Getting Organized for RAP

Now that most of the match emails are out, it’s time to get organized for all our Read Around the Planet connections this year. (I say “most” of the match emails because some get caught in spam filters, and the world language ones haven’t been sent out yet.) Locally last year I had 30ish connections and this year I have 76!

Stats
I thought you might be interested in some quick stats on the whole project. More detailed ones later. There are 1251 match requests for the regular English event. 30ish are still in the leftover/working on it pile. For World Languages there are 70 requests and 26 are still in the leftover pile with progress coming along for most of them except the ones I mentioned yesterday. Estimating 30 students per class (some are smaller and some double up), we’re looking at an estimate of 40,000 students impacted by this project. Pretty amazing, really! It would not be possible without the sponsorship of Polycom, the hard work of TWICE board members, the huge assistance from our verification partners, the coordinators at all levels supporting teachers, and of course the teachers who prepare the students and make it all happen.

Organization Tips
This morning I sent some tips to my local building coordinators for keeping organized with RAP and I thought you might be able to use some of this too. I’m posting it how I sent it out; but feel free to copy & paste and tweak this to use with your own coordinators.

  • Copy the data into Word. You can login to the TWICE registration system now http://treg.remc11.k12.mi.us/rap/ – and go to Big Match Reports at the bottom. This will give you a nice list with a place for notes of all your connections. I like to copy & paste this into a big Word file that I can work on. Or you can print and highlight etc. Note: You may want to wait a day or two as many buildings are updating their building data (coordinator info, IP addresses, etc. so that the match info is more accurate). This can be updated by logging into the system and editing the building. If contact people information is listed with no name or phone number, it’s because that person hasn’t logged into the system yet.
  • Test Calls. I’d recommend setting aside a few afternoons or whatever works for your schedule, and try to convince your partners to do the test calls all at the same time. If you have a lot this makes it easier because you’re just working on one thing at a time.
  • Directory. Now is the time to get to know the directory feature on your Polycom VSX 7000s. Especially for those of you with a lot of connections. Here’s how it works:

From the front screen of the Polycom go to Directory.
On the left choose New.
Enter the name of the site at the top using the keypad like a cell phone.
Put in the IP number. The rest of the fields you don’t have to worry about.
Then Save.
Then to dial, just select that site from the directory.

  • Leftovers. There are only a few match requests that are in the leftover pile that the TWICE team is still working on. Other than that you should all have a match.
  • Keeping Sane. This project is crazy and can seem overwhelming, but we’ll just work through these connections one at a time. It’s so worth it for the kids – I keep reminding myself of that!

If you have any other tips you are sharing with your schools, please comment!

RAP World Language Leftovers

As you probably know, I’m helping Sue Porter, TWICE’s Read Around the Planet Coordinator, with some the RAP work. We’re trying to finish up the leftovers. The World Language event this year had 66 requests and 53 of them ended up in the leftover pile (i.e. no perfect matches). We’re making progress on dealing with these, but there are a few areas where we can’t get anyone at all.

So here’s my list. If you have a teacher who could do any of these connections, please email Sue at twicerap@comcast.net with teacher name, email, building phone number and which one you can do. Reference the # please. Also we much prefer buildings already verified if at all possible.

  • German, Alberta, March 9, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, 12:30, 1:00, 1:30, or 2:00 Mountain Time. (Add1 for CST; add 2 for EST).
  • Ukrainian, Alberta, March 9, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, 12:30, 1:00, or 1:30 Mountain Time. (Add1 for CST; add 2 for EST).
  • Ukrainian, Alberta, March 9, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, 12:30, 1:00, 1:30, or 2:00 Mountain Time. (Add1 for CST; add 2 for EST).
  • Hebrew, Alberta, March 9, 12:30, 1:00, or 1:30 Mountain Time. (Add1 for CST; add 2 for EST). (I’m sure they’d be flexible if morning is better for you.)
  • Latin, Michigan, anyday, 10:00 Eastern. (Subtract 1 for CST; subtract 2 for MT).

Thank you in advance if you can help us with any of these!!!!!

For next year we need a lot more classes to make this idea work!

Snow Days & Test Calls

What lengths will you go to in order to make an international connection work? This morning I woke up to a snow day. After checking to see which of my schools are closed (all of them in Berrien County), I checked my email. There waiting in my inbox was an email from India regarding a test call for MysteryQuest International. Thanks to the magic of Qlock, I could look down at the time for Bangalore and realize they wanted to test in 10 minutes. Thankfully I have a desktop endpoint at home and I can web into my bridge. So voila, magical, successful test call.

