The Greatest Show on Earth: The Thirteenth Edition ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnivals

October 1, 2009 at 4:58 pm (Uncategorized)

Let me start by saying that it is quite intimidating to follow up Candace William’s Twelfth Edition ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival. She did a wonderful job introducing and transitioning between each blog submission. I am in no way as creative, so I apologize in advance, however I will give it a shot. Before we get started here is some information to make note of. Alice Mercer will be hosting the next blog carnival on December 1, 2009 at The Blog of Ms. Mercer. Following her, in February 2010, is Shelly Terrell at Teacher Reboot Camp: Challenging Ourselves to Engage Our Students and in March 2010, Karenne Sylvester at Kalinago English: Teaching Speaking Using Technology. If you would like to submit one of your blog posts for one of these upcoming blog carnivals, you can do so here. Lastly, hosting the Thirteenth Edition ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival is a privilege and I want to thank Larry Ferlazzo for allowing us the opportunity.

Yesterday, the circus, aka “The Greatest Show on Earth,” came to town here in Denver, CO. Today, however, we have our own “circus stars” to feature in the Thirteenth Edition ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival. I would like to present to you…

Ringmaster, Larry Ferlazzo
Larry Ferlazzo is the author of Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL. As ringmaster, Larry will direct us all to the important question “Separate High Schools for Immigrants?“

Pyrotechnics and Sound, Nik Peachey
Nik knows how to set the stage and add all the fireworks and pizzaz when introducing Web 2.0 Tools for EFL ESL Teachers at Nik’s Quick Shout through his latest presentation in video and scribd booklet format. And, to make sure that the audience doesn’t get bored, he dazzles us with Creating your Broadcast Network, a collection of tools that Nik himself uses to “put information ‘out there.’”

Lion Tamer, Karenne Sylvester
Karenne is the tamer of all the lion hearted ESL/EFL/ELL teachers as she discusses the ins and outs of Twitter in her blog post The English Language Teacher Guide to Twitter, tech tip #11. Not only does Karenne tame those familiar with English as a Second Language but she also guarantees that those in the audience also understand “What’s a TEFL Teacher?” in her blog, Kalinago English: Teaching Speaking Using Technology.

Tightrope Walker, Johanna Stirling
Johanna balances and performs on the tightrope while explaining the skills needed to successfully use spell checkers. For the observers who are too distracted by her performance to take notes, they can find the answer to Spell checkers- how useful are they? at The Spelling Blog.

Animal Caretaker/Trainer, David Deubel
David is our featured animal caretaker/trainer. Working with animals is never an easy task, but David makes every effort to provide those in his care with the tools and encouragement to be successful. Stop by and say hello after the show. David and his friends can be found at EFL Classroom 2.0- Teacher Talk: Presentations to help new teachers.

Flying Trapeze Artist, Chiew N Pang
Chiew is a one man circus all himself as he flies from one trapeze to the next. The first combination of stunts is Ideas for the First Lesson and Ideas for Using Videos in the Classroom. As his finale, Chiew makes it fun for all with a Cockney Rhyming Slang, Game for a Steffi? Time for a Bubble?

Acrobat, Barbara Sakamoto
There is never just one acrobat at the circus. It seems they always perform as a group and put on a spectacular show when they work together. Barbara has mastered working with groups and shares her journey from the “pre-Internet 80’s” to the “social 2000’s” and experiences with PLN’s. What is a PLN, anyway? I’ll let Barbara tell you at her blog Teaching Village: We’re better when we work together.

Aerialist, Shelly Terrell
Shelly Terrell sores above the rest Getting Children Involved with Edtech at Teacher Reboot Camp. She also invites others to join her PLN up high with Voice Thread. Audiences are amazed as what they perceive as the impossible happens right before their eyes.

Fire Breather/Eater, Mary Ann Zehr
Mary Ann is not afraid of hot topics. She will astonish those watching with spectacular feats of fire at her blog post, Learning the Language: We Don’t Know Much About the ELLs in Charter Schools, as she eats and breathes issues concerning English Language Learners.

