Podcasts!

Hey everyone,

Spanish Podcast
Hey Everyone,
Believe it or not I have heard of podcasts a million times but have never even looked them up to see what they are. So, here I am in my last Mod for this awesome grad class and I find myself FINALLY learning to use one and found one that I added above.

Unfortunately I would have loved to use this in my Health and Welfare unit in my level three Spanish class, but that's okay. I can use it next year! This podcast is awesome because it has conversations between a doctor and a patient. I would have my students listen to this podcast and write down as many vocabulary words as possible. Then we would talk about the words that they heard and the "problemas" that each person had.

Lucky for us, there are a ton of cognates between the Spanish and English languages and we can find a lot of them in the health unit. I think this would be a great way for them to practice their listening comprehension skills and also to hear what a real conversation would sound like in Spanish!
I can't wait to use these in the classroom and find others to go along with each one of our units. It has definitely opened a new door for my classroom.
Hasta luego,
Alissa

ePals

Good Morning,
The first time I ever traveled outside of NYS I can remember thinking, "Wow, there is a whole world out there for me to discover." Unfortunately this is rubbed in my face everyday as I teacher right next to the Buffalo Airport and I can literally watch planes take off outside of my window. So, at times, I wish I was on those planes on my way to explore another part of this big ol' world.
Since I do not have the money or time to do so right now, and neither do my students. I should you things such as ePals to being the world to them. ePals is used in many classrooms across the world to practice languages, understand customs, and communicate with other classrooms.
If you have a classroom that is studying Spanish in the United States, it is very easy to connect with another classroom in another Spanish speaking country that might be learning English. Students can practice their language skills with other students all across the world. Students are able to learn languages through experience.
Immediately as I explored this site, I thought about using it in my classroom. There is a section on this site called "A Taste of Culture". Students participate in creating a cookbook in the target language and eventually bring one of the dishes in. I thought about using this during a food unit. Students could each pick a different recipe and different country. They could research a fairly easy recipe and write it out in English and in Spanish. At the end of the week, students could make the dish, bring it to class, and share it with their peers. They could tell them what is in the dish by making a list of the items in Spanish and leaving it next to the dish.
Another obvious idea is to connect with a teacher and their class that is using the target language. My students love to learn the "slang" of Spanish speaking countries. I think it would be fun to share some of this slang with another classroom across the world. Eventually we might be able to exchange addresses and send them some fun things from the U.S. I know I would love a Spanish spekaing teacher to send me things in the target language. Even if it was a newspaper, my students would love that kind of stuff.
Any suggestions?

Hasta luego,

Alissa

Imperfect Video!

Hey everyone,
I am checking back in to share a video that I created to teach my students the imperfect tense. Here it is! I decided that I would use this video in my classroom to introduce the imperfect tense. It's a quick video that I think that they students will appreciate. I would like them to be able to create their own video when they have a good understanding of the imperfect tense. I think that they could use either site GoAnimate.com or Animoto. I liked both of these sites and found it very easy to use both of them.
I think that teachers could create small videos with listening activities as well. I could have easily put these in the imperfect tense in Spanish and presented them and then gone over them with my class.
Both are awesome ways to incorporate more technology in the classroom. Go ahead! Try them!
Hasta luego,
Alissa

What's your photo story?

Hi Everyone, 

I hope you are enjoying your week so far! I wanted to share my video with you that I created to introduce the imperfect tense in my level three Spanish class. Each year I ask them to create a scrapbook using the imperfect tense and real pictures from their childhood. How awesome would it be if they could create their own video!? Well, today I put it to the test and used some of the pictures that I have from my childhood and it worked. Here it is! 

I think this tool could be fun for the students. I don't think that they have any other opportunity to create a video for any other class. I wish that we could pay for a longer version because I think it would be fun to have 8-10 slide each. Then they would get more practice with the imperfect tense and be able to show more pictures. What do you think? 

Have a great day. 

Hasta luego! 

