Tag Archives: Collaborations

Read Around the Planet: Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We’ve had so many Read Around the Planet connections in the last few days! How about you? To celebrate, I’ll share some pictures and favorite RAP tweets.

Some Pictures

Some Favorite RAP Tweets

  • @jodie_tech: New York school just asked us “do you eat a lot of beans” haha. #RAP2010
  • @mcdermon: RAP – Rural Hall, NC & Dallas, TX – photos @ http://moourl.com/RAP #RAP2010 — it’s Dr. Seuss’ birthday!
  • @amindthought: 12 RAPS down and 4 to go…thanks so much to TWICE for making this all possible! #RAP2010
  • @lcolwill: My group is an afterschool group and they are so excited. They are doing a skit about a Guatemala news event. #RAP2010
    Our kids just asked the Guatemalan students “Do you watch American Idol?” LOL #RAP2010
  • @lcolwill: My school is doing a cheer after every student presentation by the remote site. Very cute. #RAP2010

A Great Question

  • @lcolwill: Tchr communication btwn partners is such a challenge. How can we make it better? #RAP2010

What do you think? Have you had teacher communication issues this year? How are you solving it? What would help make it better?

MysteryQuest Feedback: Impact on Students

This month we had several MysteryQuest sessions, with the last session today. Here’s a great story:

One class had a really cool game show, and in passing, one of the participating teachers told me that their students loved the voice of the game show host.

I passed on the feedback to the game show host’s teacher, only to find out that this student is usually bullied and ostracized by the students in his class. The feedback from the audience class meant so much to that student!

Lesson: Compliment the students who present and interact in your collaborations! It means so much to them!!

If you want to participate in a MysteryQuest type session – we have several coming up in April and May: HistoryQuest8, MysteryQuest USA, and HistoryQuest5. Hope you can join us!

Read Around the Planet Day 4

It’s the fourth day of Read Around the Planet. Classes are still working hard on their presentations and asking great questions of their partners. Here are a few highlights of today:

Interaction

Today we had some great examples of how to get the other class involved in the presentation. It’s nice to see classes move beyond the simple two presentation format, and build in more interaction.

  • One school had skits of fairy tales: the partner school had to guess which fairy tale the skit was based on.
  • Another school shared information about famous people, followed by a quiz question on what was just presented.
  • Another school had a graph of their favorite Dr. Seuss books, and they asked our students questions about the graph.

Community Pictures

Many of the classes are sharing great maps and visuals about their community. Here are some pictures shared from E. P. Clarke Elementary in St. Joseph, MI.

Waiting…

Today I had my first connection that took 20 minutes to solve the technical problem. While the class was waiting, I put on my hat to show the students. I showed them our snow out the window also. The students waited so patiently, and the interaction ended up being a great experience.

Hope your RAP connections continue to go well! Feel free to comment if you have additional insights!

Read Around the Planet Day 2 and 3

Read Around the Planet continues with some amazing connections, and great prep work by students and teachers alike! Here are some more highlights:

Backgrounds

Usually I see the amazing backdrops or sets in the MysteryQuest sessions. But one of my schools is going all out for Read Around the Planet this year. It’s their first year, but the school has a Jazz grad, and a PICC grad, so they are well trained. Several of the classes are doing similar presentations, so they have the visuals incorporated into their back drop. Check it out:

Doesn’t that look sharp?! What tips do you have for visuals?

Encouraging Teachers

I have realized again that a very important role of the VC coordinator is the encourager for the teacher. Teachers doing a videoconference for the first time tend to be anxious about it. You can:

  • Listen to their great ideas for their presentation
  • Help them with visuals & testing the document camera / computer set up
  • Reassure them when they haven’t heard from their partner teacher (if the test call happened; they are planning on it!)
  • Let them know their preparation plans are great and that it will be a great learning experience

Rescheduling Etiquette

One of the fun challenges of Read Around the Planet is rescheduling. Snow days have knocked out quite a few connections this year, as well as the usual family illness, jury duty, etc. Here are some tips on rescheduling:

  • Give the Reason: When you need to request a rescheduling, be sure to tell the reason why you need to reschedule.  People are pretty frustrated about rescheduling if you don’t give a reason. However, if you have a legitimate reason like illness or a death in the family or jury duty, etc. then they are generally happy to accommodate you.
  • Be Specific: When emailing to reschedule, be really specific to speed the process. Tell all the dates and times that you can do within the next 3-4 weeks. Then they can pick a date from that list & you’re done!
  • CC everyone involved: Be sure to CC teachers, school VC coordinators, and any regional service staff involved in the connect so everyone knows what is happening. Use the Reply to All feature of your email program!

