Tag Archives: Collaborations

The Giver Skits

This morning Marcellus Middle School students are sharing skits and vignettes in response to reading the book, The Giver. They also shared posters and other visual representations that captured the essence of the book and the issues within it.

These students prepared this presentation for Read Around the Planet, but had put so much work into the skits they wanted to share them with more classes who had read the book. So we ended up with 6 classes in Michgian, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The students made their presentation.

Then they asked all the sites some questions about the book:

  • Can you see yourself living in a town like Jonas with no color?
  • What are some benefits to living in a community like Jonas?

Then, again in round robin fashion, each site had a chance to ask questions or give a comment on the presentation.

  • How long did you practice the skits?
  • How long did it take to make the props?
  • Did you come up with the skits all by yourself?
  • Did you read the book yourselves or as a class?

We did have a few classes who hadn’t read the book, so Marcellus posed a few questions specifically to those who had. Questions such as, “What do you think happened to Gabe and Jonas at the end of the book?”

I’m so proud of Marcellus Middle School, one of the RUS grant buildings that received equipment this past summer. The use of camera presets, good strong audio from the students, visuals, good questions and interaction. They’ve put their learning to work and this videoconference was a great example of how they’ve become pros at videoconferencing!

Changing My Mind on View Only Sessions

In the first few years of our distance learning program, I thought that view only sessions were a waste of time and energy. In those days, classes had to travel to the high school to get access to videoconferencing. VC is an interactive medium, so I didn’t want anyone to waste their time, energy and funding just to do a view only session. I’ve felt strongly for the past several years that VC isn’t worth doing if you can’t interact with the people on the other side.

However, I’m beginning to change my mind. Now most of our teachers have access to VC in their building. They don’t have to travel.

In addition, they are still very nervous about the possibility of videoconferencing. They want to know what to expect. They want to see how it works. They don’t want to commit to involving their students until they know it’s worth their time and meets the goals of the curriculum.

Enter view only sessions.

View only sessions allow teachers to experience the possibilities with students in a low-key environment. Everyone can watch how the event occurs. They don’t have to say anything or be on camera, but they can see what happens in a typical videoconference. While watching how others behave in a videoconference, they can learn how to teach their own students how to behave in a videoconference.

A view only session is a stepping stone to a full videoconference.

Do you agree?

Michigan Week Connections

To my Michigan readers, it’s time to hurry up and sign up for your 4th grade Michigan Week Connections! You can choose from Michigan Week Exchange (Read Around the Planet is modeled after this project) or from Where in Michigan?

This year’s flyer is online now for you to share with your teachers. Register by April 4!!!

For those of you outside of Michigan, these are great statewide (provincial too!!!) projects. Feel free to copy them and run them in your area! We’d sure appreciate it if you reference TWICE as your inspiration.

Places to Go, People to Meet, Things to Do

MACUL Session: Thursday, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Presenter: Keith Sadlier, Teacher, Utica Community Schools / TWICE Board Member
Connection: Ebeling Elementary, Utica Community Schools

Keith Sadlier is sharing with us today the power of kids talking to kids via videoconferencing. Keith started with a nice overview of what you can do with videoconferencing and how to find more information about shared classes, content providers, and more on the TWICE website.

We connected back to Ebeling Elementary and listened to their Spanish teacher talk about a project they did with a teacher in Costa Rica. The teacher in Costa Rica was from Michigan. The classes set up an activity where the students could learn about each other’s culture. The 4th grade classes presented to each other about their area. The Michigan students did a presentation on the alphabet of Michigan. The Costa Rican students shared native costumes and dances. The students were pen pals with each other and wrote to teach other. In the second videoconference the students were able to talk to their partner.

After the teachers described the session, a couple of the students reminisced about their presentations and interaction with Costa Rica last year. One of the students still keeps in touch with her pen pal. “The more I talk to her, the more I realize how much the same we are.”

They sent the letters by snail mail to the Costa Rican school’s P.O. box in Miami and they were able to send each other items as well.

When asked what they liked best about videoconferencing, the students said, “it’s nice to know that you have a friend so far away.”

After this connection, Keith talked about all the different types of projects and activities you can do in each content area. Good advice included: don’t pack in the students, don’t settle for a talking head, and don’t use this as a stand alone lesson.

Newspaper Articles about RAP

Thank you to Ruth Blankenbaker, CILC, for sending me this article from Morinville, Alberta on a Read Around the Planet connection with one of my schools, Sylvester Elementary. It’s a cute write up and the teachers decided to be pen pals after the connection. A common response to Read Around the Planet.

Do you know of any published news articles about RAP connections in your area? Please comment and share!

Reading Around the Planet with Taiwan

This evening I took a rare trip out of my office to St. Joseph High School to watch them connect to Kuo Kwang High School in Taiwan, yet another Read Around the Planet connection. St. Joseph High School is one of my newly independent schools. This year they are coordinating, testing and connecting all of their own RAP connections. I’m so proud of them, but letting go is hard! 🙂

The connection began with laughter and waves between the classes. St. Joseph High School started by showing a music video of the snow and ice on the beach of Lake Michigan. Each student introduced themselves and told a little about their interests.

