In French I am always looking for ways to make my lessons and tasks more "techie" so that I can get the students more engaged. The use of a green screen app is something I have yet to investigate, but I can already see the places I would have used it in previous lessons. I had a task where students were to do a weather broadcast after we learned about weather, clothing and time of day. This would have been so much more fun if they could use a green screen app to make it a live on location weather broadcast!!
I researched a few different ways online to do this, but the most user friendly way I saw was by using the app called Green Screen by Do Ink. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green-screen-by-do-ink/id730091131?mt=8
Here is a short tutorial on how to use it;
1) First, use your iPad to film all of your clips and to save all of your background images/video.
(you can film live through the app but people seem to prefer having pre-filmed clips)
2) Click on the plus sign in the top right corner to start your project.
3) You will see your preview screen (the black box) and the timeline along the bottom. The three lines on the timeline break down as follows: bottom is your background layer, the middle is the video that you are uploading. Click on the right side of each layer on the plus sign to upload your image or video.
4) To change video clips or backgrounds during your video, line up the red playhead line where you want the new clip to start then click the plus sign again and upload your next clip.
There are other features to this app such as the third layer, which allows you to add in extras such as animations, but for now this is a basic tutorial. PLEASE NOTE: this app does cost $2.99. However you can work on and save multiple projects on the same device, so students could share the same iPad.
Have fun!
Friday, February 26, 2016
Imagine your images differently
Have you ever wanted to get creative with your photos or have your students create their own digital art? Here are some fun free options for creating and manipulating images online:
1) www.gimp.org
This is a great alternative to the expensive photoshop. It has many tools that are the same as Photoshop and has all of the basic tools your students would need to create beautiful images. There are some advanced features that Photoshop has that Gimp does not , however for student use, it's actually probably more than what they would need. I just bought Photoshop two months ago and had I known about Gimp, I might have held off!!
2) Artweaver
This downloadable program allows you to make art using all sorts of mediums and tools online. I like this for one big reason.. more than one person can work on the SAME piece of art at the same time!! I know this sounds challenging, but what an exercise for the students to have to work together, plan an execute something creative. I think it could be really cool!
3) Pic collage app
This app is something I have used a lot in French. I have it on my phone, but we also have it on the school tablets. It is an app that allows you to make collages of pictures and then add text and embellishments. I have had students use it to create French poetry, to create presentation visuals and also as a way to have them just write in French to describe a picture. They love it because it is SO easy to use!
I hope these options help you and your students get creative!
1) www.gimp.org
This is a great alternative to the expensive photoshop. It has many tools that are the same as Photoshop and has all of the basic tools your students would need to create beautiful images. There are some advanced features that Photoshop has that Gimp does not , however for student use, it's actually probably more than what they would need. I just bought Photoshop two months ago and had I known about Gimp, I might have held off!!
2) Artweaver
This downloadable program allows you to make art using all sorts of mediums and tools online. I like this for one big reason.. more than one person can work on the SAME piece of art at the same time!! I know this sounds challenging, but what an exercise for the students to have to work together, plan an execute something creative. I think it could be really cool!
3) Pic collage app
This app is something I have used a lot in French. I have it on my phone, but we also have it on the school tablets. It is an app that allows you to make collages of pictures and then add text and embellishments. I have had students use it to create French poetry, to create presentation visuals and also as a way to have them just write in French to describe a picture. They love it because it is SO easy to use!
I hope these options help you and your students get creative!
Friday, February 19, 2016
When your voice needs to be heard.....
Have you ever wanted to record a lesson online for your students? Maybe re-state instructions? Post clips of dialogue? Language comprehension assessments? The possibilities are endless when you are able to upload audio content for your students!
Here are three of my favourite sites for uploading audio:
Here are three of my favourite sites for uploading audio:
This site is really easy to use for both teachers and students. It's free and really quick to make an account. The site stores all of your audio and it can be easily organized. What I really like about this is that it can be shared publicly or you can share it privately by giving the link to your students. You can also embed the audio file into your blog. You can upload audio that's already made or you can simply press record and make your clip on the spot.
This is a podcast website. It's a bit more difficult to navigate than soundcloud, but it will host a podcast channel for you for free with 49MB of space for free. I might use this for a weekly recap of French lessons for all of my classes. What we learned and what students should be practicing for each grade. What I don't like is that you have to upload audio that you have already made. There is no recording capabilities on this site.
