#Langchat

First Tweet in #LangChat!

Mission completed! I just participated in my first live chat.  It was not as scary as I thought it would be. I jumped into #langchat. It was interesting to see people from all over the world join in. The chat was well organized and one teacher went on to explain how to answer the various questions being posted.  For example A1 to answer the first question A2 to answer the second and so on.  After having class last night I understood that after each tweet I need to add the #langchat.  I would not have done this prior to last night!  I also made a slight faux pas on my first tweet (as you can see in the screen shot). I tweeted to several participants as well as to the chat.  I soon realized this and corrected my following tweets.  I was excited to see 3 people favorited my second tweet!!  

The chat lasted an hour and 3 question were asked.   I am glad I waited a couple of weeks to participate in a live chat so I was able to get a handle on how to tweet, retweet, refresh, and know the difference between top and live. I would definitely participate in a live chat again.

Second Tweet

#Overwhelmed.

OMG Twitter O.M.G. Let me start with what I love:

     The amount of information, quality articles and essays that you can delve into is insane.  When I start reading one article I quickly find a second or third article tweeted underneath calling out to me.  I find myself rushing through what I am reading so I can start reading something else that looks just as interesting.  Then I suddenly have the need to share this interesting piece of information so the retweeting begins! You can follow me @312Giuliana. I also found the web site paper.li which puts articles and links from Twitter in a newspaper format, I find this so much easier to follow!   This was reweeted by Don Doehla ‏@dr_dmd.  Two great resources on the  paper.li site are edutopia.org and morganmfl.weebly.com 

     My other favorite education feeds so far are @npr_ed , ‏@lingholic.  I also enjoy looking at the more lighted hearted feeds such as @calabriaonline, the content on this particular feed brings up great memories of living in Calabria.  I love that the daily activities which are so particular to this region are being documented with pictures and shared for all to see.  

Traditional Calabrese fig sweets. Photo credit

Olives ready to be harvested.  Photo credit

I also love the collaborative and networking aspect of Twitter, it is wonderful to see so many educators wanting to share their knowledge with the world. 

Now for the parts that are making my head spin:

     The amount of TIME Twitter is taking away from my other responsibilities.  I understand that this may be because I am new to Twitter so I may be over indulging, I feel that when I open my feed, 30/40 minutes just fly by.  I hope to get to the point where I can check Twitter for a few minutes a day and move on with life.  I am also surprised when I see people follow me.   I now feel a bit of pressure to post. 

     I am also having issues participating in a Twitter chat, I am not sure if I get on at the wrong time or I am simply not finding interesting ones where I feel I can contribute something worthwhile to the discussion.  So far the only chat I have found is #langchat and most of that content is specifically Spanish or French. I feel odd just jumping in with an Italian tweet, I do not feel comfortable adding my commentary if I don't think what I am saying is authentic.  I hope to have time to discuss live chats with my department members and see if they have found other chats to participate in.  I ideally I would love to find an Italian teacher chat. 

Technical issues:

Where are my re tweets going?

     One last thing that is driving me insane is not being able to find my retweets I hash-tagged to #edu776nz.  Even the tech person I spoke with couldn’t tell me why my retweets were not showing up on #edu776nz feed, out of a dozen retweets I have posted only 2 have shown up on the feed.  

As I settle in to Twitter I see myself using it to keep up with education articles, authentic resources from Italy and perhaps connecting with other language teachers to share resources.  




Update: I'll be participating in #langchat Thursday! See below.

 One step closer to an Ed chat!

Was I coding in the 80‘s?

     

Old Technology  photo credit

     My first experience with a computer if I really stretch my memory came around the age of 12 or 13.  My grade school obtained computers and once or twice a week I would go to computer class where I could type in a series of numbers such as 10 go to 20 repeat to 30 load and then type the most important word RUN.  After I hit enter I would have words scatter across the screen or some color picture I had created through code would emerge.  Fast forward 30 years and I am signing up my daughter for a coding class when I realize, “ wait that’s how you code? I think I did that in the 80's!”

