I am flattered to have been asked to speak at the 2021 Teach Languages conference on Saturday 6th February. This is my first conference, so naturally I'm already very nervous about it eventhough at the time of writing this blogpost it's still over 4 months away. I'm particularly anxious about it as I'm speaking alongside Crista Hazell, Claire Wilson and Paula Mourelle - three incredible educators who I really admire. However, I am excited about being able to share a variety of ideas that can be used in language lessons, with an aim to capture students' interest, inspire them and help them to thrive. Here is a list of other CPD suggestions you may find useful. 1. Webinars I was lucky to attend a fair few webinars during lockdown, many of which were free and I have taken so much inspiration from these. I found Dr Gianfranco Conti's webinar on Curriculum Design really useful and I'm hoping to attend some more of these webinars at some point. Esmeralda Salgado introduced me to Learning Apps (my new favourite website) during the Linguascope Show and Tell webinar and Mike Elliot taught me how to use Flippity Randomiser with sentence builders. I shared some of my own ideas at one of these webinars in May alongside some incredible educators. I was inspired by Stéphane Derône's webinar on Memorable French Lessons too. If you're a Linguascope subscriber I believe you can catch up on these recordings in the staffroom section of their website. A particular favourite of mine was the #alatelunch #mflKOcpd webinar on knowledge organisers during which I took four pages of notes. You can find out more about knowledge organisers for MFL here, but I also recommend following Katie Lockett, Jane Brierly, Sophie Newnham, Clare Seccombe and Sophie Bowers on Twitter, and having a look at the MFL Knowledge Organisers group on Facebook. The Teach Meet MFL Icons team have organised a their first webinar (free!) for tomorrow (26/9/20) and it sounds like it's going to be a popular one, with over 500 people signed up already! I am very excited and equally as nervous to be speaking at this alongside some of the educators who have really inspired me over the last few years. 2. Books These are all books I have read / am currently reading and would recommend to others. A Quiet Education by Jamie Thom Breaking the Sound Barrier and The Language Teacher Toolkit by Dr Gianfranco Conti and Steve Smith Independent Thinking on MFL by Crista Hazell Love to Teach and Retrieval Practice by Kate Jones Teaching Walkthrus by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli You can find all of these in my Amazon store. Have a listen to Rebecca Nobes' marvellous 'From Page to Practice' podcast for more edubook suggestions. 3. Blogs Here is just a small selection of my current favourites: The Language Gym - Find Dr Gianfranco Conti on Twitter @gianfrancocont9 Language Teacher Toolkit - Steve Smith's blog - Find him on Twitter @spsmith45 Learning Linguist - Find Rebecca Nobes on Twitter @BexN91) Leo Languages - Find Claire Wilson on Twitter @LeoLanguages MFL Classroom Magic - Find her on Twitter @EClaireMFL 4. Social Media I love using social media as part of my CPD. Twitter in particular has enabled me to connect with thousands of educators across the world. It's a great place to go when you need a bit of support (although do be careful about what you share online and you may want to consider using a pseudonym) and to exchange classroom ideas and resources. You can find a list of suggestions of people to follow on Twitter here (although it hasn't been updated in a while). This is not an exhaustive list and purely a starting point for any educators who are new to the #EduTwitter community. I personally tend to follow people with "MFL Teacher" or similar in their bio, and avoid any Twitter arguments like the plague. Joe Dale is a really good one to follow, as are Clare Caio and Ollie MFL. There are plenty of hashtags to follow e.g. #mfltwitterati #edutwitter #FFed and every Monday night at 8:30pm you can join in with the #mflchat. I sometimes share ideas, blogposts and resources on my Facebook page and there are a ton of groups you can join as well: French Teaching Resources Ireland Global Innovative Language Teachers MFL Knowledge Organisers MFL Success Modern Languages Teachers' Lounge New GCSE MFL Secondary MFL in Wales I've really enjoyed being a part of the #MFLinsta community on Instagram (hashtag set up by the lovely Claire Wilson). It's a great place to have a browse if you need a bit of inspiration (or if, like me, you're a stationery addict) and everyone is very friendly and supportive. You can follow me too @MorganMFL89. 5. YouTube Videos Have a look at ResearchEd's YouTube channel - I particularly enjoyed Jo Facer's Simplicity Rules video and have her book on my wishlist. I've heard great things about Steve Smith's YouTube channel as well, although haven't had time to work my way through his videos yet. 6. Podcasts I was invited to speak on the The Teacher Planning Podcast where I talked through a lesson in which I prepare students for a piece of writing. Keep your eyes peeled for the episode with Claire Wilson (Leo Languages)! Thanks for reading! Dannielle x P.S. If you find my blogposts useful, do consider buying me a cuppa.
