For my first professional development activity, I signed up
for the FLTeach listserv. Since I signed up about a week ago, I have been
receiving daily emails from a variety of foreign language teachers across the country,
with information regarding foreign language, questions about lesson planning,
on to incorporate specific cultural aspects of a country into the lesson, and
more. Most of the emails I have been reading have been quite interesting and
informational. Over the weekend, I posed my first question to the listserv,
which was directed at those who like to use technology in the classroom, and
how they use it (I’m still highly interested in this topic, and wanted to get
more opinions from other teachers about how it could be used). While there was
not as much discussion as with some of the other threads, I did get quite a few
personal emails back from other teachers, who recommended several different
resources.
The first was from a Spanish/Computer/Technology instructor
from Minnesota. She responded to the thread with a link to her own personal
blog (link below), which includes her thoughts and several resources for
technology use in the classroom, plus how-to steps for beginners. What I found
personally useful is she lists a ton of iPad apps she finds useful in the
classroom (Yay!). For any iPad users out there, some other cool apps to check
out would be Storyrobe, Video Star,
iMovie, and Picturebook. On her website, she has tons of other posts with
about tech in the classroom, which are worth taking a look at.
Another cool
experience was after introducing myself as a student teacher (to save having to
explain exactly what a TA was), who teaches German, I received a personally
email from another German teacher, recommended me to join another listserv
group exclusively for German teachers run by AATG (American Association of
Teachers of German). This has also been an enriching experience, as I can now
read discussions between other German teachers! I only just joined today, so
there hasn’t been much activity, but I did get to read an interesting conversation
between AP German IV teachers about how they try incorporate as much culture as
possible into the lesson plans. Overall, this professional development activity
was more enriching than I first thought it would be, and I plan to continue on
being a member of both groups!
Link to blog: geekieteacher.blogspot.com
Link to blog: geekieteacher.blogspot.com
Lieber Mike,
AntwortenLöschenI went the route of researching different language education groups to join professionally, and it's cool that you found a message board through AATG. What is the link to this message board, and do the users generally message one another in German or English? No matter what, I'm interested in this, and it would be great to see what everyone discusses.
Thank you for discussing these forums, since generally, I'm rarely ever on any types of message boards. I'm now more interested in joining both of these groups, and it's more apparent that I should work on broadening my internet usage for professional development.
Mit herzlichen Grüßen,
Evan
What a great introduction to both of these listservs! My personal experience with FLTeach had left me skeptical because I felt it was difficult to follow messages and threads, but I'm glad that you had a good experience and found it helpful. And that's great that there's a specific listserve for AATG, I'll have to add that to my list of options for future TAs!
AntwortenLöschen