Alissa 

Have a seat on the magic carpet! We are listening to a story...digitally!

            As we practice our 21st Century Skills, Digital Storytelling pops up a lot in our classrooms. One of the best ways to use it in the classroom is to practice listening skills and speaking skills. Students are also able to practice their vocabulary skills as well. It is a great tool that not many teachers use. Fortunately, these storytelling programs "promote the notion that users with little technological background should be able to create digital stories."-Educase Learning
            Digital Storytelling is described as  "the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component" in an article by Educause Learning. Teachers can create this story for their students, or the students can create the story for the teacher! This a great project for students at the end of a unit. Here is an example.
If my students were learning about family life they could create a story about a family in French or Spanish. They could add digital content, images etc. and then add their voice to narrate the story. In this case they are practicing reading, writing, and speaking skills. Then when all projects are finished, students could listen to one or two of their peers' stories and write what they hear. They would be practicing their listening, writing, and comprehension skills. What more could a foreign language teacher ask for?
          As I was reading "The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling", I stumbled across this quote:
" Digital storytelling provides an authentic personal learning experience- as such; student investment is greatly increased resulting in greatly improved motivation and end product. "- David Jakes I think that this is a fabulous quote that really sums up what digital storytelling is all about. I think that it is important for students to take control of their learning experience. They can also take ownership of their stories, or add their own photos to their story.
          One of the most important 21st Century Skills is collaboration. In the article from Educase Learning it says that students can collaborate on digital stories. It really does use the best parts of teaching. Give it a try!
Hasta luego,
Alissa

Can we play a game? What are we doing today?

"Can we play a game?" "What are we doing today?" "Did we have homework last night?"
I hear these questions all of the time in my classroom and my responses are usually: "No, we don't have fun in Spanish." "Absolutely nothing." "Yes, a twelve page paper on why Mrs. Dunham is the best teacher you ever have or will have."
The game question is the most common because I like to have students participate in "education activities", or as some call them games, as much as possible. I have never used video games or computer games in my instruction and this week I looked at many options in the world of gamification.
The game that I chose to play was Third World Farmer. Now, I must tell you that I grew up on a farm that was established in 1854 and married another farmer whose farm was established around the same time. I know A LOT about farming and how mother nature works. I also know that many people in the United States have no idea what farming entails. Some people think that farmers where flannel shirts and cowboy boots and are just plain dirt poor. None of these are 100% true. My dad never wears flannel and he is a farmer, and doesn't own a pair of cowboy boots, and works extremely hard for every penny that he has in his pocket. Our two farm families own/rent over 6,000 acres in our surrounding areas. It's definitely something to be proud of, and really, we play the "game" of farming every day. Mother Nature is awfully unpredictable and mean sometimes. On the other hand, she might give you a close to 80 degree day in October to begin harvest.
As I played my game on the computer, I started to reflect on how lucky I am to live here, in the United States, on soil that my husband's family has worked for over 100 years. We are very different from the game, but I think both sides are important to understand. I only played the game twice, (I didn't last long the first time, but got the hang of it the second time) but I felt that I had a good understanding of where I could incorporate this in my own classroom.
At the beginning of this school year I started a level five Spanish class that doesn't focus on grammar, but culture. We talked about our own culture for the first five days of school. What is culture? What does our culture look like? How might we be similar or different to other cultures? What is the biggest part of our culture? What do others see when they look at our culture? Are you ever thankful for your own culture?
My students spent a lot of time reflecting on all of these ideas, and I think next year I would have them play this game at home. I would tell them that their goals/objectives would be to learn how another family in another culture functions. Compare and contrast the game that you play with the life that you lead. Does your family buy a chicken, or does your family eat the chicken stir fry that your dad made that evening?
For me, this could serve to purposes. First, I want to help everyone understand farming because people really don't appreciate the food that sits on our tables, or in our lunch rooms. Every thing comes from a farmer. Even Lay's potato ships come from potatoes that a farmer grew on his farm. Every single time you pour yourself a bowl of cereal, you should be thankful for a farmer that grew the wheat to make your cereal. It doesn't come out of thin air. Every time you complain about the prices at the grocery store, think about the farmers who had to pay for the $500,000 machine that had to harvest that corn. And every time you complain about your school lunch, think about the students that barely get one meal a day in a third world country. Think about their culture and their lives. What does their culture look like? What do they value? What do they worry about/
Before we understand other cultures, we need to understand our own. We need to appreciate our own, and I think this game would help get the point across in my classroom. I would have my students write and essay or create a powerpoint, or perhaps write a blog post in Spanish about our culture compared to the third world cultures to assess their knowledge on this topic. What are the similarities? What are the differences? I would grade these essays and discuss them as a group to check for understanding.
So, we could answer my first three questions again. "Can we play a game?" My response, "Yes, you can"! "What are we doing today?" My response, "Playing computer games and learning about other cultures".
"Did we have homework last night?" My response, "You had two things to do. First, write a 12 page paper on why Mrs. Dunham is the best teacher you have or ever will have, and second a small essay, powerpoint, or blog post on the cultures that we discussed."

