Tag Archives: Program Lists

High School Writing

A few of my local high school writing teachers have asked me about videoconference options lately. So here’s a list of options.

Writing/Author Related Content Provider Programs

  • Schooner Christmas: Creative Writing with a Historical Perspective from Pier Wisconsin. Available in November & December.
  • Unity & Diversity from the Cleveland Institute of Music addresses skills for writing.
  • Author/Computer Illustrator Bill Davis is willing to tailor programs for schools. See two of his listed programs for an idea of what he can share with your students.
  • Cooperating School Districts has a set of author programs.
  • Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts has two programs for high school on Poetry and Prose.
  • The Smithsonian American Art Museum has a program on Visual and Language Arts that can be used as a springboard for writing exercises.

Related to that, here are a few literature based high school level programs:

  • Don Quixote, Faust, or A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Edgar Allan Poe from the Center for Puppetry Arts.
  • Harlem Renaissance from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
  • Several programs are available on various Shakespeare related topics.
  • The Indiana Repertory Theatre has a program on Bringing Dickens’ Characters to Life.
  • The Mid Atlantic Center for the Arts has a program on Victorian Literature that can be tailored to requested author/literature.

Classroom to Classroom Connections
Another option is to consider having your class connect to another class for a celebration of writing. Some ideas include:

  • A poetry fest/poetry jam/coffee house event where students share poetry. This could be done point-to-point with another class, or multipoint and over a lunch period.
  • A story starter session. Classes could present to each other a visual story starter: a picture, a still life pose, a skit or other visual. After sharing the story starters via videoconference, students could write stories and share them for feedback via email, a blog, or an online class discussion space in Moodle or a similar tool.
  • Journalism Club/News Teams. Any writing related clubs or school news teams could meet with a similar club in another school. Students could share what activities their club is involved in, learn from the other club, and brainstorm new ideas together.

These are just a few possibilities. I’m sure you can think of more!

High School Graphics Arts Programs

On Monday I talked to our Graphic Arts CTE (Career Technical Education) program teachers. We brainstormed some possibilities for their classes. Here’s what we came up with.

  1. Animation: Not Just for Saturday Morning, from the Museum of TV & Radio.
  2. Programs from Author/Computer Illustrator Bill Dallas Lewis. I think this is a really good option because Bill is willing to tailor the programs to what the teacher is looking for. He can do Photoshop, Flash, and more. Visit his website for more details as well. BTW, he does web cam videoconferencing too. He can guide a project as well.
  3. Students could create computer generated art to share with another class for feedback and review.
  4. Finally I shared my notes from the Keystone Conference session: The Orange County Animation Project: Mentoring From The Real World.

Best 2nd grade VC programs

So you’re a 2nd grade teacher and trying to pick the best VC program for this year? Here are what I consider to be your best choices.

Science
Of all the possibilities we’ve correlated to the Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations for 2nd grade, I’d say choose one of these providers:

  1. The Center for Puppetry Arts has excellent programs. They are designed well for young students’ attention spans because the students work on making a puppet, glue a little, then learn something while it’s drying, then glue a little more. By the time the program is done, they have a puppet! I highly recommend these programs!
  2. We really enjoy both the Columbus Zoo and the Cincinnati Zoo for the adaptations and/or life cycle/bug programs.
  3. Consider also the Lake County Waste Management District for their environment programs. The presenter is an incredible storyteller and connects very well with the students. Plus they are free!
  4. If your students are “designing a system that encourages growing of particular plants or animals” MI.SCI.III.5.3, consider sharing your “system” or worm farm or other experiments with another class. Last spring we did a worm-farm sharing project that was highly successful!
  5. If your students are studying weather, you may want to connect to a class in a different area and share local weather/climate conditions.
  6. If your students are learning about “seasonal changes in Michigan’s weather” MI.SCI.V.3.2, you may consider presenting the four seasons to another class. Or connect to a partner class four times during the school year to share the four different seasons.

Social Studies: Communities

  1. Joan Roehre, Kenosha, WI, shared a really neat local community history idea on her blog. She’s running this project for her local districts in March. We could do the same thing here in Berrien County if we have a few interested teachers!
  2. The Around the World program from the Museum of TV & Radio is one of the best programs that shows different types of communities around the world. Highly recommended!
  3. You could also connect with a class in a different type of community anywhere in the world, really. Canada & the U.S. are the easiest places to find a partner class, but other international locations aren’t out of the picture – they just take a bit more work to find! To my local teachers, email me if you want to do this!

