Learn Tech with Ruth

I made it to the end of the first semester teaching French and German for the first time in forever. I must say it turned out well overall. We had our struggles, yes, but overall it worked out. After Montreal I was aware of my limitations in French but we all grew from there. Most success this year was probably with the French classes since I was able to reach out with them over Google Hangout with several excellent guest speakers on some very meaningful topics. We talked to Steve Kaufman about language learning, Manuela Da Silva about the dangers of plastics, Athalo Carao about sharing international postcards, Oak Ridge Arboritum about saving the Monarchs, Josh Feinsilber about his Gimkit game and the future. Most recently Ranger Lauren came from Fort Loudoun to tell us about the French and Indian War and why it matters to our community. The German class participated in Global Collaboration week by presenting a PowerPoint on the foods we eat. I also got second period French started on...

Last week was homecoming week. Need I say anything else? It was just about as tough as the previous week returning from Fall Break. As one of my students put it, "I guess they are wanting us to have fun." Really? Is that what it's about now, having fun? Could very well be come to think of it. I still have not been observed so the constant stress pervails. My observer said to me that it will be possibly next week or the week after that. So we have been practicing our TEAM lesson plans every day and I'm sure they now have a clue of what I expect them to do on the day we get observed. I will do a few Plickers runs and the new Gimkit KidCollab to get them used to those assessments and I will possibly build them into my plans for the anticipated observation. If only I knew when, but what do you do? The observers don't seem to care that they stress us out with these uncertainties. Last year this went on for about four weeks and I remember about flipping out over the str...

First Day back after Fall Break was tough. Kids were totally too talkative in my classes. I was informed that I will be having my unannounced observation in a week or two so I must bring the talking under control before then and get them used to the TEAM plans on a daily basis. On the bright side, we did get through all of the components of TEAM today, which was the first attempt this year. The French classes did have to take their family trees home to finish them there, but that part of the lesson went very well. German classes, are not used to extended quiet time for independent work, so that is going to be my focus for the next few days. I put another TEAM plan on the board for tomorrow. We will keep working on family and touch on housing. In the German classes we will work on giving directions to a variety of places here and in Heidelberg. I guess the first day back is tough for anyone so I should not be worried and just keep doing what I am doing. Three weeks from now, this observ...

Global Collaboration Week is upon us, with a lot of cool sessions to attend. We are hosting French Connect and are hoping for a great turnout. My French and German classes are coming along great now and are really learning a lot of speaking skills. I am very proud of our progress. On Friday we did the first chapter of Le Petit Prince and read Der Struwwelpeter, both just awesome material for beginning readers. I am very much looking forward to attending sessions with my students this week, especially the ones hosted by my Brazilian friend Athalo Carrao. He's pretty much taken over Thursday with sessions all day long. Global Sing Along? Who would miss that? Here's the registration information: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-collaboration-week-2018-registration-49532136955

Last week I went to LangFest in Montreal. This was certainly an exciting experience for me as a language teacher. It was good to share one's doubts and limitations in the journey of language acquisition. I met some famous language experts there who really changed my outlook on language learning. We need to stop trying to be so perfect. With my considerable knowledge of Spanish I never really had to face that. But now that I am doing French I see my limitations daily and realize how far a journey I am still having to go before feeling comfortable. There are questions that come up I cannot answer in the spur of the moment. What is a language teacher to do? Send them to Google Translate? The best strategy is to learn, learn, learn on my part by watching incessant Netflix movies. This surely worked for me for learning Spanish in the past. Well, one month into my French and German classes I do have a very happy feeling about this school year. Three of the four classes are a pure joy to ...

The 2018/2019 school year has finally arrived. For the first time in many years I actually had not one school nightmare before the first day back. I am thinking this means that my mind is at ease about it. I usually dream I can't find my classroom in a maze of a school I do not recognize, I'm being observed and it all goes wrong, or I do not even know the students in my classes. It was pretty hard for me to re-do my classroom to French and German from Spanish. I ended up with very large classes and all are very nice for now and super excited to be learning French or German. I was amazed to get questions over the weekend from students about their Duolingo and Classcraft quests. What a difference when I do not have to answer to questions from Spanish students who want to know why they have to learn Spanish, believing everyone ought to just speak English. I saw this morning on CBS that 78% of Americans speak only one language. Wow, that's sad. They really do not know what the...

It just dawned on me that the first day with my new French and German students will be happening one month from today, well, actually yesterday. This is the time of the summer when teachers can finally relax a little, take time for themselves without the daily stresses. Yesterday, I went to Staples to have four posters laminated there and to my surprise they already had their back to school specials out. I could not believe it. So after my laminating was underway I got my 30 composition books and asked them to cut them horizontally into three equal portions, creating 90 awesome vocabulary books for my students next year. Way too early to be thinking about stuff like that, right? I also found a 36 pack of sharpened pencils, 7 sets of markers and rulers, in addition to several packs of index cards. Who does that at the beginning of July? Well, apparently the school obsessed teachers I encountered in there. I may possibly be allowed to go in to set up my classroom next week according to o...