Musical Geography of Europe

This afternoon, a middle school geography class from Bridgman, MI is connecting to the Cleveland Institute of Music for their program the Musical Geography of Europe.

Cleveland Institute of MusicFor each country featured, pictures and foods are shown from that country and students are encouraged to try to guess the country represented. Then they listen to a piece of music from that country.

For Scotland, we heard a lively violin piece, so rousing that the students started clapping along!

Students learned about geographical themes such as natural borders, cultural tidbits from the various countries, and event paintings (from France).

Several student musicians were featured throughout the program, so it’s also neat for our students to see and be inspired by the variety of musical talent.

This program fits well with geographical studies of Europe.

Signs & Symptoms of a Successful VC Program

This morning I was chatting with Arnie Comer about our distance learning programs. He asked me if I had a class in the Polycom Special Event with Margaret Willey this afternoon. I don’t; because I sent it out once, and when no one signed up, I didn’t worry about it anymore. He said – that’s a sign of a successful distance learning program. Because my schools are already doing plenty of videoconferences I don’t feel I have to bug them, nor do I have time to…

So I thought it might be interesting to make a list of signs and symptoms of a successful videoconference program. Symptoms because sometimes it’s hard to manage the growth!

  • No longer is there time to blog every videoconference experience. Were you wondering why I’m not blogging as much?
  • Rarely calling teachers specifically to sign up for programs; instead they are beating down the doors to register.
  • A 15-25 videoconference day is no longer an anomaly.
  • A quiet day with no videoconferences is a rare treat indeed!
  • Spending much less time advertising; more time just connecting.
  • Not enough time to work with schools that aren’t using videoconferencing because the ones that are keep me busy.
  • Depending on my videoconference coordinators more and more for test calls & scheduling.
  • Not enough time for troubleshooting problems.

Do you see any of these signs and symptoms in your area? Can you think of any others? Any suggestions in dealing with the symptoms? Please comment!

Web 2.0 as the Vehicle of Community for Jazz

This afternoon, for homework, I was reading an article by Peter Senge:

Senge, P. (1995). Robert Greenleaf’s legacy: A new foundation for twenty-first century institutions. In L. C. Spears (Ed.), Reflections on leadership (pp. 217-241). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Senge argues that leadership includes answering “how do you build the capacity of a group of people to move toward their visions?” In this section, he suggests that people should be in dialogue, not discussion, and to be thinking together. To illustrate thinking together, he references the movie, Dances with Wolves, in particular, the section where the tribal council meets. There is deep listening, multiple strong perspectives, and no action or decision made. Yet later in the movie, there is a scene where the tribe acts fluidly together on a buffalo hunt. Senge suggests that “the capacity for the counil to sit and think together is inseparable from their capacity to act together” (p. 233).

Twitter as “Thinking Together”
All of a sudden it struck me! Web 2.0 is how the Jazz facilitators “think together”. Some of the Jazz facilitators stay connected throughout the year in multiple ways:

  • Blogs: Janine, Roxanne, Lori, Rebecca, Ashton, Andrea… did I miss anyone? Some of those who don’t blog still comment fairly regularly on these blogs.
  • Skype: we all have each other’s Skype accounts from using it in Jazz. Some of us “Skype each other” regularly to ask questions, get help, share resources etc.
  • Twitter: This is the new one for me. Just started in August. But I realized when I was reading Senge that there is a stream-of-Jazz-lead-facilitator-consciousness running along in Twitter.
  • Sharing VCs: In addition, some of the Jazz facilitators create and share content throughout the year with the others. This builds community; builds relationships; builds trust.

All of these tools help us learn together, share together, THINK together throughout the year. So when we come to plan Jazz in the summer, we have a collective shared knowledge and growth from the year.

To Jazz Facilitators: Participate!
However, not all of the Jazz facilitators participate in this community of thinking together. They are missing out! I’d like to challenge the Jazz facilitators who might fit into this category to do at least one of the following:

  1. Subscribe to the blogs listed above – both comments and post RSS feeds. Then comment at least once a month.
  2. Get TwitterFox and follow one or more of us. I’m not sure as of this posting if all the Jazz lead facilitators want me to post their Twitter account here, so I won’t. You know how to contact us if you need to.
  3. Create some content and share it with another Jazz facilitator. This year! Before June 2009!

If you do, there won’t be such a learning curve when we get to making Jazz happen in the summer. We’ll have a year’s worth (or more) of shared knowledge from which to innovate, improve, and inspire our workshop participants.

To the rest of you:
How are you contributing to a learning community? Are you participating? Do you have a personal learning network?

"Two Page Selected List"

I know many of you use the “two page selected list” that I do every year. I’m really late getting it out this year because my schools are signing up for so many videoconferences, it’s keeping me busy! I don’t have to advertise as much anymore.

Still, I finally got it done! I could not keep it to two pages this year. So now it’s four, but if you copy it front and back it’s still “two pages”. 🙂

The links are on the top right of the TWICE Field Trips page.

30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

Ok, I’m seriously 20 days late in finding this nifty activity, but I’m working on catching up!

Steve Dembo over at Teach42 is running a 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger series and it started on November 1, 2008.

So far this evening I’ve worked on my about page, my sidebar, and my blogroll, to name a few of the activities.

