As I have taught, I have come up with a few innovations which have helped me and my students.

Special Text Boxes. l figured out a way to make a special blank text box to put in PowerPoint presentations which allows me to type on the screen of the powerpoint presentation during the class presentation. This has been useful for writing down student ideas and comments during class discussion. The presentation can then be saved with all student comments included.

A Virtual Chalkboard. I formatted a blank word document in the Spanish language with large font and a bullets list ready. I posted it online and made a link to it in my PowerPoint presentations. Whenever I have wanted to list student ideas or responses, I just click on the link that I made and embedded on every slide of the PowerPoint presentation (using the 'Slide Master'). View my 'chalkboard' doc here.

A PowerPoint Timer. From a stroke of inspiration, I figured out a way to make a small box that would fill with color over the time that I decided on. I pasted it in the corner of a PowerPoint slide and would begin the timer as we began the class's small group activities. I could roam about the room and observe the students without having to worry about the time. Once the timer had reached its time, it would make a 'ding' noise altering me and the entire class that it was time to move on to the next activity. I did not have to raise my voice for the class to quiet down and end the activity. See examples in this PowerPoint presentation.

Streaming Radio. Sometimes I would play streaming radio in Spanish from some hispanic country at the beginning of class to get students ready for class. I especially like to use vTuner.com.

Using Symbols and Drawing Trees. It is an innovation for many instructors to successfully use special phonetic or spanish symbols in their PowerPoint presentations and other documents. The same can be said of syntactic trees. I figured out several ways to do these things a while ago and if anyone needs some help with it, see my page on fonts/symbols/trees or my fonts and trees pdf. I'd also be happy to help in person.

Directions to my Cubicle. To make it exceedingly easy for my students to find my office and visit me during office hours, I posted them online. I included several pictures to give step-by-step directions to my cubicle. My students always have a good laugh when they see that page.

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