I personally think that we’re currently really, really lucky with all the opportunities that are available to us for training and for developing ourselves as professionals and knowledgeable practitioners. Despite the fact that CPD budgets across the country are never quite enough, despite the fact that people can so rarely get out of school to attend workshops, despite the fact that we remain unsure as to the future of Links into Languages, who I think are now starting to do a cracking job in certain parts of the country, I’m convinced that in 2010 I learnt far more from informal sources than I did from formal ones.
1) Blogs are, to me, the richest source of detail and good practice that I know. I’m not going to pretend that I always sit down to work my way through my Google Reader account with relish, yes, sometimes I skim, but there’s always a gem out there waiting to be found with one of the many teachers or consultants who I deeply respect sharing their experiences about something that really works.
2) Twitter. Mmm. A year ago I really would’ve scoffed if you’d have told me that my fastest learning tool would be twitter, the land of celebrity adulation and sporting outbursts. But twitter has allowed me to really expand my horizons, taking me from being a language teacher and consultant down here in North Devon to someone who is able to immediately communicate both nationally and globally with teachers of all subjects. But in a way what it’s really served to do is to strengthen bonds with folks I already knew and got to see every now and then at various events, inspirations such as José Picardo, Mark Pentleton, Alex Blagona, Joe Dale, John Connor, Helena Butterfield but also making new contacts such as the constantly impassioned Alex Bellars. So in short, a big thank you to Jo Rhys-Jones, Lisa Stevens and Ian Addison for nagging me and then inspiring me!
3) MFL Resources is a must for all language teachers. The free Yahoo Group is full of such generous teachers that, even though you can choose to ignore swathes of material, there are still some great pieces of advice and resources on offer. So many, many thanks to its wonderful creator and moderator, Helen Myers and to all who contribute to it.
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