Effective Speaking

How often do I think about my speaking craft?  It really makes a difference!  If I want students to listen, I need to think about my speaking. http://youtu.be/eIho2S0ZahI

Präsentation 'Kann ich bitte meine Wasserflasche auffüllen ?. Kann ich bitte auf die Toilette gehen?'

Präsentation 'Kann ich bitte meine Wasserflasche auffüllen ?. Kann ich bitte auf die Toilette gehen?'

German Competitions

ACTFL Convention 2014

German Competitions

                Nella Spurlin, Temple, TX; Jennifer Christianson, Boerne, TX; Kit Belgium, UT Austin

1-5 places advance to state. Regional is always held the first Saturday in February, State is always held the last Saturday in February.  There may be a possibility of a national contest in the future.

www.texasstategermancontest.org  look at examples of past winners in the gallery as well as get results from the competitions.

Pass Auf – Geography (questions are in German), Music, Art, History – “This week in Germany” is a good resource for current events. There is a list of helpful vocabulary on the website. Amsco books are helpful.

Culture Test should be the Pass Auf team members

nspurlin@hot.rr.com

Making Cultural Connections in German Class

ACTFL Convention 2014

Cultural Connections in German

                Using Art and Music – Sandra Dieckmann

+ Der Räuber Hotzenplotz – Level 2, 1^st semester – adj endings

·         Gesucht Poster machen – zeichne ein Bild von Räuber; beschreib wer er ist und was er gemacht hat; Wie sieht er aus – Augenfarbe, Haarfarbe, Haarlänge, Kleidung, Merkmale, Eigenschaften; Kopfgeld?; Bei welcher Telefonnummer muss man anrufen?

+ Berühmte Bilder posten – beschreibt mit korrektive Adj Endungen!

·         Kahoot – Kunst und Adjektivendungen (check out the Kahoots from sdieckman)

+ Tiere – in Bilder

·         Mythologie und Tiere

·         Wolpertinger – WOW (aus dem HB Bier Zelt)

·         Aufgabe – Macht ein Tier, daβ eine Mischung von zwei ist; Es muss eine offizielle Name haben; Es muss ein Bild haben; Was macht es besonders gut?

+ Lernstationen: Die Stadt

·         Schilder aus der Stadt

·         Autokennziechnen

+ Weiberfastnacht – Donnerstag vor Rosenmontag – Die Frauen schnitten den Schlipps des Mannes und küsst ihn.

+ Passiv – PP mit deutschen Erfindungen... ____ wurde von ____ erfinden.

+ Relative Pronungen – Lückentexte mit Bilder aufs PP – Relativpronomen in der deutschen Werbung

Using Voice Threads for the Foreign Language Classroom

ACTFL Convention 2014

Note: This software costs $80 for a year licence.  It's very cool but unless someone pays for it, I don't know if I'll be using it. Seems to be useful for affluent districts or private schools.

Using Voice Threads

Vidya Nahar, Balodyan vidya@balodyan.com

·         Presentation is loaded to the ACTFL page

www.voicethread.com  Collaboration tool for text, image, video and audio

·         Voice Thread tutorials on YouTube

Use .pdf or .jpg files when uploading. You can also use YouTube links.  You cannot use a .doc file.

When describing your VT, you can put a prompt for the students in the description. Ex – Name the different states of Germany (there are 16 and they are looking at the map).

Check the Playback Settings (icon in upper right).

Use Copy feature to modify for future activities or copy into a presentation PP.

Teacher makes video comments on the VT to get it started.  It is helpful to show your face, so that students can see how you say the words. This is used as a modeling tool. When you are recording yourself, be mindful of your background. It’s useful to give prompts in the target language and text in the language of instruction.

You can underline something on the slide while you are talking.

You give students a link.  You can publish it on the browser page.

Students can email documents or photos to you and you can upload to the VT, in order to control content on your page.

+ Uncle Potato – upload a picture of a potato, add body parts and talk about it. Select fade or no fade options based on whether or not you want the lines to disappear. On this activity, use different colored pencils.

Students need a VT account to comment (email and pwd).

On the left side is a photo of the people commenting. You can move comment order, if you want to make a comment later, you can move it to the top to keep all of the teacher comments together.

To hide a comment, close the eye, it will hide it from the public, teacher can still hear and student can still hear, but not others.  You can delete a comment.

Teacher can make an audio file. Ex: Draw a monster with 3 heads, 2 eyes, 5 legs; each student would draw this monster and repeat the instructions.

Ideas:

·         Map Games

·         Open-ended questions – ex: here is a fridge, what’s inside?

