Getting started

To blog or not to blog, that is the question! So many bloggers, so many excellent blogs, such a growing field. But there is so much to think about and MFL has never known such pressure; I think there are language matters to discuss and language does matter and we need to keep representing the professionals in schools who regularly get in the classroom and do the hard graft.

I have had such a tremendous year and a half since I first went on Joe Dale's excellent Isle of Wight ICT training course. So many terrific practitioners gathered in Nodehill to learn and share together and I was blown away. Part of it is simply the fear of being left behind - let's be honest. I am in my final decade of teaching, I am a digital tourist, as they say but I am not going lightly into that dark age of retirement! The CPD which I have found for myself, largely through the terrific ICT-loving community of MFL teachers out there in the ether, has been invaluable and has given me a renewed passion for the job of teaching day to day.

I am worried by the time this blog may need, concerned by the "going public"- but I am equally scared of the responsibility that teachers in Britain are forced to carry for the apparent popularity (or lack of it)of their subject and if any of us can do something which will encourage others in our field, then I think we should go for it.

In this blog I'll aim to fill in the gap between those who are expert and those who like me , are just beginning and feeling their way in the digital realm. It IS a journey worth making - it's not even a question of age, is it? Teachers of all ages need to keep fresh, upgrade their skills and buy in a new range of tools to do the job better.

It's just that the IT tools are spectacularly engaging and I may try to illustrate some of them, ask others to help me out and point the way to interesting places if I possibly can.