Web 2.0 tools for the Language classroom

 I'm at the pre-conference workshop for the Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures. I plan on posting a short description of all of the sessions I will be taking tomorrow afternoon.

MCTLC Pre-conference Workshop: Web 2.0 tools for the language classroom
Presenters: Elizabeth Valencia-Borgert and Dr. Phyllis E. VanBuren

Web 1.0 = downloading / Web 2.0 = uploading

Wordle.net: One of the presenters puts her texts into Wordle before giving it to her class because the more times a word appears in the text, the larger it is; this gives the students an at a glance understanding of which words are the most important in the text.

Wiki: A bulletin board. The professor who presented has her students submit their work to her Wiki so that each student has access to all of the other student work. This is good for collaborative learning. The other presenter uses two Wikis, one that the students can collaborate on, the other that is controlled by her, her students can access the Wiki read-only. She uses an Avatar (a Voki account) that is embedded in her Wiki to communicate with her students. She also has Skype and TokBox embedded into her Wiki.


 www.360cities.com You can travel around the world looking at Panoramic pictures. Here is one of where I lived in Montpellier:


Saint-Anne, Montpellier in Languedoc-Roussillon

http://www.360cities.net/image/saint-anne-montpellier#-50.39,-25.30,70.0



Here's the Voki I'm embedding into my Wiki site in order to communicate with my students:

Get a Voki now!

a quick glance at another teacher's resources

I just e-mailed the French teacher of Stillwater's other junior high to set up an obvservation and I was just browsing through her website and I found a couple of things that I really liked. The first is a blog she kept for her students to read while she was chaperoning the high school French trip. I think it's really neat that she made this blog for her students - I think it makes France seem less distant for her students. http://stillwaterfrench.blogspot.com/

The other thing I liked was on the Oak-Land Junior High World Languages Page and it is a guide for parents who want to help their children but who don't know how beause they don't know the subject matter.

I don’t speak French, German, or Spanish (or I’ve forgotten it all since high school).

How can I help my student?


Encouraging students who excel or helping students who struggle can be difficult when you have limited knowledge in a subject area. Consider these suggestions to enrich your child’s World Language experience.

Show interest in what your children are learning in French, German or Spanish. Ask what new words they’ve learned recently. Find out what they like most about the class.

Make note of and discuss current events related to the countries they are studying.

Watch foreign films in the target language with your children.

Listen to cassettes/CDs in the target language. This could include language learning tapes or CDs of popular music.

Encourage your children to participate in language activities.

Eat at restaurants that specialize in cuisine of the language your student is learning.

Attend cultural events in St. Paul and other areas. Check local papers for times and events.

Send your children to summer language camps.

Take trips to foreign language-speaking countries or areas of the U.S., if possible, to immerse your children in the language.

Host an exchange student from a French, German, or Spanish-speaking country.

Encourage your children to continue their study of foreign language into college.


For students who are struggling:


Encourage your child to talk to their teacher. Sometimes ten minutes looking over a difficult concept with a teacher is all it takes. The teacher will have specific times of availability. See her for those times.

Set aside study time every night, even if there isn’t a specific homework assignment.

Advise your child to study with a friend who also studies the same language your child studies. Two heads are better than one.

What makes good teaching? MPR series last week

Here's an MPR series I'm just starting to get through from last week. It's about what makes good teaching (an appropriate topic). So far, I've only heard the third, which was an interesting conversation about listener contributed topics. The conversation hit on some of the issues that have been swirling around in my head lately - issues such as suburban/urban need and teacher evaluation.

Here is the series:

1. 10/6/2010: "Testing Teachers" by American RadioWorks, here is the homepage for the show/ - You can find a link to listen to the program or read the transcript there as well as a lot of information about the show content.


2. 10/7/2010: "What Does Good Teaching Look Like?" on Midday. It is a group discussion with teachers, administrators, parents, and students.

Or you can find it here: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/10/07/midday2/


3. 10/8/2010: "What's your idea to improve teaching?" Midday. This is the interesting discussion I listened to on my walk today.

Also found here: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/10/08/midday1/