Practical Ways to Implement Technology In Your Classroom

I wanted to give you a couple more simple ways to begin implementing the TESOL standards in your classroom today! If you take a look at the Goals and Standards for Teachers, you'll see that Goal 3 states that, "Language teachers apply technology in record keeping, feedback, and assessment". One easy way to do this is to use your school's platform (Infinite Campus, for example) to stay up to date on grades. Students and parents want to have quick feedback on how they (or their child) are doing. For the parents of ELLs, especially, this may be a non-intimidating way for them to stay involved in their child's education. It doesn't involved having to communicate with the teacher, and it is easily understandable. There is no language barrier. Teachers must be timely in providing feedback for students. One of the purposes of formative assessment is for students to see what they need to work on. Technology is one of the easiest and fastest ways to communicate with students about how they are doing. Use it wisely!

A second tip is this and relates to Teacher Goal 4- Language teachers use technology to improve communication, collaboration, and efficiency. In Outlook, create a distribution list for each of your classes. You'll have to gather cell phone numbers from your students in order to do this. You can use these distribution lists to quickly and easily send text messages to your classes. You can use this tool for quiz, test or homework reminders. This allows students to be better prepared for assessment in your class. Some students will prepare without any prompting and some students will not prepare, regardless of reminders. I believe, though, and this has been my experience, that some students benefit from the reminders and will use the opportunity to study. Take advantage of ways that technology can save you time and help your students!