Reflection on Using Blogs as Part of your PLN

This article explains the significance of blogs for educators, and how to properly run a blog. For teachers, blogs are the perfect means for sharing information and collaborating ideas amongst other teachers. Also, blogs give insight into an educator's classroom so that parents are able to see what and how their children are learning. However, the most important aspect is the fact that they can help expand someone's personal learning network (PLN). This reading suggests that the best way to broaden a PLN is by following other educators' blogs. By doing this new teachers can ask bloggers questions in the comment section and receive timely feedback.  I believe that this is an accessible resource for all because blogs are easy to update and follow through apps and smartphones. With the technology there is today it is necessary that we as educators stay connected so we can provide our students with the most knowledge possible.

Link to article:
http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-5-using-blogs-as-part-of-your-pln/

Reflection on Teaching Spanish with Comprehensible Input: Using CI to Make Comparisons

In this weeks blog post Señora Hitz mentions how she uses comprehensible input to teach her students how to make comparisons in Spanish. She discusses in detail how she prepares this lesson by putting together a power point and using pictures of famous people for the students to compare. Then she has her pupils name other famous people and compare them to their classmates. I find this method of teaching comparisons effected because it allows students to make up their own comparisons and learn from each other by making comparisons to their schoolmates. In doing so the children are able to better remember how to properly make comparisons. This instruction also requires little preparation on the teacher's part because the only material needed is the power point. By using this method Señora Hitz is able to reinforce her student's knowledge of making comparisons in Spanish.

Link to Señora Hitz blog:
http://palmyraspanish1.blogspot.com.es/

Reflection on Teaching Spanish with Comprehensible Input: Reading, Storytelling, and Ideas for Technology use in the Target Language.

In this blog post by Señora Hitz, she mentions a teaching method called +1 Quiz ?, which gives students an opportunity to earn an extra credit point if they write a sentence at the end of their quiz about something that is happening in the students' lives. The examples she gives here are written in English because she wanted to let her pupils express themselves freely. Señora Hitz then wrote a comment back to her students after she read their sentences. I find this approach helpful in understanding what is happening in the students' lives, but it also runs the risk of having a student give too much information. Also, I do not see how this method enforces a student's understanding of the subject material. It seems to be an appropriate means of getting to know the children in class, but it is not an aspect I would incorporate on every quiz. Maybe, I would use this method more if I limited the +1 Quiz ? by giving them a more specific topic for them to respond to, such as, what did they learn in class this week, what is something exciting that happened in school today, or what is something they did not understand in class. This way you can learn about the students without them being able to give too much personal information. Perhaps, every once in awhile I would make the +1 Quiz ? a free response to allow them to be creative. While thinking about my own teaching methods this is one aspect that I will keep in mind.

Link to Señora Hitz's blog:
http://palmyraspanish1.blogspot.com.es/

Reflection on Tea and Teaching: Language Teacher Spotlight

The blog that I read this week was Marie O'Sullivan's Tea and Teaching blog, where she demonstrates and provides helpful information on how technology is useful for teaching languages. In this weeks post Marie interviews Kieran Donaghy, a teacher of languages at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. Donaghy's response to the question: "What is the best thing that has ever happened to you while teaching?", is one of the aspects that I found most interesting. He stated; "There’s no one incident which stands out but there have been lots of times when I’ve seen that helping a student learn English has had a positive impact on their education or career which is very satisfying". His statement reinforced the notion that teaching is not about the teacher, it is about the student, and how we as educators can better someone's life by teaching them a valuable skill. Another aspect of this interview that was thought-provoking was when Donaghy mentioned that many people of an older age have been able to learn English and that this went against the common conception that people can only learn languages when they are young. I found this inspiring because it shows that given the proper resources anyone can learn a new language and that people should not put up barriers for themselves while attempting to learn something new. When I begin formally teaching it will be beneficial for me to kept these aspects in mind so that I can educate my students properly. 

Link to Marie O'Sullivan's blog:
http://www.sanako.com/language-teaching-blog/

¡Welcome!

This blog has been created as a requirement for INTC 2610, Instructional Technology for the K-12 teacher. Its goal is to show future teachers the benefits of blogging for communication, professional development and public relations.