Don't Start the Year Without Browsing this Awesome List of Digital Resources

The Summer is over and it's time to put away the camping gear, sunhats, flip flops and bathing suits.   You might think that I would be sad putting way all the "fun stuff".  However, like most teachers, I am excited and ready to begin the new school year.  I love the end on the Summer because it gives me an opportunity to be creative and re-think, or even re-invent myself as a teacher.

This year I an going over a list of digital resources that could be helpful to any teacher (list below).   I am planning on playing with many of them.   However, I will only select those tools that will enhance my teaching and truly going facilitate and improve student learning.   Lets not fall in the trap of using technology only because it's cool or everyone is using it.   Whatever resources we decide to use should have a real and meaningful purpose. 

Have fun exploring!

TEACHING TOOLS & SCREENCASTING:

• Jing => App for Free Screencasting (Video screen capture)
• Camtasia ($) => Applications for creating video tutorials and presentations (screen video capture)
• Explain Everything ($) => It's an easy-to-use design tool that lets you annotate, animate, and narrate explanations and presentations. Screencasting and video whiteboard.
• Educreations ($)  =>  Whiteboard that lets you record voice.  Educreations is a community where anyone can teach what they know and learn what they don't. Our software turns any iPad or web browser into a recordable.
• Corkboard.me => Corkboard.me is a simple and handy webapp that creates a virtual corkboard of sticky notes. Changes are saved to your personal, auto-generated URL, letting you share your cork-board with anyone.
• Epals => ePals is the social network optimized for K-12 learning.
• Cool-Tools-for-Schools => TONS of resources for Presentation Tools · Collaborative Tools · Research Tools · Video Tools · Slideshow Tools · Audio Tools · Image Tools · Drawing Tools · Writing Tools.
• Rubistar => is a tool to help the teacher who wants to use rubrics, but does not have the time to develop them from scratch.
• Blogger => Is Google's free tool for creating blogs. Blogs, short for web-logs, are a form of online journal.
• Pinterest => Virtual Pinboard x people to come together and share their interests.
• Diigo => Diigo is a free social bookmarking,research, and knowledge sharing tool created to mimic the ease of taking notes while providing a network for sharing and discovering information.
• Padlet - great way to share resources.
• Screencast-O-matic - Is an easy and handy tool for recording screenshots and sharing them with friends or colleagues for a number of different purposes.
  

BOOKS

• iBooks Author => allows you to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book.  Use iBooks publisher to publish.
• iBooks => iBooks is an amazing way to download and read books.
• Look into Book Creator - Can add to Thinglink or Google drive.

LANGUAGE TOOLS:

• Vocaroo
• Duolingo
• Sugarcane
• Rice
• Abc Mouse.com - great x my ELD class because of word recognition

MEDIA & VIDEOS:

• GoAnimate => Do-it-yourslef animated video website
• Storybird => Create, read, and share visual stories. Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you can make and share on any device
• Adobe Voice
• Biteable: The simplest video maker!
• Snag-it is a screenshot program that captures video display and audio output.
• Animoto: Slideshow.  A great way to animate audio recordings.
• Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick video. Great way to do a quick story!
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OTHER COOL TECH TOOLS:

• Bit.ly.com
• Weebly => Weebly is an online, free, widget-based Web site creator. It uses a widget style format, allowing users to create pages with only a few clicks by dragging and dropping different page elements.
• MyMaps to create my own, measure distances, write notes, etc.
• Lucidpress is a web-based desktop publishing software application.
• Classcraft is a fantasy-themed, game-based classroom-behavior-management tool (available on the web and as a Chrome app).
• GoFormative.com check-out for math.
• Androdify is an App to create your own Android character.

Peanutizeme is an App to create your own Peanut character.

Blogging es fabuloso para las clases de lenguas!

Blogging is a great writing tool that foreign language students can use to practice and share their writing with peers and teachers.  Having a REAL AUDIENCE makes blogging much more powerful than the traditional writing.

Here's an example:

 ¡Nuestras vacaciones fueron fabulosas!