It’s highly entertaining to watch kids interact with each other. Lots of nervous laughter.

After introductions, the students asked each other questions.

  • How old are you?
  • Do you have a school band?
  • Do you have boyfriends?
  • Do you like to go shopping?
  • What languages do you learn in your school?
  • Do you have school uniforms?
  • How long is your school day?
  • What kind of classes do you take?

Even high school students need coaching in the types of questions to ask to get an interesting answer other than yes or no. With international connections, learning to frame questions without colloquialisms or local jargon is also important.

Next the Taiwan students shared their video explaining Taiwan. They took a camera out on the town and taped shots of their school, shrines and temples, waterways, shopping, and more. Each video clip featured a teddy bear dressed up taking the tour. The video clips also included text at the bottom to make it easier to understand the students. While videos don’t always come through clearly on videoconferencing, it is one of the best ways for the other school to see what it’s like to live in your area.

The students in Taiwan are part of a videoconferencing club. Isn’t that a cool idea?

After watching their video, the students here had more thoughtful questions. Here’s an example:

  • When we watched the movie, we noticed a lot of scenery is along the water. How do you value water?

The classes are going to write articles about their experience and then share them via email.

Unfortunately for you, this connection wasn’t on my bridge, so I couldn’t get any pictures. It was a real treat! Hope your RAP connections are going really well too!

RAP: Educators Make It Happen

Wow! I hope your Read Around the Planet connections are going as well as mine. Of course there are glitches along the way (bad cables, fog days, etc.), but overall the student exchanges are top notch quality learning experiences.

This morning I was moved almost to tears listening to kindergarten students in Dowagiac, MI sing to students in NY. “We will lift up this world, higher and higher; light up this world brighter and brighter, we will plant gardens, we lift up this world to peace!”

Last Friday I chuckled at some alliterations shared between one of our classes and another in Texas. The student teacher on our end walked the students in TX through the process of writing an alliteration. This alliteration helps you realize the effect of state testing on students:

Today Tierra tackled the TAKS test.

Seeing students smiling, singing and laughing is the reward of hours and hours of behind-the-scenes labor on the part of coordinators and techs. Emails, test calls, coordinating details, helping teachers prepare, and smoothing the way. Teachers have stepped in to do their presentation twice when another teacher was in need. Coordinators have stepped in to solve problems created by the computer match this year. So many people have gone the extra mile to make RAP successful. As Sue Porter, TWICE RAP Coordinator, said to me last week, “All these kids are going to have wonderful connections, and they’ll never know that the rest of us don’t have hair anymore!!”

For more RAP stories, check out these reports from Paul Hieronymous, Andrea Israeli, and Roxanne Glaser.

I’m amazed and delighted and thrilled to see the efforts of so many educators (4000+?) who have put in hours and hours to make sure kids aren’t disappointed. The flexibility, patience, and enthusiasm of everyone is wonderful to behold. Our kids are in good hands!

Thanks Roxanne for the Cat in the Hat picture.

New Time Change Date!!!

Today I’m starting to tackle the nightmare of the fact that the time zone changes next week instead of in April as it has done before. I knew this was coming, but hadn’t really thought about it yet due to too many RAP connections!

First, I downloaded the latest version of Qlock, my trusty desktop reference.

Then I checked my other favorite site, TimeandDate.com to see if they had updated their tools. They have of course!

Finally, I checked my schedule of VCs to see which ones are affected (those with Arizona and the UK so far) and sent notes to my schools who are rescheduling RAP connections to remind them to pay attention to the times.

Whew! Time zones are something we can’t stop paying attention to!

Snapshots of Read Around the Planet

First day of Read Around the Planet. Snapshots of student learning and excitement make all the preparation work worth it!

Backgrounds and signs with the name of the school.

Students dressed up in orange and black, McKinley Elementary’s school colors.

Children smiling, laughing, waving, and cheering when meeting each other.

Throwing snowballs with a class in Texas. Loved that idea from last year!

Listening to fun songs.

“Roll, roll, roll the snow, roll it round and round. Make a great big snow ball, and lay it on the ground.” To the tune of Row Row Row Your Boat. Scroll down on this page for the full words.

And to the tune of London Bridges Falling Down: “The sun gives us light and heat, light and heat, light and heat, the sun gives us light and heat, we learned from NASA.” A song about a previous videoconference to NASA.

Cat in the Hat helping to make the connections work. On the phone fixing one connection, while waving at the kids waiting for their partner class. Playing copycat with actions.

A school in upstate New York sharing pictures of huge piles of snow.

Seeing a live class pet lizard.

Today we had 17 Read Around the Planet connections, plus a trip to COSI Toledo. I helped connect six of them. Three of them are being rescheduled due to sick teachers. The rest my new coordinators connected on their own. I’m so proud of them! Day 1 done. 61 more connections to go.