   After that short introduction to computers in grade school I moved to Europe during my teen years where computers were no where. NO WHERE.

     Returning to the States to attend college I definitely used computers for personal use and considered myself at Stage#2: Adoption.  I was never negative towards technology as some of the bullet points in Stage#1 seem to lean towards, but I would categorize myself as Novice or Entry level.  

My obssesion in 2011  photo credit

     I had to laugh when I read some of the of the bullet points in the different stages and the memories that sprang up. I remember receiving my first computer for the classroom and being warned by administration not to have students touch it (Stage#2).  I also had students write up drafts of assignments and then take them to the lab to type them up-What was I thinking!(Stage#3).  Lastly I remember begging my department for a cool Elmo projector - I used it for about a year(Stage#4).

     Reading through stages# 2-5 I could easily see at least one bullet point I could apply to the way I view or use technology.  I feel I am now between Stages #4 and #5 but I also feel there is a big jump between these the two stages.  I also believe that depending on what new tech tool you are learning or how you use technology you can often be moving to and from various stages.  I definitely enjoy having students use technology to enhance learning and to use it to obtain knowledge on a subject matter that they could not easily reach without it. 

About Me

Things I enjoy:

• Teaching Italian language and culture
• Watching my students walk into class singing Italian songs
• Smiling as my students ask me why there are so many naked statues in Italy 
• Friday date night with my husband Cesar
• Catching my daughter Alessandra reading the New York Times
• Listening to my son Mateo comment on an NPR piece we are listening to while driving
• Chicago Summers
• Pasta all’ Amatriciana 



La Famiglia, Natale 2014

• Technology, when it follows my lead

Things I could live without:

• Chicago Winters
• Chicago Winters 
• Realizing I need gas at 6:50 in the morning
• Making school lunches
• Alfredo Sauce
• Technology, when it won’t do what I ask 

     Mi chiamo Juliana Costabile. I have been an Italian teacher for almost 20 years.  The road that led me to teaching has been an interesting one. I am the oldest daughter of Southern Italian Immigrants who came to the United States in the early1970’s. My first trip to Italy was at the age of 5 with my father.  I still have vivid memories of our trip, from the fresh cow’s milk I refused to drink, to sneaking out to the barn to pet a horse I adored.

    I was born and raised in Highland Park Illinois till the age of 13. In 1986 my parents decided to move my 2 sisters and I from the North Shore to Calabria Italy, to live on a working farm.  As a teen you can imagine how thrilled I was!  After a few tears, I grew to love my surroundings.  I attended a liceo lingistico - a language high school. Here, I discovered I had a passion for languages.  

    Soon after I returned to the States to complete my senior year of high school and went on to major in Italian and minor in French and Spanish at Loyola University.  I continued my studies at The Ohio State University enrolling in a Masters program in Italian Language and Literature. At this point I still was not sure where I was headed professionally.  A week after arriving at Ohio State I also began a position as a teaching assistant ~ I taught Italian, levels 101-103.  I found it entertaining teaching students that were my age or slightly older and I still remember my hands shaking and speed reading through the syllabus on the first day of class. While teaching these classes I realized I wanted to go into teaching long-term and enrolled simultaneously in a newly created M.Ed. in Foreign Language Education program.

The school year begins

    After graduate school I returned to Chicago and started teaching at an all girl Catholic high school on the North Side of Chicago.  I taught there 14 years which seems crazy when I see it in print.  While teaching there I went through many personal milestones, met and married my husband Cesar, lived in Oak Park, and moved from Park (I still miss that one bedroom apartment).  From there we bought a home in Highland Park 3 minutes from my parents ~ love the free babysitting! In this home we are raising our 2 children Alessandra (11) and Mateo (8).  They make life fun, exciting and a bit hectic!

     

    Last year, on a very last minute whim I decided to apply for the Italian teacher position at Roosevelt Middle School.  I accepted the position the Saturday before school started and have been running (happily) ever since.  I love the enthusiasm and curiosity middle school students have and how willing they are to try new things. I feel they teach me something new everyday.