Comments on: Calling all K-12 language teachers (a.k.a. one of the hardest teaching jobs out there): Please share your stories! http://languagelabunleashed.org/2008/03/26/calling-all-k-12-language-teachers-aka-one-of-the-hardest-teaching-jobs-out-there-please-share-your-stories/ Language learning and technology for teachers and technologists, K-16 Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:45:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Barbara http://languagelabunleashed.org/2008/03/26/calling-all-k-12-language-teachers-aka-one-of-the-hardest-teaching-jobs-out-there-please-share-your-stories/#comment-9350 Barbara Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:48:34 +0000 http://www.languagelabunleashed.org/2008/03/26/calling-all-k-12-language-teachers-aka-one-of-the-hardest-teaching-jobs-out-there-please-share-your-stories/#comment-9350 This is a great idea Allison and I thank you for visiting the site, saying such kind things, and positing a need we might be able to address. We have a wiki off of this site (type /wiki after our url). While I would love it to be open to all, the spambots keep making that impossible. So what I will do is create a username and password for you and let you get started. As others come along and want to add stuff we can do the same for you. <br> And if indeed there is a place elsewhere on the web that has this kind of content, we can easily link to it without feeling the need to complete or usurp it. After all...that is the beauty of the "many pieces loosely joined" concept of information creation and sharing (which also is an underlying philosophy of this site) Sound like an interesting plan? This is a great idea Allison and I thank you for visiting the site, saying such kind things, and positing a need we might be able to address. We have a wiki off of this site (type /wiki after our url). While I would love it to be open to all, the spambots keep making that impossible. So what I will do is create a username and password for you and let you get started. As others come along and want to add stuff we can do the same for you.

And if indeed there is a place elsewhere on the web that has this kind of content, we can easily link to it without feeling the need to complete or usurp it. After all…that is the beauty of the “many pieces loosely joined” concept of information creation and sharing (which also is an underlying philosophy of this site)

Sound like an interesting plan?

]]> By: Allison Weiss http://languagelabunleashed.org/2008/03/26/calling-all-k-12-language-teachers-aka-one-of-the-hardest-teaching-jobs-out-there-please-share-your-stories/#comment-9348 Allison Weiss Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:21:13 +0000 http://www.languagelabunleashed.org/2008/03/26/calling-all-k-12-language-teachers-aka-one-of-the-hardest-teaching-jobs-out-there-please-share-your-stories/#comment-9348 This is my first year and the job and I'm that lucky FTE that does nothing but assist teachers to use technology in their language classrooms. It is both exhilarating and exhausting, especially since I find that teachers really do not have the bandwidth to try very many new things in the course of a school year, given all the usual constraints of time, scheduling, and energy. So what I have found is most helpful for the teachers is essentially creating model lesson plans and taking them through the process as if they were my own students. I only have one meeting with them per months, basically six chances per year, to make an impression. I haven't read as much of your site as I would like to, but if you could catalog some of those "home-run" lesson plans (widely-applicable and easily adapted to different languages and ages), that would be a gift from the heavens. Here's one that I created this year that seems to be working well: <a>Spanish Class Idol</a> Thanks again for your site. It's the best thing out there for language labs that I've found. This is my first year and the job and I’m that lucky FTE that does nothing but assist teachers to use technology in their language classrooms. It is both exhilarating and exhausting, especially since I find that teachers really do not have the bandwidth to try very many new things in the course of a school year, given all the usual constraints of time, scheduling, and energy.

So what I have found is most helpful for the teachers is essentially creating model lesson plans and taking them through the process as if they were my own students. I only have one meeting with them per months, basically six chances per year, to make an impression.

I haven’t read as much of your site as I would like to, but if you could catalog some of those “home-run” lesson plans (widely-applicable and easily adapted to different languages and ages), that would be a gift from the heavens.

Here’s one that I created this year that seems to be working well: Spanish Class Idol

Thanks again for your site. It’s the best thing out there for language labs that I’ve found.

]]> By: Barbara http://languagelabunleashed.org/2008/03/26/calling-all-k-12-language-teachers-aka-one-of-the-hardest-teaching-jobs-out-there-please-share-your-stories/#comment-9328 Barbara Mon, 31 Mar 2008 03:21:27 +0000 http://www.languagelabunleashed.org/2008/03/26/calling-all-k-12-language-teachers-aka-one-of-the-hardest-teaching-jobs-out-there-please-share-your-stories/#comment-9328 Heather: Thank you for writing and for your lovely compliments. Best practices is something many people are interested in knowing about, but they can also vary based upon the age of the students, the language, the task, the intended outcome. Still, it would be great to get people together to talk about it. Any suggestions on how you would narrow the topic down a bit in order to get the conversation started? --B Heather:

Thank you for writing and for your lovely compliments.

Best practices is something many people are interested in knowing about, but they can also vary based upon the age of the students, the language, the task, the intended outcome.

Still, it would be great to get people together to talk about it. Any suggestions on how you would narrow the topic down a bit in order to get the conversation started?

–B

]]> By: Heather Souter http://languagelabunleashed.org/2008/03/26/calling-all-k-12-language-teachers-aka-one-of-the-hardest-teaching-jobs-out-there-please-share-your-stories/#comment-9311 Heather Souter Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:36:59 +0000 http://www.languagelabunleashed.org/2008/03/26/calling-all-k-12-language-teachers-aka-one-of-the-hardest-teaching-jobs-out-there-please-share-your-stories/#comment-9311 Taanshi! Hello! I am a former interpreter, translator and language instructor who lived and worked in Japan for 13 years. I presently am involved in endangered language documentation and the creation of web-based pedagogical materials. I am a Michif (Métis) from Manitoba and am working on my own heritage language, Michif. You have a great blog and I have enjoyed reading this on this site. Although I am not a school teacher, I am very interested in the technology that teachers are using and developing for language learning. I am hoping to learn about best practices in language teaching/learning involving technoloby and also about practical approaches on limited budgets. (The later being extremely important as there is very little money easily accessible to community-based language revitalization initiatives. Believe me I have done the research and tried! However, if anyone happens to have any ideas, I would be happy to hear them.) Well, that is all for now! Eekushi. Taanshi! Hello!

I am a former interpreter, translator and language instructor who lived and worked in Japan for 13 years. I presently am involved in endangered language documentation and the creation of web-based pedagogical materials. I am a Michif (Métis) from Manitoba and am working on my own heritage language, Michif.

You have a great blog and I have enjoyed reading this on this site. Although I am not a school teacher, I am very interested in the technology that teachers are using and developing for language learning. I am hoping to learn about best practices in language teaching/learning involving technoloby and also about practical approaches on limited budgets. (The later being extremely important as there is very little money easily accessible to community-based language revitalization initiatives. Believe me I have done the research and tried! However, if anyone happens to have any ideas, I would be happy to hear them.)

Well, that is all for now! Eekushi.

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