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All of the products I mention below are linked in this post. Any Amazon links are to my own Amazon store, meaning that if you click these links and buy anything through my blog, I earn a small commission – this will not cost you any extra. The products in my Amazon store are all things I have bought and used myself and would recommend to others regardless. I would suggest checking elsewhere before you buy though as you may find these things cheaper in other places. Normally I try to do a lot of my preparation for the following school year in school before the end of the Summer term, so that I don’t have to worry about it during the holidays and can just enjoy the break with my family, however Covid19 put a stop to all that this year and home life and work life have merged somewhat. Below are some of the things that I’m doing/have done and some of the things I've bought to help me feel more organised. Due to the pandemic I feel like there are so many things out of our control at the moment, but there are lots of things you can still do to stay organised. This is not an exhaustive list - and there are some things I'll still need to do when I return to work and get my class lists e.g. seating plans. Keep Your Resources Organised I save all of my resources on a USB stick - I’ve had this one for years and it has only just died on me this week - probably because I kept removing it without safely ejecting it first. However I know lots of people prefer to keep their resources on OneDrive. I organise my USB into folders and subfolders and I try to clearly name each file. For example: Resources > MFL > Spanish > KS3 > Holidays > (folders) Holiday Accommodation - Translation Grid (resource) My Desk in a Bag I am used to having to move between classrooms, as returning to work from maternity leave part-time last year meant that I no longer had a classroom of my own. However, I would like to be a bit more organised this year. I loved Claire Wilson’s ‘Desk in a bag’ idea that she shared on Instagram (@_leolanguages) and have decided I will do something similar this year. I bought these beautiful pastel folders and I will have one for each day that I am in school (I work part-time). There are five sections in each folder and I have labelled these using my Dymo Label Maker and pink tape. I also have an extra folder for anything tutor related, plus rewards (bitmoji stickers and postcards), spare worksheets, seating plans and paper. In the bag I’ll also keep: my teacher planner, pencil case, purse, phone, keys, bottle of water and some Jakeman’s throat sweets just in case. Lanyard I keep my USB stick on a Cath Kidston lanyard, along with my French and Spanish flag pin and my lanyard pen. I also love these Bic pens, but I have lost so many of these by attempting to hang them onto my lanyard. The Positive Teacher company has some cute little badges and I bought a “Head of Year” one for a colleague who will be starting her new role in September. I also bought some cheap and cheerful hand sanitiser bottles that attach to a lanyard, for me and the girls in my department (B&M). My planner Luckily our school normally buys us both a teacher planner and a diary. This year I have decided to splurge and treat myself to a Positive Teacher Company planner instead and after receiving mine I have already decided I will be buying one again next year. I also bought the planner stickers from the same company and have been using these to make a note of key dates from our school calendar ie. inset days, themed days. After seeing the idea on Instagram I have also marked out my holidays using washi tape. I’m not even going to bother with a diary this year – I’ll just keep everything in the planner. Before the Summer I made a note of my usernames and passwords (well, part of them anyway in case anyone decides to pinch my planner!), as well as the photocopier code. There’s nothing worse than coming back in September and locking yourself out of your account after typing in your password incorrectly too many times. In the assessment pages I’ll have each student’s name, tutor group and target grade (where applicable). I’ll also colour code any students who are PP, EAL, SEN – thank you to MFL teacher ‘theclassroomcoffeebuzz’ for this idea – do check out her Instagram and YouTube video for more planner inspo. In the front of my planner I’ll also be keeping the AQA mark schemes and a list of activities for each skill to help me with my lesson planning when I am lacking inspiration. I know many people on Twitter have already done their own versions of these ideas sheets, including Miss Jones MFL and Aurelie. Timetable I always type up my timetable on Word, because it’s easier to edit it if it changes. I colour code this so that, for example all my lessons with each class are the same colour. I also include lesson times (this will be especially important this year with staggered breaks for the different year groups) and any duties, morning briefings, assemblies. I add information at the bottom of the page including: -how many students per class so that I know how many sheets I need to print off -info about shared classes: when they have the group, who’s in charge of marking the books -when their vocab tests are I then print several copies in colour – one my noticeboard in the MFL office, one for my planner, one for my workspace at home and a smaller version to add to my lanyard. Teacher Toolkit I store all of my stationery in these Vonhaus drawers which I will keep on my desk in the MFL office as I like the idea of everything having a place. I created the labels using Canva (free premium accounts for teachers). I love buying stationery and I have spent a fair bit of money treating myself to new things during lockdown, some of which I’ve shared on my social media pages and in this blog. I hope that other people don’t see these things and feel pressure to go away and buy them. You can be organised without spending lots of money on beautiful folders and label makers. You don't need highlighters in 30 different pastel shades to be a good teacher and you certainly don't need to learn calligraphy and spend a fiver on a special brush pen so that you can write neatly in your planner (yes, I have actually done this). If you want to buy these things and it makes you feel happy, then go for it - treat yourself, buy the beautiful stickers and the personalised pencil case. Just remember though that YOU are the best resource - you and your amazing brain that's got you to where you are today.
