ESL Podcast

I found a very useful podcast for ESL class, that is ESL Podcast. I listen to ESL Podcast 885 Talking to a Bank Teller and I think it would be used in ESL class. This podcast is a great practice for students who go to bank and do business. The scene of this conversation is like what happen in students real life. And also it provides script for students who does not understand this conversation. This speaker in the podcast speak in a slow speed so that every student might follow up. More over, after the conversation, the host offers a detailed explanation to this conversation, which I believe it help students to learn English and understand English.

I can use this podcast in my future class when I am teaching listening or sometimes, speaking. For listening class, this could be a very useful material that students could work on. For example, I can play the conversation first, and ask students to remember the conversation. Second, I will put forward some questions according to this conversation, and ask student to comprehend them. For instance, in this conversation, it gives students many verbs which meaning are not the same as what we learn in class, like "cash", in this conversation, cash is used as a verb instead of a noun form. I can also ask students to download it and listen to the podcast after class. They can use it for a dictation material and listen it for three time. The most important thing is that the speed of this podcast is very slow, it's quite suitable for beginners or students whose level is not that high. Last but not the least, the explanation the host gives is very clear and students can learn alone, which means they can use it for after school material. I would recommend this podcast to my students in the future.

Global Community

I spent a lot of time on Epals in the past week to explore and find out how can I benefit from this site. One of the programs I really like in this site is Global Community. This website allows educators to match classrooms by languages and ages of the students. After searching for what you really want to know, you will find some cases which post by other teachers, and experiences are shared by this means. They provide three kinds of collaborations: email exchange, project workshop and Skype or video chat. Global Community also offers teacher to create projects or view others' projects. The subjects of the project deal with different topics like writing, reading, language learning, math and so on. After viewing other teachers projects, I am inspired because some projects are so good in details that provide you with lots of ideas that you might be able to use in your future teaching.

Another feature of this site I really appreciate is that the Teacher Resources. You can find  three types of resources, namely, instructional resources, videos and audios. And also you can narrow down by age, subject, and topics. You can even download some of them for free!! I download What is a Tall Tale and I think it is quite useful for future teaching. With picture and words showed in each page, students would like to read  and motivated by it. I think teachers would definitely benefit from this feature.

Overall, for my future teaching, I would like to incorporate Global Community in teaching. I want to create a profile and connect globally so that I can share thoughts with other experts in my field. The teachers resources center would also help me to find materials that I can use for my teaching.

GO ANIMATE!

GOANIMATE is a cloud-based platform for users to create and distribute animated videos. It allows users to develop narrative video with two characters speak in the dialogue. At first, I thought it was too complex to create a video dialogue, however, after I made one, I was surprised that the video is so user friendly!
I want to use the tool in my future teaching because students would definitely interest in the video. I would like to make the dialogue in accordance with  the topics we work on, and display to students first. After they watch the video, I would like to invite students to have a role-play to imitate the scene. I would also want to assign students to make one and post online, sharing with others. If someone is interested  in their video, they might comment it. Through the whole process, students not only learn the dialogue, enhance their comprehension of the scene, but also get thoughts from others, which would make them motivate in learning a language.
  On the street by xiaoleiw on GoAnimate

Animoto

Animoto is a cloud-based video creation that produce videos from photos, music, and video clips into video slideshows. It is easy to use and very creative for both teachers and students. Here is what I made by using Animoto.


Clothes
I want to use this creative tool into my teaching in the future. Students might be interested in making their own stories by using Animoto. I can ask them to tell us about their favorite book or movie. They can introduce books or movies by showing pictures or video clip into it and add music in accordance with the theme. I think this would really stimulate students to DIY. Also, as a teacher, instead of showing my students powerpoint, I can show them my photo story and make it a video slideshow. I can stop whenever I want them to pay attention to.

I first heard of this tool from my professor who showed us a book review made by her son. She said that when her son was making this video clip, he was very enjoyable and very excited about his video. Even though I never use it in my real teaching, but I want to try it and see how the students respond to it and then decide  whether I will continue to use it or not.

