Student Demo of the Xoom at PT Conferences

For parent teacher conferences last night I had a couple of the Xoom tablets out for parents to see the how the devices work and get a first hand look at the many ways they can be used. 

Take a look at one of my students showing her mother how to use one of the Xoom tablets during her parent teacher conference.   

Collaborative Mini Stories via Google Docs!

We are currently studying preterite and imperfect in Spanish IV.  To further practice these past tenses,  students are working in collaborative groups to come up with a mini story in Spanish.  First, each group randomly chose a picture from the selection.  Then, they had to write/tell what happened in the picture.  Tomorrow each group will present their story to the class.  Here is a group using Google Docs to create their story, which allows them to collaborate more efficiently outside of class to finish their story as well as make any need corrections.  Take a look.

A new way to do video activities!

For today's video lesson (an episode from a Spanish video series called "El Gran Desafío"), I checked for understanding by having students complete a Google Form.  They were able to watch the video and complete the activities at the same time.  When finished, they easily submitted the form and I can now quickly assess how they did using the Flubaroo, a feature of Google Docs!  We will definitely be using this tool again! 

Even more grammar idol!!

Here are a few more of the preterite grammar song presentations from my Spanish IV classes...

One of my students even played the Ukulele for their song.  She received it for Christmas last year and actually learned how to play it via the Internet!!

Grammar Idol!

In the Spanish IV classes today students performed their very own grammar songs, focusing on one aspect of the preterite tense in Spanish.  (This was an activity developed by my colleague Tracie Van Gheem-Rottier)

Their task:

1. Choose a focus - regular verbs, ser/ir, dar/ver, J/U/I group verbs, i>y verbs, etc.
2.  Choose a familiar song
3.  Count out syllables of song
4.  Put words to song to teach the class their preterite focus topic

Here are the results of their assignment....

Soapbox is superb!

I was reading about a new site/tool called Soapbox last night on Free Technology for Teachers.  Being the Ed Tech geek that I am, I immediately signed up for the free service and tried it in my class today!  Wow!  It is awesome.  This tool lets students back-channel while you are teaching.  They can post a question and either the instructor or another student can post a response immediatly.  It also filters inappropriate content, which is great for the classroom!   Take a look to see it in action!

The demo video from the Soapbox site

Pulse App

I have just downloaded the Pulse App for the Xoom Tablets, after reading about a similar Ipad app (Zite) that a colleague of mine downloaded for use in his classes.  My classroom purpose for this app is for students to use it during SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) Time.  Every day my high school devotes 10 minutes for students to simply read.  I really love SSR time, because I also get ten minutes out of the day to read!

This app lets students pull info. from a variety of websites to read about topics that interest them.  Take a look at this short video review of the app.

One of my students using it today!

Slide IT App = quick typing, in Spanish or English!

I recently downloaded the Slide IT app for the Xoom tablets from the Android Market.  In addition, I downloaded the Spanish Language Pack that goes with it to allow the students to quickly type in either Spanish or English.  The best part is that they are both free!  It has really been working well and the students are now able to type on the tablets so much quicker in either language!  Take a look at the video to see it in action.