English Cafe! using podcasts in the classroom

ESL podcast supports the English Cafe episode 270 which discussed Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt; it is a continuation of a conversation on famous Americans which is guided by Dr. Jeff McQuillan.  This podcast discusses the history of Eleanor Roosevelt in an manner to educate English Language Learners about American culture and history.  I think this would be a great tool for students, not necessarily those students who are new to the country and do  not have any English experience.  The content is very cognitively demanding with little contextual support to help comprehension.  Ideally this podcast would be preferred for high intermediate or advanced ESL students.  This would be a fantastic tool for students who are preparing for the NYSESLAT and need to improve their listening comprehension skills.  Words are enunciated, difficult or new vocabulary words are explained in simplified terms to increase understanding of the content.  U.S. History teachers should implement this tool in their classrooms or should guide students toward this podcast as a reference for a research project.  Not only would the students be able to gain content knowledge but English comprehension would be augmented simultaneously! (I am a huge fan of content-based instruction and feel that students benefit tremendously from it!)  So to my fellow ESL teachers out there, use and share this tool with your peers! I have a strong feeling that your students will make great strides through the assistance provided in this podcast series.

e-teaching, e-learning, e-cultures through ePals!

I have just discovered ePals, and I must admit this seems like a fantastic tool for students to engage in multicultural activities.  Since I am in the English as a second language field I feel that many of these tools can be accessed through the proper use of my classroom. 

For the mainstream classroom, especially where students may not be able to interact with diverse populations I think this would be a phenominal tool! Students are able to interact frequently through the internet if desired or via postal mail if preferred.  The goal is for educators to provide meaningful opportunities for their students to engage in cultural discussions and realize that culture surrounds us always. 

With English Language Learners I feel that these tasks may prove to be slightly out of the range of the beginners, the intermediate level students would do much better.  This is a wonderful way for students to be able to express their experiences, holidays, beliefs, cultures and so much more.  I have discovered that there is a significant population of Hispanic students in my area which were born in the United States  yet they do not speak English at all.  I am sympathetic toward this group of students; it appears as though they feel that they are abandoning who they are if they learn English.  This tool would be a great way to validate their cultures, experiences, etc. and still encourage English use. 

Educators from all over the world have posted their desires, their class sizes, languages and experiences they may or may not have with ePals.  A world map is shown on the website that can be clicked upon; participants from all over the world are already establishing their accounts and are eager for people to participate with them.  What I have observed is that there literally are educators and students from MOST of the world's countries who want to e-learn about other cultures, communities, holidays, weather, natural disasters, how culture influences who people are etc.  The options for this ePals tool could be limitless; all we have to do is sign up and use our creativity to make learning meaningful for our students.  This is one great way!

great tool for the classroom!!

Big Huge Labs provides limitless options for educators to include in this creative tool in the classroom.  I am primarily interested in ESL and how to best prepare this student population for American society.  As a result, I have read countless research articles and texts, many of which stress the fact that these students must feel comfortable, accepted and valued in the classroom. 

The Big Huge Labs homepage offers a direct link to motivational posters.  Pictures from facebook, Flickr and the computer you're working on at the moment can be uploaded onto this website for free; just like the membership.  There is one catch however, and that is the fact that in order to print out these creative pieces professionally, you have to pay a fee.  Since the company is willing to print them out and send them for the same price it works out well for those of us who do not have resources to generate them from home. 

What I would like to do for my classroom is take photographs of the class; as a whole group, in pairs and in various group sizes I feel would be best.  Ideally, but entirely dependent upon the students' English language proficiency, I would like the students to brainstorm and collaborate on inspirational phrases.  Using the students' pictures and texts to create motivational texts to plaster all over the walls I feel would greatly increase their feelings of comfort, acceptance and hopefully make them feel valued.

New Teacher?! Read these articles for helpful hints!!

I recently read two articles:

"9 great reasons why teachers should use Twitter"
"Don't eat lunch alone"

they are so practical and useful for us teachers in training!

I thought 9 great reasons...was wonderful; each reason is explained in one or two paragraphs so its nice and concise yet very informative.  Not yet have I made connections that I feel comfortable using for my teaching benefit so I think that using Twitter to get honest feedback from collegues is amazing!!! I have not done student teaching yet although I am participating in a local high school several times a week, doing observations and helping out in the afterschool program, so I need all of the advice I can get.  Networking in this manner, where the character number is limited, provides honest (hopefully!) and direct feedback to whatever question I may pose.  I really look forward to using Twitter as an idea's workshop like Laura Walker suggested.  Having access to other teachers' ideas about lessons can only assist me to broaden how I perceive and present lessons once I have a classroom of my own.

While I enjoyed Laura Walker's blog, it did not provide information about how to go about finding teachers to follow; this is where Richard Byrne's article comes in.  He actually posted two power points to his blog which include practical advice, almost step by step, to follow teachers! This is the type of information I need since I for some reason am not very computer savvy.  (Although, I must say that I am beginning to feel like a pro with blogging!!)  The focus of this article was developing a personal learning network which I think is an amazing idea.  How better to settle into teaching than with support of people who are already doing it?! It takes me a bit to open up to people enough to ask for help with certain things, I feel that this tool would work amazingly well for me, especially while I am trying to gain some confidence in a school as a new teacher.

