Tips for Success: Global Collaborations in the Classroom

This guest post comes to us courtesy of Paige Badgett (@PTPIPaige), Director of the School & Classroom Program, at People to People International (PTPI).

The benefits of exposing your students to their counterparts in another country are endless. Each year, teachers participating in PTPI’s School & Classroom Program are matched with a partner teacher in another country and then receive a Program Manual with tips for success, global collaboration best practices, and project ideas. We are happy to share our Tips for Success with this great forum of educators today!

• Communicate.  Stay in touch with your partner teacher.  This is the key to success. Be honest and clear about your intentions and expectations.

• Contact your partner teacher in a timely manner.  When beginning a partnership, introduce yourself to your partner teacher as soon as possible.

• If you do not receive a response to an email message, resend your message.  The reason is often that the message was not received.  Often spam filters get in the way. Try again.

• Share school and holiday schedules. As a holiday nears, provide your departure and return dates.  Learn the difference between your time zone and that of your partner.

• Guarantee positive representation of you and your country.  Remember that you and your students represent your country.  Students should neatly compose letters and projects using their best spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

• Ensure language is cross-cultural.  Consider what needs explanation or description for an audience from another culture.  Slang and colloquial language needs to be used carefully and meanings should be explained as needed.

• Learn about international mail and customs policies for your partner’s country. International mail requires different postage than domestic mail.  Your post office can help you with postage rates for airmail, the preferred method to send letters and parcels.

• Ask questions. If you are unsure how to proceed on any matter, ask.  Be honest with your partner teacher when you are confused about any communication discrepancies.

• Be a responsible partner.  If for any reason you can no longer collaborate, please inform your partner so a new classroom can be assigned.  When a partnership is ended without explanation, students tend to take this personally, questioning whether their partner disliked them. Most importantly, if you plan to continue working together, stay in touch with your partner teacher during the summer or winter breaks to assure them of your continued interest.

• Record your partnership. Take pictures of your students writing letters, opening letters, and working on projects with their partner.

Join our growing community of educators from 127 countries by registering for the School & Classroom Program today! People to People International connects people of all countries and cultures because we believe that understanding one another is the best way to create peace.

For more information about this program or to register for the 2013-2014 school year, please contact me at classroom@ptpi.org or follow me on Twitter! Check out past posts from Paige here and here!

Two Years. A World of Global Classroom Stories.

Signing into Twitter earlier this morning, I was surprised to realise that today, May 5, marks two years since @Deb_Frazier sent the following tweet, ultimately leading to us co-founding  The Global Classroom Project community.

So where have the past few years taken us?

2011

Our first ever project involved 6 teachers from 5 countries, and centred around one project – the “Global Classroom VoiceThread”. It was Deb’s first global project, and my second; and at the time, we had no idea what we’d started.

As I’ve blogged elsewhere, this was a time when I was about to teach a Grade 6 class for four weeks, and saw a ‘retweet’ of Deb’s request late on a Saturday night …

The project proved to be a great success, and you’re welcome to explore our students’ work (and the VoiceThread) at
http://globalclassroom2011.wikispaces.com
. I wrote about my experiences here, and you can read Deb’s side of the story here.

2011-12

When Deb Frazier suggested that we try our hand at running a second #globalclassroom project, I was keen to be involved in some way, even though I didn’t have my own class. With Deb thinking we’d try and involve more teachers, across 6 continents, we created a Google Doc and waited to see if anyone would be interested …

Well, with 50 signups in the space of a week, it seemed that a LOT of people were interested! So, a naive Australian relief teacher with time on his hands decided that he’d try and create a community like Flat Classroom Projects, run by teachers for teachers.

Through a collaborative process involving a group of educators spread across the globe, we set up our collaborative spaces, and set out into the great unknown. Little did we know what
http://globalclassroom2011-12.wikispaces.com
would become.

By the end of the 2011-12 project, we’d grown to involve over 300 teachers from 41 countries; and hosted a wide range of K-12 projects. Some major project milestones included the launch of the #globalclassroom chats in November 2011, and our #globalclassroom lead teachers’ presentation at the Global Education Conference.

It was also a big year for me personally, as I made my first ‘live’ presentation at the Australian Computers in Education Conference in late 2012 (with the help of my my good friend Nigel Mitchell).

