23 Things

As I looked in my Google Reader for in the first time since spring break (10 days ago), I realized that I had several hundred messages. I know that I cannot read through most of them so I decided to check the most recent posts in a couple of my favorite subscriptions. I looked in Successful Teaching and I found a post by loonyhiker entitled Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom. The list of sites provided by the author was very interesting. In addition to a list of Timesavers Tools for teachers, she included a site entitled Despereauxadventures where students could create and view stories in several languages. I thought the site was very well designed although it took several minutes to load.

The tool I explored is classed ToonDo. I was interested in this tool because my sixth grade students often create comic strips based on the story we write in class using the TPRS method. I found out that students could choose their own characters and even create original characters. They can also include text, background or finish a story written by other students using the Redo function. I liked the fact that the comic trips could be embedded in a Wiki once the students completed them. I plan to use this tool with my sixth grade class before the end of the semester. The only drawback is the time involved in the actual creation/placement of the characters. A short comic strip could require several hours of work.

I listened to one the presentation from the keynote section: “Time to Grow” by Vickie Davis and Julie Lindsay. I was very interested in the topic: “How do we find time to grow as professional in a profession where we live under the tyranny of urgent.” The presenters shared their experience with Digi Teen, social and educational networking as well as a variety of ideas for us to continue to grow as teachers in spite of the time pressures we are all too familiar with. I thought that the presentation was very worthwhile. I was interested in the suggestions they provided regarding the creation of personal learning networks using RSS feeds. I also enjoyed visiting their Flat Classroom project and the DigiTeen web site. I will try to use Ning tools to create educational networks for some of my classes in the fall. I also enjoyed the fact that I could easily navigate to various points of the audio presentation to listen to different ideas. My “21st Century” conference was a very valuable experience.

I created a slideshow to introduce my students to the region of Brittany as they read a new novel in their French class. I used slide.com for this purpose. I thought that this slideshow application was very user friendly and I did not have any problem to embed the slideshow in my Wiki, En Français. I think Rock You or Animoto would probably give students more space to include text, but for the purpose of a photo presentation I prefer slide.com. I do feel that searching for images is a lengthy process, but it is worth it if you use the presentation several times. I will give my students the option to use a slideshow in their final project this semester.

I explored FlickR earlier in the fall as I designed my Wiki for my French class. I was looking for photos of various French regions to illustrate my home page. At first it was a little overwhelming, but I found several photos that I was able to incorporate in my Wiki.
This time I searched for photos of the region of Bretagne. My students are currently reading a novel set in this region and I thought it would be useful to show photos of various sites.

Here is a photo of menhirs in Bretagne I liked.

Menhirs de Bretagne

Caramdir
I also enjoyed exploring the tags in FlickR. The resources available under the tag for France are very extensive and I can see how I could create slide shows to present French regions to my students. I also enjoyed visiting the jakeonline web site. I found an incredible number of ideas including virtual field trips. I believe that I could incorporate such an assignment in my French I course. I can also see how I could use FlickR to create vocabulary presentation to teach new words to my students. I could also ask them to create slide shows to illustrate new words and expressions. FlickR is a very useful tool; the only drawback is the time involved in selecting the appropriate pictures.

Have you noticed the CC logo on any websites you visit? Did you wonder what it meant?

I must admit that I did not notice the CC logo on most websites I visited. I always ask my students to quote the websites they used whenever they complete a research project to teach them to give proper credit to the author. The use of photos and medias on students produced Wikis only reinforces the need for this practice.

Do you think CC will impact the way students learn and create projects? How?

As students start including more photos and videos to illustrate project that they share on the web, CC will provide a unique and essential resource. They will need to understand all copyrights issues involved in the process.

Do you use digital images, audio or video clips from the web in your teaching (or professional practice)?

I occasionally use videos from You Tube and some photos from FlickR. In most situations my goal is to illustrate a cultural theme or issue.

Do you ever share content on the web?

I do not share personal content on the web. However, I use FlickR to share photos of events in the French school that I operate on Saturday.

Who owns your teaching materials?

The publishing company owns the right to material from my textbook.

What are some potential negatives for using CC?

I believe that the material posted on CC may be used in so many different ways that the original intent of the artist who took the photo may be lost or altered. However, it is a risk you assume when you post on CC.

I also have a thought about OER. Although the material posted seems to be a great quality, I found that a quick search on French culture only brought up 8 documents. It may be more appropriate for the university level.

