In 2014 we ran two activities for the workshop.
We were delighted that Fátima Gónzalez Gómez (Academic Director of Cuenca, the True Spanish Experience project and experienced teacher of Spanish as a foreign language with experience gained across the world) could lead a workshop on how to integrate teaching cultural components with the teaching of the Spanish language. She shared tips and ideas as well as leading us in the creation of teaching activities, which were shared in a short presentation at the end of the first session. Fátima has since shared the teaching activity on the Tres Culturas which she used as a guide for creating CLIL activities (please see Documents section below).
We also held a Methodology Carousel. At all of our events, we always hear people asking each other for tips and advice and so on this occasion, we built time for that right into the workshop and formalised the process.
We voted on topics for discussion on our Facebook page. We were blown away by all the ideas shared by members. These ideas are available on our Resources page and we would like to extend our thanks to all present for being so generous and sharing and presenting their ideas with and to us all.
It was a bittersweet occasion as well as we were delighted to welcome Joan Sutton, Chief Inspector for Spanish to the workshop after Fátima’s session. However, it was with some regret that members learned of the Chief Inspector’s plans to retire this year. We presented her with flowers on behalf of the members and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Joan again for her work throughout her career in the promotion of Spanish as a subject. She kindly shared some words of advice with those present on the day and attendees wrote furiously as Joan spoke about good practice that she has seen around the country and encouraged us to keep up the good work. Joan is particularly interested in differentiation (one of our topics in the methodology carousel) and very kindly shared a very useful document on differentiation which can be found in the Documents section below (teachers’ handout on differentiation from Joan Sutton Chief Inspector).
We held this year’s workshop in Dublin West, for the simple reason that it is bigger than our previous workshop venue and we wanted there to be space for everyone who wanted to come.
Many thanks to all who attended and contributed on the day.
This year’s AGM and Conference took place in the Kilmainham Hilton Hotel on Saturday 11th October, preceded by a TeachMeet on Friday 10th October.
The TeachMeet created an incredible buzz among the 50 teachers lucky enough to get tickets! Some of the presentations can be found on our Resources Page.
This year, further to our intention to make links with other educational bodies, we had a number of short information presentations as well as our usual key speakers.
Information sessions:
During July and early August, our members voted on what language point they would like dealt with on the day, and on how they would like the language workshop to be slanted i.e. as a language lesson or as a methodology lesson.
They opted for a methodology-style lesson, and Ana Sánchez Pérez of Colegio Delibes once again obliged, delivering a lively presentation on the old chestnut of direct and indirect object pronouns!
Check out the Documents section below for the 2014 conference agenda and our list of sponsors who were more than generous and imaginative in coming up with raffle prizes for our members.
It has been our policy to ask sponsors to provide a prize for the raffle which can go straight to our members rather than charging them a fee, and from the anticipation in the room, this was a great idea!!
