FRIDAY August 12, 2016

SUMMER 2016: WEEK FOUR

Hobbies / Free Time

Week 4 brought an unexpected visitor to the Hamilton Fish Library in Lower Manhattan: L.A. Law's Mr. Blair Underwood!
We just heard how and why he came to the library from HF teacher Angela:

"He was filming down the block and asked to come in to - of all things -
use the bathroom!"

HF teacher Angela Thompson, Blair Underwood, and HF students

GOOGLE RESOURCES



Did you ever think about giving a little quiz, but not sure how? The Free Technology for Teachers website has an idea-check out: Google Forms Can Grade Quizzes




TEACHING RESOURCES
NEW YORK CITY:
Here are a few resources that work well with the Travel theme in Venture's Unit 10 (like the "Alcatraz" section in Ventures 3).

NYC LANDMARKS: Taking in New York City's vast history can be overwhelming. That's why The Landmarks Preservation Commission unveiled a new interactive map this week that allows users to virtually explore over 33,000 landmarks across all five boroughs. Read more here:
Virtually Explore NYC Landmarks (Article)
Landmark Map


From the 1800s... Tour NYC in the 1800's with Google Street View

to today...  NYC Travel Guide

Do you like SUMMER IN THE CITY? 
Trying to stay cool? Here are two more videos from my old website: - Elke
1. Joe Cocker's "Summer in the City" video version with subtitles - a nice warmup or in between activity for intermediate and advanced learners:

2. Time travel to 20th Century Coney Island. For high intermediate or advanced learners.
Also a good outside of class assignment. 




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Did you talk about the Olympic Games in your class?
Here's a fun assignment from Yolanda Rodriguez' TABE M/D class:
Students create a flyer for the host city of their choice in 2024!





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NEED HELP ORGANIZING?
Enter Live Binders! I was excited to find a way to organize all of my resources online in a way that matched the conceptual organization of using physical binders or files, rather than a list of links. Live Binders allows you to compile and organize all of your materials online, and then enables you to access and share those via one web link. - Elizabeth

Read the short blog post here: Organize Resources Online


SOMETHING TO EXPLORE
From the wonderful Free Technology for Teachers Blog:
QR Voice is a free tool that allows you to create QR codes that when scanned will play a short audio message. To create your message and QR code you can record a voice message by clicking the microphone icon on QR Voice or you can type in your message. Either way you're limited to 100 characters. QR Voice will play back in your choice of forty languages. Read the entire post here: Develop Mobile Language Lessons


TECHNOLOGY TIP
We were hoping to have a new online resource list for students available - 
not yet, but coming in the fall! (in cooperation with SASB Student Mentor Alicia McMillan)
CAN YOU RECOMMEND A GREAT WEBSITE/APP RESOURCE FOR STUDENT WE SHOULD ADD???




Did anybody practice with Duolingo?
I'm at 47% in French and 42% in Spanish and have to say it is quite addictive. - Elke 

If you like, please ask your students to download and practice with Duolingo.

Here's a little Duolingo information, researched by St. Agnes Student Mentor Joel Berrios:

Pros:
-User friendly and straight forward.
-Easy for students to make an account.
-Scores and corrects students.
-Provides multiple levels (students can take test to move to appropriate level).
-Has a social aspect and can be accessed with other social media accounts (Facebook, Google)

Cons:
-Teaches through translation.
-Only available in Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Spanish, Polish, Turkish, Russian, French, Japaneses, Hindu, Indonesian, Chinese, Portuguese, Romanian, Dutch, Nederlands, Bulgarian, and Korean  (If any student does not find his/ her native language, he/ she will not be able to use the software).

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         PLANNING AHEAD          

IMPORTANT FALL 2016 DATES:

Classes BEGIN: September 26

Classes END: December 18

All staff MEETING: October 7

NO CLASS on these dates:

10/10, 11/11, 11/23, 11/25, 11/26, 11/27

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YOUR FEEDBACK IS NEEDED!

We've been publishing the TeacherHub blog for almost a year now. We've learned a lot along the way, and we both enjoy working on it immensely. 

Thanks if your feedback along the way and for answering last week's SURVEY.

If you haven't filled it out yet, here's your chance :)

Please take a minute to give us some feedback using this Google Form 

- and please be sure to click "submit" when you're done :)

TeacherHub Feedback Form

Thank you in advance! 

We want to make this blog interesting and useful to you!

(Contributions are welcome, too!)

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Have a great week and enjoy the rest of the summer!!!

Elizabeth & Elke