My name is Jana Griner. I have been teaching at ICHS since 2010. I teach Spanish 1 in the fall semester and Spanish 2 in the spring semester to juniors and seniors.

EdTech Tool #1

SeñorWooly.com

This website was started by Jim Woolridge. He was a Spanish teacher from Illinois who made silly, educational videos in Spanish to help his students learn. He has a yearly subscription that I subscribe to, and it got so popular that he no longer teaches Spanish, but operates the website full time along with a team. This helps my students because I can put the English and Spanish subtitles so they can compare and learn new words and recognize words they have learned in a fun, musical setting.

EdTech Tool #2

Videos on Google Classroom

Every day, I upload a video on Google Classroom. This is for students who are absent. I put the word of the day, scheduled for the day, classwork of the day, and due dates for everything. For example, just say our plan for a particular day was to get a word of the day and make an Argentina notebook. I would show them the word of the day and say it for them so they can hear it and copy it into their notebook. Then I would go through the Argentina power point so they can copy the facts from that country at home and turn it in when they come back to school or turn it in from home by phone or email. This insure they don't get behind. This helps my students learn from home when they are unable to be at school or need to go back and review.

EdTech Tool #3

Google Slides

I started off using Microsoft Powerpoint, but have started to convert my power points to Google Slides. I use this for country notebooks and for vocabulary lists. For example, a powerpoint on Ecuador would have a cover page, map, flag, notes, and recipe. A vocabulary list of animal words would have a title page, and each slide would have the word in English, Spanish, and pronunciation, along with a picture. This helps my students by presenting vocabulary and information in slide form so that they can see the Spanish word, English word, pronunciation, or facts.

EdTech Tool #4

Google Docs

I started off using Microsoft Word for this but then converted to Google Docs. I type up the word of the day every day on this. On days we are ready to practice our vocabulary words I will type up sentence translations and practice tests too. This helps my students because I present their word of the day and their practices and sentence translations. It is up so they can all see it and so I don't have to use paper. I can also type up the answers for them to check their work and remove the answers for the next class to do the same activity.

EdTech Tool #5

Quizlet

My students use Quizlet a lot to help them study vocabulary words. I notice this year they have even been using it to study for country tests. Quizlet has added more features so that they can separate the words that they know and the words they need to review some more. It's also good because one person can make it and then share it with others. My students love Quizlet. It helps them because it presents vocabulary and information in game form in multiple formats so they can practice Spanish to English and English to Spanish and also fill in the blank and spelling.