First Letter

Give them the first letter of each word in a sentence and they have to figure out what the sentence is. It's interesting to see the different variations they come up with!

Here's an example I used with KS4 Spanish on the topic of holidays:

Find the Space

GivethemsentencesinTLwithnospacesandletthemrewritecorrectly.

Trapdoor

I first heard of this activity during my PGCE (although unfortunately can’t remember the name of the lady!) and it’s been one of my favourites ever since...  

This is a great way of practising both speaking and listening skills and every time I’ve used it the students have loved it!

You create a text made up of several sentences, some of which have three possible endings. You then decide which is the correct ending and the students have to guess which one by reading the text out loud.

Example used with KS4 Spanish on holidays:

The students take it in turns to read out the text and if they guess the answer correctly, they can continue to the next one. If they guess it incorrectly, another person has to have a go but from the beginning. So it means that they all have to listen to each other carefully so that they don’t say the same incorrect answer twice. And there’s so much repetition that it helps the pronunciation too.

When I’ve finished we normally go through the text and discuss the meaning and say what’s good about it (adjectives etc.) and how it could be improved (other tenses etc.). You could also get students to pick their own answers and play in pairs.  

D.

 I've wanted to be a teacher ever since I can remember and after four amazing years of studying French and Spanish at The University of Sheffield, I decided to take the plunge and apply for a PGCE at Sheffield Hallam University. So far, this has turned out to be the best decision I've ever made.

Having said this, it ended up being one of the toughest years of my life.  I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I didn't realise how much it would take over my life. Break and lunch times were for detentions and photocopying.  Luckily my body responded well to a diet of cereal bars, chocolate and pot noodles.  Evenings and weekends were filled with lesson planning, resource making and book marking. Despite what they say (“they” usually being people who haven't set foot in a classroom since they were 16), this really isn't a 9 to 4 job.

The PGCE was particularly challenging: getting out of my comfort zone and into the classroom, having to get to grips with the endless list of acronyms, early mornings, late nights and juggling lesson planning, resource making and marking with writing my PGCE assignments, working on my evidence folder and completing my QTS tests.  For me, even the job application process in itself was extremely time consuming, what with the arduous task of filling out job applications and then having to endure 4 hour long train journeys down South every time I was lucky enough to be offered an interview.  Eventually I accepted a job in my dream school and now that I’m approaching the end of my NQT year, I’ve never been happier.

Although at times it is tough and I’m pretty much always on the verge of being ill, I can honestly say that I love my job.  It makes me so happy when I finally ‘get there’ with a student who’s been displaying challenging behaviour or when a low ability student makes good progress.  I get genuine enjoyment out of creating exciting new resources (sad, I know) and I can’t go into the 99p Store without buying something for school (don’t mock it until you’ve been in).

Through browsing the internet I was amazed by how many teachers are part of the MFL Twitterati (#mfltwitterati) and I have been inspired by the many teachers who are willing to share their knowledge and exceptional resources online for little or nothing in return.  Sites such as TES, Teaching Ideas and Pinterest, as well blogging sites have become a treasure trove of inspiring ideas.  This has motivated me to create my own blog where I hope to share any exciting ideas and good practice with other teachers.