GEG Teachers of Languages - Tough Competition

As one of the Community Leaders for GEG IL, (Google Educator Groups of Israel)I have the inspiring opportunity to make it possible for teachers of languages who have a passion for incorporating teaching and technology, to get together and build amazing activities which they can then take back to their classrooms. Ideas give birth to other ideas, and teachers who come to these unique get-togethers find themselves learning, teaching and inspiring  one another.

We had our third get-together with the GEG IL Teachers of Languages this past Thursday. The southern branch met in a beautiful new Youth Center in the southern city of Ofakim! We had tough competition (with the fast approach of Passover, many of our teachers have been  racing against time to get their preparations and cleaning done). But a few determined souls from the south, with a passion for education and technology, tossed their dust rags aside for a few hours to join my highly competent co-community leader and favorite Google Ninja, Hanan Pearlman and me.  

We began the session with the chairs set up as the seats in an airplane, and the passengers were given boarding cards.  

  

The virtual travelers were invited to take their assigned seats, to buckle up and were served peanuts and grapejuice.... (as stocks of pink champagne have already been depleted)  and then asked to list on the back of their boarding cards, any overweight baggage that could be left  behind, in order to ease their flight. The "overweight baggage" (personal concerns, things they would rather leave behind from the field such as grading and marking and dealing with bureaucracy and behavior management, etc) was gathered in a suitcase, left behind in Terminal 1 in Ofakim, and we took off! (HT Howie Gordon for this clever ice-breaker!)

In order to become better acquainted with their fellow passengers, they interacted in threes and had questions to answer. We used Random Name Picker, a cool tool I wrote about a few weeks ago, and inserted the content we wanted. The questions were in Hebrew, since as Teachers of Languages in Israel, our common language is Hebrew.  One person spun the wheel and asked the questions, the second passenger answered the question, the third wrote down the answers. Every three questions, they switched roles.

After the passengers had become more acquainted with their flight buddies, we watched a short TED talk about the art of speaking (how to be effective even when you really have nothing to say). We threw around the names and capabilities of some of the tools that WE know and love, and then embarked on our community's Mission for the Day: to devise activities for a language class that will encourage speaking in the target language and would  be enhanced by incorporating technology.

At one point we were joined remotely via Hangout by some VIPs:  the Chief English Inspector of Israel Dr. Tziona Levy,  the Google Education Lead in Israel  Yael Doron Drori, and Karen Eis, the leader of the GEG Tech Community.  It was an exciting way to break the distance barrier and introduce into our session people of interest (and influence!) who could otherwise not have been there.   

We wound up the gathering by watching a sample movie made by the one and only Rania Essa who motivates her students to speak in the target language by choosing topics that will be of interest to them and getting them to speak on camera! Finally, the teams shared the activities they devised! Each of the participants will be  receiving a copy of the activity for implementation in their classrooms,  if and when they wish, as well as all of the materials used during our day.

The object of our GEG communities is to break down the barriers between the different language teaching methodologies and SHARE! They present  a unique opportunity to meet up with similarly passionate language teachers who would not normally collaborate together and share across the languages! We have communities in different parts of the country (so far - in addition to the Western Negev, we have had sessions in Haifa, Kfar Kassem and Jerusalem) and are looking for more potential leaders to open more branches of this community in other regions! If you are interested please contact me! The GEG IL Teachers of Languages community leaders collaborate to build our community together, and yet each community is free to fly in the direction that their members feel relevant.

Take a look at the plan for the coming sessions! I invite all teachers of languages to join us! Feel free to invite your colleagues from other languages, as well! Imagine the trickle-down effect this can have on your school - how  bonding between teachers of Hebrew, Arabic, English and any other language being taught in your school, will pave the way to collaboration in order to  speak the same "language of digital pedagogy" for teaching languages!

This is the plan for the remainder of the sessions this year. Please join us!

What would YOU like to do in YOUR community? If ideas are popping into your mind, please write suggestions in the comments, below, and we will incorporate them into our plans! The GEG IL for Teachers of Languages is YOUR COMMUNITY!

Wishing everyone a Happy Passover and great Spring Break!

Digitally yours,

@dele

Powered by Passion: GEG ILs

Last year, way back in November 2016, teachers of languages got together in Tel Aviv to kick-start a new Google Educators Group in Israel (GEG IL) for teachers of languages. The goal was to  organize  teachers of all and any language in Israel to share, explore, innovate and learn how to harness the power of the digital tools we all have at our fingertips, to further our teaching goals.  

After we saw that we had an enthusiastic population with whom to work, WE got to work! “We” meaning four of us, who were Google Teacher Academy cohorts and one extremely talented teacher who had not been through the GTA but is no less capable in digital pedagogy, as well as the Google-communities’ leader. We dreamt, planned, scouted venues, hungout, emailed, and Googledoc-ed our fingers off, putting our heads together to set up the regional meetings.

