The Making of Digital Citizens

What a rich discussion we had during Session #3 of the Virtual Book Club! If you weren’t able to join us, listen to the recording here: Virtual Book Club Feb 4th/5th and please share your thoughts on this blog: Virtual Book Club. We have been reading and discussing Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis  and our focus this time was Chapter Five (Digital Citizenship) and Chapter Six (Contributing and Collaborating).

We confessed, bragged, questioned, shared tips and traded resources on the topic of Digital Citizenship. It seems there is always more to consider from using images in our presentations to setting our privacy settings but we all agreed that we need to model strong digital citizenship for our students and explicitly teach them how to be a thoughtful contributor in the digital world.

• Connie shared “Just as we model and teach ways to effectively present and collaborate in face to face groups, digital citizenship is just another layer.“
• Joseph agreed and asked, “Students need to understand that there are differences in communicating on facebook, twitter with friends versus using this type of media in school…but how to teach?“
• Elena commented, “It[digital communications] also provides an opportunity to evaluate how we interact with each other face to face. Sometimes in the middle school environment, speaking to others with a certain tone or attitude can become the norm.“
• Amy agreed, “Not only do we need to relate to our students using technology but we need to teach them how to communicate in positive ways using technology“

Some of the great resources that were shared to help with teaching digital citizenship were:

• For images: Creative Commons, Pic4Learning, MorgueFile
• For music: Royalty Free Music, Free Play Music, Sound Bible
• For teaching about Digital Citizenship: Common Sense Media, Digital ID, Read. Write. Think.

Some tips given about getting students to care about digital citizenship:

• Use real-life examples (read Chris’ story here) and facts (thanks to Laurel for sharing that 70% of employers look at digital footprints)
• Have students create Digital Citizenship materials (Digiteen and Digital ID are examples)
• Provide an authentic audience (when students see that others are actually reading/listening/watching their work, they care more)
• Make it easy for students – provide them with music and images that they can use
• Model by adding the URL for photos within classroom presentations
• Use your librarians! They often have lessons ready to go on this topic
• Start with a private wiki or an Edmodo class where you can monitor and give feedback to students before collaborating with another classroom.
• As Rocky has done, actually contact authors and artists to request permission to use their materials. (Read more about what Rocky has done here)

We wrapped up by sharing a bit of advice about getting started with global projects and we all got really excited about trying Mystery Skype. And, as usual, the time flew by. I never knew an hour could pass so quickly!

A huge thank you to Vicki Davis for joining us in between prom planning and Flat Certified teacher training. Your professional generosity is unending. Another thank you to Jim for picking up as co-moderator. It is so helpful to know someone else is listening, reading, typing and talking as fast as I am! And a thank you to all the busy educators who took time out to share, question, and connect.

I’m looking forward to our next meeting on Monday, February 18th at 7:30pm EST (that’s Tuesday, February 19th at 3:30am GMT). For your time zone, click here. We will be discussing Chapters Six (Choice) and Seven (Creation).

Edmodo Pen Pal Project – Round 2

Edmodo is an excellent platform for creating connections between classrooms in different parts of the world.  In the past, I’ve always had “snail mail” pen pals for my 3rd grade students, but once I found Edmodo, I realized it was the perfect place for online pen pals.  So last year I created the Edmodo Pen Pal Project for the Global Classroom Project.

How Does It Work?  Classrooms are grouped into age appropriate clusters of 4/5.  The teachers of those students will create an Edmodo group for that cluster and take turns providing discussion topics for the children.  Sample topics might include favorite foods, holidays, school subjects, free time activities, sports, etc.  Upper grades might discuss current events or topics for a certain historical event.  Teachers in a cluster may decide to put students into small groups for a book discussion or to collaborate on a writing project.

Join Now! The next round of the Edmodo Pen Pal Project will begin in February and run until about May.  It is appropriate for students ages 7 to 18 and will help students learn to respect and appreciate the opinions, cultures and customs of others.  To get more information and sign up visit the WIKI page.

