We’ve
made a good start – let’s continue bravely following handouts, screwing up, and fighting
our way through momentary problems. This week I’ll have a chance to sit down
with everyone and help out more.
Today we fly!
l.
If you’ve decided you don’t want to make a website:
1. Keep
surfing for good websites, exercsies and sites that cover your textbook and the
topics you teach
2. Make
Webquests (See the Website section of our Immersion website)
3. Make
simple handouts with questions and recommended websites
a. Example on Oktoberfest: http://teachers.springfieldschools.org/slough/oktoberfest_internet_activity.htm
b. Handout on the origins and meaning of German Easter
Customs http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/osterqu.htm
4. Make
online exercises that can just as easily be printed, even if not done online.
Spiffy appearance!
a. See Exercises / Units on
our Immersion site - give all created exercises VERY CLEAR names 1foods,
chap2_food
b. Interactive Exercise Makers (see Exercises/Units)
- write down all the addresses of the exercises your create
c. Make numerous Spellmaster.com exercises, give
them VERY CLEAR names and save to floppy
d. Try out Hot Potatoes to create online / printable
exercises – match, word order mix, crosswords, cloze, fill-ins, etc.
ll.
Consolidating last week’s humble beginnings
a. Save As Webpage - index.htm (change the bottom option
from Word Document to Webpage)
b. Save it to your folder, NOT to My
Documents (C:)
c. To get to your folder- Browse, then work
your way through STUDENTS – IMMERSION – YOUR FOLDER
a. Log In to www.tripod.com
and choose the Build tab, then File Manager
a. Upload your index.htm to
your website and make it accessible to the world
b. View it following the
handout and find your website address – Add a Favorite and write it down
c. TIP: http://username.tripod.com/index.htm
= http://username.tripod.com/ because
index.htm is the default file
lll.
How to Find websites and exercises to make links to on our websites (index.htm)
1.
The end game - whether linking to a site or an exercise
a. Edit using Word – add links, descriptions
of the sites, directions, etc.
b. Upload to your website using www.tripod.com
2.
Reminders and Tips
a.
Try
to offer a variety of experiences (images, exercises, audio, interesting texts,
unique items)
b.
The web shouldn’t be boring – don’t link to sites that are just a lot
of reading material
2.
Conduct Searches using http://www.altavista.com
and http://www.google.com
a. Read the two resources on the Search
section of the Immersion Website, if necessary
b. Tip1: use plus signs to obtain good search
results: +Spanish +exercises, +Spanish +Textname, +Topic
c. Tip2: search for exact phrases using quotation
marks “My Textbook’s Name”, “Dime”,
“Paso a Paso” (sp?)
3.
Surf to find good sites
a. Ask your colleagues for their recommendations of
good websites
b. Start with the websites on the Surf
section of our immersion website
c. Add Favorites as you go along
d. We can share our recommended sites by using the
Add-A-Link feature on the Surf section of the Immersion Site
4.
Find exercises and collections
a. See Exercises/Units on our Immersion
Website
b. It’s highly likely that
some fool like me has already made all the exercises for your textbook
c. Make your own Interactive
Exercise Maker exercises – follow handouts from my original packet
-
Make
an exercise, Add a Favorite, add a link to it on your index.htm,
upload index.htm
5.It
never hurts to add a link to a game as a reward for good work – Search
for games
a. Students will kill themselves with good work to
play a game for 5 minutes at the end of the period
b. See my site http://www.serve.com/shea/spiele.htm
for examples
c. Try websites like McDonald’s or any
business/product/food for your language – they always have games
- For German, BMW, Porsche, the Oktoberfest, various
newspapers, etc. all have game collections
d. There are also many World Cup and Olympics
Shockwave games – conduct searches to find them
- Search for +Shockwave
+Coupe de Monde or +World-o Cup-o (or whatever the Spanish is)
e. They’ll forget the work and remember the fun and
want to come back – plus you’ll be “cool” for what it’s worth
-
IMPORTANT:
this is also one of the very few ways you can attract a student to visit your
site at home
-
They’re
on the web, but they’re just chatting and playing games, so let’s trick them
into practicing
-
I
tell them – play a few games, do an exercise, play some more, do a few
exercises, etc. and they do!
-
They
often don’t view the online exercises as work – they love the challenge of
achieving speed w/accuracy
6.
Add all new additions to index.htm
a. Edit using Word – add links, descriptions
of the sites, directions, etc.
b. Upload to your website using www.tripod.com
lV.
Adding Images and Clip Art to your index.htm – a special problem
1. Initial
Comments
a. My most well-meaning tip is to tell you: don’t
bother!
b. If you must add an image, you’re creating several
more steps in your uploading plus it’s a waste of time
c. Images and Image collections – see the Images
section on our website. Consider copyright!
2. Ok,
you’re still here and you want to know. Here’s the problem:
When you Insert – Picture in index.htm
using Word, it automatically converts the file names and places them in a
separate folder mirroring the filename: index_files. If you make a
second webpage called food.htm and add an image, then Word will create a
folder called food_files and will place the images in that folder and rename
them image1.jpg, image2.jpg, etc. regardless of their original names.
3. Using
www.tripod.com - upload index.htm
as usual
a. Extra step - click on New Directory and give it
the name index_files (or food_files if you created food.htm)
b. Upload – Browse to the newly created index_files
folder in your Immersion Folder. Upload everything in it
c.
It
should work – don’t try this after enjoying a few good German beers or you
might have problems. Trust me.
d.
Everytime
you upload to the index_files folder, you have to click on it first to gain
entry to it, then upload images
If
you know of a better way to do this, please feel free to tell me – I’m all
ears. Anytime you use basic programs and free webspace, you must reckon with
certain problems and idiosyncracies. If you’d like to pay money for your
website, then you’ll have fewer problems and more support. View the resources
at the Website section of our Immersion Website or I’d be happy to show
you how to do this for a substantial fee, if you’d prefer. Know what I mean?
Young Bob admiring one of
the few remaining mosaics at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, 1992.