674+Discussion+Questions

**__Discussion Question 1 - completed during Weekend One __**
**What do you know about using technology with students?**

The first thing that popped into my head when I read this question was that I know that students LOVE to use technology and LOVE to learn about new technologies in class. I feel that by using and integrating technology into my curriculum I am providing my students with the opportunity to take control of their own learning. I constantly try to integrate technology into my daily lessons, and when I do, I definitely see a more heightened interest from my students. We are lucky nbough to have access to a wonderful language lab at Appleton East, and it has a really great language program that allows us to use different technologies that we cannot access online because our district blocks them (chat, videos, recording...); however, because this is a self contained program, we are defintely limited in what we can have our students do (they can only access this program at school).


 * What do you want to know about using technology with students?**

I want to learn how to incorporate more technology effectively into my classroom. Not only would I like to learn about the different technologies out there, but how to properly and successfully use them in my classroom.

**__Discussion Question 2 - completed during Weekend One__ **
Select another Essential 21st Century Skill that you may NOT already touch upon and project how you might be able to meet that need in future instruction **
 * Look at the Essential 21st Century Skills List - Select one skill and discuss how you already meet this skill via your current instruction.

The skill I selected is Communication Skills. As a language teacher this is probably the most important skill that we want to see develop in our students. If a student cannot successfully communicate (orally, written, reading etc.) in the target language, then the purpose of learning a language is not meaningful. On a daily basis I strive to ensure that my students use the target language to communicate in class with myself and with their peers. We do many different activities that require them to use communication skills: writing on relevant and current topics, talking with classmates on specific topics and on elective topics, open chat in the language lab, reading current events, newspapers, etc. While ensuring that the students are communicating correctly (gramatically sound sentence structure) is important, many times I focus on whether or not theoir communication is effective: would they be understood by a native speaker? Would they be able to "survive" if they were faced with a situation where they are required to use and understand the target language.

The skill that I do not touch upon has to be Problem Identification, Formulation, and Solution. I am not sure how this connects into the foreign language, but the first thing that came to mind was teaching language students to learn how to use circomlocution to communicate when they do not have the exact words needed to convey an idea. Many times my students are too odependant on me when they do not have the words they need to directly say what they want in the target language. Circomlocution teaches them to solve this problem by learning how to "talk their way around" what they are trying to say by using vocabulary that they already know. ==** __Discussion Question 3 - to be completed one week after the Weekend One__ ** ==

**Find a TeacherTube/YouTube video that you could use for instructional purposes and copy and paste the address of the video for others to view. Explain how you would use this with your students.**

NOTE: Since there are so many videos to choose from, please avoid any repeats.

View two other students’ videos.

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This video is a great way of reviewing how to conjugate verbs with Spanish students. ==**__Discussion Question 4 - to be completed Saturday/Weekend Two__ ** ==


 * To complete the KWHL- what have you learned from the readings, activities and discussions from this course about using technology with your students? **

Engaging! Everything that we have done in this class has definitely really kept me interested in what we have been learning. From the readings (which for my students tends to be the least interesting part of class), to the activities, and the discussions, everything has required that somehow we use technology and it definitely kept me focused and engaged. Many of the activities were also hands-on, and for me this too was very engaging, as it kept me active in the learning process and also kept me involved in what we were learning. I can defintiely see how by using technology will definitely capture my students' interest and get them really involved in what we are learning. I also realized that most of the strategies we needed to incorporate into our Lesson Plans were strategies that I already use with my different lessons and projects; my goal now is to start integrating new web 2.0 resources/tools into my lessons and projects.