MadameTechie's posterous

Field Experience Spring 2011

 ITCE 7445

Total Hours: 4

Technology Expo

Description: My district offers a technology training program called Teach21, and each years participants present their capstone technology projects to teachers throughout the county at a Technology Expo. This year, I am presenting my capstone in hopes of training teachers on classroom uses of wikis, webcams and Windows Movie Maker. I completed an extensive project in which my French 3 students had to prove their innocence in the kidnapping case of my class fish. They did so by recording alibis in the target language, listening to their classmate's alibis, and ultimately identifying the guilty culprit.

Learners: In this project the target learners are CCSD teachers of all grade levels.

Reflection: This project was a big success with my students, but I am most excited about sharing the tech-centric strategies with my colleagues at the expo. I spent 2 hours preparing for the expo (not including time to complete the actual project) and I present for 2 hours on Tuesday. Many teachers see technology as cool, but they lack the ideas for actual implementation. I hope my presentations give them specific, simple tasks that are aided by technology. Easy implementation is key!

I was so excited to take this class - I thought the potential for web design in education was possibly the most underdeveloped area of professional development. Many teachers are required to have websites, but no one talks about content management and design. Unfortunately this class did not address all of the topics I anticipated. While we did discuss design elements, we also explored some older methods of web development (that are still important today, but not as used in the classroom) such as html. I am the first to tweak html and copy html to embed cool widgets, however it wouldn't have been my first choice of instruction in this course. I was thankful that we did explore the WYSIWYG options of web development as I see those as more student-friendly and classroom appropriate.

I am thankful for the time to invest putting a classroom project online in the form of a webquest. This was not an aspect of web design I had explored before, and I learned a lot from the experience of implementing it in my classroom. Online learning may be the wave of the future, but I have a lot to learn before I am good at it!

Field Experience Spring 2011

 ITCE 7445

Total Hours: 2

Renaissance Lab Training

Description: Another teacher in my school received a Renaissance Digital Lab as part of her Teach21 capstone. As a foreign language teacher, this peaked my curiosity. This training helped me see the applications for this resource in my classroom. We spent 1 hour prepping for my French 4 class’ use of the lab, and we spent 1 hour using the tool with my students. The preparation included creating speaking questions for the students in a SMARTnotebook, creating a rubric for assessing the spoken exchanges, and creating presentational information about how to use the tool (DOs and DON’Ts).

Learners: In this project there are two target learners: me and my upper-level French students. I learned a lot about the lab, and my students had a great speaking opportunity.

Reflection: I want that lab! I know being a smart edtech leader is not about what you have, but rather how you use it. Having said that, I would USE THAT LAB! I was amazed at the effectiveness. One of the challenges in a foreign language classroom is distractions. When kids are engaged in a speaking activity, I can only guarantee that the students within earshot are on task. It is nearly impossible to effectively assess each student unless I give the rest of the class an alternative activity, and pull the kids up one by one to speak. That sort of formal assessment has its place, but how do I get all of the kids to informally practice speaking without distracting each other? The lab takes care of this! Students are randomly paired to speak to one another through sound-cancelling headphones. Their partner could be next to them or across the room. There is no need for transition time because no one leaves there seat. The headphones prevent distraction from other speakers, and I can record the dialogues! The recordings are saved as mp3 files and can easily be uploaded to student portfolios! Now to find a grant so I can get one installed!

Field Experience Spring 2011

 ITCE 7430

Total Hours: 2

SMART notebook training

Description: I collaborated with a Spanish 1 Teacher (Ms. H) to create a SMART notebook file for her Spanish 1 class. Ms. H has the SMART software installed on her laptop, but she has never had any training as she does not have a SMARTboard. She observed me earlier in the year and expressed interest in using the software with her overhead projector. After school one day we spent 1 hour reviewing the tools available and created a notebook file with fruit and vegetable vocabulary for her Spanish 1 class. We used several of the pre-made games and review activities to drill the vocab in an unusual way. Ms. H was nervous about using the software and requested that I help her teach the lesson. I happily agreed and co-taught with her the following day.

