And so it's official! Joe Dale's just unveiled plans for this year's exciting Isle of Wight conference, to be held on Saturday 13th October. I say exciting for 2 reasons- 1) the line-up looks fascinating and 2) cos I'm going to be part of it! The fascinating part of 1) refers, however, to the fact that in many ways I wish I could go and see all the other sessions!!!
I'll be running 2 sessions, the first under the title, "A blogger's life, a year in the life of a Web 2.0 beginner", detailing my learning curve since the conference last year, including learning how to use tools such as blogs, podcasts, wikis and digital video. The second will be a hands-on blogging session, learning about more potential uses for using a blog in the classroom setting, before getting down to playing around with experimenting on a blog for yourself.
Last year I decided to go to the conference because a) it sounded interesting but probably more importantly b) I could pop in and visit my sister in Southampton, who I hardly ever see given that I'm in Devon. I am so, so glad that I did, because my teaching's pretty much transformed since. I'm not a techno-geek, hey, I only learnt the basics of how to use PowerPoint 3 years ago, so... But what's more important in many ways is that it's fun being able to experiment in what is still a very new educational field, try out new things, and, crucially, watch the looks of enjoyment, and feel the developed sense of learning which constantly comes from my pupils.
Anyway... the other speakers will be;
Speakers include:
- Rachel Hawkes – Director of Languages, Comberton Village College and SSAT languages lead practitioner. I've never seen her talk, but her and Leigh's session at ALL London in January seemed to go down really well, and have heard some HUGELY positive feedback from it.
- Leigh McClelland – Head of German, Comberton Village College
- Lesley Welsh – AST in MFL, English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College and SSAT languages lead practitioner coordinator. I've seen Lesley talk a few times, and she's great! Full of useful ideas to go straight off to put into your teaching.
- Oscar Stringer - animator and filmmaker South Street Productions- prepare yourself for one of the most fun sessions you'll ever have.
- Lisa Stevens - Spanish teacher, Whitehouse Common Primary School, and constantly full of great ideas from what I can gather from the NING talkabout Primary MFL group.
- Joe Dale - leader of French, Nodehill Middle School, SSAT languages lead practitioner. Don't really think I need to say anything, but simply inspirational!!
So there we go. Please don't be put off by the simple fact that the conference is on an island, yes it might involve a wee bit of travelling, but it really really will be worth it- your main problem will be not being able to get to a computer quick enough after the session to get experimenting!!!
