It only took one glance at the offering of sessions to realize that this would be unlike any conference I have  attended.  Even though I keep up with edtech blogs and read ISTE publications, I still learned so much at ISTE. I was surprised to hear some attendees who had never been to ISTE say that they couldn’t find a single session to attend.  Even though there wasn’t much offered for MFL, there were so many presentations that were helpful for teachers of any subject that I had no problem finding eight fantastic sessions (not including poster sessions and info from the vendors).  My mind was officially blown on several occasions.

In a perfect world a teacher from every department, from every school in the nation would be able to go to ISTE and then share what they’ve learned.  But coach seats on red eye flights do not grow on trees so those of us who were able to attend should count ourselves lucky and do something impressive with what we’ve learned.  I know my students will benefit from what I’ve learned and I hope they will be more engaged in class.

I have a million plans floating in my head thanks to the amazing people I met at ISTE last week.  Now it’s just a matter of finding the time to sort them all out.  Once again I plan to totally change the way I teach.  I also plan to share what I’ve learned with my colleagues in the fall.  Of course I’ll be posting links and info on this blog (whenever my 10 month old gives me permission) and I hope someone out there will be able to find something useful from it.

I absolutely LOVE using online educational games with my students because, if they’re fun enough, the kids end up learning something without even realizing it.  I’ve talked about quizlet and scatter, but my new favorite site for online educational games is called classtools.net.

This site was created by Russel Tarr, the head of history at the International School of Toulouse in France.  It’s completely free, you don’t even have to create an account!  And he’ll let you store your games on his site as well as save them as html files.  As long as you access the site at least every 12 months, your games will never be deleted.

With this site you create your own set list and then five different games are created for the students to review vocabulary or grammar points.  What makes this so fantastic is the games are really fun and addictive.  There’s a space invaders type of game and there’s another game that looks like an old nintendo game (like a Donkey Kong or Mario Bros).

There are only two bad things about this site:

1. My students now want to play these games all the time.

2. I can’t get past level 7 on the space invaders game but my students can and boy is that frustrating

I’ve been using this site for years and it’s one of the best sites for French teachers I’ve ever seen.  There are hot potatoes activities, links to French music videos, links to java games, an interactive novel, webzines, and much more.  I highly recommend all French teachers check out this site as I’m sure there’s something you’d find that would work in your class.  Happy surfing!

I do have a reason for bringing this up.  There’s a free karaoke maker you can download and use in your class (or in your basement with a bunch of your equally tone-deaf friends).  It’s called AV Video Karaoke Maker.  Now I’m not going to lie to you, there’s a bit of a learning curve with this application.  Also you can’t use it with a mac.  It can be frustrating to use at first, especially when you have to match the timing of the words with the music, but the end product is worth it.  The kids enjoy it and are more likely to sing along with a song when it’s presented in this format.

I’ve personally used it to make a simple ABC karaoke video as well as a more complicated song about weather in French to Rihanna’s umbrella.  Once you’ve made a couple of videos it becomes less stressful and more fun to use.  Feel free to share any videos you create with this tool!

10. Tech support for my PC was offshored
9. Had to delete it to make room for iTunes
8. Still hand-writing it, productivity suite license too expensive
7. I emailed it… didn’t you get it?
6. Couldn’t afford HP ink cartridge
5. T%k t% lng 2 QWERTY – txt 2 U instead? Translation: “Took too long to type on regular keyboard, can I text it to you instead?”
4. “Cut and Paste” keys were worn out
3. Plan on “open sourcing” from kid next to me
2. Busy writing the “I Love You Too” virus
1. The dog chewed-up my laptop

Hot Potatoes is freeware that educators can use to create games and other review tools.  Just visit their site and download the free software right onto your computer and start using the 6 applications that come with it.  As it says on the site, Hot Potatoes “enables you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises”.

My personal favorite thing to do with Hot Potatoes is creating cloze activities with the gap-fill option.  I’ve used this to create basic grammar drills and I’ve also used it for cloze song activities.  I take lyrics from French songs and then create blanks with drop-down menus for students to complete.  Once again, this is a fun tool that becomes even better when you throw in an interactive whiteboard.

Here’s a link to another teacher who has used this tool in a very impressive way, mostly with music.

I know, I know, online animation sites have been around for a while now.  But I wanted to share this one with you because out of all the ones I’ve used (and I’ve used quite a few) this one is by far my favorite.

Go!Animate is a free online animation creation site.  You simply register for your free account and start creating your own custom animations.  I like this site because it’s easy to use (students have no problems with it) and it still has enough neat little features to keep the students’ interest.  You can make the animated characters move around, put the heads of people you have pictures of and put them on the Go!Animate figures, and use your own backgrounds.

I’ve found that animations work well with TPRS, for those of you who might be fans of that.  It’s also fun to let students create their own animations, and their easy to grade because you can access them online at your leisure.

If you’d like to see one of my examples, follow the link below:

GoAnimate.com: Une eleve francaise a MHS by mmesilvestri

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com.

If you’re even reading this blog you most likely disagree with the title of this book and the information inside.  One of the main arguments the author, Mark Bauerlein, makes is that the increased use of technology as a learning tool in school is dumbing down our kids.  I think it’s important to read what both sides of the argument, especially since Professor Bauerlein uses data and not just empty diatribes to defend his argument.  It’s also important to read what’s out there so you can at least be ready to counter these types of arguments put forth by some technophobes today.  So I recommend you take a look at this book and see what the other side is saying.  Or at least take a look at this article from USA Today to get the gist of it.