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!

This is the first voicethread I played with.

This is the 1st Animoto I made using the Animoto "collectable".

This a better slide show - 2nd time.

For this week's homework, I am supposed to use one skill I have learned in Itec814 class on Feb. 9 with my students and report back to my instructor through this blog. I feel that Google blogger that I just learned will be a good tool that I can use with my Mills Chinese 4 class. I would like each student to create his/her own blog. Later on, they can turn in their homework, e.g. essays through the blog. One benefit I can think of is that the student will have their "essay folder" per se saved on one web page throughout the semester. As their teacher, I can trace their works and monitor their progress in essay writing on their blog. Of course, students themselves can also reflect on their own improvement by keeping their essay blog as well.

What I have done so far is getting myself acquainted with the blogger myself. (Oh, boy I wish I could take in and digest the new technology much more faster!) I created a separate google account designated just for my Chinese 4 class. I made the blog private and limiting the readers to only this class students. The first post was created . Meanwhile, I am preparing a handout to navigate students through the process of creating a blog. Next week, I am going to ask each student to create a google account, and then a private blog page. Each one of them needs to send me an email from his/her blog inviting me to join. Then, students should send me their email addresses that they used to create their google accounts. I will make an excel spread sheet to list out their names vs. email addresses (imagine that some of the email addresses will be too creative to recognize!) Now, I can send email to each student and invite them to join my blog. Is there anything I missed?

I am in this class learning how to create a blog. I can use this technology to post homework ,for example, to the students. Then it will be students' responsibility to check my blog for the assigned homework. They will not have excuses for not knowing/doing the homework.