Fun with global learning…AGAIN?!

A guest post from Kimberley Rivett (@krivett), an eLearning Teacher in New Zealand and inspirational member of the #globalclassroom community

Ah yes, this whole ‘going global’ experience just gets better and better. We have spent almost a full year communicating using a range of means from blogs to wikis to Edmodo to Skype and what is our lasting impression?

My students reflected on their year of global interaction and the comments were amazing. Many used language such as ‘collaboration’ and ‘knowing the wider world’ while others talk about the knowledge of another place and seeing the world through someone else’s lens. They are changed, forever, by this experience.

We have gone from one class in America as our global pals to having quadblogs, posting our Flat Stanleys away to buddies last year and then sending our class mascots, the Gruffalos, to Lebanon and Singapore this year. We sent a New Zealand mascot, the beautiful Fantail to America and received Chiplet, the chipmunk in return.

The class have learned about communicating and questioning, reflecting and reviewing, writing and reading, blogging and commenting, creating and editing videos about favourite things, making slideshows and posters and much, much, more, all because they have an authentic learning experience and they are engaged by it.

The Global Classroom Project ignited a tiny spark and the litmus has been burning out of control ever since!

So, where to from here? We are currently exploring our ‘where to next?’ idea, so we will keep you posted…perhaps we need to work out a way to communicate with the space station…

A Letter from Oz

I’ll never forget about six weeks ago when three girls came running up to me, telling me about their next genius hour adventure.

“We are going to send chocolates to people around the world, so they can taste our chocolate. Then we are going to ask them to send us some chocolate from their country. We can compare the tastes and packages.” So, they were off!

Thanks to eighth graders’ friends and relatives, plus members of my awesome PLN, the students have received packages from South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, France, and, the latest, from Lyn in Australia.

I met Lyn Howlin last year when we completed the teacher’s blogging challenge together. Later my seventh graders hosted her third graders’ Flat Stanleys. Now we’ve been Flickr photo friends and email pen pals. She’s now retired, but she’s still a teacher. Look at the beautiful letter she wrote, engaging my students in learning about the world.

Joining the global conversation has been such a blessing to me and now to my students, as well.

Thank you, Lyn!

This post is also on my Dare to Care blog.

What does family mean to you? What does it mean to your students?

Families depend on each other a lot. They show each other how to handle problems and they show support to each other when help is needed. They show how to set goals and they care for one another…

“A day my sisters had to depend on me was on Mother’s Day a couple years ago.” (read more)

” The person I really depend on is my brother. I just want him to be around when I need him. My mom I really don’t depend on because I know she is going to be here regardless. But my brother…I depend on him because he needs to be here when something happens. I mean my mom can protect me but not like my brothers can or dad.” (read more)

 

“One time that my family depended on me was when my grandfather was very sick because of his diabetes.” (read more)

Above are three responses from students about what family means to them. Their Language Arts teacher provided the opening sentences but then the students took it from there. They wrote about times they helped their families, times their families helped them and times their families let them down. Each essay told a new story and shed new light on the nature of families. But the essay also shared commonalities: how connected we are with our families, how our actions impact on families and how our families’ action impact us. Read more of the students essays here.

But what we want to know now is:

How similar are families around the world?

We have issued ourselves a challenge. Can we find students from 10 different countries to share with us what their families mean to them? By May 1st?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman/134974908/

Will your classroom be one of them?

 

We would love that! If you are interested, leave me a comment here, contact me on Twitter @edtechdunny, or just go ahead and join our wiki. We can send you more information about how to add your essays to our wiki. But basically, if you can type up your essays, we can add them to our site! Let’s give our students a chance to learn about families everywhere and to see a world bigger than their own.

Blends in a Global Classroom

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This week, I was fully reminded of the fact that I should never, ever doubt the ability of students and what they can achieve when highly motivated and engaged. Thinking it would be great to blend two classes – one in Boston, USA and mine in Hawkesdale Australia in a virtual classroom, it was suggested to Lorraine Leo, my great colleague in USA. Lorraine suggested Friday 16th our time, or Thurs night 15h March, their time. Yikes! That was only two days away and we had nothing organised.

