Jon D Pennington

Virgin Islands International Academy: An IB World School

jpenning — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:00:20 +0000

I have taken a leave from Hunterdon Central to work as the head of Spanish at the VIMSIA, an International Baccalaureate school located on the Island of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. This is a video that students made to introduce their school!

Since I am presently in Argentina with a group of exchange students and the program we built is going so well. I decided to propose a new exchange program to Argentine students to come to my new school St. Thomas. The interest in the program has been amazing and already we have 7 kids who have put money to reserve their place in the program! I am giving a presentation tonight to parents interested in the program so we expect even more students to enroll!
This is the Facebook fanpage for the exchange!

Freshman Students Create Digital Correspondence with Kids Their Own Age on Three Continents.

jpenning — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:53:11 +0000

To expand the potential for global collaboration between my students and counterparts their same age, we included E-pals in our work since it boasts the largest interconnected community of classrooms worldwide. After registering and exploring E-pals we realized that it has very limited and controlled functionality. So our mission became clear. Our purpose was not to linger in E-pals but to connect with its members who were teachers in order to bridge communication between their classes and our own. After registering on E-pals, my students reached out to teachers from around the world and invited them to learn with us. Students sent letters to teachers throughout Latin America and Spain. Included in their invitations was the link to our Twitter discussion group, Bilingual Connection. Within nine weeks of sending letters, students built connections with many teachers who sent us class lists of over 400 students emails combined!!! In each of these instances, communication occurred solely between the students and the teachers abroad. Once my students provided me the class’s names and emails, I created a Google doc for each list and linked each of them to a password protected blog page within our network, Learningconnects.us.

My Spanish Students Form Partnerships with Native Spanish Speakers using Skype

jpenning — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:11:47 +0000

Learning Spanish while building connections with native Spanish speakers from all parts of the world has sparked great excitement and curiosity in my Spanish students. The connections they have made served as catalysts for increasing the strategies, skills, and the confidence with which to engage native speakers within both digital and face to face settings. Along with meeting regularly with the Latin-American students in the ESL classes of our school to actively develop their linguistic proficiency, students also project their presence far beyond our school to demonstrate their passion for knowledge by using Spanish across various social networks pertaining to their interests. Leveraging networking tools like Twitter and Skype , students have joined communities of global language learners such as Bilingual Connection and Soziety. Some students shared their perspectives about their learning during a focus group.

“In last year’s Spanish class I didn’t learn any of the stuff I am learning now because we didn’t have conversations with Spanish people.”
-Allie, Spanish 1 student

“I can have a simple conversation with someone in a Spanish speaking country, that in itself is an amazing thing for me.”
-Sean, Spanish 1 Student

“On Skype, people are going to say things to you that you don’t know. Whether it’s typing or pronouncing- And because somebody is actually talking to you, you are more tempted to look it up to see what it means and care about what they are saying rather than just ignoring them.”
-Jake, Spanish 1 Student

As Jake mentions, Skype is an excellent tool to learn vocabulary interactively within authentic contexts. It is a medium which allows students to fully develop all the the traditional modes of communication (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) and provides an open forum to meet and communicate with diverse intellectuals. Students can direct these individuals to their personal blogs on learningconnects.us to receive feedback on their learning experiences.

Sophie included the link to her Blog in her Skype profile.

Each student’s individual blog is his or her’s home base on the internet. It is each student’s independent space where they chronicle and reflect upon their explorations and interactions on the internet as well as those in their daily lives. Their blogs, which are easily accessible by any connected computer across the world, are also a place for readers worldwide to comment and share their thoughts about the content that the students are producing.

A Snapshot of Sophie's Blog (Click to Enlarge)

Sophie, one student in my class, has attracted several readers through her work. This has greatly increased her potential for creating meaningful connections around content that she is exploring and the the things she is learning. As an example, after reading one of her blog posts about her desire to travel to Chile, Carlos, a man living in Chile, commented on her post, expressing his excitement about Chile’s beauty and invites her to contact him to talk more about Chile via Skype if she wishes. His presence was marked on Sophie’s visitor map provided by whoseamung.us. As students are developing more native Spanish speaking readers who comment, they are regularly offered feedback on their work as well as opportunities to further their learning. These comments come in many forms. One example is Tatiana’s post where she was practicing a particular grammar exercise, and was offered elaborate suggestions by Victor, a native Spanish speaker who happen to come across her blog. Victor first asked her kindly if she would like his suggestions and then when she said “yes”, he came back two days later to write them for her. To read more on this check out my post on connective blogging.

Argentina Exchange Program

jpenning — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:32:57 +0000

This was incredible. Last year my Spanish IV conversation students connected with students in Bahía Blanca, Argentina and had some powerful video conferences where students from both countries shared with each other typical products they use and some of the practices they engage in each day. During these conferences, it was apparent that my students we looking for something even greater- a way they could actually experience the lives of Argentine students. After much planning and coordination via Skype with Alejandrina, the Argentine teacher, our proposal for an full student exchange program between Rosario Vera Peñalosa in Bahia Blanca, Argentina and Hunterdon Central in Central New Jersey was approved by our district’s Board of Education! The first part of our exchange program begins in February of 2010 when 10 Argentine students will be staying with students selected. We will be traveling to Bahia Blanca this coming June of 2010!

