Comment on another group"s

  VoiceThread activity

I chose to comment on group 3, because the activity they chose is a little similar to our activity except they took it to the next level.

Their  students will also be watching a movie to start the activity, theirs is about immigration issues. I think it is a good topic but I feel that it is  a pretty heavy subject and a bit difficult to compare cultures with that.

Students will have to write a glossary on voiceThread of all the words and new terms they found and looked up on line. I really like that idea, it really engages the students to watch the video attentively and  make every effort to learn from what they hear and see. 

At the end of the activity, the students have to answer True -False questions to check their understanding, which we did too in our activity. Group  3 did it better though: they asked their students to correct the False statements. I remember having to do that in several of my classes as a student, and it forces you to reflect and weigh your answer. I think it really tells the instructor truly understands or is he/she just guessing.

The last part of their activity was for students to play a game where they will give a summary statement about the movie and "part of the game was that no  summary statement could be repeated."   I think it is a  very good idea, however if I was doing the activity, I would not call this a game (I am thinking of my own students who love games and are pretty particular about what is a game).  I would also worry, depending  on the size of the class, if there are enough ways to do a summary statement  that no other student has used before. This might be very challenging but not impossible if the students are pretty fluent.

I like our idea of doing a photo-story  or comic  strip to show understanding, students will still use the language and it will also foster their creativity and innovation skills.

Group work and Long Distance Learning

Face to Face Group Work

                     

            

 

On Line Group  Work

                                            

                                            Image Source: http://www.ama.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/22.jpg

So on line group  work? Humm How was it  for my group ?

I am going to say that in general, it went pretty well, in  fact better than I expected. 

I  think I was pretty lucky to have great partners and both of them are committed to doing great work. The collaboration was very good and we all listened to each others' feedback and took advice from others. I think each had input and constructive criticism. There is always  room for improvement but considering how busy each one of us is , we did pretty good. 

We did have some time coordination issues because of our schedules and it was hard to get everyone to meet at the same time, but we did and we spent a long time "hanging out."  In our last online meeting, we had sound issues and had to restart the session multiple times, because we could not hear well, but with patience and perseverance, we did accomplish the task at hand and discussed all we needed to discuss.

We coordinated well also to do our VoiceThreads and took turns to do so.

It was good that the groups were formed taking into account the time zones, that helps  in making meeting synchronously on line a little easier.

The issues we encountered are probably ones that I would worry about in a long distance class: technical difficulties and time coordination for the work that needs to be discussed  live. However, we were also able to keep in touch via email and shared work via google docs and Yammer. With all the possibilities available now, I think distance learning is becoming a hot commodity and it is so convenient especially for the otherwise very busy adult learner.

I am enjoying the convenience of being able to be able to accomplish so much at times that work around my schedule.

I am so glad I signed up for this Class.

The  three modes of communication:

 Interpretive, Interpersonal and Presentational.

It was very interesting to listen to Paul sand rock's presentation in the Webinar.  I  had not thought of the modes of communications in those terms. I always thought that in teaching a language Communication is of prime importance  and probably  my understanding was mostly that communication is interpersonal.

I see things in a different light now and I am glad to revisit the concept of Communication.

That said, when I look and analyze the way I have been teaching, I realize that I do use all three forms in my instruction. 

I often  start with   a movie  clip or a little cartoon strip  to introduce the new lesson, and let the kids explain and discuss what they see , what they understand, what they think we will be discussing in the lesson, I let them infer and deduct and I believe this is the interpretive mode and since they are discussing and bouncing ideas off of each other and collaborating as a class to bring out the ideas, this is also interpersonal.

I use a lot of partner work and a lot of questions and answers and dialogues in my classes and these are also interpersonal.

The little skits the kids make and present  are presentational.

My students also often research and create, then present.

They have made recipes and presented to the class how they made their food, talking about ingredients, letting their classmates sample their work.

They have researched countries and cities and presented to their classmates and given their opinions on which places would be good to visit and which ones should maybe be avoided for safety reasons or other reasons , this can also be interpretive.

How do I feel about moving to distance instruction? I think it can be a great experience and it has many advantages, but I personally would miss the face to face interaction with my students. I think that a blended learning environment is still my favorite and a good stepping stone before going cold turkey to a totally online class.

As a student, I think I am enjoying the flexibility to work at my own pace and at my convenience, working around my teaching schedule and my other responsibilities.  I think for the mature student, it is  a great experience. For the younger students, unless they have someone monitoring their online time and their progress ( except for those very well organized conscientious students), it would be a bit more complicated.

PLN

I  think  the  value of having a Professional network is very important and very helpful for educators. Everyone has a story to share and an idea to develop. We can all learn from each other and help each other when we have a question or a dilemma. It is also helpful when you are looking for a position or you are moving into a new area. 
Sometimes, we make the mistake of joining too many networks and not being able to keep up with all of them.
The best thing is to find a couple where you feel comfortable and seem to find the ideas you are looking for and stick with those but one might need to try a few before you find the right one. 
Some offer some things that others don't. We have to figure out what we are looking for.
I am interested to try Digo, but have not done so yet.
I am using Twitter and Google+ with my students already, I am subscribed to the FLTeach list and by being part of the ACTFL sig that is considered a PLN I think. That is how I learned about this classRoad course.

