Outside of class Tech tool

Our district just added a new piece of technology designed to help students who struggle with reading and writing skills. It is called Read Write Gold and has a reader which can be used with any word or pdf or internet document. When you highlight the text it will say it for you. The pronunciation can be off at times but it has helped some of our lowest readers and our ELL students. We have found it comes with a Spanish voice option so I look forward to usin that with my students. It also has English writing prompts and several other tools. I don't have a link to an internet example or resource but I think Library Media or Reading Specialists would be able to help you find it if you are interested. I will be looking at how I can make it available to my students, especially when I am not at school because my kids are sick.
Check it out and tell me what you think!

Tech Tool-Collaborative drawing

I think this is an interesting tool. I have some concerns about my middle school students and what they would draw without rigid guidelines but I like the idea of them sharing their drawing with others. I think for my class this would be a great tool for vocabulary practice and proficiency. It could be a partner exercise where one person speaks in Spanish describing a scene or a story and the other partner would then draw based on their understanding. The teacher could check vocab comprehension. this could even be done with a podcast and the drawing tool. I look forward to experimenting with thismore.

Tech tool - Mindmapping

I have used Inspiration before and have seen it on a shared network like my district has. I have seen it used to brainstorm ideas in class on a Smartboard or even whiteboard /chalkboard. I like the idea of it being web accessable so students can all contribute to it as they continue their independent work once the class brainstorming session is over. I also like the idea of students being able to enter the words and the mindmap being drawn for them. i see this as effective with some of our special education students who know the key words for a lesson or project but can't see the connection themselves. As a related Arts teacher I have the students while their core teachers and learning strategists have team meeting or prep so my in-class support is limited. This is a tool the students could access for themselves to organize their thoughts. (See upcoming post on Read Write Gold for another great tool to help with writing skills.)
I see this working for my students to organize grammar concepts visually, collaborate on research ideas and focus their energies when reading or writing. I will add this to my list of integrated technology.

New tool - Google Earth

One of the tools I explored was GoogleEarth. Nicely presented information helped me see this as a potentially useful Web 2.0 tool for my Spanish classes. The privacy issue does concernc me but I think knowing it has this concern will help me prepare my students in advance and set boundaries before we use GoogleEarth. I thought of several possible uses in my classroom, assuming we have addressed the privacy and appropriate issues concern. It would be a great tool for a cultural fantasy trip. Helena Curtain taught me how to use a few simple props and decorations to create an imaginary trip in a world Language classrroom and I think she would love this tool. I could take students on a prepared tour of Mexico City and show them where key sites are, we could analyze the unbeleivable growth of this city over time, and see the street view of places I am not able to physically take my middle schol students. I could see using it to have students plan a virtual vacation to a Spanish speaking country. I even thought about using its images with voicethread (if that is possible (help me tech-gurus)to discuss places or use vocabulary to describe locations and have them be authentic rather than the sketches in our text-only but what they might actually see if they traveled. I will definitely keep exploring this tool for implementation with my students.

Twitter in the classroom

I have been looking at curriculum revision and technology integration for next year, using this class, this year and this summer to get my skills somewhere close to what my students can do. I have really been thinking about how microblogging could be used in the classroom. I am concentrating more on the internet version of rather than the cell-phone because of district policy with cell phones in school. I am leaning towards a more secure site such as Edomo because students could do quick posts and share thoughts while working on projects. It would also be a great reminder and quick communication device from me the teacher should we need it. Though initially I balked at twitter in the classroom (having discussed in staff meetings the overdramatized microdisasters of the lives of my middle schoolers communicated via twitter), I admit I have changed my mind. The difference to me is the parameters set by the teacher. I see how it can be beneficial with the proper guidance. Perhaps I am learning to embrace the technology that is so ingrained in my students and will be able to meet them where they are at in 21st Century skills.

