Use Comic Strips! It's FUN!!

   It was first time to create comic strips on the internet! I strongly believe that this type of tool encourages students to learn a language as well as teachers to prepare for their lessons because it’s fun and even I, as a future teacher, really enjoyed it!!! A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. (from Wikipedia) 

      For my future class with this tool, I will make students create short conversations including today’s topic, vocabulary, and expressions that they learned. Take my strips for example. My topic is about a restaurant conversation between a server and a customer to teach how to order in a restaurant in America. To be specific, I will show the strip I created first and ask them to read it and think about the topic, who two speakers are in the conversation, and so on. And then I will introduce expressions and explain American culture related to restaurant. After my explanation, I will ask them to create a comic strip in pairs including what they learned to practice. In doing so, they will be able to talk about the context and specific conversation that they would like to and, finally, they will be asked to do role-play based on their strip. I will assess their understanding through their comic strip and role-play at first and then, in the next class, I will give some quiz about a restaurant conversation (filling in blanks) or American culture related to a restaurant (multiple choice). This will lead students not only to acquire a language but also to have a chance to encounter American culture. 

▶ Performance Indicator-ESL.I.5-8.5.1.1:

Students demonstrate an understanding of cultural and language patterns and norms in American English, including different regional and social varieties of English.

▶ Link of my comic strip : Soup or salad?

※ Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_strip

It's Easy! Making a digital story as a learning tool

How convenient! Recently, I have tried to make a photo story on the website. Actually, at first, I felt overwhelming before trying it. There are a lot of photo story tools and I chose ‘Animoto’ to create a story because, simply, I liked the name. 

According to Wikipedia, Animoto is a cloud-based video creation service that produces video from photos, video clips, and music into video slideshows. Moreover, this sophisticated tool can be used in education for countless projects and presentations. Students can use the tool to present a concept. A teacher could use the video not only as an introduction to a lesson but also as the tool to teach a concept or the tool itself to other educators. I think this tool is very elaborate but user-friendly. It takes minutes to create the video. I just simply add pictures, text, and the music. That’s all!

In my future class, I will definitely introduce students this nice tool. As I crated, I will assign some contexts to students and ask them to create a short clip related to the topic. For example, if a student is assigned a travel agency, the student might create a clip to introduce some places for vacation or to introduce a travel schedule targeting clients or tour members. In my video, I introduced my school with some features targeting new students. Finally, they will be asked to present their video with explaining details such as target audiences, reasons, purpose, and so on. Also they will submit an essay to write the information of one peer’s presentation clearly. Through these two outputs, I can assess how appropriate they produce and convey the information based on the assigned topic as well as their clear understanding about their peer’s presentation.  

▶ Performance indicator – ESL.E.2-4.1.1.7:

   Students present information clearly in a variety of oral and written forms for different    audiences and purposes related to all academic content areas.

▶ Link of my photo story : My School, My UB

※ Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animoto

Flip Your Classroom!

Flipping the classroom is interesting. While I attended the TESOL convention 2015 in Toronto, a woman, who stayed in a same accommodation, told me about flipping the classroom and that she attended the presentations focused on this topic. Although I did not have a chance to listen to the presentation about flipping the classroom, these two articles reminded me of having short talk with her. The flipped classroom is a reversal of traditional teaching where students gain first exposure to new material outside of class, usually via reading or lecture videos, and then class time is used to do the harder work of assimilation that knowledge through strategies such as problem-solving, discussion or debates. In my understanding, this has a kind of 3 steps like working at home, working in class and working after class, and, in addition, this type of learning allows students to have better comprehension of the material, interact with instructor and peers more, and develop the critical thinking skill as a natural part of the learning process. From these two articles, I learned that the technology with various online tools is the decisive and indispensable factor to facilitate the flipped classroom. Moreover I think that this strategy is not only an extension of learning, but also a way of developing a high quality of lesson so teachers will not be able to overlook acquiring the new technology to educate students effectively. 

Flipped Learning Cycle

※ References: 

Flipping Your EL Classroom: A Primer by John Graney  

THREE REASONS TO FLIP YOUR CLASSROOM by Helaine Marshall

Try a game as a language learning activity!

   I believe that using games a great activity for students to learn a second language because it is easy to motivate student to get involved in the activity and, finally, they encounter the lesson which a teacher would like to teach.