2012-13

Our 2012-13 project was launched in November 2012, and is set to conclude in late June 2013. It’s been a great and rewarding time for the #globalclassroom, and I look forward to learning more about what’s been happening when we organise our “Looking Forwards, Looking Back” webinars over the coming months. Who knows what the next few years will bring. (
http://globalclassroom2012-13.wikispaces.com
)

What’s your #globalclassroom story?

Two years ago, I was not a particularly happy teacher … yet, my #globalclassroom journey has taken me to places I’d never thought possible. I’m a better person, and a better teacher, because of the friendships and collaborative connections I’ve made through through The Global Classroom Project. And I’ve loved every minute.

But, this project isn’t about my story. It never has been.

The Global Classroom Project is a testament to the power of community, and as such, is home to a world of stories.

We’d like to take this opportunity to invite #globalclassroom teachers around the world to share their stories – on their blogs, Twitter, and in the comments below. If you’re interested in guest posting, please let us know via Twitter (@gcporganisers), or in the comments below.

Is it really over? (Virtual Book Club)

I must have been in denial.

It has taken me almost a month to get around to listening to the recording of the final session of Virtual Book Club. This opportunity to connect with educators around the world about a topic as important as #globalclassroom with a text as rich as Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds has been an unbelievably powerful growing experience. Listen to the last session yourself and hear the multi-layered, reflective conversation yourself!

We’ve come a long way baby.

Our first session was jammed with over 30 teachers from all around the world. We had loads of Blackboard Collaborate newbies that cruised up the multitasking learning curve and learned how to listen, type, read, and talk all at once. As the sessions rolled on, we all settled in and began to develop comfort with the mike and chat room and even tried out the breakout groups and learned a lot about how to enjoy the virtual side of a virtual book club.

The content of the conversation broached a number of different critical aspects of learning, technology, and global awareness. We challenged ourselves to find ways to connect our classrooms and to break down walls that prevent students from learning about the wider world. We wondered about how to find connections, feel valued by our administrators, and how to stay motivated and energized. We listened to success stories and shared the near misses and almost great moments. We supported each other, shared links and offered words of encouragement.

Our final session was probably our most probing and thoughtful and, interestingly, also concrete. We challenged ourselves to come up with creative ways to get more students access to educational technology  (after-school tech clubs, blogging clubs and graphic novel book clubs). We explored what a digital divide might be: a lack of access to technology for educational and professional purposes. And we reflected on the idea that an education with out global connections is like a 2D world. Akram, Joanne, Elena all shared thoughts about why it is so important that we have our students working with and collaborating with students from other places.

And we really pushed ourselves to think about our

big three

This idea comes from a section in Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds called “If You Only Read One Thing, Read This.” Basically, it suggests to choose three things that you are going to work on. Just three things. So we put ourselves into breakout groups and committed to each other three things that we want to work on. It was a really nice way to begin to wrap up the group and begin to plan for the future. (My apologies if you are listening to the recording because there will be about 10 minutes of dead space while we do this.) To see what some folks committed to, check out Chapter 12: Rock the World.

And then, it was over! (I’m getting sad again just listening to the end of the recording.)

Vicki and Julie- thank you so much for writing such an important, powerful and practical book! And thank you for your professional generosity. You probably have no idea the impact your support had on me, let me just say, it was tremendous.

Lisa, Michael, Tina, Theresa- From that first tweet I saw from Michael about gathering interest in Global Classroom projects, I have thrived on the collaboration and connections that GlobalClassroomProject has created. Thank you so much for all your support, interest and ideas throughout this project and others.

Jim and Mara- For taking a risk to help me! You were both great co-moderators. Don’t worry, I’ll be contacting you again for our next book club!

All the ACPS teachers – it was so wonderful that you chose to join the Virtual Book Club, whether you came to one or all sessions, you learned more about what is out there, and tried something new. I hope you also got a little inspiration to make some global connections!

Finally, I never like to say something is really over. Please click here if you would like to add your name an Twitter handle to a list of participants in Virtual Book Club. And please click here if you would like to suggest titles and ideas for Virtual Book Club II.

Final Session of Virtual Book Club – How will you “Rock the World?”

Our final session of Virtual Book Club discussing Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis is already this Monday, March 18th at 7:30pm EST (that’s Tuesday, March 19th at 12:30am GMT)! For your time zone, click here. We will be discussing Chapter Twelve – Rock the World!

Use this link (
https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007066&password=M.065891D192F8072208BF5756999CE0
) to log onto the live session or watch this space for a posting of the recording afterwards.

