Sherrie's Space for EDLF 345

Reading Response #5

2005-04-30T17:57:00.000-07:00

The article I read was from the journal “Learning & Leading with Technology”. It was in the March 2005 issue. The article is titled “Vive Les Villages!” It was written by two individuals from Kansas State University and is about project-based learning in a language immersion program.

The first two things the article talks about are the 5 C’s of the National Goals in a foreign language classroom and how in order to reach these goals, the learning in the classroom would take place in the form of project-based learning and technology would be an important aspect in the classroom. This is something that Dr. Ferree is always trying to instill in us to use in our classrooms. As the article says, the best place for students to learn a second language is to go to the land where the language is native. However, since this is not always possible, the language classroom should resemble the ideal environment as close as possible.

One author worked at Concordia Language Village. He worked to help students carry out a radio project. The students worked to do all aspects of the radio show. This is definitely something that can be carried out in to language classrooms. Students can either make up their own news stories or do news from their school or news from an actual Hispanic country. Most schools have multiple tape recorders so this is a project that could be used in many different classrooms. Also, this can give students a chance to look online for authentic Spanish music.

Another project students worked on were video projects. Students had the opportunity to create their own advertisements, a TV show, and movies. Students would have a lot of fun doing this. This could be done in the form of a digital story. Students can either act out the story using a story board or they can use a story board to set up still pictures to create a digital story.

An important thing for language classrooms is for students to experience contact with native speakers. Epals is a way to do this. Students can also learn first hand about the culture of these countries.

All in all, the article gave me so new ideas of how to use technology in my classroom. There were some great topics for different project based lessons using technology.

Reading Response #3

2005-03-29T17:40:00.000-08:00

I love the idea of students using a PowerPoint presentation in the classroom. There are so many ideas within this NPR news clip that I would like to use in my future classrooms. The kindergarten students read a story and then created their own story and used PowerPoint. I definately want my students to read stories, in particular La Casa en Mango Street, and then write their own version of these hispanic stories and present them in some manner such as PowerPoint. PowerPoint can also be used for students to do a presentation on a famous Hispanic so that the students can understand the culture of Hispanics.
NPR news has some guests who look down upon PowerPoint. However, I feel that it can be very useful as long as the teacher properly teaches the students how to use the software. For one, the slides should not be completely covered with words. There can be words on the slides but they may be very important words, not the whole speech of the presenter. The presenter should rely on the pictures, key words, diagrams, or movie clips on each slide to lead their own oral presentation.
A good PowerPoint will allow an audience to follow a presentation with a visual presentation connected to an oral presentation.

Digital Story

2005-03-29T17:30:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed learning about digital storytelling. I think it is fasicnating and can be of great use in a classroom as long as the teacher is well prepared to use it and has the class well prepared to use the technology.
I didn't experience any difficulties with using windows movie maker until I had to go and save it and then put it in the background music. However, I realized that it first had to be saved as a movie file and then import the file and then import the background music and then save as a project. That is what I got stumped on. However, once I learned how to use the software properly I found it to be a great piece of technology to use in my classroom.
I haven't shown my friend the digital story I made for her yet. So I will see how she feels about it after I send her a copy. I am happy with how the final movie came out, especially for this being my first time.
I have thought a lot about how could use digital story in my Spanish classrooms. One thing I thought about doing was using it during the unit on the family. The unit on family is often one of the first things discussed, but many students are timid to talk in front of the classroom at this stage in their development of the language. I thought about having students write out, in Spanish of course, dialogue about their family using the correct vocabulary. Then the students could bring in pictures of their family and make their digital story. Also, a digital story would be good for the use of imperfect and preterite verb tenses, verb tenses dealing with past events.
I see digital story telling being a part of my future classrooms and I am excited about this.

Reading Response #2

2005-02-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

I love the idea of digital story telling. One of the ways to turn students into learning and understanding the material is by giving the students something to contect the information to. These digital stories give the students a visual to contect the facts to and the information is more likely to stick with the students. When it comes time to assess the students, the students could easily recall information by remembering how the facts related to the digital stories. Also, the digital stories could be done on something that directly relates to the students. When students realize that information is contected to them and deals with their own personal lives and beliefs they are more likely to be engaged in the lesson.

