Erasmus+ Leaders In Language February - March 2023

 I can’t believe we’ve almost come to the end of January now, which means it’s not long until we’ll be heading to Ashford! Yesterday, we looked at the topic of classroom management with Emille and Fran. It’s made me nervous to find out the kinds of classes we will be teaching but very excited to see what the future has in store. ~30/01/2023

Oh no … I mean, oh no , not this … Folks, I just got off the WhatsApp Wireless to Caro, and do you know what she said? Our flats in Spain will have no kettle … Yeah, you heard it right. No kettle! I mean, what am I going to do? … I'd been planning to live on nothing but cups of tea and Pot Noodle for the whole four weeks. But what am I gonna do now, man? How'm I gonna survive! I just don't know what to say. Quite frankly, I'm flabbergasted! My gast has never been so flabbered! Just so long as you can get McVities plain digestives in Spain. Then I might be alright …  

They say the hardest thing about planning a trip abroad is deciding what to take with you. And oboy aren't they right! I mean, once you've factored in the bare essentials (hair care products, paisley shirts, maltesers and so forth …), you've hardly any room left over for the little luxuries. So, I'm only going to be taking one book. Question is, which one? I've narrowed the list down to three books with their different pros and cons. For the curious, here it is: The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov   Pro   A bow tie wearing, cognac drinking talking cat. A séance of black magic. It's a love story ❤️    Con I may get so into the book it takes over … All my Spanish money magically transforms into roubles and, unable to buy food, I must starve. Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon Pro Never a dull moment. A goodly length. Con I may get so into the book it takes over … I spend my whole stay in Valencia running round the beach in a pig costume, singing di...

My brother keeps telling me how glad he is I'm going to Spain because of the extra share of pizza, cake, spaghetti, and sundry other foodstuffs he'll be getting because I'm not there. Good to know you'll be missed, huh. I mean, I wouldn't normally take it personal. But he also tells me he hopes I get nothing but paella to eat for the whole four weeks. Which seems a tad vindicative if you ask me. On a more serious yet still food-related note, I'm interested to discover what fruit and veg is like in Spain as compared to the UK. Consider, for instance, the canary melon. Formally one of my Five Fave Fruits, I can't say for certain at exactly what point in my life a supermarket-bought canary melon stopped tasting of canary melon, or, for that matter, of anything in particular. But there you have it. Has the same culinary trend set in in Spain, I wonder? Well, that's enough gastronomical gabbling from me. Cheerio all!

You know something, it's beginning to dawn on me that four weeks really isn't a long time, and I just hope I'm able to make the most of this tremendous opportunity. I'm still not sure what to expect in Spain, which is all very exciting, but these are my thoughts so far … I feel that TBL, which Fran and Emile introduced us to last week, will be an invaluable tool for teaching young learners, because it seems to draw on learners' energy, creativity and desire to communicate in a way that more workaday lesson structures do not. I never had the chance to apply TBL during the CELTA course, so this will be a good opportunity to expand my teaching 'toolkit' in this direction. Also, I'm looking forward to making my lessons more multi-modal. During the CELTA course, my natural tendency was to play it safe, and keep things as straightforward as possible. My materials were mostly limited to handouts and tasks, and my use of technological aids (excluding Zoom classe...

Well, it's Monday morning and -3°C here. The birdbath is frozen solid. Snow left over from last week refuses to melt. I've an icicle dangling from my nose. And I dare not use the outside toilet lest I become frozen to the seat and be forced there to await, hermit-like, the coming of spring.   Valencia today: 12°C.   All I can say is … Roll On Departure Day!!! 🌞🌞🌞  

Another morning of training under our belts! Today, we looked a little closer at the intricacies of  lesson planning. What do we mean by language skills? What about language systems? Most importantly, we found that these are not opposing ideas, in the sense that we would cater a lesson on solely writing skills for examples, but a mix of multiple skills and systems. In our group, we looked at creating a lesson plan around an article on RPGs, which some of us were really interested in and others didn't know what they were. In the time allocated, we managed to create a simple lesson plan as a group for how we would go about leading a lesson based on this article. It was great comparing ideas to create an interesting and useful lesson! And we may even do a one-shot DnD campaign when we meet up for in-person training:D ~22/01/2023

 Today, we were very lucky to meet Jams, a previous Erasmus+ teacher who similarly went to Valencia. It was a great opportunity to ask some questions about the work-life balance that we could have, accommodation and getting around in Valencia. I think having a small session like this definitely got myself and the rest of the team excited about the trip, especially since this time next month, we’ll actually be there! I’m packing my adapters and business casual wear as we speak… ~19/01/2023