Pens pens pens

An exciting departmental purchase: class sets of RAG pens! 

Eventually sourced in sets of single colours which did not cost the earth from www.stationary market.co.uk

Things we have used them for so far:

Self assessment

Group work - assessing sentences/responses 

The above, they put a dot /circle in the appropriate colour and have to be able to justify their choice with reference to the success criteria for the task

Teacher assessment - see bost below on marking

Vocab lists - green for the ones they know, amber if they guessed/weren't sure/had to check, red for ones the had to ask about /look up/got wrong. They can then focus their learning on the reds and ambers. 

I am sure there are lots more uses... But we are loving them so far! 

Trying out new approaches to marking

Ah poor neglected little blog... I made a conscious decision last half term to stay away from twitter and the blog, as there was so much to take on board as a new subject leader and I wanted to find my feet a bit first rather than be distracted by the amazingness of the ideas on twitter - my brain couldn't handle the overload!

So anyway, a few blog posts coming up, and this one is about marking.

We have made a few decisions regarding marking in the department this year. Firstly, we will rarely give levels/grades on work. There has been lots of research to suggest that students only focus on the grade and not comments, and this approach has always worked for me, so we are trying it as a department. We give feedback in the form of www (what went well) and ebi (even better if) and this works well too. However the (for us, new and exciting bit) is that we are using RAG to give an indication of whether or not the work is 'good enough'. I know effort marking is really subjective and a bit of a guess on the teacher's part, but this seems to us the best way forward. For all 'chunky' tasks the students create or are given success criteria. We them 'mark' their work by commenting www/ebi against these success criteria, and giving things to correct as per school policy. They then get a red dot if the work is not of an acceptable standard, I.e. They have not fulfilled the criteria, orange if it was acceptable, most criteria at least partially fulfilled, and green if they have completed the task well. Our school also uses white as a measure of exceptional performance, so we give this too for real 'above and beyond' work. 

This is helping us and the kids to understand how well they are doing in between termly work which is levelled or graded. Firstly it avoids the situation whereby they get level 4a one week and 3c the next due to the nature of the task, or the fact that it is a new topic. It has also been really easy to decide what to give them in our interim 'snapshot' reports to parents as we can see what they have been mostly given. Kids can get an idea of what they need to do to improve via the www/ebi and also get an idea of whether we think they have done enough or not via the RAG dots. Some bright but lazy kids have been given a bit of a kick up the derrière by this system!! It makes recording how they are doing much easier too as recording comments is a bit impractical but it is easy to put a dot on a mark sheet:

And this really helps in conversations with parents too.

I am really happy with how this is working for us at the moment. I am planning on doing some students voice next week to gauge their opinion too, but we have seen a big impact anecdotally with kids being mortified about red dots and making huge strides in their next piece, and also weaker students who feel good that their effort has been recognised and celebrated. 

It has also been fab for self and peer assessment too. 

My next plan is to come up with some 'can do' statements that could run alongside/instead of levels at KS3, so that students could have an even clearer idea of where they are at and where they need to go. I'm hopeful this might be the way forward for our primary transfer information too...

'What sort of leader do you want to be?'

I have a new job! It all happened rather quickly, and possibly a bit sooner than I might have liked, as I wasn't planning on going back to work 'f/t with bells on' until the boys had both started school. But the opportunity for a HoD post in a school that I know and like, with a great MFL team, which is a 20 minute walk away and which the boys will go to eventually was too good to pass up. 

My new title is 'Assistant director of personalised learning (MFL)' which is a bit of a mouthful, basically subject leader with a few extra school and cluster-wide responsibilities. I am very excited and quite a lot nervous!

Anyway, back to the title of this post... When I was preparing for the interview, almost everyone I asked in real life and on twitter suggested that I prepare to answer the question 'what sort of leader do you want to be?'. And I think it was pretty much the only thing in an incredibly full-on day that I didn't get asked. However, reflecting on this question has been both exciting and sobering, so I thought I would commit my thoughts to 'paper', as I want to be able to look back on what I decided to say. This might be a bit long, but for me, it is important.

