WAP #5 Student as Global Citizen

Pen Pal

      

      Our students are growing up in a very different world than we had. They are living in a globalization world, and this world will become more and more diverse. Foreign language class right now does not only play the role of teaching foreign language, but also play the role of helping the students become global citizens. 

      If I have a Chinese classroom, I will definitely build up relationship with the schools in China. This idea benefits at least two things: 1, It's a great way to open my students' eyes, learn from other culture and develop their global citizen awareness. 2, It's a great way to practice their Chinese. 

------------------ How to Build Up Relationship?  --------------------

ePals.

    This is a great platform that could find schools all over the world which are interested in the culture exchange/ pen pals programs.

      Through the ePals platform, I could easily find out a couple schools/classrooms that speak Chinese and would like to build up relationship with English speakers. This is an awesome way!

      But the disadvantage is, most of the schools here are private schools. If I want to build up relationship with public schools, I should use other ways, such like traditional way.

Traditional way.

     I will need to build up relationship with the schools in China or other Chinese speaking countries/areas.

     I will start from my own middle school and high school. I will also ask my mom's help to see is there any public schools are interested in my program.

    If I still can't find any, I will goole the public school's phone numbers and call them one by one. 

    Of course, in this way, I have to have my complete proposal ready. But I have confidence that a lot of schools will be very interested in it.

---------------- What Will the Program Look Like?  --------------

 The program includes three milestone events and daily pen pals communication.

Three milestone events:
First one: 
Time: In the beginning of the school year. 
Goal: Introducing each others. 
Form: Video record. Each teacher record a short introduction video and send it to the other teacher. The video might includes the greetings from the classroom, students' names, ages, hobbies...

Second one:
Time: Christmas and Chinese New Year.
Goal: Culture sharing.
Form: 
      Zoom. 
      During the Christmas time, the American classroom will open a Zoom meeting and use webcam to present the activity in the classroom. (20 min) The Chinese students could join the Zoom meeting and participate in it. (Chinese students will be in the evening and join it at home with parents. I have confidence that it's very easy for the Chinese students and parents to be cooperated.)
      During the Chinese New Year time (will be the end of the fall semester), the Chinese classroom will open a Zoom meeting and use webcam to present the activity in the classroom. (20 min) The American students could join the Zoom meeting and participate in it. (It will be a little bit changing for the American parents to be cooperated. So it will be a NOT must event.)

Third One:
Time: At the end of the school year.
Goal: Present their language.
Form: Video.
      Each classroom use the Reader Theater way to preform their language.


Daily Pen Pals Communication:
      The two teachers will pair up the students and have each student have one pen pal from the other classroom. Help them build up the relationship and ask them to write to each other in their second language. (American students write in Chinese and Chinese students write in English.) They also could make video at home and  record their voice.

      When they receive letter from their pen pals, I would like them to help correct their friends' grammar, mark them down, make a copy and send back to them with a new letter.

-----------------  Concerns...  ------------------

1. Time.
     The time is tricky. The time lag between China and east America is 12 (or 13 in winter) hours. Which means some students have to attend to the Zoom meeting in the evening.

2. Too many students.
    Although Zoom is an amazing tool. But if we have too many students, the quality becomes a concern. Especially the Chinese classroom might have 20-30 (private schools) or even 40-60 students (public schools).

#0 My Model Classroom

1.     How many students?

20

2.     What age group?

2^nd grade

3.     What subject?

Chinese

4.     What abilities do they have?

They have learned most of the phonics. Their English is steady. 

5.     Add ELL students even if you don’t think you will have them.

I will think of one or two Native Chinese students. Then I will challenge them to learn more in my class.

6.     Add in one or two differently able students.

One student with autism.

WAP# 4 Student as Researcher

Padlet

     Padlet is a simple and easy access tool for the student to do their research project. It'e free to sign up.  But the free account just supports 3 Padlets. If you want to create more, the upgrade fee is start from $8.25/month.

      To create a Padlet is easy. 
      1. Pick a layout style. There are six layout options that you could choose.

      2. Set up. Enter the tittle of your Padlet, label it, pick a wall paper for it. 
      3. Add some columns. You name each column and add some passage under it later.
      4. Research and write it down. Will talk about more details later.

--------------------  How to do the research?  --------------------

        Padlet allows you and students to use different ways to post your result of research. 

1. Type the result. 

     Just simply type in what you found. You could also do cut and paste to the "Write something..." area. Please remind the students to paste the link of the resource, too. 

     

    You also could use other ways to add information and materials. The followings are the introduction.

2. Upload.

    You click the upload button and upload the pictures, video or files from your computer. 

3. Link.

    You could paste different kinds of link after you click the link button. Padlet supports all kinds of URLs- images, YouTube, Google Drive, Soundcloud, articles, blogs, and so on.

4. Google.

    This is a powerful function, especially for the young students. Padlet integrates google search here, which you could search images, video, gifs, and website. What you have to do is type the key words in the search bar, and it will google the information for you. Padlet even automatically integrates the information you picked to you post. It's very convenient for the students.

