Interviewing Dr. Ben Carson

Today we participated in an exciting interview with Dr. Ben Carson, Director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. Students read his book, Gifted Hands, and prepared questions based on their reading and scientific study. Nine classes from Florida, Michigan, New York, South Dakota and Texas were interactive and many others participated via streaming video. The program was coordinated and sponsored by Polycom. Thank you to Polycom and Johns Hopkins for making this happen! We used the ASK format for this videoconference. We started with opening comments from Dr. Carson, rotated through the schools for the questions, and closed with final comments. Here is a sampling of some of the questions.

  • Do you think your life would have been the same if your mother would have left instead of your father?
  • What is your stance on stem cell research?
  • Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently in school?
  • How do you balance your time between being doctor, author, husband and father?
  • What advice do you have for students who want to follow their dreams?

The students had a great discussion with Dr. Carson and we were privileged to spend some time with him over his lunch hour.

We had a really unique site connected, AE21, a school made up of videoconference sites all over the U.S. One of their questions came from Florida and one from Alabama. It was neat for everyone connected to see how their class works.

Dr. Carson had a great message for the students on topics such as not allowing other people’s opinions to dictate your life, investing in your own education and learning, and preparing yourself to contribute to society. Thanks to everyone who made this happen!

Cool MysteryQuest Backgrounds

Today we have the first MysteryQuest session of the year, focusing on Western Hemisphere. We have 3 classes from TX, and classes from MI, OH, and MO. MysteryQuests are one of my favorite things to do. Today we have 3 classes who have never done MQ before, and one of them went all out with their backgrounds. I’ve never seen such an elaborate, beautiful set up for giving clues. Great job Dew ISD, TX.



Presenting from the rainforest.


Presenting in front of a mine.

Another newbie class, Groesbeck Middle School, did an excellent job at waiting after giving a clue, so the other students could write down the clue. Groesbeck had excellent clear posters as well. Very easy to read, understand and take notes on.

Thank you to all the classes for their hard work in today’s session!

Learning Virtually from TCEA

This week I’ve enjoyed reading a few snippets about the videoconference sessions at TCEA thanks to Roxanne Glaser. Some great ideas on 100 days of school, school cheers and Texas history from Angela Conrad’s presentation. And it’s always interesting to hear how one district, in this case Northwest ISD, is running their program including funding, uses of VC, and management of the programs. So if you didn’t get a chance to catch these posts, check them out!

Content Provider Showcase: Math & Science

Tonight we are participating in another content provider showcase hosted by Macomb ISD.

First we connected to the St. Louis Zoo. The program started with a sampling of their “tour” programs. The tour programs show several of the exhibits at the zoo. First we saw a clip of the anteater video, followed by questions and answers. The zoo presenter asks the students questions about what they heard to see if they listened carefully. Next we did an activity learning about producers and consumers. Their programs include live animals shown on the screen as well. We saw a snake close up on the document camera. The programs are filled with various visuals and lots of conversation and interactive back and forth. We haven’t connected to the St. Louis Zoo yet, but I think we will be connecting there soon!

Next we connected to the International Wolf Center. The cool thing about the Wolf Center is that they have several cameras throughout the center that can be controlled by the presenter using a joystick. It’s fun to look around and see all the different wolves live. We experienced a bit of the Wolf Ecology program and discussed the various things that a wolf might eat.

Last, we connected to the Alaska Sea Life Center. We first learned about the geography of Alaska and how it compares to the rest of the lower 48. Next we experienced some of the activities from their programs, including practicing observation, made clay seals to learn about adaptations, and asked questions and interacted back and forth.

Three great content providers! Thank you to Macomb ISD for sharing yet another showcase with us.

Visiting Peace River Alberta

After lots of work scheduling and coordination, the first of seven connections with Canada happened today. It’s been my dream for a while to get class to class connections for our Michigan students who study Canada. In these 7 connections we’ll be visiting Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick. The sessions with Peace River are the result of trading PD for projects, which is another model that seems to be working well for our kid to kid project videoconferences.

Today’s session started with Berrien Springs Middle School students listening to the Peace River students start their day with O Canada and announcements.

Next the Peace River students presented a PowerPoint with pictures of their town and school, some of their village history, a day in the life of a Hines Creek student, myths about Canada, and a presentation on each of the provinces.

Next the Berrien Springs Middle School students presented about the 6 regions of the United States and also about their local community.

Finally, the students asked each other questions. The questions started on topics and ideas that were presented by the two classes.  Towards the end, students asked questions about daily life, length of recess and bus rides, and favorite sports teams and more.

We look forward to more connections with Canadian students in the future.

