I was reminded again tonight about how fortunate I am to work in an Immersion school in West Michigan. I just got home from the West Michigan Alliance of Immersion Educators. This alliance was started about 4 years ago as an attempt to give Immersion educators more support. We usually meet two times during the school year, with different schools hosting the group. Ada Vista Elementary in Ada, MI and Zeeland Christian in Zeeland, MI have been the two schools/districts that have hosted most of the meetings. We have teachers and administrators from public and private schools; from Spanish Immersion, Chinese Immersion, and two-way Immersion schools in attendance.
Each time we get together the host school invites a speaker to give us new food for thought. Tonight we were very fortunate to have Dr. Myriam Met, an expert educator in foreign language immersion. It is so refreshing to have a presentation specifically designed for us immersion teachers. It makes us feel like we're "home", knowing that this presenter has been where we are, and can empathize with our challenges and keep us focused on best practices for immersion. Thank you, Dr. Met!
Dr. Met will also be speaking at the MABE (Michigan Association of Bilingual Educators) conference in Detroit, Michigan May 10-11. If you've never been to MABE, I encourage you to attend this year. If you're from another state, I encourage you to seek out a similar Immersion association for further professional development and collegiality. (We also throw in a pretty yummy meal each time!)
Here's hoping all you immersion educators find those special groups and moments to build up and bless each other!
~Sheryl René
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Is it really just generational?
As a baby boomer, I've seen music go from LPs, & 45s to cassette tapes, CDs, digital voice and personlized radio stations. The changes and updates are coming faster and faster. I discovered this just recently when my husband bought me a docking station for my ipod. However, even my ipod was so antiquated that the docking station did not have the inner workings to support my old ipod. OLD???? How can an ipod be old? Really?
Or what about when we decided to buy our first cell phone? We were living in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, and were perfectly happy to continue using our landlines. However, our oldest daughter, Ashley, was participating in the Orquesta Infantil de Lara, and frequently went on road trips with the orchestra. With traffic being so unpredictable, we never knew when they would arrive, and so with her safety in mind, we purchased our first cell phone for her! It just made phone calls. Imagine that! No videos, no texting, no games, no camera, no video, no itunes! Ashley could now alert us to her arrival in time for us to be there waiting when she arrived on the bus.
But there was an unforeseen advantage to this cell phone purchase. Ashley started getting more phone calls from her friends, more invitations to parties, and in general a more lively social life. We had no idea that this would happen! We had actually been living on a totally different social plane up to this time.
So warp speed ahead to 2012 and let's look at all the technological options out there for us to use, in education specifically. Broadband brings so many cloud options into our classrooms. We can read books, listen to music, watch the news or a movie, or even watch the latest whimsical, homemade youtube video that ends up going viral & snagging big bucks! We can chat immediately with our closest friends, or our oldest, most distant acquaintance, through Facebook. We can upload photos immediately, and our former principal and his family, now living in Italy, can live the moment with us. We can Google the earth, and zoom in close enough to wave to our neighbors across the country! For those of us who may have dreamed of becoming authors, we can start writing our thoughts on a public blog and see if they resonate with others.
Technology is a wonderful gift! And while I warm up to each new venture a little hesitantly, I do eventually find someone who will help me learn the intricacies of using it; and I feel more connected to my culture, the 21st century, and to education in general. But quite honestly, I still love sitting in my old gold, stuffed chair, with my first graders gathered close, leaning in to hear what happens next to Jorge el curioso (Curious George) as he stumbles into one more new adventure. I love looking into their eyes, I love seeing the surprise, laughter, and tenderness on their faces as they feel the moment with me. I'm reading to these impressionable 6 &7 year olds. I have their undivided attention. And I'm using a book. I don't know if I'll ever be able to totally give up my books for technology. Hopefully, they'll be able to co-exist amicably in my world.
~Sheryl René
Or what about when we decided to buy our first cell phone? We were living in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, and were perfectly happy to continue using our landlines. However, our oldest daughter, Ashley, was participating in the Orquesta Infantil de Lara, and frequently went on road trips with the orchestra. With traffic being so unpredictable, we never knew when they would arrive, and so with her safety in mind, we purchased our first cell phone for her! It just made phone calls. Imagine that! No videos, no texting, no games, no camera, no video, no itunes! Ashley could now alert us to her arrival in time for us to be there waiting when she arrived on the bus.
But there was an unforeseen advantage to this cell phone purchase. Ashley started getting more phone calls from her friends, more invitations to parties, and in general a more lively social life. We had no idea that this would happen! We had actually been living on a totally different social plane up to this time.
So warp speed ahead to 2012 and let's look at all the technological options out there for us to use, in education specifically. Broadband brings so many cloud options into our classrooms. We can read books, listen to music, watch the news or a movie, or even watch the latest whimsical, homemade youtube video that ends up going viral & snagging big bucks! We can chat immediately with our closest friends, or our oldest, most distant acquaintance, through Facebook. We can upload photos immediately, and our former principal and his family, now living in Italy, can live the moment with us. We can Google the earth, and zoom in close enough to wave to our neighbors across the country! For those of us who may have dreamed of becoming authors, we can start writing our thoughts on a public blog and see if they resonate with others.
Technology is a wonderful gift! And while I warm up to each new venture a little hesitantly, I do eventually find someone who will help me learn the intricacies of using it; and I feel more connected to my culture, the 21st century, and to education in general. But quite honestly, I still love sitting in my old gold, stuffed chair, with my first graders gathered close, leaning in to hear what happens next to Jorge el curioso (Curious George) as he stumbles into one more new adventure. I love looking into their eyes, I love seeing the surprise, laughter, and tenderness on their faces as they feel the moment with me. I'm reading to these impressionable 6 &7 year olds. I have their undivided attention. And I'm using a book. I don't know if I'll ever be able to totally give up my books for technology. Hopefully, they'll be able to co-exist amicably in my world.
~Sheryl René
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