Hello and welcome to my blog
I am a MFL teacher (French and Spanish) and Head of Year 7 at a secondary school in the North West. My background is in teaching TEFL and I have lived in both France and Spain for a number of years. I have always been passionate about languages and love keeping up-to-date with new ideas and skills that will engage my students and help them learn more effectively. This blog is aimed at MFL teachers who are new to incorporating ICT resources into their classroom to help them access some of the quality resources available today. However I hope the posts I write also inspire teachers of any subject/level.
I am also interested in a few areas of education in addition to MFL, including new ICT developments, games mechanics in education (such as ExtraCredits), leadership, coaching skills and emotional intelligence.
I will aim to post resources that I have personally found to be effective and if I can offer you any time saving tips from what I’ve learned, even better. I hope the links and ideas I share will be useful, fun and inspiring for you and your students. All views are my own.
This is my other website where I share classroom resources with my students misscairns.wordpress.com
Here’s one of my favourite messages from Steve Jobs…
Resources for the MFL Classroom 
Hi Michelle. Just looked at all the interactive tools you have put up and I think I now know what i will be spending my summer holiday doing! They all look great. Even though I’m not a teacher in mfl, I think all of these tools will be useful to me and the children will love them.
Are you now in your first year of teaching? Can I ask where you trained?
Your pupils are VERY lucky to have you, Miss.
Suzi Bewell
PGCE Course Leader for MFL
The University of York
@suzibewell
Hi Michelle
Love your intro and I feel the same! I have a ratio of 3:1 boys to girls in my French classes – Stage 4 and I have difficulty trying to help boys see that learning languages is useful and can be really fun with new stuff in ICT. I am always combing the web and trying to learn from other teachers.. I have found your blog soooo useful – one day I will surprise you and post my things that work with boys the best! keep up the good work!
Hi Helen
thanks so much for leaving your comments, glad you find the ideas useful, there are so many ICT tricks & gadgets out there but it’s finding the ones that are effective with languages, that may be for a one off lesson as something different or a more long term tool like dropbox. Yes, please let me know when you find some ideas that work for you!
All the best, Michelle
Hi Michelle,
Came across your blog this evening and found it extremely inspiring. I returned to teaching after a gap for raising my young family and as such, missed out on the massive tech revolution which has occurred in my absence. I am gradually incorporating, little by little, some of the resources you have suggested; voki, popplet, Dropbox. I will keep referring back to your blog for inspiration and support and will try to be braver!
Thank you for the time/effort you have put into sharing.
Best wishes.
Hi Alison,
Thank you very much for your lovely comment. Glad you found the ideas useful! incorporating ICT and using it as a tool for MFL doesn’t have to be daunting, see it as a fun new way to learn – for you and the students! I’m planning the next post on making your own website which I think you’ll like, watch this space!
All the best for your ICT adventures!
Michelle
Hi Michelle, enjoyed reading your blog from the recent school visit. Wondered if I could use your step by step guide in our next issue of Languages News which is a newsletter for Hampshire schools – would credit you, of course?
am so in awe of all you people who can do wonderfully ‘techie’ things which are so motivating for our students.
Hi Liz, of course, glad you found the blog post useful. Rest assured, if I can make a blog, anyone can, it’s easy when you know how – hence me sharing the simple steps! Good luck and let me know when you’ve got one up and running 🙂
Hi Michelle
Just wanted to say thanks for all the ideas. Jen put me on to your blog and I’ve stolen a as much as I can. All the ideas work really well at a primary level and the kids are responding really well online homework.
Well done and thanks for improving teaching beyond the classroom!
Mark Sykes
Jen’s husband
Hi Mark,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment 🙂 Great to know my little blog has inspired you to make your own resources! you’ve made my day!
Michelle
No worries! Thanks for keeping me in the 21st C.