EDPD 457

My journey as a learner of the 21st Century literacies and technologies has just started...!

Reading Week at WES

These are some books chosen by my ESOL students for the Book Character Parade held on Friday April 16 at WES.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

The Digital Writing Workshop

Voice Tread Tutorials from YouTube

So many tutorials for Voice Thread... but having choices is great!

I chose these two part series tutorials because I think they are just right to introduce voice thread to elementary students. In part one the narrator starts with an example of how she uses voice thread in her class. She also explains how to open an account and how to download pictures. In part two she explains how to add comments and embed the voice thread in the class blog. Simple and useful!

I Am

I am energetic and adventurous
I wonder what Spring will bring for me
I hear the childrens’ laugh
I see flowers blooming all around
I want to explore new sites and see my friends
I am energetic and adventurous


I pretend to be a bird
I feel the wind and the fresh air
I touch the clouds and the sky
I worry about our nature falling apart
I cry that animal habitats have been forever destroyed
I am energetic and adventurous


I understand that everyone has a purpose to fulfill
I say Don’t give up, try one more time
I dream of being able to keep my thoughts always positive
I try to find joy inside myself and in little things around me
I hope to be prepared for the challenges of our time
I am energetic and adventurous

Four year old exploring

How long does it take to learn English?

Why are Fables still important?

Who doesn't love a good story? Everyone. Telling stories is part of our human nature. Story telling allowed history and culture to be passed from generation to generation and gave people a sense of belonging to their times and society. It has been used to educate, entertain and to teach a lesson. For instance story telling is responsible for the survival of Aesop's fables for thousands of years. These fables were and still are the perfect instrument for moral education of our children, because they are short, unforgettable, and intuitive. What's more Aesop's fables present repeatable animals. They tell essential truths about human beings and their ways, so each student can have a connection to make with their lives. Fables could be used as a guiding light to mold children's attidudes and approaches in their lives, a path to implement values in their hearts and minds.

Engage vs. Enrage

After playing with font, color and layout to create my Wordle, I asked myself the BIG question, Why wordle? Is it the right tool for my students? and the answer is YES!!! It is a great visual representation of themes, key words, synonyms/antonyms, description of characters, setting, etc. It will be very useful to develop my ESOL students' social language and academic vocabulary.
Wordle Ideas has more and advanced ideas on how to use it in and outside our classrooms. We could also add pictures! I will try this later though. I do not have those advanced skills yet.

It's snowing!

Soft, flaky
Not every winter we have this surprise
Old and young were playing outside
Wearing their winter best and building
their first snowman!

What are the words you can describe yourself with?

“Energetic” and “imaginative” best describe the 4 year-old kids. My daughter Sofia fits perfectly into this description. Every Saturday and Sunday as soon as she opens her eyes, she asks “Mom, what are we doing today? Where are we going?”, therefore I need to be prepared with a plan A, B or even C to channel all that energy and imagination.

Last Saturday, it was effortless though, because the Chinese New Year Celebration took place at the Art Museum in Myrtle Beach. So, there we went…; it included an array of different activities she really enjoyed such as story telling, crafts, face painting, eating with chopsticks, etc. This year it is the year of the Tiger, so everything revolved around this fierce feline.

Besides the fun and the insight we got from the Chinese culture, I also got some material to work with in my classroom: the Chinese Horoscope. Each sign is represented by an animal that is thought to dictate personality traits. For instance the description of people born under the Tiger sign read as follows:

“Tiger people are sensitive, given to deep thinking, capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered, however. Other people have great respect for them, but sometimes Tiger people cannot make up their minds, which can result in a poor, hasty decision or a sound decision arrived at too late. They are suspicious of others, but they are courageous and powerful. Tigers are most compatible with Horses, Dragons and Dogs.”

When I ask my students to describe themselves, they usually say “nice”, “friendly” or simply “I don’t know”.

