Tag Archives: ASK Programs

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!

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!

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.

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).

Still Room in Upcoming Events: ASK & MysteryQuest

TWICE ASK Sesssions
Join us for an ASK author interview. It is the best bargain in town. No here else will your children have a chance to speak personally with the uthor of the book they just read and all for only $70.00 or $35.00 for TWICE members. Go to http://www.twice.cc/ASK/index.htm for registration and to learn more about the ASK Program.

February 8 EST
Openings in 10:45-11:45 am and 12:45-1:45
Sue Stauffacher
Bessie Smith and the Night Riders
Best for Grade 5
Based on an event that took place in 1927 as seen through the eyes of young Emmarene. Bessie Smith, a blues singer, is performing when several Ku Klux Klan members try to collapse the tent. Bessie confronts the men, and sends them packing.

February 13 EST
Openings in 10:45-11:45 am and 12:45-1:45
Ethel Footman Smothers
Hard Times Jar
Best for Grade 3
Emma, the daughter of a poor migrant family knows that money from the hard times jar can’t be used to buy her a real book. So, she draws her own. Find out if she ever gets a “store-bought” book.

March 21 EST
Openings in 9:30-10:30 a.m.
Sue Stauffacher
Wireman Comic
“Wireman” comic series is designed to meet a need for literature that appeals to late, reluctant and non-English speaking readers.  It focuses on the 100 most common words in the English language-they make up 50% of all written English.

Openings in 10:45-11:45 am and 12:45-1:45
Harry Sue
11-year-old Harry Sue Clotkin, has no greater ambition than to get thrown in the slammer and be reunited with her incarcerated mother, who, like her father, is in prison. Unfortunately for Harry Sue, she has a heart, and it is not the cold heart of a criminal.

MysteryQuests
I still have room in MysteryQuest World coming up in February (middle school) and also in MysteryQuest USA (5th grade) for April. Click the links for details and registration.  Everyone welcome. IP or ISDN!

Last Thoughts for 2006

This is my last post for 2006. It’s been a great year and thanks to everyone who has read and commented, and especially thanks to those of you who have started blogging about VC too. I appreciate the opportunity to learn from you!

Polycom RSS 2000
If you missed the ASK: Jim Stovall streaming today, review my blog entry on that and login to view the archive. The streaming was really easy to do. I just logged into the admin side of the RSS, dialed out to Macomb ISD’s bridge with live streaming checked, and voila it was up and running. Quality looked great from my end at least. I hope some of you had a chance to try it out. Please leave a comment on how the streaming and/or archive works for you.

1.7.07 Update. Added after reading The Weblog Handbook. The RSS 2000 mentioned is on loan to Berrien County ISD from Polycom to support Polycom Special Events.

Read Around the Planet
I wanted to say a few words about Read Around the Planet. The teacher registration has been extended to January 19, and a new quick overview of the two ways to enter match requests has been posted online.

If you haven’t noticed already, RAP is a huge project and growing very fast. The system seems complicated and while we are working on that, it’s because the project is complicated. It’s very difficult to meeting the needs of all the ways that connections and coordination happens throughout the areas participating in the project. Our programmers mutter that it’s like trying to bring order to chaos and not easy to do.

Thankfully, the system allows everyone to see their buildings and match requests (if everything is entered correctly! :>), which we didn’t have possible before. In addition, this is the first year that the matching will be done by computer. It’s about time! Last year it took me three weeks to match 1000 requests by hand.

So, I know things are pretty bumpy this year, and I thank everyone who has been so patient. Hang in there! We will make it through yet another year of this amazing project. If you have questions, you can send them to Sue Porter, read@remc11.k12.mi.us. She’s off Dec. 21 through Jan. 2, but otherwise can answer your questions.

Merry Christmas
So now I’m off til January 8. Tonight I’m decorating a gingerbread house (made from scratch) with a friend and her two daughters. When I come back in January I may have a special treat of pictures to share with you too. Enjoy your holidays and be sure to rest and spend quality time with family and friends – AWAY from technology! 🙂

ASK: Jim Stovall Live Streaming Dec. 14

If you’ve been wanting to see an ASK program, Thursday is your chance! December 14, several classes across the country are connecting to blind author Jim Stovall to discuss his book, The Ultimate Gift. You can read about last year’s session here.

To access the live streaming (or a recording after the event), visit streaming.bcisd.org and login (polycom) enter the password (special). (This is a Polycom Special Event.)

The sessions are at 12:00-1:00 US EST and 1:30-2:30 US EST. You can connect in 10 min. before the session starts to access the live streaming. Then leave a comment on how the streaming worked for you. We’re using the new Polycom RSS 2000 for the streaming (for the first time), so I’m interested in your feedback.