Language Arts

  1. Of course, don’t forget the possibility of participating in Read Across America in March 2006. That would be free.
  2. For my local teachers: We have some good ASK programs coming up that you’ll want to consider. Remember we send you the books.
    ****Stellaluna by Janell Cannon; Grade Level: 2-3, Topic: Bats.
    Date: November 3, 2005: 9:30-10:30; 10:45-11:45; and 1:00-2:00 p.m.
    You’ll interview experts at the Bat Conservatory at the Cranbrook Institute of Science.
    ****Ice Bear and Little Fox by Jonathan London, Grades 2-3. Topic: Polar Bears
    Date: March 16, 9:30-10:15 and 10:30-11:15 a.m. (3 slots each time).
    You’ll interview an expert at the Indianapolis Zoo.
  3. You could also, at any other time of the year, present a choral reading, play, or original class book to another class.
  4. There are several good content provider programs based on children’s literature as well.

To my local teachers, email me or visit www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl to schedule any of these videoconferences.

Best 1st grade VC programs

So you’re a 1st grade teacher and trying to pick the best VC program for this year? Here are what I consider to be your best choices.

Science
Of all the possibilities we’ve correlated to the Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations for 1st grade, I’d say choose one of these providers:

  1. The Center for Puppetry Arts has excellent programs. They are designed well for young students’ attention spans because the students work on making a puppet, glue a little, then learn something while it’s drying, then glue a little more. By the time the program is done, they have a puppet! I highly recommend these programs!
  2. The Columbus Zoo is excellent at tailoring their programs to your students’ level. These are also very good programs, but you’d be schedule ASAP! The fall schedule is full and the rest of the year is filling up very quickly!
  3. Consider also the Lake County Waste Management District for their environment programs. The presenter is an incredible storyteller and connects very well with the students. Plus they are free!
  4. If your students are “designing a system that encourages growing of particular plants or animals” MI.SCI.III.5.3, consider sharing your “system” or worm farm or other experiments with another class. Last spring we did a worm-farm sharing project that was highly successful!
  5. If your students are studying weather, you may want to connect to a class in a different area and share local weather/climate conditions.

Language Arts

  1. Of course, don’t forget the possibility of participating in Read Across America in March 2006. That would be free.
  2. You could also, at any other time of the year, do a reading project with another class. One idea is to share a pattern book, such as Chica-Chica-Boom-Boom or Do You See What I See? One TX teacher who took my online class, Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections, partnered up with another class in NY. Each class took a turn at reading the book to each other, then they read the book aloud together. What a fun simple idea! You could extend it and have each class write their own book following the same pattern, and share that with each other via VC as well.
  3. There are several good content provider programs based on children’s literature as well.

To my local teachers, email me or visit www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl to schedule any of these videoconferences.

What About Math? Elementary Possibilities

If you’re interested in doing a videoconference related to math, you may have found that there aren’t as many opportunties as other subject areas. However, there are still some good choices.

Content Providers

  1. On the Wall: Drawing on Math from the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We’ve really enjoyed this program. Students use math to solve an art problem, show their solutions to the presenter, and then at the end of the videoconference they see how the artist solved the problem. Real-world applications of perimeterand area!
  2. We really like the Lake County Waste Management District, and they offer two free programs: Scales & Tales – Environmental Fun with Measuring and also Talkin’ Trash. I haven’t seen these two particular programs, but I’ve heard good things from DL colleagues who have done them.
  3. If you’ve been reading this blog, you already know we love COSI Toledo here in Berrien County. Andy Campbell has a program called What’s the Chance? If it’s anything like the rest of his programs, it will be excellent!
  4. We enjoy the Baseball Hall of Fame as well. They have a program called Math: Batter Up for 5th grade & up. It covers long division, batting averages, and slugging percentages.
  5. Another possibility is Mathematical Visions from the Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts. I haven’t seen this one yet, but it sounds interesting. Same with Ani-math from the Indianapolis Zoo.