·         Riddles – describe an object and let the students guess what it is.

·         Video Clip – what is happening, comments?

·         Brainstorming

·         Describe a picture

·         Geography – where is this? What is it? Would you like to go there?

·         Informational presentation

·         Creating an ad

·         Collecting statistics – what do you eat for breakfast? What is your favorite type of music?

·         I Spy – upload a busy picture and play the I spy game, let the students guess what you are talking about.

·         Comparison – upload two similar pictures and ask students to compare them and pick their favorite. Fruits and vegetables – what do you like or not like.  What about your friends, family.

You can upload activity sheets and give the students the choice of using the VT or traditional activity sheets.

60 Tricks for Your Bag of Tricks

ACTFL Convention 2014

60 Treats For Your Bag of Tricks

http://goo.gl/0JmHwP

Mercedes Koch mkoch@dist113.org  @Profe_Koch  Deerfield High School, Deerfield, IL

·         Community Building : What’s in a name? Students should also use each others name, repeat the name of the student who finished talking.  Smile if you don’t have a question! What is on our computer wallpaper? Classdojo.com (you can also make an icon for a group… group work) the class gets a reward when all get x pts.

·         Grouping: Intentional grouping – seating chart with A and B rows. Cut apart postcards and students should find the others who match their cards.  Speed dating – all students in groups have a number and those numbers get together and then go back to their groups.

·         Everyday Treats: Word Wall – set aside a space for words that students want to know, leave it up all year because those are the words students want to know. Make a clear signal for no English. Exit Slips- use plus (I get it), check (yeah, OK), minus (not a bad answer, just check in with them during the next class). Plastic sheet protectors – copy a picture and they can put it in their Psp and mark or draw on it.  Parent Guardian Emails for students who don’t do home work – keep it positive, emphasize practice.

·         Flashcard Treats: Hand out flashcards – a different one to each student, they go around and ‘teach’ other students. They can also switch cards after this activity and do it again.  Line up in order of smallest to largest, most to least useful. Competition: sit in pairs, set out flashcards, pictures up, teacher says the word and student picks it up, you can play multiple round.  Switch up the competition by having the word up and teacher projects the picture.  Information Gap – one student sits with their back to the screen and show a picture, students tell their partner the word in the target language. From Me,to You- write a message to someone that you need revenge on, if they can write a command correctly, the other student has to do it and then switch (the teacher says that the person who wrote the command has to do it themselves). Flyswatter – at the end of class (so wild).  Mensch! – the counting game Buzz, count omitting the number 7, any number with 7 or any multiple of 7, keep score on the board for other class to compete. Four in a Row- make a Scattergories card with different sentence in English, a group works to translate or think about how to say these in the target language, use StikPik to select students and if a group gets 4 in a row, they win. 

·         Review and Flashback Treats: Vocabulary Circle- ‘it’ stands in the middle with a picture and has to touch the desk of the person who has that word. Snowball Fight – give a topic, students write words pertaining to that topic and throw it, the next student adds to it. Sandwich Board – students wear a speaking target the whole class (ask for volunteers). Jigsaw. Hand Signals – check in quickly. 

·         Speaking Treats: One Picture Three Tenses – show a picture, students make a statement in different tenses. Study in the Bathroom – put your words in a category (verbs in the bathroom, fem nouns in the kitchen…).  Quick Key App – Scantron (check this out!) .  Poker Chips – collect for speaking. Situations – on the board in English with A and B partners, pairs practice and perform. 4 Fish in the Pan – read a story, students listen and write notes, pair to write a summary, compare to a reading in the book.  AudioBoom.com – a free place to record student speaking.

·         Template Treats: Postcard – create a postcard with a picture and verbage of a cultural topic. Newspaper – work in groups, read an article, write a summary (with leading questions). Writing Corrections – so that students can reflect on mistakes that they made. Conversation – standard questions in both languages with appropriate modifications. 3 Second Rule – when speaking, they must keep speaking and not leave a pause of more than 3 seconds, if there is a pause, they lose a poker chip.

·         News Treats: newseum.org – shows front pages of newspapers from around the world, good for comparing a specific event around the world. Music Charts from all over the world.

·         Internet Treats: www.language-exchanges.org – The Mixxer – it’s like Match.com to find someone who wants to learn the language that you want to connect to.  Viewpure.com put the YouTube like there and it erases the commercials.  Quizlet.com – students should make their own pages and put them on a www.padlet.com . Infograph. 

