Archive for the ‘YuperStars’ Category
Filed Under YuperStars
As many of my colleagues and friends know, I have accepted a new position as Language Coordinator in the Hispanic Studies department at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL. I will be doing many of the same things I’ve done been doing here at Lab (managing a lab space, training faculty, helping students, etc.), but I’ll also be teaching Spanish classes, working with student tutors, and supporting adjunct instructors. It’ll be great!
My time at Lab has been extremely fulfilling and I am grateful to all of the faculty in the World Language Department as well as the staff in Information Systems who have supported me professionally and personally. You’ve been so good to me.
As a final note, I’d like to say how grateful I am for this blog, for this means of communication. By committing to write every school day, this blog has helped me to stay on track. “What will I tell my blog readers? What success is happening or can I make happen that will be blog-worthy? What new technology should I share on the blog?” It’s a simple thing, but this blog really has been a motivating factor for me. I think blogs can be that for anybody in their life. It has been a wonderful medium for Mme Schneider during her year off. In my own personal life, I write songs in Garage Band *just so* I can post them on the blog. It makes me feel good, however feeble my efforts, to have created something original, even if it’s unpolished, unfinished, imperfect.
So, as my parting advice to students, teachers, and people everywhere: Just make something. Make something yours. Make something original. Daily if you can. Make it yourself, even if it’s small. And do it regularly, at least once a week. I believe a lot of good results from honoring our creative powers in small ways, whenever we can. Suspend judgment and get into the zone. You’ll feel better about life if you do.
Teachers, whenever possible, allow students to tap into their own creative powers as they learn new materials. It will make for deeper and more meaningful learning experiences.
Look for new blog entries by a new Technology Integration Specialist in coming months. I’m confident that whoever replaces me will have many success stories to share as well.
Thanks again to all and have a great summer!
-Allison
Filed Under World Languages, YuperStars
As you may or may not know, Mme Jackson has been the “Lab Liaison” since I started working here in the summer of 2007. First of all, you should know what a joy and privilege it is to work with this woman. She is upbeat, kind, thoughtful, and really sharp. It’s just been awesome working with her. I know that the department really appreciates her help and enthusiasm. Not only has she reached out to faculty and given them one-on-one help, but she’s also helped to troubleshoot potential conflicts and made sure that the lab was being used in the best way possible.
Here’s a picture of Mme Jackson, looking smart…
Mme Jackson will be taking some time off next year to have a beautiful baby boy and we’ll miss her terribly while she’s gone, but Sra López will be stepping in and I know that she will be a great asset to the lab as well. Sra López has an abiding interest in project-based learning and technology implementation. I’m sure that her enthusiasm will rub off and that the department will continue to try new and improved ways of using technology and the Lab.
Here’s a picture of Sra López, looking busy…
So basically, stay tuned because next year is gonna rock!
Filed Under Chinese, YuperStars
Mr. Sun and his High School Chinese 1 class made several movie posters last week. They will be up on display in the lab with English translations in the Welcome Area. View a pdf version of the posters here.
Filed Under German, YuperStars
Frau Zemil and her 4th graders have been working on MediaBlender projects to design the layout of a room. This simple program allows students to quickly draw and link images together. The projects can also be easily published online, like we’ve done here:
Arbeitzimmer
Arbeitzimmer 2
Garten
Garten 2
Keller
Kueche
Schlafzimmer
Schlafzimmer 2
Wohnzimmer
Wohnzimmer 2
Filed Under Spanish, YuperStars
Sra. Ramos has started a new wave of interest in the department in blabberize.com as a fun and simple way for students to demonstrate proficiency in first person narrative and presentational styles of speaking. She was able to create one login and password that all of the students could use for this project. Students had no problem logging in and uploading their photos simultaneously.
Here are a few examples by Sra. Ramos’ 5th grade students (works in progress):
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Filed Under Spanish, YuperStars
Becky López and and Katie Hundley have been accepted to present at the upcoming ACTFL conference in San Diego this November.
