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.