Juggler, JP Loucky
JP is not your average juggler. He juggles people at his CALL 4 All ning where he presents a CALL Collaboration Proposal. For those of you not familiar with CALL, it is an acronym for Computer Assisted Language Learning. So if you are interested in networking with other jugglers, give JP’s blog post a visit.

Contortionist, Rafael
Rafael displays his contortion abilities and talents bilingually. At his blog post Classroom language when using the board / Lenguaje útil del profesor de Inglés en la Pizarra, Rafael demonstrates a variety of questioning techniques teachers can incorporate while at the board so that students stay engaged in the lesson.

Unicyclist, Nightwalker
This unicyclist is not just talented in one area as some might assume. He has skills. “Skills?” you say. Yes, Nightwalker is proficient in balancing reading, listening, writing, and speaking skills to support his demonstrations. One performance that Nightwalker is best known for is Dictation. “Why Dictation?” you say. You’ll just have to stay for the show to find out.

Trampolinist, Janet Bianchini
Janet is “high on the hog” when she is on the trampoline and makes it look like “a piece of cake.” Her blog post WikiEducator Update demonstrates her skills as a WikiEducator using Wordle and idioms.

Circus Clown, Ann Foreman
Ann is one clown that stuns the crowd with her karaoke skills. When Ann is not performing, she hosts karaoke parties for the rest of the circus clowns. They all practice for their time in the spotlight using the Sing and Investigate Task at her blog Encouraging learner autonomy.

Encore: You can view all blog submissions here. Have a great school year and we look forward to seeing you again soon at “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

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Ning.com

July 11, 2009 at 8:33 pm (English, English Language Learners, English Proficiency, Lessons, Math, Resources, Science, Social Studies, Technology)
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In December, a colleague of mine, Kevin Byers, told me about a site that he was using with his students – Ning.com/. I was curious about the site and decided, after talking to him about it for a while, to try it with my students. Over winter break, I created my classroom Ning. I decided that I would keep the site closed so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it being open to everyone. My students had to access the site by invitation only through e-mail, so I decided that I would use their ePal accounts. After returning to school, I got permission from my principal and was ready to begin the process.

I first had to teach my students about social sites (which Ning is), how to communicate on them, how to navigate to the site, selecting an avatar, and the list goes on. My students loved it immediately. It was something that they were interested in doing not only every day at school, but also at home. After I had buy-in, I knew that I must keep the purpose of the site academically related.

We started by having discussions in the forum section about the books that they were reading. Invitations to join the site were extended to all of my students, but also to administrators and other teachers that were interested in posting information. This became a place where all of my students could communicate.

From there, I moved to embedding videos on the site. The first round of videos were based on what my students were studying in social studies class. For one group, a video on ancient Greece, for another, an archaeological dig, and for the last group, Chinese immigration. After watching the video, there was a question and they needed to respond to it. They could also respond to someone else’s comment. I found that this was an engaging way to bring content into my classroom so that I could support building background knowledge.

While gcast.com/ was free, I was able to embed podcasts that my students had given over various books so that others could listen to it.

Moving into next year, I plan on teaching my students about blogging (as there is a blog feature). I think that this can be a great way to lead into a more technical writing, especially if they begin quoting other sources (which I would like for them to do).

If you decide to start your own Ning (which means “peace” in Chinese, by the way), there are several things to keep in mind.

1. Decide if you want your site to be open or closed. As the creator of the site, you have network creator privileges and select the level of security that you want.

2. You can also decide what types of features that you want on the site (videos, blogs, groups, forums, music, events, etc).

3. You can decide the level of control over what information is posted. For some features, you can establish a requirement that the network creator must approve posts.

4. Each member of the Ning has their own page. As network creator, you can decide if they can change the colors on that page (this was something that I did allow).

5. Since my Ning was for academic purposes, I knew each student’s login information. This was not only a safeguard feature, but also one of practicality. I can’t tell you how many forgot their login information.