Double Classes

Sometimes your partner teacher might cancel on you. Frustrating for sure, but what can you do? This morning, one of our partner classes had two classes in the videoconference. They graciously explained the situation to us, and my teacher was totally fine with it. This way all three classes were able to participate in their RAP connection. If you do this, be sure to explain to the partner class so they aren’t stressed or anxious about the large number of students they see on their screen!

Your Turn

How are your Read Around the Planet connections going? Running into any issues? How are you solving them?

Read Around the Planet Day 1

Today is the first day of Read Around the Planet 2010! We have 70 classes participating. The total project participants is 1950 this year! The next couple weeks, I’ll be sharing some of highlights from each day.

Rescheduling

We started the day by putting four of our ten videoconferences today in the reschedule pile. Snow days knocked out 3 of the connections, and family illness made another one necessary to reschedule. One of the four is already rescheduled. We still want to meet with our partners!

Snapshots of Sharing

Sharing an ABC book

In a third grade connection this morning, the teachers began by comparing today’s weather. It’s always fun to compare weather when we are loaded up with snow and it’s 70 degrees in Texas.

Both classes shared a state ABC book, which fits nicely into the communities and regions curriculum for both classes.

  • Texas: A is for the Alamo; B is for bluebonnet, the state flower; C is for Davy Crockett…
  • Michigan: A is for apple blossom, the state flower; B is for blue trout; C is for capital of Michigan: Lansing…
Student drawing of the apple blossom, Michigan's state flower

The Q&A part is always fun:

  • TX asked our kids: Do you go outside at recess? Only if it’s above 10. In TX, they don’t go outside if it’s below 30.
  • MI Q: What makes your community unique? A: Everybody knows everybody.

This pair of teachers had prepared questions and sent them to each other ahead of time. Students at both sides read questions and answers ahead of time, and even prepared some visuals to go with the answers.

Using the document camera to share snow pictures

In another connection today, we were also matched with a class in Texas. Our class shared pictures of putting on snow pants and coats to go outside to play in the snow; and then pictures of playing outside in the snow – on the swings, on the slide, and making snow angels.

Sometimes interruptions happen. During our 1st grade connection, one of our students lost a tooth! Our teacher apologized for the disruption and the classes kept right on going.

In that same connection, teachers had split up the lines of Green Eggs and Ham and traded off reading the lines back and forth in a choral reading format. Great interaction and involvement on both sides.

Favorite RAP Tweets

I’ve also been following the tweets about RAP2010 this year. You can follow the #RAP2010 hash tag, or check the twitter fountain. Here are some of my favorites from today:

  • Hairynomas: Just overheard our schools teachers setting up a Pen Pals collaboration between their classes. Gotta Lov RAP! #RAP2010
  • Hairynomas: Another RAP Pen Pal match between classes. The RAP project is like the cupid arrow of collaborations this year. #RAP2010
  • CherylTice: i’m in my office all day and have lots of books, so if there’s a class that needs a #RAP2010 partner & no one else can, i will do it 🙂
  • LColwill: Watching Q & A. Students from VA just asked if we ride horses to school? LOL! #RAP2010

It’s going to be a fun two weeks. Read Around the Planet weeks are my favorite time of year. It’s awesome to listen to all the great learning and sharing that happens in all the connections!

Day 20: Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Well, here we are at the end of another 20 Day Challenge for videoconferencing. Let’s review, reflect, and look to the future…

Review

  • In the first week, we focused on Read Around the Planet, with tips, tricks, and suggestions for a quality experience.
  • We spent a few days on responding to projects posted by others, and how to manage “exploding” projects that get out of control.
  • We talked about how projects can bridge the gap between idea and actual implementation; and examined the different aspects of running your own projects.
  • Finally, we spent some time on best practice for collaboration and managing your work load.

Reflect

Here are some questions to get you started on your reflection:

  1. What did you learn in the last twenty days?
  2. What is one tip that you plan to implement yet this school year?
  3. What is your next step?