Encouraging Childhood Literacy-->a phenomenal tool discovered through Gooogle Reader!!

There is an International Children's Digital Library!! I learned about this wonderful tool on Google Reader; the post is called Read Free Online Books at the International Children's Digital Library.  The author is Wesley Fryer and his blog is Moving at the Speed of Creativity.  Countless digital books with beautiful pictures are available to read.  I think this could prove to be an excellent tool for the ESL classroom if technology is availble since there are books in a variety of languages.  Literacy in one's first language encourages literacy in the second and if this tool can help we as educators should embrace the opportunity. 
Not only does this website offer opportunities for literacy, it also provides students with choices to encourage independence and confidence.  Languages, content, length and pictures are just a few decisions the students will be able to make independently while still reinforcing the importance of language and reading.

Ning.com--who knew?!

So, when I realized that one of the objectives for this week was to go to Ning.com and search groups to join I was unable to see the benefits of this task.  Not even one.  Well, I was completely wrong!  I did have some difficulty navigating the site initially; prompts were repeatedly popping up whenever I wanted to view something.  Finally, I simply clicked on links for individual networks after perusing an extensive and long list.  Some that I viewed are the following: Classroom 2.0,  EFL Classroom 2.0, Teachers Using Message Boards or Blogging, Professional Development

I was apprehensive about following the link to the EFL classroom simply because I am interested in ESL and while there are similarities, I was concerned about the numerous differences.  If anyone else is feeling this way, ignore it! This group is fantasic--so here is the link again.  EFL Classroom 2.0 

Professionals in the ESL & EFL fields actively participate in discussions and post links to relevant issues.  Along the side there are options to view daily lessons, "lessons in a can," an English tutor (how helpful is that for ESL students?!) and even study music!!  We as ESL educators can gradully introduce our students to this technology; they can access all of these tools and blog about any issues they may be facing during the second language acquisition process or any thoughts they may have.  I highly reccommed this site despite my initial hesitancy.  If nothing else, sign up to the network and see what I'm talking about first hand.

A learner is like being a switchboard operator!

A learner today is like being a switchboard operator of the 20th century.  Switchboard operators continuously made and forged connections between people, ideas and therefore networks.  In the 21st century, students are relentlessly making connections between their previous experiences and new ones; alterations of schema is a result.  The wires that would be plugged into the switchboard can be the equivalent of relationships between humans and others as well as their surroundings; conversations are representations of the transmission of knowledge.

The changing nature of knowledge is based upon the basis of connectivism in the learning environment; the man discussing the topic is Siemens, the developer of the connectivism theory.  In this YouTube excerpt, Siemens actually states that "the learners themselves, the connections they form with each other, the connections that they form with databases, other sources of knowledge, is really the primary point of learning so in essence the network becomes the learning."  In his article explaining the differences between connectivism and other prominent, yet according to Siemens,outdated, theories evident proof exists to support my notion of a learner equaling a switchboard operator.  Click here to read the article in full.

"Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing" (Siemens, 2005).  I believe that the network referred to is actually the interconnections that exist between humans and all of their surroundings.  It appears to be the case that Siemens has actually integrated some of the sociocultural theory into his connectivism theory in that Vygotsky claimed that humans learn through all interactions between the self and the environment.

Pay Attention!

After viewing Pay Attention on YouTube I realized that I hadn't actually thought about paying attention in this manner.  I have heard about the various and numerous types of learners that I should anticipate in my future classroom, digital however was not one of them.  I understand that most students have experienced countless hours on computers or video game systems.  I just have one slight problem, or at least I believe its a problem. 

I am studying to be an English as a second language educator, I realize that some of my students will have been raised here, simply in homes that speak other languages.  There are others whoever who would not be familiar with such technology and could easily be overwhelmed by it especially during the acculturation process.  During my senior year for undergraduate school, I had an internship which put me in the position to interact daily with refugees; for this I feel privileged.  A job fair was taking place at one of the local malls so I accompanied several refugees there to fill out applications.  Since we were there already, I figured it would be alright to walk around the mall, try and provide them with a new experience.  It back fired! They were extremely intimidated and wanted nothing more than to sit on a bench. 

While this may not be entirely related, I feel that if such lessons where students are required to participate in activities dominated by technology were used in the classroom they could prove to be counterproductive.  Many ESL students, especially the refugee population are not familiar with texting and creating an environment where this would generate a grade could cause unnecessary stress.  I do believe that if baby-steps were to be taken then students would benefit tremendously since technology and being able to manipulate it are requirements for success in professional settings.

One segment in the film that most bothered me was that students get to ask one question per 10 hours. I do not understand how that is possible, but then again I am lacking experience in the field.  Either way, I find it extremely upsetting if a student has a question and is unable to ask it.  I do believe that students' lack of self-confidence prevents the asking of questions; in that respect I can understand once every 10 hours; some students do not want to share personal information, such as not understanding a concept, with classmates.  This would be a wonderful opportunity for teachers to take advantage of technology in the classroom.  Let the self-conscious students send e-mails, or maybe post anonymously to a discussion board any questions or clarifications needed about lessons.

Click here to visit Pay Attention.