Dreaming in English

ESL Podcasts

2009-12-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

Podcasts are a great fantastic tool in the ESL classroom because it builds active listening skills. Authentic speech is also used so that students are able to hear different speech styles and accents.

I found a podcast about St. Valentine's Day on Culips.com. I am starting to plan activities that teach my students about Valentine's Day here in the U.S. The majority of my students are relatively new to the country so this may be the first time they are experiencing the holiday. The podcast quickly reviews what Valentine's Day is and who cupid is. This review would greatly benefit my students. Then, it mentions and explains the phrase "love at first sight." At first, I would use this podcast to develop listening skills by asking some comprehension questions immediately after listening to it. Then, I would attempt to facilitate some dialogue or discussion about love at first sight. It would be interesting to see how my students react to this phrase and if they believe that it is possible.

This podcast would also be a great introduction to all the idioms and phrases related with St. Valentine's Day and your heart, such as break your heart, cry your heart out, to have your heart set on something, or to have a big heart.

ePals - Collaborative Classrooms

2009-11-21T16:56:00.000-08:00

Classrooms around the world can be collaborate easier thanks to ePals, a website devoted to learning through global collaboration. This website has eight projects already designed to promote cross-cultural learning through an exploration of weather, global warming, or habits. What I like most about these projects are the fact that each one is linked to national standards so that I can assure that my students are meeting certain objectives. I would probably use these projects in my ESL classroom because they allow students to explore not only U.S. customs but also their own native traditions and customs as well as other customs and traditions across the globe. The topics for these projects are very relevant to the lives and cultures of my ESL students. There is so much knowledge to be shared when using these projects with classrooms in other parts of the globe.

ePals also offers a forum where teachers can find other classrooms across the globe to work together on a lesson plan of their own design. I really liked reading about different teachers trying to find other classrooms to connect with on a similar topic, such as The Great Gatbsy or current events in the news. This offers me the ability to find other teachers to work with if I ever have a great project that I want to share with the another classroom. I see myself using these forums to connect with teachers from across the globe to share ideas and get feedback.
I also like the fact that this forum also has sub-forums for technology, special education, and other resources. Special education is an area that I have already noticed that my pedagogical knowledge is lacking; therefore, this forum can be very valuable to me as a teacher.

A great synchronous tool to use while completing an ePals project with another classroom would be Skype. Skype provides another manner of communication for both teachers and students. Email is the method of communication while using ePals but students and classrooms can also be connected virtually through this program. Teachers can use Skype to work on the project together in real time, instead of waiting for emails. Skype allows students to see the other students that they are working with and communicate face-to-face. Therefore, when using Skype in my ESL classroom, my students will be using English in authentic and meaningful ways.

Videos in the Classroom

2009-11-15T17:03:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most of us have heard of YouTube, the online collection of videos. How many of us have heard of TeacherTube, the online collection of educational and instructional videos for the classroom? While browsing this site, I found a cooperative learning strategy for the language classroom called Inside and Outside Circles. "In this video, the teacher uses this learning strategy to review vocabulary. He gives index cards with a vocabulary word related to the metric systrem on it to the students in the inside circle, and the students on the outside have to figure out it's corresponding vocabulary word in the American measurement system. The students on the outside rotate around the inside circle and then they switch circles so that all students can equally participate in the activity.

This activity promotes interaction and communicaion in the target language. This activity could not only be used for vocabulary development, but also for key figures or concepts in a thematic unit. For example, a unit on the Civil War could contain the important battles, people, and concepts. Not only does this review the content material, but it also build communicative competence. Students have to use the language in order to be successful.

Bookr - create a book from pictures

2009-11-02T07:32:00.000-08:00

My cooperating teacher has suggested that I plan some activities that revolve around holidays and customs for my English language learners. The next major holiday is Thanksgiving so I used Bookr to make a short virtual book about Thanksgiving.

This book would serve as an introduction to the holiday and also a way to preview the key vocabulary, such as gratitude, thankful, cornucopia, Pilgrim, Native American, and all the food relating to the holiday meal. I would use this book in whole class instruction first, going over the new words, and then let students explore the book either individually or in small groups/partners.

Some of my students have just arrived to the U.S. so this would be their first experience with Thanksgiving, others have been living here for four or more years. This book would be a good way to capitalize on the knowledge that students already know about the holiday by letting them explain and describe how they celebrate the holiday. After Thanksgiving, I could have my students make a book, using Bookr, that narrates how they celebrated that holiday.

