Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Chome Timer Web App

I used the Timer app, available in the Chrome Web Store, in my classes today for a timed writing activity.

Things I love about it:

1. You can customize the background to any image.
2.  You can link a YouTube video to play when the timer goes off.
3.  I was able to add a picture from Barcelona, Spain during "La Navidad" and a Spanish carol available from YouTube to play when the timer went off.   It was a simple way to integrate a bit of culture into the lesson!

One tip - I pinned this Chrome app in my browser to have ready whenever I need to use it!


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

TodaysMeet - Backchanneling in the Target Language

TodaysMeet was used in my classes today to create a backchannel discussion during a video in the target language.   I posed various questions throughout the video for students to answer and even gave out some prizes for most creative/detailed answers.  It was very effective for creating further engagement in the activity and took very little time to create/prepare!  Take a look at how it went...


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Google Voice Speaking Assessment

We did speaking assessments in my Spanish 4 classes today utilizing Google Voice.

The bonuses..

  • Can complete 30 voice assessments during class in 10 minutes (+ approx. 1 hour to grade them)
  • Can access the voice messages from anywhere using my Google Account
  • Voice messages can be shared/embedded
  • Can send text back to students with feedback immediately!
  • Provides more opportunities to assess speaking w/in a World Language Classroom
  • Super efficient!
Take a look at the process I use to do this...

*Video created by Recess Duty.