For example, Phantasy Quest1 was interesting! Although I complete the tasks a little, I was able to see various vocabulary with having fun! Phantasy Quest 1 is a point and click type adventure game, where you awaken to find yourself alone on a beach. Nearby is the wreck of your ship. All I need to do is that using the mouse and clicking anywhere on the game screen. Some things I can activate simply by clicking on them, while others I may have to use an item that you have collected in your inventory. From this game, teachers might pick and teach some vocabulary or make students the sentences popped up and check the walkthroughs. To complete each tasks, students have to read the sentences so I believe that this is a good way for students to be exposed to new words or sentences. Also, by making this game as a pair work, they can negotiate and talk about the tasks which would lead them to practice the speaking skill.

    Also, the name of another game I played is ‘Juiceand Fruit’ and I played the game three times. At the beginning I could not connect to language learning, however, as time goes by, I recognize the vocabulary related to a serving beverage store. So this game is to show the skills as a juice maker and serve the beverages requested by customers within a limited time. If a user achieves the specific score, the number of customer is raised. I can choose some vocabulary related to such as a type of glass, fruit flavor, various straws, strip pattern, and so on. For the teacher’s role, we can guide or give more specific instructions when teachers encounter students who are in stuck by monitoring their performance. Above all, this game is very simple and addictive so I think that students probably enjoy this game to win the higher score. And before starting this game, I can encourage students to play this game with the competition. So the student who gets the highest score will get the juice as a reward. I will definitely use a walk through for the game because it can be helpful for students to learn the game. With a walk through, I can make them guess the walk through first and then provide the answers. Also, the images from the games are very helpful and simple for students to remember the vocabulary. To assess students, I can make some pop quiz of vocabulary like filling in the blanks to check their understanding or make them engage in a cooperative activity as a writing activity to create the instructions how to play the game. One more thing as an assessment, I can provide the images of each vocabulary and play the role as a customer to make the student pick the right image from my beverage requests. 

Performance Indicator - ESL.E. PK-1.4.1.8:
Students negotiate and manage interactions to accomplish social and classroom tasks.

Game Link: Juiceand Fruit

Do you know Gamification?

Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems and increase users' self contributions.

Gamification has been studied and applied in several domains, with some of the main purposes being to engage, teach in classrooms, entertain, measure, and to improve the perceived ease of use of information systems. A review of research on gamification shows that a majority of studies on gamification find positive effects from gamification. Gamification inspires students to develop competencies and skills as they focus on the activities of the game. And the game mechanics encourage students to compete against themselves, looking to reach a personal best or to satisfy their own learning goals. By participating in these types of activities, students acquire information and hone abilities while achieving interim goals that provide a clear sense of progress, rather than simply focusing on completing the course. Game mechanics reinforce the fact that failure indicates that more work is needed to master the skill or knowledge at hand.

According to Tom Chatfield, In terms of education, perhaps most obviously of all, we can transform how we engage people. We can offer people the grand continuity of experience and personal investment. We can break things down into highly calibrated small tasks. We can use calculated randomness. We can reward effort consistently as everything fields together. And we can use the kind of group behaviorsthat we see evolving when people are at play together, these really quite unprecedentedly complexcooperative mechanisms. He provides a video game called EverQuest(Killing dragons) as an example to support the importance of Gamification. This is a player-developed,self-enforcing, voluntary currency, and it's incredibly sophisticated player behavior. Also he emphasized that ‘engagement’ can be transformed by the psychological and the neurological lessons we can learn from watching people that are playing games. But it's also about collective engagement and about the unprecedented laboratory for observing what makes people tick and work and play and engage on a grand scale in games.

To use games in an L2 class, we need to consider 3 elements: commercial and educational games, to play or to design, and integration. Classroom activities using commercial games might include analysis of the game play experience targeting specific vocabulary, language functions, or cultural themes. For example, learners could be directed to keep a game journal in which they are asked to record relevant information such as characters, setting, language, and/ or reflect on their in-game choices. This experience then serves as background knowledge for other classroom activities such as speaking tasks or writing assignments. By creating goals, narratives, and content, learners must engage in the language at a level beyond that of playing the game Integration can include, for example, the use of game content as pre-writing content for a writing task or as an impetus for a classroom debate. In addition, a design task might take the place of a more traditional writing task, following the same multi-draft process to teaching writing skills and strategies.

