Apr
15
Written by:
Dan Maas
4/15/2009
Walking into a Spanish III class at Heritage High School, I am immediately thrust into a self-directed learning environment. The students are arranged around the classroom in five areas. Some of the desks have EeePCs and some just have some handouts. Students then spend 10-15 minutes at each station completing the learning activities readied for them. One area is dedicated to “escuchar” or listening activities. The EeePCs are logged online and pointed to a web site that has Spanish language audio clips to listen to. The students listen to the audio streams and answer comprehension questions. Another space has EeePCs logged into a university web site that has conjugation drills ready to go. In other spaces, students read out of the text and write in their journals. The classroom buzzes with quiet conversation as students complete activities in small groups and manage their learning. You can overhear students sharing that this is not the only classroom that uses technology... “yeah, our physics class uses Skype every day to call a high school so they can take our class with us too.”
Technologies abound here... EeePCs and textbooks... journals and blogs. All used to support students learning Spanish. Great job Mary Kay Cummings!
Walking into a Spanish III class at Heritage High School, I am immediately thrust into a self-directed learning environment. The students are arranged around the classroom in five areas. Some of the desks have EeePCs and some just have some handouts. Students then spend 10-15 minutes at each station completing the learning activities readied for them. One area is dedicated to “escuchar” or listening activities. The EeePCs are logged online and pointed to a web site that has Spanish language audio clips to listen to. The students listen to the audio streams and answer comprehension questions. Another space has EeePCs logged into a university web site that has conjugation drills ready to go. In other spaces, students read out of the text and write in their journals. The classroom buzzes with quiet conversation as students complete activities in small groups and manage their learning. You can overhear students sharing that this is not the only classroom that uses technology... “yeah, our physics class uses Skype every day to call a high school so they can take our class with us too.”
Technologies abound here... EeePCs and textbooks... journals and blogs. All used to support students learning Spanish. Great job Mary Kay Cummings!