A Useful Podcast

Todos con Haití

This podcast is related to the past earthquake in Haiti.  It talks about the Latina singer Shakira and her efforts of helping reconstruct the nation.  She created a foundation that helps children by providing schooling, health care, food, and more. It is basically a 2:30 minute audio podcast that gives a basic news report about Shakira’s foundation.  I really liked this podcast because the native speaker talks slowly and clearly.  This is the kind of podcast I would use in an Intermediate Spanish class as a listening comprehension activity (for homework). Students would be able to listen to the podcast as many times as they wanted and then answer given comprehension questions about the information contained within the news report.  It brings current events into L2 classroom discussion as well as practices listening comprehension!

ePals

ePals

When I think about what needs still remain in modern language classrooms, one of the first things that comes to mind is how difficult it is to find native or fluent language speakers that students can interact with. Most language teachers have access to a wide range of print materials and recordings they can use with their students, but finding a way for students to really engage with fluent language speakers remains a challenge.

After exploring the ePals website, I have realized there is a solution to this problem!  Through ePals Global Community (which is FREE), it gives teachers an abundance of global connections which support multiple content areas and learning goals. It is the world's largest network of K-12 classrooms available with connections in more than 200 countries and territories. Educators can access the ePals Global Community to find collaborative projects, join discussions in the community forums, and search thousands of classroom profiles to engage with others in authentic exchanges.  EPals can be used to successfully connect to classrooms from across the world so students (and teachers) can learn from each other and gain a better understanding of other peoples’ culture, society, politics, and exploring everything from what kids in other countries do for fun, have for lunch, and learn about in school.  To me, a great element to this feature is that a teacher can search by project topic, student age range, country, language and more to find the perfect collaborating class partner.  I would definitely use this feature from the ePals site in my future classroom to collaborate with classes from around the globe.

Digital Storytelling With Animoto

La Ciudad de Oaxaca

The digital story I created with Animoto was intended to be a visual stimulating video that mixed photographs and vocabulary.  I chose to use my own photographs from when I studied in Mexico.  This way, students are not only being presented vocabulary words, but introduced to concepts of another culture.  In a classroom setting this video could be used for various purposes.

For example, most simply, this digital story could be used as a way for students to review vocabulary on their own while outside of the classroom if given the URL.  Additionally, during an actual class, the story could be shown and used for students to practice recognizing pictures of vocabulary words and saying those words out loud.  For instance, (for reviewing) I could show the video, but stop it before each vocabulary word is shown and have the students guess out loud what term matches the picture presented.  I could also stop the video while the word is shown on the screen and have the students repeat it after me several times, for introducing the vocabulary terms.

For a more advanced level Spanish class, I could use this digital story as a precursor to writing.  It would serve as an “anticipatory set” to a writing activity.  After watching the video I could have the students write short narratives about “a day in the city of Oaxaca..” and ask them to include things like: What did you see, hear, taste, smell?, Where did you go?, What did you do?, and Who did you see? (based on the visual stimulation from the digital story).  A writing piece like this could also have a focus on using the past tense.

I could also create a lesson of comparison/contrast between this Mexican city and the area we live in (where the students live).  A more advanced level Spanish class could write essays of this nature in the target language. 

I think digital stories that integrate photos, videos, and music are great tools for teaching BOTH culture and subject area content! They also have the ability to engage a variety of learners, including visual, musical, linguistic, and naturalistic.



Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Using Bubblr in Teaching

My First Bubblr Story - "La Ciudad de Barcelona"

There are various ways for me to use Bubblr (using Flickr photographs) as a teacher and even more ways for my students to use this tool that will promote engagement in second language learning.

The story I created with Bubblr is about the city of Barcelona in Spain. All photographs used depicted real places in the city.  Each page showed a different scene of the city and the text explains what the place is/the name of the place/what you might find there.  I could use stories like this in my future classroom in order to show students what different Spanish speaking places look like and how they compare to where they live/cities in the United States.  An objective for a lesson/activity involving this might be:

·         Students will be able to compare and contrast the city of Barcelona to the city of Buffalo. 

I could also use a story like this one to practice/introduce/review vocabulary for PLACES.  As we read the story out loud in class, I could highlight the places vocabulary and have students repeat the words after me and define them in English (for review).  To extend the lesson, and depending on the grade level, I could ask students to tell me what things they might find in each of the places stated throughout the story.  Objectives for an activity like this would be:

·         Students will be able to identify and orally state review places vocabulary.

·         Students will be able to recognize places depicted in pictures and orally state what items you can find in that particular place (in Spanish).

Students could also create their own stories like these after doing research about a Spanish speaking country/city and present them to the class.  Other Bubblr story topics that students create might be based on a vocabulary or grammar theme.  Objectives for these story creations might be:

·         Students will write a short story correctly in a specified tense.