The challenges

• That was only two days notice.
• the interesting mixed collection of students in my year 9/10 ICT elective class
• the student mixed ability levels
• lack of time to practise, rehearse etc.
• our continuing problems with sound on the student netbooks (they had just been reghosted and handed back to students)

As there was one single, precious lesson prior to the online session, we tested sound/audio/access/application sharing/use of web camera etc to Blackboard Collaborate, the webconferencing software tool to be used and also brainstormed some ideas on a wallwisher. However, the time was not long enough. Students were then told to bring their photos and scripts with them on Friday ready to share with their global counterparts.

Feeling quite nervous on Friday about whether:-

• anyone had brought photos and more importantly how many had not done anything
• they had anything to talk about and would they stutter, stumble and take frights (as many of these students are extremely shy)
• they would behave online
•  the webcam would be used to good effect
•  the application sharing of pivot and some stored photos on student computers work etc…
• sound/audio would all work

I was surprised to find all of them were all organised. They had taken time consuming, fascinating photos at home and on their farm, had brought products into share and wanted to come in at recess to get organised. Some of these are students who rarely complete homework! Here is what it all looked like.

• an opening comment by Lorraine : Thank you for inviting us to Australia to visit your students.
• Problems as always with sound – most students had to come to my laptop to speak and demonstrate
• in my nervousness, I forgot to go through the tool bars and elements of Blackboard Collaborate at the beginning, but most seemed to work it out as we went a long.
• A classroom of 21 participants, including Mrs Leo, the teacher from USA, 5 of her students, logging on from home (as it was 7:30pm at night for them), two adults from Japan – one  a university professor who is creating great globalprojects with Scratch eg World Friends, the other a parent; a student teacher from Saskatchewan Canada, a parent of one of my students and Mrs Leo’s mother, an amazing 86 year old lady in blackboard collaborate for the first time. Such a blended classroom, made possible with technology.
• my students presenting on topics such as:- Hawkesdale, my farm, my pets,our school, my interests, pivot and demonstrating sample student work, including quilting.
• Once the initial nervousness dispersed, the obvious pride that my students took in sharing their passions, how well spoken they actually were and that they were all organised!
• the support that students gave each other
• the fast paced nature of the chat, where participants asked questions, gave feedback and generally shared across the globe.
• interacting on the collaborative whiteboard to share names, farewells, favourite technology.

Despite being  pushed outside their comfort zones, students really enjoy interactions such as this. They find it fun and engaging and are curious about each other. Each person has a voice and is able to interact in the chat. A big thank you to our global participants for coming to learn about us and to Mrs Leo for her work in making it possible.

Read the student reflections

1. Georgia
2. Rachael
3. Sean
4. Tamiko
5. Kim
6. Jess
7. Ivy
8. Aza
9. Nathan

Have you used blends in a global classroom? Have you worked synchronously with classes in other countries? If so, how? What are your reflections?

(Guest post by Anne Mirtschin, an educator in a small rural Australian school, prep to year 12, that is geographically and culturally isolated.)

When Collaboration and Great Minds Come Together

This is an update to the Global Hello Project, blogged originally at Planet Smith:

“Collaboration is the key to a truly successful Professional Learning Community. This in turn supports student learning in ways that are not possible when working alone. An example of really great collaboration has been simmering slowly for the last year, and has recently heated up into an exciting and meaningful project. This endeavor is called The Global Hello Project.

I need to start by explaining a little bit about a teacher that I find the time to work with often. And when I say find the time, I really mean that I seek out this person, (even though there are always a million things going on) and make time to collaborate because of his great mind. Every so often in your life, you come across people who not only think like you, but challenge your thinking in ways to help you become a better person. My colleague and friend David (@grnngold) is easy to work with, has a positive attitude, and has innovative ideas all while keeping a focus on his students. As teachers I believe we all need to find the people who bring out the best in us, who keep us positive and allow us to achieve some of those lofty goals that are floating around in our heads.

We started the Global Hello Project last year when our class made a video about their school day. We shared it on a wiki page and encouraged others to do the same. Many schools (34 as of today) from all around the world have joined this project. In our current social studies curriculum we have requirements to teach map skills and global awareness. Global citizens need to be sensitive to other cultures, as well as how to find their way around the world. We figured there are two options to teach this skill:

1. Hand out a generic worksheet with fake maps and meaningless questions.

or

2. Map the Global Hello locations!

This is where things got exciting. David imagined a map taller than our students (I put away my pathetic 11 x 17 map)! Together we worked and tweaked and figured out how to get our students excited about using the map. Yesterday our two classes joined together and got a crash course on continents, countries, states and cities. We broke out to the computer lab, using Google maps to find the locations of the schools. The students then put a sticker of the school they picked on the map. On the spot, we were able to correct misconceptions (Alabama is NOT a country!). The students were engaged, working and were EXCITED. In one hour we were able to map everything and even collect data about the temperature of the city they picked. They logged their data on an index card, giving us instant feedback about their level of geographical knowledge. At the end of the lesson we noticed how the temperatures in different regions got warmer as we got closer to the equator. On the way out, students were asking each other what their favorite country was, and which school page they liked the most.

