Click here for the presentation I gave at the 2015 AISNSW Languages Conference.
Tag: languages
New Challenges for 2014
I’m excited to have accepted the position as Head of Languages at a new school for 2014 and beyond. I will be leaving St Paul’s with a heavy heart to take on this new role at William Clarke College. I’m sure there will be many rewards and challenges as I step up into a leadership position and I can’t wait to get started! I have grown immensely as a teacher at St Paul’s and have undertaken many and varied projects apart from teaching French. I feel I am ready to see what’s round the next bend in the road – I’m sure you will hear all about it here on the blog as I take on the journey!

How to Flip Your French Class
Thanks Catherine Spurritt and the AFMLTA2013 Conference for the inspiration to put my ideas into words!
Link to my Prezi: Flipping the French Classroom.
Please add your thoughts and questions.
Google Apps for the Languages Classroom
My workshop presentation from the AFMLTA Conference 2013.
New Online Tools for Languages Teachers
Here is my quick presentation with a bunch of websites to try with your classes. Let me know if you do and how it goes!
Issues Facing Languages Teachers
I am in the process of writing my short TeachMeet Languages presentation and I want to get some input from other teachers before I get too far into writing it. I want to know what are the biggest problems or challenges facing languages educators in the classroom today. I have a few of my own ideas, but I’m sure there are more I haven’t thought about and I want to make my presentation not just about my personal experience! So far I have thought of: attracting students to language study through to the end of secondary schooling, the increasing emphasis on technology in the classroom, the ‘teacher centered-ness’ of language education, the rise of Google translate…
So, please add what you believe are the biggest issues facing us as languages teachers today, and perhaps offer a solution that’s worked for you.
Sydney Morning Herald – My Career Saturday 12 Jan 2012
TeachMeet Xmas
Here is my Show and Tell presentation. Yet another wonderful TeachMeet with many ideas, practical and inspiring.
FLIP Lessons
Wow! Another fast and furious TeachMeet took place last night at Shore nestled in the heart of North Sydney. It is unbelievable how fast a 7-minute pechakucha flies through. See below for my presentation on FLIP lessons in the languages classroom.
If you have the opportunity to attend or contribute to a TeachMeet, do it because it’s a night of fun, ideas, inspiration, conversation and support from an amazing bunch of educators.
Yay – success!
I managed to follow my plan to have Year 9 French write and create their own animations using Domo. See one here.
Despite some initial hiccups in actually getting the site unblocked (during the lesson) by the IT crowd, they worked quickly to produce the animations. I continue to be amazed at how these guys can be shown minimal instructions on using the tool and then have it up and running within minutes. This was a really engaging task that encouraged collaboration and creativity. It was also based on traditional methods in learning the vocab and structures and then applying them in written French. I am adding each of the animations to a wiki I’ve set up so that each student can view and comment on the work done by their peers.
Now, what’s next for this week? Year 8 are learning all about daily routines and reflexive verbs – they are going to create a ToonDoo. More to come on that…