PGP - week 4 reflections

What specific goals do you have between now and next summer in your teaching practice?

Since my school is implementing a one-to-one program this year, one overarching goal I have is for the students to use their laptops on a daily basis as an effective learning tool, (as opposed to a toy or a device for on line social networking), for my subject area, French. The web 2, 0 tools available on the internet makes the student's "toolbox", aka, his/her laptop, a very rich and powerful resource. The coursework this summer has introduced me to so many applications that I can see will actively engage my students in the French language, at a whole different level. For example, I would like to give the chat feature in Edmodo a try to engage the students in an on-line discussion about a topic in French; I would also like to use this feature to try back channeling during class as I would be curious to read what the students have to "say" during class, especially the ones who do not speak up much. I also plan to have students use the Google tools a lot more for collaborative work. I did not push the students to use Google Docs this past year but now that I have worked with it myself and have seen what one can do using Google Docs, I would like to see my students using it more.

With the one-to-one program being implemented and after having done a vodcast on Digital Citizenship, I now see how important it is to model and attempt to teach good digital citizenship in every class, not just the computer course. Consequently, another goal for me this year is to be more diligent about the promotion of good digital citizenship.

Another goal I have is to strive to bring more creativity into my teaching because doing the “creativity” activities during the MAET program really showed me how much more one really engages with the course material when one must be creative. For example, I would like to try the abstract lesson we did during the course to portray new vocabulary words in French or take a virtual field trip to somewhere in France and have the students do a social learning challenge like we did for Giverny. This course has definitely made me more aware and conscious of bringing in this aspect to my course.

The last goal I have for this upcoming school year is to share what I have learned this summer with my administrators and colleagues, especially those who are not that comfortable with technology or those who are skeptical about having teenagers use laptops with internet connection during class time. With the implementation of the one-to-one program, I will also attempt to emphasize to my colleagues that we should all model/teach Digital Citizenship in our classes, especially if we want to help empower the students.

How specifically do you plan to accomplish these?

I plan to accomplish my first goal of having the students use their laptops as an effective learning tool, by slowly introducing the "tools", aka, applications, during the 1st quarter, so that by the 2nd quarter, I can integrate these tools into my lessons on a daily basis. Modeling/teaching Digital Citizenship will begin from day one of the new school year and I will make the effort to reinforce and discuss Digital Citizenship with students during the entire school year. I don't feel that I modeled this enough this past year, partially because I forgot and partially because I naively assumed that the students were getting this elsewhere in their English or in the freshman Wellness Class. (I teach mostly 9^th and 10^th graders).

To implement creativity into my teaching, I plan to attempt a few of the activities that I did during this summer’s MAET program as well as come up with a few on my own. If I get stumped for ideas, I will check the MAET Year 1 wiki to see if any of my classmates have posted any activities that promote creativity or get in touch with classmates, (via Skype or the wiki), to help me brainstorm ideas.

As far as sharing what I have learned this summer with my colleagues and administrators, I plan to do this informally by working one-on-one with anyone who is looking for help or ideas with integrating technology into their classroom. However I also plan to do this throughout the school year during department or faculty meetings and during professional development days.

Which goals do you think you can accomplish on your own, with which do you need help, and from where might that help come ?

I think that I can accomplish all of my goals on my own; however, having the support of my parents, colleagues and administration would definitely help me to accomplish my goals, especially the modeling/teaching of Digital Citizenship. If I am to share what I have learned this summer with my colleagues at SAS I will look to my administrators to provide ample time and opportunities for me to work with my colleagues. The time factor is always a challenging one for everyone unfortunately.

Since I will be trying many of the applications I learned this summer out with my students this year and I don’t know how it will go, I will need students to be patient with me and above all not be shy about giving me feedback about the lessons into which I integrate technology.

As I mentioned earlier, should I need help brainstorming a creative lesson or should I want to seek advice on ed tech, I am fortunate to have several options open to me: I am lucky that I have many competent colleagues in ed tech among the faculty at SAS with whom I could talk; I can also contact my MAET classmates and/or look on educator social networking sites and/or blogs to see if I can find for what I am looking.

