Another successful Teacher Tech Training!

We had Teacher Tech Training on Friday, October 18th 12:30-2:30 at Sunrise Tech Center. Those in attendance were excited to create Class Websites in Google Sites. Their plan is to use them in their classes so they and their students can have easy access to online technology. The class websites can be used with the teacher presentation station, phones or tablets. Please send comments to let us know what happened. Just click the comment button after you sign in. Add your name.

September 20th in Teacher Tech Training, Heidi Ainscow, Ellen Huls, Deanna Rafanelli, Shireen Miles, and Breshna Ghafari wanted to create or update a class website. It was a lot of fun and everyone created a class site! Ask them about it when you next see them.

We look forward to our next Teacher Tech Training at Sunrise Tech Center on October 18 at 12:30-2:30. This is paid Professional Development. Come and join us and maybe you will want to create a class website, too!
--Linda Laymon, Jody Barker, and Marisol Richmond

Hello Everyone,

Here is the approved Teacher Tech Training schedule for Fall and Spring. Be aware that changes to the schedule could come up for various reasons. We will keep you informed.

Friday September 20, 12:30 to 2:30 pm — Teacher Tech Training at Creekside:  ASAP (how to drop, update Tops Pro, print the weekly report). Teachers wanted to learn how to create a class website. 

Friday October 18, 12:30 to 2:30 pm — Teacher Tech Training at Sunrise:   ASAP (questions), Gmail, Google Docs and Google Drive more in depth, and any other needs

Thursday November 7, 12:00 to 2:00 — Teacher Tech Training at Sunrise or Creekside (piggy-back onto the ESL Home Group Meeting wherever it is.):  The Burlington English rep, Ted Meyers, 

will be here to help us explore the In-Class lessons, CASAS Preparation, English in America, and Career Exploration & Soft Skills. We may also look at the BE web-based courses and other topics.

Monday, January 6, 8:30 to 2:30 — Back to school and ESL Home Group meeting at Sunrise Tech Center; NO Teacher Tech

Friday, January 24, 12:30 to 2:30 — Teacher Tech Training at Creekside:  Formative assessments using Google Forms, Quizlet, and Kahoot! plus review of any questions and help 

Thursday, March 19, 12:00 to 2:00 — Teacher Tech Training at Sunrise or Creekside (piggy-back onto the ESL Home Group Meeting wherever it is.):  New resources for technology and teaching with rigor after TDLS Conference. Plus review of questions.

Thursday, May 21, 12:00 to 2:00 — Teacher Tech Training at Sunrise or Creekside (piggy-back onto the ESL Home Group Meeting wherever it is.): ASAP class updates and completion; review teacher questions with any other programs

Google Form Ideas

In May, we learned how to create a Google Form in Teacher Tech Friday Training. If you go to the Teacher Website you will find a form we all made as an "End of the Year Survey" for our students, to help us learn what they enjoyed learning and doing in their class. There is also a link on the Teacher Website post under the How To's May training to Google's help to create a new form.

I used the form idea with my students in Beginning High to make a report about what food they ate over one week. First they tracked their foods in a report I printed off from MyPlate.gov.

Here's the link to the report MyPlate Menu Plan Report  I asked the students to put it on their refrigerator to help them remember to fill in the foods they ate.

After a week, the students brought in their reports. I created this Google form for them to input the information, as in a survey. I gave them the link to the form in an email, using ASAP email. I asked them to get out their phones and go to the email I sent them. The students clicked on the link and started inputting the food they ate each day. Then they pressed submit when finished. It took them about 20 minutes. Then we looked at the results, which was quite fun! The students really enjoyed seeing all their answers on the big screen in bright colors.

The last question asked what they would change to eat more healthy. Here's their answers:

I will try eat more healthy food.

Eating less

l will not eat too much sweets, l will decrease smoking as l can and l will eat too much vegetables.

Maybe I need to prepare my food with less oil and salt.

I will make my list of meals every month

I want to drink more water

I eat more fruits.

I don’t need change my eating habits.

I don't need change

I will ate mor healthy

We need eat more vegetables

Ask me if you need some help with Google Forms. --Linda Laymon

Quizlet is a Fun Vocabulary Learning Tool!

In April we learned how to create flashcards in Quizlet. This is a good tool for students to practice vocabulary. Here is a set I made to teach my Beginning High students pharmacy vocabulary.
Pharmacy Vocabulary in Quizlet
My students practiced the words on computers during classtime. They were also able to practice the words on their phones. I added pictures for most of the words and I clicked on the pronunciation, so the students could hear the words, too. I have also used this tool with the spelling/academic vocabulary words I give the students, when we are studying a new unit.
Go to the website under the How to's Tab to find a link to easy instructions.

Ask me if you need some more help with Quizlet. --Linda Laymon

Hello all, I want to run this past you for your consideration.

I've found it's a good mixer that even reluctant speakers enjoy, since it's all written out for them to say, they don't have to search for words.  They interview each other (there are two levels, one for beginners and one for a bit more advanced). Pictures for popular pass times are provided. They can exchange simple words in their languages, which they often get  kick out of.

