The New Challenge: Technology

I spent this past weekend at the NHAWLT conference in Meredith, NH.  It was incredible!  The focus of my conference choices was technology, of which plenty were offered.  I'm losing the interest of French I students after the first two weeks, which makes me sad.  I am tired of teaching "J'ai faim, tu as faim?" and seeing their eyes glaze over...

After sitting in front of my laptop, and trying to mindmap digitally, on paper, in a word doc, etc... I decided to do a new blog post from my notes from the conference.  Rehashing what I took down will help me sort through what my goals are... plus, it will probably be helpful to language teachers looking for a kick in the pantalons, technologically speaking...

The two most influential sessions I attended were by Becky Rush and Jocelyn Judge.

Every teacher in my building is blessed with an iPad.  So here is what I learned...

I can use my iPad as a document camera.  By hovering over a document, I can snap a photo to save the work.  I've been doing that with my whiteboard to save notes for later.  Here is a final exam from last year's senior class: The Little Prince.  What is on your planet, and why?

I can also use my iPad to document student participation, something I do with paper, but prevents me from producing reports beyond "hey look at all these little marks I made!"  The program is called Student Action Tracker, and can be found here: 

http://download.cnet.com/Student-Action-Tracker/3000-20415_4-75583892.html 

I'm told it can also be used on an iPhone, or iPod, which is much smaller, and useful when the students are using the iPad and I can't get to it.  I've loaded it all up, and am planning on starting to use it tomorrow.

The first session I went to was about using http://www.kidblog.org as a platform.  What I like about it is that there is one main blog page where all activity is posted as a sort of status update, and when you click on the activity, it takes you to the individual's personal blog.  This is far more favorable to 30 people sharing ONE blog, and then blowing up the main page.

The blogs foster digital conversation, allows students to catalogue their work, upload images, mp3 links, and functions as a digital portfolio.  I can correct their posts online by changing the color of errors, or making notes on their errors, for them to go back and fix.  The author of the session, Becky Rush, says she only corrects once, then what's done is done.

She posts digital assignments on her blog for kids to access.  She posts links to listening or reading comprehension sites and then requires students to respond on their own blogs in the target language.  She uses Audacity to create soundfiles.  iPad will also do a voice memo the same way, and we were also told that the website Audioboo is a great resource as well.  I will save this info here to check out later.

21st Century Learning Skills require that students are literate in technology. Even though I may not know how to use the technology in minute detail, the kids will figure it out.  That's part of developing the 21st CLS, no?  

There are a few programs that Rush used to create products, awesome products, that require reflection and synthesis to demonstrate aptitudes.  The first was Photo Story 3, which I promptly emailed my tech guy and requested that he download to every machine in the labs.  Digital slide shows of photos that students narrate vocally, and can insert subtitles.  It prompts you to do every little step, so there is less time spent on formatting and screwing around with settings, and more time spent on creating.  It does not work on a mac, however.  (sniff!)

Story Jumper: Creates a digital book. The finished product belongs to the company, however, and cannot be dowloaded, only linked to, or you can purchase a hard copy.

The iPad training by Mrs. Judge and Mr. Wong was about using 1 iPad in the class.  The student action tracker was explained there.  So was using the iPad as a document camera, as a white board with the app "Show Me", which allows you to save what you've done in a video.  Judge prepares her notes, and plays the video for the class, and it is saved to be used next year.  She also uses it for pictionary, and can upload the videos to the school website.  This is helpful to students who were absent, they can get the notes.  Another version of this is Explain Everything or Doodle Cast Pro, which cost money.  Show me has a free version.

iCard Sort allows you to import lists of words in Excel, and gives you a desktop covered in flashcards that you can manipulate.  It is great for kinesthetic learners, and helps with sentences creation and word order. 

Quickvoice records students speaking for verbal assessments.

Guided Access is a setting on the iPad that prevents students from touching parts of the screen that you want to disable.  Was sooooo excited to discover this!!!

Choices is an app that I downloaded that is a random generator.  

Planbook.com is an online planner that I want to look into for my classes.  It has a student code so students can see what they are doing.  Also allows you to bump today to tomorrow if you don't complete the lesson, or if there is a snow day.  $12/ year.