Dannielle x Behaviour management or “classroom management” was something I found particularly challenging when I first started teaching. While I would certainly not consider myself an expert at this now - I am 8 years into my teaching career and I still feel that I have lots to learn - there are a few tricks I’ve picked up over the years that have really transformed my classroom management. Some of these tips may be glaringly obvious to a lot of my colleagues, but hopefully someone will be able to take something from it. I should point out also that I am lucky to work at an excellent school in which the students are generally very polite and well behaved, so while these things work for me and my students, they may not work for other people. Be consistent, firm and fair You are not being cruel by being firm. I would argue that you are being the complete opposite in fact. By having high expectations of your classes, you are showing your students that you want what's best for them and that you care. They may even thank you for it later down the line. It’s vital that you know the behaviour policy inside out – especially if you are new to the school – as it shows students that all staff are singing from the same hymn sheet. If you’re new to a school or new to the profession, don’t be afraid to ask your colleagues/Head of Department if you’re unsure of something. Our school behaviour policy is basically as follows: Verbal warning > Second warning (and a lunchtime detention) > Third warning (removal from lesson, phone call home to parents, after school detention). Usually I write a name on the board alongside the first verbal warning and a tick next to it for the second warning and sometimes I will use these behaviour cards that I will place on the student’s desk as a reminder. Use your voice and look after it As a bit of an introvert, I like to have a quiet classroom, but I know it can be tricky to get the class’ attention back on you after an activity, particularly if you are naturally quite shy like me. To do this I count down from 5 (in the target language if it’s an MFL lesson). I tend to start off speaking very loudly, so that my volume at least matches theirs and in order for as many of the students as possible to hear me. I may remind them what it means when I’m counting down and praise any students who act on any instructions straightaway (“FIVE…I need you to finish off what you are doing and face this way…thank you Chloe and Deepash…thank you Dexter, thank you Harry”). I continue counting down, gradually becoming quieter and quieter, bringing the noise down to an appropriate level. I find that if I talk fairly quietly, students are more focused as they have to listen very carefully to hear what I'm saying. (“FOUR…three…two, you should all have stopped what you’re doing by now…I said two, thank you Sarah, thank you Mike…aaaaaaand one”). Occasionally I will have to repeat a number, otherwise I may be stuck at zero with a still very chatty and unattentive class. When you have finally achieved silence don’t be afraid to hold it for a few seconds, as it can be so powerful. If you talk over even one or two students, you are basically sending a message to the rest of the class that what you’re saying isn’t important, and that it’s okay for them to talk over you as well. Make sure you drink water regularly too. I used to lose my voice all the time as I wasn’t taking care of it properly. I now always keep an emergency supply of Jakemans throat sweets in my bag and they tend to do the trick. Make use of non-verbal cues as I’m about to explain… Use non-verbal communication Tap on the desk, raise a brow, use a countdown timer, put your finger to your lips, stop talking and simply give them the teacher stare. You don’t always have to be talking and it’s best to save your voice where possible. I used to have a set of maracas that I would use in Spanish lessons when I wanted my students to finish the task that they’re working on. Although I haven’t used these since I came out with the classic line, “and when I want your attention, I’ll shake my maracas at you”. All 30 year 7 students erupted into fits of laughter, while I stood there horrified by what I had accidentally just said – some of them still enjoy reminding me of this now, five years later. Luckily, I can now see the funny side. Set the tone Maintain high expectations from the very start of lesson right to the end. Where possible I like to have students lining up quietly outside the classroom at the beginning, with me greeting them at the door (NB: this may not be possible due to COVID19 restrictions and keeping our students safe should be the priority here). I deal with any issues before they come into the room e.g. uniform, chewing gum. (“Morning Katrina, I’ll just let you pop to the back of the queue to give you time to sort your uniform out before you come in, how are you?”