Showing my blog to my classmates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpr5pvG2pkQ

Prezi - The Zooming Presentation

 



One of my favorite websites is Prezi (www.prezi.com).   It is a site where you can make presentations online.  The presentations zoom and slide from one idea to another. Unlike PowerPoint which is very linear, Prezi allows the creator to place information, images, videos, files, shapes and graphics on a canvas.  From there, the creator can either set a path for presentation or click and zoom anywhere on the canvas. 

Prezi has several different templates to choose from depending on the type of presentation the creator needs to make.  I prefer the blank canvas because it allows me to put everything wherever I want it.  The creator can add images from Google Images, from photo files or from Microsoft Word clipart. The creator can also choose the font, color and size of all text and graphics.

 

I made a Prezi for my methods class that presented the numbers zero thru twenty.  I was even able to imbed a YouTube video within the presentation.  A Spanish teacher I know has used Prezi to present grammatical information and has also made flashcards that include a picture of the each vocabulary word with its Spanish version hidden inside the picture.  I have included links to some of them at the bottom of the page. 

I think Prezi is a great way to present or review information and can also be used by students to create presentations about a variety of topics. I have seen a few where students have used Prezi to build and label all the parts of their “dream house / la casa de mis sueños" and others where they present information and images about themselves and their families, their likes and dislikes and even presentations about cultural information. They were very expressive and creative. 

 

One drawback to Prezi is that all the sliding and zooming can make the viewer sick to their stomach so it is best to keep the zooming and sliding to a minimum when possible.

Some Prezis to check out:

http://prezi.com/tdfqp7dnkesb/numeros-1-20/?kw=view-tdfqp7dnkesb&rc=ref-14019765

http://prezi.com/21yehao0igww/4-1-los-utiles-escolares/?kw=view-21yehao0igww&rc=ref-4539902

http://prezi.com/dhntnhut-dne/copy-of-ser-o-estar/?kw=view-dhntnhut-dne&rc=ref-4539902

Quizlet

 

www.quizlet.com  was created by Andrew Sutherland when he was 18 years old as a way to study for his French class (Iozzio, 2008). From there it was grown into a site that can help a learner review multiple languages, AP subjects, nursing, exams, history, science, math, literature art, and even professional careers such as nursing and and law (Quizlet, 2013).

It is an amazing website and app that can be used by students to study their world language vocabulary.  They can create their own online vocabulary list which Quizlet then turns into flashcards, a mini-quiz, a timed race against a friend or a matching game.  Quizlet makes learning vocabulary easy, fun and mobile.  The app can be accessed from any wifi capable device.

Here is an example of a flashcard:

 

For teachers, they can make vocabulary or verb conjugation lists, flashcards, etc. for their students and then share the link with them via email, a blog or wiki or just by telling them the title of the list on Quizlet. My cooperative teacher uses Quizlet has a review in class before a quiz. Students take out their devices or use one of the tablets or PCs in the room to review and play.

I think that when I am a teacher, I will use Quizlet with my students so they have a digitally-friendly way to review and learn their new words or verb tense.

References:

Iozzio, C. (2008). Technology Wonder Kids. PC Magazine Online. Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2332904,00.asp

Google Voice

As a Spanish teacher, I know I will have to do reading, writing, speaking and listening assessments with my students.  Managing the amount of paper work and time spent in class these assessments will involve seems like a huge task.  The one that concerns me most is speaking assessments.

How do I listen to a student speak while keeping my other students busy and quiet? How do I ensure the student who is doing his/her listening assessment can complete the assessment without being self conscience about other students listening in? How can I listen to the student speaking and instantly judge a student’s ability/

I asked some Spanish teachers how they handle speaking assessments.  I got answers that include: “I avoid them because they are almost impossible to do.”  “I give the other students busy work while I stand in the hall with each student while I pray that no one kills anyone else in my classroom.” (Yikes!) and “I take the students to the computer lab and use a program called Audacity.  The kids wear headphones with a microphone and record their speaking assessment. They then save them to their Elockers and then I have to go into each of their lockers and listen to them.  It takes forever so I don’t do it often.” And “I use Google Voice. It’s fast and easy.”

Google Voice caught my attention.  I did a little research and found out the Google Voice is a Google sponsored, free telephone number with a digital voicemail component that can be recorded from any phone.  The teacher sets up an account.  Google Voice has telephone numbers available for every area code.  The students call the number, follow a prompt recorded by the teacher, leave their speaking assessment “message” and then hang up.  The teacher then logs on at his or her convenience, listens to each student’s message and then grades it.  The teacher can listen to it as many times as he or she needs. The recordings can be deleted or saved.  I think students will find it fun to use their cell phones in class and teachers will find it handy to be able to have the students do their speaking assessments at the same time or at home. 

