Facing the currently unknown

Practical Pedagogies conference, Toulouse- Doing things differently in languages

It was an absolute honour to be invited to present at the International School in Toulouse this weekend as part of the Practical Pedagogies conference. After 3 years of hard work there are a huge number of ideas that I could have shared in terms of methods we have implemented to try to stimulate, challenge and encourage curiosity in language learning. We're a long, long way from having cracked things, but hopefully we're on the right path- it's definitely an interesting one!

With huge thanks for all of those people who came along to my session, I really enjoyed the conversations we all had. If you want to try any of these things get in touch and I'll try to help as much as I can. 

 

Doing things differently- Practical Pedagogies conference, Toulouse from Route39MFL

Newton Abbot / ALL Devon languages conference, Feb 12th 2016

Hola a todos,

it's with great delight that I can finally launch on here the flyer for this academic year's Newton Abbot / ALL Devon languages conference. The last 2 years have been fantastic days, and we're delighted that this year we can continue to offer both a primary AND secondary thread- although this year's primary event will be run as a masterclass with the inspirational Sylvie Bartlett-Rawlings, a prominent primary language expert who will be joining us for the day, coming down from her school in Kent.

The secondary sessions will be keynoted by Juliet Park, a former SSAT Lead Practitioner and frequent conference presenter who has also been heavily involved with developing the new GCSE with AQA. Also joining us, and with a pleasing local emphasis this year, are Nina Elliot, Ben Rowe, Chris Wakely and myself. Chris and I will both be leading sessions which address transition and the start of secondary learning, whilst Ben, Nina and Juliet will all examine strategies to prepare students for life at the new GCSE. Juliet will also be offering a fantastic session on KS5 languages, which so often sadly gets neglected in terms of support offered.

I really look forward to this event every year as the sessions are great and the buzz and conversation is always dynamic and inspirational. So please, please come and join us for some superb learning and fun, which also happens to be fairly cheap too!

Newton Abbot conference 2015- a review

There's something very special, and very enjoyable, about being in a room packed with determined, enthusiastic language teachers. Friday was one of those special days for the second (now annual!) Newton Abbot language conference. With about 65 language teachers in the room from across the area, including both primary and secondary colleagues (and 2 head teachers) there was a really positive, determined attitude. In most cases teachers had requested to come on the course, something which I always find sets a great tone for the day.

 

I had been asked to present 2 sessions- 1 about how we have built engagement at Route 39 Academy, principally stemming from conversations that my Principal, governors and I had with a number of students before I began actually teaching in the school in order to find out how they viewed languages and how we could then improve their attitudes to the subject and to their learning.

Doing it differently, building engagement with languages (Newton Abbot conference) from Route39MFL

 

 

I was also then asked to run a session on the "new" National Curriculum, which, for me, is more about freeing up teachers than restraining them- trusting the professionals to develop an effective system for their own schools. Anyway, if there are any things that you'd like to see in more detail then yell and I'll add the relevant documents to the post.

 

 

 

Newton Abbot conference- 13th February 2015

ALL Devon Primary languages conference, Exeter, Saturday 5th July

I am delighted to FINALLY announce the details of a primary languages conference to be held at ISCA Academy on Saturday 5th July, 2014, open to everyone who wants to attend, no matter what stage you teach, or indeed where- this is not just an event for Devon schools!

The keynote will be delivered by the truly inspirational Clare Seccombe, host of Light Bulb Languages (formerly Sunderland MFL Resources). If you know anyone out there who is feeling daunted by the prospect of KS2 languages Clare will get them running to their computers, resource cupboards and classrooms overflowing with ideas to make languages work in their setting- including ideas developing literacy and numeracy strands.

We are also delighted to welcome Dominic Traynor of Spanish Boot Camp, whose dynamic, engaging style of teaching primary languages has got his students learning outside of the traditional classroom setting.

Sylvie Bartlett-Rawlings is an experienced secondary and primary languages teacher who'll be sharing a wealth of practical, realistic strategies which work.

We will also have sessions run on the day by the Goethe Institut, my co-host for the day, Kelda Richards of ISCA Academy who will be running a workshop on using iPads to support primary language learning and developing motivation without just falling into gimmicks and also students from this year's Exeter University primary PGCE cohort who will be sharing their experiences of developing Intercultural Understanding in their lessons.

But more than that we want to give delegates time in the day to meet or catch up with other primary language teachers in their area to try to devise some plots to make language learning dynamic and successful in your area.

There will also be an exhibition area containing a number of resource suppliers, offering a real range of choice to you.

