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.

Over the last few years I've always enjoyed providing the finale for the Exeter PGCE course. However, the feedback was that groups would have liked the session earlier in the year and that they just want ideas, ideas, ideas.

So this year I ran a session earlier in the year (this afternoon) and crammed it with ideas. So, apologies to anyone who's brain hurt by the end of it, or whose yawns were starting to get painful! However, I hope it helped.

If, as many of you indicated, you were keen to get on to twitter, start off by signing up and writing a bio piece EXPLAINING THAT YOU ARE AN MFL TEACHER. Important, that bit, because none of us want to interact with the banana eaters on twitter. Then get following the people on the list at http://tweepml.org/joedale/MFL-Twitterers . It's also worth downloading a free programme, TweetDeck, which makes it all make a lot more sense.

Anyway, the presentation...

Howdy all, apologies yet again for such a long break between blogging- I've been busy (haven't we all!).

One of the things that forever bugs me in MFL teachging is that the teacher invariably puts themself right at the heart of everything that happens. We impart all knowledge. In most other subjects learners are challenged to work out problems, to plan how to overcome issues and how to address the task in front of them. And yet in MFL we tend to tell our learners all new material and we then spend the rest of the lesson and any homework practising that new material. The traditional learning sequence of starter, intro, games, listening, speaking, reading then writing leads to a gradual transition during the course of the lesson towards learner "autonomy". I'm not sure that's enough.

I want my learners to be able to work things out, to use their skills as they would have to in the Target Language country when I'm not there. I also want to be able to circulate, to assess how groups and individuals are getting on, to be able to correct misconceptions and to individualise my approach for each learner. I do not want to be at the front asking for repetition- after all, if we've taught phonics then there's no real need for that anyway. Although year 7s might respond well to it, by the time their weekly diet of passive repetition has got them through to year 9 the same enthusiasm and willingness to buy-in to the approach is no longer there.

Which is why a while ago I begged my followers on twitter to help. I felt stale. I was out of ideas. And I wanted to learn from the great teaching out there. And this is now an appeal that I put out to you. Please contribute to, and learn from, a collaborative Google Doc of ideas of how to introduce new language and structures WITHOUT standing at the front. So please please click here and getting adding your ideas! And have a read- we all know how uplifting it is to find new ideas which work and are effective, especially in these dark November days!

Right, from my point of view the project went really well yesterday. But at the same time I feel that there was a LOT that could be improved, especially if other people wanted to adapt the idea. It was the first time that the lovely folks at ISCA had run a project using their ipads and I think we all learnt a lot from it.

The language angle

• Given that we had a range of schools coming in who we'd never worked with before we didn't insist on TL throughout the ads or presentations. Next time I think we really should.
• Grammar: for me one of the main impediments to students giving things a try yesterday was limited grammar skills / confidence. However, could we have had either a link or QR code to a source of grammar explanations? If you want to be able to give instructions, go here, if you want to describe what you did, click here... For me this would also enable learners to realise the importance of grammar in a non-classroom, real setting.
• Kelda and I decided that we didn't want to provide a template for the presentations for fear of encouraging a kind of identikit presentation, wanting instead to encourage each group to go it alone. However, this left some of the teams feeling a bit lost. Was that good (encouraging independence) or did they feel mildly demoralised / nervous about using language?

The technical angle

• we provided a lot of the links in the form of QR codes. However, I think it would be important to place more emphasis on also fully displaying key addresses such as that of the blog www.exeteredl.posterous.com . Many of the groups used the blog repeatedly but by not having to type the address in they went away asking what it was- and thus couldn't see it straight away at home or begin to share the buzz.
• some of the filming / recording was not of the highest quality. It might be worth having a 5 minute technical brief on issues like not filming in front of windows / bright sunshine or how best to capture audio, especially for interviews. Also, some of the teams turned their audio up to full which lead to poor quality playback. Hopefully we've now sorted that out for the blog.
• the room that we showed the videos in had poor lighting- either on or off. This meant that we couldn't film the presentations, a HUGE shame, as all that was visible to the camera was a bright white screen behind the teams.
• The completion process. We didn't explain well enough to groups how to finish off their projects / how to export them. This caused 2 significant issues. The first was that we had a big faff when teams came up to present. The second was that when we came to upload the final ads and in some cases presentation materials to the blog we had to go through and export each ipad's materials and then sync it to one iTunes account and THEN upload. There must be a better way.
• When the teams were coming up to present they had to plug their team's ipad in, set themselves up and then go. This was stilted rather than smooth and led to the process not only being slower but some audience members getting... distracted after a long day. One idea was that when teams had finished their work they upload them to a wiki from which they could then present. It would be interesting to know if that idea was actually possible.
• The ipads themselves were great, but it's not always possible to accomplish what you can on a laptop. For example with Posterous, well, the app isn't great (and is designed for iphones). And when using posterous on ipads the website in safari is... limited. In hindsight I should have tried e-mailing the videos but that wouldn't work with garageband projects.