I can’t believe it is our final session. This Virtual Book Club has been a wonderful space to connect with educators from all levels that are passionate about their work, are life-long learners, and are willing to share all they know as well as question what they are still learning about.

As I plan for the final session, I am looking for any remaining questions that we haven’t addressed yet. Please take a moment to leave a comment on this blog with topics you would like to see covered in the last session. Whether it is a question you have about how global projects work, ideas about how to set up rubrics for collaborative projects, challenges using wikis or blogs, or comments about the value of connected learning, let me know so that we can take some time on this last day to chat and reflect on the subjects that are important to you.

If you missed the session last week, listen to the most recent recording here: Virtual Book Club March 4th/5th and please share your thoughts on this blog: Virtual Book Club. Our focus was Chapter Nine – Celebration and Chapter Ten Designing and Managing a Global Collaborative Project.

I think the big themes of the session were these:

• Find as many opportunities as possible to give students feedback about their work, whether it is an awards ceremony gala, a carefully written note or just pulling chairs into a circle to talk. Kids are starved for feedback – feed them!
• Be creative when thinking about time and space – using Skype, VoiceThread or Blackboard Collaborate might allow experts, parents or other teachers to be a part of your celebration.
• Take time to reflect and celebrate projects as a professional. Whether it is privately, publicly, online or face-to-face, take a breath and consider what worked well and what you want to repeat.
• Start somewhere with a global project – join one that already exists, start with a teacher you know in another place, plan your own, but START.

And if you are just finding us in time for this last session, please feel free to drop in! We welcome all educators that want to learn more about global projects or share what they have already learned.

Hope to “see” you there!

Tonight! Meeting #5 of Virtual Book Club – How do you celebrate?

I can’t believe our 5th meeting of the Virtual Book Club discussing Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis is already this Monday, March 4th at 7:30pm EST (that’s Tuesday, March 5th at 12:30am GMT)! For your time zone, click here. We will be discussing Chapters Nine and Ten – Celebrating, Designing, and Managing Global Collaborative Projects.

Add your voice to our group! Use this link (
https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007066&password=M.065891D192F8072208BF5756999CE0
) to log onto the live session or watch this space for a posting of the recording afterwards.

I am really looking forward to sharing ideas about how to best celebrate student projects. This is a weak point of mine so I’m excited to review the ideas in Chapter Nine with teachers. And I’m already thinking about how we can celebrate the closing of Virtual Book Club at the following meeting. Ideas welcome!

Chapter Ten also has so much rich material for discussion. This chapter really walks you through how to design and manage a global project. It will be so meaningful for our network of teachers to share what they have done that works, what new ideas they got from the book and what questions they still have.

Join us and add your expert or novice voice!

Offering Choices – for Students and Teachers

Ways to offer students choices was the theme of Session #4 of the Virtual Book Club! If you weren’t able to join us, listen to the recording here: Virtual Book Club Feb 18th/19th 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 Seven (Choice) and Chapter Eight (Creation).

We began with some great comments:

• @Durff shared that she tells students on 1st day that they are all intelligent (Gardner), it is her job to find out how to make them shine
• Jim shared that he believes teachers should be helping students learn, not giving them the answers
• Laurel mentioned that some students need content delivered directly from teachers before they are able to make choices in the classroom (and shared an interesting book: Why Students Don’t Like School?)
• Monica added that she likes to model how she learns so that students feel comfortable making mistakes in her classroom

We also struggled with considering how teachers can create choices in the classroom in a time of standardization and high-stakes testing (at least in the United States).

• Paul shared that part of personalizing the classroom is establishing relationships with students – it isn’t just about content, it is about connecting
• Michelle talked about the need to let teachers have choice as well – when something is working, having the freedom to pursue it, not have to stay lock-step with a scripted program
• Elena introduced the idea “of individual teachers being ‘experts’ with specific tools and working collaboratively with their peers is a more manageable and realistic approach for interdisciplinary teams.”

https://saveourrhinos.wikispaces.com/

We also shared our own struggles and challenges with creating and maintaining electronic spaces for learning with choice in mind. We all agreed that monitoring electronic spaces are difficult to maintain and that we would love to have ongoing eportfolios that follow students through their years of learning in a school (Google Sites, KidBlog, Evernote, Weebly and even PhotoStory were shared as ideas). We debated a bit about how to choose new tools – what is trendy, and what is trendy with a purpose? Paul raised a great point about involving students in planning electronic spaces and many shared stories about ways they’ve done this.  As part of this, we also wondered how to make sure more students have access to technology beyond the classroom.