. “As lovely as that hoody is Nicola, it needs to be away in your bag before you come into the classroom, thanks”. “Ahh you weren’t subtle enough I’m afraid, Carl, chewing gum in the bin, thank you”.) While you’re dealing with the students outside, the ones in the classroom should have something to be getting on with. I personally love to start off lessons with Kate Jones’ retrieval practice challenge grids and I wrote about how these can be adapted for MFL on P123 in my book of MFL ideas (Amazon store link). Question Cards are also a good way of engaging them at the start and a nice opportunity for students to show off what they know, practise their speaking and earn an MFL point (in my department 3 MFL points = House Point). Know the students Have a seating plan from the start. I used to use Mega Seating Plan to create these as you can easily move students around if you want to change things up, however our school started using Classcharts last year which offers the same tools and I’m a big fan! At the start I like to have a copy of each seating plan printed off and I can keep referring to this until I've learned all of their names off by heart. Learn their names as quickly as possible, especially the quiet ones! This is one thing I'm going to make a conscious effort to do this year as it always takes me way too long. Jamie Thom shares some excellent advice on learning students’ names and writes about why this is so important in his fabulous book, 'A Quiet Education: Challenging the extrovert ideal in our schools' (Amazon store link). Catch them doing something good Praise them when they do something good and don’t underestimate the power of a positive phone call home. Parents really appreciate this too and it’s a great way to build up relationships with both students and parents. Hope you've managed to take something useful from this post. If you have any top tips for dealing with behaviour, particularly the so-called "low-level" disruption, I'd love to hear from you. Dannielle x ‘This crippling fear has prevented me from going for promotion or new jobs at times and led to deep-rooted feelings of inadequacy...I wish I hadn’t failed at times to see my strengths or been scared off by opportunities.' -Rachel Ball
This blogpost has been sitting in my drafts for a couple days now, as I was unsure whether I should post something which is so personal to me, so publicly, exposing my vulnerabilities to the world, or at least to the odd MFL teacher who may be reading this. I was inspired to write this by the lovely Rachel Ball, after reading her blogpost entitled, ‘How to fail as a teacher and leader’. In school if a teacher called on me to answer a question my cheeks would flush and my heart would beat so loudly that I was sure my fellow classmates could hear it. Occasionally I would be brave and put my hand up to offer an answer, and even then I would have that same anxious feeling in my chest, that would usually last until the end of the lesson, but I would go home and proudly tell my parents that I’d contributed to a class discussion. Despite wanting to be a teacher ever since I can remember, there was a time when the thought of standing up in front of a group of teenagers scared me so much. During my PGCE I lost so much weight, because on those days where I had a lesson straight after lunch I just could not eat. Thinking of how I am now, I’ve come such a long way and it’s hard to imagine that I was ever like this. I imagine some of you will be reading this and finding it ridiculous. I so envy those people who are naturally extroverted and confident. I am forever comparing myself to these people. I look at colleagues so early on in their career who have already achieved so much and worry that, 8 years in to my career, my lack of confidence and inability to believe in myself has held me back all this time. As the saying goes and as Rachel Ball pointed out in her blogpost, “comparison is the thief of joy”. A while ago when I was already lacking in confidence and feeling quite low, I decided to step out of my comfort zone again and did something that genuinely terrifies me - public speaking. It didn't go how I wanted it to, and I came out of the presentation with my confidence in shatters. I had spent weeks planning this, practising this and worrying about this and the whole experience completely knocked my confidence to the point where I told myself I would never do anything like it again. It just wasn’t worth the worry. For ages since, I have avoided anything like this for fear of feeling like that again. I have turned down some truly incredible opportunities over the last year or so. If this lockdown period has taught me anything it’s that I haven’t been living life to the full. In her blogpost Rachel quotes the author and journalist, Elizabeth Day, “What does it mean to fail? I think all it means is that we’re living life to its fullest. We’re experiencing it in several dimensions, rather than simply contenting ourselves with the flatness of a single, consistent emotion. We are living in technicolour, not black and white.”, and then says “I know I for one, want to live in technicolour.” I'm starting to agree with Rachel, as daunting as it is. After turning down yet another incredible opportunity about a month ago I decided that I was going