Have you ever heard the phrase, "your kids", said by a general to a special education teacher? Any time I do, I cannot help but cringe. Imagine being that student the teacher is talking about. You might feel as if you didn't belong in both classrooms, or unaccepted by one. For ELL's, and all students, inclusion and collaboration is key.
An article popped up on my Google Alerts entitled, ELLs are Everyone's Kids, and right now that is something that everyone needs to be reminded of. Whether we are struggling to modify during online learning or how to work on a project collaboratively with the ESL teacher, we need to know that we are a team. With the world at its divide, we need to teach our children about inclusiveness and collaboration.
How does this relate to ELL and technology? Easy. We need to provide our students with vast amounts of tools and technology that they can use to grow as learners- intellectually, emotionally, socially, etc. As teachers, we need to find what works best for our students, all students, not just the majority. Tools provided by companies such as Google allow for just that!
Google Slides and Docs allow students to work on papers and presentations with others, regardless of the location! It have built in voice-to-text, allowing students ease of usage. We have spent the past few weeks in class discussing applications that our students could use in the classroom. Google apps encompasses many of the qualities we prefer, while allowing students the opportunity to be included and work with their peers. I am looking forward to using them in the fall.
If you are interested in reading the article that caught my attention this week, please click here.
Hi Maghee,
ReplyDeleteGood points all around, especially during the challenges we are all facing as a result of remote learning and being separated from one another. This fall we're likely to have to be flexible in our approach to work, and students are probably going to spend time at home learning again. Google slides and docs make it so easy to 'float' between school and home and help to equalize access, regardless of what software kids have at home. I also enjoyed your writing style, nice post!