Katy's French Music Project

Fama Letter

2010-05-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

Chère Ami,
Bonjour! Comment vas tu? Comment va tu famille? Qu'est-ce qui se passe nouveau? Comment est la temps á? Combien de jours d'ecole qui restent?

Je suis ici en Louisiana. Ma famille habite á New Orleans. Je suis avec mon nouvelle famille et miason. Mon nouvelle famille est gentil. Mon Pere s'appelle john et ma mere s'appelle julie ils sont 38 et 37. J'ai deux soures et une frere. la fille ainee s'appelle diane et elle est 16 ans. La plus jeune s'appelle Lisa et elle a 14 ans. Mon frere s'appelle jorge et il a 15 ans. La maison est jolie. il y a beaucoup de pieces dans la maison. le pere a un bureau dans la maison. Diane et Lisa ont leurs propres chambres. Moi aussi, j'ai mon propre chambre.

La ville est belle et grand. Un chose que j'ai vu est Holocaust Memorial. Autre Chose que j'ai vu est le World Trade Center of New Orleans. J'aime la nourriture ici. J'aime manger la Pizza Et French Fries.
Ton Ami, Luis Torres

Chere Mon Ami

2010-05-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

Chere Mon Amie ,

Bonjour ! comment vas-tu ? Qu’est qui se passé de nouveau? Est tu vas a la dans d prom? Est-Ce que je te magne ?

Je suis ici en Belgique. Ma famille habite dans la ville de Brussels. Ils son tres gentille . La mere s’appelle Sophie et le pare S’appelle Joseph. Il y a deux filles et deux garcons. Le filles S’appellent Madeline et Marie Claire elles ont quinze ans et treize ans. Les garcons s’apellent Johnny et Nicholas ils on dix-neuf ans et dix-sept ans.

Dans la filles m’mment au gymnase, a la picine et un bangue. Je suis alle a la picine. Je suis alla la friterie et j’ai mange frites . J’aime les friteries. J’aime beaucoup les frites belges.

J’ai vu Cathedral Saint- Michel , Antomium et Parc Du Cinqauntentaire Jubel Park. C’eteait Genail.Tu mem mangues Beaucoup ! Ecris – moi un letter bientist, S’il te plait. Comment Est le temps la bas. Combein De Jours d’ecole qui resent? Qu’est ce gue tu travail? E Retourne En Aout a beintot!

Ton Amie,

Anna Witt

2010-05-21T06:58:00.001-07:00

Chere mon ami,

Salut! Comments vas-tu? Comment va l’ecole? Qu’est-ce qui se passe de nouveau? Est-ce que tu vas a la danse de Prom? Est-ce que je te manque?

Je suis ici en Haiti. Ma nouveau famille habite dans la ville de Port-au-Prince. Ma famille est tres amusant et gentile. La mere s’apelle Valerie. Le pere s’apelle Pascal. Il y a une fille et deux garcons aussi. La fille s’apelle Jeanne. Elle est seize ans. Les garcons s’appellent Leon et Olivier. Ils ont vingt et quinze ans.

Port-au-Prince est une ville tres interessante et amusant. Dans la ville la famille m’emmenent aux Fort Jaques, l’capitol et l’eglise. Une chose que j’ai vu est le marche. La nourriture ici est tres delicieux! J’aime manger sont les accras, le griot, et les kremas. Je n’aime pas le Boillion.

Tu me manques baucoup! Ecris-moi une letter bientot, s’il te plait. Comment est le temps la-bas? Combien de jours d’ecole qui restent? Est-ce que tu as un travail?

Je retourne en Aout, a bientot!

Ton amie, Estefania Navarro

La Lettre à mon ami d'un pays francophone

2010-05-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

Chère mon amie,

Bonjour! Comment vas-tu? Comment vas l'ècole? Qu-est-ce qui se passe de nouveau? Est-ce tu vas à la danse de Prom? Combien de jours d'ecole qui restent? Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire cet ètè?

Je suis ici en France. Ma famille habite à Paris. Ils sont tres gentilles. La mère s'appelle Leyla et le père s'appelle Joel. Il y a une fille et deux garcons. La fille s'appelle Sophie, elle a douze ans. Les garcons s'appellent Bernard et Fez, ils ont dix et seize.

