Introduce yourself to the class on the NOVASTARTALK website using the comment form below (directly under Leave a Reply). Let everyone know your name, institution, language(s) taught and your goals for this workshop.
2013 Webinar Series: Introductory Forum
Greetings everyone,
My name is Mei-Yen Cracraft. I currently teach high school Chinese in University School of Nashville (USN), in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m very excited to have this opportunity to be part of the program and to be back again since last year’s NOVASTARTALK summer program. I hope to be able to do the following after learning from the program and to go beyond to discover more ideas for using webinars in teaching.
to meet with other classes in other schools
to meet with guest speakers outside of school
to meet with other groups of students and discuss plots, rewrite scripts and retell story of a joint class film making project
to meet with students for a class seminar or joint class discussion
to meet, share and present ideas to other teachers for professional development
to meet my class pen pal partner school in China and allow students to introduce each other’s school (give presentations) and work on joint projects
I’m looking forward to meeting everyone.
Sincerely,
Mei-Yen
Welcome back – we’re so excited that you’ve signed up for this webinar series! You’ll find Silvina Orsatti’s lesson on digital storytelling particularly useful in meeting the goals that you’ve set for the workshops.
Hi Angela,
How have you been? I’m sooo glad to hear from you!! And thank you for the heads up; I’m really looking forward to it.
Mei-Yen
Great! Gearing up for two full months of teaching technology for language instruction. Looking forward to seeing you guys again 🙂
Your suggestions for uses for the webinar platform are superb. Thanks for sharing this and we will talk soon.
I am just joining in now. Please advise what to do next. Thanks
Namaste,
My name is Nidhi Mehrotra. I am an IT Professional based in Cincinnati, OH. I also teach Hindi language to adult learners at the university of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH. I am looking forward to learning ways to incorporate technology into the teaching of Hindi. I am fascinated by the tools available to create online lessons and hope to make learning Hindi and option for remote students. Very excited to be here – look forward to learning.
Welcome, Nidhi! Your rich experience in technology and language instruction will be so very valuable to all of us joining in on this session – my favorite part of NOVASTARTALK is the fact that I get the chance to learn as well as teach. With regards to building online lessons for Hindi, we’ll give you both concrete tools for use in synchronous lessons, but more importantly, strategies for learner engagement and standards-based instruction.
Excited to “see” you in class on Tuesday!
Thank you Angela! Look forward to an enriching opportunity.
Hi, Angela,
My name is Dali Tan. I teach Chinese both face-to-face and on-line at NOVA. Thank you for this great opportunity. I hope to learn how to make my on-line class more engaging and interactive and how to use online tools to help students in my face to face class get connected to students from China so they can become “virtual language partners” and how I can facilitate the process and provide effective feedback for that exchange in a virtual environment.
I look forward to learning from you and other experts you have assembled for this course!
Welcome, Dali! It’s great to see you back at NOVASTARTALK. Your point on effective language exchanges is a great one – technology has had the power of shrinking the globe for our students and making connections that weren’t readily available before. We’ll be looking forward to a rich discussion on the ways in which online tools can help to break us out of the brick and mortar classroom and build a truly global classroom.
Hi Dali,
I love the idea of “virtual language partners” – I would like to adopt the concept if you don’t mind. I have been thinking of offering Hindi online and one of the biggest stumbling blocks that have had me thinking was how to keep the students motivated. A virtual partner would be a great way to keep them going. I would love to hear more about/develop guidelines on how to make it happen.
Dear Nidhi,
Thank you so much for your comments. This is one of my goals for joining this course to figure it out. With the help of our expert instructors, I hope to work with interested participants like you so we can figure if out together.
See you in class!
Dali
Hello
My name is Mr. Rafik Missak. I currently teach k-8 Arabic in Charlotte Mecklenburg schools in Charlotte NC. Also I tech Arabic with North Carolina public schools. I am very excited to meet all of you, I am also glad to have the opportunity to work with you in this program to expand your knowledge.
Rafik – Welcome to NOVASTARTALK! We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with you as well, particularly in the development of online tools for use in the K-8 Arabic classroom.
I am a translator/interpreter/editor/researcher and teacher of Persian (“Farsi”). I am looking forward to learning more about what this program can teach me and to take full advantage of this excellent opportunity to learn new methods and skills with which to do my language teaching with all the enhancement and excitement that the available and applicable technological innovations offer. I am looking forward very much to meeting and learning from and working with all the teachers and other participants.
Ahang – you’ll find that the online environment offers many rich tools to enrich communication in the language classroom. We’re excited to have you in this program!
Hi Angela,
I am currently teaching at Fairfax County Public School. Let me know what else I need to do. Thanks.
Welcome back to NOVASTARTALK, Pearl! As for next steps, you’ve done your intro and you have a gmail account. Have you tested to see if you can get into the meeting room? If not, follow the directions at http://nol.nvcc.edu/novastartalk/login-instructions/
It’ll be good to “see” you tomorrow in our live session.
