Another try

The URL of one of my Google sites;

http://sites.google.com/site/testingsite924/

This is just a Test

I like to know how to make a link in the Blog.

Testing site924

The Google Sites I Created

The Google Sites I created is titled as "smuhsdmills" and the URL is

http://sites.google.com/site/smuhsdmills/

I made this site for my Chinese 2 classes. A Google slide presentation of the lesson we are currently learning is included that shows the pictures, Chinese words of some hobbies, the grammar notes, sentence structures and the whole text. A photo gallery of the Chinese New Year posters and a work document are tagged along so that I can practice how to incorporate various features into my site.

I'll continue to learn

Tomorrow is going to be the last session of this course. I am determined to continue to learn/improve the technologies applicable in my teaching.

I had not used any of the applications that I have been taught so far before taking this class. No doubt I leaned a lot even though I feel a bit overwhelmed sometimes. I start to use Blog with my Chinese class and feel that I have stepped up to another level of my teaching skills. Not to mention, how rewarding I feel! Thanks Kathleen for teaching us this course. I am glad I have chances to refresh the skills I learned in the upcoming workshops at the county office of education.

A Google presentation made for Chinese 2 class

So, what have I accomplished so far for class Blogs

Over the past two weeks, I have been working with my Chinese 4 class on creating blogs. I asked the students to post their first essay writing and I did revision in the comment. The student can get full credit of the assignment only if they comment back to me showing the correction. Out of 32 students, there are still a couple of students struggling, but most of the students have completed this assignment and gain the credit.

It takes a lot of time and effort to get the idea and instructions crossed to the students. Some of them already have their own Blogs showing a little bit resistance to establish the new Blog I requested them to do, such as using a certain code as their identity and make the Blog private...etc. Some of them, like me, a first-time Blog user put off the assignment to beyond the due day. The wonder is to make it a gradable project!

I have spent numerous hours to grade their digital essays, probably more time than grading hard copies. But, I found some students love to write more in this way. It is actually easier for me to point out the errors students made, and for them to make revision as well. I believe that we would achieve better learning effect because each student gets more personalized attention in this writing process.

As I originally thought, I want each of my students builds up the digital essay portfolio so that they (and I) can trace the progress of their writing skills. The beauty of such a Blog is that all the work are in one place and can be accessible from any Internet supported computer at any place and at any time!

Well, I am very happy that the project gets started. I anticipate to learn much more benefits of the application of this technology in my teaching as it goes on.

I created a slide show for L.8 Chinese 4 class

Chinese 4 L.8 pictures

Pandas

Here are some famous Chinese Americans.

This slide show shows some famous Chinese Americans!