The students like the clips! ¡Feliz Navidad!

The students enjoyed the clips from Unitedstreaming. I believe because it was better than listening to me again. I used them for a grammar review-just as a reminder of items we had studied and they had supposedly learned. Then I assigned a short writing and performance project with a rubric from rubistar. ¡Feliz Navidad! ¡Prospero Año Nuevo!

One new thing, hmmm I don't think I'll......

...ever find my own. I am enjoying using the new things presented in class. Because they are all new to me. The rubistar rocks! Already used it for a project due Monday, and I was thinking about a rubric, so now I have one. I have 5 clips from Unitedstreaming ready to use in my Spanish class, that either introduce or review topics we have covered. I want to explore ¡Movie more and start on Comic Life so I can use them in my class. Marcia is a great resource for my next project on recipes and we already have plans for that with the Research Project Calculator. And so on......

Here's another, I have lots to say, different topic

I had problems with the streaming video. What a learning experience! The burned video would only play on a computer so I needed tech help to have it converted to DVD-which I should have done in the first time.. Then the 2 segments I wanted to use were backwards. Then the video tower to play to 14 classrooms changed. Then .....you get the idea. But finally I made it. The whole 5 minutes played successfully. It took me about 2 hours of running and talking to people and lots of sweat equity to do it.

Oops, I'm behind

I have learned how to make a movie with this MACbook. Enough knowledge to know, I don't know enough. I had to have help to burn it to a disc and make it into a movie. From a PC guy who worked on the MAC side with me. It looks like my kids can do it, so it's on my schedule!!!

Oops it's 12

Urban Planet is still moving along, slowly tho. I am also working on Streaming Video for use with my Academy about bridges. Marcia Preller is helping with that since my laptop is being uncooperative at the moment and I need to show it to 14 different rooms at once. So I will need to burn it to a disc, which we discussed last Wed. also. I will not need the whole video, just a bit as a teaser. We will be building bridges from newspaper and tape and testing them to see what weight they will hold. The video will be a great intro, I hope. That is thing number 9.

11 is the number

I learned many new things last week, researching Informe. One that it was kind of difficult, so I was glad to have the opportunity to do so. But I can see how it could be useful. I will need to do more work on it. I also learned how some of the databases others used will be useful for my students and myself. Good session!

Urban Planet Post-10th

Yesterday I attended a session on Urban Planet and started to create my very own web page! It seems user friendly. And with Leslie's help and also the Ballroom Queen I was able to do some things. I hope I remember how to do more or that the help site is very helpful. Leslie has another idea for me instead of a Blog for my classes-I forget what it is called, starts with an M. More steps. It appears they are getting bigger.

Next one, I forget which number

I have just found out how my students will be able to receive email addresses at school from one of our tech people. Then I talked to them about which will be the best way for them to be able to view the blogs and we agree that I will set up a hot mail account and download all the blogs, the students will have access to this computer in my classroom and be able to view them when they have time. I will hopefully set this up for 2nd trimester. I was also pleased to meet the Indian Ed person here teaching Ojibwe (I believe, then again it could be Dakota, I should check our course offerings). She is pursuing podcasts and we may be able to trade information because she is interested in blogs.

Next one, I am loosing track of which one

I have been checking on how I can obtain email addresses for my students so they can blog second trimester and have figured out the logistics for that with one of our tech people. Then the next problem is how would they view each others blogs. I think I have it somewhat figured out, by my having a hotmail address and downloading the blogs there for everyone to read because I definitely would not use my school address. I also was excited to meet the person teaching Ojibwe here, she is researching podcasts and is interested in blogs, so we should be able to share ideas.

Scraps of this and that

The students enjoyed the power point I did for them. At least the sound effects and transitions amused them. I was thinking it was a lot of effort for little return since I would use it only once, but with further reflection I have hit upon ways to use it more than that one time. The presentation introduced the past tense, more specifically the preterit. But I did mix in imperfect and present also. So I can use it when I introduce those topics and when the assignment concerns mixing of tenses. For non grammar freaks SORRY. But I kinda love grammar, which is one of the reasons why I ended up teaching a foreign language.

