This PDF is a great resource to have when planning a Skype call with another class or person! I downloaded this and plan on using it in my own teaching.
Every learner in her classroom fulfilled an important function and numerous curricular outcomes were met whenever her classroom connected via Skype. Please click on this link to view this PDF file on turning a Skype call into a learning call--it's a great resource!
I have used Larry Ferazzo's website in the past and have found it has awesome resources and ideas! When I was glancing over it today, I found the video "Word Crimes" by Weird Al Yankovic. I think students would like watching this video about grammar made to a popular tune :)
I agree. I have been following on Larry Ferazzo's website since last week. I already found several useful and interesting tools to use for my students.
This is a blog that various people contribute to with reviews and instructions for a variety of tech apps and websites - that can be used for a variety of purposes, from video annotation to labeling photos and many more. Thanks to the people at CeLTA for posting these! (add to your Feedly to keep up with new posts!)
An exploration of perceptions of candidate teachers for the new school revealed that while they understood the importance of supporting student competency development, they were less clear on implementation. Therefore, the team has focused on strategies for teacher development. Teachers traveled abroad to observe competency-based education practices. These trips enhanced teacher mindsets about the value of competency-based learning, but teachers' monthly reflections revealed remaining gaps in confidence to implement these methods.
Interactive tutorials made with VoiceThread ask students to practice what they learn outside of class, so the instructor can observe their practice, respond with feedback, or modify classroom teaching to address students' needs.
This is a good example activity that I can adapt to use VT in a flipped classroom. I have started to see lots of potential in this tool.
Using a bilingual dictionary correctly is an important skill for nearly all language students, and this tutorial aims to help students understand how to use a dictionary well.
But, she said, she and fellow members of the Teachers of Color group have called for VIPKid to act "proactively" by teaching the company's parent customers about diversity in America, involving teachers of color in the construction of the curriculum, featuring teachers of color in advertisements in China, and releasing a statement to the company's Chinese customers explicitly supporting teachers of color.
Online tutoring like the kind offered by this company, VIPKid, from China to the US, can offer great opportunities for targeting interpersonal communication. However, perhaps due to the synchronous nature of the interactions between tutors and students, cultural and racial stereotypes can interfere in many damaging ways. Does interpersonal communication in the language classroom, real or virtual, open up students and their interlocutors to situations for which we as teachers may not always be prepared?
This is an annotation of a reading activity/ practice, from a guest blogger, Mónica Romero, to Grant Boulanger's Exploring the convergence of Language Acquisition and Arts. Like his CI suggestions and Freebies
Ooh, the internet tells me it's Free Voluntary Reading. This is an interesting article. I'm not sure it would be directly applicable to any of the classes I teach right now, but it's good food for thought.
In addition to taking classes, she supplements her education by using Learning Upgrade, a smartphone app with English and math lessons for adults.
Along with our face-to-face instruction and tutoring, we offer an additional resource to our adult students: educational software via mobile technology.
This access to educational software allows those with limited scheduled availability, or those who do not yet have an assigned tutor, to learn at their own pace and on their own time.
In addition to taking classes, she supplements her education by using Learning Upgrade, a smartphone app with English and math lessons for adults.
The app’s 300 lessons are designed by educators and use songs, videos, and games to engage even the most reluctant of students. Every level provides practice problems, accompanied by immediate intervention and remediation with multimedia supports.
I use the app when I have a little bit of time, anywhere. Sometimes I’m in the laundry, waiting between washing and drying.”
This is one advantage of technology: anywhere, anytime!
Both generations are equally willing to help one another bridge the gap, which in turn boosts the effectiveness of both approaches.
So far, the use of smartphones by students at Midland Need to Read has accelerated the learning process, giving students the motivation needed to improve their English language
In my district, we are always being asked to connect our language teaching to other disciplines. Using Smartphone to do so is smart. However, not all of my students have these devices. They can definitely share a device. I like how this article is geared toward adult learners who can't or don't have time to attend physical classes. The App allows them to access this knowledge anywhere anytime. Thanks Akiko.
The blog consists of three parts: Blog, Teaching Toolbox, and Workshops. We can read about issues, tips, comments that are pertinent to language instruction. Teachertoolbox provides new resources and activity ideas. We can find where and what kind of PDs are available in Workshops. The world language consultants, Kara Parker and Megan Smith are the authors of this bog. They understand the challenges language teachers are facing and believe it is very important to provide and share resources and support each other to stay being an effective language teacher.
I think this is a great idea for using virtual reality in the classroom and can be adapted for any language.
The team will expand upon the initial pilot by hiring five Parisians from different neighborhoods to document and share their lives with a VR camera over the course of one to two months.
I'm trying to figure out how to do this for my own classroom; I wonder if one day we could develop an exchange where we work with partners in other countries to gather video for each other for these types of projects.
Awardees hypothesize that virtual reality will allow language learners to have perceptual, empathetic, and culturally immersive experiences in multiple sensory modalities (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.) that will enhance their vision, perceived value of language and culture learning, and willingness to communicate.
Synchronous tasks can include: text, audio, virtual worlds... can be: highly interactive and collaborative, instant, quick with shorten forms, spontaneous and may generate multiple incorrect forms while students negotiate meaning.
I would like to use this list as a check list when I create a synchronous activity. This list also can applies to any communicative task in the classroom.