Lights, Camera, Reflection!

It's been a hectic week, but we are finished and debuting our IMovie!
It's about languages... SURPRISE... and their importance in education.

Languages are so important in today's world.  Multilingual students have more doors open to them.  Online resources are not just in English.  Multilingual students can access Wikipedia in Spanish or uploaded texts in French.  Their brains are conditioned to make connections quicker and easier than a monolingual student's.  However, this is best accomplished through elementary education when the students are not preoccupied with social pressures and peers.  But given the high school language trend we make due.
The process itself was more tedious than I expected.  The initial idea of making a video was overwhelming, but once we brainstormed how we would use technology in the classroom our soap box came out and the video ideas came together.  When we started filming we found that without the proper equipment making videos is difficult!  We had a lot of fun though and I hope to give my students the option of making movies in my future Spanish classes.
As we discussed in class after showing the video, learning a new language is not just about the words and grammar, it's about learning culture and acceptance of those cultures.  An open minded class leads to open minded individuals in the world, which will one day hopefully lead to a more peaceful world.
I am determined to use Skype in my classroom to help make Spanish relevant for my students.  I have close friends in my old schools in Spain who I want to collaborate with.  If my high school students could have reading pals over Skype with my 6th/2nd graders I would be ecstatic.

Ms. Bisbee's Classroom

The perfectionist in me would never let the assignment be done.

Working on an online classroom for students has given me some good ideas for how I may distribute resources to my classes.  Having a common place where students can access homework, web pages, music, video, etc. is a great idea.  Students are responsible for knowing what their homework is, when it is due, and there will hopefully be less "I didn't get the assignment Ms. Bisbee" comments, because it will all be online.  I will just have to be on top of it, posting each day by a certain hour.  Or even beforehand in the morning to give students the whole day to work on it.
Students who are sick could catch up without having to call or come to school.  Parents could find resources for their students or themselves, as well as stay up to date with what is going on in my classroom.
It is a project I would like to incorporate in my first job, given the school is on board and I am not swamped with lessons plans and other first year struggles.  However, the skills learned in this class should make it an easy project, rather than a frustrating task I put limited energy into. 

All You Need is Google!

This company amazes me.  In the short two weeks that we have been in EDT520 I have discovered more about Google's helpfulness than... EVER!

Googledocs is a nice, organized place where I can store documents and once I have a classroom I will hopefully be able to share that space with students.  I would like to be able to give them direct feedback as they work on assignments.  We learn best from making mistakes, but in today's educational world the general trend is that mistakes are BAD.  Googledocs is a safe place where students can work and be corrected without feeling ridiculed by their peers.  It won't be a tool I use often in class due to the oral nature of a Spanish class, but for group work or assignments it will be useful.

Settling In

As we come closer to the end of EDT520 I find myself more willing to try new technological resources.  I am not so hesitant to give my email to websites that may or may not be a tool one day in my Spanish classroom.  The wall is slowly coming down, although Twitter is still locked up, never to be used.

Although I may not have grown up in a digital world I, as a future teacher, must realize that my students have experienced nothing but the digital in their lifetimes.  As much as I would like to do oral activities, the occasional worksheet, artsy projects with scissors and glue, or act out skits in Spanish, my students will want and need to practice skills online.  When I finally reach my own classroom I hope I will have to courage to face my own ignorance when it comes to programs like Garage Band and IMovie and let my students take those skits, family trees, and worksheets and make them into movies, web pages, and podcasts.  In the long run they will most likely teach me as much about technology as I teach them Spanish. 

My goal is motivate students to learn a foreign language and explore other cultures.  I know technology is the key so I will continue to drop my defensive walls and keep trying new things.

The Horizon Report

The key trends mentioned by the Horizon Report 2010 included the ability for students to study whenever and wherever they want.  With new mobile devices information will be readily available in the most efficient manner possible.  I find this idea unnerving for our society.  We are a nation that runs on caffeine, pressure, and stress 24/7.  I feel the ever increasing need for faster, more efficient technologies is pushing us into the expectation of faster work = more work, rather than faster work = time to relax and spend time with friends and family because we finished earlier.

In education today, I feel that it is important to teach students to work hard and think critically among other things, but also to relax and breath every once and a while.   

It seems to me that mobile devices like phones and exposure to the internet at such a young age sets our students up for problems like ADHD and short attention spans.  When they are stimulated wherever and whenever they want, like a drug, they become addicted to things like texting and Facebook.

I hope to teach my classes about the importance of creating a balance between work and play.  Faster and more efficient can only be positive improvements when they are balanced with activities like lounging in parks, biking with friends, or reading a book.  I hope they will take that time not because they have to, but because they want to.

