I have been teaching French for four years now. Unfortunately, it wasn't until my second year that I came to love the expression "Beg, Borrow, and Steal". I remember thinking during my first year that I should create everything myself. I soon realized that there are already a lot of great activities and ideas out there for lessons I am planning. I titled my blog "Beg, Borrow, and Blog" because I figured that during this course we would be sharing a lot of ideas about what we found worked well or what didn't work well concerning technology in the classroom. So feel free to comment on anything!
For my first blog, I thought I'd talk about something that I absolutely love...Moodle! For anyone that is not familiar with it, it is similar to D2L. Our high school has a Moodle page, and students use their student id and password to log on from school or home. Our computer tech sets up a page for each of my classes (French I, II, etc.) On each page, I can upload my notes for the day or post assignments. This is great for when students are absent, or when a learning support teacher would like copies of class notes. I can post links to online practice activities for the students. I can even create my own quizzes or tests that the students can take on Moodle. Another thing that I like is that I can tier the activities. I will often post a selection ranging in difficulty so that the students can start where they feel comfortable and work their way up. Sometimes when parents want to know what their child can do for extra practice, I will tell them about the Moodle page and the activities that are posted. The best part is that I do not have to create all of the activities myself. I search sites like Quia and find games that were already created by other teachers. Students also like that the notes and activities are there throughout the year. So if they lose a notebook or want to review for finals, everything is accessible. Overall, I have found that it is one thing that makes my job a little bit easier.
Here is the link to Quia in case anyone wants to check it out for online activities. They have them for every content area. http://www.quia.com/shared/
Jill,
ReplyDeleteI am a fellow Moodle user and I am encouraged by some of the things you mentioned about posting your in class work on the site for students to access.
I currently am using Moodle to teach a credit recovery class (summer school) for world cultures. I have had limited success based on the caliber of student already taking the class.
I'm wondering if your in class students make regular use of the Moodle site and information you put up for them? How has this worked out for you? What is their feedback like?
Maze,
ReplyDeleteOverall, the feedback is good. Most of the students do make regular use out of it. Even if it is just to review activities the night before a test, or look at a posted rubric the day before a project is due : ). Sadly, like anything else, there are some students who admit to never utilizing it. I have found two things helpful for this. In the beginning of the year, and even a few times throughout, I will reserve our school laptop's or a computer lab and spend a period just going over French Class Moodle pages, where/how to find everything, and let them try activities. This usually helps them see how easy and useful it can be. The second thing is that you can post a quiz or something that will be graded on there. With this, I usually give them a 3 day window to take it so if they try to say they don't have a computer or their internet was down, it gives them time to use a school computer. I hope this helps!