Final Blog

This last week I finished the last chapter in Christensen and worked on my paper and presentation. I played a lot with the different comic strip sites. often this was frustrating and didn't provide me with many satisfactory results. I even emailed one to myself and it never arrived. It was interesting to check them out though. I also decided to play with igoogle. This took a while to get used to the different site and reader and I am still having trouble with some things. So now I have two readers and like parts of each. I'm not sure which one I will stick with, but hope to use at least one of them. I again encouraged my Spanish 3 students to use the delicious site to add sources for their Chile projects some are doing for extra credit. I think they are just too busy to do it so far, but many show interest. I am still using it for myself and wish I had added some other sites I could have used at school today. I was able to respond to thread 6 and still need to do thread 5. This class has been very interesting and beneficial for me personally and professionally. I hope to find more ways to incorporate technology into my classes and continue exploring.

Weekly Reflection

This week went by so quickly, but I was able to look into a few things. I got the directions for doing the school web page and actually started using it. It is not very user friendly, but I did get my personal information and some links on there. I tried to get a chart of homework on as I had seen some other teacher's use, but I haven't figured out how to do this yet. I would also like to get some Spain trip pictures on there along with current updates for students traveling to Spain next year. I am extremely frustrated trying to change the font and color of the writing and the templates are very limited so I will have to get some help from others at school to continue. There are many teachers who like me have not done anything with their page and next year we will have a new system so I'll probably have to recreate everything.
I have been looking into comics for my final project and was able to play with some of them this week. I'll try to have a few examples to show next week. I am also working on getting smartboard capabilities. This is completely new for me and I don't know how I would use it yet, but if I can get it to work then I can play with it. I am also working my way through the Christensen book and am at Ch. 9 so almost done. There are so many things I would like to look into but have just not had enough time with school, family and now our house is on the market. I'm just plugging away.

Week 4 Reflection

Is it only week 4 Reflection? In any case I am still finding new things to check into and it really helps to see what others have done. As I commented earlier I managed to set up a Voki. I'm still working on getting my school web page going and wonder if it will support a Voki. I think the students would be surprised to see it considering I am not known for my technological knowledge. Today after their math MCA I caught the interest Spanish 3 by showing them the Delicious bookmarking site. On it I showed them freerice.com, wordle.com and quizlet.com among others. They really enjoyed these and I may use these as class starters or enders when there is time. I set up a code so if they wanted to set up their own site and put my code tag in we could all benefit from their sites. It could be anything like vocabulary practice, grammar, podcasts, cultural information, and even songs or videos in Spanish. I told them to keep it appropriate for class, but since they would have their own site (as I have mine), they could make their own bookmarks for other things as well that we wouldn't see. It is totally optional and on their time. If nothing else they can benefit from what I bookmark.
Back to the Voki and voicing. I would love to find a way to use this with my students. I found information on VoiceThreads, but that costs money. There are also sites for doing comics which would be interesting too. I found this link that has tons of things on it: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/.
My students are really into collaboration and that seems to be the wave of the future, so I'm trying to find ways to improve on this. The trick is to then make sure students are individually responsible for the material as well.
I have found the reading in Disrupting Class to be interesting especially the business aspects. It makes sense that the new wave would start with a need that is not being met. It will be interesting to see what comes out of modular design in the future for student-centered learning.
I have not added much onto my classroom2.0 site since I am having some trouble with it lately. I'll have to check in at class on Wednesday with everyone.

Voki

I finally got around to creating a Voki after I saw that others had already done one. This could be on the front page of my school website perhaps (?) I can really see my students having fun with this too as they practice Spanish. I really need something that could be put into somewhat of an online comic strip. Maybe someone knows of something I haven't found yet. I also talked to my brother today about RSS links and how I could better use the Delicious bookmarking site with my students by creating a common unique tag that we all could search under for classroom links while each could maintain their own site. Maybe eventually we could have a common site for everything:links, pictures, vokis, videos, etc. An even bigger endeavor would be to link the entire world language department so students could see what other language classes are doing and using. Could this be my final project????

Sra. Sorum Voki

Get a Voki now!

Delicious Site

I finally started to use tags on my bookmarks to help with organization. I noticed there is a list on the right that shows all the tag names I have used. KW helped me further by explaining how to bundle the tags. I could then make different bundles for different Spanish levels or for different topics such as vocabulary, culture, grammar, etc. This could be useful for me, but I am not sure yet. I still want to use my site at school, but haven't had time to figure out how to create on it again. My instructions are not where I thought they were from training last year. I added Wordle to my bookmarks and may have my students try to make some nice word pictures with Spanish words they like or on a specific topic. This would be excellent for tomorrow with Friday off and a test today. I did not check yet to see if a lab is available, so perhaps another time would be better. The biggest obstacle to using technology is getting into the lab when I need to.