How can we incorporate digital storytelling in teaching

What is digital storytelling? According to 7 things you should know about digital storytelling, "digital storytelling is the practice of combining narrative digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component." Compared with traditional storytelling, digital storytelling usually contains some "mixture of computer-based images, texts, recorded- audio narration, video clip and/ or music."(The Educational use of Digital Storytelling). There are seven elements in creating a digital storytelling:

1. Point of View 
 What is the main point of the story and what is the perspective of the author?

2. A Dramatic Question 

 A key question that keeps the viewer's attention and will be answered by the end of the story.

3. Emotional Content 

 Serious issues that come alive in a personal and powerful way and connects the audience to the story.

4. The Gift of Your Voice

 A way to personalize the story to help the audience understand the context.

5. The Power of the Soundtrack

 Music or other sounds that support and embellish the story.

6. Economy

 Using just enough content to tell the story without overloading the viewer

7. Pacing 

 The rhythm of the story and how slowly or quickly it progresses. 

 (The Educational use of Digital Storytelling)

How can we incorporate digital storytelling in our teaching? From the perspectives of teacher, digital storytelling is an effective instructional tool. For example, teachers can create a digital story for themselves to introduce the topic that they are going to talk. By so doing, students' attention might be focused on the "new" method of introduction, they might also want to learn how to do it. Teacher can also use digital storytelling method as to present the topic and enhance students' memory of the topic. For students who are visual-learners might learn better through this way. What is the benefit for students who are using digital storytelling? From the scenario that 7 Things You Should Know Digital Storytelling, David learn new skills in carrying out his digital storytelling project. We can see that, if we assign students to create a digital storytelling, they might pick up skills like David did. Students might also enhance their communication skills or ability in the process of participating a digital storytelling project. When the project is post online, like in Facebook or Twitter, even Youtube, students might get comments from different people, which ensure an opportunity for them to share ideas with others.

Can we use serious games outside classroom?

Trace Effects is made by U.S. department of state and it was made to teach students English all around the world. The game is designed for player aged 12-16. It required "gamers interact and solve puzzles in a virtual world filled with diverse English-speaking characters." When you are playing the game, you need to " take a dynamic journey through the United States, traveling to cultural locations like Kansas, New Orleans, the Grand Canyon, New York City...".
I played Chapter One and Two twice to get familiar with the conversations or other knowledge about the game. I found that students will really benefit from the game if they get into playing it. They can learn knowledge about American cultural and make comparison to their own culture as well. The game also provides students with communication strategies that they can use in daily life and they can imitate native American accent when they play it. Moreover, the game is divided into different chapters and each week, students can play one chapter and focus on one at a time. What's more, the vocabulary in the game is quite easy for students to master.
If this game is used for outside classroom,  the language objectives might be SWABT:

• understanding specific American culture
• apply communication skills to daily life (how to ask for help)
• distinguish word meaning in specific context

After students playing the game, I would like to assess them from different aspects. I can employ some communication skills into class, for example, I can set up a theme, ask them to discuss how to ask for help. They can either prepare a presentation or role-play. Another way to assess them is to have them to write a review about this game. I think journal writing would assess how much do students understand the game and how much they learn from the game.
From what I learn from this game, I think some serious games can employ outside classroom and what they teacher needs to do are to get to know the game and set up specific language objectives for the game. More importantly, the game has to match students level.

Can we use strategy games outside classroom?

Big Fish Games is strategy game that students can play outside classroom. This is an online game which is designed for strategy learning. It has a casino in the game, you can choose to play Blackjack, Texas, or other games online. I think by playing this game, students would definitely learn how to make decisions. I played this game for 4 times. It is play-friendly game, because it is easy to start and easy to follow instruction. The challenge in the game would be how to make your strategy work and how to get more money from gambling. Students would find it interesting because it simulates the real-world situation--Casino! You can have your own chips in the game and also, you can choose your bet.There are also some vocabulary in the game, like "stand","hit", "double", which some of them contain different meaning from what students know before.

