Facing the currently unknown

Language World 2011

Last weekend was one of the annual highlights of the language year- Language World. Every year it turns into a crazy dash, balancing catching up with old friends from across the isles (and this year from Canada as well, well done Sylvia for making it over, wow) and trying to navigate the best path through the HUGE number of training sessions on offer by some of the best practitioners in the country.

My session on the Saturday afternoon aimed to look at how ICT can enhance the integration of creative contexts in the curriculum and how it can facilitate creative language use. Apologies for the fact that it turned into a manic gallop.

 

Creative technologies for creative contexts

View more presentations from Chris Fuller.

Language World 2011- go on, you know you want to...

Anyone who reads this blog probably knows my attitude towards the Association for Language Learning. Living in a fairly rural area, when I first started teaching I felt a bit... isolated and in need of fresh inspiration and input after the constant drip drip of my PGCE year. ALL gave me that input. I still remember one of the most eye-opening days I’ve ever been to as being an ALL Spanish day at Canning House in London, probably in 2007, maybe even 2006. The keynote was given by Paul Keogh, the then teacher of the year. And wow did he blow my mind, showing so much relaxed enjoyment in what he did, and I have no doubt whatsoever that his learners loved it too.

Living down here in Devon means that sadly I don’t get to many of the superb ALL London days. This year I was honoured to take part in the brilliant ALL West of England conference alongside such luminaries as Chris Harte and Greg Horton. And in the near future I’m really excited to be giving my first Language World presentation.

Last year was the first time I’ve managed to make it for the whole weekend of a Language World, partially thanks to the very kind accommodation provided by the lovely Suzi Bewell. And I loved it. With sessions by the mighty Rachel Hawkes, Juliet Park, Wendy Adeniji and my former PGCE tutor, Anna Lise Gordon I came away refreshed and reinvigorated.

But Language World’s more than that. It’s also about the people. It’s about meeting likeminded individuals and sharing experiences. It’s about demystifying some of “the greats”- actually getting to talk to some of our language-learning heroes like Helen Myers, Linda Parker, Joe Dale, Lisa Stevens etc. And it’s about having fun. The conference dinner last year was one of the most amusing evenings I’ve had in a long time. Many a cup of coffee was accompanied by many a biscuit and many a laugh was shared. So thanks again to everyone who was there- and thanks in advance for those on Friday 7^th July and Saturday 8^th at Imperial College, London. With the likes of Vincent Everett and Isabelle Jones adding to some of the names I’ve already mentioned above it should be a great couple of days. I'll be running a session about creative technologies for creative contexts, about how ICT can enhance our efforts to move away from the "traditional" topics- but if I were you I'd actually skip my session (I know, what an admission!) and go to Vincent's. I'm gutted I can't go as it's on at the same time as mine. Hey ho.

If you haven’t already signed up, click here for lots of details, and if you’re still not sure, have a look at the programme below. And please, please come and say hi.

Download Programme Language World 2011

 

Keeping the #ililc buzz going: ALL West of England conference

For those of you who braved my previous post I think it came through rather clearly how much I value the concept of mutual support for teachers. Sadly, as Joe Dale stated in his opening keynote at #ililc, the days of teachers being able to get out (reasonably) easily to training events seems to be on the way out, leaving us to find alternative ways to keep enthusing ourselves and finding the best ways to motivate our learners and ensuring their learning is of the highest possible quality. Twitter and the online communities have a role, but there's nothing like that face-to-face experience.

Which is why yet again I think A.L.L. stands to be a key part of the next few years for language teachers. Yes it might require commitment, but I think many people are prepared to give up a morning if it’s going to reinvigorate them and if it’s also going to make the following period actually that little bit easier. I’ve tried on a few occasions to get a network going down here in Devon, but alas poor timing and huge distances have made that difficult... so far (plans are afoot... again, but hopefully with a bit more OOMPH).

But the West Country does have one branch which is very much alive, in the form of the West of England branch. And the time approaches for their fantastic West of England Conference, which this year is to be held at Bradley Stoke Community School, just north of Bristol, on Saturday 12th March. Although I will be presenting I still think it has the potential to be a cracking morning, especially as both Greg Horton (the brains behind Group Talk, a great way to get pupils speaking for real) and Chris Harte (anyone who reads this blog will know how much he’s inspired me over the last year or so) will be stepping up to the mark. So please, please download the following form, come along and let’s keep the buzz going.

