TeachMeetNE10

I was really pleased to read a tweet from Chris Harte that there is to be another TeachMeet in Newcastle on Thursday 29th April. This will be the third Northeastern TeachMeet and I'm really looking forward to being inspired again by some fantastic teachers from the local area and to meeting up with like minded teachers and old and new friends.

There is a change of venue for this TeachMeet - The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers - it's near Central Station so should be pretty easy for people to get to.

If you've never been to a TeachMeet before, this is an ideal opportunity to come along and find out what all the fuss is about. For more information and to sign up here: TeachMeetNE10

TeachMeetNE09-02

On Wednesday 2nd December Chris Harte and team organised the second TeachMeetNE of the year at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle.
After a hectic journey up the A19 (with a huge delay due to a broken down car!!!) we arrived in good time for the start of proceedings.
Then event was extremely well attended and, as ever the Tyneside Cinema proved to be an excellent location, with wine flowing freely throughout the evening.
There were some amazing presentations by some very amusing and knowledgeable colleagues from the local area and we also had colleagues join us from around the world via Flashmeeting.
I spoke about my top tools to get pupils talking and the presentation is below. Underneath the presentation you will also find links to examples of the tools that I spoke about. It's so important for we linguists to get our pupils talking and improving their foereign accents but it was really interesting to see that non-linguists were also interested in how they could use some of these tools with their pupils.

Voki: from our eTwinning Project

Voicethread: Very basic-I'm sure you could come up with something much better!

Songsmith: Haben chants

Slideshare: My French Jolly Phoniques Slidecast

Podcasts: Langwitch Radio (German) Radio Langwitch (French)

More information about the TeachMeet09-02 event can be found on the Ning.

Finally I'd like to say thank you to Rosemary for giving me a lift, thus making sure I didn't need to drive into central Newcastle!

TeachMeetNE

I was very please to learn that there is to be a TeachMeet Northeast later on this month. I've read about TeachMeets before, noteably the Midlands TeachMeet which took place recently and hoped that there would be one more locally that I could attend.

As far as I can tell they are informal get togethers of like-minded teachers from all curriculum areas. There will be 7 minute presentations, 2 minute nano presentations and learning conversations. In addition, "enthusiastic lurkers" are also welcome (of course).

The action will happen on Thursday 18th June from 7.00 pm - 9.30 pm in the Tyneside Bar at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. If you want to attend you need to sign up on the TeachMeetNE Wiki. I have decided to take the plunge and give a nano presentation on "eTwinning in Practice". No idea what I'll talk about or how I'll get everything in in 2 minutes. I'd also like to add that I'm terrified but we all need to start somewhere!!!

I am, however, really looking forward to meeting many fellow Twitterers in real life!