Cross-posted with the MACUL conference blog.
Karen Mosier is hosting the first session in the TWICE room this morning (W2-66!). The session is on Read Around the Planet, TWICE‘s signature global reading celebration.
A class from Allendale Michigan, is connecting with the Nant Celyn school, in Torfaen, Wales to show how a Read Around the Planet connection happens.
Both classes shared introductions about their communities.
Then the class in Wales described how they celebrate St. David’s Day. One of the students recited her winning poem from the poetry competition; and other students shared their poems as well. In one transition, we heard from the teacher:
Bear with us, we just had a bit of stage fright.
Of course educators and students can be encouraging for each other, even over videoconference!
The class in Wales sang their national anthem for us also!
The Allendale class shared math problems inspired by the book Math Curse.
They had prepared VoiceThread math problems; however, they discovered that the audio wasn’t clear enough, students talked too fast and too soft for the Wales students to understand. So they read the stories live instead.
During the connection they decided to email the math problems so the students in Wales could solve them. This is common during a Read Around the Planet connection – that the teachers end up negotiating further future collaborations based on their first connection.
Read Around the Planet celebrated the 10th anniversary this year. Hope YOU participate next year!
(And if you’re at MACUL and participated in Read Around the Planet, go to the Presenters’ booth and ask for the RAP star Read Around the Planet ribbon!)