Day 17 - Understandings

We are all on project overload at this point - project understanding, webquest, research project - and the final project - self-analysis.

So what have I come to understand during my time here this summer?

My initial musings are about conceptual teaching. I have heard about this in past conferences, but now I believe I have a better understanding of it having lived it for the past few weeks. Tying the reading, writing, and speaking tasks, as well as a cultural focus, to a big concept like nationalism makes every lesson seem more natural. The reading, writing, and speaking take place within a more authentic communicative context; they don't seem artificial as they sometimes can when you approach the lesson with the idea "Today we're going to practice the imperfect tense". So this is definitely something I want to develop in my own classroom.

And how did I arrive at this understanding? This is the more difficult question. My first response is that I arrived at this understanding through experiencing conceptual teaching as a student. My understanding was further developed through the process of project understanding.

These are questions that I am only beginning to answer, and which will require more thought and introspection on my part.

Using Technology to Increase Student Understanding

One of the things I am most excited about this summer is learning how to use so many different kinds of technology. Some of these I already knew about, but didn't know how to create, myself, such as a webquest. Some of these I had never even heard of before.

I am really interested in having my students create blogs in order to practice their writing skills; especially to help them in the writing of their own thoughts and opinions. I am most interested in seeing them read and comment on the blogs of their classmates - would this create more spontaneous communications in the language? Would this allow them to be more free and have fun with the language? Could this be my action research project?!?

I am also looking forward to learning about how to create podcasts. I think this would be a great way to evaluate oral communication.

Although I didn't know that much about webquests before, now I see so many options that it will be hard not to webquest my students to death! I am most excited to see the different webquests my classmates have created, which I can then "borrow" for use in my own classroom.

Day 13 - Fight Against the Mosquito

There is a game of poker going on in the "living room", but I am not into poker. I may mosey on down there, though, just to check things out. I contemplated making some phone calls, but that would mean having to go outside where I would be attacked by 10,056 mosquitos. I have woken up with quite a few mosquito bites in the mornings (there must be a window without a screen somewhere in this building, and of course all of the bloodsuckers find their way to me), so the other night I waged a battle with my issue of Time magazine (bought at the airport the day I flew to VT - hardly touched) against the relentless mosquitos. Victory was mine as I killed almost all of them - I even decided to leave one little body plastered to the wall as a warning to her voracious friends and relatives. It has worked pretty well as I've only received one or two bites since.

Hitting the Technology Wall

I did feel like I hit the technology wall this week in trying to find a valuable podcast in Spanish, as well as trying to create a webquest. I felt very overwhelmed with the huge task of creating a meaningful webquest. In fact, I guess I still do since the webquest my group is working on is not finished, yet!

This is a good experience, though, as it helps to remind me what it must feel like for some of the students in my classes - overwhelmed, unsure of themselves, and feeling that there is no way they can "get it all done".

When we finish the webquest, though, I will definitely have a great project that I can be proud of and can really use in my classes.

Day 11

Today - a gray, rainy day, I woke up tired. Tired from lack of sleep, stress over all the projects I am working on, and not being in my own home.

But then I received a package in the mail from my dear friend K. with a fabulous gift - it really made my day and changed my outlook.

Tonight is "Midnight Madness" in downtown Bennington - street sales and other fun. I would like to go, but will have to work first - more technology homework, webquest project, research project, comprehension project. And if I don't get to go, that's okay. I have my new gift to keep me happy.

Day Eight

Monday, incredibly, we had a vacation! Immediately before lunch, one of the program directors came into our class and announced that it was "Once a Year Day," and that we would be meeting in front of the security booth after lunch for an excursion to a nearby lake. After working all weekend (some of us all night Sunday night) on our big essay, we were very excited!

So we went to the lake where several VERY competitive games of croquet and volleyball were played. Merrie, Lisa, Pam, Christine and I rented paddleboats and paddled around the lake. We had a paddleboat race, which Merrie and Lisa won. It was a very relaxing day, and so nice to sit out in the sun! On the wayback to the college, we even stopped at The Chocolate Barn - a store where they make their own chocolate and other candies, along with maple syrup. I couldn't resist buying a few pieces, which were amazing. If you are ever in Bennington, VT, I highly recommend The Chocolate Barn.

When we returned we immediately got back to work by going to the library for a research presentation, then returning to finish our homework (reviewing a novel to discuss in Tuesday's class, and reading another chapter about foreign language acquisition).

Day Seven

We are beginning to take our first steps into the world of action research by working in groups to research something we observe happening here during our stay. Last week I was very worried about this, but am now very excited about the process.

We practiced taking scratch notes and field notes in our classes this past week, and today we analyzed them - looked for patterns, from which we could generate hypotheses. This was very interesting and I enjoyed trying to put the pieces together in new and different ways, and finding patterns that I never would have seen, otherwise.

We also saw the action research presentations of the second year students. It was very helpful to see these examples and to hear about the process they went through. And of course, I heard some interesting ideas about connecting through collaborative writing, conceptual teaching, and peer editing.