Quickfire Creation (mouse over & click!)

Digital Citizenship Videocast

We hope that you enjoy our Videocast! To view click on the words, Digital Citizenship Videocast, above.

"Demotivation" Poster about Collaboration

Created by: C Popowski, B Marsland, J Perry & J Johnson

Have a look at another group's "demotivation" poster. Click HERE.

Vodcast Project - Outline, Script & Storyboard

Three educators, working towards a Master’s degree in Educational Technology at Michigan State University, are asking their colleagues an important question:

What does digital citizenship in the 21st century mean to you?

Insert video clips of MSU students & faculty answering that question briefly

We only wish we knew the perfect way to answer this question. But it’s not going to be that easy. The solution isn’t going to be black and white. In order to navigate this digital world in which we currently find ourselves, we need to encourage an open dialogue amongst its inhabitants. Each digital citizen has the opportunity to contribute their own unique perspective to this issue.

Digital Citizenship - Let’s start the conversation

Insert video clips of MSU students & faculty speak to specific points they are contributing to their efforts in educating digital citizens

Are you discussing this at school? With colleagues? With students? At home with your own children?

Are we, as educators, discussing it enough?

Let’s talk about it more.Together.

Let’s continue this conversation.

[With great power comes great responsibility.]

What can YOU add to the dialogue?

end

Personal TPack Challenge

Problem:

Gender agreement in French. In both written and spoken French students in HS levels 3 and above are not producing the language consistently using the appropriate gender and number agreements for the different types of adjectives, (possessive, demonstrative, interrogative), as well as prepositions followed by a definite article, (i.e. au, du, aux, des). This issue is to be expected at the beginning levels of French however, after 2 years of working with this concept, I am always surprised at the large number of upper level students who consistently do not heed the gender and number agreement.

Solution:

Using Google Docs, have the students work with 1-2 partners to write a made up story or exaggerate a real experience in French. While writing the first draft, each adjective in the story and the noun it is modifying must be colored coded, i.e. mas singular = light blue, mas plural = dark blue; fem singular = light pink, fem plural = dark pink. After feedback from the teacher and peers, while writing the second draft, students must do the same color coding for the prepositions à + definite article and de + definite article and the noun that follows. Groups will peer edit each other's 2nd draft and the teacher will also give feedback on each group’s 2nd draft. Images to accompany the story will be added to the third and final draft of this particular document. The final draft of the story will be posted on the class blog for others to read and enjoy. Students will also read each other's stories and give positive feedback and constructive criticism on the writing and choice of images.

TP knowledge: What is the TP knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

This student centered strategy of collaboratively authoring a story which will ultimately be posted to the class blog, is a blended face to face and an online experience. This teaching experience will allow students to take ownership of their own writing while collaborating both face to face as well as on line. Prior to commencing the writing process, students will brainstorm possible story scenarios and storyboard, face to face. During the online collaborative writing process students will discuss, explain, negotiate, justify, apply critical thinking strategies and creatively problem solve in order to determine the gender of nouns, (especially for irregular adjectives or exceptions to the rule). Students will also explain, negotiate and justify their choices of images which will accompany their story. The use of images has not only the potential to nurture and enhance a student’s creativity, but also help him/her to broaden their understanding of this grammatical concept, (gender and number agreement).

TC knowlege: What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about representation.)

Students will need to know how to use Google Docs, (or Google Wave for the real tech savy students); how to locate applicable and appropriate vocabulary on the website, www.wordreference.com; how to use appropriate online research tools to locate non-copyrighted images on the Internet on sites such as Creative Commons; how to download the images from the Internet; how to post their stories and images on the class blog; how to adjust images sizes on their blog post and how to post a comment on a peer’s blog post.

PC knowledge: What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies).