So in short there was a LOT to smile about- but still lots of work to do to create a really effective, transferrable model. All ideas welcome!

Since July I have been working hard on a project with Kelda Richards from ISCA College for the European Day of Languages. Every year when I was at Edgehill I used to help organise an... extravaganza, with all classes in KS 2, 3 and 4 spending the first few weeks of term writing and rehearsing their own sketch to perform in the school's theatre in front of parents and whichever staff I could persuade to attend. It was exhausting, highly stressful and I was never sure actually how much benefit came from it. A lot of the kids grumbled and I found that with my exam groups I really resented the time lost. Also, how much did it really boost the profile of languages and show how worthwhile they are? In effect, was it a real or an artificial outcome?

Yesterday at the University of Exeter 7 schools from around Exeter and Plymouth brought teams of 6 with them (5 schools brought 2 teams each), each containing 2x year 8, 2x year 9 and 2x year 10 pupils. Their brief was provided by Bertie Cozic, a recently retired French footballer who played for Exeter City and who now owns and manages Gourmandine creperie in the heart of Exeter. Here was our real purpose. The teams were challenged with creating an advert, predominantly in French, for Gourmandine. They also had to make a presentation, again predominantly in French, of up to 5 minutes, explaining their choices and campaign. Bertie eloquently explained that nowadays one language is not enough- and in fact can be incredibly limiting. His main message- go on, take a risk. Learn a language and see where you end up- you'll be surprised what doors open for you.

And so the teams had 150 minutes to get creative. Each team had an ipad loaded with iMovie, Garageband and Pages and could choose how they wanted to present their materials. Armed with a poster packed with QR codes, including to Gourmandine's website, to the project blog ready loaded with example viral videos, an iMovie guide and later with a basic set of ideas for a presentation, the teams found a quiet space in the language department's rooms and set to work. Or, in many cases, set to a mild state of panic. Here they were confronted by using language for a real purpose, eek. Yes their teachers were there but they were (fairly) strictly hands off. The ideas and the language were student driven- and some of them were amazing.

The first hour was mostly spent faffing. Very little concrete progress was made. Groups of (mainly) boys huddled around their ipads and achieved very little. And then all of a sudden things kicked off. Logos were drawn, filming began in earnest and interviews were taking place in every quiet corner of the building and beyond. Bertie was a busy boy, much in demand! It really was a delight to behold- these were groups of students, of hugely varying abilities, genuinely engaged in a language creation task. I admit it, at times I really was proud of what was going on.

At 1pm teams were invited back into the main lecture theatre to "present". Given that this was the first time any of us involved had put on an event like this using ipads this section of the day was not as slick as I'd have liked it to have been, but I'll come on to that probably in a separate post. That said, it still worked, and worked really well- with HUGE thanks on that front to the skill and knowledge of Kelda and her techies Dan and George, again from ISCA. They were superb, cheers guys. We really wanted to focus on the fact that these teams, just like in business, had a deadline to meet and if they weren't ready there was nothing anyone else could do- they'd just have to go for it. And, on the whole, they really, really did. Even down to the fact that they were in charge of their own lunch times- and most of them worked straight through, munching on a sandwich whilst rehearsing for a language performance- in my experience a real rarity.

So having watched the presentations and ads, a choice had to be made. And for me undoubtedly the right decision was made to announce Devonport High School for girls as the winners on the day (please please watch their video, it is superb). Their video really was a shining example of creativity- it was so different, so visually attractive and so watchable, really well done, girls. 