Visit our Site (password to view is argentina2010)

Bahía Blanca, Argentina

The Power of Learning with Music

jpenning — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:34:55 +0000

While brainstorming innovative ways to assess pronunciation, letters and spelling. I created this project to assess students’ ability to spell, and pronounce each letter alone as well as within the context of words. As mentioned in the project description, my students used Audacity.

One of my students, Jake, who plays a variety of musical instruments, took it to the next level by actually making the beat himself. Here are the projects of some students:

*The projects below have been done well and can serve as models. I would like to make you aware that they are not perfect.

Jake: http://jake10002.learningconnects.us/2009/09/29/week-3/

Joe: http://joet.learningconnects.us/2009/10/12/song/

Carly: http://cbarbetta.learningconnects.us/2009/09/29/progress-week-2/

The below recordings are from Garrett a student with great passion for music. He is a guitar player, singer and an aspiring DJ. Below is a project which he completed to put on his blog which focuses on knowing the letters of the alphabet and vocabulary words in Spanish that begin with each letter. Pronunciation is a focus.

Garrett’s Audio Recordings

Audio begins 9 seconds after clicking play.

The Final Product- Images added to give meaning to words.

Bilingual Fashion Show: Modelos del Calendario

jpenning — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:03:51 +0000

Modelos del Caldenario is a bilingual fashion show that I orchestrated with fashion design teacher Sandra Desapio. For this intercurricular project, my Spanish 2 class worked collaboratively with fashion merchandising students to create this awesome event. The event was themed according to the months and the outfits represented activities and festivities that take place in each month. In the final set, models wore wedding dresses. Models’ Apparel was provided by students and local boutiques. The soundtrack was mixed by myself and includes the hottest flamenco and salsa infused electronic beats from around the world.

The commercial we created to advertise the event to the Faculty and the Community

The Fashion Show:

Bilingual Fashion- Modelos Del Calendario from jpenning on Vimeo.

Interview Podcast for World AT Ways About some of my Internet Projects

jpenning — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:28:09 +0000

Dr. Kevin Gaugler, Department Chair of Modern Languages at Marist College and Barbara Lindsey, Director of the Multimedia Language Center at the University of Connecticut, asked me if they could interview me and publish a podcast on some of the innovate ways my students have been using technology to facilitate learning. They run the blog World AT Ways which explores online technologies in support of language learning and teaching and intercultural competencies.

Link to the interview and podcast

Screenshot:

Hearts For Honduras Dedication

jpenning — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:10:53 +0000

The Hearts for Honduras School is a school created in one of the poorest areas of Honduras for children too poor to attend public school. I have been working to create digital correspondence between the students of the school and my Spanish classes in order to expose my students to cultural products and practices of their diverse lifestyles, while giving the Honduran students encouragement and motivation to continue their education and to follow their ambitions.

In early spring 2009, I booked a flight to San Pedro Sula for mid July 2009, Honduras in anticipation to help train the teachers of the Hearts for Honduras School in modern pedagogy, but my flight plans were canceled to the Political Crisis that ensued. Unfortunately, as a result of the crisis, public schools were closed, a 9:00 curfew was enforced, and military checkpoints were pervasive. I plan to continue our correspondence with the school and visit during the coming summer.

My Dedication:

Student Dedications:

Master’s Thesis: The Impact of Tablet Pcs on Teacher Preparation, Organization and Instruction.

jpenning — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:35:20 +0000

This is a study I conducted as a result of my participation in my Masters in Educational Leadership at Centenary College and my participation on the Educational Technology Committee.

Abstract
Despite a wide variety of research done on Tablet PCs, few independent studies have been conducted in secondary schools focused on teachers’ firsthand perspectives on using Tablets to accomplish the essential teacher tasks of organization, planning, and instruction. This study investigated the potential of using Tablet PCs to complete these tasks by gathering teacher perspectives on their competency of use, and the impact the device had on their tasks. The study also quantified how frequently Tablet PCs were used by teachers for their teaching tasks. A survey was used to gather data from a sample of 230 high school teachers. Quantitative data were tabulated, analyzed, compared and then cross-referenced. Patterns were then found in the qualitative data in order to draw conclusions about the teachers’ perceptions and use of Tablet PC’s for their essential tasks. The results indicated that an overwhelming majority of teachers used their Tablet PC at least several times a week and believed they were competent enough to use them to positively impact their essential tasks of organization, planning and instruction.

My Study

The SIMS 2 For Language learning

jpenning — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:05:29 +0000

I have used the SIMS for language learning in Spanish levels I-IV within a variety of contexts which I plan to describe further in this post later. Most recently, my Spanish IV Introduction to Composition class just finished a project using the Sims 2 that can be seen below.

Final Project Description and Requirements using the SIMS 2

Student Final Project: Dos Amigas y Una Pizza

Student Final Project: El Fuego (The Fire)