Flickr - encourage creativity

2009-11-02T07:14:00.000-08:00

Flickr is not just a website for the storage of photos online. Flickr is a wonderful web tool for teachers to locate pictures for instructional purposes. In the ESL classroom, visual aides play a large role in building students' comprehension and activating background knowledge. Through the search engine, teachers can browse pictures that other people have taken and decided to share pubically. Pictures that are licensed through Creative Commons can be used by teachers (and students) without being in violation of copyright.

Through the use of different perspectives and topics, a slide show of various pictures on a single topic can encourage creative thinking, which can be displayed orally or in writing. A slide show of pictures related to the season of fall can provoke different thoughts and ideas in each student.

Flickr is also applicable student use. As a class, students can take pictures related to a topic that they are learning about and create a visual representation of their knowledge as a whole. Similarly, students can also search for their own pictures to be include in various online projects.

Teachers can use twitter too!

2009-10-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

I just set up a twitter account. Wow - never thought I would be doing this! This mod definitely opened my eyes to Twitter's great benefits for teachers.

Twitter is a great tool for teachers to use to connect and dialogue with other teachers all over the globe. As an ESL teacher who is conducting observations in a high school setting, I am beginning to see that teachers can be greatly isolated from other staff. There only one ESL teacher in the entire high school and middle school! Therefore, the process of sharing ideas and techniques related to pedagogy can be difficult. On twitter, I am already following a EFT teacher from Valencia, Spain as well as a textbook/software company that designs materials for English language learners. Look at all the information and resources can can get from just these two, let alone the hundreds or thousands of other teachers on twitter.

Twitter can also be used to stay up to date with current ideas or techniques due to the nature of tweeting. You are supposed to post about what you are doing right this very instant. Reading books often contain concepts that are somewhat antiquated because of the reading, editing, and publishing process.

Kalinago English posted a great guide to twitter for teachers that introduces more indepth Twitter techniques such as talking to some with @ as well as some of the mannerisms when using twitter, like following people who follow you. Similarly, Jason Renshaw described #teachertuesday as a place to find innovative teachers who tweet.

To be or not to be... that is the quotation.

2009-10-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

While setting up my Bloglines account, I found a very interesting article about using quotations in the ESL classroom. Nik's post entitled "Using Wise Quotes with ESL EFL students" about iWise that describes the functionality of this website. iWise is a site that compiles a large collection of quotations about various subject matters.

Teachers can use quotations in both simple or elaborate ways. Quotations could be a easy way to start or end a lesson on a particular subject or person; yet, they could be a essay starter where a student would have to agree or disagree with the quote and state way. I also like that you can listen to the quotes. This is a good way for ESL students to become familiar with different accents, speaking styles, and intonation.

What I like about Nik's blog post is that he lists some weakness of this website, such as the abstractness of some of the quotations. It's quite easy to find all the components that we like about different classroom tools, but finding weakness can be difficult. Having a critical eye of web tools is a good way to determine their practicality in the classroom.

EFL Classroom 2.0

2009-09-25T10:03:00.001-07:00

The EFL Classroom 2.0 is a online collaborative network for ESL/EFL teachers. This is an excellent tool for teachers because not only does it provide lesson ideas and other Internet resources but also a forum where teachers can ask questions, provide these resources, or answer other group member's questions. The members of this group are active, you can ask a question and receive a response by the end of the day. I also like the fact that some of the resources of questions relate not just to lesson ideas but theories or concepts grounded in second language acquisition. To me, this means that the members are actively seeking knowledge to further their development professionally as an L2 educator.

Connectivism - Why it works

2009-09-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

A learner of today is like today's cash register. The function of a cash register is to hold money, but there are so many different types of money from tangible dollar bills, electronic funds, or gift cards. Yet, the cash register still process all these different of cash from either making change for dollars or deducting money from your bank account. A learner is similar in the fact that are supposed to hold on to knowledge, yet there are some different kinds of knowledge present in our social environment. Learners are in constant interaction with new knowledge and attempting to fit it into our existing schema. George Siemens, the create of the connectivist theory, states in his article Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age from International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning that

Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday is also critical.

