iPad Apps

For class, I was required to go through several iPad to discover some that might help within our classroom. Our ESOL teacher also just got iPads for the classroom as part of a grant so I can actually apply this knowledge. Woohoo! I am feeling a lot of frustration regarding the lack of apps in Spanish as, for many bilingual teachers, the use of an iPad for intervention with Spanish dominant students in language arts and math would be very helpful. However, I found two apps that seem really great (though they need to be purchased) that I decided to review.

This app, called Deep in the Rainforest , states that in it, "children will learn about the Amazon Rainforest through fun and games by traveling with Amanda. The  journey begins when Amanda meets a native boy, Yapariwa, who is looking for his lost brother Atu. As they walk through the rainforest they will discover interesting facts about animals and learn important values of diversity and respect. Our story includes animated text to encourage children's listening and reading skills." It allows students to jump around and play different games while learning facts about the rainforest so it allows for differentiation as well. This is also available in SPANISH--a huge and rare plus as far as apps are concerned. It connects to the Core Curriculum's Module 2 on the rainforest as well so I hope to make use of it.

Another, by the same company, called Amazon Rainforest teaches specifically about the Amazon and the unique creatures that inhabitat it.

The Barefoot World Atlas App allows children to explore:

• A beautifully illustrated 3D globe with multimedia features, including zoom and animated icons
• Music and effects soundscapes for each region of the world
• 3D rotations of historial objects from the Royal Geographical Society
• Live country facts from Wolfram | Alpha
• Audio narration by acclaimed BBC TV presenter Nick Crane
• Enhanced graphics for the new iPad
• Available for iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®
• Switch in seconds between English, Spanish, Catalan, French, German and Japanese
  
  
  This app is very individualized as well and allows students to explore the world in an interactive way.

Research Paper

As I reflect upon a research paper I recently did, I end up feeling quite frustrated. I was looking into any research done on integrating Spanish educational technology in the classroom and the research available was slim to none. While I thought this might happen, as I am constantly astounded by how many bilingual and Spanish resources I must make to supplement for my own students, I thought that perhaps more academic (and possibly slightly less helpful) research might be available. I did searches in both Spanish and English and hardly anything came up. I was forced to wax on about articles that only glanced over these resources and really didn't provide teachers with solid ideas and strategies for Spanish language technology for the classroom other than translation tools. Therefore, I began to look to other teacher's bilingual blogs and I was met with more success. In particular, http://spanglishbaby.com/ provided me with a multitude of lists of links for Spanish and bilingual websites, apps, and book lists. Overall, while frustrated, I did end up with more sources for Spanish educational technology than when I started, if not from a necessarily as credible source.

Westward Expansion Board Game Webquest

For our next unit of Social Studies, we'll be studying westward expansion and, in my silly infatuations with webquests, I've created one that leads students to create a board game covering one of four topics: Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea; the Oregon Trail; the Pony Express; and the Transcontinental Railroad. These all correspond to migration which ties into our Core ELA study of Esperanza Rising. Hopefully, students will be getting really comfortable with the format of a webquest so that it's even more student centered and less teacher supported compared to our mock trials. Let me know if you make use of it! I'd love to know how it turned out. Here are links to the planning pages in English and Spanish and then click the button for the webquest pptx file itself. Make sure you're downloading everything to your computer from Google Docs instead of just printing from there (the formatting will be different).

Map Skills and Mexican Review Game

I created a game to make the review process more fun for the students after having studied the following topics: the Rich and Poor of Mexico, the Mexican-American War, and the Mexican Revolution (these are all in Spanish). We also just finished up our study of geography including the continents and oceans, latitude and longitude, hemispheres, cardinal directions, and where to find the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and explanation of Alaska and Hawaii. This game is meant to be played in guided reading groups and is in English so that students can apply the knowledge they learned in Spanish to something in English to develop a bilingual vocabulary for the material.

Schedule Printables

I created some new bilingual printables for our schedule this year so that it looks cuter and less horrendously 2002. Kelly green, royal blue, and yellow--are we serious about this, Really Good Stuff? No thanks.

I plan on cutting, laminating, and magnetizing these little babies. And, as with a lot of the printables already in our room, they're black and white and go with any color scheme! I'll post some pics once our room is kid-ready.