The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Education:How To
Welcome to the Thursday edition of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, a podcast for English teachers in search of creative teaching strategies. Whether you’re new to the show or a long-time listener, I’m so glad you’re here for today’s edition of “Highly Recommended.” This week, I want to make sure you know just how amazing the Google Translate App really is.
Living here in Bratislava, and traveling around Europe with our family, we are constantly confronted by languages we don’t know. On Street Signs, parking signs, parking tickets, frozen pizza cooking instructions, directions for using new toys on Christmas morning, mail that lands in our box, and so much more. Which is why we really couldn’t do without our Google translate app.
At first we stared at the strange text and painstakingly tried to type it into the app. But then we discovered the camera feature. Did you know you can pick any two languages in the app, then take a picture of the first and instantly see it translated to the second?
You can also speak into the app in one language and see your words typed out in another. Or hold the camera up to someone you want to understand and get their words translated.
It’s an incredible tool, and one I use constantly in my everyday life.
For your emerging bilingual or trilingual students, Google Translate can be a huge lifeline. They can quickly hold their app camera over handout instructions, printed writing prompts, or classroom posters and see it in their own language. They can take a picture or screenshot and have the translation available for the rest of the class. And of course, beyond the app, they can plug large sections of text into Google Translate online to help them better understand a podcast transcript, close reading passage, or news article.
Google Translate can help your students keep up with your content and express the complexity of their ideas as their second or third language skills catch up with their thought processes. That’s why this week, I highly recommend you add it to your phone and get familiar with it. It doesn’t take long, and it could make all the difference to some of your students (and perhaps their parents come conference time, too).
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124: 6 Free Canva Tools for Teachers
123: Creative Blended Learning (Now and in the Future), with Dr. Catlin Tucker
122: The Ultimate Guide to Genius Hour In ELA
121: When Lit Circles WORK, with Krista Barbour
120: Collegiate High School's Digital Literary Food Truck Festival
119: 5 Creative Ways to Use QR Codes in ELA
118: Big Ideas for Better Writing Instruction, with EB Academics
117: 10 Ways to Encourage a Reading Culture in your (Online) Classroom
116: Connect with your Students as a New Year Begins
115: 5 Creative Digital Poetry Activities
114: Easily Reduce your Digital Paper Pile
113: Breakout Rooms, Community Building, and Grading Policies for Online Teaching
112: An ELA Teacher's Gift Guide
111: Creative Uses for Jamboard, with Matt Miller
110: Take Your Writing Workshop Digital (It's Easy), with Amanda Werner
109: How to Make Digital "Magnetic" Poetry Activities
108: Try a Virtual Travel Research Project
107: Virtual Discussion Problems? Try this
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