500MB of storage makes this website a slightly better option for podcast hosting than Podbean. This site is also more user friendly. There is also no recording capabilities on this website. You can upload any media file you like. The process for publishing your podcast is easy. It leads you through one step at a time.
Personally I think it is limiting to just upload audio files. Adding a visual layer to your audio would help keep more students interested. Consider putting a bit more effort in and making a powtoon cartoon with your audio overlay at www.powtoon.com or creating an avatar to do the speaking for you using voki. (there is a free version that gives you 60 second audio recording clips, or a paid version for teachers that does great presentations). Voki is something I would have my students use to do short 1 minute presentations for those who are afraid of presenting in front of the class.
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Google or Microsoft 365???
GOOGLE vs. OFFICE 365
The epic battle has begun.
Personally, I have grown up using Microsoft and so I have a soft spot for the familiarity of tools like Office, Excel and Powerpoint, but as a Teacher, I have seen the value of the browser-based tools that Google offers. Our school is Google focused and I have been working with the Google tools more than Microsoft over the last two years.
They may offer similar programs, but that doesn't mean they are the same. People still have personal preferences for different reasons. I will write a short comparison of the two and then share my opinion of what I prefer as a teacher.
Both are cloud based services, so all work gets saved to the cloud and can be accessed online.
Office 365 also offers desktop programs to be used offline (which can be a definite advantage at times).
Both offer a program for:
Writing (Docs/Word)
Spreadsheets (Sheets/Excel)
Presentations (Slides/Powerpoint)
Email (Gmail/Outlook)
Storage (Drive/ Skydrive)
Video conferencing (Hangouts/Lync)
The both also have an app for note taking. I have been using Keep on my phone for years and didn't even realize it was a Google app, but One Note I just learned about and after exploring it a bit, I think it is actually a better program if I wanted to take notes of lectures. It has a better system of organization and tabs that you can name yourself and it's just a more organized overall app.
When I started the comparison, I thought Google was the only one with a social media app (Google +) but as it turns out, Microsoft has a MUCH LESSER KNOWN social media network called So.cl. I would say that Google plus is the leader in that department after just discovering that so.cl exists!
Now after familiarizing myself with Office 365 a bit, I will declare the winner of this battle (in my books anyways).
Although I have a natural inclination towards Microsoft Office mainly just because it's so familiar to me and so I think that it's 'user friendly'. But when I started to look at it again, I started to remember my old frustrations when I used Word for example, and I just wanted to change simple formatting and I had to sort through what felt like hundreds of menu options to find the right tool. There was a lot of Office that I never did learn how to use. Google on the other hand was relatively easy to learn when I started a couple of years ago, and I don't seem to have as many annoying problems to troubleshoot. I also use MORE of the options than I ever did with Office.
I know personally, out of habit, if I had a desktop version of Office, I would use that out of convenience when at home (instead of opening the internet browser first) and undoubtedly forget to save my work and then kick myself for not using the online cloud version when at work the next day and unable to get the work I did the night before. I think that making a habit of using Google's cloud based service has been really great for me because all of my work is at my fingertips from anywhere, and not sitting uselessly on my computer at home.
You do get more storage with Office 365, but I have used Google for 2 years and have not used it up.
Overall I just think Google is simpler, better organized and easy to learn. I also find it very quick. I haven't dealt with any saving lags like I have with Office 365.
To each their own though with these opponents. Each has their strengths and in the end I think it comes down to personal preference.
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Resources to learn, practice or present something in French
This week I thought it was important to put together a post for those who need more than what I can offer in class. There are many resources available for home use as well as many that are available on the computers at school. All of the resources I include here are compatible with French and unless otherwise stated, you are able to put in French accents. I teach mostly intermediate with some junior, so most links are geared towards this age group.
I have divided them into five categories; learning, practice, presentations, work checking and collaborating.
________________________________________________________________________
LEARNING - All sites in this category are for learning French (conversational, grammar, verbs etc.) Sometimes there may be something you are still unclear on after class and these sites can help you to learn the concepts in a different way.
