Rillieux. In April 2018, students from Casarès spent two weeks with families in New Delhi and in a mountain village in the Himalayas.
We will be going again in April 2020 but not before we will have welcomed students from New Delhi at our school a second time in May 2019.
You can find out more about our project on the site I built to run and showcase the project : www.LyonNewDelhi.com
Creation of international partnerships
International outreach and exchange
My work developing our exchange programme with India stemmed naturally from my students work on exchanges by letter and by Skype with schools in the UK, the US and in Tenerife.
Students work best when it is for a genuine outside audience.
Students work well when the teacher is not the sole judge of their efforts.
When students become ambassadors for their school and for their own creativity that go 120% to fulfill that role.
Opening new and interesting professional horizons for students
Business partnerships and innovation
I also look after our business partnerships with InnovAvenir, Deployons Nos Ailes, les Entreprises pour la Cité and our work with the JAE.
School is designed to build rounded citizens able to function in society.
Gainful employment in a trade that corresponds with the students aptitudes and sensibilities and which will therefore bring them the financial security and the self-fulfillment that are the condition of a successful and healthy.
For most students, a visit to the most modest of professional buildings, offices, farms, workshops, factories or otherwise is, to quote one students "like being on a film set". The world of work is alien to many students and our partnerships with business make it a familiar, attainable world where students know they have their place.
Internship reports, letters and CVs in English
In the final year of middle school, I enable students to produce an English language report on their professional placement.
They produce also a CV and a cover letter for their imagined self horizon 2030. This invites students to project and anticipate the various opportunities that are open to them.
Using gamification to promote spaced repetition and co-opetition.
Gamification
Gamifaction is an important tool in my classroom in the encouragement of spaced repetition of key vocabulary, notions and strategies.
- Gamification can make the tedious and necessarily repetitive challenging and emotionally powerful.
- Gamification can make the abstract meaningful and "sticky".
- Gamification can encourage cooperation and social skils between team members in an intra-team competition - co-opetition.
The #VERBATHON
I designed the #verbathon for classroom use in order to encourage spaced repetition and meaningful manipulation of the 100 most used irregular verbs in the English language.
Find out more here : https://sites.google.com/view/mrkirrage/projects/verbathon
EscapeGameWorkshop.com
A natural extension of my work on gamification was the segway into Escape Games for classroom use.
Having designed, built and deployed escape games in the classroom, I decided to consolidate the tools, ideas and design strategies that I had accumulated on a publicly available website www.EscapeGameWorkshop.com which was featured in a recent publication by the CANOPE network designed to help teachers design their own classroom escape games.
An escape game to fight against conspiracy & disinformation
I currently pilot the work of our third year students with the organisation InnovAvenir
Together we designing an escape game inspired by our work with the association of journalists Entre Les Lignes that seeks to equip youngsters in the fight against disinformation and conspiracy.
Whatever the decision of the InnovAvenir jury in Paris in May 2019, the CANOPE network will distribute our game on a national basis in late 2019.
Find out more about our work on our website :
A culture of innovation and experimentation : Development Consultant DFIE
Since 2017 I have been working as a development consultant with the DFIE of the Academy of Lyon (formerly the CARDIE)
When not at Casarès I work for the DFIE which is the Lyon Academy's delegation for teacher training and pedagogical innovation and experimentation.
Working with researchers from around France, the ESPE, the ENS and the IFE, the DFIE Lyon seeks to articulate empirical research in education with the projects, experimentation and innovation that teachers are piloting in the field. I work with schools in Oyonnax, east of Lyon towards the Alpes and in Vesancy on the Franco-Swiss border.
Quand le CARDIE devient la DFIE : Délégué académique à la Formation Innovation Expérimentation
La Délégation à la Formation Innovation Expérimentation (DFIE) avec la Délégation Académique à la Pédagogie (DAPE), la Délégation Académique au Numérique éducatif (DANE) et la Délégation Académique à l’Orientation et à la Réussite Educative (DORE) est l’un des nouveaux pôles transversaux mis en place dans le cadre du projet stratégique de l’académie de Lyon.
Les finalités de la mise en place de ce nouveau pôle (DFIE) regroupant les anciennes structures DAFOP, DGAF, DAFPE et CARDIE sont variées.
