Mme Weber's Exit Slip

These google tools could be used for a variety of activities in class. The google doc is a great way of working on a project together as a group since every member can contribute something. The same is true for google presentation. My favourite is the google forms. I really like the the idea of an online exit slip that students can fill out after class. Student could also use this tool to create their own questionnaires that they could do for a research project. Just like in university, students could do research on a topic, create a questionnaire, and then find people who will answer the questions. As a final step, they could present their findings in class.

Mme Weber's Doc

Reading 8

Collaboration is very important, no doubt about it. BUT I think there should be limits to group work. I have done so much group work during this year that I have come to think that I never want to submit my students to as much work with partners.

That being said, I really like Peter Skillen’s suggestions about collaboration and co-construction of knowledge. I could imagine that students would be more engaged in online journals than paper journals: it is somehow easier to make comments on each other’s work online than it is in the “school context” of a written journal. It is probably a good idea to make commenting a part of the assignment. But I can also imagine that these prescriptions might become just like another worksheet, as Skillen mentions. It would be interesting to find out more about how he encourages students to engage in deeper thinking and understanding, rather than making superficial comments. How do you teach this to students?

Mme Weber's Cheese Scoop

Scoop could be used for a research project that students do in French class. Students could for example research their favourite francophone artist, or do some research on a francophone country. I could ask them to post the five most important and pertinent websites they found in the form of a scoop post. My scoop is on cheese. I could imagine doing a cheese testing in class and give my students some reading activity around my scoop about cheese/cheese-making/cheese-testing. Another application would be to use scoop for professional development. I could do one on a particular topic, e.g. French immersion, reading etc. in order to collect new ideas.

Sidenote About Parenting and Technology

Reading 7

The title of today’s article is “understanding content curation”, but unfortunately, I still do not really understand what the author means by “content curation”. I have only really heard the word curating in the context of museums or art galleries where a curator is responsible for putting together a collection. When the author talks about “curating resources to accompany the backwards-planned, inquiry-based units of instruction”, what does she mean? Does she mean that teachers carefully put together resources that the students can then explore on their own? But what does she mean by students being curators? The author does not really explain how students can contribute to the process. The whole article seems rather abstract to me, and I feel like I do not have enough of an understanding of the basic term (curating) in order to understand it.

Podcasting

Podcasting is a great idea for the classroom. As I pointed out in my comments to reading 6, I could imagine doing a news broadcast with my students in French about what is new in their community. Every week, two students could record a podcast, we could listen to it, and do some listening activities around it. We could have literature discussions/book reviews in French Immersion class in which students present their books. Students could also do a music review podcast in which they review some of the music we listened to in French class. In social studies class, the students could do research on a topic and then interview each other on the findings. The possibilities are endless!

listen to ‘Mme Weber's Podcast’ on Audioboo