Facing the currently unknown

Resource wiki

Howdy one and all,

given that as I announced a while ago I'm not going to be in the classroom all that much this year I thought it would be ludicrous just to keep all my resources locked up in my computer. As such I've uploaded a few bits and bobs (all Spanish I'm afraid) to www.chrisfuller.wikispaces.com . Nothing amazing at all I'm afraid and there's probably a few oddities in there (deleted a few homework slides but there are probably more odds and ends still in there!!!)

Hope they're useful to someone and hope everyone's enjoying their hols...

2 fires, 1 fatality and a merger

The title above refers to what has happened in my school during the course of the 4 years that I've been teaching. It's been a hell of a difficult rollercoaster at times, but I've now had my final day at Edgehill College.

 

I've been very, very lucky with the many opportunities which have come my way during those 4 years- from being a Lead Practitioner for the SSAT to working for the BBC to presenting at various conferences. More enjoyable, though, in many ways, has been having the opportunity to work closely with some of the most inspiring teachers that practise in this country- the likes of Joe Dale, Neil Jones, Alex Blagona, Lisa Stevens, Lesley Welsh, Rachel Hawkes, Steph Hopkins, all of whom have made a huge impression on me, along with many, many other fantastic teachers and people.

Nonetheless, I'm not planning on heading straight into another job in September. After the last 4 tough years my wife and I are heading off to South America for a bit, making the most of an opportunity to really experience the world. So if anyone has any advice on Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru or Cuba then feel free to share it!!

I often start my training sessions by explaining that I often have a shorter concentration span than many of my pupils, and I guess this may well be another example of that. I've gone as far as I could at Edgehill and in many ways run out of verve. That probably explains my lack of blogging and new ideas recently as well. But it's a strange thing reading about "new" things on other blogs which I first read about and tried a goodly while ago. But in the same measure that same point is invigorating- seeing how far the word of the blog has spread and how far its possibilities have continued to expand.

So in September 2010 I may well be back... I confused quite a lot of people on facebook the other day by announcing that I may have taught my last lesson as a teacher- which is true. But equally it may not. So I will probably still pop up occasionally at the odd event next year, so please come and say hi. But until then I'll be working on 2 things which may be of interest- I intend to write a GCSE level blog, in Spanish, during my travels (which I'll publish the address of) and am in the process of uploading any half-decent resources onto a wiki for people to take. So don't consider this my last post- hopefully it will just be a springboard to reinvigoration!!

Until then, thank you all for all of your support, encouragement and fun and have a great summer!

Apologies for not writing more

Hello there one and all,

firstly can I just apologise for not having written in ages. I've been so, so lucky this year in my role as a Lead Practitioner to have seen some AMAZING practitioners at work or sharing their ideas. The only problem with that is that you end up seeing things other people are doing and convincing yourself that everyone else must be doing things better than you are yourself. Odd really...

Anyway, I've also been feeling that this blog is getting a bit too... just ICT focused. Please don't get me wrong, I love using ICT to enhance my teaching and the learning of my pupils. I think it offers us huge leaps forwards in many areas- but it's only useful IF it's the right tool for the task. I think that Jose Picardo's fantastic recent musings were bang on the money on this front, and well worth a read- thank you Jose. But when you're not sure what people are already doing, it then becomes hard to share more traditional type ideas on  a blog. However, I shall endeavour to do so- brain gym, stand up sit down and many other fun games and beyond...

I hereby promise to try to do better- at least for the few months that I'll still be in the country for... (more on that anon!)

Exeter University, 7th March

Many thanks to all of those people who gave up their Saturday mornings to hear Nick Mair and I present last weekend. I'll do my best to put some of Nick's materials up soon, but until then here's my sniffly effort!!

Given that it was quite a flying overview at times, if there are any points that you'd like more details on or help with, please feel free to get in touch.

Cheers!

Presentation for Exeter University and A.L.L.

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Exeter, 7th March- an A.L.L. event

 

Howdy everyone, apologies for not having written in ages, the world seems to have been taken over by a mixture of legging it all around the place to talk at conferences, pushing my year 11s as hard as possible and then desperately trying to get my tough year 12s to actually do some work. Hey ho, the wonders of teaching!

 

Anyway, over the last few years I've attempted a number of times to get some A.L.L activity happening down here in Devon, and the event below is my latest endeavour...

 

E-Mail, He Male: Motivating boys through ICT

Free event to get A.L.L. Devon rolling again!