From there, we talked about how to structure learning experience that offer students ways to make meaning. Rocky shared the idea of students meeting with teachers to create useful materials for them and Robyn shared a bit about a project her students are doing to save rhinos! Interestingly, we found we have less experience offering students chances to invent or build. It would be fun to talk more about how we could build these concepts into our teaching more.

We ended by trying out the break-out room feature in Blackboard Collaborate. I guess I modeled the idea of the “teacher” not being perfect but willing to take risks since I had no idea how it would work! Thanks to everyone who was there for humoring me and experimenting along with me.  I think we’ll try these small groups again next time with a focus question. Big virtual hugs to @Durff for telling me more about how to use this effectively at future sessions. And my apologies for those of you listening to the recording since there will be a long pause when you are listening (another important aspect of this tool for me to understand!).

Thank you again for everyone that participated. I’m reminded of the quote by C. S. Lewis cited on page 34 of this book:

The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.

Thank you for being in my circle and adding to my wisdom! And to Mara for agreeing to co-moderate. If anyone is interested in co-moderating next time, please leave a comment or send me an email, I’d love your help!

Our next meeting will be Monday, March 4th at 7:30pm EST (that’s Tuesday, March 5th at 12:30am GMT). For your time zone, click here. We will be discussing Chapters Nine and Ten – Celebrating, Designing, and Managing Global Collaborative Projects. Hope to “see” you there!

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).

Join the conversation! Virtual Book Club – Session #3 starting soon!

Our next meeting of the Virtual Book Club, discussing Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, will be Monday, February 4th at 7:30pm EST (that’s Tuesday, February 5th at 3:30am GMT). For your time zone, click here. We will be discussing Chapters Five and Six.

Join the conversation! Use this link (
https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007066&password=M.065891D192F8072208BF5756999CE0
) to log onto the live session or watch this space for a posting of the recording afterwards.

Launching The Global Classroom Mentors Project

After several months in the making, it’s time to formally launch the new Global Classroom Mentors project, fulfilling a key goal of Global Classroom 2012-13. 

We know what it’s like to get started with ICT and global projects … It can be a very difficult, challenging road; yet almost all of us have been informally mentored along the way.

Connecting and working with an experienced mentor makes a HUGE difference, and this is something we are hoping to share more widely through our new Mentor Teacher Contact Directory; helping teachers new to ICT and global projects find a source of support and guidance as they embark on their global journeys.

The directory, which can be accessed via our project wiki, is designed to help teachers find a mentor who works in a similar grade level and time-zone. You can connect with a mentor through email, Skype, Twitter; and request advice or assistance in areas where you need support. It could be a one-off contact, or the start of a long-term relationship – it depends on your learning needs and preferences.

We are also delighted to announce the addition of an online mentoring community group, run by Keith Tompkins from @Groups4Schools, which you can join here.

Do you have skills, or need support in these areas? 

Global Connections & Collaboration 

• Designing Global Projects
• Digital Handshakes
• Project Management Tools
• Personal Learning Networks
• Digital Citizenship
• Project Celebration

ICT Skills

• Use of ICT in Early Childhood
• Multimedia (Video, Audio projects)
• Skype / Video-Conferencing
• Blogging
• Wikis
• Edmodo

Can you help? 

If you’d like to become a Mentor, please register your interest here. All you need is a little experience, and a willingness to share.

We’d really appreciate it if you’d help spread the word through your social networks, and you are most welcome to add our Mentor’s Badge (above) to your blog / website. Please include a link to this post, or the permanent Global Classroom Mentors page. Thank you!

Do you need some advice or support to get started with global collaboration?

We’re here to help1 You can join the @Groups4Schools community, and access our Mentors Directory via our Global Classroom 2012-13 wiki – following the instructions here. (You will need to join the wiki to access!).  You can contact a potential mentor via email, Skype, or Twitter, and go from there.

If you have any questions, please send us an email at globalclassroomorganisers AT gmail.com.

New Project: On The Same Day in March

Marilyn Singer wrote a children’s book “On The Same Day In March” that describes the weather and climate for countries around the world. I would like to give elementary classrooms an opportunity to compare the climate and weather in your area with others around the world. You can also add pictures and tell a little about your area.

