There were 449 MFL tweets this week, but which made the top 10?

Welcome to the first #MFLTop10 of 2021. What a week it's been in the world of UK teaching - so serious congratulations to everyone for getting through it.

It should go without saying that any teacher who has shared any resources, ideas or encouragement with their fellow teachers during this period - be it online or offline, and be that in MFL or elsewhere - is a true hero.

Now, onto the main event - here are the top 10 posts that we MFL teachers have truly loved over the first week of 2021 (ranked by total counts of likes and retweets).

10. MrBCurrier (@MrBCurrier)

Kicking us off is Mr Currier, who's been successfully using his year 11s as guinea pigs for a free tool called Spiral. The theme of this week's #MFLTop10 is largely (and somewhat unsurprisingly) online learning, and this tool looks like a great way to get instant feedback from an entire class on a single question, similar to "show me your mini whiteboards" in class. I haven't used it, but he's happy to take any questions about it on Twitter!

9. Miss F (@MissFedrizzi)

This is great. In at number 9 is Miss Fedrizzi. Based on her experience from the previous lockdowns, she's gathered her six top tips on how to make videos for your lessons which engage students. How long should your videos be? At which point do students stop paying attention? What should you say / not say when recording your videos? All here.

8. Sophie Bowers (@MissBowersMFL)

The Greenshaw Learning Trust's Sophie Bowers and Miss Sharman have (kindly!) shared their resources this week on the topic of Environment and Global Issues. You can save it for future reference if now is not the time; you just need to go to Sophie's Twitter for the link!

7. Joe. (@joestew88)

In at number 7 this week is Joe Stew, who has filmed a 25-minute mini-CPD on how (and, pedagogically speaking, why) you should go about making Gianfranco Conti-inspired sentence builders yourself. He also includes additional techniques for listening activities, too. A great watch!

6. MFL Field (@MFLfield)

Some comic relief in at number 6 this week (although I'm sure it wasn't entirely intentional!) but it certainly feels like no MFL resources will ever be able to keep up with the pace of technology. (As an aside, I felt particularly old this week when one student asked me to explain what an iPod was...)

5. MrBCurrier (@MrBCurrier)

In at number 5 this week is Mr Currier again! This may be his second appearance, but it's certainly not without reason: he has shared some absolutely fantastic GCSE Spanish booklets this week (specifically for Edexcel, but they're still GCSE-level). What's wonderful about these is that they are actually the product of a whole department, and they're even being translated into other languages (including EAL) by volunteers from the Twitter community right now! They're all being offered for free, but you can buy him a coffee via his blog if you want to say thank you.

4. Alba Hernandez (@expattycake)

In at number 4 this week is Alba Hernandez. It's not a resource, but it's a reminder. For every frustrated or annoyed kid out there (which seems to be increasingly the case at both ends of the ability spectrum) there are kids who just want to get on. It's easy for us to get carried away by how manic everything is at the moment, but this below is a timely reminder that there are so many polite students out there who just want to learn, even in year 11.

3. Bruno Gomes (@teacherworklife)

In at third place this week is Bruno Gomes. In yet another demonstration of the amount of goodwill there is among the MFL community, especially during these challenging times, Bruno has shared all of his Spanish lessons online - from lessons suitable for year 6 right up to year 13. May you never be without a Spanish lesson (or handout) again!

2. Sophie Bowers (@MissBowersMFL)

In second place this week is Sophie Bowers from the Greenshaw Learning Trust. This may be Sophie's second entry in the top 10 this week, but this is absolutely justified: she has shared with us an entire KS3 and KS4 curriculum of YouTube lessons for both French and Spanish. Whether you use them for inspiration or "as is", go and have a browse!

1. G Campello (@campello_mfl)

And in at number 1 this week is G Campello with her top tip for doing MFL translations - something which is especially tricky now all our students are studying online. There will always be one student who tries to find shortcuts instead of doing translations manually, but this will help prevent that. The tip also kicked off a conversation thread of other teachers' suggestions and recommendations to get around this problem. Power in numbers!

So there we have it! Whether you've been uploading your resources to Twitter this week or sharing these ideas with your teams next week, thank you for being a part of this week's #MFLTop10!

If you want to make it into next week's charts, make sure to share your resources and ideas on Twitter using the MFL teachers' hashtag #mfltwitterati.

Wishing you all a great (and well deserved) weekend, and best of luck for next week!

Blaine

PS. Subscribe at the bottom of this page if you want to receive the #MFLTop10 each Saturday!

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