Students mapped the Global Hello Project

When your biggest problem as a teacher is that you have to tell your students to stop running back and forth from the map to the computer, you’re in a good spot.

When great minds truly do come together, students can and will achieve their potential.”

Be part of this exciting opportunity!!

[This is a guest post by Ben Gallagher, who is blogging at http://InnovatEd.global2.vic.edu.au]

 

Coming towards the new school year, I find my mind ticking over new things to do for the upcoming year. However I had this idea late last year, but until now I haven’t had the chance to do anything about it until now as I’ve been super busy over the holidays doing some work for the ICTEV, writing for their Playing For Real game.

So I suppose I’d better get to the idea!! With the amazing technology that is available to us, teachers frequently communicate over the internet, but what about kids from different schools communicating??

What I’m wanting to run this year is something I’d call…

The Student Conference Series

The idea of the Student Conference Series is that students would present something that they are an expert in over Elluminate and it would be made available for other students in other schools to attend!!

The idea for this came about when I had a student do a presentation for Mel Cashen’s grade at Lightning Reef Primary School in Bendigo (You can read about it here). To see the excitement in this student when he was doing it was very enlightening. Harris always new he was good at woodwork, but to be able to share his knowledge with others was very empowering for him. He worked so hard on his presentation, easily the hardest I’ve seen him work during writing for the whole year and he did an amazing job!

The Student Conference Series at this stage is still a work in progress, but for it to work I need like minded educators to put their hands up and say I want to be a part of it! So if you’re interested in being a part of this in any way (providing student presenters, have your students attend ‘conferences’), then let me know.

I envisage the conferences starting during March and probably happening during the afternoons, however if international teachers/students want to take part I can arrange that, and would be very excited! Any other questions, feel free to contact me!

You can contact me in many ways to express your interest:

email: gallagher.ben.j@edumail.vic.gov.au

twitter or twitter DM: @ben_mr_g

The Student Conference Series is creating a buzz!!

A few days ago I posted about my plans for the Student Conference Series in 2012 and there was a lot of Buzz around it! I had messages and emails from all over the country and even from a few other countries like America, India, China and Romania!

So to keep track of things, I thought I would create a bit of a mailing list so I can forward information out to people interested in this as they come to pass. At this stage I am anticipating that the conferences will begin mid to late term 1 and I will start taking student submissions in mid-February.

So if you are interested in your students taking part pass your email address on to me via twitter DM or e-mail so that I can add you to the mailing list.

email – gallagher.ben.j@edumail.vic.gov.au

twitter – @ben_mr_g

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)

View more presentations from Michael

Fun Times with Flat Stanleys from New Zealand

Tina Schmidt (@MrsSchmidtB4) and her 3rd graders in Pennsylvania, United States LOVE making Global Connections. Here is an excerpt from Mrs Schmidt’s blog:

Last Spring my students and I participated in the Flat Classroom “A Week in the Life” Project.  It was an amazing experience for us to work with students and teachers from 4 different countries.  After that, I made it my goal to continue flattening my classroom walls and providing my students the opportunity to reach out and connect with students around the world.  

This year I began doing that with our Flat Stanley project.   We joined the Global Read Aloud to share our predictions, book chats, stories we wrote, etc.  We then wanted to make our own paper Stanley’s to mail out.  Instead of just sending Stanley’s within the USA, I went on a mission to find classrooms outside of our country to do exchanges with us.  

With the help of the Global Classroom Project, I was able to locate classrooms in Canada, New Zealand, and Romania to get us started.  What was so incredible was how quickly a few of those teachers jumped on board to create wikis for us to share photos, videos, maps, and information about our countries.  In Edmodo, we are able to have discussions with some of them too.  