1st Hangout meeting with my group

So here we are day 3! This is a very intensive class,  very interesting  but to keep up one has to really make the time.  Well tonight Wsesam, Lana and I were able to meet on line through the Hangout .
Lana had a bit of a technical difficulty at first, she was using Windows 8 and could not connect to Hangout, but Wessam was able to help her and after that it was pretty smooth sailing.

I have not used Hangouts before this class, over the weekend, I tried it with a friend to practice and liked it.

Wessam did a very good job guiding the discussion referring to the topic at hand and trying to keep the ball rolling.

We started by sharing our understanding of long distance learning and blended learning and we got into a bit of a discussion there.
We  would like the opinion of the instructors on these:

1st  My future Arabic  class :  I have students in the classroom daily and students in a classroom in another district joining my class via TV in their classroom and camera. I see them , they see me and my class and my students see them, so this is a synchronous meeting. The kids in the other district will have a teacher in their classroom that will facilitate the process, for ex. I will be emailing her handouts and other materials the students will need to distribute them, all the kids the ones in my classroom and the remote classroom will be accessing dashboard, my blog and everything available to all.
Now here is the million dollar question : is this a blended class, long distance class or traditional class?
We all agreed it is not simple traditional, because of the "Geographic" location of the kids in the other district and the way they connect to the class.
It is not long distance since the kids in my classroom are there with me and the other are meeting with us synchronously.
We were not sure if this is blended learning because the understanding was that blended learning means  meeting  for some of the learning time but also spending time with our the teacher completing work on your own.
 I attended  a class where we met 4 times and we had 4 weeks where we just did work assigned and turned it in and one time everyone met on line synchronously and had a class. That was a typical Blended learning class.

So where does my Arabic class fit?

The other example we discussed is the class that Wessam is teaching using AL KiItab with the companion website. He meets with his students 4 time a week, I believe for 50 minutes and the students use the companion website to complement the learning with an equal amount of time on line learning on their own.

  Now is this considered blended learning or is it traditional ?

Lana mentioned giving private lessons via Skype  which is very convenient for students who do not have the time to travel to get to her or they are too far. She considers that as traditional face to face class with the enhancement of technology. This was an example that we discussed to tackle the logistics and feasibility aspects.  However one f her students said: I think this is great but I need to come in it is not the same as face to face.

All three of us felt that in particular for the Arabic Language and probably many of the less commonly taught languages like Chinese,  the traditional face to face is preferable.
 However we agree that distance learning has many advantages.  It really opens up many doors and  make it possible for some people to study and  take the courses they need when otherwise they could not have done so without online classes.
I have a friend living in Lebanon, who was working on a Law Degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and only had to come one or twice a year for testing. That is amazing.
I also mentioned to my group that a few years ago I was taking an accounting class online and my father got ill, had to fly to Lebanon, but since my class was online I was able to finish the class while in Lebanon. Awesome!

I personally think that a blended classroom is the best of both world. I  think the direct contact with a teacher for a language class is somewhat essential and some games and gestures are not the same when played on line. On the other hand, some students learn better when they have time to review, listen re listen, practice, practice through hand on  activities , take as much time as they need or go faster and move ahead. It gives a chance for differentiation in the classroom.

We have a language lab in our school  and I take the kids there often,  they can work on different things, some get the challenge, others get the remediation they need.

In our discussion we diverged a little and talked also about some of the materials we use and methods. Lana recommended a book for my beginner class and I will be looking at it .

We discussed the % of use of the target language in the classroom. Lana prefers books for her students that are only written in Arabic. I think my students would have a hard time with that since my class is a Language and culture elective and not a full fledge language class. My french classes are different and I do use the target language most of the time.

Our hangout meeting lasted 1h and 40 minutes and it was a very interesting discussion.

My first Post: feelings about this class.

I am  so  excited to take this class. My School uses Google everything and my students are more familiar than me with it. I  do have blogs for my students for both my French and Arabic  classes and students share their presentations to my Google Drive .  However, I have not kept up with all the  developments. Sadly I am a certified BIT teacher but I have been mostly teaching languages and really  need to revamp my  technology repertoire , I am  behind the times in some things and I am hoping this class will help reshaping my knowledge and refreshing what I already  know and use.

My experience  started badly, with locking myself out of ClassRoad after several wrong logins. I also was not receiving emails but Mahbouba helped fix the problem( Thank You) and here I am !

I am looking forward to learning from others and sharing my experiences.

This year, my High School launched our first Arabic Class. It is only one semester class Language and Culture and it is an elective. I taught the  first semester class and it was awesome. The  2nd semester , we were supposed to add a new component. A neighboring district had a few students interested in attending the class without traveling to my school. We set up a Camera and a TV in my classroom and we were going to broadcast live to the other students. I was very nervous about the prospect because of course with Language classes I have people talking to each other and work with partners , I also do games with buzzers and people coming to the board and having students in another school on a TV screen was adding a challenge.

The first problem was connecting and we had problems with that.

Sadly, I received a phone call from Lebanon that my mom was transported to the hospital and I had to leave immediately. She passed away  :(  I was in Lebanon for 2 weeks, when my Arabic  class started with a sub.  The superintendent and the principal decided to drop the long distance part of the course and so I never really experienced how this will go.

We will see if this will happen  next year.

Our enrollments are down and since I was the last French teacher in , I am not sure if I have a job next year, but I feel the more I know the more experience I get with Distance learning the more chances I get at getting another job teaching if I lose this one ( I hope not, I will know next week!)

Has anyone taught with a TV and camera in their classroom? How did that go?
I would love to hear from you if you did.