THE LAST THING!!!!!!!!!

There is so much to say for question number one.  I liked coming up with my avatar. I could have my students use this too when we establish our class website. They would get a kick out of it. I can hardly believe that I actually said it. Yes, I think it would be a good idea to have a class blog for students and parents to check on our classroom happening, assignments, and comment about Spanish cultural topics. For example, I could have the class watch something on TV for homework and then when it is over have them answer questions or make commentaries about it.  That is dependent on students be able to access the particular TV station and/or internet from their home.  It could be worked out.  I also liked the online image generators like Big huge Labs and Image Chef, the flow chart tools, the productive sites like Remember the Milk, and LiveBinder. 

This class has affected my life-long learning tremendously by forcing me to just do things that were out of my technology comfort zone.  I would become very anxious about taking on yet another tech tool that I psyched myself into thinking I will not understand the point of these tools.  In the end, I got these THINGS done and I survived this part.  I may have lost sleep and the patience of my family, as it has been said, no pain no gain. 

I would say that for me it was hard remembering the little things.  I may need to record more of my classes. It was a constant struggle to keep up at times, which took me longer to do something.

The content of this class will be a great influence in my teaching.  It has given me many other sources to use when I teach Spanish to middle-schoolers.  Teaching a foreign language requires students to have opportunities to hear and speak the target language as often as possible.  This class has introduced me to podcasts and online voice recording applications, which my future students can use to gain fluency in Spanish.  

I will keep up with new web 2.0 developments by subscribing to a online website via RSS feed to keep up with a few sites that I found to be innovative and well-maintained on incorporating technology with foreign language teaching. I surprised myself yet again.     

Here is my response for question number two.  Although this 23 Things blog was a good learning experience, I do not think I would be able to keep up with it.  I will try to keep up with the tools that I learned.  I really needed to be in this class so I could update my computer skills as I prepare to enter the classroom.  I have learned a lot.  I will try to be more reflective each day to gain better insight in what I learned. 

Thing #23: Creative Commons

Here is the attribution that shows the Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers blog was based on someone else's work and modified from its original.  I found it on the starter page of the 23 Things I two places. The first one was at the end of our 23 Things for Teachers blog. This is what it stated: 

              "*Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006)."  

 

Attribution was also found on the starter page, but on the right bottom area under Credits. It stated the following:
              "Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License."

 

As a future teacher, I could use Creative Commons licensing in the following ways. I could go over creative commons before we do our first research project. I would try to help them understand how other people worked hard to create something and how they need to be given credit for it or how their rights need to be honored.  It would be a good idea for me to show them how to utilize the Creative Commons website, Flickr, and Google to find images, videos, and recordings they could use.  I could also have each student find a photograph, document, or recording they would like to use for a project that has permissions on them.  I would ask the students to select a creative work that could enhance their project, but not something they would be an absolute necessity, since we are not sure how long it would take for the creator to respond.  As a class, including myself, we could go through the process of finding the creator and contacting them to ask for permission to use their work.  I think this will show them a connection to what we are learning in school and how things operate in the real world.



Thing # 22: LiveBinders

I have never used Live Binders before although I have seen that Live Binders were available on ASPU's D2L for saving class content information like syllabi, course module assignments, etc. I am curious to learn more about it. 

The titles of my LiveBinders will be Spanish Lesson Helpers, Classroom Management Tools, and Professional Development Resources.  I selected my Spanish Lesson Helpers as the binder to embed on this post.  I liked this tool.  It was very easy to use.  I could see myself use it in my classroom and with my students.  I could have them use LiveBinders to keep their submit their best work at the end of a marking period or to create a travel portfolio for a hypothetical  trip to a Spanish-speaking country.
Spanish Lesson Plan Helpers

Thing #21: Animoto

Ok. Here is my attempt with making a Animoto Short.  I am trying to be positive about the upcoming experience. Let's see how it takes for me to do this. The time is now 8:16 pm. Well, it too long more than a hour. As I have said in the beginning of this blog, I tend to make all of the mistakes you can think of when first learning how to do something new.  At least we know the tradition continues.  Thank goodness!
My Animoto Video Creation

The Animoto application was not hard to do actually. I think I will use this with my future classes when I teach Spanish.  It would be a great tool for my class to perform skits or interviewing each other as though they were famous Spanish people in Spanish so my students could practice asking questions and responding.  There are so many possibilities.

