Saturday, August 4, 2012

Reflections on the last day...

Yesterday was the last day of the summer semester, and we were fortunate enough to have a group of former SecMAC students come to talk about their experiences in the program, in their current placements, and in their use of technology.  

The most surprising thing is that they all want to use and develop neat things to do with technology in their classrooms, but they might not be able to.  For example - one school has a lot of technology equipment, but it none of it is functional (either out of date, or there is no administrative support to do so)! It is eye opening to hear that, although we are being trained in this program to use the latest and greatest teaching technology, we might not be able to use it! Or, there is a chance that my grand ideas about having students research water politics in Bolivia might take much longer than expected, because students might not know how to do research (This of course makes sense, but I had gotten used to the practice of researching done by college students, so I would have to modify that lesson to include how exactly to do research online, and how to get information that is within their ability leve)

The discussion made me think that even thought I have many ideas about how I will use technology in my Spanish classes, which is such a bummer!  I think I've come across in this blog as super excited about how to use what I'm learning in my classrooms, and the thought that I might not be able to do is disheartening.  It 

The former students did give me some ideas in terms of coping with whatever my situation may be.  One technique that I will likely use is called http://www.zamzar.com/, and it is a tool that allows you to download YouTube videos.  The benefit of this site is that you can get around the probably YouTube ban on the school's internet, and it will play without internet as well to avoid any connection issues.  Another technique that I will use is the Librarian / Media Center Specialist.  This faculty member would be useful when teaching the students how to properly search on the internet, or how to use the technological tools that the school has. 

So I leave for this summer break thinking about the technology in my placement, how I can take advantage of it while I'm there, and how I can cope with whatever is thrown (or not thrown) at me in the years to come.  This course is teaching me invaluable techniques for the classroom, and I am determined to use some of the tools I have blogged about in my own classrooms!


Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible' - Audrey Hepburn


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

SO INSPIRED (so I'm writing an EXTRA blog post)


This weekend I met with my possible placement teacher for the fall, and she is exactly the teacher I want to be.  She loves using music and art and TECHNOLOGY in a classroom! I just wanted to share with the blogsphere some of the really cool things I took from our meeting and what I'm finding on my own!


First she is doing this really great thing in her class called The Flipped Classroom.  This is technique in which the teacher gives the student work to do at home, online... THEN! The students will come to class the next day, and there will be an activity based on what they should have done, at home.  SO!  The students will do the leraning on their own and it requires the teacher to trust the students, because if they haven't done the lesson, then they won't be able to complete the work in class (there's also away to monitor them actually doing the learning at home, kind of like a screen shot).  My mentor was very excited about this, and she said that her students came to class, and were helping one another, and they successfully completed the assignment, and she in awe at how the students were engaged in the lesson - because they had done their work, and they were using technology.  


Another thing that she does is use this http://www.senorwooly.com/.  This guy, uses his students and posts music videos that other Spanish teachers can use in their classes.  His songs will use the target vocabulary and the target verb tense for each lessons!  My mentor has her students make their own videos too - either songs or skits.  It's such a fun way learn the language!


She also uses a Google phone number for students to practice speaking.  Por ejemplo, the students might be learning how to invite someone to the movies, and they can call and get oral (and authentic) practice with the language.  And she also uses something called Camtasia - but I haven't had the time to research this in more depth, but it seems like a screen recording software, and I'm guessing this is what the students use to verify that they're doing their online portion of the work at home.  


Things that I've been doing online lately:
I made a Pinboard on my Pinterest (if you're not on there and would like an invite, let me know!) where I can find adorable teaching ideas that other teachers have found useful (or adorable).  


And for my research paper about music in second language acquisition, I found this: http://www.songsforteaching.com/index.html.  And look!  There are songs that you can use music in classes OTHER than just languages!
Anyway - I have just been so crazy inspired, and I thought I would share it with y'all :)

Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering - because you can't take it in all at once - Audrey Hepburn
First Five Days


Today I read a post by Ewan McIntosh (http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/) "Are you a dawdler or a doer."  The video (which I suggest everyone go watch) is super inspirational.  Hearing educators from other countries explain the benefit of being a doer teacher, and it makes me think back to my doer and dawdler teachers, and how I might answer the question, "what will you do in the first 5 days to be a "doer" teacher?"


My dawdler teachers on the first day of school went through the syllabus, they introduced rules, and they had assignments that were usually do that first Friday of class.  My doer teachers were the ones who had music playing when we walked in, they usually started class with ice breakers so that everyone felt comfortable in class. I actually had a professor the last semester of undergraduate who spent the first day not going over the syllabus or the story that we needed to have read for that day, but talking to us, and getting to know us - he memorized our names by that day!!


So what I'm thinking, is that the way to start off the first 5 days of class is with getting to know the students - ice breakers and get to know you games - because I want them to know that I'm honestly interested in who they are outside of my classroom.  I'm going to ask them how their summer vacations were, and what their favorite part was, and what they're most looking forward to in the upcoming school year.  


I think every teacher should watch this - because I've had experience with both dawdlers and doers I know which had the most impact on me as a student, and I know which I want to be as a teacher.  I want to inspire my students and let them know they can enjoy learning, that it can be fun and that they can be successful, and being a doer teacher is how I will do this.


Also, this project should be checked out - http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/05/30/teaching-english-through-film-and-screenwriting/.  It required students to film a video, then send a silent version of that video to a school that is learning that language (China learning English exchanged with Australia learning Chinese).  Then the students had to interpret what the movies were saying.  How cool?!  I just love the idea of crossing cultural borders through media, and then assessing one's ability to understand body movement in relation to language.  I love this project.






I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it.  -Audrey Hepburn