The Google Alerts that I received this week are of differing topics, but both articles intrigued me. The first article describes a social media policy that was put into place by a public school district in Wisconsin. The policy states that any teachers that want to communicate with students through social media need to make a separate, “professional” account to do so. The school district also stated that they advise teachers to not friend or follow any students on their personal pages until the student turns 25. I find that interesting because I have friended former students once they graduated high school. I wonder why the district suggests the age of 25, the article does not explain why. The school board did recognize that social media is a great way to communicate with students and create a sense of community.

The other article that I read discussed how technology is helping to improve the education system in Afghanistan. The article described how many schools have been rebuilt in Afghanistan, but technology is helping to fill the void in materials in the schools. Some schools are also promoting the use of technology by female students. The article does point out that many schools still have unreliable access to the internet, and many areas cannot afford adequate technology. This article was important because it serves as a reminder to teachers of immigrant students that not every student has had experience with technology. We expect that all of our students can easily navigate technology, perhaps better than the teachers. It’s important to remember that our students come from all sorts of backgrounds and experiences.

Last week I posted about two summer programs that help students avoid “summer slide”. This week I received an article about another summer program occurring in Wilkesboro that is sponsored by Wilkes Community College. This summer program is called SEEK (Summer Educational Enrichment for Kids) and its purpose is to continue ESL education for children of parents that attend the college adult ESL classes and the Current Events class for adult ELLs. The program also started teaching basic computer skills to the children and adults after a Chromebook was donated by a family that graduated from the program. Another difference between this program and the summer camps that I wrote about last week is that students are able to attend the program from ages 4-17. The other summer camps were only open to elementary age students. Dennis Johnson, the executive director of the program since 2011, stated, “We all need to read and we want to see our friends and neighbors succeed…” His passion for the program and his genuine caring for the families involved was definitely evident in this article.

In contrast to this positive article, I received an article about a change in legislation in Baltimore County schools that will affect their ESOL program. Officials in the State Department of Education have raised the standards for exiting the ESOL program. According to Brian Schiffer, the director of social services and fine arts in Baltimore County, this will translate to the exit of fewer than half of the students that would normally be able to exit the program. To make matters worse, this legislature was changed after most schools had approved their budget. Schools will have to make due with the teachers they have teaching almost double the amount of students. Students will not receive the level of individualized education that they need to succeed, allowing them to exit the program.

The state officials have said that they will look for “creative ways” to work together with schools to handle the influx of incoming ELLs and ELLs that are continuing in the program. Perhaps summer camps similar to the one I described above and in my post last week could help students advance quicker through the system. Possible introduction of some of the technology we have been discussing in this course could help as well, such as Mobile Aided Language Learning (MALL) due to the ability to use it at home and on the go. I hope that the State Department will actually consider these possibilities and provide funding to support the students.

References:

Bowie, L. (2017, June). New academic standards will keep more immigrant students in

English proficiency classes next year. Retrieved from:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs-md-immigrant-school-

test-20170623-story.html

Hayes, F. (2017, June). Volunteers and staff help SEEK make a difference. Retrieved from:
http://www.journalpatriot.com/news/volunteers-and-staff-help-seek-make-a-
difference/article_ca6e8d58-5813-11e7-af08-f35eb1aa5030.html

Both articles that I received this week from Google Alerts related to the inevitable “summer slide” that a lot of students experience. During the summer, students can often lose gains that they made over the school year. This loss can be especially devastating to ELLs. If an ELL doesn’t have any way to practice English at home over the summer, they could possibly regress in their English language proficiency level.

At a community center in Utah, several teachers host a summer camp that is open to all students, but is mainly populated with native Spanish speaking students. The program coordinator, Alyssa Escalante states, “Summer learning loss is real and is especially prevalent in low-income families.” This program provides educational support for students as well as feeding them breakfast, lunch, and snacks that they can take home.

In Georgia, an elementary school is running a summer camp just for ESL students. This summer camp uses a lot of technology to make the camp more interesting for the students. In one activity that the article explains, students use an App to scan a picture. The picture then “comes to life” and says a sentence in English that is using a sight word. The students then practiced that sight word by writing their own sentence using it. Students also learned basic coding to create a robot that will act out activities in a story that they wrote in English. The students in this camp were also given backpacks with activities that they can use at home to practice English when the camp ends.