La ville est grande. Une chose que j'ai vu est la cathedral. J'aime bien la nourriture ici. J'aime manger Croque Monsieur. Je n'aime pas le escargo.

2010-05-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

Chere mon ami/e

Bonjour comment vas tu ? Comment vas l’ecole ? Qu’est-ce que qui se passe de nouveau ? Est-ce que tu me manges ? Est-ce que tu vas a la danse de prom ? Est-ce que tu me manges ? Comment est le temps la ? Combien de jours d’ecole qui restent ? Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire c cet ete ? Est-ce que tu as un travail ? Est-ce que tu veux venir me rendre visite en France.

Je suis ici en France. Ma famille habite dans la ville de paris. Ils sont très gentilles. La mère s’appelle Chi Chi et le père s’appelle Gohan. Il y a une fille et deux garçons. La fille s’appelle Bulma , elle a vingt-et-un ans. Les garçons s ‘appellent Vegeta et Goku, ils sont vingt-cinq et vingt-trois ans.

La ville est grande. Une chose que j’ai vu est pokemon. J’aime bienla nourriture ici. J’aime manger escargot et noodles. Je n’aime pas pickles.

L’ecole s’appelle Hogwarts. Elle est plus grande que Washburn. L’ecole est privée. Les élèvent portenet les uniforms. Les eleves ne peuvent pas conduire a seize ans.

Tu me manques beaucoup ! Ecris-mois une lettre bientôt, S’il te plait.

Ton ami/e

Chang Vang

Mon Weekend by Estefania N.

2010-02-05T06:57:00.000-08:00

Vendredi soir Je suis allee au Mall Of America
Samedi soir Je suis allee a un fete.
Samedi matin J'ai travaille.

Mon Weekend

2010-02-05T06:53:00.000-08:00

Samedi matin j'ai joué au basketball.

Dimanche aprés-midi je suis alleé au centre commercial.

Samedi soir j'ai fait du babysitting.

2010-02-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

vendredi soir j'ai joue au basketball.

Mon weekend Miguel

2010-02-05T06:45:00.001-08:00

Vendredi soir je suis sorti avec copain a un Fet´e

Samedi matin je suis alle travaille´ centre commerciale

Dimanche matin ja´i fait la grosse matinee

Qu´est-ce t as fait le weekend ?

Weekend Sentences

2010-02-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

1.Vendredi soir je suis alleé au Mall of America avec ma mere et ma soeur.

2.Samedi après-midi je suis alleé à la coiffure avec me mere et ma tante.

3.Dimanche après-midi je suis alleé un eglisé avec mon pere.

Luis "Mon weekend"

2010-02-05T06:44:00.000-08:00

Vendredi soir j'ai joué au football avec mon frére's

Samedi après-midi j'ai travaille.

Dimanch soir j'ai beaucoup dormi.

Mon Weekend. By: Enos sims

2010-02-05T06:43:00.000-08:00

Vendredi après-midi je suis allé a chez un ami.

Vednredi soir je suis allé a une fete.

Samedi matin j'ai regardé la télé.

Mon Weekend, Alejandra Ortiz

2010-02-05T06:39:00.001-08:00

Samedi matin J'ai fait du menage avec ma grand soeur.
Samedi apres-midi J'ai regarde la television avec ma petite soeur.
Dimanche matin J'ai range ma chambre.

Mon Weekend , Anna Witt

2010-02-05T06:39:00.000-08:00

1. Vendredi soir je redarder un film Holes avec ma seour.

2. Samedi apres-midi je suis allee chez mon amie Lauren.

3. Samedi noir je suis allee chez mon amile Brennan avec Lauren.

Mon weekend by Peyton Lauber

2010-02-05T06:36:00.000-08:00

-Vendredi Soir, j'ai fait wrestling a Brooklyn Center.

-Samedi soir J'ai regarde le film Adventureland avec mon amis.

-Dimanch apres-midi, J'ai joue hockey a ridder arena avec mon e'quipe.

Mon Weekend

2010-02-05T06:35:00.000-08:00

1. Vendredi, apres-midi, je suis alle le fete avec mon cousins.

2. samedi , matin, j'ai dormi beaucoup.