Join us for a project based upon the book: On the Same Day in March by Marilyn Singer. Classrooms will compare weather with each other. This can be as simple as adding data to the page and writing about YOUR school or you can go a step further and pick out other activities to do.   Are you interested in joining the project?

The project is located at:
http://samedayinmarch2013.wikispaces.com
, and you can contact me on Twitter – @chrisgrnbc.

Launching into a River of Information

We had a wonderful second session of the Virtual Book Club discussing Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis,.  Our focus this time was Chapter Three and Four which discuss ways teachers and students can connect and communicate with a global audience. If you weren’t able to join us, listen to the recording here: Virtual Book Club Jan 22nd/23rd and please share your thoughts on this blog: Virtual Book Club.

We had fun exploring different social media tools that we each use to broaden our PLNs. Some of the tools that were highlighted were: Google Reader, Flipboard, Zite, Diigo, Twitter, LiveBinders, Scoop.It, Storify and two that were new to me: Paper.li and Feedly. We all agreed that these tools helped us curate the web and share what we are learning with others. However, we also discussed the feeling that as we reach out to take a drink from these nourishing waters, we are sometimes met with a firehose blasting back at us with an overload of information!

Suggestions for dealing with this “River of Information”

• from Michael in Australia – “Follow Quality, Get Quality, Quality Beats Quantity.” That might mean only following 4-5 blogs in your Google Reader or using hashtags to search in Twitter instead of following 1,000 people. (#globalclassroom, #flatclass, #sschat, #2ndchat were all mentioned)
• from Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis – designate two times a week where you read through posts and links for 15 minutes. Think of it as a PLN workout.
• many thought that starting with Diigo was a good plan. Here two groups to follow: Flat Class Educator’s Group and EdTechTalk.
• from Sharon in Mumbai – don’t suffer from FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). You can’t read everything.  It is okay.
• from Theresa in IL – sometimes you need to “Mark as Read” and move on. See above point about FOMO.

After sharing what the term “teacherpreneur” meant to us, we engaged in some thoughtful conversation about how to work with Standards, Administrators, Colleagues and Hardware limitations. There was definite collective agreement on the following:

• “teacherpreneurs” can and should embrace state or national standards for their curriculum and expertly weave these in with innovative, collaborative projects.
• reaching out to administration and colleagues is important and necessary for long-term sustainability of projects but it is hard and takes resilience
• hardware might  not be exactly what you want, but make it what you need
• connecting with other “teacherpreneurs” keeps you motivated and inspired. As Michael said:

when you are part of a community, you will surprise yourself. this is not something you need to do alone

Finally we talked about getting started with global projects. Here are some of the resources and projects mentioned. We will definitely talk more about these as the weeks go on. And remember to check out the numerous projects mentioned in the book!

• Flat Class Project
• Global Classroom Project
• Quadblogging
• Student Blogging Challenge
• 100 Word Challenge

Thank you to everyone who joined us or who has been posting on the blog. It is wonderful to hear and read the insights, doubts, mantras and beliefs of teachers who care about the work they do with students. Your students are lucky to have you!

Our next meeting with be Monday, February 4th at 7:30pm EST (that’s Tuesday, February 5th at 3:30am GMT). For your time zone, click here. We will be discussing Chapters Five and Six. Hope to “see” you there!

January #globalclassroom Chat Reflections: a HUGE Celebration of Collaboration and Community!

Photo shared by the Global Grade 3s.

#globalclassroom Vision: to uphold our new class motto: we learn WITH the world, not just ABOUT the world.

— brette lockyer (@brettelockyer) January 13, 2013

It’s hard to believe that the January #globalclassroom chats have already come and gone! The new schedule proved to be a huge success, with all three chats occurring within a 24 hour period. Although it was certainly a celebration, it was a powerful work party as well.

It was a WONDERFUL opportunity for participants to share their  highlights and SUCCESSES in a #globalclassroom as well as some of the FROGS that @iEARNUSA got us thinking about and sharing during the December “Eat that Frog” discussion. This specific “frog” chat was a highlight for MANY!

