Lesson Reflection: Food en español

Lesson Plan

Student and teacher read through vocabulary. Student then repeated each item and was encouraged to ask questions. Teacher directed student to set on Quizlet.com using a laptop and student’s iPhone. Once Quizlet was accessed, teacher provided a brief tour so that student was aware of the various practice options. Student was then given time to practice with site. Finally, teacher had student take the “Test” option and reviewed results with student. *Compared to the original lesson, this included a shorter vocabulary list due to time constraints and no creation of a plan for further study.

Implementation

The lesson went smoothly. Having only one student—my husband—to work with was vastly different from teaching a full class. He enjoyed working with food vocabulary, as he is a Chef. He behaved the same as my younger students when given a website to review with; he immediately went to the game options and preferred those to the flashcards. I also found him working with iPhone in hand, using an online translator to “help” with words he couldn’t remember. Students do that, too.

Question Set One

The learning goal was to understand Spanish food vocabulary. The underlying assumptions were that vocabulary knowledge can be acquired through basic audio/text association and that games are a reasonable way to practice and demonstrate linguistic knowledge.

The technology used afforded the opportunity to listen to a native speaker and individualized practice. A major constraint was that the technology was only available with Internet access. As we were without Internet for a week, my student could not practice for as long as I would have liked.

Learning took place through direct instruction and independent practice. The website is constructivist in that the user rehearsed Spanish vocabulary to increase memory retention. Also, the site tapped existing schema (the student’s knowledge of similar words in English) to create new knowledge. Behaviorism was seen when correctly answered questions yielded positive reinforcement (green check marks and positive points) and incorrect answers resulted in negative reinforcement (red check marks).

While this lesson could supplement my curriculum, I tailored it to the needs of my “summer student”. This was new territory for this learner, who knows some French, but little Spanish. I chose food words, as they fit his occupation.

In this case, I only had to account for one learner. I considered his preferences (games on iPhone, his job), as well as his beginner level. Knowing that Quizlet provides basic practice, I chose it as his learning tool.

In using Quizlet, teachers need to know the URL and which sections they want students to do. Teachers should also know the process for each activity. Learners will need to be directed to the site and provided with expectations. Only a basic knowledge of computers (click, type) is needed.

My student was assessed via the “Test” feature. To hold him accountable, I had him take the test at various intervals and share his results. At the beginning, he failed the test. However, at the end, he scored 85%, or B. He was elated by his improvement.

Question Set Two

Technology played a major role in my lesson. While I introduced the content, I relied on Quizlet for practice and assessment. An advantage of the technology is its appeal. The student enjoys playing games. Another advantage is the technology keeps track of the student’s progress and gives appropriate feedback.
A disadvantage of this tech is increased chance for distractions and “alternate routes”. For example, I encouraged use of the “flash cards”, but my student preferred learning via the “Scramble” game and quickly shifted to that instead.
Technology was used how I expected. Once I showed my student the site, he did not have any questions, as Quizlet is very easy to use. He maneuvered through the various options easily and settled on the matching game for the majority of his time, enjoying the online practice.

Since the student primarily made sense of the content through a match game, he learned to identify the vocabulary, not how to generate it. Because of this, he did well on matching and multiple-choice portions of the assessment, but less well when he had to type the word on his own. Overall it was a positive experience—my husband gained some Spanish skills and I enjoyed helping with his progress.

Lessons from Violet (Digital Storytelling CEP 800)

This video project tells the story of our puppy, Violet, and the lessons my husband and I are learning from her. We are compared as learners with different understandings, as my husband grew up with larger dogs whereas my family always had small dogs. Enjoy!

CEP 800 Raw Interview Project

The following podcast is an interview I conducted to improve my ability to ask open-ended questions to gauge understanding and practice editing audio.  The main topic is immigration.  My two subjects are a recent high school graduate and a 10th grade student.  I chose a train theme to go along with the notion of travel and relocation that comes with immigrating to a new country. 

