Facing the currently unknown

ALL Devon- getting a bit more CPD old school in Plymouth

Howdy all,

after the immense success of the last #MFLDevon event in Exeter at the start of October, it's time to shift back down to Plymouth. Having run 2 MFL Teachmeets in the area we felt teachers might appreciate a slightly calmer approach this time round. So, having taken comments from delegates during the last 2 events, Caroline Grant and I have put together an evening on Thursday 7th November at Eggbuckland Community College, Plymouth of 4 x 30 minute sessions with topics to hopefully stimulate and help. Most importantly, tickets are free. And available from http://bit.ly/PlymouthNov13 . This probably won't be such a big event as the previous 2, but absolutely the more the merrier- as part of the success of the evening won't just be down to the presentations themselves but the interactions and follow-up discussions which will hopefully allow everyone present to go away with plenty of practical ideas to implement.

OK, the course of the evening...

5pm- arrive and drink tea / wine. And hopefully munch on a few biscuits.

5.15- presentation 1: me (darn it, was hoping not to this time!). Approaches to help develop spontaneity, but leaning towards focusing on getting boys involved and active

5.45- presentation 2: Sophie Nicholson (South Dartmoor Community College)- ideas for improving the conduct of Controlled Assessments

6.15- break to refill glasses / mugs / biscuit supplies

6.25- presentation 3: Ben Rowe (Saltash.net)- embedding technology and not just for the sake of it

7.00- presentation 4: Caroline Grant (Eggbuckland Community College)- differentiation that works for everyone

If you can't make it on the evening but would like to follow along online then please feel free to. We'll be using the Twitter hashtag #MFLDevon again. The more interactions the richer the evening will be for one and all.

Finally, a big thank you yet again to Vocab Express for helping to make this event a reality!

 

#TLT13- a day of true inspiration by true inspirers

I'm not eloquent enough to fully do justice to yesterday's Teaching and Learning Takeover at Southampton University, so to be honest I'm not even really going to try. There will no doubt be many a detailed blog post by people who are far better positioned to adequately comment on and describe the array of fantastic ideas which were shared and pedagogy which was discussed. Any day where two of my favourite recent reads, Ron Berger's Ethic of Excellence and Hywel Roberts' Oops, receive prominent, and repeated mentions is a day that is bound to get my brain buzzing.

From the empassioned welcome to the day by Jamie Portman every person in the room was encouraged to share, discuss, propose and ponder, to move ideas from one person's brain to lots of people's classrooms, to develop and to inspire. But also, as has happened within our language sphere with the Ililc movemenet, to spread the word, draw people in and really have a lasting impact rather than just having one good day which then evaporates.

My 3 favourite ideas to take away

1. Ribbons (bet you didn't see that one coming). I loved the simplicity of an idea which I'll blog about in a moment and which I can see having a really interesting use in a languages classroom.
2. Chris Waugh's fascinating ideas on how to get his community involved with developing his English department. They held a town meeting to hear what students, parents and the wider community thought should form the basis of their department. Teachers then went away and came up with learning modules for the students to choose from, each teacher providing details about content, predominant teaching style and difficulty level. This really sparked a bit of thinking from the MFL community in the room, Alex Bellars, Rachel Smith and myself about our own teaching interests- me with culture, Rachel who'd love to get stuck in to a bit of literature early doors and Alex with a whole variety of passions. It struck me that it's so true, most departments really are such a varied community of styles, approaches and thoughts that we steer in one homogenous direction. sadly, the organisational, timetabling elements of this concept would immediately lead to a very interesting idea being struck down by pretty much every school I could imagine. For far more read www.edutronic.net where all of the project's documents are available.
3. Google Doc tracking. A fair few of us talked about being slightly wobbly-kneed at being in the same physical space as people whose blogs and Twitter-feeds inspire us so constantly. For me, meeting David Rogers, a man I've interacted with many times over the years and whose Geography teaching has long fascinated me, was a real highlight of the day. Listening to him present about assessment and feedback sparked all sorts of things in my brain. Tracking is something that I know I need to develop. Google Docs are something that I love, the ease of use and the fact that they become living documents amongst departments rather than, for example, Schemes of Learning, becoming simply archived, dusty and static documents hidden in a shared folder but "only editable by the HoD". Tracking through a Google Doc? Definitely one to explore more.

