Last week my students created a Silent Photo Story project that was inspired by this pin on Pinterest. (The two students that made the project, below left, gave me permission to post their project. You can find it at the end of the post and HERE.)
Before assigning the project to my students, I did a trial run by texting photos of a story, with the sentences written on an app on my ipad, to my daughter that was at her college tennis match. (See one of the photos from the story below on the right.) I searched for a way to post the photos on an app that would automatically advance each page of the story instead of having the photos listed vertically as on the Pinterest example. The easiest user-friendly method I found for students to use is the Educreations app.
The purpose of the project was for my students to write in the past tense, include sentences that describe how someone felt about the actions of another person (the imperfect subjunctive), and for the majority of the creative aspect of the project to be completed outside of class time.
The Silent Photo Story project:
A. Requirements
- Write a story in the past with a minimum of 10 sentences.
- A minimum of 2 of the sentences must describe how someone felt about
the actions of another person or about a situation.
- Write each sentence on a mini-whiteboard. (I gave each student 2
markers, an eraser, and a mini-whiteboard to take home.)
- Take a photo of you holding the marker board with the sentence. Your
actions should match the sentence on the board.
- E-mail the photos to your school g-mail account.
B. Students had 4 days to complete the assignment. I offered to proofread their sentences before they took the photos, but none of the students took me up on this offer. (Next time, I will require the students to have a mini-conference with me before they complete the project.)
C. The day it was due, I signed out the department i-pads. The students accessed their photos through their g-mail, copied the photos to the i-pad, and opened the Educreations app.
D. On the Educreations app, they uploaded one photo per page/slide. Then they made a silent recording, pausing 3-4 seconds on each page. (If you save the project before making the silent recording of each page, the app will only save the initial page of the project.)
E. After the recording, they saved the lesson and followed my detailed instructions on how to post their projects directly on our class Edmodo page. Those directions can be downloaded HERE.
F. The following day in class, we sat in a circle (conversation style which means without desks) and read the stories.
Note: This project can also be done completely in class if you do not want to send the supplies home with the students. One of my students completed his project at home, but it was in one location instead of several locations as in the example above. His expressions perfectly matched the action in his story.
If I he gives me his approval to post it, I'll add it later.
Are you enjoying the benefits of having a PLN (Personal Learning Network)? Gone are the days when you only have teachers in your building to share your ideas and lessons. With technology at hand, your PLN can be world wide!
Teachers in your own building/district
First of all, my most valuable collaborator and support is Krista, a colleague in my department at school. She and I are in constant contact with each other, at school or away from school, sharing websites, ideas, struggles, frustrations, successes, and more recently, CI and TPRS strategies. Sometimes after school we have what I now refer to as 'debriefing sessions'. Hats off to any of you that are the only teacher in your building or district that uses TPRS. I know it would be a more difficult journey without my colleague, Krista.
Teachers in nearby districts
Another valuable member of my PLN is Liz, a teacher in a nearby school district. She is my go-to person when I'm considering going to a conference or workshop because she is committed to professional development. She has gone to several conferences with me, sharing the costs of hotels and taxis. Long airplane and car rides provide plenty of time to share what we've learned at the conferences.
Conferences and Workshops
The next time you're at a conference or workshop, search out teachers with common interests. Not only can you form new friendships, but it'll give you additional opportunities to learn from others in a more relaxed atmosphere. This week I had a long phone conversation with Marta, a Spanish teacher from WI that I met at my last conference, in which we discussed how we were implementing TPRS in our instruction. I look forward to future conversations on our progress with TPRS in the classroom.
Forums: moretprs and flteach
Moretprs is a forum specifically for teachers using TPRS. Some members have over a decade of experience using TPRS, many of them national and international presenters, and they frequently respond to newer teachers' questions either on the forum or through direct emails. I recently discovered the flteach listserve (not TPRS specific), another valuable source.
Twitter
A colleague of mine once said that she doesn't have Twitter because she doesn't have a smartphone. Don't let that hold you back from building your PLN on Twitter. Many times I access Twitter through my smartphone, but at night when I'm home on the laptop, I use Twitter the most. My favorite hashtags are: #spanishteachers #langchat & #flteach. I've made numerous contacts and discovered useful links to sites, resources and ready-to-go lessons. Many educators on Twitter have their website listed in their profile, which leads you to more information that they have freely shared.
Edmodo
Edmodo is another PLN builder. I belong to several groups relating to Spanish, iPads, and other categories. It only takes a few minutes of browsing through the posts or teacher-made folders, and I have new materials that I can use to compliment my lessons. The Spanish group is a good platform to pose questions to other Spanish teachers.
One important thing to remember, don't limit your PLN to teachers in your field or at your level. I've gleaned valuable information from educators in different fields. So how about you, are your enjoying the benefits of a PLN? If not, what are you waiting on?
If you are a teacher and you haven't been introduced to Edmodo yet, then please don't skim over this post and pass by the opportunity to learn about something that may change the way you teach and the way you make materials available to your students and to their parents.
Edmodo is a site that in appearance is similar to Facebook, but it is a secure site that is designed for education. You can start a group for each class and you can either have the students sign up, or you can sign them up and students can go into the site later and change their password. (Students do NOT need an e-mail address to sign up.) After your group is set up, you, as the "owner" of the group, can send messages to group members, post photos, and.....embed just about anything your students will need such as class notes, papers to complete assignments at home, links to videos, etc.
I started using Emodo this fall with my Spanish 1 & 3 classes. It is user friendly and I've found numerous uses for it. I'm sure I haven't tapped into all of the possibilities...but I'm working on it. (One caution, if all of your students do not have access to a computer and internet at home, you will need to make adjustments/plans for those students.)
Ways I use EDMODO
1. Summary of Daily Activities - If a student is absent, they know that they can go on Edmodo and read what we did in class, download papers that I distributed, see what was assigned for homework, or even click on a link to any videos or podcasts that we may have listened to in class.
2. Homework Assignments:
- listen to a podcast and fill in a graphic organizer for notes
- read a story and answer questions about it (replies sent directly to Edmodo so no paper is needed)
- post a story from class and students read it to their parents
- post photos that students respond to
3. Embed "How to..." screencasts. i.e. directions on how to use a new web2.0 tool (I use Jing and screencast.com)
4. Photos for discussions in class
5. Photos of class activities
6. Links to other sites, i.e. Music videos, QUIA games, Quizlet, etc.
7. Online Quizzes made on Edmodo or other sites
8. My online filing cabinet - I post these things in my "practice group" and it's easy to find them when I want to use them in class: audio parts of quizzes so when a student is absent I don't have to take class time to give him/her the listening part of the test; Jeopardy games I've made, Wordles, etc.
9. Extra practice for students - I post a worksheet w/ answers for students that want/need additional practice on their own
10. Connect w/ other classes in other states/countries (I've joined a group that is made up of a several Spanish teachers in the U.S. and their classes but I'm embarrassed to say I haven't done much with that yet)
11. Connect w/ other educators, and learn from others when you join other groups (World Languages group)
12. Take POLLS - one is available on Edmodo for you to use w/ your group
13. Keep Parents informed - Edmodo provides a parent code for each student that you can give to parents. Then parents have an inside scoop on the class activities and homework.
14. You can even record grades on Edmodo.
15. Stay in contact with students when you are out due to conferences, scheduled sick leave, or other reasons
and on, and on, and on...
I have access to Moodle at my school district, but personally, I have found Edmodo to be more useful and user friendly.
