Monthly Archives: October 2023

Telling You About Myself in French

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Hey readers,

I am back with another learning project post!!! This week I am going to use some of my French knowledge that I have gained to tell you about myself, using phrases that I have learned mainly on DuoLingo and YouTube, but also words which I have taken upon myself to re-learn, such as numbers, and seasons of the year.

Je suis un homme. J’ai vingt-trois ans. Je travaille beaucoup! J’étudie à l’Université de Regina. J’habite à Weyburn. J’ai un chat, il étudie avec moi. Je déteste l’hiver.

A new thing I have started doing is taking words which I want to learn, throwing them into google translate and then writing them down into my notebook. I have been taking it upon myself to relearn many words which I would have been taught in school that have not been covered by DuoLingo. Things such as the names for seasons, and numbers up to 100 are things which I have been targetting more heavily this past week.

Above is an example of something I will type into google translate if I want to learn it. I then try to use the newly acquired terminology in sentences.

That is where I have found DuoLingo to be of most use, is helping me to understand the structure of sentences in French. It feels so backwards from English at first, but through constant repetition of phrases in French, it is starting to feel more natural. DuoLingo has been slow in introducing a ton of new terminology, which I understand. It does not want to overwhelm the user with a million different words, and wants to teach through constant repetition, which is a slow (but steady) process. In the past couple weeks, I have come to realize that teaching myself additional words I want to use and learn in supplement of DuoLingo is going to be the most efficient way of continuing my learning process.

I want to conclude this blog post with a question I have for anybody who may know…

Does anybody know how to use accents on a computer keyboard? I have been enjoying the keyboard on my iPhone as the accents are not hard to find, but I would really like to be able to type French with relative ease on my computer too!!! Do I have to change my keyboard settings? Are there third-party apps which make it easier? I intend to do some research on this subject but I also want to hear if anybody else has figured out a way to do this!

As always, thanks for taking the time to read my blog! Have a great day!

The Rise of the Internet and the Classroom – My Reaction to Wesch and Others

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Hey readers,

I really enjoyed this video by Wesch, and while it has dated in the 15 years since it was posted, I think it has aged gracefully. It documents the rise in the new dominant form of communication:

The Internet

The fact that people across the world are only a few clicks away from each other at any given time has been revolutionary for the way we communicate with one another.

In the video, Wesch seems to have such an innocent outlook on the global outreach that the internet provides us with. In 2008, the internet was a vastly different place, but even then the growth that the internet was experiencing was undeniable. The internet provides us with not only a platform to find almost any sort of information, but also a platform to share anything which we like. Wesch explores the phenomenon of viral videos and their impact on the youth… I don’t know about any of my readers but this video made me really nostalgic. Especially the Soulja Boy video, I remember being about seven years old when Soulja Boy “came onto the scene”.

I think me being a 7 year old who knew the Crank Dat Soulja Boy back in 2007 ties in nicely to the points that Wesch makes throughout his lecture; that YouTube (and the internet) has connected vast amounts of people (mainly youth-driven) in ways that have never been seen (instantaneously across the globe).

This platform can be a positive thing, but it also brings up some challenges. Especially as the internet, and social media continue to push their way to the forefront of the youth’s attention.

In a newer article from August 2022 which shared some statistics from 2014-present day, it is noted by the authors that
“Fully 35% of teens say they are using at least one of them “almost constantly.”

I personally think this number is higher than that, and this number is constantly rising. Kids are constantly growing more dependent on the internet as it continues to advance. The internet can write essays for you. The internet can connect you with friends from the comfort of your bed. The internet can teach you new languages. Interestingly, many things which are connected with the internet are also things which can be incorporated into schooling.

The internet is a tool with unlimited possibilities, but the ways that we use it often waste the potential that it provides us with, and that includes myself. As Wesch states, the internet is a place which is led by the youth. In 2008, when his lecture was posted, I was extremely youthful (maybe I still am). My generation has grown up with the internet, and that leads me to where I am going with this blog post:

As teachers who have grown up with the internet, unlike our parents and unlike most of the teachers we likely experienced, we are much more familiar with the risks and benefits which the internet provides us with. I feel as though it is our responsibility to raise awareness to these risks at all times, however we should still find ways to meaningfully incorporate the internet into our teaching experiences.

It is essential that students fully understand that what they post on the internet is not limited to the small circles that they are likely intended for. My generation did not understand this… I have spent days of time trying to scrub my digital footprint off of sites that I no longer use. Trying to scrub things which I deem cringeworthy many years after the fact. We did not have people to teach us about digital footprints/identity when I was in elementary, or secondary schools. I feel like this is another essential piece of incorporating internet into schooling which often goes uncovered.

Sorry, I could write about this topic all day, and I apologize if this blog post was all over the place… The internet is a complex subject. One thing I am divided on is the use of AI in schools… I am curious to know what others think of AI, or if & how they intend to incorporate it. I am not entirely familiar with AI & things such as ChatGPT, so if anybody could enlighten me on actual benefits that it provides us with in education that would be really interesting. I feel like AI gets a bad rep (maybe deservingly so), but how can we draw the benefits out of AI in an authentic educational setting? Let me know what you think, and as always, thanks for taking the time out of your day to read my blog!

