Read Around the Planet 2007 Report

I know most of you reading this blog are also involved in Read Around the Planet. Wow, this project has grown this year!! I think we’re all feeling the growing pains. I thought you might be interested in some of the stats on the project.

People who made it happen
Read Around the Planet would not be successful without support from many organizations.

  • TWICE, Michigan’s K12 videoconferencing organization, started this project in 2002 and continues to invest volunteer time and funding to make the project sustainable.
  • This is the first year of corporate sponsorship from Polycom. This funding allowed TWICE to contract with Sue Porter to be our RAP coordinator, otherwise known as the TWICE RAP Star. šŸ™‚ The project has grown so large that it isn’t sustainable without sponsorship, so we really appreciate Polycom‘s support.
  • The Verification Partners laid the foundation for this project in the fall with all the test calls and assistance getting buildings entered into the system and connected correctly to their coordinators. Many of them have been involved through February in helping with test calls and fixing connections.
  • Building, district, and regional level coordinators and techs have worked so hard coordinating, dealing with tech problems, encouraging teachers, following up on communication problems, and generally smoothing the way for successful connections.
  • And of course, the teachers who plan creative interesting presentations for their partner classes and who weather all the little glitches and quirks that can happen in classroom-to-classroom connections.

A big thank you to EVERYONE who makes this project a success!

So here are the stats.

People
2537 people in the registration system.
Buildings
1424 buildings in the registration system
IP & ISDN
398 buildings could do ISDN
1395 buildings could do IP
24 Match Requests for ISDN only

Read Around the Planet
Match Requests
1274 English

4 Participating Countries: English
Canada 117
Taiwan 1
United Kingdom 22
United States 1121

US States: English (24 states)
Sessions by state
AL 1
AZ 44
CA 13
CT 15
IN 2
IL 1
KS 18
MI 373
MN 11
MO 3
NC 4
ND 29
NH 1
NJ 5
NV 4
NY 171
OH 65
OK 2
OR 6
PA 55
TX 262
VA 32
WA 1
WI 3

RAP World Language Day
78 Match Requests

5 Participating Countries: WLD
Canada 23
Nicaragua 3
Taiwan 2
United Kingdom 6
United States 42

US States: WLD (8 states)
IN 1
MI 24
NY 5
OH 2
OK 1
PA 3
TX 5
WA 1

Total Match Requests: 1350
In 2006 there were 842 class registrations; 201 in building registrations; 1043 total.
This year, 2007, there were 1350 class registrations for both events. Wow!

Impacting Approximately 40,000 kids
Estimating 30 students per class (some are smaller and some double up), RAP impacted about 40,000 kids.

Wow! It’s all about the kids and the great learning experiences that we can bring to them via videoconferencing. Good luck with your connections starting tomorrow!

0 replies on “Read Around the Planet 2007 Report”

  1. This is our first year to participate and our partner sites have been great to work with. We all know that videoconferencing scheduling is the HARDEST part of the project and it is mind-boggling to realize exactly how many people must work together to create all these connections.

    Thank you Janine and Sue for all you have done!

  2. Estimated 44,000 students over 1350 classes! Now that’s a lot of coordinating!

    Janine and Sue and all involved should be very proud of making this happen. It was wonderful to be a part of it. Well done and see you next year.

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