Hey, it's my first social media blitz, where I post something to all my social media fora at once!
The New York Times writes about the benefits of bilingualism. Conclusion? People who speak two languages are smarter. At all kinds of things. Many of which have nothing to do with what we think of as linguistic processing. Including, evidently, inappropriate punctuation to increase dramatic tension in a sentence where none would normally exist.
Anyway, read the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Spread the word to end the word
I've used this Ta-Nehisi Coates quote before, but it bears repeating: " "[...I]t's always wrong to treat individuals as a 'collection of others.'"
Some students have gone even further, taking aim at one of the two most odious epithets I hear every day. Good on them.
PTHS: Spread The Word To End The Word 2012 - "I'm Eric" from McCoy Studios on Vimeo.
This is my new need-five-minutes-of-community-development lesson plan. I'm left with one doubt: Is this part of my initial lesson on how to behave, or is it something we watch as a response to an incident? Either way, I'll bet my 7th graders will have to watch it by the end of the coming week.
Some students have gone even further, taking aim at one of the two most odious epithets I hear every day. Good on them.
PTHS: Spread The Word To End The Word 2012 - "I'm Eric" from McCoy Studios on Vimeo.
This is my new need-five-minutes-of-community-development lesson plan. I'm left with one doubt: Is this part of my initial lesson on how to behave, or is it something we watch as a response to an incident? Either way, I'll bet my 7th graders will have to watch it by the end of the coming week.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Partial success: This year's debates
So we have finished our debates in English class this year, and while they weren't an unqualified success, they were much improved over last year. Students' arguments were much better prepared and much better structured. They didn't quite work all the way through the structure; their closing arguments were more like summaries than rebuttals, but they paid enough attention to their opening statements to make their summaries. Their cross-examination questions were often actual questions, and not just statements. Their statements of position were consitently backed up with traceable research, and if their sources were sometimes less than reliable, at least they weren't articles from the Onion. I haven't read their reflection papers yet, but it seems like they have gotten more out of it than last year's class.
There are things that they didn't do, a clear indication that they didn't know they were supposed to do them. As often as not, they just read off of their source material, which means that I saw the same 4 speeches 6 times. I don't know that they ever understood why I had them research both sides of the argument, but they did give some indication of arguing from a place of sympathy.
There are things that they didn't do, a clear indication that they didn't know they were supposed to do them. As often as not, they just read off of their source material, which means that I saw the same 4 speeches 6 times. I don't know that they ever understood why I had them research both sides of the argument, but they did give some indication of arguing from a place of sympathy.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Flipping Spanish class
My colleage Brendan and I frequently talk about flipping our classrooms--assigning initial instruction as homework, in the form of videos of us (or other teachers) delivering the content. This would free up class time to answer questions or work on more intensive projects. We look for Kahn Academy videos and other methods of providing content. Right now it's just talk, but I think we are (independently of one another) going to spend some time this summer trying to make it happen.
Peter Pappas outlines how he started flipping his classroom, and how we might start even before the year is out.
As a bonus Peter Pappas blog entry, he answers the question, "What would schools look like if students designed the school?
Peter Pappas outlines how he started flipping his classroom, and how we might start even before the year is out.
As a bonus Peter Pappas blog entry, he answers the question, "What would schools look like if students designed the school?
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
A reader solves the QR problem
How Natalie C. found her way onto this blog I'll never know (by which I mean I'll look at the Blogger stats later, if it occurs to me), but I'm glad she did. She presents a solution to taking attendance with a QR code which is simple and free. Full instructions are just a click away.
The Sparknotes version is this: She created a Google Docs form which included all the information she wants from her attendees, then created a QR code from the address of the form. Attendees shoot the QR code with their smartphone cameras, their smartphone takes them to the form, they fill out the form, click submit, and bam. A Google Docs spreadsheet takes the information and puts it in neat rows with a timestamp and all. Very clever!
This might be a little involved for my purposes. I just want to point a camera at a student and have a computer register that the student is there, all official-like. But still, this is slick, and I can think of a few other ways to make that useful. More about that later.
The Sparknotes version is this: She created a Google Docs form which included all the information she wants from her attendees, then created a QR code from the address of the form. Attendees shoot the QR code with their smartphone cameras, their smartphone takes them to the form, they fill out the form, click submit, and bam. A Google Docs spreadsheet takes the information and puts it in neat rows with a timestamp and all. Very clever!
This might be a little involved for my purposes. I just want to point a camera at a student and have a computer register that the student is there, all official-like. But still, this is slick, and I can think of a few other ways to make that useful. More about that later.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sudden Insights!
Ed Week headlines: Study Finds Sudden Insights Key to Learning Words. (This is a subscription thing. I got cheated in through the side. I'll summarize.)
As a World Language educator, I spend a bunch of time repeating key vocabulary words in ways that I think will help students remember it. Turns out, I might be...maybe not exactly misplacing my efforts, but let's say...not focusing my students at the right time. They make an initial hypothesis of a word, and then refuse to let it go until the hypothesis is undeniably proven false. Turns out, though, that given enough context, people are really good at making initial guesses. Besides, when we forget our initial guess, we get a chance to guess again. We remember the word when a.) it's interesting or important that we know it, or b.) we've guessed correctly enough times that it sticks. (That last sentence is an interpretation.)
So this effects my instruction in two ways: 1.) I need to be looking for ways to create aha moments. 2.) My focus should be on creating concrete, rather than abstract, moments. We understand the concrete; we can really only do abstract when we have either a lot of concrete to work with or a lot of practice at doing abstract. One way they do this in the research is to put a new thing with two know things and say, "Get the [new thing]!" Not only do children correctly identify the new thing, they generally remember what the new thing is called.
As a World Language educator, I spend a bunch of time repeating key vocabulary words in ways that I think will help students remember it. Turns out, I might be...maybe not exactly misplacing my efforts, but let's say...not focusing my students at the right time. They make an initial hypothesis of a word, and then refuse to let it go until the hypothesis is undeniably proven false. Turns out, though, that given enough context, people are really good at making initial guesses. Besides, when we forget our initial guess, we get a chance to guess again. We remember the word when a.) it's interesting or important that we know it, or b.) we've guessed correctly enough times that it sticks. (That last sentence is an interpretation.)
So this effects my instruction in two ways: 1.) I need to be looking for ways to create aha moments. 2.) My focus should be on creating concrete, rather than abstract, moments. We understand the concrete; we can really only do abstract when we have either a lot of concrete to work with or a lot of practice at doing abstract. One way they do this in the research is to put a new thing with two know things and say, "Get the [new thing]!" Not only do children correctly identify the new thing, they generally remember what the new thing is called.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
QR re-revisited
http://qrvoice.net/#id=tS5ZsH
This website has an app that will take what you type in, create a QR code for it, and, when you scan the code, play the text-to-voice audio. That's pretty cool.
This website has an app that will take what you type in, create a QR code for it, and, when you scan the code, play the text-to-voice audio. That's pretty cool.
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