Math Projects with Other Classes
Don’t forget that you can do creative math projects with other classes. These are usually free too! Here’s some possibilities:

  1. Math Problem Solving is an idea shared by teachers at a TWICE workshop.
  2. Linda McDonald, Katy ISD, TX, has a great project she runs called Math Marvels. Her website has the flyer information, sample problems, etc. under Documents. (Note, the links don’t work if you’re using Firefox, so look at this in Internet Explorer.)
  3. I’m sure you can think of other ways your math class could share a love of math with another class!

To my local teachers, email me or visit www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl to schedule any of these videoconferences.

High School Expert Interviews

There’s also a stack of expert interviews from several locations. We really like the COSI Columbus ones. They are available on many science topics.

  1. COSI Columbus has many experts available on topics such as: climate change, migratory birds, athletic performance, PC robotics, memory, ecology, genetics, forensics, and more!
  2. Vanderbilt Virtual School and Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach both offer several expert interviews on science topics and career interviews.
  3. And don’t forget all the great NASA programs. Most of the NASA Glenn programs are interviews with NASA scientists.

To my local teachers, email me or visit www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl to schedule any of these videoconferences.

Foreign Language Classes

We’ve had quite an increase this year in programs available for foreign languages. Here’s what’s available:

Spanish

  1. The Cleveland Museum of Art, one of our favorite providers, will present a couple of their programs in Spanish if requested.
  2. The Indianapolis Museum of Art offers an excellent interactive program called the Speak to Learn Game Show. It’s available in Spanish, French, German or ESL! I love this program. Kids speak in the language about the art they are viewing and get points & medals for their work in the game show. Very fun. Students often say afterwards, “We should talk in the language more!”
  3. Global Education Motivators has a program, Recognizing the Rights of People with Disabilities that can be presented in Spanish. The presenter is a gymnast from Columbia who suffered an injury to her spinal cord while performing on the vault. This sounds like a powerful program for English or Spanish!
  4. The Indianapolis Zoo has a new program on Animales en Español. It says K-8 but would probably be good for a 1st year Spanish class as well.
  5. Camden Children’s Garden is offering all of their programs in Spanish this year (as well as English).
  6. The Videoconference Organization Seminary in Spain offers several programs. A little on the pricey side, but they are a connection to Spain!
  7. To my local teachers: In addition, I have a couple contacts in Latin America that we could set you up with a class to class conversation if you wish. You could also connect to another local Spanish class and talk to them en Español if you wish. A couple neat projects ideas are: Epals Hablar and Simon Dice.

French

  1. The Indianapolis Museum of Art offers an excellent interactive program called the Speak to Learn Game Show as mentioned above.
  2. The Cleveland Museum of Art, one of our favorite providers, will present a couple of their programs in French if requested.

German

  1. The Indianapolis Museum of Art offers an excellent interactive program called the Speak to Learn Game Show as mentioned above.

Italian

  1. The Cleveland Museum of Art added a new program, Italian Art, that can be presented in Italian if you wish.

To my local teachers, email me or visit www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl to schedule any of these videoconferences.

Studying the Holocaust & World War II

Is your class studying the holocaust? There are several good options of videoconferences to supplement your studies.

  1. The Museum of Tolerance offers interviews with holocaust survivors. A little expensive, but well worth it. They are in California, so classes in the EST timezone can’t schedule before about 12:00 noon.
  2. The Holocaust Memorial in NY has a nice set of programs. I haven’t seen them, but they look good! These could be scheduled during your class period.
  3. Global Leap offers connections with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. They are scheduled about 8:30-10:30 a.m. EST (at least right now – daylight savings might change that) about one Wednesday a month. This sounds like an incredible experience!
  4. Mr. Sacavage from Intermediate Unit 29 in PA offers a program on Holocaust and Tolerance Education. He has lots of experience, stories, pictures, and resources to share and can tailor the program to what you wish. We used him as the expert for the ASK: Daniel’s Story program last year and probably will again this year.
    Note to my local teachers: This ASK program is available for scheduling if you wish. If you use the ASK format, we pay for it. Otherwise you can apply for a mini-grant. We could schedule Mr. Sacavage to go with a different book such as Night or Anne Frank’s Diary. Email or call me at the ISD to discuss options.
  5. Vanderbilt Virtual School is offering four 35-40 min. videoconferences with survivors this fall. They are scheduled at specific times, so plan ahead!
  6. In addition, you may want to search the BCISD VC Database for World War II for additional choices, or check out Eyewitness to American History from the Battleship New Jersey or the programs from the Arizona Memorial Museum Association.
  7. In February, we will be offering Lest We Forget interviews with our local World War II veterans. Depending on scheduling and local interest, we may have a few slots for classes outside our area to participate. Stay tuned here for details.