ASK Author: Bessie Smith and the Night Riders

Today TWICE is hosting a new ASK program with Sue Stauffacher on her new book, Bessie Smith and the Night Riders.

Sue is a wonderfully funny author and students really enjoy her books. One of my classes participating today was signed up for ASK Author: Donuthead in March, and the students enjoyed the book so much they wanted to read another of her books. So here they are today.

Here are some of the questions from today.

  • Bessie Smith is a blues singer. Are you a fan of the blues and who are your favorite blues singers?
  • In the book, Bessie is dressed up with fancy clothes. Did she really dress like that? Sue had great pictures to show when answering this question.
  • If you were a character in the book, would you be like the girl who stood behind Bessie or would you be like the boys who ran away?
  • Are the songs in the story real, and how did you choose them?
  • Are there other events in Bessie’s life that you considered writing a story about?
  • What was Bessie Smith’s favorite place to perform?

Sue Stauffacher loves the ASK program because of the depth of questions and discussion with the students.

By the way, there are still openings in the some TWICE ASK sessions with Sue in March if you want to join us!

I Have a RAP Partner, Now What?

So now that you have a Read Around the Planet partner*, what will you do next? I’m working on some materials for my teachers and also a few of you have emailed this question. So here’s some tips. If you have any more, please share them!

  1. First, of course you should review the RAP Teacher Packet, or the World Languages Teacher Packet.
  2. Look over the Ideas List on the TWICE page.
  3. The photo gallery from past years is another place to get ideas for fun visuals and how to organize students.
  4. Use this student job list to involve all your students. (Thanks to Kim Pearce, Gatesville ISD, TX.)
  5. Plan for a way to celebrate the geography of your connection (even if you’re connecting within state). Show a map. Tell a bit about your area. If you have lots of connections in your building, make a school map for all the connections you’re doing. Take the opportunity to teach geography skills!
  6. Ideas from last year’s RAA blog entries: snow ball fights and books, stretching half way through, acting out books, share the weather & poetry, hats are fun, Spanish songs & poems, and songs.
  7. Still need more ideas? Check out lesson plans written in my online classes and the Jazz workshops, especially the Language Arts and Foreign Language lessons.
  8. Most importantly, talk to your partner teacher via email or phone. Just a few conversations will make your connection smoother. But don’t stress if you can’t get ahold of them either. We’ve had successful connections when the teachers meet for the first time in the connection and negotiate right then who is going first. It’s just better if you can talk to each other.

If you run into any scheduling issues (which almost always happens with this project), be sure to review the tips for resolving scheduling conflicts. One year some of our RAP connections in MI finally happened in May!! So hang in there with your partner until you make it happen! If you need encouragement in your misery of rescheduling, review these previous posts: Top Ten Reasons a VC Gets Cancelled, and When Things Go Wrong.

Feel free to share these tips with your teachers!

Snow Day Etiquette

I’m reminded today of the importance of snow day etiquette. Today was yet another snow day (got some cross country skiing in!) with some of my schools closed again tomorrow.

Today we were supposed to have a full session with the Columbus Zoo for some pre-service teachers. When I emailed Carrie to let her know, she replied,

“Thanks so much for the heads up! We really really appreciate that…otherwise we’re just standing down there waiting!”

I also spent some of today rescheduling a MysteryQuest session. Due to that shuffle I have a few openings again.

And tonight, checking school closings for tomorrow, I discovered that two of our connections with Peace River, Alberta, will be affected. Thankfully I was able to email our Albertan friends tonight. This response from the coordinator reminds us of the seriousness of rescheduling VCs.

They will have to switch classes, rebook a sub, rebook the bus, and give the VC teacher time to find space for her students.

Yet more reminders of the importance of informing the person on the other side of any schedule changes.

Finally, as I put my 78 RAP connections on my calendar, I’m really praying for no snow days in March!

The Future of Collaborations

After reading Andrea’s report on the NY & TX Mini-Jazz second session from this past weekend, I was inspired yet again with the power of collaboration.

Yes, collaborations are the third wave of videoconferencing. But to make those collaborations sustained, frequent, and high-quality, it takes training, planning, and nurturing. The best training is also done in collaboration, models the experiences we expect for students, and provides opportunities and support for teachers to create and implement their own project ideas.

This Jazz idea is brilliant (not my idea originally, so I can say that!). The way it is morphing to additional during-the-school year formats is wonderful to behold. I really do believe that if you want to have sustained collaborative projects with others, you need to begin a collaboration with another organization like yours, preferably out of state. I certainly am beginning to have plans simmering in my brain for additional trainings like this for 2007-2008.

What do you have in the works? How will you promote collaborative projects beyond just telling teachers about the possibilities??