World Language Dept. attends tech workshop at Pascack Valley
The purpose of Pear Deck, which is an add-on for Google Slides, is to help further engage students in active learning.
Becton’s World Language Department attended a workshop centered around technology in education at Pascack Valley High School located in Hillsdale, NJ on February 15.
Examples of applications and tech tools that were introduced at the workshop are EdPuzzle, Pear Deck, Voki, Canva, and Socrative.
“I already started using EdPuzzle in the context of El Imperfecto in my Spanish 2 classes. I had the chance to see Pear Deck in action as well and will use this along with EdPuzzle more often to improve student engagement and listening comprehension,” stated Spanish Instructor Mrs. Sanchez.
“I discovered new tools and websites ideal for my classes, which allow students to interact with me and with each other and also give me the opportunity to collect data and provide feedback in real time,” added Italian Teacher Mrs. Bonanno.
Mrs. Bonanno noted that Pascack Valley is an Apple District and has been utilizing technology in the classroom for almost 15 years. “The teachers at the workshop were very tech-savvy, and we were able to learn a lot from them,” she said.
Westwood High School educators were also in attendance, so Becton’s world language teachers were able to discuss curriculum, levels of expectation, and implementation of technology with not only the staff at Pascack Valley, but also with Westwood H.S. teachers. Mrs. Bonanno also had a chance to collaborate with the Supervisor of World Language at Pascack Valley who organized the tech event, Ms. Noemi Rodriguez.
“Considering that Becton is relatively new to the 1:1 Initiative, I feel as if everyone is doing a tremendous job in trying to use technology every day and implementing it into each of their lessons,” said the Italian language instructor.
Overall, the world language staff at Becton feels like the new tools that they learned can be utilized throughout all levels of their classes and are “working hard in learning this technology further and implementing it into their everyday lessons.”
“I know lots of people in that district (Pascack Valley), so it was very nice to see them and have the chance to exchange opinions and get advice. I am very grateful that I got the chance to attend,” Mrs. Bonanno said.
Mrs. Sanchez added that she hopes to visit more schools in the future to see how they are implementing technology in the area of Spanish instruction.
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