Saturday, 7^th March

Tea and coffee from 10.00

St Lukes campus, University of Exeter

For more details or to confirm attendance (it would be useful to be able to gauge numbers) please contact Chris Fuller on Mrfulleredgehill@yahoo.co.uk

10.30 – 11.15: ICT- Thinking outside of the classroom box

Chris Fuller

Effective ways to use ICT to motivate and to enhance learning, both inside and outside of your classroom walls. Using simple but highly effective tools such as blogs, podcasts and even mobile phones to add a further dimension to your teaching and learning, and, crucially, giving pupils access to learning well beyond your classroom walls.

Chris is Head of Spanish at Edgehill College, Bideford, and a Lead Practitioner for the SSAT

11.30 – 12.15: Gender Differences in MFL Learning and teaching: His is bigger but hers is better connected Nick Mair

His is bigger but hers is better connected – how what we know about gender differences in the brain should change our everyday teaching.  Take a journey into the fascinating world of Nick Mair to find out useful, practical ways to capitalise on boys’ brains in order to enhance MFL learning. 

Nick is head of languages at Dulwich College, London,  and also Chairman of ISMLA

Exeter, 7th March- an A.L.L. event

 

Howdy everyone, apologies for not having written in ages, the world seems to have been taken over by a mixture of legging it all around the place to talk at conferences, pushing my year 11s as hard as possible and then desperately trying to get my tough year 12s to actually do some work. Hey ho, the wonders of teaching!

 

Anyway, over the last few years I've attempted a number of times to get some A.L.L activity happening down here in Devon, and the event below is my latest endeavour...

 

E-Mail, He Male: Motivating boys through ICT

Free event to get A.L.L. Devon rolling again!

Saturday, 7^th March

Tea and coffee from 10.00

St Lukes campus, University of Exeter

For more details or to confirm attendance (it would be useful to be able to gauge numbers) please contact Chris Fuller on Mrfulleredgehill@yahoo.co.uk

10.30 – 11.15: ICT- Thinking outside of the classroom box

Chris Fuller

Effective ways to use ICT to motivate and to enhance learning, both inside and outside of your classroom walls. Using simple but highly effective tools such as blogs, podcasts and even mobile phones to add a further dimension to your teaching and learning, and, crucially, giving pupils access to learning well beyond your classroom walls.

Chris is Head of Spanish at Edgehill College, Bideford, and a Lead Practitioner for the SSAT

11.30 – 12.15: Gender Differences in MFL Learning and teaching: His is bigger but hers is better connected Nick Mair

His is bigger but hers is better connected – how what we know about gender differences in the brain should change our everyday teaching.  Take a journey into the fascinating world of Nick Mair to find out useful, practical ways to capitalise on boys’ brains in order to enhance MFL learning. 

Nick is head of languages at Dulwich College, London,  and also Chairman of ISMLA

Dartington MFL conference

I just wanted to apologiseto everyone who was at the Devon MFL conference at dartington on Friday for my inepitutde with my laptop. I still don't understand why the .mp3s and videos weren't playing, but I've put one of the role-play raps below.

If you do want to give anything a try, please yell if you want any help or just to tell me how well you've done!

Thanks again for all your support and kind comments and I hope you found it interesting

Download Lost Property

Dartington- Devon MFL conference

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ISMLA presentation

Howdy there,

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your support in Cheltenham on Saturday- I was very impressed with how people all managed to stay awake even at the end of a long day, it was much appreciated and I hope some of the points I made were interesting.

ISMLA presentation

Sara Sullivan's fluffy Christmas cracker...

If you ever get the chance to go to a Sara Sullivan event, please please go. I travelled up from Devon to Chelmsford in Essex for what turned out to not only be an amazing lesson in MFL teaching but also the best how-to guide for organising a training event that I think I've ever experienced. Party bags?!!!!

Anyway, Sara asked me to come up with my top 7 ICT hints (in line with Andy Hodgkinson / Rachel Hawkes' work on the brain's capacity for retaining 7 key items). Alas my iriver ran out of battery for the 2nd part of my session, but here's my key thoughts on my top 2 hints- blogging and podcasting.

2 Fluffy Ideas for Sara Sullivan- ICT in MFL

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Neil Jones' SSAT seminar day

It's been a real pleasure working very closely with the inspirational Neil JOnes over the last few months. However, it's been an absolute nightmare creating the slidecast below of his presentation from the National Army museum. A mixture of huge technical difficulties and reducing down his 267 slides (?!?!?!) into a manageable number for Slideshare has been...problematic. As such, I apologise for the delay, but promise you that it will be worthwhile!

Given the fact that I've had to chop a large number of slides out to make the audio and slides sync (and still didn't manage it 100% successfully at times, sorry!), I've uploaded the full ppt below as well for you to download and canibalise!

Neil Jones, cross-curricular MFL, 5.12.08

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Download SSAT Presentation CROSS CURRICULAR THEMES Dec 2008