3. Dimanche, apres-midi, je suis alle mon cousin.

2010-01-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

je aime le song "Dans Tes Reves"

because it was rapping and about not giving up on your dream.

2010-01-29T07:19:00.001-08:00

j'aime le musique de disiz le peste parcle est bien y j'aime le musique hip hop.

i like the music of disiz le peste because its good music and i like hip hop music. It was a cool song because he was talking about all of the people who told him he couldnt be what he wanted to be then he overcame people standing in his path and became what he wanted to be

Music

2010-01-29T07:19:00.000-08:00

The song I really liked was by Wallen, "Donna" i liked it because i really liked what it said and the beat of the song goes with what i normally listen to.

Je aime la cansion "Donna" pour Wallen.

cali music

2010-01-29T07:17:00.004-08:00

I heard this song and i thought it was weird. because i didn't understand it. je ne'pa aime la musiqe parceque

je ne aime french musique.

Disiz la peste, '' Dans tes Reves"

2010-01-29T07:17:00.003-08:00

jaime "Dans tes Reves" parce'que jaime la musique le hip hop et rap.

i really liked this song because of the style and the way he rapped in french.

Ina-Ich "Ame-Armee"

2010-01-29T07:17:00.002-08:00

Je n'pas parce elle est tres freaky

having grief
i think she was going to kill somebody

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Disiz la Peste"Dans Tes Reves"

2010-01-29T07:17:00.001-08:00

What i liked about this video was that it was a rap song. Even though it was rap the song was talking about something positive other than negative.

music

2010-01-29T07:16:00.000-08:00

The songe I like the most is the dans tes rêves because its hip-hop and it songs good.

2010-01-29T07:07:00.000-08:00

I think the artist Ina-Ich is a angry person but loving at the same time .Her song sounds very hateful and angry but the lyrics are kind of touching lmao.

pascale, "props sur la musique i couldnt see it it said i need it to be a user

Donna by Wallen i think well actually it is a girl song ,I guess when girls are confused they indentify themselves with this song

Digital storytelling

2009-05-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering if any of you have used any of the digital storytelling resources online?? We do a lot of storytelling in the world language dept and would like to encorporate this technology into our curriculum for next year. Please share if you have used any.

Merci

Sample research questions, beginning level

2009-05-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

Biography project on famous frenchies. My students have chosen a topic. They registered on the research project calculator. they began to write research questions. they have recorded 8-10 facts in French. They are about to research in depth their research questions, which is step 2 "Gather information".

I am concerned about the quality of their research questions. Wondering where we could find a list of examples of good, simple research questions from ?? middle school science fair/history day projects. Does any one have any suggestions??

Facebook: luv it at home, ??classroom use

2009-05-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

I think I should be a p.r. person for the Facebook company. I love the online social networking! It is a wonderful option for the full time working parent of 3 children who rarely wanders out of the 3 mile radius from her house besides to go to work.

Facebook allows me to "keep in touch" with friends by checking on their online pictures and reading updates. It allows me to feel like I am keeping up with people who I am only able to see in person and/or talk "live" to/with a couple times a year.

In addition to this it is a time saver. I can check in with people without having to commit lots of time to socializing. I can check in with them on my schedule, usually late at night, and not worry about the hour.

I am considering using facebook for a class project. I would begin a different facebook page that I would use just for school and with another email address. has anyone tried this for a class project, ongoing discussions with easy photo access, etc??

How can we YouTube in Mpls schools?

2009-04-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

I really want to show the copyright video about Creative Commons that we saw in class titled, "Wanna Work Together?" The problem is that the video is on YouTube. Is my best option to save it to my computer at home and then burn it to a disk? I just tried that and ?maybe it was a bad disc, but it didn't work.

Any suggestions or easy ways to save a YouTube video some other way, ?memory stick?, let me know, please. I'm hoping to show it this Friday to my students if i can find a way.

Merci!

G-cast and the big $$ charge for calling in???

2009-04-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks Karen for the alternate sites. I must say that I was all set up to use this as a great and easy way to have my students practice and assess their speaking skills. However, I am not ready to cough up the $100 yet.

