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10 Social Media Tips for Reaching World Language Learners

10 Social Media Tips for Reaching World Language Learners
Feeling outdated, not connected, or even totally lost in the digital age? Well, let me assure you, droning on and on about grammatical structures is a surefire way to quickly lose student interest in the world language classroom. Instead, embrace something which truly interests the millennial student: social media. Here are ten ideas to get you started on your journey toward not becoming the classroom dinosaur you have always feared becoming. 1. Blogging is a wonderful way to keep your students connected, even when they are no longer in class. 2. Micro-blogging via Twitter is another way to link students outside of class. 3. Photo sharing a Spanish word of the day via Instagram has become an activity that my students truly enjoy. 4. Video sharing via YouTube and Vimeo allows students to publish their work. 5. Presentation sharing via SlideShare is a great mode for having students search, create, modify and share presentations with the world. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Related:  Free ressources or activities

Blog Archive Prepositions AT IN ON - place » ENGAMES A week ago I published a post on prepositions AT, IN, ON for time. Several students asked me if I could do something like that for prepositions AT, IN, ON but for places. So here you are. There is a mind map graphically explaining the usage of the prepositions and then there are 3 games to practise the grammar point. Prepositions AT, IN, ON for places – MIND MAP Here is a mind map, where I try to explain the difference between the three prepositions. Prepositions AT, IN, ON for places – GAMES Here you can try three games to practise the grammar point. Prepositions AT, IN, ON for places – penalty. The second game is called teacher invaders. Prepositions AT, IN, ON for places – teacher invaders. Are you looking for something quieter at the end? Prepositions AT, IN, ON for places – cloze test and Angry Finches. Follow us

Le blogue: outil évolutif s’adaptant à l’enseignant | Salle des profs Intégrer le blogue dans sa classe est une tâche complexe. Un outil, peu importe lequel, doit répondre à des besoins réels et être utilisé avec une intention pédagogique précise pour apporter une plus-value à l’action pédagogique. Il existe de nombreuses manières de créer ou d’animer son blogue de classe. Développer l’habileté de nos enseignants à repenser cet outil technologique est une compétence indispensable pour ceux désirant se doter d’une fenêtre Internet. Le blogue permet de fournir un cadre rassurant permettant les premières expérimentations, mais aussi assez de souplesse pour servir la créativité de chacun. Les archives de cet atelier virtuel présente la discussion autour du qui, pour qui, quoi, où, comment et pourquoi. Il vous permettra de planifier l’intégrer l’outil du blogue dans votre pratique. Partie 1: Le blogue et la créativité pédagogique Document collaboratif: Quelques exemples créatifs Partie 2: L’organisation technique du blogue

The Great World Language Debate du Jour: Grammar vs. Communication I am embarrassed -- no, actually I would go as far as to say horrified -- that I spent ten years of my career teaching students about the Spanish language. I actually felt proud when they could fill out grammar worksheets with precision. Now, you may be thinking that, as a Spanish teacher, this is my job, but since my enlightenment, I understand that it decidedly is not. I am now certain that teaching them to communicate well in the language is my job. Honestly, who cares whether students can conjugate verbs correctly if they can't tell someone what they need? Getting to this point has required a colossal teaching philosophy transformation, but I've never been more proud of the work that I'm doing. Starting down this road can be wholly overwhelming. Here are some essential terms that I desperately wish I had known earlier. 1. These guidelines are important to consider when planning curriculum because they help you determine what students at certain levels can handle linguistically. 2.

Curriculet Curriculet frees up my time outside of the classroom - no more collecting reading questions, trying to spot-check them, giving points for writing something down, whether or not they actually did the reading or understood it. - Jessica Rice, English Teacher at Summit Preparatory High School With Curriculet, I can not only change our reading instruction on a classroom level by flipping the instruction, but also influence reading instruction on a departmental level by encouraging the department to expand the curriculum: we can read MORE in less time with Curriculet. - Kate Baker, English teacher at Southern Regional high School I cannot WAIT to share this with my colleagues. Etats des lieux des besoins en compétence Open Source Dans un rapport qu’il vient de publier, l’observatoire Paritaire OPIIEC évalue les besoins des entreprises et des fournisseurs en technologie open source et dresse un bilan des filières de formation (Pour consulter cette étude, cliquer ici) Les perspectives d’utilisation future des technologies Open Source sont fortes en particulier sur les technologies liées aux infrastructures (Linux, Bases de données), mais aussi sur des technologies qui continuent leur expansion (environnement Web, e-commerce, travail collaboratif) et sur des technologies nouvelles entrantes sur des marchés à très forte croissance (cloud, mobilité, big data). Au sein des entreprises utilisatrices, les informaticiens disposant de compétences techniques représentent en moyenne 1.2 % du nombre de salariés. Il convient, par ailleurs, de noter qu’en moyenne et en complément des informaticiens internes, les entreprises font appel à 0.5 Equivalent Temps Plein (ETP) en plus auprès de prestataires externes.