Hello everyone,
It’s a pleasure to join NOVASTARTALK for the third time! This is my second Technology workshop, which is the area I have a great zeal to improve my skills. My name is Hala Abdou I’m teaching Arabic as a foreign language since 2004. working with Fauquier County STARTALK on summer. I’m very excited to be part of this Webinar. Looking forward to meet everyone!
Welcome back, Hala! It’s a pleasure to have you join us and we look forward to hearing more on your progress with bringing technology to your Arabic classroom.
Hello everyone,
I am Veliye Ay. I currently teach Turkish at George Mason University, Virginia. I would like to develop an online Turkish program for GMU in the near future. This is my first time and I am exited to be part of this program.
Welcome Veliye! Your idea for an online Turkish program is an exciting one – we’re looking forward to showing you a wide variety of tech tools that you can use in conjunction with this project.
Hi! My name is Katya Decker. I teach Russian language online for North Carolina Virtual Public School. I am looking for more ideas to have an engaging online synchronous meetings so I can use them for our Startalk Program that I do with Wilmington University and Appalachian State University.
I really like the instructions and trouble shooting information for BB Collaborate you shared. We’ve been using Wimba but will be moving to BB Collaborate as well. I am exited!
Today, on Tuesday, I will be able to log in only @8pm as I have online All Hands meeting at NCVPS. I hope you are archiving the meeting so I can listen to the missed part later.
Hi Katya! Glad that learning Collaborate will have a direct correlation to your work – we’re going to be showing you all sorts of creative ways to use the application over the next few weeks.
Great question on the sessions – we will be recording and archiving every session, so you will be able to watch it back and review as needed. Definitely try to sign in at 8pm, though. Even if we are finishing up, you can meet the instructors and ask any questions that you may have.
Dear Startalk Community,
My name is Youquin Hu. I have taught Chinese at Hope Chinese School for over 5 years, and work at WCF this summer. I was SAS programmer for many years. I always keep my passion to learn the new technology.
I’m very excited to have this opportunity to be part of the summer program. Look forward to learning.
Best regards,
Youquin
Welcome, Youquin! Your passion to learn new technology is important in that technology is constantly changing and evolving. I hope that you have an exciting and enriching workshop series.
Hello everyone,
My name is Dorly Piske. I have been teaching First Year Portuguese in Laramie WY for several years. The program has been housed at the University of Wyoming for a while, then transitioned to a mixed face-to-face and distance course transmitted via compressed video. The future of the program is likely to dependent on transitioning to an online program. However, for now I am interested in looking into ways of increasing engagement and interaction among the students and possibly with language partners abroad so that language learning continues beyond the classroom walls.
This is my first time participating in a STARTALK technology workshop, but I have attended a summer workshop for teachers of Portuguese at Concordia Language Village a couple of years ago, which was excellent. I am new to BB Collaborate, but I am eager to familiarize myself with the great tools it has to offer. This summer I will also be working with English language learners in Kazakhstan and I hope to be able to implement some of the new tools we are going to work with in this workshop.
Look forward to the interactions, and let the learning begin!
Hi, My name is Monica Zhang, and I teach Mandarin Chinese at Montgomery College. I am looking to create a blended course with online activities for my Chinese classes at the college. I am going to start using Blackboard Learning Management System in the Fall 2013 semester. Many years ago, I taught with Course in a Box at VCU, but many things have changed since then. So I am eager to learn new ways and get new ideas to use in my teaching. Looking forward to our interactions!
Hello Angela,
I am sorry about my late introduction. I was going to withdraw from the program due to my father’s unsteady health situation in case I have to go to China right away. If it is alright with you, I would like to participate as much as my situation allows.
I taught for many years from teaching English in China and now I am teaching middle and high school Chinese in Pittsburgh. I am always interested in learning new ways to teach Chinese language in traditional and digital formats. I took a Startalk program last summer in Nebrask-Lincohn and I am very much looking forward to learning more from this seminar.
Thank you and I am looking forward to meeting everyone virtually.
Regards,
Ming Rui
Dorly,
I did not see you in our webinar list at the June 4 session. Please let us know if you need any help with connecting.
Eu sou brasileira e eu estou feliz de poder trabalhar com vc. Seja bem-vinda!
Laura Franklin
We are so pleased to have met you online last night. It is always a little bustling for the first “Open House”/Housekeeping session when we learn all the tools, but we were so proud of how the participants bravely took the mics, participated in the breakout sessions and worked in general. The enthusiasm level is high, where we like it.
I sincerely hope that your Dad will be feeling much better soon.
Best,
Laura Franklin
Dear Dr. Franklin,
I enjoyed the class and am looking forward to the upcoming classes.
Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Ming Rui
Hello! I just learned about this wonderful webinar yesterday and wanted to introduce myself. I am a Hindi language professional and I have taught Hindi at Columbia University, Berlitz and the Defense Language Institute. I have been involved in various Hindi projects since 1996. My goal for this webinar is to learn as much as I can about building and managing an online language classroom.
Looking forward to meeting you all!
Sonia