ESL teacher reflection

As a beginning and learning teacher, I have begun to envision the way my classroom will look and operate. Most of the time this involves thinking about the signs I would put around the room, the types of hands-on activities that I could incorporate, or what kind of textbooks would be used. I've never (or very rarely) considered how technology will play a part in my classroom. In today's society, technology is key. There's no way I'll get by without implementing it somehow. Last week's class session reminded me that I need to start thinking about and collecting ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.

The CLEAR website through MSU seems like an amazing resource to have as a second language teacher. Many times it can be difficult to arrange class time to hear individual students' responses to questions or to get them to volunteer an answer. Some components to the website such as video dropboxes create a way to quickly and easily organize all student answers in one place, that can be listened to at a later date. Other apps such as the Jeopardy game app create a fun way to learn and review information. The best part is that these tools are so simple that almost any student could use them (depending on grade level).

In another class, Second Language Acquisition, we are reviewing a beginning language learner course offered by BBC. It's interactive, and includes video, grammar, and vocabulary exercises that are all interactive and offer feedback (to a certain extent). This is something that could also be used as a supplement to class, over an extended period of time, to further students' learning. It can be used in-class, or assigned as homework to save time during instruction periods.

After seeing how both of these tools can impact learning, I know I'm going to search for more ways to  enhance learning through the internet. There are so many ways that learning can improve, while at the same time saving time in class. It's worth it to do the research now, so that time is saved later on.

- Sarah Miller