Learners: Ms. H was the primary learner as she created her first notebook, however her Spanish 1 class was also also a residual group of learners from this project. Ms. H is a young teacher with little experience using technology in the classroom. Her Spanish 1 class is a mixture of freshman and sophomores and this particular class is known for behavior issues.

Reflection: Ms. H hopes to use technology to further engage her students. I really admire that, but I am nervous that she will be disappointed when technology does not solve her disciplinary issues. Yes, technology can engage kids, but it doesn’t necessarily make them behave. We chatted extensively about what technology can and cannot bring to the classroom, but I think this might be an issue she has to observe herself. She seemed convinced that if kids were using computers, they would not be off task. We did discuss how technology offers students the chance to be off-task in new ways (surfing the net, for example), but again, I think this is something Ms. H will have to observe on her own.

Field Experience Spring 2011

 ITCE 7445

Total Hours: 4

Twitter in the Classroom Training

Description: I created a wiki for my French 4 Twitter project including screencast training videos to encourage other classrooms to join the project. Essentially I hope to bring together upper-level French students using twitter to communicate on a regular basis (in 140 characters or less) in the target language. The freedom of twitter is great; students can choose to tweet about things that are interesting to them! The wiki and resulting google docs and videos are a guiding set of tools for students and/or teachers who want to join in on the collaborative learning.

Learners: In this project there are two target learners: teachers and upper-level French students. Teachers use these tools to get information about the project, get approval from parents and their administration, and begin assessing student participation. Students use these tools to create a twitter account safely within the rules of student privacy, find hashtag information, get tips for how to begin tweeting, access rubrics for assessment, etc.

Reflection: Thus far the wiki is a hit. We have students from around the world tweeting twice per week, and teachers are constantly emailing me (via the wiki) for additional information. As I get questions, I tweak the wiki to prevent any future confusion. This project keeps growing and evolving, and just last week an AP Spanish teacher created a similar twitter project for upper-level Spanish speakers. I see teacher-created wikis and websites as the future of PD!

Field Experience Spring 2011

 ITCE 7430

Total Hours: 2

Skype Training

Description: The county recently unblocked Skype as a classroom resources (teachers only). As such, the media specialist and I decided to explore this tool. Never having used Skype before, we spent some time googling and reading online to learn the do’s and don’ts before downloading the software on our school laptops. We’ve found in the past the we often set the pattern for future behavior based on our experiences with new tools. As such, we try to think ahead and lay the ground work for best-practices from the beginning. We spent one planning period (1 hour) discussing our strategies for safe classroom use (from getting skype guests approved by the principal to recording skype conversations to post on our class websites). The following day we spent a planning period playing with the tool. We quickly realized a few bugs in our initial plan (for example the laptops with webcams do not fit the laptop docking stations in the classrooms, so external webcams are needed), and we made adjustments as needed. We wrapped up our planning period by conducting and recording a skype conversation from the media center to the foreign language office. I used my SMART software recorder to screencast and save the video file.

Learners: I was the learner in this field experience, but the media specialist was as well. The result of this experience is an informal format for other teachers to follow when using skype in the classroom.

Reflection: Skype is amazing! I am embarrassed to admit I haven’t used it much before. While we had a few issues to overcome initially, I see so much potential for this tool in the classroom. Bringing authentic experts in touch with your students couldn’t be easier. In our school we recommended that skype guest speakers follow the same approval procedures as live guest speakers as we want to be as transparent as possible with administration. The two planning periods spent testing and de-bugging were well worth the time, and I am eager to train interested teachers in the future.

Field Experience Spring 2011

 ITCE 7430

Total Hours: 5

Online Literary magazine

Description: The English department formerly published a literary magazine with no online connection. This year they want to include an online edition. I met with one English teacher to discuss the needs of the project (1 hour). After our discussion, I created several options for online publishing (2 hours) including a demo weebly site, demo blog on wordpress, and a demo calameo. Then I met with several English teachers to review and explore the demo tools (1 hour), and once they selected calameo as their tool, I visited the Advanced Composition class to walk the students through the process of publishing their literary magazine online with calameo. (1 hour)

Learners: There were two types of learners in this field experience, English teachers and Advanced Composition students. Each of the teachers I worked with has extensive experience with literary magazines, but no experience with online publishing nor with using web2.0 in the classroom. The students in the Advanced Composition class are juniors and seniors who excel in writing and literature.