Benefits of Twitter

Twitter is one technology tool I am undecided about. For me personally I can see this as a great way to share events with friends and family who are out of town and out of state. The snapshot of daily life is an intriguing concept. I would like to see that my tweets would only go to the people I choose rather than visible to just anyone. Otherwise I think it could be a good personal tool.
In terms of twitter as a teaching tool, I have several concerns. One of them is the conundrum of using twitter as a communicator on cell phone format when our building and district policies restrict presence of cell phones in the classroom. As a natural rule follower, I am an enforcer of this rule though I know it is harder and harder every year to detach the cell phones from our students. I also worry about the public and private communications as a matter of safety since I teach middle schoolers who lack the maturity and skills to determine cyberdangers effectively. I would prefer private twitter systems if I were to use this in class and with studentsI think it would be a great tool to tweet a class over the weekend and remind them of a project due Monday or adjust directions on an assignment due to student concerns. I think it would be a great way to share current events news or practice chatting in Spanish. I think using it over the internet would be a better comfort level for me because of the cell phone restrictions... but I teach not for me but for the students. If I am meeting their needs I can't decide what I do only about what I enjoy and what makes me comfortable.

Suggested Reading List

One of my esteemed colleagues just shared with us in my district a PDF from the 21st Century Learning Project entitled "Teaching for Tomorrow: Teaching Content AND Problem Solving Skills". I have the link for this PDF here and will be starting a book on the same lines from the same author in a couple of weeks. The ideas expressed are so clear and appropriate and so very connected to the standards we are examining for this class. If you get a chance, check this out! I;ll keep you informed about the book as I delve in.
Right now I am working on Fair Isn't Always Equal by Rick Wormeli. I enjoy much of what he has to say regarding more appropriate grading and curriculum design to meet the educational needs of our students. The item that struck me on my last bit of reading is the idea of giving students the chapter tests at the start of the chapter with the condition that they cannot write on it. At the time of the assessment, they have it checked for no marks then complete it. He really emphasizes a movement from "gotcha" teaching and assessment towards guiding students to success and I enjoy his way with words as he explains this point of view. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to change grading and curriculum practices.

Tech Tool Research

I had a great experience working with my partner on Podcasting. She and I seemed fairly compatible. I had some good sources of information and she was able to use her tech skills to help me improve my communication of them with our own wiki in which she mebedded objects. I have done my own simple podcasts for my students in which I recorded me pronouncing their Spanish vocabulary so they can practice at home. This was very helpful for the Hearing Impaired students as well as my students who dod not have family members who can help them study their Spanish. I know, however that this was not using the tool to its full potential nor was it giving students a chance to use this tool. My summer curriculum work will involve weaving Web 2.0 into the course and including student use of the technology. I learned a lot about that through this project and feel confident I can do this on my own, thanks a large degree to my partner and the impetus of this class and our Deaf/Hearing Impaired Coordinator at my building who first pushed me to make ausdio recording for her students and then my Library Media Specialist who put them on our district server for all students to access. It is just like the classis song - "I get by with a little help from my friends!"

DIIgo & Delicious

I was pretty well sold on Social Bookmarking via Delicious when I checked out Diigo. They are similar in their use and features. Both have great application for professional collaboration and student/teacher communication.
Diigo seems to have some features that make me reconsider which one to use for my Spanish I classes next year. One feature I like is the annotation tools. To highlight particular text or pictures as well as add post-it notes with comments and hints for students would be helpful as a teacher. I also like the ability to get a snapshot of the website that can be accessed and used even if the website becomes "no longer available" in the future. Any teacher who has ever had a website move or expire after they have planned an entire lesson around it will understand this feature's practicality.
Diigo has has Educator Accounts with some special tools not available to others. Using Diigo, a teacher can easily up a private network for a class with safety considerations created by Diigo. For someone who worries about internet safety and is not able to create these features herself, I love this feature! A teacher can even link several classes, a feature I think will be helpful to me when my colleague and I will both be teaching the same level. Even the plethora of irritating ads are limited for students with the Educator account PLN. This is great if you have any students who are easily distracted (think "Ooh, shiny")reducing attention diverters is a great help in increasing on-task behavior.
Several applications of a PLN with my students jumped in my head almost immediately. This would be a great way to organize recommended resources such as online English-Spanish dictionaries, grammar help sites, teacher-created podcasts of vocabulary, etc. it would also bew a great place to help students connect to the online textbook we are using next year to save the cost of adding over 150 books at $60 each for next year. This would also be a great way to organize a series of webquests using the tag systems and the annotation tools. The collaboration tools between teachers and classes will be helpful for everyone, too.
Overall, I find delicious and diigo a more productive web 2.0 tool than facebook or twitter because of the broader range of apllicable scenarios, but there is still time for me to alter my perception as we continue exploring web 2.0 tools. Besides, as arecent piece I added on my PLN in delicious stated, "Teachers need to stop telling students to power down the 21st Century technology." We need to embrace the tools we can or we risk alienating our students and undereducating them. I need time to develop my skills as I realize my prowess is less than that of my students but I am working on it. My growth since school started this fall is greater than any year since my first. With some time and energy applied over the next few months, I will start next year more techologically integretaed than I have ever been. I hope this increases my students engagement and success.