The Podcast Experience

Podcasting is a relatively new concept and resource for me.  I have friends to listen/watch them on their way to work, but I had never thought about using them as a tool in class.  Now as I work on recording my own I can see the many benefits they would bring a classroom.

I would use podcasts in a variety of ways.  The one I'm working on is a virtual tour of Madrid.  If I were to take students on a trip to Spain, this type of photo podcast would be a way for them to share their experiences, new knowledge on a country, and photographs with the whole classroom, school, or community. 
Also, the ESL classroom would benefit from having audio examples of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.  A podcast is a perfect way for students to hear all these things if another native speaker is not present.  Once they master a concept, students could even record their own podcast as an assessment.  Not to mention having podcasts on file gives future students a richer pool of resources for years to come.
I also like the idea of using a podcast as a summary of each week's work.  Students would have a delegated week in which they have to record everything the class learned in new creative ways.  Maybe by writing and recording a story about they they will do this summer with their grandparents using vocabulary learned in a lesson about family and how to use the future tense.  It may be a good idea to choose students at random so that they are always on top of their game.

I have found my personal experience with podcasting frustrating due to computer malfunctions and my tendency as a perfectionist to over work things.  I hope to have my podcast up by the end of the evening, but if this microphone keeps stalling 1 minute each time I hit record I may be in trouble.

Wish me luck!

Be Passionately Creative and Creatively Passionate

Education is like fast food, or so says Sir Ken Robinson in his TED Talk.  It was this image that stayed with me after watching him speak.  America has begun processing fast food education.  We push our students into the easy, pre-made forms that are safe and cheap to teach.  We cannot expect all of our students to become doctors, lawyers, or business people.  What happens, as Ken asks, when a student's dream is to become a firefighter?  It is not up to the educational system to change his/her dream, it is their job to help him/her reach that dream.  It may mean more work, but life is not about taking the easy road.  Let's give students a voice in the classroom and safe environments to make mistakes as they find their footing on the rough path to adulthood.  We cannot afford to keep cutting programs like art, language, music, etc. in order to fit our kids into their fancy, little, boxed meals that are safe and comfortable for parents and teachers alike.

In my classroom I want to start my year asking students how Spanish relates to their lives, their dreams, their goals.  Day one they will write a list of all the professions they are interested in, from the mundane to the exotic.  "Profe Bisbee, I want to be a spelunker."  Perfect! How might you use Spanish while you are exploring the unknown worlds of caves?  I want them to dream big and then we can adapt the content to their interests.  Grades, like the monetary reward in Dan Pink's video on Drive, will not push them, but rather a larger goal of mastering a skill they will need one day in their future.

So let your students be passionately creative when they dream and creatively passionate as they pursue those dreams.

Sir Ken Robinson's School Kills Creativity on TED Talks
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Daniel Pink's video on Drive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=player_embedded

Blogs: Glorified Journals or Useful Educational Tools

When I first heard of blogs I didn't give them much thought.  People telling about their day, everyday? If I wanted to know how someone was doing I would rather ask them in person. 

However, my perception changed when I went abroad.  Miles away, over the Atlantic Ocean in Spain, I spoke a short 15 minutes a week with my parents on my cell phone, spent countless euros on post cards and stamps, and wrote hundreds of quick emails to all my friends who were curious to know how I was doing.  I would have saved time spending 30 minutes a week writing about my experiences and posting them in a place where everyone could see.  A blog could have been my abroad connection with the home.

In this first week of class my perception of blogs has changed again.  I find myself preparing to become a Spanish teacher in the 21st century when tools like blogs could enhance my students' learning.  My newest classroom idea is to share a bilingual blog with a classroom of English learners in one of my former schools in Spain.  My goal would be to have students not only practice their language skills, but also to share cultural knowledge.  My dream would be to take my class to visit the partner school.  Getting students abroad is my passion and if the first step is an international blog then bring on the blogging.

Technology 101

Welcome back to the beloved computer class of your middle school and high school days.  Or not.

I had considered myself to be pretty up to date with the ins and outs of technology.  After one day in EDT 520, however, I realize I am just as behind as my future students will be, if not further.  Technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives and therefore should have a place in the education as well.  But first I need to be taught how to use it.

I plan to use technology in my Spanish classroom.  I want to video conference with my previous schools in Spain, Villalkor and CEBIP Santiago Apostol.  I want my students to have blogs or forums where they can share ideas about current events like the immigration laws in Arizona.  The skills they acquire using these tools can only help them once they graduate into the 'real world'.

I am excited to learn what new gadgets are out there for me to learn and I will try to give my computer incompetent mother a break.  "Dana, how do you create a new folder on the desktop?"... maybe.