Thanks again to Google Alerts, here are some more student reflections on Read Around the Planet. These are from 6th grade students in Edmonton Public Schools. Middle school reflections are more in depth and you can see how they tied their videoconference experiences to content they were learning in class. Both classes presented plays, and the students reflected on their performance compared to the other class and what they learned from how the other class presented. This is a great evaluation activity and it’s neat to be able to peek into the classroom and listen to the students’ thinking!

• My Very Own Videoconference Reflection
• Videoconference
• Reader’s Theatre Videoconference
• My Videoconference with New York
• Videoconference – Some great tips about videoconferencing etiquette here!
• Reader’s Theatre – Good note about papers rattling here.
• How was the videoconference? Reflection on the use of voice in the presentations.
• Read Around the Planet! How it affected their confidence level…
• Our Video Conference – Why schools should have VC in the words of a 6th grader!

Thanks Room 22 for sharing your thoughts & reflections! If you enjoyed their reflections, leave them a note on their map here. It’ll be a great geography lesson for them!

Thanks to Google Alerts, here are several more Read Around the Planet news articles, blog entries and school reports.

• Room 2 in Alberta, Canada RAPs with New York and then starts writing letters as pen pals!
• North Dakota and Minnesota participate in RAP.
• JANET’s report on UK participation in RAP.

And my favorite post from Shane Grundy, 6th grade teacher for the Edmonton Public Schools in Alberta, Canada. I’ve quoted a snippet here, but you should read his whole post along with the comments and continued conversation on the value of videoconferencing.

… The reason I like this conference so much is because it’s so easy. You submit your name, recieve an e-mail telling you who your partner class is, then share a story with them. While that is a wonderful experience in itself, the real magic happens after the sharing. The students get a chance to talk to each other. In my school I co-ordinated 9 different connections – all between Canada and the US. Each time the students were amazed to discover that despite the different flags and weather patterns – we are all the same. Children thousands of kilometers away all play. The all love recess and hate math. They study hard and play harder. Each time I disconnected from the remote site the first reaction was always – “WOW, They’re just like us.” Didn’t matter if they were kindergarten, or grade six – mainstream, learning strategies, or an alternative program, they all reacted the same. They all knew they had just made a connection to people a world away, and they were just like them. Everyone has a different story to tell, we all walk different paths, but in the end, people are people – no matter where they’re from, the colour of their skin, anthem they sing, or grade they’re in. People are people. I can’t think of a better lesson to teach our students. Or a better way to teach it.

YES!!! And as Roxanne Glaser said to me on Friday, nothing worth doing is easy. While RAP is lots of hard work, it’s worth the lessons the students learn!

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.

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!

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!

I know most of you reading this blog are also involved in Read Around the Planet. Wow, this project has grown this year!! I think we’re all feeling the growing pains. I thought you might be interested in some of the stats on the project.

People who made it happen
Read Around the Planet would not be successful without support from many organizations.

• TWICE, Michigan’s K12 videoconferencing organization, started this project in 2002 and continues to invest volunteer time and funding to make the project sustainable.
• This is the first year of corporate sponsorship from Polycom. This funding allowed TWICE to contract with Sue Porter to be our RAP coordinator, otherwise known as the TWICE RAP Star. 🙂 The project has grown so large that it isn’t sustainable without sponsorship, so we really appreciate Polycom‘s support.
• The Verification Partners laid the foundation for this project in the fall with all the test calls and assistance getting buildings entered into the system and connected correctly to their coordinators. Many of them have been involved through February in helping with test calls and fixing connections.
• Building, district, and regional level coordinators and techs have worked so hard coordinating, dealing with tech problems, encouraging teachers, following up on communication problems, and generally smoothing the way for successful connections.
• And of course, the teachers who plan creative interesting presentations for their partner classes and who weather all the little glitches and quirks that can happen in classroom-to-classroom connections.

A big thank you to EVERYONE who makes this project a success!

So here are the stats.

People
2537 people in the registration system.
Buildings
1424 buildings in the registration system
IP & ISDN
398 buildings could do ISDN
1395 buildings could do IP
24 Match Requests for ISDN only

Read Around the Planet
Match Requests
1274 English

4 Participating Countries: English
Canada 117
Taiwan 1
United Kingdom 22
United States 1121

US States: English (24 states)
Sessions by state
AL 1
AZ 44
CA 13
CT 15
IN 2
IL 1
KS 18
MI 373
MN 11
MO 3
NC 4
ND 29
NH 1
NJ 5
NV 4
NY 171
OH 65
OK 2
OR 6
PA 55
TX 262
VA 32
WA 1
WI 3

RAP World Language Day
78 Match Requests

5 Participating Countries: WLD
Canada 23
Nicaragua 3
Taiwan 2
United Kingdom 6
United States 42

US States: WLD (8 states)
IN 1
MI 24
NY 5
OH 2
OK 1
PA 3
TX 5
WA 1

Total Match Requests: 1350
In 2006 there were 842 class registrations; 201 in building registrations; 1043 total.
This year, 2007, there were 1350 class registrations for both events. Wow!

Impacting Approximately 40,000 kids
Estimating 30 students per class (some are smaller and some double up), RAP impacted about 40,000 kids.

Wow! It’s all about the kids and the great learning experiences that we can bring to them via videoconferencing. Good luck with your connections starting tomorrow!