The Power of Pinterest

ACTFL Convention 2014

The Power of Pinterest

@srtanrodriguez http://goo.gl/52tSNX - N Rodriguez (Pinterest Pin Name) Noemi Rodriguez

nrodrigues@pascack.k12.nj.us or @srtanrodriguez on Twitter

Social Media is important to teachers to connect with each other and students to connect with you and the language. When you make a board, you can specify who can add to it. You can edit it anytime later.

Example- when you’re starting a unit, like health, you can create a board and allow others to pin to it.

Students can collaborate with each other and pin project ideas (think Genius Hour). It’s a more picture based Google.

You can create virtual field trip, can post photos from phone.

+Show a screencast to show students how to get started on Pinterest (especially German 1/first in my class)

You can start a secret board to plan for a unit and then make it public when you are ready. You can delete it when you’re finished.

Search ‘World Language’ or ‘German’ to find content specific boards to follow.

Add a Map – presenter not sure what this does -turn it off.

Students should create their own boards and share it with you. If you let them pin to your boards, you have to monitor it. All they need it an email address.

*Warn students to be mindful of posted content (school appropriate, etc)

+You can load a pin it button to your browser to allow you to pin whenever you are on the computer.

http://tinyurl.com/pinterestwl a collaborative document

+Use pinterest to collect pictures for your stories!!!

Infographics can compare and contract cultures – they provide information and statistics for conversation.

Word Clouds – there are lots of them available, look before you create.

Comics are a great visual way to have language discussions – Think about Comic Friday J - Spice up a lesson or PP.

Think about collecting content specific for the PP to board specific for that subject.

Silent Films – chunk into screen shots, give students vocabulary, practice dialogue, show the complete video

*eduCanon        *Zaption

Video Editing Tool with Some Audio Tools Thrown In

ACTFL Convention 2014

Useful Video Editing Tools

                Byung-Joon-Lim – Monterrey Language Institute – open24hours@gmail.com

Freeware – go to Safe Download Sites – Download a downloader – NEVER!

www.softpedia.com – search edit video clip – sort by license type, free – sort by most popular (at the bottom)

http://www.tucows.com/downloads

VLC Media Player – looks like a yellow cone (symbol)

 http://www.gomlab.com – supports win and mac – looks like a fat foot (symbol)

Online TV http://multilingualbooks.com/online-tv - live streaming (note the time change)

Streema Foreign TV http://streema.com/tv/country  - this one is better – live streaming or downloadable in Realplayer (icon at the top of the screen)

JLC Internet TV– shopping mall is fun because the talk about products and cost. Authentic! 24 hours!

Internet Radio http://multilingualbooks.com/online-radio

Audacity – download and use it – both win and mac –

Extract Video Clips from DVD – DVD Shrink (choose Automatic Compression Setting, Backup to your computer or external storage)

+ YouTube Capture – http://en.savefrom.net or http://videodownloadx.com

                *find the video on YouTube

                * copy address and paste in the en.savefrom.net website

+ There  is a Video Downloader on Chrome – Video Downloader Professional (icon that looks like a film reel in the upper right corner) When you watch a video on YouTube that icon turns into a green arrow if the video is downloadable !

.flv extention needs RichFLV

+ Split, Cut or Merge Video Clips using Windows Movie Maker is the simplest way

+ Adding Subtitles – Windows Movie Maker (caption on edit bar) tip: if it’s a song, get the words in a document and then use cut and paste lines as you need them; Subtitle Workshop 4.0

Video Conversion Tools: Free Studio

Windows DVD Maker/DVD Flick

Free Audio Recording Site: http://www.audiopal.com/editor.html  You can give an assignment that students can record using their telephone. Students can send it using Teacher email address

Voice Recorder: http://www.speakpipe.com/voice-recorder

+ Text to Speech: http://www.ispeech.org/text.to.speech This is good for students who can type in the sentence, select the language and hear native speaker pronunciation. Terrific for poetry!

Blendspace: http://blendspace.com – creates lessons – collect video clips and photos using tools on the create page.

What's the Story - Vocabulary Techniques

ACTFL Convention 2014

What’s the Story – Making Vocabulary Connections

                Meredith White – Freedom Prep Academy, TN

+ Power Point with pictures – talk to it in target language, students have a visual to hang on to. Slides in target language (on top), English (on bottom).  Cycle through and practice pronunciation. Have a story at the end with the vocabulary words underlined.  Students have a worksheet with the words.

+ Phrase of the Week

+ Revisit, repeat, revisit…

+ Use celebrities in the picture to catch student interest (the crazier, the better)

+ Wear an apron with pockets to pull out things.

-          This presenter made tricked out Power Points that probably took her a ton of time, with pictures, vocabulary in context with sentences, motion, etc – very impressive and doable for teachers with ONE PREP!