to try to slowly build up my confidence again. I had a discussion with a lovely friend and fellow MFL teacher who suggested starting off small and signing up to do webinars. I was brave and put my name forward to share some ideas on the Linguascope Show and Tell webinar. This would only involve me speaking for 5 or so minutes, along with 8 or so other panelists. “Nice and simple,” I thought, “I’ll ease myself in”. Luckily I only signed up a few days before so there was only a couple of days’ worth of stressing. There was A LOT of practising in the days leading up to this, that my poor husband was subjected to watching, and a hilarious moment where I mentioned my MorganMFL “BLOB” instead of “BLOG” and then could not stop laughing (luckily I said the word correctly in the actual webinar). I had prepared cue cards and stuck them around the side of my computer screen. And despite listening to my usual motivational song of choice (Eminem – ‘Lose Yourself’, in case you were wondering), I was still a bag of nerves on the day: feeling sick, nervous tummy, unable to eat much, heart racing, dry throat. I also wasn’t quite expecting there to be so many people watching (221 people watching across the world). And to make it even more nerve-wracking the legendary Joe Dale was there too. I can’t remember exactly what happened during my presentation as I’ve already blocked it from my memory, but I did it and I’ve survived to tell the tale! I’ve had some really lovely messages via social media since then (thank you!) Obviously my inner critic has already tried to convince me that these people could all tell how nervous I was and they are just saying these things to be kind and give me a confidence boost. Even if that is true (which it most likely isn’t), I should be proud. I know it will seem like something so insignificant to many people, but to me this was a big deal. I stepped way out of my comfort zone. Yes I was incredibly nervous. Yes I said, “erm” far too many times and probably forgot to smile. And no, it was certainly not perfect. But I did it. And perhaps if I keep doing these things, if I keep saying yes, then eventually the crippling nerves will dissipate, just like they did with teaching. As I said, I really wasn’t sure whether I should share this, but if it helps just one other person like me do something out of their comfort zone then it’s worth it. And hopefully I’ll look back on this post in 10 years and marvel at how far I’ve come. Dannielle x
I recently posted about this on Twitter, but thought it might be useful to share it here on my blog too.
This is something we have started doing this year to develop our students’ knowledge of vocabulary. I'm aware it's not perfect and there may be issues with it, but this has been our first year trialling this. As I’m sure you can imagine it took a very long time to make all of this, so please be kind / constructive in your feedback. All vocabulary test booklets are free to download at the bottom of this post. HOW WE TEST VOCABULARY All Year 7 and Year 8 MFL students were given an A5 booklet at the start of the school year. This contains the vocabulary they’ll be tested on throughout the year, matching up with the order of our department’s scheme of work. Phrases are written in the target language in the first column, with the English translation in the second. The final column was originally left blank to allow students to do Look, Cover, Say, Write, Check (students were encouraged to copy it out elsewhere as well if they needed to). All phrases were added to our departmental Memrise account and groups set up at the start of the year, so that colleagues just needed to share the appropriate links with their students to invite them to join the groups. Vocabulary tests are fortnightly - the same time each fortnight as decided by the individual class teacher. Upper sets are asked to learn the full phrase, whereas lower sets are only tested on the parts in bold. Marks are out of /20 (2 marks per question. 1 mark if they’ve had a really good go at it, 2 marks if it’s perfect. Students are told to bring these booklets in every lesson and can also use them to help with classwork in some cases (including conversations - I have tried to include a question for each of the tests). All vocabulary tests (and answers) were on a PowerPoint ready at start of year, which has decreased our workload throughout year as we have not needed to think about which vocabulary to test students on - it was all ready for us. Students peer marked in class and kept a log of their scores on the tracking sheet in their books. REWARDS I created a OneDrive spreadsheet where MFL colleagues were able to add names of students who were working really hard / performing well in VTs once a half term. These students received house points and a positive postcard home. Students also regularly receive MFL points / House Points for high vocabulary test scores. FEEDBACK... Feedback from colleagues was that students have started to use complex phrases in assessments, despite not always being explicitly taught the phrases in lessons - they