Due to the limitations of Weebly, my audio and video Podcasts can be found on a different blog, here.


This podcast was created for a High School Spanish II classroom. It meets the following Michigan State Standard and Benchmark:

Communication: Communicate in Languages Other Than English

1.2 Interpretive Communication: Students understand and interpret
     written and spoken language on a variety of topics.
 
     1.2.N.L.d Understand main idea of an audio presentation (CD,
                  lecture, radio, podcast, songs/music)

Podcasts can be used in a variety of ways inside and outside of the classroom. Students can listen and follow along on a podcast when the teacher wants to present new information in the target language, for example when the teacher would like to introduce new vocabulary. The teacher can use the podcasts as a review for an exam, or as a performance assessment within the classroom. Podcasts can be used by the students to present book reports for fellow students to listen to, or so parents can listen to them to showcase their language learning ability. Video podcasts can broadcast information about their lives to pen pals in Latin America or Spain, for example, or it can be used as an introduction to everyone in the classroom.

Another great way to use podcasts is to communicate with other educators as well as parents. Educators may like to look at other students' podcasts to see what they are doing, as well as my personal professional development. Also, it would be a good communication tool to keep in touch with parents on what is new in the community as well as the inside the classroom.

There are many, many ways that blogging can be effective in a Spanish classroom! I plan to use a few of these ideas when it comes to my own classroom and I hope that you can benefit from them, as well!

A teacher can create a blog, and students can post and tag (so the teacher knows who posted and can keep track) the blog in Spanish and respond to each other's posts in Spanish. This promotes a strong classroom community as well as a writing and communication skills between students. This will also allow students to get to know each other better. It's good to allow the students to create their own topics so they will stay interested in keeping the blog updated and active.

Another good way to utilize a blog in the classroom is to for the teacher to post homework assignments and updates on what's going on in the classroom or several classrooms for the parents to check for their students so they can stay up to date, as well. I believe that the parents will be grateful as long as the teacher keeps the blog up to date with the assignments and classroom information. For example, if there is a project due in a month, the teacher can let the parents know so they can get a jump start on it.

Finally,  students can read the blogs of Spanish speakers as an assignment and hopefully become intrigued and continue to read them and comment on them as well. Here is an example of one of these blogs that I have read and sometimes respond to. It is very interesting to get a discussion going with a native speaker of Spanish! I hope my students can benefit just as much as I have and continue to do!

I have been reading up on some of the blogs that other folks have been writing around the world, and I discovered one that is very interesting! A young boy, a 15 year old, writes on technology he finds interesting and how it could be applied to the classroom. He is so intellectual and his writing is very, very mature for his age! I find it supremely genuine that he is interested in bettering the public school system with technology. His blog, Newly Ancient, is clean-cut, easy to navigate, and he also includes a lot of personal information about his life, which is typical for a young man of his age. He also raised money for a cause he believed in and I find that very admirable.