Communicate » professional development

Want to join an online community specifically for world language educators? Meet our ning, MIWLA Connect

Cindy Kendall — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:49:09 +0000

Professional Learning Communities for world language teachers can play a major role in supporting the teacher in the classroom. Unlike the math, science, social studies or language arts teachers, many world language teachers are the only teacher of their content area in the building. Of course, in larger schools this is not the case, but many American schools are small, so a teacher may find himself or herself as the only teacher of Spanish, French, German, Chinese, etc. in the building.

FLTEACH is probably the oldest online community for world language teachers. It is a listserv based out of SUNY-Cortland. It is still a vibrant, email-based community where teachers can share information, support each other, and discuss their profession.

Web 2.0 communities are now providing new places for teachers to meet, discuss, and share resources. The Michigan World Language Association has started a Ning, called MIWLA Connect, which is open to anyone interested in world languages (no need to be a member of the MIWLA). We hope this Ning provides an online meeting space for world language educators, as well as a place to share resources. Members can add document or media attachments for others to access, post photos and videos, create small groups, etc.

Are you interested in world languages? Then join us on our Ning!

80+ Participants in Integrating Tech Workshop

Cindy Kendall — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:27:09 +0000

Wow! Over 80 people chose to attend the Integrating Technology into Instructional Practice workshop. Thank goodness I had assistance from my University of Michigan Computer Science Engineering Freshmen son Bryan – he was invaluable providing help connecting to our secure network and just-in-time support. It was an exciting, fast-paced workshop exploring multiple authoring environments that could be used in teaching and learning. The participants were a dynamic group, they brainstormed many possible ways to integrate the technologies we explored in their practice. I’ll be updating the wiki page later tonight with their ideas. Thank you participants for sharing your energy, ideas and excitement!

ACTFL 2009: Off to the house of the mouse

Cindy Kendall — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:56:13 +0000

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages national conference is at the Swan and Dolphin in Orlando. The program looks interesting and it is always invigorating to meet with fellow educators for discussion and networking. I’ll be presenting two hands-on technology-focused workshops: Integrating Technology into Instructional Practice (6 hours) and Enter the Conversation: Beginning Blogging for Teachers and Students (3 hours). Working with practicing teachers is always exciting – plant the seeds and watch the ideas generate! Are you going to ACTFL? In 2009 ACTFL is in San Diego and the call for proposals is already open.

Michigan World Language Association Conference

Cindy Kendall — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:07:43 +0000

The Michigan World Language Association conference is starting tomorrow. The Holiday Inn South in Lansing is the location – it is centrally located, free parking, and easy to reach for many educators from the east and west sides of the state. Hope to see you there!

Starting the new school year with web2.0 in New Jersey

Cindy Kendall — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:46:28 +0000

I just returned from New Jersey where I worked with 36 world language teachers for 4 days. We focused on enhancing world language teaching and learning with web-based technologies. We had a wiki that served as our starting point (see the Explore page), and then each participant had a workspace (see Participants page), and many went on to develop their own wikis for the upcoming school year (listed beside their workspace on the Participant page).

While we primarily focused on the tools, there was some discussion on the pedagogy – however it was more implicit than explicit – the trouble with such as short time together and the way the 4 days were structured. It was interesting to work with such a large group, as there are teachers all along the technology adoption-integration spectrum. Some are simply recreating existing practice via technology and are still rather teacher-centered, while others are innovating and thinking very creatively and having the students be the creators of personalized, media-rich content.

They are an energetic group with great ideas – many have set up their own wikis, others are working on projects in VoiceThread, and some have even set up collaborative projects with each other’s classrooms via Skype. The New Jersey Department of Education will be holding follow-up events throughout the year, and hopefully there will be some exemplary lessons emerge from this group.

During our 4 days, excitement was generated by…

How easy it is to create a wiki and embed media to it so it can serve as a space for the teacher as professional as well as a creative space for students, and how flexible it is with the discussion option.
The potential for VoiceThread in the world language classroom as both a teacher tool and a student tool. Some enjoyed the web-based authoring environments in tools such as Comiqs.
How easy it is to use Skype and the possibilities for collaboration via webcam.
The ease of creating a Google Docs Form and embedding it on a page to quickly collect data such as student information and then use the widgets to help visualize that data.

I look forward to hearing how the 2008-09 year goes as these teachers experiment with new technologies in their personal and professional practice!