had learnt them at home for the vocabulary tests. ​My Head of Department also carried out a survey with his classes and the majority of students said it helped them with assessments. Feedback from the survey was very positive. Some feedback from students was that the space to practise writing out the phrases was too small. ...AND HOW WE'VE ADAPTED IT FOR NEXT YEAR Due to budget constraints and students potentially losing the booklets if they’re not glued into their grammar and vocabulary exercise books, we didn’t want to print in A4. For next year I have adapted the booklets to include a ‘RAG rating’ of how well they know the phrase. Students will use the back of their exercise books to practise writing out the phrases. My Head of Department has also asked me to adapt these booklets, replacing one vocabulary test per half term with a grammar test, so I'm working on this currently for next year and will share once it's all done. As it's not just vocabulary anymore I've changed the booklet covers from 'Vocabulary Tests' to 'Need-to-knows' (I magpie'd this name from Twitter - thanks to whoever it was who shared this. Apologies, but I can't remember who it was). Please let me know if you end up using my resources. I'd love to hear from you! ​Dannielle x
The #mfltwitterati has amazed me for years now, but there are so many incredible and inspiring resources being shared at the moment, that I'm actually finding it hard to keep track of it all. The legend that is @OllieMFL shared his beautiful GCSE Spanish grammar booklet recently on TES - highly recommend this (do consider buying him a coffee though as this resource must have taken him absolutely ages to make). The incredible @Aurelie_LTH is also constantly sharing her marvellous and well thought-out resources on her dropbox. I've also been inspired by the lovely @Missktripp - she tweeted a picture of her Virtual Classroom and I just had to get in on the action. She kindly emailed me with some info on how to go about this and thankfully it was actually much more straightforward than I anticipated. Thank you to Miss Tripp for sharing this info with me and sending me this tutorial by Thomas Blakemore. In the end I just created my own classroom using PowerPoint (the background was from Thomas Blakemore's dropbox, as shared below his YouTube tutorial). I added a few posters to the wall and added hyperlinks to these (right click the image, click hyperlink, insert URL next to where it says address). @MFLWyedean also shared their fantastic 'Linguaflix' resources (suggestions of French and Spanish films to watch on Netflix), so I added this too. The postcards on the desk link to tourism videos on YouTube of French/Spanish speaking cities. The dictionary links to WordReference and the iPad links to the Duolingo Spotify playlists. The books link to audio books on The Fable Cottage which looks great for listening skills. FINALLY, I've added direct links to our home learning resources on Teams on the whiteboard. Once I'd finished I just saved as a PDF and then emailed this to my students, so all they need to do is open the PDF to explore the classroom and the links. Feel free to download the PDF below and have a play. The Teams resources link have been deleted on this version so you won't be able to click these, but all the other links should work. I've also shared the KS3 Spanish and KS3 French PowerPoints, so do feel free to adapt these. If you share on Twitter, make sure you tag @missktripp as I nicked the idea off her! And don't forget to water the plants! :) Dannielle
I'd love to see pictures of your bitmoji stickers, so do tweet me / tag me in them if you share them on social media. Dannielle x I'm currently enjoying reading 'Breaking the Sound Barrier' by Gianfranco Conti and Steve Smith and I've taken lots of inspiration from there when creating these resources. The Photocard preparation sheet was adapted from a resource made by my wonderful colleague Vera Martinez. I saw the AVOCADO mnemonic idea on Twitter a while ago, but can't remember who shared it. If anyone knows whose idea it is please let me know so I can credit them. You can find some more information about the activities in the notes sections under the slides. Click below to download the PowerPoint containing these resources. Hope you find them useful! Dannielle
I created these cards (download for free at the bottom of this blogpost) to get my students used to asking questions and to develop their confidence at speaking. I hand out a few cards each lesson to different students. The students have an opportunity to earn a reward by asking me a question when I call out their name during the register - this can be anything from “Comment t’appelles-tu?” to “Que fais-tu le week-end?”