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!

Signs that you are a Connected Educator

This is a guest post from @JosePopoff, an amazing Science educator from Honduras. He blogs at http://www.josepopoff.com/, and this post was originally published here.

Yes, I know.  You have probably read an article with a like title before.  But I promise you I have not read any and this is a list I came up from my own personal experience and that of those other amazing educators that I take pride of being connected with.

So, you are a connected educator and let´s face it, something in you  has changed.  You don´t even speak the same way you did when your classroom had those wooden or brick walls that you have brought down.  I collected some symptoms that you may have been through since you decided to go international.  In no particular order, here they are:

You are on Twitter.  I’ve read remarkable teachers tweet that this social network has expanded their knowledge in a few months much more than five years of college preparation.  They can’t be wrong.

1. You find tremendous value in global connections and understand how great and valuable these experiences are for your students.
2. To you, the world is flat!  Period.
3. You blog and comment on blogs.  You’ve understood that blogging is an amazing way of sharing  your  knowledge and experiences with the world and building together.
4. You make an extra effort to report your measurements in at least two units.  This one is especially easy if you are a Science teacher.  But you are sensitive enough to understand that, unfortunately, not all of us are familiar with the same units.
5. Every time you meet a teacher from a foreign country you think: “Mystery Skype!”  Or am I the only one?
6. Remember when you used your fingers to count and add in elementary school?  Now you use them to count time zones and figure out how many hours ahead or behind your new contact is from you.  You know you do!
7. Your plans for the future include visiting some members of your PLN.  Of course you are already practicing all your “oh, you look so much better in person’s, “you look so much younger”s,  ”I didn’t recognize you’s, etc.,  for when that moment comes.
8. You have realized how international the English language is.  Of course, you respect those who speak it with funny accents because that means they speak at least two languages.
9. Every time a teacher asks you to connect, well, let´s just say we all pretty much know what the answer to that is.
10. You have substituted your “Good morning” and “Good evening” with “Good morning/afternoon/evening!” or simply “Hello”.
11. You belong to at least one global community.  Where else would you get all those amazing connections from otherwise?
12. If you are on the move and have to make a stop, first thing you do is look for a wi-fi hotspot.
13. You do not own a Blackberry, or if you do, you want another phone since you discovered that RIM does not have a Skype application.  What!?  Ok, maybe that´s just me.
14. Have to get up at 5 am to get the kids ready?  Ugh, what a drag! Have to get up at 4 am to Skype with a class in Japan?  No problem!
15. The verb you use the most in your spoken and written language is “skype” and most of its conjugate forms.  The funniest thing is that “skype” is not even a verb!  Luckily, “hanging out” is a verb.
16. You are watching less TV.  I mean, when was the last connection you made through FOX, right?

If you are manifesting any of these symptoms, please go to your nearest local teacher and infect them!

I was going to write as sign #16 “You write a comment to this blog post”, but of course I am not going to write such a presumptuous remark.  But, can you think of any other sign I missed here?  Add it, join the fun, and keep rocking it in this international endeavour.  Thank God the world is such a small place!

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.

Science, ICT, and the Global Classroom (March #globalclassroom Chats)

Later this year, I will be presenting the Dinner Keynote at the Western Australian Science Teachers’ Conference, exploring the topic: “Science, ICT and the Global Classroom: Exploring the Possibilities”.

And what a world of possibilities it is …

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by ecstaticist

I”m looking for stories, examples, and classroom experiences of innovative science teaching around the world … which I can share during my conference presentation.

So, with this in mind, the March #globalclassroom chat will explore the key question:

“How can we transform Science education through the integration of ICT and real world connections?”

Some key topics for discussion:

1. How can we encourage teachers and students to connect – with scientists, science educators, and online communities around the world?
2. How can we engage, and capture our students’ interest in science?
3. What advice would you give to teachers starting to explore the potential uses of ICT in Science education?
4. How can you encourage students to communicate and share their learning in Science in new ways?
5. How do you facilitate meaningful student collaboration in Science?

The Companion Google Doc

This month, we are also experimenting with a companion Google Doc. If you can’t come to the chat, or have some ideas that you’d like us to raise / share during the Twitter discussions, we’d greatly appreciate it if you add your responses to the chat questions here. Thank you!

If you have a few moments, could you help add a few words to my presentation Wordle?

Can you help moderate?

We are looking for innovative science teachers, both primary and secondary, to help co-moderate this month’s chats. If you’re interested, or know someone who might be, please contact @gcporganisers. Don’t worry! We will pair you up with an experienced moderator, and share our moderation guide

Chat Schedule

Chat 1 ~ Saturday, March 9th, 10:00 – 11:00 UTC

• 10:00 London, 12:00 Cape Town, 15:30 New Delhi, 18:00 Perth, 21:00 Sydney (AEDT), 23:00 Auckland
• Click here to find out when this is in YOUR timezone.

Chat 2 ~ Saturday, March 9th, 19:00 – 20:00 UTC

• 11:00 Los Angeles, 14:00 New York, 19:00 London, 21:00 Cape Town, 08:00 SUNDAY – Auckland
• Click here to find out when this is in YOUR timezone.

