Document- Critical Web Evaluation

For a list of 10 websites that could be used in my Spanish class and a critical look at their potential value and uses, in addition to their and their pros and cons, please see the following document: Critical Web Evaluation

Online Quiz Assessment

Please complete and submit the following quiz on Preterite Verbs independently.

Welcome Online Survey

Welcome to Spanish class! (Bienvenida a la clase de espanol!) Please take the following survey so that I can get to know a little about you, and your Spanish background.

Educational Game

Students:
Please complete the following game, Chapter 1B Jumble Vocab Puzzle for homework.  It pertains to the vocabulary we have studied in this chapter.  When you complete it, print it out, so you will receive homework credit for it.  Try it using only the clues first, then reference your book or notes if you are stuck.

Simulation Activity

Students,

Please go to the following link to complete an interactive practice activity for regular preterite verbs.  Don't forget to use your accent marks! There is a toolbar on the bottom of the activity that allows you to insert them.  Print out the completed version to receive homework credit.

Practice Regular Preterite Verbs Chapter 2B

Webquest- Spanish Tapa and Meal Lesson

Go to the following track, by clicking on the link below, to view information about Spanish Meals and Tapas.  Make sure to select "View in Frames", so you can see all of the website information properly.  There will be 5 different websites listed on the left hand of the page that you need to read for homework.

Trackstar Spanish Meal and Tapa Lesson


Then, complete the google worksheet below with your answers, based on what you have learned.

Edutopia Top 10 Tips for Teaching with New Media- Reaction

I really liked Tip #3 that called for “finding your experts”.  I know we have talked about teaching as a profession of life long learning, and learning from our students, just as they learn from us.  The field of technology is likely an area where we will always be able to learn something from our students.  We are from a generation that knows the birth of social networking, youtube, and texting.  However, I am finding that technology is already beginning to move faster than I am and many high school aged students are on sites I have never even heard of.  I hope to be able to learn from my students and incorporate new technologies or websites that they discover on their own.  Using surveymonkey, or a survey through google docs like we learned in this class, is a great tool to not only find out the technical knowledge of your students (and what you can learn from them) but to also learn some of their personal interests.  Learning about students as individuals, getting to know what they really care about- what motivates them, and ways to help them be successful in their academics before they begin the school year is another way to use these survey tools.

Tip #7 talks about using google docs as a teacher.  I didn’t realize that there were specific functions that you could use as a teacher.  I have only ever worked in goggle docs for group projects, but it seems like it would also be a good use of technology for students to keep organized, always be able to access their work anywhere there is internet, and as a convenient tool for me as a teacher to monitor progress.  Overall, I think google docs has more uses, tools, and potential than I had thought and is certainly something I will use in my classroom.

Billy la Bufanda- Spanish video

This is a fun and somewhat silly video that is appropriate for my Spanish 1 course. I would use this video after students learn basic present tense verb conjugation, as the song will help them by giving some examples of how properly form complete sentences using their limited vocabulary. It will also help to expand their vocabulary- as some of the words in the video may be unfamiliar. However, as they see the pictures in the video and the words in both the Spanish and English subtitles, it will help them to make the connections as to the meaning of the words.

Practice- embed a video

Just a fun, talkative, and loving Husky dog!

Screencast- How to create an Excel pie chart

A demonstration of how to create an pie chart using Microsoft Excel.

Reaction to Did You Know 4.0

I just viewed Did you Know 4.0..and I have seen a very similar thing to this in another class but it still astonished me.  The statistics were really baffling and amazing.  The ones that particularly caught my interest were that there are 2 million TVs in America in bathrooms..I mean what are you doing in the bathroom that you need a TV? Even if you want the TV for while you are taking a bath, where is the quiet and the relaxation?  We are constantly bombarded with what I will call "noise" from technology, radios, ipods, computers and rarely get a quiet peaceful moment in our lives.  It seems that now even our bathrooms have been invaded. 

