Posted by jenmalonetn | Posted in Foreign Language | Posted on May 2, 2013
Lingo Hut is a place for online learning of foreign languages.
Lingo Hut is a place for online learning of foreign languages.
40 Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners is a helpful post on the “TWEEN TEACHER” blog. Many of these strategies work equally well with other struggling learners.
Learn A Language is a free site where students or educators can practice common vocabulary or phrases of seven (eight if you count English) different languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, German, or Russian.
If you have been itching to try your hand at coordinating a global learning project in your classroom, this blog and links are a great place to start. The possibilities are endless and can tie in to all subject areas.
Thanks to Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom Blog for this list.
http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/2011/02/10/my-journey-with-global-collaboration/
http://www.globalschoolnet.org/
These links will take you to sites where you can learn Spanish online (for the most part free – although some do require you to sign-up and provide an email address).
“Curso de Español” (www.learn-spanish-online.de)
Word Steps is a free program where you can learn foreign language vocabulary a few words each day. You create an account so that you can store your settings. They claim:
The mission of Project Explorere is to provide a global cultural experience through film and multimedia materials aimed at fostering the next generation of global citizens. Founded in 2003 by Jenny M Buccos, ProjectExplorer.org is a nonprofit organization (501c3) that produces free, online global travel series. Designed for family and classroom, ProjectExplorer.org provides students with access to peoples and places they may never have seen or knew existed.
Curriculum Bits is a UK site, but it has some interesting links. From the web site….
Established in 2006, Curriculumbits.com offer free online access to a growing range of interactive multimedia elearning resources. The online resource library contains games, quizzes, animations and videos in a variety of subjects. Resources have been produced according to key stage 3 and 4 of the UK National Curriculum for students aged 11 to 16. All resources are produced by elearning multimedia specialists in collaboration with every day teaching staff as a direct solution to their classroom requirements.
Slangman’s World, currently airing on the American Forces Network (AFN) in 175 countries, introduces young children to foreign languages and cultures through music, animation, and magic. Slangman, the show’s host, is a fun-loving wizard and inventor who lives in a house high on a cloud. His best friend, Wordy, is a young language dictionary on a quest to fill up his pages with words from around the world so he can earn his place in the Great Hall of Books.
The purpose of Slangman’s World is not just to teach children a few words in a new language, but to inspire them to want to learn more about the people, languages, and cultures around the world. Fun is the key. Slangman’s World is a feast for the senses, giving children more to discover every time they watch it.
“The limits of my language are the limits of my world.”
–Ludwig Wittgenstein
Guide to Global Collaborations
Looking for Global Projects for your Students
From Larry Ferlazzo’s blog comes these two sites on finding global projects for your students.
The Story Place Web Site (in both English and Spanish)
Children and their parents have for years enjoyed attending storytimes, checking out books and participating in a number of other educational, entertaining and participatory programs at the various locations of The Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg County. StoryPlace, an interactive web site, came about to provide children with the virtual experience of going to the library and participating in the same types of activities the library offers. In the summer of 1999, a team of Children’s Librarians and Specialists got together with in-house web developers to begin development on this exciting site. In the Spring of 2000, StoryPlace premiered with its first section, the Pre-School Library, completed.
StoryPlace currently consists of two libraries, the Preschool Library and Elementary Library. We welcome comments and suggestions to make StoryPlace the children’s virtual library to check out!
Whyzz web site that answers kids questions…
This web site allows students to ask questions and receive an answer. It also allows contributions from the participants.
whyzz is the place where parents with curious young children can find and contribute kid-ready information about how the world works! You can use whyzz on your mobile device or on your desktop in any one of the three following ways:
Use the whyzz Search Bar to look for the article that answers your curious child’s question! whyzz articles are designed to be concise, creative, reliable, and written in terms that your kids can understand.
Browse whyzz to see the broad range of what we have to offer! Children’s questions can be endless, so whyzz covers a large variety of topics and categories.
You can also use your mobile device to explore whyzz Fun Stuff when you’re stuck in line at the DMV or end up in congested traffic. There are games, stories, and activities to help further your child’s learning when you suddenly find yourself stuck in a jam!
Welcome to “BabelNation.com”, the outstanding new online-service, which offers online language courses in Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese completely free of charges. Whether you want to travel the world, strengthen your language skills for business purposes or just learn a language for the fun of it, “BabelNation.com” will offer you free interactive online language courses.
Thinkfinity Training Opportunities Web Site
Thinkfinity had a wonderful session at NECC with actor Eric Close and blind mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer demonstrated how bringing adventure into the classroom stimulates learning. I have talked about this site before, but you have to see it now. The amount of resources for classroom teachers is vast and well laid out, and the best part is it is all free! Share in the comments session how you are using these resouces in your classrooms.
What is iEARN?
iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is a non-profit organization made up of over 25,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 125 countries. iEARN empowers teachers and young people to work together online using the Internet and other new communications technologies. Over 2,000,000 students each day are engaged in collaborative project work worldwide.
Since 1988, iEARN has pioneered on-line school linkages to enable students to engage in meaningful educational projects with peers in their countries and around the world.
iEARN is:
For those interested in learning a little Spanish or increasing your Spanish vocabulary, check out this great web site. This is the post from May 8th on the topic of debt: In English we say we’re “up to our neck in debt”. In Spanish one might describe oneself as “hocked up to the shirt”, as in “empeñado hasta la camisa”.