After they finish the interview, they can give a report to the class about whom they spoke to and what they learned of another language.  It's fun and they get into it enthusiastically.  If the teacher speaks a language a particular unpaired student doesn't know, no one is left out.

Hope you find it useful. Page examples are from A Conversation Book 1:  English in Everyday Life, 3rd Edition, by Tina Kasloff Turner.

John
 

Teacher Tech Training held Friday, March 15

Teacher Tech Training was held last Friday at Sunrise Tech Center, room 14, after the Home Group meeting. We did a really fun activity that could be used in your classroom. We used Google Slides to make an interactive slideshow for each person to create their own simple slide about their favorite things to do. (You could use any topic in your classroom:  foods and nutrition, countries, cultural traditions, the sky is the limit!)

Here's the link to what we did in the training. Click on the link and then you can run the slideshow by clicking "Present" at the top right next to "Share"   Click on:  Teachers Favorite Things to Do

Here's the link to:  How to Make an Interactive Slideshow so you can try this with your students. Let us know how it worked out. If you need help, let me know (linda.laymon@sanjuan.edu).

We also learned about:  Quizlet.com and how to make fun flashcards for our students to further their vocabulary practice. They can use Quizlet on their phones too with the free Quizlet app.

See Jody Barker's post below for a slideshow about "How to make a slideshow." This could be used with your students to help them make a simple slideshow about their country. You can click on her student examples, too.

Preparing for Heritage Day

Before Heritage Day, I had my students create simple Google slideshows and present them to class. The making of them took 2 class periods and presenting a few more. I have included the instructions I use to give my students for making the slideshow (However, I present it step-by-step on the presentation station and create it with them and include the slideshow instruction demo on my class website, in case they are absent or need to review the instructions). I require that they create at least 5 slides. Examples of content:

• name, city, and country
• favorite food
• celebrations or traditions
• favorite places
• hobbies
• a famous person
• future goals

Click on this for Instructions for making a Google slideshow

Examples of student work:

Beginning:

Saeda --Syria

Maria -- Mexico

Alex - Ukraine

Intermediate:

Mei Ni-- Indonesia

Elena-- Romania

Fabricio -- El Salvador

TDLS 2019 Conference March 1-2, 2019

Angela Rodriguez, our Vice Principal, Marisol Richmond, and Linda Laymon represented the San Juan Adult Ed ESL teachers at the TDLS 2019 Conference at Hacienda La Puente Adult Education (near West Covina in the greater Los Angeles area). TDLS=Technology and Distance Learning Symposium. This is the birthplace of OTAN and its 30th anniversary.

Besides the apps and websites previously posted, there was so much more for us to learn. The three of us did not get to everything. We were the presenters for "Google Blog to Keep Your Teachers in the Loop" on Saturday. The attendees were very interested. They came away with ideas for their schools and they had the chance to create a blog.

• Ask us how to sign out of Google Gmail and apps remotely.
• Ask us how to use Google's new feature to create a Google account using any email account such as a Yahoo username and password.
• Ask us about using the apps Adobe Spark or FlipGrid to allow students to create short video presentations on their phones to present in class.
• Ask us about Augmented Reality.

Some new phone apps and websites we learned about in the TDLS Conference.

wordhippo.com  website to help students practice vocabulary

sockpuppets.com  website help students make puppet shows to practice their pronunciation

Quizlet.com  website is a fun way to help students learn and practice vocabulary

Flipgrid app helps students make videos

Jobpro app series:  Get Hired!  Get Prepared!  Get Dressed!

Facebook Builds Student Confidence and Learning by Susan Angelis (February, 2019)

One of our San Juan Adult Ed teachers, Susan Angelis, uses Facebook as a technology tool for her students. Through using the Facebook app, the students learn job skills and preparation, available community resources, networking, confidence building, and collaboration. Susan uses her two private Facebook class groups as Distance Learning. Most of the listening, reading, and writing homework she assigns is done on Facebook. She and the students post the class lesson and board photos. The students can access the program using desktop computers, iPads, tablets, Chromebooks, and smart phones anywhere. The students make their posts in Facebook by navigating the Internet using multiple search engines, Google drive, and websites to research academic topics. They learn how to use the privacy settings. They use online dictionaries to do spell check and websites to do grammar checks and cameras on their smart phones to photograph important lessons that they can transfer to Facebook, to post photographs of class activities and family photos showing their assigned activity such as going to the Library. The also learn the concepts of timeliness, to follow the rules set up for the private group, how to post, edit, copy, paste and delete posts. They learn the basics about Internet scams, hackers and become more aware of internet safety. 

