The first day of our Read Across America connections went fairly well. 7 out of 8 connections actually occurred. We had several glitches along the way, but we made it!

Here are a few of my favorite things from today.

• Hats! Visuals are crucial in a medium like this! Many classes of course are celebrating Dr. Seuss and have Cat in the Hat hats. But we enjoyed the cowboy hats from our Texas partner school too!
  
• Young students sharing work: posters, pictures, stories, poems. They are so cute!
• Props! A class from Frazer Elementary class in Ohio had a wonderful castle, costumes and more to go with their story.
• Pictures and stories. So many great stories, books, and pictures shared in the programs today!
• Questions. From a kindergartener: Do you guys do math? And from Texas: What is the weather in Michigan today?

7 down. 31 more to go.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…. Students shared essays and sonnets written to their favorite famous love interest in a Three Wishes type celebration of Valentine’s Day today. The two classes from Niles and St. Joseph high schools, had prepared their writing in advance.

Students at Niles shared an essay on the famous movie and music star they might want to spend Valentine’s Day with and what they would want to do. The students in St. Joseph shared their love sonnets.

We listened to a sonnet on loving that sweet chewy gum, dreams of taking Mary-Kate Olsen to a park and watching a sunset, a couple (I’m pretty sure) sharing their sonnets for each other, a ode to food, a sonnet called A Hero to His Goddess, and many more.

Clearly both classes enjoyed the interaction, the celebration of writing and reading, and the conversation back and forth. The teachers encouraged students to give feedback on the essays and sonnets: which one they liked and why.

The cool thing about teacher generated projects is that the other teacher who participates in the program is inspired with new ideas of what they can do with videoconferencing. The great ideas are spreading through my county!

We’re piloting a new program this year with our local World War II, Korea, and Vietnam War Veterans. It’s called Lest We Forget, and is based on a series of videos we made of our local veterans. Students watch the video, read articles and bios, participate in lessons on that particular war, and then prepare quality questions for the veterans.
I have a few spots left in the Feb. 22 interviews with our World War II vets. You can read about the project online and also register online as well. We’d love to have you join us!

Here’s an ad I’m sending out on the SBC listserv. But maybe some of you here could help me as well?

***High School Sonnets***
1. I have two senior classes who have written Shakespearean sonnets. We want a class who would share their sonnets with us for an exchange. We are looking for two classes, one at 7:30-8:30 AM EST and another at 1:30-2:30 AM EST. Email me if you can do this – jlim@remc11.k12.mi.us

***Middle School Robotics***
2. Here’s the note from my teacher:
Please ask other middle schools or junior high schools that are involved
with robotics if they would be interested in getting to know via e-mail
(approx. 2 weeks prior to the event) a group of 8th grade students who are
involved in learning how to build and program Lego robots. Then get
together via distance learning for a time of sharing what they have done
with their robots. Our students have just been introduced to these robots,
and we want to give them some additional experience before we try competing
with other schools.
Date: April 12 either at 8:00 am or 2:00 pm

Email me – jlim@remc11.k12.mi.us to participate.

Today one of my 4th grade teachers wanted to meet with me to plan a videoconference on Lighthouses in Michigan. She’s done Michigan Week and Read Across America, so she knows the “exchange” format. She’s also done Where in Michigan, and understands the MysteryQuest format.

So as we discussed the possibilities, it was clear quickly that these had given her an idea to do a MysteryQuest: Lighthouses.

Having a template format ready to go really helps teachers who want to try their own planned videoconference! And having experience with an “official” project like MysteryQuest or Read Across America helps teachers see the possibilities for creating their own projects!

That makes the headaches, challenges, and trials associated with these big projects all worth it!! (I’m in the middle of matching “leftovers” for Read Across Amercia. Fun fun!)

Today I’m really excited to be watching a videoconference planned by two of my local teachers at New Buffalo High School and Lakeshore High School. This VC is an assignment in my Kid2Kid Videoconference Connections online class, where teachers plan project connections over a period of 5 months.

The lesson began with classes working in groups (muted) to come up with a definition of genocide. Then each class shared their definitions and negotiated a group definition.

Next each class worked to brainstorm a list of genocides they know of… both historical and current.

Then the classes brainstormed what they remembered from their December connection with a local expert who discussed prejudice and racism and how it might connect with the genocides listed.

Each class had a copy of an article on fighting hatred. The classes read the article separately and then discussed it together.

Finally students came up with possible solutions/responses to genocide.

• Loosen the legal definitions that determine genocide so that intervention can happen quickly.
• Make ourselves more aware of current events.
• We need to educate people to treat those of all races the same.
• We need to stay open-minded to hear the different sides to a story.

I really like the format of a team teaching here where the classes were led through a discussion and students had time to brainstorm in groups locally and then share with both classes. This format worked really well.

If you’re an educational service agency supporting your schools’ use of distance learning, you should be providing content for your schools!

I’m always looking for good ideas for projects for my schools and there are two from Avon, Ohio that I’d like to try sometime with my local schools:

• I Spy Geography, a multipoint geography skills event
• Story Time, a multipoint story telling event.

These projects are so simple, but are wonderful for getting teachers’ feet wet with a short curriculum event that takes advantage of multipoint capability.