I want to be the sort of leader who challenges and inspires my team to take risks, push boundaries and question and reflect on what we are doing. I want us to be moving forward, not sitting within our comfort zone. I want to continue to be on the lookout for new ideas that we can try as a department, and I want my team to do the same. I want us to look at what we are doing well, and think how we can take this a step further. I want us to consider areas where we aren't doing so well, and look at what we might do to fix that. I want us to experiment, and fail, and learn and move forward in the same way that we encourage the kids to do. 

I want to be the sort of leader who walks the walk. I want to try things out in my own teaching (I am acutely aware that my own teaching has the potential to suffer now I have so much else to focus on, but I need to remember that the children in front of me have the right to the best of me). I want my own teaching to be outstanding. I want to lead by example in the things I want my team to do, so I will invite my colleagues in to observe me whenever they like, with the fab classes and the rubbish ones, because I feel we have so much to learn from each other, and so many great ideas to share. I will to continue to share resources and ideas left, right and centre. I will initiate both lunchtime chats and formal discussions about what we are doing in our classrooms. 

I want to be the sort of leader who acts as a buffer and protects my team from some of the stress coming from within school and externally. I want them to know that I will do whatever I can to support them in what I (and others) are asking them to do. I will argue our cause when necessary, and stand up for them. I want to be a cheerleader when things are going well, give credit for successes and shout them from the rooftops. I want to listen to my team and for them to feel confident that I genuinely will listen. When things are hard, I want to be a shoulder to cry on, maybe suggest ways forward, definitely be there with cake (never underestimate the power of cake) and do what I can in the little, practical ways to make the day go faster and the week less stressful. This will take a lot of time and energy I am sure. 

I want to be the sort of leader who gives my team the space to develop as professionals. I want to filter and prioritise the many demands placed on us as teachers within this particular school, and new initiatives and ideas within MFL and education generally, so that we are not trying to do everything all at once. I want to encourage people to take on new challenges and responsibility, be it teaching a new class or taking on a role within the department. I NEED TO DELEGATE. (This is in caps because it will be hard for me. I am queen of the last-minute usually, but delegation takes advance planning. Also I am a perfectionist, and I will need to learn not to intervene when something has been done perfectly well, but just not how I would have done it! I know how demoralising it is when something you have worked hard on gets changed when it didn't really need to be.) I want to support people in this, but also give people the room to try and fail. It will be hard learning when to stand back and when to step in and support. I think having children will probably be helpful in this respect though, as isn't this a continual tightrope we a walking as parents?!

This is a lot of 'wants' and I am acutely conscious of the pitfalls of trying to do everything all at once. I am sure I will get things wrong, but I want my mistakes to have come from good intentions at least! I have a wonderful team and I am sure they will tell me when I am being an idiot! I am very excited, but also a bit nervous, as I am good friends with my team, and stepping into a different role, where I will potentially have to have difficult conversations or make unpopular demands, will be weird. But I have been lucky in my career to have had some excellent role models, leaders who have managed all the personalities within their teams with care and expertise, leaders who have inspired me and leaders who have supported me. I just hope I can learn to be as good. Bring on September! 

Voice dictating reports

Here was my quandary today: the sun was shining, my laptop was poorly, all I had was my iPad, and I had 60+ year 8 reports to write. 

The solution? Voice dictating them!

Seriously, this was a complete revelation. After a bit of googling I downloaded the Dragon Dictation app (free) and off I went. 

The only real issue I had was that it kept putting 1/10 instead of 'one tense', but that was no biggie really. 

It also took less time than typing, especially on the iPad which would have driven me mad after a while, and I still got to enjoy the sunshine on my day off. And as an added bonus, i didnt get quite as bored, in fact i managed to 'write' about 10 on the trot without resorting to a FB / twitter break... Genius!