+ Use student photos (outgoing students with permission of course)

+ Open a picture in Paint, use the star tool, cut around the face.

+ It’s OK to teach ‘scripted phrases’ to give students a springboard.

+You can also use Power School photos (with permission of course).

-          Then the presentation turned into a Power Point demo, but she was using a Mac, which wasn’t entirely helpful L

Promoting Your Language

The takeaway here is communicate with parents and students about your language, let them meet you and ask questions, don't minimize other languages, show your enthusiasm.

Promoting Your Foreign Language Program

                Angelika Becker – Indianapolis, IN; Elke Lorenz – Manhattan HS elkel@usd383.org

28% of students make their foreign language choice in middle school based on teacher input.

Parents are #1 in foreign language selection.  Language teachers are #2!

Parents want to know about future career opportunities; Students want to know about culture and food.

Positive associations: fun to learn, family connections, interesting culture

Negative associations: difficult to learn, history

+ Find a way to get into the feeder schools – Can the advanced class make a video? – Promote the German Honor Society to encourage honor students

+ Be excited about what you are teaching, even grammar, to convey enthusiasm

+ Take all offers for help, from parents, from guest speakers, former students

+ Put all positives on announcements, inform the parents, open house, community events

+ Letters and email to parents about being excited about having their students in level 3, discuss the curriculum and objectives

+ Use upper level students to read to, perform plays, recruit lower level students.

+ Bumper Stickers – let the students design, sell at cost.

http://tinyurl.com/l3u32vx

What do Principals want? A quality program, enrollment numbers, no complaints from parents or teachers, quality new teachers, college readiness

Only 20% of students study a foreign language at one time.  All other industrial nations are at 80-90% level and many students study multiple languages.

Many people regret not going further with their foreign language.  Is there anyone who regrets being able to speak a second (or third) language?

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and USA – German makes a difference for careers in business.

+Every student should be able to answer: What is the relevance of learning this language?

Growth Mindset

ACTFL Convention 2014, Friday 2014
Drawing on the research and book of the same name from Carol Dweck, the presenter applied these ideas to the Foreign Language classroom. There was some useful information here. I agree with and try to implement the 'growth mindset' in my classes.

Everyone Can Acquire a Second Language – Cultivating a Growth Mindset

                Barbara Mondloch, Franklin Pierce Schools

Embed a positive mindset…

·         No matter how much intelligence you have, you can change your learning quite a bit.

·         A growth mindset: believing your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Carol Dweck

·         Teachers should focus on improvement, effort and persistence.

·         Smart is not something you are but something you GET!.

Eduardo Briceňo – Mindset – TED Talks

·         Check out the movie ‘Searching for Bobby Fischer’.

·         A trap is thinking that you are ‘smart’ or ‘special’ because then you stop growing.

·         If we are to fulfill our potential, we must rethink how we think about ourselves.

·         We can change our own abilities.

·         Growth mindset focuses on ways to grow and improve.

·         Fixed mindset focuses on assessment.  If they don’t do well, they withdraw to protect their ego.

Neuroscience shows us that the brain is very malleable.

+ Watch a TED talk, then have an oral ‘fill in the blank’ session to ‘hear’ who was listening.

Do you choose to be a learner or a non-learner?

When we experience the judgment of others, we become self conscious.

+ Students who were praised on effort welcomed more challenging tasks.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Learners  Steven Covey

+ Students should see their brain like a muscle.

+ Share stories about heros and their challenges.

+ Choose: growth, effort, process, perseverance, resiliency – treat mistakes as opportunities to learn.

+ Use Class Dojo to give credit for volunteers.

Brainology

90% Total Language Immersion

Here are my notes from the ACTFL Conference Presentation by the same name.  I LOVED this presentation and want to encourage us to do a district-wide workshop with this woman.  Very practical and useful for all languages and all levels.

90% TL Usage for Level One Secondary Students – Friday, November 21, 2014

                Ellen Shrager, Abington School District, PA

                + suggestions for implemtation

Transitions are when you lose the kids.

When do things fall apart? *not having video/audio cued up  *returning to seats after paired activity

What are the students doing when they are off-task? Let you mind run free!!!

+ Script your lesson so there is no down-time

+ 50 Survival Phrases – 1. Teacher orders, 2. Student Requests, 3. Student-Student Interactions

+ Laminated signs around the room – words and visuals

+ Can use a power point with the Survival Phrases in Sequence (tip-have a Power Point with all slides loaded and then delete the ones that you don’t use.

+ With visual support (the power point), you can take them through instruction.

+ Put sound cues on the PP. Put videos on PP. Songs with the words! Internet examples, pictures, cultural facts.