Parmi ces dernières, l’objectif d’adossement de la formation, l’innovation et l’expérimentation à la recherche est tout à fait central. La mise en place d’un conseil scientifique de l’Education nationale (CSEN) et d’un conseil scientifique de l’académie de Lyon autorisent cet adossement ainsi que la mise en place d’une plus grande collaboration entre les enseignants, les chercheurs du CNRS, de l’INSERM, de l’institut des sciences cognitives… et les équipes éducatives en matière de conduite du changement.
Les apports de la recherche éclairent l’expérience acquise dans la conduite des expérimentations et des innovations pédagogiques et éducatives dans les établissements lequel démontre souvent la nécessité d’un accompagnement formatif. Réciproquement, l’expérience acquise dans la mise en oeuvre de formation d’initiative locale (FIL) ou action locale prioritaire (ALP) met en lumière le besoin ressenti par les équipes enseignantes et éducatives de transférer les apports des formations dans des pratiques nouvelles avec les élèves. Les compétences des différentes entités réunies dans le pôle DFIE sont complémentaires et permettent de bénéficier d’un effet de synergie au bénéfice des formations, de l’accompagnement et de la valorisation des projets.
L’engagement de notre académie dans une expérimentation en matière de Gestion des ressources humaines de proximité, la mise en oeuvre de relations avec les personnels dans le cadre des rendez-vous de carrière fondées sur la valorisation des pratiques et des potentiels nécessitent par ailleurs plus que jamais de nouvelles modalités d’accompagnement des acteurs comme des systèmes. Ces modalités renouvelées infèrent une acculturation nécessaire des postures et référentiels métiers de formateur académique, de formateur à distance, de passeur, d’assembleur, de conseiller en développement, plus globalement d’accompagnateur des personnels et des structures en coordination avec les corps d’encadrement et d’inspection, la Direction des Ressources humaines et les Directions académiques des services de l’éducation nationale.
Le pôle DFIE est mis en place pour relever ce défi, celui d’une structure transversale, agile, au service du développement professionnel de chaque acteur et de l’évolution de chaque système dans le cadre des évolutions nationales, dans le plus pur respect des pratiques enseignantes et éducatives et l’objectif de leur valorisation et évolution au service des élèves et de leur bonheur d’apprendre et grandir.
Conferences I've taken part in as part of my work with the DFIE
Schools where I work as a DFIE consultant
The Vesancy town hall and primary are housed in this chateau.
Vesancy Primary School
The aim of this project is to bring together research effective learning and to apply these findings in a primary classroom.
This work to find answers to the problems raised by PISA-type studies (levels in mathematics, language, inequalities etc.), by focussing notable on students' well-being, their individual success, and the development of notions of citizenship and cooperation.
In a school where children are as much from the local rural community as from the families working in the finance and diplomatic sectors across the border in Switzerland, languages and subjects overlap and knit together to make unique learning opportunities for a diverse community in which each pupil can progress at their own rhythm.
Oyannax in l'Ain (between Lyon and the Alpes)
Collège Ampère (Oyonnax)
100% integration of students with SEGPA* status into mainstream school system.
In the French education system, at the secondary level, SEGPA refers to sections d'enseignement général et professionnel adapté which translates as the General and Adapted Vocational Education Section (the acronym "SEGPA" is frequently used). The section welcomes students with serious and lasting learning difficulties for specialist teaching. The innovation at the Collège Ampère is the 100% integration of these pupils into mainstream education and the adaptations, differntiation and inclusion strategies that this requires of staff.
This article from the Huffington Post tells the story of the "Artists On Bikes" project.
Photos I took at the Hotel de Ville de Lyon with the team "Artistes en vélo" receiving their prize from the Fondation de France.
Collège Ampère (Oyonnax)
"Artists on Bikes" is a pedagogical, sporting, cultural and social project offered to students at the Ampere Middle School in Oyonnax (eastern France).
Throughout the school year, twenty-five students prepare a ten-day cycling trip from the college courtyard to the Pilat dune on France's west coast.
At various points of their journey, sudents will present an artistic performance that they will have created and rehearsed for nine months, with the help of their teachers and entertainment professionals.