Making Progress

I finally have had a good stretch of time to work on some things for class. There is so much to do that it is hard to know what direction to take and I feel like I am just scratching the surface of so many things. Finally "La Prensa" news updated on my Yahoo Reader. Maybe I will try to re-add Spanish Word of the Day to see what happens. Looks like the blog helped though. This week I looked more on classroom 2.0 to see what kind of technology is being used by language teachers. Wikis, blogs, and podcasts are very popular, but I still do not see this as something I can or want to do right now. some teachers are using something called Vokis, which I believe are characters that can talk. It sounds intriguing, but a little beyond my abilities right now. I have thought about Movie Maker as well. Access to computers is a really major factor as well as security for students posting online. I am starting to use Delicious to see if it could be useful for me. I do not think I can categorize the bookmarks though. I can add tags, but that is all. I did find a website at http://quizlet.com by searching the delicious site, which is another good vocab/grammar site for students. I think students (or the teacher) can make up vocabulary flashcards as well as games to practice. This would be a much better alternative for students who do not like making or using their own flashcards. I already have a score to beat for Spanish II on body vocab. What I really see is putting the useful websites on my school site, which I so far have not used. I need to go back to the instructions to see exactly how to add information. This is probably my first goal for next week after finishing my comments to the strands for this week.

Week 3 Reflection

This has been a very trying week with end of the quarter project corrections over the weekend and now I have some kind of virus I cannot shake so digging into technology has not been easy. I did manage to play some more with my Yahoo Reader page. My links were not updating and I found information indicating this was most likely because Yahoo is not very popular now and the information was not being accessed very often. The recommendation was to set up a blog such as the one I have and link it to the reader. Blogs cause lots of activity and the rest would most likely start updating. I am just now blogging so I do not know yet if this will work. I have the Pioneer Press linked up and it is updating, but La Prensa Spanish newspaper out of the Cities is not. Some sites I cannot figure out how to link up. I deleted the RSS link to my blog on Classroom 2.0 and added my link in the personal information section. I started using Delicious as a bookmark site and got some links in there. What I really need is to be able to divide them into categories for either Education/Student use or Spanish I/Spanish II/ Spanish III or all of the above. If I do this I might possibly start using this in class. I haven't had time to investigate this yet. I have taken a lot of time on the articles. Reading and doing a review online is new for me and a little uncomfortable, but I do not want to print it. I now see how many responses are in and thinking about coming up with new information and reading all of them gives me a headache. I will continue to try tonight and in the next few days. I am trying not to give up on blogging with my students, but still need more time to investigate. I did notice Pandora.com on the list and realized that I use this also in class. We use it during work time or during a review game like hot potato where a student left with the "stuffed frog" must answer the question when the music stops. I also use it to find new Spanish songs and artists. So perhaps I am not so out of touch as I had thought. I am also following Chad, Kristin and Jeannie on Twitter, which I found will update Facebook, but Facebook will not update Twitter.

RSS Part II

I checked my RSS links on my Yahoo reader page which is now my home page when I log onto the internet. Both the Spanish word of the day and La Prensa newspaper were there, but they did not update. I can click on them and link to the websites, but isn't it the same as just doing a bookmark? I don't get it. I can also subscribe to receive an email of the Spanish Word of the Day. I would also like to know more about folders and tags. I have no idea how much time I have spent as I also forgot to keep track. I do know that it is increasing by the day and my husband thinks I am working online way too much. This from the guy who plays World of Warcraft! I am on Spring Break now so am able to work on things a couple times a day between other activities.

RSS

I have been trying to use the RSS links and have had some success. I managed to link up La Prensa newspaper out of the cities to my Reader. I did not even know that I had a reader with my Yahoo email. I also added a Spanish Word of the Day to this as well. I don't know how to add these to my Blog or to my Classroom 2.0 page. I read how to link my blog to Classroom 2.0 with the help of Diane and Lisa, but I didn't trust that I would do it quite right and haven't done that yet. I have also browsed the readings for this week on the history of the internet/computer. My dad was a math major turned computer programmer and I remember him doing work at home using the phone and we did all our artwork on the old style computer paper. My uncle has told me how they used to do email when he was in the Airforce before it was used commercially. I feel like I should have more done, but it all takes time.

Second Semester of Spanish - Love Song

Embedded Video

I have been trying to add a video for a while and finally did it. I had to go to the Blog help first which said to find the embedded video code to the right of the video. There was none (I thought). After checking with some people I know who couldn't help, I finally found a YouTube how to video under Help that also showed where it was. The whole time I thought the code was for something else and not connected to the video. So enjoy the One Semester of Spanish - Love Song and I'm going to add the Second Semester of Spanish - Love Song as well. My students really enjoyed the first one that I had heard about from someone else, but I didn't even know the second one existed. I definitely need to play more with YouTube!

One Semester of Spanish - Love Song

I finally logged into the World Language forum that I subscribed to last fall through the MN. foreign language association.  I just haven't had time this year to look at it although I would find some good ideas to improve my classroom.  Ironic that it is easier to just do the same old thing than take the time to use a forum and update my lessons.  It took me about 1 minute to find a streaming video of various Spanish lessons in different situations.  I just looked at the first one, but will use it with Spanish I on Friday I believe.  What is nice is it is somewhat interactive with ways to click to repeat or practice vocab and grammar.  There are also pauses for the students to say a line such as tell the cab driver what address you want to go to.  As soon as I figure out how to, I'll link it to my page in case anyone is interested.  I also want to finally use my school site to put links for students to use.  

More Time

I am so interested in learning more about technology and how to use different sources more effectively especially in my classroom.  I seem to just skim the surface of things and then move on to something else.  My biggest hurdle right now is time.  I am finding it hard to fit in family time and responsibility with a baby, lesson plan and correct for my classes, and do everything I want to do with technology in this class.  At least now I can say I have to "play" on the computer.  My husband is all for it as he does his own playing.

First Blog

I'm trying out my very first blog tonight.