Bilingual Blogging 2

A great wake up call to all non-English-born-speakers. To make a blog in two languages (or more) is a fantastic tool for teachers from countries with another primary languange than English. On one hand to target the young pupils and their parents, on the other hand to target teachers and schools around the world for collaborative matters.

Two new blogs have been born in Denmark and Greece:

Science teacher Michael Ljunggreen from Vonsild School in Denmark has started a new blog with students´ science experiments written in both Danish and English. SCIENCE PLAYGROUND http://sciencepg.blogspot.com/

 

German and English teacher Effie Kyrikakis from Winners Education in Athens, Greece has made both a blog: http://winnerseducation.blogspot.com/ and a wiki: http://winnerseducation.blogspot.com/ in both Greek end English.

It could be great to hear comments on the pedagogical thoughts about this from both bilingual teachers and English speaking teachers. It could also be great to hear if anyone know other bilingual blogs, wikis etc. as examples.

Explore “The Global Classroom Project” at #GlobalEd11

“ A small group of thoughtful people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”  Margaret Mead

Comment shared at our #globaled11 presentation

On November 15, 2011, Michael Graffin, Deb Frazier, and members of the #globalclassroom team were delighted to share our Global Classroom 2011-12 community with the world at the Global Education Conference 2011.

 

Attended by around 25 teachers, from Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America, this presentation was a fantastic opportunity to share, and reflect upon, the incredible efforts of our #globalclassroom teachers in making global connections, establishing projects, and enabling their students’ voices to be heard on the world stage.

Less than 6 weeks on from our official #globalclassroom launch, we are currently 150 members strong. Our teachers, and students, come from 28 countries, across 6 continents, and from an incredible range of cultural and religious backgrounds.

Global Classroom is already making a significant impact on the lives of students and teachers around the world.

And we’ve barely begun.

We hope you will take a moment to watch our presentation, and join our emerging global learning community. There are K-12 projects to suit everyone, and if there aren’t, you’re most welcome to bring your own!

If you’d like to listen to (watch) our recording, please click here:

https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/dropin.jnlp?sid=2008350&suid=D.7D57122AD0470DC1245CEB99286023

 

The Global Classroom Project 2011-12 (#GlobalEd11)

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Join Us At The Global Education Conference 2011!

 

Michael Graffin & Deb Frazier will be presenting about The Global Classroom Project at the Global Education Conference 2011, on Tuesday, November 15, 2011.

We hope you can join us for:

“A discussion about The Global Classroom Project 2011-12; a new online global projects community helping K-12 teachers and students share their expertise, learning, and voices on a global stage.”

We will be exploring our stories and latest global collaborative projects. With contributions from #globalclassroom teachers in Australia, Romania, New Zealand, USA, Canada, France, and Denmark, this is a presentation not to be missed!

For full details of our presentation, please visit our session overview.

When?

We will be presenting on Tuesday, November 15, 2011, at 6AM New York (EST), 11AM London (GMT), 4PM Delhi, 7PM Beijing, 10PM Sydney.

We have attempted to find a time friendly to teachers in Europe, Africa, and Asia, as we strive to make Global Classroom 2011-12 more globally representative.

We recommend finding our session, “The Global Classroom Project 2011-12: A Global Learning Community is Born”  using the official schedule for YOUR time zone.

Where?

To join our presentation in Blackboard Collaborate, please click on this session link shortly before the start time:

https://sas.elluminate.com/d.jnlp?sid=2008350&password=GEC11Part270

We will be publishing the slides, and recording link on this blog (and our wiki) following our presentation.

We hope to see you there!

Bilingual Blogging

Teaching 1st graders in the Danish Public School means focusing on basic areas of Danish language. In Denmark, English is introduced in 3rd grade.

Nevertheless I found it important going global to enlarge the global awareness of my pupils and open the door to other cultures and nations. Awareness of differences gives greater socialisation in class as well.

Our class blog is written in both Danish and English. Danish so the pupils and their parents can follow our daily work (portfolio like) and in English to begin cultural collaboration as for relatives in other countries. In that way we gain several learning goals.

Our first big collaborative project is about “The Global Lunch Table”. What we eat and how we get our food for lunch in different parts of the world. It was an initiative from our friends in Room 14, Hamilton East School, New Zealand

Our next task is to filming what we have written about our lunch in Danish and then have our ´Better Buddies` from 6th grade to read it in English. It will be published on the blog. In that way we also get an athentic collaboration in school between 1st and 6th graders.