It has been a learning experience for me too! It is always helpful to reflect, review, and improve my practice. My take-aways are:

  1. Time to review my habits to streamline and clean up my procedures!
  2. Best practices for using wikis to manage projects.
  3. All the tips for managing email: Day 8, Day 14, Day 16, Day 19.

What about you? Feel free to comment!

Looking Down the Yellow Brick Road

So what is down the road in your future? Where will you apply your learning? Where will you keep learning? Here are some suggested new paths:

Participate in upcoming spring projects

Deepen your learning

  • Review the templates in the Projects Booklet. Is there a format that you could tie to your required curriculum? Do it with 4 -6 teachers to apply what you’ve been learning.
  • Beef up the interaction in your upcoming Read Around the Planet sessions. Don’t just “present” to the other class. Get them involved. Review the interaction tips in the RAP Teacher packet; review the series on applying research based instructional techniques to your videoconferences.
  • Look around you. Find a partner to team-organize projects between your schools. Learn with and from each other.

Finally. Please comment and tell us what you learned during this challenge!

Day 19: So You Think You Can Multitask?

Once you get involved in the videoconference world of collaborations and projects, your work life speeds up tremendously. The more people you meet and the more connections that you begin making, the more you will do. Connections multiply quickly. Many things are grabbing at your attention: Twitter, Facebook, meetings, reports due, trainings to conduct, test calls, teaching, supporting teachers, etc. Add to that the 24 hour news cycle and your family and life becomes crazy busy.

If you’re interrupting your family life and you are consistently not finishing tasks and missing deadlines, turn off your email and read through the following articles to make your own action plan.

The Myth of Multitasking

Debunking The Myth of Multitasking from Dave Crenshaw. Crenshaw explains the difference between “backtasking” like watching TV while running on a treadmill vs. “switchtasking” like trying to talk on the phone at the same time as composing an email. He proposes the following as solutions to regaining your sanity.

  • Take control over technology—Every device you own has an OFF button. Don’t be afraid, turn them off so you can think. If you are having phantom beeps and vibrations from your phone/device, you have it on too much.
  • Schedule what you can schedule—Set regular times in the day to check your voicemail and email. Careful when you peek into the Inbox. It will suck you in and six hours later, you will still be at it.
  • Focus on the person—When you switchtask when dealing with a computer, you simply lose efficiency. But if you switchtask on a human being, you additionally damage a relationship. Be present, listen carefully, and make sure everything has been taken care of before moving on.

How To Chart for quality over quantity Check your email at 10:00, 1:00, and 4:00. No evening or weekend email.

The Myth of Multitasking The great info is in the comments. Explaining how subtasks make up a complex task and it is not really multitasking, but subtasking.

The $10 answer from Google about the research supporting NOT multitasking

What happens when you go from one project to 5 projects? Love this post from way back in 2006.

How Can This Improve Your Life

  1. Organize test calls at a specific time of day or day of the week.
  2. Standardize responses for test calls or other frequently performed emails.
  3. Understand background tasking vs. switchtasking. Quit switchtasking.

What Tools Can Help With Productivity

Evernote

Before you groan about another login and password, go to their site and watch the intro videos. Here are some of the reasons I am using it.

  • Paul can use it on a Droid. Janine can use it on her Touch. Pretty much any device connected to the cloud.
  • You can tweet to Evernote!
    1. Follow @myen
    2. Link accounts
    3. Send public tweets, DMs, or Twitpics. Awesomeness!
  • Import Google Notebook into Evernote. Since Google killed Notebook, now I can too!
  • Share folders with friends!
  • No more emails to myself from myself!

RSS and iGoogle

I subscribe to Google alerts, wiki updates, Google forms, blog posts, etc via widgets in my iGoogle homepage with tabs for different projects and it is the dashboard of my digital life. Think of how to create an organized filter of relavent information.

Challenge:
Do you still contend that you can effectively multitask? What is your favorite productivity tool? Please share.

Day 17: Sharing Your Computer Screen: Potential Challenges

If you’re new to videoconference projects, you’re bound to run into a problem seeing or sharing a computer screen sometime soon. Here’s the situation and what to do about it.