I am so excited because I just figured out how I could bring digital story telling into the foreign language classroom. In the beginning level classrooms, every student learns how to talk about their family and characteristics of individuals. This would be a great way for students to present their family to the classroom by putting in pictures of family artifacts into a digital story and then narrating the story in Spanish (at least in my classrooms!). This is a great thing for second language acquistion because students are often timid at first to speak in another language in front of others, but in this situation students could write their scripts and have them checked over by me and then record the script and they won't have to orally present in front of the classroom. But this could also be used to describe likes or dislikes of a student, describe the student's town, or the bedroom of the student. This can be used at any level. Because the higher level classes use different verb tenses and students can describe their childhood using different verb tenses. Also, as students learn about the Spanish culture, they can do a digital story on a specific aspect of the culture. Or the student can do a digital story on Frida or Diego Rivera or another Hispanic artist. I love it!

PowerPoint finished?!?!?!

2005-02-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

So the PowerPoint is finished. However, there was some slight problems with the videos because there was a strange noise coming from dvd over the sound of the mothers reading to their children - so I ended up using still images from the video. I am still pleased with the PowerPoint, but wish I could have gotten these videos to work in the presentation. Maybe next time!

My Tech Autobiography

2005-02-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

We had computers in my elementary school and we always got to play Oregan Trail and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego on them. Ever since I was in elementary school, we have had a computer in my house. In middle school, we had to take a keyboarding class. In high school, I took a basic computer class. However, in other classes I learned different skills. In my English class we used to PowerPoint often and the slides had to have very few words on them (Sara, you would have liked this). Also in my government calss we had to created a website and a powerpoint project for one of the presidental candidates of that time. It was fun - but I still don't know how to create a website! I use excel to keep track of my expenses or lose track of the money I have. Other than that I don't much experience with technology. However, I am a quick learner and always play around with things to see what I can do with what I have. It is definately fun and I learn more about technology each and everyday, especially being in Curry!

Working on the project

2005-02-03T16:41:00.000-08:00

Right now I am just sitting in the lab while neoDIRECT makes my video cassette into a dvd. This takes forever. But things are looking good for the PowerPoint presentation!

Idea for Reading Recovery Project

2005-01-27T20:04:00.000-08:00

Possible idea for the power point project ... bring in ideas from the language and literacy lab. Mother and child reading interaction. Or any parent and child reading interaction. Go to local libraries during their story telling time and talk to parents and the children. Find out children's favorite books to read and their favorite moments from reading. Talk to Jennifer about reading to Alex and then reading to Hannah trying to get Hannah to improve her English and learn more words. Library visit with Jennifer and the girls next Thursday ...

Reading Response #1

2005-01-26T20:33:00.000-08:00

Net-Wise Teens: Safety, Ethics, and Innovation

The Internet provides kids with the opportunity to access up-to-date information in a relatively fast manner. The kids have the ability to find information and different points of view on a particular piece of information. Students can read different newspaper articles on various subjects. However, there is always the negative side to the Internet. Students can find themselves on websites that do not provide them with any relative data or websites that hack into the database of their computers. I feel that is the responsibility of the parents or guardians as well as the teachers to inform students of the negative side of the Internet so that students can be aware of it. Computers that are used in a school environment should have restrictions placed on them so that students can not access websites that do not pertain to educational material. However, there should be a way that teachers could override a particular restriction if the student needs to look at an informative website that is restricted for some specific reason. Computers in schools should also be closely monitored by supervisors. Kids should be taught to talk to an adult when they encounter problems on the Internet. An adult can most likely help the kids out to solve their problem and teach them ways in which to prevent the problem from reoccurring in the future. I do believe that the Internet is very important in a kid’s educational career. Often times, kids will not have the opportunity to use the Internet in their home environment. Schools should provide kids with this opportunity. With my plans to be a foreign language teacher, I would love to have my students to have a blog and communicate in the target language with me through the blog. Kids are very net-wise and allowing students to use the Internet in the classroom could allow the teacher to find something new to incorporate in the classroom. A student may have found a website that provides activities that could help in a future lesson. The Internet can be a great resource for both students and teachers as long as they work together and students are taught how to use the Internet safely.

Just Playing Around

2005-01-25T18:35:00.000-08:00

Just playing around with the blog. Seeing how it works. I wrote my reading response on a different computer so I have to load it up at a later time. I like the idea of a blog though. This is something I would like to use in my future classes. In teaching foreign language, a journal is always a recommend way of communication between the teacher and the students. I feel a blog would allow my students to have this journal. However, I would have to allow my students class time to do these blogs as all students will not have access to the internet in their home. Although there are downfalls to the blogs, I still like the idea of them instead of a handwritten journal.