Using Voicethread fo the Classroom

This weeks assignment was about using Voicethread and learning how to create my own assignments for a potential ESL class that I would teach. For example I chose to do an assignment for a 9th grade ESL class. I started off by giving instructions on how to leave a comment on the Voicethread and also what the assignment was about. I decided to start off everyone by introducing themselves, where they're from, how long they've been in the united states, what languages they speak, and if they have visited any places or have wanted to visit any place in the world. I wanted to keep it direct and simple and have the students enjoy the time of learning about each other and practice their speaking skills along the way. I didn't really have any problems creating a voicethread, although I did have to record several times just because I didn't really like how it sounded before! Voicethread is a forum for students and teachers to create and have discussions based on assignments and specific topics given out in class, it lets anyone the ability to record comments through video, voice, or writing. It also gives the creator of a thread to post videos or images. I think it's also an opportunity for teachers and students to create a digital story with having feedback from their peers.

 I had the chance to visit two of my classmates voicethreads Alicia's and Jinsoo's. Alicia's thread was an interesting topic to use for an ESL classroom to get students to describe their differences and similarities of their schools and learning experience with their own countries and the u.s. I have had some personal experience with that when I was younger before moving to the united states and found the experience to be valuable. I thing it's a great way to get students to learn about each others experiences in education and also for teachers since it might get them some insight on a students learning background. Jinsoo's was also a great way to engage students in expressing their opinions on a story. It is a great way to get a class to have a particular discussion on language and learning. So far, I've enjoyed this weeks in depth experience with voicethread. I would definitly use it in my own classrooms one day, its an easy way to create an assignments based of students interests and get them to have a fun learning experience.