※ References:

7 Things You Should Know About Games andLearning

Tom Chatfield: 7 Ways Games Reward theBrain

"Just Playing Games? A Look at the Useof Digital Games for Language Learning"

Explore ePals!

I would like to say that ePals connects students to amazing learning experiences

ePals enriches K-12 learning in the classroom and at home with innovative web-based tools and the highest standard of children’s stories, games and digital media on the Web.

Teachers use the free ePals Global Classroom to create real world, culturally- enriching learning experiences for their students. With ePals classroom matching, a high school class studying Chinese can connect with a class studying English in China, or the classes can work on a special project together.

There are some projects from ePals. One of them is Class in Vermont, USA Seeks Cultural Exchange for The Way We Are PowerPoint Project.

To be specific, they are currently studying culture, focusing on ancient India, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. The teacher would be interested in having the students communicate with other class to learn about the modern day culture as well as share theirs.

Also another one I was impressed is World War II on the Home Front: Civic Responsibility--Smithsonian in Your Classroom. In this lesson, students learn about life in a time of national emergency by examining five full-page reproductions of posters, each of which urges civilians to take some kind of voluntary action to buy savings bonds, to plant vegetable gardens, to conserve materials, to give their all at the factory. The class considers the meaning of citizenship by focusing on an essential question”: How does volunteering demonstrate civic responsibility?

The lesson is part of a unit created by the Comprehensive Social Studies Assessment Project of the Council of Chief State School Officers titled “Liberty and Citizenship.

Using the ePals/National Geographic Project, The Way We Are, students engage in a collaborative learning experience. Through email exchanges, students learn about the daily lives and culture of students in another region of the world. After exchanging four emails with a partner class, students work in groups to make a PowerPoint presentation showing the similarities and differences they have discovered and highlighting a selection of their ePals letters that they particularly liked. Moreover, ePals includes a diversity of programs like writing center and science center, which is almost a real school!

Through ePal, I will be able to utilize authentic resources provided by different centers. For example, I can introduce my students various thoughts from Global Citizens and make them read some articles so that my students would be exposed to global people and cultures! 

Explore ePals! Click this-> ePals

Enjoy the privileges from Network!

Enjoy the privileges from Network! 

It is evident that in our current society network has a tremendous importance in our education. Some people side with that there is low correlation between network and education while others do not. I however, believe that network is playing a significant role in our education and will become a more powerful mean in the future.

Firstly, a learner is like a tourist. This is because we can see and learn the world through network. Network has become part of our life. It is true and, personally,, I always carry the network like my backpack to go to school every day. According to George Siemens for the video that I have watched, We have a technology available. Through social software, we are able to connect individuals around world. Like his mention and examples that he can connect to someone in Australia or Canada, our connection individually as well as collectively is broader and allows us to embrace the diversity. I think that our education should not overlook this flow in our current society and take advantage of this, because learning is also the important part of our life!

Secondly, a learner is like a cell of a human body because learners consistently need nutrition to grow. To be specific, the writer mentioned that “Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. I agree with this and network is one of the most powerful tools to facilitate this and I admit, therefore, network is important to forward the content.

Personally, it was the first time to encounter 'Connectivism' theoretically. Learning is not individual activity anymore and it is obvious that we are able to access to various knowledge on line around the world. This article and video motivate me to utilize Connectivism in my teaching in the future.

Article: Connectivism: A Learning Theory for theDigital Age, George Siemens
Video : The Network is the Learning,George Siemens

Future Learning in Our World!

Video Clip ->  FutureLearning Documentary 2012 

We have to consider the NEXT GENERATION who is the FUTURE!  To arm it with the relevant, timeless skills for our rapidly changing world, we need to revolutionize what it means to learn.
This clip shows about how technology plays a significant role in education. In this video, some educators mentions the function of technology like computer in our learning. They are redefining how we engage young minds for a creatively and technologically-advanced future. For example, one thing I was impressed is that, according to Seth Weinberger, we need to connect a computer to classroom itself. The goal of this is that  teachers do more higher order things and let the computers do more basic thing like all the practice. 
Through watching this clip, I think that technology can teach us many great things and this will definitely influence on our learning environment as well as life styles.