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/french/french.htm - This site will be helpful for students who are looking to learn a specific lesson and practice using worksheets and animated activities. The great thing about this website is that the instructions are in English, so parents and students can know how to complete each lesson and activity at home. I might even use this in class to support the learning of students on IEPS or students who are very visual learners. The drawback to this site would be that the printable worksheets don't always have clear instructions as to how to complete them. I would probably use some of the worksheets as handouts for students to review terminology because they have good images.
https://www.youtube.com/user/sduckworth100/videos - Although some of her videos are geared towards primary/junior grades, they are great for review as needed. She has hundreds of videos on her channel and they are very well organized into categories. The only drawback is that at times on certain videos the audio is poor quality and it can make it difficult to understand the words being said. The really neat thing about her videos is that she makes them using a large variety of websites and apps (Tellegami, Puppet Pals, Powerpoint, Powtoon etc,)
___________________________________________________________________________
PRACTICE - These sites are to practice what you've already learned. They might have quizzes or practice conversations, or French videos or text to work on comprehension
www.quia.com/shared/french - this site is a fun site where teachers and other have created fun review games (battleship, tic tac toe, jeopardy etc) to review a variety of French concepts. The user will have to search for the concept they wish to review and then check out the links below. Many games are wonderful but some not so much.
http://www.hello-world.com/languages.php/?language=French/ - This site has a page to learn main concepts and then practice them, but it also has 700 games and activities and songs in French to practice comprehension. I like that all of the links are easy to use and don't freeze up, but some of the culture presentations are quite dry and I wouldn't recommend them. There are great images and animations for many of the concepts.
http://www.tfo.org/fr/jeux - These games often don't require use of the French language, but the instructions are in French, and so this is good incentive to work on listening comprehension. I would use this as a reward in class for students who are finished early.
https://quizlet.com/subject/french/ - Much like Quia, this site allows teachers to upload their own activities and review quizzes, and therefore the quality of each varies significantly, but there are many great review activities which are searchable by subject at the top of the page. What I like about this is that you can preview each activity to the right of the page to see if it's right for you. What I don't like is that the page itself is a bit boring and it might be difficult to hold the attention of younger students.
https://getkahoot.com/how-it-works / https://kahoot.it/#/ - Kahoot is game based review which is entertaining and fun for young students. The first link is for a teacher to learn about and create a Kahoot and then the second link is where students would go to play and enter the pin number of the game the teacher created. I have used this in the classroom with students on a weekly basis and they LOVED it. They actually ask if they can play Kahoot. I recommend any teacher to use it, but it especially helps to engage the students in French.
_____________________________________________________________________
PRESENTATIONS - Many times in French you will be asked to share your work with your peers and the sites listed here will help you do this in a fun and creative way.
www.prezi.com - Prezi is a free website where students make a presentation map for the system to follow. It's more dynamic than Powerpoint, but has the same idea, where the presentation moves from one 'slide' to another. This is a great presentation option for French because it accepts the ALT codes to create French accents.
www.powtoon.com - Powtoon is a free, user friendly cartoon maker with the option to animate. Students will love the presentations you make using it and they will be excited to try it out for themselves. This site also accepts ALT codes. I have used this to create introduction videos to a new unit. I have also had students use it to create conversational cartoons. The students can record their voices into the presentation.
Microsoft Powerpoint - This is the old standard for presentations. It's easy to use, but perhaps a bit dated now and boring when you know what else is available, but it's widely available and good for people who don't have time to learn a new presentation program in time for a due date. It's not available at my school computers though as they don't have Microsoft office on them.
Google Presentations (part of Google Drive) - This is a great presentation alternative to Microsoft Powerpoint because it saves automatically as you work and has many tools and templates to customize your presentation. Your presentation will be accessible from anywhere because it is based in your Google drive.
Keynote (on school iPads) - This presentation software is available on a handful of iPads at my school (the board doesn't have any special license for it, so it came at a cost to the school). It's an alternative to a traditional Powerpoint presentation for Apple users. It's a great presentation too that is easily projected from the iPad (or even an iPhone). The French characters can be inserted using the option button plus other keys in combination, or by inserting each from a dropdown menu.
Corkulous (on school iPads) - This is available on all school iPads. It's a free download, so students who have a personal Apple product can download it for home use. This is a neat way to create and present an idea board. You can really organize your ideas well. I haven't used it yet, but I would use it when students are starting a French project, they can organize their ideas then present to a peer for feedback. The one drawback I have heard from some teachers is that some students have had the app crash and have lost their work.
Pic Collage (on school iPads) This free app is on all school iPads and it's a great tool for presenting something brief. It's an app where you can collage pictures together and add embellishments and text. I have used it to have students collage pictures of them in different weather conditions and then describe what they are wearing. They are allowed to write keywords on the collage to help them with their presentation. I love this because it's SO easy to use.
