Hello from Orlando, Florida! Michele and I left -13 degree weather in Anchorage last night and arrived here this morning to a balmy 75 degrees. We feel like we are in a different country! A different universe, even!
So. I’m here and my husband and boys are in Alaska, so I need lots of visitors to keep me distracted from missing my three best guys! If you would like to multi-task and visit me while checking out rockin’ TPRS Publishing materials, visit Booth 514 in the Exhibitor Hall. I’ll be there on Friday from 10am to 12pm and on Saturday from 2pm to 4pm. You can also come to my session on Saturday at 11:15am in W204A!
Can’t wait to see everyone! Michele and I already met Noah Geisel and are going to try our very best to get him to come to Alaska 🙂
Great to meet y’all in person! Your blog is a World Lang treasure:)
Fabulous ACTFL workshop!
Hi, this is not about ACTFL…I left a comment on another part of your blog, about jigsaw puzzles, thanking you for the link to someone else’s examples. I think I remember you saying something about when you cut all the puzzles at once with a scissors of a paper cutter, the pieces get mixed up–that is, one set of pieces might have two that belong in the upper right hand corner, but no copy of the piece that belongs in the center, etc. Or maybe it was the other person, sorry, can’t remember!
Is that a correct description of the problem? If so, I have an idea that might help. I think someone had suggested to put a number on each piece of each puzzle (for example , a number 1 in each piece of the puzzle on the top page, a number 2 on each piece of the puzzle on the second page, etc.). Why not use different colors of paper for each copy of the puzzle? for example, load your copier with one sheet each of blue, yellow, pink and green–then make 4 copies of your puzzle. (increase number of colors as necessary). Then when you cut, all you have to do is put all the greens together, all the yellows together, you don’t have to look at the text to see which set has duplicates.
If you find that you do not have enough colors available ( a trip to an office supply store can really increase your variety), then maybe before you cut, you can put a symbol or number on one of the duplicate colors. For example, if you know you must use two yellow copies: take one yellow copy and put a number or symbol (dot, star, asterisk, $ sign, euro sign) in each of the puzzle pieces (you could use a rubber stamp for this or just draw the symbol). Orient them differently if necessary (sideways, upside down, on a slant–some, like a dot, look the same from every angle, but you can place them in different areas of each piece ). Leave the other yellow paper alone (no number or symbol). Then when you cut those two, just separate into two groups: yellow those with the symbol, yellow without.
For whatever it is worth, when I read that the puzzle had text, I thought that meant that you had typed up a paragraph of two, then cut it apart into puzzle pieces. Might that be an alternate way of doing a puzzle? Students can easily figure out which way is up, but they still have to do some thinking (especially if pieces are all the same size).
Sorry for the length but I am trying to explain clearly.