Download West of England ALL conf

MFL Show n Tell, North Devon

MFL Show n Tell is coming to North Devon at 6.30pm on Thursday, 8th July and this is a call to arms for YOU to get involved!

The free event opens its doors at Boston Tea Party, Barnstaple to hear what's been going well in your department and for you to share with colleagues any creative or innovative teaching that you've been involved with! Show n Tell also provides a great opportunity to meet up with other language teachers across all levels- this is an event for primary, secondary and FE, an event for people who want to get more out of their teaching and an event to celebrate the great work that's going on in the area. Made any exciting KS3 changes for the new curriculum? Making great progress with 6th form teaching? What've you done to deal with the transition "issue"? What do your pupils enjoy? Worked on any creative projects? Sign up and tell us about them!

Show n Tell is a quickfire event. You can sign up at www.mflshowntell.wikispaces.com to do either a 7 minute presentation, a 2 miniute nano-presentation or alternatively to be an enthusiastic lurker. And if you lurk this time, maybe we'll be able to persuade you to stand at the front next time round. Even if you don't think you've got anything to add to the conversation, you most definitely do!

But MFL Show n Tell isn't just about the presentations, CPD at a time when so often we can't get out of school to go to training events. It's also about having the opportunity to meet other local teachers, catch up with friends and find out that you're not alone! It's a social event, and thanks to the support of the Association for Language Learning and Links into Languages we'll be able to offer plenty of snacks and free wine and soft drinks (at the moment it's looking like 2 free glasses of wine or soft drinks each).

And all you have to do is sign up, as I said at www.mflshowntell.wikispaces.com. On the left hand side you'll find a section for North Devon to take you to the sign-up page for the Barsntaple event.

When you're ready, choose whether you want to sign up for a 7 minute presentation, a 2 minute nano presentation or if you just want to be an enthusiastic lurker. It's really, really important that if you're planning on coming that you sign up- this will allow us to have enough drinks and snacks ready for everyone but it will also allow us to personalise the night for everyone as much as possible!

To sign up simply click on the word EDIT in the top-righ hand corner (see below) and add your name, a presentation topic, where you teach and any twitter or blog addresses you might have. And then press SAVE and you're done!

So please, please get involved, spread the word and let's have a great night! Although we have the support of ALL, Links into Languages and Vital (who have kindly agreed to help spread the word, in particular with regards to supporting technological innovation in the area and are keen to meet all you lovely folk), this remains an event for teachers by teachers- so if you fancy getting involved with the running of the event as well then get in touch!

    


 

 

Vida Latina- think differently

I didn’t really know what to expect at Aston University on Saturday for the joint ALL and Links into Languages day Vida Latina. I’d been asked to present on the theme of how my travels around South America would influence the way I approached material when I finally manage to return to the classroom. Now this was asking me to reflect on something that is intensely personal, both the lessons learnt from experiences during our 3 months away but also upon how I want to re-embrace classroom education. What I ultimately found, yet again, was that by sharing with others I was yet again inspired by those around me. My session really was just a simple outpouring of reinterpretations, most definitely not of any groundbreaking nature. But if they got anyone thinking then hopefully I did my job!

I admit that John Connor’s chosen topic of Eva Perón wouldn’t necessarily have been one which would have drawn me to attend if it had been a larger, open choice conference. And yet so many of his words and overall tone resonated hugely. One of the issues that I have always found in our exam-theme-obsessed world is how to focus on what John described as the “language of speculation and contemplation”. This argumentative tone which forms the basis of our everyday interactions in our own mother tongue but which so rarely appear in the scenario-driven world of the “traditional” MFL classroom. To again quote John, he stated that he was looking to promote “meanings that matter, disputational language” through the promotion of a language toolkit as soon as pupils enter in year 7 in the form of a core list of phrases. My personal favourite was undoubtedly “en tus sueños”- in your dreams.

Download Spanish Toolkit

This key emphasis on transferrable phrases has been the subject of great work out there over the last few years, but here it was being delivered to me just at a time when I needed it- so thank you, John. One last comment really hit home as well, when discussing an interview with a pupil a few years ago about his approach to the cognitive level required in language lessons. “It’s hard, but it’s not challenging.” Says it all, really.

