Voice of America

Voice of America's "Special English" section is pretty amazing.  This portion of the website is dedicated to English Language Learners, and it is like nothing that I have ever seen before.  All articles are authentic, but there is an audio player that actually reads the articles.  This is great for English Language Learners - they can play the audio and follow along with the text.  Students can practice their listening skills by just playing the audio, can follow along with both audio and text to listen for pronunciation, or just read the article by itself to practice their reading and reading comprehension.  All articles are up-to-date with current events.

Above is a Special English video from Voice of America. In it, the reporter speaks slowly and clearly for ELLs.  There is also text that scrolls up the screen so that ELLs can follow along.  I think that these videos (and articles) are really great for learners of English, and can easily be incorporated into lessons and activities.  What is even better, is that all topics are relevant to what is going on currently in the world.

In addition to the articles on the website, language exercises, idiom dictionaries, and word books are also available on the website.  Lesson plans for EFL teachers are available as well. 

Acapela Group

I LOVE Acapela Group's Text to Speech software! It is absolutely amazing. I am really excited to have found it, and I think that it can indeed help students with their intonation and speaking in the target language.

Acapela Group's Text to Speech is very simple and easy to navigate.  Simply visit the website and then click "select a voice." When you select your voice, you decide if you want it to be male or female, and in which language you want the voice to speak.  After you have done that, type in your text.  When you are done typing in your text, simply click "play." The voice that you have chosen will speak the text that you have entered.  If you notice any pronunciation errors in verbal speech by the software, you can "report a pronunciation bug."

I think this software is great to use if a student has trouble with pronunciation. Google has something similar that I sometimes use. In the Google Translate portion of Google, you can type in a word and hear it's audio and pronunciation.  I think that this is a great way to build confidence in speaking, as students can mimic the intonation of the software (with caution). It is good to be wary of pronunciation errors, because after all, it is all computerized.

Above, we see Google's variation of text to talk.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a website that allows you to "Watch. Practice. [and] Learn almost anything for free" (Khan Academy, 2012). The key is almost. In all of my searching, I did not find an English section, nevertheless a foreign language one. The closest thing is SAT prep, which is not exactly very useful for ELLs to practice their everyday English language.

Overall, though, the website offers an incredible amount of lessons for subjects that range from Art History, to Finance, to Calculus. I clicked on a few lessons in varying subjects, and all of them featured video/audio explanations of a lesson.

I think that this website would be helpful to teachers of science, math, art history, finance, etc, but there really is nothing for English or Foreign Languages.  Even all of the SAT prep that I clicked on was practice for the math sections.

A video about evolution and natural selection from Khan Academy's website.

So in short, I think that this website is great and I will tell my friends about it who are going to teach other subjects, but I unfortunately cannot utilize it.

Edit: After reading other people's blogs about Khan Academy, I realized that I needed to go a little bit outside of the box with my thoughts on the website. These videos may be helpful, especially with drawings like the video up above.  Videos may be a good review for learners at home. I think that this would most likely best suit advanced ELLs, though.

The Flipped Classroom

After watching The Flipped Classroom (above), I thought about the pros and cons of such a classroom.  Aaron Sams is obviously doing something right by the looks of the video, but I don't think that such a thing would work in every classroom or school.  To give you a little bit of a background of what a flipped classroom is, let's first think of a regular classroom.  In a regular classroom, the teacher stands in front of the class and delivers information, of which students are expected to receive and understand.  In a flipped classroom, students are assigned a topic the night before a lesson for homework.  Mr. Sams gives students a lecture in which they are to watch via technology, which guides them in completing their assignment.  The next day, students continue to do their work and Mr. Sams acts as more of a "tutor" than teacher.  It is his goal to have students learn for themselves, and not have such a teacher-centered classroom.

While it seems like it is working in his classroom/school, this would not work in every classroom.  Some students may not have access to technology to watch Mr. Sams' lectures, or the motivation to figure out homework for themselves.  While, yes, students should have the motivation and desire to learn on their own, I could easily see students give up and not do their homework, or even get angry that the teacher is not doing their job in "directly teaching" them what to do.  I am interested to know what Mr. Sams' administrators originally thought of his idea of flipping his classroom. While I think that it is great and ideal, most students need structure and need to be told exactly what to do. I can see students who do poorly on homework, quizzes, or tests blame the teacher for "not teaching" as a result of this technique.

