Here are links to all 7 posts in this series:
Learning with Tomorrow
Connecting our Classrooms via Daily Emails
International Naval Warfare
Connecting our Classrooms - Weekly Video Series
Student Success Stories
Future Plans
How To Connect YOUR Classroom
In such a short period of time we have seen an increase in student engagement and inquiry. Here are some specific examples of student success stories during the last three weeks.
After Week 1
One of Jacqui's students is using her Genius Hour time to create a global classroom project! She is creating a video that she will share with my students in the coming weeks. She thought of this project on her own and has already dedicated hours of class time OUTSIDE of genius hour and school to her project. I'm so excited to see what she produces! This was written on Jacqui's Wall Blog after our first week:
After Week 2
After our second round of weekly videos, one of my students posted the following blog posts:
This weekly video idea is a really amazing idea to me. We all have very different lives. The people in Australia are telling us about stuff we have no clue at all about such as a canteen and fortnight. We were so stuck, that we had to look up a few words! To each other, our schools are really weird. Australia's school is weird to us, but normal to them, and our school is weird to Australia, but normal to us. We have very different schools. We have several different schools to switch to, but they have schools from grades K-12. They go to a private school, but we go to a public school. Our classrooms are inside, but their classrooms are outside! To me that is really funny! To them, it is normal. We even have different school schedules. We go to school five days, then we are off for two days for nine months until Summer Break which is three months. But in Australia, they go for eight weeks then are off for two weeks all year long. We don't celebrate the same holidays all of the time. For example, we all celebrate Christmas, but only some Americans celebrate Halloween. In these videos, we can learn about each other and what we do, say and like. I'm having lots fun with the Australians. I know a lot more about them then I did a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to more videos!
After the second weekly videos, one of Jacqui's students made the following poster and sent a picture to me and my class:
After Week 3
This past Thursday my class was able to Skype with Jacqui. The call was focused on science (difference in seasons and animal adaptations) but the students also were given time at the end to ask other non-science related questions. After the call my students blogged and here are a two posts about the call:
Today we had a amazing Skye call and it was with Ms. Korten in Perth Australia.We asked many questions about the animals and about the ecosystem.We learned that trees in Australia that the leaves fall off and that Australia has the most deadliest animals in the world.In addition we learned that the animals have to adapt to for example ,the Kangoroos in southern Australia are brown and kangoroo is in northern Australia is reddish colored because of the reddish sand. I also learned there are diffrent landforms in Australia like the middle is dessert, the top was tropical and the bottom has mountains. Ms.Kortens class nicked named her crazy cat lady because she is crazy,she loves cats and she is a lady. There is alot more to say but this is a lot of what I remebered :)
Skype is awesome,heres why. Well we skyped Mrs. Korten today and she taught us about the sceince of australia. Like we asked what season it was there since its fall here. The answer was that its spring there! She told us how cold it gets there,it gets to 70 degrees Fahrenheit there somtimes, and thats cold to them.[wow!]We learned that australia has the most deadly animals out of all the continents.I asked what type of land dominates australia.She said the middle is desert,the top is tropical and the bottom is mountains.She said in order for the kids to go out to recess they have to slip slop and slap.[slip on a shirt,slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat.]She told us alot like how kangaroo fur color varies depending on where they live. This is what is call adaptations. Mrs.kortens students call her crazy cat lady because she loves cats.She also has
cat shoes I really liked the call and learn a lot in this globaal classroom.
I also asked the students to reflect on what it means to participate in a global classroom. Here are two responses:
From being in a global classroom I have learned that everyone is alike and also different. I like communicating with other people in Iowa, Australia, and Wisconsin. I have learned if you want to make videos to send to other countries or states the you should be loud when you talk in front of a camera. I feel surprised that we can actually talk to people half way around the world. I like that we can talk live to people in far away places we would need to take a plane to get to in real life. I am amazed at skype and technology.
I am so glad I am apart of a global classroom. A global classroom is where two classrooms from different parts of the world (Like America and Australia) talk to each other from the comfort of our own classroom. We are daily "chatting" with each other when we are playing battleship. We make videos about our school and about what we are learning every week. We have already Skyped with each other today (without the students just the teacher) and we are learning so much everyday! It's crazy how we are apart of this. We are making impact in our own way. We are talking and making connections from all the way across the world! Its just amazing on what technology can do these days! It's so cool that one little person can make so much impact in the comfort of the classroom. Ive never realised on what we can do unless we just know! I sorta think it would be a even greater conection if Miss Korten's class had kidblog on here too! it would be a better way to talk to each other and get to know each other better! maybe we could even have penpals on here with one of them! it would be so cool!!! Think on what impact that would make!
The last student is on to something. We don't just have to stop at daily emails and weekly videos. Jacqui and I have several more ideas to continue what we've started. In the next post, I will discuss our future plans for our global classroom. Stay tuned!
Interested in creating a global classroom? Follow the #globalclassroom and #flatclass hashtags on Twitter for ideas from educators around the globe! Here are just a few others I follow that continuously provide excellent global classroom resources: @flatclassroom and @julielindsay.
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