I did do some hard cleaning and took off VC blogs that haven’t posted since 2006. That was hard to do, and I want to keep that information, being the digital packrat I am. So I’ll list them here so I can find them again later if I change my mind.

15 min later…. Ok, well, that wasn’t so bad! I still kept many VC blogs – I do like to list them all.

I made it through day 13 for at least reading all the activities and doing most of them. Thanks, Steve, and team for organizing this little exercise!

30d2bbb image by Jason Robertshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

The More You Share, The More Power You Have

I was intrigued by Will Richardson’s post from this week – “the less you share, the less power you have.” I’d like to state it more positively – the more you share, the more power you have.

I’m thinking in particular of Monster Match and its spin offs and the spin offs from the spin offs. My teacher who posted the “Gobbling Up Descriptive Writing” project was so excited to see the class that used her idea for More Descriptive Writing… Her partner teacher noticed the Snowman one that was posted. She found it so affirming that others were using the ideas.

So, you could say, how is that more power? Well, how do you define power?

  • If it’s greater self-confidence to influence others, then this is an example of greater power.
  • If its a realization that one can make a difference not only in one’s own classroom but for other teachers too, then this is an example of greater power.

It empowers teachers to realize that others are using their ideas. Do you agree?

Awesome MysteryQuest Rubric

At Elevate 2008 I met Tracy Poelzer from British Columbia. She has done MysteryQuest this fall within their district, and she’s developed a rubric for MysteryQuest! Check it out here on Rubistar.

If you’re doing a MysteryQuest spin-off, you may want to link to it. Be courteous and give her credit!

COSI's new weather program

Did you notice that COSI Columbus has created a new Weather Watch program? It sounds like it’s jam packed with great hands-on activities, perfect for your weather unit. I’m hoping to see one soon and blog about it. This is from the same provider that does Gadget Works.

Here’s the description:

Weather Watch, our newest videoconference program for grades 4-7, explores how meteorologists predict the weather. Work with COSI’s Storm Spotter to learn how changes in air pressure and temperature can affect the weather – and especially Storm Spotter’s vacation plans!

Students take and use readings from barometers and thermometers to help them predict basic weather patterns.  They explore air pressure using everyday objects and understand why changes in weather often occur around cold and warm fronts.

Pre-visit activities include tracking weather for a specific location prior to the show (reading thermometers, barometers), working with weather symbols, mapping a specific forecast, and learning about air pressure with a hands-on activity using pop bottles and syringes (without needles).

Post-visit activities include tracking weather and building a forecast for a specific area, a hands-on activity about convection currents, and a hands-on activity on air pressure using suction cups. There are also extension activities on air pressure, hot and cold air, density and pressure. Altogether, the activities for the program can encompass more than five hours of class time, if they all fit into your weather unit.

All materials for pre- and post-visit activities are included in the kit. This program is “on demand,” meaning you can sign up for it when you’d like to have it.

Need partners for Eco-Conversations

I need two more partners for our EcoConversations project. We’ll take classes in the US if we can’t get Canada or UK partners.

Description: Students connect internationally to discuss current environmental issues and their impact locally. Students present their research and the local perspectives and then discuss the issues with the partner class.

Please check the project website for which times are still available. Registration is online there too.

At the time of posting this, I need two classes.

Fresh Water: Dec. 9 9:20 – 10:05 US EST / 2:20-3:05 UK
Carbon Emissions: Dec. 11 8:50-9:50 US EST / 1:50-2:50 UK

In the Words of Teachers

I have a session of Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections finishing up this week and next. The participants have been reflecting on the preparation for their collaborative project. Here are some comments from Shellie Jaques, Watervliet North Elementary, who is doing a project called “Gobbling Up Descriptive Writing.” It’s a spin off of Monster Match, using turkeys, with each student making a turkey and actually mailing the turkeys to the partner class.

Here’s a comment on how the project inspired reluctant writers:

A few of my reluctant writers shocked me with the quality of their writing and enthusiasm for the project.  I think having an audience that goes beyond the building’s walls helps too.  It makes the project seem more important.

And a very detailed description of the preparation. Note the use of the rubric to increase the quality of the writing, and the classroom management tips.

All 23 students in my Lang. Arts class are still working on their descriptive drafts they started last Friday.  They made their turkeys last week and they look great.  I’m very impressed with their creativity.  After seeing the dry, boring rough drafts written last week I decided to make a rubric that includes many writing skills we have learned so far this year and grammar skills we are currently practicing.  I am pleased that the “My turkey has . . . ” papers are no longer in existence.  Instead we have some “Wanted Turkey” posters, missing turkey stories, etc.  Much more interesting.

Everyone will be on camera when reading his/her own paragraph.  When the partner class is reading their descriptions, my class will take turns guessing the turkey that matches the description read.  My students are seated in 8 groups of 3, so each group will have about 3 different turns guessing.  This will keep more people actively listening and limit the temptation to blurt out an answer. The group will reach a consensus and each person in the group will have a turn to be the group spokesperson.

The participants have been reading Wesley Fryer’s Tech4Learning article, “the future of collaborative videoconferencing”. Several participants picked out his comment that teachers see this as “fluff”.

If it’s tied tightly to the curriculum, and research based instructional strategies, is it fluff?! Shellie’s project doesn’t sound like fluff to me. What do you think?!