Teaching adjectives using these short descriptions hopefully will make them more tangible and everyone will be able to connect to their own personality traits. In addition, their vocabulary will increase tremendously! In my classroom, I plan to use Burke’s Vocabulary Square as it will be really effective to teach these words as well as create the mental visual my students need to incorporate into their own vocabulary.

Can you name 5 adjectives to describe yourself? Which is your Animal Sign?

Bringing the Inside Out

The day of my high school graduation, approximately twenty years ago, a friend of mine gave me an unexpected present: a notebook “to write about your high school memories” she said. A Photo album, a bouquet of flowers, a jewelry box, or a special ornament were among the list of presents I had in mind. She knew I loved reading and always did the writing assignments. She may have assumed that writing was easy for me, but it wasn’t. That night I got home late, exhausted. However in the middle of the night my friend’s voice echoed in my mind and remembered her sparkling eyes saying “You can do it!”. I looked for the notebook everywhere. I did not remember where I put it…It laid forgotten on the couch. I opened it slowly, looked at the white paper for a while, held the fancy pencil it came with, wondering how it could help me express my thoughts, and feelings. I did not know where to start, what to say. Finally I decided to write about that special night in my life, my graduation. The thoughts expressed would be for myself alone. At that time I did not conceive the idea of sharing or talking about my writing. It was more a private, solitary and usually risk free activity for me.

“Living the life of a blogger” completely changed my conception of writing. The very moment I posted my first blog for “ Writing in the Digital Classroom” I have not only been challenged to bring the inside out , but also to be aware of the large audience residing in cyberspace. I am not still confident in my ability to present and share my ideas, but I know that I need to be courageous and take the risk every time I post a new blog. Blogging demands some research, long hours and lots of thinking. Fortunately, reading experienced bloggers and following my own classmates' blogs inspires me to persevere.

" I also have a dream!"

Four decades after Martin Luther King’s most famous speech called "I have a dream..." delivered on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial, it still can be used to educate and inspire students to speak about their own dreams. In addition to the rich historical information provided about the way life used to be before the Civil Rights Act, I like to use the inspirational side of the text to motivate my Hispanic students to set their own goals.

After listening to King’s speech, some of my second grade students dared to say … “I also have a dream!”

• “My dream is that one day…I will go back to Mexico to visit my family.”

• “My dream is that one day… I will speak English like him [MLK].”

• “My dream is that one day… I will get a good job and be a millionaire”

What is your dream? Don’t give up! Be persistent!

A new Adventure!

For the past four years I have made my New Year Resolutions under the influence of the joy that the spirit of Christmas brings to our lives –sometimes too perfect and beautiful to become true–. Regretfully enough, those resolutions were forgotten by the time school started over. Therefore this year I am determined to welcome 2010 with changes that take immediate effect in my life.
For instance, one of my resolutions is to challenge myself to do new things that will allow me to grow both personally and professionally. “Writing in the Digital Classroom” is a perfect combination to achieve this goal. I am not tech-savvy at all or a fluent writer, but I think it is time for me to embrace this new episode in my life. There is this “voice” inside me that wants to be heard, and the students I teach need someone to help them build their own voices. This is going to be a thrilling challenge.
At this point of my life, things are spinning fast and it feels as if I were riding a roller coaster. There is so much to learn, but I firmly believe that “practice makes perfect”. I hope I will learn to enjoy all my rides in Digital Land.

Teaching languages is one of my passions. I have been doing it for over 10 years. Currently I teach Spanish and ESOL in the Horry County Schools. My interest in languages and their cultures date back to my childhood when I used to accompany my grandmother to her clients' houses. Some were from Austria and others were from Germany. I loved listening to them, even if I did not understand a word of what they were saying. My eyes wondered around their belongings and pictures that hung on the walls. I was curious but I did not dare to say anything; I was too shy.

As soon as I graduated from high school I pursued my undergraduate career in Teaching English as a foreign Language. I took a number of subjects in the humanities that have been enlightening. I also had the opportunity to travel abroad as a foreign language student and meet people from different countries as well as teach my native language in the USA. I have always marveled at how a language shapes people's minds and behaviors.