Presenter talked about prepping the students to write 3 paragraphs in Target Language – 1. Facts about me, 2. What I like to do, 3. Asking others about themselves and making comparisons.

+ Prewriting activity with options for blanks.  Everyone ends up with their own essay.

+ Start with one level, each year… add as you go.

Presenter uses Realidades and is able to imbed worksheets, videos, listening exercises from the publisher.

What is the snipping tool? It’s new on Windows 7, can cut and paste a part of the picture, to put on a slide.

+Vocabulary flash cards! Pictures, students say or write the words.  Students can also be prompted to use ‘comments’. Example: Show a picture of a Hamburger and a list of suitable comments that belong to that picture.  After practice, they can just see the picture and then they have a comment to say something appropriate.

+ Put a test on the Power Point, then you can incorporate a listening section (with sound cues), and show them with the pointer where the listening section is.

+ Use a standard outline for the day and use the previous days’ PP to modify and add.

Free music

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com is for making great presentations in the classroom.

Genius Hour

This seems like something that FL could do with some frequency... maybe Fridays (understanding that with the A/B schedule, that would only be every other week for most students). Check out the Genius Hour.

Time Magazine's Recommended Websites

Here are some fun and useful websites to help you through the school year! Yes, teachers have to eat... MySupermarket.com helps you save money too by putting all the stuff you want into your basket and then finding the best prices on the web.  You pay with one click.  I haven't tried it but plan to this fall. Here's another one related to food and saving money: Supercook. You enter random stuff in your kitchen and it gives recipe suggestions - I need to check it out!  Now, I have tried this one, Noisli.com, it generates sound and also colors for activities where you need something in the background, but not too much. This site: calm.com does the screen color thing but no sound as far as I can tell.  Here's site with a lot of funny posters but also some pictures that may be good for conversation in the FL classroom:  Imgur.com   Reading the news and wondering if your email address has been compromised?  Log on to haveibeenpwned.com/ to get some sleep (or not). Do your students sometimes make presentations?  Are you getting tired of the same old formats?  You can try this one: haikudeck.com and let me know how it goes. Want to get the class talking, laughing or start a conversation? Vine does it better than anything! Be careful, it's addictive. Pining for the good old days when you went to school and remember everyone sitting nicely in their seats, hanging on the teacher's every word?  Me neither, but if you want to teleport back, try The Nostalgia Machine to remember all those fun and pretty bad songs and videos. Good luck!

Formative Assessments

A light bulb just went off over my head.  Formative Assessments!  Here's a great resource: Dipsticks :)

Digital Dialects

Language games for learning languages.

Transformational Teacher

So what does it take to 'Transform' a lesson?  It sounds like the 'Pirate' movement from facts to creative leadership. Take a look at #bestyearever on Edutopia and the 9 Ways to Plan.

Memrise

Uses funny pictures and phrases for language learning.  Gets good reviews for 'contextual' learning and funny too.  What I've seen so far is a lot of cat pictures.  I like dogs more, so that only goes so far with me but hey, if it works, that's great! Memrise

GoNoodle Brain Breaks

I can't sit still for long, so how can I expect my students to sit and get all day? I always use Brain Breaks (I have a library of over 100, ask me for a copy). This website is a physical one, so it's something different and complementary to my normal routine. Try it. GoNoodle.

Wheel Decide

Teenagers and small children love the illusion of being able to decide what comes next. Here's the perfect tool to help class flow - Wheel Decide.

BYOD Toolkit

Yes, we are still working on the BYOD idea. Here's a resource to help (if we ever get to that place where students actually have an internet ready device that they can use in class).

Fake Ticket Generator

Want to make tickets for a classroom 'event'?  This Fake Ticket Generator may be just the ticket!

Meditation Replaces Bell Ringers

What if ... instead of a bell ringer, I used a meditation prompt?  Here is a blogger who did just that! 

Twitter Hashtags

Want to connect with other educators? Try these twitter hashtags!

Background Noise for Work and Classroom

Noisli Interesting uses for work and classroom.

Google Drive

Here is a resource for learning about Google Drive tips and tricks.

Map Games for the Computer

Here are some cool map games for the computer. click on the flag at the top to change the language.

Coding Games

There is a lot of talk about teaching coding to kids.  I'd like to try (it's only been 25 years!).  Here's a cool site called Code Monster.  I just started the lowest level with Java Script.  Neato.

News for Information and Translation

Short news briefs in many different categories, Tweentribute.  Newsela is good for reading stories in a variety of subjects.  Some of them have a quiz associated with it. Students use a class code for signup and grading.