In order to write a story in French students need to have knowledge of appropriate vocabulary and know where and how to locate vocabulary unknown to the student. Students also need to know how to construct a basic sentence in French, have an understanding of the parts of speech, noun and adjective; have an understanding that each noun in French is classified as either masculine or feminine, and that any adjective describing the noun must agree in gender and number, (singular, plural). Students need to have an understanding of adjective placement in French and exceptions to the general rule. Students must have an understanding of the possessive adjectifs, mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, son, sa, ses, notre, nos, votre, vos, leur, leurs; demonstrative adjectifs, ce, cet, cette, ces; and interrogative adjectives, quel, quelle, quels and quelles. Students must have an understanding of the definite articles in French, le, la and les and the grammar rule: prepositions de and à + definite article.

With this knowledge students will be actively involved in writing a made up story, or an exaggeration of a real experience in French, by collaborating with 1-2 partners. Students must use their knowledge of the French language and grammar rules to discuss, negotiate, justify, problem solve and creatively think about the vocabulary, adjectives and prepositional articles to be used in the story.

I invited you to have a look at a screen cast of my TPack challenge. However, be patient, as it takes a few seconds for the screen cast to load.

Vodcast Project

Digital Citizenship by Bill, Jamie and Chris

Our group plans to create a vodcast discussion of the differenct aspects of digital citizenship.

Preliminary research on the Internet shows that there is already a ton of information about the promotion of digital citizenship available in various formats on the Internet. For example there are websites, blogs, youtube videos, pdf files, etc.

Our group will specifically discuss why the need to "preach" digital citizenship to our students is becoming increasingly more important and urgent.

Tools we will use: clips from relevant videos, images, imovie

Projected time line:

1. First blog post to describe the vodcast. Preliminary research, gather on line resources - Monday, July 19

2. Storyboard the vodcast and coordinate the videos & images, write the script using a nice narrative flow between the video clips and images. Record and shoot the project. Post the outline/storyboard and script onto our blog pages - Tuesday, July 20th

3. Edit & finalize the project, post finished vodcast on blog - Wednesday, July 21th

These images represent?

Check out Bill's images.

Check out Jessica's images.

These images represent?

CLICK HERE FIRST

Check out Bill's images.

These images represent?

Check out Jessica's images.

Check out Bill's images.

These images represent?

Check out Jessica's images.

Check out Bill's images.

Pod/VodCast topics that interest me

1. Electronic books; feasibility, afford ability, accessibility, etc.

2. Game-based learning; bring gaming into the curriculum?

3. Mobile computing on network capable devices which students are already carrying, i.e. smart phones.

PGP - week 3 reflections

I enjoyed this week's labs because they gave me opportunities to use applications that I had been wanting to try, Audacity and Jing. As a Modern Language teacher I see how I can use Audacity as a tool to have students record in French and also add music. Audacity will be a nice tool for adding audio to student podcasts or videos but I think that I will use Audacity more frequently to have students record so that I can provide them with feedback on their oral communication and pronunciation in French.

Jing I probably will not use as much as Audacity, however it is nice to know that there is an alternative to the "print screen" function on a PC. Screen casting is a powerful Jing feature that I can see myself and my students using to present a mini lesson which can be posted on Black Board or Edmodo for viewing at the student's discretion. If several students were to be absent from class, it is also nice to know that it is easy and not time consuming to post a mini lesson on the web for my students.

I enjoyed this week's field trip to Giverny. I had already visited Monet's house and gardens twice before so I was not super excited about a 3rd visit. However, once we received the Social Learning Challenge on Tuesday, this gave the trip a whole different meaning and focus for me. Armed with my seven "I wonder" questions, I did not feel so much like a tourist but like I was on a mission to photograph my responses.

I am happy to report that this challenge taught me some new things about Claude Monet that I was unaware of prior to this 3rd visit. For example, I did not know that Monet enjoyed the finer foods in life and that he enjoyed entertaining his many friends in his home. This challenge also taught me to look at things I have seen before but in a new light, i.e. I did not think much about asymmetry or curves in Monet's water garden during my 2 previous visits to Giverny, (might have something to do with the fact that I was in charge of HS students and making sure that they were behaving), however, this challenge allowed me to do so. Should I visit Giverny in the future with students, I plan to challenge my students with an activity like this so that they can get more out of the visit.

