Week 13

I went through several of the tools. Although some other members of the course wrote enthusiastically about teachthought.com, I had trouble accessing most of the tools there. I had to open a new window each time and type in the site name.

In the end, I decided to go with 2 sites that help you enhance lessons using  youtube.
The first is: caption.appspot.com
This allows you to add captions to a personal uploaded video on youtube, or to an existing clip.
The second is: tubechop.com
This enables you to show just the important part of the clip without searching in front of the students.

I was looking for a good animation program that my students could use. I found goanimate.com and got all excited about it. Then I saw that it's not so simple.

Conclusion: Sometimes it's preferable to remain with the tried and true tools and just improve your use of them.

Week 10

Although I only reacted to one other blog, I read several of them (not everyone has posted yet or I would have read more).
I agreed that Simple Wikipedia could be a useful site - I've already sent students to it. I also agree that NoodleTools, a source that is new to me, is awesome. Using it, I tried out the kids' sites, but was disappointed to discover that the English was too high and in general only appropriate for native speakers.
In any case, I bookmarked it for future use.

One of the blogs that I read is teachertube, which presents videos that been have created usually to either explain a teaching method, or to facilitate learning.
Here are 2 videos about teaching vocabulary:

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=192137

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=185396


The Answer Sheet -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/25/does-it-pay-to-obsess-on-where-your-kid-goes-to-college/

- had an article that asks:

Does it pay to obsess on where your kid goes to school?

The conclusion is interesting and probably equally applicable in Israel.

My last blog is The Organized Classroom, and I found something there that I never noticed before, classroom freebies. There's something for everyone; check it out!

 http://www.classroomfreebies.com/

week 6

As usual, I'm overwhelmed by the amount of material and info we've been given. I wish I could spend time experimenting with all the options presented, but it's not going happen, especially not 2 weeks before Pesach. However, I bookmarked the sites that looked especially promising, and I plan to revisit them when I have more time.

In our school, besides the limited technology that is available, we also have Internet Rimon - read that as 'filter'! I'm not sure how many of these sites could be opened in school. However, I'll list my wishful thinking:

1. Skype - This could be a wonderful opportunity to connect with English learners in other countries. I think I probably would have to do a lot of preparation, but I think the students would find it a very interesting way to practice their speaking skills and find out about other cultures in an exciting way.

2. idebate - http://idebate.org/view/top_100_debates
I would use this for native speakers or VERY good 5 pointers. It's an excellent site but the English is very high level.

3. I liked Voice threads.http://voicethread.com/
I haven't figured it out totally, but I'd like to create a post-reading activity for the literature log using this program.

4. Sms generator - http://www.classtools.net/SMS/
This is a great tool to get kids to write. It can start with the simplest writing assignment and with increased proficiency become more difficult. It's especially good for weak students who are afraid of writing.

5. Storyjumper - http://www.storyjumper.com/book/docreate/-1
This is the link to the actual page where you start writing your book. Students can create a book on any level with images and can either share it online or have it printed. It can be done collaboratively or individually. It's another amazing site that encourages creative writing.

I chose all these tools because I felt they have practical uses.

week 4

Before I get into this week's impressions, does anyone have advice for me about Flash? It crashes very often. Any ideas about why, or what to do about it? I could look in Google, but if someone can help me without me sorting through loads of possibilities, it would be nice.

There was a rather sad commentary on The Answer Sheet blog about standardized testing in Florida and the bureaucracy involved.
The Organized Classroom seemed to have an interesting video about tattling but I couldn't watch it because of the Flash problems.
Same goes for Teacher Tube.
I'll try again later in the week.

I had fun this week with the various tools. Of course, Photofunia and Lunapic were the most enjoyable and creative. I'm determined to create an activity with at least one of these sites because I know it's a great draw (pun intended) and super attractive for the students.

It's frustrating for me to have so much amazing technology at my fingertips, but to be limited because of the school's lack of resources. However, I'm not giving up!

week 3 part 2

I had a great time discovering and playing with the various tools. Some of them I was familiar with, but mostly I didn't know how to use them.
Flipsnack looked very exciting, but I wasn't successful in doing what I wanted with it.
I loved Quizlet, but to use it at the maximum means that every student needs a computer, which is sometimes a problem.
The text profilers will be helpful for writing clozes or unseens.

I saved almost everything in Diigo!
In the end I used Puzzlemaker to prepare a word search for my eighth graders.
 

 

Week 3 part 1

I just went through some of my tech blogs. 

Teachertube had some silly clips that I didn't have patience to watch till the end. I saw that there were other clips that might be useful in a native speaker class, but not for my classes.

The Answer Sheet had a sad commentary about standardized testing which, while written in the U.S., basically reflects what's happening here, too. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/03/why-school-isnt-for-children-anymore-teacher/

Organized Classroom had a cute idea for getting kids to partner with different children. http://www.theorganizedclassroomblog.com/index.php/blog/puzzling-partner-groups

I checked everybody's blog tonight and it seems that I'm the only one who did the work of week 2. Of course I realize that it's only the first day, but Sunday is my day off, and I was hoping to share and get feedback from the other students. I guess I'll have to be patient and control my curiosity.

So I've been surfing and searching...A lot of sites looked interesting, but I bypassed many them because I wanted to find things that would help me on a practical level with my teaching, On the other hand, I wanted to locate sites that had varied things offer.

I finally chose three sites, but I suspect that I will be lurking on several others to which I've been exposed. Now that I've bookmarked them, I can peek whenever I have a free moment at the computer.

One of the things that I found interesting about these sites is the level of security of each one. My first  choice was http://www.teachertube.com, a site which posts various types of videos. In order to sign up for this site I had to fill in a registration form, create a password and enter an anti-spam code. I had some trouble at first, but my persistence was rewarded, when I found a video about another site called http://www.prometheanplanet.com which has interactive whiteboard activities. Since I've felt for a long time that our board is underused, and this site has postings from Israeli ESL teachers, I felt that I'd already hit the jackpot. In any case, I wondered at the level of security, especially when the next site I checked out had no security at all.

My second choice was http://www.theorganizedclassroomblog.com/index.php/blog/latest. I'm not sure it will help me on a practical level, because many of the ideas presented aren't appropriate for my students, but they are interesting, easy to read, and may generate other ideas. One article I read there was about using Google Drive. Although I've filled out forms in it, I have no idea what to do with it. The article sparked my interest, and I hope to look into it further.

My last choice was http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet, because I wanted one place for just reading what other teachers had to say; a site where theories and unusual thinking were put forward and pragmatism was out of style.

I've always been fascinated by computers and the Internet. For a while I was spending an inordinate amount of time playing all sorts of games, like Zumba, Freecell, various forms of Solitaire, etc. until one day I decided that I was wasting too much time. I made a firm decision: no more games! The only game I occasionally allow myself is soduku. I haven't even allowed myself to be seduced by Candy Crush, although almost everyone around me is playing it (at least the younger generation).

I often try to use multimedia in the classroom, although the school is sorely lacking many necessary tools. However, I generally stick to youtube or Powerpoint, which I'm familiar with, because I'm well aware that I'm pretty ignorant in this area.

I find the technology so compelling that I considered studying the use of it for my M.A. in another college. Why I didn't? Maybe another time.....

I really hope I come out of this course a lot wiser than I'm going in...