Wiki Wiki

I am very proud of myself today! I got roped into chairing a committee for accreditation, and I decided that we were going to be a virtual committee! I just created the wiki-- all of the members can edit, add new information... we can upload artifacts. And think how happy the teachers will be when they realize that they don't have to attend lots of silly meetings!
I love technology!

Another Portfolio Idea

How can I use the podcast in my students' Electronic Portfolio's? Part of the portfolio is recording their reflections throughout the year. Maybe it would be a good idea to have them Podcast their reflections... give them a name... add some sound... it might make them more enthusiastic about that segment of the portfolio.

Podcasting is more than just a voice recording!

What is Podcasting?

A couple years ago our TRT announced that we could podcast. It sounded so exciting until I realized that he basically meant record our voices. I have used audacity with all of my classes and it is for foreign language an extremely useful tool. It is only recently however, that I really understood the idea of podcasting. I began using a podcast called notesinspanish.com where a Spanish couple talks on different themes to different language levels. This is a great resource for me as a teacher, and really makes incoorporating the podcast into a lesson more realistic. It isn't just a speaking sample anymore, it is an authentic tool for learning.

Technology as a budget-casualty

I'm sure that all of the surrounding counties are going through the same budgetary crisis that Loudoun is right now. Loudoun's Board needs to get rid of 80 million to keep the tax rate somewhat reasonable. We all sit around wondering where they will go (after they take our raises of course!). One newspaper quoted one of the board members as she was watching a Promethean demonstration as saying that we should go back to chalk. She said that she learned physics just fine without all of this technology and that chalk doesn't use electricity.

I'm not sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, the Promethean boards are certainly enhancing my classroom capabilities. But on the other, they are riddled with technical difficulties, cheap wiring that is causing numerous problems, and quite certainly half of our faculty still isn't using them. I wouldn't want to give mine up, but when the alternative is losing programs...

Will they stop the installation of these boards? Can they? Who will fight for them?

Blog Lesson

What about a Blog about turning a current class novel into a screenplay. Different topics could be discussed and commented upon for example casting, film location, scene selection, diverging from book plot, ending. I suppose that the class could then go ahead and film the movie... or on a less involved route film a trailer for the move. Blog lesson and Video Editing in one!

What about using a wiki for the same thing?

Spanish in the Real World Blog... stopped in tracks.

So, I decided to try and make this happen in my classes. I talked to the TRT who sent me to the correct person. I filled out a proposal and sent it off. He responded that it would take longer than a week to get approved. First of all, no outside blogs are allowed...no Edublog. Second, the blogging that has been allowed has caused problems (inappropriate content?) so they are heavily scrutinizing the proposals to put blogs on our CMS software. I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds like the blog isn't going to happen...

Politics! Spanish in the real world #2

This is actually a continuation of my post from last week. I am going to try the blog idea out for myself and see how many different scenerios I can personally come up with for finding real Spanish in my community.

I love the will i am videos that have been created for Obama and the latest is my example of Spanish in the real world. It's called We are the ones we've been waiting for... and you can view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghSJsEVf0pU. The other one (The Yes We Can Song) is even better, but there is only one line of Spanish. The new one has much more.

Then there's this one which is ALL in Spanish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky8Hvq-F0U

Of course I would never ever mention these in my Spanish classes... ... But this is real Spanish and a great example for my Spanish in the real world blog!

Isn't Javier guapo!

I really want to incoorporate some sort of blogging into my classroom curriculum. Here's my latest idea. I think I could have a similar set-up to Dawn's where students can visit other students blogs and makde comments, but I would keep it closed so that they weren't visible to the outside world. It would be a Finding Real Spanish blog. They would post on ways that they've used or seen Spanish in the real world.

Today they would all be saying, Did you watch the Oscars? Did you see Javier's speech where he accepted the Oscar for his mom--- IN SPANISH? And wasn't he cute...

RSS Feed, Ohhhhhh

I was reading the Richardson book, and just happened to come across the line that encouraged teachers to have students blog- and then use an RSS feed to monitor their work. Wow! I only have the slightest of clues as to what that really means, but I am smart enough to know that it answers one of my previous posts. How do you monitor all of those posts? Brilliant!

Oh, and why not do an Electronic Portfolio blog style? You can attach pictures and slide shows...
I wonder if anyone has ever experimented???

PB Wiki

This week I'm thinking about PB Wikis and Electronic Portfolios. I have spent the last semester working with my AP Spanish students to set up Portfolios of some of their work. I have used Power Point which works pretty well, especially with the ability to link and create a hypermedia display.

But now I'm wondering about PB Wiki. The main limit of Power Point that would be remedied with Wiki is access. Students could very easily access their sites from home. With Power Point, they can only see their portfolios when we go to the lab together. Could they post homework on their wiki? Would they put pictures on it? Would they be more excited about blogging if it was linked from their wiki?

Definitely something to think about...

90 minutes every other day

Today I'm thinking about time... the time it takes for me to get to the computer and blog.
Maybe the little hurdle that I'm experiencing to get to this step isn't something the digital native would experience... but time is an issue.

I have 90 minutes of classtime. The amount of time it would take to get everyone blogging is an investment. And I'm not sure that I have that kind of time to invest.

If only... everyone had a computer to blog from... if only the blog experience was in the target language...if only it were faster...

I am wondering if making the blog format optional would work. Students could either turn their reflections in through a hard copy diary format or turn in the link to their blog.

I'm scared!

I didn't want to start the blog out on a negative note, but I am scared to start this project. I know that I do not have time to monitor all content and I'm afraid that something inappropriate would appear and that I would miss it! Right now there is a Facebook Page attributed to me that I have yet to see. Apparently a couple of my AP students have created me and there are numerous comments. It is all in Spanish and I understand that it is harmless, but..

I guess what must happen is a more controlled blog. I experimented last semester with a ParaBLOG where students post paragraphs (the learning process) but I didn't like it and I see that I realy doesn't qualify as blogging! I used 21classes which is pretty good (for free stuff)!

Right now I am thinking about have them Think About their Thinking in Spanish. That might help control content, but it probably won't inspire anyone to look at anyone else's blog.
Again, not really taking advantage of its potential.

Guess I will have to keep thinking about it...

Let's Get the Blog Rolling!

I have to say that blogging in the Foreign Language Classroom has awesome potential. Remember, that to create learning the first requirement is simply use the target language. Create the blog in Spanish = LEARNING. I love the idea of letting them blog about life in general or life at Briar Woods. It would be such a good learning experience for them.