The title of their presentation, “Talking back: popular technologies in motivating conversation in Spanish” will feature methods for using popular technologies for motivating conversation practice in young students of Spanish.
Ms. Hundley writes, “The dynamic symbiosis between new technologies and the evolving digital cultures of our learners is revolutionizing our profession, and we are happy to be blazing trails here. Needless to say we are very excited to represent the Laboratory Schools at ACTFL in November.”
Congratulations to Katie and Becky!
Filed Under Best Bytes, World Languages, YuperStars
Lab owes a big thank you to Wayne Brasler and the myriad students who have helped him write and publish the Midway through the years. The maroon-bound volumes of Midways gone by, currently stored in Judd 014, are probably our single best source of Lab’s history. I found a photograph of the original Language Lab built in 1967 when I was looking for ArtsFest history. I went hunting again today to see if I could scan that photo. Couldn’t find it, but I found another article about “Electric Classrooms” that made me smile.
Apparently, we are on a thirty year cycle, since it was in 2006-07 that our current lab was installed. If the pattern continues, I expect that we’ll renovate again and get some kind of a huge video conferencing language lab (for easily talking to and recording conversations with students from other countries) by 2036.
Retroactive kudos and a “YuperStar” to Ms. Susan Joseph for her exemplary “differentiated instruction”, made possible by the small class size she describes in the first column of this article.
Filed Under Spanish, World Languages, YuperStars
Today, 5th graders are celebrating the languages and cultures they study with games, song, dance, and good food! I had the pleasure of accompanying a group of about 60 5th grade students to Little Village (26th street), where we practiced reading, writing, and speaking Spanish. We read signs, bought bread, candy, groceries, and asked people questions to fill out the treasure hunt activity that Ms. Guerrero and Ms. Ramos had prepared. Number one most used phrase of the day: “¿Cuanto cuesta?”
Ms. Guerrero prepared an online Jeopardy game the day before to review Spanish phrases and Mexican history. Great web app for Jeopardy, by the way! Much easier to set up and use than PowerPoint!
Filed Under French, YuperStars
Mr. Farver is the first teacher in our department to use EtherPad in the classroom. He checked out the iCarts and had students tell stories about an alien in the imperfect and perfect paste tenses. You can see the end result here, warts ‘n all:
The students started out by goofing around with the tool for about 10 minutes. Teachers should probably expect that there will be some playing around with a new tool. I know that with DiLL, classes have to come into the lab and use it three or four times before the novelty of hearing their voices in the microphone wears off and they are ready to get to work.
Other suggestions that came out of this morning’s experiment:
1) Start with individuals, partners, or small groups working on their own pads in a highly structured way (i.e. correcting each other’s work, or an error-ridden article provided by the teacher) BEFORE giving them a “free-for-all” impromptu writing exercise as a whole class. Too much freedom with too many users on a new tool may approach chaos.
2) Teach students that if they have questions about how to spell or express themselves, that they should use the chat window on the right hand side.
3) Once you have structured your EtherPad “handout” with questions or sections separated with asterisks and lots of line breaks (white space) to make it easy on the eyes, be sure to click the “Save Now” button to create a version that you can restore if you ever need to. Then regularly save versions while students are working in case a student accidentally deletes all of the text. Newer versions of EtherPad will have a “rewind” feature that should help with this.
4) A suggestion for the developers. After students have left the page, there is no way to tell who wrote what. Color coding isn’t reliable because there will never be enough colors for everyone. Once I have identified myself, however, it would be nice if the letters I type are associated somehow with the last name I entered on the top right. Then I can mouse over any character and see who the editor was. This will also improve individual accountability.
Mr. Farver did report, however, that once students got used to the tool, the room got very quiet and everyone was very focused on the task at hand. So the potential is definitely there; it will just take some getting used to!
Bravo, Mr. Farver for trying out this brand new technology!