One other thing that I will really take away from yesterday was how many linguists were there. The English community undoubtedly predominated, with the scientists probably not too far behind (nice to see Devon strongly represented by Karen). But to have 7 MFL teachers in the room was a really pleasant surprise, and sparked some really intriguing conversations to take forward...

Last things last but they should've been first- a huge thank you to my good buddy Dave Fawcett and to Jen Ludgate who it was really lovely to meet. It was a huge undertaking and boy you both did it well!

David Stowell at Manchester United TV- a true friend

I'm very proud to consider David Stowell a very close friend.

I also hate him with a passion for having a fantastic, fascinating job. Dave is a commentator for MUTV, the TV channel connected to Manchester United FC. Oh, and he does bits and pieces for Sky Sports. 

He's also a linguist. In fact, that was one of the deciding factors that got him the job at Old Trafford. He speaks French, Spanish and a wee bit of German, all of which have been put to the test over the years when interviewing players. 

And this post is very simply a huge thanks to Dave. He recorded a video for me from Old Trafford to inspire the students who came along to St James' Park in Exeter today for the iPad event that I was hosting there. It was, to put it simply, inspirational. And the students told me that as well. Alas we're not able to share the video for all sorts of complicated reasons, BUT if you do teach in the Manchester area and would like to inspire your students, get in touch and I'll put you in contact with him- he's brill, and I'm very proud indeed of him!

MFL Devon- the next steps for the term ahead

Following the success of MFL Devon's Teachmeet in June, Caroline Grant from Eggbuckland, Kelda Richards from ISCA and I have been desperately trying to finalise details for exciting language events down here in Devon for the term ahead.

The feedback we received on the night told us 2 main things- to focus events on Thursday evenings and that teachers are craving a huge range of additional input.

As such, we are delighted to announce 2 events for this term, both supported by the Association for Language Learning and Vocab Express.

1) TM MFL Exeter- Thursday, 3rd October, 5.00-7.30, ISCA Media College, Exeter- sign up here!

2) A rapid-fire CPD evening, 4 x 30 minute sessions, with speakers to be confirmed soon. If you would like to influence the choice of topics, or to present get in touch!- Thursday 7th November, 5.00 - 7.30, Eggbuckland Community College, Plymouth. To attend, please add your name to the sign-up list here. We will confirm speakers by the week after the Teachmeet at the latest.

If there are other events that you'd like to see being developed, please feel free to get in touch. For example, if the thought of a return to the days of having a Devon MFL conference in June / July sounds interesting, yell- it will take a lot of organising but could be fantastic!

MFL Teachmeet Plymouth- 27th June

Time for some fun, MFL teachers of Plymouth. And Devon. And beyond!

An MFL Teachmeet is coming to Plymouth on Thursday 27th June- to Eggbuckland Community College, to be precise, with huge thanks to the wonderful Caroline Grant (those of you on MFL Resources will know her name very well indeed thanks to her generous contribution of resources!). A Teachmeet is a relaxed evening, giving you the opportunity to catch up with people and to meet some more fascinating MFL people. We all know how rare the opportunity to get out to training is these days, so let's make the most of this evening!

Teachmeets are not like traditional INSET events. You're in control. Oh, and you can be the presenter. There are no keynotes, just people sharing experiences, explaining what's worked in their classroom recently. You can talk about a strategy that you've used, an attempt at using CLIL in your department, how you've used Twitter, an idea to increase spontaneity, a grammar trick, a website you've tried, an app, a gadget, whatever you want- as long as it's all about the wonders of Modern Foreign Languages. Anything that will help to make a difference to someone's teaching and learning. 