Fast forward to January, when we convened in the different areas around the country.  Most of us managed to hold our get-togethers on January 19th; the Jerusalem crowd met on January 5th. Altogether we brought in around 40 teachers of languages who have a passion for teaching, learning, languages and digital tools. OK - we were hoping for a larger turn out, but since one of Google’s Eight Pillars of Innovation is “Think big but start small”, I see the fact that 40 teachers were willing to leave their cozy homes on a wintery afternoon, after a long day - a long WEEK - at school, without getting points or remuneration, as an encouraging achievement. And from the feedback we received, I believe we’ll be seeing them again.   

Each of the venues took things in slightly different directions, but kept some of the activities in common.

In Jerusalem, since Google-star Irit Merchav co-leads another GEG with the unstopable Yair Farby, for educators of all different subjects, she incorporated her Jerusalem Teachers of Languages branch, into the bigger meet-up, on the 5th.

In Haifa, the talented Leah Doryoseph brought her teachers together for a slightly abbreviated meet up (time constraints of her Pisgat Haifa venue) making it short and concise, yet efficiently leaving her participants looking forward to more.

Rania Essa, a superstar on YouTube in her own right, with tons of clips which can be used for teaching English  (Google her!) had the largest group in the matnas in Kfar Kassem where, in addition to playing languages bingo, she gave her group of Arab and Jewish participants the opportunity to experience a rich collection of  apps for language learning.

Together with Hanan Perlman, we brought our GEG IL to the Western Negev, in Sderot, to a magical venue! Our get together was held in a meeting room which can only be accessed by traversing a colorful indoor, rocket-proof  playground, generously built for our region by the good people in the JNF, and warmly hosted by Shmuel Ochayon and his dedicated staff from Sderot! We began with a QR Treasure Hunt, for which our participants had to sprint between the swings and the bouncy castles, in search of the treasures (which were the 8 Pillars of Innovation …. but we didn’t tell THEM what they were - otherwise they could have just Googled them and found them without running around ;-) .

QR Treasure Hunt in Sderot:

Following their jaunt around the playground, the culturally diverse teachers (including Jewish and Bedouin, English and Hebrew language educators) discussed the relevance of the different Pillars that they found, to their work as teachers of languages. They played “Languages Bingo” (discovering that there is more than one way to translate with Google Translate…. including cameras and handwriting!) talked about their needs and dreams, and then virtually met other branches of our community: the participants in the Kfar Kassem group, Leah - the leader in Haifa, and Yael - Israel's Google Education Lead, excitedly interacting in real time over Google Hangouts).

Google Hangout:

A few of the common threads between the different venues were a desire to connect and share, to build and develop activities together, then tailor them to our individual needs. To  learn how to support each other. The need to commit.

Here’s a taste of what went on in the different venues, courtesy of Rania’s clip-making skills!

The atmosphere was totally uplifting and it was an inspiration to see others, like us, so passionate about the joy of thinking and learning together, to build a community of teachers of languages who yearn to harness the power of digital pedagogy for their educational purposes.

We would love to have YOU join us! Remember: this is NOT exclusively for English teachers - even though I am writing this in English - it is for teachers of ALL languages! You are all invited to join our Facebook Group to stay in touch and updated! Invite your colleagues who teach other languages! If you are willing to join the lead team, we will help you open a branch of our community near you! Together with the other leaders of this community, we will be working out the details and planning future meet-ups around the country!

To those teachers who joined us in Jerusalem, Haifa, Kfar Kassem and Sderot: thank you ALL for putting your trust in us, jumping, into the deep end and starting to swim.

And a final “thank you” to Bar Umansky (our GEG IL beacon) and Yael Doron Drori - the Google Education Lead in Israel!

Digitally yours,

@dele

United we Sit: Embarking on a journey of cross-lingual teacher collaboration

After months of dreaming, planning, talking, thinking, wishing and hoping: it finally happened! The Start up Event for a new GEG IL (Google Educators Group of Israel) for Teachers of Languages. The kick off was in Google Tel Aviv, but the continuation will be regional. (Because what isn’t accessible, isn’t sustainable).

I am an English teacher. I am also a kibbutznik. Both of these roles afford me inspiring opportunities to work together with others, to build something that is bigger than me, letting me rediscover daily that : “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” (Phil Jackson)

While psyching myself up to write this blog post, I went hunting for definitions and quotes about collaboration. I especially liked the third definition given by my Ole’ Faithful Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

Because that is basically the essence of what we are trying to do in our spanking new GEG IL (Google Educator Groups of Israel). “...to cooperate with an agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected.” Therein lies the spark, the innovation, the brilliance from which we can all benefit.