Edmodo Pen Pal Project

Last year many Global Classroom members enjoyed having their students take part in the Edmodo Pen Pal Project.  Edmodo is a social network that allows teachers to create closed groups for their students.  It looks very much like Facebook, but students need a code from the teacher to access the group.  If you have never used Edmodo, go to their website (Edmodo.com) and click on the video link at the bottom of the page to see it in action.

Due to the suggestions of last years’ members, the project will run a bit differently this year.  Last year we had 3 large groups with 200 plus members in each.  Some of the teacher and students felt overwhelmed with that many members and said they couldn’t connect with any one class.  I also had a hard time keeping up with the moderation of comments on such large groups.  So this year, we will run the project a bit like the Quad Blogging sign ups.  Once teachers sign up, I will group them into clusters of 4 schools with similar age groups.  An Edmodo group will be created for each cluster and the 4 teachers in the group will be responsible for signing up their students, deciding on the chat topics, and moderating their own Edmodo group.  There are sample chat topics listed on the wiki page and I would really love it if teachers would add on more ideas.  The chat topic should be changed either biweekly or monthly and each class should try to get in and chat a few times a month at the very least.  If you don’t think your class can commit to that, then please don’t sign up.  It is not fair to the other students/teachers taking part when one class doesn’t follow through.

Feel free to get creative with your pen pal cluster.  Last year Kimberley Rivett and I used an Edmodo group in conjunction with a Flat Stanley Exchange.  We paired up students in my class with students in her class and had them exchange Flat Stanley’s and letters by mail.  We then created an Edmodo group and put the children into smaller sub-groups of 6 children where they chatted to learn more about each other, their schools, countries, hobbies, and more.  At the end of the year, my class came in at night to meet her students in a live Skype.  It was an exciting connection that the children (and teachers) won’t soon forget!

Teachers who are interested in having their students take part, can sign up on the Edmodo Pen Pal wiki page.  I will do my best to connect classes in different parts of the world.  We will have 2 rounds of sign-ups for this project.  Round 1 will start now and go into January and Round 2 will go from February to May to accommodate the schools in Australia and New Zealand who will be going on summer holiday in about 5-6 weeks.  As always, I will be on hand to answer questions and help anyone who is new to Edmodo or the Global Classroom.  You can contact me on Twitter at @MrsSchmidtB4 or by email in the K-3 Global Classroom Directory.

I hope you are as excited as I am to get this project into gear.  My students had a lot of fun and learned so much from the other project members last year.  It opened their eyes to other parts of the world and made them appreciate the opinions, cultures and customs of others.  Can’t wait to see where this year’s project takes us!

New Project Announcement: Learning About the Holocaust through Children’s Literature (Grade 5) 2 – 6 January 2012

Miss Cherry, a teacher from Virginia, USA, will be teaching her fifth-grade (ages 10-11) class about the Holocaust using children’s literature, including the book, Number the Stars, in the first week of January 2012. She would love her students to connect with another class or group of classes in another state or country (or countries) and hopes to have exchanges via Edmodo, Voice Thread, Skype, or maybe Twitter during the week (Jan. 2-6) , using Number the Stars and the events of the Holocaust (elementary-friendly) as discussion starters.  Ultimately, Miss Cherry’s purpose is to build a context for her students of the roots of the Holocaust in prejudice, to begin paving the way for true global understanding and respect; so that as members of the future generation, they can prevent such prejudice from ever taking hold again!

Please email Miss Cherry at Katherine.cherry@acps.k12.va.us or tweet her @MsKCherry if you might be interested in participating in this global learning project, or if you have similar ideas or tips to share.

@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.

And It Begins … #globalclassroom

Today, we marked the official launch of The Global Classroom Project: 2011-12; hosting a Launch Webinar attended by 20 teachers from Australia, Canada, France, Brazil, and the United States of America. 

In our Launch Webinar, we:

• Explored our history, philosophy, and community goals
• Explained how teachers & students can get involved in the #globalclassroom community
• Explored the purpose of our blog, wiki, and online discussion groups
• Hosted a special presentation about Edmodo in Global Classroom (by @tdallen5 & MrsSchmidtB4)
• Saw teachers making connections with teachers around the world – and in their own backyards!
• Celebrated the launch of our very first global projects!