Tag Archives: Collaborations

Monster Mayhem Day 2

Another 6 Monster Mayhem connections today (along with 4 TWICE ASK programs). Here are some highlights from today’s Mayhem!

Whiteboard Similarities and Differences

This teacher used their interactive whiteboard to display the PDF comparison sheet. Then while both classes were muted for 2 minutes, they made a list of similarities and differences. Then in sharing these observations with the other class, they zoomed in on the whiteboard to share.

More Pairs

Here are some more monster pairs from today.

Lots of Learning

Sometimes the pairs seem very different. This is where much learning occurs. In this pair, the original monster is on the left. The copy is on the right.

Below is the description that was written for the original monster. Does the copy match the description?! Pretty close – even though the monsters don’t look too similar. This comparison caused a lot of discussion on descriptive words, materials used, and what could have been done differently.

Beef the Schugl caused the toughest Marines to scream!
On top of her head is a 3 inch pink bow made of silk.
Her beady silver eyes (1 inch each) were ringed in white eyeliner and her nose was barely visible under her thick coat of brown, dusty hair.
Beef’s teeth (1 inch long and 1 1/2 inches wide) always stick out at odd angles from beneath Beef’s straight line of a mouth (4 inches), and are as silver as her eyes.
Her dress is so blue it almost makes you blind and has a shiny pink heart in its middle.
Her tiny feet (4 inches each), compared to her whole body (13 inches tall), make her fall over a lot.
Beef can’t wait for the fashion show!

New Extension Activity Idea

I listened to two third grade teachers discuss how it would be great to have the students write comparison paragraphs on the differences and similarities between the two classes. They decided to email each other pictures of the monsters so that they could study it further in class and write their paragraphs.

Monster Mayhem, Tornado Warnings, and More

Today was our first day of this year’s Monster Mayhem with Whirlidurb and Dallas. We had a busy, but learning-filled day! In addition to our monsters, we also had classes participating in the TWICE ASK programs on bullying with author Dana Lehman, and two connections with the Cleveland Zoo and the Lee Richardson Zoo. Here are some highlights and lessons:

Tornado Warnings

At about 9:15 when my first calls started coming up, the whole county was under a tornado warning. Originally it was till 10:00 am, but then extended to 10:45 am. Six of my videoconferences were affected.

I spent a goodly amount of time on the floor under a desk away from the window with my phone and laptop/Skype texting and messaging to rearrange, reschedule, and calm down involved educators. Four of the VCs we were able to reschedule for this afternoon.

Reflection question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done to make sure your videoconferences happened?

Monster Mayhem

Here are some of the monster pairs from today. Lots of great comparisons and discussions: what is the same? what is different? what could we have written better?

4th grade

5th Grade


1st Grade (I only caught pics for one pair of their monsters.)

TWICE ASK: Adventures at Walnut Grove & I Double Dare You

We also had several classes in the TWICE ASK program with author Dana Lehman, on two of her picture books: Adventures at Walnut Grove and I Double Dare You. Students asked questions about bullying and teasing, as well as the writing and publishing process. Great program!

The Cleveland Zoo

Another class connected to The Cleveland Zoo for their Boo! I’m a Bat program. Great session. Had two classes participate in last week’s program as well. Great visuals & costumes!

Desktop Videoconferencing

Finally, due to the tornado and a couple other problems, in one of my sessions, the teacher did the videoconference on her own! with a desktop videoconferencing solution that we are currently testing (and will remain unnamed). The software was installed on the teacher’s computer. Check out the video we received from them. Can’t tell the difference between this and a regular codec! Yay!

What a day! How did your VCs go today?

Sustained Collaborations: Weather Buddies

This is our second year participating in the Dallas ISD’s Weather Buddies program. While we do many collaborations, they are usually just one meeting between the classes. I’m just never sure how to make a long term collaboration work.

However, Lori Colwill at Dallas ISD has been running the year-long weather buddies program for two years now. It’s very popular and I’ve seen several copycat projects on CAPspace.

We had a couple connections last week, and we have two today as well. This October meeting is the first meeting between the classes. In the October session, they are learning about each other and about the weather in their respective locations.

Classes shared weather forecasts, and pictures from the community to show raking leaves, colored trees, etc.

Classes also like to turn the camera out the window to show what the weather is like right now. Today it was grey in Michigan and blue skies in TX, so of course our kids reacted excitedly!

Another class shared their weather bear – to show he just had a jacket on, but not a scarf, hat or mittens.