This quote explains the fact that as a result of our constant interaction with new knowledge, learners are refining their own mental system to make sure that knowledge reflects what the current environment emphasizes or utilized. Learners cannot use antiquated knowledge. Siemens clarifies this point in his video entitled The Changing Nature of Knowledge. He says:

Knowledge is rapidly evolving. It's not just what we know today that's important. It's our ability to stay current as knowledge changes.

Just like the cash register from 50 years ago is a completely different system that today's, knowledge is also changing. What we know know may not have been known 50 years ago. Therefore learners need to be able to recognize and acquire new knowledge while it is still novel.

We are digital leaners!

2009-09-15T17:00:00.001-07:00

After viewing a short video entitled, A Vision of K-12 Students, I realize the importance of using new technologies in the classroom and just how important technology is to students. The video breaks down the amount of time they spend per week reading books (2 hours) to the amount of spend on the computer (5.5 hours). Students are spending twice the amount of time on the computer than reading a book and they would probably spend more time on the computer if parents or teachers allowed them.

The main point is that students want to learn by using the Internet or other web based technologies. They want to use their Ipod to learn, they want blog, they want to create something on the Internet. We, as educators of these students, need to follow their interests. We need to reach out to them digitally.

The sad fact is, as the video mentions, is that a majority of teachers are not familiar with wikis, blogs, and podcasts and therefore, can not incorporate them into the classroom. I can understand now why this course has been designed and how it will help to educate this new generation of educators in innovative pedagogical tools on the Internet.

Safety Tips for Using Web Tools in Classrooms

2009-09-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

Listed below are some safety tips that both students and teachers need to be aware of as they begin to venture into using internet tools in the classroom.

Define appropriate use for your students. Most districts have a general set of rules that covers the most inappropriate uses for the Internet; however, some other concerns may not be addressed. These concerns may be different for each classroom but there should be specific rules as to what is correct and incorrect when using the Internet. For example, is it appropriate for students to listen to music while posting a short story to their blog? Is it appropriate for students to access their personal email, Facebook, MySpace, etc. while using web tools? Is it appropriate for students to download files onto the computer?
To maintain student privacy use either first names only or pseudonyms. There should not be any personal information such as full name, age, address, pictures, phone number on the Internet.
Maintain a safe space by avoiding rude, insulting, or derogatory language. All students must show respect for other users in their blogs. Likewise, students should be advised to avoid blogs or other websites that are deemed as obscene.
Explain to students that the Internet is a public space and that what you put on the Internet can be viewed by everyone and that even if a student forgets about a particular blog doesn't mean that it is deleted from the Internet.
Remind students that not everything on the Internet is the truth, just as not everything is the paper is the truth. Students need to be able to discern between fact and opinion on blogs. Even what is presented as the truth must be researched and referenced.

Using Blogs in the Classroom

2009-09-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

After reading the first three chapters in Will Richardson's book Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, I began thinking of how I can use blogs in my future ESL classroom. Here are my ideas:

As a tool for professional collaboration. As Will Richardson suggests, many educators today are blogging about the classroom 2.0. I could create a partnership with many other educators to share ideas and make suggestions on how to use various web tools in the classroom. Collaboration does not have to strictly stay in the ESL realm but can venture into the how the content areas (science, social studies, art, etc.) use web tools.

As a tool for developing critical thinking in my students. A student could take a topic or current event that they are interested and find different perspectives on the web. Take, for example, the current health care system. We all know that there are many opinions on the web. Students can explore these ideas and blog about them. This would be a good way for students to begin to see understand perspectives and also create their own opinions on topics that interest them.

As a portfolio of student work. Students can keep a record of all of their written work over the course of a year and reflect on their progress, goals that they want to achieve, or areas of weakness that may need improvement. This could also be a good tool for teachers to use as a tool of assessment. I think it would would be amazing to see an ESL student's progress through the course of their academic career in schools. I also like that the portfolio can be easily accessed by parents or administration!

I know that I only need to post three but here's some more!

As a class portal or announcement page. I could use a blog to post about different information that I think students or parents need to know, such as upcoming exams or field trips. I think that sometimes it's hard to get parental involvement in the class, this could just be one way to let parents into the classroom.

As a tool for professional development. I could post segments of lessons and post about what I thought worked and what didn't. I could ask for suggestions or improvements from not only my students who might blog but also from the professional classroom 2.0 community.