Dec. 7 Interviewing WW II Veterans

Today we had a full day of interviewing our World War II Veterans in remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day. Several local history classes, as well as classes from Illinois and New Hampshire participated in the sessions. You can read more about the questions in my blog entry about last year’s VC.

This time I want to say a few words about running these kinds of events.

First, I do these for my local schools (that’s my job of course!). But if I can’t fill them locally I offer them free to the rest of you. This year I turned away so many. So, here’s what I think. It’s time for more schools and educational service agencies to be producers of content and not just receivers. And the good ideas should be copied! Like this idea. Take it and do it yourself!

I’m sure you have local veterans who would love to participate in such an event. One of the students today asked the veterans how they felt coming home. The answer included this: “Programs like this are still a welcome home and make us feel appreciated.” They long to tell their stories and to share their experience with younger students. It makes them proud and honored to see students asking quality questions and thinking carefully about World War II before talking to them.

So take the plunge! If you have access to a bridge to connect several schools together and share the incredible value of live interviews with our treasured veterans, do it! I depend on one of our veterans to coordinate, call the veterans, remind them to come, etc. They appreciate the opportunity and help me make it happen. You can do it too!

ASK with Janie Panagopoulos

Today we are starting two days of ASK sessions with Janie Panagopoulos: 8 sessions, 24 classes. We are focusing on the books Traders in Time (6 sessions) and Little Ship Under Full Sail (2 sessions).

I love the questions with a comment at the beginning. Janie likes to hear what the students think about her books too. Here are just a small sampling of the comments and questions from today.

  • I noticed that you focused on the theme of teasing at the beginning of the book. Did you get teased a lot in school?
  • We caught ourselves laughing out loud in parts of the book.
  • How would you like to go back in time and visit with your ancestors?
  • Describe how you’d feel if you had to get up in the middle of the night and go canoeing.
  • How do you think of the characters?
  • What made you want to write historical fiction?

We were going to connect to Janie from her home. This summer we worked hard to get her set up with a Polycom PVX on her cable connection at home. Everything was perfect and ready to go, until she came home from travelling and found the cable connection out at her house. So she had to drive her anyway. But we are still very hopeful that soon she’ll be consistently connecting from home and we’ll get her in the Polycom-BCISD / TWICE VC Program Database as well. She has many wonderful writing workshops she can do with schools as well as the ASK program on her many books. So stay tuned for more details!

Why it's been quiet here…

Yes, my blog has been a little quiet lately. Here’s a quick run down of some interesting things happening…. So much to write… so little time!

November 15 we did an awesome Operation Montserrat Training with CET Challenger Learning Center. Teachers were excited and jazzed and we’re scheduling 9 sessions with them this year. Stay tuned on the results of those VCs.
November 16 I finished the last all day training of building contacts for our RUS grant. 60+ teachers and local staff trained over 4 days! Lots of excitement about VC keeping me busy. The new building coordinators are so excited. Tonight one building is presenting to the board connecting between two buildings in the district to show how it works. With students showing a sample of what they could do in the Read Around the Planet project (and they haven’t participated yet!!).

November 17 we had two sessions of ASK: Monkey Island in celebration of homelessness awareness week. Andrea Israeli blogged an excellent summary!

I’ve been scouring high & low for Canadians to connect to in January & February for 6th grade classes studying Canada. Things are coming along on that custom project.

November 20 TWICE hosted Margaret Willey for ASK: Clever Beatrice. Wrote about it last year.

The Read Around the Planet project has been expanding insanely, with a not-so-smooth ride on the new database this year. But everyone has been patient with the process and we seem to be in for another record year of participation. Thanks to TWICE and Polycom for making the expansion possible this year!!

Requests for VCs from my 18 districts are coming out of the woodwork! Last year at this time I had 102 requests for the year, and totalled 279 programs for the whole year. Today I already have 245 and I haven’t advertised RAP to my schools yet! Yikes! I’ve hardly advertised anything at all. Usually I’m emailing them constantly with things they could do. This year we’re swamped and it’s a great feeling to know everyone is interested in using VC.

And I have to mention Andrea’s blog on the Cisco ad. Did you see it? While it’s cool that VC in classrooms is getting ads on TV and the quality looks cool, I wish that the example was a bit more educational. And more realistic on the time zones. It implies an Asian connection during the day for both schools which is impossible. Still it’s a step in the right direction of helping the general public understand what we do!

Hope things are hopping in your VC land too!