Eye on Transformation: Recent Episodes
None
Johnny Chung Lee continues to blow my mind. Here's the link to his hack for making an interactive white board at home.
On my best day, I've never been as smart as he is when he's bored...
The Copyright Advisory Network has posted some good resources from the ALA for teachers who want to know more about what they can and can't use in their classrooms. Check it out!
Here's a quick guide to the TEACH Act.
Creative Commons -- Get information and digital images of the CC licenses.
Flickr Storm -- Search for images licensed under CC.
Behold -- Find CC images to use online or in projects.
Jamendo -- Find CC / royalty free music for podcasts
Vimeo Music Store -- Find CC / royalty free music.
This morning I sat down to add some links and, lo, there was a surporse waiting for me when I logged in to my Blogger dashboard!
Check out all the changes here.
I use two tools on a daily basis: social bookmarks and feed aggregators. Specifically, I use Diigo and Google Reader, but there are many choices out there.
Check out this tutorial on Diigo.
We talked very briefly about how Twitter can be used in the classroom. Here is the presentation I put together for a graduate course on the backchannel.
Adobe presentation
View more presentations from Stephanie Krajicek
More information on backchanneling:
danah boyd's painful experience
Gumption's take on backchannels and the underbelly of social media
How do we get our ELL students to practice speaking skills? Here are some resources to help students who need to practice their speaking skills:
Voki (http://www.conversationexchange.com/)
Skype
http://www.modelmekids.com/
http://ready-set-go-english.blogspot.com/
http://www.livemocha.com
http://www.mangolanguages.com/main
Yesterday, someone asked about blogging with speech recognition software and didn't even begin to have an answer. However, never fear! I have found some answers, thanks to Darren Rowse and John Morrow of Copyy blogger. Check out this article and video.
I have posted the presentation slides on Issuu and SlideShare for you to view. If you'd like a copy of the PowerPoint and notes (the notes have links, teaching ideas, and video demonstrations), please contact me at krajiceks at gmail.com.
Open publication - Free publishing - More technology
Integrating Technology to Enhance ESL Education
View more presentations from Stephanie Krajicek.
There's postcard swap for families happening here this month. I was thinking that it'd be a really great idea for ELL kids. If you're interested, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do about putting one together.
Here are the websites and resources that were shared at the ESL Roundtable Monday, April 12, 2010.
Reading A to Z "...Reading A-Z offers thousands of printable teacher materials to teach leveled reading, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, reading fluency, alphabet, and vocabulary. The teaching resources include professionally developed downloadable leveled books, lesson plans, worksheets, and reading assessments..."
*NOTE: Only some of these resources are available for free.
A4ESL.org A website maintained byThe Internet TESL Journal (iteslj.org) that has grammar and vocabulary quizzes, crossword puzzles, links to ESL podcasts and YouTube videos.
Quiz-Tree.org offers teachers educational quizzes, the ability to track students' scores, and a free subscription to their newsletters.
The Realty StoreSM is a "...simulation game in which students identify their career interests, research a specific career, and receive a mock checkbook with the monthly income entered for the specific career. Students then visit booths manned by community members at which they pay their monthly bills. At each booth, student make decisions concerning the standard of living they’ll assume..."
ESL@ Web English Teacher "...At Web English Teacher educators can take advantage of online technology to share ideas and to benefit from the work of others. Beginning teachers can find guidance; experienced teachers can find inspiration. Think of it as the faculty library and faculty workroom on a global scale..."
Resources from Write Connections on ELL & Writing
* Primary
* Intermediate
* Secondary
SpellingCity.com "...With each spelling list, students can choose one of three options:
* Test Me repeats each spelling word with a live voice and uses it in a sentence.
* Teach Me spells and displays the word in ways that stimulate memory for visual and verbal learners.
* Play a Game uses your spelling list in educational games that teach spelling, word meaning, vocabulary, and alphabetical order.
After taking an online spelling test, students can print out a report, retake the entire test, or get tested only on the spelling words they got wrong the first time..."
Tumblebooks.com A database of e-books. A free trial is available.
ESL Roundtable
Southern Indiana Education CenterJasper, INApril 12, 2010ChallengesParticipants discussed challenges that they face at their schools. 1. ELL teachers are searching for quick, easily incorporated modifications that they can recommend for mainstream teachers. Many ELL teachers are finding that mainstream teachers are not modifying / adapting content for ELL students.
2. Some teachers note that there is a lack of space in the school to work with students.
3. Grading ELL students is a challenge. Teachers expressed dissatisfaction with grading scales (U / S) for ELL students. Participants from one school said that their school no longer uses a grading scale; rather, they use standards. Students are evaluated on their ability to meet individual standards. It seems to be a better fit for their ELL students. Other teachers wondered how to grade with modifications.
4. Retention is an on-going problem for all schools. Students drop out when they transition from the elementary / middle school to junior / senior high school. Some think that this is linked to feelings of isolation. Others attributed it, in part, to cultural differences.