I could not believe the statistic that Youtube in last 2months had more uploaded footage than all if all 3 major TV networks had been running new footage continuously since 1948!  This is not only an astronomical amount of footage to be uploaded, but also a little scary that so much about people's lives is out there in cyberspace for the entire world to view.  Im not comfortable sharing my entire life with the world- my Facebook has little information, I've never put anything on youtube, I don't have a picture website, and even this blog makes me a little nervous and feel vulnerable.  Regardless, youtube has been used for some of my classes like when we had to create a commerical for a marketing class (the result is pretty embarassing and should probably be taken down), so it can be an effective tool.  

Additionally, I have used to Facebook as a tool to stay connected with friends from high school or to re-connect with old friends and distant family which has been pretty cool.  I barely even remember life before these things, especially because I listen to music on youtube all the time, so the statistic that neither youtube, myspace, or facebook has been around for more than 6 years (longer now though) took me a little off guard, even though I already knew it because I created a myspace in my sophomore or junior year in high school, and a facebook in my senior year of high school.  Still, imagining life without them is impossible and it astonished me that these sites get as many visitors as the three major tv networks!  Even this video was in youtube and was being used for a class and learning purposes, just as this blog is, and our facebook group for all of us in group 3 here in the TCPCG.  

Technology has become such an integral part of our life it is unimaginable to live without it, and there is certainly no going back.  I just hope that essential skills like good penmanship, doing math without a calculator, and even effective face to face communication (as we are more reliant on virtual communication) are not lost on future generations..and that facebook and other sites do not completely ruin lives through oversharing by many of today's adolescents. 

Reaction to "Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning" by Alan November

The article,"Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning" by Alan November offers an a-typical perspective towards technology, but November makes many valid points that really resonated with me.  I believe he is absolutely right in those that are children know will know much more about technology than I do now by the time they are in high school, and that the younger children like those in middle and elementary school, will be better with technology than those currently in high school.  I am a part of the generation that was really around for the technology and dot com boom.  However, there are many things I am not comfortable with still, and while I am completely comfortable with simple tasks on my computer I still prefer to take my class notes by hand.  I find that I can organize my thoughts better on paper, and in order for me to really learn something and remember it, I need to write it down, not type it.  I feel less “paper trained” than the author, but I certainly am paper trained in some ways.

When November speaks about students today believing anything because it is on the internet- I had an aha! moment because this is so true, and I find even myself falling into this trap.  I remember that there is a website out there for a fake animal species- The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. It is almost believable, especially thanks to help from technology in the form of photoshop.  I understand the trap that the kid in the article fell into about the Holocaust (not that I would ever believe that it didn’t happen) in the sense that the source was a professor on a university website, and he trusted it.  I did not know about the “link” search engine, or “The Hate Directory” so I certainly learned something new.  When November says, “and the ease of using technology can lull you into not thinking” he is completely right.  There were many times when I did not think and just by reading this article I am now beginning to realize when those times were. I think he makes a very good point that we must teach students about the bad side of technology and how to be aware of their sources- something I am also an offender of as I frequent Wikipedia. (Perfect Example) In my defense, the tree octopus story was also in a Yahoo news article so I guess Wikipedia was valid in this one example. 

A "tree octopus"

November also discusses automating versus informating technology.  There are all of these computers in schools, but they are rarely used for anything remarkable, incredible, or eye opening, which they so easily could be used for.  His makes a point about our use of computers, “We have kids write a five-paragraph essay with a $2,000 pencil in a word processing lab.”  I never thought of it that way but he is so right.  The paper looks pretty and organized, but there has not been any new learning or advancement in education for the student except in terms of typing practice.  Students could have written their essays by hand, just as I write my notes by hand.  The purchasing of technology for schools and its use could certainly use some alterations.  This article made me re-evaluate technology in my life and how I now hope when I teach I will develop ways to use it effectively for students where they actually learn something, not just use it for the sake of using it.  I also think a lesson on the negatives of the internet and a little awareness could be an eye opening experience for many, just as it was for me.