Students in both of these summer camps not only are practicing their academic English through structured activities and technology, but they are also able to practice their social English. The low-pressure environment of a summer camp is a great setting for students to be able to take risks in the language. I hope that this review of these two articles might inspire some teachers to try to start their own ESL summer camp that can help prevent “summer slide”.

Resources:

Dodson, B. (2017, July). Program helping Boulder’s kids avoid brain drain. Retrieved from:

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/provo/program-helping-boulders-kids-avoid-

summer-brain-drain/article_69950417-1588-55b6-bbf8-dd61d916f4e9.html

Morgan, S. (2017, July). Knollwood elementary school hosts ESL summer camp. Retrieved from:

http://www.salisburypost.com/2017/07/04/knollwood-hosts-esl-summer-camp/

I’ve posted on this blog before about the importance of teaching digital literacy to all students, especially ELLs who may have a lower level of technological proficiency. This week’s article from Google Alerts by Kristina B. Hill, a professor in North Carolina specializing in social media marketing. She explains why it’s important to teach students digital literacy, and gives some great advice on how to talk to young people about it.

Kristina points out that teenagers are “natives” of technology. Most of them don’t know what it is like to live in a world without cell phones and social media. I say “most” because I have several ninth grade students who do not have a cell phone because their parents will not allow it. I often go back and forth between whether that is a good choice, or whether it is putting those students at a disadvantage, but that is a subject for another post. Kristina suggests that we weave digital literacy into discussions about students’ future hopes and how posting online can affect them. She cites the incident in June in which Harvard revoked admittance to several students due to racist remarks they posted online. I agree that talking about social media while talking about college plans is convenient, but do we need to start talking about it sooner? Students are using social media earlier and earlier in life, and we should really be talking about digital literacy in elementary school, which is before most students are thinking about college plans.

Kristina suggests that students should make separate social media accounts that show off their academic accolades which they can promote while applying to colleges. She also suggests that students create media rather than just consume it. Students can create a video about their current pursuits in school, volunteer work that they do, or an art project they have been working on. I believe that this would be a great project for ESL teachers to introduce into their classrooms. Students would need to employ their English language skills to create and refine the projects, they would learn how to use technology, and about digital literacy.

Resources:

Hill, K. (2017, June). Talk to your teenager about digital literacy. Retrieved from:

http://www.blackenterprise.com/education/talk-teenager-digital-literacy/

“Don’t smile until Thanksgiving.” I have often heard that quoted by teachers and teacher trainers, referring to classroom management. The train of thought here is that if you act mean and tough, the students will behave out of fear. What about showing the students that you truly care about them but at the same time you have high expectations? I have always thought that it is most important to bring laughter and joy into the classroom, there may be many students that do not get to experience much of that at home.

One article that I read this week was about a teacher in Kansas City, Kansas that creates videos and songs about history for his students. One of his videos, about whether Kansas City, Kansas or Kansas City, Missouri came first, recently went viral. You can find his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/iammrbeat. In the article, the teacher discusses the fact that students are able to remember the material much easier because the songs get stuck in their heads. An interesting fact that the teacher cites from a study done in a college course he took is that if the subtitled words come after what was said, the viewer remembers them better. Students also enjoy the humor of the videos and they enjoy helping to create videos as well. The environment that his classroom is portrayed as being seems so inviting for students.

Technology can be a major motivator for students to complete projects. This article also showed me that technology can be a way to bring the teacher-student relationship closer. No, I’m not talking about friending your students on social media, please don’t do that. I don’t need anymore Google Alert articles about teachers getting in trouble. I’m talking about how to get students more involved in the classroom. Involvement will lead to students generally respecting the teacher. Which ultimately means that the teacher doesn’t have to keep a straight face until November.

Resources:

Linenberger, S. (2017, June). KC’s got the beat thanks to Tonganokie High

       teacher. Retrieved from:  

       http://www.tonganoxiemirror.com/news/2017/jun/22/kcs-got-beat-thanks-

       tonganoxie-high-teacher/

Facebook: Can Language Teachers Use It For Good?