6. The content of the Ning is really up to you, the creator and to your members. The sky is the limit!

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Alternatives to Gcast

April 2, 2009 at 7:40 pm (Resources, Technology)
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With the unfortunate new price that it costs to use Gcast.com, Jennifer and I have been searching the Internet for alternatives that are free to use. Luckily, we have found two that we like. For those of you unfamiliar with Gcast, it is an online podcast host that allows its users to call in by phone and record a podcast. The podcast is saved to the users account to be edited later if needed or published. Jennifer had been using Gcast with her students to record their book talks. She was going to expand her use of Gcast to her professional development co-teaching class so that the members of the class could record their co-planning session. In search of an alternative solution, we posted a tweet asking for suggestions of similar sites to Gcast. In return, we were referred to phonecasting.com and drop.io.

Here is what we have found to be and not to be useful…

Phonecasting.com seems to offer promise because it allows users to record and publish podcasts through various methods such as uploading your podcast from your computer or calling and recording a podcast from your phone. It is free to use and the number you call to record the podcast is toll free. The later was a huge feature that we considered essential for two reasons: 1) we cannot expect our students to call a long distance number from their home phone and they may not have a cell phone 2) teachers cannot call long distance from the school and to record a co-planning session would possibly use excess minutes on their cell phones. However, Jennifer and I were both unsuccessful at setting up a channel (the location where the podcasts would be stored or featured). Even after referencing the “how to” directions many times, we still could not figure out how to completely set up the account and channel. It was very frustrating and we can normally figure out these types of things (at least together). Needless to say, we will not be using phonecasting.com.

I liked Drop.io almost immediately. Drop.io is much like an online file folder for sharing files. It allows you to upload media, documents, podcasts, pretty much anything you can imagine. It even allowed me to upload a .m4v file that I created and then exported from iMovie. You can “drop” a file by uploading it directly to your drop.io folder, emailing it, or calling and recording a voicemail. Drop.io also provides a number to call if you wish to host a conference call. Drop.io was very easy to set up and use. When I performed a “test” call, I was surprised how quickly the .mp3 file appeared in the drop. The only set back that we foresaw was the long distance telephone number for the voicemail.

Yodio.com allows users to record, create, and share pictures, presentations, etc. Yodio users upload pictures or a presentation and add narration from their computer or by phone. The number users call to record their Yodio is toll free. However, the number the user calls from must be registered with the account being called. Yodio was also very easy to set up and use. One thing that we like about Yodio is the visual component it offers.

We would love to hear of any sites that you use for podcasting or how you use podcasting in your classroom.

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Dr. Bob Marzano, CUE 2009 Keynote, Part 2

March 28, 2009 at 6:40 pm (Technology)

This is the second and final part of Dr. Marzano’s speech. It is primarily about assessment.

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Dr. Bob Marzano, CUE 2009 Keynote, Part I

March 28, 2009 at 6:24 pm (Technology)

Dr. Marzano spoke at the CUE (Computer Using Teachers) Conference in March 2009. This is the first part of his keynote. I believe that it shows very practical implications for schools and school districts around the country.

more about “Dr. Bob Marzano, CUE 2009 Keynote, Pa…“, posted with vodpod

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Lost Generation

March 26, 2009 at 3:49 pm (Uncategorized)
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A simple yet profound monologue. Let’s encourage the students and young adults in our lives to think backwards.  

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Twitter

March 21, 2009 at 10:46 pm (Teachers)

Follow us on Twitter. http://twitter.com/ellclassroom

RSS feed: feed://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/17104183.rss

Let us know if you are on Twitter also.

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Online Resources

March 21, 2009 at 2:58 pm (Resources, Teachers)
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I wanted to share a blog that I follow. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/. I like that Larry posts multiple websites relevant to current events, holidays, celebrations, and other miscellaneous and useful websites. These websites facilitate planning, provide background information, are educational in nature, or just resourceful when navigating the web. Because Mr. Ferlazzo teaches English language learners he always evaluates the sites that he references according to useability by ELLs.

I would like to know what blogs or websites you find helpful and informative.

