Anyway, even though I'm excited about how tech might help me improve my teaching, I'm also spending a significant amount of time diving into the Alberta Program of Studies for Spanish Language & Culture, as well as the Guides to Implementation, and seeing how I can better align what I'm doing, as well as better inform students and families of what the program is all about. I'd like to make the outcomes more explicit and understandable for all of us. I had also taken a lot of notes this last semester on issues I ran into with lack of understanding, misunderstanding, and lack of retention, and wanted to improve on my instructional strategies. One book that got strong reviews on Amazon is Emily Spinelli's English Grammar for Students of Spanish, with a number of people recommending this as a teaching resource. I biked up to the U of C this afternoon to pick up a few other resources I wanted to check out and saw her book in the mix, so I picked it up as well. This thing I going to be the backbone for any vocab and grammar I introduce. Lo amo y se lo recomiendo mucho.
I'm in the middle of preparing for what I hope will be a much better year of teaching junior and senior high Spanish. My plan is to use Google Sites and Google Classroom together as the main UI for my students, considering that we're rolling out a BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) program this fall and therefore I can rely on students to have access to online content. This will enable me to present audio, visual, and print resources in an organized and always-accessible manner and will hopefully enhance learning and increase motivation. When I return in the fall, I'll also have access to a new projector, which will allow me to present such resources in the classroom more effectively, and to make the experience more immersive and interactive. I don't know what my classroom situation will be, other than that I most likely will be working out of multiple classrooms, but I hope that having the same projector setup in each room and the promise of working wirelessly will make any transitions relatively quick and painless. Goodness knows I end up spending the first part of each class attempting to put out fires.
Anyway, even though I'm excited about how tech might help me improve my teaching, I'm also spending a significant amount of time diving into the Alberta Program of Studies for Spanish Language & Culture, as well as the Guides to Implementation, and seeing how I can better align what I'm doing, as well as better inform students and families of what the program is all about. I'd like to make the outcomes more explicit and understandable for all of us. I had also taken a lot of notes this last semester on issues I ran into with lack of understanding, misunderstanding, and lack of retention, and wanted to improve on my instructional strategies. One book that got strong reviews on Amazon is Emily Spinelli's English Grammar for Students of Spanish, with a number of people recommending this as a teaching resource. I biked up to the U of C this afternoon to pick up a few other resources I wanted to check out and saw her book in the mix, so I picked it up as well. This thing I going to be the backbone for any vocab and grammar I introduce. Lo amo y se lo recomiendo mucho.
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Terry Heick, you are a genius. I would also like to add "Use video games. The best ones are those that throw random math equations at students."
I had originally planned on making this presentation into a Brainshark video, but my free account only allows me 15 minutes of recording time, so I was unable to do that and it's considerably complicated to make a timed PowerPoint presentation into a YouTube video. This attempt showed me that I have more to learn about "flipping" my classroom through direct instruction via technology (I think I'll eventually purchase Camtasia and a good mic).
Regardless, I wanted to make the information available to anyone who might benefit from it, so here is the PowerPoint with the "meat" of the presentation located in the "notes" section on each slide. For quick reference, I also want to include in this post the steps I plan to take to use social media in my classroom (references are in the PowerPoint).
On Friday, I attended Talking About Teaching - Disrupting Your Regular Teaching Program and Harold Jansen spoke about his experience of flipping his classroom by creating and posting YouTube videos and corresponding with students via Twitter. I've read and watched a number of things about flipping classrooms using online resources like Khan Academy, and about the trend toward MOOC at the university level, and I'm trying to get a sense of if/how I might use a class website, YouTube, and Twitter to extend learning to my students outside of the physical classroom as well as normal school hours. I'm hoping to be able to participate in his focus group to learn more. While it has potential to benefit all students, the main students that come to mind are:
Blogging facilitates real-time or delayed one-to-many or many-to-many communication. Blogging is word processing on steroids: it shares many of the features of word processing, but the hypertext environment allows for rapid access to mound of information and potentially global accessibility. Blogging, like any technology used in the classroom, must be used to serve learning objectives and should not drive learning objectives or classroom activities.
A key advantage of blogging is that, designed properly, it can be used to fulfill objectives of many curricula at once: e.g., language arts (learn to write for different audiences, revise, critique, publish), ICT (understand netiquette, use photography editing software, understand programming logic, build a website), social studies (understand global citizenship, research and summarize current events), etc. Blogging seems like a good tool for students to complete and submit certain assignments, to collaborate with each other and the teacher, and to develop their online presence in a guided and professional manner. Teachers could use blogs to provide additional resources to students that they can access at home, to communicate with parents and administration, and to document and review evidence of teaching and learning in their classroom. That blogs can be accessed 24/7 also creates the possibility of flipping the classroom: students take in key information at home through reading blog posts or watching vlogs and come to the classroom for activities that require hands-on work with classmates. Additionally, students who have difficulty coming to school (e.g., due to athletic competitions, sickness, or family travel) would still able to participate and keep up. |
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