People invariably tell me that they don't have anything to talk about. I can understand that. It's nerve-racking standing up in front of 20 likeminded, supportive teachers who understand your day to day struggles, far more so than standing up in front of groups of 30 students 5 times a day. You all do great things in your classroom, it's time to be proud of them, so share and help others improve what they're doing as well!

If you are interested in taking part in this exciting evening, PLEASE PLEASE SIGN UP on the wiki here to do one of the following 3 things...

1) a 7 minute presentation. You can do it however you want, using whatever tools you want.

2) a 2 minute micro-presentation. Again, about whatever you want on the theme of MFL!

3) Lurk. Catch up with people, drink and eat and be merry, enjoying the opportunity to hear about other people's experiences and to relax amongst likeminded folks. And maybe next time you might present. And yes, there will be a next time...!

Not sure? Need more details? Interested in helping out? There are lots more details on the wiki and I'd love to hear from you, so please get in touch- on e-mail using [email protected] or Twitter @chrisfullerisms

Time to get active

As I put in my last post, I've spent a fair amount of time writing. I've been writing the 2 grammar workbooks, along with other course materials, indulging my passion for creating materials to stimulate minds!

However, now that spring is gradually arriving, so I too am beginning to feel reinvigorated. I had been worried that I was losing my passion for things- a facet of my personality that those of you who know me would appreciate is one of my driving features! But a few things have happened recently, and a few people have intervened (notably the wonderfully kind Suzi Bewell) to leave me itching to get back out more and working more with schools and more training groups again- it's time to be more active. More is the word. More campaigning for CLIL and developing opportunities for spontaneity, more boosting the case of letting our students do the work, more championing the appropriate use of creative technologies and more learning from other people. More creativity, more fun.

 So watch this space over the next few weeks, hopefully for news of a few projects I've got up my sleeve and a few training ideas I've got swishing around in my noggin. And if you fancy being active and positive too then get in touch. With all the cuts and disappearances that have taken place recently if we want something to happen we really need to do it ourselves!

It only takes a minute to win it- so let's not waste any minutes!

My brief for a training session today was to come up with something Olympic focused... Well, I sort of bent the line a tiny bit to focus on one of the things that I'm currently worried about- how us teachers start lessons.  Our learners drift in from PE, or come in having stared at Maths questions blankly for an hour, or bounce in wanting to talk about the explosions in Science. But how do we get them focused on OUR lesson, on our goals? Hopefully here are some ideas of mine and some shared by the fantastic #MFLtwitterati on twitter. But please please add more comments below about ideas that you use and then we can all learn more!

So here it is- when training every minute really does count- and the same's true in our lessons.

 

It only takes a minute slideshare

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

 

West of England conference 2011, #Bristall

Huge thanks are due to the fantastic Marie-France Perkins and the ALL team in the Bristol area for organising this year's West of England conference. Any conference that can cram in the ideas of Greg Horton, encouraging teachers to think about how students can say what they want to say and not just how they can jump through hoops, and then Chris Harte, with his calls for a simple rethink of how we view language teaching, gets a huge thumbs up from me. But mighty intimidating to be on the same bill, I'll tell you. Well worth the early start and the bleary eyes by the time I got home, though!

Anyway, although I was presenting about developing independence at post-16 level I wanted to engage delegates about why we currently leave so many of the skills that we want to develop for the AS and A2 exams for that manic year 12 period rather than addressing them from the outset of year 7. After all, our pupils want to be able to say what they think, even if we consider what they are saying to be... odd. With the wonders of Intercultural Understanding growing in departments across the country and with PLTS becoming embedded we need to find ways to facilitate debate, comment and query- in exactly the same way as we have always tried to do, and need to do, for post-16 success. So why wait?

Anyway, see what you think and I'd love your comments / suggestions!

  

West of england conference 2011 #Bristall

View more presentations from Chris Fuller.

My contribution to the great #ililc debate- but is there any debate?