Reading other blogs, I realize many people have the same frustrations as I do regarding lots of new technology to incorporate, but not lots of time to experiment or learn. There is also a wide variety of tech experience and library knowledge in our group.

I just finished correcting the projects for Spanish 3-the classes were graded using Information Literacy-I feel like most students at that level know what they are doing. Some did not use MLA style to write the bibliography which was a requirement, but most did most of the time. All in all great projects, only one group failed to do anything worthwhile that involved library time.

La próxima-#6

Today I created a Power Point presentation that I will show on Monday to Spanish 3. I learned how to do Power Point many years ago and had a few presentations ready to go on Macs but I switched school districts-St. Paul uses PC's and there went my shows. I did not bother to transfer them, since there was little chance that I would actually be able to show them-at that time lack of LCD projectors that went with the overhead. It wasn't too hard to reacquaint myself with the program. So I will also use the projector too for the first time on Monday. More steps....moving right along. The Harding Queen has enrolled us for a course on Urban Planet, so the web page is next. Overall I was pleased with my students level of research on their project. Most were quite serious about doing it right. I was quite surprised about the comments they made about their research for other classes and how lax it was. They all knew the basics, but for me it was more in depth they said. So many were glad to revisit the topic and do a thorough job. They planned an educational trip to a Spanish speaking country. Then wrote up some of it in Spanish. Their research and presentation (poster or brochure) level is high school, while their Spanish level is more 4-8 grade, depends on the student. Of course some students still underperformed but that is as always......

La quinta-5th

Jamie, the ballroom queen, gave me an extension cord so I am ready to show Spanish DVD's. The problem I was encountering was plugging everything into the cart, the speaker plug was huge.
My students in Spanish 3 are finding the computer useful for isolated word translation, verb conjugation, writing bibliographies for the current project, doing further research, and typing their sentences for their projects. I had always wanted to make my course more academically sound and have the students, especially in level 3, do more of their own research when we do a project and this computer has thus far helped me do that. I do not have to fight for extended computer lab time.
The student who wanted to do the Power Point opted to do something else since I couldn't let her work on the computer all hour. Sharing the computer had to be done when more than one person wanted to use it. Ultimately she decided on another format to present her information that fit the parameters of the project better.
What the next item of business is remains to be seen.......

4th

I have introduced the MACbook into my two Spanish 3 classes on a limited basis. So far, just for research for the current project. However I can see if a great number of students want to use it a sharing process will have to be found and implemented. One group wanted to do a power point, which is possible but would have taken up all time available every class hour they were with me. They decided on an alternate project through Video Productions. I still need to buy the extension cord.

3rd blog

Okay so this is my 3rd blog for real! I figured out how to show a video (DVD) using the LCD projector and computer. I bought speakers and a wireless mouse and locks. So I am set up to go in the classroom. My Spanish 3 students will have access to it if they want to use it for more research for their tour project. One student is thinking about doing a power point presentation, we'll see how that goes. I also anticipate letting them use it to look up words on an online Span/Eng dictionary. Those are my baby steps. I wonder if it is possible by 2nd trimester to have my students blog? I can see potential for it in Spanish.....hmmmmmmmmmmmm

2nd post and 3rd

This is actually my 3rd post, but horrors!!! It didn't post last time. I don't know what I neglected to do. I hope I do it right this time. I thought I was up to date and was on my 3rd blog. I have been busy with my equipment so I can use it in my classes. Finding out how it works and what I can do without stressing myself out in babysteps. I'll write about that in my next blog so I am up-to-date. I already had a research project in place with Spanish 3, and with Marcia's urging I added a rubric for information literacy. The students research a country and set up an educational tour-museums, ecological, etc. They will present it to the class in Spanish. It seems like since I had this in place I didn't have to invent something new and was able to add to it and use the info literacy piece. Before the tours were just tours and the students just found out basic info about the country. Now they are directed in a different way and looking for info in a different direction. I can't wait to see the results!

first blog

This seems relatively easy, setting up a blog .....but who knows what may happen-so far so good. Technology has become much easier and much more completed since my first web page, many years ago. I know there is much I can learn here and hope my life will allow me to do so.