Introduction
Hi Everyone,
My name is Maria Besten and I work at Crystal Lake South High School in Crystal Lake, District 155. After years of working in the corporate world I earned my BA in German Language and Literature from Northern Illinois University and then my MA in German Language and Literature from the University of Nebraska. I have been teaching German as a foreign language for the past 12 years. I have taught all levels from German 1 through German 4 A/P. I also hold an ESL endorsement and have taught ESL 1 - 3.
Prior to implementation of remote learning I feel I was an advanced beginner in terms of technology. Over the last few weeks as we were all thrown into e-learning I think I can say I graduated to a comfort level between advanced beginner and competent. And every day I learn something new!
Our district is implementing Canvas next school year. We have been learning this past semester how to use it and I am excited that I can experience Canvas from the student's view. District 155 has transitioned to 1:1 in 2018.
I am married and have two girls, Alana and Alexis, and our little fur baby Nahla. In my spare time I like to work in the yard, read and travel. My newest addiction is creating Bitmoji classrooms - so addicting!
Looking forward to working with all of you and learning how to implement various multi media tools in my lessons that hopefully will engage my students!
Two Artifacts
Choosing only two artifacts from all the ones I created is going to be a difficult task. There were many that I was extremely proud of and could immediately implement in my classroom.
One assignment that stood out was Module 7 Assignment: Fake News creating a lesson plan. Not because it was an assignment that I could immediately use in my classroom, but because it was by far my most challenging one. As a foreign language classroom for the lower level German classes we never address topics such as fake news. I mulled over this assignment for over a week, feeling challenged, frustrated and lost. I didn’t feel confident at all creating a lesson plan, since it was completely out of my comfort zone. It was very difficult for me to make a connection to a topic or curriculum that I had no experience with and that did not pertain to my work or experiences directly. I tried to create an activity that would help me better understand how to detect fake news and hopefully the activity I chose will benefit the students as well.
After creating this lesson plan I realize that this lesson has a place in my German 1 and 2 classes. It is called seeing the big picture, seeing the possibilities of using this lesson cross curricular with other subjects such as history, art, sociology and music.
Overall this is a great way to communicate with my families about the German program at CLS.
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Reflection
When deciding on continuing education classes I want to make sure I choose classes that allow me to grow and expand to reach my personal goal of becoming a better person and educator for my students. I ask myself what do I need to know and learn now to be better today. This time remote learning forced me to look at classes that will enhance my technology skills and broaden my horizons to better serve my students while teaching online.
In my classroom I like to teach more with kinesthetic-tactile activities and use the computer or computer related activities very little. It is student driven as my kids are very vocal that they do not like their chrome books and love playing old fashioned games such as board games, Guess Who or Connect Four to practice their vocabulary, grammar and/or speaking skills in the target language.
Unfortunately, that all came to a halt when COVID19 came into our lives and my e-learning teaching skills were tested. I managed, but I managed poorly. I have very little confidence with computer related activities and remote learning. When the stay at home order was issued I was bombarded and with all these websites that offered activities for my students during remote learning – I was so overwhelmed! Which ones should I choose? What activities are going to work online? Are my students going to like them? Will they be engaged? Which technology activities will empower students?
Another concern I have with online learning is isolation. My in-person classes are full of activities that either encourages individual, partner, small group or whole class learning. How can I get students to collaborate the same way we do in the traditional classroom when we are only teaching on-line? I learned over the past few weeks that online learning does not have to be in isolation, but there are many opportunities for students to share ideas/information with online activities by using chats, discussions, games, projects, books etc.
I was hoping that the classes I enrolled in “Engaging E-Learning” and “Multimedia Tools in Education” would help me sort out the plethora of technology and guide me in my choices what I should incorporate in my classroom. I was looking for meaningful projects in which I can use appropriate technology. It has been very helpful and rewarding to complete assignments from the student’s perspective. This class has offered a wealth of information to enhance my e-learning curriculum for the upcoming year. In this class I learned that there is an abundance of tech tools that I can implement in my classroom; tools that will keep my students challenged and engaged. There are options for my students to work individually, with a partner or small groups. I am looking forward to creating new curriculum that I can enhance with assignments that require technology and it will be rewarding and educational for my students.
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Module 5 - Resources
As a foreign language teacher it is important that I capture the attention of my students. That is best done with a great visual – for example a joke in German that introduces the lesson. The kids are able to understand what is happening in the picture without having to know the language. And even though they didn’t have to read the caption to understand they feel a sense of accomplishment, because they got the joke, without know much of the language.
One of the most important tools in my classroom are visuals– be it in person teaching or during remote learning. From day one I speak in the target language and what I say to the students is supported by a visual, so they have an idea of what I am trying to communicate to them. The visuals will also reduce anxiety, because they can see the content I am teaching them. From the first day in my classroom students can as to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, go to the nurse etc, because I have posters with the written information supported by a picture.
I also have taught ESL 1, where students did not speak any English and I did not know their language (Spanish, Chinese, Arabic). Graphic designs were my savor! I was able to lay out the entire lesson using graphic designs and students were knew what was expected by following the visuals. I couldn’t have taught that class without the visuals.
In both instances I was able to include infographics for students to analyze within a few weeks of instruction. They certainly were not able to read everything, but the visuals gave enough information that students could answer specific questions and were able to speculate, predict or hypothesize about other information.
From the readings I have learned that I need to let go of some of my planning and let the students do it. What really hit home was the data that 80 % of information is retained if the learner sees it or creates it him/herself. Even though I teach high school my students love to get creative when they have to complete an assignment that includes drawings. Lots of times I hear – Remember when we did this in elementary school! Or I remember doing this when we learned how to tell time!
While reading the article 8 Examples of Incorporating Infographics in Middle School Classrooms I thought of an activity that we usually do in small groups. The students read an article what young people in Germany to in their spare time. The article is full of statistics and in the past the groups would read the text and would give a visual representation of the article on a big piece of poster paper. This year I am going to try to have them create an infographic since this article is peppered with statistics. If we are e-learning I think it will be a great assignment that they can do individually or with a partner. I am really excited to try this out.