Un viaje a las montanas

Working with Inspiration

I really enjoyed working with Inspiration this week. This is a great tool that my students can use for just about any topic! I have been thinking about all the different ways I could use this. I could have my students choose from a list of topics and have them work in small groups to compile a diagram or concept map. The program is very user friendly and I am looking forward to it!

Inspiration

Scavenger Hunt Fun!

I found this to be my favorite activity thus far. I loved doing this scavenger hunt! It was a great idea as a foreign language teacher to do prepositions, especially since this is a grammar point kids struggle with. I would love to incorporate something like this in my classroom, and have kids do presentations just like we did. This way, the students are not only using the target language, but they are also interacting with their peers and working together as a team. GREAT activity, I am going to try and incorporate it into my lesson plan this next year!

Scavenger Hunt

Technology

I have found the last few weeks to be a struggle for me, as I am not used to working on Macs and using the Mac applications- however, I am learning, which is definitely a good thing, as I never know when I may be placed in a situation where I will need to use a Mac. I really enjoy blogging and I can't wait to incorporate it into my classroom. Especially since its a great way for parents to see whats going on in my classroom. I was very excited to work on the lesson plan (the content of it, not the formatting over and over on Word) and creating a worksheet. I can't wait to use it as one of my activities this next year!

Webquests

I really enjoyed doing WebQuests in class and I found the activity to be very helpful in how to determine a good WebQuest. I would love to use it in my classroom, as there are such a broad variety of different culture topics I could use. One day I could have the students working together on a WebQuest about Peru, and the next I could have them doing some kind of WebQuest that deals with grammar.

IT 486 folder

Garnet

This activity was a neat way for kids to use the Internet to research information on a topic, and then answer questions to find specific details about a particular subject. I could definitely use this in my L2 classroom, perhaps having them research a particular painting, and have them answer similar questions and have them present the information to the class.

Wikis/ Web-Site Reflection

Hey all! I really enjoyed learning about wikis in class the last few days. I think they are a really useful tool to use in the classroom, especially while having kids do group activities, such as a group project/presentation. This way the kids can add/change what they may be researching or presenting, etc. As a foreign language teacher, I like the idea of doing something similar to the camping idea that we saw in the video, but have the students do so in the target language. However, due to the area I teach in, I would need to set up computer time for the kids to do this, as not all have computer access at home.

Reflection of web-site activity:
I thought this was a very interesting activity, because it is critical as educators to check and make sure the information presented on the Internet is reliable and that the publisher of the web-site is legitimate. Before we can recommend sites to our students we must make sure everything is correct and that the site is not misleading or giving false information. This activity really helped me in identifying the types of things I need to look for when trying to find a website for my students to go to.

First Day of Blogging

Today is my first day of blogging in IT 486. I enjoy blogging and am really looking forward to using this application! Blogger is very easy to use and navigate thus far- I am looking forward to using this in my classroom!