Primary liaison meeting plan...

So... I am a wee bit nervous. On Wednesday I am gate-crashing a meeting of our feeder primary head teachers to gauge their response to some collaboration with regards to MFL teaching.
I've not done anything like this before so it will be good for me! However I am a squillion times better at writing than speaking, I get so tongue tied when I am nervous! Not a great trait for a teacher... so i am going to get my thoughts down here, and then hopefully some kind people might give me some feedback.
This has come about as my language leaders are running a taster day after half term, and I realised pretty quickly that we have zero idea of what language experience they have had at KS1 or 2.
I am actually quite surprised at myself that it has taken me this long to realise that is is a huge issue. I suppose only teaching KS5 and the odd bit of y8 for the past couple of years I have been a bit out of the loop. Attending a talk at Ililc about primary langs reinforced this point. Anyway, I have decided to seize the moment and do something about it.
I really want to get 2 main things out of the meeting on Wednesday.
Firstly I want to get an idea of the current status quo to enable me and the LLs to plan and deliver a successful taster day. We intend to teach some food and opinion vocab, taste some French food, the create some display materials using the new language. This all depends of course on where they are at already.
However, my long term aim (dream?!) is to set up a group for the teachers involved in leading and/or delivering MFL in primary schools. We could meet on a termly basis, do a bit of show and tell, share ideas and resources we have found, talk about what support we can provide etc. I am only too aware that this is not a scenario where I am the all-knowing fount of knowledge and my primary colleagues will be lapping it up. Far from it! In fact, I would love to get in to some KS2 lessons (great twitter suggestion, thanks) to see what happens there. I think it could be a really mutually beneficial thing, especially seeing how independently primary pupils tend to work.
Eventually I would like to work towards a very flexible/loose common curriculum that would work whether French or Spanish was taught at primary, so that we would know where to start with our y7. I appreciate that that is quite far away maybe, but just knowing what they currently do would be a huge bonus frankly. English or maths wouldn't dream of starting to teach without knowledge of KS2 and info from primaries, neither should we!
So in terms of the meeting, I thought I would devise a questionnaire (paper and online) to gauge where things are at now. This can be filled I later by the relevant person. I also plan to suggest the support group, with a first meeting after half term so get to know each other etc, with a view to starting properly in September. I would suggest that my long term aims are to support each other with language teaching, and to work towards a long term goal of smoother transition to KS3 via initially better knowledge of primary MFL experience, and eventually, some degree of common curriculum. I would like the names and contact details of those responsible for MFL so that I can make a start on the above. Does that sound reasonable?
If anyone has any feedback or suggestions to make I would be eternally grateful. THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the lovely twitter folk who took the time to make suggestions the other day.
I will of course be reporting back!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

It's the holidays. That is all.

Slide shark

I have been trying out a new app today. Since getting the iPad I have been grappling with the concept of whether I can use it as a sole teaching tool - reason mostly being I walk to work and my school laptop is really heavy and chunky and gives me backache!

My two issues are SIMS, which I have no idea how to solve, and, I suppose workflow is the word. Most of my lessons to date have been planned using PowerPoint and although I am getting pretty good at importing to Prezi now, there isn't always time, and there are some times when the animations on ppt are really useful, eg highlighting verb endings, word order etc. which when you use it direct from dropbox, you can't see.

So after a google search I came across Slide Shark. You can import ppts from email or Dropbox etc, and then download them to your device to present offline. There is 100 mb of storage but you can earn or buy more. However if you were storing stuff elsewhere, you could just download the day's lessons and then delete afterwards, which is what I plan to do if I end up liking it as much as I think I will...

Good things about slide shark so far:

1) it's free!

2) it's very easy!

