Facing the currently unknown

I need to think a bit more

I also need to think how to get pupils to think more. This year has been a real eye opener for me with regards to PLTS, incorporating thinking and reflection at the heart of everything that I build in a classroom. I’ve always enjoyed using mysteries, but I never really approached the integration of constructing and defending an argument with any concerted effort. I just love the concept of not having a right or wrong answer that things like mysteries, living graphs and odd one out exercises offer, with any answer being valid as long as you can justify it. As most people who know me would agree I enjoy a good debate (sometimes accompanied by a pint to aid things along!). But how often do we facilitate debate in our MFL classrooms until pupils reach post-16 level? It so often seems to me that the goals of generating spontaneity and creative use of language at KS3 are the same ones as we have at KS5, so why not see if we can engender a similar approach, encouraging the development of opinion and justification. Just such a shame that the whole KS4 / GCSE issue gets in the way of maintaining the momentum that so many schools are now building up in years 7, 8 and 9. Anyway, I digress. My trip at the start of the year up to Cramlington Learning Village really woke me up as to the potential for integrating thought (and sound pedagogy!) across the curriculum. So thanks to Isabelle Jones, Chris Harte, Clare Seccombe, Darren Mead and Alex Blagona for showing me just how much I have to learn!

3- The integration of technology

The title of this post is very deliberately not just “ICT”. ICT by itself, for itself is pointless to me, yet so often I get asked about what I can teach people to add “bangs and flashes” into their lessons. I just really hope that in the near future we can start to use tools with a more long term perspective, from the blogs to provide a platform for the world, with the classroom becoming a transparent space for anyone who wants to look in to a certain extent, to my beloved podcasts, but also to using tools such as Voicethread to help develop purpose for speaking and writing, especially when harnessed using a creative context. But thanks to the inspirations provided by Steve Bunce and Suzi Bewell I really want to investigate the potential of storytelling more, something I used to have great fun with in a unit where I got my year 10s to write a Christmas fairytale to perform for a primary. Again, the concept of writing and creating for a purpose with an element of the performance, all of which I see as being crucial to developing engagement levels. Although Xtranormal has introduced a charging scale, it still remains an excellent free tool even with just the basics available. The other thing that I really want to learn more about this year is Edmodo, the concept of reaching out beyond school walls using tools which are familiar to our pupils, exactly the kind of concept I’ve been presenting about for the last 4 or so years and building on my interest in using mobiles for that same reason- if that’s how they want to communicate, let’s enable them to do so.

2- reasons to be grateful for CPD

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.