To Sra. T, With Love [A la Sra. T, con Amor]

Sra. T was my high school Spanish teacher.  I started Spanish in 9th grade and because of Sra. T, I fell in LOVE with it instantly.  She loved us like we were her own children, she put stickers on our papers when we did well (hadn't seen those since elementary school!), and she made her classroom feel like HOME.  


Today, I am a Spanish teacher.  I majored in Spanish in college because she turned the language into my passion.  I was pre-med at first, but then I realized I loved all things school, loved people, and didn't want to "just see them when they were sick".  


When I made the decision to teach and started taking education courses, I realized that most of my ideas of what it meant to teach language all came from my 4 years in Sra. T's classroom.  The games, the songs, the videos, the FUN and joy of learning...The way she would give us nicknames, let us choose Spanish names, and would call us "Señor" and "Señorita", her goofy voices and random tunes... I do them too!  :)  She also would make worksheets that had sentences about EACH of us on them and create fun themed translations based on what was going on in the world-- holidays/Winter Olympics, etc. 


To have her class was to love her.


When I realized how much she'd fully impacted my life's course, I sat down and wrote a heartfelt and lengthy letter...


SHE WROTE BACK!  And better yet, she did so in the form of an "I Love Lucy" postcard! (She used to reference I <3 Lucy all the time).  It was the most exciting piece of mail in my dorm mailbox! :)  


I had the honor of observing in her classroom (see below) as well as helping teach her students for a day.  Sra. T retired the year before I began my career, so she bequeathed me much of her classroom items.  


I literally felt that she passed on the torch to me.  To this day I am honored and humbled to have been her student and to carry on her legacy in my own classroom.


Gracias, Sra. T.  
Usted es mi inspiración y el centro de mi corazón español.  
Ahora y siempre.  


Con amor y gratitud sin fin,
"Margarita"


For photos, Click HERE and scroll down.

Walking the Talk: My Professional Learning Plan

Professional Learning Plan on Prezi

What were some of the online resources that you found that were really helpful? If so what were they and how were they helpful?

-PREZI: I was just thinking that PowerPoint presentations, while useful, have become increasingly "outdated" and fairly stagnant when compared to many of the apps students use on their phones or computers. Prezi increases interest with panning, zooming, and more interesting transitions while also allowing everything to be viewed on one large screen so that viewers can quickly see the connections.

-JING: I had never heard of this before, so I became curious quickly when many of our tasks said "you can Jing it". What a WONDERFUL tool! Not only did I use it for my opening introduction, but I also relied on Jing when I made my Implementation report for Wicked, AND used it to help create our Group Leadership project! I would have truly LOVED to use it in conjunction with my Prezi for the final Wicked presentation, but unfortunately my complete lack of a voice (I can squeak, but that's about it) made that less plausible. When my voice recovers, I may pull my Wicked Prezi back out, as well as my scripted presentation, and Jing it. So far I've only used Jing with PowerPoint, so I'm really looking forward to utilizing it with Prezi.

-WIX: I've been relying on Weebly since I first learned about it, but I've never liked it whole-heartedly. I prefer Google sites, which is far less buggy and easy to "pop into" since I already have a google account and can get there from Gmail. Wix is like a whole new WORLD! Not only does it have a very logical interface (very user friendly, if you click on something, it let's you edit it, etc.), but it also has a wealth of clip art, photos, sound clips, etc. that you can utilize. AND the various templates are OUTSTANDING! They look very professional and include all the components needed for a variety of web-based businesses, etc. Yet, anyone can choose a template and then modify it to suit his/her own needs. I began a site for my husband, who is a chef, and who would like to do some consulting work (on menus, food costing, large event planning, etc.). It's not finished yet, but so far it is much more refined that the Google site page I'd started for him a while back! :) www.wix.com/chefljdavis/chefdavis

Did you find any other online communities that could provide resourceful information? If so what were they and how were they helpful?