I did put up the website and directions on my teacher page, along with a list of speaking assignments for this quarter. I look forward to playing with the alternate sites and learning about them more before I actually assign this work.

Let me know if anyone has used other options for Gcast, other than podcasting from a computer. I have done that and know how, but was looking forward to an easier method that was more available and quick for all students.

The Language Menu

2009-04-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Gaelle Berg sent me a website link that is another great resource for fellow language teachers. It is called Language Menu and has vocabulary games, concentration/memory, geography, etc. on all the basic topics and in many different languages. I am going to try out one of these in class with my students as a warm up activity this week.

Another warm up that I have liked using is the Clickers. Students like doing their warm ups this way and for quizzes it is a great way to give a Pretest and/or a quiz of any kind and get immediate feedback.

Fourth quarter...the research project!

2009-04-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

This quarter I am going to do something different with my final project. I am going to imbed the work into the entire quarter and work on it a little each week. I also plan to complete it and grade it by the end of week 8. This way students wgho did not complete the project, usually because they don't believe me how much a summative assessment worth 35% of their grade can change their grade, they will have a full week to complete it if they wish to improve their grade before the end of the quarter.

I also really like the idea of feeling like the project not only is totally connected to our main focus of the quarter, but that it is imbedded and not something done at the end. The reason for this is that I wish I had started the Autobiography project during the first weeks of the quarter, instead of waiting til week 7.

Our research project is going to be on a French-speaking (francophone) person of their choice. I have dropped the idea of making them choose a musician, and have decided that my main goal is to encourage them to find a personal link to the french world via someone they are interested in for their own personal reasons.

I am still considering allowing students to work in small groups or with a partner, to support their need to socialize during spring/final quarter. I have a Wikpedia list of Frenchies on my website and am going to have students choose their person this week. I am also going to try out the Research Calculator next week in the lab with students. Any recommendations from teachers who have used it so far would be welcome! Merci.

Powerpoint projects

2009-04-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

Reflecting on my third quarter project...I had my 120 French students write and publish into a 10+ slide powerpoint their Autobiographies. The goal was for students to learn to write about themselves in French and to build community in the classroom.

Students presented their projects the week before Spring break and they had a lot of fun showing off their pictures of their families and themselves as children as well as their favorites- sports, music, places, etc. They memorized and read 10-15 sentences aloud to the class, allowing them to NOT have to read things that we have not practiced in class.

It took 5 visits to the computer lab to get 80% of the students finished creating a project that was written before we went to the lab. We went 2 more times during the week of our basketball tournament, where only half the students were there each day. I always wonder at the end of a big project if I spent too much time off of our learning how to speak...but students had fun with it and were engaged.

Teacher Website & online vocab review links**

2009-03-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

My teacher web page has turned into my favorite resource from our mili training. I had a teacher web page prior to the training but it was not very "user friendly" for my students. I am excited about having my webpage as a useful tool for my teaching.

I know have a link to online vocab review games, where I load new vocab games with every story set we do. The students love the online games and they can play them once during a class period and then go home or continue to review using the online games when they stay after school. The two sites that I have used for this and have found really teacher and student friendly are: quia.com and quizlet.com. Check them out they are sites that teachers from every subject area could use and all you have to do is type in the list of vocab terms and their definition and the site creates tons of review activities and online quizzes for students to practice the terms.

I have also used the webpage as a place to post some class photos, post classwork, class stories, and project outlines. I have posted the Directions for every time we have gone to the computer lab this year. This is helpful for students who are absent and it has been a consistent thing so students all know how we start every class in the computer lab by going to my webpage and reading the Directions under "class assignments". I finally have a webpage where I can upload work and I know that every student I have knows how to find my webpage from home and can get the info that I post. Also, they can email me b/c they now all have Gmail accounts. I feel pretty modern and techy due to my new online resource knowledge!! Merci Karen and all the Mili instructors, you're awesome!!

IB Diploma program training & blogging

2009-03-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

I am going to an IB DP training for Language B this Friday in Portland, OR. This will be my 3rd IB training, my first in the area of DP, the other 2 trainings that I have had were for MYP. I am looking forward to the training and hoping to find some time to catch up on my blogging.