Lastly, it was fun to have been a part of the TPACK video which several of my classmates put together last week. That experience allowed year 1 students to take ownership of our learning through a process of collaborative brainstorming, critical thinking and problem solving. We then used our technology knowledge and skills to creatively transmit information we have learned from the TPACK readings and discussions to the MAET faculty and students during the cross share. :-)

Giverny Jing

Please be patient, for some reason it takes the screen cast about 10 seconds to load before it starts to play. Enjoy!

Giverny Social Learning Challenge

Personal TPack Challenge

Problem:

Gender agreement in French. In both written and spoken French students in HS levels 3 and above are not producing the language consistently using the appropriate gender and number agreements for the different types of adjectives, (possessive, demonstrative, interrogative), as well as prepositions followed by a definite article, (i.e. au, du, aux, des). This issue is to be expected at the beginning levels of French however, after 2 years of working with this concept, I am always surprised at the large number of upper level students who consistently do not heed the gender and number agreement.

Solution:

Using an application such as Google Docs, have the students work with 1-2 partners to write a made up story or exaggerate a real experience in French. While writing the first draft, each adjective in the story and the noun it is modifying must be colored coded, i.e. mas singular = light blue, mas plural = dark blue; fem singular = light pink, fem plural = dark pink. After feedback from the teacher and peers, while writing the second draft, students must do the same color coding for the prepositions à + definite article and de + definite article and the noun that follows. Groups will peer edit each other's 2nd draft and the teacher will also give feedback on each group’s 2nd draft. Images to accompany the story will be added to the third and final draft of this particular document. The final draft of the story will be posted on the class blog for others to read and enjoy. Students will also read each other's stories and give positive feedback and constructive criticism on the writing and choice of images.

TP knowledge: What is the TP knowledge for the solution I have chosen?

This student centered strategy of collaboratively authoring a story which will ultimately be posted to the class blog, is a blended face to face and an online experience. This teaching experience will allow students to take ownership of their own writing while collaborating both face to face as well as on line. Prior to commencing the writing process, students will brainstorm possible story scenarios and storyboard, face to face. During the online collaborative writing process students will discuss, explain, negotiate, justify, apply critical thinking strategies and creatively problem solve in order to determine the gender of nouns, (especially for irregular adjectives or exceptions to the rule). Students will also explain, negotiate and justify their choices of images which will accompany their story. The use of images has not only the potential to nurture and enhance a student’s creativity, but also help him/her to broaden their understanding of this grammatical concept, (gender and number agreement).

TC knowlege: What is the TC knowledge for the solution I have chosen?

Students will need to know how to use Google Docs, (or Google Wave for the real tech savy students); how to locate applicable and appropriate vocabulary on the website, www.wordreference.com; how to use appropriate online research tools to locate non-copyrighted images on the Internet on sites such as Creative Commons; how to download the images from the Internet; how to post their stories and images on the class blog; how to adjust images sizes on their blog post and how to post a comment on a peer’s blog post.

PC knowledge: What is the PC knowledge for the solution?

In order to write a story in French students need to have knowledge of appropriate vocabulary and know where and how to locate vocabulary unknown to the student. Students also need to know how to construct a basic sentence in French, have an understanding of the parts of speech, noun and adjective; have an understanding that each noun in French is classified as either masculine or feminine, and that any adjective describing the noun must agree in gender and number, (singular, plural). Students need to have an understanding of adjective placement in French and exceptions to the general rule. Students must have an understanding of the possessive adjectifs, mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, son, sa, ses, notre, nos, votre, vos, leur, leurs; demonstrative adjectifs, ce, cet, cette, ces; and interrogative adjectives, quel, quelle, quels and quelles. Students must have an understanding of the definite articles in French, le, la and les and the grammar rule: prepositions de and à + definite article.