The language learning objectives for this game would be SWABT:
Distinguish different meanings of one word according to context;
Apply new words in real life learning;
Enhance the ability of strategy-making.
Through this game, I wish to complete the mission that it would help students to make strategy, I would focus on the simulate situation that they play. I think I would assess students by ask them how much money do they win in the game, ask them to make an oral report of how they win or loose money in the game, and also what do they get from the game. If they really are into the game, they might find some rules in play Blackjack, for example, when do you need to hit, when do you need to stand,  when can you double your bet, and when do you need to buy insurance in case of loosing too much money. In addition, I would make a word check-list that they need to finish which contains polysemy on the list. They need to find out the difference in context. And also, there would be a test on Blackjack, like if they get a 12, what will they do to win the bet. I think this activity would test their ability in decision making.

Even though I had fun in play Big Fish Games, I still doubt that if we really can employ this kind of games in teaching. What if students show no interest in the game or what if they are addicted to the game? There are still lots of questions need to be answer about using games for teaching.

Games In Classroom

Gamification is the infusion of game design techniques, game mechanics, and/or game style into anything.
The usage of games in language learning classroom is that it enhance the interaction between teachers and students. The engagement of teacher and students in the game might create a harmonious atmosphere in class. Both teachers and students need to be involved in the game. For example, if teachers use the game as a task, students need to follow instructions. Say, we use walkthroughs in the task, students have to focus on what they need to do next and how to finish the task. By so doing, teachers and students are very interactive to each other because one work as a guide and the other work as followers. What's more, students might encounter new vocabulary or other new language features in during the game, and teacher could work on these new things after they finish the game or during the game.

I personally played the game Phantasy Games for 4 times without the help of Walkthrough, but I failed to completed the mission. It was difficult for me to finish the game even under the help of walkthrough because some steps need to be very careful and if you failed to follow, you have to start from previous step or steps. If I employ games into my classroom, I think my language learning objectives might be SWABT:
Recognize vocabularies for directions ( go back, to the top, go to the right, etc.);
Understand directions by listening to walkthrough;
Apply direction vocabulary in daily life.
The role of teacher in the classroom would be a controller because teacher have to give directions and control what the students need to do. Also I think teacher might be a bridge that help students to finish the task. During the game, students would actively involve in the game by following orders or instructions given by the teacher. There is a goal in completing the task is that students need to rescue the girl, so they have to do it step by step. So, I would use a walkthrough for the game, because I want to incorporate my learning objectives in the game, and more importantly, I found it is really hard to finish the task alone. Students need directions and at the same time, teacher can assess whether the students understand the direction or not. I would also use images from the game to guild my students. For example, the arrow the show directions, or the items they are going pick up. I might make a powerpoint and show to my students.
After walkthrough, I would check if my students finish the task successfully or not, that would be one way to assess whether my learning objectives achieve or not. Another way to assess my learning objectives would be do a follow-up activity which require students to show directions, like ask for direction role-play, or picture telling about directions.

Use Twitter for Professional Development

Nowadays, twitter become one of the most popular social network that people use in daily life, but how can we use twitter to develop our profession also heated discussed by people. If you have been using twitter for quite a long time, you definitely notice that people tweet whatever that want. There are no rules for tweet something or retweet something. They do it because they want to not because they need to. If your followers are like this type, you were tired of reading spams and want to skip them and finally, you might loose interest in follow them.
10 Twitter Mistakes You Should Avoid tells you how to use twitter appropriately not only in professional development, but also in daily life. The first principle is that avoid over-tweeting

if someone over-tweeting, the whole homepage would be filled up by them, which bothers others a lot especially you tweet something useless and meaningless. Other mistakes are: follow Friday perversion, celebrity insulting, RIP for someone famous, retweet every compliment, tweet about food, etc. In China, we have Weibo, which is like Twitter in America. Some of my followers tweet about food everyday, even though I am tired of that, I would bother sometime because you have to say good words in your compliment. 

If you want to use Twitter for professional development, this article 10 WAYS Teachers Can Use Twitter for Professional Development provides you some ways. Create a strong profile page, use hashtags

and share what you read are mentioned in this article. After I read this article, I think I really did a bad job in using twitter for professional development. I don't have a strong profile, I did not filled up my bio as well. But I really think that Twitter can help educators a lot in future. If you use hashtags, you can find topics that interesting you in the whole twitter and join them to discuss the topic. Also, your questions might be answered by others around the world, which means you get opinions from around the world. Share what you read on twitter also help you develop your career. Say I read books or articles about how to teach refugees and I tweet my reviews, my followers read it and might also give comments on my tweet. What's more, someone who read the same article or book would provide their review on comments as well. By this way, you actually "communicate" with others about your thoughts. You can improve yourself and reflect what you do in class in twitter if you use it as a teaching diary.