Delicious

work with people with a wide variety of technology/web 2.0 skills. Some are extremely savvy and have had a PLN for years, others are on Facebook several times a day, others fear the exhausting task of searching for good content on the web and others struggle to do more than e-mail.
Ina recent conversation in which I was sharing some of what I am learning with one individual who is fairly tech savvy I commented about working on my Delicious bookmarks. She asked me "What makes them delicious - they included home delivery of chocolate and peanut butter () understanding of the my favorite naughty treat)?" Thinking she was joking I just laughed ... until I realized she was unaware of what Delicious was. She was intrigued and asked to talk about it some more. She liked the idea of seeing what else was on the website that she could use. I was able to share with her my (devloping) prowess with Delicious and its use for professional collaboration.
Asa teacher on wheels because I share classrooms rather than having one of my own I like the flexibility of accessing all my favorites with other computers and when I am at home. Many times I wished I could access my Favorites when creating emergency sub plans at 2 am becuase one of my kids had just gotten sick and I wouldn't be going to work in the morning. Had I had my Favorites transferred to my Delicious account I would be able to do that. I have been trying to transfer them but am finding it an inconvenient process with the restrictions at school. IF ANYONE HAS A FASTER METHOD THAN GOING TO EACH SITE AND THEN SAVING TO DELICIOUS, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT IT!
I can think of great uses of this as a way for my students to access all the websites I prefer they use for class projects. Next year I will again have first year students as well as exploratory like this year. I will also have a new hire colleague in my department so I think having a collaborative social bookmarking site for us to use with be of great benefit.

Googledocs more like googledon'ts for this technoidiot

I was excited about googledocs when I watched the video and read through our class materials. I even thought of a list of potential lesson uses for this. Then I did our project. I found the instructions and the googlehelp to be kless than helpful for technoidiot me. I had a hard time conforming to the limited offereings for document format, wishing I was just creating it in word, publisher, excel, powerpoint or something that I understood. I understand why people may the fees to get accounts with surveymonkey-type systems so they don't have to figure this out on their own. I found myself thinking I could write the information on paper, drawing my own charts by hand, and walk it to their houses one per day before I would get this stuff figured out. Thanks to one helpful partner, and some long hours at the computer, I was able to do my part to the best of my miniscule ability. I am not ready to do spreadsheets, charts or presntations again anytime soon.
I like the idea of such documents being accessible wherever I am and that others can collaborate with me on them but I struggled with converting data from one format to another and the limitations I don't have in other programs. I need more (extremely Remedial) work on these before I feel ready to try to teach with these and have students make them. I know their generation was born with mouse in hand but I can't imagine some of my kids who shut down at the hint of frustration working through this beast.
I will be happy to use this to share word documents as collaborative pieces but have too many trepidations with the other formats. I know the use of it as collaborative communication that is accessible form anywhere will be helpful to me in my teaching career and will be helpful to my students. They will find the other formats easy, too, I am sure but this is a battle I am not ready to fight today. I will pick my battles and I choose less frustrating technology for now.
Guess that is why I am taking this program, I need to be pushed to change - but I can't change overnight. I'll have to write a note on my calendar for no more than six months from now, at which time I will revisit googledocs and best this beast. I am strong, I am deternmined and I will prevail...eventually!

wikis

Wikis seem like a good collaboration tool for class and for teacher communication. I like the opportunity to keep everything on one document rather than having it as a mess in your email. I see this helpful for students in my classes as they work on their written communication skills in Spanish. They could help each other find errors in a submitted starting document, share research notes on a group or even on individual projects. In the past I have had students research different aspects surrounding Picasso's infamous Guernica. A wiki would have been a great place for them to share all of their research since so many topics were interwoven. Students could even share drafts of their project for peer editing and revision so what they presented was ploished. I see this as a great monitor for the teacher that students are making progress by the record-keeping aspect in which times of edit are kept and colorcoding can be used for work. I think this may be better than a blog because it makes it seems less like one expert with followers and more like a community of learners. This would help some of my more shy students gain confidence in their ability and their contribution - rather than the vocal and attention seeking students dominating the discussion.