Last week I attended our area's Education Technology conference, METC. I was so fortunate that my district allowed me attend for both days because I was a presentor at the conference. I presented on the "How To's" of flipping a class. It was such a great experience. I love being around so many inspiring educators that have great ideas for getting students engaged. One of the presentor's that I saw talked about an interactive activity that teachers in his district did with elementary students. It is a sort of "Where in the world is..." type activity. Students skyped with another classroom somewhere in the country, and asked questions to pin point their exact location. He showed a video of this class in time-lapse. It was so fun to watch as students were circled around IPads and asking questions.
This got me to thinking about my own students. How fun would it be for us to pose questions to another class somewhere, here in the US, or elsewhere. What a great use of language skills to inquire and respond. I haven't nailed down how I can impliment this idea, as of yet. But, I will soon be searching for someone, somewhere, who would participate in this activity for me. Who knows, maybe we could even pair up with another French class, here in St. Charles, MO.
In a sort of related, but not related activity, I have found a group to partner with my French 1 students in order to help us with our French food chapter. We started our activity today. Using Edmodo (my most favorite of teacher sites), my students are posting statements about their favorite foods. Our French partners, in Bretagne, France, will also post about their favorite foods. Eventually, next week, we will create a slide show of our typical breakfast, lunch dinner and snacks. I gave the assignment for my students to start taking pictures with their phones or cameras. It has created some fun discussions, as we are thinking about what the French kids will be saying about what we eat.
Technology makes all of this happen. I love that so quickly students can post a message for other kids who are in a completely different continent. I love that we can gather pictures of what we eat in such an effortless way. And, I love how excited they are to meet their new friends. I will keep you posted on our progress.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Yay for School Tube!
In my evolution with my Flipped Classroom, I have gone back and forth on where to have my videos posted. I have been in the habit of having my videos in three places. I always have them on Edmodo.com, YouTube, and for a long time I was using School Tube. I used the embed code under the video that I had uploaded, and embedded it on my website. I got very frustrated, however, about the time that iOS 5 came about because School Tube started this "stretching" issue. Most of my students have Iphones, and it made it impossible for these guys to watch my videos on their phones. To say the least, it was frustrating!!
A few weeks ago, a colleague suggested that I use Sky Drive to embed my videos. I was super excited because that seemed to work very well. I only had a few students who had some issues with the videos. What I didn't particularly like about Sky Drive was that it opened the video in a Sky Drive window and took awhile to load. I got the excuse from some impatient kiddos that "the video wouldn't play".
Just yesterday I went to School Tube to upload my next couple of videos and I was pleasently surprised. School Tube has changed their interface. Not only is it more streamlined, but there are more options and it is more user-friendly. They are using a different way of hosting the videos. The best part...no stretching. That is such wonderful news.
For now, I am back to embedding my videos from School Tube. I will still upload them to Edmodo, as well as YouTube. I always want there to be a back up, in case School Tube goes down. I would like to say BRAVO to School Tube for a much needed make-over. It looks great.
A few weeks ago, a colleague suggested that I use Sky Drive to embed my videos. I was super excited because that seemed to work very well. I only had a few students who had some issues with the videos. What I didn't particularly like about Sky Drive was that it opened the video in a Sky Drive window and took awhile to load. I got the excuse from some impatient kiddos that "the video wouldn't play".
Just yesterday I went to School Tube to upload my next couple of videos and I was pleasently surprised. School Tube has changed their interface. Not only is it more streamlined, but there are more options and it is more user-friendly. They are using a different way of hosting the videos. The best part...no stretching. That is such wonderful news.
For now, I am back to embedding my videos from School Tube. I will still upload them to Edmodo, as well as YouTube. I always want there to be a back up, in case School Tube goes down. I would like to say BRAVO to School Tube for a much needed make-over. It looks great.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Have you Glogged lately??
So much has happened since my last post. I have found myself so busy, that finding time to record anything has been difficult. At the beginning of the month I was honored to be awarded Francis Howell Central's Teacher of the Year. I am shocked, humbled and so thrilled to have received this award.
