United Streaming and Education World

The United Streaming site is probably the first teaching tool I've discovered through this class that I can see myself regularly using with my students. In my French classes throughout high school, my teachers used a video series called "French in Action" to illustrate certain concepts, vocabulary, syntax, etc. The videos were always pretty cheesy and I can't say they helped much. Looking at some of the French videos, they aren't any less cheesy or over-acted, but they are made this way purposely. Over-acting and exaggerating words and actions make students well-aware of what is happening on the screen. Students can learn vocabulary words because the actors say certain words while they are doing an exaggerated action. The students may laugh at how ridiculous it seems, but there is no mistake as to what the word means based on the actions.

There are full-length videos and shorter clips available on United Streaming. This was my favorite thing about it, because I think the reason we as French students did not learn much from French in Action is because we were made to watch 15-30 minute long videos, and most of us would drift off and not pay attention. With short 3 minute clips, the video gets its point across and is much more likely to keep the students' attention. These also work well with homework assignments, because students can log onto the site and watch a short clip and answer questions on it for homework. This is not generally reasonable to expect with a full-length video.

Another site that we were shown in class that I think I will definitely take advantage of while teaching is Education World. The resources on this site are plentiful, for advice, lesson plans, activities, articles, etc. I particularly enjoyed the section on mini-lessons, which were basic 5-minute fillers when you have extra time in class. I think this is important because down time in class is generally not a good thing. You lose students' attention very easily and it's hard to bring them back once they start having their own conversations. There is also a section that applies resources to your state's standards, which will be especially important during student teaching. In direct relation to my subject, I searched "French" within Education World. I found links to French newspapers such as Le Monde and Lyon Capitole, and links to French television and radio. This would be very beneficial if I choose to teach advanced classes. I also found a list of 200 quizzes to take, from easy to very difficult. Below these links there was a Lesson Plans section, which gave several links to French sites designed to help teachers create fun and imaginative lesson plans for various areas of French. I think I will definitely be using this website as a resource in the future.