This is a picture of the soybeans that we are harvesting right now and the beautiful sunset. Again, a photo from my very talented sister.
Hasta luego,
Alissa

Your homework is to go home and play video games, and don't make me say it twice!

That's right, I said go home and play video games...
Weird, right? This isn't something that students might expect their teachers to say. In fact, I myself was given an assignment to play a computer game, and thought, how will this work? 
In an article that I read called What is Gamification, it gives us a definition of gamification. "Gamification is the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging." So, this could be used in the classroom or to practice a new language. Ogigames offers a wide variety of games for students to play, including educational games. 
I played Empire two times and noticed that it could definitely be used for students learning the command forms in Spanish. In the game, your "ruler" is commanding you to do things to help build the empire. In fact, all words are commands. How perfect for Spanish commands!? I think that I would have my students play the game, and write down ten command forms that they saw in the game. In class we could discuss all of the commands that they found and put them back in their original verb forms. I would grade their participation in class, or collect their ten commands as a homework grade and as I returned them I could give them to different students and they could put them in their original verb forms. If they could recognize the verb forms, and could report them the next day, all of them would be held accountable for their homework. They would all be actively involved in the game. 
I would not be using a walk-through (definition) for this type of activity, but I could see myself using one in future activities if the game was more difficult. In this game, they are commanded to do everything so it is easy to follow along with. 
After the students compared the commands that they were given, we could come up with our own images based on the game.  They could draw the images based on images that they saw in the game. The images could be put up around the room and we could refer to them when talking about "Open, Close, Construct, Use" etc. 
Instead of this being just a fifteen minute game that students play, we could turn this into a two-three day lesson.


Think about it...
Hasta luego, 
Alissa 

"Tweeting All Teachers"

The Teacher's Guide to Twitter states that "the best way to get the most out of twitter is to use it." Most of my students are most definitely getting their use out of twitter. The article also states that "you see hashtags everywhere." I hear them ALL of the time. I even taught my students the word for hashtag in Spanish so that have to refer to it in Spanish in my classroom now. "Twitter is too big to ignore." Twitter really is everywhere. I had been against "tweeting" because I didn't think it was useful up until this week when I had to create an account. I did find that some of the people that I started to follow really do share useful lesson plans, ideas etc. I found myself clicking on them and looking at what they had suggested.
The Teacher's Guide to Twitter also suggested that you "become friends with your enemies." So often in school districts teachers hoard their lesson plans and refuse to share ideas with their colleagues. In fact, I have worked with teachers in my past that do this but I have also worked with teachers who believe in sharing everything. "Why reinvent the wheel?" they say. I believe that without collaborating and sharing our ideas, we really are reinventing the wheel. Why not share your ideas?
The second article I read this week was called A Must Have Guide on Using Twitter in Your Classroom . Using Twitter as a Bulletin Board was their first suggestion. They said to use it to communicate about homework, useful information, class cancellations etc. I liked this idea, I just need all of my students to have access to the internet outside of school, and I know that they don't.
The last suggestion that they shared was creating pop quizzes on twitter as bonus points. I liked this idea also and could see myself doing something like that in the future.
My favorite suggestion was to use twitter to silence a "blurter" or someone who shouts the answers out in the middle of class. I can think of students very quickly that this would work well for. Maybe I will try it sometime while I am still participating in this class and I will let you know how it goes.
Twitter is too big to ignore, I just wish I had more time to spend tweeting, reading other tweets, and creating lesson plans using twitter. Now that I know all of this information i hope to use it to better my practices in the classroom and use it as a collaboration tool.
Hasta luego,
Alissa