Polleverywhere.com is a free way to have exit polls, students can submit responses online or via text.  it's free.

What to do with all this info?!!!

I had to get it out of my brain.  Now that it's out... I can begin to sort.  

At the conference I set up a kidblog for my French II class.  Now I am going to work on developing it. Until plus tard...

Taking Credit

I have been a bit sad that my year seems less productive than I wanted it to be.  While I think of this, i have to keep in mind that my post-grad school exhaustion plays a factor in my lack of productivity, but I also have to acknowledge the work that I've done.  Once I give myself credit for the word I've done, I should do that.  Take credit for it.  :)  Here goes:

I re-invented the curriculum for an entire French IV immersion course, consistent with my praxis.  Although this is not by any means the finalized version of my curriculum, this is one of the best courses I've ever taught, I do believe.  This course utilized explicit grammar lessons, philosophical discussion, film analysis, and literature circles, all with the goal of discussing concepts in context.  I also managed to bring 6 students up to speed who were far behind where they should have been after French III.  Yay me!

I've been integrating technology into my courses this current semester by using Edmodo to provide an online discussion forum for my French III course.  We discuss French history.  Unfortunately, most of this takes place in English at this point, but at least we're getting the ideas down.  I've also embraced the usefulness of the textbook as opposed to fighting it for the sake of fighting it.  Another way I've embraced technology has been to start using Evernote.  I'd like to learn more about incorporating it into class for my students, and I hear that some of the teachers and administrators have discussed using it for student portfolios.  I love this idea.  I want to be in on it.

Last, but not least, I've been working on developing an independent study version of my courses because one of my classes has only three students of various abilities and attendance patterns.  In order to meet the needs of each student, they have to be individualized.  One student receives highly structured activities, while the other two are given an list of objectives, and are then allowed to work on their own towards meeting them.  So far my kids are all working well on their own.  I have to work hard to make sure that it doesn't become a tedious routine for them.

That's 50% of the courses I teach right there, where I'm doing something great.

The rest of the time I'm sticking to the old standby.  Basic language instruction peppered with intellectual discussion and conversation about concepts when I can fit them in.

Chin up, Mademoiselle!  You're doing just fine.  Rome wasn't built in a day.

What are your caterpillars and butterflies?

"Il faut bien que je supporte deux ou trois chenilles si je veux connaître les papillons."  says the Flower in the Petit Prince.

Or, translated, "I had better be able to deal with two or three caterpillars if I want to experience butterflies."

So I asked my six seniors to explain to me what their caterpillars and butterflies are.  Here are their responses. 

"I must face all people in order to find the good.  The majority of people that I meet are not worth my time, but others along the way have revealed themselves to be worth it."

"In order to attend my cheerleading competitions, I have to endure many basketball games.  I love the sport of cheerleading, but the basketball games are very long and take time away from homework and practice."

"I really want to have a car, but I am saving my money so I can pay for textbooks in college.  I have to try to gou without a car in order to buy things that important for me later."

"When I broke my toe, I saw how much I missed out.  I love to play basketball and I had to stay and watch all the games and practices.  I was dependent on others and I hate that.  But now that I'm back, I will never take basketball for granted."

"The caterpillars in my life are the English language.  It's not important to learn the language perfectly when I'm learning a new computer programming language." 
--I'm not exactly sure what his papillons are...

Back at it

In two weeks I begin teaching three new classes of French I, French II, and French III Honors. 

My goal for French III Honors is to survey French history from Louis XIV up to Napoleon, and then focus on  WWII. 

Seeing as how I have no formal training on the French Revolution, I've been doing research.

Last weekend was the first weekend after grad school when I really felt like I have my pizzazz back. 

I've missed my pizzazz. 

What's an improv jazz artist with no pizzazz? 

No good, that's what.

Ballad to my students

Dear students.

I love you dearly.

So please don't eat Doritos in my classroom.  They smell terrible.

I love you dearly.

But if you start out another sentence with "Hey Mlle, you know what you should do?!....", I may just give you extra homework.

I love you dearly.

Especially when you are being your hilarious, goofy selves.

Thanks for being you.