Last year I only had one class participate all year; but this year I have several more.

I’ve never really had an idea on how to make a long term sustained collaboration work on a scale. It’s easier when the teachers decide to keep connecting. But I’ve heard a lot of teachers say “let’s connect again” and they never do. It seems they need a nudge to schedule the next connection. Otherwise life gets busy and it doesn’t happen.

What I like about Weather Buddies this year is that each class has committed to a specific day of the week and time; and there is a specific week for Weather Buddies all year – October, December, January and May. This way it’s on the schedule! I find that if a VC gets “scheduled”, it will likely happen. But if it’s just an idea, often it doesn’t get past the idea.

I appreciate learning how to do sustained, long term, multi-connection collaborations from Lori. Maybe soon I’ll be inspired to think of my own. In the meantime, we love Weather Buddies!

Three Main Ways I Find Partner Classes

This morning I had a great conversation with Tim Boundy, who coordinates videoconferencing for JANET in the UK. We compared notes on projects we’re running, the trials and challenges of scaling collaborations, and the different ways to partner classes. In the course of the discussion, I realized there are three main ways that I make my collaborations work.

Matching Events in CAPspace

One of the easiest ways to have a lot of classes participate in an event is to participate in a project that’s coordinated by someone and matched in CAPspace.

  • Read Around the Planet is an obvious one. I usually have 70-80 classes participate annually.
  • Partners are assigned by the project coordinator (randomly matched by the system in CAPspace).
  • I have to do test calls with 70-80 different places (unless I’m lucky to get some overlap in who we matched with).
  • Materials for the project are already created for the teacher.
  • Other examples include TWICE’s We the Kids, Michigan Week Exchange, and Monster Mayhem that we do with Whirlidurb.
  • These matching events account for about 125 of our collaborations annually.

CAPspace Collaborations

Another major source of partner classes is the Collaborations option in CAPspace (create or search collaborations).

  • I post 7-10 collaborations a year looking for partners for various ideas by my teachers. On most of those I need one or two partners.
  • I have a few schools – maybe 5 out of 70 – where the teachers respond to collaborations on CAPspace or post their own collaborations. In most cases they then ask for help on connecting the videoconference.
  • These account for maybe 20-30 of our collaborations annually.

Asking VC Friends

The final major way that I find partner class is to ask friends.

  • For some projects (like EcoConversations), I have a list a people we partner with every year.
  • For some projects, I pick someone I know at a regional level (i.e. Dallas ISD) and try to get all the partners from that region. It makes it super easy because then I don’t have to do any test calls!
  • For some teacher ideas that are just one or two connections here and there, I may also ask friends. I also have some VC friends who email me and ask for one or two partners for this or that idea.
  • These types of collaborations probably account for another 30-40 collaborations annually.

My Email List

Want to get on my email list? Sometimes I use that advertise for partners just for people interested in specific projects that we run (MysteryQuests, etc.). Sign up here.

What about you? Do you use more than one method to find partners for your teachers? Which works best in which situation? Do you have a favorite method? Please comment!

Constitution Day Reflections

On Friday we had 17 classes participate in a Constitution Day program. It was a smashing success and super busy, so I didn’t get to blog it last week. Here’s a bit of information about what we did.

First Some History

We’ve tried a few things with Constitution Day.

This Year’s Inspiration

This year, I have a graduate student intern from Andrews University who aims to teach history and social studies. He really wanted to facilitate a VC, so I thought we could try again. We aimed to:

  • Meet the 4th/5th grade Michigan curriculum on the Constitution; using a lesson idea from the Michigan Citizenship Curriculum.
  • Have no prep: the prep would be built into the program. (Since Constitution Day came only 9 days after school started.)
  • Include a collaboration idea: students presenting to students. The prep for that part was DURING the program.

It Was a Hit!

We were going to just do 4 sessions with 3 classes each (12), facilitated by my intern. But we had so much demand that I facilitated three sessions with 2-3 classes also.

  • We started with each class sharing a classroom rule and a fact about the constitution.
  • We had a 10 minute overview of the Constitution, the branches of Government, and the Bill of Rights.
  • We played a great little YouTube video rap about the Bill of Rights and students listened for all 10 to check off on their handout.
  • Then students worked in groups for 10-12 minutes to generate 3 amendments to their classroom rules that were inspired by the Bill of Rights.
  • Then we spent the remaining time rotating through the classes as they shared their amendments.