. I tell them to choose a question that they are able to answer themselves - if there is time after giving my answer in the TL I can also say “et toi?” and give them time to answer as well. So far I’ve only used this with my Year 7 classes, but I’m keen to try it out with my other groups too. Challenge: After doing this exercise a while with my classes I may tell them that certain questions e.g. “ça va?” are banned, or that they aren’t allowed to repeat a question that’s already been asked during that lesson. It’s a great listening exercise too – ask the rest of the class to listen carefully to the question and answer, and make a few notes about what they hear. Then use a random name generator (I use ClassCharts, but MegaSeatingPlan has one too!) to choose a student to share what they have understood with the rest of the class or allow students to compare notes with their partner. This allows for greater class participation. Support: All of our KS3 students have been given vocabulary booklets this year - with 10 phrases they have to learn each fortnight for a vocab test. Each of the vocab tests contains at least one question, so I tell students if they can’t think of a question off the top of their heads, they can have a look in their booklets. (Will try to blog about our vocab testing system in more when I get chance – this is something new we have started to trial this academic year!) Do you have any exciting register routines? I’d love to hear about them, as I’m always on the hunt for new ideas I can use with my classes. Thanks for reading. Dannielle x
Thank you to Stuart Gorse (@gorsey) for the inspiration for this idea! This is one of my favourite activities that allows students to use several key skills. I've written about it in more detail on P12 of my book, but I blogged about it on my previous site if you don't have the book. The slide can be downloaded from the bottom of this post. Hope you find it useful. Dannielle
I first saw this on Twitter when it was shared by @LHallMiss (thanks for sharing!). The idea was inspired by Gianfranco Conti's Language Gym so credit to him for this. I tried this with my Year 10s a few weeks ago and it worked really well! Provide students with sentences in English to be translated. Split the TL translations up into several parts and place each part in a grid. Students work their way up the grid, building the sentences. This could be done as a spoken or a written activity. I've uploaded the resource at the bottom of this blog post, so feel free to download and adapt as you wish.
.In the past I've not been one to talk in much detail about my own wellbeing on social media, at least not on my teacher accounts anyway, but I really respect those who do. I guess I’ve just always worried that it would alter people’s opinion of me if I did – that people would think less of me for some reason. However I think it's important that we share our lows as well as our highs. Last term was a real struggle for me. I was going at a hundred mile an hour, teaching part time (hats off to any parents who work full time by the way – I don’t know how you do it) and dealing with the behaviour issues of some of my students (and all the admin that comes with this), trying to keep on top of marking and planning the best I could while I was in school, before rushing to collect my toddler from nursery by half 4. I thought that working part-time would mean that I wouldn’t have to give up part of my weekend for work, but I’ve still had to do work on Sundays. As well as this I was trying to keep the house spotless (completely unrealistic expectation to have when you share a house with a toddler), keep on top of the washing and the cooking, prepare for Christmas; be a good mum, a good wife, a good friend, and a good daughter. Then my book was published back in November, so I was busy marketing this on my social media pages. These should have been my happiest and proudest moments, but instead I felt overwhelmed and I was riddled with anxiety. Imposter syndrome kicked in and I was constantly worrying what people thought. Instead of celebrating my successes I was beating myself up over the tiniest of things and berating myself for my shortcomings. I was working so hard, trying to keep all the plates spinning, but taking no time for myself to relax. It’s not surprising that one day a couple of weeks before Christmas everything finally crumbled and the plates all fell. Clearly something had to give and I needed to start being a little kinder to myself. I’m always telling my friends and colleagues that you can’t pour from an empty cup; to look after themselves, yet I haven’t been affording myself the same courtesy. I am always the last thing on my list. My priorities are all wrong, so it’s time to start practising what I preach. I am by no means a wellbeing expert, but these are just a few things I currently do or am planning on doing to help me feel better. EXERCISE I’ve never particularly enjoyed exercising. I’ve always found it quite difficult, so I tend to give up before I’ve had chance to see any improvements. Last year I finally found something I enjoy - pilates. I’ve only been going once a week for a few months, but I have become so much stronger doing it and it really helps me to relax. Other than this I haven’t really been doing much exercise at all, unless you can count chasing your little boy around soft play or traipsing around Peppa Pig World. One of my new year’s