ISTE/NETS Standards

1.  Creativity and Innovation
  This is what I constantly strive for in my classroom.  As a language teacher, once the basics of the language are taught it's simply practicing for communication.  Since almost everything we do involves communication it isn't difficult to incorporate projects using technology into lessons and assessments.  Spanish and the language are a skill that can be put to use with any aspect of technology.

2.  Communication and Collaboration
  I chose communication and collaboration because again, this is the essence of what I teach.  It is essential that my students both communicate and work together in order to practice what they have learned.  At the upper levels when isn't so much about the mechanics of the language.
One of the best days of teaching was when my class had a skype call with a class from Chile.  I acted as a facilitator by searching for an appropriate contact and making the initial call.  The students were inspired to make a list of their own questions in the days leading up to the call.  They were both nervous and excited during the call but afterwards they all had positive comments about the call and their own personal communicating experience.   The students were able to learn so much in that 40 minute call that I couldn't possible give them by myself.   Inspiring for all of us being able to meet face to face.

3.  Research and Information Fluency
  This is important in my classroom as students look for and present cultural information.  Since everything they find might not be authentic or useful.

4.  Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
  I chose this most importantly because when using technology you always have to problem solve.  Something always goes wrong- as we have experienced in this class and we must work through those roadblocks and find our individual detours to get the job done.  This is especially important during video production and editing and usually the problems cannot be foreseen.


5.  Technology Operations and Concepts 
  We have been introduced to many web 2.0 tools this week that I plan to use with my classes.  Live Binders, and the podcasts, which I have yet to explore, are two applications where students can easily transfer their current knowledge to learning of new technologies.  And as I said above, they will most likely need to do some amount of troubleshooting during their usage which overlaps with #4.