3) it keeps the animations and web links/hyperlinks from ppts

4) you can also download the app onto your iPhone, link it to your iPad via a PIN number, and use it as a remote. So for those of us who can't present wirelessly at school, it means you can have the iPad plugged into the projector at the front, and roam about the room while presenting. Whoopeeeeee! I cannot express how exciting and liberating this prospect is. I will be able to stand next to my more, ahem, challenging little darlings and still present.

I tried it out tonight at my adult ed class, and it worked brilliantly. So tomorrow will be the real test at school. I will report back!

The iPad has arrived!!!!

Oh my goodness how giddy am I?! I have finally got my hands in my lovely shiny new toy, and it is sooooo much fun (apologies now for the inevitable overuse of exclamation marks etc in this post).

I have had a lovely evening/morning playing with apps, and for now, I am just going to share a couple of successes/frustrations...

I have just made my first ever screencast... I proudly present today's 'mini grammar point of the day' (my AS class have one at the start of each lesson) THIS: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/how-to-say-this-in-french/5710937/?s=tQdtOm&ref=app

Just a little bit proud of myself ;)

It was super easy to do... I have always wanted to be able to do these but it seemed such a complicated process on a PC. I used Educreations mainly because it's free, I thought I'd give it a go before getting Explain Everything which I have seen lots of people recommend. I thought it was very straightforward for a newbie, just what I wanted, so will keep exploring that until I find things I cannot do with it. I am a bit averse to actually spending money on apps!

I've also downloaded Evernote on recommendation, but not really sure what I'm meant to do with it yet... Need time to play with that one I think.

Also thus far I haven't been able to fully use my school VLE... I can open some bits but not access resources. It may just be that I can't on iPad but I won't give up yet!!!

So much fun to be had... Now just need my cable to arrive so I can link this baby to my projector!

Triptico scorers... Manna from heaven for the mathematically challenged!

Ok, so as my students will readily attest, I am no mathematician! And yet I love playing team games in the classroom. And much as I try to protest, when I inevitably mess up the scoring, that it's 'only a game' or 'one mark doesn't make that much difference', to year 8, of course it does! And actually, competitive soul that I am, I would care too!

So you will imagine the peace that reigned today when Triptico was brought in to solve the problem. 45 mins of a fab little game involving 6 teams and a mini-whiteboard each, and not a complaint to be heard about my maths! Hooray!!!

checkthis.com for setting homework

I thought of another use for checkthis.com today on the spur of the moment. I get so frustrated with kids writing 'do sheet' or 'learn words' etc. in their planners despite what I ask them to put, and then having no idea what their homework is when they get home!

So my new idea is for them to write the weblink down to a checkthis.com poster, which has all the instructions and support on it. Obviously there are issues of accessibility but this particular class have 2 weeks until their next lesson (silly timetable!) so they have plenty of time to use school PCs at lunch etc.

It didn't take any longer to create the poster than it would have taken to write on the board, and I know that they will all know what to do!

A note on checkthis - I don't sign in when creating posters for kids as it if you do, it connects to your FB/Twitter and I obviously don't want them seeing that. You could I imagine create a twitter/FB profile specifically for this purpose. You can create without logging in, as a 'guest', but then you can't save/edit later. Swings and roundabouts I guess!

http://checkthis.com/hlks

Observations

Like most teachers I would imagine, I get in a real flap when I know I'm being observed. I think it is because so much is riding on such a small part of your practice. Anyone can have an off lesson as we all know, even the best of teachers, plus there are bits of lessons that just have to happen sometimes, that can't be made 'whizzy', that don't demonstrate 'rapid and sustained progress', that are teacher dominated etc. I am not saying that this is ok all the time, but we can all think of examples! I was having an interesting chat with a colleague today and we decided that in some ways it would be better to be observed all the time, like you are as an NQT, as at least then the overall picture would be properly reflective. Rest assured I won't be suggesting that to SLT however!

This week at work is the MFL departmental review, where SLT drop in on and observe 2 lessons over the week per teacher, and also look at books/marking/assessment, progress trends, SoW etc. All a bit stressful! I was really chuffed today as my AS lesson was given an outstanding grade, in no small part thanks to all the ideas I have picked up from twitter / people's blogs / ililc3 over the last few months.