But the day winner was only a small part of the "event". The real goal was to send the buzz around languages back to the schools and really build something special. And so the real winner will be the team whose ad receives most views / listens / hits by next Wednesday at 5pm, thus going through the actual European Day of Languages on Monday that we couldn't do physically due to the start of Fresher's week. So the teams are trying to find every way possible to drive traffic to their materials, thus publicising languages across the school, with the teachers not having to do anything at all. And with 1 video already haven broken through the 1000 views barrier in under 20 hours and a number of other videos close on their heels it really seems like they're hard at work, whilst the comments section on the blog has been exploding ever since! What a day.

But in many ways more importantly, what a day that could easily be adapted, replicated and improved upon anywhere across the country.

Following an indepth exam board presentation by Hilary Quigg of AQA I was asked by Languages South East to give a few ideas to help teachers on the Isle of Wight to prepare their students for the Controlled Assessments. My main message was "Don't Panic"- good teaching remains good teaching no matter what the end exam, as long as we base it on sound pedagogy. Although in my eyes there are huge issues with the current exam set-up, there are potential gains if we can get our learners to a point where they have a base armoury of language that we can build on in every stage 1 before we build up to a controlled assessment. With plenty of games, opportunities to argue and practise language in a meaningful way we can jump through those hoops that are in front of us. If any of the games don't make sense just from the slides, feel free to leave a comment below and I'll explain them further.

Last weekend was one of the annual highlights of the language year- Language World. Every year it turns into a crazy dash, balancing catching up with old friends from across the isles (and this year from Canada as well, well done Sylvia for making it over, wow) and trying to navigate the best path through the HUGE number of training sessions on offer by some of the best practitioners in the country.

My session on the Saturday afternoon aimed to look at how ICT can enhance the integration of creative contexts in the curriculum and how it can facilitate creative language use. Apologies for the fact that it turned into a manic gallop.

On Friday, despite my current state of baby brain, I had the privilege of presenting twice at the Linguascope conference in Brighton. I used a title that I used when presenting for Neil Jones last December, but my own learning journey made me want to really change it to focus on the kind of learning I want to be able to facilitate. The first element was to look at ideas for use with an IWB for encouraging group work with no right or wrong answer, rather than encouraging the use of an IWB for just one learner at a time, with the others just expected to sit and watch- not my favourite style of lesson. The second element was to show a few tools that learners can use to create creative, open tasks using ICT, releasing the neat control that we all often insist on in favour of a slightly... messier form of learning where making mistakes is cherished, and to a certain extent encouraged. Nothing groundbreaking, I'm afraid- especially as in one session I felt incredibly humbled to have the likes of Eva Lamb and Lesley Welsh sitting in and, for which i was really grateful, chipping in as well.

Anyway, I also said that I'd suggest a "starter list" of blogs for some new Google Reader accounts. Well if you look on the side of this blog you'll see a list of some great ones to add- and if you want any help with anything just give me a shout.

So there we go... thanks for a great day yesterday, everyone.

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

At the moment I'm spending a lot of time investigating ways to add extra... depth to the traditional topics. At Key Stage 4 I'm often told by learners that they feel like they're simply rehashing what they did a few years earlier- hardly what I'd call progression.  From my point of view we're not going to persuade our students that learning a language, and continuing to learn a language into post-16 and beyond, is really going to take them anywhere in life if they're constantly learning about more complex ideas in other subjects. 

So when I saw a tweet from @unicef_es just now my interest was very much piqued. They've created a Facebook app to support fundraising for a school construction project in Zambia (form more details and to access the app see here). The idea is that users can play around with the interactive school buildings and think about what they see as being important in a school. Is it the teacher's desk that's important? The training that the teacher's had? The kit in the kitchen, the sporting equipment? What is it that makes a school... a school? Users can then "donate" those items which will be put in place when the school is built for real.

I think this could be a really interesting way to get learners reflecting on items in a school, what their ideal schools would be like, comparing different items, even reflecting on what makes a good teacher. I'm hoping that Unicef will keep updating their information on the project as if they do it could be a really rich source of information for teachers. After all, when studying about school we don't just have to look at our own.