Filed Under YuperStars
A small team of Spanish teachers are getting together today and May 29th to take a fresh look at the language skills they want students to develop for each grade level, particularly in the Lower and Middle Schools. This is not an easy task and it’s wonderful that they are willing to go the extra mile to make improvements. I found some Illinois State “Foreign Languages Performance Descriptors” that contain many ideas of skills which might comprise this curricular “skeleton” that they are trying to build, as well as ideas for how students might demonstrate those skills in action—”the meat on the bones”.
BEGINNING - INTERMEDIATE
INTERMEDIATE - ADVANCED
We are lucky here at Lab. Teachers have a lot of freedom to decide HOW they reach any particular curricular objective; the task of this small group is to agree on exactly WHAT those objectives should be for each grade level, particularly 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, I believe.
Filed Under Spanish, YuperStars
Mr. Craig Reubelt used these scenarios in his HS Spanish class to practice chapter vocab, informal commands, the present perfect, and other tenses. His scenarios included conversations between a mechanic and the owner of a car, dialing 911, a police officer and the driver of a car, and two elderly persons close to death discussing their “Bucket Lists”.
Click here to download his handout.
Filed Under French, World Languages, YuperStars
Watch excerpts from the Skype video conference call between Mme. Romanelli’s 8th grade French class and their sister classroom in France. You will see the technical and practical difficulties of 13 students here connecting with 27 students there, but you will also see what an eye-opening experience it is for students to practice their language skills with native speakers. A lot of laughter too, which is always good.
Filed Under Spanish, World Languages, YuperStars
Maestra Guerrero and her two 6th grade classes have been working on recording PowerPoint presentations to practice comparisons this week and are doing a great job! I should have some samples to post next week.
Filed Under Spanish, YuperStars
Sra. Ramos did the Language Class Idol activity (#23 on our list of DiLL Activities) again this year with her 5th graders. We used http://polleverywhere.com to tally student votes.
Download Sra. Ramos’ handout here.
Filed Under Spanish, YuperStars
Ms. Guerrero attended three workshops at the ICE (Illinois Computing Educators) Annual Conference in Pheasant Run last week.
The Photobook is especially impressive! Way to go, Ms. Guerrero!
Filed Under French, Spanish, YuperStars
Yesterday in our Faculty Development meeting, we heard from three of our faculty about activities they have done with DiLL that have kept their students engaged and having fun.
The abridged version of their activities go something like this:
1. Teacher pre-records 1-4 simple stories and ask students to illustrate what they are hearing in Keynote, a way to check comprehension.
2. Teacher hands out scenario prompts to students, based on vocab and language structures they have been studying. They have 2 minutes to plan out a dialogue with a randomly-selected partner and then 2 minutes to record. Mr. Reubelt then broadcasts student recordings to the rest of the class.
3. Teacher hands out different fairy tales that they students must write up as a play. They submit the play for corrections, make corrections. Then students rehearse the play during class time and then, instead of performing for each other live, they all record at once in DiLL. The final recordings are downloaded and saved on a CD for the students to enjoy.
Filed Under French, Tools, YuperStars
ARD is not the easiest tool to learn, but teachers are motivated by the fact that they can monitor what is happening on all of their students’ screens. Mme. Collet has been using this tool of late to log her 3rd graders in when they come to the lab, both on the computer and on DiLL. This is a screen shot of her students working on Keynote presentations. Click to expand.
Filed Under Spanish, World Languages, YuperStars
Sra. Baum regularly brings her 3rd grade students to the World Language Lab. This is not always easy, because they’ve never used DiLL (the Digital Language Lab) before. I like these simple instructions that she uses to help them get started:
1. Press play
2. Listen to the question and answer.
3. Hold down the space bar and record your answer.
4. If you have a problem, raise your hand and wait patiently.
Filed Under Spanish, YuperStars
Sra. Ramos made her own Flash-based games using linguamate.com last week. Just like Quia and Quizlet, teachers can design their own simple games based on the phrases and vocabulary they use in class. Linguamate is by far the most colorful and fun for Lower School kids.
To publish these games, Sra. Ramos put the .swf files into her website folder and then embedded them in an iWeb page.
