Langwitches Silvia the EduBlogger

 


I recently read a blog post on Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's website about exposing students to a more "explorative" (don't know if that is a word) classroom pedagogy. In one of her blog posts that I responded to called: Global Pedagogy in the World Language Classroom, Silvia talked about the importance of exposing students to a curriculum that had variety in teaching language and that exposed students to outside resources that developed students oral proficiency skills. I found this post interesting because as a new Spanish teacher the most difficult task is giving students different outlets to practice the Spanish language outside of the classroom.

Often times, students in our classroom take the foreign language because it is a requirement for high school, this gives the classroom a very different feel compared to students who genuinely want to be there. Because of this it is important that language teachers learn new ways to engage the classroom, which can be very difficult when school policies and administration keeps your students from engaging with the language in an innovative way. I found this to be the case when I was in high school. Many of my teachers thought of ways to teach and engage students with science, math, and English topics but were restricted by funding and by policy. This can be detrimental to a language classroom that relies so much on community connection and practice of the language. I believe the first step to making this an important issue is trying to convince others of it's importance. In order to do this, we must show others how useful community involvement and connection with culture can be in teaching students. In my case, my entire upbringing with the language was very influenced by these factors, because of it I have a passion for the language and culture that I cannot replicate with any other form of education. I want to provide my students with this opportunity as well.

Below is a link to a a YouTube video that is a great example of what I would like to show my students. The video talks about Manuel Recio and his wife, Leslie Lukas-Recio who take over a family farm and take their love for Spanish culture and their love of food to become farmers. They grow many Spanish foods in their farm and discuss how they use that food afterwards. This is a great example of where I would take my students. I would use this as an opportunity to show my students Spanish culture and how that can be seen agriculturally. This is an education platform that involves students with both culture and life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=H9hD1acIId8

Global Pedagogy in the World Language Classroom

Read more at: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/10/08/global-pedagogy-in-the-world-language-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-314408 | Langwitches BlogGlobal

Global Pedagogy in the World Language Classroom

Read more at: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/10/08/global-pedagogy-in-the-world-language-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-314408 | Langwitches Blog

Global Pedagogy in the World Language Classroom

Read more at: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/10/08/global-pedagogy-in-the-world-language-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-314408 | Langwitches Blog

Tech in My Placement- Lincoln High School

When I first arrived at Lincoln High School I was excited to hear that a new grant proposal had made sure every classroom had a SmartBoard. Since I have never used a SmartBoard, I found this tool to be very interesting and most of all useful in my own teaching at Lincoln. When we were first told about the "Tech in My Placement" assignment, I am not shy to admit that I thought our school would bomb the worksheet and not have as many of the tools listed. To my surprise, we did have a lot of what the sheet asked for, and more suprisingly I learned about tools that I had never heard of before. This was eyeopening to me as a new teacher and quite frankly something that I am glad I realized. Unfortunately, despite being able to "fill in" many of the options on the assignment sheet, the school itself does not have wide access to WiFi. The only computers that have internet are the teachers and although they do have WiFi available, it is not open to the school or students to use, which I found frustrating. I see part of the reason why they decided to do so, but I also believe that this lack of access can be limiting to the student and the classroom, especially if a student does not have internet access at home or on their cell phone. I think that this is impart due to not wanting students to be off track, and because attitudes towards technology inclusion is not common in our school. 

I believe other schools do promote technology more than our school does. Our students are constantly being told to put their cell phones away. Cell phones are a huge issue in our school. Because of this I believe that as a new teacher I can have the flexibility to include technology in my classroom and to use this to my advantage.

Tech Tools in Use- Voice Thread and the wonders of Prezi

 

I enjoyed both the presentations on Voice Thread and Prezi. The Voice Thread presentation was great because it introduced me to an application that I have never heard of before and that I actually found compelling. Since I am a very vocal person, I appreciate applications that allow students to use their voice, literally and metaphorically. I believe giving a student the ability to discuss something using their own voice gives them the power of self-expression but also the power of realization. There is a whole other feeling that comes about once your voice is "out there" , you become conscientious of what is being said and how it is being delivered. I believe that this is an important skill to have and to perfect. Voice Thread allows this skill to be practiced but in an innovative and interesting way. I would use this application in my own classroom in order to help with pronounciation and with gauging more oral communication in the target language.

The Prezi presentation was very interesting because it made me love the creativeness of Prezi even more than I already do. As a visual learner, I enjoy presentations that are eye catching and made creatively. Prezi does just that. The presentation delved more into the application and how to use it best, while also providing us with great examples that were used in the classroom. I found the "Prezi Awards" portion of the presentation most interesting. The reason for this was because we were introduced to people who used this platform amazingly and effectively. I hope to use this presentation platform instead of PowerPoint. I believe that it is a more creative way to present otherwise bland information.

Teaching With Technology-- Liz Kolb

The most interesting guest speaker we've had this semester was Liz Kolb. Her presentation on using cell phones in the classroom was very engaging and based off of a platform that she has used and implemented for years. I believe it can be difficult as a beginning teacher to see how to use technology in the classroom innovatively and effectively, Liz provided examples of this. I especially appreciated her response when I asked how to use her platform in lower resourced schools and with children who have disabilities, in her response Liz gave examples of this platform being used in both ocassions and actually discussed solutions to doing so. 

I appreciated Liz's passion for the topic and her genuine want to continue to develop this platform. Often times, I do play devils advocate when technology platforms are introduced to  lower resourced schools, as a student to attended a lower resourced high school I know how difficult these platforms can be when trying to implement, even if the person doing so is highly passionate and optimistic about the topic. I appreciated Liz Kolb's real examples and advice on how to make technology available to all kids, not just those who are fortunate to attend high resourced schools, or those who live without  a disability. 

I hope to include technology as much as possible in my classroom while continuing to balance the use of traditional resources. The Spanish language can be expressed and studied many ways. Due to its creative nature technology can be used to connect to other Spanish speakers. I hope to build connections with other Spanish speaking teachers in other Spanish Speaking countries in order to give my students a better exposure to the language and world. I plan to do this by using Skype and the connections I have with teachers in Mexico. The presentations on technology given were interesting in providing innovative examples that teachers have used, not just hypothetical dream solutions. When doing so I will be sure to take advantage of the many bloggers who are passionate about technology platforms.