Je m’ennuie – A LONG car ride

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Hey readers,

Over the week of reading week I spent much of it driving. A buddy and I hopped into a car, drove to Fernie to meet with a couple other buddies, and then we all went to Calgary, and then back to Fernie, and then my buddy and I made our way back home. If you were wondering, yes, I am sick of driving. If you are also wondering what this has to do with my learning project, let me explain!

For the 9+ hour trips to Fernie and back to Saskatchewan, I did do a little bit of DuoLingo… My friend kept laughing at my attempts to speak French whenever prompted, and he was driving so I did not want to annoy him the whole way.

The solutions I came up with to get around this were:

A) Use Headphones

and

B) Try something other than DuoLingo!

And with that, I set off on trying to find some YouTube videos… In my previous blog posts I have not included many links, so I thought it would be something new to incorporate some more links to my blog of the videos I viewed, and additionally, give my opinion on how effective some of these videos were for me.

  1. 100 Easy French Phrases to Learn

I thought that this was a great video. I like that it cuts to the chase; often times the videos I watched tend to ramble on for the first few minutes, which I find disengaging. It includes many phrases I was familiar with, and many that I had not learned yet. It was a bit slow-paced, so I put it on 1.25x playback speed and listened to it a couple times. I also learned a great new phrase which summed up most of my trip:

Je m’ennuie, which means “I’m bored”.

 

2. French Greetings (And other videos by this creator!)

This was another great video that I found, and I actually recommend this entire channel. I have watched a few of her videos, and they are extremely helpful in supplement of the DuoLingo app. On DuoLingo, I have been learning many greetings in my “beginning” phases of the app, so this video specifically catered to what I have been learning quite nicely.

3. Learn French in 25 Minutes.

At first, I was not a fan of this video… I’m not sure why, I think maybe the ad at the beginning of the channel trying to sell me something had something to do with it. But I gave it a second chance, since it is literally the first video that popped up when I searched “french for beginners” on YouTube. I really liked this video. It explains some of the nuances of French language that I have been finding really tricky! For example, casual language/formal language and feminine/masculine nouns are explained in this video. Feminine and masculine nouns have been giving me serious grief!!!

 

I am not much of a visual learner, particularly when it comes to watching videos, so this experience was something a little bit out of my “educational wheelhouse”, however I really enjoyed doing this. I think I might have needed something other than DuoLingo, as I found that trying something else in addition to DuoLingo really remotivated me to continue learning! I am now at 27 days straight of using DuoLingo, and am branching off into other methods of learning. I plan on making flash cards for many of the words I have been finding to be tricky, however I am open to any suggestions on any other methods I should try!

Thanks for reading! Au revoir!

Week 4 – Trying Something New

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Greetings, reader!

For this week’s blog, we were assigned to try a tool we have not used before to document our learning project.

To document my learning (and show people what I have been doing), here is a video I made using Microsoft ClipChamp, a free-to-use video editing software that was on my computer. I have never used it before, so hopefully my video turned out alright. It was too big to upload to my blog, so I have attached it into a google document for your viewing pleasure.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19x5sbhNfCwQw4KOqM0AI6aofuwfdPo68-ZfZCU51ZBg/edit?usp=sharing

Please leave me a comment if this video is not viewable! I set it so anybody with the link can view.

As far as how I feel about my progression through my learning goal, I was thinking about some of the comments I received from my readers! One of them suggested making flash cards, as I would be able to memorize words efficiently. That is something I think I will do! I find that in a span of 3-4 lessons, 25-50 words are generally practiced at a time in DuoLingo.

I spend a lot of time commuting, and I find it amusing that I am starting to think of phrases in French while I am driving. Even if it is something simple like “tu manges une pizza” (you are eating a pizza), or “bonne journée, à bientôt” (have a good day, see you soon), I see this as progress!

Certain phrases are difficult for me to remember, for example “parle” (speak) can also be spelled “parles” or “parlez” depending on the context. I find that this has been the most difficult thing for me to understand. I am getting better at understanding the language as it is spoken to me, however repeating it and using the proper spelling of the terms is difficult to get a grasp of! I think the suggestion of flash cards will come in very handy for this.

Back to my usage of ClipChamp, and how I feel it relates to the SAMR model

S- Substitution

For students, viewing a short video is often an efficient way to gather the important points of a certain topic. Rather than a long-winded blog about DuoLingo, why not just show you it in a quick video?

A- Augmentation

For a teacher using a software like ClipChamp, augmentation is attainable through sharing videos with the class. Students can choose to go back, rewind, and view any videos/multimedia that they wish at anytime.

M – Modification

I think video-editing software such as ClipChamp makes for a great modification of a presentation, particularly for students who may be too shy to speak in front of a class, or also for those who may be too long-winded to be concise. It made for a quick, and easy way for me to represent what I have been learning.

R- Redefinition

As was mentioned in “M- Modification”, editing software such as ClipChamp creates a unique opportunity for students to share what they have learned through creating a video. In redefining, students can share what they have learned not only amongst each other, but also have opportunities to post their videos onto a blog like this, or onto another platform such as YouTube!

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog! Did you like my video, and do you have any tips for editing videos?