·         Students will write a short story correctly including specified vocabulary words.

·         Students will write a short story which includes the word/phrase (ex: “hay”) at least 5 times.

Sharing Bubblr stories in class in front of an audience will also motivate students to show their best work and encourage student ownership of their work!

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a new literacy practice that is highly useful in the educational setting.  As stated in the article 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling, “digital storytelling is the practice of combining narrative with digi­tal content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component.” Basically, it lets a person tell a story by using computer-based tools. I think the best thing about digital storytelling is that a story can be created with any sort of path, combination, and media integration. It gives the author a limitless amount of resources and allows for maximum creativity.  Another great point made at the site called Center for Digital Storytelling is that literally anyone has the ability to create a digital story.  It explains that a digital storyteller is, “Anyone who has a desire to document life experience, ideas, or feelings through the use of story and digital media. Usually someone with little to no prior experience in the realm of video production but time to spend a few days attending a workshop and developing a story with creative support and technical assistance from compassionate, highly experienced facilitators.” This means that any student can create a digital story with the guidance and support from a teacher (the facilitator).  Making a digital story promotes confidence and encourages ownership of their creation.  It lets students express themselves through literacy and media in a way that pencil and paper does not allow.

                According to 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling, “A digital story typically begins with a script. The storyteller then assembles rich media to support the ideas and emotions in that script, including music or other audio effects, personal or public-domain images, animations or video, and other electronic ele­ments. The storyteller pieces together and edits the digital story, creating a short movie, usually about two to four minutes long, in one of various file formats.”

                The uses of digital storytelling in any classroom are endless, especially in a foreign language classroom! Digital stories can take on any kind of topic and contain different points of view. The website The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling mentions that, “The topics that are used in Digital Storytelling range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one's own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between.” In my future Spanish classroom, I can use digital storytelling for multiple topics.  For example, students could create digital stories about Spanish-speaking countries/cultures/holidays, make children’s books based on a specific topic, and write a digital story using a certain tense (events that have happened in the past or what they hope to happen in the future).  There is room for digital storytelling in any curriculum.  All you need is a little imagination!

Photo by umjanedoan (Flickr)

Twitter Teaching

I have joined Twitter for the first time this week!  After exploring and reading a few articles, I have learned how microblogging can be used in the language classroom AND for professional development. 

You Are Now Entering the Twitterverse

In just reading this one article I realized how many ways a teacher really can use Twitter to instruct students in a meaningful manner! Below I will describe some innovative ideas for Twitter use….

·         Twitter Characters – Students can create Twitter accounts for different characters in a book you are reading and have conversations with a partner (another character) about chosen/assigned topics; choose a scene to recreate in “tweet-speak”

·         Reading log/Book talks – Students can have discussions surrounding a book they are reading in class; post questions, reactions, comments to the text as they read; by using a specific hashtag in each tweet you can create your own class reading response thread

·         Scavenger Hunts - Tweet different "hunts" to your students; involve students finding unique facts within their reading assignment or searching around online for a factoid I set them after; it could be a contest and the first person to tweet you the answer wins

·         Resource Twitter Page – Post homework assignments, notes, reminders for students to look at while outside of the classroom; post helpful/extra links for students to explore or use to help them do assignments

·         Daily Words/Quotes – Post a new word (with definition?)and/or quote to Twitter each morning and students can explore them as much as they'd like

·         Retweeting – If you find something interesting that would be beneficial or relevant to what class is learning, retweet (share) it with your class OR to a specific student/s

I think these ideas are amazing and only the beginning of how Twitter can be integrated into instruction! These also can be adapted to almost any subject area.  I can particularly see myself using these types of activities in my future foreign language classroom!

Educational Twitter Chats Calendar

 

One of the ways that educators can benefit from using Twitter is to participate in any number of Twitter chats. Twitter chats are scheduled events or conversations that use a specific hashtag in an attempt to organize a conversation around a particular topic. If you're new to Twitter participating in ed chats can be a good way to connect with other educators that are interested in the same topics as you.

My First Social Networking Group

Classroom 2.0



After investigating several social networking services, I think Classroom 2.0 is a good place for me to start. It is a networking group for teachers interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media in education. What really appealed to me was the fact that it welcomed “beginners.”  This would be my first educational networking group and after perusing the site, I feel very comfortable to join and take advantage of the benefits of digital dialogue.   I think this website would be a good starting place to begin having digital conversations with other teachers.  I like how the forum posts are easy to search because of the “tags.”  It also gives a long list of discussions on specific topics categorized by tools, subjects, and areas on the left side of the homepage. I noticed topics that are relevant to me such as: blogging, social networking, foreign languages, elementary, secondary or high school, and MANY MORE.