The project "Artists on Bikes" is an interdisciplinary and very practical project implemented in September 2016. It is run by a team of energetic volunteers, solidly designed and fully in line with the objectives of the priority education network of which the school is a part given it's location in the industrial city of Oyonnax.
The Simone Veil primary school in Oyonnax.
Simone Veil Primary (Oyonnax)
Currently using my experience working with Virutal Reality for Education to help staff of this primary school to tell the story of their innovative use of zones and spaces to encourage different kinds of play, learning and social interaction.
All of my recent research and reading consolidated into a single document :
"Visionary culture in schools"
"Visionary Culture In Schools" is a work in progress where I assemble and publish all that I have learnt through my readings and research and my experiments in class. This document is currently presented under the following headings :
- Building a culture of excellence and belonging
- Behaviours change cultures, not values.
- Visible Learning and Visible Teaching
- Transparency and visibility install a positive school climate
- Leadership in visionary organisations
- Organisational Culture
- The optimism bias
- Telling an honest story that includes error, mistakes and failure
- A healthy relationship with error
- Transparency and flipping communication
- A blameless culture of trust
- S.M.A.R.T. goals drive change
- Students are the centre of any core value statement
- Leadership exists to facilitate and empower effective teachers
- Teachers are responsible for pupil progress
- Expressing a school’s values in terms of adolescent pupils’ needs
- 5 pedagogical practices for the creation of a culture of excellence
- Reality therapy
- Behaviorally Challenging pupils ARE an integral part of the value statement and NOT an unfortunate sub-group
- Discipline with Dignity
- Building a value statement or touchstone
- The way teachers talkHow to build a whole-school touchstone, a value statement and resources for teachers that make these behaviours happen.
- Turning values into behaviours
Well-installed rituals and expected behaviours in every lesson
My document on the organisation of lessons through rituals and expected behaviours is largely based on the empirical work of Doug Lemov in the USA. (Read it here)
Students begin work on arrival, participate 100% in the following activities and participate fully in activities designed to check for understanding and for teacher effectiveness.
An 5 minute activity projected on the whiteboard as soon as pupils arrive in order to immediately consolidate past work or announce future activities.
A flexible seating plan allows students to rapidly switch between individual, paired and group work.
This allows fluid transitions between the collective and individual that underpin the I > We > You model of lesson planning.
My website DJMyClass.com proposes tools to help randomise turn taking in order to guarantee 100% participation.
Ask a question, wait while ALL pupils build their answer, and then choose the pupil whose answer will be heard and discussed.
Students know that if I test often it is to check not only student understanding but also my effectiveness as a teacher.
If I use Plickers, QuickKey and regular questionning and quizzes it is to measure and quantify whether I have been effective with every student in the room with regards the notions seen in class.
Creation of a tool for teachers : DJMyClass.com
A platform to centralise the tools that teachers need
On DJMyClass.com I am pulling together the interactive whiteboard tools that a teacher needs to pilot a well structured lesson that guarantees the participation of all students and the pleasure of testing and checking for understanding.
Timers, pupil pickers, dice, scoring systems, interactive whiteboards, musical tools and sound effects for quizzes... it's all on DJMyClass.com
Design and delivery of language courses in higher education
When I am not teaching at the college Maria Casarès or doing consulting for the DFIE I teach English at the université Lyon 2, not least at the IUT.
It is fantastic to be able to work with such dynamic students who spend the first half of their week in company and Thursday and Friday at the university. Every day spent with them is a reminder of what my middle school students are capable of if they make the right choices.
My work at the university keeps me in touch with Lyon's university and business communities.
J'assure des formations en anglais pour des étudiants de 2ème année de DUT GEA*, qui suivent une option Gestion-Finance (1 groupe de 20 étudiants) et une option Gestion-Management (1 groupe de 28 étudiants).
Les étudiants sont tous en alternance et ont une activité salariée en lien avec leur option.
Je travaille l'expression orale à partir des sujets d'actualité et la notion de l'identité de l'entreprise afin que les étudiants puissent parler de façon argumentée, organisée et nuancée dans le style de Steve Jobs ou les 'stars' de TEDx.
* Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie en Gestion des Entreprises et des Administrations