The Prezi for the lesson is here, and I will upload it and the other texts used to the MFL twitterati dropbox asap. Things that went down really well with the people observing were the focus on skills rather than content (in this case independent listening skills, as introduced by Isabelle Jones' fab 'escalator failure' clip, the links between the tasks (sounds focus in starter leading to listening gap fill etc), differentiation afforded by the Tarsia puzzle among other things, the group work 'donut task' for the reading on bacs and the students' reflection on the strategies used in an attempt to bring a bit of metacognition into the equation! They also liked the plenary puzzle for which I used Triptico flip selector to present a random series of questions checking their understanding of the content of the lesson, and the activity reflecting on progress towards objectives. Finally the feedback forms I have designed for essays and speaking cards were highlighted, I will add these to the dropbox too in case anyone is interested. They are WJEC specific but could be very easily adapted.

THANK YOU to everyone on twitter who shares things... I am feeling really inspired about work at the moment, and although this week (and half term) have been completely manic and exhausting, it is always a good feeling when your hard work pays off! Now roll on Friday and LARGE glass of wine!!!!

First steps with QR codes and Prezi

So, it is finally half term, and that means I
a) have some time to process the wonder that was ililc, and
b) start putting some of the ideas into practice

Prezi v PowerPoint
Yesterday I made my first Prezi, based on the French school system for y12. It took me the whole morning but there was a fair bit of faffing about on Google looking for resources to include as well. Prezi was more straightforward than I though it would be. I managed to insert my original ppt presentation fairly painlessly, although I couldn't get it to occupy the frames in the template. I suspect there is a way, I just haven't found it yet!

Inserting a sound file was a bit of an issue at first as you can't embed MP3 files, but after converting it to MP4 it was ok, and I like the fact that I can play the sound file and have the questions displayed at the same time easily. After lots of googling for FAQs, I managed to do pretty much everything I wanted to and was quite chuffed with the end result: http://bit.lyYtms1T

Now, the question is, will I continue to use Prezi as my main tool for creating slide shows? Probably not in the short term as I think I need to keep practising and get a bit more fluent. It's not realistic to spend that much time preparing every lesson. I will keep going though on the days where I have less prep. Also, it won't be as easy to share with my lovely dept as I am not sure how readily they would all take to Prezi. However, I do think it looks really cool and will impress the kids, but I am always a little wary of the 'show' overtaking the 'content' of the lesson... sometimes it would be easier just to scribble it on the board - the end result in terms of learning would be the same. Also, I know myself, give me a tool like this and I will spend HOURS making it into a thing of beauty, aligning everything straight, designing colour schemes etc etc... I am bad enough on PowerPoint! Watch this space.

QR codes
My second achievement of halt term so far was to put some QR codes into action. Baby steps and all that! So, I have revamped by 'whizzy word wall' - my all time face classroom display - and added a QR code for each section which leads to a poster created with www.checkthis.com, (e.g. http://t.co/6Flkokg5) to explain how to use the words in a sentence. I then used QR stuff to create a QR code from the link.

And the finished article:

I will be encouraging kids to use it in lessons next week, so fingers crossed!

Triptico word spinner

I used triptico for the first time today. Wow! If you haven't already, do have a look - I cannot believe that it is all free, it is such a fab resource. Having said that, the option to upgrade to 'pro' is there and on the recommendation of a couple of fellow Twitterati, I probably will over half term.

Anyway, I put 8 questions on the topic of health that kept occurring on the WJEC AS French oral cards (e.g. quels sont les risques et pour l'individu et pour la société du tabagisme...) on the spinner, and on the extra information tab I included support phrases. Pupils worked in pairs asking each other the questions, initially with the support phrases visible and then once again without. By the end, their confidence and fluency were really growing, and the randomness of the question spinner meant that they had to be on their toes as they didn't know what was coming next, just in the exam.

post-it swap

This idea came from a resource Clare Seccombe used at ililc3 (surprise, surprise!) but I have taken it a step further with my AS French class.

