Learn Tech with Ruth

Looks like we have to return to school tomorrow. It will be hard to do a two-day return this week. So in French classes I will cover some irregular -ir verbs and the difference between partir and sortir. For some reason that seems to be tough to explain. I did find a good video that has plenty of good examples. In German classes we will read about special occasions in Germany and answer comprehension questions/ discuss. Then there is just Friday left this week and we will do the Metaverse project, adding the poll feature. I am glad that they added the pre-coded features back on there because last week somehow they had disappeared and we had to follow their tutorial to do it from scratch. My students did do very well on that and every group was able to add their photo wall. I posted a Metaverse experience on their Google Classroom with a poll, asking about favorite snow day activities. So the snow event is over. Trying to get my mind back on school

Today was rough. It began with our weekly YouTube video as the Dualing Language Teachers . My co-teacher was a little bit full of doom and gloom so that video was on the serious side. French was good as usual. We acted out a Les trois petits cochons. I love my students' pronunciation of French. Their podcasts for the NPR contest is coming along well, so is the video entry for the Roane State Academic Festival. One of my students decorated my door for the SAAD competition. It's too cute the Little Prince theme. Well, then it was after lunch. For some reason my classes are worse after lunch. Why? I do not know. One of my lovely students thought he could just go to the restroom without permission and then actually left before the bell. Really? I am not sure yet what to do. I haven't witten up a single student in over three years, actually longer than that, maybe five or six. Then in my last class, they were supposed to read Das Rotkäppchen and honestly I couldn't understa

I am so glad we are on a three-day weekend. Last week was super hectic. The Dualing Language Teachers put out another video last Thursday. It took us four or five attempts to do this but we finally got it. I forwarded it to our principal just to make sure she would know what this is about in case someone asked her about it. Fortunately she liked it. I do believe we have something that the students find interesting and motivating. I found an old video I had made in 2015 where I recorded myself reading the story of the Magic Volcano Dogs. I am wondering if it would be a good idea to record some stories for our students. This could be productive as long as they can understand us. Are we speaking comprehensibly? That would be the key. Last night we had a great dinner PLC at Donna's, a local restaurant here in Madisonville. We had a new guy show up there, a retired EMT. His points of view on education were so telling. I love to get input from community members. So what are we doing nex

We made it through the first week of school in 2019. My students did great learning the clothing vocabulary. Today's Gimkit game was quite astounding. We have several billionaires and millionaires in my third period French class. Second perioud class made some bird feeders out of milk jugs to remind us to recycle plastics. They look somewhat ugly, but the birds won't care I'm sure. I can't wait to have them hang them on Monday. German classes are doing well also. They have calmed down since some of the ones who failed left us. It is very difficult for me to teach the classes without a textbook this year. I am guessing these are pilot classes. But it seems the administration is taking well to my new classes and is even including French and German in the new texbook adoptions. My co-teacher and I a very excited that we get to choose new books for next year. We even decided to let the students have some input on the choice we make. This will be a cold and rainy weekend. It

Today was the second day with my students. There are still several schedule changes to be ironed out. Unfortunately I had five students fail my class and they have no choice but to take the class again or switch to Spanish next year. Three of those students are still in my class because they have not received or requested a new schedule, which is uncomfortable. So I am guessing I will end up with a total of right under 100 students in my four classes, which is good. My second period French class which had talked to Manuela Da Silva on reducing the use of plastics, will create some bird feeders out of milk jugs. Our art teacher gave me that idea. We were going to make a plastic sculpture, but we were scared it would blow away in a wind storm. These bird feeders should be fairly sturdy and hopefully will look cute in the court yard. We are learning clothing vocabulary in our chapter work in both French and German classes. It seems like the students are catching on quickly, which makes me

Today is the first day back from Winter Break. People ask me how mine was and I give the standard reply, "not that good." This then leads to a brief explanation of the kidney stone procedure I went through. It will soon be all but forgotten I hope. Seating charts are ready, the assignment on the board, syllabi printed out, Quizlet sets and other stuff posted on the Google Classroom. I'm ready, students. I know you want to come back, too. And why not? I know you are bored to death at the house by now. Some of you are on that Google Classroom looking around to see what's new. One actually checked out and commented on our new YouTube channel. We actually went live this morning. Too funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVmbSxhwDTY&t=2s

So here we are on a beautiful Sunday morning in East Tennessee. Just gorgeous outside! I had my haircut yesterday in preparation for the return to school from Winter Break. Where did it go? The Christmas tree is still up but I will take it down in a few minutes. This is the day I have to drive to North Carolina to take my grand-son back home. It ought to be a very picturesque drive through the mountains. Good thing it's just an in-service day and the students are returning on Tuesday. I have 104 students this semester in four classes. So that is a very nice class size average for me. I have basically the same students as last semester, with a few who left and one new transfer student. They are a little bit shuffled around, but for the most part it will be a continuation of last semester, only that now they are called French II and German II. Due to the changes I had to form new groups. We will see if they can handle this. But I do believe most students return from long breaks with

