Three Tools Three WaysTo Use with EL Students

Alice Mercer - Teacher Sacramento City Unified School

DistrictFall CUE 2011

http://bit.ly/p5M52W

Will have links, and other materials

Who is Alice Mercer?

• Elementary Teacher for over 10 years;

• All of that has been with significant numbers of English Learner students;

• District and regional expert on using Web 2.0 and other tech tools

• http://mizmercer.edublogs.org

Rationale:

Why use these tools?

Recording Tools:

• Audacityhttp://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audio recording software for PC, Mac, etc.

• Aviary on Mynahttp://www.aviary.com/tools/audio-editorOnline audio recording

• English Centralhttp://www.englishcentral.com/ Students can record themselves reading transcripts and get graded on pronunciation.

Visual tools:

• PhotoStory/iPhoto

• Movie Maker/iMovie

• VoiceThreadhttp://voicethread.com

Skype and video conferencing:

Buddy classes http://education.skype.com/ – Paired speaking, – Whole class presentations/singing

• Bringing in experts to ask questions– Skype Author Network

http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/

My findings...

• A good teacher is more important than getting a tech-guru, you just need to be flexible;

• Have a plan, don’t just let them “talk”;• Plan for conversations, and prepare

the kids for them;• Set up norms for behavior;• Small groups are easier to manage;

Questions and concerns

2 steps:

• Navigate to the session(s) you attended and click the ‘Evaluation’ link to begin.

• Answer the questions on the evaluation and hit submit!

That’s it!

Online Session Evaluations fall.CUE.org

Suggestions from audience

BONUS TOOLS! Flickr

Flickr is a photo sharing service that your students can use to search for pictures.

http://flickr.comHere are some great tools to use with it:• fd's Flickr Toys: Do fun stuff with your

photos http://bighugelabs.com/flickr• PimPamPum: http://www.pimpampum.net/

• Flickr Apps: http://www.flickr.com/services/