My French 1 students just finished their first Glog of the year. In the past, I have loved this site: edu.glogster.com. I use it throughout the year for different projects. Glogster is one of my favorites because students can create an eye-catching electronic poster. For language classes it is a great way to have students use their learned language and display attractive pictures or even videos. They make for great presentations because of all of the features they can include.
This year I changed a "weather" project that I have done in the past and used Glogster to have students publish some research findings paired with learned grammar and vocabulary. In an effort to tie "Global Awareness" into this particular unit, I assigned students different francophone regions. I gave them the instructions that they should create a "Publicité" or advertisement for a tourist visiting this area. They were to use weather, temperature and include popular places to visit, as well as things to do in the area.
I introduced the project last Thursday and gave them time in class on Thursday and Friday to do research using only their mobile devices. They were to complete a KWL chart for their region. Those research days were really fun to witness. It was great to see them using discretion in choosing the information that they planned to use from different sites. In hind site, I wish that I would have checked in with each group on the following Monday to see what had been completed on that chart. I was out of the classroom on Tuesday, so I was not able to monitor their progress. Since many of my students are not extremely self-directed, I realized on Wednesday, when many pairs had not completed much of the project that some students were not as far as I had expected them to be. Because our time with computers was limited, I had to stick to my deadline. They had four days with computers, but one more day probably would have been better. There is nothing that teaches expectations better than a model. I didn't show a model until the day before the project was due. There were some students who had completely misunderstood the requirements, and it wasn't until they saw my example, that they realized exactly what they were expected to produce. When I do this next year, I will make sure to have a daily accountability meeting with each group/pair. Projects were due on Friday, and I was discouraged when there were groups that had nothing ready on their Glog. Project due dates are always frustrating because the most interesting/creative excuses come from everywhere. I wasn't clear enough in my explanation that excuses are not acceptable because I got far too many. As with any project, I have learned what to do and what not to do next time, but I will continue to use Glogster as a way to help students use their language.
My French 1 students just finished their first Glog of the year. In the past, I have loved this site: edu.glogster.com. I use it throughout the year for different projects. Glogster is one of my favorites because students can create an eye-catching electronic poster. For language classes it is a great way to have students use their learned language and display attractive pictures or even videos. They make for great presentations because of all of the features they can include.
This year I changed a "weather" project that I have done in the past and used Glogster to have students publish some research findings paired with learned grammar and vocabulary. In an effort to tie "Global Awareness" into this particular unit, I assigned students different francophone regions. I gave them the instructions that they should create a "Publicité" or advertisement for a tourist visiting this area. They were to use weather, temperature and include popular places to visit, as well as things to do in the area.
I introduced the project last Thursday and gave them time in class on Thursday and Friday to do research using only their mobile devices. They were to complete a KWL chart for their region. Those research days were really fun to witness. It was great to see them using discretion in choosing the information that they planned to use from different sites. In hind site, I wish that I would have checked in with each group on the following Monday to see what had been completed on that chart. I was out of the classroom on Tuesday, so I was not able to monitor their progress. Since many of my students are not extremely self-directed, I realized on Wednesday, when many pairs had not completed much of the project that some students were not as far as I had expected them to be. Because our time with computers was limited, I had to stick to my deadline. They had four days with computers, but one more day probably would have been better. There is nothing that teaches expectations better than a model. I didn't show a model until the day before the project was due. There were some students who had completely misunderstood the requirements, and it wasn't until they saw my example, that they realized exactly what they were expected to produce. When I do this next year, I will make sure to have a daily accountability meeting with each group/pair. Projects were due on Friday, and I was discouraged when there were groups that had nothing ready on their Glog. Project due dates are always frustrating because the most interesting/creative excuses come from everywhere. I wasn't clear enough in my explanation that excuses are not acceptable because I got far too many. As with any project, I have learned what to do and what not to do next time, but I will continue to use Glogster as a way to help students use their language.
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