It's a beautiful Saturday morning. Saw a bluejay on my oak tree in front of the house. Such a pretty sight. So Monday we are going back to school and this is my last chance to get it together after the kidney stone surgery. I've been really good about drinking water. Yesterday I managed to walk a mile with the dog. So today I will get a haircut, go get a few items from the store and then hopefully head out to the lake to walk there. I have to get my strength back. Oh, and the Christmas tree has to come down today. I have to say, I am feeling very peaceful this morning, full of expectancy that things will now get better, that 2019 will be a good year for my family. My co-foreign language teacher and I are launching a YouTube channel and are planning to present at LangFest in Montreal in August. The YouTube Channel will require a little work, but I'm sure we can pull it off as long as we do not get discouraged and get some followers on there. Planning for Montreal will be in

Things are looking up. I am currently frying up some great carne picada. Love that stuff. I just fry some onions, garlic and bell peppers. Remove them from the pan, add the carne picada with some salt and pepper, fry a few minutes and add the vegatbles back in to seal in some of that great flavor. I then just get some heated tortillas and add a little taco sause to the top of the meat. I just can't imagine anything more delicious to eat this afternoon. I suppose I am getting my appetite back after the kidney surgery thing. This morning we had a surpise sunny day after the local weather channel predicted a rainy day. So I took that as a sign that it was time for me to get out there and take a walk with my dog today rather than on Sunday as planned. End result is that I walked a mile today. I'm proud that I was able to do that only one week after the surgery. I guess one week of inactivity didn't destroy my fitness completely. Perhaps on Sunday I can try for a slow two miles.

Two weeks of Winter Break is up today. What a break it was. Kidney stone blasting and recovery, not much else going on. Yesterday at my follow up appointment I had the stent removed. So this morning I certainly feel much better. It was really hard to function with that tube inside of me. Very uncomfortable and I am not being a cry baby here. Speaking of being a cry baby, word must have gotten to this doctor that I was one, as he suggested I had the choice between getting it removed with sedation in an outpatient surgery or just in the office. I chose the office method since I didn't feel like missing a day of school. It really wasn't bad. So now I must get a grip on things and get myself physically prepared for school next week. The mental part is no problem. Lesson plans were made out before we even left school and submitted as well. We are covering clothing and shopping for clothes in both French and German classes. That should be easy to handle and fun at that. So the physic

As I look at tweets from the people I follow on Twitter, I'm surprised how many are reporting back to work already with students. They are posting their first day back activities having students share their Christmas activities. I stopped doing that a long time ago. So many of my students are just glad to be back at school and out of the house. At least at school they get some food. It may not be perfect, but it's edible I understand. Well, except for that spicy chicken which many abhor. I'm sitting here on my couch, not even worried about school yet. Today is my follow up appointment with that kidney doctor. Let's just hope that the results will be good and he will decide to remove that horrible stent. Teaching with that in my body, can't imagine it... But if that is what he decides than I will not insist on anything else. I am determined to get better and get my health back. I will be blogging a lot over the next few weeks as I have joined AJ Juliani's 30 Days

Last Friday I had a kidney stone blasted with a procedure called lithotripsy. The recovery from that has been far from easy. The entry wound for those shock waves actually looked like some kind of gun shot wound. Surprisingly, that part didn't even hurt. The stent they inserted however, is another matter. Truly uncomfortable to live with. I do hope it will be removed tomorrow at the follow-up appointment, but we will see. Going to work with that thing still in place would just be awful. So glad I got all of my back to school work done immediately after we got out for Winter Break. So I'm at home today, sipping tea and taking it easy. Yesterday's short trip to Ingles didn't go too well. Today I ventured out to Walmart by myself and it was fine, no dizzy spells. Scared for a moment that I may not be able to find my car, but it was on row 8 as I clearly recalled. So, yes, I am recovering, not in two days as the Internet claims, but I am getting there. Oh yes, my New Year&#

2018 is gone, Thank God. The last couple of weeks in December were the absolute worst. I had to undego kidney stone surgery last Friday. Still haven't quite recovered from that. They claim you recover in two days, not true. I tried to go to Ingles for a few items yesterday and couldn't really function too well. Checking out and talkng to the cashier was too much, I just kind of smiled. Well, on the bright side, my co-teacher and I started a YouTube channel. It's called The Dualing Language Teachers . This title is just too funny. My co-teacher came up with it. So we are planning to do weekly videos on there. Let's hope it will be a success. Something to look forward to in the new year. I am so glad that my brain worked overtime the day we got of school and the one after that, as I got so much stuff done for the new semester, unbelievable, really. It's like God helped me because He knew I was not going to be able to do any school work after the surgery. So here is 20