The event itself will cost £30 per delegate, which will include what should be a cracking lunch. Gotta have a cracking lunch on a Saturday, tis important.

Anyway, I really hope we'll see you all there. Please download the flyer, have a read and then get involved!

Download ALL Devon Primary MFL Conference flyer

#ilic4- great ideas, great teachers, great hope

#ilic4, otherwise known as the fourth running of what used to be known as the ICT Links into Languages Conference, an idea kickstarted by 3 great people back in 2011 (Zena Hilton, Joe Dale and Jo Rhys-Jones) has grown into the country's leading conference specifically about the use of technology in languages. 

Normally I don't like talking about technology without putting it in context. However this year I was very proud to have had a say in develeloping the conference's title- "Putting the Pedagogy in the Technology". For me technology is nothing without a sound ground in understanding what it is beign used- and that purpose MUST be more than just creating bangs, whizzes and engagement through bright lights.

This time last year I felt disillusioned with teaching and I didn't go. I couldn't see the point, to be honest. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be in education any more. This year I walked through the weekend with a smile on my face. Fascinating people lead fascinating sessions and the learning conversations which ensued were both provoking and intriguing. Just the way I like them.

I have to confess that I went with a selfish shopping list of desires to supplement my previous blog post outlining the basic foundations for the department that I intend to develop over the next few months.

• Sam Broom spoke about the implementation of SOLO taxonomy in her teaching. Sam is someone I've long wanted to meet after many conversations and work on projects together over the years. It was an absolute pleasure to finally meet her, and her session was really stimulating as well. SOLO is something that, since I was first introduced to it back in 2010 by my heroes Chris Harte and Darren Mead, I have been thoroughly intrigued by. Even after having done a fair bit of reading on the subject I still wasn't sure how to use the taxonomy. Now, hopefully, I do.
• Sadie McLachlan - Flipping the MFL classroom. I want to be able to keep my students on their feet, making sure that lessons and lesson structures are varied. The school is also founded on Project Based Learning, so I want to maximise the learning time available for DOING. Flipping is a great way to do that, then allowing the following lesson to be heavily differentiated to allow those students who already understand a concept to be allowed to get on with applying their knowledge whilst extra layers of support can be provided for those who still need it. Sadie is incredibly reticent about the work that they've been doing at Wildern, yet, although she openly admits that what they have been doing isn't perfect, I actually think that it's a fantastic example for departments across the country to follow. Their use of Google Docs to gauge comprehension (many thanks to Rachel Smith as well for Flubaroo for the automated marking of Google Docs, definitely one to explore) is one that I will definitely take on board.
• Dominic McGladdery- differentiation. Dom's take on differentiation was a fascinating one, reminding us how ICT tools can be used to provide access to all. It's good to be reminded that sometimes the old classics really are the best- and I mean that as the highest praise.
• James Gardner- Edmodo. I want my students to be able to work on projects when they are not sat in front of me. I think Edmodo might fill this hole in how I've operated before due to the fact that both our IT savvy and our IT comfortable students are happy with the way that a Facebook-esque tool operates. I'm going to run a pilot group on this and see how they get on.

 

Now to take it all forward and see what I can make of the ideas- so thank you to everyone involved for a fantastic weekend. I just really, really wish I could have been to many of the other sessions- but I look forward to scouring the blogosphere in the near future to keep piling on the ideas!

Rachel Hawkes is coming to Devon!

Dr Rachel Hawkes is, without doubt, one of the most inspirational, influential,kind and generous MFL teachers in this country. She's the queen of the TES, she's the President of ALL this year and her resources are used by pretty much every department across the country at one time or another.

And she's coming to Devon.

On Friday 14th February Rachel will be presenting 2 keynotes at an Association for Language Learning conference I have had the pleasure of organising with Newton Abbot College. She will also be presenting a workshop session on "Classroom Talk- spontaneity and challenge". We are delighted that Caroline Grant and Nina Elliot, truly inspirational figures, will also be running workshops. As will I.

The focus of the day is about finding ways to empower students. How to give them the tools to interact and use language creatively, but also ideas to get the students doing the work rather than the teacher, developing their independence. Crucially, Caroline will also be running a session on differentiation to enable every student to maximise their learning potential.

It's also pretty cheap (which I like!), especially if you're already a member of ALL. It will be £90 for non-members and £30 for members, whilst for students it will be £30 for non-members and £10 for members. Non-members will receive a year's membership for signing up.

For more details and a booking form please e-mail [email protected] who has done a great job in organising the day!

Download Newton Abbot College conference February 14th 2014

  

ililc 4- Putting the pedagogy in the technology

 

Image provided by Steve Nickodemski (@senicko) 

I've always believed that technology has an important role to play in enhancing motivation and outcomes for our MFL students.