This week on Google Alerts, I received an article about Facebook trying out an online learning platform. Facebook initially has posted courses related to the interests of the company, but users have noticed that they are able to upload their own courses, suggesting that the platform may branch out. The article also discussed the use and successes of other online learning platforms such as Google Classroom, iTunes U, and Udemy. I have personal experience using Google Classroom and I love it. It allows me to easily share documents, videos, assignments, etc. with my students online.

The article also quotes David S. Janzen, a professor of Computer Science at California Polytechnic State University, who teaches a Java Coding course through Udemy. He states that he has no interest in teaching a Facebook based course. His main reason is because he thinks that the social media aspect of Facebook will be too distracting. The professor says that mixing social media and the need to focus on learning seems “counterproductive”.

The distraction of social media may be the truth for for a professor of computer science, but for English language learning, social media can be so beneficial. I think it would be great to teach English language through Facebook rather than through another online learning platform. As I mentioned before, I use Google Classroom, but it is not the most socially interactive platform, it is more like a home for resources. Facebook would provide an interactive piece in which students could practice their English by communicating with each other and maybe even other businesses, celebrities, politicians, etc. The use of Facebook could also make the learning feel, and actually be, more authentic. Authenticity engages students and motivates them to work harder. And isn’t that what we (teachers) all want?

Let's Use Technology For Good!-Not for embarrassing photos and videos of teachers...

This week, I received several articles from Google Alerts about students bullying and harassing teachers online. Most of the cases were from the U.K.. The stories ranged from a student creating a fake facebook account posing as a colleague and inviting other teachers to be their friend, to a student posing as a potential date online and standing up the teacher in order to take embarrassing photos of them alone. Talk about harsh, but I kind of hope that that student gets stood up for prom.

These articles reminded me of something that happened to me earlier this past week in school. I took my high schoolers outside on the last day of school so that they could play football or hang out. Another class was outside and they were having a hula hoop competition. This class asked me to try the hula hoop. Now, just so you know, I am very good at hula hooping, contest-winning good. So I agreed and I started hula hooping. The students were impressed with how long I was hooping and they were cheering me on. Eventually I had to stop because if not I would be there all day, not to toot my own horn or anything. Several class periods later, a student was on their phone and said, “Hey look! Sra. Fulmer was hula hooping today!” Apparently a student had filmed it on their phone and posted it to SnapChat. There was nothing inappropriate on this video, but it got me thinking about how students can so easily be filming or taking photographs of teachers at any time without them realizing it. Students can also instantly post and/or send these videos or pictures to virtually the entire student body. This thought then led me to think about how we can utilize technology in the classroom so that students are too busy using technology for good than for bad.

Another article that I received discussed the use of poetry in a language arts classroom and using iMovie to bring it to life. The teacher in the article assigned a group of students a poem and tasked them with creating a movie about the poem. Students watched a tutorial on how to use iMovie, then they used ipads from the school to create their movies. The teacher held a premiere of the movies after school and invited family, friends, and students, and served popcorn.

I believe that this same project would be very successful in an ESL classroom. I love the idea of inviting family and friends to share in the experience of watching the movies. In too many cases, the family of ESL students feel left out of the education process due to language and cultural barriers. Events like this premiere would help families to feel more comfortable with the school. I’m sure the project would need to be modified to fit the needs of the ESL students. The choice of poem would need to fit the students’ proficiency levels, the grouping of students would need to be addressed (do you want students of all the same proficiency level or students with varying levels in the same group?), and even the technology proficiency may require a more in depth tutorial than just a video one. Despite that, I believe this project would be very beneficial for ESL students and their families. Let’s use that technology for educational good!

Resources:

Elton, K. (2017, May). Poetry in motion. Retrieved from:
http://www.marshallindependent.com/news/local-news/2017/05/poetry-in-motion/

Harding, E. (2017, June). Now pupils abuse teachers on social media: Charity says one
third of bullying complaints come from school staff. Retrieved from:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4567840/Now-pupils-abuse-TEACHERS-social-
media.html

Pupils 'increasingly playing social media tricks'. (2017, June). Retrieved from:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15325402.Pupils__increasingly_playing_social_media_tricks_to_humiliate_teachers_/