Twitterchat

This actually is my first time to get involved in twitter chat , and it seems I was confused about this feature at first, however, when I search for hashtag, I find that there are so many people discuss some topic on it. Moreover, if you have questions about your field, you can put forward it on twitter and hashtag it, people with the same hashtag can help you out. 

Twitterchat embraces such great feature that we can share thoughts on this stage, and it's free! Social network makes the world smaller and shorten the distance between people by connect each other. For me, this would be great for professional development, because I can read others' tweets, learn from their experience and also post my questions waiting for someone to answer that for me. In this case, I might not just receive one answer, I might gather answers from different walks of people or from my field, that would be a wonderful thing for me! I like to hear from different people, and Twitterchat just provides this opportunity for me. I think it would help me a lot in future and I definitely would continue to use it!

Learn Clothing Vocabulary! (phrases 2)

Social Networking group--NYSCATE

NYSCATE (The New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education)" is a non-profit, professional organization representing more than 10,000 technology using educators and administrators in New York State. NYSCATE is an affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and cooperates with such partners as the New York State Education Department, state and national educational organizations, private sector corporations, and publishers to further the  use of technology in our schools. NYSCATE is involved in helping define statewide policy regarding the use of technologies in education."

NYSCATE is a social networking group that I want to try in my future career. I think it's a useful and user-friendly website because I find a lot of useful information in this site. It provides you with a different groups that you can join in and a forum that diverse topics are discussed. Members share their ideas through this site and connect each other together. Say, one of the members provide a useful link that tells you to read blogs that would be useful for you if your school is using Charlotte Danielson 2007 for their APPR. (Blogs that you need to read) So for those teachers whose school is using Charlotte Danielson 2007 can go to this link and find some useful information by this link.

As what Alan Levine says in the clip Alan Levine-New Media Consortium, we can build up our own social networks by connect with our colleagues, friends or other medias. We are not born to know everything, as teachers, we also need to learn new things, ideas that help us in teaching. One of the ways to get to know more is by connect yourself with others by social networking groups.

Learner is like flowers

Learners are like flowers if teachers are gardeners. This analogy uses a lot in Chinese culture that teachers are gardeners who need to take good care of flowers-- the learners. I think this analogy is quite fit in what Connectivism Theory refer to. "Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing." What does a teacher need to do in order to convey knowledge to students is that building a bridge that connect students to the outside world, the real world. From this point of view, learners are flowers, because they need to absorb sunshine, nutriment or other elements that fed by gardeners. Sunshine and nutriment are knowledge that teachers try to bring in the classroom.

In the presentation What is Connectivism, the presenter talks about concept of connectivism and types of connectivism. He mentions that "The experience of learning is one of forming new neural, conceptual and external networks." What I read from this point is that if learners are flowers, teachers need to bring in some new information that students can benefit from and turn those kinds of information into their own knowledge, students need to digest information but not just absorb. It is like when the gardeners help to fertilize flowers, they provide them with water, nutriments and enough sunshine, but what the flowers can do in order to grow healthy or grow well is by absorbing nutriment, sunshine, and water, and then turn them into the elements that they need to grow up. Students need to form their own thoughts by digest what teachers give them in class and to create meaningful things for themselves in the real world.

I doubt this analogy the first time I heard it, but when you think deeper, you might find this analogy does not mean force students to do something they do not like, but cultivate students to pick up what they need in life. 

Diggo VS Scoop. it

Diigo and Scoop. it are tools that we can use on any devices. They are very convenient and easy to use for everybody. 

These two advanced tools provide users with abundant of information that they can share on they homepage. Users can followed each other and search for information by type in multiple tags or key words on both Diigo and Scoop. it. This is a great way to share information and thoughts.