English teachers are a great bunch of professionals when it comes to collaborating. We have ETAI and ETNI, as well as a gazillion facebook pages, and we are probably the largest group of professionals who teach any one language in Israel. Even larger than Hebrew teachers! (I figure this because English is mandatory from 3rd - 12th grades, as well as passing a proficiency test in any institue of higher learning in this country.) Other languages are far less prevalent and have a much smaller critical mass of teachers with whom they can collaborate.

Concepts, skills and tools used for teaching a language often cross the lingual barriers, and so my dream for the past few years has been to encourage teachers of all languages in Israel to share their tools, experiences, insights especially on the digital front! The Internet and digital technology are giving birth to new apps and tools on a daily basis. No one can possibly know them all. There is always so much to learn - so why shouldn’t we learn from and with each other?

Of course the www enables collaboration to all those who wish to reach out to teachers of their own language - experts even - from all over the world. But sometimes nothing beats being in the same room at the same time with the people with whom you are collaborating.

The people at Google recognize this fact, which is why GEGs are popping up all over the world. I had the great privilege to be among the 50 or so educators who participated in the very first Google Teachers Academy in Israel in 2011. I can say in all honesty that it was a life altering experience. Despite the fact that  such GTAs are few, teachers can still experience the magic without attending a rare academy! The GEGs are able to bring Google to the teachers. Independently, we will be able to devise our OWN agendas, seek our own directions, provide for our own needs!   

And so, GEG for Teachers of Languages was conceived. (The "teachers of other languages" being the "agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected".) But, essential to its success is its accessibility. GEGs need to take root all over the country. Luckily, I have found some other first followers, who were willing to go out there on a limb and not leave me to be the lone nut prancing around. (If the reference is lost on you, you MUST watch this.) Because “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

Together with Leah, Irit, Rania and Hanan and with the encouragement and support of Bar - the head nut GEG IL - we brainstormed, hoped, planned, discussed  and built our way. Joined by approximately 40 teachers of languages (English, Hebrew, Arabic and French) from around the country, who travelled - some for hours- battling the weekend Tel Aviv traffic after a long day at work, we held our gala Start up Event at the Google Campus on Thursday November 10th! (40 more first followers…. I’d say we’re a Movement! :-)

The secret is to gang up on the problem, rather than each other. —Thomas Stallkamp

The evening began with a short intro and then we dove directly into “tasters”. We set up four activities at four different tables in the Hackspace of the Google Campus. Leah’s table was all about context. Rania took playdough and, using an animation app, made a movie which was shown to participants before the evening was over! Irit introduced participants to the coolness of Quizlet Live and I shared the addiction of the Google Translate Community Competition with my participants. The participants divided up into the different groups, and after 8 minutes, moved on to the next activity.

 

The excitement in the air was palpable, and it was clear that people wanted more. We then moved into the Small Space where teachers were asked to write on  post-its what they wanted from their own communities , and then to respond to others’ ideas.

  

Each of the regional leaders spoke a few minutes about themselves and the regional group they were dreaming of. Bar (our GEG IL mentor) provided the bigger picture of GEGs in Israel and abroad, and Yael (Education Head of Google Israel)also shared a few words. Rania screened the clip she had made earlier in the evening, with participants of her Creative Flexibility activity!

Time on the 34th floor flew by and in the end, we left excited, invigorated and Googled up to our eyeballs, happy to meet new colleagues from different languages and in anticipation of regional meet ups of teachers of languages with a passion for teaching and digital pedagogy.

We are finally organizing  teachers of of all and any language in Israel to share, explore, innovate and learn how to harness the power of the digital tools we all have at our fingertips, to further our teaching goals. So please share this with colleagues who teach EFL as well as other languages, join our new FB group, and find (or build!) a GEG IL for Teachers of Languages near you!!!

We're in this together, and if we united and we inter-culturally cooperated, then that might be the key to humanity's survival. —Jeremy Gilley, TEDTalks lecture

If you're interested in finding out more about our GEG IL and how YOU can participate (or lead!) please fill in this form.

Learn Short, Learn Fast, Learn A Lot

One hour. That's all you get. But it's one hour jam packed with ideas, revolving around a specific topic. 

Last night at two minutes to nine, I realized that I just happened to be at the right place at the right time to participate in a Twitter Chat. So I dove right in.

A Twitter Chat is a discussion, or "event", the time for which is predetermined, as is the topic (usually), and led by a moderator (again - usually). Last night's ELT Chat was due to be EITHER about using Twitter in the classroom, OR about Snapchat. The topic is usually democratically decided for this chat by taking a poll before the chat begins, but last night's topic was tied. In the end, it wound up being about BOTH, in a way. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the two different tools. 

The discussion goes on fast and furious, and in order to keep up with the conversation, you need to be tuned into a hashtag. Does that sound like Greek to you? Hopefully it will make sense by the end of this post.