Doing bilingual blogging easily helps pupils who do not speak English to start being 2nd language learners.

You can visit our class blog here: http://vonsildskole11.blogspot.com/ and you are welcome to contact me for further information.

Stefan Åge Nielsen - Vonsild School, Denmark

snskole@gmail.com

@snskole (Twitter)

stefan.aage.nielsen (Skype)

Announcing the Inaugural #globalclassroom Twitter Chats

Well, we are finally in a position to announce our inaugural Global Classroom Project Twitter Chats. Thankyou to everyone who voted in our Twitter polls!

We will be running two monthly chats using the #globalclassroom hashtag. These chats will be held at different times to try and cater to as many of our teachers as possible. Don’t worry if you can’t attend in person! The chats will be archived on our wiki for future reference.

     

The Topic?

The theme of the inaugural #globalclassroom Twitter Chats will be “Connecting Teachers”

Participant teachers will have the opportunity to introduce themselves, and share their teaching backgrounds, interests, projects, blogs, etc with the #globalclassroom community and the world!

We expect future chat topics will be nominated and voted upon by our #globalclassroom teachers.

When and Where?

Are you in Europe, Africa, or the Americas?

The inaugural #globalclassroom chat will be held THIS Saturday (November 12), at:

12PM Los Angeles, 3PM New York, 8PM London, 10PM Cape Town

Are you in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and the Americas?

The second #globalclassroom chat will cross the day/night meridian, and will be held on a Monday night in the Americas, which will be Tuesday morning in the Asia/Pacific.

This inaugural Asia/Pacific chat will be held on November 14/15, at:

4PM Los Angeles, 7PM New York – Monday night
8AM – Beijing, 11AM Sydney, 1PM – Auckland – Tuesday morning

Can you help with moderation and archiving of the #globalclassroom chats?

We are still looking for people to help moderate and archive our Twitter chats over the coming months! We are sharing the load across an international group of teachers, and no experience is necessary! We’ll provide you with all the information & training you need!

We plan to use The Archivist – Desktop Version (Windows) to archive our chats, and export tweets to an Excel file – which we will edit & share on the Global Classroom Project Wiki. If you are able to keep a backup archive on our behalf, please email it to us!

If you can help, please tweet @mgraffin or
Email globalclassroomorganisers@gmail.com!

Together, we can make these chats a vibrant, central feature of our #globalclassroom community. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Please Support the “Hana’s Suitcase” Twitter Chat (Nov 10)

This important, upcoming event came to us via Heidi Siwak (@HeidiSiwak) in Canada; and we’d love to see some of our #globalclassroom teachers & students contribute to this amazing initiative!

Heidi Siwak’s Grade 6 class, @class62siwak, is preparing to host it’s first GLOBAL Twitter Chat on November 10, in time for Remembrance Day 2011.

We bring you a guest post by Megan, a student in Heidi’s class, explaining the purpose of the #hana62 chat. It was originally published here.

On November 10th 2011, something amazing is going to happen.

It will be a major event on Twitter! Class 62 at Dundas Central will be hosting a global twitter chat on World War Two. But there is one little girl we will be focusing on, her name is Hana Brady. Hana Brady had a wonderful life before war. She had a loving family and a house. When World War Two struck this little girl’s life changed.

We will be honoring her on November 10th, 2011 on Twitter at #hana62. Our class has read her book and we have learned lots about her and we would love to share our knowledge about her with you.

Also if you know anything about Peace, World War Two, Refugees, Survivors and Of course, Hana Brady and her family, we are always willing to know more.

Our global chat will start November 10th, 2011 at midnight and go for 24 hours straight. Anyone or any class out there please join us to honor her life and family on twitter at #hana62.

Thanks, Dundas Central

How can you get involved?

Teachers, students, and interested people are invited to share their thoughts on peace, war, WWII, or the holocaust; contributing links, songs, poems, artwork, blogs using the #hana62 hashtag.

Please add your location to the map!

“If you’ve read about this project or will be participating on the day, please pin your location on our #hana62 Google Map. Simply click on edit and drag a pin marker to your location.

In Grade 6 Ontario, our Social Studies unit is “Canada’s Links to the World” and rather than just learning about the world, we are going to link to the world! We’d really like to see what your area looks like so if you could add a picture or video that would be fabulous!”