5. There is a need for on-going teacher training to reinforce language acquisition theory and ELL education. Mainstream teachers often need to be reminded of what ELL students need.
6. Support at home is often lacking.
7. Differentiating between language-related issues and special needs issues is an on-going problem for some schools.
8. Schools need translation services for documentation going home.
Successes
Participants discussed the successes that they have had with their programs and students. Here is a list of accomplishments that participants were particularly proud of:1. On-going program development to meet changing needs of students and school.
2. Grouping LEPs so that scheduling and placement facilitates student and program success.
3. Partnering with local fire and police departments. Students taught officers Spanish; officers provided community support.
4. College nights / college club: Meetings offered students information about colleges, food, and fun activities. Students participate in fundraisers to go on trips to visit campuses.)
5. Improving ILP forms to make them useful documents for mainstream teachers.
6. Using MClass and RTI with ELL populations to track progress.
7. The creation of parent advisory committee to encourage family involvement.
8. Documents are sent home in Spanish; school’s phone system has outgoing messages in English and Spanish.
9. A dedicated ESL classroom was established.
10. A structured, academically-based ESL program that parallels and complements mainstream classrooms was established.
11. The school runs adult ed in the evenings using Rosetta Stone to provide support for families and build community. The teachers mentioned that students join in when they see how hard their parents are working on learning English.
Future GoalsParticipants discussed items that still remain to be addressed and future goals (both personal and professional).1. Establish a Spanish club to encourage students to speak English and to teach both ELL students and Anglo students about their respective cultures. 2. Create a mentor program for young women to work on retention in the middle and high schools. 3. Re-learn Spanish to make communicating with students easier. 4. Find ways to increase parent involvement.
Questions There were a few questions raised during the discussion about the future of ELL funding:1. Will there be cuts in Title III funding? 2. What’s going on with the application forms for the migrant program through IDOE?
o Indiana Department of Education, English Language Learning & Migrant Education website: http://www.doe.in.gov/lmmp/migrant.htmlo Title III Migrant Education Grant Application Process: http://www.doe.in.gov/lmmp/pdf/2010_MEP_funding_memo.pdfo 2010 Migrant Education Program Application: http://www.doe.in.gov/lmmp/pdf/MEP_Application_10-11.doc
The Indiana Department of Education's Office of Learning Technologies has a program that provides schools with refurbished computers. Schools that are interested should submit a completed Request for Re-purposed Computers for Schools.
Note: There are also a handful of grants that are being offered... Find more information on the OLT website.
Free Technology for Teachers is one place that I consistently go to find out about "new stuff" for the classroom. He has an ongoing collection of games and game-related posts that you may find useful.
Here are the search results for "Games" at FreeTech4Teachers.
Storybird is a website dedicated to cultivating storytelling and collaboration.
I love that this site allows users (students) to create beautiful narratives without having to worry about formatting.
Educational applications:
ESL students could use a storybird to illustrate idioms, create visual dictionaries, elaborate on content learned in class, supplement personal narratives, and create visual aids for speeches. Since storybirds aren't printable, students would need to create a storybird and present them using a projector (or take screen shots and a slideshow application).
I mentioned that Susan Fitzell provided her workshop participants with a form that could be used to keep track of adaptations during planning... She has made a PDF version available on her website. (Find it under the "Differentiating Instruction, IEP Adaptations and Gifted Strategies" category.) I will work on a modified version specifically for ELL classrooms and post that here by next week.
TED is an organization that makes its material available to the world at no cost. Many of the talks are available in other languages...
Classroom applications:
Use these talks as supplemental materials, starting points, or conversation pieces. For students who struggle with English, check to see if the talk is available in their native language(s).
Since students may not have access to email at home and because some schools do not issue school email accounts, one solution may be to create sub accounts.
How it works:
You sign up for a Gmail account. This is your teacher account, not a personal email account.
Add new other email addresses to the account in the settings menu.
Each student should be assigned a sub account linked to your teacher account. To create these sub-accounts, add a plus sign and the student's name after your name and before the @gmail.com.
krajiceks @ gmail.com
becomes
krajiceks+stephanie @ gmail.com
For better instructions, check out this link.
- Remember to check your school's Acceptable Use Policy and to review Google's Terms of Service before jumping in. Sending home a letter of intent / permission slip isn't a bad idea, either.
If anyone is interested in learning more about my colleague's experience with founding and running the Latino Mix club, please contact me or leave a comment.
I found a list of online translators (scroll down, the list is on the left in a baby blue field), but I can't vouch for their worth. If you have documents that you need translated and are loathe to use one of these, I would suggest:
* contacting a Spanish teacher in your school district for help...
* asking your students' parents to help...
* contacting the foreign language teacher preparation professors at colleges or universities near you...
* looking for documents that other schools have already written and translated for your own use...
The other text that I used in the ICP program through IUPUI was the CALLA handbook.
*Anna Uhl Chamot and J. Michael O'Malley (1994)Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing CompanyPp. x + 340ISBN 0-201-53963-2 (paper)Here is a review of the CALLA Handbook by* TESL-EJ