Kids made great connections between the Bill of Rights and their classroom. Some were humorous and entertaining! For example:

  • We should have access to Twitter and Facebook (Freedom of Speech).
  • We should be able to whisper quietly to one another if it doesn’t disturb anyone else (Right to Assemble).
  • We should be able to bring squirt guns to school (Right to Bear Arms).
  • We should be able to have our cell phones on (Freedom of Speech).
  • If someone hits me, I should be able to hit them back (Right to Bear Arms).

Of course, some of their ideas started a discussion of balancing my rights and the rights of others!

We also reminded students that their classroom is not a democracy, and so their teacher would be the judge and decide which (if any) of the amendments would stand.

Comments from Teachers

  • [Students] were able to think of how they would like to change the rules of their classroom and see how those people who helped to create the Bill of Rights had to think. They enjoyed having “a say” in how they would change our classroom.
  • Since we haven’t covered the Constitution yet, our students went from having little or no understanding of the Bill of Rights to having a grasp on what it is and its purpose.  I hope this will help them to have a foundation to build from when we actually study it.
  • Participating in the Constitution Day fulfilled the federal requirement.  We had built prior knowledge in the morning on the Promethean Board which facilitated understanding of the Bill of Rights.  Your activity gave the students an opportunity to put that knowledge into action in a meaningful, realistic way.

Next Year

Since I won’t have this intern next year, and we had such a great demand for it, I would like to figure out how to do it without the facilitator. This way it could scale more easily. Adaptations I’m considering include:

  • The teachers could team-teach the overview at the beginning. I heard some great teaching going on as the classes connected before it started.
  • Do the prep ahead of time; and share the Bill of Rights activity only during the VC.

What do you think? How did you celebrate Constitution Day? Can you think of another way to do a low prep classroom-to-classroom collaboration?

Continuum of Videoconferencing Collaborations

We’ve looked at a continuum of equipment/software solutions for videoconferencing, a continuum of interactivity, and a continuum of depth of learning. Today, let’s think about a continuum of collaboration. We can think about it on several levels.

Continuum of WHO Collaborates

Continuum of Collaboration

The level of collaboration in a videoconference is closely related to the continuum of interactivity. Think about this:

  • The simplest level of a collaboration is where both classes present to each other; then ask each other questions. This is the most common method and the easiest way to get started. Many Read Around the Planet connections start at this level; and most of the collaborations in CAPspace are at this level too. The Around the World with 80 Schools uses this simple format as well. Is that bad? I don’t think so! Teachers have to start with something simple and easy; not too threatening and with a low commitment/preparation level. I am reminded of Jen Wagner’s concept of puddle projects vs. well projects. It’s ok to do puddle projects!
  • Involving the other class in your presentation. You may still present, but figure out a way to involve the other class in the presentation. Roxanne Glaser shared many ideas in the Read Around the Planet teacher guide, and in this blog post: Lights, Cameras, Interactions.
  • Students collaborate within the classroom. There are many collaboration or project formats where students work in groups to collaboratively solve a problem: MysteryQuests, preparing ASK questions, Math Measurement Riddles, etc.
  • Students collaborating across classrooms. This method of collaboration seems to work best when supporting technologies such as wikis as used to provide asychronous support between videoconferences. These collaborations tend to be longer term as well. One example would be the novel in an hour format Roxanne Glaser used in her ISTE workshop this year. See the results on the wiki here. Another example would be the CILC Vistas in depth projects, where students work collaboratively to solve community problems.

Have you experienced this continuum? Where do most of your videoconferences fall along the line? Any other insights to share? Please comment!

Depth of Learning Continuum with Videoconferencing

We’ve looked at a continuum of equipment/software solutions for videoconferencing, and yesterday a continuum of interactivity. Today, let’s think about a continuum of depth of learning…

Depth of Learning Continuum

Depth of Learning

  • Some videoconferences require no preparation at all.
  • Some videoconferences are only 5 minutes long! (see the suggested agenda here for Skype calls)
  • Some content providers send a PDF of materials or a kit with materials for hands-on in-depth learning.
  • Some projects, like Read Around the Planet, allow the teachers flexibility on how in-depth the videoconference really is.
  • Some projects, like Hometown Holidays, require research, connect rigorously to the curriculum, and integrate multiple subject areas and required standards.

Have you experienced this continuum? Where do most of your videoconferences fall along the line? Any other insights to share? Please comment!