I have used the TPRS method for the past three years in my French class and I was curious to see if the definition provided by Wikipedia was accurate. I thought the article posted was not only accurate, but also provided a lot of details on the methodology. I was also very impressed by the number of links included with the article. I even found a link to the web site of Jason Fritze who conducted two workshops in my school. Overall, I thought that it was an outstanding entry.

I created my first Wiki this year. My initial goal was provide a space where my students could go to check their homework, find information about current projects and also provide links to help my students review for tests, quizzes and exam. I am very satisfied with the results, and I really like the link I created with my google calendar. It enables me to update homework easily and from anywhere. However, as I read through the “educational” wikis listed on the course page, I realized I just scratched the surface of the educational use of Wikis.

One of the Wikis I enjoyed the most was 1001 Flat World Tales. I use the TPRS method in my French classrooms and it gave a lot of ideas when it comes to story telling with students. I usually asked my students to write or illustrate stories that they can share with their classmates the next day in class. I believe that my sixth and seventh grade students would enjoy not only being Scheherazade, but also being the King and giving their opinion on the stories written by their classmates. It would also give each student a larger public and motivate them to produce better stories. Another Wiki I enjoyed is the Thousand projects where students from a fifth grade classroom ask questions each month and hope to receive at least a thousand answers from students around the world. I believe this activity could be used to compare and contrast culture in various francophone countries, if students could list their favorite songs, movies, and food. Students may learn that they have a lot more in common than they thought. This activity could also be used to compare ways to save energy in different schools. The third Wiki that attracted my attention was the Kindergarten counting book. I believe that students can learn a lot about another language by teaching it to younger students. I think that my students would enjoy helping French speaking kindergarten students learn to read or count by creating a Wiki designed for this purpose.

I look forward to putting some of these ideas into practice in the future. I do believe that a proper organization of the Wiki is essential to reach the learning outcomes. I would make sure that I include a map to how my students who visited their Wiki to answer their questions.

The RSS reader is wonderful, but it is also overwhelming. I currently have 10 feeds in my Google reader, but I feel frustrated by the fact that I do not have enough time to do more than skim through the titles of most of the blogs. I did subscribe to a couple of news feed that I have enjoyed quite a bit (NY times movies and Le Monde).

I did find a post that I enjoyed very much by Juergen Kurtz at Foreign Language Education in the 21st Century. The title of the post is “For learners, the Mother Tongue is the Mother of all Languages”. The author has compiled a lot of anecdotal evidence to support the theory that language learning cannot take place without some use of the Mother Tongue.
“We must be ready to fight a war on two fronts: against the teacher who conveniently lapses into the MT, which he shares with his pupils, simply because he is not fluent and flexible enough in the language he teaches; and against the native speaker with little or no command of his pupils’ MT. Both groups of teachers are unlikely to know effective well-crafted bilingual techniques.”
I started using the TPRS method with my students two years ago, and I have come to the conclusion the most important element of language learning is to expose students to comprehensible input. The evidence presented in this post supports this theory.

One of the blog posts I found on Instructify really intrigued me because of the potential applications in the foreign language classroom. The post presents different points of view regarding the use of cell phones in the classroom. The author lists some of the negatives such as potentially increasing cheating and distractions, but it also presents some positive applications in educational settings.

“Many educators regard students’ cell phones as mobile alert systems that let the teacher know that a student would like some detention, please. Phones also present problems ranging from cheating to increasing potential distractions in class. However, it’s hard to dispute the capabilities and cost-effectiveness of smart phones, even if the people crowing about them the loudest are doing so out of naked self-interest. The article notes that a few schools have decided to try programs in which students are issued phones for educational purposes, with positive results:
“Suzette Kliewer, the teacher who administered the Digital Millennial program at Southwest High School in Jacksonville, N.C., said the phones excited her students and made them collaborate and focus on their studies, even outside of school hours. ‘They took average-level kids and made them into honors-level kids,’ she said.”

I recently attended a workshop on cell phone applications in the classrooms that opened my eyes to potential uses in foreign language teaching. One of the applications that I enjoyed most was the ability to conduct “live polls” that students could discuss as they watched the results unfold on a web site. I can see how this application could enhance my teaching as we compare and contrast different cultures. I also feel that it would motivate students to participate more into classroom discussions.