Jenna Bryant
EdPsych 387 Major Project
Conexionesa newsletter designed to integrate technology and to take students beyond their classroom studies in Spanish and Advanced Geography while combining the curriculum within the two classes.  Students worked on topics from their Geography class and connected them to either the Spanish language and or to a Spanish-Speaking country.
Click here to view Issue 1School Newsletter site

Stage 1:

• Students in the Geography class had studied the governments in the United States and Mexico, the climatic regions in Mexico, NAFTA and its effect on both the US and Mexico, and the peoples of Mexico.  The students were required to choose one of the specific areas to write a summary on their studies and find a picture on the internet, take a digital picture, or scan in a picture that would complement their article in the newsletter.
• Other students were given topics related to holidays being celebrated in November in Mexico or the educational systems in Mexico and Spain.
• All students
• kept a list of vocabulary words that were cognates and those they were going to look up at a later time.
• created a list of websites and a brief description of each that they found useful.
• evaluated the websites
• studied vocabulary related to a newsletter
• Finally, they cut and pasted their word documents into a Publisher template to create the newsletter and learn more about the program.

• Analyze the motivation that technology sparks for students to go beyond the course requirements.
• An expansion on vocabulary through exploration of specified topics and the writing process.
• Validate the classroom material by having the students see the links from their classes to Spanish.

• World Wide Web
• Microsoft Publisher
• Microsoft Word
• Digital Camera

Learners:

• All students are in Spanish I classes that I teach.
• Six eigth grade students (7 of which are in the Advanced Geography Class)
• Two seventh grade students

Evaluation:

• These are my 4 evaluations used during this project:
• Pre-Survey for Confidence with programs
• Attitude Evaluation
• Content Evaluation
• Questionnaire
• What I learned:
• The pre-survey indicated a strong need for instruction with Microsoft Publisher, the Digital Camera, and finally with the program Adobe Photoshop.  The first issue did not lend itself to use of the camera nor Adobe Photoshop.  We are currently learning those two technologies for the second issue.
• The students also indicated a strong confidence in Microsoft Word which led us to use that program for the initial writing of our articles.
• The Attitude Evaluation did indicate that I had achieved my main goal of motivating the students to go beyond the curriculm and to learn more technologies.
• 60% of the students strongly agreed that they were motivated to use new technologies and they enjoy going beyond what is required of them in the classroom.
• 60% also strongly agreed that this project motivated them to learn more spanish and indicated that with more time to write the articles they felt they would learn more. (We felt a little rushed to meet a deadline!)
• 60% Agreed that this project helped them to see the connections between their classes.
•   I also see this rising with the next issue including other content areas in the junior high.
• The Content Evaluation indicated that the extra content being studied is motivating and that they increased their vocabulary.
• 80% strongly agreed that the project motivated them to go beyond the requirements.
• 60% strongly agreed that the use of technology motivated them to work on and complete their articles before the deadline.
• The questionnaire had some wonderful feedback for the project and some outstanding suggestions we are already implementing for Issue 2.
• What was the best part of the project?
•  "I got to learn information about Mexico that I normally wouldn't get to learn in regular Spanish class."
• "...working on the computer."
• "...using the internet and computer applications and publishing our work and sharing our information."
• "Getting to work on Publisher."
• "I feel alot more comfortable with using the computer, internet, and Microsoft Publisher."
• What was the worst part of the project?
• "Time available to work on the project"
• Did this project motivate you in any specific way?
• "YES- to learn more spanish and more computer programs."
• "..I thought it was interesting and I was motivated because I was helping my teacher."
• "... it made me sort of look forward to spanish class everyday."
• Did you learn any new forms of technology?
• Publisher
• Zipdisks
• Improved internet research skills
• What would you change about the project?
• Time
• Nothing
• The evaluation forms have helped me to adjust parts of the newsletter and my instruction.  We are now developing websites for the research links we use and are working together to teach the new technologies.  The students have varying skills on the programs and often want to teach the others.  This has helped in my part of the project and has imporved the motivation of the students.  We will also have a longer time frame for the second issue.  The group did feel that the learning of new programs, along with writing an article was a little stressful.  Now that Publisher is not new and the students have raised their confidence the time issue should not be an issue.  I look forward to evaluating the project again after Issue two.

• Beyond the project and my goals, I learned that this project will work in my classroom and is an ongoing newsletter.
• I also learned that I have more skills in technology than I have ever had before and an adequate ability to teach about those technologies to my students.
• The main part learned or realized is that my confidence level in technology has increased.
• Once others (mainly teachers, but also other students) see a project working, they want to learn also.

• This newsletter has generate a lot of interest in our district for its incorporation of teaching classroom material while teaching about and through technology.
• The students are motivated to continue with this project and the newsletter has generated interest among the other students in the junior high.