No digo el español muy bien. Pero tengo a muchos estudiantes Latinos que no dicen el inglés. ¿Cómo puedo ayudarles a vencer su barrera de los idiomas? Creo que la Web 2.0 puede ayudar, y aquí está un vídeo por Sr. Graham Stanley que muestra como.
I don’t speak Spanish very well (or write it well, as you can see above!). But I have many Latino students who do not speak English. How am I to help them overcome their language barrier? I think Web 2.0 can help, and the video below, created by Mr. Graham Stanley got me thinking about it.
Ok, so that’s about the best I can do with Spanish (be kind, Miguel!), even after four years of it in school and three years teaching at a middle school with a Latino ESL population averaging roughly 40 percent of the school’s population. Most likely, you have all heard the phrase: “All teachers are reading and language teachers.” While I have seen this statement generate eye-rolls and head shakes, I take it to heart. The power of communication is undeniable, and if we are not relaying this concept to our students, then we are failing as educators.Many who are reading this post already know the power Web 2.0 applications when coupled with a teaching philosophy that encourages student-led thinking, creative effort, and collaboration. However, the purpose of this blog is to relay my coming to understand this concept so that my process of discovery may one day help those new to it grasp it as well. In doing so, I wanted to highlight an October 2007 video created by Mr. Graham Stanley, an English teacher in Barcelona, Spain.Download Video: Posted by bcgstanley at TeacherTube.com.Watching this video really got my morning off to a great start, and it started me thinking about how useful Web 2.0 technology – specifically blogs and podcasts – could be to our many ESL students striving to gain a solid working knowledge of English. Mr. Stanley’s Slideshare presentation (below) convinced me of this fact:[slideshare id=54399&doc=t-e-s-o-l-2007-student-publishing-final-7983&w=425]While no means a finite solution to ensuring their success, I do believe that Web 2.0 technologies can really help these students improve their communication skills. As always, I welcome feedback and input from those of you who have used these tools successfully to instruct and support limited English speakers in your classrooms.More on ESL and Web 2.0 after I wrangle in opinions and feedback … from the wise ones: Miguel, Chris, Jose, and Carla…
Drupal, blogs, wikis, podcasting to enhance the learner experience. But are we doing enough?
David Warlick’s July 26th article detailing his findings regarding first year teachers and their familiarity with Web 2.0 technology painted a picture that seemed less optimistic than it was in all actuality. After stating that only two in attendance were bloggers, RSS was a mystery, and virtually no one knew what a wiki was, he followed up by saying that:
“It’s not a bad thing that these beginning teachers hadn’t heard of Web 2.0. They’re certainly doing it. Most of them IM, and have MySpace or Facebook (etc.) sites. They communicate online with individuals and groups, and they’ve used these conversations to teach and learn, though they probably haven’t thought of it that way.”
This leaves me with a feeling of hope. But hey, I’m a pretty optimistic guy! I guess I just believe that one by one, as the collaborative online learning and networking mechanism powers up in more and more classrooms, we’ll keep heading in the right direction – towards all things Web 2.0 settling into the realm of tried and true versus novel and experimental. Like many of the educators I have come to call friends and colleagues over the past couple of months, I will be starting and maintaining a consistent grass roots effort on my school campus. If I can encourage five teachers at Boone Middle School in Haines City, Florida to reach out to the world via even one community authored blog and a shared wiki (heck, throw in a podcast .. who knows!?), then that’ll be my little success story for the year. For if they in turn do the same, I think we might find ourselves making progress after all.
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