Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia

60 minutes recently did a segment on the Sagrada Familia, a famous church, in Barcelona, Spain.  It's one of the most incredible structures on earth.  If you ever go to Spain, make the trip to La Sagrada Familia.  It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and no matter what your religious beliefs, your breath will be taken away.

House of Lords Debates the Importance of World Languages

On October 28, 2010, the House of Lords spent an hour and 20 minutes discussing the importance of speaking languages other than English. Baroness Coussins, chair of the all parliamentary group on modern languages, discussed the need for England to invest in foreign language learning.  As a LOTE teacher, how cool is it to see the government spend almost an hour and a half discussing the importance of learning a second language.

Talk Radio in England (You and Yours) discusses Language Learning 08/31/2010

You and Yours is a BBC radio show that discussed the issue of learning languages a couple of months before the October 28, 2010 debate in the House of Lords.  It was a fascinating discussion and is worth a listen.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00thxg0#p009r16y

Using Fakebook Profiles in the Classroom (Not Facebook)

Create a Fakebook profile that you can use in your classroom.  After you create your profile, create friends and start posting to the wall.  It's that easy.  What a great way to bring characters, books and subjects to life.  Fakebook is not affiliated with Facebook, so let's hope that Facebook lawyers don't shut it down.

The Fakebook Gallery is the best place to start.  Get ideas for your classroom or use some of the profiles already in the gallery.  Your students are going to love it!

Web 2.0 Tools For Teachers

Here is a great slide show from Rafael Scapin that lists some Web 2.0 tools that you should definitely check out.  My favorite Web 2.0 tool from the list is probably Goanimate for Schools.  Students can take any writing and turn it into an animated video in no time.  I also love Evernote and use it on a daily basis. Evernote is my online closet for anything and everything.  Down below I've added a few more Web 2.0 tools that I would recommend.

The Best Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers - 2012 Edition from Rafael Scapin

Web 2.0 Tools that I would add to the list:

Quizlet:  Quizlet is by far my favorite tool for students to create and study their notes.

Pearltrees:  It's a fun way to organize your bookmarks and see what everyone else is bookmarking.

Wikispaces:  This can be an awesome tool for students and teachers.  Here is the greatest link for examples of educational wikis. Educationalwikis.

Twitter:  Twitter is by far the best Professional Learning Network tool ever.  This is the place to find the Web 2.0 tools you need in your classroom.  You can also incorporate hastags into your lessons, so students can discuss topics and share resources.

Edmodo:  I know edmodo is a learning mangagement system, but I had to put it on the list because it's awesome.  I predict that edmodo will become the standard for LMS.  It is also an amazing place to network with other educators and share ideas.

Interactive Books for the 21st Century Learner

The way we read and learn will never be the same.  I discovered my first interactive book when I was looking through different apps for my 2 year old son.  I found Disneydigitalbooks.com and knew that my son's education would be different.  The first book I downloaded was Toy Story and it opened my eyes to a new world.  Here is a demo that shows off all of it's features:



These books are not just limited to Disney or story books.  Soon all the books we read will be interactive and completely change the way we receive and process information.  Mike Matas gave a short TED presentation about his team's software that is creating software for 21st century books. This type of software will give publishers the needed tools to reinvent all books.  These new interactive books will forever change the way we read and learn.