With this knowledge students will be actively involved in writing a made up story, or an exaggeration of a real experience in French, by collaborating with 1-2 partners. Students must use their knowledge of the French language and grammar rules to discuss, negotiate, justify, problem solve and creatively think about the vocabulary, adjectives and prepositional articles to be used in the story.

Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants in Plain English

Check out this video 3 classmates and I created during the 2nd week of MAET classes.

Dinglehopper activity

The repurposing of a plate:

Now check out my partner, Bill's repurposing of this same plate. Click here.

PGP - week 2 reflections

I consider myself very lucky to be very passionate about my profession, teaching, and what I teach, French. I say this because during my years as an undergraduate student I at first thought my passion was business, but after a couple of years that “passion” or as I reflect back on that now, that “interest” switched to political science. It was not until my last semester of undergraduate studies that I find out what it was to be PASSIONATE about something.

While writing my undergraduate thesis about the political conflicts in the Middle East, a friend encouraged me to join her in taking a beginner French class 2 evenings per week.I was reluctant at first but I’m glad that I decided to join her because that beginner French class totally changed my life. After the first week of French classes I found that I had discovered my true PASSION. This passion is for the French language and culture. After graduating with a degree in Political Science I found work as an Administrative Assistant in an office in downtown Chicago, (a degree in Political Science doesn’t lead to many glamorous job offers), I quickly learned that working in an office and in the world of business, (a commodities trading firm), was definitely not for me.

Consequently I did a lot of reflecting about my future professional plans during my first year out of college. I kept on studying French in the evenings and during this time it occurred to me that I had at one time in my life, thought about becoming a teacher. After attending a few open houses at teacher colleges in Chicago to find out more about a career in Education, I quickly made the decision to combine two passions: French and teaching. It just felt so right and so good when I finally came to this decision. I quickly became more and more passionate about education for every class that I took at the School of Education at DePaul.

My apologies for being so long- winded about my professional passions but I didn’t discover these passions until my late 20s, which I consider late, but I consider myself to be very fortunate as I know that there are many professionals who work in a field for which they have no passion. It must be a horrible to have to work at a job for which one feels no passion.

As for my unique personal qualities, I am not only a speaker of French and a true Francophile, I am bilingual Swedish/English. My mother was Swedish and I happened to spend a lot of my summers visiting my family in Sweden during the summer. As an adult I chose to attend the University of Stockholm mainly for financial reasons, (tuition free), but also because I thought it would be interesting and challenging to attend a school in another country. I've always enjoyed a challenge and when I make up my mind to do something, I always follow through and pursue it. I think this is important to model this to my students.

During my undergraduate years I was fortunate enough to be able do a lot of travelling, mostly in Europe but also in Indonesia for 1 month. I have now taught and worked in Singapore for 9 years, which by the way, is a great travel base. As a result I have had even more opportunities to travel and experience many cultures and countries all over Asia, Australia and New Zealand. These experiences have only enhanced my personal knowledge and made me the person I am today. Consequently the things I saw, experienced, heard and tasted in my overseas experiences have taught me much more than any class or textbook. These unique experiences and knowledge are what I bring to my classes. I find that I can personalize the lesson more or add an extra fact or two because I have personally experienced it or been to the place. As a student I remember listening to my teachers tell their personal stories and experiences in class. These are the things I tended to remember more of than what I read in the textbook, for example.

These past few years my school has been preparing to implement a one-to-one laptop program. At the same time I found myself attending more and more professional development workshops and conferences to learn more about technological tools that can help me to teach French in a way that will help my students to learn it in a fun, hands-on and more realistic manner. I felt so passionate about integrating technology into my curriculum that I even volunteered to serve on my school’s laptop committee. Without realizing it, during these past few years of teaching French I had found yet another passion: educational technology.

In order to foster my most recent passion, that of educational technology, I felt it necessary to educate myself more on the tech tools that are available to educators. Hence my decision to pursue the Master’s in Educational Technology at MSU.