Continuum of Interactivity with Videoconferencing

In addition to a continuum of videoconferencing tools, there are other continuums related to the use of videoconferencing. Today, let’s examine the interactivity continuum…

Interactivity Continuum

Continuum of Interactivity

  • View only isn’t interactive at all!
  • Watching the other class present and not present back is not very interactive!
  • Presenting to each other is a step up.
  • Involving each other in the presentation is even better (by comparing and constrasting with Monster Mayhem, or solving measurement problems with Measurement Riddles, or researching an answer in MysteryQuest).
  • Hands-on activities are even more interactive: content provider programs featured in the pictures are: Magnificent Manatees, Gadget Works, and Butterflies.

Have you experienced this continuum? Where do most of your videoconferences fall along the line? Any other insights to share? Please comment!

Spanish Partner Classes, International Matches…

Are you starting to think about your videoconferences for the 2010-2011 school year? Maybe you want to connect to another country.

I notice many collaborations on CAPspace looking for partners in Latin or Spanish countries to practice Spanish.

I also got an email this summer from someone complaining that they had registered on many sites, but had not yet found an international partner.

Here’s my advice:

Start with North America!

  • The time zones are easier to manage.
  • There are many culture differences available if you just look carefully.
  • You can learn to be sensitive to and appreciate other cultures within a more comfortable framework. Then you’ll be ready to do more international connections.

Bilingual Spanish Classes

Skype call arranged by Silvia Tolisano between Jewish students in Florida and Muslim students in Minnesota. They showed each other their prayer books and demonstrated how they pray.
  • For Spanish, try bilingual classes in California, Texas and Florida, for starters. Plenty of native Spanish speakers delighted to talk to your students! Enough classes to share around with all of us! Enough that you could have a partner class for each section/hour that you teach.

Compare World Religions

  • Silvia Tolisano arranged a VC between a small Jewish day school in Florida and Muslim students in Minnesota! (See photo.)
  • Connections to large urban districts almost guarantee an “international / global” experience.

So, don’t get discouraged! But start small and by using resources close at hand!

Literature Circles Lesson Plan

I’m cleaning my website still, and archiving old things here on my blog. This lesson plan was co-written with our language arts consultant. It was an attempt to scale a literature circle project done between two of our middle schools.

Literature Circle Videoconferences

Preparation

  • Talk to your partner teacher via phone or email and discuss the steps.
  • Decide how often to meet.
  • Discuss and plan for a culminating activity.

Step 1: Getting to Know You
Knowing the students in your partner class will help make the discussion more engaging. Use at least one of these strategies in the first videoconference to help the students get to know each other.

  • Create a grid with the students names and fill in topics such as favorite movie, favorite weekend activities, etc. Idea from Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles. p. 40
  • Or try some of ice-breakers for distance learning.

Step 2: Teach Discussion Skills & Set Ground Rules
Both classes should use the same set of skills and ground rules for a smoother discussion environment. Here are some resources for teaching discussion skills and setting ground rules. Discuss with your partner teacher which of these you’ll use in your respective classes.

  • Create a T-chart for friendliness and support in a discussion. What does it sound like and what does it look like?
  • See also Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles page 48 for discussion skills and page 115 for setting ground rules.
  • Teaching Students How to Discuss
  • Making Discussions Work
  • Literature Circle Qualities
  • Literature Circle Levels of Questioning

Step 3: Use Response Logs to Prepare for Discussion

Written responses will focus students on the reading and prepare them for the discussion. You can also take the opportunity to have students focus on comprehension strategies.

  • Written responses for literature circles.
  • Literature Circle Pre-Meeting
  • Super Six Comprehension Strategies by Lori Oczkus, 2004, for ideas to support predicting, inferring, questioning, monitoring, summarizing, and synthesizing.
  • Create a Comprehension Strategies Bookmark
  • Directions to Create a Strip Poem (suggestion: make it across the two classrooms)
  • Questions in Preparation for Literature Circle
  • Student Response Sheet
  • Synthesis Prompts
  • Writing Questions After You Read

Tips for the Videoconferences

  • Divide up the literature circle tasks/jobs across the two sites to ensure interaction.
  • Use a strategy to make sure all students contribute to the conversation. For example, you may give each student 5 slips of paper. Each time they talk, they put a slip on the table. This helps even out the conversation between the talkative students and the quieter students.
  • Have a culminating event to celebrate success. For example, students may create projects and share them with the partner class. Or the two classes may create a strip poem with lines created by both classes.

Evaluation

  • Literature Circle Portfolio