Reflection: It was interesting and surprising that the English teachers opted to use calameo for this project. The initial goals for the project were two-fold: create an online edition AND create a searchable online archive on past publications. Immediately my thoughts went to a blog because each article/story could be tagged based on year published, author last name, genre, etc. While the blog may not be as aesthetically pleasing, the functionality is exactly what the teachers wanted. Calameo does not give ANY search functionality. Calameo is a widget for any website that takes a word document or a pdf document and converts it into a miniature book for embedding on a site. The result is a tiny book with turnalbe pages online. There is very little work needed to produce this, but the teachers seemed overwhelmed by the concept. Once again I had to step back and respect the technology level of each teacher.

Internet safety has been an important lesson in my classroom because I am part of the illegal download generation! I saw classmates in college get busted for file sharing and hacking, and I know all to well how quickly a bright future can be ruined from stupid decisions made online. As such, I began introducing internet safety into my classroom the first time my students touched a computer. Back then I thought this was a quick discussion about file sharing and copyright. As I began my research, I quickly learned there was SO much more to it. Being a responsible digital citizen is an evolving job, and students need constant reminders and support to help them achieve safety online. As a response to this growing problem, I created SafeOnline for my students. Each year they read the site and complete the survey agreeing to the terms. I hope this sets the tone for a year of responsible internet use.

Of course I am still learning myself, so I use iSafe as a resource to keep me current. This is a site my county subscribes to which trains teachers on internet safety for students. It is a long program, but so thorough! Another resource I tend to use frequently is Google's Family Safety Center which is a great resource to share with parents and students!

During a langchat session, a Spanish teacher introduced me to Storybird.com. We spent about an hour after the chat discussing ways the site could be used in schools, and I learned about the private class features where your students can work online without exposing too much personal information. This feature also allowed me to easily grade each class!

This site is ideal for elementary school classrooms, but it also fits well in the intermediate foreign language setting. For me, I saw this site as a way to flip storytelling around. Rather than writing first and illustrating later, this site allowed my students to pick the images first and THEN narrate the story. In my level 3 French class the students just learned how to form the conditional tense (what would, could, should happen). Storybird set the scene for a cool project. I asked each student to choose ten images from any artist on the site. Then, we read "If you gave a mouse a cookie" in French. This book is chock-full of if...then statements which are expressed using the conditional tense in French. For each of the ten pictures the kids chose in storybird, they had to write a if..., then... - it was a hit! They loved it, and the vocabulary they learned was awesome. Here's an example of one student's product:

Le Fête du Thé on StorybirdShe wrote her story about what would happen if a rat threw a tea party. It was adorable!

My multimedia project is beginning to come together. I created a basic webquest at www.french1webquest.weebly.com and now I'm ready to go back and assess how multimedia elements can take this simple activity to the next level.  The students are tasked with creating a narrated video tour using Google Earth and the screen recording feature of the SMART suite. The project will be completed before Spring Break 2011 as I plan to implement it shortly after returning from that vacation. In order to complete this project I will need several hours of peace and quiet to compose any audio or video elements.  I will encourage my upper-level students to help me shoot video footage while we are in Paris during Spring Break to add to the webquest. I would also like to take photos of important monuments in Paris so the students can edit themselves into my generic photos to create a pretend scrapbook of their Google Tour. This will be an add-on activity (differentiation) for students who finish the project early. I can easily visualize the ways I'll incorporate video (both from Paris and for basic instruction), but I'm struggling with the audio component. Aesthetically, I don't like the idea of an audio file posted on a website. If you have audio, why not go the next step and just have video? My only idea for audio at this time is a listening activity, but that seems flat. I can upload an audio file detaling a simple trip through Paris, and the kids can track the voyage based on what they hear. That seems lame to me, so I'm open to suggestions. I nearly never put audio files on websites...any ideas?