#Ohmygosh, Mrs. Dunham, can I totally follow you on twitter!?

This week I have spent some time joining the 21st century and creating a twitter account. I created the account with the expectation that all I would see if a bunch of hashtag crazy tweenagers complaining about their classes or homework. Little did I know that professional teachers use this site to communicate about their experiences, share their best ideas, and ask questions about language classes, lesson plans, and expectations.
I experienced two twitter chats this week, as I didn't have a full hour to spend on both. This first chat that I attended was on Wednesday (10/2) #ELT English Language Teachers. As I sat in on the chat I was very confused as to what I was supposed to be doing/ what I was looking for. As a Spanish teacher, I found that some of the practices that they were discussing really didn't pertain to me. I could understand their questions/comments but found it to be a little boring to sit in on.
On Thursday I attended the Foreign Language Chats #langchat which I found to be a little more entertaining. Here the teachers were lead by a facilitator and simply shared questions and comments about lesson plans and specific sites that they use. I found myself clicking on these sites and saving them for future reference. I am teaching a level five class this year so I have found that I am able to branch into many different things that I haven't used before.
I think that following these chats/people on twitter could be beneficial for me. As I said before I had to attend two of them because I couldn't attend a full one this week. I think that this would be far more beneficial if I had the time to spend on twitter. I barely have time to check my email. I spend two hours on the road every day so I find that when I get home I only have time to make dinner, grade some papers, and relax for five minutes. I did find that many of the bloggers that I followed were writing about and discussing things that are relevant to my teaching practices so I hope that I can find time to really read what they have to say in their posts.
I also asked one of my students to help me out with this this week because I knew they would think it was funny that I didn't know how to tweet. They said they would help me and said "oh my gosh, we can totally follow you on twitter!". I have yet to see any of them follow me, probably because I am following "boring teacher stuff." Let's keep it that way!
:) Hasta luego!
Alissa

Connectworking...

Let's face it. If we are networking, we are connecting with other sources. So, why not add the word "connectworking" to our vocabulary? 
I have started to follow the maestrosdeespanol. I looked around this site and found a lot of useful things. It was easy to use and easy to navigate. I was able to narrow my search quickly and found a lot of things that I could use in my lesson planning. 
It is comforting to know that there are people out there that are willing to help and connect with you to make teaching a little bit easier. It definitely isn't the easiest job in the world. Every little bit of help makes my life easier. 
On this page,Spanish teaching tools, I found a lot of conversations on short stories in the Spanish classroom and I just read a short story in my level five class this week. I am going to end my blog and check that out. 
Hasta luego, 
Alissa

A learner is like knitting a scarf...

