The five C's of foreign language education

   

    The purposes and uses of foreign languages are as diverse as the students who study them. For us as Lebanese people, foreign languages are our key for being open to the modern world that we are surrounded by. It is our gate for guaranteeing success in our future life and careers. In the modern countries such as the United States of America, France, ...etc; foreign languages are studied for the people's interest  in the intellectual challenges and cognitive benefits that accrue to those who master multiple languages. Still others seek a greater understanding of other people and cultures.
     Regardless of the reason of study, foreign languages have something to offer everyone. It is with this philosophy in mind that  the standards task force identified five goal areas that encompass all of the reasons which are called the five C's of for

1. Communication
2. Cultures
3. Connections
4. Comparisons
5. Communities

     There are a lot of activities we can use in our classrooms in order to create  interest towards the target language by using authentic cultural content. The key point is that we should create a relaxing environment where our students can discuss their own culture together with the target culture in meaningful and communicative tasks and activities. This will ensure that students are doing something with a purpose in the mind. 

Attending a webinar: Apps Every Teacher Ne eds NOW!

      This webinar was presented by Shannon Holden, who examines the apps that are the “Best of the Best” in 2018 and will help elementary through high school educators benefit from. Through this webinar Shannon Holden went through the following points:

1. The fact that we are present in the "Golden Area" of educational apps.
2. List of the apps that each teacher needs.
3. How to implement such apps in the classroom.
4. When presented with several apps, how to choose which one to use.
5. The educational apps that no longer exist.

     The apps are:

A- Formative assessment: since students enjoy competitive online platforms, teachers can assign students to perform a quiz through: here is three apps to use:

1-  "Kahoot" which is good, fun and free but students may not use their real names. When teacher make the quiz she invites students to play by entering a pin. Teacher can adjust the amount of time needed for each question. Teacher can take a corrective action.

2-  " Qiuzlet Live" is excellent to see the students strengths and gaps. It is great for team work assessment. It stresses accuracy over speed. 

3-  " Qiuzizz"  It is free. Teacher can make his own quiz or choose from the samples provided. Tt keeps track on the students scores to help teachers perform the suitable action for the students benefit.

B- Waklet: It is free and simple. It saves content from the internet. and make collections. It is like a digital portfolio, where the teacher can save all the useful information she might find beneficial for the students at different periods through out the year and come find the information needed at any time.

C- Flipgrid: It is free. Teacher is in complete control of the grid, students can make recordings up to 5 minutes long. It allows connectivity with teachers and students and all over the world through the hashtag: GridPals. 

D- Duolingo: It's free and is for people who want to learn new languages. It contains 30 languages to teach with short lessons, completions.It contains pictures of nouns and no conjunction verbs.

E- IXL:  It provides instructions in reading, writing, and mathematics. It contains thousands of questions for different grade levels. It is based on national standards. It allows data tracking for teachers. It provides certificates and awards for students when they finish their work and it explains for the student why he got the answer wrong if he does.

F- Photo Math: It is free. Students take a photo of a math problem and it shows how to solve it step by step.

 RIP- Recap and Google+: 

Personal Reflection:

   Technology in the educational arena is moving at warp speed, it is almost impossible for teachers to keep up with all the innovations in the app world. In order to stay connected, teachers should be updated through all the tools provided around them in order to grab and use these golden ways for the benefit of their students and for their self development as a teachers. All the previous points made this webinar a catch for me in  which I enjoyed every minute. Indeed it is very interesting, enlightening and essential for every teacher.

Teaching English as a Third language

    Almost in all the schools in Lebanon, there are two basic languages by which the subjects are presented to the students. Where we have Arabic and English as main languages, we also have French as a minor one; and where we have Arabic and French being taught as the main languages, we have the French language presented as the minor one. My 8 years of experience as an English teacher occurred in teaching English as a minor one. I could say that these eight years were successful and full of fruitful results in the part of my students. I worked hard to simplify the English language and to present it in a fun way full of authentic situations, where students can clearly view the desperate need of the English language in these days. On the other hand, these eight years, somehow, set me into a long deep nap in relation to being updated to everything which is new to the teaching of English  language.
     Nowadays all teachers no matter what subjects or languages they are teaching, should always be updated and stay alerted to every update and improvement that occurs in the education field. From year to year, the world is changing all around and changing in turn the way people think and view things. Such changes highly affects our educational views and methods which are used in our classrooms. Through my eight years of teaching, this is the part that I missed and glad to gain it back when i returned to the university to finish my masters degree. The conclusion that I ended with and I know that a big majority of the teachers out there agree with me is that; a good teacher is a result and combination of good education, great time of experience and a continuous never stop update.