Using Project-Based Learning to Teach World Languages Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Don Doehla, French teacher and instructional coach at Vintage High School in Napa, California. Don recently stepped up to become the new facilitator of our World Languages group. He's got some great ideas for teaching world languages, including the use of project-based learning. He shares a few of these tips today. We hope you'll join him in the World Languages group as well. The world may be small and flat, but it is also multilingual, multicultural, and more and more, it is an interconnected world. The Challenges Like other World Language teachers, I am constantly trying to focus on the essentials in order to create a standards-driven, communication-based curriculum for my students. The Rationale for PBL And so I come to project-based learning as a way of bringing it all together. Stage 1 Fluency Example: The Menu Project Stage 2 Fluency Example: The Children's Story Book We refer to stage two fluency as created language. Future Plans

The Best Tools For Creating Fake “Stuff” For Learning The fake “stuff” I’m referring to in the headline includes newspaper articles, sports “trading cards,” iPhone conversations, Facebook pages etc. These can be used for conversation practice, to create reports on historical figures (or on natural disasters or on just about anything) and for numerous other learning activities. Here are my choices for The Best Tools For Creating Fake “Stuff” For Learning: Boy, this could be a great tool to help English Language Learner students practice writing and reading dialogue — FakeiPhoneText lets you create a text conversation that looks like the real thing and give you a unique url address of your creation. Plus, no registration is required. I Fake Text Message is a simple tool to create…fake text messages. ClassTools has created a similar site for text messages, though theirs can be embedded. Twister can be used to create fake tweets, as can this Fake Twitter Generator. Simitator is another one I’m adding to this list. Related November 8, 2014 Neat!

20 Ways the Apple Mac Changed Everything On January 24, 1984, at the Flint Center on De Anza College’s campus in Cupertino, California, Apple formally announced the Macintosh at its shareholder meeting, in front an audience so packed that large numbers of people who owned Apple stock couldn’t get in at all. Here’s a video of the entire event, complete with an introduction by then-CEO John Sculley apologizing to the shareholders who were stuck outside: Drawing heavily on inspiration from Xerox’s PARC lab and other research that came before it, as well as Apple’s own Lisa — but adding plenty of its own innovations — the Mac was the first successful computer with a graphical user interface, a mouse and the ability to show you what a printed document would look like before you printed it. As the computer turns 30, it’s tempting to celebrate simply by remembering how profoundly its debut changed personal computing. (PHOTOS: Macintosh at 30: Apple’s Computer Evolution) 1. GUIdebook 2. 3. Amazon 4. 5. Wikipedia 6. Apple 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Word Up: Bring the World's Languages to Your Classroom Here are four steps to adding that je ne sais quoi to your language lessons via free Internet resources. One of the biggest challenges for foreign language teachers is to expose their students to authentic speech by native speakers. Another is to immerse them in the culture of the language they're studying when that culture may be half a world away. But in our expanding digital age, it's increasingly easy to connect live with overseas students, find related videos and audio clips, and discover examples of living language online -- all free. "The Internet has made accessing authentic materials and interacting with native speakers an everyday occurrence in many schools across the country," reports Marty Abbott, director of education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Keeping It Fresh To keep their classes fresh and current, teachers can incorporate material from foreign Web sites. No Passport Needed Global Group Learning The French (and More) Connection

Euro Blog Léonard de Vinci Et voici les chindogus et leurs inventeurs!! Les images sont cliquables, pour être affichées en taille réelle. Amale : the toothpaste squeezer Théo : the bright glove Quentin D. : the housework box Elodie : the cloth wallet Laura : the cotton pen Emma : the head pen Lucas : the no-stress box Mathilde : the best lunettes Marie H. : the shopping umbrella Margaux : the lipstick pen Clément : the drinking cap Valentin : the all-think Hugo : the French cap 5000 Thomas : the comb-phone Quentin G. : the multi-pen Marie W. : the relaxow Gauthier : the insect crusher Bravo à eux pour le travail fourni : un grand moment! Le défi numérique Il ne se passe désormais pas une semaine sans que le numérique occupe le terrain de l’actualité, en particulier dans le domaine éducatif. Avec des initiatives locales, ou qui viennent d’ailleurs, comme cette étude qui vient de sortir au Québec, territoire par excellence de l’innovation pédagogique. Le Centre de recherches interuniversitaire sur la formation et la profession enseignante (Crifpe), le plus important centre de recherche en éducation au Canada, vient de publier le rapport préliminaire d’une enquête consacrée à « l’iPad à l’école : usages, avantages et défis ». C’est la première enquête jamais réalisée sur le sujet et dont « les résultats montrent que les avantages dépassent les défis rencontrés ». L’impact sur la réussite scolaire ? Les défis restent réels : autant les avantages de la lecture sur tablette recueillent l’assentiment général, autant l’apprentissage de l’écriture est considéré comme « un désavantage majeur », lié à la disposition des applications. Philippe RIVET

Global Language Education: Learning the Lingo A sampling of schools that take foreign language teaching to task. Learning a foreign language is no longer contingent on textbooks filled with stiff vocabulary exercises. Today, classes have context, from live connections with native speakers to project-based learning in which Skype, wikis, and a dozen other new technologies serve as powerful connecting tools. Highlighting Hindi More than 400 million people in the world speak Hindi, yet the language is rarely taught in any K–12 schools in the U.S. In 2007, the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) partnered with the Edison School District in New Jersey to create a collaborative, project-based curriculum that allowed students to virtually connect with their peers in India, as described in a PDF press release from the project's launch. Supported by a three-year grant from the U.S. "Skype is a very exciting tool," says Neelam Mishra, a multilevel Hindi teacher at Edison High who helped launch the program in 2007. Technology?

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