@rentonl A1: My favorite chat was about eating frogs! Overcoming the obstacles that get in the way of global activities. #globalclassroom

— Louise Morgan (@MrsMorgansClass) January 13, 2013

@rentonl My students learn as much when things don’t go as planned and that happens a lot. They roll with it now. LOVE THEM #globalclassroom

—Karen Lirenman (@KLirenman) January 13, 2013

Several fantastic suggestions were shared for future chats and have been saved in order to guide our journey going forward. Please remember that this is ALWAYS a working “document” of sorts, morphing and changing with the needs of our #globalclassroom participants. If you think of a topic that you would like to see explored you are urged to share it on the wiki or to contact @mgraffin!

@rentonlIdea for #globalclassroom – sharing literature to enhance global understanding

— brette lockyer (@brettelockyer) January 13, 2013

As I said this afternoon, would like to hear about international cross-curricular projects. #globalclassroom

— José Popoff (@JosePopoff) January 13, 2013

The #globalclassroom community is a vibrant, collaborative and generous one. People share willingly and eagerly. Even if you do NOT have a #globalclassroom, this is the place to begin discovering how EASY it is to bring the WORLD to your students, within the supportive #globalclassroom environment! After all, learning WITH the world, not just ABOUT the world, makes our learning authentic, personalized and meaningful!

@rentonl I just can’t believe how much my teaching has changed since I got connected. Lots of true friendships formed too.#globalclassroom

—Karen Lirenman (@KLirenman) January 13, 2013

Be sure to check the archives of these chats. Each contains a WEALTH of information, links and on-going projects! Thank you to EVERYONE for making this January chat a HUGE success! We COULDN’T do it WITHOUT you! We are looking forward to seeing you at the FEBRUARY #globalclassroom chats!

Launching a Virtual Book Club

Since I first responded to a tweet from @mgraffin about joining a global project, I have become a vocal advocate of connecting teachers and classrooms. Thank you so much to Global Classroom Project for inspiration and a place to connect and contribute.

I am giddy with excitement about a new opportunity to connect educators and get more inspiration for expanding global projects. I will be hosting a Virtual Book Club discussing the fantastic book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time by Julie Lindsay and Vicki A. Davis. The book club was announced last Sunday night in my school division and I am thrilled that we already have thirteen teachers signed up! Even better, we have teachers from across our school division and from all different grade levels. It is a wonderful thing when already busy teachers find time in their lives to discuss powerful educational ideas with their peers. 

Now, I am ready to get some global participation in this book club. I can’t think of a better way to brainstorm about global projects than to have teachers from across the globe in the session together. So, we are inviting all teachers, parents, students, thinkers and learners out there to join us for six live meetings to share what they think about the projects, resources, and research discussed in Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds.

We will be meeting on Tuesdays at 00:30GMT (Mondays at 7:30pm EST)

(find the time in your country/time zone here)

on the following dates:

January 7th – Meet the Flat Classroom, Chapters 1 & 2

January 21st – Connection and Communication, Chapters 3 & 4

February 4th – Citizenship, Contribution and Collaboration, Chapters 5 & 6

February 18th – Choice and Creation, Chapters 7 & 8

March 4th – Celebrating, Designing, Managing a Global Project, Chapters 9 & 10

March 18th – Rock the World

Meetings will be live using Blackboard Collaborate and will last one hour. We will spend the time sharing thoughts about ideas raised in the book. It will also be a great opportunity to connect with other educators that share similar passions and beliefs about flattening our classrooms walls. We will share strategies and resources for building those 21st century skills like collaboration, communication and creativity in authentic ways.

Inspiration for this Virtual Book Club came from Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis themselves. I was lucky enough to participate in a Virtual Book Club hosted by Engaging Educators last spring. It was great because I

• actually read the book (instead of the book just staring at me from my book shelf, desperate to be read but collecting dust instead)
• met educators from across the United States and around the world
• learned about global projects that already exist that I could participate in
• was inspired to do more to help students and teachers connect and collaborate

I hope that you can take some time to read the book and join us for our discussions. If you are interested, please complete this quick form so that I know you are interested and I’ll get back to you with information about our first meeting. And, please, spread the word!

If you aren’t familiar with the idea of a virtual book club or with this text, here’s more!

What is a Virtual Book Club?

A virtual book club is one in which readers come together to discuss a text using a web-based platform. Readers connect by logging onto a website in which they can be active learners and collaborators. The virtual room allows readers to speak, listen, chat and read about what others think about the text. All participants need is a web link, a computer with access to the Internet (and preferably a working microphone) and thoughts and ideas about the reading. It is like a book club but you can stay home and be in your pajamas!

What book will we be reading?