To my local teachers, email me or visit www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl to schedule any of these videoconferences.

Best 5th grade VC programs

So you’re a 5th grade teacher trying to decide which VC programs to do this year? Here’s my “best picks” list.

Social Studies

  1. For U.S. geography and history, consider the program we run in April every year: MysteryQuest USA. My local teachers pick times & dates, then we advertise to everyone else. This program is always free.
  2. Another highly recommended program is Musical Geography of America from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
  3. See also our list of programs for 5th grade: colonization and exploration. I haven’t seen any of these enough to strongly recommend any, but they all sound good.

Language Arts

  1. For my local teachers: We have some good ASK programs coming up that you’ll want to consider. Remember we send you the books.
    ****Roanoke: The Lost Colony by Jane Yolen. Grade Level: 5th. Topic: Colonial times. Date: March 16, 2006; 1:00-2:00 p.m. 3 slots available.
    Students will interview a historical impersonator: a colonial craftsman.
    ****The Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully, Grades 4-5
    Topic: Labor / US History
    Date: March 14, 1:00-2:00 p.m. EST (3 slots)
    ****Night of the Twisters
    by Ivy Ruckman. Grade Level:
    4-7 (5th is best). Topic: Tornadoes – weather. Date: Open to scheduling when you want it. Students will interview a local meteorologist.
  2. See also the Grade Level Content Expectations for 5th grade language arts. These are all good choices.

Science
Of course look at the Grade Level Content Expectations for 5th grade science. Of those, I highly recommend the following:

  1. Gadget Works from COSI Columbus for your simple machines unit. Excellent program! Kids take apart toys and learn about the simple machines in them during the program. Very highly recommended.
  2. Anything from the Cincinnati Zoo, Columbus Zoo, Buffalo Zoo, COSI Toledo, or the Lake County Waste Management District.

To my local teachers, email me or visit www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl to schedule any of these videoconferences.

Best 4th grade VC programs

4th grade teachers, need help picking a videoconference for this year? Here’s what I consider to be your best choices.

Social Studies
Of course there are many great options for studying Michigan!

  1. Local Teachers: The free LAPS programs offered by Macomb ISD are one option. I’ve already emailed this information out. If you missed it, send me an email.
    Michigan teachers: Check with your ISD distance learning coordinator. This was advertised to TWICE members.
  2. Local Teachers: Janie Panagopolous ASK programs: Train to Midnight, Journey Back to Lumberjack Camp, and Traders in Time. We supply a set of 30 books for you. You’ll interview Janie, the author of the books. We’re working with Macomb and Kent ISDs to schedule these. We may have openings in December, February and May. Send me an email if you are interested so we can save you a slot! (Free to my teachers.)
    This may be available to other Michigan teachers through TWICE but hasn’t been officially advertised yet.
  3. The very best content provider program on Michigan history is Great Lakes Native Peoples from Cranbrook. This one is really good and includes hands-on and group activities on trading, economics, types of government and more.
  4. MSI: Museum Scene Investigation (Case File ­ A Fur Trader’s Cabin) from the Michigan State University Museum. I haven’t seen this one, but it sounds excellent.
  5. Don’t forget the free TWICE coordinated Michigan Week Connections in May! Where in Michigan and Michigan Exchange are the two formats. During the May 8-19 window.

Language Arts

  1. Of course, don’t forget the possibility of participating in Read Across America in March 2006. That would be free.
  2. And see the ASK programs listed above, as well as the MI Grade Level Content Expectations file for 4th grade language arts.

Science
Be sure to check out the MI Grade Level Content Expectations for 4th grade science. Of those, these are most worthy of consideration:

  1. Gadget Works from COSI Columbus for your simple machines unit. Excellent program! Kids take apart toys and learn about the simple machines in them during the program. Highly recommended.
  2. Anything from the Cincinnati Zoo, Columbus Zoo or COSI Toledo.
  3. Don’t forget the free NASA programs for your solar system units.

To my local teachers, email me or visit www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl to schedule any of these videoconferences.