You can find out about this student-run, real-world project at 21st Century Classroom: The Amaryllis. If you have any questions, please tweet @class62siwak, or @HeidiSiwak.

We wish Class 62 all the best for their impressive initiative!

Project Announcement: Seasons Around the World (K-3 Project)

Yet another new project! Seasons Around the World VoiceThread Project

Mrs Rosenquist and her 2^nd graders are creating a VoiceThread called Seasons Around the World and they are inviting other K – 3 classes to join them. Students will work collaboratively in ONE Voicethread where they will share seasonal observations and ask questions that will enable them to grasp goals of the project. Observations and data will be collected at 3 times during the year (November, February, and April). These times are flexible. Work them into your schedule as you see fit. They have been set up for the Northern Hemisphere Fall, Winter, and Spring. It is hoped that Southern Hemisphere classes will participate so the students can see how the seasons are opposite!

Project Coordinator: Debra Rosenquist, USA

Duration: September 2011 – June 2012

Grade Level / Age Group: Pre-K to Grade 3 (5-9 years old).

See the project wiki for more details!

Contact: DM @DebraRosenquist on Twitter, mail globalclassroomorganisers@gmail.com or leave a comment below this post!

Project Announcement: Kids Speak (K-3 Project)

Another new Global Classroom Project – this time “Authentic Voices of Children World Wide- Kids Speak ~2011-2012”!

Mrs Frazier and her class are once again launching their Kids Speak VoiceThread project. Students will work collaboratively in ONE shared VoiceThread to ask questions and share life experiences that enable the student to grasp the project goals. Students and teachers are encouraged to post questions, videos, documents, and/or photos to the shared VoiceThread. All work will be authentic and child created.

Project Coordinator: Deb Frazier, USA

Duration: September 2011 – June 2012

Grade Level / Age Group: Pre-K to Grade 3 (5-9 years old).

Contact: DM @frazierde on Twitter, email globalclassroomorganisers@gmail.com or leave a comment below this post!

Click on the image below to see last year’s project:

Project Announcement: VoiceThread Hero Project (Grades 2 – 12 Project)

Today we are announcing the commencement of a new Global Classroom Project – The VoiceThread Hero Project!

The 6th graders from Joliet, Illinois, USA, have researched qualities of a hero and chose a hero that fits their descriptions. They are making use of Voicethread and are looking for classes who would like to participate in their project. Grades 2 – 12 welcome (ages 7 to 18).

Project Coordinator: Theresa Allen, USA

Duration: November 2011 – June 2012

Contact: Tweet @tdallen5, email  tallen@csrn.org  or leave a comment below this post!

Click on this image to access the Voicethread:

The Global Hello Project (K-12)

Mrs Smith (@hthehippo) and her 3rd Grade class from Greenville Wisconsin, USA, also enjoy participating in global collaboration projects. Here is Mrs Smith’s blog post about their latest project:

The Global Hello Project actually began in an unconventional way in the Spring of 2011. During snack in our classroom we often watch creative or educational videos. We discovered the band OK GO and their giant Rube Goldberg machine which ran to their song This Too Shall Pass. We were hooked on OK GO!

After checking out their other videos we decided we MUST come up with our own video that would be creative, but academic as well. We worked with another 4th grade classroom to create our own video. Mr. Harris and I had our students research how to say “hello” in different languages. Then, we asked them to write screenplays about specific parts of their day to act out in a video.

The video is here on School Tube (for some reason I cannot embed School Tube vids on WordPress!): Hello From Greenville Elementary!

Once the video was created, we thought it’d be awesome to share it.

The Global Hello Project was born. We began promoting it on Skype Education (http://education.skype.com/projects/8) and have had great successes with connecting with students in other places in a simple way. Some schools have simply posted their web addresses and blog sites. Other schools have put up Glogs of their classroom, videos and photos.

In my classroom we’ll be tracking the schools on our giant Global Connections map with a specific color pin. We’ve kept it simple so that classrooms do not have to deal with connecting with different time zones, but that doesn’t mean you can’t contact each other to connect further!

You can join this project in a couple of different ways:

Email me: jen.hollis.smith@gmail.com

Join the wiki: The Global Hello Project

When you Email or join the wiki please include the name and location of your school in your message. For example, we are Greenville Elementary School, Greenville, WI USA. I will make a page for you and your school. Then add your details (photos, sites, glogs, prezi’s etc.) when you are ready. Students at any grade level/age are welcome.

We would love to welcome you to this project!