Reflection

The main highlight from working with James in this project has been collaboration. Team work is not only about dividing the amount of work to be completed; it has to do with creation and expertise. It is valuable to become collaborators when we are involved in education; to set this time into our busy schedules to have professional discussions, share ideas, revise curriculum and ultimately think about increasing student learning.

My students in their third year of Spanish are now working on a project using voicethread. They are using this tool to describe themselves within specific guidelines. This project required support and team work; from setting it up with our school's IT support teacher, to having other Spanish speakers in our community contribute by listening to the projects and posting comments. This project gave my students the opportunity to use the language in a real context; it opened the opportunity to use it outside the classroom. At this point, my students are commenting each other's work on voicethread, giving feedback to what others have created. The best part, it does not limit to our school. We have shared what we created with students in Taipei. This experience has created a "linguistic collaboration" as these students listen and view each other's projects and post comments on each other's work.

So, our learnings as teachers are great when given the chance to collaborate with other colleagues. The result has brought incredible learning opportunities to our students.