First of all you need a Twitter account, and it helps if you use a tool like Tweetdeck which can isolate the topics into columns depending on how you label them. For example, I have a column for any tweets that use my Twitter handle; another column for tweets that include specific hashtags. I add or remove columns as suits me. It's an easy tool to learn and use, with tons of tutorials out there (I made two in Hebrew, if you prefer).  

Using Tweetdeck, I opened a column for the tweets that use the hashtag #ELTchat and a few minutes before it was due to begin, I grabbed a glass of water, logged in and hunkered down. 

At exactly 21:00 (Israel time) the conversation set sail! If you wanted to respond to something someone said, you hit "reply", if you wanted to say something unconnected to what anyone else had said, you sent a new tweet. All interactions in the conversation had to have the #ELTchat tag, (something which I realized a bit late... I had thought that if I wanted to respond to someone, the hashtag would be included, as it were, from the person's comment which I was replying to, but I learned the hard way.) Although it's annoying to type it in each time, you can just copy it and then bang it in anywhere in your reply (beginning or end, usually) and your two cents will be seen by all those participating, thus keeping you in the conversation. 

It wasn't always easy to keep up (and the moderator said that this had been a relatively "tame" chat ;-) ) but you can always read back (even now I am looking through the chat which can be found on Twitter any time, by going back to the hashtag and the date and time when the chat took place).

At 21:50 someone (the moderator, maybe?) called for people to start summing up the chat... and at 22:00 the window closed, and everyone logged out.  WOW did I learn a LOT! I "befriended" some experienced and knowledgeable people, who I am now following on Twitter, and I took away some REALLY good resources for learning about Twitter and using it in the classroom, and even more importantly, as a PLN (Personal Learning Network) which is in essence, what we did in the Twitter Chat, itself. (I'll tweet the resources out over the next few days, follow me - @AdeleRaemer - and look for them via the hashtag #IsraEd). 

So....are you ready to jump into the fray? All you need to do is to find a tweetchat that is interesting or relevant to you, at a time that suits you. They are going on, quietly, quickly, behind our backs in Twitterdome virtually 24/7 on practically any topic (not only digital pedagogy) you could ask for - and LOTS for EFL educators. Have a look here. 

Hope to see some of you join the #ELTchat which takes place every Wednesday at 21:00 Israel time! If you want to be on the directory of educators on @ELTchat, get to vote for the topic and be notified of the next chat, you can register here.

Do YOU participate in tweet chats? If so, please tell us what they are about, which language they are in and what the hashtag is! 

Digitally yours,

@dele

https://talktechwithme.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/twitter-chat-key-copy.png

Call for Twitter Help

I know - I am usually here to give YOU ideas and solutions, but I am really flummoxed by this Twitter business,and hoping that someone out there in educational blogger land will read this and come to my rescue. 

As I stated in my previous blog, I am trying to find ways to use Twitter in my teaching, in order to help my students become familiar with it as a tool that they have at their disposal when needed. However I cannot for the life of me figure out how to harness its effectiveness.

This is what I WANT to be able to do:

* to notify my students of what they need for the upcoming lesson
* to conduct short interactions with them during and between lessons
* to be able to SHOW the interactions on the smartboard in my classroom
* to share things that I believe they will find of interest as English learners
* to teach them how to follow me
* to teach them how to sort through different postings and find what is relevant


I, personally, have started to use Twitter in order to do the following:

* share my blogs about digital pedagogy (as a teacher trainer)
* communicate with my students (as their teacher)
* advocate for Israel (as a Gaza-border resident)  

So my question is: what do I need to tell my students to do in order to follow my communications which are meant for them, and not have to get the communications meant for other educators or on the issue of advocacy for Israel?

And another question: would it help me if I opened a SEPARATE Twitter account just for my students?

I have brought a Twitter specialist to my classroom (and although he IS very good, he is NOT using it in the way _I_ want to use it - in the classroom. Hence, I still need help).  I have read and watched a gazillion tutorials online. But I have yet to find anything that helps me make sense out of the seeming chaos. 

When using Twitter at my computer, I use TweetDeck, which organizes things clearly for me. However, on my phone (and that is what my students will mostly use for tweeting in the classroom) it seems a mess!

I have told my students to use #AdeleNHS in order to send me a message (four of them did so) and I have suggested to teachers who want to work on me with developing activities for using Twitter for teaching EFL to communicate with #AdeleEFL (one teacher did so.. thanks Naomi ;-)  Others are welcomed to do so as well, and join in the discussion!

Any suggestions are welcomed. Please feel free to either add them, below, in the comments to the blog, or email me privately: araemer@gmail.com. If you feel it would be more efficient to talk to me on the phone, you can call me: 054 7916468. I promise to share what I learn with all of you (if I ever get to the point where I feel I have what to share on this front). 

Digitally yours, 
@dele