A not so boring first week of school

Reading Reaction #5

The routine of the first week of school is pretty much drab.  You go to your classes; you get assigned a book or books, maybe a seat too.  You get a packet of rules and a list of stuff you have to buy for next week.  You get your affairs in order, get a locker, maybe change up your schedule, and you are at some point forced to go around the class and say something about yourself.

In my dream…

I finally have my own classroom in High School, and I eagerly expect the arrival of my Spanish 1 kids (9-12 grades).  We go through the basic attendance routine and then we come to the boring part of the day, or so they think!  For instead of standing in front of the class and letting them listen to me talk about myself and what I expect from them I have a surprise.  I’ve been working all summer on a cute 3-5 min. Prezi that encompasses my background and what I expect of my students this year.  This presentation along with my PowerPoint of classroom rules should definitely be different than what they are use to. 

After I do my little presentation I turn the lights back on, and I ask the class “How many noticed that was all in Spanish?” (Clearly imagining results here) The class mostly answers that they didn’t notice, because they thought the video was full of interesting tid bits. 

And this is where the fun really begins.  While I do ask my students to tell me their name and grade level, I also want to dive in right away in showing them that this Spanish class is going to be fun and different.   Therefore I break the cardinal rule of the first day of school, and have an assignment for them.  I want them to create a little digital story of who they are, and have it ready for class on Monday.  It needs to have text in Spanish, and I have a rubric for them to follow.  The rest of the week we’ll do fun stuff in class to get them to have ideas for their project, and they can bring in questions by Thursday to me so that they can be on track for turning in their assignment after the weekend.  They can even share what they’ve done so far with friends on Friday so that they can peer edit the information.

A very detailed rubric would be essential to my students in guiding the creation of their digital storytelling project.  Giving students and example and a brief synopsis leaves a Great Wall’s worth of ideas and directions that students could still take.  Without a detailed rubric I’d be afraid of my students lacking content, using inappropriate content, lacking focus, using too much of one media and not enough of the others, or even missing the mark all together.  I feel that it’s important for students know what is fully expected of them, and a rubric is a great way to do this.  Plus, if I’m upfront with what I want to see and why this can be useful outside of the Spanish classroom, it is my hope they would see the usefulness in the project and maybe use it in their other courses. 

I would recommend to my students to use Prezi, PowerPoint, or any other digital media to produce their storytelling projects.  I would require students to pick a digital software tool by Wednesday so that I could review any sites I was unfamiliar with for their application in the class.  I would require text in the target language (Spanish), as well as pictures and/or video, lastly I would give my students the opportunity for sound –although it would not be required.  This presentation would have to be available either through removable media or the internet for the class to view, and be less than 5 minutes long. 

For the storytelling project to be successful, I feel that there would be two kinds of resources my students would need to complete their projects.  One resource would be language oriented and the other would be technology oriented.

For the language I would have my students use any of the following sites to translate or research the words/phrases they would want to use for their project presentation.  (After all this is the first week of school, I don’t expect them to have any significant Spanish vocabulary!)  These sites contain a wealth of information and in one case how to pronounce the words/sentences too!

Spanish Dictionary (http://www.spanishdict.com) – This site has single word and whole phrase translation, video tutorials on grammar and syntax, pronunciation aids, as well as fun ‘games’ to help you retain the vocabulary further.

I would also highly recommend the web site for whichever book the class was using, as they normally have resources on vocabulary, conjugation, verb usage, etc.

The class would also have available to them –through me- the use of my vocabulary dictionary.  This book (Mastering Spanish Vocabulary: A thematic approach by Navarro and Navarro-Ramil) breaks Spanish vocabulary into thematic units and places all the necessary words together so as to aid complete a project with relative ease.  If necessary I could make copies of the particular theme unit available to all my students. 

For technical help, my students would first have to choose which software application they would be using to present their digital storytelling projects to the class.  The following are a few sites that have the available resources for a good story telling project that are also free to use for everyone.

Prezi.com –This site has tutorials, educational resources, and a slew of other tools to help students create a fun digital storytelling project.

How to use PowerPoint (http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpoint101/PowerPoint_101_How_to_Use_PowerPoint.htm)  - This site helps students work through different aspects of PowerPoint with easy step by step directions and illustrations depending on their PowerPoint version. 

Empress (http://www.empressr.com) - This site looks like a ton of fun, and it has the option to embed your presentation in a multitude of social media and blog programs (perfect for your interactive students)! 

… back to reality.

This assignment is on the one hand tons of fun for me, and on the other hand very difficult for me.  I have a million ideas on what to do the first week of school.  I want to engage my students; I want them to understand that in my classroom they will be active participants in their education and that I am there to facilitate the expansion of their horizons through a new language.  Very idealistic, I know… but it is who I am as a person.  In my previous career I was one of the most open and willing to help supervisors the company had, and for that reason I feel my staff flourished (the nice awards we racked up helped to back up my theory).  I want my students to feel that they can flourish in my classroom too! 

An effective way to accomplish this goal for me is to use digital media to the fullest extent in my class.  I want to provide my students with authentic learning opportunities, and connect them to a world of learning outside the classroom.  I cannot imagine we would ever have the budge to take a trip to a Spanish speaking country to immerse them in the culture and have them see how it’s not so different.  But through digital media I can do that in the classroom.  Students can find sites related to their interest in Spanish, they can take virtual tours with me of towns, cities, museums, etc. all in Spanish.  They can explore the world the 2-D book introduces them to.  And they can make friends online with kids their own age who live in Spanish speaking countries. 

The chapter we read in our book this week reminds us of how important a resource technology can be in a classroom.  We as educators can use a myriad of resources to help bring our point across to our students in a multitude of ways so as to aid them connect the dots easier.  Our students are immersed in technology from the moment they wake up, and I feel it would make it an easier transition for the day if their school day had the same interwoven goal to learning.  The resources are out there, we just have to be brave enough to go find them!