5. Snap.

    You could use your webcam to take some photos here.

6. More. 

    You could add some drawing here. If you are using a phone or tablet, you could even record your voice and video here. This function is perfect for my Chinese students. I would love to have them to practice their Chinese, not only typing English. Typing Chinese is hard to learn, but recording their voice or video will be perfect.

What's more?

     The phone and tablet version also support handwriting typing. It's great for my Chinese students to write Chinese, for it's hard for them to learn typing Chinese in the beginning.

-------------------- Why I like it? -------------------

1. Easy access.

       It's very simple to use and student-friendly. It integrate the google search function which is great for the young students to use.

2. Could record voice and use handwriting.

       If you use phone or tablet version, Padlet supports voice and video recording. You also could handwrite the Chinese and type Chinese. 

--------------------  What's the disadvantage? --------------------

1. Only three free Padlet. 

     If you want to create more padlet, you have to pay at least $8.25 per month.

2. Add one thing per time.

      The research function only support one kind of editing per post. After you finish uploading, or googling, or adding some other materials, all the function buttons disappear. If you want to add more things, you have to create one more post. 

WAP # 3--Students as Scribe

Voicethread

        Voicethread is a powerful scribing tool. I found it especially useful for foreign language learning. 

        The main function of Voicethread is to let users record audio or video to comment on presentation. It's an awesome tool for student to do the scribing and practice their oral language. The following are some more details.

--------------------DETAILS--------------------

Presentation types:
* Audio (upload or webcam)
* Video (upload or webcam)
* Slides (or pictures. Teachers could upload a couple of slides and let the students to comments on it.)

Comment types:
* Audio (record from microphone or even phone call)
* Video (record from webcam. While recoding the video, you could even add some drawing on the presentation.)

* Text 
* Upload text. (This is function is powerful for the teacher to add long instruction.)

--------------------------------IDEAS------------------------------

Ideas:
* Slides presentation and students scribing.
    Teachers could use this app to upload their slides and let one student to be the scribe. This idea will let the scribe student pay extra attention on scribing and understand the lesson best. Also, it helps other students to learn from their peers.

* Foreign Language Activity or Assessment.
    Teacher could start a foreign language activity or assessment with students' audio records. Activity might include to have the students read a story, record their voice day by day. Students will be able to listen to their own voice and see how they improve their oral language. Teachers could also record a model reading to the students. Students could listen to the teachers' pronunciation and practice everyday.
     I also see a Chinese teacher use this app as an assessment. Every student record their oral presentation as comments and perform their final language skill. They could also listen to their peers' presentation, too. Awesome!

--------------------DISADVANTAGE--------------------

Disadvantage:
     Just as all the other app or website, Voicethread has its disadvantages, too. It takes a while to upload the voice and video comments. Every time I upload a 30 second audio, or 20 seconds video, it takes nearly 1 minute. Students has to spend extra work on waiting. 
    Also, the website is not very steady. There is once, my video comment was mute. 

Risk or question:
    The phone call comment is very cool. But I am wondering whether it could call the phones at other country, such like China?
    

WAP #2--The Student as Tutorial Designer

How To Use Screencast-O-Matic to Record Your Screen

     Let the students to become tutorial designer is a great idea. However, they have to learn how to record their screen first. There are a lot of wonderful app and website could help us to do the screen recording. Such like Screencast-O-Matic, QuickTime Player... Today, I will use QuickTime Player to record how to use Screencast-O-Matic to record my screen motion. 

Step 1: Get your materials ready, such like Powerpoint.

Step 2: Go to Screencast O Matic.

Step 3: Signup or sign in.

Step 4: Download recorder.

Step 5: Start Recorder.

Step 6: Start to record. 

Step 7: Stop recording and save the file.

     However, the website is not steady. Sometimes it doesn't response. When I am recording, and the website doesn't response, it is very frustrated. 

   The following is the video I made. I hope it helps. 

    The second video is the sample of recorded screen.

WAP #1--Tech For Admin Tasks--Seesaw

      I like Seesaw because it's very teacher friendly which will save me a lot of time; it has a good place to post students' journal; and it allows you to create a classroom blog. 

      The clear, well designed and teacher friendly website attract me. It even provides invitation samples for the teachers to print. It's a very thoughtful website.

      As a Chinese teacher, I would love my students' parents to see how do their children learn. So the excellent journal management is just perfect for me. 

      Also, I would love my students to use their Chinese as much as possible. The classroom blog could be a great tool!

      The following presentation will shows more about seesaw. It includes some screen shots. It also includes some disadvantage of Seesaw. I also post two videos of how to post students' work by teachers and by students. Seesaw is not perfect, just like any other websites or tools. But it is a great tool. Enjoy the presentation!

                   How to use Seesaw to manage my classroom.

                 Post to a Students' Journal in Seesaw as a Teacher.

                   How to post students' journal by themselves.