This week starts with an avalanche of websites to look at , documents to read . I am very impressed by the quantity and the quality of the information we are given. I have already participated in" improve your teaching "courses in England or in France but I have never received so many well-thought advice ,efficient ideas ,and varied information as we are offered in this course .
It is also the first time for me to follow an E.course , I mean being taught through the internet . I guess it is one of the reason why we are given access to so many documents ,which is good and overwhelming at the same time !Yet, I miss the one to one real contact with teachers or our supervisor ( Even if Sean is always present and active through mails). I sometimes would like to have the opportunity to exchange , to discuss "live"and not thanks to the mails .
Anyway ,I am very interested in having the opportunity to follow this course and I learn something new everyday . A new site , a new teaching approach reading the blogs of my colleagues . We have so many different conditions of teaching !
I really enjoy reading your blogs and I talk about what I discovered with my colleagues in my school . I am sharing what I learned with them . It opens us to new ideas , new teaching approaches.
Let 's go back to my aims for the week now: I looked at a few websites to search infos about Ellis Island.
As I explained in nicenet , I am going to work with a class of 12th graders who are preparing their "baccalaureat" : the end of high school diploma in France .
We are working on "mythical places" in the USA .
I went on different websites : American memory (too long to find complete infos , not clear enough for me ) then I went on library and archival exhibitions on the net which led me to ellis island .org and then ellis island timeline which I found very useful , well organised and clear
and finally wikipedia : ellis island (wikipedia is one of my favourite site !)
Some students will have to read these two pages and sum up the content to present it to the rest of the class.
A second group will watch a video on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hlHGDw14JZ8
and will have to share what they heard with the first group and then we will start a debate on immigration in the US nowadays .
I may ask them to open a blog each to put complementary infos they will find on the net so they will be able to share their knowledge on the subject . It would be a sort of copycat of what we are doing with our blogs.
I may also ask them to present their mythical place in the US: a place they have heard of or admire.
They will use videos , power point , photos etc....and will make an oral presentation to the class.
As you must have understood , my students need to have learn a lot of facts about the American culture an history for their exam so instead of using the book only we will use new tools (I guess new for me but certainly not for them !)
Hi Christine.
ReplyDeleteComment allez-vous?
It's a real revolution in the system of education that modern kids can use different websites to study, to do the homework and to prepare for their exams. I have learned that French kids have to take the Matriculation exam in American history and culture, don't they? Wow! That sounds interesting. I suppose they have to memorize the impotrant dates of the events, don't they? Do they have to take writen or oral exams or both?
Anyway it's much easier to look for all the necessary information online rather than go to the library and dig in hundreds of books as we used to do. Do they write any projects? Is it a part of the matriculation exam? If yes, it is a good idea to blog and publish pictures, videos and maps, e.g. while writing about the history of Thanksgiving Day.
Ca va bien; merci Julia ! vous parlez francais ?
ReplyDeleteI guess matriculation is the equivalent to baccalaureat !
Our students have to take 4 different type of exams in English ; a listening comprehension exam (listening to interviews, speeches in English and report in French what they have understood), then a speaking test (they have to present orally one of the various themes they study on American history and culture and they have to discuss on the topic with the teacher), then a reading comprehension test (a text with a series of comprehension questions) and finally they have to write an essay (200 words)
It is a tough task to prepare them with only 2 hours a week !
I agree with you , one can find a wealth of information on the internet but It takes a long time to read , choose , select, and it is very interesting and enriching but sometimes I like to find a little comfort in using what has been selected for students in school books !
Thank you for your comment Julia .