About

Who this blog is for

This blog is aimed at trainees or new teachers who are seeking to develop their repertoire of lesson ideas, but also to improve their understanding of the methodological principles underpinning different activities and teaching sequences. It may also be of use to more experienced teachers looking to try out different ideas or learn something new!

Bio

Hello and thank you for stopping by!

👩‍🏫 I am a secondary teacher of French and Spanish in the UK, teaching KS3, GCSE, IGCSE and A-level

📅 I have been teaching since 2016

💡 I love to use my blog and social media content to learn from others and share ideas

🧠 I am a believer in research-backed pedagogy and love reading about cognitive science and theories of second language acquisition

🏢 Aside from teaching, I have held other roles such as Deputy Housemistress in a boarding house, Acting Head of French, and Deputy Head of MFL

📝 My approach to MFL teaching is constantly evolving and I am always open to new ideas, whilst maintaining effective, traditional methods

📚 I love to learn from colleagues, books, blogs and the relentlessly inspiring #mfltwitterati. However, it is fair to say that those who have had the greatest influence on my methodology so far are Steve Smith, who I was privileged enough to have as my PGCE tutor at UoB, and Gianfranco Conti of The Language Gym. You’re really missing out if you haven’t checked out their books and blogs! I have also learned a lot from the Michaela School method, and Katie Lockett’s hybrid of Parallel Texts and Sentence Builders.

Why I blog

1. To explore and reflect on different teaching ideas, activities, tools and approaches, for my own professional development.
2. To share my favourite methods and resources with the online teaching community.
3. To enjoy the learning process, above all. I love academia. I get a real buzz from getting my teeth into debate, juicy research, analysis and evaluation of different ideas. I guess I have never really left school!

TES

I produce resources for French and Spanish, many of which are available on my TES shop for £1 or free.

Please note: As I have mentioned, I owe a lot of my methods and the ‘ideas’ on here to other teachers or resources I’ve seen online. I will endeavour to always provide credit to those whose work I am mentioning in posts, but also strongly welcome any messages to alert me to anything where you have reason to believe improper use has been made of your own work, or you would like me to remove such material.

Get in touch by leaving a comment below, or contact me via Twitter @EClaireMFL