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Interactive News Websites

February 3, 2009 at 7:00 pm (English, English Language Learners, English Proficiency, FEP: Fluent-English Proficient, LEP: Limited-English Proficient, Lessons, Resources, Social Studies, Teachers, Technology)
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A couple of weeks ago my cousin passed away, and I traveled to Georgia to be with my family for the funeral. My cousin’s death was published in the local and state news papers and online. I was previously aware of the interactive side of news (being able to comment on an article) but had never commented on any articles or been on the receiving end of those comments. People who new my cousin or our family left notes of sympathy, love, and encouragement after the obituary. I thought this was a wonderful use of the interactive web. However, there were also comments left from readers of the news story (separate from the obituary). Some of the comments and opinions left were uncensored as far as how they may impact and affect the family of the deceased. I saw this as the less attractive side of the interactive web. 

Since then, I have been pondering how to blog about my new experience with the interactive web and what I learned from it. First, I think the ability to comment on the news can be thought provoking and beneficial. The comments of sympathy, love, and encouragement were overwhelming and brought joy and warmth to our family. However, I don’t think that it is a place where the random reader should write whatever they want just because they can. Maybe this falls under web etiquette.  

So, why did I blog about this and what does it have to do with English language learners? I think that this is another form of authentic writing that can be used with our students. Standard 2 of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards for the 21st-Century Learner states that “Learners use skills, resources, and tools to draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.” As members of a democratic society, it is essential that our students know how to think critically and make informed decisions. It is also important to teach them how to participate ethnically and productively (AASL standard 3). The interactive news websites can be a tool we use to facilitate the teaching of these skills.

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Amazon Book Review – 1st Post

February 2, 2009 at 9:38 pm (Uncategorized)
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After my classes created a book review rubric, it was really important to begin writing their first review. One of my criteria was that they must finish a book before they review it.  While that might not always be necessary, a lot of my students struggle to really describe why they aren’t liking a book.  I get a lot of “It’s boring.”  I am working to try and get them to really understand why they don’t like it, but they aren’t all totally there yet, but that is another problem.

They had to use the rubric to write their rough draft.  We talked about what elements they should include in the review and in what order.  Descriptive words, we decided, needed to be added after the rough draft was completed.  It was a polishing area as opposed to a component of the review.  After they finished their rough draft, they edited it for content and word choice.  I then edited it once more.  I had my students write out the review because they are not able to draft on the computer and polish their writing in the 20 minutes that I have in the computer lab.  There is also no way to save the review to complete at a different time.  

After they had created the review and edited it, we headed into the computer lab.  In order to post on Amazon, you must have a customer account.  Additionally, you must purchase something on the account.  If you purchase a book, you can then delete the payment information and still use the account to post reviews.  I had created screen shots to help students log in.  It is quite a process to login to the account, so there were many steps that they needed to follow.  You can see the login sheets here:  Logging in to Amazon.  

I was very glad that I had the screen shots for my students to use and that they had written their reviews ahead of time.  It took them the full 20 minutes (at least) to get the review entered and edited before publishing.  They were very excited about publishing it to the internet – I was as well.

We posted our first reviews in December and have since posted one more round.  They were able to access the account much faster which meant that they had time to edit their typos.  I am now having them post one review a month.

Note:  You might check your Amazon profile to make sure that is shows the reviews you have posted (or find your review under the book’s information).  I have run into a problem with my account.  None of my reviews had posted after my first test.  I have contacted customer service, but the problem hasn’t been totally fixed yet.  You might not have any issues with this, but it is something to keep an eye on.

2nd Note: 4/1/09 – I figured out the posting issue. When your students enter their review, have them select that they are over 13. This will allow the book review to be posted. This was not a privacy issue as the account they were posting under was Mrs. Duarte’s class, so their names don’t appear anywhere. I have also discovered that if one person writes a book review on The 13th Reality, no one else can post a review on it. That means that each student will have to create a review on a different book. This might be a problem depending on how many students you teach, then again, you can always create multiple accounts.

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