Tellegami (on school iPads)
__________________________________________________________________________
WORK CHECKING - It's really important in French to double check your written work and fix the mistakes that you can on your own before handing work in.
www.wordreference.com - This is a GREAT online dictionary because unlike GOOGLE TRANSLATE it can tell you what the correct word is in context to what you're saying. It will give you many word options for what you are trying to say.
www.bonpatron.com - This free site checks your work for you and finds all the grammar and verb errors for you. It won't correct them for you, but it will tell you why it's wrong and that way you know how to go about fixing it. You just copy and paste your text in the window and click the 'Vérifier le texte' button.
http://www.alt-codes.net/french_alt_codes/ - This is the place to go to learn how to make the letters with accents on them. You do it by pressing and holding down ALT and then typing the numbers listed. This is essential for typed French work of any kind.
_______________________________________________________________________
COLLABORATING - Group work can be difficult when the work isn't completed in class. These sites make it easier for groups to work together from home or even from different computers in the school.
Google docs - This free online tool is ideal for students to work together on the same document. I have found that at times when too many people are working on the same document in different sections at the same time, the page sometimes jumps around, but for the most part, it's the perfect tool for collaborating on work inside or outside class.
www.chatzy.com - Chatzy is a site where you can open up a private chat room and chat with people via invite only. The great thing about this site is that the rooms aren't searchable, so random people won't join the chat. The chat is also printable and can be saved. As a teacher, I would use this to have students have a chat dialogue in French and them have them save it and send it to me (or print it ... but let's save trees). You are able to use ALT codes to type accents. This is also a great accountability tool because if you expect students to discuss their project, their chat history can be sent to you to ensure that they did the collaboration work.
www.todaysmeet.com - This is a 'backchannel' chat website, so the teacher (or a student) would create a chatroom and the students join it (there are a few ways to do so, but the coolest is a QR code that you scan with your phone to join). The chat window has the option to be projected while the lesson is happening and students can chat and ask questions as they come up or the room can be opened right after a lesson for students to talk about concepts and help each other. The rooms can also be created and used by students. This site also allows you to print the transcript.
I hope some of these resources can be of use to you in your French endeavors!
I have divided them into five categories; learning, practice, presentations, work checking and collaborating.
________________________________________________________________________
LEARNING - All sites in this category are for learning French (conversational, grammar, verbs etc.) Sometimes there may be something you are still unclear on after class and these sites can help you to learn the concepts in a different way.
https://www.youtube.com/user/sduckworth100/videos - Although some of her videos are geared towards primary/junior grades, they are great for review as needed. She has hundreds of videos on her channel and they are very well organized into categories. The only drawback is that at times on certain videos the audio is poor quality and it can make it difficult to understand the words being said. The really neat thing about her videos is that she makes them using a large variety of websites and apps (Tellegami, Puppet Pals, Powerpoint, Powtoon etc,)
___________________________________________________________________________
PRACTICE - These sites are to practice what you've already learned. They might have quizzes or practice conversations, or French videos or text to work on comprehension
www.quia.com/shared/french - this site is a fun site where teachers and other have created fun review games (battleship, tic tac toe, jeopardy etc) to review a variety of French concepts. The user will have to search for the concept they wish to review and then check out the links below. Many games are wonderful but some not so much.
http://www.hello-world.com/languages.php/?language=French/ - This site has a page to learn main concepts and then practice them, but it also has 700 games and activities and songs in French to practice comprehension. I like that all of the links are easy to use and don't freeze up, but some of the culture presentations are quite dry and I wouldn't recommend them. There are great images and animations for many of the concepts.
http://www.tfo.org/fr/jeux - These games often don't require use of the French language, but the instructions are in French, and so this is good incentive to work on listening comprehension. I would use this as a reward in class for students who are finished early.
https://quizlet.com/subject/french/ - Much like Quia, this site allows teachers to upload their own activities and review quizzes, and therefore the quality of each varies significantly, but there are many great review activities which are searchable by subject at the top of the page. What I like about this is that you can preview each activity to the right of the page to see if it's right for you. What I don't like is that the page itself is a bit boring and it might be difficult to hold the attention of younger students.
https://getkahoot.com/how-it-works / https://kahoot.it/#/ - Kahoot is game based review which is entertaining and fun for young students. The first link is for a teacher to learn about and create a Kahoot and then the second link is where students would go to play and enter the pin number of the game the teacher created. I have used this in the classroom with students on a weekly basis and they LOVED it. They actually ask if they can play Kahoot. I recommend any teacher to use it, but it especially helps to engage the students in French.