But I do not believe for one second that it is the be all and end all. In fact, more and more during the last few years I've been favouring paper options rather than technological whizzes and bangs. But that's not to say that there aren't still some fantastic things to be done- blogging, podcasting, Voicethread, Padlet, Audioboo for moblogging, loads of things...

However, next February, the 8th and 9th, Languages South East will be hosting their 4th annual ililc conference at Southampton University. The conference is founded on the ideals of implementing technology in MFL technology, but this year I'm delighted that it's taking a step back from pure technology and really putting the emphasis on reflecting on the pedagogy behind its use. 

With keynotes from Joe Dale and Clare Seccombe and workshops from some of my favourite presenters, including Amanda Salt, Isabelle Jones, Sam Broom (who I'll FINALLY get to meet after many years of fun conversations online), Lisa Stevens, Suzi Bewell and Dom Traynor, who I'm really looking forward to listening to.

The other great thing about the conference is that there's an early bird rate available for the next week (sorry I haven't got this out earlier... been a bit busy...!)

Download Ililc4 flyer

ALL Devon- Rapid-fire CPD in Plymouth: Do more!

39 language teachers all together, buzzing, sharing ideas and reinvigorating each other. On a wet, dark Thursday evening. Absolutely blinking amazing. Sorry, I should say 38 language teachers and a senior manager coming to see what all the noise he'd been hearing was actually about!

We'd decided upon 4 topics for 30 minutes of discussion as a result of the suggestions given by teachers attending previous events. And so it was that engaging boys, effective ideas for Controlled Assessments, using technology effectively and differentiation were decided upon. Not the easiest things to discuss as all of them are at the very core of what language teachers are constantly trying to develop. 

I have to say that I found writing a presentation on engaging boys and trying to encourage spontaneity both incredibly frustrating and incredibly thought-provoking in equal measures- especially as I was desperately trying to fight off generalisations and presumptions even whilst talking about generalised issues. I think I failed on that one, but hey ho. I also fear that a large number of the slides deal with very basic ideas which we all do automatically- sorry for teaching great teachers to suck eggs, it was most definitely not my intention. I'd love your additional thoughts on engaging boys, please please get in touch.

Before you even think about looking through the presentation below, please read the fantastic blog post on the subject by Jo Quatsch- a lovely person and a great teacher.

 

Adding deeper meaning- making language learning relevant and engaging, Plymouth schools, October 2013

Last Friday I was privileged to work with MFL teachers from across Plymouth on a subject that is very close to my heart. Those of you who have ever had the misfortune of chatting to me or attending any of my sessions will know that I think that we generally undersell ourselves in the MFL community.

 

How engaged would you be in discussing something which you already know about? My most pertinent anecdote deals with my first week of university (after another birthday this week that feels like a long, long time ago!). In my first small group Spanish session we were asked to introduce ourselves to the person sat next to us. We duly chatted and discovered that my new friend Nats and I came from only a few miles down the road from each other- in fact, our shared attitude to life has now lead us to still be good friends many years later. But when we walked down the corridor to our first small group French class we naturally sat next to each other. When we were told to introduce ourselves to each other again we pretty much sat in silence. Not because of any linguistic issues but simply because it felt like now we had nothing to talk about- any words we uttered felt pointless. I fear that's often the case in many MFL classrooms. So much of our teaching time is spent focusing on words and constructions to describe subjects that our students already know about- the "old school" subjects like house and home, healthy living, local area. Subjects that get dealt with at KS2 in many cases, then again at KS3 and are finally flogged to death at KS3. I know that I've always struggled to vary the content and approaches hugely between the revisitings when I've been expected to deal with them in their traditional forms. If we are to encourage engagement we need, need, need to engage our students with the content that we are dealing with- demonstrating the intercultural elements that undoubtedly grabbed all of us language teachers when we were first learning the language. When we've done that we need to actually give them the tools to get their hands dirty with the content. Language of discussion, of debate, of disagreement, of approval. 

The session also looks at a few ways to build the profile of MFL departments, following 2 strands. The first is my old drum of providing audience through blogs, podcasts, Twitter feeds and even guerrilla QR codes around the school / community. The second is something that in my current freelance role is occupying far more of my time, and which I'm incredibly passionate about- developing projects to motivate students and demonstrate how language really can be used creatively for a real world purpose. If any of the bullet points make sense and you'd like to know any more then please, please get in touch. Equally, if you've got your own ideas washing around in there, I'd love to hear them and see if we can make them become reality!