      I know, I know. My analogy is strange but knitting is a part of my life and so is learning. Let me explain my reasoning. As I read A Learning Theory for the Digital Age , I thought about the "digital age" and the way we spend our spare time.  When people see me knitting, they look at me with this strange look as if to say "Girl, you are 26 years old and you knit?!" For me it is a break from the "digital age". It is a break from a screen in front of me. When people look at my husband's cell phone they act like he lives in the stone age. "A flip phone, really?" We are constantly measured in decades as the article says. As a "knitter of today" I feel that I am outnumbered by the "non-knitters" of today. As a "terrible user of technology of today", I feel as though I really am a learner of today. I learn about technology every day from my students. I add layers to my "technology scarf" every week. My knowledge grows and grows. Just like my knowledge, the scarf or blanket that I am knitting grows and grows. Each stitch that goes together is like the knowledge that the learner gains. In the video, The Changing Nature of Knowledge, the development of knowledge is discussed. We are all a part of a wider network. Our mind is part of a neuro-network. The external network is when we connect with other individuals and other sources of knowledge. Each piece is like a stitch on a scarf. 
     When I first started to knit I was in the ninth grade. My scarf was made from chunky, thick, multi-colored yarn and I was so excited to start it. I worked on it at my knitting club with all of my friends and when I got home I couldn't put it down. I was so enthralled with learning something new and creating this scarf. As I knit by myself, I noticed that my scarf was getting wider and wider... and messier and messier. What was I doing differently? Why wasn't this working like it had an hour ago? I swear I had it. 
     Many times I think that this is what happens when my students learn something in class but get home to practice and are too distracted by other things, or simply have forgotten how to conjugate those darn verbs!
      Just like there are many ways to learn things, there are many ways to knit things as well. A long time ago when I started to knit I thought that I could never learn how to do something so complex and time consuming, but it came to me very quickly. In the article it says that "knowledge is an objective that is attainable." This piece of knowledge was definitely attainable for me and I am so glad that it is a part of my life. 
         As I continued to read the article I thought that the definition of "constructivism" was very interesting. "Constructivism suggests that learners create knowledge as they attempt to understand their experiences." I believe that we all create knowledge and begin to understand new experiences throughout our lives. I believe that this process happens each and every day. This is exactly what happens as I knit a scarf or blanket  or sweater. 
       The article also states that "Constructivist principles acknowledge that real-life learning is messy and complex. Classrooms which emulate the “fuzziness” of this learning will be more effective in preparing learners for life-long learning." In real life, my knitting is messy. I am constantly making a mistake, reflecting on my mistake, pulling out the stitches and moving forward with what I am making. This messiness seems to happen in my classroom as well. For example, I have three classes of level three Spanish this year and I have noticed that I might make a mistake in my first class or skip over something, or a student might bring up a great point and I take all of these things and make my next class better and by my third class of the day, I have reflected so much and tweaked things just enough to make it a perfect lesson. (Sometimes, I get it on the first try, but who doesn't do things better the third time, right?)
    When the article discusses connectivism, I thought about each stitch and how it is connected to the next. Just like the theory states that it is "important to see connections between fields and ideas." If we aren't knitting our theories, ideas, and lessons together, we aren't creating that beautiful product at the end. "The starting point of connectivism is the individual. Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual. This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed."
    Learners of today have a huge advantage over those old "knitters". We have screens full of information that can lead us to the next source of information that we need. We are constantly connecting with another "stitch". 
Thanks for reading and trying to follow my analogy. 
Alissa

I scooped up Diigo...

Sometimes you really try to do things right and get them done on time and life kicks you in the pants...ya know?
So, after a small mental break down, screaming, a computer virus and complete shut down of my brain and the computer, I figured out Diigo and Scoop it. Might I add that both of them are great sites that I will use from now on. I learned my lesson.
I think I like Diigo more. I believe that it is more user friendly. I liked the set up better. I also like that I can highlight text and put little post-it notes on things that are important. I like that I can follow others on both sites because I feel like that is a HUGE benefit for teachers. When you can put more than one brain together and help fellow teachers it is a win win situation. On Scoop it I felt as though the suggestions that the site was making were not helpful at all. Perhaps I was not specific enough when creating my topics.
Diigo is something that I would suggest to my students. Ten of my students are seniors and i feel as though that would be something that they could use as they start to look at colleges to compare and contrast important things about each one.
I do like the "bigger pictures" on Scoop it but felt that having Diigo at the top of my toolbar was super beneficial, especially because it travels from computer to computer. On Scoop it, I like that people that can leave comments about things that I post. I always like to hear opinions of other teachers and other users of these sites.
Again, I have learned my lesson this week and will use these in the future. Ahhh, I think I might take a breather.
Alissa

I would NEVER say that!!

