Personal vocabulary blogs have allowed me some unique insights into students’ approach to life so far. I especially enjoy what my little shutterbugs have shown me–even if it was only to avoid having to cite online images. Also seeing the kinds of words kiddos come up with when they’re under the Read more…
Vocabulary can make my students feel insecure. Though I have abandoned textbooks, I have not entirely abandoned vocabulary lists. I tend to present them more in semantic groups with visuals or in contextual situations now, however. My students kind of wish they had more, though, something they could refer to and refresh Read more…
Portfolios have been working really well this year. Blogs have also been working really well. After TELLcollab, though, I think they can work even better together. Think about it: no need for a whole separate Google Site. No need to create a class blog for each project. No need to Read more…
My latest template for student e-portfolios has been working pretty well this year. The students last semester definitely saw the value in it, and this semester’s group seems pretty relieved at how easy it is so far, especially since pretty much all of the setup was taken care of the Read more…
For me, the portfolios students submitted this semester were by far the most successful –and most attractive–portfolios EVER. I didn’t have to request access to files at midnight. I didn’t have to scroll and click all over creation to find evidence–AND the evidence on them actually fit what I was Read more…
So you want to know how much students can interpret from a video, but you don’t have all day. EDPuzzle is cool because it lets students add voice or typed comments, but you know good and well they’re not going to understand the whole thing, and you don’t want to Read more…
I went and rearranged e-portfolios again. As if I didn’t have enough portfolio templates already. My colleague talked me out of the interactive infograph portfolio. She’s pretty much our tech whiz, so if Sra. Payseur says it’s too many steps to upload an image to ThingLink, create four VoiceThreads, upload Read more…
When students leave my class, they should have a record of what they’ve accomplished, tangible evidence of their proficiency. I want them to have that evidence at their fingertips when they’re applying for jobs or looking to skip some college Spanish courses down the road. A portfolio is a useful tool. Read more…
My students will be singing songs from our coro starters for years to come (some proved today they still have “1977” stuck in their head from over a year ago!) The activity has proven to be hands-down THE most popular part of Spanish class, but it needed a little reworking to Read more…
What if Spanish class started with students’ passions? What if we began with what each of them was individually interested in and build on that to come together for more collaborative projects? This pats year, I’d been saving the big Genius Hour/Passion Project finale for the last 6 weeks, figuring Read more…