Facing the currently unknown

Creative technologies for creative contexts

Something John Connor said to me on Monday struck a real note. As MFL teachers we don't really have any content. Yes we have language, but what to talk about? As a result we surely need to take great care when deciding upon what our content will be. What will stimulate, what will provoke thoughts, what will inspire?

On Friday I was delighted to take part in Neil Jones' Lead Practitioner Seminar up in London. Those of you who have ever listened to Neil before will understand that I was feeling more than a bit intimidated talking about using ICT to enhance creative contexts, precisely Neil's area of expertise. For those of you have never had the opportunity to attend one of his sessions, a) make sure you do and b) his main emphasis is on finding effective, culturally enriching contexts in order to truly give the language that we are trying to teach a value.

Neil was, as per always, fascinating, ranging from discussing similies to explore cultural similiarities and differences to the simple question of why we always teach pupils the phrase for hoovering (especially when dealing with hotter regions) when so few houses have carpet. Sounds silly when you write it down, but makes sense...

Anyway, compared to Neil's session of 455 slides, mine felt rather shabby, but I hope it manages to raise a few thoughts!

Creative technologies for creative contexts

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PS - the one slide I forgot to attribute was to Alex Blagona for the idea of contacting photographers through Flickr- cheers Blaggers!

Spontaneity, challenge and, above all, fun

On Friday I was delighted to be involved with the training day run for Plymouth schools under the PASH banner. I hope that it was a useful day for everyone involved and that some of my comments generated the odd bit of interest and thought. The day was focused on 2 main threads- the roles of spontaneity in our teaching and also that of the actual content that we are delivering. My main goal was to encourage people to think again about why they are delivering certain topics- is it because they always have and because that's what the text book tells them to do or is it because it's the most effective way to teach certain structures, to challenge our pupils and to really make them think. After all, in what other subject can pupils leave an hour's lesson having learnt nothing about the world around them but now being the proud understander of 10 new nouns?

Anyway, a large amount of the day was based on the concept indicated by this video- fun is good!

Spontaneous talk slideshare

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Step away from the textbook

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Download Topics and approaches for reappraisal

Flickr groups

Hi there one and all,

I hope you all managed a relaxing break. I've just got back from a dash round Costa Rica visiting some friends, which let me take some great photos, and got me thinking. I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I'm in a Hispanic country, I end up taking loads of photos, not only of cultural sights, but mainly of signs with bits of useful language on. I use these in lessons, which the pupils find far more interesting than just seeing bits of random vocab out of context.

Now, although I'm only just learning about Flickr, it seems to me that it would offer us a great chance of sharing resources like these, to provide a huge bank of material for all Spanish teachers. So would the idea of a Flickr group to share photos of all things Hispanic sound interesting to anyone? There's loads of good stuff already out there, but it really can take ages to find exactly what you're after.

Anyway, hey ho, please let me know how it sounds!