The Facebook curriculum teaches:

• keyboarding skills (capitalization, punctuation)
• research skills
• English skills (listening to videos, reading articles, writing sentences, asking questions, using new vocabulary)
• conversation skills
• social English (life events, jobs, successes)
• social interaction
• technology skills
• accountability (messages about why they were absent)
• independent learning (to learn about homework assignments, view the photos of the classroom board from the day before, read announcements, and study for tests)
• leadership skills (academic posts, correct one another's grammar and spelling mistakes, take on classroom jobs)
• team work and collaboration (students support one another and respond to each other's questions and posts)
• job interview and resume tips
• community resources available
• students to be more involved in their children's education, back to school nights, open house, library nights, field trips, etc.
• American laws, culture, and holiday information
• Networking amongst the class on Facebook (share job interview experiences, certification process for certain jobs, job openings, travel experiences

Using Facebook to build students' confidence

• learning English and practicing writing, reading, listening, and speaking
• students are encouraged, acknowledged and rewarded for their Facebook participation, performance, keyboarding skills, research skills, and language improvement
• compliments come from the teacher, classmates, even the Principal and Vice Principal
• and the students set examples for each other: for example, when a few students post photos of going to the library with their children, or read with their children, go to the park or museum with their children, many students follow and post the same with their families.

How could you use Facebook in your classroom? What surprises you about the success of this teacher in using Facebook as an instruction forum?

January Teacher Tech class

• We learned how to sign up for an OTAN online class as was discussed in the January 7 training. 
• We also registered for Ventures series if teachers hadn't registered yet.
• Then we explored the Ventures esources online to see what was available.
• And we learned how to find what we want to share with our students.
• We also played with the QR Codes in our books with our phones.
• In the first session, the teachers practiced posting a comment to the Teacher Blog.
• We also found the link to the Teacher Website and explored the website.
• The fun part was showing the teachers how to create a Kahoot quiz online 
• Kahoot is a great informal assessment tool. 
• Most of our students have phones, so it is a fun way to test your students' knowledge of a unit. 
• It also makes a fun teaching tool. 
• We discovered that you can add images (through Kahoot, Internet or download your own). 
• This would be a good tool for the lower level students with the images added. 

Here are some instructions to make a Kahoot.

Click on the link:

How to make a Kahoot Quiz

Teachers, Please share with all of us.

Did you do something special for Martin Luther King Day before or after the holiday? If yes, what did you do? Please share with us and let us know if it was successful and why or why not.

In Room 6 Beginning High at Sunrise Tech Center, I opened this link:
Martin Luther King video 9.37 min
and shared this kids' video about Martin Luther King's life. It is a cartoon, but there are a lot of words displayed large on the screen to help with understanding, plus it isn't too long (9.37 min). The students wanted me to play it twice. The second time, I handed out the transcript that I took from YouTube and added in all the proper punctuation (yes, that took awhile to do). I suggested that they read the transcript while watching and listening to the video. We went over the major new vocabulary words (i.e. boycott, demonstration). I also posted the video link on my class website so the students could watch and read again it over the long weekend. They seemed to like it, at least they said they did. I noticed one of the students got out her transcript again and was reading it while the other students were taking their CASAS tests. So I will deem the activity a success.

MLK videos

Just some Martin Luther King, Jr videos to share;

https://youtu.be/oJ8Xqzb2XSU

https://youtu.be/Rc39Ka8ut6k

and a song:

https://youtu.be/JKCsZc37esU

Ventures Book eResources

How do I access the online resources on the Ventures website?

1. https://esource.cambridge.org/
2. Enter your product activation code in the box to the right. (The product is your book level, i.e. Ventures 2) 
3. Find the code in the Ventures packet given to us at the Ventures meeting. Or ask Dominika for the code or Linda Laymon.
4. Register for an account.
5. Sign in to your account.
6. Open to “My Resource Library” for your book.
7. Click “Open”
8. Click on the Student Book, Workbook, or Grammar Presentations.
9. Scroll down until you find the unit, lesson #, and Exercise you need.
10. Preview the audio or video to make sure it’s the correct one.
11. You can download the audio or video to your desktop to be handier to reach.

Don't forget the Teacher Tech Class Friday!

Teacher Tech Classes at Sunrise Tech Center and Creekside in January

All teachers are invited to one or both classes.

January 18 at Sunrise Tech Center, 12:30-2:30 pm, room 14

January 25 at Creekside, 12:30-2:30 pm, room 9

Topics as requested:

• How to sign up for OTAN online Classes.
• Ventures book resources
• More practice on Google Docs Explore
• Review of ASAP attendance

Bring your questions and other topics of interest for the next training in March.

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THANK YOU 

for your interest in the new San Juan Adult Ed Teacher's Blog.

Teacher Tech Classes at Sunrise Tech Center and at Creekside in January

All teachers are invited to one or both classes.

January 18 at Sunrise Tech Center, 12:30 - 2:30 pm, room 14

January 25 at Creekside, 12:30 - 2:30 pm, room 9

Topics:

• How to sign up for OTAN Classes online.
• More practice on Google Docs Explore.
• Review of ASAP attendance for new teachers.
• Review of past topics.
• Bring your Questions and topics of interest for next month.