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

ShelterBox Spanish Challenge 2016- THE WINNERS!

It's with great pleasure that I can announce the winners of this year's ShelterBox Spanish Challenge- with huge thanks to the wonderful Caroline Grant and Nina Elliott for helping me with the judging this year. The entries were really creative and well put-together again this year and showed that HUGE amounts of work had gone into their making. However, despite all 3 of us initially having different ideas, the combined points mean that we have the following outcome:

1st = Lauren, Laura and Emily from Route 39 Academy, Clovelly (Devon). Judges thought that the "quality of Spanish was excellent" and that it was "really creative".

2nd = Lawlor from Royal Grammar School, Newcastle. Judges thought that there were "Very well chosen emotive images and authentic footage" and it was also "the most professional" whilst the quality of language was also very impressive.

Huge apologies for the music that has been used on these videos, however it would be a real shame not to share them in order to celebrate the huge efforts that have gone into their development.

Route 39 Academy- Lauren, Laura and Emily (who are all actually year 7s)

 

RGS Newcastle

European Day of Languages iPad project- a call for hubs across England

After Language World at the weekend I've had a few enquiries for more details about the European Day of Languages project that we've run for 2 out of the last 3 years down in Exeter. This year we would love the event to run in various hubs across England, all working on the same project to add further competition and motivation to students. So here are some details...

Aim of the day: To inspire, to have fun and to show that languages DO have a genuine purpose, all whilst allowing students to be creative with language. The only request is that teachers be as hands-off as possible!

Target group: Year 9 grade C / D borderline students. We have not yet confirmed whether we will stick just to French or allow a variety of languages this year. Teams work in groups of 6. Each team has 2 iPads. In order to avoid it becoming unmanageable we restricted the number of teams to 10 in Exeter this year.

Format of the day:

9am: welcome and brief to students. Please look through the slides below to see the brief. At this point students will complete an initial attitudes Google Doc form.

1pm students present their pitch in their teams. All videos must be completed and submitted before this deadline.

After the pitches the Google Doc of attitudes is repeated.

Prizes (small) will be awarded on the day for the best pitches (a balance of effort and quality) by the teachers in the room.

The overall first prize will be awarded to the team whose video receives the most views during the course of 7 days after the event- thus ensuring that students have to return to school and their community and publicise their work, thus really building the profile of the event.

Technical requirements: 

• a venue- if possible in a local football club to emphasise the real world elements of the project.
• iPads- sufficient for 2 per team. Ideally provided by a coordinating school. We will provide all of the necessary materials through an iTunes U course (except photos of your local area which you will have to provide).

Ideally we need to try to keep costs at an absolute minimum- this is not run for profit but because it works. Unfortunately funds are needed (invariably) for venues and prizes, unless appropriate organisations come forward who are keen to sponsor! 

If you are interested in getting involved please contact me on [email protected] or @chrisfullerisms or my co-organiser Kelda Richards on @elkel99