I have to say...I am very fortunate to work in a district that has provided every student (and teacher) with their own device. Technology is literally at our fingertips for most of (if not all of) the day. This has proven to be a tremendous resource to our students and to us as teachers too! It has certainly made certain aspects of our job easier. Here's what I mean:
~Google Classroom has made the ability to assign, share, collaborate, teach, turn in, reflect, provide feedback much easier and quicker. This is as vital today as having a pencil in math was years ago! This is the "go to" place for my students. I love how easy it is to make announcements, assign work (and differentiate the work), and all the other benefits it brings. I don't have to worry about not having paper in the copy room or the copier not working. Being able to post assignments on days I'm absent alleviates a lot of the stress of having a colleague make copies too. It's on GCR, and it's done! My students know they can find a copy of the class notes in the "TOPICS" section. I often provide links to video/audio files for listening activities, which is important in foreign language classroom. Collaboration of docs/slides makes grading so much easier! I can post answers to homework assignments or practice activities. Any questions come directly through GCR and I will use that as a general question for other students to view and respond. This makes feedback immediate and effective for ALL students! But what I love most about GCR is that I can post several parts to an assignment and any resources needed to complete and students can work at their pace and not feel rushed in the classroom. This allows me to circulate, spot check in on students for progress, and makes me more available to those students who may need a little more support. Having the devices allows me to use recording devices like QuickTime Player or Flipgrid. With either of these, students can add the link to their file on GCR and I can listen to them all. This frees up more time for me and allows spoken activities to be completed quicker, in one period, as opposed to being done over the course of a couple of days. Now that I am going to start on the TPRS novels, I am looking forward to sharing the audio version of chapters in GCR. This will give students more control of the pace of the novel as they listen to it on their own, and will allow them to go back and hear it again for refresher or clarification. This gives the students more control of how they master the novels and helps them to be more prepared in terms of questions as we move forward. I'm looking forward to using these audio files in this new novel we'll be starting soon!
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Time has passed quickly since my last post! Here's what I've been up to:
PARCC took over our school two weeks ago, with students testing all five days. It left us with limited attention and motivation to accomplish a whole lot in class. I incorporated some more lax activities in class, giving them the opportunity to let loose a little but still doing content to not fall behind. Professionally, I attended the FLENJ Conference with some co-workers. Over the two days of attendance I picked up a lot and reflected a lot on my current practice, all the while thinking about how I relate/connect as an educator to the information they presented in the sessions. Reflection is a big part of our job, so i was reflecting as I learned about current practices in teaching a foreign language. As I compared what I was learning to what I currently do, I came to some realizations. First, I am not that far off in my goals for my students as other teachers. We new teachers tend to worry about this and if we're making progress or meeting goals. My current practices of reading TPRS novels and incorporating authentic material in my classes is serving its purpose. I realized I was successful in predicting early in the year who would need more support, who would be more motivated, and how I could help surprise themselves in how much they've learned. Students are skeptical of new approaches at first. But I reminded them throughout the year to TRUST THE PROCESS...they will get there! At times it can be scary to stray from what is supposed to be taught to incorporate new material, and the challenge is in tying the two together. Sometimes I do this well, others times it just seems like i am teaching separate concepts. The plus to it is that students are actually receiving more input and picking up things they would not have under the current topics. Through all of this balancing of material and content, I also have been trying to incorporate the appropriate level of technology in my classes. At the FLENJ conference I attended a session on letting authentic material take the lead in instruction. The ladies from Creative Language Class introduced ways to incorporate material and bring them to life using some simple, yet effective, technology. They had my attention! I also attended a session about top 10 reasons to love TPRS novels. This session further reinforced my decision to use the novels in my classroom and let them guide my instruction as well. Students are exposed to so much more than just a story when using these novels. This session was a reminder to really get into it and take my students along a worthwhile journey! So as I look towards the end of the year, I think about how I want to end and soon will be thinking how I want to begin next year. I've always wondered how bloggers come up with their content. What do they think about? How do they get it all down? Well, here's my chance to have a go at it!
As a new teacher still developing my skills, I find myself saying "yes" to many new, and often scary, opportunities. After all, I'm too new at this to be stuck in my ways. So why not try a few things? I've come to be a "yes" teacher, open to feedback, suggestions, and ideas to make me an innovator in the Foreign Language classroom, hence the title "Sí Señora." I'll try anything once...and stick with it if it works! So I'm on a new adventure with my blog, hoping a new teacher, Foreign Language or not, can relate and perhaps be inspired to be a "yes" teacher and have it trickle down to her/his students. |
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