El repaso: Reflection of the Semester

I came into this semester skeptical of what I would learn and how useful it would actually be. I have never been very gifted at using technology (I spill drinks on phones and get confused with editing on Word!) but this class taught me practical skills that actually enhance the classroom. Once we walked through the steps, the projects that once seemed daunting and overwhelming became simpler and manageable. I never thought I would have known how to make videos, Spreadsheets and lesson plans with such intricacy and detail. Each project also made me excited to be in the classroom and get the chance to use them. I will definitely keep every assignment we did in this class, so that I may one day use them while I am teaching. Technology really is a helpful resource that makes learning more interesting by giving more options for lesson plans and activities. Technology is no longer my enemy!

Mis Manos! Powerpoint Activity

Today we made Power Point lessons, and after all of the projects I have done with this program, I never knew how much you could do with Power Point! I did my project as a review of the book, Here are my Hands, by Bill Martin and John Archambault. In my Reading Education 330 class I rewrote the book with a Spanish translation, Aqui estan mis manos. The new bilingual edition was the resource for this project. Each slide contained the Spanish word for one of the five senses, the part of the body that is used to do it, a picture, and an audio recording for how to pronounce each Spanish word (for example: los ojos/eyes are used for ver/seeing). It was so fun figuring out how to put audio recordings of pronunciations on it. That is definitely a tool I can use in teaching Spanish one day. I am very proud of my work!

Hablar: an Interactive Spreadsheet

Last week we finished up the Interactive Excel Spreadsheet assignment. It was so neat because it turned out to look very professional, especially after we got rid of the grid lines that weren't being used. I also liked how easy it was to set up the answers and points awarded. I never knew how to plug in formulas so that the computer calculates the right and wrong answers and does the grading itself! This activity will be so perfect for teaching verb forms in Spanish. I did mine on the present tense of the verb, "hablar." "Hablar" is usually the first verb teachers use to teach students how to conjugate present tense Spanish words, so this assignment would be perfect for any beginning Spanish learners. With verbs, Spanish learners usually have to take a lot of time and practice. The Interactive Excel Spreadsheet was easy to follow, and it seemed to turn a monotonous lesson into something interesting and fun!

Cosas de la Casa: Inspiration Activity

Today we finished up our Inspiration projects. This was probably the most useful assignment we have done yet. I did mine on Spanish vocabulary around the house. Every vocab word in Spanish had a picture to go with it, to help younger students know what each word means. Also, they could click on a note on each word to read the English definition . This is an activity I think every student could look at and study themselves. The words were separated into three categories, objects you would find in the kitchen, living room, and bedroom. After doing an assignment like this, the teacher could easily move into a game of "Donde esta...?" which is "Where is the...?" By inserting one of the vocab words, the students could practice pointing to the objects around the room as the teacher asks them in Spanish (or answering which room they could find it.) The idea for this assignment was inspired by a 6 year old Indian girl who I tutored in Spanish. She loved this game!

Una pelicula: Making movies

The past couple weeks we have been working on making movies through using a series of still pictures to teach a certain topic. I chose to teach about "Hispanohablantes en el mundo" or "Spanish-speaking people in the world." It was frustrating at times to figure out the movie-making software, but in the end it was well worth the work! I feel like I accomplished a lot through my efforts and I can not wait to see everyone's finished results. (I posted the video below!)

I also took the mid-term today, which was a little more difficult than I anticipated. I studied and read the chapters, but I am not very good at test-taking. I like working on projects to portray the information learned instead of tests. Hopefully the work I have done in this class and the projects I have to show for it will make up for it!

Las fotos: Digital Collection Project

These are some of the photos I used in my Digital Collection project today in class. You can view the rest of them at http://picasaweb.google.com/linz.watson/Life?feat=directlink

I tried to use photos that were special to me, like these of my trip to Spain and a drawing from one of my favorite Children's books. This assignment seemed daunting and confusing at first, because I was not knowledgeable of lingo like: JPEG or Picasa or even how to use Photoshop! But as I worked on the assignment, I realized that the pictures are easy to resize and reformat. Also the Picasa program makes it simple to upload pictures and write captions. I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment, because it gave me the chance to get familiar with photo software, but also allowed me to look for interesting photos that relate to my life. I think photographs and artwork are very essential to learning in the classroom, especially at the Elementary level, and I definitely hope to integrate some of these technological tools into my classroom one day.

Planes: Lesson Plans

Today we finished our lesson plans and peer edited them. Coming up with a lesson plan for teaching Spanish to Elementary level students gave me so much anticipation for what my job might look like in the future. It was fun trying to come up with creative and innovative ideas for a lesson plan. The layout on the computer was also very helpful in organizing my ideas and making sure it met all the requirements. It was a lot of work trying to fill it all out, but it taught me that lesson plans have to be carefully thought through in order to be most successful for teaching.

The peer editing process was extremely helpful. It was good to get feedback and gave me more confidence about my ideas. The other students in this classroom will one day be my colleagues in the teaching world. It is so helpful to get input from people who are all passionate about educating kids but all have their own ideas to bring to the table. This assignment has prepared me more for being a teacher than any other ever has. It was applicable and informative but in a fun and creative way.

Actividades: WebQuests

This week we have been working on creating WebQuests on our Wiki pages. Since there are no other Spanish or Elementary Education students in my class, I worked with Jen Leanza and Rachel Moran on an English project. We featured Dante's Inferno, and created a project in which students would be asked to consider the role of sin in the world in the 13th century and in present day. The project was to design your own inferno. It was interesting for me to work on since I am not an English major, because it actually made me want to do the project! We made it interesting and even visually appealing.

The Wiki program was easy to use in creating a WebQuest. We could customize the colors to fit our topic, put links on the page for students to research, and it was easy to organize. We also took time looking through all of the state curriculum standards to decide which ones were met with our project. It was my first look at the standards, and they were very helpful in getting a bigger picture of what our project and other WebQuests can accomplish. I have never been great with technology, but after today I feel equipped to use these programs in the years to come.

Recursos: Wikis and WebQuests

Last Monday we were introduced to Wikis and WebQuests. Before that class I had never even heard of either of them! Both applications are so helpful to teachers and the Education community. I hope to one day continue a Wiki community so that I can learn about other lesson ideas from other teachers. I think it is so important to network with other creative educators.

The WebQuests were very easy to use and it was fun searching for ones that correlated to Spanish and Elementary Education. It seems to me like very few Elementary teachers find value in teaching children about the world, outside of their own country. This made me excited about practicing developing my own WebQuest about researching other cultures. I want kids to expand their view of life through looking at the world in a larger picture. I like that the WebQuest had step by step methods; it is definitely a tool I will want to use in the classroom one day!

Aprender: Making a website

Today I learned how to make and edit my first website. I had never even heard of Dream Weaver before walking into class today, but now I feel like I can adequately maneuver the application in creating my own website. I can already tell that Instructional Technology is going to teach me a lot about useful tools on computers that can enhance a learning environment. It was simple to follow instruction through the design and organization of the website, and it was exciting to see the final product open in a real internet server! I hope to be able to create a website one day for the classes that I will teach. The tools I learned today have definitely prepared me for that. It amazes me that I am already learning how to use technology far beyond my original capacity and in ways that will equip me for the professional world.

My first blog

This is my first blog!