HELLO! HOLA! I’M SARA THORNTON
Welcome to my digital teaching portfolio
Glad to have you! Explore my site to learn more about me, my background and what I have to offer.
ABOUT ME
MY NAME IS
Sara Thornton
I am currently a standing senior at the College of Charleston. I am double majoring in Spanish and Foreign Language Education with a double minor in Linguistics and Biology. My end goal is to become a Spanish Teacher in secondary education. My passion for the Spanish culture led me to Seville, Spain where I studied for 6 months. I grew such a deep interest in the culture that I plan to live there for 2 years in order to totally immerse myself not only in their language but also in their way of life. To me, being a Spanish teacher is a vocation, not a profession.
CONTENTS
-Student voice and choice
-My makey makey experience
-My text-to-self connection
-Common sense education: a useful formative assessment tool
-Digital artifact: a strongly held American ideal that might affect educationÂ
-Dash collaboration challenge (sketch kit challenge)
-Digital tool to deepen student collaboration
-Facilitator Standard Stop Motion
Student Voice and Choice
"Students should feel like partners in their learning"- Jessica Gadaleta
Experimenting with Makey Makey:Â Fruit Keyboard
This is a fun interactive tool that students can use to learn in the classroom. It includes all VAKT learners as it includes visuals, there are auditory effects, and the objects themselves support kinesthetic and tactile learning. As a foreign language educator, I can use this for students to learn new vocabulary, make sentences by coding, and so much more. They will be able to have freedom of choice in how they do it and what they do with it.
CHATTERPIX
"Students use digital media to express their voice in multimodal narratives, such as digital photos, comic strips, and video diaries (Nind, Boorman, & Clarke, 2012)"
What a cool invention! I will most certainly be able to use this with my future Spanish students.
The Best Formative Assessment Tool for High School Spanish: Kahoot
There are so many formative assessment tools applicable to the secondary level education level for Spanish. After some research, I believe that Kahoot fits best because it is so flexible and interactive. The abilities of creating lesson plans and quizzes are so versatile. Students will be on their toes with each question and I can teach anything from vocabulary to grammar to culture with this wonderful student-response tool!
Digital artifact:
a strongly held American ideal that might affect education: The American Dream.
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(Full digital artifact below with link)
Full infographic found in link below:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAD0GhiY8lI/K0hd-OyKhsaOsaoGbUlyXg/view?utm_content=DAD0GhiY8lI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton
Dash Collaboration Challenge: Sketch Kit Challenge
This was an experiment with the Dash robot. As a group, we worked together to drag and connect icons that coded the robot to do certain things. We coded a particular path for him, Maurice the robot, to follow which included the use of his marker. It took a lot of practice, but we finally created our own path from scratch to have him draw a square. Our difficulties were small and technical. When we began, our robot had its head screwed on in the wrong direction. Another issue was that the preprogrammed drawing tracks were too large for the space we were working with. We solved these problems by assessing them then trying different things to find a solution.
Digital Tool to Deepen Student Collaboration: Skype
This collaboration tool offers so much to any classroom. Skype would be great for a variety of lesson plans and activities. Foreign language classrooms could be greatly benefitted by this program because it not only allows students to chat with each other but even people around the world, making the outside world more accessible. The user is also able to create lesson plans for the teacher and connect one classroom with other classrooms. The secondary level of education would be great for this program because students will be more engaged.
Facilitator Standard- 6D. explained
As shown in the stop-motion:
Teachers model creativity while encouraging and nurturing students.
Students express their ideas creatively and learn with/from their peers.
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Teacher demonstrates creativity with legos and the students create on their own while helping one another.
MAKE SOMETHING, ANYTHING!
Making is such an important skill for all ages to utilize, especially in the classroom. It sparks creativity and ingenuity while exercising the mind. Students are able to problem-solve with critical thinking skills and apply their knowledge as they go. For me, I have always been very creative with making and always find a connection between everything. This terrarium I made doesn't seem to do with Spanish language education, but while making this I found environments where these species flourish in South America. I also included some tortoises because I was inspired by the Galapagos giant tortoise. Students can identify colors and objects (in Spanish and English)Â within their mini environment while showing an array of diversity in their new little world.
My digital artifact for learning sciences: notetaking
https://www.canva.com/design/DAD39tUqXnA/oh9d88RZEs5h_8JFGx5YDQ/view?utm_content=DAD39tUqXnA&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton
Digital Citizenship
This comes with a variety of risks, it is important to put restrictions where they belong! You don't want to end up like this guy...