resolutions is to exercise more, not because I want to lose weight or get toned, but because I want to feel better. I’ve decided to take part in #redJanuary to raise some money for Mind. I am going to exercise every day this month and as part of this I’ve started Couch to 5K. If I’m doing all this for charity, then I’ve got to stick with it. Hopefully if I focus on this, everything else will fall into place. If anyone would like to donate my JustGiving page is here. RELAX I have trouble switching off before bed, so I need to spend less time watching Netflix (my husband and I have just binge-watched season 2 of 'You' in 3 days). Often when I’m watching TV, I’ll be playing on my phone as well, so I’m not even focused on whatever’s on. I’ve downloaded the Headspace meditation app (educators can get a free subscription which is brilliant!) and I’d like to start listening to this again before bed. There are also some great podcasts. So far I’ve been enjoying Fearne Cotton’s The Happy Place and Off Menu with James Acaster and Ed Gamble. I’m halfway through reading The Unmumsy Mum Diary and I’ve got a couple of Matt Haig’s books to read next. MANAGING THE WORKLOAD I think I need to work smarter, not harder. I’m going to plan exactly what I’m going to do in my PPA time, and just do it - try to avoid chitchat. Prioritise - eat the frog. We’ve also managed to change our son’s hours at nursery so that he can stay later on a Monday, which means I’ll have at least one day where I don’t have to rush off and can get some work done at school, and hopefully bring less home with me. What are your top wellbeing tips? Dannielle In June last year when I was just 3 months into motherhood and still getting used to having this huge new responsibility and struggling with lack of sleep, I had possibly the most exciting email I’ve ever received. A lovely lady called Hannah, commissioning editor for Bloomsbury Education, had seen my teaching ideas blog and asked if I’d be interested in writing a book for their 100 Ideas series. At first I thought it was a joke, I even checked Hannah’s LinkedIn to check she was real. This was crazy - writing a book was something I had dreamed about since I was a little girl, but I genuinely never thought I’d have the opportunity. (Fun fact: I also dreamed of becoming a popstar, but sadly no opportunities have arisen as of yet). Hannah was offering me the chance of writing a book about something I am truly passionate about. However, I very nearly turned down her offer and I took a few weeks to think about it. Having gone from secondary school, to sixth form, to my undergrad degree, to my PGCE, to my first teaching job (and working all the summers in between), I was really looking forward to having a relatively stress free (as stress free as possible when you are raising a tiny human!) 9 months away from work – 9 months where I could focus all of my time and energy on my little boy without anything work related getting in the way. I love my career, but I know how easily teaching can take over your life and I was having the best time on maternity leave. I didn’t want this extra pressure to spoil the precious moments I had with my little one. But equally, in between the nursing and the nappy changes and being at his beck and call pretty much 24/7 this was a chance to do something for me - another thing to be proud of. And hopefully in a few years time when he is old enough to understand, George can be proud of his Mummy too. I knew if I turned it down I would regret it. Also, if JK Rowling could write Harry-freaking-Potter, best book series of all time, (also published by Bloomsbury fyi) while being a single mum, then I could write mine. Not that I am comparing myself to JK Rowling because she is the Queen. Luckily, I have a very supportive husband who took on more than his fair share of the house work and took George swimming on his own every Sunday to give me time to write. I somehow managed to write most of the book before returning to work part time in November. In March this year, just over a week before George’s first birthday and a few weeks before my 30th I finished it. I’m so excited for it to be released later this year and to get my hands on a copy! I'm happy to announce that my book '100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding MFL Lessons' is due to be released in November this year, but it is available for pre-order now if you are interested in buying a copy.
I have put my heart and soul into this book and I could not even tell you the amount of time I've spent on it, so I really hope you like it. If you've already pre-ordered a copy I'd love to hear from you. Just let me know in the comments section below, tweet me @morganmfl or message me on the MorganMFL Facebook page. Dannielle x |
AuthorYorkshire lass living down South || Part-time teacher of MFL || Proud wife, and mummy of the best boys || Sharing MFL teaching ideas and resources || Creator of @morganmfl || Author of 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding MFL Lessons. Archives
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