The only other session I managed to take in (unfortunately I had to leave early in order to return to Devon ready for the Bideford half marathon on Sunday) was the as-ever ideas-zinging of Liz Hitchcock of the British Council and Lisa Stevens of... well, Whitehouse Common Primary School, A.L.L., Apple and pretty much everywhere, really. In my previous school international links were a major weakness with obstacles thrown in my path every time I attempted to champion their importance. A nice link with somewhere in Patagonia would go down rather well, I think...

One Man, One Toy

View more presentations from Chris Fuller.

 

Climate zones

Download Los dominios bioclimáticos- paises with map but mountains

Download Los grandes dominios bioclimáticos- for map with mountains

 

Development

Download Devpt factors cards

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

A.L.L. London event and A.G.M.

A you can see from the few photos below, on Saturday I was fortunate enough to make the trek up from Devon to London in order to attend the A.L.L. London event, followed by the Association's A.G.M..

A.L.L. give language teachers a fantastic opportunity to meet and share ideas, concerns and experiences with each other, and the London branch really do it par excellence. I was fortunate enough to attend a session on Alternative Accreditations hosted by the ever-interesting Nick Mair (which also gave me an opportunity to meet one of my Google-Readered bloggers, Leanne Simmonds). Seeing as how we've started languages here aged 3, I was really interested in finding out whether any real work had gone into the assessment of MFL under the new entitlement. By the time my Year 1s reach Year 6, their level will be fantastic, so how do you show them how well they're doing? The session looked, amongst others, at Asset Languages, which along with the Language Ladder look like the best bet for future use. But are they right for the primary setting? We'll see- all ideas welcome!!

The second session was hosted by Leslie Walsh, a typically energetic and idea-packed session from her, presented under pressurised circumstances- having Stephane Derone watching can't be easy!! I sawg seen Leslie at the Isle of Wight conference which really got me kickstarted along this road, on a day when my head was already packed with ideas, so this session really made far more of an impact, in particular some great IWB ideas.

THe A.G.M. revealed that the Association is in very promising health. With a forthcoming move of Headquarters to the University of Leicester putting the main office in a position of greater prestige, and with Routledge recently having taken over publishing of the journals, the future looks bright. Routledge's publishing deal, in particular, should provide a huge boost, both in terms of increased diffusion and quality, an aspect which editor Richard Littlejohns has worked very hard at.

Linda Parker also announced the very exicting news that A.L.L. will be playing an active role in the DfES secondary curriculum review for languages, placing the Association at the heart of developments- exactly where it belongs as one of the most active subject associations in the land.

All in all, a fascinating day, with huge thanks to Helen Myers in particular for a typically well organised day! My only apology is that it's taken so long to blog about it- I lost my notebook and it's only just turned up!!!

And then came the AGM. I've never been to one before, for anything, so I was really interested in what it would be. Basically, A.L.L. is going through a very positive phase. Having been heavily involved in the Dearing review consultation process,

Language World 2007

I am now dramatically regretting my decision not to go to this year's Language World in OXford, 30-31 March. I took the decision a few months ago, knowing how exhasuted I would be by this stage in term. For once, I listened to the sensible parrot on my shoulder, rather than the mildly crazy one. Eek. I wouldn't actualy have been able to make it as things've turned out, but hey ho- wish I could!

Having just looked at the line-up, it is excellent- especially given my current line of investigation, in particular with wikis and mobile phones. Ewan McIntosh will no doubt end up stealing the show for many, and I look forward to seeing another wave of blogs being set up as a result! Wendy Adenji is a fantastic speaker, and the list goes on- all of which ends up creating a sense of excitement to get back into the classroom and try these things out. I remember the painful drive back from the Isle of Wight in OCtober- 5 or so hours on the way back to North Devon just wanting to sit down with my laptop and play around! And that was supposedly a small conference!

But more importantly than that in some ways, Language World is an opportunity to meet kindred spirits, to share ideas, worries, succeses. Anna-Lise Gordon, my fantastic PGCE tutor a few years ago (man I owe her so so much!)- making new contacts which far outstretch the duration of the conference itself. I'm so grateful for, amongst others, Joe Dale and Paul Harrington, cos sometimes you just need to share ideas and ask the ridiculous question. You'll meet those kind of people at Language World.

So to all those people who are wavering, have the energy, have the opportunity or are just thinking about it, save yourself the time and just do. I'll be with you in spirit, and wish I could be there in body!

If you are an NQT, or still doing your PGCE, then there may well still be some free spots up for grabs- e-mail sheilaj@all-languages.org.uk to find out!!

http://www.all-languages.org.uk for more details

Enjoy