Audacity

Last class, we learned about a new podcast, called Audacity. I actually really enjoy this software, and think that it is very user-friendly. You have to download the software along with LAME, but it's a pretty simple download. When you get into Audacity and make a project, the interface allows for you to record, then to play it back after you are finished. It takes a little fiddling around with when you want to export your project and send to someone, but after trial-and-error it was pretty easy to figure out. After you are done with your project, you export it, change it to an MP3 file, and connect it to LAME. LAME is on the Audacity website under downloads.

Here is a description and "map" of all the features that are on Audacity.

I think that podcasts are great to have students create in the language classroom.  With up to 34 kids in each class, having each student speak every single class can sometimes seem unrealistic. With group work activities and assignments that include podcasts, such as Audacity, students are held accountable to speak in the target language and get the practice and linguistic "exercise" that they need to progress in their learning of the target language.

I would definitely use Audacity in my classroom, but would be a bit hesitant because everyone may not have the software that is needed to create a podcast.  If I were to use Audacity, I would assign students to answer a "question" and have them give a 30 second to 1 minute response for homework. I think that this would be great practice for speaking and intonation of the target language. It would also work well for students who are more shy in class, who can work on this activity at home.

La Repubblica

I was originally going to talk about RAI in this entry, which is Italy's Version of BBC, but I am going to post about La Repubblica.  La Repubblica is one of Italy's most popular Italian newspapers.  Repubblica.it is La Repubblica's online version of the newspaper.  Its website is pretty user-friendly, and all commercials, videos, and articles are in Italian.  Access is free.  All videos work on the website, and no additional software needs to be installed to watch them, unlike RAI (which is why I am not talking about it!)

I think that La Repubblica's website is a great tool for both student and teacher to use. By using the website, a teacher can ensure the use of authentic materials that include relevant topics and culture.  It is also good for an Italian teacher to use on his/her own time, to keep up-to-date with what is going on in Italy.  I think that using particular articles and videos would be good to have students practice their reading and listening comprehension (click on Repubblica TV for video clips).  For homework, the teacher can give guided questions that are to be answered about the particular article or video clip that is assigned. (It is important for teachers to review articles beforehand to ensure that the level is appropriate for students).  I'd probably have students also find five words that they didn't know in an article, and find the definitions online.  The next day when students come into class, I would assign groups to talk about the article, and share vocabulary with each other.

What's best about La Repubblica's website, is that it has Repubblica@SCUOLA (The Republic at School), which is geared for students.  Here is an article about Adele, one that students would probably find interesting and not too difficult to read.  I would probably use this website with high school students - from intermediate to advanced level Italian.

Common Core Standards

The Common Core Standards are divided into two parts, English Language Arts and Math.  These standards are those that are to be met by the whole nation.  The Common Core Mission Statement boasts that The Standards are related to the real world and will have all students ready for college.  It is a teacher's responsibility to carry out these standards into his or her lesson plans.

Looking at all of the standards on this website is extremely overwhelming.  The ELA Standards alone are 64 pages long, and the Math Standards are 71 pages long.  Standards are broken down by grade level and categories/subjects. It is extremely confusing, and again, overwhelming.

I think that The Standards are both good and bad.  Most of the standards that are on the website can be met easily, but at times the standards can without a doubt restrict a teacher and leave him or her with not much freedom to do what they want.  With all of these standards and junk that we teachers have to adhere to, I feel like I a lot of passion and the "fun" of teaching can easily dwindle away.  With all that is going on in education right now, I would not be surprised if the statistic that 1/3 teachers drop out of the profession all together within their first three years, increases.  I definitely believe in holding teachers to high standards, but holding teachers to unrealistic expectations and having them receive barely any respect or support is leading the best and the brightest to go into other professions.

I believe that those who created The Standards have (mostly) a good motive (you never know with politicians these days), but I believe that the government can't save education with all of these bogus standards.  Something has to change, but I don't know exactly what. In my opinion, I think that the core issue is what our society values.  Until this country can re-prioritize, the education system will still suffer, with or without the Common Core Standards.