Far away places like Calgary, Auckland, and Bucharest became real for us as we saw their photos, heard their voices and chatted with them.  What was eye opening to the children was not only our differences but our many similarities too.  We love watching the videos to see their classrooms and hear the differences in their voices!  We had to make 2 sets of  paper Flat Stanley’s because we were so excited to get started and didn’t want to wait.

We are not just exchanging paper dolls, we are exchanging culture and customs. Technology has allowed us to become friends with people on the other side of the world.  I get just as excited as my students do when we find some new information on one of the wikis.  I had to wait until I was in my 40′s to make these connections.  I wonder if my students realize how lucky they are to be having these experiences now.

Hopefully, by exposing the children to different cultures this early in their lives, it will lead to a life of acceptance and respect for other people and their countries.  After all, it is our differences that make us unique and special.  If the world were full of the same person, it would be a very dull place.

Please check out the links below to visit our wikis and see the learning and sharing that is taking place.

New Zealand Wiki

Romania Wiki

Click on the image below to view our video:

Click on the image below to see our PhotoPeach album:

@frugalteacher’s Global Classroom Map (USA)

One of the primary goals of The Global Classroom Project blog is to share our teachers’ and students’ stories as they engage in our various projects & activities.

Today, we are happy to share Mrs Louise Morgan’s (Texas, USA) Global Classroom Map, an idea which we hope will inspire similar maps all over the world!

Mrs Louise Morgan can be found on Twitter as @frugalteacher, and the original version of this post can be found on her blog here.

A Hallway Display to be Proud Of!

I just created this Global Classroom Project map on the wall outside our room. We are hoping to add more schools from other countries soon! 

So far we have one international contact – A cupcake greeting  from Mrs. Harrison’s class in Belfast, Northern Ireland!  

Our contacts in the U.S. include students sharing on Edmodo in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York.  We are also working on a seasons project with a school on Long Island, NY and a Voice Thread project with a school in Ohio!  

 

Do you have a #globalclassroom story to share? Are you interested in sharing a guest post about your global project or reflections?

Please email us a link @ globalclassroomorganisers@gmail.com.

Flat Stanley Visits New Zealand!

This #globalclassroom story comes to us courtesy of Kimberley Rivett (@krivett1), and Room 14 at Point View Primary School in Auckland, New Zealand.

 

This post was originally published on Kimberley’s blog, and we highly recommend visiting Room 14’s Flat Stanley Wiki at: http://flatstanleyr14pvs.wikispaces.com/.

Flat Stanley came to visit our school today! We had read the book, made our own Flat Stanleys and posted them to Pennsylvania, USA. We had even created a wiki for our buddy class and us to use as a shared space. We had joined Edmodo, creating groups for us to communicate through.

But when those gorgeous little Flat Stanleys arrived in a huge envelope with letters full of curiosity about our lives, suddenly, the world became a lot smaller and the term ‘going global’ had come to our classroom.

The children shared their Stanleys, showed them around the room, compared letters and questions and then dived onto Edmodo, full of more questions and lots of things to comment on and say. We have watched videos from each other, we have recorded voicethreads and vocaroos which were very funny for us all to listen to – comparing accents and colloquialisms as well as contrasting differences in school uniforms and other things they observed in the background.

There can be no value placed on these experiences. Who knows how far into the future it will impact? My class talk of nothing else and look forward to each message and comment, racing into the classroom each morning to check on the websites. Many of them are spending time at home going onto Edmodo and showing their parents what they are doing. There are photos everywhere and intentional learning about online spaces, communication, collaboration, curiosity, friendship and much, much more.

In our school, we talk about the importance of ‘a class without walls’, and this certainly illustrates how true that is in the digital age. The passion my class have shown through just a little Flat Stanley from Pennsylvania really shows how much our global context impacts on children. They have become interested in the history of our area – a subject formally ‘boring’ to them. But now, because it has an authentic learning context, the children realise that the history of where they live and come from is a part of who they are and of immense interest to others.

The American Stanleys are off having adventures with my class at the moment and the NZ Stanleys are in Pennsylvania having fun with their ePals there. Their journeys will come full circle when they return to us in a month or so, but the learning from this experience will continue for far longer than that.

Flat stanley

View more presentations from Kimberley Rivett

 

 

 

Do you have a #globalclassroom story to share?

We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences with making global connections, and engaging in global collaborative projects.

Please tweet @mgraffin or email globalclassroomorganisers@gmail.com, and we’ll help share your story with the world!