Polyglot
Press
Staying
Connected to World Language Teaching Resources
December
18, 2012
As the calendar year
draws to an end, may you find time to hold those you love close to you and time
to marvel at our time on this earth.
Here’s hoping that this
Polyglot Press will offer you inspiring resources. This edition of the Polyglot
Press will be archived at www.polyglotpress.blogspot.com
DPI
· New Website Showcases “Home Base” System - A website that to highlight the Home
Base system was recently launched and is available athttp://www.ncpublicschools.org/homebase/. Home Base is a statewide, instructional improvement (IIS) and
student information system (SIS) for teachers, students, parents and
administrators. The Home Base website provides access to a number of resources
to help stakeholders learn more about the system and how it can be used to
improve instruction.
o a. Teachers
will be able use Home Base to access student data and teaching and learning
resources.
o b. Students
will be able to access their schoolwork, grades, and learning activities.
o c. Parents
will be able to view their child's attendance and progress.
o d. Administrators
can monitor data on students, teachers and schools.
·
Not only does Home Base put data and resources at the users'
fingertips, it does so with single-sign-on access to the integrated system made
up of the following components: Learner Profile and Student Information;
Standards & Curriculum; Instructional Design, Practice & Resources;
Assessment; Data Analysis and Reporting; and Professional Development &
Educator Evaluation, as illustrated in the image on the Home Base landing
page: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/homebase/.
Global Focus
· Longview Report - Teacher Preparation
for the Global Age: The Imperative for Change, highlights promising practices identified
during this meeting and subsequent discussions and suggests a framework for
internationalizing the education of all pre-service teachers and increasing
the number of world language teachers, especially in less commonly taught
languages. http://www.longviewfdn.org/122/teacher-preparation-for-the-global-age.html Advocacy –
o Study Abroad : “International Education Takes
You Places” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1ORnjNXjUo&hd=1
o Secretary of State – Hilary Clinton remarks on
the power of study abroadhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=tXQpm-nKxNA&feature=endscreen
o Study Abroad Makes A Difference: What is it like
to learn a language abroad?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Qk1NXO4fU&feature=relmfu
US Dept of Ed
· 12/11/12 - “The encouraging news is that U.S. fourth grade students
have made significant progress in reading and mathematics in the last
five years. In fact, our fourth graders now rank among the world’s leaders in
reading literacy, and U.S. student achievement in math is now only surpassed,
on average, in four countries. Unfortunately, these signs of real progress are
counterbalanced by the fact that learning gains in fourth grade are not being
sustained through eighth grade–where mathematics and science achievement failed
to measurably improve between 2007 and 2011. Just as encouraging, students in
highly-diverse states like Florida, Massachusetts, and North Carolina excelled
internationally in a number of subject areas, suggesting that demography is not
destiny in America’s schools. ven the vital role that science, technology,
engineering, and math play in stimulating innovation and economic growth, it is
particularly troubling that eighth-grade science achievement has barely budged
in the U.S. since 2007. Students in Singapore and Korea are far more likely
today to perform at advanced levels in science than U.S. students. In a
knowledge-based economy, education is the new key to individual success and
national prosperity. The results of the TIMSS and PIRLS assessments
show both that our students are on the path to progress–and that we still have
a long journey to go before all of America’s children get an excellent
education.” Arne Duncan, US
Secretary of Education, stated in his recent blog. http://www.ed.gov/blog/2012/12/how-do-u-s-students-compare-with-their-peers-around-the-world/ You can also follow him on FaceBook http://www.facebook.com/SecretaryArneDuncan
Donations
· Could you use a free 501 Spanish Verbs book?
Brand new and recently donated. Emaildonna.podgorny@ucps.k12.nc.us
· Are you looking for funding for special
classroom projects? Try posting your classroom need on Donors Choose. Then
advertise your project to your students, their parents, your colleagues. You
may get the funding you need. http://www.donorschoose.org/about
Tech Tools and Tips
· Free Web Page Builders – Googlespaces; hipero; weebly; Sauropol;
webnode; snapapges; webs; yola http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/05/8-ways-to-build-websites-not-blogs-for.html#.UMTpb-Sx92A
· 7 Good Resources for Learning a New Language – LearnALanguage; imendi; HelloWorld;
Verbs-online; LangMedia; StudyStream; BBCQuickFix http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/06/7-good-resources-for-learning-new.html#.UMTqr-Sx92A
· Text to Speech QR Codes – for mobiles or for
online creations Create
a Mobile Language Lesson With QR Voice http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/01/create-mobile-language-lesson-with-qr.html#.UMKv3eSx92C shared by Jimmie Quesinberry in Staff
Development.
· Verbling – connects second language learners across the
planet who want to practice language skills.https://www.verbling.com/
· Google Translate has new features: Recently, Google launched an update to Google Translate, their free online
translation tool http://edudemic.com/2012/11/google-translate-update/ . The update will offer three new
features. The new functionality will make the tool even more useful for
students learning languages new to them, taking classes in a foreign language,
or those doing research that might yield results in another language. Google
Translate is a beta service offered by Google which allows users to translate
webpages and selections of text into other languages. It is quite useful when
you’re doing research online and come across a site that you think is relevant
but is written in a language you don’t understand. The user interface is
simple to use, but it does limit the amount of text you can translate, so don’t
expect to use it for translating long articles.What’s New For Google
Translate? The update to Google Translate brings three main additions
to the tool: reverse translations, frequencies, and synonyms. Reverse Translations: One great way to check the
translation of a piece of text is to copy the translation that the tool
produces and plug it back into the translator to see how close the product is
to your original text. This is especially useful for students writing in a
language that is new to them – it can help them see subtle differences in words
that they are using, and check their writing in the target language to see if
they’re on track. The update allows users to see the most frequent reverse
translations of parts of phrases, and it’s easy to switch to one of the
suggested alternatives by simply clicking on an option from a drop down list
when you mouse over the text. Frequencies: Now,
possible translations will be rated by frequency, and will be marked with
‘common’, ‘uncommon’, or ‘rare’. Depending on what type of text you’re reading,
it can be quite helpful to show the other possible translations, and you can work
with the context to get the best translation for your text. For language
students, it can help them to not use a strange or rare translation of a word
that they might not otherwise know to be uncommon.Synonyms: Currently
only available for translating into English (but hopefully coming for other
languages soon!), the synonyms feature brings groups of synonymous translations
together, so it is easier to identify groups of related words.