Fuimos a Oregon y acampamos en un lago cerca de las Montañas que se llaman "Walloa Mountains".

Quieres ir de vacaciones a las montañas con nosotros?

Changing the way we teach a Second Language is not an option, is a must.

Do we need to change the way we teach a Second Language?

   I've been asking myself this question for quite sometime.   My curiosity began few years ago when my daughter got placed as a freshman in high school in an  honors Spanish class.   My kids grew-up in a bilingual household because my husband is American and I am Mexican.   I raised them bilingual and I knew my 13-year old would do just fine in an honors class.   After the first week of school I asked her who else was in her class.   I knew that most kids would be juniors or seniors, and I was surprised when Bella said that several of her freshman friends were with her, including her friend Lilly.  Lilly? I said, I didn't know Lilly spoke Spanish! Mom, she said, she doesn't!
   My daughter's answer forever changed the way I thought about Foreign Language learning and education.  Her answer made total sense after I realized, during my first year as a Spanish teacher in a very high-achieving school, that most of the kids never learn to actually speak the language.   They just get REALLY good a "filling-n the blanks" and memorize skits.
   How is it possible that, with all the incredible tools we have to make second language learning meaningful, practical and fun, we are still teaching our kids to memorize oral sentences or written paragraphs?   How can we measure their mastery of language by simply putting a check mark on all the vocabulary words and verb tenses that we have covered with them in class?
   Learning a language is MUCH MORE that that.   Lets not forget that to be able to say "I speak Spanish" (or any other language) we must be able to perform the four skills the language: Listening and Reading for Input and Speaking and Writing for Output.
   My journey since the day my daughter told me "she doesn't" has been looking for ways to improve my teaching and enhance my student's learning experience. Many things have changed the way I teach, but one of the most powerful ones
is Technology.  
   I have adopted a completely different approach to teaching and learning.  I'd like to believe that I've embraced an "innovator's mindset" that hopefully will allow my students to go beyond "filling-in the blanks" and into the fascinating world of real communication.   
This is my journey right now and I hope to share what I discover during this journey with the rest of you.

 

The heart of Innovative teaching

 
While going through my "Journey of Innovative Learning and Teaching" I keep asking myself if there is such a thing as a "Sweet Spot" that represents the Heart of Innovative Teaching and Learning. Is there?
What do YOU think?  If your answer is "yes", then what is for YOU the Heart of Innovative Teaching? What do you do in you classroom that makes you feel like a real innovator?
Is your teaching guided by the TPACK framework?, Do you try to follow the SAMR model?  Do you find yourself overwhelmed trying to keep-up with technology?
We cannot keep-up with the pace of technology.  We cannot get "attached" to a "cool" new app to be innovative in our teaching.   New tools appear every day, and the ones we love or currently use, might not be available tomorrow.
The challenge for educators is not to learn the new digital technologies and incorporate them in their teaching.   Our challenge is to "let go" of our need to keep-up with technology and focus our teaching on creating a solid foundation that could be innovative with or without specific digital tools.
Going back to the TPACK idea, I see the three areas always changing but no necessarily at the same rate.   I teach Spanish, and for me the CONTENT does not change much, my PEDAGOGY is always evolving to meet my student's needs and TECHNOLOGY is that "wild piece" changing at an exponential rate and keeping things exciting.   It is the piece that is keeping me honest and pushing me to keep re-inventing myself as a teacher.
I will not attempt to keep-up with technology, but I will try my best to search, adopt and embrace the technologies that will enhance my students' learning.

Why this blog?

Why not?
We've been trying to learn languages all our lives and we're still embarrassed to hear ourselves order a meal in Spanish at a Mexican restaurant.  So far our success in the foreign language classroom has been measured by how well we can "fill-in-the blanks".
In our 21st century, where our voices can be "heard" instantly across the globe, we cannot communicate by "filling-in-the blanks".   Our language students need to be prepared for a more demanding and changing world.  We cannot settle with the traditional language classroom.  
It's time for a change, and that's exactly what I want to explore and share in this blog!☺