I am hoping that we will get some new resources for language b studies and that someone there will be able to help me find resources in French that are geared toward elementary level readers.

Even though I have not kept up with my blogging during the past 2 months, I have continued to work on the web 2000 skills that I have acquired during our Mili training. I have continued to bring my students to the computer lab, however this qtr I have been going every 2 wks due to some traffic in the labs. Also, we spent the last week in Feb celebrating Mardi Gras for 2 class days. We have continued to write about our weekends in French on the google account and now that they can read and comment on each others writing, the task has a lot more "Real Life" meaning to them, as opposed to when they were just writing on pen and paper and handing it in to me and sharing it aloud once a month.

Preparing for our 4th Quarter Research Project

2009-03-15T19:50:00.001-07:00

My students have been acting out, co-creating and reading stories about famous people this quarter. Our end of the quarter, qtr 3, project is to write and present our Autobiographies in French to the class. Students have been reading stories about famous people that I wrote in the first person to help them with this process. This past week they began to brainstorm ideas for their autobiography and fill in an outline in French.

I am trying to build up their vocabulary in order to make the jump from Autobiography to Biography easier. We are reviewing some basic vocabulary and sentence structures for talking about our: families, schools, interests, jobs and careers for the future. I now need to start searching for good reference material in French that is written at a more basic level, like an encyclopedia written for younger students. I am not sure how to do my google searching for this and am hoping to create a list of great reference materials in French on French famous musicians/good sources for youth. I want to avoid having students find information and just cut and paste it into a bad free online translator site.

Google reader account a success

2009-03-15T19:44:00.001-07:00

The google reader accounts have taken me forever to set up. Now that the students are finally able to read each others blogs and comment on them, it is amazing! The kids are so motivated to read the French blogs, written in French, and to learn how to comment on them, in French in the form of a question/comment, that it even surprises them how much fun it can be. It has been great to see the students motivated this past month due to the reader accounts.

My next challenge is beginning the real research process and doing so in both English and fRench and keeping it basic enough that students will be able to report back to the class orally on the majority/summary of their findings.

Goal #2 of Student Blogger sites

2008-12-14T19:32:00.001-08:00

To follow up my first post tonight on setting up the Gmail and Blogger accounts, there is a second reason that I am having students set these up. The first use will be to post journal entries in French about their weekends, read other students posts and write comments and questions to each other in French about each others posts/weekends. The second goal is to begin playing with the document reader applications and to take some tiny steps forward toward their "French music research projects".

I am imagining that they could share with their own groups via the google reader accounts/blogging and also they could share information that they find along the way with other groups and help each other?? Please let me know if you have ideas on other ways that I can best use this technology and the blogging to improve their overall learning during the unit where we will research some small aspect of French rock music.

Check out my web page...its evolving beautifully!

2008-12-14T19:23:00.000-08:00

I love the idea of a teacher web page for my use, student use and parent use. However, it has proved to be time consuming and in the long run I would be quite frustrated if I were a parent in Mpls b/c there is not a minimum standard for what every teacher is required to post on their website. This is frustrating for both parents and teachers, because teachers don't know exactly where to start when they are not given a basic framework to begin with. I was lucky to have taken several classes with the wonderful tech guys at 807, usually John Mc and Todd P, who taught me the basics.

One bummer about our mpls web pages is that they don't "travel" with you. So when I started a new position at Washburn this year, i had to completely start over my web page. The good news is that I was able to go to another "help session" last week at Washburn w/ John McCreary and got my web page looking a bit more professional. I have been using it all of second qtr on MOndays in the computer lab with my students, but they had to scroll way down to the bottom of my page, or to pg. 3 of my web page, and now I have all the links on the rt side. Check it out if you have a chance. Click on "My assignments to see what I have attempted to do over the past month to begin the Blogger/REader/Gmail process.
My web page is at: http://washburn.mpls.k12.mn.us/Lynch.html

Signing up 140 kids on Gmail & a Blogger site

2008-12-14T19:13:00.000-08:00

After 4 trips to the computer lab I now have 95% of my students successfully signed up for a Gmail account and who have created a Blog web site. In addition they have all "Blogged" or posted comments about 3 French music videos, in which they were suppose to use "Accountable Talk". I think that maybe 10% understood or put forth the effort to defend their comments with examples from what they saw in the videos or from quotes from a part of a song, all songs were sung in French with an English translation below each line.