· Pinterest - Shared by Michael O’Hagan, Tech Facilitator at MRHS Why do we need alternatives, well
here’s a story from the Greensboro News and Record that sheds light on why Pinterest is too open and can expose kids to
things our filters simply cannot block: http://www.news-record.com/news/schools/383256-91/page-teacher-resigns-after-posting. I have it on good authority that the social media site was indeed
Pinterest. Another story about Pinterest abuse can be found here: http://www.wbtv.com/story/19527358/people-finding-porn-on-pinterest.
o The first two sites behave a lot like Pinterest,
while the others are set up to share links, bookmarks, ideas,
and/ or notes. I hope you find one you can use either with each other or in
class : )
o 1. http://www.scoop.it/ (Here’s a math example: http://www.scoop.it/t/mathematics-learning-web-2-0 )
o 2. http://learni.st/ (Very similar to Pinterest, here’s a How to Use in the Classroom
example:http://learni.st/users/dawncasey/boards/3271-using-learnist-in-the-high-school-classroom ; More examples here: http://edudemic.com/2012/11/the-10-best-learnist-boards-for-teachers/ )
o 3. http://www.symbaloo.com/ (Best bookmarking site on the web! UCPS
example for Secondary teachers created by Scott Jacumin: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/ucpsmiddleschoolwebmix?searched=true )
o 4. http://www.diigo.com/index (you can create a group and share links/
bookmarks socially; here is the educator link: http://www.diigo.com/teacher_entry/educationupgrades )
o 5. http://hello.corkboard.me/ or http://wallwisher.com/ (similar functionality and both have free
versions; they act as virtual messageboards)
o Remember to steer clear of linking these pages
to personal Facebook or Twitter accounts if you plan on using them with your
classes or professionally with members of UCPS. Some, like Mightybell and Learn.ist, have private options and can be shared invite only.
If students are interacting with any of these sites remember to check the terms
of service and also err on the side of caution when it comes to posting/ using
these Web 2.0 tools for class. If there are restrictions, like age, permission
must be granted first before students can sign up and use it in class (just
like Rated R movies).
o For those that actively use Pinterest for
personal use here is a link to the top 25 education boards:
Student Study Abroad
· Foreign Language Study Abroad Service http://flsas.com/ Summerhttp://www.flsas.com/pdf/summer_programs.pdf
· Rotary International Youth Exchange – Short
Stay http://www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en_pdf/756en.pdf
Global Connections
· The Educational Seminars Program provides
short-term professional development opportunities to U.S. teachers and
administrators for 3 week reciprocal exchange programs (to Brazil and
Portugal) and one-way professional development programs (to India
and China).Educational Seminars provide airfare, training, travel
healthcare, and living costs. Program Application Deadlines: January
7, 2013 (India); April 1, 2013 (Brazil,
Portugal); TBD, 2013 (China) Contact us: edseminars@americancouncils.org
· The New Breakout Nations of 2012: 1 – The Philippines; 2 – Turkey; 3 –
Indonesia; 4 – Thailand; 5 – Poland; 6 – Sri Lanka; 7 – Nigeria http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/26/the_new_breakout_nations?page=0,0
Chinese Resources
· Speak Everywhere is a free, online tool for practicing
speaking and listening skills in Chinese. This was developed by the Confucius
Institute at Purdue University http://speak-everywhere.com/ An abstract explains its use at http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ejfranci/Fukada2012-Abstract.htm
· Try Memrise to practice the
meaning of Chinese characters. Memrise focuses on the images
related to Chinese characters in learning how to read the characters. Race the
clock, your classmates and earn points. http://www.memrise.com Shared by Alice Shrader.
· The famous book, Languages and Children:
Making the Match, by Carolann Dahlberg and Helena Curtain has been
translated into Mandarin Chinese.
· Professor Garfield ToonBook Reader Choose Chinese, French, German or Spanish
language books. Click on the speech bubble in each cartoon and hear the
language while reading along.http://www.professorgarfield.org/toon_book_reader/index.html
French Resources
· Professor Garfield ToonBook Reader Choose Chinese, French, German or Spanish
language books. Click on the speech bubble in each cartoon and hear the
language while reading along.http://www.professorgarfield.org/toon_book_reader/index.html
German Resources
· Professor Garfield ToonBook Reader Choose Chinese, French, German or Spanish
language books. Click on the speech bubble in each cartoon and hear the
language while reading along.http://www.professorgarfield.org/toon_book_reader/index.html
Spanish Resources
· Professor Garfield ToonBook Reader Choose Chinese, French, German or Spanish
language books. Click on the speech bubble in each cartoon and hear the
language while reading along.http://www.professorgarfield.org/toon_book_reader/index.html
· Cartoon storybooks with audio: El día
anaranjado -http://www.professorgarfield.org/toon_book_reader/toon_book_ottos_orange_day_sp.html
Quotes
· “What productivity was to the
Industrial Age, communication is to the Information Age,” said Dr. John Jones,
Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Programs. http://www.ucps.k12.nc.us/news/jump.php?news_id=371003
