Digital Story Telling

(Assignment sept 28-Oct 4)

This project was completed by French Level A students.
I posted images in voicethread and invited students to make comments using their new vocabulary & previous knowledge of French.

upgrades

(Assignment sept. 21-27)

Three years ago, I created a video model for a project on weather description. I used the images that I had from books, cliparts and low quality photos.



Last year, students started to use creative common images for this same project. We encouraged students to find images that represented the weather and activities in that season.
Here is the new version of our project.



I no longer use my video as the model for the project, but use some of the students' to show how to find relevant, interesting images, and give credit for their sources.

Visual Literacy (course 3-blog 2)

A picture is worth a thousand word.

Using images to illustrate new vocabulary is not something new to modern language educators. We use visuals to catch students' attention and the image help them construct meaning.

However, finding relevant and interesting images to get a message across in the target language is much more powerful. Until recently, and before I knew any better, I have always been a fervent user of clip-arts (top left image) to help support a lesson presented in the target language.

Today, the web 2.0 is giving us access to unlimited resources of images with tools like creative commons. We can now use richer images, but we must not forget to give credit for those who took the pictures. Wondering how to use creative commons? Check out the cc help form I created for my class. (I would welcome your feedback)

This year, my goal is for myself and students to find more relevant pictures to use in the context of French classes. I used this picture to record descriptions of the weather in a French A project on voicethread. The image doesn't limit itself to weather expressions "il pleut" ou " il y a de la pluie".
Students can get much more creative with their description of the image.

Photo: : http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhussein/3564634131/

ON N'ARRETE PLUS LE PROGRES

In French, we say that progress can't be stopped. Progress is good, but knowing how to use it well and appropriately can sometimes bring new challenges.

I feel that as I get stronger in using technology in my classroom, I loose focus on my teaching: French as a modern language. I need to take a step back, and follow Shirleyville's advise : "As I adapt my own practice, I take the ideas that can deepen the meaning for my students, and put on hold the ideas that don’t."

Yet, it's so hard to hold back on creativity. New attractive tools are coming out so often and so fast, that it's hard not to want to try them. I get new ideas for teacher or students' projects every week.

At the end of the 2008-2009 school year, my last blog post presented some of the web 2.0 tools that I started to explore in my French classes.

This year, we are only (already) 2 months in, and already I have tried 3 new tools in my classroom.
1) Glogster.com : interactive poster
2) slideshare.net: upload your power-point presentation and share it with the world.
3) Student French portfolio:
In may, I was still searching for an ideal tool for students' portfolio. I want to get away from the paper portfolio that get stacked in the back of my classroom at the end of every school year and find a creative tool for students to show off their French.
This school year, our middle school students have all created their individual school blog account.
We will use those blogs as our French portfolio. It allows us to post pictures, journal entries, presentations, movies, etc. Time consuming? YES! But it looks promising. Again, because technology changes so fast, I am worried, but hopeful that we will keep the students' blog longer than a year (unlike other tools like myisb).

You can see students' blogs/portfolio through my classroom pages
http://inside.isb.ac.th/chenriotfrenchintro/
http://inside.isb.ac.th/chenriotfrencha/
http://inside.isb.ac.th/chenriotfrenchb/

How has my teaching changed? It hasn't stopped evolving and improving. Does it make my teaching better? Do students communicate better in French?
Let's reflect...