We will be reading the text Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. This book is co-written by classroom teachers that have transformed learning in their classrooms by communicating and collaborating with other classrooms around the world. Learn more about how global learning provides authentic literacy experiences, gets students engaged in their learning and opens up numerous opportunities for differentiation.

The Story of the Open World Cause

Benjamin Honeycutt and Connor Janzen are founders of the cause.

The following links will allow you to connect with the Open World Cause:

Website
Facebook
Twitter

Open World began as a senior legacy project for Buhler high school in December of 2010.

Govinda is the director of the SAV school in Bageshwori, Nepal.

Benjamin Honeycutt, the original founder of the cause, became acquainted with Govinda Prasad Panthy through Artsnacks, an online artists’ community run by Kevin Honeycutt for the last few years. After speaking with Govinda, Ben and Kevin learned that his school (known as the SAV School in a rural region of Bageshwori, Nepal) lacked items that many would consider to be absolute necessities in education. After further discussion, he told them of his dream of bringing internet to his school.  However, it soon became clear that his school’s lack of connectivity was going to make helping them a challenge. Govinda made it clear that some of the biggest issues they faced were resource-based.

With this problem in mind, the project was adopted and began seeking ways to help. After learning more from Govinda, it was discovered that it would cost around $2,000 USD to bring two laptops and a year’s worth of internet to his school. Also keeping Govinda’s dream of building a library in mind, the Open World Project set out to raise a total of $5,000 for the school. This later became known as “Phase One” for the cause.

Originally, Jake Waters, who is a member of the team and assists with filming, and Ben constructed a website explaining the mission of our project. They also built Facebook, Twitter, and Plurk pages to help spread the word about their goals.

After successes with spreading the story of the mission, an article done by a local paper was picked up by Associated Press. This allowed an individual named Nicolas Lal to discover the project through Google Alerts. He contacted Open World, and revealed that he had plans to travel to the school. Wanting to help in any way he could, Nicolas was able to coordinate with the cause and provide a first-hand account of the situation there. Nicolas witnessed the difficulties the school was facing and captured thousands of pictures, along with video, that he which he shared with those involved with the project. Observing the poor conditions of the school through Nicolas’ travels galvanized Open World’s determination to deliver aid to the SAV students.

The #Malala Project

Last Monday night, I took part in a Twitter Chat for The Global Classroom Project. I wanted to find out how to collaborate and connect in a meaningful way with educators from around the world in order to be more effective in helping my students become better global citizens. I also wanted to find out how to get participants for a project idea I had called World Class 4 Kids.

What ended up happening, was more powerful than I could have expected. I learned more about a little girl in Pakistan, named Malala Yousufzai.

This is the beginning of our Twitter chat:

Anne Mirtschin @murcha

MT @iEARNUSA: Why#globalclassroom? Lets kids take action on current events. We’re linking US-Pakistani classes 2day re #Malala‘s story

Heidi Hutchison @HeidiHutchison

@ceciliemurray Ok, what is#Malala‘s story? I want to learn and am embarrassed I don’t know.#globalclassroom

What happened after that was a series of back and forths which are now emails between a teacher in a rural town in Australia and a teacher in a city in the United States trying to make a plan to teach our students that violence cannot be the final silencer in what is right. We share a common belief that Malala’s story, her truth, is not just her fight, but all of ours. We are creating a project that we hope the rest of the world’s children can find a way to support.

Launching The #Malala Project

We would like teachers to share Malala’s story and what she was fighting for: the right for girls to go to school and be educated and the right for freedom of speech in sharing her truth. We know this can be a sensitive topic for young children and know that teachers need to present the violence of it all in a developmentally appropriate way. However, we believe, her story needs to be told.

We would like classrooms to send us a picture or short video of 2 minutes or less of students supporting Malala’s cause – a song, artwork, posters, whatever creative way they can think of showing the world believes that ALL girls deserve the right to go to school.

In addition, this is a work in progress and we would love to hear your feedback and suggestions so feel free to leave comments and suggestions here.  Please join The Global Classroom wiki and then join The #Malala Project. You can send your videos by posting them to the wiki after you join. You may also email Heidi Hutchison at hhutchison@friendsbalt.org.

For more information on Malala and her story check out the following links:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/my-small-video-star-fights-for-her-life/?smid=tw-share

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/10/09/world/asia/100000001835296/class-dismissed.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7834402.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19893309