Step 1 - pupils wrote down in French their best 'whizzy sentences' for talking about the oral cards (WJEC) where the first question is to compare 2 pictures or texts. They then passed it on to the next pair.

 Step 2 - the new pair read out the comments practising pronunciation, then on a post-it, wrote the English meaning and stuck it on top. Once they had checked it was correct, they removed all the post its and passed it on to the next pair.

 Step 3 - we then had a competition to see who could put all the English post-its back on in the fastest time. Once again we practised pronunciation.

 Step 4 - the final pair had to put each phrase into a sentence based on the speaking card we were working on (health in this case). We then shared and peer assessed these.

It worked really well, as they all had different phrases to begin with, so it meant lots of practising was achieved. They also worked well to support each other, offering help when the next pair didn't understand, or correcting each other's language.

(Sorry the pics are all sideways, they aren't on my laptop!)

More Maths Karate...

Wow, check me with all the posts! But I had to share this comment from a lovely science teacher friend (@fattypuff2) re: maths karate... how much fun does this sound?!

The Karate maths made me laugh because G does that at XXXXXXX - he dresses as the grand master with a black band tied round his head and the kids then have to do sums to progress through the belts. When they have reached black belt they then approach the board and challenge him to become grand master. If they succeed and can solve a grand master question then they get to wear a black band around their heads. I'm sure you could adapt for French - grammar/sentence construction etc... could be a giggle.

First ililc successes...

So today I tried out 2 ideas from the weekend, one planned, one not, both a storming success.

Tarsia puzzle
Amazingly I remembered all the steps to add and format text, and created a puzzle for my adult learners (1 year of learning) to introduce whizzy opinion vocab related to TV. Most of it was new, but it was very cognate rich language. They were engrossed in the task, using lots of reading strategies to match up, and I did as Clare (@Vallesco) suggested and gave them an accompanying table with some of the answers blanked out to fill in as they went. Worked really well, can't wait to try my differentiated version with y12 now.

Karate Maths
With my beginner adult ed class tonight, we were learning time, and doing a bit of number revision first. I tried more Clare ideas here (turning into a proper groupie!) e.g. I say a number, you say the one above/below, it provoked some really deep thinking! They told me I was being mean for such a late hour, so I said 'could have been worse, I could have made you do karate maths!'... well, there was a gauntlet laid down!

for those who don't know, Karate maths goes as follows, as taught by Jo (@jowinchester I now know)
1) Adopt ninja stance, look threateningly at your class/opponent.
2) Say a number in the TL (in a voice to match the look in your eyes!)
3) Say plus (and make arms into plus sign), moins (draw a line in front of you), fois (make an x with your arms) or divise (sorry no accent) par, hold left forearm horizontally in front of face and 'punch' above and below to make a divided by symbol. The voice has to be suitably ninja-esque throughout.
5) Finally, lay forearms on top of each other and say 'egal'

Partner/class has to offer the answer in TL.

Soooooo much fun, I never in a million years would have believed my adult class would have loved it so much... age range 20s - 60s!!!

ililc3

Well, it has been a while since the last post... I have to confess, I was starting to wonder if I would carry on. The pressures of school life were weighing heavy on my department, my lessons were plodding along, there was still another week to go till half term... and then along came ililc3. I think the words 'life-changing' might be a bit extreme but 'career-changing' - definitely!!! I felt like Isabelle Jones was talking directly to me with her encouragement to blog without feeling under pressure, so here goes:

I can honestly say that it was the most useful, relevant, inspirational CDP event I have ever attended. On top of that, it was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time, full of professionalism and learning yes, but also full of giggles and hilarity, and not a whiff of clique-yness. I really feel I have made some new friends, and twitter interactions will never be the same again!

