Final Exam Results and Continued work with ipods

The ease of using an ipod vs having the students record and send a movie was drastic.  For the Spanish I final exam, students answered 14 questions in Spanish and then voice recorded their answers on the ipods and I could download them onto my computer.  This saved valued class time as well as freed me from my computer to grade the voice recordings.  I simply downloaded them onto one of the 30 ipods as "songs" and listened to them in the evening at home.  It is also really neat because I save these files on my computer and I can look back and listen to the improvement from Spanish I to Spanish II (and next year to Spanish III!)

I've been working at creating a fun and meaningful "I'm finished, what do I do now," activity with Careers.  I stumbled upon an app that is a game using wikipedia.  You have to get from one term to another with the least amount of clicks possible.  We'll see, but I think this might be a good activity for students to learn random facts, work on finding key answers, improve study skills, all in place of that time in-between some finishing and some still working.

Next week were are also working on podcasts for Careers.  With the students who really shine in this activity, I'm thinking I can even download these podcasts and have next trimester's class watch them and gain ideas and learn more about various Careers.

Gabits

I cannot wait to see all of my students' "Gabits."  Gabits are avatars that you can design and make to speak.  The students wrote a paragraph telling what they do on the weekends and then created a Gabit and voice recorded where their "Gabit" went on the weekend. The students felt very comfortable "speaking" in front of the class because they were able to record their voice and self-correct until they got the desired recording.  One can also lower or raise the voice of the Gabit.  They then presented them to the class using a borrowed document cam and connected the speaker jack to their ipod.  We had a lot of Spanish fun listening to and watching the students' projects.  After each student has presented I will sinc the ipods and post a few on our class blog so the Spanish I students can see them.  (purpleinksenora.blogspot.com).

New Uses

Last week we used the ipods to read some really informative articles in my careers class about young entrepreneurs.  The students then commented on our class blog about what they found inspiring/unique with the products produced or services provided.  It was interesting to see their point of view and allow them to read one-another's words.  I continue to find that some of my students are actually "more themselves" when hidden behind the keyboard of a computer or touch pad of an ipod.

I have also noticed that my Spanish I students have scored VASTLY higher than last years students on the numbers portion of our test.  I couldn't figure out why, well, DUH, it wasn't me, it was the help of Mindsnacks, an ipod application.  Many of my students have even added it to their personal ipods, which is really neat, and are working on learning numbers at home (without me assigning it or having to grade extra papers).

More to follow!  I am attending a conference this week and one of the workshops is using ipod touches in the Spanish classroom (pretty pumped!)

**Ipod usage**

Thanks to my school district, my students are able to use ipod touches (30 for my class in total).  They are so excited about using them.  During open house, parents remarked, "Wow, this is right up her alley," or "this looks like a lot of fun," or "where could we download that app for his personal ipod."  These remarks really excite me.  Why?  Well, because that was my biggest hope and goal, that students would begin to see their ipod not just as a toy, but a learning device.

Besides thinking we have the "coolest class ever" because we have the ipods, the students have really enjoyed using them to brush up on or being learning numbers in Spanish.  They even have downloaded the app on the personal device for at home.  It's weird, but you really don't feel like you're doing school work when you're playing.  I played the game for about 20 minutes and had to stop myself, I was having so much fun.

The careers class also used them to do a bit of research on Gardner and his 8 learning styles.  They found the internet easy to navigate (which is amazing because of how small the buttons are to type, but they're used to it) and quickly found an accurate website.

The students love the Spanish music on the ipods and it makes me so happy to see them writing down these artists names and wanting to buy the music for themselves.  Can you imagine how much extra Spanish they would hear if even a 1/3 of the time they are listening to their ipod they are hearing Spanish jams?

Anyway, so far so good.  Set up was a little tricky and downloading and set up took me a few days of summer, but WORTH IT for excited students.  I also have created ipod commandments so students really understand what's expected of them, I think that is helping with the classroom management side.