I also met this morning with Roxanne Glaser to help get some classes for RAP leftovers. Our furnace fan motor is out too so I’m home in one warm room of the house. Roxanne thought I looked so funny I should put a pic up. So here it is. All bundled up and VCing.

The first snow picture is out the window of the back porch. Ok, back to work on the RAP leftovers. Unfortunately there’s quite a few. It may be the end of the week before you get your matches.

NY & TX Mini-Jazz

Roxanne Glaser and I aren’t the only ones modifying the Jazzing Up Your Curriculum workshop format for a during-the-school-year format. Andrea Israeli and Ashton Graham are doing weekend sessions. Check out Andrea’s description of the first session so far. It’s cool to see this workshop format morph into smaller workshops with the same effect. Thanks for blogging about it Andrea!!

International Wolf Center

Today Chikaming Elementary connected to the International Wolf Center for their program Wolf Tales. After a tour of the wolf center (6 remote cameras to see them live), the session focuses in on several books about wolves.

For example, students identify what things the wolf does in the story that makes us feel he is bad, or they identify the fiction in the story.

Finally the program ended with a time for students to ask questions. This is a great new provider! Check them out if you haven’t visited yet!

Recorded ASK Training

I just finished recording my general ASK training from this evening. This covers the ASK programs available to our teachers, how to prepare for an ASK program, the ASK video done by Macomb ISD, and includes practice actually participating in an ASK program.

Here’s the streaming link.

Handouts referenced are:

Feel free to use this in your own VC workshops. Be sure to give credit to Macomb ISD and Dr. Raymond Kettel.

The Coolest VC Training Ever

Ok, I just finished the coolest training with Roxanne Glaser, ESC 12 in Waco, TX. Roxanne and I participated in the 123 VC Jazzing Up Your Curriculum with VC workshop last summer. We both have K-2 buildings wondering what the best use of videoconferencing is for their grade levels.

So we adapted the Jazz format to 1.5 hours! Tonight we connected 6 K-2 schools with 4-8 teachers at each site. 3 Michigan schools and 3 Texas schools.

We started right off with introductions. Every school did a cool introduction with the components we required: school name, location, mascot, weather/climate, and a unique town tidbit. They were really creative with songs, costumes and chants. Teachers who hadn’t done VC yet were on camera having fun!

Next we had several teachers share the videoconferences they had participated in before so the new teachers could hear the possibilities.

Then we really got into the fun part. We gave teachers 10 minutes to brainstorm some potential projects. They made a huge letter poster with the school name, topic, time & time zone, grade, and the preferred month. In the picture you can see the posters with the ideas. Then we did a round robin sharing the ideas, and then sharing which ones the teachers wanted to do. Voila! In about 45 minutes we had 10-15 project ideas and partners! Incredible! More later as we implement and move forward.

ASK Jim Stovall Training

Yesterday evening we had the training for the ASK Ultimate Gift Videoconference coming up in March. This is “ASK Deluxe” with the ASK process plus blogging. You can read about past ASK Ultimate Gift programs and view the December 14 session.

The training has been archived on the Polycom RSS (on loan to BCISD from Polycom for events like this one).

Arizona Memorial Museum Association

Today a Galien Alternative High School history class is talking to Pearl Harbor survivors at the Arizona Memorial Museum Association. Students listen to the stories of World War II Veterans who were at Pearl Harbor, and then they take some time to ask questions. The stories of the veterans were interspersed with historical photos and artifacts. This is an incredible experience for history students. Visually rich, riveting stories, personal interviews. And free! Really free! They only have access to ISDN, and they prefer to call out to us! This was our first time connecting to the Arizona Memorial Museum and we definitely will be connecting again.

I imagine though, that if you want to connect on Dec. 7, you have to schedule WAY in advance! In addition, due to the 5 hour time difference between EST and Hawaii time, you’ll have to be flexible and willing to connect later in the day.

I think it’s really important, especially when students are interviewing veterans, to teach them to be a good respectful listening audience, and to thank the veterans for their service. In our previous videoconferences with our local veterans, they really appreciate those gestures from the students.

So try out this content provider if you haven’t yet!