MFL Show and Tell 09

On Saturday 14th November I went to Foxford School, Coventry to attend MFL Show and Tell 09.

I'd been looking forward to this for a long time and was not disappointed. It was a chance, at last, to meet some twitter friends in the flesh, and some other colleagues who have since converted to twitter, and share ideas, resources and links which will help us to be the teachers we would all like to be.

The day was brilliantly organised by James Padvis and expertly led by Joe Dale.

During the day there were many opportunities to talk with colleagues and a number of presentations given by some very willing and extremely knowledgeable volunteers.

So what did I learn?

Well, I knew I would blog this so I took pages and pages of notes. Unfortunately, I can't read most of them, so if you gave a presentation and I missed you out, I'm sorry.

(I've just realized that JP could be James Padvis or José Picardo. D'oh!)

There was a discussion about sound recorders and microphones. An important topic particularly with the new spec GCSE speaking exams looming. (So, do I buy an iriver, a sanyo ICR, an olympus WS300 or just one of Tesco's foam microphones and just pretend?)

José Picardo had us fascinated by edmodo, xtranormal and some ways of "keeping control" (his words, not mine) of students and staff in his department! He also took some great photos of the day.

Joe Dale showed us how to moblog, and gave a practical session using songsmith.

Suzi Bewell instructed us on the use of jolly phonics in French and shared her experiences of working with a French school via skype.

Kath Holton helped us to motivate students using nings, studystack, and quizlet.

James Padvis showed us how his career has evolved since integrating better use of technology into his teaching.

Isabelle Jones gave a presentation about her favourite cpd tools including delicious and diigo.

Samantha Lunn showed us her bag of tricks (which included rubber eyes and ears, fly swats, a voice changing megaphone and a small lion!) and advised us on the best ways to wordle.

Finally, Clare Seccombe impressed us by showing how she has used Crazytalk in her teaching.

Overall it was an amazing day and I'm sure that everyone who attended went away either having learned something new, or at least a way of using something familiar in a totally different way. I'm looking forward to the next one in June 2010.