A present for Grandma

This is the Christmas present I just finished up for Grandma, with help from the whole family, who sent messages and pictures to be included.  I'm not sure how the online, preview version looks, but I'm hoping the final printed copy will look nice! You can click on the square (with the arrows pointing outwards) below the book to see it in the full screen size. Let me know what you think :)

What You Mean to Us.... by From: The Whole Family | Make Your Own Book

Stressing in Spanish: A free lesson

It seems a shame to create materials that no one uses, so... I had to create a Spanish lesson using a wiki for a technology course. If anyone wants to try the lesson and let me know what you think, you can click here to open the lesson in my wikispace. Then, come back to this page to give me comments or let me know what you think! Feel free to actually use the talkgroup website (voxopop) to record some words, etc. Enjoy!

Grades and Contact Information

Brandee's Contact Information

I created this wordle from the texts of all the blogs I wrote for this class ;)  Thank you so much for an excellent course!  Buena suerte este verano!

You can send my final mark to this email address:  LHASA289@gmail.com  (not case sensitive).

Just so you don't have to look for them, click here to see my TPACK lesson in googledocs.  Click here to see my final lesson plan for the course in my wikispace. 

Week 2, Last 3 Days

My Reflections on the Last 3 Days of the Course

During these last three days of the course we spent most of the class working on our final lesson plans, which included finishing up editing our videos, creating activities in Hot Potatoes, looking for materials for our "cultural corner," etc.  It was lots of work but exciting to see that I was creating my own original lesson using a variety of materials I had experimented with in this course.  You can see my final lesson plan on my wikispace.
 

 We also looked at a tool called "Online Language Lab," which can be used for free in moodle and for a fee in some other Learning Management Systems.  This is a great tool teachers can use to create oral assignments for students, which can be individually evaluated.  What it doesn't allow is for students to communicate orally with each other, or share their recordings with anyone besides the teacher.  This leads to the question of whether a task should have an authentic audience -- wouldn't it make the task more interesting if they could speak to their classmates, and not only the teacher, when doing their recording?  I am still looking for tools that could allow students to communicate asynchronously with their peers (including voice), since it is not always possible to set up synchronous communication.

Along this line, I have tried to think of ways to set up projects involving communication at a distance through my TPACK lesson ( a lesson I created by reflecting first on content, later on a potential activity, and finally on the forms of technology that would help me carry it out).  Here is a google doc document with my TPACK lesson.

I have very much enjoyed working in such a hands-on fashion in this course and reflecting on how I can make use of the great variety of collaborative tools online to encourage my students to use the language actively.  It has been a great two weeks!

Week 2, Tuesday: Smart Technology

 My Thoughts on SMARTboard Activities

Today we looked at some of the Smart Technology that is frequently used in K-12 setting, specifically the Smartboard.  The smartboard is like a large mousepad that reacts to touch, originally designed to facilitate the lecture style of teaching.  It is usually used with a software program called Notebook.  Since today collaborative, hands-on learning is favored over lecturing, teachers can make more interactive use of the smartboard by doing some of the following:
   
1. Having groups of students use the smartboard to solve problems (ex: L'enigme d'Einstein)
2. Using SMART response clicker technology to have students answer questions/surveys, etc.
3. Use websites such as Bibliotheque Virtuelle en Mathematique or download previous smartboard lessons from the Learn Alberta website.

Finally, we also talked about Differentiated Learning, which is a way of targeting your teaching and learning activities so that they specifically address your students' needs (and strengths and weaknesses, etc.).  Some students who are more kinetic or visual learners might benefit from the use of the smartboard, rather than trying to solve a problem using pen and paper, etc.  I haven't worked with a SMARTboard before but if I have the opportunity to do so I'll definitely keep in mind what we talked about today, so as to make the experience as interactive as possible for the students.

Week 2, Monday

My Thoughts on Using Video

On Monday in class we talked about some ways that videos can be used in today's classrooms to minimize lecturing and maximize the time that students are able to spend in class actually practicing the content actively.  This makes perfect sense in the language classroom, in which it has been shown to be so important for the students to USE the language in a variety of situations and not just be able to explain it through rules.  We often spend the class time going over certain features of the language and then tell the students to practice on their own, usually through written homework exercises.  Instead, students can be directed to the videos to prepare before class and then as teachers we can lead them through hands-on activities.  We do currently try something similar by having students read a textbook lesson before coming to class so that we can just quickly review it and then move on to some practicing.  However, the idea of finding useful videos for the students to watch instead is appealing, as they may find it easier and more interesting to watch videos rather than reading the textbook outside of class.
 

As for actually filming and editing the videos -- it's a lot of work!  We are still in the process of using imovie to edit the lesson we planned and filmed.  Although it is a lot of work, the videos could then be used repeatedly with a variety of students, so it would be worth the effort in the long-run.  Here is a link to the video that Michaela and I created, on "How to Stress in Spanish."

Day 5 (Friday!)

My Thoughts on Day 5: Web 2.0 Tools

Today we examined various softwares in Web 2.0 that could be used in the classroom.  I have seen some presentations created with Prezi previously but had never tried it myself.  I just created an account, so I'll get to work tackling it ;)  I also really liked checking out Flipsnack.  Below, I have embedded a pdf file I converted using flipsnack today.  The pdfs look more attractive and easier to read in the book/flip format.  I also agree that it creates a nice final product that students could use to show off their work.  Symbaloo looks enormously useful!  Right now my bookmarks are a mess - this tool will help me organize the web pages I use for various projects, dividing them by topic/project. I have typically been reluctant to use new tools that required me to create an account or download a plugin.  However, it seems I have been missing out on some useful tools, so I will be rethinking my attitude!  

Finally, I enjoyed our discussion of TPACK, or the knowledge that teachers need to have to successfully use technology in the classroom.  We talked about how teachers should start their lesson planning by being familiar with the proposed content, or having an awareness of the curriculum (what needs to be taught).  Stemming from this, they should have pedagogical knowledge of the kinds of activities that will allow them to cover the content effectively.  Finally, once these factors have been considered, teachers can make use of the various technologies they are familiar with that will best allow them to carry out the activities.  Sounds logical to me!