Ballard LangBlog

Now I am REALLY irritated...

OK. So I can more or less digest the whole "throw money at Mandarin" thing, while "traditional" MFLs suffer under the weight of myopic, ill-conceived "policies" from our new leaders.

But (sorry, Kate and William - I am sure you will have a fab day, and I do not begrudge you what I hope will be a far happier life together than your mum's, Your Highness)... THIS really sticks in my craw: apologies if you have to magnify - didn't quite embed as I was hoping...


By the way - if you want REAL vitriol, check out what some of my fellow Clegg fans have posted on his wall in response to the same post!

This blog was never intentionally a cloaca for political outpourings, but I am increasingly finding that my day-job and my political dissatisfaction are in collision. Sorry if this is not to your taste - feel free not to read, or to unsubscribe!

 

Edmodo II - The Colleagues Strike Back...

I am blogging the start of what could turn out to be quite an interesting exchange between me and the Head of Maths here at Ballard. I will preface this by saying that I have a lot of respect for Will - just in case that is not apparent!

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks, Will. Allow me to tackle your email point-by-point:

 

If 6th forms decided to make it compulsory then so be it. > The latest thought is that students will need a language to access Higher Ed / get extra points towards Higher Ed for studying a range of subjects to include Eng, Ma, Sci, 1 Humanity and 1 MFL... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7982716/English-Baccalaureate-to-combat-drop-in-academic-GCSEs.html

 

As yet, I haven't heard an argument that makes me think it is imperative that we keep languages as compulsory. > Don’t get me started! I will happily provide you with 700! www.llas.ac.uk/700reasons

 

I'm far from against languages and I agree that linguistic skills open many doors but I feel perhaps more often socially than professionally. > Try this article written by the (multilingual) German Ambassador to London: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/learn-language.html

 

Unless pupils are going on to study at degree level. > Or, if I get my way, we bin the National Curriculum, which is not fit for purpose, and start again with a range of qualifications designed to fit with (a) our pupils’ needs and (b) the future

 

Apart from that, I totally agree with you... ;-)

 

Thanks for responding. I would rather have 100 people arguing with me than 0 responses from gripers who don’t stand up for what they think.

 

Alex

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Will Shaylor [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 15 November 2010 21:06
To: Alex Bellars
Subject: RE: Tweet forwarded by @bellaale

 

Hi Alex,

 

Thanks for the demo of edmodo this afternoon - it looked pretty good. Not sure I'll get round to using it though unless it takes the place of sharepoint - or can be used effectively in conjunction with sharepoint. I've spent a fair bit of time sprucing up the sharepoint site and feel I can use it pretty effectively to share things with pupils - although currently they still can't access it from home! I can see the advantages of edmodo but I also feel it's another pull into the on line social interaction world - one which I'm not sure that I necessarily want to encourage.

Thanks also for your link to the tweets last month. I did start writing a response but decided not to send it but it's been sitting in my drafts box and I'm doing a clear out so here you go! :o)

If 6th forms decided to make it compulsory then so be it. But as yet, I haven't heard an argument that makes me think it is imperative that we keep languages as compulsory. I'm far from against languages and I agree that linguistic skills open many doors but I feel perhaps more often socially than professionally. Unless pupils are going on to study at degree level.

I know - I sound like a right miserable git! :o)

See you in the morning,

Will

 

________________________________________

From: Alex Bellars [[email protected]]

Sent: 21 October 2010 08:53

To: Will Shaylor

Cc: Alex Bellars

Subject: Tweet forwarded by @bellaale

 

blagona: No language GCSE means no sixth-form place, say top schools - Education News, Education - The Inde.. http://ind.pn/9vY24l

 

Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/blagona/statuses/27075208237

 

 

Sent via TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)

 

Edmodo

My Powerpoint to brief Heads of Department and SMT on what Edmodo does. Then, after advice from José Picardo amongst others, I will let them decide for themselves whether or not they want to make their lives 100% easier or not...

Download Edmodo - what does it do

my non-presentation at MFL Show & Tell Oldham

I had the huge and slightly nerve-wracking honour of being asked to make a short presentation on the topic of my choice at Saturday's MFLSAT (#mflsat on Twitter if you want to check the hugely-valuable back channel).

Hopefully (I think!) video will emerge of my ACTUAL preso, which I did on "non-web classroom tools", being the irritatingly divergent individual I am. 

I did however have something else up my sleeve, which I did NOT present, as time was a little short. It is a development of an idea of Thomas Reimann and Hanja Neumann, whose BRILLIANT Philip Allan Updates GCSE Conferences I have taken my Y10 and Y11 German students to over the last 5 years or so. Here it is, in Powerpoint form (with a little pic of my classroom wall for good measure):

Download Perfekt!

A quick word of thanks to all the other presenters (even the ones that @joedale and I missed thanks to the M6/M62!), and especially to Isabelle Jones and her team for the amazing welcome - and to Nigel Yeo for his wonderful hospitality. Which will be reciprocated at any time if you guys are "dahn Sahf"!