TPRS and Brainshark

12/27/11 - The Brainshark presentation does not work when I view it on Firefox, but it works fine when I use the Safari browser. ~Sra.Hitz
What can be better than a marriage between TPRS and technology? Since I have a very limited amount of time with my Spanish students each semester (105 hrs/semester), when I assign my students homework, I want it to be as close to Comprehensible Input as possible. Enter Brainshark, a website in which you can upload a powerpoint and then narrate it. Sounds like a perfect combination for TPRS teachers, right?

Here is an example of my completed project on Brainshark:

As per my previous post, I am using the book "Cuentos de Ensalada: A Soap Opera for Spanish 1 & 2" written by Stephanie Campbell with my Spanish 1 students. This book is a great because it has everything you need: instructions on how to make the props, scripts for each episode and suggestions on how to present the episode; reinforcement activities, assessments, and sketches. It is the complete package - a teacher's dream. (It is available in French or Spanish.)

Yesterday, I uploaded the sketches from the book for episode 5 and put them on a powerpoint. Then I uploaded the powerpoint to Brainshark and recorded my voice telling the story, and added some matching comprehension statements with the sketches on the last slide. You can use this type of activity in the classroom to give your voice a break, but I plan to post it on Edmodo as a homework assignment.

One really nice thing about Brainshark is that you can go back into the recording after it is completed and edit the audio, something that I am unable to do when I make a screencast. I look forward to making more Brainshark presentations with sketches and stories created by my students!

Since I used the sketches and script from a book that is copyrighted, I contacted Stephanie Campbell to get her permission to post the recording both on this blog and in Edmodo, where I post my student assignments. THANK YOU STEPHANIE!