I promised myself I would  never say "well, when I was in high school we didn't have or I never did..", but I find myself saying and thinking that more than one time a day. Did I have these things? Could I have set up a blog in 2004? I am sure I could have, I just didn't have a teacher that used it in the classroom. I hope my students never say that about me. I really try my best to add new, fun, and exciting things into my classroom. My school has barely any technology, only computers in the library and the computer lab. One teacher was able to get a class set of ipads for his classroom this year, but they are his and only his. I will say that he worked very hard to get them, and I don't blame him for keeping them.
After watching a few of the videos assigned to us today I caught myself reflecting on my own teaching habits, always saying "well we just can't do that here," or "I wish our school had something like that". Have i ever blogged in my classroom? Nope! Have I ever used a voice thread in my classroom? Nope! Have I ever thought to use them in my classroom? Nope! (See people, I NEED this class.) In the video "A Vision of 21st Century Teachers"Video #1 a teacher holds up a sign that says something like "Unleash the power that they bring with them to the classroom". I don't know about you, but usually I want them to keep the power inside and listen to what I have to say. But, really we SHOULD be unleashing their power. They ARE powerful and they DO know more about technology than I do so why not?! At the end of this video it says "I am a 21st Century Teacher... and Learner." That sums me up perfectly. How about you? I want my classroom to look like some of the classrooms in the video called "Classroom of Tomorrow". Video #2 Does your classroom look like this? Mine looks like its stuck in 2001. As an official 21st Century teacher I believe it is my job to create this technology rich environment with virtual field trips or blogging. Students need to have a better understanding of the global community in foreign language classes.
Now is the time to act on this. Some teachers and schools are going to leave us in the dust. And I hate dust! I want to be a teacher that students look back and say "Mrs. Dunham taught me how to blog. Mrs Dunham was always incorporated technology into our Spanish class." Wish me luck?
-Alissa
This picture has nothing to do with blogging, but my sister is an awesome photographer and took this of my husband and I. I thought I could share with you all. Have a great week!

Simply teaching in NYS

Simply teaching in New York is almost impossible these days. I know that many of you are reading this and probably thinking the exact same thing. The question is, will we ever be ably to simply teach again?
I find that I am so worried about an SLO or LLO or running to my lunch duty that I forget that teaching Spanish vocabulary can be fun. I forget why I got into this profession some days. Sometimes I wonder if what I have a passion for really isn't possible anymore.
I love to plan lessons, create ways to learn vocabulary, and grade papers with my fun colored markers but sometimes even that doesn't make my day any better because New York State has made it impossible for me to sit down and grade a paper or plan a great lesson.
I just want to teach. Plain and simple. One great way to add some fun to an ordinary day might be to have students create a blog! One of the NYS Standards of Foreign Language is Communication. In the video that I watched on blogs it talked all about why blogs were created for communication. What a fun way to practice our Spanish skills! Students could create a blog in Spanish on a current topic in class. The teacher could grade the students on their Spanish, the creation of the blog, and their communication skills in the language.
In the article written by Rita Zeinsteger she says that blogs can be used for collaboration skills. Collaborating is one of the most important 21st Century Skills. (I know this from ALL of my lesson planning of course)
Collaboration is important for both students and teachers. I can collaborate with other teachers by reviewing articles and posting articles. My students can communicate practice their language skills and read articles that might interest them as well. Communicating with their community, or talking about other cultures are two things that they could also do and both are a part of the official ACTFL standards of LOTE!

ACTFL Standards Check it out! 

I love this tool. I look forward to being an "official blogger". 

Hasta luego,
Alissa