Now that I have completed my second week of the MAET program I can honestly say that my goals for this summer have not changed. I came to the MAET program hoping to learn about a lot of on-line tools and their uses, and this is exactly what I’m doing. I’m excited because I can see uses for me and my students in my classroom, however, as I stated in last week’s blog post, I still need to get used to using them and push myself to integrate these tools on a daily basis in my classroom.

I also need to become more comfortable with the TPACK framework as I still do not feel that I have a full understanding of it. For the remainder of the summer program I would also like to continue to reflect on my teaching and continue to investigate tools that I feel might help to streamline my work flow as well as that of my students. For example, this week I read a blog post from a teacher who does a very similar activity/lesson with his Latin students as I do with my students, however he uses Google Wave to give his students immediate and real-time feedback as they write. I have never worked with Google Wave so one thing I would like to accomplish for next week is to investigate Google Wave to see if this is a tool which I can use in my classroom next year.

That is all for now as my brain is fried. Désolée! (sorry)

My Intro Video

Adventure Reading for July 6th

Getting students motivated to read, understand and above all, enjoy poetry in any language can at times be challenging. I love sharing my favorite poems in French with my students but when I announce to my classes that we will be reading a poem, I usually see a few eyes roll or a "deer in the headlights" look on a few faces. I am constantly looking for tips and ideas on how to have students interact with a poem. One activity in particular that students enjoy is writing their own poem in French after we read one of my favorite poems, Dejeuner du matin. Not only is this a great poem but it also helps students to review the past tense of irregular verbs in French. After interacting with the text and a discussion of the poem to ensure comprehension, students work in small groups to write their own poem in French about an event, (real or imaginary), using the poem presented in class as a model. The quality of writing I receive always amazes me and at the same time students are surprised at their own abilities. Many wind up admitting that they actually enjoyed the writing assignment.

These past couple of years my goal has been to run my class as "green" as possible, paperless, as much as I can. This is why the blog post I located this evening was of great interest to me. The teacher who posted this on his blog did a very similar activity with the students in his Latin class, however, he used a Google tool called "wave" which enabled him to comment on the students' work while they worked so that they could use the feedback to make adjustments in their writing prior to turning in a final product. This sounds like a tool I could use in my classroom, in particular with writing writing assignments. I have never worked with Wave but I have a feeling I'll be looking at it real soon . . .

http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/2010/03/using-google-wave-in-foreign-language.html

My Social Presence & Personal Growth Plan

On the web I would like to have a personal and a professional presence. My personal presence would be for things I would like to share with my friends and family. My professional presence would be for things I would like to share with my students and colleagues. Additionally, many of the things I would like to share with my students will most likely be in French hence one more reason to separate my personal and professional presence on the web.

Expertise I have to share with the world - oh geeze! I don’t feel that I have expertise to share with the WORLD. In my job as an educator, my area of expertise is teaching the French language however I am constantly looking for ways to improve my expertise in this area. After having planned 8 trips to France with students I have expertise in planning immersions trips to France for students. On a personal note, I feel that I have expertise on how to make and follow a budget, (at least compared to many Americans who live way beyond their means). Apart from these few areas, ?????

As I am new to ed tech, the types of experts and expertise with which I would like to connect are experts in the field of ed tech; colleagues who use tech to teach their subject area and/or colleagues interested in how to use tech to teach their subject area; language teachers, (French as well as other languages).

My Personal Growth Plan:

Prior to the MAET program my ed tech learning experiences have been through in-service, PD workshops at my school and workshops I chose to attend at conferences. The issue I have faced after learning new applications in workshops, etc. is TIME. I have perhaps learned the basics of several applications during a workshop and have liked what I saw/learned, however what often happens is that I can’t seem to find the time I want/need to play around with the application(s) so that I feel comfortable enough to use the application. I have found that I have to choose one application to focus on and then “play” with it until I feel comfortable using it. For example, 2 years ago my school wanted the teachers to use OneNote but only provided about 1 hour of PD time by a colleague who presented the software to us, just days after this person had been in-serviced on the software. I immediately saw how useful OneNote would be for me as a platform to write and organize my lesson plans + all of the visuals that I incorporate into my lessons. Two years later I feel very comfortable using OneNote but I know that I am not using but 1/4 of its features because I have not had the time nor opportunity to get more training in OneNote.