YES. I joined Classroom 2.0 and I now receive e-newsletters daily with various tech topics, upcoming events of interest, etc. However, I have to admit that the most useful online community I have learned recently is Twitter. I now follow various professors/administrators from our MAET program, as well as WIRED magazine, Karl Gude (who gave the Data Visualization presentation used in this course), and some TEDx tweets. Speaking of TEDx, I recently was discussing it with Abbie and we both were saying just how stimulating the TEDx talks usually are. I hadn't heard of TEDx until I started taking MAET courses and now I am incredibly eager to attend one of these sessions!! I posted a TEDx link in a different discussion forum (Data Visualization, I think?). The talk was by an Egyptian man who works for Google and was involved in the recent uprising there. He shared how Web 2.0 technologies enabled the citizenry to realize that they weren't alone in their frustrations and then also allowed them to freely communicate and tweak their protest plans on a massive scale. Facebook, Skype, e-mail, Twitter... all of these tools (and others) truly EMPOWERED the people. If only our District could realize just how powerful (and empowering) it can be to put these technologies into students' hands and then to teach them safe & proper use. If only, if only... Perhaps Abbie & I will find an effective way to change the board's mind on this. We will see!

What strategies were helpful for trying to learn a new technology?

-Viewing Online Tutorials: These work well for me because I can watch and re-watch as needed, pause, rewind, etc.

-Looking at Examples: Seeing the way something works (and how someone else has done it) always helps give me ideas and sometimes allows me to realize that a tool has far more options/potential than I ever knew
-Reading a Guide Document: Following step-by-step procedures come in handy, as well. Again, I can go back over things or stop when needed.

-"Blind" Tinkering: When I learn a new tech device, I usually like to play around with it for a little while before I resort to reading the rule book or watching the tutorial. While this is a fun way to just "dive in", it can result in missing out on certain features, etc. It's best for me to do a mix of these things to learn a new technology

How does working with others (versus working alone) support you in your own learning?

Working with others supports my learning immensely! I tend to be very social, so I like to have discussions about topics to reason through things with classmates. Having Abbie in this course with me was WONDERFUL. We would discuss course content at lunch time or meet up to talk during her prep or mine, etc. Being able to share our takes on things and hear someone else's understandings can enhance learning substantially.

How will you use this experience to support your own lifelong learning of technology?

-My experience in CEP 812 has already had a profound impact on me. This has been one of the most difficult semesters of my life (both due to course content and my own various issues), but I feel as though I have come out of this class with an abundance of "arrows" in my educational technology "quiver". One HUGE impactful moment came in watching the Data Visualization presentation (TEDx: Karl Gude). What he said resonated with me greatly, as I am someone who tends to be wordy with everything: e-mails, worksheets, discussion posts... What he said about saying a lot more with a lot less, being "text light", etc. has inspired me to strive for that. My Personal Learning Plan ("More Walk, Less Talk") is an attempt to adhere to this "text lightness" and seek to say more with less words. While it was certainly a challenge to keep my words to a minimum, the end result is much more visually stimulating and less daunting to take in. I hope to continue with this "more walk, less talk" way of presenting things and am already seeking out better ways to use visualization in my classroom (with sites such as Mind42 and Bubbl.us, for example). Another way I will continue to learn is through my Twitter feed. By following more tech specialists, theorists, etc., I am already getting more informative and educational tweets than I was when I was simply following Ashton Kutcher and J-Lo. :) I want to keep finding more intellectuals to follow on Twitter so that I can quickly "feed my brain" just by clicking on my twitter app.

-Our experience with our Wicked Problem Project was a major learning experience. By getting caught up in red tape, we were able to realize just how debilitating district policies and restrictions can be--for teachers and students alike! To continue being a role model for learning and pursuing higher knowledge of tech, I (along with Abbie) want to keep churning out new techy things that pique the interest of students and staff alike (e.g. my Weebly page with Google Calendar embedded).

I also want to assist other staff members (especially technophobes) with becoming more comfortable with educational technology so that they might better serve the "digital natives" that enter their door every day.

Thank you for reading,
w.