My ultimate goal of this assignment is for students to accomplish two things. First they will begin to use "Google Reader" and import the URL blog sites of all of their classmates. They will use this to Post their weekly French "journals" where they write about their weekends, etc. in French. Prior to using Blogger they just handed them in to me and some kids shared theirs orally with the whole class and others shared with a couple kids around them. Now, students will have the opportunity to read all of their classmates weekend journal blogs and will be asked to comment on them and ask questions in French to get more details. Therefore they will be working on improving their "storytelling techniques" and working on their writing skills, which will hopefully help improve their writing in French and English.

I have learned a lot through this process of getting "set up". Mainly that it takes a lot more time than I would have guessed, but in the long run the students are learning a lifelong skill and enjoying learning about this new technology/web 2000 tool. In addition, I think it is going to make our Monday computer lab days more interesting...once they are all on board.

?mpls student emails & student Blogs

2008-11-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

Where can we look up student email addresses for signing all of our students up for a blog or wiki?
Do we get a list from our media person or is it a formula or ?? I did it ? last yr at Anwatin and John McCreary helped me and he printed out a list for me.
Please give me any other advice you might have on having students Blog for the first time, directions, ideas, etc.
Merci,
Katy

Thing 5, Libraries online,etc.

2008-11-04T12:40:00.000-08:00

I wasn't aware that there was such a thing as "ibrary cards". I am going to get one myself and learn about them. I like the idea of inviting a local librarian into my classroom to speak, and to "to sign up students for ibrary cards, talk about pubic library resources, and/or role play ways to approach a librarian and ask for help." What a great idea for the launching of my research project 3rd qtr. I also like the idea of adding a library link to my Teacher Web Page for easy student access to reliable resources.

I hope the MNLInk will be helpful to students in trying to access more resources and information for their project via online sources.

My frustrations with the libraries in my area are the short hours that they are open. I have gone to different libraries near my house several times over the last year and found them closed. I hope to see some more money going into our libraries in order to increase their hours of operation, especially more late night and wkend hrs for those who can't go during the day.

I want to find out which libraries have the biggest supply of French childrens books and was not successful in searching this information on MNLink. I have heard that the public library in Edina serves the French immersion school there and has a lot of titles, but I will have to contact them directly.

I have not used MNLink before but assume it will be helpful when I am searching for specific information /info on a specific topic.
Its always great to learn one more reliable resource outside of a regular "Google search".

Thing 4, Posting/linking daily lessons to my webpage

2008-11-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

Which customizable homepage did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?
I am going to use the mpls webpage b/c it is there and kinda set up, not b/c it is the best out there. I currently can't remember my username and password and until ?mon when i can email someone at mpls i can't work on my webpage.
The advantages to using this website are: 1.I have already been trained on how to use it, 2. I have my autobiography done in French and English, some pictures and some links available. The disadvantage is simply that I have not figured out how to keep the formatting when I import formatted documents to my website, this makes the quality of my site less than desirable as a finished piece.

Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at school or home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?
A personalized start page or "homepage" is something that I have never set up on my computers. It does make sense and I am going to try it. I use the computer more and more to check in on things- work, school, kids school activities, etc. I like the idea of having my daily interests all on one page in order to simplify and organize my searching and my updates.

How can the online calendars be useful to you?
I am trying to use the online calandar to help communication b/t my husband and I regarding our schedules for work, kids, activities, social engagements, etc. and my personal work mtgs, etc.
We have liked the calandars online especially b/c they can be accessed from anywhere and i like the color coding, etc. that makes it easier to read.