Chat 3 ~ Sunday, March 10th, 02:00 – 03:00 UTC (Saturday in N & S America!)

• Saturday night – 18:00 Los Angeles, 21:00 New York
• Sunday – 07:30 New Dehli, 10:00 Perth, 13:00 Sydney, 15:00 Auckland
• Click here to find out when this is in YOUR timezone.

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!

Meeting #4 of Virtual Book Club – Add Your Voice!

Looking forward to our fourth meeting of the Virtual Book Club discussing Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis Monday, February 18th at 7:30pm EST (that’s Tuesday, February 19th at 12:30am GMT). For your time zone, click here. We will be discussing Chapters Seven and Eight.

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.

We have had some powerful conversations so far about digital citizenship (see The Making of Digital Citizens), building and maintaining a Personal Learning Network (see Launching into a River of Information), and starting and joining global project (see The Virtual Book Club Has Launched).

This is a community of teachers sharing with teachers: reflecting, listening, sharing, questioning. Join us!

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.

#globalclassroom Teacher’s Stories: Rawya Shatila, Lebanon

One of the true joys of my work with this project is the opportunity to meet, and work with amazing educators all over the world. This is the first of what I hope will be a long-term series of posts, where I’ll introduce you to some of our Global Classroom teachers, and share their inspiring stories with the world.

Image via @rawyashatila

Rawya Shatila @rawyashatila 

Rawya works at the Makassed  Schools in Beirut, Lebanon, and was involved in global education long before we met through the Global Classroom Project. With an impressive list of national and international awards, Rawya is dedicated to helping her young charges learn, share, and connect with the wider world; and has personally taught me a great deal.

Rawya was recognised as one of our inaugural Global Classroom Lead Teachers in 2012, and blogs at Young Clovers. I am looking forward to the day when we finally manage to meet f2f.

Here are a few glimpses into her classrooms:

Flat Rosie at Makassed School

Art Project – Lebanon and India

Flat Rosie Celebrating Lebanon Independence Day 2012

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!

#globalclassroom Chat Archives

Hi all. We’ve been a little slack in posting the archives for the #globalclassroom chats – partly due to the arrival of Summer holidays here in Australia. We’ll all be back on deck in early 2013; however, here are the links to the archives from our last few chats:

November 2012: How can we support students to inquire into global issues that help develop empathy and compassion?

Archives

December 2012: How can we help our peers “eat their frogs ” so they can connect their classrooms globally?

Archives

Blog Responses

There’s a Frog in My Classroom

Frogs in the Pond – Helping Each Other Eat Frogs

 

See you in 2013

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.

Launching “The Handshake Space”

This year, we’re doing something different. We’re working to build better connections & participation in the #globalclassroom community through the launch of “The Handshake Space” for K-3, 4-6, and 7-12.

What is it? 

For those unfamiliar with the concept, a “digital handshake” is an opportunity for teachers and students to join our online project spaces (find out more here) and introduce themselves to the community.

Traditionally, these handshakes feature individual students or whole classes; however, in Global Classroom 2012-13, we are experimenting with a mix of classroom AND individual teacher handshakes.

We regard this as an essential ‘first step’ for successful engagement in our global projects. (Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds)

How can I get involved? 

The #globalclassroom handshake has three distinct parts. Teachers and students are welcome to contribute to one, or all components.

1) The introductory voicethread.

Teachers, we hope you will take this opportunity to introduce themselves, tell us where you come from, and share a little about why you connect and collaborate globally.

https://voicethread.com/share/3513122/

2) “The Handshake Space”

The Global Classroom 2012-13 wiki now hosts K-3, 4-6, and 7-12 “handshake spaces” for teachers to post class introductions.

How you choose to create and share your handshake is up to you, but we’d love to see links to your class blog / websites, and a few pictures of your classroom learning spaces! You will find instructions, video tutorials, and classroom examples on our wiki.

“The Handshake Space” will run for the duration of the 2012-13 project, and new additions will be showcased on the project blog over time.

Check out this fantastic example:

3) Teacher Introductions on our Google Groups

If you are a member of our email list, you will receive the kick-off email this week.

If you are NOT receiving emails from The Global Classroom Project, and you would like to be involved in informal planning discussions, project brainstorming, and receive news updates like this, please apply to join here (with a note telling us who you are, and what you teach).

An opportunity to learn, share and connect and globally

The “handshake” is an important, and vital first step for teachers engaging in global collaboration. We hope you will take this opportunity to make yourself known, and introduce your class to the wider #globalclassroom community. Through this process, we will be able to learn more about you, and better enable teachers to explore new ways to connect, learn, share, and collaborate globally.

We hope you will join us on this journey.

October #globalclassroom Chat Archives

The October #globalclassroom chats were a lively affair this month, with many teachers keen to share their thoughts, experiences, and advice about enabling teachers participation & engagement in global collaborative projects.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to actively participate in the chats this month, but having read through the archives, I know that they excelled as a great way for teachers to connect, share, learn and collaborate globally.

I hope you will take some time to read through the archives, and your thoughts and projects to our Google Doc.

Links

• Chat 1 – Archive
• Chat 2 – Archive
• Chat 3 – Archive
• Working in the Global Classroom (Crowd-sourced Google Doc)