Unit 9

Thank you, PA Department of Education!

I feel like the EL population usually gets overlooked by school districts, so when I found this quote in multiple articles about PA shutting down schools, I was overjoyed:

Whatever decision is made, LEAs must ensure full access to learning for all students, with particular attention to free appropriate public education (FAPE) for students with disabilities and English as a second language (ESL) services for English Learners.--EerieNewsNow

This particular article then had an entire section about students with disabilities, but at least the state mentioned our students!

Philadelphia also cited the same information from the state, here: Philadelphia.

In light of the virus, seemingly taking over the world, most of the articles and sources that my alerts brought up were dealing with how we can cope.



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The resource that really stood out to me is here: Harnett County Schools in North Carolina created a list of apps and sites that students and their families might be able to use during this trying time. Check it out! Which one can you recommend to your students? Can you use one at home while you are quarantined? (Most of them are free. The ones that aren't are labeled.)

I think I will use Storyline Online with my nieces when I watch them later this week!

Unit 8 Post

I was originally going to write this post about how we (or I) can prepare my ELs to succeed with the potential to continue learning in the event of a closure. I even found this article that would potentially aid my endeavors. The author, Neil Campbell, even posits information about technology and equity, even though he only briefly mentions ELs. And then.......



To be totally honest, with the craziness that is going on in our schools, I have not had a whole lot of time to dedicate to my blog post, but I did find an article that I wanted to share with you. It has a lot of information that we are already probably are familiar with, but if you scroll all the way down, it discusses VR and the benefits of using technology.

Please stay safe and make healthy decisions!

Unit 7

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam.

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I feel like all I've done this week is wade through dead links or click on links that lead to...spam. I'm not going to lie, I also was quite preoccupied this week, as I was in Harrisburg at the MEP/ESL Conference. So, when I would go back to my hotel room, and now my home, the last thing that I wanted to do was open up my alerts to click on the aforementioned frustrations.

With that being said, I did find a couple of articles that related to what I was doing this week. I was networking with fellow ESL teachers in our state and attending professional development with, and sometimes lead by, those teachers. The first article is about a young woman who has taken her schooling to give back to her community. Not only does she contribute to the positive environment in her library, but she also teaches computer courses, and adult ESL classes, among other things.

Needing to feel inspired? Click me!

The other article that I enjoyed is entitled

Access to Quality PD Is an Equity Issue, Teachers Say

Since I spent so much time sitting in PDs for what feels like forever (I wish I could stand to type this), this article caught my eye, and since it wasn't a dead link, I was able to read it! I feel like most of the article was venting about not having access to the kind of PD that we as educators may want, but that most school districts attempt to give teachers the PD they need to make education more equitable for the students by giving sessions on how to teach ELs or on technology.

What was the last PD session that you had that was meaningful for you? What PD do you wish you had access to?

Unit 6 Blog

This has been a long week. I'm exhausted. Is it because we are over halfway through the school year, the fact that we are halfway through this semester for grad classes, or is it just me?



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This time around I came across a new frustration:

I got my hopes up because in the alert emails that I received, there were tons of articles! So many that I clicked on ended up being some kind of spam link. No. I did not actually win thousands of dollars, a new i-pad, or a car. And, no. I did not find a whole lot of useful information from those 'articles.'

What I did find was helpful in bringing my spirits back up was an article from Texas talking about how a school district is allocating tons of money to help in English and ESL classrooms:

Give them the money!💰

Then I found an article entitled, "Do the Benefits of Digital Devices in School Classrooms Outweigh the Downsides?" This is great. Except I would need to subscribe to The Wall Street Journal...nope.😐

Here is the link if you are curious.

I did find one that applies to my professional life and my ESL technology class. As far the connection to my professional life, we have been focusing on how to prevent burn out, and one way to do that is to share thank you notes with those that we don't usually get to thank or appreciate. (It really does make you feel better!)

The article talks about an app called GiveThx. It is a program where students, who may be too shy to express their gratitude in person can do so. (ELLs!) Teachers can give feedback and foster community through the app. This also could apply to my Digital Story! Woot! 😀

Greater Good

Unit 5 Post

You guys! I figured it out (or should I say, our professor helped me go through all the steps to getting the alerts to actually do something). 

I have received enough alert emails to realize that I still may have some work to do with my wording of the alerts, however I still had enough in the emails that the amount of browser tabs that I had opened was ridiculous. I was able to exit out of a few of them, because even though they were interesting, they did not apply to our studies (AI learning new languages, and a library in MA that offers ESL conversation classes!).

This article stood out the most to me: Mobile Apps for ESL

I actually had to stand up and take a break after reading the first paragraph of the second section because I hadn't seen a term before (even though, thinking back, I feel like I should know this one...). We all know CALL. But have you heard of MALL? No, not where you like to shop... I now have "Let's go to the Mall" from the show How I Met Your Mother stuck in my head...

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL).

I feel that with so many school buildings going to BYOD policies, or 1-to-1 programs with technology, that apps and even mobile devices can really be helpful with learning an L2.

Oh! Here is a podcast that looks pretty awesome, and it deals with K-12 ESL: Adventures in ESL

Unit 4 Post

To my fellow classmates: Apologies for the lateness of my post.

Lesson Learned from this assignment: Read instructions word for word- even when you think you know what it is...Practice what you preach when you work with middle school students.



On that note:

After not actually getting my alerts to work correctly - and I am still working on getting them to function properly - and receiving some help (thank you!), I looked through what was shared with me to find a few topics that stood out for me.

The first thing that I noticed, is that most of the studies that I found focused on adult learners in universities. I understand that this might be an easier age group to work with, but I am curious about the age groups that I work with. I think I will try to change, or add age groups to my alerts to see if I can find more information about them.

One of the topics was using game based language learning and the other was how technology might be able to help with anxiety in language learning. I was a bit disappointed that I struggled to access the articles after finding them on the alerts. I tried using the library website and resources available to use through school, but I still was not able to gain access to more than the abstracts of the articles. I did, however, find some interesting information through the article previews.

Abstract for Game Based Language Learning

Students in a Japanese University used Sims 4 to help with their communicative competence in English. Where the quantitative data did not show growth, the qualitative data showed that with the instructor's support, there was plenty of opportunity for practice.

I found this to be interesting because most of my students spend a lot of time playing video games in their free time. I wonder how I could incorporate gaming into our studies.

Abstract for Technology & Anxiety

This also looked at students in a University, in China, I believe. What really struck me is the emphasis on how technology can ease the anxiety of language learning, but not just any technology - but through the technology-assisted learning process. I think I would like to know what, exactly that is.

I think that it would be helpful to know what kinds of programs we could incorporate in the classroom to ease our ELL's anxiety.



This week has been a rough one, and it has also translated into my grad classes. This post is late, and I am furious with myself for not making note that it was due on Thursday, and not Saturday. I really thought that I had all of my ducks in a semi-functioning row.
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