After the first week of classes, I can’t believe how much I’ve learned about the tools on the web. I like the way that applications are being introduced to us, via instructors and peers and I am excited to sit on my own time to play around with a few of the applications for which I can see a use in my teaching. Knowing that I have some time in the summer before school begins to “play” around and learn more about these applications, is a relief. As we are introduced to the applications we have the opportunities to use/play them right away which is very helpful for me. I feel that I have become more courageous as far as exploring and learning about the applications which interest me.

My personal growth plan for the remaining portion of the 2010 summer courses:

Since creativity is one of the fundamental mindsets to the program, during these next few weeks I would like to take some time to reflect on the applications I already use with my student to see if there are other creative ways to use these applications to teach French. Csikszentmihalyi does make a good point in this respect! Furthermore, I am fortunate that there are a few language teachers in the class. It is my hope to learn of new and creative uses of the applications with which I am already familiar in future conversations/exchanges with these colleagues.

This first week of classes I have been introduced to a wide variety of new applications, a number of which I can see will be not only powerful learning tools in my classroom but also help my personal and professional work flow to become more efficient and effective. I would like to see my students use these tools for the same reasons however before I can begin having students use them, for the remainder of the course I would like to . . .

1. use and become more comfortable with Delicious & Diigo;
2. use and become more comfortable using Edmodo, Jing and screencast;
3. use and become more comfortable using Google Docs.

Once I become more comfortable using these applications I will then have a better idea of how to creatively use these applications to teach my subject area and also better address the different learning styles of my students.

The TPACK framework is new to me and although it makes total sense to me on paper I must confess that I still don’t know if I have completely understood all aspects of it. I want to become one of those “expert teachers” who consciously and unconsciously finds ways to orchestrate and coordinate technology, pedagogy, and content into every act of teaching. Consequently during these next few weeks and probably for the remainder of the MAET program I hope to become so comfortable with the TPACK framework that by 2012 I will be well on my way to becoming an expert teacher who effortlessly coordinates tech, pedagogy and content into every act of teaching.

My personal growth plan for the remaining portion of the MAET program (years 2 & 3) and the next five years of my career:

Summer 2010: As I am new to the MAET program this year my goals for this summer and the 2 upcoming summers may appear to be a little vague at the moment. (My apologies). Nonetheless this summer I hope to learn and become comfortable using applications that will streamline my personal and professional work flow as well as applications I can use in my class with my students this upcoming school year. In addition, since we are going one-to-one in August at SAS I also plan to share the TPACK framework and a few useful applications with my nervous colleagues, (those who are not comfortable using technology), during in-service opportunities in August and later in the school year.

Summer 2011: Reflect on how the 1st year of the one-to-one program at my school went; continue to reflect on the creative ways to use/re-purpose applications that can be useful tools in the modern language classroom; become comfortable with the gadgets/toys that can be re-purposed to be useful classroom aids, i.e. ipods, cellphones, and whatever other new “hot toys” come out between now and the summer of 2011; continue to share with my colleagues at my school the “highlights” of what I have learned during the summer course.

Summer 2012: Reflect on how the 2nd year of the one-to-one program went at SAS; continue to reflect on the creative ways to use/re-purpose applications and gadgets that can be useful tools in the modern language classroom; continue to share with my colleagues at school “highlights” of what I have learned during the summer course.

2013 - 2018: Demonstrate continual growth in technology knowledge and skills to stay abreast of current and emerging technologies; stay abreast of current technology resources and strategies to support the diverse needs of learners; continue to disseminate information to fellow colleagues about current technologies, strategies & best practices when it comes to integrating technology into content areas ; continue to model and teach legal and ethical practice related to technology use.

Digital Image Lab Performance Task

Abstraction - what is poetry