H.239 / Duo Video / People Plus Content

Many of the manufacturers offer a feature that allows you to share your computer and your faces at the same time. This feature is great when you’re connecting to people on your network. It’s ideal for full length shared courses; making direct instruction better.

However, when you want to use this feature with another class from somewhere “out there” off your network, it’s a different story. There are several scenarios where it won’t work:

  • If the other school’s equipment doesn’t support H.239 (a lot of old units out there still)
  • If the other school’s equipment has the H.239 featured turned off
  • If the other school’s firewall blocks H.239
  • If the other school connects through a bridge and the bridge has it turned off
  • The bridge you connect through and the bridge your partner class connects through can’t pass H.239 between each other

So now, you realize that the chances of it working in a collaboration with a school off your network is really high! And now you know what can cause it.

What to Do

Either you will be the one trying to share the computer; or your partner class might try to share the computer… and poof, it doesn’t work. What do you do?

Forget the wires! My favorite solution is just that. Don’t connect it.

ZOOM!!! You can just set the laptop on a table; zoom the camera in; set a preset.

Voila!

By the way, this solution is at least 4 years old and not my original idea. Complements of Joan Roehre, Kenosha, WI.

Your Turn

Have you thought of any other interesting creative solutions to problems in a videoconference? Please share!

Goods & Services Collaboration

Today we had our first Goods & Services collaboration, a project for K-2 students. You can see the whole project wiki here (and by the way I still need some partner classes to do this in February!).

Today we had two second grade classes connect, one of mine and one in Dallas ISD. The classes started with introductions. Our class showed out the window where the Texans could see all the snow on the ground. Both teachers introduced themselves and were on camera. They shared the weather, what grade their class was, how many students they had. I was impressed with how comfortable both teachers were with talking on camera from the beginning.

Next, our class led the first presentation. They shared a poster and explained the four needs: shelter, clothing, food & water. A second poster covered wants, and had lots of examples – things you could live without. Our last poster was on services: veterinarians, teachers, police officers, doctors, etc. After this presentation, our class shared several riddles: and our Texas friends  guessed what it is and whether it was a need, want, or service. Here is an example:

I am a treat. I am served cold. You can put cherries on me. If you eat me too fast you’ll get a brain freeze.”

Then our partner class in Texas shared their posters and told us about some goods and services in Texas along with pictures.

This was a great little collaboration, and we still have several classes from our school here that need partners. So please check out the wiki and see if you can match one of the times we have there. The registration link has more info for signing up.

Day 16: Type Unto Others

As we enter our final week of this year’s challenge, we will share email tips and tune ups for you to use to better support teachers with collaborations. Email is quick and convenient, but can also be the source of frustration and miscommunication.

Email Signature

Some organizations have standardized email signatures and some do not. If your organization does not have one, be sure to set yours up in your email to include information that your partners would need to be able to reach you.

Name (first and last)
Title
Email address
Phone
School Name
City, State

Ettiquette

  1. Use a courteous greeting and closing. “Hey, Whassssuuuup?’ is not appropriate for work.
  2. Use standard capitalization and punctuation. ALL CAPS IS SHOUTING. all lower case with no punctuation is lazy you are not ee cummings
  3. Accurate subject line: RAP Match #4354 Smithson and Markeson, NEW DATE and TIME.
  4. Keep emails brief. If ithe message gets long and convoluted, pick up the phone.
  5. Check your Trash or Junk folder for messages. Sometimes you will find a legitimate message there.

Top 5 Things That Multiply Email

  • Email History not enabled. It is essential to be able to see replies in context. “include original message text”
  • Leaving off your time zone. Always state the connection in BOTH times if you are working across time zones. 9:00 Eastern, 8:00 Central
  • Open-ended suggestions. What time do you want to test? I dunno. What time do YOU want to test? Doesn’t matter to me. I am available all day on Wednesday. Me, too.
  • Vague replies. “I have two teachers who want to connect.” Be specific. Mrs. Jameson would like to connect on Wed, January 15 at 9:00 Central (10:00 Eastern). Mr. Stevenson can connection on Thursday, January 16 at 10:30 Central (11:30 Eastern)
  • Coordinating multiple teachers or the same teacher wants to do something twice. Use the last name and the period. (Lim 3rd period and Lim 5th period)

Bottom line: Treat others as you wish to be treated. Be kind. Be respectful.