Rather than saying my thanks at the end of this post, I think it’s fitting given that we’re in awards season to put them at the beginning. To Zena Hilton and also to Joe Dale and Jo Rhys-Jones can I please say a huge, huge thank you. Last weekend at the University of Southampton for the ICT Links into Languages conference was the best teaching event I’ve been to in many, many years. It continued the fantastic spirit of the Isle of Wight conferences in that every presentation was relevant, of the highest quality but also, and crucially for me, sparked off learning conversations. Teachers were discussing pedagogy, not just methodology- the why and not just the “how?!”. There was no separation of presenter and delegate and no whizzes and bangs for the sake of it- everything was about the learning. About the impact of the 2 days I don’t think there can possibly be any debate. I just wish I’d got the chance to listen to Isabelle Jones, to Alex Blagona or to Suzi Bewell but alas there really just wasn’t time to be inspired that many times in what felt like an incredibly short weekend. But I think Lisa Stevens sums up that element far better than I could ever express.

Another reason why I enjoyed #ililc , and to some degree the main reason why I feel like I personally benefited, was that I met knew people. I’ve commented many times before that some conferences tend to include the same faces presenting and in the audience, the same conversations take place over a cup of tea and the impact isn’t what it should be. I met some great practitioners who I felt like I knew so well from the community that is Twitter (Alex Bellars thank you for a lot of fun and interesting... exchanges), finally got to meet Sean Terry (honestly, check out his ideas and resources, well worth a few minutes of your time), met folks from the MFL Resources support network and also met many who’d never even heard of either support mechanism, people reaching out to learn. And I loved it. Looking around the room on Sunday morning as Chris Harte presented his inspirational thoughts on Languages: reboot and the SOLO Taxonomy (thanks to John Connor that section can be seen here) I saw a lot of people for whom those words were a total departure from what they’d always been told, but not from what they’d always believed. That was impact. The message had spread. And yet so many people again said to me that they’d be returning to a school on Monday morning where those messages would not be well received. They were prepared to fight, to evangelise and to convert, but could they and should they necessarily have to? So the question we need to ask again is how do we keep spreading the message of dynamic, engaging teaching and learning? And not just to those who are keen to listen right now.

At this point I feel I should step away for a moment. This is a conversation I’ve had many a time and yet I don’t feel like I’ve got any closer to the solution. On Twitter not too long ago I had an impassioned exchange of message with Bill Lord, Dughall McCormick and David Rogers about the very concept of spreading the message- in that case about cross-subject Teachmeets (if you don’t know what a Teachmeet is then don’t despair, just watch this video from BETT). It was suggested, I think by Bill, that we need to initiate a “bring a virgin to a Teachmeet” plan. Taken out of context I could see that being a problem, but the concept was very straightforward- that we need to spread the word about peer-to-peer training and support, and the best way to do this is to keep introducing “new” people into the mix. And yet nothing’s come of it, and it’s very rare that it does, because it always relies on one or two individuals to grab hold of the reins and really slog. Especially where the principle might need to include economic inducements at a time when it feels like we’re having some of the support removed- especially, and sadly, Links into Languages.  And at the end of it all there’s always the risk that we’ll end up with the same conversations when we do get people there because how do we get them involved, enthused and sharing as well? This time, however, I'm hopeful as that concept and the need to talk about how we brake down barriers is spreading. To read a far more eloquent description trust in Alex Blagona.

So as both Rachel, in her really quite moving keynote, and Chris said, language teaching in this country is far from dead, in fact to a certain degree it’s in reasonably good health because of the grass roots... activism of many high-quality professionals. Professionals from across the country who were prepared to give up their free time and come to the south coast to learn and to engage in at times heated (but always open and constructive) debate. I was asked the question a couple of times whether this happens in other subjects, and my answer was that I genuinely didn’t think so (except to a certain degree in Geography!).  Great active-research and experimentation  are taking place in the world of MFL- not just amongst those who were present over the weekend but across the country, including many great teachers who have no desire whatsoever to become "connected", all overcoming some of the many barriers that have been put in our place over the years, and continue to be today. But what I passionately believe we need to do is ensure that this verve and passion can reach the places it needs to more- and that’s where the debate really is and needs to be. I guess I'm just greedy- #ililc was superb... I just want more, especially in the long term.