My brain is absolutely aching, by the end I was losing the plot somewhat and I think it will take me a while to process all the new information. So I have decided I am going to try to incorporate a few new things a week over the next term. I can't wait till half-term next week, not to collapse in a quivering heap as I had assumed I would be doing, but to switch on the laptop, open up my SoW and lesson plans and ililc-ify them (just in time for my departmental review after h/t...mwahahaha!).

For now, here are some of the things I loved and am going to try straight away:

MoM (Mug of Misery)

Thanks Dom (domsmflpage.blogspot.co.uk) for this great and simple idea.... I love the name as much as anything else! Everyone's name on a lolly stick, pick out at random from your MoM to answer a question. Lolly sticks ordered, can't wait to get started. 

QR codes 

(http://joedale.typepad.com)

I was totally inspired by some of the possibilities here, I particularly liked the turn a piece of text or audio into a quick QR code (although it might take me a while to make sense of my befuddled notes on how to do this... any chance of a video tutorial Joe?!). I find myself writing the same grammar explanations over and over for my AS kids on their essays... how cool to be able to record a quick verbal explanation and then whack a QR code on there? Or to record a personalised vocab list for those who struggle with pronunciation. Croak.it looks fun! I loved audioboo/aurasma too, but I hadn't seen these before and I think I will need a bit of time to suss them out and think about how I can use these, given we have no mobile devices in school and kids not allowed to use their phones. 

Tarsia

Loved this, thanks Claire (http://changing-phase.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/shape-up-with-tarsia.html)! I use domines a lot, but I love the extra thinking that this creates, and the opportunities for easy differentiation. I am designing one for my AS group to use as a starter for learning new vocab...I'm going to simply remove a piece for my stronger ones and ask them what would have been on there... I love the idea of giving them a partially blanked out vocab table to fill in too as they solve the puzzle. Little plastic bags ordered too!

Spot the difference

Another thank-you to Dom, also would be a great starter/plenary idea to get kids talking... Google a relevant spot the difference picture and ask the kids to describe what is different/the same.So quick and easy.

Phonics / slowing down with vocab

Several people mentioned phonics, which I had never really considered much before, but now that my eldest son has started school, I can see vividly how important it is, and how much it would help my learners. I have AS students who were whizzed through GCSE in a year and as a result, have very few independent speaking/writing skills. I feel I am making progress with their writing, but their pronunciation is dreadful. I liked Jo's approach (sorry Jo, I'm not sure if I know who you are on twitter?) - she was talking about primary languages but I think it is relevant all the way up to KS5. We often introduce an item of vocab, do a quick bit of repetition and then move on to the next one, when really it would be better to slow down and exploit each one fully... part of speech, gender, sounds in the word, cultural aspects,association with other words etc. At AS/A level this could still be really useful, you could take it further by looking at roots/word families etc. Am going to start doing this straight away. I also really liked the idea (but I don't know your name, sorry!) from the Show and Tell, which was, instead of correcting a word pronounced wrongly, teach the student another word with the same sound, then go back and ask them to correct themselves. 

Using Duplo for graphs

Thankyou John Connor! After a survey activity, use Duplo bricks to physically build a bar chart to represent the results. Leads to lots more speaking opportunities and great for SEN. (I also loved the green alien!). 

There were lots more things to think about too... Claire's session on maths was very thought provoking, and there were lots more techie tips and websites to explore... my notes are full of 'get this app' and 'check out this site'! After a chance to talk to colleagues in primary, I am more determined than ever to build some links with our feeder primaries, as I think that we could do a lot to support each other and plan for some kind of continuity for our kids, as at the moment we have a big fat nada! But for now I am off to suss out Google Reader to try to keep track of everyone's blogs. 

THANK YOU so much to all those involved in ililc3... I have rarely felt so inspired and in love with my job. Now, do you think I can ask for an iPad for my birthday in a few weeks..........