A world language teacher could do lot of types of speaking assessments using Google Voice.  He or she could give the students a poem or paragraph to recite in order to practice proper pronunciation.  The teacher could provide a picture and then ask students to react to it in the target language, or give them a question to respond to. The possibilities are endless.

I suggested Google Voice to my cooperative teacher.  He tried it and thought it was great! 

To set up a Google Voice account, go to: https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=grandcentral&passive=1209600&continue=https://www.google.com/voice&followup=https://www.google.com/voice&ltmpl=open

 

Reference:

ESL and Foreign Language Resources (n.d.)  Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/eslandforeignlanguage/tools/google-voice

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers can help language learners and their teachers to organize ideas and information for a writing or speaking assignment or to express comprehension of a reading or listening exercise. Graphic organizers help to make learning more personalized and learner centered (Yang, 2006). They help to scaffold information and concepts for easier organization and comprehension.  For example, if a student needed to write about his or her family, a graphic organizer could help the student to record information in an organized way that could then be used as a scaffold for writing paragraphs describing different family members. They can be used to compare and contrast cultural concepts.

Microsoft Word and Google Docs have several graphic organizers that could be used as a pre-writing or speaking tool or as a way to organize notes when reading. An online site that I like to use as a graphic organizer or mindmap is www.bubbl.us . It has a free version is easy to use.  It starts with a parent bubble that can be filled with information and sibling or child bubbles can be added as needed. It allows users to choose from a variety of colors and bubbles can be moved around the screen to suite the user.  

Reference:

Chang, Y. (2006). Visual Organizers as Scaffolds in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Online Submission. Retrieved from EbscoHost.

Duolingo - A great site for learning language

 

A great website for language study is www.duolingo.com . Duolingo is a project created by Carnegie Mellon University that helps a student to learn a new language by asking him or her to help translate the world wide web (Duffy, 2012). The site’s users vote on the best translation and eventually those translations can be published so more internet users can read them in their own languages. The idea behind it is the more you translate the more of the language you will learn.

 

Users can practice their Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian and English (for Spanish speakers) skills. The site exposes users to interesting content and people and it may be the only language learning site that uses crowd sourcing as a tool (Duffy, 2012). An added feature is that the site is free. It is available for computers and has an app for mobile devices.

Users start at the simplest levels of the target language and then progress through levels of difficulty from there. There are tutorials along the way that discuss vocabulary meaning and grammatical concepts.  Another feature that I like is that there is a forum for discussion with other users for each translation exercise.  If a user has a question, he or she can pose the question in the forum and other users will respond.

 

This site is great for learners at all levels because it exposes them to categories of vocabulary and different grammatical concepts. It makes a review for learners that need a little extra practice or it would be great for supplemental practice over summer vacation or as a refresher at the beginning of the school year.

Resource:

Duffy, J. (2012). Duolingo Review. PC Magazine Online. Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402570,00.asp  .

Conjuguemos.com

My cooperating teacher told me about a great website for student practice. I decided to check it out and I think it will be very beneficial to me as a teacher. The site is called www.conjuguemos.com . "Conjuguemos" means "Let's conjugate" in Spanish.

The site contains all kinds of practice activities for world language learners. Here is a breakdown of the site's features:

Languages available: French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Latin

Practice: Vocabulary by theme or by textbook chapters

Grammar from present tense regular verb all the way to imperative and subjunctive moods and everything in between.

Types of practice:  Timed drills, memory, hangman

Resources: Online flashcards, fill-in-the-blank activities, verb charts and crossword puzzles that can also be printed.

School/Teacher/Student Accounts: teachers can set up user names and passwords for their students. They can assign different types of practice and Conjuguemos records the students’ results.

After reviewing this site, I found it to be very user-friendly, pleasing to the eye and fun to use.  The layout is well organized and I think that students would find this site useful for building vocabulary and grammar recognition and for reviewing previously learned concepts.

As a teacher, I could use this site in several ways.  I could print flashcards, worksheets and crosswords for my students to use.  I could use the timed drills and flashcards with a Smartboard as a whole-class review exercises or I could take my students to the computer lab to use the site for practice or if I set up accounts for them, I could assign Conjuguemos practice as homework or as extra practice for students who need more help learning a concept.