_____________________________________________________________________
PRESENTATIONS - Many times in French you will be asked to share your work with your peers and the sites listed here will help you do this in a fun and creative way.
www.prezi.com - Prezi is a free website where students make a presentation map for the system to follow. It's more dynamic than Powerpoint, but has the same idea, where the presentation moves from one 'slide' to another. This is a great presentation option for French because it accepts the ALT codes to create French accents.
www.powtoon.com - Powtoon is a free, user friendly cartoon maker with the option to animate. Students will love the presentations you make using it and they will be excited to try it out for themselves. This site also accepts ALT codes. I have used this to create introduction videos to a new unit. I have also had students use it to create conversational cartoons. The students can record their voices into the presentation.
Microsoft Powerpoint - This is the old standard for presentations. It's easy to use, but perhaps a bit dated now and boring when you know what else is available, but it's widely available and good for people who don't have time to learn a new presentation program in time for a due date. It's not available at my school computers though as they don't have Microsoft office on them.
Google Presentations (part of Google Drive) - This is a great presentation alternative to Microsoft Powerpoint because it saves automatically as you work and has many tools and templates to customize your presentation. Your presentation will be accessible from anywhere because it is based in your Google drive.
Keynote (on school iPads) - This presentation software is available on a handful of iPads at my school (the board doesn't have any special license for it, so it came at a cost to the school). It's an alternative to a traditional Powerpoint presentation for Apple users. It's a great presentation too that is easily projected from the iPad (or even an iPhone). The French characters can be inserted using the option button plus other keys in combination, or by inserting each from a dropdown menu.
Corkulous (on school iPads) - This is available on all school iPads. It's a free download, so students who have a personal Apple product can download it for home use. This is a neat way to create and present an idea board. You can really organize your ideas well. I haven't used it yet, but I would use it when students are starting a French project, they can organize their ideas then present to a peer for feedback. The one drawback I have heard from some teachers is that some students have had the app crash and have lost their work.
Pic Collage (on school iPads) This free app is on all school iPads and it's a great tool for presenting something brief. It's an app where you can collage pictures together and add embellishments and text. I have used it to have students collage pictures of them in different weather conditions and then describe what they are wearing. They are allowed to write keywords on the collage to help them with their presentation. I love this because it's SO easy to use.
Tellegami (on school iPads)
__________________________________________________________________________
WORK CHECKING - It's really important in French to double check your written work and fix the mistakes that you can on your own before handing work in.
www.bonpatron.com - This free site checks your work for you and finds all the grammar and verb errors for you. It won't correct them for you, but it will tell you why it's wrong and that way you know how to go about fixing it. You just copy and paste your text in the window and click the 'Vérifier le texte' button.
http://www.alt-codes.net/french_alt_codes/ - This is the place to go to learn how to make the letters with accents on them. You do it by pressing and holding down ALT and then typing the numbers listed. This is essential for typed French work of any kind.
_______________________________________________________________________
COLLABORATING - Group work can be difficult when the work isn't completed in class. These sites make it easier for groups to work together from home or even from different computers in the school.
www.chatzy.com - Chatzy is a site where you can open up a private chat room and chat with people via invite only. The great thing about this site is that the rooms aren't searchable, so random people won't join the chat. The chat is also printable and can be saved. As a teacher, I would use this to have students have a chat dialogue in French and them have them save it and send it to me (or print it ... but let's save trees). You are able to use ALT codes to type accents. This is also a great accountability tool because if you expect students to discuss their project, their chat history can be sent to you to ensure that they did the collaboration work.
www.todaysmeet.com - This is a 'backchannel' chat website, so the teacher (or a student) would create a chatroom and the students join it (there are a few ways to do so, but the coolest is a QR code that you scan with your phone to join). The chat window has the option to be projected while the lesson is happening and students can chat and ask questions as they come up or the room can be opened right after a lesson for students to talk about concepts and help each other. The rooms can also be created and used by students. This site also allows you to print the transcript.
I hope some of these resources can be of use to you in your French endeavors!
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