As the year comes to a close there are exciting things ahead for your blogger. By August 2012 I shall be a retired French teacher, missing many aspects of the job, no doubt, but being a shade relieved that the day to day stresses will be over. My post as Head of Modern Languages is currently being advertised on the Ripon Grammar School website and will appear in the Times Ed in the new year. No doubt I shall reflect more on looming retirement in future posts, so enough of that.
Professionally I shall be devoting more time to the frenchteacher.net website, with the aim of making it a minor commercial venture by May. Not so much a business, more a paid hobby, I hope. I shall also be trying to ensure that the department is all totally in order for my successor who will inherit a talented and enthusiastic team. Being Head of MFL at RGS really is a tremendous privilege. I shall continue to keep close contact with the teacher networks such as mflresources, TES Connect and the MFL "twitterati". We also look forward to our French partner school exchange group arriving at Easter. I very much hope this partnership will continue.
I also have an idea brewing which could lead to some kind of practical guide for MFL teachers. Before I became a HoD in 1988 I had thought that I might get involved with teacher training at some point, but then the demand for such posts dried up almost completely as the nature of PGCE training altered to become more school-based. This desire to share experience and knowledge has stayed with me to some extent, so I might put something together with this in mind. Frenchteacher.net has fulfilled this interest to a large extent, but I may also put together an online guide or even publish something for MFL teachers and trainees via the frenchteacher.net site. An alternative would be some research on the history of MFL teaching in the UK, something I have posted about previously. My stock of old text books is building up and I have lately found a renewed interest in methodology. I have a feeling that methodology is being neglected these days and that in this pragmatic, eclectic, "post methods" era, we may have become too laissez faire.
I may also keep my hand in with some examining, but we'll see about that. I hope I'll be too busy with other things.
On a personal level my wife and are looking forward to trips to Paris, London and Prague, as well as returning to our house in the Charente Maritime département. When August comes we shall free to spend more time in France and elsewhere, as far as family and musical commitments here in Harrogate allow. I also hope to read more, exercise more and improve my drumming skills.
Many thanks for dropping in for a read and tolerating my self-indulgence. If you do not have your own blog, but would like to post something here to do with French, France or MFL teaching, just contact me, as I am thinking of having the occasional guest blog post.
A happy new year to all and I shall endeavour to find some worthwhile things to write about, both in English and French, in 2012.
Professionally I shall be devoting more time to the frenchteacher.net website, with the aim of making it a minor commercial venture by May. Not so much a business, more a paid hobby, I hope. I shall also be trying to ensure that the department is all totally in order for my successor who will inherit a talented and enthusiastic team. Being Head of MFL at RGS really is a tremendous privilege. I shall continue to keep close contact with the teacher networks such as mflresources, TES Connect and the MFL "twitterati". We also look forward to our French partner school exchange group arriving at Easter. I very much hope this partnership will continue.
I also have an idea brewing which could lead to some kind of practical guide for MFL teachers. Before I became a HoD in 1988 I had thought that I might get involved with teacher training at some point, but then the demand for such posts dried up almost completely as the nature of PGCE training altered to become more school-based. This desire to share experience and knowledge has stayed with me to some extent, so I might put something together with this in mind. Frenchteacher.net has fulfilled this interest to a large extent, but I may also put together an online guide or even publish something for MFL teachers and trainees via the frenchteacher.net site. An alternative would be some research on the history of MFL teaching in the UK, something I have posted about previously. My stock of old text books is building up and I have lately found a renewed interest in methodology. I have a feeling that methodology is being neglected these days and that in this pragmatic, eclectic, "post methods" era, we may have become too laissez faire.
I may also keep my hand in with some examining, but we'll see about that. I hope I'll be too busy with other things.
On a personal level my wife and are looking forward to trips to Paris, London and Prague, as well as returning to our house in the Charente Maritime département. When August comes we shall free to spend more time in France and elsewhere, as far as family and musical commitments here in Harrogate allow. I also hope to read more, exercise more and improve my drumming skills.
Many thanks for dropping in for a read and tolerating my self-indulgence. If you do not have your own blog, but would like to post something here to do with French, France or MFL teaching, just contact me, as I am thinking of having the occasional guest blog post.
A happy new year to all and I shall endeavour to find some worthwhile things to write about, both in English and French, in 2012.
Hope the new head of mfl won't be recruited like this :)
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Hope new year will not bring natural troubles.
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