Despite their similarities, Diigo and Scoop.it share some differences. For example, if you use Diigo, you can highlight texts and save for later that you want to share with others, but Scoop. it does not embrace this feature. Scoop. it, on the other hand, owns some wonderful features that Diigo does not have. First of all, users can comment on other's scoop or topic and share thoughts with each other. It also allow users to copy and paste original article to appear in their comments, however, Diigo can not. Secondly, Scoop. it offers suggestions on the topic that you are searching and you can find different sources to related topic. This feature surprises me in my first try to add scoop to my topic. You can find topic by Google blog, Youtube, Google news, twitters...Anyway, you would find one source that interests you.

If I have to choose from these two tools, I think I might continue to use Scoop. it because of its power features and plenty of information that I can easily find. I do not mean I would dump Diigo, I Like Diigo as well, because it just like a library, and it's user-friendly. This is a hard question for me because I want to keep these two tools for my future use.

The Future Starts From Here

The future of teaching starts from introducing of technology. As what I see from the video “ Educational Change Challenge” and “ The Future Starts Now-2012 edition”, the import of technology becomes a trend in future teaching.

Every student can learn, but they learn differently. For a long time, the greatest hurdle of education reform is that society does not have a clear image of what school is for. People view school as a place where children can learn things, however, how can school guarantee how much children can learn or how educators mediate students? One thing inspires me in “ Educational Change Challenge” is that “In education, if you don’t use technology for learning, you may lose relevant. Educators must be relevant.” We, as future teachers, must take advantage of technology in future teaching if we want to be a “relevant” teacher. We can use computer to find materials, or we can use blog to connect with students after class. It is not a simple way to conduct a new thing in teaching, but at least we should try it and may it be useful in teaching.

“ The Future Starts Now-2012 edition” reminds me of students who use smart phone in Chinese class. This is quite a common thing happened in Chinese classroom because most of them are trying hard to learn Chinese, and they encounter problems that they need to figure out. For example, they use smart phone to check unknown words they hear from the instructor or sometimes, they use it to google relevant knowledge to the topic they discussed. The ICT (Information and Communication Technology) should not ban during class time because our students need it and they think it would help them to learn better. The problem is how can we use ICT smartly to improve learning and why ICT is so important in learning? As far as I am concerned, the use of ICT in teaching or learning may benefit both teachers and students. For students who live in rural area, they can communicate with teachers by log in the Internet, they can click on the lesson they want to learn or they assign to learn, so that they share the same opportunity with students who have class at school. The cost of learning reduced because they don’t need to travel in a long distance. Moreover, computers help students to learn differently and think differently. There are plenty of source in the Internet that students can search it, read it and react to it. Article they read could be the same, but reaction or thinking might be different due to different sources, and students need to distinguish what is right and what is wrong from what they read online.

The future of teaching starts from the implement of technology, we, as teachers, can not ignore what is happening now, but we need to accept new trend of teaching is coming, get ready for it!

The Future Starts Now- 2012 Edition

 Educational Change Challenge

mod 2

Use blog with students or own professional development

I think blog is a very convenient way to communicate for both teachers and students. One thing I would like to use blog with my students is that to post current news or events to invite students’ thoughts, ideas and comments. This is a great way to get to know your students well. By doing this, teachers might know what kind of person the students are and find ways to communicate with students, moreover, find out the best way to instruct specific students. Also, teachers can make comments on students’ thoughts, which makes it like a face-to-face communicate for both teachers and students.

 Blog is beneficial for teacher’s professional development in long term. Blogs are dynamic and focus on content. Teachers are not going to assess their students simply by what they learn in class, but what they get from the class. Teacher might have a new idea of how to assess their students by using blogs. For example, if one of the student is slow in learning in class time, however, he/she work hard after class and does great job by making comments on the current events on the blogs. This might become one of the factors that teachers need to take into consideration when they assess their students.

Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making

Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:

1.     Identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation

2.     Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.

3.     Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.

4.     Use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions.

Technology Operation and Concept

Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.

1.     Understand and use technology systems.

2.     Select and use applications effectively and productively.

3.     Troubleshoot systems and applications.

4.     Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.
ISTE| NESTS students standards