Final Project Entry

Language: French
Grade: 11
Unit: Love and relationships

Artifact 1: Mixpod


I've included songs about love in this Mixpod that can be found in the right sidebar.  I could use this tool to preview listening exercises for love songs.  For example before a listening exercise, I could tell students to listen to the songs beforehand at home.  During my practicum I did ask students to find a french song and post it on my blog.  I could have used Mixpod to make a playlist for them.  This would also be a great playlist for quiet classroom work.  I could see Mixpod as a great tool to introduce students to the French music scene and to French culture.

Artifact 2: Wallwisher

I signed up for Wallwisher and created a wall that contains brainstorming and responses to the question: "What is love?" I think the URL capabilities in Wallwisher are very useful and students can enhance their thoughts with links and material from the internet.  Of course, it is very likely that students will fool around on the wall as I have simulated.  Clear instructions and criteria should make Wallwisher and other similar tools easier on classroom management.  Wallwisher would also be useful for debates.  If the teacher led a debate on the topic of relationships, students could add stickies with their opinion.  The teacher could group their opinions with other similar opinions and or put them in a scale.  This would make debates meaningful and students can always refer back to their argument which is on the screen.

Artifact 3: Quizlet

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Study these flash cards

I made a sample Quizlet with a few vocabulary words related to the theme of relationships.  I could do quick quizzes in class with Quizlet and the students could study them at home.  I've also noticed that when students look up a word in the dictionary, they don't write it down for future reference so they forget the words they looked up.  A quick way for each student to build their own "dictionary" is to have them enter words into Quizlet as they find them or learn them.  Hopefully, they will reduce the time they spend looking up a word over and over again.

Response: BYOB

I am in complete agreement with this article.  The concern that would be predominant for most teachers would most likely be the texting that could occur.  An approach that seemed to work for others was to have the students place their cellphones on the desk so the teacher could see them.  For them, it was better to have the cellphones as an open part of the classroom rather than something the students would hide under the desk.  I really like the idea of using the devices that students would bring to class to help them learn and to save teachers time.  In thinking about this further, I've realised that if a teacher or a professor was engaging and used teaching practices that worked, even if I tried to distract myself with technology, I would feel like I was missing out.  I was almost distracted from distracting myself because the teaching was so exciting.  If we combine excitement, a meaningful integration of technology, and reflective teaching, we can become triple threat teachers.

Embed - Aug. 8 - Prezi

LLED 480D Prezi on Prezi

I've embedded a revamped version of Prezi lesson I did for my practicum.  The original version didn't have a path put in it so I could navigate it more like an overhead.  This version has more zooms in it.  Making this prezi did get me thinking about how to reduce zooming.  It seems like Prezi overzooming   happens less from intentionally zooming, and more from just plunking down elements and putting in a path without being aware of how the Prezi will move from one element to another.  In this Prezi, I aimed for visual motifs that would enhance understanding of the grammar concept, which was the comparative and superlative.  I think Prezi is a valuable tool that I still would like to use in my teaching.  However, I will strive to use it more meaningfully and to put more design effort into the presentations so they have a more positive impact.

Response: Powerpoint

This article was very important for me, because I have been reflecting on my use of Powerpoint and other information delivery devices during my practicum.  The author points out that powerpointlessness may stem from the delivery of the presentation or the Powerpoint presentation itself.  In some cases, maybe both.  Powerpoint seems to be the fastest way to get information to students and along with many other educators I did not have enough time for students to obtain the information in class, themselves, in other ways.  I used Prezi quite heavily, and I found that I overused the zoom function and became a bit zoom-happy to the chagrin of my students.  However since I used Prezi to showcase one word or more at a time, it really helped students remember certain points.  On the other hand, I wonder if I have become dependent on these information delivery devices.  As my school advisor said, a teacher worth their weight in gold needs only a piece of chalk and a chalkboard.  In that vein, I need to be aware of this so that I don't lean on technology in ways that make me become complacent.

Embed - Aug. 7 - Google collaboration

I've embedded a Google doc, a Google Powerpoint slide presentation, and a Google form.  I think these are great tools for students collaborate for group work.  Google collaboration capabilities also make collaboration between teachers easier.  For example, if I was co-teaching with someone, working together to come up with lesson plans, and other documents would be easy.  I also really like the chat feature on Google docs.  If teachers could share and collaborate on Google Powerpoint they could share their slides and collaborate that way.  Finally, I really like the idea of using a Google form to poll students.  Instead of me looking at the data myself, Google form organizes it for me.  Now this makes me feel like daily assessment of where students are at is possible!

Response: Collaborative Projects

I am really glad that this topic was addressed.  I have been part of many attempts at creating online learning communities and student-motivated sharing.  In all instances, the attempts fell flat.  One of the reasons for these failures was clunkyness of the technological platform.  I am sure that there are more user-friendly community learning platforms out there for teachers to find and I am excited to discover and use them!  I am particularly interested in the author's discussion of genuine interdependence.  I wonder if there are tools available that can identify how much students participated to an online product, like a blog entry or comment has a student's name on it.  This could keep students accountable.  On the other hand, I wonder if the term "genuine interdependence" is referring more to students relying on each other instead of eliminating students contributing less than their group members.

Embed - August 2: Scoopit!

I found Scoopit! very attractive and easy to use.  It seems like when you start to scoop, it's hard to stop.  As I reflected back on my practicum and how I shared resources with my students, I glossed over them very quickly.  Perhaps content curation and resource sharing needs to be addressed explicitly in the classroom.  As many of us were surprised to discover, many students have poorer internet searching skills that we expected and may not be able to find quality tools on their own time.  With entire classes sharing resources in class, students may be motivated to use these resources at home.  Therefore, not only do students need to be introduced to tools such as these, explicit sharing and featuring of certain scoops may be necessary.  Content curation on Scoopit! also led to thoughts on creating authentic learning communities.  It seems like for this to occur online, collaboration and sharing needs to be fast, fun, and easy.  I will definitely try to use Scoopit! and other tools to strive for that.