The Kate Languages Podcast

In the fourth episode of this mini-series, I discuss some great ideas for speaking and writing in the languages class, from how to bridge the gap between the passive and active skills, to my favourite ways of scaffolding and extending for students of differing abilities!

In the episode, I mention Mary Myatt's amazing Curriculum book (again!) and also my CPD course, which I ran on 7th May 2022. Although the inaugural one is over and done with now, keep an eye out for future CPD courses on my website https://katelanguages.co.uk!

Music is from Pixabay by Coma-Media

In the third episode of this mini-series, I discuss listening and reading in MFL lessons and talk you through how to exploit one text in lots of different ways. I go through various listening and reading tasks that you can do in lessons, and what pitfalls to avoid when you're choosing appropriate texts and activities for your students!

If you want to go into this in more depth, then join my Lesson Planning 101 CPD day! The first one is this Saturday, 7th May 2022 (sign up here: https://katelanguages.co.uk/product/mfl-lesson-planning-101-online-cpd/) or if you're listening to this after May 2022, then keep an eye on my website for more chances to join a CPD day with me!

Music is from Pixabay by Coma-Media

In the second episode of this mini-series, I talk about how to introduce vocabulary and phrases in MFL lessons. I describe different effective activities you can do on a whiteboard and on paper, and give some examples of my own favourite ways of introducing new language to your pupils.

In the episode, I mention a sample lesson about pets in French, which can be found on my website: https://katelanguages.co.uk/les-animaux-a-year-7-lesson-plan-with-new-gcse-style-questions/

And I also reference my Mastering the Basics series of resources, which are all here: https://katelanguages.co.uk/?s=Mastering+the+Basics

If you want to go into this in more depth, then join my Lesson Planning 101 CPD day! The first one is on 7th May 2022 (sign up here: https://katelanguages.co.uk/product/mfl-lesson-planning-101-online-cpd/) or if you're listening to this after May 2022, then keep an eye on my website for more chances to join a CPD day with me!

Music is from Pixabay by Coma-Media

In this episode, I talk about how to start an MFL lesson effectively. I give some tips on getting the students settled, which type of starter activities I think are the best and what to avoid!

In the episode, I mention Kate Jones' excellent Retrieval Practice book, which you can get here: https://www.johncattbookshop.com/retrieval-practice

If you want my MFL version of Kate Jones' retrieval practice placemat, then it's here: http://katelanguages.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Retrieval-practice-placemat-Fatskinny-font.pdf

And for more ideas on retrieval practice/starters in MFL, here's a blog post I wrote at the end of 2020: https://katelanguages.co.uk/retrieval-activities/

If you want to go into this in more depth, then join my Lesson Planning 101 CPD day! The first one is on 7th May 2022 (sign up here: https://katelanguages.co.uk/product/mfl-lesson-planning-101-online-cpd/) or if you're listening to this after May 2022, then keep an eye on my website for more chances to join a CPD day with me!

Music is from Pixabay by Coma-Media

Just wanted to let you know what's coming up in season 2 of The Kate Languages Podcast and try out my new jingle!

Season 2 is a mini-series of 5 episodes dedicated to the fundamentals of lesson planning in MFL - starters, introducing vocabulary, listening/reading, speaking/writing and finishing a lesson effectively.

Subscribe now to make sure you get each episode the minute they are released!

Music is from Pixabay by Coma-Media

In the last episode of season 1, I'm talking about saving time! If feels like there is simply not enough time in the day to do everything you need to do... so here are my top 5 tips to avoid wasting time. Hopefully, they will also help you to be more productive and, more importantly, allow you to spend precious time with loved ones, rest and recharge! From saying "no" to being confident that good is good enough, I wish I'd known these tips (and been assertive enough to implement them) when I was starting out as a teacher!

In this episode, I talk about my online courses for MFL teachers. I go into some of the background behind why I teach them, explain the different levels and what we cover in the classes, to help you work out which one is right for you!

To sign up to one of the courses, head to https://katelanguages.co.uk/courses/ or follow me on social media and/or sign up to my mailing list to find out when registration is open for the next block of lessons.

Do get in touch if you have any more questions!

In today's episode, I talk about how I came to be a teaching resources writer - from setting up my website (with the help of my very talented stepmum!) to selling over 2500 of my most popular resource (at the last count). I also go into quite a lot of detail about my process when it comes to creating each resource, even down to the reasoning behind my font choices!

This episode has come about as I've received a lot of messages and emails recently about writing resources and setting up a website, so I'm hoping I've answered some of the most burning questions! As always, while it will be most useful for MFL teachers in England, I also believe that teachers in all subjects and Key Stages, and hopefully even from around the world, will find some helpful takeaways here... after all, writing resources is the essence of lesson planning, regardless of where you are and what you're teaching!

I wrote a blog post on this a few years ago as well, which also contains links to the photo websites I use in my resources - https://katelanguages.co.uk/a-guide-to-creating-and-selling-teaching-resources/

This is my 3rd episode featuring a guest and this time I'm chatting to the brilliant and very inspiring Dr Liam Printer. As well as having a PhD in Motivation, Liam is a Spanish teacher in Switzerland and also has his own podcast, The Motivated Classroom (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-motivated-classroom/id1525120086). We actually had this chat last year (2021) as an Instagram live (so there are a couple of references to the pandemic and lockdowns) and it was so great, I just had to upload it here as a podcast episode so more people can hear it!

We chatted about all things motivation (of course), both teacher and student; TPRS; the importance of unpredictability in teaching; some great ideas for fun lessons... and so much more!

As always, I can't wait to hear what you thought of the episode, so get in touch on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook - I'm @katelanguages on all 3!

My first Q&A episode!

In this episode, I answer 5 questions that my lovely friends and followers on Instagram asked me this week.

The first one is about teaching my son languages; the 2nd and 3rd are about improving MFL take up from Year 9 to GCSE and getting SLT/other staff to support MFL; the 4th question is about my opinion of schools I've worked in (obviously no naming and shaming, but I am quite honest about some of the difficulties I faced in a couple of schools); and then in response to the last question, I give some ideas for what jobs are good for ex-teachers, in case you're pondering leaving the classroom!

I'd love to do more of these in the future, so let me know if you have any more questions for me!