Our New Room and other news

Dear all,

WE ARE MOVING ROOMS

Halos optional

As from the beginning of February 2016, Matt and Steve can be found in a new room. It is 226, formerly known as the Modern Language Teacher Prep Room. The main reason for the move is to bring us closer to more teachers. We hope to benefit from the passing traffic and look forward to our colleagues popping in with ideas for bringing more educational technology into your classes. Another way to get in touch with us is to call us on 4224.

And... you are invited to a room-warming party on the afternoon of the PD day Friday 5 February.

IS THAT MY LAPTOP?


Teachers' laptops, like water bottles, can look very similar to each other. I have already, embarrassingly, walked off with someone else's Yoga laptop.

Wouldn't it be better if we could personalise them? Well, you can. Having bought a bottle of solvent, ISL is happy for teachers to put colourful stickers on their school-issued computers.


NEWS FROM THE FRONT

What the author saw...

As ever, there is a lot of great teaching going on every day at ISL. Many colleagues are also trying out new ideas with technology and we have been highlighting these on this blog.


If you missed them, here are some excellent ideas from our colleagues:

• Hannah Flandrin-Jones (Skype with an author)
• Elena Aldridge (Minecraft in French class)
• Guillaume Gravé-Rousseau (Interviews by students with subtitles in French)

WHICH COMPUTER ARE OUR STUDENTS USING?

Recently, all Grade 6 and 7 students were asked some questions about the computers they are using for 1 to 1. This data will be very helpful as we plan for next year's advent of computers in Grades 9 to 11. We will follow up later with a survey about attitudes to 1 to 1 amongst the students.

Below are three interesting findings:

• More than 6 in 10 laptops which the students bring to school are made by Apple.
• Fewer than half of the students bring a charger to school.
• Half of the students use no other computer than the laptop they bring to school.

Students make great videos - with French subtitles

As teachers, we like to give our students real-world tasks to make their learning more memorable. Every year, Guillaume Gravé's Grade 9 French foreign language class produces some great films of interviews with people about their work - complete with subtitles. In the video below, you will see several clips from this year's interviews (though nothing so spectacular as last year's interview with our Prime Minister).


The activity is firmly anchored in language learning and uses technology in the form of camera, tablet or smartphone and the constantly evolving functions of YouTube. It is all very easy and the tech enhances rather than hinders the language acquisition. If you would like to try this with one of your classes (whether language or otherwise), read on below this short video of clips from the students' interviews ...

There are several ways to add subtitles to a video, but the best I have ever seen is within YouTube. YouTube allows you to listen to a speaker and then to type what is said while the video pauses until you are ready for the next sentence. In my experience, it takes 3 minutes to type a minute of speaking. The students learn to use it very quickly. For the learners, there is intense exposure to the target language.

In terms of SAMR, this is an activity that allows students to engage with a real-world task. The videos are on YouTube whose flexible privacy settings mean that the teacher can control exactly who can see the video. The teacher can easily manage the viewing so that the students receive constructive feedback from an authentic audience, whether peers, parents or another class.

If you would like to try an activity like this with one of your classes, please get in touch with Matt or Steve.

How to become the most popular teachers in Middle School

At the beginning of this semester we dove head first into the world of Minecraft. Elena was a Minecraft novice who had never played before (but has a growth mindset), while Matt has a bit of experience implementing Minecraft in the class (but far from an expert). The goal was to find an engaging way to integrate technology into French class. The result was a huge French Minecraft world with examples of French speaking, writing and vocabulary.

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is a computer game that allows players to build constructions out of textured cubes, whilst using creative skills to label them and to create conversations, depending on the setting.  We used MinecraftEdu, a school-ready version of Minecraft, designed specifically for classroom use.

If Minecraft is new to you, check out this short one-minute Minecraft trailer:

Why bring Minecraft into the educational setting?

This project facilitated the development of non­cognitive skills that many other educational games teach, whilst reinforcing the units of the existing school curriculum. Furthermore, it provided pupils with an enjoyable, age-appropriate and popular learning activity.

Pupils...

• worked on the project from home, for no more than one hour a week;
• created a 4-5 minute presentation on a topic directly related to Units 1 and 2;
• presented their final project in class, one week before the end of term;
• connected to a moderated server from their laptops;
• worked in pairs, small groups or individually, as preferred;
• were informally assessed on the project, and therefore received individual feedback;
• were not set other homework for French for the duration of the project;
• were provided with ongoing assistance in school, for both French language or ICT skills, as required.

Summative Task

The summative assessment was for the students to create a screencast of themselves walking through their Minecraft world - introducing everything in French.

Take a look at this example by Sophia and Paula:


You can find many more videos and blog posts by students on the ISL Minecraft blog. If you are interested in integrating Minecraft in your classroom, stop by and have a chat with Matt and Steve.

Matt and Elena