Monday 23 March 2009

What's the best thing to come out of Sunderland?

Now, most people would probably say "The A19" and the really clever ones would say "Thekla", but they couldn't be more wrong.

A wise person, or a teacher of MFL, would say, "Why, the MFL Sunderland website of course!" and then they would probably give you this link: http://www.sunderlandschools.org/mfl%2Dsunderland/
and you would say "Thank you very much. That's absolutely amazing!"

The site not only contains excellent resources, but links to other useful sites, advice on finding partner schools abroad, links to CILT and Comenius pages, information about, and how to apply for, the International School Award, advice and information about and for Foreign Language Assistants, and "Estrellas", a section with language games for students of all ages and abilities.

As a student or teacher of languages you could do much worse that making this your home page!
MFL Sunderland is one of my favourite MFL websites, not only because it is free, easy to use, and is made by teachers, but because I can almost always find something that is "just right" for my groups.

It is the responsibility of Clare Seccombe, an AST based in Sunderland, and was set up for the benefit of teachers and students within the local authority. Luckily for us, the LA has chosen to make the site available to the general public and teachers from all over the world are now huge fans and are reaping the benefits of what must have taken an awful lot of time and effort. The site is constantly being updated and improved.

It has resources in French, Spanish, German and Italian, and caters for all Key Stages from primary to post 16. Many of the resources are Word or Powerpoint files, so even if you have a really high flying class or a low ability class, you could always adapt them to suit your needs. As with many educational websites, teachers are invited to send in resources to be included on the site. However, unlike many other sites, the layout is fantastic. Clear and comprehensive, it usually takes me only a few seconds to find what I am looking for.

If you have seen and used the site already, you will probably agree with me, if you haven't, then what are you waiting for?

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