Thing #20: YouTube and Beyond

I liked the You Tube site. There is so much to explore I lost a lot of time searching for videos.  It's dangerous to browse on such a site. 
I just loved The Kid President videos!!!! He is so adorable and relays wholesome, direct messages that we as adults tend to forget.  In this Kid President Has a Dream video, he reminds us that things do not have to stay the way they are.  Things can change by dreaming about it. Grown ups should not grow out of dreaming. He also inferred that dreaming brings joy to the world.  He challenges us to think of dreams we have for the world.

Until recently, I thought I had to stop dreaming about what I wanted out of life.  After so much time, my dreams are no longer on the back burner and are becoming a reality little by little.  It took a long time to get to this point despite it all I got here and intend to go farther. 

a=GeoBeatshttp://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=GeoBeats

On GeoBeats, they provide video clips of various places from arouind the world.  The videos like the ones I viewed of Spain and Argentina focused on a particular city of that country and described either customs, architecture, historical sites, culinary delights, places of interest when visiting, etc.  This site I chose has a lot of potential. I could use it to have students compare and contrast two or three different Spanish-speaking countries on a particular topic like etiquette or culinary specialties. Another obvious way to use this site is to have students explore places they would like visit in the future and have them explain why and track their future travels on a physical or virtual map of the country.

THING # 20 COMPLETED!!!





 

Thing #19: Beyond Facebook

Question: What did you discover about the best uses of social networking for educators?

Well, the best uses of social networking for educators is attempting to give us ideas in staying connected to the SOCIAL NETWORKING WORLD as we teach so we won't get bogged down and look to social networking for insight or inspiration. What I find funny is that it mentions to try to "Allot time for personal social media use."  It sounds like someone telling me to make sure I make time for myself and not think about work and family responsibilities so much.  Sorry, I digressed.

I am not a member of other social networking sites. For this THING I gravitated towards the cooking sites like Open Food Source and Tasty Kitchen. ( I must be hungry.) The Open Food Source had a lot of ethnic and vegetarian recipes, which is very interesting. I like to check out different recipes. I get bored making the same meals. I would use either of these at home. As for any I might use in the classroom, I surprised myself and really liked the http://classroom20.ning.com/. I liked the ideas they had to incorporate technology in the classroom.  Foreign language teachers can benefit from using technology when creating activities for oral language expression and listening activities. Look out future students!!!! Mrs. Vasquez is going to take her Spanish class to a different level!!!!

TO BE CONTINUED..............





































































































































   
 

Thing # 18: Social Networking

I signed up for a Twitter account!!! I never thought I would have a need to do so. This class is yet again getting me out of my comfort zone. Using hashtags to find some related areas of interest took some time to get used to.  Many of the hashtags I tried did not work or have many followers, so I tried others.  Wait a minute. . . . .  I stand corrected .  I did end up finding hashtags that worked after all.  I had a low tech moment everyone.  Bear with me.

I can see how it can be important for teachers to understand social networking.  It  can be great way to follow others who may have information about job searching. Plus, there's a wealth of current information on professional development opportunities, which will keep your teaching skills current and in demand.  I recognized that Twitter is just like leaving a post-it message for someone. It is brief and to the point and kind of impersonal.  Here's one thing that I did not like about the hashtag search.  When I found one that was of interest and clicked to see more of the feed (Is that what you call it?) or content, it felt like I was walking in on a conversation that had been going on for hours and had no clue what was being discussed.  I felt like I had to go back as far as possible and try to find the start of the  conversation.  In my opinion, that seemed exhausting. 

As far as trying to think of a classroom or school application of Twitter, I will be against it.  Since we now live in a TEXTING & HASHTAG WORLD, the children of this generation are more accustomed to communicating in text and/or hashtag language that their writing skills have become sloppy and haphazard.  I see no reason, in the time being, to support a communication fad that badgers language in such a way.  Am I being too old school and stubborn in my thoughts? What do you think?     

On another note, my seventeen year old daughter was impressed when I told her I was on Twitter now.  I regained some of my cool points with her.  I can live with that.