How would you compare and contrast the use of paper-based assignments and assigment notebooks to the potential use of online assignment calculators and to do lists for students?
This is an area that I really am interested in. I think it has huge potential for our students. My students need a place where they can check their work daily and where I can put up notes, etc. that were handed out when a student was absent/daily. What a great resource. My wonderings/questions are: how can I access a scanner that I can easily use on a daily basis to scan handouts that are not made on the computer- from a book or from an old lesson.
How do I manage a website that has everything I do daily in the classroom on it? It would be easier if I had more training and good ideas from teachers who have been doing this. Where can I start to list things for students? Is there one good website where i can find online templates that I can link to my school teacher page/my website? What is the easiest way to enter daily work, handouts, assignments and then link all of this to my current website??

teaching Google searching for teens, a game for teaching it

2008-10-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

I found a great tool to use with my students to teach them how to better use the Google search engine. This mini presentation goes over the general directions for narrowing a topic search and then gives students an activity to do in order to practice these new topic search skills. Perfect for a prep activity to do with students before beginning a research project!! check it out.

First go to http://google.com/educators/6_12.html. Then Go to "General" and download the pdf file for "Success in Teaching Teens to Search the Internet: Playing a New Google Game.

Thing 3, Dribbling Lessons & info sites

2008-10-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

I plan to use the research planning calculator with my music research project next quarter. I am wondering if I can change dates for steps in the project that will probably be altered during the quarter.??

I enjoyed checking out the new information sites suggested, Driven to Discover from the University of MN and Fact Monster. Both of these sites were new to me.

The U of MN research site has information on current reserach going on in every college at the U today. I am going to share with my students a research study on Girls and excercise, which goes into details on how they have proved that healthy exercise not only makes for a healthy body but also for a healthy mind and better academic scores/grades and success in school and jobs.

The Fact Monster I like because there are links to facts written for all subject areas and specifically for kids, teens, etc. This will be a good suggestion for teens with lower reading skills who are trying to do research that they can read.

Information literacy, accuracy, truths, & Mili training.

2008-09-17T21:03:00.001-07:00

I am trying to begin to paste together in my mind how all of these online resources fit together. I hope to use these tools to help my students link my subject matter, French, to their world that embraces every aspect of technology that has been a part of their lives from day one. I want students to see my class and learning another world language as things that are connected and meaningful, verses an add on.

I welcome the idea of Web 2.0 as a way of putting all of my students on an equal playing field, no longer will it be so much about what school, teacher or household has a certain product, rather who has the ability to best utilize the basic tools of every product available. I see web 2.0 as an online "free store" of tools for accessing and manipulating resources. I love that all of my students will be able to work together just by accessing a computer.

In the immediate future I see many challenges for myself as an educator to find the time to keep up with all of these amazing tools. I want to spend a week playing with the "web 2.0 sandbox of tools" in order to get my mind thinking about how to introduce them to my students in my classroom and in our computer labs and through take home assignments. I see the possibilities as endless, however, I feel challenged at finding the best way to start.

I use Google to search for information. I use book reference materials less and less myself. I use my email to organize a lot of business/teaching information, and Documents stored in folders on a computer, I have not stored information online, except for some online photo spots and my teacher web page.

I think that Information literacy is correctly defined. I think that students need to know more than just how to access information, they need to be taught to question the information they find and to judge the validity and strength of their sources.

I knew nothing about web 2.o before my first mili training. I am impressed and challenged to bring myself up to speed in the area of online resources. I am excited to be a part of this year long training and know that I will need and appreciate the support along the way.

Truthfulness of our online resources??

2008-09-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

Regarding the article on the truth from online sources- teaching students to slow down and think more when they are reading information online is very important. I share the author's frustration in watching students find information online and refuse to read an entire article. They skim articles for a piece of information and move to the next resource in order to find the facts they need and nothing more.

I also see the students perspective of feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information available from the online resources. It can be very difficult to know if a source is trust worthy or reliable, this is something that I never had to question when I used the Encyclopedia Britannica to do my research.

I wonder if it is o.k. to limit the students sources that they are allowed to use for their research. I may pick 5-10 online sources that I think are good and reliable and give my students the links and let them choose from within a limited number in order to help them better manage their time, because time is always an issue for a research project that will be done during school hours.

Signing up for the computer lab online??

2008-09-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

I am worried about getting my name on our school computer lab sign up. We still have a paper sign up, are there suggestions on how to help our library get a template for the online sign up schedule, we had it at Anwatin and it was really slick!
I am excited about starting my project, hopefully second quarter.??